Kostamojen

Oooh, ya I do want to rebuild the wiring harness. Although im not sure whats staying and whats going yet, and a few things might be added in (gauges and such). I definatly want to move the fuse box inside the car for one, and i'm ditching the radio for sure.

The commonalities are more than whats dissimular. For example, I can use an EA81 distributor and alternator with this engine, along with alternator brackets. The bolt pattern for the intake manifold is still the same (compatible with up to EA71's). The crossover pipe is the same as EA71's. The internals are very simular to all EA's, albiet the engine castings did change over the years. In general, its still a very simular design. I'm actually surprised as to what is compatible between all the EA's and didnt actually change much over all the time after seeing this motor.

Large hole in the muffler, didn't do it on purpose. You can see it in the first video.

Oh, and slight update from this weekend... No pictures though I removed the front fenders (took some effort, and snapped a couple rusted bolts ) and spent several hours grinding off surface rust from the outside of the car and painting on some rust inhibitor paint. Took 4-5 hours and a lot of painful work, and now the car looks rather patchworky. Next weekend I plan on either removing the dash and wiring, or start removing the engine components. I ran the car ALL day today, so the gas level should be low enough that when I get to the point where I can remove the gas tank, it wont be too hard to drain.

As promised... 2nd Video: Yes, as you can see, it moves too

As promised... 2nd Video: Yes, as you can see, it moves too

Have a part number?

Did you check out the seats on this website: http://www.classiccarseats.com/ They are just about perfect for the FF-1. They were designed to be replicas of 60's and 70's performance seats, and they fit great in smaller cars like mini's, 510's, 914's, etc. and will work perfect in the FF-1! Although, depending on how much I have to spend on body work, spending $1200 on seats might be too much... (Although, IMO, seats are the most important modification for ANY car, as a good seat can make any car feel 10x better as I found out after getting some JDM WRX seats for my '95 Impreza)

Figured you guys might like this video... The rest of the info about the car is posted over on the Historic forum, but I figured you guys here in the older forum would like it too

Is the FF-1 listed in there?

Heres the first video! Enjoy! Edit: Now hosted on Youtube courtesy Subiejunkie!

~30mpg max. Might be better with the 32/36 Weber, but I wont be finding that out for awhile FYI, videos coming shortly (Although the video of it driving was runied ill re-shoot it tommorow)

More news... I think I found where I want to purchase seats from: http://www.classiccarseats.com/ Pretty much. I'd probably get the dish with some sort of holes/spokes though, probably more like this but definatly the flat center cap: Ill probably take a trip there sometime and see what they have in person to get a better idea of my options. That photoshop is actually exactly the same size as the 15" rims that were on the car, so the scale is pretty close. I tried downsizing them a little to 14" size, and it just changes the charecter more than you would expect... I'm still not sure which direction to go. BTW, the rake is only because of how the car is raked right now, I plan on running a more even rake.

Opinions?

I do a bit of Auto-x'ing myself, and i've done a couple track days too. V700's are pretty normal in terms of tire size, not like the hoosiers... Hoosiers are obscenely wide for what size they show. But I am trying to go by tread section width the most, which is generally measured accuratly compaired to actual tire classifications (IE 185/195/205/etc.) and seems to be what people recommend to use for figuring out what tire/wheel fits in a specific fender well.

All right, I think the big thing to do now is pick the tires so I can figure out what offset I need for the wheels... So the big question is: Go with 14" or 15"? For 14" tires, I will definatly go with the Khumo V700's that are on closeout at Tire Rack (Khumo Ecsta V700 185/55/14, Section width - 7.6", Tread width - N/A, Diameter 21.9", Weight 18lbs). The smaller rotational diameter will make fitament easy, as will the narrower section width. I don't know the tread width though because Khumo doesn't list their tire tread width (although it is a less accurate form of measurement). For 15" though, I've got it narrowed down to 2 choices... 1) The Khumo SPT 15" (Khumo Ecsta SPT 195/45/15, Section width - 7.7", Tread width N/A, Diameter - 21.9", Weight 17lbs, Cost - $90.00) It has the lowest weight i've found, plus isnt too expensive, AND has the same diameter as the 14" V700's which will make for a nice lower profile on a 15" wheel. 2) The Advan A043 15" (Yokohama Advan A043 185/55/15, Section width - 7.5", Tread width - 6.6", Diameter - 23", Weight 21lbs, Cost - $109.00) This is actually a specialty tire for the MR-S. Its good because its narrow for a 15" tire but not too narrow, probably has a better chance of clearing everything than the Khumo... However, its taller than the Khumo (almost the same diameter as my current tires) so there might be more clearance issues there. Its also the most expensive option. I'm still not sure which one I want the most right now, but I think i'm leaning towards the V700 due to the price... Thoughts?

