Project: Toro R32 GTS
Those of you who know me, will know this car. Not because I rice around blowing off and back the hair of teenage girls, but because it was imported and originally owned, in 2004. by Andres Moran Toro. About 2 years after getting this car, which in highschool was a BIG deal and so cool, Andy passed away after a cancer that had started in his liver and was once successfully removed, became malignant once again and moved onto his lungs. This car had defined his character in the short time he had to truly live as an adult (or as close to that as a 19 year old can be), and it defined me, in that after seeing his successful import I moved onto many of my own, which through a round about series of events heavily influenced the life I live today. 6 years after his passing, and at the outcome of the above mentioned events, I found myself in a family home with an empty garage (Acura Econocruiser stayed outside) living with Sentry Sam. Andy's parents graciously agree to allow me to purchase the car, which had been under a car cover for nearly 6 years at this point. I pick up the car, which struggles to start, drive to the registry to make it legit (yup, drove), get back in drive home and park on the driveway. The car would fail to start from this point and stay motionless for almost a month as I struggle to fix this mystery issue.
I replaced everything I could, vac lines, plugs, the battery, fuel filter, calibrated TPS. Cleaned every part of the intake side and tightened every coupler. Eventually with continued small improvements it ran, and Sam suggests that I upgrade the fuel pump as fuel pressure appeared to be my main cause (big differences after changing fuel filters repeatedly and blowing out lines). I buy a Walbro 255 lhp. It begins.
At this point it boosts, and it boosts good. All the way upto 12 psi without problem. But by now its September 2012 and winter is fast approaching. I start to see a wierd hesitation under boost, particularly at ~14 psi or so. The old ignition system can't keep up. But I can't afford oem or splitfire coil packs.. just straight up... and what about that shitty 23 yr old ignitor....
The brake pads are thin, and the rotors warped. So I research until I find out that 300zx are compatible for this and buy the best setup I can at that moment.
The race pads squeals when cold but it stops like a friggen beast, which is good cause i'm moving faster and faster all the time. September chills are providing some bad ass morning boost sessions, so I take it to the next level with a front mount. Sentry approved.
The snow appears and the cars are garaged. It will be an eternity. How can I make it. Sam's f*ckin SVO spools away each morning while the Acura struggles to start. I can't take this.
Researching my options for coils, it all became so clear. If you can't afford splitfires, straight up build yourself a better system from scratch. I junkyard myself some GM LS2 yukon truck coils and get to work making a custom harness.
She aint pretty but she works..
VIDEO: RB20 LS2 Coils
Sentry picks up this big mother f*ck of a borg warner for this Aristo. I can get jealous. Straight up, I cried once. I need that shit in my life. I construct a plan to achieve this.
step 1: cheap management.
Apexi SAFC is kijiji'd and installed. With a Innovate mtx-l wideband/data logger in the mail:
I get bored with the wideband coming so I cut apart the oem coil cover that is now useless to me and make a Ls2 coil mount rail.
Innvote arrives and I kijiji a boost gauge as well... gauge ont back light so I piece together some kinda light thing out of buick dash bulbs and she glows.
Step 2: fuel
I GTRC up some 444 cc R33 GTR injectors and wire those bad boys in, waiting like 2 months for some damn resistors to arrive from china (all to save $0.35 a piece) so I can have appropriate impedance in the circuirt (rb20 injectors high impedance, gtr injectors are low.)
Somewhere along the way I ended up making a sick trade for this extremely sun faded Seibon TT carbon hood. I've put about 15 hrs of direct sanding into so far and we are only like 70% done....
Step 3: boost
Last but most importantly, a new turbo, slim manifold and downpipe arrive in the nick of time (for the acura to get vandalized..) and currently occupy my garage floor.
So this is how she sits... starting and running, but so rich that it will be unable to restart once shut off. No attempt has been made to tune as its not on the street. I've been totally side swiped by the Prelude Ghetto Turbo as I need a daily to back up the rest of this build. Looking at the turbo almost every single day, it won't be long before thats on there.
Stay tuned respective mangs.
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