Well the time has come to dig back into the black mystery car. I've been super fucking busy at work now that I'm in my automatic transmission quarter here working. I've been getting pretty much all the cock sucking blown up warranty transmissions. But non the less the more I accomplish at work the more I really want to work on my car.

It’s getting torn down again. Past couple nights I've been in my garage cleaning and keep looking over at the engine bay and it keeps looking dirtier and dirtier. Everything is coming out getting cleaned and updated and going back in. The cams are getting degreed. All minor oil leaks are getting fixed. All of the push-loc lines I have for oil and fuel are getting re-done with stainless. The trans that I broke a shift fork in is getting fixed. The exhaust is getting coated in high temp ceramic. Everything aluminum is getting re-polished. Alternator is getting re-located to the rear.

Clean/degreases/reclean/degrease/reclean

So far all the intercooler pipes are off, turbo/exhaust manifold are off prepped and ready for polishing/coating. Its game time now boys. After all that is done its getting a good tune.

Shooting for an August completion date.

Sounds similar to mine. Tomorrow the trans, and turbo setup are coming off. Radiator is already out, and just today I got the interior put back together mostly.

I don't think I could stand to work on cars all day and then go home and work on cars. I'd just get fucking burnt out.

Yeah sometimes its hard comming right back from work to working on another car, but this one is FUN! I'm down to get shit done now. The winter depression is almost over. Now I drink less and have more money for the car.

Did you find a 7cm exhaust housing then for the 18g?

Yea got a clean one from down near Indy. Just got it in the mail today. Gotta fix one stud on the head and then get this thing in there. Found that the 18g has a bit of shaft play the other day. I found a rear main seal leak and I caught my low oil pressure light flickering at one of my autox'es last year. I think I starved it a bit at high g-loads and it might have damaged the bearings since I feed it from the cylinder head.

We'll see if it holds up. I'm hoping it will hang on for one more year because my mid-summer Uncle Sam check will hopefully get me a good quality lsd, pick up some new tires at the end of the year, and then grab a different turbo if need be before the start of next season.

Excellent! Thats what they need. Make sure it's done right.


Thats a hell of a undertaking right before race season but I can understand. I like things clean too. It will be easier to work on as well.

why are you getting the cams degreed?

Any after market cam needs to be degreed, some are REALLY off out of the box. The only ones that are pretty good about being dead on from the factory are the HKS and even those could probably benefit from it.

FP cams are pretty decent too, but even they'll benefit from some adjustment. I've heard some things about some new experimental cams that almost make me want to sell off my HKS's now.

hmmmm. not to jack the thread, but, tell me more! what are the experimental? who do you take them to, to degree them. what do they do? just make sure that the duration of the lobe is what it is supposed to be? do shops do this before they install them into heads?

There are a group of people testing out new cams for FP on everything from street cars to full out racecars. So far things look good.



Someone familiar with your make and model usually



They degree the cams. It's a long complicated process, especially with two camshafts. Google it for more info, I'm not about to write a how-to on it, but suffice it to say it's impossible without adjustable cam gears.



The duration isn't able to be change, but when it begins to act on the valve is.



You can't do it until your motor is assembled, well at least the block and head are completely together. I doubt most companies will unless you specifically ask them to.

Yeah getting the cams where they need to be is really the #1 reason the engine is comming out. I have access to an 11" wheel which is kinda hard to use in the car... plus seeing everything and adjusting will be alot easier. Once that tax refund shows up Ill get some Fidanza adjustables. I have a real suspsion that the cams are all outta wack.

Degreeing a DOHC its a little more trickey because you set one, then when you set the other and you cant have anything move or else the first cam is off again. Thats prolly the hardest part. Having a good dial indicator makes things alot easier. Luckly the cam card is in .050" and not just metric.

Do you guys still have the 4g63 cam gear key that locks the marks in order to you can adjust the shafts without having to worry about the whole thing moving and jumping time?

You have the BC 280's right?

Yeah. That same tool is used on pretty much all the Chrysler 4cyls. Yeah I have the 280's. I was reading somewhere a couple days ago guys are using them on 2.3/2.4 strokers. When I bought them the guy from VIPGrage said they were 2.0 cams, wtf, what did I miss?

Well they work on 2.0's. But, most of those guys are making 700+hp and are spinning up to 9000rpm. The 272's or FP2's would be better for you. Do you have upgraded springs and retainers for those cams?

they are for both, but people are jumping on them because they want the better flow numbers from the 280 and 288's with their strokers. I think the strokers get like 10% more volume? people with the 2.0's are still getting the 280's with the dual springs and now are getting the bee-hive shaped springs (bee-mads from ffwd) I guess that the evo's have the hive shaped springs, but they don't carry enough tension that these others do.