I think i'm just going to have some cust 14" steel wheels made from these guys since they are local and use those cheap khumo race tires to start with... http://www.stocktonwheel.com

I just re-riveted a decent condtion pedal into the 78 I had... However, the plastic bit that holds to the actual pedal snaped right away, so that floor-mounted pedal is kind of a waste of time IMO, better off having a new metal pedal welded on.

What part of the battery-acid-covered, completely erroded vinyl/foam, totally broken frame, missing/rusted/broken springs, non-functional-recliner/adjustment, did you miss? I saved the rails, NOTHING else was salvageable from the passanger seat... I should toss the right rail too, the battery acid rusted it far past the point of no-return. I kept the recliner adjuster... i'm them it "just in case" as you mention. But I dont plan on keeping the seat bolts in the same location on the floorboard. Right now they are in "divits" in the floorboard, four of which have turned into rust-infested holes, mostly due to being a low point in the floorboard that collects water. Very bad design...

If you need parts, theres a ~85+ brat at the Ranch Cordova pick n' pull. Might want to take a look.

Day 9: I spent most of today removing the "sound deadening material" from the driver and passagner footwell... MAN thats some tough work! But I did get most of it off, but theres a bit more that will need to come out once the whole dash is removed. You can also see how bad the rust is on the floorboard in some places... I also removed a couple of metal clips and wrap things that were in the driver/passanger wells that were not being used or won't be used (plus, those metal clips welded into the chassis will be a pain in the rump roast when the car gets repainted! Might as well eliminate them) As you can see, I also removed the seats... The driver seat I kept around just in case, but the passager one (other than the rails) is in the trash. I ran the car for the whole day too, trying to burn off as much gas as possible. The oil pan is leaking as is the oil temp sensor and the water pump ever so slightly, but thats not a big deal really as I plan on rebuilding all that anyhow. The engine did run good the whole time though, no problems that I saw/heard which is awesome. Anyway, here are the photos from today... Some interesting things to look at too, including the neat manual vents, and the VERY nice chromed e-brake and the odd shifter:

Seen that vid before Whats interesting is that this car doesnt sound like the 78 did... Its got a different tone, more porsche/VW-like, and sounds better at higher rpms despite the hole in the muffler. The dual exhaust ports I think make a big difference.

Went pick n' pulling today... Got some alternator brackets, a mirror from a ~79 wagon, and a EA81 83+ electric distributor that is supposed an upgrade from what i've read (Its not in that great of condition though, but I did want one for reference when I work on the 1100). Struck out on wheels... No alloy wheels what so ever, despite 3 isles of Subarus Pretty picked through, just lots of 13" steelies. I did do some work on the FF-1 today. Took out the passanger seat and some lower-dash pieces, and a couple things off the floorboards. The passanger seat had battery acid everywhere in it! Someone left a battery on there at the JY I guess, made it hard to work with... I did remove the seat rails, but the rest is useless so I tossed it. I plan on removing a couple of those little brackets on the floor that I won't re-using for sure (like the button brackets for carpet, things like that). I also found out the sound-deading material is coming off pretty easy, so I think ill try to remove that tommorow

Correct. Here are the exhaust diagrams from the service manual with some color enhancement to show the major differences...

Alright, here are some ideas for exhaust setups i've had... #1 is a dual setup, side exit exhaust... Probably would be hard to do and might look ugly, but it was an idea none the less. #2 is what i'm leaning the most towards at this point, using a X over muffler with the dual setup exhaust going along both sides of the car keeping it a true "dual" exhaust still. #3 is using a 4-1 collector going into a 2" pipe and straight back to a regular muffler, the headers would be complicated with this setup but the rest would be very simple. #4 has headers based on the FF-1 1300G Sports exhaust, which apparently has the front and rear ports seperate instead of each side seperate... Don't know why, but they got 95hp out of that setup so there might be a reason for it. Let me know if you have any other ideas, I can post the templete I used for these pictures if anyone wants to have fun