Winter Project

I put the car officially into storage on the 31st, so now the winter project begins.

I've been planning to wire tuck for a couple years, but something else always came up. I think this is the first year I put it away with absolutely nothing to fix on it, so now is the time.

I'm sure I'll find some other things to clean up as well, more powder coating for sure.


Started by tagging all the connectors:



Then stripping back some of the sheathing:



Seperating everything:



And as it sits right now.

Where are you relocating your fusebox to?

It's right under the air filter, I'll be opening it up under there so it'll be accessible by removing the filter.

What sheathing are you going to use to loom all the wires?

I'm using polyester wrap around sleeving, no need to remove the connectors, flame and heat resistant. I'll probably throw a black zip tie on here and there to make sure it keeps closed.

Looks like this:

nice.. where do you get the wrap? canadian tire?

mcmaster-carr

This is a good inspiration for me! I have already gutted my interior, Dash, seats, console, carpet, headliner, sunroof and all. I m starting by moving the battery to the trunk and cleaning up unused and unnecessary wires (antenna, CD changer, ect). I was contemplating relocating the fusebox. Maybe I ll put mine where the battery used to be. Looking good, keep the pics coming.

thanks!

I'm going to go ahead with the upgrade to V3 and switch over to
speed density, that'll take care of that ugly maf and I'll make a nice 4" intake.

Here's the stuff i plan to use and have used it the past.

http://www.techflex.com/catalogpages/FlexoWrapFR.pdf

Looks good. I assume the nominal size is the closed diameter of it?

Ya I've looked at that stuff too. I may order both and see what I like best.

Or we can go broke buying Raychem..lol

Jason, I highly suggest using heat shrink, specifically the adhesive lined kind to terminate the ends of the sleeving.
It will look a lot nicer.

You mean like how I did my map sensor



Plugs in directly to the MDP socket, no wire splicing needed. (tape was only on the connector temporarily until the silicone cured)

Yup, just like that!
Looks good man.

After using the adhesive lined stuff I never go back to the old stuff.

Yeah the adhesive stuff is gold when your shrink wrapping stuff.
you know its going to be sealed and protected once the goo starts to flow

Is this stuff you guys are talking about different than regular heat shrink? Someone care to post a link?

It has a sealant on the inside that melts when you heat it to shrink it which seals the cable off, or in this case holds it in place.

It's a thermoplastic they line the walls of the tube with. Very Readily availiable at any parts store. It used to be almost triple the price of regular stuff, but I havent paid for it for many years

Hmm...what would I find it called? I only ever see the regular heatshrink at the stores.

adhesive backed heat shrink tubing. We get it from ATS( I think) Sorry when i say parts store I don't mean CTC or parts source. I will double check with are parts guy tomorrow for you Salomon.

Awesome...thanks! I may do some wire tucking over the winter, so it'll be nice to have this stuff.

Salomon. We buy it in bulk from a supplier called Wurth. They come in 2 foot lengths. We used to get from ATS but the price is better from Wurth. My parts guy said he thinks Napa also carries it but the come in 3 inch sections and are more expensive.

If you want tell me what size you want and i can order it.

we also use wurth

Check an electronics retailer like Sayal Electronics.
That's where I got it from when I lived in ON.

Bunch of goodies showed up today

I'm really temped to hit up that FP Green XL/FP mani for $1399 right now, that is a hell of a deal I think.

They must have just raised the price, the XL was 999.00 not long ago.
I was stuck between that green xl and the 71hta, and i went with the 71hta. They were the same price at the time.

extremepsi ?

It seems like turbo prices are heading back to where they were 10 years ago, maybe higher. Makes the chinese knockoffs seem pretty attractive...

No, direct from FP. The $999 was a sale that FP had on.

Normally the XL is $1349, externally gated, so internally gated and with the FP manifold is a pretty decent deal.

http://store.forcedperformance.net/...roduct_Code=DSMSpecial&Category_Code

Ya, except that not long ago turbos not much smaller than that (the EVO III) were selling for $499.USD, and the FP manifold often comes on sale for $175. shipped...so it is still DOUBLE what it cost about a year or so ago...

Super happy I bought my E316g when Mitsu made another big batch, I believe I scored mine for around $750 with tax a few years back and I grabbed a HAFE manifold for a steal (SB was getting rid of discontinued stock I think).

Thanks RTM!

Got my E316G also from RTM for around the same price

E316g cannot push 59lbs/min, compare it to another turbo in that flow range and see how the price stacks up.

Even the 68HTA that they are currently selling for $1300. only cost about $800. a year or so ago. FP is just driving up the pricing of turbos like crazy.

true,

Just looked at my log. My 16G did 41.5 lbs/min at 6300rpm 22.5 psi. 59lbs must feel really nice eh

Yes. Yes it does.

