The Resurrection of Vixen

Quote of the Week:
"You sure you want to keep that Volvo engine? The guys in the shop can probably whip up a 1500HP Hemi for ya'."
-Dad

I noticed a -huge- restriction on the turbo intake manifold where it mates with the stock throttle body. I redesigned the head end a bit. The details and photos are below...

My dad's company (Hussey Copper) has a marine division, which for some reason has gotten into drag racing. They now are a top manufacturer of copper gaskets for the race trade, and my dad is offering their services for a port & polish job! I had considered Extrude-Hone, but to do the int/exh manifolds and the heads was $1800. That's a sizable chunk of change. Therefore, having a professional race team redo those for free seemed to be a much better option. However, to do so would mean delaying finishing the engine by a month or two at least, and quite possibly a much longer period of time. That depressed me a bit. I was really getting far along, and then... a huge delay. I have the potential to build one of the hottest PRV's in the country (I hope), but should I do so when it would hit me with such a morale killer?

There a line in a Phish song that struck me at this point: "A week is a month, and an hour's a day, when your reaching just pushes it further away". Sage advice. I've run into that trap before. You have to set a goal of what you want the car to be when it's done and try to stick to it. Every time you try to do a bit more, the goal moves further out of reach. It's better to accomplish your original goals first, then set additional ones. To do otherwise is just baiting yourself with a carrot and stick. I'll send my spare heads and intake down to be machined, and put them on at a later date. A little more work, true, but on a project of this size & scope, keeping my energy level and spirits high is of crucial importance.

With that in mind, I went back to work on the engine yesterday. The intake manifold is in place, the new distributor, and all of the water piping. I started in on the exhaust & turbos next, and hope to have the engine assembled by the end of the week. My 30th birthday is on
Wednesday, so I probably won't be working that night. But now that I'm "old", I should act responsibly, correct? I'm starting my new responsibility with going to a Toga party at my old Penn State fraternity this Saturday, so putting the engine in that weekend is out of the question. =)

Last week was a big one financially -- I spent more than I did on the car. For those of you who are following my progress and hoping to find a cheap D, you will note that at this point I have passed the cost of purchasing a decent running car. Remember, I'm doing this for the challenge, for the fun, and for the love of the marque. The money is secondary to me, and I would NOT recommend buying a car in such poor shape.

Spare heads and intake are on their way to being hot pieces of machinery.

Someday.

Twin Turbo Mods:

Okay... now looking at this rather fuzzy pic, you can still see that the size difference between the original throttle body and the turbo kit's mount is substantial. Quite a big restriction. It's amplified by the enlarged area on the throttle body where the brass fittings on the old rams horns fit, PLUS the O-rings. Turbulence and restriction at this point is HUGE.

I started by using the supplied gasket, and pressing the rams horns down firmly on the gasket, marking it with the size it should be. I then cut out the gasket to match.

I traced the gasket onto the supplied mount, and then checked against the original. The tracing was a bit small, so I readjusted my markings, and began to die-grind the restriction away.

Now, if you've ever used a die grinder on aluminum, it's something like taking a file to a block of Velveeta. It immediately clogs the bit badly. I had to alternate between grinding the aluminum, and grinding the aluminum off of the bit with a bench grinder, and then grinding the aluminum off of the bench grinder. What a chore...

But the end result was worth it. It matched the size of the rams horns almost exactly.

Check out the difference in size against the pictures above.

Now remember that I mentioned that the rams horns had a brass sleeve to fit into the throttle body with an O-ring seal? That area would still pose a restriction unless it was filled in. I considered using a filler like JB Weld, but was concerned any pieces cracked off would end up munching the turbos or the engine. A piece of 1-7/8" exhaust pipe was almost perfect to make a new 'sleeve'. It required very slight grinding to fit snugly.

I then used an exhaust tubing cutter to cut two 'rings' to fit into the throttle body...

The original O-rings fit back in place to seal and secure the metal spacer rings. It isn't quite perfect, but it's close. The photo amplifies the edge a bit. It actually has a nice taper between the pipe ring and the throttle body.

The modifications are complete. With the modified supplied adapter in place, you can run your finger up through the assembly and barely feel the edges. This is compared to the approximate 1/4" gap you could feel before.

Should be worth a few more ponies, to be sure.

Costs for Week 21:

Date	Purchase	Store	Price
11-Mar-00	Metal file set	Pep Boys	10.69
		Week 21 Total:	$10.69

		Running Total:	$10,250.04

Year One:
Week 1	Week 8	Week 15	Week 22	Week 29	Week 36	Week 43	Week 50
Week 2	Week 9	Week 16	Week 23	Week 30	Week 37	Week 44	Week 51
Week 3	Week 10	Week 17	Week 24	Week 31	Week 38	Week 45	Week 52
Week 4	Week 11	Week 18	Week 25	Week 32	Week 39	Week 46	-
Week 5	Week 12	Week 19	Week 26	Week 33	Week 40	Week 47	-
Week 6	Week 13	Week 20	Week 27	Week 34	Week 41	Week 48	-
Week 7	Week 14	Week 21	Week 28	Week 35	Week 42	Week 49	-
Year Two:
Week 53	Week 60	Week 67	Week 74	Week 81	Week 88	Week 95	Week 102
Week 54	Week 61	Week 68	Week 75	Week 82	Week 89	Week 96	Week 103
Week 55	Week 62	Week 69	Week 76	Week 83	Week 90	Week 97	Week 104
Week 56	Week 63	Week 70	Week 77	Week 84	Week 91	Week 98	-
Week 57	Week 64	Week 71	Week 78	Week 85	Week 92	Week 99	-
Week 58	Week 65	Week 72	Week 79	Week 86	Week 93	Week 100	-
Week 59	Week 66	Week 73	Week 80	Week 87	Week 94	Week 101	-
Year Three:
Week 105	Week 112	Week 119	Week 126	Week 133	Week 140	Week 147	Week 154
Week 106	Week 113	Week 120	Week 127	Week 134	Week 141	Week 148	Week 155
Week 107	Week 114	Week 121	Week 128	Week 135	Week 142	Week 149	Week 156
Week 108	Week 115	Week 122	Week 129	Week 136	Week 143	Week 150	-
Week 109	Week 116	Week 123	Week 130	Week 137	Week 144	Week 151	-
Week 110	Week 117	Week 124	Week 131	Week 138	Week 145	Week 152	-
Week 111	Week 118	Week 125	Week 132	Week 139	Week 146	Week 153	-
Year Four:
Week 157	Week 164	Week 171	Week 178	Week 185	Week 192	Week 199	Week 206
Week 158	Week 165	Week 172	Week 179	Week 186	Week 193	Week 200	Week 207
Week 159	Week 166	Week 173	Week 180	Week 187	Week 194	Week 201	Week 208
Week 160	Week 167	Week 174	Week 181	Week 188	Week 195	Week 202	-
Week 161	Week 168	Week 175	Week 182	Week 189	Week 196	Week 203	-
Week 162	Week 169	Week 176	Week 183	Week 190	Week 197	Week 204	-
Week 163	Week 170	Week 177	Week 184	Week 191	Week 198	Week 205	-
Year Five:
Week 209	Week 216	Week 223	Week 230	Week 237	Week 244
Week 210	Week 217	Week 224	Week 231	Week 238
Week 211	Week 218	Week 225	Week 232	Week 239
Week 212	Week 219	Week 226	Week 233	Week 240
Week 213	Week 220	Week 227	Week 234	Week 241
Week 214	Week 221	Week 228	Week 235	Week 242
Week 215	Week 222	Week 229	Week 236	Week 243

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