Mikelly

Good Luck man! Mike

Come one it...

We did literaly back to back drives of the 540 and the 328 and We wound up with a 328i, and when I buy a new car, I'll KEEP the 328i as my daily driver and buy the wife a new car... Thing rocks and I LOVE this little 97 BMW...AND SHE gets 30-32mpg in it! Mike

We knew you're pregnant.. someone let the cat out of the bag a while back, and man we're so happy for you... Can't explain it, but I get a tingly feeling when Craig refers to me as his dad... Had that episode this week when he brought a couple of guys to see me about the vette and what his "Dad" had been doing to it... Donna beams and it is a true kick... Good for you, and I wish I had the space... I'd buy the cobra in the newyork minute. Mike

Move along guys... Owen, Thanks for the service! Pretty sure you're ok on this one... Mike

So this afternoon I go out and start sorting the clutch hydraulics for this corvette out... I try and try and try everything, and spill some GS610 brake fluid all over the floor of the garage... At $40 per bottle. Nice and then I look over at the extra master cylinder I have on the shelf and figure I'll look at it and see if I can get an idea or two... The wife looks at me and says "Maybe it went bad when you spun it or broke the motor!" I roll my eyes , Chuckle to myself and say "Sure honey, maybe!" 20 minutes later, when nothing is working, STILL, I'm swapping the mastercylinder... I hate when she's right! So I get it bled, start the motor and start the "Burp" proceedure on the motor and I can NOT get the motor to reach 210 degrees... I try for 20 minutes... 3000RPMS for 30 seconds, then idle for 30 seconds... 20 minutes and I can get it to 195. Oh well. I shut it down and burp it... And notice a plug wire OFF on the 3rd plug back on the passenger side... Gee, and I was thinking it was running really well! So now it is button'ed up, coolant burped, and everything ready to go... I'll break it in tomorrow with 100 mile cruise, and then come home, dump the oil and put some Mobil1 in. This has been a crazy ride! Mike

I spoke with the appraiser today. He said they looked on the comps for the last 30 days and found nothing comperable. They pulled 60 day comps and found nothing comperable. He then called the lender and asked what we needed and adjusted from there. He told me flat out that my home was worth $30-40K more if it were on the market, but we were just looking to refinance at the end of an arm period, and wrapping up my oldest stepson's college loan in it and a few other small bills. He explained a few things that made more sense, and told me the one or two things I needed to know in preparation for selling it next year. Mike

I'm not about to sell right now. Matter of fact, I won't be selling until my brand new Senior in high school, soon to be 18 year old stepson is out of highschool next spring/ summer at minimum. Won't do that to him in his last year. I'm not sure about other parts of the country, but the Washington DC area has been pretty immune to the rollercoster ride that has seems to constantly impact other parts of the country. Worst case scenario I could rent it out for between $2000-2200 per month and come out ahead (By about $500-700) on it and sit until the market regains more momentum. We're fortunate where my house is located that it is a good, middle class neighborhood with excellent schools and good shopping within 2 miles. Mike

Give me that which I desire! FInally, after more than two months without a car running... The motor is running and running well... I've still got to burb the coolant, and sort the clutch bleeder issues, as well as retorque a few things... But it sounds awefully good! I'm Stoked and hope to test drive it by Friday! Mike

Oh trust me, We are not eating into the 80% range. Nowhere close. What I've seen in Northern Virginia, where the market has only gone up and up, with a slight plateau in the early 90s is that the housing market here, and the shortage in affordable housing will not slow, even as interest rates rise. Mike

I"m gonna ask for a copy of it. My home is a custom contemporary, and finding something to compare it to in my area is difficult. I'm not overly concerned, since I've had within the last 18 months two different realtors offer me $350K for it from buyers who were car guys. I expect we'll get about $350-400K if we put it on the market next year, but we'll be buying into the same market, buying something in the $500-600K range. Who knows... We pulled our own comparisons and the only homes in our combined THREE subdivisions cam in at $289-325 and were about 700SqFt. smaller with No garage and smaller lots... Oh well. Mike

So we just went through an appraisal and are refinancing our home. Our place has a bunch of upgrades, but could certainly use new interior paint and better landscaping, especially in the back yard! However, We've got a LOT of stuff/ amenities, including the 3 car detached garage with upstairs and the new paved driveway, upgraded floors, new appliences, and a re-surfaced deck. Our home also added about 540Sq.Ft. additional to the home since Summer 2003 when we last had it appraised. Last time we got an appraisal, I didn't have these extras other than the garage and it came back at $218,000 then... We just got the appraisal and it was $324,000. My concern is that we have home much smaller, on smaller lots, with less amenities on the markter and selling for that price. I realize that the appraised value and the "market" value are different, but what factors are used to determine the appraised value of realestate? I'm happy with the amount the home has gone up. It has been an excellent investment for me, since I bought it for $126,000 in May 1998. I'm very pleased, but still a bit confused. We may sell it next year or the year after. Or we may rent it out and wait a few more years to see what the market does... But I want to educate myself more... Mike Mike

