Benny's BA2 Prelude - Project Shakotan.

[Rocambolesque]

I think this is one of the best builds on here! Everything just flows on this car, its like its 1980-something again.

[Blamed]

Love <3

As you well know, sir.

RUN SAB.

[w201e34]

i am so inlove with everything you've done on this car. its so period correct and so beautiful! i hope you make that engine bay look good with that shiny new motor ya got in there!

also....dem wheels.... *wimper* beautiful.

[drift55]

Good Luck!!

[Benny]

Right well I've not updated in a while mainly due to the fact I've been flat out working on the barsteward since I got the engine!

It's not all been plain sailing though and every night and weekend I've been working on it trying to get it ready for JAE on the 7th of September.

Richard turned up with the engine and we built it up in the garage as it was raining all day.




And assembled ready for gearbox . . . Mmmm new posh cam gears





Then the next day it was super sunny and me and my buddy Joe got the fkker in!




The day after that about 8 of my crew came over and we all came together and helped put all the plugs and pipes in the right places and finally got it all together ready for a test start . . .

It fired up!

But it was idling like shit and wasn't firing on cylinder 1 even though it had a spark and fuel?!

After a few nights of fannying we finally realised that we'd forgottten to redo the valve clearances. 10 mins later and BOOM! She was running so damn sweet!

Compression check revealed 225psi on each piston which should produce some nice numbers once on the dyno and will even get stronger once the rings have bedded in.

All was going well apart from the pesky battery light was staying on and the alternator wasn't giving any charge. After a while I got impatient and charged the battery up in the garage and then took her out for a drive. Can only go up to 3K revs at the moment but it pulls really well!

While showing some of my mates what the exhaust sounded like the engine pulled in a loose bit of cam belt cover gasket and it got all tangled up in the cam belt and made it jump 6 teeth on the cam gears. This was literally an FML moment I nearly cried. The engine had 5 miles on it and It could be ruined.

Rob very nicely towed me home using his Evo and then I set about removing the debris and re timing then tried a start up . . .

OMG it ran, it idled fine and the next evening after finding a compression tester I had (when cold) 210psi of compression on all cylinders :O IT'S ALRIGHT!

I am so so so lucky it didn't bend a valve! I Don't know how but it's a good thing!


So tomorrow I'm driving it to get a wheel alignment at 8:30am then it's off to the Auto Electrician as the brand new alternator isn't charging it so it's got to be wiring related and I've spent way too many hours fiddling with it!

Then in the evening I'm sorting the rails for the new seat and bolting that mother in! All ready for 11am Friday morning for it's trip to Kettering.

Cutting it close? I THINK SO! :O

[Benny]

dat seat! and those solid wheels are fucking solid, literally lol!

As a rock mang! lol

This is seriously my fav ba lude, cause its so ba

Not many out there that have been messed about with really. Just needed some of my own touches!

This thing is so fucking cool. I love the period correctness of everything, and the overall feel of the car.

Keep up the good work, this is definitely one of my favorite builds.

Wow thanks for the awesome words dude! Glad your enjoying the build. I am pissing myself with anticipation about drving it again!


Got this from my engine man.

Well I'm just doing the best I can with an old spare engine, Budget and time reasonably restrictive so I've given this head a street job but only in the sense that the stock valve seats are retained as Benny likes to cruise around all night clocking up miles so race seats are out as they only last like 20-30k miles at best. And I've also kept the guides stock length to keep them from wearing out quicker but I have shaped the guide ramps and the guide ends a little to help flow as much as possible, I've also added my own little special finish to the vavles and the inlet ports are pretty rough as it's direct port injection, the inlet manifold has been smoothed out leading towards the head.

Given that the pistons are stock but I've shaved .5mm off the head and block to boost CR ratio up a bit, the Throttle body is a few mm bigger and tweaked, F22/23 cam pulley's modded to fit B20A set to 4 degree advance on inlet and 4 degree retard on exhaust, B20A5 header and downpipe modded to fit, CAI kit fitted, FSE power boost valve fuel pressure reglutor set a tiny bit higher than stock, nicely modded head and we should hope to get around 170-180bhp but I think 190bhp could be possible but with stock cams I'd be stoked with 180bhp still some Cat cams in and 200bhp is easy! more for certain if we went webers or ITB's but Benny is keen to keep mpg sensible! lol! but to be honest we won't really know what we will get till we get it up and running.

Well I've been a very busy boy nearly done with all the prep work and I've just started to assemble the block so nearly there home straight in my sights! It's mad to think that all these hours in stripping down, prepping, cleaning, more cleaning, then some more cleaning and quite a lot of time doing headwork then more cleaning and to put everything together probably doesn't take much more than 8-10 hours! lol! Oh well hopefully get a good nights sleep get up at 7am and crack on!! Hope to have block pretty much built then get the head assembled which is a few hours work. And then pack everything and anything I can think off to head down to Benny's to get this sucker back in the car!!

[MommysLittleMonster]

This thing is so fucking cool. I love the period correctness of everything, and the overall feel of the car.

Keep up the good work, this is definitely one of my favorite builds.

[244Brick]

dat seat! and those solid wheels are fucking solid, literally lol!

This is seriously my fav ba lude, cause its so ba

[sally pu]

dat seat! and those solid wheels are fucking solid, literally lol!

[[experimental]]

Brilliant choice of seat for this build.

[Benny]

Little purchase I made . . . Mmmm Carbon Kevlar . . .










The seat was made in '92 so not toooooo far from my 80's period theme. It suits it pretty well inside thanks to the grey suede shoulder pads. It's SILLY light.

Just need some side mounts now and a super rare old skool looking harness. Probably buy a new harness as buying an 80's harness probably isn't a good idea lol

[Benny]

Tried my hand at the new brake piping. Never done it before ever and I'm yet to test it as I'm waiting on the old ALB pump feed fitting from the Master cylinder to be blocked off then I'll bleed it and check for leaks.

Now I have lost loads of weight and there is room for my ARC intake.

[Benny]

Made a start on the exhaust system today!

Still waiting for my centre box to arrive and can't connect it up to the mani yet as the engine has to be in for that.

So we just went as far as we could.





Here's a crappy pic of how it's going to look

[drift55]

this may be the best thing i have ever seen

[Benny]

An update from my engine man.

After stripping down spare block and original head ready for machining and washing



After washing given a good scrubbing by wire brush ready for painting!



All masked up and ready to paint!



All the internal parts cleaned and scrubbed!



Good as new again now just to let it dry nice and hard and stop stinking so much before I move it indoors to be built!!



Nice clean head all the bearing surfaces all nice and smooth and shiny again!!




New Bits!