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  • My plan is to register it in a county that doesn't require smog (except for transfer of ownership). There is a county up near Sacramento that is smog exempt, so I'm going to take the car to the track one day and move my residence to a PO box in that county while I'm there.

    As for FI... probably not. My other PGT was M62 supercharged once upon a time. I have a twin screw supercharger waiting to be rebuilt that I had always planned to put on here, but I don't know if I really care to do that anymore. There's still the problem of the trans at that power.

    It really depends on how satisfied I am with this car at the end of this stage. If its fast and fun to drive, then I'll probably put together a decently high revving ZE, considering I have that CZT manifold, a full ZE, ferrea titanium valvetrain, and colt race cams all sitting in my garage) and see how that treats me. After that... not sure. Maybe transplant the motor to another project car like a MG Midget or RX7 or something.

    edt: oh and I also have nitrous, so that could fit in there somewhere. I dunno.

    double edit: I drove the car earlier and the timing made a SIGNIFICANT difference, so that's nice!
    Last edited by proboner; June 18, 2017, 10:05 PM.
    Beautiful Beast- 1997 PGT in process of becoming an SC/NA Beast...
    Elo- 1990 BMW 325i weekend car
    Brunhilde- 2003 BMW Z4 3.0 6-speed daily driver
    The Beast- Sleeping in the junkyard...

    Comment


    • Your trans will be fine with the M62, mines been fine for 2 years of boosting (1 year at 3.6PSI and another at 6PSI). My 36-1 wheel was 2deg off my stock 6-0 wheel but mines an OD pulley for the SC.
      Supercharged - 94' PGT: ZE, MS2, W/M Injection, weight reduced, manual steering because weekend race car! mods and pics thread
      Turbocharged - 06' WRX: 3" exh, ECUTEK ROM, MRT intercooler, VF34 pic
      Nitrous Oxide - 79' Yamaha QT50 'Yamahopper' 70cc, MLM pipe, VM18 carb, dual stage reeds etc. pic

      Comment


      • The M62 is long gone at this point.

        Were I to go FI I'd be using the clutched twin screw supercharger off the c32amg which makes 350hp on that car... hopefully much more on mine!

        I'm super curious about this timing situation. I've got my base timing at like 37* right now and the car is SO MUCH faster than it was. It just doesnt seem realistic that it could be off by that much, but it runs so much better than before that it cant be wrong. Also, my timing light stopped working so that's great.
        Beautiful Beast- 1997 PGT in process of becoming an SC/NA Beast...
        Elo- 1990 BMW 325i weekend car
        Brunhilde- 2003 BMW Z4 3.0 6-speed daily driver
        The Beast- Sleeping in the junkyard...

        Comment


        • So many posts, so few pictures...

          Anyways, when I drove the car last night there were a ton of things that were just pissing me off about it, so today while I was at work I made a list of grievances and put together a schedule of how to go about fixing them. Well tonight was timing and throttle night. Went to Harbor Freight after work and bought a new timing light to see if I could get this weird timing situated and sure enough, this one confirmed I need a base timing of 35* to get a fixed 10* BTDC. Weird stuff.

          The other issue was that the throttle was sticking up at around 3500rpm and I'd have to give it a blip to get it back down to idle. Basically the spring that came with this 75mm Mustang TB is worthless and doesn't have nearly enough tension, so I went to O'Reilly today and bought an assortment of throttle return springs and hooked 2 up... SO MUCH BETTER.

          As a reward and with this newly dialed in base timing, I took her to the gas station to dilute some fuel injector cleaner added to the tank and drove her along a route home that would allow me to do a full 2nd gear and partial 3rd gear pull and I've gotta say, this bitch PULLS above 5500. Everything below that is pretty lack luster... probably a bit faster than a stocker, but good lord, once it gets into those high revs it just pulls and pulls. I have the rev limiter set to 8k and I feel like it wants to push right through that! And this is a DE no less!

          I said this the first time around when I had this manifold installed on my old ZE (like 8 years ago!); any form of stock manifold absolutely eats the power up top. With a stock DE (other than bolt on's, MS, and this IM) I swear this thing wont hit peak hp until after 8k. I think it may just be enough motivation to put together the ZE motor with Ferrea titanium valvetrain and colt race cams that I have sitting in my garage and see what kind of power that puts down revving up to and perhaps past 9k!
          Last edited by proboner; June 20, 2017, 09:05 PM.
          Beautiful Beast- 1997 PGT in process of becoming an SC/NA Beast...
          Elo- 1990 BMW 325i weekend car
          Brunhilde- 2003 BMW Z4 3.0 6-speed daily driver
          The Beast- Sleeping in the junkyard...