Well UPS came and went... No sensors... Stereo is back in and wired back up... Mufflers are on, and the battery is charging. Still having issues bleeding the LAPD products bleeder extender package, and I need to adjust the shifter for reverse, but otherwise, buttoning the intake back down after installing a new cam sensor, I should know if I still have issues or not... I'm close! Mike

I was waiting for the cam sensor, since I've got the intake off anyway and I've got some other issues to still address anyway! Hopefully I'll hear it run this evening! Mike

The guy had a little bit of luck, and some driving experience. If you look at how long the initial spin took and the distance he travelled in the left brakedown lane, at speed, it is pretty imrpessive... Bet he practiced that more than once in a snow covered parking lot! Mike

I could make sooooo many comments about why she should be beat with the rest of the ugly stick previously used on her, but that would be wrong... And if this gets around the internet enough, and the ACLU gets involved, she just might lose her job... We can hope! Mike

Apparently I had the coil packs flipped... Caused them to fire in the wrong sequence... We'll see... Im awaiting the crank and cam sensor. Since I've already got the intake off, I'm putting that one on before I bolt the intake back down. Might go ahead and grab a map sensor as well. Mike

Actually it is the longer primary tubes AND the exhaust. One of the big arguements over on LS1tech.com is over the dual vs. Y-pipe configuration on the F body cars... Not really sure who is right or wrong. But I do know that my LGM full length headers and dual 3inch exhaust were worth about 40HP and 50#ft of torque at the wheels. Mike

Just ordered a new cam sensor and crank sensor and I'll see what happens... I hope to get this thing firing soon... I'm not going to tear into the motor to see if the cam is degreed properly at this point... Got to much other stuff on my plate... This car may end up at a shop if I can't sort it with an easy fix... Kinda tired of it at this point. Mike

I have to ask the obvious here... There's a Driver's side and passenger side??? It matters? The motor came to me fully assembled. All I did was install the oil pan and pickup, waterpump and accessories. The builder degree'd in the cam per Thunder's recommendation. Mike

SO the car is buttoned up and I'm trying to fire it up and the damned thing is popping through the exhaust and intake... I"m using the old cam and crank trigger sensors and I'm wondering if they might have been damaged during the explosion when in the other motor... Also, My coil packs aren't bolted to their mounting frames since I don't have brackets for 1998 perimeter bolt heads... Ordered some, and got centerbolts, which I already have... Ideas??? Mike

It kills me that they couldn't make it more dependable...One of the sexiest cars on the planet, and that motor just SUCKED... I would LOVE to have one of those with an LS1 in it! Mike

Well I personally know two of the guys who used to work for Peter Farrel Supercars (Famous RX7 Tuner from the 90s) and one of them is the guy who welded the cage into my Z, and the other is the co-owner of http://www.mazdadrivers.com HPDE events. BOTH told me what I stated above... Those motors are delicate and finicky! Mazda should have done a better job from the beginning to get the operating temps down and to fix the apexi seal issue from the factory! Mike

The LS6 intake is only good for a baseline change of 6-8HP, based on the tuning I've seen on LS1Tech.com, Corvetteforum.com and my tuner, Jeff Creech at Carolina Automasters down in Durham. David, I think it is your exhaust setup. I gained a BUNCH of torque and HP from my setup on the vette, which was a 1999 motor. With the ported throttlebody and LS6 intake, the HP gains were unnoticable...296HP and 301#ftl of torque. But when I put the LGM headers and 3 inch dual exhaust on, and Jeff did the custom PCM tuning things picked up to 335HP and 353#ft. of torque. My torque curve jumped to almost 300#ft. of torque off idle and was flat across the board at above 350#ft. from 2000RPM tro 4400RPM and then fell off above 5000RPMs... Jeff has a couple of road race programs he uses that work well. I should have my stage 2 heads/ cam setup running this weekend. I'll be able to tell you guys within a month what it is running #s wise. Mike

My oldest stepson just sold his 93 TT RX7. It had a bunch of mods, custom paint, lots of PFS SuperCar parts, and a new clutch. However, the transmission needed a lot of work and the kid was in over his head. Fortunately he only owned the car for 2 months and got out of it what he paid for it. These cars are nice platforms for LS1 transplants or daily drivers. However, Jim Pearl aka BLKMGK on here, will tell you, they don't like being modified much. The motor is delicate, and doesn't handle large doses of boost. Alex, any idea what your buddy would like to get for it? Mike