KZJonny

Read *some* of that over lunch. I guess the takeaway is that it is *fast*? I looks to me like the design and operation principals are the same for the Synchronic as for other piston-type BPV's, except that this one is highly modular and able to be configured in multiple ways. I guess the question for me is a use-case scenario, which always has to be considered vs. cost. For a summer driven car with a JPM Custom VF40, is the milliseconds difference in response time going to be worth double the cost? For me, of course not, but I do appreciate the guy engineering this thing. I think if I had gone with a bigger turbo, or anything exotic and requiring an EWG, this would be the cat's ass and a definite contender. But, strapped on to my bulletproofed stock IC, I think would be a good example of not being able to polish a turd....

I'm surprised that's the case, since they seem to make high quality bits and their stuff gets used on some big name Youtube car building channels. Not argueing the evidence, just expected better from a company that seems to be so well loved. Maybe the low end stuff got shopped offshore as the production volumes increased? Dunno. Either way, the build quality of my Turbosmart, as well as fit and finish were great. The only thing I would consider changing in future would be possibly studding the charge air cooler, so the BPV would just drop on, rather than having to fiddle with bolts, but that's an OCD kind of thing, and I don't think it'll need to come off until I look into getting the Grimmspeed unit to replace my ageing (but bulletproofed) stocker.

So, that pricing was from a while ago, but memory was *about* right. ~$160 USD or thereabout. FWIW - For a variety of reasons I really prefer the full recirc valve, but I do have to add that it does make just a little more noise when recircing back to the intake. In a good way tho, you have to be listening for it. I also think there would be nothing at all wrong with a GFB unit, and I think Grimmspeed makes BPV's now as well? I am kind of find of their stuff for whatever reason. This is just what Cryotune suggested as a good unit, and the price was good. Turbosmart is, to the best of my research, a highly respected brand that sees a little more use in Aus, as that's where they're engineered.

I don’t have any particular brand loyalty personally. High quality at the best price is always my mantra. Or, cheap and gets the job done when needed. The various manufactures of speed parts under my hood don’t seem to be starting a turf war under there, so I’m happy as long as they work well, and my engine runs well.

Even if it does, why pay the premium? I think my Turbosmart Recirc (as recommended by Cryotune) was in the neighbourhood of half that price? I want to say that GFB is also similarly priced, etc.... It may not be fair at all, but I do recall reading some flame wars over the quality of Boomba units somewhere. Maybe not this forum. And they might be great parts, I have no idea. But when known quality suppliers are less money.....

I’d add upgraded pitch stop, and potentially trans mount. Both are fairly inexpensive, and if carving corners and elevation changes are in the cards (my kind of driving as well) they’ll help keep things tighter through the frequent shifts And accel/decel steps… Easy to spend others money tho…

Garage work and tools. Bought a light cannon so I can keep working away on weekdays when I get home and it’s already dark. Don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner, and wasted a bunch of evenings. Will also be useful in the garage once the roof is up, since it won’t have power this winter….

You need to keep using a series of progressively larger sockets. I’ve used the method a couple times now, and it hadn’t failed. As long as that nut is holding the lca in place firmly enough that it won’t be pushed off by the springs as you repeat the process, you should be good. (If it is questionable, a couple of tack welds are a good idea, if you have a Mig….) I want to say I had to get up towards a 7/8” or 15/16” impact grade socket (OD??) before the ball joint popped loose enough a pry bar was able to do the rest. A liberal bath in penetrant, and a cold chisel carefully tapped into the gap in the knuckle complete the assembly… Do I need to mention you want to pack that new ball joint in anti-sieze when it goes in? Pack that bastard in anti-sieze when you install it.

