Thermostat and Radiator Install

Updated with pics:

My car has been out of comission due to the broken radiator. I got the radiator installed in no problem! Car still overheated, changed the thermostat and am about to go flush/bleed the cooling system. After this I will do the oil change that has been waiting for some time. This car has become a project of it's own. The SUPRA is my project car, but as long as I have the money and time I am down to work on my daily driver too.

The week has been extremely busy, I am working on an alternator for a friend and this stuff on the Integra, as well class work has been kicking my butt. I have been daydreaming about the SUPRA a lot.

Basically my dreams are to go to E-town, raceway park and take the road course driving lessons. Rent the road course. just race with all my friends. This sounds so good, but highly unlikely. Also I have been dreaming about that 75 shot of NOS for my automatic transmission launch. Soo much work and money for something that just offers love, speed, and beauty!


The new coolant tank next to the old "coolant tank" (the oil bottle had a tube going to radiator)




Radiatorless Engine Bay, you can see the oil cooler that sits in front of the radiator.



Old radiator pulled, I will bring it to a scrap yard with the rest of the metal I have collected. best to recycle :}

More pics to come soon. I want to drive it 60 miles then get the pictures of the clean and restored cooling system. If that heat neadle moves i must bleed it, then if that does not worry I will begin to check compression and leakage of each cylinder. This will verify if there is a BLOWN HEAD GASKET.

Valentines Day/Day After Valentines Day

OK well I have been extremely busy.

Valentine's day was great. Spent it with my lovely Supra! :} Had the boys come over and help get the IC piping done and the ignition timing set. Was a fun time getting everything together. These guys that came through are friends from high school and really know their stuff. They will definitely be a part of this blog in the near future. Supra started and was idle actually very good. When there were air leaks it idled about 1500rpms which is about double what it should. now it was idling about 700rpms where it should be. it was running a little rough, so we shut her down took off the plates and decided to just keep on building. Without the plates now I don't need to worry about driving or spending any money. I can just focus on what the car was meant to do, and see it's true power soon enough.

The day after Valentines day I was ready to come back to school. I ran some errands only to find my muffler silencer was stolen in the parking lot. This is bad, but it's not the end of the world. So upset and all I just head back to school, now to find a coolant hose from the radiator burst! In order to keep the engine from overheating, the heat had to remain on full blast, and I had to maintain a high enough speed to keep the air coming into the engine bay. As soon as I got to SUNY Purchase, I pulled into Starbucks and opened my hood up, took my 15 minutes and let it air out. I replaced the hose the next day, but that only showed me the Radiator was leaking.

Today I removed the radiator and forgot to take pictures! i will put some soon, of the engine bay without a radiator. I ordered one and can not wait to install it.... (SARCASM) but i do want the car running!

Dragon Removal!

HEY!

long time no post, well not really. Cut to the chase I been busy as hell. 6 hours of dragon decal removal.

I filmed it and wrote a how to, which will be up soon.


OHHH as well I have 3 cars lined up to go into details with, but the owners are slow to setting up dates/interviews with me. Don't worry soon enough.


Heres some pics of the "Red dragon Jr." without the dragon!








More stuff soon as right now I am installing a coolant tank in the teg and am too busy to post, but was really excited and had to post

"Wire is Wire"

As always when I get a car there are many minor issues that I must resolve. For the Integra, so far it is the left marker/turn signal housing. It came as just an empty piece of plastic with a clear lens. I found out what bulbs to buy and did so, only to find there to literally be nothing to insert them into. I compared the housing with the right side as well as bulb connectors. The housing on the right actually had sockets which lead to normal rounded bulb connectors. The left side had a weird green flat connector, and a brown flat connector. I was really confused.

Later that night I was speaking to a friend of mine about this issue. His name is Kenny, he has helped me with every single problem my Supra has had. Without him that car would never work! After, informing me that autozone sells bulb sockets, Ken said "Wire is wire." That is the theme today. Those three words can be so useful. From the idea of, cutting the weird harnesses off, lengthening the wires, and wiring in the new socket. All of these things had different ends, connectors, and harnesses, but when you cut that off, wire is wire. I am sure it can be related to life in some or many ways, but thats for a different blog...

