The Project Pad

Awesome. I've been looking to do something like that to my own pan. Just gotta pull it.

It's in and bolted up


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Getting ready to replace the valve guides& seals, then will need to figure out the head gasket. I have heard you can rebuild/reuse the compression lowering head gaskets. Has anyone done this? It seems you could take a standard MLS head gasket disassemble and reassemble around the compression lowering one?


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I think you should run standard compression. With a good ignition tune, you should be safe, and the powerband will be better all around.

Problem is, I can't afford to have it re-tuned. I had a old crank case tube and modified to keep oil from getting to valve cover. With stainless steel

Still have the original, but this one should work.


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Many people here could help with an basic ignition tune that won't detonate. Even if you take a few degrees out of the whole map that would help. You can always repurpose a knock sensor to hook up to a set of headphones with a little amp or directly into the cars head unit via AUX in. Then you can listen yourself. I did this in my 4k. Was so handy to be able to plug it into a laptop and record it during a WOT run.

well, the rebuild of the original head was way to much $ so i have just purchased a head from Max (Landfill) and it will hopefully get the car back on the road. I think i would like to use a stock HG, after i get the engine back together and in the car i will look into what modifications i will need to make to the tune.

Got the new/used head cleaned up 7a cams installed, both head and block mating surfaces cleaned, ARP head studs installed ready to assemble engine


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Engine is coming together with stock CR. Will need help setting up VEMS's ignition map at some point. Also going to get an aux radiator squeezed into the front somehow


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More assembly today, much easier on the stand than in the car


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After reading a lot about heat wrap, pros and cons, rust and head retention, I decided to build a heat shield out of an old toaster oven pan


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Back in the garage after years of waiting..... before running i will need to go into VEMS and make some ignition changes to account for the higher compression ratio (stock vs lowered) I have tuned with megasquirt in the past but this is my first vehicle with the luxury of VEMS, i took a quick look at the software on my little tuning laptop and it looks fantastic. would i need to change it a few degrees across the board? or mostly under load?




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I like the heat shield idea, I've built similar, but from experience you're going to want to do something about those edges. I still have scars from my sheet metal heat shields.

Regarding ignition timing, honestly I would get it running before messing with anything. You'll likely only need to make changes under high load, so I would get it up and running with what you know will make it run and then worry about fine tuning. If you leave it on spring pressure at least to begin with you should have zero detonation issues.

vt10vt wrote:Regarding ignition timing, honestly I would get it running before messing with anything. You'll likely only need to make changes under high load, so I would get it up and running with what you know will make it run and then worry about fine tuning. If you leave it on spring pressure at least to begin with you should have zero detonation issues.

Thanks guys, it was running superb before so I guess I'll just start it up without touching anything


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Here you can see the Toyota Prius inverter cooler (small radiator to assist the slightly small main radiator) figuring out how to mount it to the IC bracket


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Prius parts! That's a first, love it

Hopefully it holds up, it was the correct size to squeeze in behind the IC to add that little bit of extra capacity needed. Today I mounted it up more permanently with a small bracket I made




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The measurements did not account for the cross support. Had to re-designed a little bit but it's coming together


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A bit more progress, turbo downpipe radiators, tomorrow the intake manifold


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Coming right along! Hope to see it around sometime, have you thought about bringing it up for Wolfsgart if it's ready by then?

Oh how i have missed working on cars...... got the intake manifold on and started adding fluids in preparation for thinking about a first start


then as adding coolant it starts leaking out of 3 of the water manifold ports so back off it comes.... this intake manifold is a bit of a pain to get on and off, have to loosen all the bolts for the PS/PB and move out of the way to get the bottom bolt for #1 but i am getting better at it....

Still moving forward, a bunch of RTV helped fix the coolant manifold leaks, but then a small one showed up on the back of the head. Tightened up the hose clamp hopefully that will stop it. Also working on getting the exhaust back on, it's a tight fit and uses Porsche hangers


Also, if anyone reads this knows about VEMS
And general tuning, would I be OK to start the car on the existing tune with the change in compression ratio? Not driving it, just starting and possibly low revving for the initial warm up to re-torque the ARP headstuds


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audios wrote:Also, if anyone reads this knows about VEMS
And general tuning, would I be OK to start the car on the existing tune with the change in compression ratio? Not driving it, just starting and possibly low revving for the initial warm up to re-torque the ARP headstuds


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Yeah, as recommended before, you will be fine. I doubt the timing in <100kpa parts of the tune is even any different from a standard 20v map with just a point of compression difference.

Thanks Sean, I appreciate the input and I'm probably a bit nervous since I really don't want to blow it up after all the hard work


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