So this is the 89 Xr I picked up from Merkd ya. I haven't picked a name out for her yet, she hasn't quite earned that, so she is currently dubbed, bronze turd.
This is how the engine bay looked the night I got her home:
I don't have any current pics of the engine bay, but the only things left in it are the block and wiring. I'm figuring out how I want to go about tucking the wires, but my plan is to have a very clean engine bay, battery relocated to the trunk, etc. On the engine front, I'm currently porting and polishing my head and intake manifolds. The intake I'm going porting into a split runner setup, paring 1&4 together as well as 2&3. This helps to maintain more low end response as well as giving you better top end. Once I get a new metal blade, I'm going to cut the upper in half and remove the "webbing" between 1&4 (and 2&3) to give each pairing more "plenum."
The head is actually crack free and relatively clean. I'm about 90% done with cylinder #1 ports, bowls and chamber, just need to go back through and make a few touches with a smaller bit. I've learned a lot from past head porting and I really feel that I'm going to yield great results (it also really helps having some detailed picture of a stage 3 boport head, lol). I'm going to keep the stock valves, but the stock cam is toast. Undecided on a cam yet, but I'll probably end up with a bo 1.9.
I've got an e6 that I absolutely ported the snot out of a couple months back. I really don't know if anyone has ever ported one to this extent, I'll try and snap some quality pictures at some point. I compared it to the stock e6 I pulled off the car and it's night and day between the two.
The turbo is a .48 turbine a/r, which will actually be perfect for the street, though at some point I'll probably step up to a 50 trim and eventually a cossie turbine.
I am still in the process of figuring out what intercooler setup I'm going to go with. Since I'm going with a split runner manifold, I have to keep the upper pointed in the stock direction(though I might be able to do a 90, not sure yet). I'm thinking of an intercooler with the inlet/outlet on the same side to keep piping to a minimum, but we'll see about that.
For transmission, I have an 86 SVO t5 that I'm currently rebuilding, turns out it needs a mainshaft so that is going to delay me for a little bit. I already have a pyropete clutch setup, manual pedal assembly and most of the odds needed to convert to a manual trans. Just need to figure out what I'm going to do for the driveshaft. Rear end is an auto gear, I'll probably keep that and do the LSD route for now with plans to go with a supra rear down the road.
What I got the car, I started inspecting it for rust, turns out the pinch seams are in near perfect condition! There is one rust through at the spare tire floor pan, only reason I figured that out is because there is no gas tank on this car, lol. No worries there, however, Olson (merkdya) is going to hook me up. The suspension is shot, so a full mc2 setup is in store, cossie bars, coilovers and all. Not sure what I plan to do about wheels quite yet, but the wire mesh rims will have to go, they just can't handle a fat enough tire!
Finally, here is the interior:
Pretty much trashed, at some point it appears a family of mice or squirrels made it their home. But that's to be expected from a car that most likely hasn't run since 2000! I'm not sure what I want to do yet on the interior. I want to be able to let the kids ride in the car, so a back seat is a must which most likely rules out any racing seats. Most likely I'll swap over to a black interior if I can find one in good enough shape.
I definitely have bigger, future plans for the car. But for now, I just want to get her running and driving again. The bigger plans will have to wait until further down the road!
