I’m in. I recently concluded (after driving them for many years) that I mostly like BMW E series cars that are fun to drive. And have S54 motors. None of that new turbocharged low-dispacement stuff. Newest in the stable is 13 yrs old.
Minor mods. Occasional track days. Mostly fun to drive and fairly easy to work on.
Here are a few pix of my two competition cars.
Last edited by Medusa; 12-08-2019 at 11:42 PM.
How about a K-series aw11? Would be like a sleeper Lotus elise...Originally Posted by OlongJohnson
The big perk of the 1UZ is that it's DOHC, physically smaller, and you can buy a complete running one in a hoopty old LS400 for $1500 or less.
The PS will be leaking, but the rest of the engine is basically bulletproof even if it lives on the rev limiter.
The 90-95 engines take to boost very well with proper engine management and many folks have done turbo and supercharger setups. It just never took off with aftermarket support like the 2JZ or LS did but that kept it cheap, and for a cheap(er) RWD car that needs ~250hp with boring reliability and a good exhaust note, it does fantastic. Manual trans conversions are plentiful and the 90-95 stock ECU's work fine with manual transmissions after the neutral switch is bypassed. Plus they fit into Miatas and AE86's rather nicely, and both front and rear sump oil pans are available from LS400 or SC400 donors, respectively. It's just not going to make 400whp NA like a heads/cam LS will. With ITB's and a set of Kelfords and hogged out heads, though, it can just not cheaply.
As for the S54, the biggest issue is expense but in the E-Type game that's par for course. E-Types are gorgeous, and absolutely oozing 'soul' but the current market for them demands factory original everything. I was fortunate in that one of the co-owners of the shop I worked at also owned a very serious and hidden E-Type restoration shop and business in ABQ, where he had an employee whose soul job in life was to find, inspect, and buy E-Types in need of restoration. I was very lucky to drive a few S1 and S2 roadsters and coupes that came out of that shop and it's a fantastic experience, but the brakes and suspension do not inspire confidence. Brakes and tires would be far better restomod changes than an S54. Though I suppose if you find the right basket case coupe as a rolling chassis...
But The E-Type is one of the damn few cars I've driven that I felt was 100% just fine exactly as it was. The 70k+ price tags on well kept examples didn't exactly get me excited about modifying it, either.
In all honesty, that's a perfect car to just drive on a nice spring day and find a windy road on with a posted 40mph limit that you occasionally remember. But no matter how well restored they are, they're still British, and beholden to all the Britishy British tendencies that love to ruin a nice drive.
Wholeheartedly agreed that the E36 is a fantastic chassis, no shortage of Supra guys I've seen on forums that stuff Toyota JZ's into E36's to fantastic effect, and a few LS's too. There's a couple local Albuquerque E36's with bigass Borg turbos (usually an S366 or S369SXE) hanging off of their M50's and such. '93 to '95's are great to build because our local inspection is pretty straightforward to pass on OBD-I cars so long as you've got a cat and the car's tuned well. Mixing it with a lightweight engine like a K24 would make for a fantastic car.
SBF's, well, I have mixed feelings about them. The aftermarket support is the best reason to run one, everything about them is heavy and inferior to countless other engines available now. For big HP they're a nightmare (they love to split the block right down the middle around ~450wtq no matter what you do to reinforce it, hence the now discontinued Ford R302 blocks, etc) and for ~300-400hp there's better and cheaper answers these days. Heaven knows I've done plenty of wrenching on Foxbodies owned by good friends and I do love a tastefully kept 5.0L Notchback, but starting from a clean slate I'd chase down any number of other domestic V8's before messing with a 5.0 HO. In the past 3-4 years I've noticed prices climbing steadily on good 5.0HO engines due to Foxbodies getting long in tooth and the supply of junkyard Explorers with donor GT40-head wearing 5.0L's is dwindling rapidly as well.
They do sound just so so sweet with a B-303 cam and longtubes, though.
On 1UZ's: Yes, Toyota heads of that era are not a Gen III LS nor a Honda. With ITB's, Kelford cams, and longtube headers a 1UZ can make 325+whp NA and sound phenomenal with minimal further fuss, but the big benefit is the cheapness of a 1UZ donor, the varying sump configs etc, and how reliable they are. Going for mid-300whp I'd call it a wash between a $1000 donor 1UZ, $1000 worth of Kelford cams, $1000 worth of ITB's, $1000 worth of maintenance bits and cheap chineseium 2UZ Tundra headers, and $1000 worth of standalone ECU/tuning vs $5K for an actually good and complete aluminum block LS swap. Alternatively, a stock 1UZ with the stock ECU and cams with Tundra headers and a manual trans will make ~225whp and 250wtq and cost $1500-2000 complete, minus the manual trans conversion of course. If that kind of HP will do the job, it'll last forever, which makes it great for things like a Miata or AE86 or other light small RWD car that needs a V8 exhaust note.
