I bought a Birkin

A few weeks back I randomly showed my wife a DM car for sale locally.  She liked the look and told me if I actually sold the Mustang, I could buy it.  At this point I actually worked on selling the car and marketing it other than on here and sold it in a day.

I went and looked at the car, and we worked a deal on it. 

Today, we met the old owner, and drove it on some very old Hoosiers at the HouSCCA Autox.  As expected, the tires are old, and with the 60some-odd degree weather, there was no chance of real grip.  BUT, other than the one spin *my wife* and my first run resulting in a lack of slowing and plowing the field its fun!

Some takeaways:

It has been a long time since I have driven a car that is punishing to get the most out of it.

A foam pad on plywood functions as a seat, but leaning far enough over that you can rest your head on the rollbar may be making the punishment that much worse.

The wife now realizes that this may be a bit past what she thought it was when she signed up for it *she has never driven on full slicks before*

A size 12 in race shoes is about as big as you can run in the pedal box.

In saying the part about the seat, yes, that is the first order of business.  Plan is the make an expanding foam/creofoam seat for the thing so I can hopefully be held up and not flop around. 

Nice!!

And I see a Quaife sticker!

Yes sir,

2.0 Zetec with a T9

Custom Cams and Adjustable cam gears

ITB's with HUGE injectors *like 42# or something?*

Quiafe diff in the rear of some toyota axle on a 4 link setup

Plywood on the floor for a seat *really a 15.5" Kirkey, but I dont fit in there*

SDS EFI

Koni monotubes

So, it looks like we will finally be able to get this in its home for sure now.  The car has been living under the carport area for almost a month awaiting a garage sale.  Last weekend they finally rescheduled this as the original date was fraught with rain and storms.  We shut down at 1030, loaded the rest up, and took it to donate.  I can finally mostly walk around the garage.

This will start a dual work process on the car now.  First, Daddy needs to be able to fit in a seat in here.  Second, we are going to try to get this registered and such.

To do the registration, I need lights and a horn.  Also, a windsheild wiper even without the windsheild.  Thanks Texas!
So to get a jump start, I got these....

or close to them at least.  I also got this setup with LED turn signals and such.....

Hopefully with any luck this evening Ill get a chance to clean a spot and get the car inside, then pull the tonneau and see about a seat bottom.  Best plan is probably still expanding foam seats for the car.  Anyone have any real world experience?

Cool! 

I know that my friend just tried to use the expanding foam seat, and after getting everything "set" he ended up breaking the foam when working on something else (seat belts?) a few days later.  He ended up pulling out in several pieces and having to go back to the fiberglass seat his came with. (his is a formula continental/classic(?) formula continental)

Thinkkker said:

ITB's with HUGE injectors *like 42# or something?*

What is it running for engine management? Sequential injection needs a bigger injector than semi-sequential, but 42# does sound pretty hearty. I'd be interested to see what duty cycle they're running at. Bet it's rarely over 30%

In reply to Mezzanine :

Simply Digital System

http://www.sdsefi.com/

I need to get the car setup for a tune session and see.  I doubt they are breaking a sweat though.

In reply to Thinkkker :

Weird. SDS seems like such a strange choice for engine management - I realize you didn't choose it. Just seems like a pretty dated system for the money.

Give a link and review of the headlights. Those may be a solution for me. 

Mezzanine said:

Thinkkker said:

ITB's with HUGE injectors *like 42# or something?*

What is it running for engine management? Sequential injection needs a bigger injector than semi-sequential, but 42# does sound pretty hearty. I'd be interested to see what duty cycle they're running at. Bet it's rarely over 30%

Depends on the base fuel pressure used.

Also, sometimes injectors are sized due to their availability or for future potential upgrades (like adding boost, etc.).  I can say from experience that ITBs require more fuel than you originally calculate just due to the amount of air they can flow.  Its also why they tend to be difficult to tune, especially Acceleration Enrichment and at low throttle opening as they can have a very on/off response.  A non-linear throttle cam is highly recommended (if not full TBW if your ECU supports it) with perhaps the ability to run a blended mode of Speed Density and Alpha-N.

I agree that SDS is an interesting choice (often those are driven by people's comfort zone and available support).  I suspect some driveability issues on course could be sorted with another EFI ECU that provides a blended mode (basically runs speed density at idle and small throttle openings, Alpha-N at larger throttle openings and blends the two).

