Front Ride Height

The front was too low, even with the coil-overs set to maximum ride height. The solution is to switch from 6" to 7" front springs.

Welded in Camber Plates

The car went back to Kearney Racing in Landover, MD to have the camber plates trimmed and moved back by about an inch in order to add more caster. They were then welded in place.

Rear Sway Bar

The 1-1/8" rear sway bar from Bildon mounts inside the rear beam axle, alongside the stock 21mm bar. It is installed by drilling four holes in the beam axle.

Height Adjustment

Coil-over set at maximum ride height.

Front Ride Height

View of front right control arm with coil-over set at maximum ride height.

Cooling

Here's the new radiator, the lightweight SPAL fan saves a ton of weight compared to the OEM dual fan assembly. The oil cooler is mounted to the radiator with some custom brackets.

Assembling Strut

Bolting up the new carriers, coil over struts, half shafts & brakes.

Hub Carriers

Brand new hub carriers, with bearings, hubs and wheels studs installed by Bildon.

Control Arms

Here are the new control arms, with spherical bearings (rear) and delrin bushing(front) preinstalled by Bildon. The bearings are Aurora part # COM-12T, 3/4" bore with PTFE liner. Bildon designed and supplied the bearing housings that press in to the control arms. The housings have a grove for a circlip that retains the bearing.

Subframe

The front suspension is starting to go back together. First thing is to reinstall the sub-frame that the control arms attach to, and upon which the engine mounts sit. Here's the subframe with the original control arms and transmission stay-rod attached.

Camber Plates

To install the Shine Racing camber plates, the raised areas on top of the strut towers have to be cut off with a reciprocating saw. Here are before and after pictures.

After some grinding, drilling, and a little hammering to flatten the top of the strut tower, the bolt holes were drilled using the camber plates as a template, and the fore-aft position of the plate was set to be exactly the same on both sides, to try to get the caster consistent. The camber plates will be bolted in using grade 8 1/4-20 bolts. We'll then make sure the caster is the same on both both sides before welding the plates to the strut towers for extra strength.

Crack Pipe

Here's the new plastic coolant pipe and thermostat housing. They're made of special German plastic that self destructs after about 8 years, so it's a good idea to replace them any chance you get.

Installing the Transmission

Installed New clutch master and slave cylinders. Here's the slave, ready to install on the transmission.


A good time to fill the transmission with Redline MT90

Rebuilt Transmission

The rebuilt transmission arrived from BSI. They installed a clutch-type limited slip differential, .424 ring & pinion (both sourced from Bildon), and replaced synchros, bearings etc. They turned it around in only a couple of weeks.

Oil Cooler Sandwich Plate

Bildon Motorsport provided a nice kit for installing an oil cooler - including the sandwich plate, hoses, fittings and the cooler itself. Here are some photos of the plate being installed on the stock oil cooler in place of its cover plate.

Removing the cover




Pull off the old cooler for a quick look and cleanup.




The stock cooler, cover and sandwich plate with threaded pipe that replaces it.




Final Assembly

KW Coilovers

This is a shine racing upper strut mount (camber plate), next to one of the front struts. The KW upper spring perch is too bulky to work with the strut mount without being modified, but Shine sent some of their own spring perches which we'll use instead.



















Here a photo of 2 of the KW coilovers the one on the left is for the rear, the other is for the front.

Installing race clutch

I Torqued the 12-point pressure plate points to spec. (14 ft-pounds), and used loctite on them. This was also a good time to clean up the TDC mark on the flywheel and highlight it with a white permanent marker.

Messy Engine Compartment

After pressure washing.





Here's the greasy mess in the engine compartment. I broke out the pressure washer shortly after this photo was taken.

Front bodywork removed

Took off grill, headlamps etc. Will be replacing radiator, installing Bildon oil cooler, Samco hoses.

Front End Work

Entire front suspension is to be replaced. Bildon are supplying new control arms with spherical bearing bushings preinstalled. Also they are rebuilding my bearing carriers with new wheel bearings, hubs and wheel studs. They also ordered KW 2-way racing coilovers for me.

Since the transmission has to come out to be rebuilt, I just supported the engine and dropped the entire front subframe with suspension attached. After that it was simple to remove the transmission.

Phase 1

The plan is to put in a racing suspension - coilovers etc., install a limited slip differential, 424 ring & pinion, racing brake pads, plus maintenance & safety gear, and race the car with the stock motor for a while. Later we'll build & swap in a 2.9 liter IT motor.

A core engine and 02A transmission were found on eBay. The transmission has been sent to BSI for rebuilding and installation of a clutch-type lsd and the 424 ring & pinion (both obtained from Bildon). Here's a photo of the core engine that we'll turn into a race motor.

Roll Cage Pictures

Roll cage custom fabricated by Kearney Racing of Fairmount Heights, MD (just outside Washington, D.C). Kearney do great work at reasonable prices and Linda, John and Dale are a pleasure to work with.