WTFPerformance

Introducing Joel and the new Project Whale King, a 32ft RV we fixed up to live in while we search for a new home. We will be heading south east and trying to see as much of America as we can in the process.

Joel Villarreal works on replacing the old worn out awning on the RV with a new one. This one is for you America! We need to hold our American values tighter than ever right now. God bless our Troops and everyone around the world that still believes America is a beacon of freedom.

Joel Villarreal does a very detailed walkthrough of the 1997 Winnebago Itasca Suncruiser he calls the Whale King. It has been through many modifications and seen a lot of updates and maintenance. We enjoyed it and put some miles on it traveling searching for a new home, now its time to switch gears and focus on the house we found.

Just digging through some old project videos that never really got the payoffs filmed so it doesn't seem fun to put episodes together. But here is a taste of a few of the projects from the last few years! #WTFPerformance #WTFGarbage #WTFGarage

Joel and Lindsay Villarreal check out the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Lots of special cars here that go under the radar. The V10 C4 Corvette and the Rotary powered Corvette just to name a few. If you are like me and passed this on the highway 10+ times and never stopped, I hope this video can sway you to take a quick break and check it out. You can kill a few hours here easily or just 30 minutes with a quick walk through.

Lindsay and Joel Villarreal head south to Bowling Green Kentucky to check out Holley LS Fest. This event had drifting, drag racing, autocross, a massive car show, and even a burnout contest, all with cars powered by LS engines. Enjoy 1.5 hours of our experience at the event!

Joel and Lindsay Villarreal check out the first house on the hunt for a new home. We found this house in budget with 6 acres of land. It was in very rough shape but definitely worth a drive to see it!

What I thought was a bad fuel pump turned into a nightmare of poking, prodding, and diagnosing for days what ended up being a bad ground in the fuel pump and tail light harness. 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 5.2 Symptoms: engine starts and dies after a second or two, very low to zero fuel pressure, and weird voltage readings at the fuel pump. Fix: Broken/corroded ground wires repaired near fuel pump.

If you are planning to LS swap your C3 Corvette, this is probably the cheapest oil pan setup you will find. The 5.3 truck pan is WAY too deep, it hangs like 6 inches under the frame crossmember and hits the factory steering parts. Swapping to this F-body pan gives us TONS more ground clearance and it now easily clears the factory steering arms. It will still bind up against the factory ram for the power steering. For now I will be running manual steering till I can get this thing running. If I figure out how to run the ram later I will update with the info. I hear this setup will work perfect with most Rack and Pinion conversions too!

Joel gets to work on the project Whale King RV. Starting with a quick exterior wash that actually took all day, then building a dinette bench that doubles as a litter box for our two cats.

Joel continues prepping the RV to hit the road. Doing laundry on the road is a major convenience so we picked up this Equator Super Combo Washer/Dryer machine. Installing it was pretty tricky adding a circuit breaker and outlet, plumbing the hot and cold lines and feeding the drain over to the kitchen sink via a dishwasher sink drain pipe. This is a long one but I hope it helps someone out there!

After I got a round of parts ordered and delivered I can finally dig into this 1985 Nissan 300ZX TURBO (Z31). I started by getting immediately annoyed by the blown hatch and hood struts, so I got those installed in an easy few hours of fighting, cutting, and welding. After that I was able to get the car squeezed into the garage where we threw a new fuel pump on it, flush the fuel lines and get it fired up for the first time with its own fuel system. Follow us on instagram @ wtfperformance and lindsayvillarreal9

Joel and Lindsay Villarreal take a break from working on the RV to go visit some family resting nearby. We love visiting graveyards and I think we will be doing more videos like this soon. It was a perfect stormy overcast day and it made for a very nice visit to Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery.

Joel and Lindsay Villarreal take the project Whale King RV for a test drive to a couple Harvest Hosts and explore the town of Galena, IL. The town where President Ulysses S. Grant once lived is rich with history and possibly ghosts of the past. We found some great places to eat and tried a ghost tour ending up in one of Galena's most prestigious homes, the Ryan Mansion.

Less talking and more working! Prepare to be dizzy watching me endlessly mulch leaves and clean up the yard. I can't wait for Spring to get back out there and do some more!

Lindsay and Joel Villarreal officially move into their new Cheap Old House. After a bunch of yardwork and unloading, Joel can't help but start working on the exterior of the house removing a TON of old cable and phone wires.

Finally after multiple weeks of pushing back the closing date our house is sold! I do a quick walkthrough of the progress on the project Whale King RV.

When most people see snow they think, I'll just do that errand tomorrow. When car people see snow we think, perfect time to go get that new extension cord. I took the Burro Dodge Ram on a quick errand after a few inches of snow fall. I tried to take the back roads but with bald tires I legitimately was gonna get stuck on the side of the road lol

We finally got this room done! This was the biggest project room so far and with it complete we now have an actual guest room complete with its own secret hatch. Here is the Birdroom finale episode.

I actually had a pretty sweet setup in the RV for an office. A comfortable chair and dual monitors is all I really need but before I get it all setup in the new office we decided to give the room some much needed TLC! Fresh paint, adding a light, and updating the electrical is a good start.

This is the REAL first episode of WTF:Performance! I have been wanting to focus on car content for over a decade and this is literally just the start! Introducing my 1980 Chevy Corvette project car. It started out as a parts car I bought for 1300 bucks in Michigan and hauled back to IL. It had a title and a bunch of good parts, but the frame was JUNK! I had been working on disassembly for a few months and had boxes of parts scattered around the garage. In this episode we start with a bare frame and a pile of crusty suspension parts. Let's get to work!

We gather here today to join Engine and Transmission. I learned that you could bolt Nissan 6 speeds to ls engines and after hearing a friend talk about it for weeks I picked one up. I bought this one way before this project snow balled into essentially a full rebuild. They are supposedly good for about a 1000hp, they are cheaper than T-56's, and if you have ever driven a 350Z they shift REALLY good! Queue the G Force LS Z33 Adapter kit. I decided on this one because it seemed to be the most well thought out and designed kit. Other kits require cutting off the bellhousing from the trans and bolting a new one on with the oil pump bolts, and also usually require using a specialty clutch with a blend of components from Chevy and Nissan to work. The G Force kit includes a monster flywheel to fill the space between the engine and trans so using a factory style Nissan clutch is a huge advantage. I chose a stage 3 single disc from Advanced Clutch Technology to handle my 600ish horsepower goal. I was able to mount the drivetrain on the frame and then I had to pack the car up for storage, I temporarily ratchet strapped the body to the frame and put the car in storage while we were between houses. Next step will be to get the WTF:Performance Garage unpacked and set up so we can get this thing running!

Lindsay and Joel Villarreal head north to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. This was one of my favorite things we did this summer! We saw some awesome bands and I finally got to eat a whole turkey leg like Kano in Mortal Kombat. I love how many people dressed up and really lived their persona. Sign me up! Next year I am going back in full costume! Shout out to the Jackdaws and Troll Moss for the great tunes! Please come back next year!

Lindsay and Joel Villarreal drove from LS Fest in Kentucky back to IL to catch day 4 of HOT ROD Drag Week in Byron IL at Byron Dragway. It is always awesome seeing the fastest street cars in the country going down the strip. There are so many interesting cars that make it out to participate. My favorites were the 2 beetles and that crazy Valiant!

Joel and Lindsay Villarreal are on a quest to find a new home. With the RV at a KOA east of Nashville they check out another home just over the border in Kentucky. Lots of driving this week!