Speed Racer X

That would be awesome. Thanks!

Speed Racer X

Here are some of the pieces I had media blasted. I need to do a little final touchup in some spots and need to get some primer on these asap.

Speed Racer X

OK. Here are a bunch of updates. Vehicle is just about as "torn down" as I need it to be to a) replace or restore whatever's rusty or b) degrease and clean before beginning the reassembly process. Please realize, I've been tearing things down, locating things, verifying hoses & wires both factory and Carroll, etc so... so she is still very dirty.

First. My project was at a standstill as I worked to get the battery tray out. May I use profanity here? LOL. All I can say is that was a PITA. The spot weld cutter/bit took care of half of the spot welds but the rest were so rusted over and hard to find that a buddy of mine came over today with his grinder and we used a grinding wheel and cutoff wheel to finish the job.

Here is the battery tray carnage. Not only was the tray rusty but it rusted a little bit of the cross support piece and the Carroll coolant expansion tank that was mounting below it. An exact replacement expansion tank will be here in a couple days. In two of the pix, you can also see the plastic conduit that holds the power cables for the Carroll stereo trunk Amp that come up through that corner of the battery tray.








Jacobs Rev Limiter



Jacobs Ignition



Antenna for the remote mount Whistler Radar Detector



Meth Injection Pump is out - going to Carroll for inspection shortly.
New Carroll OE hoses coming and new K&N filter.



Supercharger piping & Intake Manifold, etc will be polished & cleaned up.
Have enough room now to clean everything up.
Cause of oil on valve cover was a bad PCV valve and grommet. It also did not have a hose clamp on it but not sure if it needs one or not. Will be corrected.

Speed Racer X

Poor baby's waiting for Spring now...





Another piece I had blasted...




Next job is to tack in the new battery box, clean up that area, start some priming and paint work, etc.

Thanks for looking.

Speed Racer X

New coolant expansion tank came in today. It is the exact one Carroll used. Just need to paint it black like the original was painted and lower the psi to about 8 psi. This will replace the rusted-out one that you can see in the picture above.

BADNBLK

iTrader: (11)

Very cool and rare project you got there. I'm no history buff, but ultra rare unique 3rd gens peak my interest

formula forever

I did read about these in a high performace mag. pretty cool car.

Speed Racer X

Update...too cold to work outside on the car so I did some cleaning and polishing. I'll do some final hand-polishing before I put everything back together.

Some before pix:







After pix:













The only thing I'm struggling with is that although the IM, TB, and Runners are now degreased and clean; I don't know what to do to get the oxidation off. Should I just scotch-brite them? Has anyone ever used aluminum brightener? If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Thx!

...

SweetRevelation

this is very cool, what a gem!
subscribed!

subroc

iTrader: (2)

When i cleaned up my plenum and runners i used a softish wire wheel on a drill. Just keep it moving around with light pressure and you should be able to get rid of all that oxidation without ruining the factory finish.

Im going to add that ive been following this thread since the beginning and havent posted yet. That is one AWESOME car and im glad its getting the attention it deserves.

Speed Racer X

Thanks for the tip and thanks for the kind words. My son and I have so much to do it seems very daunting.

I'll also add that this project would not be possible without the help of the builder himself - Greg Carroll. I've met him twice now and the amount of help, knowledge shared, original or exact replacement parts made available, and just his overall ability to "fill in the blanks" about the car has been a HUGE help. His patience to answer all my "where did this wire go" and "was this factory or part of your package or original owner modded" questions has been amazing.

Here is my son with Greg Carroll.




I'll keep posting updates as I can.

SweetRevelation

If I were you, I would ask Greg to sign the dash afterwards... à la Carroll Shelby!

SweetRevelation

double post please delete thank you very much have a good one bye for now!

SweetRevelation

like, get the dash pocket signed y'know?
In gold marker...

GICATA

Totally cool...especially getting to meet the creator and get a pic in your garage!!!
I love 1 of just a few cars, thank you for sharing this one with us!! Keep going forward on it!

burnout88

A really great project!! A lot of work to be done but stay slow and steady and it will be well worth it in the end.

burnout88

I believe street and performance has a service to restore the factory finish.

http://www.hotrodlane.cc/

Will probably have to call them about it.

insomniac

iTrader: (3)

what a great car

punkmaster98

iTrader: (5)

AMAZING

Speed Racer X

Update:

About two weeks ago, I did some additional disassembly so I could properly clean the engine bay. I also spent considerable time on the aluminum parts to get the oxidation off as you can sort of see on the runners.

