0R10N Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 So I've had this car sitting around for ten years in various states of disrepair... it's a 1986 Ford Laser TX3 front wheel drive turbo. It's the black and grey one closest to the camera, if you couldn't tell Used it as a thrash hack for the first couple of years, then my old man drove it daily to work and back for another couple of years, then it blew the headgasket and sat outside my house as parts storage until 2007 when I got the stupid idea of turning it into a fun trackday car after buying an Infini parts car from The Alien Probe (Paul) which came with a bunch of go-faster goodies. Unfortunately I kept blowing up engines, whether through sheer bad luck (distributor advance mechanism snapping mid-race, resulting in SUPREME MAX ADVANCE and two melted pistons) or plain maliciousness (a "prank" involving grinding swarf in the head), so the car has actually spent more time off the road than on it. Still had enough power to do this to one of my semi slicks though But the few times I've managed to take it for a strop around the track or on the street without dying, it's never failed to leave me grinning with a massive adrenaline rush every time After the last engine blew up (the swarf incident) I had the car towed back to Auckland and it has sat in the back of various sheds and lockups and the garage at my new place for the last three years more or less as a bare rolling shell while I pissed around with other projects. But finally after buying another B6T engine and a host of other bits last year I decided to get it running again (this year's OS Nats trackday served as inspiration), and the perfect opportunity to set myself a firm deadline to get the car running arose when my mate decided to book Taupo for a private event on the 25th of July (this week!) So over the last five or so weeks I've managed to transform the car from a shell back into a running beast once again, and being able to work in my own shed at my own house at my own pace has been the best part of the exercise so far. A quick rundown of specs for anyone who's interested: Engine is a standard B6T 1600 DOHC turbo. Previous engines have had mild cams and a nicer flowing head courtesy of the parts car I bought, but I have my suspicions that the swarf incident has since rendered both the head and cams useless Gearbox is a factory Mazdaspeed viscous LSD (one of the reasons I bought Paul's Infini), with a heavy duty Exedy clutch. Steering is an Infini non-powered "quick-rack" - this was something I actually bought and installed recently after months of searching. Bolt on upgrades: VF10 hybrid turbo with a custom downpipe, a larger throttle body, Lancer GSR 390cc injectors, Walbro in-tank pump, a BA Falcon bar and plate intercooler, and Sentradave's old PWR race radiator from his BFMR. Engine management is handled by an old Link G1 ECU. It's like the early 2000s all over again! It was running a set of coilovers from a guy in Christchurch who used to race one around Ruapuna, but due to WOF constraints I took them out and reinstalled standard struts with added camber adjust. There's also some strut braces, an upgraded swaybar, a couple of lower chassis braces that contact the road any chance they get... and 265mm slotted front rotors fitted with later model GT-X calipers help to slow it down. Interior has been stripped out, there's a dashboard, a centre console and a pair of factory bucket seats up front but that's more or less it. I got rid of the TX3 door cards that weighed 3kg each and put in some flat vinyl poverty spec ones instead. There are plans to remove all the sound deadening but I first need to get super drunk and/or super motivated before that happens. Also have some gauges that are probably worth more than the shell: Managed to get it all assembled, WOF'd and running by the start of this month, and by coincidence I'd been informed by Uterus/Simon that Paul had started tuning cars again, so I gave him a call and we set about fixing the base tune the Link had been loaded with. I guess you could say he was surprised that I still had most of his old gear and hadn't thrown it all away (yeah, I'm a hoarder...) This weekend just been we completed the final tune on JP's dyno in Hamilton, another old acquaintance of mine whom Paul also knows (small world!) Final result - 143kW at 20psi. There is definitely room for improvement - some larger injectors (550cc) and a larger diameter exhaust (3") will see numbers up around 160kW, and if I upgrade the turbo perhaps even more. ...but I think I should really call it a day at this point, enjoy whatever power I have on tap, and save the upgrades for a later stage once I've had a chance to work on the little grey Skyline that silently mocks me every time I'm working on something else in the shed... For the lols: 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachlander Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 My boss has one of these as his daily. Such rad little cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyfive Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Looks fun Dare I ask about this swarf incident? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 +1 - this swarf thing sounds like a real bummer. great to see you get this one together, tEd! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Testament Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 sweet deal mang. this is the same JP/familia feind/matts ex colleague JP that has a dyno? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 Nah, that JP went overseas and made a trillion dollars being a smartey engineer, this JP is a guy in Hamilton who builds RB30DETs and plays with R31 Skylines - he's mates with Shaun/Gar/Reuben/that crowd. but funny you mention that JP though, he actually sold me the engine that ended up getting all the swarf poured into it. Some people thought it would be funny to pour a whole heap of metal shavings down the intake ports of the engine while it sat in storage in Hamilton. When confronted they claimed the sheet covering the engine had lifted and "a few bits of grinding dust got into the ports from across the workshop". Meh, what's done is now done, the new engine is in and running so I shouldn't really dwell on the past. I should give some additional kudos to Chris/EURON8 for doing some chassis welding and fabbing up the new fire extinguisher mount. And when I say chassis welding, I mean fixing up a horrible looking series of welds that a previous owner had done to mitigate the common BF Laser/Familia issue of the lower A-arm mounts tearing away from the rest of the car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaMpylobacter Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 I would like to be passed by this thing at a trackday. A tip of the aviators to you 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 This thing is so ghetto/awesome. Used to have one of these back in school, but I never liked them till now. Poor car used to get hammered so much but just kept on trucking! Tbh I wouldn't chase for more power, 143 sounds fun enough! Remove sound deadening so it sounds like you are going faster=profit? