I am involved in a challenge with some guys I know. The challenge is, buy build and race a car for under $1000. The rules are:
domestic only
1995 or newer
as much wrench time as you want but no more then $1000 total cash must be able to prove.
you can sell parts off your car to earn money back to put in
safety equipment doesn’t come out of the budget (safety first)
At the end of the contest, any contestant can buy any other contestants car for $1000, Keeps it honest.
There will be three challenges:
Autocross times
heads up ¼ mile
how far 1 gallon of gas will get you
I chose a ZX2 for the power to weight ratio and price. I found a 99 with a 5 speed and got it for $700. My opponents have:
97 Neon
96 Sunfire
95 Saab 900 (owned by GM but I think that its cheating)
I have done a lot to my car already. Here it is:
stripped every thing that isn’t needed $0
AEM intake piping from a Focus cut to fit free but new filter $15
traded my seats for MX3 seats $0
removed AC, power steering and idlers and shorter belt $15
found top half of a header on a car in the bone yard $25
Cut off the flange and custom built the rest of the exhaust $40
Battery relocation stuff $15
Accel coil pack $45
Tune up and wires $30
Wheels and tires $75
Brakes cleaned up and rotors slotted on my friends Bridgeport new pads $20
94 Escort wagon rear sway bar with new end links $45
For racing injectors from Summit clearance isle $50
92 Pony manual rack $35
ZXTuner springs new but from craigslist $40
I have sold:
stock wheels $150
Mirrors $40
stock cat $50
For a total of $910 so far
What would you good people recommend next? Any help that you could give would be gladly taken, or if you need parts, let me know.
A tune or a superchip…(I have one for sale in the fs section), you could do the knock mod that’s free. Uuuuummmmmmm … I can’t thonnknof anything else ATM.
The injectors are worthless without a tune, which is expensive.
The POTs mod.
You should have kemanized your intake instead. Its free, and just as good, and you’d have saved money on the filter.
Knocker mod.
Take out all of the sound deadening, and any other un-needed weight.
Coil pack was a waste.
If your friend is good with that bridgeport, have him take a shell mill, take out all but one insert, and mill off .050"-.070" off of the head(speeds and feeds to get the required finish can be found online). Dremel out the ports, port match everything. Maybe bore out the TB and make a new butterfly plate for it(not easy).
Cut and weld your shifter, for a short throw.
Sell the back seat, all of the stock radio equipment, sell the tail lights(does it need to be street legal?), sell the air bags, sell anything you can.
With the 90 dollars you have left, find a “Powder UDP”. It is an underdrive pulley made by a guy named powder, they cost 85 new but there isn’t a group buy currently. This is dyno proven for a 5whp gain.
IF you can sell a ton of stuff off of the car, look into a set of used R compound tires from ebay.
On the P/S rack mod., loop the lines, don’t just block them off. Mind your tire diameters, a little smaller is the same as adding gear. I can’t say on the rear bar choice as I haven’t experimented on the 2 yet, but my road racing experience (and drag as well) suggests that better front bar mounts will do more for the car than a bigger rear bar will. My own car has crappy rear bar mounts and she doesn’t step out on me at all even in off camber corners.
Good luck, guy!
FANTASTIC!!!
I will be doing the Knock mod. I already have the pony rack, but how hard will the steering be with the lines looped back? Wouldnt it be better dry?
A chip and tuning can get expensive but I would like to get them done and play with the cam while I am at it.
Has any one milled their head to up compression? From my basic calculations and what I have read, milling .040 off of the head and using a Focus head gasket will result in a 12.5 to 1 compression and a lot more power. My freind can do the work for free and I will buy the gasket but I havent been brave enough to do this. I need more info on this as a mistake could cost me a head or even an engine.
[quote=“capitalcrew”]The injectors are worthless without a tune, which is expensive.
I did this because they were cheap and balanced. I did notice that the car runs a lot better then with the stock injectors, also the intake and exhaust flow a lot more now and the MAS isnt in the small stock housing.
Take out all of the sound deadening, and any other un-needed weight.
Working that now.
Coil pack was a waste.
True… waisted money on that. It did nothing to help.
If your friend is good with that bridgeport, have him take a shell mill, take out all but one insert, and mill off .050"-.070" off of the head(speeds and feeds to get the required finish can be found online). Dremel out the ports, port match everything. Maybe bore out the TB and make a new butterfly plate for it(not easy).
.050-.070 is a lot. Are you sure? How high will that bring the compression?
Cut and weld your shifter, for a short throw.
I saw some ones post on this and it looks good.
Sell the back seat, all of the stock radio equipment, sell the tail lights(does it need to be street legal?), sell the air bags, sell anything you can.
I’m on it. This is a racer, not a sreet ride. If it doent make me faster, I dont need it. Know any one looking for a gray interior?
With the 90 dollars you have left, find a “Powder UDP”. It is an underdrive pulley made by a guy named powder, they cost 85 new but there isn’t a group buy currently. This is dyno proven for a 5whp gain.
After dropping the rest of the pulleys, I wonder what the total gain from the loss of rotational mass is.
To make the 2 run properly after head milling, you need to be aware of the correct factory engine alignment routine and follow it to the letter. The only way to get a proper cam align on the Zetec VCT is via the factory method as it involves loosing the cam gears to make the correction necessary due to the reduced cam to crank centerline distance. Note, the cam aligning slot at the rear of the cams where the special alignment tool goes is not to be used to hold the cams when loosing or tightening the cam gears. There are wrench hexes near the gear end of the shafts. If get one of the cam gears even a couple of degrees off it dramatically reduces overall power on the Zetec. As for how much power 11:1 will get you, that is kinda dependent on the totality of other mods. If you use super unleaded exclusively you can get by with 12:1, critical to this, however, is keeping the coolant temp.s between 180-200f.