I put the my head back together today. Slowly but surely! Probably bolt it to the block tomorrow. Gotta change my rear main seal plate too. I used one I had laying around and it's different than the XR2 one, think it was from an NA capri with a steel oil pan which doesn't work with the alloy pan. Anyway, I know I have the XR2 one around somewhere, it doesn't have the studs in it. Back to the spare parts box!
^^Looks good! I really like having a hatch cover. Especially to hide what's in my trunk like tools sub/amp etc. It helps cut down road noise as well and just looks good!
A few things I've done to the BP over the past day or two.
Got an engine hoist for $60 on craigslist.
Removed the power steering / ac stuff.
Replaced exhaust manifold gasket, oil pan gasket. Little things like pcv valve, air filter (damn was that thing dirty...)
Spray painted the heat shield.
Put my red valve cover on, no gasket yet. Debating on whether or not I should do the head gasket.
Cleaned it up a bit, I've got a long way to go but every day is progress.
I plan to vacuuform my own lenses and do a projector retrofit on the festiva, doesn't look nearly as hard as other cars, our lenses are so flat.
I'm doing this first!
I've retrofitted my Grand Marquis already, made my own lenses and used FX-Rs with a DDM ballast set up.
These Festy headlights are almost perfect. I think instead of vacuum forming, I'm going to build them out of plexiglass and the bonding agent that comes out of a bottle with a needle... Anyways, I'll use the Mini D2S bolt ins. Not sure when the money's going to let me though.
JVX does take good comparison pics. I think he's worked well with Matt at TRS to get output shots of most of the projectors out there.
If the wiring is like american cars where the power actually goes to the column switch that is a bad idea. There are relay kits out there plug and play to let you do that tho.
You can also flip your high beam+ground wire and buy a 9007 and see how the output looks. It's better than a 9004 but still pretty bad.
Ripped from another site:
Re: 9004 to 9007 - myths dispelled
The 9007 output is very similar to the 9004 high beam. This is where it seems like the claims that it improves headlight performance come from.
Yes, it does make the headlights brighter, and give them more throw. Because it's lighting up the highbeams! What do you expect?
9004 gives you a crappy lowbeam without too much glare, and a decent highbeam.
9007 gives you two decent highbeams, and no lowbeams.
I like the functionality of being able to switch from my crappy lowbeams to my bright highbeams. If I had 9007s, I would either have to aim them down and lose my highbeam throw, or keep them aimed where they are and glare like crazy.
I just wanted to take some pictures. Yeah, it might not be as good as one of those beam scans they have at some websites, but IMO my basement lighting comparisons do a decent job of making a direct A/B comparison between two lamps. It's worlds better than the typically blurry and overexposed down the road shot of "look how brite my new 9007s are", with no before-and-after, and not all of the variables constant.
THe only thing that changed from picture to picture was the bulb. The same headlight was in the same spot, running off of the same regulated power, with the same camera from the same position at the same settings with the same ambient light.
You should totally check out the HID projector comparisons done by JVX over on HIDPlanet. Somehow, he has access to this big gymnasium with dim orange arc-sodium lighting, so he takes all these comparison shots of projectors from like 50+ feet away, and controls all of the variables from each photoshoot to the next, so it is excellent for comparing different projectors.
I still say do it because it only costs as much as 2 bulbs, and if you drive more in the city, aim them extra low and use the highs more often as needed.
I plan to vacuuform my own lenses and do a projector retrofit on the festiva, doesn't look nearly as hard as other cars, our lenses are so flat.
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