Retired an old friend

 

This was is the steering wheel I've been using for the last 9 years. I bought this on Ebay, in 2003 for $50. It is from a special edition Saab 900, made by Momo, from 1983. I've seen one other person with this wheel in my life, and it was in a magazine.

It has lasted me for quite some time. The steering wheel is almost as old as I am! Anyhow the leather was getting really torn, and wasn't really working too well with my gloves. I began to search for a replacement.

I started searching on Craigslist, and found this. Its a 5Zigen N1R. It is supposed to be a pretty rare piece. The kid I bought it from wasn't too knowledgeable and probably wanted to get rid of it because he bought a Chinese copy Nardi. Anyhow, I bought it for $50. It was worth driving far and speaking with him (he wasn't very pleasant) just to score this deal! Anyhow I felt good about putting this wheel on my car, since its pretty vintage in itself. It is stamped "1993".

I found a great place for my now retired piece though. It took its rightful place in my man-cave among some of my other automotive treasures!

Using fire to bond metal to metal

I welded for the first time ever! Made my  new battery tray, and in the process Mr. Pfeiffer had me do most of it my myself. Also fixed the exhaust hanger, because for some reason I break a lot of exhausts. I'm pretty proud of myself because it doesn't look like one of Mark E's welds (think boogers) and I didn't hurt myself. Of course, Alex has a very expensive welder, and he set it up for me.

Third exhaust I've broken. Its not cracking here ever again.

Battery bracket!

Cooling Blues

The last track outing I had was a blast, but wasn't without its setbacks. Leaving my car in storage for the past 2  years definitely took its toll, and showed me what I needed to fix/improve on. It was my first time with my new suspension components, engine tune, and brakes.
 The issue with open track event was with my cooling system. I always bought parts that were overkill for the car, so that I could beat on it without any worries of breaking anything. My cooling system (minus the massive oil cooler) has always been "adequate" but for some reason, the car was overheating after about  3 consecutive laps at the Streets of Willow.

I was using an OEM 2-row, which up till this point, has been great. I still recommend one to anyone with an AE86. However, since the fluid was brown I wasn't sure if its condition or the fluid in the car. I decided to do a full flush on the system, and at the same time hunt for a new radiator

OEM 2-Row AE86 radiator, brass, with my Flex-A-Lite fans

There are actually several choices for performance radiators for the AE86. I specifically looked at 4 different ones: Griffin, Koyo, Chinese copies of Koyo (including Mishimoto), and OEM rebuilt.

The Griffin, as explored by this article (http://www.driftday.com/Griffin%20test.htm) seemed like the top choice for me. However, Griffin apparently doesn't stock this radiator, and I heard some horror stories about them sending out multiple radiators that simply didn't fit at all.

I considered an OEM rebuilt, from a local radiator shop. These shops seem to be dying, since most radiators these days are plastic. The one I spoke with has been around for a while, but the guy was kind of a jerk. He quoted me $80-$120 depending on what needed to be done. I always love customer stuff, so this stayed on my radar.

The Chinese copies have come a long way. You can find them on Ebay now for around $100. I've always stayed away from these though, as I always felt a bit uneasy about putting my car's safety as well as my own in their hands.

The last choice, the Koyo, was something I had pondered in the past. Luckily I found one for the right price. It wasn't my first choice, but considering their racing history and their attention to detail and quality, it became my choice.

Koyo, so fresh and so clean, right out of the box.

The radiator itself is pretty thick. Its 2-row, all aluminum. The first thing I noticed was the weight. It was a lot lighter than my brass 2-row. The construction was top notch. Fitment was a bit tight, but still went in without any real problems. I had to trim the upper radiator hose since the radiator neck is a tad bit closer to the engine due to the increased width. I installed my fans, and also noticed they are a lot closer to the water pump pulley than before.

OEM 2-row out...

New 2-row Koyo in!

After flushing the system the prior day with Johnny Mac (thanks again!), we found that a lot of the water was totally brown. We flushed out all the nasty brown water and replaced it with clean distilled water with some water wetter. With fresh water and a new radiator, I hope everything is now going to be alright. There's an Extreme Speed track event this weekend, so hopefully I'll get to test everything out!