Alright back to September 2019's progress, in a minute. First, just announcing that last week my winter/backup I4 FL2 Tiburon broke down - both the clutch and shifter are inoperable (stuck in neutral). I will separate the transmission and find out what's going on. But now the pressure is on: I am going to have my main one back on the road this month, June 2020. As of this moment I am finishing whatever little fiberglass/paint type of work that I have started then onto what is remaining of mechanical reassembly.
So, after the steering rack conversion: In the interest of keeping the engine bay clean I had to relocate the daytime running lights module. Not the cleanest mounting I suppose lol but it fits and won't be seen:
And the battery location btw. This position does require the headlight to be removed if I were to need to access the battery terminals but IMO that's a fair tradeoff in the interest of a clean engine bay. Generally I challenge myself in instances like this to design modifications in such a way that the user experience isn't compromised, but in this case I think it's acceptable due to how few times you actually need to access the battery. Plus the battery is new and I won't be driving the car in winter.
Status of the Fuse Box at this point:
That's in preparation for the wire tuck.
Now, it didn't take long for me to get the engine back in. But man those headers have seen better days. More on that in a minute.
INTERMISSION:
Quick side project. Ok, so long story short my dad had a GK but the passenger side wiper stopped working. This was when I was doing the body kit on mine in 2017 so I offered him my wiper assembly in the meantime. Then he had to get rid of his car and we forgot about that exchange. So I had his old assembly, which was broken at the linkage (hope that's the right word) to the passenger wiper. I ended up just drilling a hole and popping a codder pin through it. It's somewhat of a common issue for our cars so here's my pro tip to save buying a new assembly. I am confident it'll work:
And back to business: The headers weren't looking all that nice after years of driving including winter (I was in my early 20s and couldn't afford a second car). It sucks because these are the rare System Upgrade headers (V3 I believe) along with the race cat. Such nice headers, such a beautiful sound. When I first installed them along with the DC Sports stainless exhaust, I'm not kidding, my car sounded like a V12 on downshifts. This combination has that "exotic" sound that I was looking for (as opposed to say a rumble type of sound). Over the years my car has gotten quieter, and while it still sounded great, it wasn't the same as when I first installed that exhaust. I am sure that's due to carbon build-up internally, so I'll find a way to clean that up in the future. That, and I discovered both little flex pipes after the headers are leaking
I'll have to get that repaired. I mean while these headers IMO are the best ones for our car, I found it a bit odd that they are stainless yet the flanges are steel. So the pipes are in good condition but the flanges and flex pipe connections are rusted, hence the flex pipe leaks. That said, the pipe surfaces look gross. Then I remembered wire wheels exist and thought I might as well try, since I could paint them anyway if I'd mess that up- but really wanted to avoid that since wherever possible I like parts to have their "natural" finish (exceptions apply; valve covers must be red! lol). So, here we go:
Much better. But I could go further. Also note that I bought them that way with the dents. To my knowledge these dents are not affecting performance, and when you look inside the headers you can't see the dents inside anyway (I think the piping is double-sleeved). For these headers a solid or maybe poly mount is essential. When I first got them I had stock motor mounts and the sound of them touching the subframe occasionally was uncomfortable and had to restrain accelerating hard
Anyway, upon doing more research it seemed best if I were to sandblast them followed by sanding them. This was new to me, having never "polished" metals before. So I blasted, then started with 220 grit (or probably less, can't remember) and went up to probably 1000 or so:
The end result was a sort of satin finish that I was after. I didn't want them up to a mirror/polished level of shine so I'm good with what I have there. While I was at it, I noticed that my Fujita intake was of a mirror finish (though scratched up from ten years of use). I actually wanted to reduce the level of shine (again to that sort of satin) so I went over the piping with sandpaper, followed by sandblasting the inside of the pipe for improved air flow (that's a real thing; creates a "boundary layer" of air so that the rest of the air travels faster). Comparison of my sanded finish (left) vs original mirror finish (right):
Finally... doing this type of work on the supercharger. I've always loved the look of Alfa Romeo engines with the polished intake runners. I was inspired by this and went ahead and sandblasted the powder coating on the runners. It is not recommended to sandblast aluminum for the purposes of getting a polished finish, but, maybe I had the right media in the cabinet since it actually was ok to work with, i.e. to sand it after. Granted it took a while, starting with 80 grit, and the end result is not perfect but I am happy with this:
I'll leave it at that for now