Trouble_07

Not too sure how intelligent all you guys are on the subject, but speaking from experience... I worked at an oil change shop for 2 years and was under at minimum 30 cars a day, graduated from a 2 year auto tech program at the top of my class as well as a 1 year auto body program from the same institution. I now work at a renowned upholstery shop where I see at least 2 cars a day. Yes I do own one car that was completely butchered by teenagers and well that's the only one that had a section to allow movement and separate the exhaust system. The other 2 cars were completely factory and neither of them had anything like mentioned. As for the info from my friends at the exhaust shops both of them were from the owners who have been in business for 20+ years and are very well recommended, so I doubt they would feed me a line of bull. But hey everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if it's your car do what you want with it no one can stop you.

Both the 86 and two 87's I picked up didn't have either style joint. I asked the 2 exhaust shops that sponsor our outlaw karts about their thoughts on adding a flex pipe on the starquests and they both said not to do it unless its a last resort. The flex pipe is designed more or less for front wheel drives where the engine rocks back and forth and need that movement in the exhaust. They both did recommend the other joint that was mentioned if you had a spendy exhaust and were worried about it being damaged. Another valid point one of them made was that if your engine is moving enough to the point where you need to install a flex pipe you have some serious issues like bad motor mounts, trams mounts, and other possible parts. I think I'll be picking up one of the funk lock engine mounts like someone else mentioned so I don't have to ever worry about that problem.

It's so nice to get all this info. Sounds like the TBI will be efficient enough for my goals at this point. If I can get a solid 350 whp ill be more than happy. Looked a little bit with not much luck but does anyone have a link to the company mentioned with the 52mm throttle body kit?

Well I'm in Minnesota so luckily we don't have that here. I've honestly never even had a cat on any of my vehicles most of them straight piped v8s and never had a problem with law enforcement about it.

A flex pipe on a car that didn't come with one from the factory is pretty dumb in my opinion. If you have quality rubber hangers that soak up vibration and allow for movement you don't need one. I've done dozens of exausts and never have I put a flex pipe on a vehicle that didn't come with one.

Idk too much about turbos but quite knowledgeable in other mechanical functions. If the seal you installed is on the shaft the turbine and compressor are on maybe it's not warn in yet or possibly a manufacturer defect. As far as spinning when warmed up goes but not when cold this could be because metal expands when heated and it may be expanding the housing enough to give that shaft and seal the clearance it needs to spin freely. If your not having any issues I'd put some miles on it and try to get it spooling and making boost most of the time. If it doesn't start working the way it should I'd just get another kit and fully rebuild it making sure all parts are to spec. Not an expert but that's what i'd do in your shoes.

Ill have to check out the lower shores kit and do some price comparing as well as drivability compared to going mpi...

Thanks for the info I somewhat expected I'd come to that conclusion as all the interchangeable Mazda parts only go to 88.. Oh well was just trying to get a free fix I traded a 5spd s10 transmission so I don't really have any money into it right now and wanted to keep it that way lol

Thanks for the positive feedback

Sorry guys not completely sq related. Anyone know if the cam, rockers and lifters out of my 87 quest could be useable in the 91 b2600i that I got her. She loves this truck and wants it back on the rd.

Wish my first car would of been a sq!

Yea but It might have to wait until Wednesday when my boss is back. He deals with most of our frieght stuff. Could I get an area code?

I have lots of fabrication skills and could easily fabricate a mpi intake. Was more so looking at a good factory set up but it sounds as if I want to make big power the only way is a custom mpi setup with a stand alone system.. Thanks for the thoughts guys. Guess I got a good winter project.

I have access to an mpi manifold from a b2600i pickup. Looks as if it would fit. Has anyone ever used one? Possibly picking up a ram-50 for parts also. I've read some stuff about using that mpi intake but having trouble finding any solid good info. Eager to learn here.

Thanks for the info. Guess ill be going mpi after get finished with all the body and interior work this winter.

Ok so I'm pretty new to this. I'm trying to do some research and get together all the parts for a winter project. My car came completely stock and I'm looking to upgrade as much as I can while keeping the TBI system. I've got strong enough internals to pretty much throw anything I want at them but what constraints will I have with the TBI? More along the lines of how much boost can the TBI system efficiently keep up with? Right now I have a 16g that I was planning on using.. How much boost can I expect and what else will I need?

Your welcome, I've used that super 77 building multi stage foam kits for custom motor cycle seats and other little projects at an old job. Totally get what your saying about it only being a ford escape. Most of our work is doing custom airplane interiors with a base price of about $10,000 bucks for four bucket seats and all the panels covered in suede. We just finished one for cirrus that the customer paid almost 30,000 for. His airplane was almost around a million bucks when all said and done. If only I had that kind of money to blow haha

I'm an upholsterer by trade and work at what is probably the best shop in the Midwest. I would highly recommend using k-grip if your looking for a permanent solution. It's a bit spendy and you need their spray gun but its the best. Another product we use for similar applications is 3M's 8-88 which comes in a spray can and is more professional grade designed for upholstery work. If you have any questions I'd be glad to answer them.

Title says (sold).. Is it still for sale or is it gone?

That's so sick!

I have some good plans for mine. Black vinyl seamed at the molded stitch with red double stitch. I'm doing that with my seats as well but will of course use leather. Unsure of what I will do with the centers. Either gray swade or synthetic zebra fur..? Any thoughts on that..? Ill ask my boss if I can take some pics of our shops work we do some pretty sick custom stuff.

If there's anything anyone has done custom to there interiors post them up here. I'd like to see them anything.. Mild to wild.. I've really gotten into the upholstery stuff this past year and I got some good ideas for mine but I'd like to see what other people have done.

Looking Sweet!!! Fellow body guy here, cant wait to get started on my 3" cowl induction hood. You might have just been my inspiration to do so this weekend. Know of anyone or any links to cars that have the fenders modified? I was possibly thinking about boxong the back portions out and filling the open are with mesh like you see in Grilles.

Can you send me a pic so I know for sure it's the right one and what your talking about. I'll give you a shipped price when I know for sure.

Could you get a pic of the part? I'd like to know what it is for sure before I shoot you a quote and make sure I could still rig something to steer it in and out of the shop.