So now I have a working left turn signal, but not marker lamp. I tried to wire it into the green connector, but it did nothing, i belive I need a ground for it. There is a very small green wire within the bundle of wires the harness i cut is in. If I can connect this wire to a ground it should work, but at the same time I believe the ground should be off the bulb socket, which this socket does not have. We will see when I get it done. It'll be a fun job.

MY NEW CAR!

WELL, everyone I made the decision. It wasn't really tough, but it should've been. The silver integra was such a strong, fresh car. The Red one with a DRAGON on it was fun and exciting.

If you live on campus you probably seen which one it was... It definitely does have a dragon on it! I will remove that... I find the dragon absolutely bad-ass, sick, insane, and really cool, but there is no way I am leaving it on. I appreciate the few who support me in choosing this car. I am very happy with it and feel it will make a superb daily driver. This car has a small sound system and the less desirable non vtec engine. Now for pictures!!!



The dragon NON Vtec integra (Suny purchase parking permit!)









The 2000 Conversion front throws the hood out of whack, not a fan of that,but overall looks good.


And probably my favorite, The GORGEOUS 05 RSX seats.



Thats all for now

First Cool Car on Campus/?!?!?!?CARLESS?!?!?!?

The first car in which I am going to showcase is the ACURA INTEGRA. I see tons of them around, and I have 1 in mind to go in depth with. This campus really is flooded with them, where I am from they are stolen and chopped up quickly. I love the car and looking at all them on campus made me want one. That is where me being carless come into play.

Well, yes as of and for today Tuesday, Feb. 3 I do not have a car on campus. I am hoping for change, and to find an Acura Integra... Right now I am torn. I have narrowed my choices down. My red car which i sold, and the 2 acuras all are basically sold for the same, so money is not the issue.

The first Integra is an engine swap, with low miles and fully modded.

The engine swap is just the fact that the original LS engine was removed and a low mileage LS was replaced. So in essence it is just replacing the motor, BUT! An engine swap to me, doesn't sound good. I am a fan of Honda, Toyota, Nissan etc, being the one to install the motor. If it is dones great it will be a very strong fresh engine. If it is done bad it can be a nightmare.

Anyhow, the car is very loud with a full header back exhaust (what it looks like, owner had no idea, i couldnt see under the car), Ram Air induction, and a decent sound system. This makes the car feel absolutely amazing. The responsiveness on the peddle was close to that of MY SUPRA's! I can not believe I am evening thinking of this.

The look of the car is weird, as it's a similar red to my old car, but with more orange in it, a nice drop on the car, with coilovers (he dont know the brand and i didnt wanna pull the tires) the car looks nice and low. Sitting down in it was very comfortable as the new leather RSX seats form around my body. I have seen a few RSX's on campus! They know what I mean!!!!!

The loud roar takes over the cabin of the car, not wanting to get pulled over, but still wanted to feel every gear shift, I brought the car wide open. It held good and i stopped tight at a red light. Car drove/stopped really good. I was still impressed.

I do not like street racing at all, and would be a fool to think this car hasn't been abused by street racing, but if you can take the time and swap an engine, why not maintane it? These engines can take a huge beating, but must be maintaned. This Integra really surprised me, but I am unsure of how well it will last me, which is what I am actually looking for.

The second Integra is a 1999 GS.

The car has about 100 thousand miles, which is not a lot for this car. The car had a ram air induction, and modest at most sound system. It is silver and not on drop springs/coilovers so the car has a high stance. Nice tints, was kind of hard to see out of in reverse in the dark, but the street was poorly lit. Had decent response on the pedal, everything was mint. Everything worked. Great shape body, low miles, seemingly the perfect integra. This car would do all and more that I need.

Conclusion?
Reading my stories I now see the clear difference. Integra 1 is fun and Integra 2 is smart. My friends say to get number 2 cuz it's mature... I can not decide. This is very annoying. Is this a maturity test? I guess we will see what happens soon enough.