Once turbochargers are involved, the 1UZ is amazing it's just not regularly explored; the 'big rod' 90-94 1UZ engines can take ~600whp on an unopened block and the sky is the limit with the iron 2UZ-FE block from a Tundra. The only failing is the stock camshaft profile falls off power above 5k no matter how big of of a turbo you have, so cams are a must for big HP.
LS swaps are fantastic but there's a lot of cumulative costs like pushrods, lifters, accessory changes, etc that make a 'cheap' LS turn into a $10k game in a hurry, especially if one is starting with a truck motor. In most cases, I'd recommend finding a ragged out but still running GTO or Fbody for a donor and part out the rest of the chassis after taking what you want.
2JZ swaps have gotten similarly expensive due to lack of good JDM engines and the additional parts required to really swap them into anything.
An old friend of mine had an '87 Turbo 2wd extended cab, and put a 3in exhaust on it, deleted the cats, installed a huge intercooler and shimmed the WG to within an inch of the engine's life, and it'd fry those rear tires as long as he cared to stay in it. Way WAY too much fun for guys barely out of high school, that's for sure!
Now that is a very, very nice FJ62!!! I've always lusted for an LC, two years ago I passed up a triple-locked 80 for $6k and I've still got a bruise on my own ass from kicking myself.
Being out here, it's impossible not to love LC's even more, and I'll be hunting for another 80 or 100 when I get back to take up daily beater/truck duties as needed.
Niiiiice!!! That's a great lift setup too - what brand is that? Do you like it?
I don't particularly care for most modern-ish BMW's, mostly because I hate keeping them up, but the newest ones I'd ever consider are the pair you own. A Z4M coupe with the S54 and 6MT is a simply fantastic car to drive.
Both of these problems can be solved the exact same way - K20/K24's work wonders. I own a '91 SW20 turbo, though when I get back home I'll be fixing its sat-too-long problems and giving it to my brother in law, who has been a fantastic human being and Dad to three kids and never made the time or money for himself to own the fun car he always wanted (he's coveted a Z32 300ZX or a SW20 for years) because he's been too busy being an awesome husband and Dad. It'll be staying on the Gen II 3S-GTE at stock boost with some basic bolt-ons. The only further planned upgrade is a Quaife LSD and a few performance driving school days for him (and me, because that car is fun as hell on our tight, technical local track)
The Gen IV and Gen V 3S-GTE swaps are very popular now and very well-sorted and offer massive HP and response gains over the Gen II, though a Gen II or Gen III still make the most sense if you want to build a 700+hp car that'll delightedly kill you. If I found the right hardtop SW20 it'd be a tough choice for me to go with the Hux racing K swap or a Gen IV-V 3S.
Or we might get it all cleaned up and sell it to fund another Z32, so we can find a 2+2 to bring kids along. Depending on how the driving school days go, I may insist on that, given the 91-92 MR2's tendencies.
FD problems from LS or Rotaries are both equally solved by an SR20DET or K24. De-turboing an REW is a disappointing result that works better on paper than in reality. You keep most of the unreliability but lose at least 100whp.
Ditching all the sequential turbo stuff and otherwise focusing on reliability modifications results in an equally reliable car, but with much more HP.
A very close friend of mine and I have already done the heavy planning on a K swap into an FD, but now he's looking for a hoopty NA1 NSX for a K-swap+Turbo because he's a magnificent and sacrilegious bastard like that.
It's true. Rotary = runs sometimes. It's the most British thing the Japanese have ever made in that regard.
So, so many people have tried but the bottom line with rotaries is that all of the compression forces are on tiny little pieces of very detonation-sensitive real estate with those apex seals, and the various pre-mixing and pre-oiling setups people have attempted never fully fixed the problem. Methanol injection doesn't fix the problem just raises the stakes and number of variables.
And without turbos, Rotaries just don't make enough HP until you get really weird with stuff like 4-rotor builds, which is basically the .454 Casull Mateba Unica 6 of internal combustion engines. It's neat as hell and I'd love to see more in person, but I have absolutely no desire to embark on the problems or expense of building or owning one.
