jdogg
Reader
3/3/23 1:42 p.m.
In reply to infinitenexus :
Stock brakes are hot garbage. Easily fixable with Mazda6 front rotors and calipers or you can ball like I did and use the Corksport 13" kit. There's an upgraded slotted and drilled kit on ebay and in my early track days on this car I put EBC Yellowstuff in them and they were the cat's meow on the Dragon. They're probably posted somewhere in this thread.
Also 626 rears are an upgrade.
Well, I guess for some clarification, my memory was that the stock brakes were very good for about 2 uses and then they faded, since they were sized to fit within a 14" rim. I love seeing all the upgrades you've got. Really makes me want another.
jdogg
Reader
4/13/23 12:18 a.m.
Update: I have the engine now. In what turned out to me the most sketchy drive I have ever done, I drove the full tractor and trailer into a tight residential neighborhood in the Bay Area, California barely rated for a UPS truck and showed right up to the guys house and we lifted it onto the catwalk with a little brute force and some genius stacking of wood to save our backs. According to the girlfriend the local police and state CHiPs were making passes on my truck every so often so the neighbors probably called, but too bad, their food doesn't walk itself to the supermarket. Don't like trucks, stop buying stuff.
I posted the specs earlier in this thread. The big advantage of that intake manifold, which was made by CZT in 2005 is that it will allow me to run the air-to-water intercooler over the rear cylinder head should I choose to do that.
We then realized the trailer corner was going to bag the box when I turn the truck so we had to make some modifications.
This is the CZT manifold. These manifolds dramatically improve top end power at the expense of low end torque, but that doesn't matter since this is going to be a top end car anyway. i could care less what happens below 4000rpm. It uses 2JZ-GTE injectors which these are stock 440's I will be changing them out for high-Z impedance 1200cc Bosch 2JZ injectors. it is very likely I will be cutting the end of that manifold off for the air-to-water setup.
The A2W setup will utilize two sets of large barrel coolers on opposite sides of the engine which will be heat shielded and the tank will have provisions for ice bags for Bonneville. A lot of the drivers use A2W and have the top of the reservoir quick-removable to dump bags of ice in to get their intake temps very low for their runs. most drivers see IATs under 40*F even at the big end. The inspiration for the A2W setup comes from the KJ-ZEM which has its A2A intercoolers on opposite sides of the engine.
This box also comes with adjustable cam gears, valve covers modified with AN fittings for oil scavenging and catch can, it comes with a set of new spark plugs ad a whole bunch of gaskets, it has an adjustable FPR of some sort and it has a virgin oil pan. There's some other things I'm likely forgetting.
This engine will be sent to VA to a friend who specializes in Probes and we will both be handling the swap.
jdogg
Reader
5/1/23 9:26 p.m.
jdogg
Reader
5/11/23 4:58 p.m.
As expected, I haven't even put a wrench on this thing yet and already the fun has started.
These valve covers were modified with 10AN fittings to accomodate a catch can. The nipple broke off of one in shipping, which having hauled UPS and FedEx freight, I'm sure these were yeeted into the back of the trailer like everything else. My powdercoat guy is going to fix up both flanges and plug up the old PCV system holes that were cut out on both covers. They will be a nice deep red. One thing we noticed, all of the baffles are removed on the inside of the valve covers, is this bad? I'm sure there was a reason for this.
Better here than on the salt.
Will have some more updates soon, a bunch of "overnight parts from Japan" are showing up today in the mail.
jdogg
Reader
5/24/23 10:10 a.m.
It has begun. This will be a very active thread over the next couple of weeks. We are doing the engine swap to the built motor, rust repair, braces, nitrous install, and this time I have hired some help. The man in the pictures is Travis Williams. He is the Mr. Miyagi of Probe/MX6. This is like having Magnus Walker work on your Porsche. People from all over the country pay him to work on their cars. Both of us are doing this job so I get a small discount, but I only really need him for the swap part, most of the other stuff I can do and if not I can ask him, the guy knows his stuff. Anyway, pictures of shiny parts.
