Tree's V8 Roadster

Re: Tree's Roadster

Let me know if you want some money to cover shipping from NZ. I'll send you some through Paypal.


I've been wanting to get work done on the car for a while, but my garage is super cold and the motivation just isn't quite there. I had the itch to get something done on it, so I decided to install the gauges that I won through Adam's Sharksgiving sale.
Today's Project by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Revlimiter Gauges by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

First things first. I put the included gloves on to keep everything finger print free and cracked the cluster open. The candy that was included was a nice (and delicious) touch.
Opened Up by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

After the cluster was opened up I used the included tools to remove the needles and then removed the OEM faces from the cluster.
OEM Gauges Removed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Now the messy cutting of the warning light surrounds.
Cut Apart by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Now the moment I have been waiting for. This was my very first glance at the gauges. I requested a set of Warbird gauges in Tiffany Blue with Black lettering.
Custom Revlimiter Gauges by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

I installed the gauges faces into the cluster being very careful to avoid any dust and/or finger prints despite wearing the gloves. Once the gauge faces were in place I reinstalled the needles. I do realize that I will need to reset the needles once the car is running again so I just zeroed them all.
Revlimiter Gauges Placed In by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Once the needles were in place I reassembled the cluster. The last finishing touch was to remove the OEM Green light bulb "condoms" and install the Blue ones that Adam Included.
New Lighting by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

This image is from Adam's site showing what they'll look like illuminated. Adam, if you'd prefer I can remove your picture from this post.


One thing I didn't notice until this morning while reading Oregonmon's build was that the OEM gauge faces have a green tint to them.
OEM Green Tint by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
OEM Gauge Faces by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

And the finished product. The pictures do a decent job at capturing the true color of them. They are stunning and look perfect in the cluster. I was having my doubts if all 5 gauge faces in blue would be too bright, but I'm VERY happy with the end result.
Completed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Completed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr


I have nothing but great things to say about these gauges. I got these essentially for free due to the contest, but I would have been more than happy to pay the price Adam asks for these. The quality, customer service and communication are top notch as well as the instructions.
Adam, if you're reading this PM me your mailing address. I would like to send you a small gift.

Re: Tree's Roadster

[email protected] said:

Too cool. They look great, and the added bonus of getting them for free is just too awesome.

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Thanks! I wasn't sure how all Tiffany blue would look, but I'm very happy with them. When I checked my email the next morning to see Adam's email and a paypal refund I was ecstatic. I've never won anything before.

I was able to get in contact with Flyin Miata and sort out my frame rail order. I ordered them New Year's Eve during their holiday shut down. They were busy playing catch up with all their orders placed over the holidays. When they got to mine they weren't able to process the order because of my credit card's billing address not matching my address. I ship parts to the US to save money on shipping so my billing address is different than my shipping address. I've never had an issue with that on any other sites before, but I was able to sort it out. They took the money from my account today and will be shipping them out shortly.

I started my last semester of college yesterday. My new school schedule is awesome. I can work full time hours while in school and still have time at home. Tuesday is my day off school and I don't work until later tonight so I did a little bit of work on the car.
I brought everything downstairs and finished the door cards.
Last Finishing Touches by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

All OEM clips are in place other than the 1 missing clip on each side. I will be addressing that shortly.
Done - Clips In Place by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

And then placed them in the car. Fitment is PERFECT! :mrgreen:
Door Panel Installed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Door Panel Installed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

I made a run out to Fabric Land to see if they had the material I wanted, but they didn't. I'll have to order that online.

Then came some more weight reduction of things I will no longer need.
Weight Reduction by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Not much progress, but small bits of progress will eventually add up.

Re: Tree's Roadster

After a huge headache of dealing with UPS, I finally received my Flyin' Miata frame rails that I ordered New Year's Eve. UPS delivered them to the wrong house and then started to ship them back to Flyin' Miata in Colorado once the other house refused them. I will be filing a claim and hopefully will get back my $91 for shipping since I had to have it shipped to my Canadian address.
Anyways, this is the long awaited package.
New Box! by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Flyin Miata Frame Rails by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

My frame rails are in really good shape so the install went pretty easily. I decided to do the passenger side rail first since it would be the more difficult of the 2 due to the brake/fuel lines.

A little while later I called it a night. With the 4 outermost bolts tight and all the other bolts started I just couldn't take any more crawling in and out from under the car. My abs are super sore from learning new kayak tricks and I have to be up early tomorrow morning.
Installed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Installed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

I will finish tightening that rail up and start the driver side install. I will update this thread tomorrow with a little more detail.

Re: Tree's Roadster

I installed the driver side frame rail this evening. That finishes off my frame rail install. Overall it was very straight forward and should make a big difference in the car.

Poopy cell phone pic.
Finished Frame Rails by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Then this happened...



Uh oh... by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

I left the house fairly early this morning to make the trip into the US to buy this LS1 longblock which I scored on eBay. I drove through the scariest neighbourhood in the world to get there. Every single building was abandoned with no windows or doors. I did not see a single occupied building driving through there. Any ways, the workers at the warehouse helped me load it into the back of my Integra for the trip home. It was a tight fit, but it worked well. The car drove like a dump truck. :lol:
By the time we got it into the car and I made the drive back it was almost time for class. I drove directly to school and unloaded the engine using the cherry picker. There were no free engine stands so it is just sitting on one of the workbenches for the time being.
LS1 Longblock by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
LS1 Longblock by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
LS1 Longblock by Austin Rajki, on Flickr


I have the engine stand I purchased earlier in my car and ready to bring to school tomorrow. I'm not entirely sure what the condition of the engine is in or even what is included with it. No word of a lie, I essentially got it for next to nothing. It came out of a '98 Corvette which was T-boned in the driver's rear quarter panel. The car had 128k miles on it. I saw pictures of the car it came out of and the engine bay was completely untouched.

