Team Stampie $50 Q45 Challenge build

Ovid_and_Flem said:

In reply to Stampie :

Yup....c4 will see ya'll pondering how to get that Qship to run faster than a clapped out barbie mobile.  Gonna take more than a deleted hydraulic pump this year <<<Stampie CLP.

What size Tshirt do you wear again?

Just thought about this. You're talking E36 M3 when your piston is obviously too small for the hole it's in. 

In reply to Stampie :

# Oh SNAP !

You know the kicker of it is that your Q is still likely faster than my Jag... Those few years made a huge difference in performance.

In reply to singleslammer :

lol I already looked up your factory 1/4 time. Not saying I was worried or anything 

If you lose to the c4 from Ovid_and_Flem I'm going to repossess the Q45 from you. 

And on the third day of trying to change the alternator in a Q45 we still didn't succeed. The Challenge Supreme Court gave us a pass on replacing the alternator but that doesn't mean that I'm not a cheap SoB. So a while back I picked up an Altima alternator at the junkyard on half off day no less. I still say I could have gotten it to work but I gave into Chris and we bought a referb one because of time constraints and the very very slight chance that it wouldn't work.

So new alternator in hand we proceeded to not install it because we got distracted by what shall be referred to forever as the great power steering debate of 2017. Plus the berking mosquitoes population has exploded from all the rain so I ran inside to drink whiskey like a good man should. 

Day four got taken doing other stuff. Back on it this evening. We got the AC compressor out with a lot of cussing. It's amazing how tight the stuff is packed around the engine. Lucky for us it appears that the compressor had been changed before because the really PITA bolt was barely hand tight. Chris has slowly warmed up to the idea of no power steering so we looked at how we can loop it without destroying our parts in case we decide to put it back in. I think I'll go junkyarding to cut a fitting off another rack so we can do that. Lil Stampie asked the odds of us making the Challenge and I put them at 75% now so we're looking better. 

One week after starting to replace the alternator we actually got it in. Since the last update we removed the power steering including all the lines intact. I love having the extra space down low for future use plus removing the AC gives us the same space on the other side of the engine.  The power steering rack is looped and tested. We also looped the hydraulic pump because we were worried it might have issues running dry. 

I worked a half day of OT this morning so we gathered at Chris's around noon. We were hungry but Josh had already eaten so he was tasked with removing the rest of the AC lines. We got back and he had made enough progress that that they came out intact also which Chris was very proud of.  Josh mentioned that a heater hose came apart but that he got it back together. My mistake for not investigating that more.

We get it all back together and Carol gets in to start it and nothing. No clicks or anything else indicating a willingness of the starter to turn. Berk. I did have a little fun with Chris when I put on my sad face and asked him if he knew where the starter was. He instantly remembered me telling him about the 1UZ starter location and cursed thinking it was our VK45 that I had told him about. Ok so fun over I crawled under the car and found the starter. We were thinking a wiring issue since we had removed so much but a hot wire didn't do anything either. I asked for a hammer and a good tap on the solenoid go her spinning.

It was all E36 M3s and giggles until the thermostat opened up and Chris and I simultaneously got the oh E36 M3 look on our faces as we heard the sound of coolant turning to steam. Seems that Josh didn't really get that hose back together. A PO had cut that heater hose and used a plastic coupler to splice it together. It was now broken.  So looking around that intact AC line was the perfect diameter to donate a few inches and be a new coupler. 

Picture time!!!

Here's Josh and his steam cloud. 

The next three pictures and narration of the hose fix are by Carol.  I think she nailed both.

Stampie getting snippy.

Stampie's actually working.

Never mind, it was an accident, he talked Chris into working instead.

Congrats on finally getting it in

Patrick said:

Congrats on finally getting it in

Not the first time it's taken a while to get it in. 

We haven't been totally slacking.

Sunday evening we pulled the seat and took it to our custom upholsterier aka Carol's mom. We took her the finest black pleather you can find on a roadside couch.

