Hey guys,
Just a little history on the car. I bought it from a guy in Phoenix, AZ 3 years ago. I drove it around for a year and the head gasket blew. I refurbished the cylinder head and installed a Cometic MLS HG with ARP studs. I had accumulated many parts while the car was down, so with the refurbished head I installed a 2nd Gen twin entry manifold, an ATS CT27 and a 3in Aussie down-pipe. I had no boost controller, so I was running it off of the wastegate up to 12psi. The car was a lot peppier with this setup and I was enjoying it, until.... Long story short, I tried to race a 350Z on the highway, the old cracked boost reference line popped off the wastegate, and the car boosted up to 20psi. I thought I was cool until I found out the engine was pushing oil out of every gasket it could find. A compression test later revealed 90PSI in 3 cylinders, so I yanked the engine. I was also scheduled to attend a car show in Los Angeles in two weeks....
I ended up finding a local guy, JDM Arizona, who had a few Gen 4 engines in his new warehouse. Come to find out, his main shop is in New Jersey, and he is the guy who supplies PrimeMR2 with all of there Gen 4 engines for their customer swaps. I paid $1100 and he loaded up the engine. Now, smart people would take their time and replace all of the gaskets and sensors before bolting the engine into the car, but by the time I received my new harness back from Doug at Wiregapinc, I only had a few days until the 80's and 90's Neo Classics car show in LA. So I installed the harness, slapped on a Fidanza flywheel with new clutch, and bolted the engine up.
I had to modify my stock pressure line that runs from the fuel filter to the fuel rail in order to adapt to the Gen 4 rail, but that was about it. So at 11PM on a Friday, I fed her some of that nice Rotella T6 5W-40, and she cranked right up with no issues, and boom, bed time.. The next day(Saturday), I drove around the neighborhood a few times, and up and down the interstate to check for coolant leaks, issues, etc... Did another oil change after a few hundred miles, and drove around more. I had to be in LA by 8AM Sunday morning, so I cleaned all the greasy hand prints off of the car, the girl friend vacuumed the interior up real nice, and we headed out of Phoenix at 2AM Sunday morning for LA. The car ran flawlessly the whole 5 hour trip. I averaged 90mph between most gas stops on the interstate, and the worst gas mileage I calculated was 22mpg when I was beating the shit out of it over 100mph. The best mileage I saw was 26mpg in town at 70mph. We made the car show Sunday morning, met some cool people, saw some cool cars.... and then hauled ass back home to Phoenix. Overall, I think we covered a good 800 miles without issue, and I never had to use any of my 1000lbs of tools that I brought just in case...
Just a little history on the car. I bought it from a guy in Phoenix, AZ 3 years ago. I drove it around for a year and the head gasket blew. I refurbished the cylinder head and installed a Cometic MLS HG with ARP studs. I had accumulated many parts while the car was down, so with the refurbished head I installed a 2nd Gen twin entry manifold, an ATS CT27 and a 3in Aussie down-pipe. I had no boost controller, so I was running it off of the wastegate up to 12psi. The car was a lot peppier with this setup and I was enjoying it, until.... Long story short, I tried to race a 350Z on the highway, the old cracked boost reference line popped off the wastegate, and the car boosted up to 20psi. I thought I was cool until I found out the engine was pushing oil out of every gasket it could find. A compression test later revealed 90PSI in 3 cylinders, so I yanked the engine. I was also scheduled to attend a car show in Los Angeles in two weeks....
I ended up finding a local guy, JDM Arizona, who had a few Gen 4 engines in his new warehouse. Come to find out, his main shop is in New Jersey, and he is the guy who supplies PrimeMR2 with all of there Gen 4 engines for their customer swaps. I paid $1100 and he loaded up the engine. Now, smart people would take their time and replace all of the gaskets and sensors before bolting the engine into the car, but by the time I received my new harness back from Doug at Wiregapinc, I only had a few days until the 80's and 90's Neo Classics car show in LA. So I installed the harness, slapped on a Fidanza flywheel with new clutch, and bolted the engine up.
I had to modify my stock pressure line that runs from the fuel filter to the fuel rail in order to adapt to the Gen 4 rail, but that was about it. So at 11PM on a Friday, I fed her some of that nice Rotella T6 5W-40, and she cranked right up with no issues, and boom, bed time.. The next day(Saturday), I drove around the neighborhood a few times, and up and down the interstate to check for coolant leaks, issues, etc... Did another oil change after a few hundred miles, and drove around more. I had to be in LA by 8AM Sunday morning, so I cleaned all the greasy hand prints off of the car, the girl friend vacuumed the interior up real nice, and we headed out of Phoenix at 2AM Sunday morning for LA. The car ran flawlessly the whole 5 hour trip. I averaged 90mph between most gas stops on the interstate, and the worst gas mileage I calculated was 22mpg when I was beating the shit out of it over 100mph. The best mileage I saw was 26mpg in town at 70mph. We made the car show Sunday morning, met some cool people, saw some cool cars.... and then hauled ass back home to Phoenix. Overall, I think we covered a good 800 miles without issue, and I never had to use any of my 1000lbs of tools that I brought just in case...