Project 332ti begins!!!

[pdxmotorhead]

Ahhh, that could be, in the picture on my laptop they looked black...

Its not like its 100% but I play with more cars than average including dirt track cars and I like the coating, it does not soak up oil, or smell bad when wet.

Dave

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by pdxmotorhead

...I like the coating, it does not soak up oil, or smell bad when wet.

Dave

Yeah, ceramic coated headers are definitely nicer, BUT I don't see the point on spending 200-300 bucks to coat factory headers. As for the wrap soaking up oil or getting wet, well that silver coating that I sprayed on afterwards is supposed to seal the fiberglass. I used a whole can of it and it soaked it all up. Then it hardened like a cast after I baked it, so the wrap is totally stiff now and sealed. There's no way anything can soak into the wrap, especially if the headers are at operating temp

Anyway, here's a few pics of the m50 manifold:

[Marv17]

damn. nice work.
and with the valve cover done its going to look bad a$$.

[tiFreak]

wow, that looks really good Jess, it almost looks like it's actually made from metal

[cooljess76]

Thanks guys, there's a couple tiny spots that need to be touched up. I'm going to test clear over the silver on a piece of cardboard. If it comes out okay, I'll spray several coats of high temp clear. If it doesn't, I'll spray a couple more coats of the silver/chrome. I really like the way it turned out. I knew it wasn't going to look chrome and I'm actually glad. It looks more like the polished aluminum parts on the front of my engine. Actually, it matches them perfectly. Tonight, I'm going to spray the valve cover and fuel rail cover.

[pdxmotorhead]

Just another note, I usually spend less than a 100 bucks for coating a header, any powdercoating shop can shoot the high temp ceramic powder.

The worst is when you get an oil leak and it runs on the wrap material for a while. Then takes like 10 races to burn off...

Keep us posted on the header wrap, if yours works out I'll try it at the track next time someone has to have it... Where did you get the spray coating?

Dave

[cooljess76]

Projects back in motion. Installed water pump, thermostat, torqued down the timing cover and polished the oil filter housing. Tomorrow I'll clean up the alternator and A/C compressor. The m50 manifold is in place just for show. I still need to give it a few coats of high temp clear. All of the polished aluminum pieces need to be buffed out again. They got pretty smudged up from handling them during the install. Pics are kinda dark, but you get the idea.

[wolferj-RIP]

To hell with that engine, what is that silver m-tech e36 next to it?

(jk!!! Absolutely killer. Starting to look like a show-class car with all the details you have done so far... I'm sure it will run as good as it looks!)

[Marv17]

dddaaaammmnnn.... NICE work jess. your swap is gonna look WAY better. :-/ i just don't have that kind of patience to do that. how's the valve cover coming along??

[cooljess76]

Oh yeah, Take a close look at the oil filter housing. Notice anything different, besides the nice polished finish? Take a look at anyone else's oil filter housing. NO CASTING SEAMS!!! There were three seams that ran down the sides of the housing. One of them was over 1/4" thick, about 1/8" tall and all three of them were about 6" long! They ran down the entire side of the housing. Where'd they go??? I filed them off before I sanded it down and polished it. My thumbs are so freakin sore right now

I've done that on almost everything I've polished. Those casting imperfections make everything look cheap no matter how nice you polish it. So I spend a little extra time and file them off. Also notice the front end of the m50 manifold, just to the right of the oil filter housing. Most if not all m50 manifolds have a pinwheel stamped from the factory on that part of the collector. I filled mine with bondo prior to priming and painting it

[wolferj-RIP]

You are totally making me feel like a wimp... I was just re-finishing seats today... Doing a full Leatherique treatment on the ti and re-dyeing the seats in the coupe. Much less work than your project.

[tiFreak]

the engine looks great, and to think you're going to be covering that up with some ugly black hood

EDIT: buy a hood like this:

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by Marv17

dddaaaammmnnn.... NICE work jess. your swap is gonna look WAY better. :-/ i just don't have that kind of patience to do that. how's the valve cover coming along??

Well I slipped up and gave a sneak peek at the progress on the valve cover. In the pics, you could see it now has chrome letters. That's all you guys get for now

Originally Posted by wolferj

You are totally making me feel like a wimp... I was just re-finishing seats today... Doing a full Leatherique treatment on the ti and re-dyeing the seats in the coupe. Much less work than your project.

Gotta take care of those vaders. Re-dyeing seats is no easy job James, no need to feel like a wimp: You could see a glimpse of my spare vader in one of the pics. It needs to be completely re-upholstered I'm gonna try something exotic, perhaps a houndstooth and leather office chair

Originally Posted by tiFreak

the engine looks great, and to think you're going to be covering that up with some ugly black hood

EDIT: buy a hood like this:

I'm actually considering selling my carbon hood, if I do there'll be at least one day where I drive down to LA hoodless to pick up a new one

[VROOMCP]

Jess,

I was impressed when I saw your engine. It's almost too nice to put in a car. I would make a chandelier out of it!!!

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by VROOMCP

Jess,
I was impressed when I saw your engine. It's almost too nice to put in a car. I would make a chandelier out of it!!!

It sure would look good in your car David, I think the M could pull it off

I finally finished the timing, the vanos is installed, getting ready to install the valve cover and crank pulley. The crank pulley is only on hand tight so I could crank the motor over by hand. It spun freely with no noises or anything and the cam tool that I made fit back on perfectly after about 8 rotations(I kept passing up TDC). This weekend, the motor comes off the stand so I could replace the rear crank seal and gasket. Then it goes back on the stand so I can install the oil pan after I clean it up of course. I might polish it, but that's a lot of work. I need new header studs and gaskets. I also need a new alternator(sold mine because it was rusty inside), and I need to tap a stripped out thread on the AC compressor bracket, when I removed it, one of the bolts pulled a bunch of aluminum threads out with it(cross threaded at the factory?) I accidentally scuffed the paint on my m50 manifold when I was moving the engine across my garage, it hit the mirror on my Ti No biggie, I wanted to give it another coat of clear anyway. Still need to figure out how all of the hoses connect to it for the conversion. I'm running the M50 manifold while still keeping it OBDII. Anyway, that's the update as of now.