summertiiiime...

Well, I drove the car home from the shop at 330 am thursday night and everything is done! we finished the rear main seal and the oil leak is gone. After that was all finished up we installed the Walbro 190 lph fuel pump, Jim's fuel filter mod, and wired in my Apexi SAFC2 piggyback controller. We tuned the car on the dyno to compensate for the extra fuel and put down 230 whp. Im pretty happy with the numbers and excited to see what it does with more boost! Ill get some pitcures up tomorrow or tuesday.

Coming Together...

Last week was really hectic with my senior review for graphic design, so i didnt have much to report- I am however happy to say the brunt of the homework and stress is now over and its back to the important things in life... like cars, meets, and cruising, haha.

The shop has been super swamped, so we havent gotten the rear main seal issue solved yet. Mike and I are going to tackle that friday night after hours... should be fun times dropping the transmission, Ive never done that so Im looking forward to learning, even if it will be a pain in the butt.

Ive got a portion of my gauges on the way and the old ones have been sold. This time around I am going with white face 52mm Defi Link Sysytem green backlit gauges to match the stock cluster. Ill be running EGT, Oil pressure, and Boost to complement my AEM Wideband gauge. Should be good to go in that department when the rest of the interior is finished up next month.

As for shorter term goals, I plan to install my High flow fuel filter, Walbro fuel pump, and Apexi SAFC2 piggyback management this weekend as well. Once those things are in, Mike is going to teach me how to tune the Air Fuel curve and I can dyno to see what it puts down with a little more fuel on the 26th. Should be interesting, Im hoping to be at around 240whp.

Stay tuned, I should have more time to update after this weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Damon

Winter rolls on...

Well, its snowing out there again, and I find that quite depressing. Luckily the car is sitting over at Modified FX still having the oil leak issue looked at. Mike (my mechanic) will be fixing that up and welding on an Apexi WS Muffler when it gets here, since it was backordered when he ordered it last week. It should be here the first week in April though. I also picked up an Apexi SAFC2 so that i can tune my Air/Fuel ratio before I hit the dyno in April. Hoping to install my Jim's fuel mod and Walbro fuel pump before the dyno as well. Not much else really going on since I wont be driving the car until the snow is gone. ill keep everyone updated on the progress though as always!

Someone from the forums informed me that my car showed up on the car domain website in their coverage of Autorama 2008, so that was pretty cool to see! It was a fun show and I got to meet a lot of locals as well as see some really nice cars. Brought home a trophy and some anticipation for next year! Here are the pics:




There is still an oil leak coming from somewhere, so i took the car back to Modified FX last night so that Mike can take a look and see where it is coming from. I also think that one of the tie rods or ball joints is going on the front- its making a clunking noise. Probably a combination of Michigan roads and being too low, haha. I should learn my lesson, but I just love the car slammed! I also ordered an Apexi WS muffler today to replace the magnaflow, so that should be on in early April (backordered.) Stay tuned for more updates and thanks to CarDomain for the coverage!

Damon

Welcome to Damon's Solara Project Blog

SOLARAONBRONZE PROJECT BLOG

Welcome! You have stumbled upon the project log for my 1999 Toyota Solara project car. I plan to use this space to keep the import tuner and Solara community up to date on the progress of my build and the challenges I am forced to overcome along the way. Stay tuned for future modifications, project logs, time slips, and dyno results as the snow melts and the summer tires go on! Thanks for stopping by!


Damon