Tree's Roadster

[Demon I Am]

Gauges and door cards look great!

[treeafodo]

After a huge headache of dealing with UPS, I finally received my Flyin' Miata frame rails that I ordered New Year's Eve. UPS delivered them to the wrong house and then started to ship them back to Flyin' Miata in Colorado once the other house refused them. I will be filing a claim and hopefully will get back my $91 for shipping since I had to have it shipped to my Canadian address.
Anyways, this is the long awaited package.
New Box! by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Flyin Miata Frame Rails by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

My frame rails are in really good shape so the install went pretty easily. I decided to do the passenger side rail first since it would be the more difficult of the 2 due to the brake/fuel lines.

A little while later I called it a night. With the 4 outermost bolts tight and all the other bolts started I just couldn't take any more crawling in and out from under the car. My abs are super sore from learning new kayak tricks and I have to be up early tomorrow morning.
Installed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Installed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

I will finish tightening that rail up and start the driver side install. I will update this thread tomorrow with a little more detail.

[—atank—]

Good job on the frame rails, and I can't wait to see the finished door cards!!

[treeafodo]

I installed the driver side frame rail this evening. That finishes off my frame rail install. Overall it was very straight forward and should make a big difference in the car.

Poopy cell phone pic.
Finished Frame Rails by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Then this happened...



Uh oh... by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

I left the house fairly early this morning to make the trip into the US to buy this LS1 longblock which I scored on eBay. I drove through the scariest neighbourhood in the world to get there. Every single building was abandoned with no windows or doors. I did not see a single occupied building driving through there. Any ways, the workers at the warehouse helped me load it into the back of my Integra for the trip home. It was a tight fit, but it worked well. The car drove like a dump truck.
By the time we got it into the car and I made the drive back it was almost time for class. I drove directly to school and unloaded the engine using the cherry picker. There were no free engine stands so it is just sitting on one of the workbenches for the time being.
LS1 Longblock by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
LS1 Longblock by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
LS1 Longblock by Austin Rajki, on Flickr


I have the engine stand I purchased earlier in my car and ready to bring to school tomorrow. I'm not entirely sure what the condition of the engine is in or even what is included with it. No word of a lie, I essentially got it for next to nothing. It came out of a '98 Corvette which was T-boned in the driver's rear quarter panel. The car had 128k miles on it. I saw pictures of the car it came out of and the engine bay was completely untouched.

I know for sure that it needs the intake manifold, fuel rail and injectors which would all have been upgraded anyways. It's definitely a little more complete than your average longblock.

I also picked up some new tools. I got a torque wrench, breaker bar and angle grinder. I purchased the angle grinder so I can remove all the surface rust on the car. The rust removal will have to wait until spring since it's way too cold for paint to stick properly.

[treeafodo]

After seeing scradley's post in the craigslist/kijiji finds thread about a hardtop for $650 canadian I messaged the seller and set up a time on Sunday (yesterday) to come pick it up. I tried really hard to fit the soft top frame in the Integra, but it wasn't possible. If the soft top didn't fit in the car a hardtop wouldn't. After messaging everyone I knew who had a larger vehicle, I was able to borrow my friend's GMC Jimmy. I finished work at 5 and made the trip up. After the 3 hour drive there I pulled up to a house that looked sort of familiar and I didn't know why it was familiar. After entering the garage to see the hardtop I knew why it looked familiar. I've seen pictures of it from following my all time favourite miata build.
by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Seeing this car in person was actually amazing. This is the car that I am taking a lot of my inspiration and ideas from.

We loaded the hardtop in my friend's Jimmy. If the truck was any smaller it wouldn't have fit. It fit like a glove.
Untitled by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

We spent an hour talking about things and I got a lot of ideas and advice about things that I wasn't sure about for my build. I'm more excited about meeting him and seeing his car than I am about buying the hardtop.
After a while of talking I started the trip home.
By the time I got home, installed the top on the car and returned the truck to my friend it was 2am. Here is a quick shot of the top on my car.
by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

[Dave737]

Cool story. Just goes to show "Its a small world", however I wouldn't want to paint it.

[treeafodo]

Cool story. Just goes to show "Its a small world", however I wouldn't want to paint it.

I hear you there! haha

I got the engine mounted on the stand last Friday. The arms that were included with the stand I bought were too short to reach where they needed to go on this block. With the teacher's permission, I rummaged around in the school's storage room I found and traded my arms for the longer arms that I needed.
Ls1 Mounted on Stand by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Couple random reference shots.
Mounted by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
OEM Starter by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

In today's lab I stripped the engine of the exhaust manifolds, engine mounts and all the sensors in preparation to tear it down and rebuild it. This tag was on the engine saying that all the oil has been drained prior to my purchase.
Tag by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Although they claimed to have drained all the oil, I decided to double check the dipstick before removing the oil temperature and oil level sensors. I'm glad I checked. The sump was full and the oil was pretty clean.
Oil by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

This is how the engine sits now.
Stripped of the Sensors by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

And all the parts are labelled, in bags and are placed on a cart that is designated for only my parts.
Parts Removed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

I was planning on doing a leakdown test, but because of the in class demos I was running short on time. I did attempt to do the first cylinder and got a reading of 10% leakage. For those of you who don't know 20% leakage is considered normal in an engine so I am very happy with the 10%. BUT I'm not 100% certain that the inlet pressure was correct for the tester I was using. We will see if the inlet pressure was correct or not next week.


