Ok so I just finished this and realized that a lot of it just sounds like a big sob story. I do not intend for this to be a BAWW thread and do not expect any of your sympathy. I also recognize that I am in many ways a whole lot more fortunate than many members on this forum and I do in fact enjoy my life. That said if you want to skip the long sob story skip past the line break. Also I am putting both my s12's in this one thread because of the slow progress and the fact that I just might sell the red car.
Alright well here is a picture of my white car 5 years ago.
I bought it from an old man who bought it at an insurance auction. It was a theft recovery but only had 33,000 miles on it. The guy built hot rods and restored classic cars in a shop in his back yard. He did repaint some of the car and did a superb job of matching the original paint. The car was never damaged and no body work was done.
So when I bought the car it ran a little rough. It had old, cheap quality plugs and wires so i figured it just needed a tune up. I did a tune up on the car. It ran a little better but never great. I just figured it was because it was a pos CA20E and auto trans, so i just drove it. I didn't find out till a long time later what the problem really was.
Then I graduated high school when I was 17. You see my Dad had a big blob of arteries in his brain called an AVM and there was a very high chance of him dying. I took extra courses to graduate early to ensure he saw me graduate. Fortunately he survived. As a graduation present my parents had my cars windows tinted. It's very high quality professional tint. Also as a graduation present my parents took my college fund and bought my sister a condo, that she made about 6 payments on before letting go. Shit's never been the same between me and my family since. I mean what the fuck did I do wrong, besides mostly staying out of trouble, not being a money drain, and graduating a year early with an honors diploma.
So I drove the car a little longer. The following Christmas my gf bought me my Z. My dad was also no longer able to drive, so he let me drive his Altima as long as I took him to the grocery store whenever he wanted. So I decided to pull the CA20 and prepare the S12 for a swap. At the time I was thinking VG30E because of all the Z31 parts I had at my disposal from my parts car. I sold my trumpet for $800 to fund the few repairs the Z needed. However my mother decided to steal this money out of my wallet. She admitted it and wouldn't give it back. She was pissed that I was using her garage to work on my cars. But, you see, in the 5 years before that she never used the garage. It just had boxes thrown about everywhere that I organized for her and put neatly on shelves on the side of the garage. She only wanted to use the garage now that she saw it was useful. This was a stupid move on her part because now the cars sat even longer because I didn't have the money to fix them. It also meant that my gf and I who had been working on my cars everyday, having no money but all the time in the world ended up just having sex everyday.
Which turned into "OH SHIT GIRLFRIEND IS PREGNANT". Which developed into "OH FUCK NEED JOB". So I sold off some of the parts I had from my 88t Z31 parts car in order to fund my job search. I applied for an apprenticeship with the local IBEW. That took time for a response so I went to work as a car salesman at a local Chrysler dealership. I LOLed at the crappy chrysler cars everyday and snuck out an srt8 to do burnout and eat taco bell in here and there :devilsidesmile:. I actual did well selling the cars but never the less the dealership screwed me on the money, so I quit. I then went to work at Costco pushing carts. The managers were dicks, but the job payed alright and was simple so I stuck around a while. Then I got a chance to work as a pre-apprentice with the IBEW. I was very close to recieving benefits at Costco so I decided to work both jobs. It was fucking tiring as hell. Wake up at 5 work 6am to 230pm construction then 330pm to 930pm at Costco. But then the douchebag manager at costco decided to fire me without reason on the 89th day of my 90 day probabtionary period. So aside from the money I had been doing all of that for nothing and my daughter was born without health insurance.
So I kept working with the IBEW. I couldn't keep driving my dad's car so much so went and bought me a new Mustang GT. But then, I was not accepted into the Inside Wireman program (Actual Electrician). I was majorly stressing after this I mean what the fuck would I do and the economy was already showing signs of tanking. Then I had an interview for the Telecommunications Istaller Technician program (low voltage, phone, data, etc.) I nailed the interview and was accepted. Then the housing market collapsed, so I though sweet I can afford a house now. 
My parents did help me with the down payment, which eased some of the tension between us. However it was not nearly as much as the amount in the college fund. I settled on a house with a one car garage and no side yard because my gf loved the house so much. This was flat out fucking retarded of me. She didn't move in till 2 weeks ago, nearly 3 years after the fact.
