The Wolfpack Drift Club had a recent late night workshop session, diagnosing Juan's KA and prepping one of Nick's SR20's for install. Perfect opportunity for some garage shots and a little update of what's happening around the Wolfpack den.
Photos and words by Juan Camargo
Photos and words by Juan Camargo
IG: @wolfpackjuan
We’re a week away from the next event and the hatch is still plagued with the same intermittent power loss issue. At this point, I even contemplated getting rid of the engine and swapping something else in. Then I thought, what good would that do? This is how the game works, and this is how it’s played. Even with another engine, something similar will probably come up and I’ll be back at square one. Thus, we needed to press on and be persistent. I made a vacuum leak tester out of some PVC and found a gnarly leak at the EGR block off plate. This was a huge relief; it could absolutely be the cause of unmetered air entering the engine. With the pressure I also busted the vac line that runs from the intake to the valve cover, so that was good. I promptly drove over to the shop to make a Wolfpack spec EGR gasket. We pulled the car into the shop, and were met by the mighty Dylan. The EGR gasket looked fine, but it needed to be replaced anyway. As I pulled the plugs out, the holes were filled with oil! When I did the pressure test I must have sent oil into the holes from the valve cover gasket.
Nick helped clean those up for me, and we were set. The new gasket was
in place, and the car idled a lot better. It also drove better, but I wasn’t as
content as I probably should have been. The real test was at the track! Took
the Q out for a quick shot.
Afterwards, we prepared for a long night. Nick looked at me with a
mischievous look, much like the one you’d get when you were up to no good and
said “Wanna get the clutch in the coupe?” I agreed without hesitation and
prepared myself for an all-nighter! We ran to get munchies and made our way
back to the shop. In about 45 minutes we had the engine out of the car, despite
almost getting roasted with the car rolling off the stands.
We split the gearbox from the engine, and swapped out the front cover.
The more I worked with Nick, the more I realized how similar our mindset for
working on cars is.
Neither of us are mechanics, we don’t have toolboxes that span 12
stories high with a net worth comparable to that of a Manhattan apartment, and
we don’t have some exhaustive history of building cars. We work slowly, looking
things up on the internet, and going step by step.
Ready and…
FIRE!!!
The new clutch was in, torqued by the suave clicker, and it was ready to go in for good. Dropping the engine in proved to be a royal pain in the ass. Half an hour of shimmying later, and it was in place! The look on Nick’s face when the second mount went into the sub-frame was priceless!
The new clutch was in, torqued by the suave clicker, and it was ready to go in for good. Dropping the engine in proved to be a royal pain in the ass. Half an hour of shimmying later, and it was in place! The look on Nick’s face when the second mount went into the sub-frame was priceless!
Ah, the tool of the night. Its gentle yet precise “Click” is enough to
send goosebumps down a man’s spine. It’s the companion you wake up to, and fall
asleep with. It single-handedly removes all room for error from the equation and
sends nothing but blissful happiness to the load of thirty year old Nissan
bolts. By this point I was totally toasted, I had been napping on top of the
ACT clutch box, but the engine was in for good. It was an incredibly productive
day, and Saturday will be the real test! Drift Valley coverage coming soon!
武士道 - B U S H I D O!
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