Engine out. This is a stock-ish KLZE with a few small modifications. I have debated selling it but likely I will keep it and build this one as a spare engine for Bonneville, or leave it N/A to run the F/PRO Production class with another Probe. The days of just going on ebay or the Internet and buying a full KL31 swap are over so these have gotten fairly rare. This is a full KL31 engine.
Timing setup on. Gates RPM belt, adjustable cam gears, for a future MS3 Pro cam sensor setup, Boundary KLDE Stage 2 oil pump rated for 13,000 RPM.
Very rare CZT manifold, with Bosch 1JZ-GTE 550cc High-Z injectors. This may or may not go on the car, we will be breaking it with the stock KLZE manifold. The manifold uses a 75mm Mustang throttle body.
I am a little concerned with the height of that front fuel rail it may not clear the hood with the phenolic spacers, we will see.
Wasted spark ignition installed. This uses a Bosch coil from a Ferrari F50, Saab 9000 or in this particular case, Opel Vectra 2.5 V6, though it will be swapped to the Ferrari unit at a later date for the sake of wire routing.
jdogg
Reader
5/24/23 12:34 p.m.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Should be running today, we have the new gearbox on.
jdogg
Reader
5/25/23 5:27 p.m.
jdogg
Reader
5/26/23 7:35 a.m.
Today and for the next couple of days I am by myself, Travis was needed for the swap which, to put this in perspective, the last time I did one of these it was a week and a half. This motor had nothing on it so we had to track stuff down to make it work, stuff like the windage tray and various brackets. We had the engine out in 1hr 14m and the new one in with all the aftermarket stuff in about the same time, with time in between to build the new one.
Today this gets the interior treatment. I have a set of braces and roll bars to install. These will make me legal for the 150 class at Bonneville which is the first step toward the SCTA/BNI equivalent of an A License. It will also get an oil change to 5w-20 Liqui Moly and we are also giving it ZDDP additive. If that all goes well, I'll move to the N2O installation, I should be able to do all of that today. Gotta have gap insurance!
jdogg
Reader
5/26/23 11:03 p.m.
Oil change done, we used 5w-40 LiquiMoly and the ZDDP additive. Probably not the greatest idea, on a cold start I get 80 PSI but once its warmed up I have 35 at idle and 50 max. 5w-20 will fix that, but there won't be any hard racing or action on this oil as I'm still early in the break in period.
It still has trouble idling, which may be attributed to its sky-high compression. These pistons are at least 12:1 I saw nothing in the build sheet but they protrude above the deck pretty well. I had an issue with the wideband and it turned out to be software, fixed that. I installed this trick CF radiator shroud, soldered some ends on the power cable for the inverter that runs the tuning laptop, a Dell D830 with a serial port. I installed the -10AN catch can setup and paid a visit to Kowalsky Racing in Rustburg for some AN fittings, the same one that does all the stuff for Street Outlaws up here. They thought it was cool as hell.
I sorted the tune and removed the rear seats as well as the entire rear interior down to almost bare metal. Tomorrow we anchor the battery tray, install the NOS nitrous bottle, install the roll bar and the rear stabilizer, we fix a kink in my GReddy SP2 and after that, maybe CZT manifold? Sunday is a free day so we will see.
jdogg
Reader
5/28/23 12:58 a.m.
Today, got the oil leak figured out. No teflon tape on an NPT fitting, my bad. Returned factory functionality to the oil pressure sending unit in the dash. Sorted the idle, not perfect but its getting there. Installed 4-point roll bar. Mounted and installed battery and NOS nitrous bottle.
jdogg
Reader
6/6/23 2:51 p.m.
Some updates, the car did All Ford Nationals and got baptized by a hailstorm lmao. We stayed around in Gettysburg and did all the Civil War stuff, well a good portion of it. Go see America in a racecar.
Why? Because RACECAR. Some assembly required.
Disregard the constabulary.
Some work on the Megasquirt laptop, a motherboard upgrade. Improved graphics, for the 3D tune portion, also upgraded cooling and upgraded batteries for 14h of battery life. I spent 4 days off and on tuning this car on one charge and from 40 degrees to 95 degrees ambient temp, I am thoroughly impressed.
