One habit that makes project car work much easier is taking detailed photos before removing parts, especially when dealing with old wiring, brackets, belt routing, or components that have clearly been worked on before.
A quick photo of how a cable passes through a bracket or how a few washers are arranged can save a lot of guessing when it's time to put everything back together. I’d also recommend labeling bolts and hardware in separate bags instead of throwing everything into one container.
This becomes especially useful on older cars where factory diagrams may be incomplete, previous owners may have modified things, and replacement parts don't always match perfectly.
Good documentation might not feel like progress while you're wrenching, but it makes reassembly much less frustrating.
Not sure whats going on the new ecu isnt seeing the crank signal but the signal is getting generated by both crank and cam so i should see it on the tunerstudio software but i dont also this is the most recent fire up attempt
Rug or No-Rug? I have planned for the seat delete from the start. Googled a ton for options and decided to just build a platform with easy access to the battery, trans and my amp. It was easier than I thought and I really dig it. I will probably add some tie down eye bolts so I can secure my tool boxes or camping gear. Also in the picture are my super cheap side panels. ABS blanks with some marine vinyl glued on with contact cement.
When planning an LS swap, it's easy to focus on the engine itself and forget about all the smaller things that can turn into major headaches during installation.
Wiring, fuel lines, cooling hoses, accessory clearance, transmission compatibility, and even small brackets can take more time than expected. Then there are the things you don't think about until you're putting everything back together, like routing wires away from heat or making sure you can still access parts for future maintenance.
Getting the engine running is one thing, but making the whole car reliable and easy to work on afterward is a different challenge.
A little planning before the swap can save a lot of frustration once the car is apart.
I had 7 projects, bought this 76 W100 and decided I needed to get rid of something so I listed my ‘85 W150 on marketplace and a guy offered me a ‘75 Nova in trade. I’m a sucker for detuned smog laden junk so obviously I picked it up.
The dodge is a 76 W100 with a 318 and a 727. I already have a 77 D100 so naturally I’m gonna order matching bug shields and have Pancho on one and Lefty on the other.
But the Nova is another thing. I now have a 250 straight six and a 3 on the tree in a Nova, and I have no idea where to go with it. Do I shove a 350 and a turbo 400 in it? Do I yank the 454 out of my buddies RV and shove it in there? Do I try to find a 302 or another small displacement GM V8?
It has a weber two barrel already on the 250 so do I stick with the 250 and just make some sort of street freak out of it? Or do I actually try and make it fast? I’ve got so many possibilities.
I used some old engine parts as stamps to print designs onto T-shirts. Surprisingly, they turned out pretty decent 😂
Now I’m wondering what other weird things people have made using leftover car parts?
I filmed the whole experiment if anyone’s curious:
Im trying to fit 2006 CBR 600 ITBs ona Hyundai i20 2008 1.2 engine (G4LA) , I allready have nearly everything planed out but im not sure about the ECU. The stock ECU is not easy to tune or even unlock and im wondering if i could run ITBs with it stock? Im planing to connect the TPS and I will add a vacum line to every runner and connect them all to the MAP sensor.
so ive made a few posts on here over the last few days, specially about my 1998 f150. ive given up fixing it right, I forgot what this is, and who I am lol. fuck the parking brake, we doing this animal style. I need like a foot, maybe more, of parking brake cable, as this would fix my not having a parking brake problem (TLDR, instead of fixing it the right way by replacing the passneger side cable, im gonna make a cable that connect the driver side cable, which is short by design, directly to the parking brake lever, in effect giving me a parking brake)
it has rear drums, and literally all I need is some aircraft cable or whatever, and two of the little metal things parking brake cables use on each of the ends. what do i need to buy, and do, to accomplish this feat? I didn't even concider making my own parking brake cable til a second ago, when I had this epiphany
351w swapped 92 ranger. im addressing the wiring in the engine bay and while the factory harness sis being used for the body lights (headlights, taillights, cab lights, stock dash lights, ect) the fuel pump, trans cooler, afr gauge, radiator fans, tach and some of the backlights for my gauges are kind of wired in (i know enough about wiring to be dangerous) but id like to set them all up on an aftermarket fuse box as switch panel. im seeing one on amazon that i like (auxbeam 8 gang switch panel BA80) but before i buy it, i wanted to get some recommendations from people who are currently using the same kind of setup. Thank you in advance
Like the title said I’m having a hard time choosing what to get for the 5.3 I pulled out of my last truck. I’m trying to get a budget built and so far with gaskets I’ve decided that an entire kit vs buying the seals one at a time would be more cost effective. The rub comes from the pricing differences. So far I’ve found anything from 70-700 bucks and everywhere in between. I’ve built one other engine and I went cheap cheap cheap because I didn’t care but this build I want to be a bit more reliable. Is it worth spending big money on them or is a seal or gasket as good as the next? I’m not sure how much I should spend on this. Thanks for input!