I then degreased the engine bay.

BEFORE...















AFTER...











I'm not done cleaning yet but this part HAD to be done before I could do anything else, i.e. battery tray, replace various parts, reinstall old and new parts, etc...

Next up is battery tray and some minor paint work & rust touchup.

Then I can start to put her all back together.

Now that the weather is getting nice, this should move a little faster.

xcalibur

Am I crazy, or does this 'bird seem to have a high ride height ? Check the shots from the sides. Seems to be a larger than normal gap from the top of the tire to the top of the wheel arches in the pictures. My stock '89 Formula 350 seemed to ride much lower. Did someone replace the WS6 springs or something ? Does it have the orig size tires on it ?

Speed Racer X

Because it's on ramps?
Because there are only 30K miles so the suspension never really dropped?
Because the front bumper is off and it creates an illusion?
Because of the possible camera angle?

I honestly don't know why it appears that way. It is all stock WS6 and stock-sized tires.

subroc

iTrader: (2)

While its apart to that point are you planning on pulling the fuel rail and sending the injectors out for service or replacement? For the amount of time the car sat i would highly recommend getting them cleaned and flow-tested before you button it back up. Or the other option is to just replace them.

Speed Racer X

Wasn't planning on it only because the car runs and purrs like it's brand new. Idles as smoothly as my 2009 G8.

Not disagreeing with you, just haven't seen a symptom that would push me to do this although there's nothing wrong with precautionary maintenance.

I will look into this now. Thank you.

subroc

iTrader: (2)

Im just going on what would happen to me. Id have it all buttoned up and ready to go only to have the injectors clog up and have to take it apart again lol. If its running that good however then maybe your fine but i just dont bother taking those chances anymore.

88WS-6

That car is awesome. Good luck with it.

xcalibur

There are a LOT of pix here. I made that comment on the second picture from the beginning of the thread, where your beautiful buggy is sitting alone in the driveway, in front of the fence. Is it on ramps in THAT picture ?

Speed Racer X

Blast, Sand, Clean, Prime, Paint... My Wife's Grandmother was nice enough to allow me to use her carport. LOL.

Speed Racer X

Replaced this mess




With this...






Cleaned up and re-ran all the Jacobs Wires. Had to repair one.

91 Droptop

Hey that stuff looks familiar, There is a guy in TX in case you ever need a rebuild, I just had mine done

90firebird

With regards to those Paxton SN superchargers: since you have everything apart, I would highly recommend getting acquainted with its current condition and determining whether it needs work. These superchargers are self contained and required fairly frequent oil changes (I believe similar increments to engine oil), and when people lag on maintenance or up the boost, the supercharger itself will easily become damaged. I know this, as I owned a 91 formula that was paxton supercharged. I purchased the car minus the blower, as the previous owner had damaged it (most likely from neglecting the maintenance) and had it removed from the car.

On a side note: my '91 was driven by a high school kid before me

91 Droptop

What was this used for? the water injection? I have not redone my system

Speed Racer X

Thanks. Original owner was a fluid maintenance freak. He followed Carroll's recommendation in the Carroll manual for the sc. Sc has about 23000 miles on it. Having said that, you are right as these have been known to wear out and need rebuilding. Because of that, Carroll gave me guidance on what to check and how to check the sc. She is tight and seems good. There is someone out your way who rebuilds these if it comes to that.

Carroll, the builder of the car, had a background in plumbing, engineering, audio, autos, among other things. He took an idea that is still in use today in home water systems and applied it to the coolant system of the Formula. He tapped into the radiator and ran a line to this tank which mounts near the charcoil cannister. It's psi gets lowered to about 8 psi. So, when the coolant system is filled this tank and its expandable bladder allows for expansion and contraction creating a sealed system that is supposed to require less maintenance and avoid excess overflow back into the plastic coolant overflow tank.

Since my goal is to stay true to the original Carroll build, she's going back on.