So I just kept working and doing my thing for a while(5 months, now late november 2009). Started getting comfortable so I decided to start working on the s12 again. Bought an s13 with ka24e in Kingman, AZ for $250. Towed it home on the weekend. Went to work on Monday and was laid off. The IBEW has a book system so I signed the books at number 7. I figured no big deal I'll be back to work in a month. Boy was I wrong!
During this time of unemployment I bought a truck to help with the household repairs. It was a running 73 Mazda B1600 for $300. It was beat up but still a sweet little truck and perfect for the short trips I needed. I started fixing it up just out of boredom. Then one night I let one of my room mates borrow it. He decided to ignore the steam pouring out from under the hood when a heater hose developed a leak and kept driving it till it blew a head gasket. This added the B1600 to the list of slow and not so steady. Eventually I just turned it into a truck bed trailer.
Fast forward 11 months later still haven't gotten a job. Due to lack of funds nothing was accomplished on the S12. Then I was given the opportunity to change programs to the Inside Wireman program. This put me back to work but also meant 5 more years of apprenticeship. I started working overtime, so I had money to spend on the s12 but no time to work on it. At this time I was just dying to be able to drive an s12 again. So I found a running s12 locally for very cheap. This brings me to my red 84 Turbo. When I bought it the previous owner believed it had major electrical problems because no matter what he did it wouldn't charge. After some diagnosis this turned out to just be a loose alternator belt. The guy was also nice enough to let me do a compression check on it before I bought it. The numbers were definitely low but they were even all across and I figured it would get me by for a little while. So I bought it for $260. The turbo was seized, I bought a rebuilt t25 from a ca18det to replace it. The Mustang was still my primary vehicle but I had fun driving the s12 here and there. My cousin moved in from Massachusetts and I intended on letting him drive this car for a while, but it wasn't long before he moved back.
Then one horrible day I got in an accident in the Mustang. This left me relying on the red car for transportation. I was pleasantly surprised how well it held together for a while. Then one day I had the brilliant idea to go drag racing in it. First run down the track it makes a loud bang, stutters, but keeps going. It still seemed fine so I just slowly drove down the track. On the way back the safety truck pulled up to me. The woman asked me what happened. I told her I didn't know but the car is still working fine. They inspect the track for oil, none was found. I took the car the side to inspect it. There was absolutely no sign of a problem so I LOLed and went again. This time I ran a 17.2. I went just a couple more times and each time my times got progressively slower. By now there was a loud ching-a-ling-a-ling sound coming from the turbo. I figured I better get home while I can.
That weekend I checked out the turbo. It was toast. It actually appeared there was an explosion in the exhaust manifold. It blew out the turbo gasket and gave my nice rebuilt turbo some serious shaft play. Needing to drive the car the next week I plugged the oil and water feeds/drains and installed an NA exhaust manifold and ghetto pvc air intake. Drove the car that week, the motor cut out while driving on the freeway. It was dark and my headlight switch wasn't working so my taillights only worked when i stepped on the brakes. I nearly got rear ended several times before making it to the side. Popped the hood everything seemed ok, so I tried to start it and it fired right up and drove home. Turned out to be a common problem with the dizzy optical sensor so I used the fix that's on the forums. Then on Friday night, I was driving home from my girlfriends parents house when I lost oil pressure on the gauge. Figured it was just the gauge and really didn't care either way so I kept driving. When I got home there was a loud scraping sound coming from the front of the motor around the oil pump. So the red car was added to the list of slow and not so steady.
I was found at fault in the accident in my Mustang. So even if I had it fixed I wouldn't be able to afford the insurance. The car was already paid off. I took the money the insurance gave me and paid off some credit card debt, bought a sweet welder, then used the rest on a down payment on a new Ford Fiesta. It's candy apple red with the SFE package and Sync. I really like this car. I drive it very carefully to get the best mileage possible and average 37mpg of mixed city and highway. Unfortunately this meant the Mustang was added to the list of slow and not so steady.
So then I got to thinking, I have this low mileage ca20 just laying around why not drop it in the red car. That's when I took the head off the ca20 and discovered why it ran like shit years ago. I had a slightly bent intake valve on one cylinder and then a slightly bent exhaust valve in another. They were bent just enough that the would seal most the way but still leave a small gap. There was also a hairline crack in a valve guide. Well that explains a whole lot. I just kind of ended up giving up after this.
