Northstar V8 MR2

Weird day. Hot, then cool, then rain, some wind, hot again... now big rain.

Kurt Krause emailed to let me know that the flapper is used in case there is a back fire. It opens allowing the energy to escape, this helping to keep the manifold in one piece.

I have been getting a lot of email from the Hot Rod guys. Letters of support. I really think that Hot Rodders understand what I am doing. I still visit the message boards that discuss my project. Some are pretty funny. The overseas discussion is good. The US boards are the funny ones. Mostly due to the young kids. The first thing out of their mouths is about how they would put an LS1 in. Or how they would have picked a Fiero. Or how it is taking so long. I have to remember that message boards in general are not the best for educating.

So why not a LS1? It wont fit, even with cutting. So what if I can get a gazillion hp. That is not the idea with this car. HP is nothing if you can't get it to the road. Also what gearbox would you use? The car requires a transaxle. So you are very limited. You could use the Fiero 4 or 5 speed muncy, but it is too wide a package. The 4T80E is a great 4 -speed, but limited to 450 pounds feet of torque before breaking. So shoving a LS1 in there and getting a gaziilion HP would be stupid, I am not made of money and can't afford to be replacing transaxles after every run.

The same is said of using the Lexus / Toyota V8. Great engines, but again, no transaxles and they are not as powerful stock as the Northstar.

Why is it taking so long? I have a wife and kids. If the wife wants to do something, or we have a family commitment, then those have priority. I try and fit time in to work on the cars, but sometimes that causes problems. Married guys will understand that. This next month will be slow. I will be heading out to Oroville California for a week to visit my father. Then I get back and my daughter has her high school graduation. So time will be limited.

	1 I was not happy with the bling-bling filter. It was fairly small and I am a firm believer in large filters. Plus I would have had to modify the throttle linkage. That woul have been too much work. This is a better setup, it may not be as pretty looking though.
	2 I have plenty of throttlecable. This worried me a bit after I swapped the manifold around. No worries now. I just need to make some clip to hold it to the chassis so it wont have that big bend at the end.
	3 I modified the throttle linkage bracket.
	4 I mounted the Electromotive TEC3 Power Harness to the firewall in the front trunk. The battery is located up here. I just need to run some extensions to the TEC3 and the injector harness.
	5 These are outlines of the EGR system. My father is making some block-off plates from 3/8" aluminum.