Re: 2000 Metallic Dark Blue Grand Prix: Going Fast and Keeping it Clean= not cheap/ea
So I havent updated this in ages. Later today when I have time ill post some pictures of things that have been done since the last update. It seems like right now its one of those times where everything is breaking and everything is being more of a dick to replace than it should be. Since last update:
-Replaced torque converter with new stock GT converter (MUCH Better)
-Changed tranny filter/fluid (looks PERFECT in there, which isn't suprising because its a badass tranny).
-Replaced Steering Rack..... Twice..
-Added KYB AGX Struts with SSC springs all around (also a full alignment after)
-Spent an entire weekend Por15ing my rockers. Also did the trunk.
-Replaced clamps that hold the front sway bar onto the subframe...
-fixed those interior light covers by buying some off the forums here.
-The worst one... Replaced the stock fuel pump with the ZZP one... Then had a horrible issue that got worse and worse and no one could figure out because it was somewhat intermittant. Issue would get so bad it wouldn't rev past 2500rpm in park... pretty bad.. Turned out to be fuel pressure issue.. To resolve it, this took the power of the expertise of Andrew (3 days), ZZP (2 days), and Shawn Mayes (1 day). It also took replacing:
-2 ZZP fuel pumps
-Fuel filter
-Rechecked fuel pump rewire for proper voltages
-regulator
-checking all the lines for kinks or anything
-checking all grounds
-fuse relays (bending tab etc)
-Taking canister out and rebuilding it 10,000 times, and in different ways.
The resolver? Ended up replacing the ZZP pump with their new AEM E85 pump. Which as far as I can tell so far is working great. The issue would only get worse the longer you drove it so we think it was the pump overheating. So **** the ZZP pump. I do have to give props to ZZP though. Helps to be good friends with them all but they basically spent a whole day troubleshooting it and letting me try out different parts for free. In the end I didnt pay them a dime over the initial price of the first ZZP pump. Heck I even got the fuel filter free lol.
This AEM pump is supposed to love E85... Which combined with some other things means theres a lot more performance stuff planned for this year still.
I picked up some heads off here that are GREAT. No cracks and they're already partially ported. I'm going to have the place I work for clean them up this Friday and then a friend of mine is going to handle porting them the rest of the way. Basically going to do a full job on them, except for allowing more lift as I am sticking with the XP cam. I got these for $50 and the cleaning + porting is going to cost me $70. So fully ported heads for $120? Not bad lol. Not to mention they came with stock valves, rockers, valve covers, springs etc.
I am also purchasing 80lb injectors for about $200. Once the heads are done being ported. These injectors and the heads will be going on as well as a tank of E85 and a trip to ZZP's dyno to tune it for the corn and injectors. Likely a 2.7 supercharger pulley will be making his entrance at this time as well.
So to summerise:
-Fully ported heads $120
-80lb Injectors $200
-Misc required gaskets and things for install $150?
-Andrew install $200
-ZZP Dyno Tune for E85 $150
Total: $820
820 doll hairs to go from a 3.25 (3.1 on a good day) GenV setup to basically fully built 2.7 E85 setup... Definitelly excited and unexpected.
I'll probably be buying some titanium retainers too. I meant to get those the first time around and forgot about it. Should be able to make some great dyno numbers and track times after all this. I just really hope Its all done before winter and I get it to the track. I hope more than anything I dont have frickin chipped pistons too when those heads come off. I'm very nervous about that because you never know :\
Now here's the bad crap that still needs fixing:
-Front bumper and rear bumper repainted. Too many scratches and nicks for my liking. I think I might actually considering having them fill in the trim line things on it when I do it. I did use some touchup paint on these for the time being which turned out semi-okay.
-Passenger side fender repainted. Still has scrape along the very bottom and a very small dent from where the drug addict retard riding a bicycle slammed into me while I was sitting at a light... Its not overly noticible with touch up paint but it will get fixed.
-Radiator leaking? I noticed its got a little bit of coolant collecting on one of those things at the bottom. Its not low on coolant yet though. I'd probably replace it with a ZZP oversized aluminum one and maybe replace the housing at the same time because it looks like hell.
-Gauge Cluster Repair. Light burned out on the left side and my tach is doing some funny ****. It goes ape**** sometimes. I'll put it in park and shut it off and it will go to past the redline and stay there. Sure is a quiet car revving at 10k rpms XD. Mostly fine will driving just when first starting or shutting off.
-Brake line leaking. I've got a rear brake line that has a very minor leak. Probably not gonna fix it till it gets a bit worse but its there...
-Steering controls. I've put off fixing them so they actually work with my aftermarket stereo since I bought the car. I'mma try and get on that.
-Door trim. The little trim that goes along the very top of the door by the window is broken on the drivers side. Haven't been able to find anyone parting out a coupe who has one that isn't broken yet to replace it. Definitelly on the list.
-Window Switches driver side. This things probably gonna die at some point soon. Sometimes the passenger window wont go respond to the controls from the drivers side. Then if you move it down from the passenger controls it will work again on the drivers side. So dumb lol.
-New floor mats. Yep
-Tint. Gonna tint my tails VERY slightly just to get rid of the atezza look. Also probably going to tint the side windows again with 35%. Hopefully I dont get pulled over for it right away.
-More port15. probably going to do my oil pan and strut towers when I have time and care.
-Carbon Fiber SD Spoiler. More than likely wont get to this in this year due to other things taking priority now, but we'll see.
So, thats my massive update after not updating for ages, as well as the plans for the rest of the year. Later today I will post pictures of the torque converter/rack install as well as some misc pics that I've taken along the journey so far.
