Very nice weather today so I messed around in the garage, cleaning and what not and generall prepping for some work I want to do this weekend.

After thinking more about my oil leak, I figured it most likely wasn't coming from the Tomei block, but rather the oil pan (most likely) as the oil doesn't go up to the Tomei oil block ports when its sitting around as my car was for the past few months.

I looked into making some nice AN lines for the turbo, but after looking at the cost of parts vs the cost of pre-made ones (taka), its not really worth it to me to try and make them. So once I got T28bb, taka lines are what I am going to go with.

Hopefully with the oil leak taken care of this weekend I can focus more on the headwork I want to do this winter. So far I am planning BrianCrower valve spring and retainer ($230 @ Phase2) as well as cam upgrade 264* BC ones ($255 @ Phase2). While opening up the head, the RAS will be installed as well and trying to get the valve cover powdercoated at the same time and get nice AN fittings installed in it.

So after moving the cars around, I noticed that there is still an oil leak. I am really out of ideas where its coming from. The only place I can think of is the Tomei oil block, turbo lines and the oil pan.
I think this weekend I will put it up on jackstands and try clean everything up to see if I can find the leak. Probably hit it with a degreaser to make it easier to see.
If not, I will start with pulling off the oil pan and put a new bead of silicone around it, than check the oil block and if all else fails try to get to the oil block.
Once I figure that out, I will go and find a nice way of mounting the oil filter and the catch can. Making nice brackets where needed.
I will most likely also pull out the radiator and start on fabricating the mounts for the Griffin one.

Got some shipment confirmation emails today, 3 packages were sent out to me. Should start arriving next week. So I hope its going to be pretty nice next weekend so I can work a little in the garage.

Talked to Kuah at SPLpars.com and finally got the tie rod shanks and new rod ends ordered as they were recalled. While at it, I ordered the needed stuff to make my S14 toe arms fit S13. To finish my suspension I just need some RUCAs for the rear and tension rods for the front and coilovers. Soon enough.

Still bored at work, but I remembered this thread. Lots of good info. But it comes down to BC or Comp for valve springs depending on price.

http://forums2.freshalloy.com/showthread.php?t=115672&

"SPRING-----SPRING-----RATE @------RATE@---------COIL
TYPE ------HEIGHT-----1.339-------1.200---------BIND
-----------@ REST-----(34mm)------(30.48mm)-----HEIGHT

Stock------1.975------110 lbs------147 lbs------1.082
Greddy-----1.910------120 lbs------159 lbs------1.045
HKS--------1.902------113 lbs------147 lbs------1.099
Comp-------1.902------134 lbs------168 lbs------0.960
Ferrea-----1.892------148 lbs------189 lbs------0.960
BC --------1.953------140lbs-------175lbs------0.940

I check my email and it turns out that someone saw that I was bidding on another shifter on eBay, but the seller was mis-representing his product and was selling the put-it-together-C's-copy not the B&M style one that was pictured - Grrrrrr.
Quick phone call to the seller and it turns out that he was right, apparently this guy just uses the same shit every auction and keeps on mis-representing the product. But I told him some things he didn't like and I got my $ in the Paypal within 20 mins of the call.

I also called Ben for some fans, and after stopping over with my radiator, it turns out that they are too wide and won't work with the Griffin. I am kind of bummed about that, as I was hoping that those would be perfect for it and have best of both worlds. Oh well, back to Summit looking for some fan ideas. Maybe Taurus fans? but got to check fitment first.
That is all for now. I am bummed, within a day I lost a shifter and fans - hehe.

Today I ordered the new shifter for the S13, after driving the S14 with one installed and than jumping back to stock S13 shifter, it really feels like its all over the place. Could be due to tranny mount as well, so I'm going to replace that next.

Project - "CF ProtoCova" Specs:
Total lenght - 412mm
Total width - 76mm
Hole size - 6mm
Hole depth? - 6mm
Hole widht - 56mm
Front - 1st hole (center) - 15mm
Rear - last hole (center) - 11mm
1st to 2nd distance - 181mm
2nd to 3rd distance - 193mm

This should at least get me started, I picked up a nice sheet of aluminum to work with as well, so it could be done reasonably quick, so maybe this will get some of the ideas out of my head and onto the CAD drawing.

No realistic specs for the hatch cover, so I dunno if I actually want to go through all the trouble, maybe it was just a crazy idea, maybe not. For now, got to concentrate on more important things, like suspension.

