The Buchka 242 Daily Driver

Thanks dudes! I don't drive the car as much as I used to but I still love it. Not the fastest thing in the world but it puts a smile on my face every time I get behind the wheel.

tjanson said:

Beautiful work. Any more pictures or details of the dash "filler" plate? I'm curious how you integrated the oil pressure, headlight, charging lights.

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Here's a daylight photo showing the panel in more detail. The stack dash in this photo is not mine, I just used it for mock up. Unfortunately my engine doesn't rev to 15k.



The lights are these from APEM. Kinda spendy but I couldn't find anything else that I liked and they are very high quality. The buttons on the side, also from APEM, are for switching between the pages on the display and for setting up the shift lights and CAN configuration on the dash.

The panel itself is one I designed and ordered from Front Panel Express. They can do printed graphics so I imported ISO standard vehicle symbols (ISO2575) into the design file to keep a somewhat cohesive automotive look. There are also a number of PEM studs on the back used to hold the dash display and to fasten the panel to the bezel with some angle brackets.

Beautiful work

This thread gives me motivation to continue planning my L83 and corvette C5 rear mount setup once I'm done working on this Martin Scorsese movie In Oklahoma. Such a great source of information. Keep it up.

I assume you'll be using the HTG controller to work the DCT? I see the Domiworks board in there.

This thread is awesome! Amazing work throughout. This and the FRC thread got me back out of my slump of car projects.

I really need to drop by one Saturday to visit you brothers and Duder! I would love to see these projects in person one day.
Good old covid... lol

TIPSP said:

This thread is awesome! Amazing work throughout. This and the FRC thread got me back out of my slump of car projects.

I really need to drop by one Saturday to visit you brothers and Duder! I would love to see these projects in person one day.
Good old covid... lol

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If you've had your shots, then you're welcome to come by our shop any time we're there, no masks required.

Thanks dudes!

DNAsEqUeNcE said:

I assume you'll be using the HTG controller to work the DCT? I see the Domiworks board in there.

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Yep, I got it at the same time as the adapter kit from Domiworks.

TIPSP said:

This thread is awesome! Amazing work throughout. This and the FRC thread got me back out of my slump of car projects.

I really need to drop by one Saturday to visit you brothers and Duder! I would love to see these projects in person one day.
Good old covid... lol

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Thanks man, glad I was able to bump your motivation a bit.

Like Chris (duder) mentioned earlier, as long as you're fully vaccinated you are welcome to come by. We're both there most weekends.

I finished the new ECU mounting panel with bulkhead brackets this evening. Wiring should commence soon. This should be a mostly plug-and-play replacement for the Link panel that's in the car now apart from the new harness for the DCT transmission and some minor pinout changes on the firewall connectors.



The radiator and intercooler I mentioned in an earlier post showed up. This is a "rad pack" as the brits call from a ~2016 BTCC civic. The composite duct is pretty sweet but it remains to be seen if I can get it to fit on the car without hacking anything up too much.

Regards
Hubert

I was checking the pinion to ring gear lash

Alex Buchka said:

I was checking the pinion to ring gear lash

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Thank you for your answer. Are you wiling to share how u check the lash with the indicator. Dont mean to be stupid but its not crystal clear to me yet how'd you use the indicator to do that.

I saw the show on your car. That was cool and you have one helluva facility to work.

Regards,
Hubert

The point of the indicator is set up on the tip of a ring gear tooth, approximately tangent to the OD of the gear. You can then hold the pinion stationary with one hand and rock the ring gear back and forth to measure the lash. The allowable range of lash is given in the green books or, in this case, a Dana 30 set up sheet.

Alex Buchka said:

The point of the indicator is set up on the tip of a ring gear tooth, approximately tangent to the OD of the gear. You can then hold the pinion stationary with one hand and rock the ring gear back and forth to measure the lash. The allowable range of lash is given in the green books or, in this case, a Dana 30 set up sheet.

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Thank You Alex.

Regards
Hubert

Always fun to see updates here!
Any progress on the new wheels?

hard to get a scale from the pics, how much larger are the heat exchangers vs. what you currently have (960 rad + ?? ic)?

volvobrage said:

Always fun to see updates here!
Any progress on the new wheels?

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They are inching forward slowly. I have a friend helping with the machining and he stays very busy with better paying jobs so it only gets worked on sometimes. Progress is being made though.

oldschoolvolvo said:

hard to get a scale from the pics, how much larger are the heat exchangers vs. what you currently have (960 rad + ?? ic)?

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Both the radiator and intercooler are the same width as the 940 radiator I currently run (~600mm). The rad is about 40mm shorter in height. I'm hoping this will let me scoot the entire rad pack forward a bit to gain more clearance and between the engine and fan to get better air movement.