AFN 2023, biggest Probe turnout in a decade! We filled in and had cars parked behind the main line
Every car meet has that one guy.
For a brief moment in time, my Probe is faster than a Saleen S7, only because apparently his top end is gacked and is on mega backorder. This car does not run but man it looks cool.
Found some bits and pieces for my nitrous kit, but the big score of the day was this external Holley fuel pump rated for 530LpH which is more than enough juice for my fuel system.
Now the really fun part, go see America in a racecar!
Gettysburg National Battlefield, we spent most of my first day on the road here.
North Carolina monument. The gentleman on the bottom pointing is pointing at the site of the Gettysburg Address, where the war ended.
Virginia Monument, we stopped at all of them but this one is special because I am directly related to General Lee sitting on top of the horse which I have been told that is where my beard comes from. If you ever have thought about doing this, do it. PLEASE DO IT. Start on the Confederate side which is where all the CSA monuments are, and then finish on the Union side. They have an auto tour that does it this way it's super cool. Loads of history here. You need a weekend to do this minimum but we did what we could in 5 hours. We also did the Gettysburg Address site, and several of the Union monuments over on that side. They have guides at most of the Union and a few of the CSA monuments that explain everything and all the history behind it and what happened.
Also if you get the chance, before coming up here do Melrose Caverns, both sides occupied the cave during the war and generals and soldiers carved their names in the rocks. Also do the Virginia Military Institute. See America in a racecar! We also did Endless Caverns which we had the whole tour to ourselves.
there's always that one guy. i wonder if the plate will get him anything new to eat?
Awesome trip! Glad to see the car getting some miles
jdogg
Reader
6/7/23 10:25 p.m.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
I think he may have been the Thot Patrol Crown Vic we saw at the meet lmao
jdogg
Reader
6/7/23 10:32 p.m.
In reply to Shavarsh :
The trip was more of a break in long term for the engine. It's had a mandatory 20 min heat cycle + 50 miles mineral + 500 miles sustained RPM and on top of that, 1500 additional miles sustained high RPM. Almost every single built Mazda KL in our community has spun a rod bearing this far into the build and my theory is they were all broken in under boost without proper heat cycles and were not given proper break ins. This car cost me 400 bucks in fluids to break it in right and it appears my theory holds true.
This has also led me to some design changes, the oil cooler will be redesigned with a liquid to oil cooler setup that runs on the cold side of the engine coolant and some other things to boost oil pressure. There's 3 quarts of capacity outside of the engine and I need to get that down to get the oil pressure up.
The problem im having is, as it heats up the oil pressure drops to 40psi cruising and 20 idle, but on cold start its like 90 and 70. I think if I can get the temp down and get the capacity down to like 6qt. it will be fine. My oil temps with the air cooler are now up to 235 at 80mph and those should be the peak load temperatures. When I did a high speed pass the oil struggled to get to 230 at over 140mph. The engine is high compression which means it runs hotter, so alongside a radiator upgrade, this will help lower engine and oil temps.
I love that car. I swear, I need to get another one someday.
jdogg
Reader
6/8/23 11:07 p.m.
In reply to infinitenexus :
There's a few for sale right now out there.
jdogg
Reader
9/17/24 10:11 p.m.
It's been a while, don't worry, I haven't forgot you guys.
Life happens, my business is closing down so I can haul local and have more time, and we're in the middle of buying a house so I can finish this, but we did Bonneville again this year and the car is now registered with SCTA as car 6287 and it has chassis number 5424, we got our logbook and all the SCTA legal stuff done.
As for the car itself, CZT manifold is going on in a month and we're going to iron out some long-standing teething issues with the car that had to take a back seat to other more important life events and things, but we're back in the saddle and should have a good update in a month.
Plan is, CZT install, I'm dropping the GReddy for an open dump, wideband O2 replacement, oil change and some wiring stuff. The car has been driven and I've put almost 10k on the build so far.
Glad to hear the car is working!
I enjoy living vicariously through your thread.
Tour in a race car!!!