If I were you Jason id wait for around Christmas when they have year end pricing, seems to be the time to buy...

I can't go another whole summer maxing out my 20g at 45-47lbs!

Anyone interested in a nice 20g setup with Holset 17psi wastegate? It's all powder coated nice and pretty too

Lol!

Made my coil pack relocation bracket today, pretty happy with the results.

I too am happy with your results! lol

Genius, I definitely like that!!

Looks good Jason. Do you have to extend ECU wiring for this to work? Could this new location cause more water/moisture deposits? Possibly corroding that connector

My wiring harness is currently all taken apart for a wire tuck and the wiring for the coil is definitely long enough. All of the oem connectors are sealed as far as I'm aware. It's a summer car anyway, I can't foresee any issues.

I had issue with this type of connector for HID leveling sensor in RX8. Overtime water found its way in through the holes were wires fed through and corroded connector on the inside. Adding some type of sealant there is probably a good idea. Just my 0.02 cents.

BTW, do you have access to your own powder paint equipment?

I ran the harness under the manifold to the stock location of the coils and had lots of extra.

Being behind the motor, fairly high up, I don't foresee a problem, some dielectric grease would probably make it 100% worry free.

And yes, I do powder coating.

Yah that would do it.



nice!

What kind of kit do you use? I've been looking at a few on Ebay

This ought to look good

This is how the car is sitting as of last night. I mailed off the 20g this morning. Should have something new to put in that empty spot tonight.

Here's the new toy.

Starting to get a few things going here.

Took a spare 2g intake manifold, bored it out for a 1g throttle body, and while I was at it decided to shave it.



After a little welding:



Fuse box is in it's new location, still more trimming to do.



And lastly the turbo got some powder, next week the rest will get ceramic

So how does the wire tuck work? Are you splicing in new lengths of wire where you need length or does everything reach OK? Or are you re-wiring all the way to the ECU? It looks hot, I just hate touching wiring if I don't have to for fear of a difficult to diagnose bad connection.

whats the turbo?

Don't waist your time with dielectric grease unless it for the back of the connector. Dielectric grease is an insulator not a conducter. It is used on connections that are not already weather packed ( the little rubber socks and orings in the connector) you will have no problems unless you have tampered with the actual terminal and connector.

So far everything has been ok with the stock length, even with the fuse box dropped down in the fender. I'm only going back to the firewall, I've removed wiring that I will never use again, but there is a small stub remaining which is labelled in case I ever need it.



It's a GT3071

I like what you did with the intake. Are you going to run a vac block then?

Looks good Jason.



If he had moved the fuse box to the cabin like I did then he would of had to extend more wires. As long so you do a good soldering job and use adhesive lined heat shrink you will be ok.

Thanks, and yes, that is the plan, everything will be out of sight.

I just completed moving my fuse box to the trunk, I had to extend the Headlight,horn,rad fan,turn signals and the oil sensors but all the other wires (20 or so of them) did not have to be extended as they had enough length.

Jason..Instead of running a vacuum block (which can be inconsistent to feed everything) you could try putting multiple npt barb fittings on the back of the manifold, thats the route I plan on taking.

The other idea I had in my head was to tap the ends of the rail that the PCV valve connects into on the manifold, one end to feed the BOV and the other end for the AFPR and map sensor.

If that MAP sensor is for SD, I would give it a dedicated line (as short as possible) instead of having it share with the AFPR.

+1, dedicated lines for the important hardware is important if you want accuracy and less vacuum related issues. BOV...FPR...Brake Booster...and MAP sensor should never share vacuum sources.

Or put the MAP right in the manifold. My MAP sensors are threaded directly into my SMIM.

Ok, I've popped the little freeze plugs out of the ends -> very, very easy to do. It's sized perfectly inside to be tapped NPT.

So I will come off the right side with a 1/4 npt line and break will T into two 1/8" barbed fittings, the other end will be a barbed fitting directly in the end. This rail is large inside and connected to all 4 runners, I can't foresee any issues sharing it this way. Last year my AFPR/MAP/boost gauge all shared one vacuum hose with no ill effects that I could see, it has to be an improvement over this.

I'm not going to throw tons of effort into this. When my 6 bolt block is completed, I have a fresh rebuilt 1g head to go along with it and will most likely run either a Magnus cast intake or some other SMIM.

More parts have arrived, and more should be in tomorrow as well.



Also got a new front bumper.

Catch can is now finished.

Started off like this:



And completed:



Baffled inside as well.

I like it! You just tack the baffle in there?

It's screwed in, you can see the holes on the top.

BB?

Yes.

Wire harness is 90% done, just a couple little things to take care of but I need to get my intake manifold bolted up first to verify cable lengths.