Getting the tire cheetah-ed was a big pain. I went to Discount Tire and they did one, but decided they didn't like the way the tires seated on the rim so they refused to mount the other ones. Fuckers!! I was pissed, but figured one tire mounted for free and the rest of the stress was relieved by a nice burnout on their parking lot - hehehe.
Since the only other place that I knew was another Discount Tire up the street, I went there. The guys had same concerns, but once I told them for what it was, the manager told them to do it and was cool enough about not wanting to charge me anything. Figure I at least owe them a pizza, I left them a tip. I would've spent that with them to get it mounted anyway.
Now I still got the rest of the to-do list to finish today, so I'll post once I get back to my house.

Many crazy ideas going through my head lately. The "CF ProtoCova" is probably going to be one of the first statrted. The really messed up idea is getting fiberglass hatch with a window. I dunno lots going on this week, so maybe its just getting to me.
We shall see.

So I called a few shops today asking about mounting my tires. They thought I was crazy "its the wrong size!" and "those won't fit" as well as "I wouldn't recomend those" were common themes of their answers - Good times, hehe. Anyway I tried simple aproach of asking them if they got a Cheeta and that seemed to be a better approach as I found a shop that has it and is willing to do it for $10 a tire.
So Saturday I will be going and getting the remaining 3 mounted, because I don't think I want to mess around with this no more by myself.
Soon my car will be rolling on some decent sized wheels - YAY!!!!!

This Guy has figured out a pretty trick way of mounting the radiator and I think I will follow his lead. He has used easily available Energy Suspension bump stops (PN ENS-9-9118G) to use as bottom mounts on a simple L bracket. Simple and works great. The top mount will take a little more tweaking but its do-able :D

Griffin Radiator - something that I've been thinking about getting for a while now.

My buddy Dave had came across a guy that was running it in his S13 and he gave me a fair price on it. The only issue with it is that its not OEM fit, but universal radiator. They make the following OEM fit radiators:
S13 SR20 - 9E-KD789-01
S13 RB25 - 9E-KE789-01
S14 KA24 - 9E-KC795-01

The one I got was model 1-25241-x which is good up to 400hp.
It took some googleing around but I did find a nice way of mounting it in the car, something that I was worried about the most.

Today was pretty good day. Woke up early to go home and have Joe finally pick up his motor for his poor S13. Hopefully it will be on the road soon. After that I went over and made some more money fixing some computers at a law office. Pretty cool just wasting time on a Saturday and making money for stuff thats easy to fix. Once done there, I made a quick stop at Angel's and mounted the 225/45 on the Starions. Balanced them perfectly as well, so I was pretty proud of myself. Since I was already in the neighborhood, I figured to stop by Lewe's lot and say Hi to everyone. While there I met up with Wayne and I got to help him out next week. Raffi and I were shooting the shit and figured might as well wash my car, while doing that, I was offered a pair of tires, and since I need them like ASAP, I made arrangements to meet up next weekend and pick them up and go to Angels and brake them off the wheels that they were on. Hopefully he can come up with more tires later as well. Got back home just in time to find out that I got an hour left before I have to leave to meet Witt and the car is dead, AGAIN!!! UGH!! Need to drive it more!!!
Threw the jumper cables on, let the Kouki charge it, while I was cleaning up a little and moving the Zenki out of the way. After few tries, the SR20DET finally started. I love the sound of that motor. I really need to drive it more often.
By that time, Witt called and gave me directions, so I was on my way, but while on the highway I managed to get the plastic fender liner loosened up and eventually fell off at 60MPH - Very scary as the car jerked to the left. But a quick stop showed no damage, so I just said FuckIT and drove and picked up my new front bumper.
Yep, busy as fuck, did a lot of little shit, still more left to do. At the end of the day I was ahead by few bux, so I can't really complain.
Tomorrow on the other hand, I will be picking up a Griffin radiator for an S13. As long as its KA one its going in S14. We shall see manyana.

Today I tired mounting the tires on the wheels. Let me just say that thinking that a 205 will fit on a 9inch rim easily is a BIG mistake. What sux for me is that I got 2 sets of them in that exact size :( I spend few hours to get them on at Angel's shop and it wasn't exactly going great. I've tried the grease and even the starter fluid trick, but it only worked for one of the tires. Joe will stop by tomorrow, get the tires mounted on the Starions and see if we can do something about these. If not my last resort is to see Lewe about his tractor tire mounting thingamajig. Hopefully it can be done.
Went with the Fuzions for the basic setup thinking I'll end up putting the RE92's on later in the season.