Build Thread 1978 Fairmont. I bet somebody back home’s thinkin’…I wonder why he don’t write..?

Welcome back! I told Steve i just thought you got your car running good and didn't have any updates. lol

It took me a while to learn that not everyone will think like me and that ok. I used to get in FB arguments that were really pointless, however on the forums for my hobbies i always tried to keep it on point since in the end we're all here for the same reason (our stuff doesn't run right ;))
 
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Well....Things have changed again with the car.

Having gotten back home from Panama City, and discovering a pretty significant amount of oil leaks, I committed to fixing them. That forced a removal of the oil pan.
Once I drained the oil, I found that it was black, thin, and smelled of gas. ( which is exactly like the oil I drained out of it before I put the new stuff in before driving to PC.) The worry wart in me knew that gas could only get into the oil one of two ways....either the tune was way too fat, or gas was leaking into the oil as a result of a leaking injector(s).

I put that on the list of things to worry about, and proceeded to build a contraption to hold the engine in place.
20210321_082009.jpg

Hey, what can I say?...it worked.

The oil pan had an obvious leak. It needed welding to fix. The rest of all of the oozes, and splooges were dripping from the perimeter of the pan rail...clearly, my RTV judgement was a little too conservative the last time. the turbo oil feed fitting in the block was stripped and leaking as well...all in all because of all of those leaks, the 500 mile round trip had turned the bottom of the car into a mess.

The factory K member is first gen Fox, and heavy as hell. That, coupled to the restricted access to things underneath forced my hand, and I decided to replace that heavy bitch.
20210406_082354.jpg

Farewell heavy assed factory 6 banger K member..hopefully your 70 pound ass will find some re-purpose at some point in the future.
I bought a QA-1 kit from Summit. It came with mounts set up for a 5.0, and I had engine mounts built to fit a 6 banger K member. Using it required that I rebuild the engine mounts. The thing itself fit perfectly in place of the old unit, and bolted right up. The LCA’s appeared to be the same length as my old arms as well,...so I committed to putting the whole thing back together.
With the oil pan freshly welded, and sufficiently sealed, I started it.

No leaky.

The next few days I spent messing with front end settings,...At first I thought I wouldn’t be able to get the Caster/Camber plates in far enough to get the tires vertical....but that got resolved.

The lasting take away however was that the tires were now too far forward, and a tight right turn was now hitting the fender mounted A2W intercooler..Not just hitting actually,...more like colliding with it. The problem is....I can’t move it any further forward..and right now,......I don’t know what I’m gonna do to fix it.
 
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Just getting caught up. Welcome back!

I like you’re 2x4 brace. I thought about that, but I took the easy way out and while at HF, picked up one of their braces (not that buying a few 2x4’s would have been that difficult...... oh well.... $80 bucks I’ll never see again.
 
The control arms can be fabricated. You act like you never welded nuffin' in your life. Would save you the headache of moving stuff that does fit. Those could also be sn95 arms. They'd push the wheels forward.

...or I guess you could have gone the cheaper way and reused your control arms. DuH

Either way...you could fabricate them to get the wheel exactly where you want it.
 
I guess welcome back! I thought you deleted the thread or got Covid or something? Kind of glad you can't edit your threads they are in Mike's original form. You have to remember to think it through just like your builds instead of redoing it twice or 5 times :shrug: !
 
“Welcome back Mike :welcome:

Good deal, nice to have you back. I'm tired of Cancel Culture.

Welcome back! I told Steve i just thought you got your car running good and didn't have any updates. lol

It took me a while to learn that not everyone will think like me and that ok. I used to get in FB arguments that were really pointless, however on the forums for my hobbies i always tried to keep it on point since in the end we're all here for the same reason (our stuff doesn't run right ;))

Glad you’re back, dick-head. Hoping maybe you can conjure up another old story from the good ol’ days.

I know it doesn’t carry much weight-but I am glad your back as well. Prick... :rlaugh:

:demon:

@$$$#%&!!!!! Now I have to watch my spelling and grammar,
Thanks NOOBZ!!!!!

Just getting caught up. Welcome back!

I like you’re 2x4 brace. I thought about that, but I took the easy way out and while at HF, picked up one of their braces (not that buying a few 2x4’s would have been that difficult...... oh well.... $80 bucks I’ll never see again.

Well, you been busy!!
I'm sure you have looked at other LCAs none set it back?