I just picked up a catch can of that style. Nice use of the baffle. I may have to steal that idea.

My wire tuck is nearly finished, all electrical on the motor is now connected. The shaved intake manifold and 1g TB are installed as well.



Even the injectors.

Looking VERY clean under that hood!

Could you post a picture of how you tucked the injector wires? it would help me out if you could.

This is probably the best view I can get, they are pointed downwards and run between runners. I don't think this works with the coil pack and igniter in the stock locations.

thanks! The route you have taken with your shave/tuck is eerily similar to what my path is. Wire routing will not be a problem I just wanted to see how you redirected the wires.

Great work bty

I built my catch can mounting bracket last night, very pleased with the results.




(no it's not drilled crooked, it wasn't bolted tight :p)

Looking very nice and clean!

Waste gate finished, ceramic and powder

Thumbs up for doing work yourself Jason

Thanks Alex

Turbo is now installed.

Still missing that upper rad hose

Hahaha...looking great, man! Soooo clean!

Are you running open WG dump or will you be recirculating it?

I have something a little extra special in the works for the exhaust, it'll be fabbed up this week

Turbo coolant lines done.

Pretty much ready to go now, just a few odds & ends to tie up.

That's a clean engine bay.

I've been down and out the last couple days sick, but it's running

Goddamn that sounds mean!

Is that a HAFE exhaust manifold?

It's a SBR, which is more or less the same other than the material used.

Last piece is here.

How much did you get that for? I have a cutout that I don't use right now, and every one that I have seen like that has been very expensive.

$179 shipped. DMH is a one man show but apparently he makes a really good product.

Damn that's cheap, everywhere else is like $300.
Nice find, If I don't end up replacing my exhaust I may just grab this.

If you get one, call it in, their website order page doesn't work and the guy is aware just has no time to fix it.

Here's a quick idle vid.

Cool will keep that in mind.

So how does that work, your exhaust is split?
If your cutout is open it goes out the front, if it's not goes out back?

It Y's direct from the o2 housing, when it's open some still goes out the back, but most comes out the side as it's the path of least resistance of course.

Here's some shots of the completed(mostly) bay.

Sounds cool.. Is the cut out on a toggle? You should have it set for link to activate it. Have it open at like 15psi.

Wow..thats ubber clean

Yes it's on a toggle, for "track use" only. I'd rather it be controlled by myself, if it opened at 15 psi it would be open during my normal driving.



Thanks!

I seen it done using a wastegate actuator. Controled with a mbc. He had it setto15psi. rarely ever heard it. You shoudnt be pushing 15psi on the street anyway...

Well ...

we shouldnt be...

was about to say... my Lancer's stock boost peaks 18psi. 15psi really isn't much. I'd have it on a toggle also, for that reason.

Ya but the point is.. you can drive around all day and avoid it. And then when you feel like it it will be there when your ready!

Just a thougt... some people dont like open wastegates either..

When you're used to 30 psi WOT pulls, 15psi is a casual stroll.

I also don't live in a flat area like most of you Ontarians, it is very hilly here and going into during regular driving is a normal occurrence.

Pffft... Track boost = Street Boost

Not to go too far off .. but i been driving around trying to avoid opening my external wastegate in town.(14psi). and I think ive became a more mature driver.. and saved a bit of gas.

Queue pampers theme!

Guess the DSM wants an aluminum rad now and not later.

That's funny I was just going to post that the stock rad has to go before it pops.

Went to the local 1/8th mile track last night, first runs of the year, best run was 8.01 @ 99MPH @ 25 psi, spinning like crazy off the line off every run. Track prep was ZERO and it was far too cold. My best run last year on that track was 7.86 @ 96 @ 28 psi, so the car is definitely faster, I just need to hook up.

Pics of side-exit and bumper on?




+1

Here's the only pic I have of the front with the bumper on.

Like the position of the side exhaust. The fact that it's lower at the bumper's end and not a hole in the bumper looks better.

I'm thinking of making a plate to surround it similar to how Paul Volk did his, powder coated black or perhaps the same color as the car.

That car is amazing.
And I think that might be a good idea to protect your bumper from the exhaust heat.

New radiator arrived today, bay looks a lot more complete now

Looks like a two core rad to me. Are you planning to keep at least one stock fan? or doing both slim?

Ya I ended up going with a 2 core instead of a 3, I'm going to likely keep the stock fan on the passenger side and put a slim on the front on the driver side. I logged a spirited run up the highway and it's staying much cooler than the stock rad did.

I also put some weather stripping on the stock fan shroud so it sealed up good to the rad, there was a good 1/8-1/4 inch gap without it.