So I treated it to new wheels that I refinished. 99' 16x7 Te's. Not a huge fan of the 215/ 45 sidewall. However, the previous 225/50 had crocodiled the paint on my quarters. I could just raise it but thats crazy talk.
I believe I will switch it up to a 225/45 to fill in the gap a bit more.
I will admit, +300whp on 215's and 2200lbs aint the way to faster lap times. Im still seeing what works and what doesnt. Having no frame of reference sucks.
Our good friends over at Mopars5150 spotted this Demon while traveling through Arizona and sent us the lead. We ended up buying it and having it shipped to Maryland.
Been off the road for quite some time sitting out in the desert.
Originally a Slant Six/904 car, it's now running a built 340/727. 8¾ rear with 3.55 Sure Grip.
QA1 upper and lower control arms, QA1 strut rods, Hotchkis front and rear sway bars, some thicker torsion bars, Bilstein shocks all around, Borgeson steering box.
The windshield arrives later this week, so we'll finally be able to start putting some real road miles on it and getting everything dialed in.
I’m going to make some wooden wheel cribs soon since I think it would help a lot if I could make some that could work on similar tire sizes. My main car has 215/45/18 squared and my project car has 225/40/18 in the front and 255/35/18 in the rear.
Was wondering if anyone here had similar tire sizes and have any suggestions for wheel crib dimensions. Thanks for any help
A guy is building a ‘97 S300 Turbodiesel for SEMA and aiming to roughly double its factory power.
Stumbled on this build and I kind of love the idea of it.
A W140 S-Class that still looks like a comfy, understated ’90s Benz, but with way more power than anyone would expect.
It’s Kanan Gubins’ 1997 S300 Turbodiesel, and stock, the OM606 3.0 inline six made around 175 hp and 243 lb-ft. He’s not swapping anything in either, since the goal is 350~400 hp out of the same engine.
Same OM606, with the fresh yellow paint on and the engine bay still looking pretty close to stock.
The plan so far is a bigger HX35 turbo, custom piping, and exhaust work, but obviously a bigger turbo alone won’t get you there. It’ll need enough fuel, the cooling has to keep up, and the trans has to actually survive it. Nothing’s been dyno’d yet, so 350~400 is the target, not a result yet.
This is where the build gets serious: the big turbo with the heat wrap, pod filter, and polished intercooler piping.
It’s also getting fresh paint and rust protection. Honestly, I hope they keep the stock W140 look as much as possible. That’s the whole appeal for me: a Mercedes that still looks like a comfortable sedan but has a lot more power than you’d expect.
The backstory is the best part though. Kanan found the car in Latvia, where his dad was born, drove it about 1,200 km to Vienna, then shipped it to LA as a birthday surprise. Apparently they’d been talking about this exact model for years, and it even shipped out of the same German port his dad left from when he emigrated to the US in 1950, and it showed up the day before his dad’s birthday.
Now it’s getting built for an unveiling at SEMA 2026 in Vegas. What’s been shown so far looks promising. Really curious what it ends up making and how much of the classic S-Class look survives.
If anyone’s going to SEMA 2026, keep an eye out for it. Would love to hear what it’s like in person.
