Merlin's 1993 BA8 Si - Because Race Car

Post by **Merlin** » Mon Feb 17, 2025 10:51 am

The car is 99% done now, and only a few days beyond deadline (I have to have the car finished, and my warehouse emptied by the end of the month), so I had to balance things I wanted to get done against the time and effort needed to get it done.

Suspension wise, I have gone in a slightly different direction than planned. I intended to use all the suspension bits from the BB4, however some of the polybushes were past it. Luckily, the BA8's arms and knuckles were effectively perfect and I got a pair of brand new front LCA's off Vanzep. Plus it saved us a whole heap of time taking all the rear suspension apart, I wasn't looking forward to the trailing arm on the BB4 as the chassis is so rusty.

The pivot lift I bought to spread the weight of the BB4 more evenly along the sill worked perfectly! Not sure if you can use it while an exhaust is on the car, but it worked great for what I needed.

Some new Goodridge braided brake hoses with the stainless fittings.

I'll touch up some of the paint I hurriedly missed

Engine going in with the help of Vanzep and 3rdGenSteve

New 4th gen baffled sump made by Iconic Auto-Design Vs the old one that is now very rusty

Brand new Fijuitsubo manifold!

While much success was had during the final stages of the build, it was not all plain sailing. Long story short, I had some issues with my mounts and at one point the engine was in and visibly uneven. I believe that using the front engine mount (brand new for this build - optional Innovative Mounts front traction bar front mount) caused it to be squint. Anyway, we removed the front mounts, readjusted the engine and now it is in perfect. The line of the top of the head is parallel with the top of the slam panel, the gearbox mount bolt is now in the correct position (it needed to be drilled because of the auto to manual swap), and the eacust lines up perfectly, showing that the engine is in the correct position.

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Mon Feb 17, 2025 1:25 pm

Nice work - the old BB4 sure is rotten

Meanwhile, a BRAND NEW fuji manifold is sexy AF

Are you going ES polybush in the future when you have time, just postponing for now? And does that mean you've kept all the suspension components off the BB4 'on the shelf' ready to help when that time comes (if not... I might be interested in them as a spare set to re-furbish off the car for one of mine

)
Also - clear of the warehouse by the end of the month? Oh! I thought this was chez Alastair long term!

Post by **Merlin** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 11:27 am

Phase one is complete! The car moves! The final push was not too bad, filling all the fluids and bleeding everything. Although, we have seemingly not bled the brakes properly, so need to go back and do that.

The biggest issue we had was that at first the car did not want to start. The dash lights were doing some mad jobby and the window wipers were constantly on. Turns out I had mistakenly plugged the interior fuse box power into the window wipers. Both connectors are brown and did fit! Luckily, I took video's of how all the under-dash wiring all came apart, so that saved my skin as I could see what was what in the vid.

The car is idling good, although I think it needs the valve clearances done (you can hear it in the vid).

I want to get the rear bumper resprayed. I used the old bumper because it has the spats I like, a good cut hole for the exhaust and has my rain light fitted.

Post by **Drax** » Fri Feb 21, 2025 11:00 am

hell yes!!!! good work

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Fri Feb 21, 2025 2:44 pm

Good man, well done and pleased for you!
Have you filled the rear arches and sills with dinitrol/dynax along the way?

Post by **Merlin** » Tue Feb 25, 2025 10:53 am

I bought two large cans of the Bilt Hamber Dynax UC Clear Film Anti-Corrosion Wax which we have sprayed the underneath and sills with. All the arches and under the boot have been stone chipped.

toadster · Post by **toadster** » Tue Feb 25, 2025 5:58 pm

Lo

Great work

TA for posting all the great pics

Cheers

Toadster

Post by **Merlin** » Tue Mar 04, 2025 10:00 am

MOT today!

Yesterday I had to drive the car from the warehouse to my own house, it was eventful. First up the wheel alignment is way out of spec, but this was expected, the car was horrendous to drive so had to take it very slowly. Then noticed that the speedo wasn't working, not an MOT fail (they don't check the speedo as they don't drive it under MOT test conditions), but still not good. Then the CEL came on, I assumed it was associated with the lack of speedo, and it was. The pulled code was 17 (VSS), and right enough I hadn't plugged the VSS back in

Because the VSS was unplugged the car wouldn't VTEC until it was plugged in. My mirrors dont seem to work and neither does the passenger window but that is a door card off job, and I want to do that anyway as I need to remove the speakers.

I am pleased to say that my engine no longer leaks oil since we changed the sump.

In getting the car ready for MOT I could not get my horn to work. I fitted a new 350mm suede trimmed Motacorsa Misano wheel and Works Bell steering boss. The horn button was not grounding properly, so I drilled a hole and tapped it to run an earth.

Post by **vanzep** » Tue Mar 04, 2025 11:20 am

the lude looks great. impressive build in such a short space of time.

good luck with MOT today

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Tue Mar 04, 2025 5:41 pm

Such a clean shell. Well done getting it built so quickly.
The drive home and not being able to vtec must have been sooooo frustrating!