Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[1994Celica]

I think about 90% of your problem is budget, you're looking for champagne with beer money.

Yep you want a 993 when all you got is a rusty 914

[rentaspace]

Well the day after I started bitching about the SSDs not selling, I sold one. Then the next day another, and then yesterday another lol. Also managed to get another one so now have 3 left total lol.



In terms of the caldina, it was dropped off to my friends place last night for him to drive it to his shop later today, bumper and spoiler pads will be colour matched to the car and painted either today or tomorrow. (Since I am a cash/mates rates customer I am just being fit in, so may not even be tomorrow or today that it is done).
I am also moving this week and have some plans to do some work on the foglights and headlights of the car so the front bumper may not be put on for a few weeks or more.

[Bitter]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Car-Motorcy...0608.0.0.pWxH6r

Fog lights, they're awesome with just halogen, enough beam to be a headlight! With HID they're supposed to be even better. I'm slowly fitting a pair to my Celica on the factory fog brackets.

[1994Celica]

Finally changed the Outback oil! It went waaaaaaaay too long for my comfort but now it's done with a wix filter, which I'll be using from now on. Also 914's exhaust is back on most of the way. All I need to do is go to Home Depot and get a nut and bolt that match th one I have and tighten everything up. It's nice having weekends off and the ability to todo this. I'm enjoying tinkering again.

[Bitter]

Ugh yea I need to get some bolts too but I'll do it during the week on the way home instead.

[Box]

I think about 90% of your problem is budget, you're looking for champagne with beer money.

It's part of the problem. I could get a C4 though, would just be a matter of waiting for a daily driver '94-96 6-speed and not a garage queen to come up for sale. That could take months though. I will say the Firebird kicks the notion of "Cheap, fast, or reliable. Pick two." in the nads since it does all three, so I'll give it that. If I weren't so OCD about the handling feel I'd be fine since the capability and potential is there, it's just all the solid axle quirks you'll never be able to escape. I think the 350Z/G35 would be fine if I could find one not beat to death, of course not caring about power so much the Miata would be fine too. I ACTUALLY considered getting another 6th gen Celica believe it or not, but all the aftermarket suspension support is gone now.

So the Audi is finally back together and running, so that's nice. Seems to run a lot smoother and stronger with the new camshaft in it. The old one the lobe for the fuel pump follower was gouged pretty badly.

[Bitter]

Yep, I knew that would be bad on the Audi :lol:

I think to get the kind of car you want in the condition you want you'll need to double the $5,000 budget at least, sadly. Anything you buy in the $5,000 zone is going to need a bunch of stuff and money invested to get to where you want it to be. Sucks. Keep the Firebird for now, save up, mod it or replace it.

[1994Celica]

Ugh yea I need to get some bolts too but I'll do it during the week on the way home instead.

Yeah I could of done it today but I really didn't want to so I'll just do the same. I'm at Home Depot all the time anyway. Too bad they don't sell 914 floor pannels

[Box]

Yep, I knew that would be bad on the Audi :lol:

I think to get the kind of car you want in the condition you want you'll need to double the $5,000 budget at least, sadly. Anything you buy in the $5,000 zone is going to need a bunch of stuff and money invested to get to where you want it to be. Sucks. Keep the Firebird for now, save up, mod it or replace it.

I've seen nice C4's sell in my range, but they're so few and far between. Same deal with the 350Z. PLENTY of Miatas though, I've lost count of the sub 100K mile Miatas for under $5,000 I've seen. Which if I sold off my music gear I could bump the budget to $8,500 or so... If my life wasn't **** and I had stable income I'd just finance a C5/C6 and call it a day, but alas I don't at the moment. So yeah it's pretty much keep the Firebird and deal with the axle or get a Miata.

[Bitter]

Could you swap the Firebird drivetrain into a Miata easily?

[Box]

Hmm, people do LS-1/T-56 swaps all the time. The LT-1 is smaller, albeit slightly heavier, than a LS-1 so I don't see why you couldn't. Though I couldn't bring myself to do that to the Firebird, it's a really nice car 20 year old aesthetic faults aside.

[Box]

That reminds me though, for awhile someone was swapping in the EFI 5.0/T-5 out of late model Fox body and early SN95 Mustangs. About the only thing Mustangs are good for, har har har. The EFI 5.0 actually weighs the same as a LS-1 despite being an iron block, though it's even smaller than the SBC. What would be really awesome is using the all aluminum Buick/Rover V8, they only weigh a little over 300 pounds and are ultra compact. Would barely weigh any more than the outgoing Miata drivetrain. Hmm...

[Bitter]

The alloy 5.3 engines are cheap cheap cheap these days, could swap one into a Miata with a T56 and have the power you want for cheap, 300hp and 300lb/ft stock, plenty for a Miata.

[Box]

300 hp and 340 ft lb is plenty for the Firebird, but maybe that's just me, so 300/300 is more than enough for a Miata. That or do a 5.3 with a T-5 for less weight and a lot less weight removed from the wallet. The T-5 is rated for 300 ft lbs or so, and in something as light as the Miata and with my driving it'd last so long as it was in good shape to begin with.

[Bitter]

Well it's actually more like 320lb/ft but whatever, rounding. Since it uses the right bell housing there's probably other transmissions that would work too, and might be cheaper, I don't know GM stick shifts so much. Same size as the 5.7, same stroke, smaller bore (same bore as the 4.8), but more plentiful and cheaper than the 5.7 since it's not in demand the same. With a tune they do just fine numbers.

[Box]

Ehh, really there's the T-5, T-56, and then the TR-6060. Personally I rather do a F-body T-5 or T-56 since they're top-loader transmissions. T-5 is DIRT cheap since everyone thinks they're made of glass since idiots try to push too much power through them and drive like gorillas so they break. Looking around the LM4 isn't that expensive at all really, found one for $850 and another for $950 not even looking. So let's say $1,000 for a nice engine and $500(if that) for a nice T-5 versus what $2,500 for a LS-1 and $2,500 for a T-56. Hmm... Can't decide which is the better deal there...

[rentaspace]

I think about 90% of your problem is budget, you're looking for champagne with beer money.

I ACTUALLY considered getting another 6th gen Celica believe it or not, but all the aftermarket suspension support is gone now.

I mean it isn't cheap but there is still Coilovers available new in Australia

[Box]

Which I looked around later and there's like Megan Racing and other China/Taiwan parts bin stuff, but Tein and Tanabe are long gone apparently. Even if I could find a new set of Tein or Tanabe they're no longer being made/supported so that just wouldn't be copacetic.

I've figured out my problem, I'm stuck in momentum driver mode. I want to drive like I did in the Celica, so the only time I use brakes are for coming to a stop. The Firebird does well enough, but it just gets twitchy and sketchy at times. Like one time I was following my brother in the Genesis on a curvy back road and he was doing 50 in a 35 so it's not like he was just ripping through it, but I was able to keep up even though I was on edge the entire time because the rear axle was hopping around more than a family of bunnies. Even had the axle hop and kick the rear of the car out, which was easy enough to bring back in but still... Of course the simple solution would be to stop driving it like it's a small car with IRS, but that's how I like to drive.

[Bitter]

Radio stopped working in the Mazda this morning. It's acting like the car is off, except it plays radio for a about 30 seconds then flips the face plate out to take and doesn't finish spinning it to the black face. The face isn't lighting at all, none of the buttons work, etc. I'm going to pull it out and see if it's just a loose wire, had that on my friends old Escort, but it tossed an error code for that.

[Box]

Could be loose or corroded ground perhaps. Hopefully something simple and easy anyway.