The control arms can be fabricated. You act like you never welded nuffin' in your life. Would save you the headache of moving stuff that does fit. Those could also be sn95 arms. They'd push the wheels forward.

...or I guess you could have gone the cheaper way and reused your control arms. DuH

Either way...you could fabricate them to get the wheel exactly where you want it.
So as not to appear inconsiderate, Thanks all for the welcome.

Cancel Culture is a political term....I’m advised to avoid political conversations.
The day I don’t have any updates, will be the day that I don’t have a car, or car related thoughts.
Im out of “good ole day stories”. These are the good ole days.
Your opinion is always welcome raggedy..even if it’s weightless.
Time to renew your subscription to spell check, and start watching re-runs of School house rock.
I had the 2x4’s..they were free. By far, the easy way out.
There are other LCA’s that solve the problem...some are adjustable, and others are configured to set the mount point further back. Despite that, I ain’t changing none of that..In my skewed sense of logic, it made more sense to cut the end off the intercooler, and re-locate the water inlet fitting away from the interference, then either weld, or ( more likely) glue the end back on.

And that is where we are tonight.
 
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So as not to appear inconsiderate, Thanks all for the welcome.

Cancel Culture is a political term....I’m advised to avoid political conversations.
The day I don’t have any updates, will be the day that I don’t have a car, or car related thoughts.
Im out of “good ole day stories”. These are the good ole days.
Your opinion is always welcome raggedy..even if it’s weightless.
Time to renew your subscription to spell check, and start watching re-runs of School house rock.
I had the 2x4’s..they were free. By far, the easy way out.
There are other LCA’s that solve the problem...some are adjustable, and others are configured to set the mount point further back. Despite that, I ain’t changing none of that..In my skewed sense of logic, it made more sense to cut the end off the intercooler, and re-locate the water inlet fitting away from the interference, then either weld, or ( more likely) glue the end back on.

And that is where we are tonight.
So as not to appear inconsiderate, Thanks all for the welcome.

Cancel Culture is a political term....I’m advised to avoid political conversations.
The day I don’t have any updates, will be the day that I don’t have a car, or car related thoughts.
Im out of “good ole day stories”. These are the good ole days.
Your opinion is always welcome raggedy..even if it’s weightless.
Time to renew your subscription to spell check, and start watching re-runs of School house rock.
I had the 2x4’s..they were free. By far, the easy way out.
There are other LCA’s that solve the problem...some are adjustable, and others are configured to set the mount point further back. Despite that, I ain’t changing none of that..In my skewed sense of logic, it made more sense to cut the end off the intercooler, and re-locate the water inlet fitting away from the interference, then either weld, or ( more likely) glue the end back on.

And that is where we are tonight.
Not a bad party we had last night
 
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Welcome back Mike! Was wondering where your thread disappeared to, then found that YOU had disappeared, then.... :eek:

And it's not an all-bad thing to try to stay away from political topics. They generally only tend to piss people off. I'm not sure why some people seem to want to do that, but I guess they can't get their egos stroked enough elsewhere or they just want to be confrontational. The only echo chamber anyone should really find here should be about cars and related content. :shrug: Of course, having said that, I started a BSing thread a while back that is just that - about BSing and whatever floats your boat. Well, except political :poo:.....
 
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For everything that changes, that much more stays the same.​

Even if I can stay positive, avoid controversial subject matter, and leave the surge of come and go noobs alone that come here and immediately want their bottles because they are too young to read,......

I still go about my day here just fckin stuff up.

You‘d think after all of the times I had to do sht over, I’d learn to think things through. After deciding to cut the end off of the intercooler, and relocate the hole for the water fitting to the inside nearer the fender well, It might have been smart to be sure which side was in, and which side was out...

Nope,...not me...I just drilled a big assed hole, ran a 1/2” pipe tap through it then set in in place on the back of the intercooler.

It was wrong. :fuss:I drilled it on the outside corner. And now I gotta plug it, and redo it on the other side. ( all past tense as of this writing though)

I went on a phone call campaign this morning, soliciting advice from experts..I called the turbo supplier, I wrote the intercooler supplier, I called Snow Cooler, all asking whether or not they thought I could completely bail on the A2W intercooler, and just run straight water/meth as my sole source for enrichment, and inter cooling.The advice I got back was unanimous.

All three told me it was a bad idea.