For sure. Of course, the first weekend after posting that photo, we got a 30cm of snow Saturday morning, just in time to ruin the entire weekend's worth of work. It's since melted, but now I'm away with the gf to a cottage for the weekend. This is supposed to be an enjoyable getaway, but part of me (most of me) is going to want to be at home working on this, not sitting by a fire trying to act like I'm relaxed.... ha! Hoping the folllowing weekend there is still no snow... If not, then I have some scaffolding I can borrow and some help lined up to get the trusses up. That'll be a big day. Having a roof up will be great, but there really isn't much to bo done inside. No money for electrical this year, and I didn't plan on insulating it any time soon. I will at least be able to cut all the sheating and roofing materials withoug being snowed on! Shortly after that the the GT will get parked in it until Spring. Fingers crossed it all comes together. You don't get too much done when it's dark at 1700 and you're working alone!

If, like me, you are generally in the DIY category of needs for a welder, then I'd say go for it. That has some nice specs and aside from not coming with a stick holder (which is cheap), and a bottle or mixed gas looks like a pretty good price to me. You could start right away with flux core, or be smart and look around on Craigslist or whatever for someone selling a bottle. Welding with gas is 100% better than flux core. I don't know quite enough about DC welding aluminium to comment, but I know with my TIG, it *can* be done, but isn't nearly as nice and clean as ali welding on AC. So... if you were thinking about doing much work with aliuminium at all, that may be a thing to read up on a little more... I like my Everlast TIG. It welds better than I'm able to take advantage of, and the customer support has been good. Their national warehouse is like 40 minutes from me, which calmed my fear of buying a non-top-name welder, but a few years in so far, and it just keeps going every time I fire it up. If I was in the trade, I'm sure I'd have a Miller, or whatever, but I can't justify the cost when I can replace my Everlast like, twice for the cost of a lightly used Miller/Lincoln/ESAB etc...

Gotcha! I understood you wouldn't touch the cam, I guess I was just thinking if you take too much off the journal, and lose the correct gap = not the correct clearance for oil to stay in a film between the cam and journal = cam death. As you point out, heads are reasonably cheap to just replace entirely, but I had the feeling the cams are spendy. Despite it not being the 'correct way' to do the job, I entirely understand just getting a thing done. If you take your time and only work on it until you don't have any high spots indicated my the machinists dye, I suspect you'd be okay as well. I'm a biochemist, but I've got a lathe and a willingness to make mistakes, so... I feel ya.

Go get that MIG. You'll love it. I got this one a few years ago, and unless you envision MIG welding aluminium, it's frikking great. https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200482378_200482378 Free shipping! I'm in no way associated with Hobart, and my TIG is just a Chinese thing, but getting Miller parts at that price is pretty crazy. I had the chance to grab up a display Hobart EZ TIg from my local Princess Auto. Never did pull the trigger on that, and I'm kicking myself for not. I really like the little Everlast TIG I bought, but for about the same money I could have had something a little nicer and easier to use. My loss. Edit: Sorry, I lied. I got the Handler 140. The smaller brother to that one. https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200471413_200471413 Does all I need it to do, and on a 20A/120V circuit. If I really need to work on thicker metal, I'll use the stick welding function of my TIG welder and spend some time cleaning up spatter. That said, I haven't come across anything automotive yet that has needed more than a 2 pass weld with the little MIG.

Not trying to stop you from doing your own cam journal adjustment, but relative to other things, how much are the cams worth? Only suggesting that if BC cams has suggested a fix, and you go ahead and hone/polish the keeper, and that causes any problems at all like lack of oil, or burning up the bearing surface, you may not be in a good position to get a replacement under warranty. They'd have evidence that something wasn't right, and if you didn't have them re-grind to match the journal... If they're not terribly expensive, then yeah, DIY sounds good. Just a thought.

I so feel this. Going for a drive for me is like going to church for people who have religion, I would think. It is a space to enjoy and be at peace in. This is *going for a drive*, not commuting to work mind you…. The rules I have about drinks/ eating in the car. (do.not.eat.in.my.car.) are a little weird to some people who’ve come along for a ride, but it’s my space. A co-worked of mine once offered me his old phone holder and a handsfree bluetooth setup ‘So I could use my phone in the car while driving’. I gave him the stinkeye and said nothing until he stopped talking and left the room.