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 Trackday is in two days' time, so in preparation tonight I'm currently draining the oil and coolant, and refilling with fresh fluids. The coolant has had a bottle of "Philm-off" flush run through it, so far so good, it's helping to get rid of all the BHG goop that found its way into the radiator from the last engine that grenaded. Seems that everyone's owned, or knows someone who has owned a Laser or a Familia at one stage or another. Part of me wants to buy all of the TX3 turbos that pop up for sale, but I know I can't save them all, hah. Jap import ones are few and far between though, those are the ones most worth it to me. Heck, at one stage the car even looked respectable... almost... maybe? I still have the grille, it shall be re-attached once a few more holes have been cut into it with a grinder. TBH I don't mind it looking as ruined as it does now, as one friend pointed out it serves as the "yin" to my other one's "yang". But sometimes I daydream about giving the roof a new lick of metallic black and getting the dents in the rear quarters and doors all fixed up - it doesn't have to be as mint as the white one, but perhaps somewhat tidier than it is now. The black is a ridiculously nice shade when in good condition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e30-323ti Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Nice work. I miss my old BFMR, same colour scheme as your TX-3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 Nice work. I miss my old BFMR, same colour scheme as your TX-3 Cheers! I actually have a BFMR parked in the driveway, which I'll be doing a bit more work on after this trackday. Tonight's oil and coolant change was uneventful other than a few interruptions via text (I should really leave my phone in the house). There's still a residual amount of crap in the radiator that I'll need to keep a close eye on but the flush for the most part seems to have worked. Finalizing a few settings in the Link (mainly to do with throttle response/enrichment compensation, as I don't have a TPS hooked up) Its Royal Haggardness, all packed up and ready to roll to Taupo in the morning. Yes, my shed needs decluttering! This sticker must be good for an extra kilowatt or two, right? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted July 29, 2013 Author Share Posted July 29, 2013 So trackday was all good apart from a weird issue with oil spraying from somewhere all over the engine bay (probably out the breather pipe from the rocker cover, as theorized by one of the old dudes from Taupo). Fixed that issue but during the course of the day the oil temp got to about 110 degrees, and somehow got thin enough that the oil pressure light was coming on at idle (gauge reading well under 1 bar, so around 8-10psi).Changed oil and filter the next day (went from Titan 15W40 to Mobil 15W40) and oil pressure at warm idle was back up past 1 bar again, but when completely bone cold the gauge showed readings of between 8-10 bar depending on revs (e.g. 8 bar at 2000rpm, 10 bar at 2500rpm). Once warm, oil pressure settled back down to normal levels (between 3-4 bar when cruising, up to 5 when in the upper revs).A few people have commented that super high oil pressure isn't the end of the world, but I cringe to think what it could be doing to my engine when cold... what could be causing this? A possibly blocked oil bypass valve? Got another trackday coming up next week so don't really want to grenade anything if I can help it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KKtrips Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 Could be your new oil filter. Is it the same brand as the old one? Is it the correct one for your motor and not just guessed by Repco? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Testament Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 he just changed the oil at first and it was doing that and left the filter, so then changed the filter to a new ryco one and it was still the same. has it improved at all since the drive up to auckland? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted July 30, 2013 Author Share Posted July 30, 2013 he just changed the oil at first and it was doing that and left the filter, so then changed the filter to a new ryco one and it was still the same. has it improved at all since the drive up to auckland? Went from some no-name OEM filter (probably still sitting in Tom's rubbish bin) to a Ryco one. Didn't miss a beat all the way back to Auckland once the oil got up to operating temp. Got home, unloaded car, then went to Chris & Tara's for the evening - but when I started the car again some hours later it was cold and the oil pressure shot straight back up to 8 bar. Warmed up enough on the drive home, by the time I got to Central Park Drive the pressure was back to normal again. Doesn't help that it has trouble starting when cold because of the Link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spencer Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 Its probably just how it is? all you can do is check the relief valve and then run thinner oil. Guess it just didn't show up so high before because you were running some kind of water as oil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KKtrips Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 So the problem has been there with 2 different oil filters of different brands? Is the gauge mechanical or electric? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaMpylobacter Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 those omori gauges are mechanical aren't they? sounds like KK might be onto something there... dodgey gauge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spencer Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 Well its not plumbed into where the sender sits is it? that would be the first step wouldn't it? If its mechanical they are usually pretty good. Anyway modernish cars can run some silly high pressures when cold, I thought sheepers UZ was insane running over 100psi when cold, he assured me it was legit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 Going to be a parrot here and just repeat what has already been said? Also, I just remember my old childhood daydream of this sorta car. Used to want one with massif flares + one of those ridiculous Sierra/Lantis wings.....lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.