Monday was a day off because school night and Tuesday was help a friend move cause their closing got pushed back like a week and they said berk it and closed Tuesday.

A little over a year ago Chris and I were going to do coilovers for the $2016 Challenge. We pulled the wheel looked at what needed to be done and put the wheel back on. 

Tonight we decided we could pull weight out of the dash or be men and do coilovers. Goal was to get these parts from our $2015 Miata on the Q45.  

We borrowed a tool like this from a friend and it went great.

I love that tool.  

It went great until we pulled the nuts holding the top of the strut and I forgot that my leg was under the brake shield. I'll spare you the gory details but here's the aftermath.

Oh yeah ... we got the strut out.

Can't wait to see it riding low. I used the eBay coilovers that TB was giving away in the parking lot last year on mine. 

In reply to Andy Neuman :

You know what the spring rate is on yours?

In reply to Stampie :

No clue, I know the other ebay set I had were around 400 lbs

Short night today because it's a school night. We got the strut apart and mocked up everything. For an eBay kit intended for an Accord and then mounted on a Miata it fits an Infiniti Q45 pretty well. 

I'm going to the metal store tomorrow to see if we can get scrap to make a bottom seat, if not we'll make one from free bedrails. 

We did discover two items that were interesting. The driver's front spring was broken and the adjustable struts were adjusted soft. We ran the Challenge with both last year so that might account for the body roll in the autocross. Of course our stiffer springs will help that immensely. 

Why the hell did i never think to put the adjuster at the top? Thats genius.  And getting stolen for next years car.

Stampie said:

We took her the finest black pleather you can find on a roadside couch.

LMAO! I've got this image in my head of Michelle Pfeiffer cutting up a couch to make a cat suit. 

Dusterbd13 said:

Why the hell did i never think to put the adjuster at the top? Thats genius.  And getting stolen for next years car.

If you look you'll notice the Bilstein shocks on the ground.  I spent way too much time in 2015 grinding them so that I could remove the cap and slide the adjuster on the bottom. Tonight I looked Chris deep in his eyes and said berk if I'm grinding these down. I am concerned about support inside it but I may see if I can find some 2 inch OD tubing for that tomorrow.

Crackers said:

Stampie said:

We took her the finest black pleather you can find on a roadside couch.

LMAO! I've got this image in my head of Michelle Pfeiffer cutting up a couch to make a cat suit. 

And I thank you for the mental image I just got of Michelle Pfeiffer sans cat suit. 

In reply to Stampie :

Can you fax/email that to me?

In reply to Crackers :

I'm good but I don't think I'm that good. 

Got about an hour in this morning. I wanted to mess with some springs I got from Toyman when he did his last garage sale. We might go in a different direction but it depends on what I find at the metal store after lunch.  But I did make a redneck spring rate tester.

Yes for safety I need a cage. In this case I was the only human around and I was able to use the press frame to hide behind. 

You still meeting me tomorrow morning for some tire mounting shenanigans?

In reply to pimpm3 :

Yes sir but it's only going to be Lil Stampie and I. What kind of donuts do y'all want?  I'll hit the Donut Shoppe on the way. 

Ohhh good idea, you know I am obviously a sucker for a good donut.  Glazed is fine. I should be there at 9:00 Or so

In reply to pimpm3 :

10-4 

Yesterday evening I thought about some springs that Toyman sold me about a year ago. They were unknown spring rates but we've only got $4 in each spring. I figured if we forgo adjustability then we could do all four corners for ~$20 vs ~$50 for the eBay ones.  In testing this morning they're within 10% of our target spring rates so we're going to give it a go.

After school I said berk me and started grinding the cap that I told Chris I wouldn't grind off yesterday. Got one tab and went to move it and the whole thing fell off. Can I get a hell yeah?

Here's our first mock up for testing ride height.

I started putting the strut back in and the control arm nut was kicking my shiny. I was tired and Lil Stampie was hungry for pizza so we called it a night.