Bobnova's Weblog

Lets see if i can get the teaser thingie to work...
Looks simple enough.

I'm planning on putting this:

On this:

[More:]

At the moment, I've got a roughly stock car, but with some important additions.
First off, a Volvo brake master cylinder reservoir, because i smashed my stock one to hell replacing a head gasket (oops)

Another key addition is a pair of '76 volvo front calipers. No pictures there, but i simply redilled the holes (poorly, i need another pair to redo), and put a T in the brake line.
Then they bolted right on.
They have a LOT of power!

That left the rear brakes woefully underpowered in comparison, so after mucking around a bit, i said screw it, and removed the proportioning valve.
WHOA!
Now my rear brakes match the volvo fronts almost perfectly!
What would be suicidally overpowered rear brakes with stock fronts, are near-perfect with the volvos, all four wheels lock up at roughly the same pressure (fronts a tiny bit before rears), i'm quite pleased.

I've also stuck a set of euro. SU carbs on, which are obviously leaving when i go fuel injection, but made a hell of a difference compared to the ONE(gah) california smog (gah) ZS(gah) carb the car came with.
Sure, passing smog might be tricky, but my area doesn't have the biyearly checks most of cali does, i only have to smog it if i sell it (yeah right).

I also took a can of black spray paint to my stock steel wheels, shiny black > rusty silver, they look great now imo.

Most recently, i got disgusted with the five year old group 51N battery, and decided to "fix" the tr7's "battery problem".
This involved a 1000amp (850 amps at 0 degrees F.) truck battery, 10-13 feet of 1gauge copper cable, and three feet of 4 gauge cable (i bought the parts house's entire 1gauge stock), along with a generic (read, lousy) battery holddown doodad.

The battery went in the trunk(on the passanger side, just to the right of the spare tire, against the firewall), as there was no way in hell it'd fit in the tray designed for a 51N (modern civic battery, 9"x4"x8 tall).
The 1gauge cable went up and forward, through the seatbelt slot (lots of room, well away from the belt itself), down to the left behind the passangers seat, along the transmission tunnel, then up behind the dash and through a hole in the firewall to the left of the glovebox. Who knows whats supposed to go there. Not me.
I grounded it with two 4gauge wires to the fuel tank strap bolt that comes through of the passanger side.
In the engine bay i have a 2gauge ground wire, which will soon be upgraded to dual 1gauge wires, as i like grounds.
The starter power wire will be 1gauge as well, as i don't want any nonsense from it.

Previously, my alternator melted. Yes, melted. Not failed, not died, MELTED. Stupid lucas.
I got a generic self-energizing Perkins(marine?) 105 amp alternator off ebay, and fashioned a bracket for it.
Ghetto? yup.
Effective? Hell yeah.

Basicly i'm going through the car a system at a time and building it to "E-spec"(ed-spec), which means, roughly speaking, WAY overkill.
Capri calipers and a TSI brake valve work great. I went volvo and no valve. New 51N in the engine compartment works fine. I went truck and 1gauge.
Rebuilt lucas alternator works fine, i spent $5(and 18 inches of bracket) more for 105amps.
Euro carbs, euro pistons, and TSI cam/header works great for 135hp. I'm going....

Now, future plans!

This is a TR7 FI manifold half (the injector half, the other half is a long, ugly runnered plenum+throttle body+who knows what else), with four six inch chunks of 2"(too big 1.75 would be better) connecting it to a set of 2000ish Honda CBR929 motorcycle throttle bodies. 42mm at the throttle plates.

All i have left is to make a surge tank, buy some fuel pumps (low and high pressure), and redo the tr7's cooling system to act like a volvo 240 (which doesn't blow all it's coolant out when the head gasket goes bad, what a concept!)

It'll be controlled by a Megasquirt ECU, via honda wiring/sensors.
Megasquirt+honda ECU case/connectors:

The dude i bought it from had attampted to swap the fuel injection system off a ford 2.3 motor into the tr7 (it didn't work, it'd start then die, but not run), so the manfold half came with a set of ford 30lb (307cc for us metric types) injectors, and a ford knock sensor of some sort, it threw me for a loop, but once i realized what i had, i was pumped.

Because, once that runs, next up is this:

Saab 1979-80 900 turbo exhaust manifolds.
They *should* bolt up to the tr7 head with minor machining (read, grinding) of the #1 and #4 ports, and the #1/4 holes redrilled.

I've got a Airresearch T3 turbo (.48 exhaust .42 intake, or vice versa, can't remember which is which), plus a spare bearing/impeller/turbine (sans housings) section.
Mitsubishi(gah) starion air-air intercooler is on it's way (big, good for 300-400hp, way more then the tr7 motor can take), along with a supra blow off valve (cheap! all metal, and able to plumb back into the intake for stealth if i want to).
All i've got left is a BIG(e-spec, again) wastegate, so i can run a 2.5-3" downpipe/exhaust system for quick spooling without runaway boost(boom!)

I figure that if a dude managed to run 7-8psi of boost with just a carb and methanol/water injection (un-calibrated) and make it 3000 miles between head gaskets, i can use modern fuel injection/spark control and an intercooler, and make it last somewhat longer then that.
Though really, if i can squeeze 150hp out of it, i don't mind 3k head gaskets, it's not my daily driver, i have a 89 honda prelude for that.

So yeah, thats the basic deal, i'll update with more pictures when i get the rest of the parts and/or get any of it installed on the car.

I'll probably update with a picture of the trunk battery too, i'm pleased with it.

Any comments/suggestions/donations are welcome