There was a great website that had a good bit of info on configurring MegaSquirt with ITB's, which could apply to other systems, but it appears to be long gone:

http://77e21.info/mstuning.htm and there doesn't appear to be an archive of it online.  I'll keep looking.

Also would be interested in the headlamp/switch option you chose. 

That car looks great, congrats. Coming to Nationals?

I clicked in here expecting to see this:

but once I re-read the title, and saw your car, I'm not disappointed.

Nice ride.

Ill let everyone in on the lights when I get more, but from just seeing them, they seem pretty ok.

Ill be at Nationals, though, we have another set of tires to kill on the Vette.  So, this year we will finish in AS.  I will try to get the car ready to be run come October and go from there.

The SDS, yes, I remember when it first came on the market.  It only allows for changes every 500 rpm.  I may change it out later, but for now, I think it will stay.  We will see how the engine tunes as it sits and if I want to go with a 1.4 turbo something in there or something too. 

Here are the lights I got

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-250W-Motorcycle-CREE-U5-LED-Headlight-Fog-Driving-Lamp-Spot-Light-For-BMW-US/282320028060?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160727114228%26meid%3D68c216471f2045ba8e14cfb72465d600%26pid%3D100290%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D282320028060%26itm%3D282320028060&_trksid=p2060778.c100290.m3507

And the switch setup

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Handlebar-thumb-switch-LED-turn-signal-horn-kit-for-ATV-Scooter-quad-4wheeler/302075715168?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2648

This is the tails I bought

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3pcs-set-Car-Truck-20-LED-Signal-Brake-Stop-Lamps-With-License-Plate-Light-New/202050079913?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Mezzanine said:

In reply to Thinkkker :

Weird. SDS seems like such a strange choice for engine management - I realize you didn't choose it. Just seems like a pretty dated system for the money.

Depends on when it was made.  Quite a while ago, the SDS system was a pretty decent choice, it was one on my radar to try for a low price.  So if this car was put together in that era, it's not that strange of a choice.  

Anymore, there are far better choices- I think a MicroSquirt would be a great replacement, even without true SEFI. But it's like me and an old Electromotive TECII system I have- it works, and is cheaper than getting a new one.  If I ever get around using it.

I still think you should have bought a 500 hp minivan, but whatever, I guess this is cool. 

What are your passenger seat plans? I know I don't have the skill to beg a co-drive, but I have both the tone and volume to scream like a girl from the right seat if one is there.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Battery is there currently, it will be moved and we may just do a board/foam on that side for extra hillarity of you flailing around.  Also, I want to scare my children, so thats a pretty big driver for doing that even though they are a couple years from being able to ride at SCCA events.

Also, the wife is still thinking another vehicle....though at the moment she is looking at even larger van things from Mercedes as the option.

I bet the R63 would tow the Birkin to Nationals quite comfortably. 

Ian F said:

I bet the R63 would tow the Birkin to Nationals quite comfortably. 

This is where I suck as a salesman. Thinkkker asks me "can it tow" and I respond "what does the word 'can' really mean in this context?"

Pretty sure his wife is way too smart to get suckered into this and Thinkkker is way to smart to take me up on the offer to take it home for a week and see how they like it. 

Anyway, back to the Birkin! I've seen it run, it's cool. 

Also, a windsheild wiper even without the windsheild. Thanks Texas!

Arkansas as well. Though we don't have vehicle inspections any more, so unless some random cop happened to be reading the Vehicle Code in the throne room, not a problem...

So, Ill add here.  It looks like the timing belt may be an issue at the moment.  Plan to drop the engine tomorrow night and see how bad.  Then, we will go from there.

So, how hard would it be to fit an M122 supercharger to work with a 2.0 4 cylinder........

So I pulled the intake and was greeted with this on #3.  Not a good sign at all.  

The timing belt belt looked loose, but as we were pulling parts we cut the thing for expediency.  Belt was in good shape.  

After some more bolt removal, we pull the head up.

Piston looks to be gone.  Best I can tell the ring left and then the piston committed suicide from the rejection it felt from the ring.

Bad thing, the head took a bit of a beating.  It’s fixable, but I just don’t know the cost to do it.

So, now the fun of a rebuild.....  

Ouch.  That looks like an odd failure.