Blue S2

See ive always thought about doing my engine just like that! I was even looking at the blue plug wires from Paragon like a week ago since spring is coming and i want to do some minor things i didnt do last year. My only problem is i concours my car, and my engine scores perfect or close to it. The only thing is my cam cover is starting to flake on one end. (fixing that too) Here is my dilema...

Do i stay original and keep it up for concours? I love the fact that i have a really good example of a car that is known for not being very well kept. I would even more love to be able and show my car off in 10 years in the same condition since i know our numbers arent getting any higher!
OR
Do i color match my cables and anodize and paint my head the same as that picture shown! Have fun with the car and enjoy it even more cause i love blue/white or silver/black as a color combination. And just deal with the fact that its not a factory perfect car anymore.

Ive spent time photoshopping my engine almost identical to that! Having you post pictures has really made me re-think this!

Another question for aribop though, All the pieces that are usually silver/aluminum (or are they steel...) - yours are gold. IE: headlight bar, tower faces, hood latch, etc... Did you paint those or are they originally gold??? Mine are all silver. Also, where did you get that cone intake, i think i might do that.

tjbreen

Are those gold parts painted or re-plated? I have been looking for a paint that lasts that would mimic the original gold plating. I like the blue.

aribop

Tony,
Thanks for all the praise.

Air filter set-up came from 9xauto.com.

All the pieces that you see painted a brass color were originally cadminum plated if I'm not mistaken. Over the years, the plating wears off leaving the silver of the metal to show. I had some of my pieces yellow zinc plated (all the bolts for the cam cover, intake mounting, FPR (which I believe is currently damaged because they didn't plug the holes before dipping), dampner, alternator fan, etc...)) I wanted to plate more of the pieces but could not due to size or being part of components not easily disassembled. So I tried to find paint that would closely resemble the original cadminum plating. The closest paint I found was a brass spray paint at Ace hardware. That left the pieces really bright so I then sprayed them with high heat clear engine paint which toned them down some and also gives them extra protection from the heat.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions, email me at aribop@netzero.net. Oh, sorry for stealing your engine color scheme but I like blue.

Campeck

i helped

tifosiman

Looks great Albert!

OK, now you have got the little wheels in my head churning, in reference to that filter kit.



I've been thinking about using a cone filter re-routed to sit in the vented 931 header panel (much better than buying one and just having it suck warm air from inside the engine bay). Since you installed this kit and also have a N/A (Campecks car).......................do you think that I can make it work? I know it will fit under the header panel, it's the plumbing that I am not certain about.

Any thoughts, anyone?

(for now I have the stock air-box with a K/N flat panel in it)

Blue S2

Ok, upon photoshopping parts of your engine into mine and/or repainting, i think its a blue overload in mine! Im really glad yours looks so good, because it gives me something much better to go by than a cheapo photoshop.

My conclusion for now- I really believe i will just do the head and cam cover. Silver head with blue letters like yours, and paint the cam cover silver as well. Then just go with the blue plug wires. I have been debating this for soo long. Seeing yours really helps push my decision!

How did you do the powder coating? Or did you send it somewhere?

aribop

Tony,

I had a local guy do the powder coating for me.

I was going to tell you earlier to keep your car as is, specially since you do concours events. Then you could buy another to play with. I have pictures of your engine saved in my computer.

The head is not painted on mine. I took a 2" cone shaped fine wire wheel and put it on the end of a drill and went to town. It polished the head right up.

What ever you decide I'm sure it will look great. Your car is awesome!

Bryan

Why did you leave the belt covers off?

Check for air leaks to correct the idle problem. I forgot to hook up the charcoal canister lines when I swapped the S2 motor into my 8-valve chassis and had a serious idle problem too until I found it.

Bryan

aribop

Jeremy,

9x also sells a kit for a n/a for $99 that I like.

I like the support that helps hold the MAF by tying it to the intake and the radiator shroud. The only thing I don't like is where the air filter ends up.

There are a ton of intake kits on Ebay for the Japanese cars. I was thinking of getting one of those that has the correct diameter pipe and using it to place the air filter right behind the driver side headlight.
I would probably try to fabricate a mounting bracket like the one 9x uses instead of paying their price though.

If you have any ideas, let me know.

aribop

Bryan,

I triple checked all of my connections and everything is hooked up and tight. At this point I suspect the FPR, we'll see.

As far as leaving the timing covers off, I like the look. Plus it will be a lot easier to keep an eye on the belts and for adjustment purposes.

Bryan

Don't forget the electrical connection to the charcoal canister venting stuff behind the driver's side strut mount. Not sure how far you had your engine bay apart, but the computer uses this connector to say when the charcoal canister vents. I think the valve is normally open without a signal, which would give you a big air leak even with all the lines hooked up.

It does look cool with exposed belts, but I would be concerned about various things from the environment getting in there. Namely moisture (wet belt having a hard time driving the waterpump)and/or any little piece of litter or pebble or twig or something that gets pinched between the t-belt and a cog. This will cause a lot of stress on the belt as the object gets pulled around between the belt and cog. The t-belt is designed to stretch a tad as the engine heats up, but a foreign object would cause about 10x the stretch that's designed to occur, if not more. This would be a death sentence for the t-belt.

Bryan

aribop

Thanks for the suggestion Bryan but all the canister stuff is hooked up. I tried unplugging one injector tonight as Clark's garage suggested to test the FPR but it didn't make a difference so now I'm stumped.

Campeck

Ah
but he forgot to mention that while he was at work I started it up myself and vualaa(sp?)! It idled!
but when i revved it and took my foot off it died.

WTF??

jp944

Did you check the throttle position sensor? Make sure it clicks when the throttle is closed, and that your throttle return spring is connected.

tifosiman

Maybe not related, but mine acted that way when I put way too much oil on my K&N filter that is in my stock airbox........