Piston engines are simply better.
04's are my favorite year of STi's despite all the 'character' simply because that was the only year that an STi was all-freakin-business in the US. All of the teething issues can be addressed with newer parts, but getting a short-geared 6MT in a no-sunroof anything these days is a pain in the ass. If I ever own a Subaru again, It'll be an '04 STi, or that kind of driveline stuffed into a GC8 coupe.
That BMW is simply awesome, too!
Focusing on a specific racing discipline does wonders for mitigating project creep. Doing what you did is a hell of a lot smarter than building too many cars to silly levels for nebulous reasons... as much fun as that is just by itself.
[MENTION=11419]OlongJohnson[/MENTION]
On XJ's: Find a ~92 or later 4.0L 4x4 auto. Preferably, find one that's stock, or at least at stock-ish ride height. Keep an eye out for rust, especially on the frame rail where the steering box mounts. Pay particular attention to the steering box mounting area on any XJ with a lift and bigger tires, as that likes to waller itself out and cause massive problems.
~97?-2001 models got a nicely updated interior but tend to command a premium because of that, and the old 4.0L likes to have weird OBD-II problems at times so I personally prefer a '92-95.
Way too many Jeep people put on worthless lift kits that improve very little when off-roading. Until you get into really good rock-crawling maximal articulation setups, it's all of dubious value.
It's amazing how much shit you can get into and out of in an XJ with 31's and a basic spacer & shackle ~1-2in lift, which doesn't totally fuck up how easy they are to drive around town, or gas mileage.
It's harder and harder to find a stock one these days, but worth the effort and premium it may fetch. Be mindful of flood damaged/water damaged Jeeps from the south. A shiny new exhaust and similar replaced parts should be heavily scrutinized, like the frame rails.
Last edited by JRB; 12-09-2019 at 02:19 AM.
Really cool thread.
Bert Gummer is my spirit animal
My neighbor has a lift like that but he isn't a car guy. He lets me use it for my mower maintenance and repairs. It's a pretty slick unit.I’m in. I recently concluded (after driving them for many years) that I mostly like BMW E series cars that are fun to drive. And have S54 motors. None of that new turbocharged low-dispacement stuff. Newest in the stable is 13 yrs old.
Minor mods. Occasional track days. Mostly fun to drive and fairly easy to work on.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
It's still more reliable than anything the British have built.
But if you really want a nightmare scenario how about a British-built rotary? Imagine all the worst things about a shed-built British vehicle, with one of the least reliable engine designs on the planet shoved inside the frame. You'd have to decide if it was getting all British over you or all Mazda over you. But one thing is for sure, if there wasn't a puddle of oil under it, you'd know it didn't have any oil in it.
Reminds me of some jokes:
Why do British cars leak oil?
To mark their territory.
___
Why did Satan refuse to let Joseph Lucas into Hell?
He didn't want to compete with the real Prince of Darkness.
___
Why do the British drink warm beer?
Because Lucas makes refrigerators too.
___
How do you impress a girl on a first date?
Show up in a running British car.
__
What's the best way to get in shape?
Drive a British car, you'll walk every where.
___
How do the Brits make the safest cars on the planet?
Easy, they never work.
__
Finally - how do you permanently fix a British car?
Jack up the radiator cap and park something different under it (note: you'll have to push the Brit out of the way).
____________
For stupid reasons, I want to stuff a 1UZ into the FJ Cruiser (actually, into an FJ40...). It makes zero sense, since the 1GR-FE is an exceptionally reliable hunk of iron (excepting that tendency to burn O2 sensors). A stock 1UZ doesn't make any more horsepower than a 1GR, it doesn't really make an appreciable amount more torque than the 1GR, yet that's my silly American inside. "Bigger is better!" I know, I could supercharge the 1GR and get more power and it's true they finally seemed to have cracked the code on tuning the stock ECMs, in lieu of running a stand-alone or the weaksauce factory TRD tune. But blowers are for little engines or big engines...naturally aspirated V8s belong in trucks - it's as American as apple pie and obesity.
And yes, I know, I drive off-road as often as I need to buy a new gun. But that's not going to stop me from staring longingly at a +2" long-travel kit from Total Chaos for the truck. Because, you know I have this thing where I love suspension.