So that forced me back into fix the intercooler, and hope:

1. That after all of this, the tire clears.
2. My choice to use JB weld, instead of Heli-Arc was the right one
3. That it don’t freakin leak, or even worse, completely fail.

It really doesn’t matter at this juncture..I can’t go back.
20210407_121233.jpg

The red plug was stupid is as stupid does, the middle plug was where it used to be, and the “I hope to God that it fits with the angle I’ve got it turned to” fitting is where I hope it’ll work. You can see the shiny part where the old tire orientation used to touch it on a hard right turn,...hopefully contact with the tire is a thing of the past. This is 6 hr JB, fully cured at 15 hrs, and rated to 500*f, and 5120 psi. All well within the confines of what it’ll ever get exposed to considering it only should see water recirculating that never has no pressure, and may get to 150 degrees..My only concern would be a leak between the core, and the air charge that’s blowing into it at 23 psi.

The main thing here is that like the sht I paint,......I gotta leave the damn thing alone till it’s dry.

And here I was...in the middle of an 80 degree day, with almost zero that I could do.

I could, (and probably will) try to straighten up the disaster garage.
( I’ll just fck it up the very next time I do something,...so there’s a strong argument against even trying)

The passenger side mirror for those paying attention before I was sent to Bannville, was missing and irreplaceable. It seems that the mirror on the 78 version was some Oompah-Loompah sized version that got made longer on all other subsequent models. I could’ve probably made a template and had some glass company make me one, or I could make a template, and cut out my own out of a .060” piece of mirrored plexiglas.

Guess which way I went
20210407_121605.jpg


I don’t know if any of these undercarriage pics show my new and improved K member, but I’ll stick em up here nonetheless.
20210407_121430.jpg

The one is does show though is a lack of drippage, from the “ I didn’t pay no $800.00 for a rear sump 2 jy Supra oil pan”.
finally..

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Meh...You can’t see nothing that you haven’t seen before..
 
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JB weld is awesome when applied right, but I hope you can get the part out easily to TIG once you are sure stuff is where it needs to be. You have had enough boost leak issues.
At least you are getting something done on your ride.
 
Glad to see you back honey and enjoying the car buddy . Does qa1 offer a reverse offset arm like others do to correct the forward issue ?
 
I have gotten in trouble a lot for running my dam opinionated mouth. Even got demoted for it. My fuse is a bit longer as I get older, but not much. It takes a lot to admit when you’re wrong, but it takes even more to admit it to a peer group in an open forum. I’m happy you’re back, even if I mostly lurk. I swear the sht you type is my inner dialogue to a “T” at times. Thanks for the update. Carry on sir.
 
This? This is awesome. Custom-built to work with your car and powertrain with no BS. Good yob.

Don't believe me? Walk into the shop at your BMW dealership and see the odd contraption we have to work with (which is frequently unwieldly, and requires various odds and ends to make work with various engines). Your homebuilt solution is elegant in comparison.
I’ve seen those contraptions in my own dealership. Seems like a prerequisite at a BMW dealership when dropping the engine out of the car is required for almost everything that car requires beyond changing the oil.
As for me, I’ll keep that wooden bridge, along with the special bracket to hold the trans on an engine stand, and the one that secures it to the floor jack when/if it ever needs to come back out.
 
Glad to see you back honey and enjoying the car buddy . Does qa1 offer a reverse offset arm like others do to correct the forward issue ?
They make a “ race arm” with adjustable heim ends. With those, i’d be able to make one leg of the A arm longer than the other, effectively moving the ball joint forward or backwards. If this mod to the intercooler doesn’t give me enough room, I’ll have to put those on instead.
 
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For those that don’t know where it lives, this is where the A2W intercooler calls home.
P5310994_zpscda3b8b3.jpg

This pic is from the first go around back when there was an Aussie headed Maverick engine sitting on the other side of the fender well. Even as close as this looks back then, the tire got past that fitting.
Since this pic, that intercooler was sold, I converted the engine back to N/A,..quickly hated that, and returned it back to turbo and re-purchased the same style intercooler. That engine expired, and the 2 j went in its place. All the while, in one form or another, that intercooler has worked fine, and fit where it was built to go.
Now, the epoxy is dry,...that fitting is moved inward and up, and i potentially gain almost an 1-1/2” in clearance.
as long as that fitting doesn’t hit the fender well.
 
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