91 Droptop

How do they have the water/meth injection setup? I am putting my Paxton back on and am curious on how they did theirs.

Speed Racer X

Ingenious for 1989 and very complex to my layman's eyes. Let me dig up something for you.

Speed Racer X

Been busy on the car the last couple of weekends. A few updates.

Yes, I know I'm crazy but I was taking NO chances!





Done!




Got the charcoal cannister and the expansion tank in place. Did some touchup to the cap on the tank too so it's all black like original.



Wired up the jacobs ignition, jacobs rev limiter, new coil, MSD pigtail so I wouldn't have to splice the factory wires.

Speed Racer X

Fixed both headlights. Someone poured crumbs in here!

musclecar70sfan

iTrader: (1)

Wow, definitely glad I stumbled across this. Very interesting to watch builds on super rare cars such as yours. Keep up the good work!

Speed Racer X

Found some pix of when we brought her home. That's my good buddy Kev towing it with his Dodge Viper Truck. 500hp towing 400hp. LOL.

Speed Racer X

Busy weekend. Updates...

Meth system laid out. Cruise Vac ball put in place in front of where the big K&N sits. Meth pump, solenoid, and all lines installed. Supercharger and all related plumbing put back in place.

Here are the pix

Speed Racer X

Video of first start in 6 months since the light resto began...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsv4mQZFqlE

Car exhaust will be even quieter once the original muffler & tailpipe go back on shortly.

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

Sounds great !!!

2007xl50

Very sweet car man, glad you saved her and she will be in her glory once again. I don't know how someone could have a one of a kind car and just let it sit dirty like that for 12 years. Issue or not I would have had someone clean her up now and then. Oh well now she is in good hands. Your son is one lucky kid.

BlwnSS

get this car up and running , do you have anyone that can tune this so as it doesnt blow up . and how do those belts do as far as belt slip on there.

Speed Racer X

Believe it or not, they are the original belts and are in really good shape, compared to the Gates serpentine belt I replaced. If the oe triple belts fail, Carroll has a single belt to fit the pulley if needed. Plus, she's on a mild 8psi boost.

As far as tuning...the builder programmed the proms on these cars back when they were put together. Not much has changed on the car since and over the 23000 miles since the SC was added so it should still be good. If not, Carroll can reprogram a prom if needed. I think he still has his equipment.

91 Droptop

Any way you can get a pic of how the Alt is mounted from below? I am putting mine back on but I am suffering a brain fart

Speed Racer X

PM'd you a couple pix.

Speed Racer X

Updates...

Front end is all back together, including all the previously-rusty parts I blasted, cleaned, primed and painted.

Gauges are back in and work great. Fuel pressure gauge is NOS that I luckily found. Vac/boost gauge was fine. Trans temp comes up very slowly - probably because of the auxilary cooler that's part of the VHO package. Trans temp gauge - I got as much rust off as I could (rust dissolver, sand paper, etc) then quickly shot it with some clear to stop any further rust. I'm going to have to take a dremel to it with a sanding tip as the unsightly rust bothers me.

The only item that has changed from Carroll's original package was the addition of a Ray Snubber right before the fuel pressure gauge. Greg Carroll talked me into this one, non-original change as it stops the gauge needle from bouncing all over the place and thereby reducing the life expectancy of the gauge, which is probably why this one needed to be replaced. It works as planned. Fuel pressure gauge needle does not bounce.

Not in pix but I also put freshly painted wiper arms back on and new OE style wiper blades.

Sorry for the hood pic of the gauges. Car is still dirty from pollen.

Next up is checking/bleeding the brakes (they need it bad), wiring up all the Carroll Audio, putting the interior back together, and then working on the paint.

Pix...

Speed Racer X

Almost forgot. Took it for a spin around the block a couple of times just to see how she feels. Aside from the brakes needing some attention, you can't squash the gas pedal without laying some rubber!!! Gotta love Super Charger Torque!!! I only did it twice for about a second each time. I don't want to hurt her but one must do some testing. LOL.

aaron7

iTrader: (7)

This car is amazing. The story is amazing. And luckily, the quality of work being applied to it is equally amazing! Awesome work!!

Can't wait to see that sound system... if you need ANY help with that vintage gear head on over to link !