Highways got salted last night, so I put away the GT for the season.... Nothing like the first highway onramp "pull" in the 2.5i (auto) to remind me that, yeah... all that work I did and money spent on the GT does make a difference.

It won't account for *that* level of fuel consumption, but I had luck with the broadly recommended Berrymans B-12 Chemtool or BG 44K fuel system cleaners. I saw better idle and slight improvements in fuel economy in my 2.5i and GT after a treatment and some italian tune up driving. Might be a place to start and see where you land after cleaning up the fuel injectors a little?

Maybe I'm not thoroughly attuned to my car and finding the perfect shift, but I refilled with whatever the new formula Mobil 75w90 full synthetic was that I could find, and my trans shifts well and never complains... I still have the DMFW, so I get a little of the shudder on some low speed/rpm gear shifts, but aside from that, very well behaved. Dunno if fluids are better than they used to be when the cocktails were the hot ticket, or I just don't flog my car hard enough to notice.... My original plan had been to use the Mobil as just something to get me by until I had the time/cash to swap out to a Motul or Redline product, but it's just doing it's job really well, so why spend the money? For whatever reason, I do not use Mobil1 motor oil. It's probably fine now too, just too many stories about it not working out in our turbo EJ's.

Oh, I like the roller bearing and double sided tape fix... Looks fast and cheap. Hell. I'd have a flashier lift than car. I own a GT and it is spendy and still not fast.

Front wall framed and almost ready to go up. The big picture. I’m hoping it’s not quite as much work left as it looks like, hah! Definitely be some cold workdays, but I’m in one of the ‘warmer’ parts of Canada, so hopefully it mainly stays above 0C for another couple few weeks.

Yes, that makes the most sense to me. I would've assume that there would be way too much flex in the bottom frame of the jacks to survive being suspended at the four corners. Just checking, since as you say it looked basically like some angle iron and a set of casters bolted to it. It was the price tag that made me think I was missing something about it... $400CAD is a third of what I paid for the jacks, delivered. So I wondered if there was perhaps some devilry going on there I couldn't see. (Certainly being able to push the car around on the jacks could be useful, but when I think of how many casters are on a set of car dollies, I don't see how just 4/jack would work out. Big thanks for the additional photos. I am pretty sure I can fabricate something like that easily enough. Since they are only holding up the weight of the jacks themselves, perhaps a bracket that goes "over" the upper frame member, putting the casters on the 'inside' of the jacks while lowered might be possible, the bracketing wouldn't have to support a whole lot of weight (1/4 the weight of a single jack/corner).... Or just attach the casters to the inside of the frames? I will play around with some ideas and see what I might come up with. It's much less of a priority with the 2-post on the way, but still fun to make the things you have more effective at doing what they do....

Third wall is up, tho not sheathed yet, and front wall is assembled and waiting for help to be raised. My neighbour the framer went ghost on me this weekend when he said he'd come by to help put the front wall up and the roof on, so.... that didn't happen. I've now got a case of Coke and a big bottle of rye to find a home for as well. Hah! This happens when you're relying on other for help tho, and not paying professionals for everything. I'm hope to at least get the wall up, and the building squared this Friday/Saturday, which would mean I have the weekend to start getting trusses up onto the wall in preparation for installation. It's all rather a lot of work for one person with occassional help, but I am flat outta cash for the project, so it looks like it'll be some cold dark work in the evening from now on, and hoping that we don't see too much snow before I can get some ply and membrane on the roof! I'll grab some photos as soon as I am home some day before it gets dark.