I ordered a camshaft and have word that it has arrived in Detroit. I will try picking it up sometime this week.

As I was typing out this post an older gentleman stopped by regarding some of the parts I was selling. He ended up purchasing my soft top, OEM rad, OEM strut brace and OEM mirrors. I will be using that money this weekend to purchase a set of fenders, finish panel and possibly bumpers.

[treeafodo]

Today I was able to calibrate the leakdown tester and perform the leakdown test.

Firing order on the LS is 1-8-7-2-6-5-4-3 so the results will follow that.

Cylinder 1: 8% leakage
Cylinder 8: 8%
Cylinder 7: 8%
Cylinder 2: 8%
Cylinder 6: 88%- No, that is not a typo.
Cylinder 5: 7%
Cylinder 4: 72%
Cylinder 3: 8%

Both of the high leakage cylinders were leaking from the valves- 1 on intake, the other on exhaust. I was really worried that a valve might have been bent, or even the seats were bad. I removed the valve covers to double check that the valves were set correctly and did it again. Still leaking from the valves... The first thing that I did was took a mallet to the valve and valves spring and gave it a few whacks to free up any carbon that would prevent the valves from closing all the way. When I did the leakdown on those 2 cylinders again it went from 88% to 16% and the other went from 72% to 22%.

That was a huge relief. The leakdown test gave me a general idea of what condition the engine was in. I'm pretty happy with the results. 20% is considered normal.
After the leakdown was done I removed the heads. As you can see there is a decent amount of carbon on the pistons, but everything is pretty clean for 128k miles. I'm fairly confident that if I were to clean all the carbon out, I would have 8% on all cylinders.
Short Block by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Heads Removed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

[treeafodo]

After work on Tuesday I drove up to Hamilton to pick up some parts. The way up was perfect, the way back was 3 hours in a complete white out. Could not see a thing due to the snow.

I ended up getting 2 fenders, rear bumper and a finish panel for a good price. The fenders are both rust free and will replace mine which are dented and have rust on the bottom.
Parts by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

The finish panel is mint!
Finish Panel by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

The rear bumper was super cheap. The downside is it has some scratches. They shouldn't be a problem since I'm going to cut it any ways.
Bumper by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Closeup Of Bumper by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/q9hLw7]


I haven't touched the car in the last little bit, but I have done a lot of work in the garage. I've spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing things. I still have work to do, mostly against the back wall, but it's much better. More lights have been added as well as blinds on the window.

Before:
New Home! by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Now:
Garage by
I'm parting out my 1.6 to get that out of there as well.Austin Rajki, on Flickr

[Tkblazer]

Man I could use one of those fenders

[treeafodo]

Man I could use one of those fenders

Want my old ones? Haha

[Tkblazer]

Shipping would be a pain..

[treeafodo]

Shipping would be a pain..

That and you wouldn't want my old fenders. They're pretty bad.

[treeafodo]

So things have happened today...
I went to Detroit with a friend today to pick up my latest package, had an amazing burger for lunch, filled the Teg up for $21 and watched someone boot a garbage can over and eat a full sandwich from out of it.

This is what I came back with.
Boxes by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Push rods. I will have to double check the length when the time comes to install. I was told I can exchange them if need be.
Pushrods by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
PRC Titanium sprung valve stem seals, titanium valve spring retainers and titanium seats.
Valve Stem Seals, Seats and Retainers by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

PRC Dual Spring valve springs.
Valve Springs by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

And a big boy cam. Apparently I'm the first person in the world to get this cam.
Opened Cam by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Cam by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

[treeafodo]

Upon further inspection of the new parts I realized that Texas Speed and Performance sent me 32 titanium spring seats rather than 16 of those and 16 retainers. I emailed them and they immediately got back to me and are express shipping me the retainers. Superb customer service!

More cleaning has taken place today.
Booty by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Booty by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Note the rust near the top of the finish panel in the center.
Naked Booty by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Did a very quick clean as well as using the new wire wheel that I picked up to remove the rust.
Naked Booty by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Rust by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Clean by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Rust Again by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Obviously not finished with the trunk yet.
Clean by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Saved a few more pounds by removing things that will not be going back in the car.
More Weight Savings by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Here are the dry rotted tail light gaskets and the finish panel that exploded upon removal. Look at all the cracks.
Cracked Panel by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Then there was the bumper. It was cracked and the previous owner bondoed it all up. As soon as it flexed it cracked.
Cracked Bumper by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

The new bumper I bought came with the internal support and all the hardware, but I figured the way my luck has been I'll salvage the old fasteners, just incase. Then I ended up tossing the finish panel and bumper in the garbage.
Salvage by Austin Rajki, on Flickr