UPDATE: 3/13/05
No exciting new news, but probably time for an update anyway.
First and foremost, it appears as though I am going to be buying a domain name and hosting sometime in the near future. I have yet to choose a domain (selecting one has been the hardest part of this whole deal thus far), but I am sure I will come up with one given enough time. I plan to use the type of material that is on this site, as well as a vast extension. Personal information, other hobby shit, and publication of a bunch of papers I have sitting around are some of the primary goals. Once this is done, I expect to have a better maintained (and more often updated site) with information about both the car(s) and other things of interest.
On the topic of cars, still no decision. :o) I've been taking with some friends lately (primarily Owen) about building a turbo 240SX, and it's a damned tempting option. I could really use a nice slow paced long-term project.
However, as mentioned in the last update, I could also buy something reliable and make the DSM the long term project. Who knows. I was getting very burnt-out on DSM's, but I haven't touched one in several months now, and I am feeling much better about the situation. Getting out of a couple problematic groups (like NewEngDSM) has also helped my mentality quite a bit.
UPDATE: 1/17/05
It's been a month, and I still have no clue what I want to do; I am starting to get used to this. I'm back to the least fun, and probably the smartest, line of thinking: buy a cheap, reliable old car, put the DSM where I have always wanted it, and then worry about another project It's logical, but logical sometimes feels like the least fun.
So, I'd like to pull about 200 pounds off the DSM, which I think can be done with a combination of creative weight loss and some standard stuff. All of the stock leather seats can come out, as well as the belts, and a good set of race seats and harnesses should make up a lot of that weight difference on their own. As much as I hate to be a part of any ricer trend, you simply can't argue with the weight reduction of a carbon fiber hood, so I will probably need to get my hands on one of those as well. Beyond that, I am going to need to be creative. I'd like to fab up some tubular stuff, but who knows if I will have the time.
UPDATE: 12/13/04:
I've been giving some serious thought lately to going off in a different direction, and maybe building an autocross car. A project like this is probably destined to be well under my usual power standards, but a nice light 2-seater like a Miata would allow me to be a lot more competitive and have a lot more fun at the autocross; a low-power autocross car is also probably going to be a lot more reliable than some ridiculous drag car or dyno queen.
On the other hand, I really feel like pushing some limits...
I bet I will be doing this until summer comes around, at which point I will buy a 91 Civic to drive to work and spend my money somewhere more important. :o)
UPDATE: 12/01/04:
I am currently trying to figure out what the heck I want to do with this car over the next year or so. It has been a great, and fairly reliable, daily driver for me for the past couple years. However, I have always been left itching for something more. I don't want to settle for 300 or 350 whp, I want 400 or more.
However, I don't necessarily want it in this car; frankly, I don't give a crap what platform I am running, I just want something with less than 9 pounds per (wheel) horsepower. That would be a large amount faster than the 13 pounds I am currently lugging around, per Dyno Dynamics wheel horse. So, something like a turbo 240SX project might be reasonable, but probably a lot more expensive as well. As fun as two fast turbo cars would be, it's probably not a very good idea financially with school.
Currently, I feel like the best route would be to snag a POS daily beater for when the DSM is broken, and add a couple more parts. Even with that though, I am not sure what route I want to go down. A 2.3l stroker would make for a mean street car, but if I am not going to be daily driving it any more, there may not be a reason to spend all that money. I think that a standard 2.0l 4G63 with a nice set of cams will happily make power to 7500 or 8000 rpm, and with a 40-50 lb/min turbo that should give me a nice fat 3500+ rpm powerband. I can live with that, for sure.
Another thing I am considering is a mild engine buildup. For the 400 whp goals I have, the vast majority of the stock parts I have would be perfectly fine. However, due to age and wear, the engine that is currently in the car could certainly use a nice new set of bearings, as well as new rings. I think I am going to look into this, because I would really like to bring the static compression up. I think that somewhere around 9.0:1 would be a great place to start on a pumpgas car.
We'll have to see what happens over the rest of the year, and when summer rolls around.
UPDATE: 11/22/04:
Media section has at least some content now; still not a whole ton, but it's probably as much as you would bother looking at before getting bored. :o)
Since my main intention with this is to keep people update with the progress of my slow POS, I figured I might as well start now. For those just tuning in, the car has recently gotten:
-A huge ass FMIC (12 x 34 x 3)
-A whole lot of custom EPROM tuning
The EPROM tuning is by far one of the best things that I have ever done with the car. With the code-hacking stuff I've been working with, I can make totally custom fuel and timing maps, as well as add extra features like stutterbox, no lift to shift, boost cut, etc. The ability to control timing and fuel delivery independently has certainly made a big difference in power. The car put down 225 whp at KTR Performance this summer (which is somewhere in the range of 260-270 dynojet whp), and I am sure that I have picked up power since then. Hopefully it will be back on the rollers sometime over the summer.
Of course, on the other hand my trusty 14b is completely useless at this point. I can get boost up into the mid 20's when it comes on at lower engine speeds, but as engine speed goes up I'm maxing out the compressor wheel, and boost is dropping to 14 or 15 psi; not good! Hopefully I'll get some sort of 16g in there eventually, which should yield 20-30 more horsepower right out of the box without any other changes.
UPDATE: 11/21/04:
New site layout is up! I expect to be tweaking it for a while, but I am fairly confident that this style is going to stay. We will see what happens.
In the next couple days, I will be updating this intro page with recent events and news. From there, I will try to keep on top of regular updates.