For the next 8 months I just kept driving the Fiesta. Did I mention how much I love this car. It's just awesome. Come September I started looking for a truck. Found a ridiculously clean 94 f150 at a local ford dealership. It had 280k miles on it but let me tell you this car was unbelievable. It looked like it just rolled off the show room floor. The motor and trans had been recently replaced too, 351, auto, and 4wd. New tires, suspension, brakes, new everything. I paid them $2400 out the door with only one condition, they said they had to fix the broken speedometer before I could take delivery. Week later I get a call, expect to be able to go pick up, but instead they tell me that they cant fix it and they want to refund my money. Go to dealership talk to service manager, he's an idiot. I go in wearing a bright yellow shirt that says BOMBARD ELECTRIC front and back. He tells me that there is a short in the wiring going to the speedo and that they are getting to much voltage to the speedo. He then said that he had plugged in 4 different clusters and blew all of them because of this. First off I ask him why he was so damn stupid that he would keep plugging in new speedos with out checking it with a multimeter first; in reality I knew this was a lie. The I pulled out schematic of the wiring to the speedo and proceeded to educate him about how electricity works. You see there are two wires that come from the speed pick up in the rear end and go to the speedo cluster. One wire carries the signal from the low pickup the other from the high. It uses both to even out spikes. Both wires carry 0-5V. After the speedo it goes right to ground. So you see if there was a short in the wiring where he said it was, there would be 0V to the speedo on one wire and still normal on the other. Or if both were shorted then no voltage would reach the speedo. They refused to let me work on the truck and told me they would just have to sell it at auction. There insurance would not allow them to sell a vehicle without it passing a safety inspection. I asked them when and where it would be going to auction. They wrote this down for me and I took a refund (they would only give me a check even though I paid in cash. I ended up having a 1 week hold on the check too). So my old gay Puerto Rican roommate's dad has a dealers license, so I had him go to this auction to try and get the truck for me. But guess what, this probably isn't a surprise, but the truck wasn't there. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone at the dealership saw how nice it was and decided they wanted it for themselves.
So I kept looking for a truck. Decided I wanted a diesel. I looked at several trucks. Almost bought a pos for $3500 but then a really clean one popped up on craigslist with a manual trans for less money. So then I went and bought my truck. It's a 96 Ford F250 with a powerstroke diesel. It's an extended cab and 2wd. It's also the same exact two tone green and white as the f150 that I originally planned to buy. It has 374K miles on it now. I bought it with 369k. The motor is not original, it is from a 94. It has some blow by and leaks diesel into the coolant but otherwise is strong and runs great. The previous owner was a retired marine and worked for the department of defense. He also owned a small hotel in northern Nevada, which is how he racked up the miles, driving back and forth. Unfortunately for him he was killed in a motorcycle accident earlier in the year, so I purchased the truck from his family. Every other truck I looked at it seemed there were underlying reasons there owners wanted to sell them. Not this one though, if the guy wasn't dead he would still be driving this truck today. I started driving the truck and let my girlfriend use the Fiesta.
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So now I would like to apologize for the book I just wrote but I had to get it all out there.
THIS NOW FINALLY BRINGS ME TO THE PRESENT
I've been working steady on the same job for over a year now. My girlfriend just got a job with the school district and finally decided to move in with me. This frees up the time and money spent on driving the 15 miles to and from her parents house several times a week. She has also started paying for the groceries which frees up my budget a little more.
Here is the white car as it sits today
I have some different plans than most people on this forum. I plan to build this to be and awesome daily driver, that can also handle some weekend drag racing. It's getting the ka24e I have already. But here's the kicker, I'm keeping it an automatic. The trans that it is getting is a 4n71b from an 84 z31t. These have more clutch material inside and also has a 2800 stall converter. Initially the KA will be staying stock for budget reasons. Later I plan on getting another KA and building it for it. Still haven't decided on flat top pistons and an r6 cam or a light turbo build. But anyways that part is a ways away and things change. I also intend on having working ac and power steering.
Here's the KA starting to clean it up.
Ok now on to the red car. I'd really like to keep this one and turn it into a drift beater. If I do, I will be rebuilding the CA18DET with the pistons from the CA20E to get it going initially. I also have a VG30ET and R30A trans that I would love to put in it. I may be a little biased but I believe the VG30ET is the engine for reaching 400hp from any manufacturer period. But who knows about all this, I have a lot of projects and I don't have much room so this one may have to go.
Here's the red car currently
Feb 15, 2012, 10:21 pm · #1