Like, I enjoy engines and drivetrains in general, but I'm a suspension nerd. For 10-years I've had a subscription to Racecar Engineering magazine - https://www.racecar-engineering.com/ - because NERD. Telemetry graphs, aero heat maps, wind tunnel results, camber curves, it's crack to the nerd in me. When I setup the suspension on my Comet, I went to historic racing events and looked at the suspension setup on old Shelbys and Trans-Am cars, I called Cobra Automotive and asked for tips. The car has a lot of little tricks in it that make it handle extremely well for a 60+ year old suspension design. I LOVE to look at different suspension solutions people have created - long-travel off-road suspension is especially cool to me, the forces, the articulation, etc.
If I were building something from scratch, I'd probably build a push-rod type suspension setup. Something with massive articulation to keep the contact patch planted at all times. I've dreamt of tearing the suspension of the Comet out, doing a push-rod suspension setup front and rear. First time I dreamt of it, I planned to just go back with a stroked SBF (like a 427 Windsor). But these days a 5.2 Voodoo would be the ticket. Flat-plane crank - it would fucking howl. Would be amazing. Alas, I think this will always be a dream.
But seriously, suspension is awesome - I mean let's think about how awesome the suspension has to be on a rally car to do this:
Yes, having a lift makes so many things easier.... storage, oil changes, brake work, wheel/tire changes...
I like cars because they all teach me something.
First car: 1981 VW Dasher diesel: Taught me how to drive Socal freeways with a four speed and 48 HP. On the floor all the time. Took my driver's test in it on my 16th Bday and was always proud I got my license in a stick. 40+mpg is a great thing when poor in High School. Great handling and braking.
Mid 70s Chevy truck with 350: Taught me three on a tree shifting and first taste of a V-8
1964 Dodge Dart GT slant 6: Taught me that old cars suck, drum brakes suck, non assisted steering and brakes sucks, Carter single barrel carbs suck, bias ply tires suck. But it also was my first carb rebuild and it taught me how to run and start a carbureted vehicle in Chicago winters. Taught me how to survive driving across the desert with no A/C and overheating by lowering all the windows and blowing the heater. Started to teach me the mechanics of fixing stuff because little stuff was constantly breaking, but I never got stranded because almost everything could be fixed on the spot. But mostly I hated my three years and eight LA-Chicago trips with that car. I feel lucky to have survived and never rear ended anyone, actually.
1988 Mustang GT: 13 years of perfecting 5 speed shifting, and heel and toe. First ever open track driver's school and several auto crosses. Learned that snow tires dominate 4WD/AWD without snows in MI winters. Taught me rudiments of suspension tuning, and OBD inquiries. Taught me about snap oversteer and general performance driving. And that a mountain bike will fit in the back with the Hatchback. And the sound, with twin Borla exhausts was just beautiful. Also Bilstein>Koni.
1970 Dad's Pontiac Le Mans with tuned 455 with some special heads or something. Taught me the difference between torque and TORQUE. Only drove a couple times but dear God.
1999 Honda Element 5-speed: Taught me that a car doesn't have to have much power to be a hell of a lot of fun. Also, much better at hauling a bike than the GT. Taught me the beauty of Honda engines/shifters/suspension. Beautiful around town driver. Zippy and fun in a way the Mustang never could imagine. Made me a Honda fan for life.
1999/2006 Honda Odysseys: Taught me that minivans excel at daily driving tasks, especially hauling a mountain bike everywhere. Much better than the Element. I will never not own a minivan.
2005/2017 Full Sized Chevy vans: Taught me there is no substitute for the big van when you want to haul family and gear. Suburbans and such can't even come close in this application. These crude vans just run and run and run. The 6.1 is better than the 5.3 btw unless you love gas mileage. I have fond memories of pulling into the Disney hotel and being the only van, and the only vehicle there without a giant turtle hauler on the roof. They are basic, but man do they haul. Also taught me that Chevys can be reliable which I never imagined to be the case coming from a Japanophilic/Ford family.
2001 Toyota 4Runner: Taught me why the third gen 4runners are so highly regarded. Replaced shocks and tires on a 180,000 mile vehicle when we bought it. Drove 7 years, did nothing else other than oil changes. Also taught me I won't off road nearly as much as I dream about it, and that good off road cars are terrible on road cars. Also typical boring Toyota driving experience. It was amazing and I don't miss it at all. I find it interesting that I almost forgot to list it.
2018 Toyota Highlander: Amazing driving appliance with zero soul. But it does have a giant place to put a purse between the seats so my non gearhead wife is happy.
2002 Z3: Taught me that having a nimble, manual shift sports car simply has to always be a part of my life. Doesn't have to be fancy. It's as essential as a minivan.
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