How did I not come across this before? That said, those rollers would have been completely useless on my broken ashphalt driveway as it stands. However, when the Quickjacks get cleaned up and moved into the garage, that's a different story. Just so I understand what I'm looking at, are those casters supporting the weight of the car when in use? If so, I can see why they might command a $329 USD price tag. If this is the case, does that mean you can move the car around when up on the jacks? For my own purposes, I would love to be able to not have to carry the stupid things around as much (the rollers that came on the end of mine are nearly useless on all but the smoothest surfaces.) So, making any kind of little bracket with a caster on it would be great, and I don't even need it to be strong enough to support a car, just making them easier to roll into and out of place would be sufficient. Maybe something that flips down into place when the jacks are empty and need to be moved, but can be flipped up out of the way when in use, so they do not need to be able to support 5k lbs, or whatever my quickjacks are rated for, I forget at the moment.

Best of luck on the buildout Holla. I hope your experience with the city goes a little better than mine, tho I have to say nobody there was a real jerk, just trying to understand the way the gov't does/sees things is an interesting experience. I like to think of myself as a no-nonsense/common sense kind of person, and for whatever reason I had just expected the government to work in much the same way, for reasons that seemed pretty obvious to me as the time.... Not so! Hah. Being able to get the second story will be sweet! I suppose I could have gone that way, but it is not permitted to build more than one story on a floating pad like I have... I would have had to have a fully excavated foundation, which would have doubled the cost and I somehow don't think would have been easy to engineer to support a 10k lb lift!?! Not to mention, I think I'd be breaking a pile more bylaws with a second story that started at 13' above grade. (I suspect the neighbours might have had a thing to say about that at the hearing!)

Thanks, hoping it might help others going down the same road. I'd include pricing, but since that is a thing that doesn't maintain much significance, I figured I wouldn't bother for now. Anyone who wants to know can ask. I briefly considered a single larger door, but decided against it for a number of reasons: - 2 x as heavy as a single door, and I am not installing an electric opener to keep maximum ceiling clearance available, so 2 x as hard to lift open and close gently. - Since there will pretty much always be a car in storage in the garage, I don't see a big advantage in the single, you're still backing into a 'single' bay one way or the other, and I'd rather back into the divider wall than my other project car by accident? (Easier and cheaper to fix than a car....) - Winter is frikking cold, and summer is hot. Why open an 18' door, and let heat in/out twice as fast, when you can open an 8' door? - Ease/cost of framing the front wall. Going to a single door meant I would have to use a (Probably a double or triple ply) LVL/SVL beam as a lintel, (@19' or so) over the door opening to meet code, which is $$$$ and also quite hard to get into place solo. With an 8' or 9' single door, I can build a 2 ply lintel from 2x10x10, which is light enough to manage and fairly inexpensive. I could probably get away with 2x8x10 and just meet code, by my reading of it, but for it's only a couple extra dollars for the 2 x 10', so why not? - Final consideration, which is really coming back to help me out right now is that in the event the budget got blown out (which it absolutely has), I can reasonably easily build myself 2 x sets of nice barn doors and hang them off the 2x6 double jack studs supporting the lintels. @ ~4' per door, they shouldn't sag in the middle at all, and I can even get fancy and insulate the back, and put some nice weather stripping all around them, so they will seal every bit as well as an overhead door ever would. This is actually happening, to be clear... They are a luxury I wanted but don't need for any good reason, and I don't have $3.5K for garage doors anymore. Not easy to build doors which are 9' long each! This also means if things look a little better economically over time, I can buy one door then another, if I want/need, splitting up the cost a little. Sorry if that is a little wordy, but I really did give it some thought both ways.... I feel like the main reason people do a single door is more about appearances, and this is in my back yard, where only I will ever see it, and I don't really give a rat's ass what it looks like. If I could get half price siding, but only in hot pink, and chartreuse, I would do it in a heartbeat.

That caught my interest, so I looked up their microcontroller. Neat looking unit. Seems a little spendy to me for what you’re getting, but I would appreciate a tap to signal feature and being able to get a little brighter LED light for turns would be nice as well. (Already tried before, and got hyperflash, should have known better.) Not trying to modernize the car much, but I’ll add safety equipment all day. Thanks for mentioning that piece.