          Comment


          • Originally posted by proboner View Post
            So many posts, so few pictures...

            well at least your thread doesn't look like this fool!

            list of a thousand mods but a pic of some rear ksports and some tie rods lol

            https://forums.probetalk.com/showthr...p?t=1701318911


            but keep up the good work

            and yes you need more pics lol

            Comment


            • This car and I are so fickle these days.

              Exhaust has been exhausting. I searched high and low trying to find the answer to what I was going to do with that exhaust. Initially, as an experiment I threw in one of the exhaust inserts and it just killed the power. I am going to formally state that those inserts were a complete waste of money... rob enormous amounts of power and do nothing to quiet things down. So the searched continued.

              The other day I found the Cherry Bomb Vortex muffler which promised to be a mix of chamber and glasspack, and decided this may be the answer. In my research I also read that exhaust wrap has also been known to quiet things down, so I decided that would be in order as well.




              The muffler and wrap came Saturday evening and Sunday I got to work.


              I started by cutting off the Flowmaster muffler and welding the Vortex in its place. I reconnected it with the exhaust and could hardly contain myself as I went to start that car and... click. No go. The stupid battery died for the 2nd time in 2 years. I hooked it up to the trickle charger to see if I could bring it back from the dead, but in the mean time, I'd wrap my downpipe.

              Watched a video before hand to note the nuances, and it looked pretty straight forward. Wet the role and went to work. As a note I had 25' of wrap and used the entire thing! Wish I had a bit more as there are a couple spots that weren't covered, but overall I'm happy with it.


              Reinstalled the downpipe and crossmembers and took a drive to O'Reilly to get a new battery. Sure enough, upon install, she started right up. Man does this battery crank quickly! The old had obviously seen better days!

              Anyways, the car is slightly quieter, but sounds very much the same. Took her out for a few quick pulls and once again, making power up to 8k. Gave my girlfriend for a ride and I think that may be the last one for a while! She's scared to ride in it, I think partly because it's fast and partly because it hardly feels like there's anything separating you from the road. It's a visceral experience to say the least. I'll take a video this week to give an idea of the sound, but it's nothing special.

              Thankfully I realized the Vortex muffler may not be enough, so I ordered a 28" glasspack as a last resort as well. That should be here in a couple days and we'll see if that FINALLY solves the exhaust issue. Once that's done, it's off to get in weighed and after a bit more tuning, some base line dyno runs.
              Beautiful Beast- 1997 PGT in process of becoming an SC/NA Beast...
              Elo- 1990 BMW 325i weekend car
              Brunhilde- 2003 BMW Z4 3.0 6-speed daily driver
              The Beast- Sleeping in the junkyard...

              Comment


              • this sucks you know photobucket getting everyone

                i am on a few other car forums and photobucket is killing so many peoples threads

                then they want you to pay like a s..t load of money to have a bunch of pics

                Comment


                • Yeah, **** photobucket.

                  A few things have happened, and as per the usual they have not been bad and good. I finally decided to go to the SMART station (basically the dump) the other day to weigh this bitch, as she's never been. Was very excited considering I've done quite a bit of weight reduction and wanted to get an idea of where she clocks in. I'd never really had a target weight to hit, so much as I just wanted to remove as much as possible and see where that'd get me. In the back of my head though, I think I'd always been shooting for 2200-2300lbs.

                  So I arrive at the SMART station and talk to the attendant and tell her I just want to see what my car weighs. She looks behind me and see there are a number of other vehicles in line, and tells me to drive around and head towards the scale at the exit. I drive down, pull a U, and stop on the scale. I look up to the digital screen and see a less than exciting 2,720 lbs. As if to confirm my dismay, the attendant peeks her head out of the booth and yells 2,720 pounds!

                  Yikes folks. Now let's be clear, I was in the car at the time and weigh 175lbs, so doing some quick subtraction we can see the car is actually right around 2550lbs. Really not a number to be upset about. That's a pretty darn light car. BUT SERIOUSLY. I've stripped so much as every unnecessary wire out of this thing! I chiseled off all the interior sound deadening, emptied out the doors, and made my own ****ing wiring harness! I hopped on PT to check the kinds of numbers others were getting...