I know for sure that it needs the intake manifold, fuel rail and injectors which would all have been upgraded anyways. It's definitely a little more complete than your average longblock.

I also picked up some new tools. I got a torque wrench, breaker bar and angle grinder. I purchased the angle grinder so I can remove all the surface rust on the car. The rust removal will have to wait until spring since it's way too cold for paint to stick properly.

Re: Tree's Roadster

After seeing scradley's post in the craigslist/kijiji finds thread about a hardtop for $650 canadian I messaged the seller and set up a time on Sunday (yesterday) to come pick it up. I tried really hard to fit the soft top frame in the Integra, but it wasn't possible. If the soft top didn't fit in the car a hardtop wouldn't. After messaging everyone I knew who had a larger vehicle, I was able to borrow my friend's GMC Jimmy. I finished work at 5 and made the trip up. After the 3 hour drive there I pulled up to a house that looked sort of familiar and I didn't know why it was familiar. After entering the garage to see the hardtop I knew why it looked familiar. I've seen pictures of it from following my all time favourite miata build.
by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Seeing this car in person was actually amazing. This is the car that I am taking a lot of my inspiration and ideas from.

We loaded the hardtop in my friend's Jimmy. If the truck was any smaller it wouldn't have fit. It fit like a glove.
Untitled by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

We spent an hour talking about things and I got a lot of ideas and advice about things that I wasn't sure about for my build. I'm more excited about meeting him and seeing his car than I am about buying the hardtop. :lol:
After a while of talking I started the trip home.
By the time I got home, installed the top on the car and returned the truck to my friend it was 2am. Here is a quick shot of the top on my car.
by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Re: Tree's Roadster

oregonmon said:

Those gauges look amazing!

I've also heard of people using an epoxy to make new mounting points for the door card uppers. Seeing the door panel in white looks sort of good, could be a look of it's own on a white car.

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Thanks! It's a shame I won't be able to use the speedo I really wasn't planning on going V8. I agree, the white really doesn't look that bad. lol

Crazyblackman said:

The nice feeling about graduating college is less homework depending on your job of course, but congrats on that, I like where this is going!

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Kind of funny that you mention homework. As I am typing this out I'm pushing some off. :lol: Thanks for the compliment on the car as well. I appreciate it.

I got the engine mounted on the stand last Friday. The arms that were included with the stand I bought were too short to reach where they needed to go on this block. With the teacher's permission, I rummaged around in the school's storage room I found and traded my arms for the longer arms that I needed.
Ls1 Mounted on Stand by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

Couple random reference shots.
Mounted by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
OEM Starter by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

In today's lab I stripped the engine of the exhaust manifolds, engine mounts and all the sensors in preparation to tear it down and rebuild it. This tag was on the engine saying that all the oil has been drained prior to my purchase.
Tag by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Although they claimed to have drained all the oil, I decided to double check the dipstick before removing the oil temperature and oil level sensors. I'm glad I checked. The sump was full and the oil was pretty clean.
Oil by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

This is how the engine sits now.
Stripped of the Sensors by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

And all the parts are labelled, in bags and are placed on a cart that is designated for only my parts.
Parts Removed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr

I was planning on doing a leakdown test, but because of the in class demos I was running short on time. I did attempt to do the first cylinder and got a reading of 10% leakage. For those of you who don't know 20% leakage is considered normal in an engine so I am very happy with the 10%. BUT I'm not 100% certain that the inlet pressure was correct for the tester I was using. We will see if the inlet pressure was correct or not next week.


I ordered a camshaft and have word that it has arrived in Detroit. I will try picking it up sometime this week.

As I was typing out this post an older gentleman stopped by regarding some of the parts I was selling. He ended up purchasing my soft top, OEM rad, OEM strut brace and OEM mirrors. I will be using that money this weekend to purchase a set of fenders, finish panel and possibly bumpers.

Re: Tree's Roadster

Today I was able to calibrate the leakdown tester and perform the leakdown test.

Firing order on the LS is 1-8-7-2-6-5-4-3 so the results will follow that.

Cylinder 1: 8% leakage
Cylinder 8: 8%
Cylinder 7: 8%
Cylinder 2: 8%
Cylinder 6: 88%- No, that is not a typo.
Cylinder 5: 7%
Cylinder 4: 72%
Cylinder 3: 8%

Both of the high leakage cylinders were leaking from the valves- 1 on intake, the other on exhaust. I was really worried that a valve might have been bent, or even the seats were bad. I removed the valve covers to double check that the valves were set correctly and did it again. Still leaking from the valves... The first thing that I did was took a mallet to the valve and valves spring and gave it a few whacks to free up any carbon that would prevent the valves from closing all the way. When I did the leakdown on those 2 cylinders again it went from 88% to 16% and the other went from 72% to 22%.

That was a huge relief. The leakdown test gave me a general idea of what condition the engine was in. I'm pretty happy with the results. 20% is considered normal.
After the leakdown was done I removed the heads. As you can see there is a decent amount of carbon on the pistons, but everything is pretty clean for 128k miles. I'm fairly confident that if I were to clean all the carbon out, I would have 8% on all cylinders.
Short Block by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Heads Removed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr