Day 2: The Sound of Potential

Day two has come and gone. I didn't get much done today, put some trim back on the car after giving it a good scrub down. Pulled the exhaust out from under it and drove it around in it's un-muffled state for about ten minutes with an ear-to-ear grin on my face. Oh yeah, also threw some new fuses in and checked all the electronics, they all seem to work fine.

This JEV6 is a noisy booger! I mean, I thought the two massive mufflers were overkill, but now I know why they added them onto the van. It was so much fun to rumble around on our property with the floors shaking to the bass rumble of the engine, honestly though, a straight pipe system may be too loud for the finished product. I'd still like to be able to hear the radio while I'm drivin' around yah know?

The roof. It was sooooo dirty to begin with. Much cleaner now.

The hood where it now sits in my shop. I should have take a before and after photo of the underside. It was like black to begin with. Now the underside has the best paint on the car.

The second catalytic converter, and first muffler out from under the MPV. The first cat is still up in there just to keep the exhaust gases under the vehicle in case I have to move it around some.

Second muffler.

That's about it. I recorded a video showing just how loud this van is without a muffler. It doesn't do it justice, trust me, my ears hurt afterwards. Anyway, more to come soon!

The MPV, a VG30DETT swap car.

Alright, today marks the first day of my massive undertaking of turning my old '97 Mazda MPV into a race-ready machine. How many of you remember the days of your childhood being shuttled around in your parents minivan? For me it was a comforting thing, we've had this van for almost as long as I can remember and I love it to death. This is also the first driver I've ever owned, (I don't say my first car because I've had a truck since I was fourteen and I still haven't driven it on the road.) so there's a lot of bonding I've done with this car. The old JE engine has given me a lot of pleasure on the road and she's gotten me out of sticky situations more than once. (Think semi-truck sandwich.) But unfortunately, sometime in the past few years we took it to an express lube somewhere and they overfilled the girl. Most of the seals and gaskets on the engine are now gone. She runs, but it got to the point where I was adding more oil than gas every week, so it was time for something to go. Now me, being an avid car enthusiast and mechanic-in-training, I enjoy going fast and I enjoy working on vehicles, so I've decided to do something crazy and off-the-wall. I'm going to put a VG30DETT into the MPV. I've only ever seen this done once before, and it was in fact done right by a  certain D. Swensonhimer.

Now, this won't be the same as what Swensonhimer has done, (Obviously I don't want to copy him, that's just wrong.) namely because my MPV is a little newer. (More electronics to deal with. Whoopee.) But I'm going a little farther than he went. This car isn't going to be a sleeper, eventually I plan to compete in the SCCA Solo racing events with this vehicle, so a new suspension system is a must, as well as a rollcage. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This will not be completed in just a few months, this project may take me years, mainly because of funding. I'm parting out the engine and transmission in hopes to get enough money to buy a used 300ZX Fairlady Z32, and then going from there, hopefully parting out what's left of the 300ZX for more funding. But we'll see.Whatever the case, it may take me years, but this car will be finished someday.

This is where she's sat for the past few months. I needed to get her moved somewhere out of the elements, I do plan to repaint as soon as the engine is out, as there are some rust spots and such that bother me.

The original JE V6 by Mazda. A wonderful little engine, this one has 280,000 miles on it and still ran strong until that jiffy lube killed her.

After moving her down into my workshop. It's a tight fit at the moment, but hopefully we'll get some stuff moved out of there soon. She looks so much happier out of the weather.