                  It just didn't add up! I mean I do have a 97 PGT, which between probes and mx6's is probably the heaviest of them all. But others had seem to put in much less work to get a car that was at least one or two hundred pounds lighter than mine. Motivation for the project had never been lower. To compound the situation, this is my VE table for the current setup:


                  Pay no attention to the red blob in the upper left, I have a 75mm TB and the AE isn't tuned yet. But look at those VE numbers at 100kpa at high rpms! Stock PGT's have VE's in the 100's, I'm looking at the low 70's! What gives! So I decided to sit down and think about the project rationally. Honestly, I'm over the car. The Z4 really clinched it. I now make enough money that I can move out of the world of cheap fwd cars, and this is really a remnant of my past. But I have goals for this thing all the same! I cant just leave it like this after having this project for so long! So I decided to make a list of what I really want out of the car, and the steps I need to take to get there. So here is that list:

                  1) Weight at 2,450 or below- I've come up with 2 solutions to address this
                  A) FD RX7 Rims- The wheels/tires on the car now weigh 200lbs total, I can reduce this by 60-70lbs by going with FD's
                  B) Exhaust- Haha! Getting back into it! can probably lose another ~30lbs with my newest research

                  2) Dyno over 200whp- 2 possible ways to achieve this as well
                  A) Dyno in current setup, which I'm sure will not be 200whp. Once that fails...
                  B) Put the ZE in my garage together with Interprep springs and Colt race cams, install, dyno again

                  3) Run 13's N/A- Pretty sure this wont be an issue with the reduced weight and highly modified ZE

                  Well after making this list, I spent today trying to work on what I assumed was a possible issue with the low VE... it wasn't. I then set about washing the Z4 and soon came to an idea. Soon after I was in the car driving back to the SMART station. It was past closing time, but I had a thought that maybe they kept the scales open so I could use them without feeling rushed. I pulled the Z4 around to the same scale I had used before and looked at the readout... 4500lbs! WTF! These cars are said to weigh ~3000lbs, so obviously the scale is way off. I drove around to the front scale to see if it would be any better, and sure enough 3060lbs popped up on the screen. Much success! Drove back home, got in the PGT, drove back, drove onto the scale, 2,350lbs! Bam! So I'm already 100lbs below my new goal weight, and still planning to drop another 100.

                  I guess its dyno time next...
                  Beautiful Beast- 1997 PGT in process of becoming an SC/NA Beast...
                  Elo- 1990 BMW 325i weekend car
                  Brunhilde- 2003 BMW Z4 3.0 6-speed daily driver
                  The Beast- Sleeping in the junkyard...

                  Comment


                  • Originally posted by proboner View Post
                    ...Drove back home, got in the PGT, drove back, drove onto the scale, 2,350lbs! Bam! So I'm already 100lbs below my new goal weight, and still planning to drop another 100.

                    I guess its dyno time next...
                    Before I saw this last paragraph -I was going to recommend going to a different scale because I knew from experience that those numbers were off. I would still say that they are reading a little high. With following what you have removed and such -I half expected a weight around 2100 lbs.

                    I would still suggest getting a second opinion (scale).

                    P.S. Find some new photo hosting. Photobucket sucks! Pass the word!
                    Success is a measure of determination!
                    Bonneville Dreamer-(AKA Purple Pimp Mobile)
                    $500 Gas-Electric-Gas Reconversion/Restoration
                    Mini-me & 500k "Old Gal" RIP
                    Restoration of a legend

                    Comment


                    • I've still got place to lose weight, as noted. Wheels/tires, exhaust, stock seats, fully stock dash, ABS system, power steering, Dynamat in the trunk area. Plus there are some areas Ive added weight back in, such as the door panels, gauges, larger brakes, nitrous, exhaust cutout.

                      But yeah I think you may be right. I'll have to work on that 2nd opinion...

                      I don't know if the pictures will ever be back. I'd have to move and replace hundreds. Maybe at some point for posterity, but I'm not in the mood at this point.
                      Beautiful Beast- 1997 PGT in process of becoming an SC/NA Beast...
                      Elo- 1990 BMW 325i weekend car
                      Brunhilde- 2003 BMW Z4 3.0 6-speed daily driver
                      The Beast- Sleeping in the junkyard...

                      Comment


                      • go to a truck stop and get on a CAT scale they should be accurate

                        Comment


                        • Trying to get this train back on the rails...