New Californian

Duder said:

If you've had your shots, then you're welcome to come by our shop any time we're there, no masks required.

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Long time lurker. This Houstonian is moving to the Inland Empire later this year- my wife got a job out there.

This project thread has reinvigorated me to not sell my 1980 240 GT project. It's a special car to me, but I haven't appreciated it or felt competent to do the work myself. I'm looking to do a similar, reliable/fun DD, but I'm an accountant off the shelf parts for me!

Could you send me your shop's details? Once I'm out there, it would be great to link up.

I'm glad you're waiting to install the HTG controller, the firmware just keeps getting better and better after each revision, but previous revisions were rough and the support manual is lacking. right now i'm doing an M150+HTG(MK4 Supra, 1400WHP) and because of the locked CAN/Firmware of motec, i have to wait on the developer to get in gear and add features just to receive and interpret CAN data, plus the integration of the features themselves (cut, blip, creep). (off-topic, but i am a huge maxxecu fan because it's entirely open and the devs respond immediately to firmware change requests)

When i had Syvecs SGDI4 (life f88 GDI) on my MK3 RS, the firmware was... more generic, but still definable.

I'm really excited for what the devs at HTG are coming out with, its very impressive. I'm commissioning domiworks to do a DQ500 for my ecoboost engine, so I can have a gearbox worth a crap. by the time its done and i finish, the HTG should be pretty mint.

Sleazy_E said:

Long time lurker. This Houstonian is moving to the Inland Empire later this year- my wife got a job out there.

This project thread has reinvigorated me to not sell my 1980 240 GT project. It's a special car to me, but I haven't appreciated it or felt competent to do the work myself. I'm looking to do a similar, reliable/fun DD, but I'm an accountant off the shelf parts for me!

Could you send me your shop's details? Once I'm out there, it would be great to link up.

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Thanks! Everyone starts at the same place, start small and build up the scope of projects. Before you know it the time and money vampire called a project car will be bleeding you dry!

The shop is in the Carson area, send me a PM and we can work out a weekend if you want to come by and check it out.

WillettRun? said:

I'm glad you're waiting to install the HTG controller, the firmware just keeps getting better and better after each revision, but previous revisions were rough and the support manual is lacking. right now i'm doing an M150+HTG(MK4 Supra, 1400WHP) and because of the locked CAN/Firmware of motec, i have to wait on the developer to get in gear and add features just to receive and interpret CAN data, plus the integration of the features themselves (cut, blip, creep). (off-topic, but i am a huge maxxecu fan because it's entirely open and the devs respond immediately to firmware change requests)

When i had Syvecs SGDI4 (life f88 GDI) on my MK3 RS, the firmware was... more generic, but still definable.

I'm really excited for what the devs at HTG are coming out with, its very impressive. I'm commissioning domiworks to do a DQ500 for my ecoboost engine, so I can have a gearbox worth a crap. by the time its done and i finish, the HTG should be pretty mint.

Click to expand...

The HTG stuff is maturing nicely for sure. I was really disappointed with the initial firmware offering and I'm glad to see they're pushing it along. Documentation still leaves a lot to be desired but they seem to be making strides there as well.

Every single aftermarket ECU has dog**** CAN support. Motec seems to be content with having some of the worst out there unless you pony up for the developer license which is really disappointing considering their stature in the market and price point. Life ecus are ok but the dash and PDU are really where the CAN flexibility live. I don't need a ton of muxing horsepower on this car so the ecumaster pdu will work great as a CAN bridge for the simple stuff I'm doing.


Karl finished up the new ECU panel and it's looking real sweet. I've also designed and built a CAN/USB/Ethernet junction box that will live behind the dash and let me connect to the ECU, HTG box, and PDU through a single USB cable which will go a long way to keeping the clutter down when I have a laptop plugged in. This photo is before everything got spot tied and a few cables are missing but it shows 98% of what's there.



Washed the car and got a gas station photo. It shines up ok and looks pretty nice if you're 20' away.



Finally some real progress on the wheels. The first setup piece is done and test fitted on the car. It has some machining boo-boos and isn't perfect but will be usable as a spare if I ever need it. The milling is done on a 5-axis but I designed the center to just need rotary positioning. Programming and running 3-axis moves is just way faster and easier.















Overall I'm super happy with the fit and clearances. Pretty much decided they outer rim shells will be polished and cleared and the centers will be pale BBS gold. I think it'll match the period look of the wheels and gold is always a solid bet on a white car.

Pretty

whoa.. the wheels and the machining is overdope, well done ! I love how the lights gets rainbowish on nice machined aluminium parts.. just clearcoat them