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(formerly) The $700 1988 245

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So a set of meyle torque rod bushings lasts about a year in this car it seems.

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And just for fun, here's two logged pulls. One of them is with a Bosch 007 MAF and the other is with one of those $30 ebay "016" MAFs. (The red and green lines)

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Finally got around to sticking the oil cooler in while I was doing this years oil change. It's a snug fit, but it works.

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New torque rods are installed. :cool:

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I lopped the ends off a pair of stock rods, drilled the holes a tiny bit bigger with a 13/16" bit, then rammed a 7/8-14 tap down 'em.

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I used a pair of Rock Krawler RK03524 joints. These are nearly a perfect fit. I had to grind 1mm off the end bit before they would slide nicely into the ears on the axle. They have zerk fittings too. Then I pulled my old torque rods off and transferred the poly bushings over.

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I basically guessed on the length setting, something like 5-10mm longer than the stock rods. I tried using my phone to measure the trans and pinion angles but I got different numbers every time. It still has a little bit of a grumble on takeoff, so I think it needs adjusting, but man it's improved. It does transfer more of the weird noises my rear end makes into the car, but that's what the radio's fer.

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How is your oil drain pipe secured to the block? Does it look like you have a metal tube that's going into the hole with a lot of silicone? Just curious if you tapped it or something it's hard to see in the picture.
 
How is your oil drain pipe secured to the block? Does it look like you have a metal tube that's going into the hole with a lot of silicone? Just curious if you tapped it or something it's hard to see in the picture.

OH, the pan is what the wagon came with. It's some steel pipe with npt thread on the end that was booger welded into the pan by whoever did the +t on it. It was leaking so I peeled off the orange RTV that was on it, then I ground off what appeared to be Bondo around the weld, then gooped it with JB weld. Not sure if it worked. Before pic:

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It's also smashed in at the front from where it hit the subframe.
 
Think this thread is what I needed to see to get motivated to start thinking about actually doing stuff to my car again. Lovely work.
 
I did a decent amount of work to the car recently (meaning it sat on jackstands for 3 months) and I'll cover that later probably. Yesterday I took it to a trackday. This revealed a few things I'd like to address:

  1. The rusty crusty exhaust broke, immediately, and I dragged my muffler around the whole track like a dinugs. Tied it back up with bailing wire.
  2. The turbo was overboosting. I raised the boost cut, because that's just what you do, but the boost continued to rise. I think the car just really wanted to run, considering it also developed the muffler delete.
  3. The overdrive would slip in third after it got hot. The turbo would spool, then it would just disconnect and hit the rev limiter. Only in third. It has done this on the street in the past, but rarely.
  4. I love my comfy seat but man it sucks in the corners. It's really hard to shift when I'm also trying to hold myself upright.
  5. The cooling system, well, doesn't.

The tighter torque rods seem to have helped mitigate my complaints about the locker on track. Last year, in turn 10 I think it was, it would repeatedly lock/unlock going through the corner which I didn't notice happening at all this time.

Here's a video of me running a 2:14 :cool: Unfortunately youtube compression makes it look pretty bad.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VBNRyNxSJl4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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And check out this 140 that was being driven by the man who built it decades ago:

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<iframe src="https://streamable.com/e/1bz0rm" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

B20 running Djet and a D cam.
 
Addressing the stuff I broke

1. Broken exhaust:

What happened was one of the rear hangers split and the rusty exhaust couldn't handle the stress. I deployed the booger machine and zapped it back together, but starting it revealed that it was also blown out in the downpipe. I pulled that off, semi successfully removed the unused narrowband, and patched up the holes.

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I'm still not great at getting the knobs dialed in on the zap machine. I did the o2 hole patch first, but I ran out of wire and switched to a different diameter. At least the car's quiet now.

I took the opportunity to add hangers to the resonator and swap out the panhard rod since the axle end bushing was shot. I just put the old one back in, the 40 year old rubber isn't in great shape but it's better.

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And I ziptie reinforced the rear hangers. This sucker better not fall off again.

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The m46:

I'm not giving up on this bad boy just yet. After the track I changed the fluid (it was significantly low, and gross looking) for Redline MTL. That didn't make a difference, so I carefully disassembled a broken 1986 J type in order to harvest the one way clutch.

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I then ripped apart the one in the car and replaced the one way. I couldn't actually see anything wrong with the old one, but after putting it back together it hasn't slipped yet, so.. Thoughts and prayers. I also cleaned out the filter which had a decent amount of little crumbly black pieces of plastic or something in it. I put it back together with new o rings on the solenoid and a ton of black RTV.

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I suppose it could be the clutch, but it's just so weird the way it slipped. Not soft at all. It would sort of let go and allow the engine to free rev, then reengage very harshly after lifting. I got it to slip at 2000rpm in 4th at one point, rolling into the throttle. The old and new rollers measured the same with a mic but you might be able to see the old ones are rounded over the edges while the newer ones are much sharper. I dunno.

Oh I also recently changed the clutch a couple months ago. I got nearly 20k out of the last one. I cut up some quarter inchish steel to make spacers for the trans crossmember while I had it off, the takeoff shudder is nearly gone. Just a slight grumble after the clutch is fully engaged in first. It's so smooth compared to how it was a few months ago.
 
Well, with everything else in my car actually functional, my brakes are no longer adequate. Lime rock is a lotta fun.

<iframe src="https://streamable.com/e/9g29q8" width="800" height="450" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'm thinkin Falken Azenis and Hawk pads or something. My 700tw Yokohama all seasons are getting a little tired.

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