                          My newest efforts in trying to continue reducing weight on this thing, lead me to trying yet another exhaust iteration. If we can briefly look back at the many mufflers/resonators/other noise reducing devices I've had on this car so far:

                          1) exhuast inserts


                          2) Flowmaster HP-2 laminar flow muffler


                          3) Flowmaster Super 44 chambered muffler


                          4) Cherrybomb Vortex resonated/chambered muffler


                          5) Magnaflow ~12" resonator


                          6) Cherrybomb ~32" glasspack


                          So yeah, a good amount of time and money has been invested into this endeavor. I've long since given up on having a "good" sounding exhaust, and am now simply looking to achieve quiet and light. I had been trying to keep things free flowing and stayed away from a Turbo style muffler, but I've finally come to the conclusion that it may be my best choice.

                          My current iteration, which is by far the quietest I've had on the car so far, consists of the 32" Cherry Bomb glasspack, Flowmaster HP-2, and Cherry Bomb Vortex muffler exiting out the rear. I took the system out yesterday to test fit my newest idea, and weighed the pieces of the system. The rear half, which is just the Cherry Bomb Vortex, piping, and a v-band, weighed in at 15lbs 8oz.


                          The front portion, consisting of a v-band, y-pipe/electric cutout, 32" Cherry Bomb glasspack, piping, Flowmaster HP-2, and v-band, weighs in at 25lbs 8oz.


                          Total weight of the "cat back" exhaust system: ~41lbs

                          Newest strategy, is to go with a Walker 17911 turbo style muffler...


                          Coming in at 8lbs 15oz, along with the 6lb y-pipe/electric cut out, the new "cat back" exhaust system will weigh in around 14lbs... roughly 27lbs lighter than the current. Plus the muffler was super cheap and I'm hoping to sell all the others to recoup some cash.

                          The walker is 2.25" ID inlet and outlet, 6" round, 27" long body, ~35" overall length muffler. All the reviews say it's extremely quiet. My hope is that this muffler alone will be enough to substantially reduce exhaust noise and keep things light and within the confines of the exhaust tunnel.

                          I set out getting it in place yesterday and as I was lining it all up it, the front end fell off at the vband... or so I thought. Upon further inspection the flexpipe broke in half! WTF! So yeah. That was enough of a deterrent for the day that I quit on the spot. I've come back to it today, and am looking at new v-bands currently. Plan is to do the vband and muffler this week, get the cutout wired up, and take her to the dyno asap to see what kind of power this DE is putting down... my money is on not a lot.
                          Last edited by proboner; July 24, 2017, 11:13 AM.
                          Beautiful Beast- 1997 PGT in process of becoming an SC/NA Beast...
                          Elo- 1990 BMW 325i weekend car
                          Brunhilde- 2003 BMW Z4 3.0 6-speed daily driver
                          The Beast- Sleeping in the junkyard...

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by P1P View Post
                            go to a truck stop and get on a CAT scale they should be accurate
                            Truck driver here this is correct they are certified scales for DOT use, it's 11 dollars to weigh but 100% accurate.
                            PhotoPOC(tm)
                            MM9 MMX FF FF2 FF3 FF4 FF5
                            93' PGT not stock
                            91' PLX MTX stock

                            95' Jaguar XJR 155mph La-z-boy recliner

                            Comment


                            • Alright I'm convinced. CAT scale it is. The closest to me is like 45 minutes away.
                              Beautiful Beast- 1997 PGT in process of becoming an SC/NA Beast...
                              Elo- 1990 BMW 325i weekend car
                              Brunhilde- 2003 BMW Z4 3.0 6-speed daily driver
                              The Beast- Sleeping in the junkyard...

                              Comment


                              • I would say lets start at the beginning, but I think we should start before that.

                                Got the new flexpipe.


                                Somewhat similar to this one, the old flexpipe had a short length of piping on their end just press fit on. Over time it slowly unseated itself and fell off. Also it seemed pretty likely that it was leaking for a lot of its life. I chose this one because I was able to weld all of it together in a fashion that fused the entire assembly together. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures while it was out of the car, but here's one while its in the car. It fits in the exhaust tunnel, weighs 16lbs, and muffles the exhaust note to satisfactory decibel levels.


                                I also enabled this fun feature: (as per usual PT wont let me link a video from YouTube, so don't mind the weirdness)
                                Code:
                                https://youtu.be/W8pFfSCBJnY
                                Gonna tune the AE, play with timing a bit more, and try to find some lighter weight wheels, before taking her to the CAT weigh station and then the dyno!
                                Last edited by proboner; July 29, 2017, 06:07 PM.
                                Beautiful Beast- 1997 PGT in process of becoming an SC/NA Beast...
                                Elo- 1990 BMW 325i weekend car
                                Brunhilde- 2003 BMW Z4 3.0 6-speed daily driver
                                The Beast- Sleeping in the junkyard...

                                Comment

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