The Millennium Falcon--Mazda 323GT build thread

[Rustypro]

damn coming along really nice. ill be watching this. And do u know about the fuel pump mod by adding a fuel and a relay?

[Crazy Drummer69]

I only had about a half hour to work on the car before I had to dash... today will be a big push with four of us working on the car, five if I can get Nischay to help out too, six if Paul sticks around after he picks up my broken Pakfeifer BG front bumper and new BG Pakfeifer sideskirts for $150.

Jovanne make good headway welding that plate to the passenger side of the trunk, forgot to take a picture though.

There's a couple of things I can't figure out. First, there's what appears to be a ground pin attached to the loom leading to the ignition coil that was hanging loose. What does it do and should it be connected?


Second, I found a random bracket secured to the rear windshield. Maybe for a wing?


Who can guess what I'm going to get one of the guys to finish tomorrow while I fiberglass :D

[FamiliaGT]

1) The wire comming out is pretty much a signal wire. When I got my GT, the previous owner ran the Turbo Timer's auto count connection to it. It wasnt plugged into anything on my White GT, so I doubt you have anything to worry about.

2) Chances are that was either for a wing, or possibly a cell phone antena.

3) Dude, dont go down that road. Do what I did for a turbo inlet/intake system. Get a piece of 2.25" Aluminum or steel Mandrel Bent pipe, use two reducer couplers (These are all over ebay, and you want the braided silicon type, not the plain cheap rubber, they break up easily) in 1.25" to 2.25" (I believe for the turbo inlet if Im not mistaken), and then a 2.25" to 3.25" (For Pipe to AFM). You will be much happier with this, believe me. Ile send you some pics if you would like. Its a streight, breathing shot for the turbo.

[Crazy Drummer69]

Worked on the (true) cold air intake, got everything mocked up and ready for fiberglass reinforcement (so the piping doesn't implode on itself when the turbo starts sucking).



I didn't take enough pictures yesterday. The piping is all hooked up, save for two clamps, which I will install after the fiberglass reinforcement. I will also fiberglass a box around the outside of the piping to help with weather damage, water pickup, and cut an extra hole in the front bumper to make the intake even more efficient.

Meanwhile, Jovanne finished patching the passenger side of the trunk. He then cut out the bad metal from the rear of the wheel well and we plan on tackling that today.





Andrew came buy and sanded down the hood and sprayed a coat of primer. He needs to sand it down and do another layer. I forgot to take pics.

Eric grinded down the part of the dog legs under the rear doors so I can fiberglass onto clean metal.

Ran out of welding gas last night, gotta refill the bottle before we can continue today. Afterwards, Andrew and I hit up PaP and grabbed a few parts.

Replacement turn signal


Grabbed an arm rest from a 626, couldn't tell the color in the dark though!

[jay]

Don't pull air as from low as it looks like you're gonna or you'll suck water the first puddle you drive into. 'Sides, short intake is more better'n cold(ish) intake.

[Crazy Drummer69]

The name of the game is the colder the air, the more power your can make. This way it'll be sucking it from a high-pressure zone, where the air is coldest. There are two bends, at greater angles, similar to the stock system but with a larger diameter. The filter protrudes and inch and a half lower than the actual piping where most of the air will be sucked in, it shouldn't be too low. As long as it isn't dripping wet, a little moisture won't hurt. In fact, WW2 pilots noticed they got increased power when flying low to the ocean. Its the same principle applied to water/meth injection systems. As long as I don't completely submerge the filter I doubt I'll hydro-lock the engine.
cold air > short hot intake

[nerd racing]

and I thought I had rust problems! Puts my minor blemishes in perspective.

[KAinjection]

In fact, WW2 pilots noticed they got increased power when flying low to the ocean.

That would be a 2 fold reason on that, but not really associated with the water ingestion by the engine.
A. air at sea level is as close as your going to get to atmospheric pressure (14.7) 10,000ft---not so much
B. The closer to the water you get, the cooler the air will be compared to a little higher up. Cooler air is denser and has more oxygen.

Combine those 2 factors together and I think that is more likely what they were feeling.

Although they did experiment with, and successfully use methanol injection in WWII and it was used like a shot of NOS in dogfights to get the advantage on the enemy, or get out of trouble.

[FamiliaGT]

Ive already said my peace on this. Dont skimp out on materials man, thats all Im going to say.

[MyHooker]

Just as posted earlier, this project puts all of my troubles and worries into perspective. Instead of "Starving kids in China" it's "You know this guy had to WELD his whole F*&^#$G car back together when he got it, and you don't hear him complaining!" Yeah man, good work and keep the faith.

[jay]

AW man... airplanes flyin at 25k compared to sea level, and a car intake picking up closer to the ground than up in the engine bay? Does not compute. Random volumes of road water is not to be compared with water/ meth injection, either... You go through a puddle and run a bunch of water through your intake and hydraulic lock is the last worry. If there's a turbo in the way, it won't like drinking water. I don't know if this is going to be a boosted application but if it is there are far more gains in this area to be had with an efficient intercooler (and if it's not, a couple deg. temp change will result in hardly any hp change at all).
My street car came to me with a similar setup. Changing that out took almost a yard of plumbing outta the intake and cut a noticeable amount of lag outta the throttle response. My datalogs didn't show any increase in intake air temps, either.
There's more to it than just intake temp as well. The longer run of plumbing, especially any sharp turns you make, result in flow restrictions. If you lose a couple degrees by picking up air from down there, you also gain flow restrictions that more than likely outweigh the slightly cooler air temp. Why not make a nice straight run from a cold air box roughly where the vaf usually sits, and pick air up from a strategically loctated hole in the LF wheelwell or even a NACA duct in the hood?

[93BlkOnGreenPro]

You sir, are the man. Next time, come to NC where we know of no such thing known as rust :-)

[jimbob]

hey glad to see you picked up that gt i did not want to see it go to a junk yard. good progress on the rust as well i wish i had your motivation to fix my gtx's.

all in good time

[Crazy Drummer69]

hey glad to see you picked up that gt i did not want to see it go to a junk yard. good progress on the rust as well i wish i had your motivation to fix my gtx's.

all in good time

Yeah, it was your tip that led me to find this GT. Turns out the owner also knows Paul. Also, Geeves is looking to put some money into his GTX to get it running again. Do you still have the spare tranny I gave you when I sold my GTX? If so, would you be willing to sell it to Geeves?

[Crazy Drummer69]

New intake charge pipe

Progress was halted because we ran out of welding gas and I had no moneys, oh noes! Anyways, problem solved and with three of us today we got a lot of work done.

I decided to borrow some more parts from the GTR... this time the SSQV black edition was selected.


Picked up some galvanized pipe (I know, not SS, Jovane's TIG welder was down >.<)


Mocked up the parts, making sure the SSQV clears the TPS and that the reducers meet up with the molded piece from the intercooler



Moved the SSQV flange, the IAC nipple, and the wastegate vacuum nipple from the GTR charge pipe to the newly ghetto-fabbed GT charge pipe


B6T charge pipe vs ghetto-fabbed SSQV charge pipe



Close-ups





Deleted the OEM recirc valve piping from the charge pipe to the valve, removed the vac line so it'd stay shut. This is a temporary solution until I can find a plug to shove in there. I don't trust the OEM valve to hold 16psi.



I had to heat the throttle body coupler and the IC tube with a heat gun in order to fit them over the new piping. They won't come off, even without the clamps.

I couldn't get the stupid c-clip back on the SSQV, needed an extra set of hands to help for that. That's the only thing holding back the installation of the new charge pipe.