Good idea, I also did it. Do you keep your fans always running or is it automatic?
I don't see any AC lines and AC condenser seems to be missing. That should help with the airflow.

AC is deleted. Fans are on auto.

I've been battling weird idle and WOT issues for a few days, tune would be perfect, afr's between 11.2-11.5 then the next pull would be more around 12 and I'd get knock. So this morning I did a BLT, biss screw was leaking like a sieve, took care of that with a new o-ring, then pulled off the vacuum line to the Fuelab AFPR and gas started pouring out the line.

So I dismantled it and found a rip in the diaphragm, small but not good!



Guess I'll have to give Ziggy some more money

Good troubleshooting Jason,
How many kms was on your FPR before diaphragm ripped? Thank god Ziggy sells just the diaphragm . Does your FPR hold pressure after engine off?

Not sure how many km's but 3 years so probably around 15k per year, so a few. It still holds for a little while after it shut off, not like it did before though.

This FPR and many like it had an issue where the ball didn't seat quite right and new from the factory they wouldn't hold pressure for more than a minute. I took it apart and used some lapping compound to make it seat properly and it would hold for a good 15-30 minutes afterwards.

I could have got it cheaper in the US, but I know Ziggy would get it to me quicker.

Gotta love the Purolator guy, always dropping off nice things.

Talk to your cars about drugs

OPEN THE DAMN BOX ALREADY..and show me more

Sheesh, tough crowd

I need to call Ziggy in the morning though as there are no fittings to screw into the pump in the box...

Sorry but the pump is out in the garage.

So, since the board has been down, Ziggy sent me those missing fittings(thanks!) and I installed the kit, then went out to do some tuning, the car pulled really hard, far more than ever before. After about 30 minutes of tuning, this was the result.

ouch! I bet that made a hell of a sound and felt even worse!
Are you AWD or FWD? I have a spare parts tranny that I should be breaking into in the near near future.

I'm AWD.

Actually, it didn't make any noise during the pull, but it sounded really bad as soon as I let off the gas.

I'm trying to work a deal with a local for another tranny, if that doesn't work out I might send this off to Jack's for a 2.2HD rebuild. It's a big chunk of change to drop but I intend to keep racing this car so I might as well go big I think.

Shitty, i guess that happened in the third gear pull. How much power did you make in Ecmlink logs??

On the log before the blow up, the Ecmlink log showed 397hp, I added a bunch more timing on the blow up pull, so it should have been more but I forgot to save the log.

Hopefully I'll get things sorted out there and get it on the dyno sometime this summer.

So I've been thinking it over, contemplating buying another stock trans, risking blowing it up again or going all out and not have to keep worrying about it all the time. I do plan to race the car and it will likely continue to be pushed further.

I'm leaning heavily towards a Jack's 2.2 Super-HD rebuild
(http://www.jackstransmissions.com/collections/value-rebuilds/products/stage-2-1-hd-awd-value-rebuild)

One of my friends had a Jack's rebuild and loved it. He did manage to break it with his 2.3 stroker and FP 3076HTA but Jack's honored his warranty and fixed it at no cost.

That tranny sounds delicious.

DO IT!

I think you'll be very happy with Jack's tranny, if you decide to go that route. I'm doing my best to try and save for one myself, with plans to buy it next winter or spring.

It definitely seems like you'll be seeing enough power and track time to justify it

Tranny is out and off to Jack's



In the meantime, some cutout 2-step

MORE FIRE!

This!

Was expecting much more fiyah!

Ha, next time I'll crank up the fuel enrichment, that'll make fiyah!

Trying to get some things done while the car is down. Got the new bumper fitted and took it over to the body shop today.

I assume the new bumper is so that you could go badgeless?

I like the matte colour, it looks nice.

No, actually I liked the embossed mitsu emblem on the oem bumper, but that bumper has seen it's time, so many stone chips and gouges on the bottom edge from 16 years of abuse.

This one will be paint matched to the car, should have it back in a week or 2. I gave the body shop my gas cap door so they can do an exact match on the paint.

Good call on using the gas cap, never would have though of that.
You cutting before paint or after paint?

I cut it today, before paint.

Motor/tranny mounds freshen up.





Also started on my calipers. I painted them about 3 years ago and they are certainly looking like it, hundreds of track passes and thousands of miles later.



Started to strip them down.





Apparently the Baer logo is filled with some sort of rubbery coating, very thick and the sandblast won't touch it, had to cut them out with a knife.



A final blasting and they will be getting powder.

Black Chrome?

I still haven't decided 100%, but I think that would be nice with candy red letters.

Black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow.

You planning on using the pressure switch to trigger the meth injection? If so, I'd recommend ditching it & using link to control it, much better setup IMO.

I ran it for a bit off the pressure switch, seemed to work fine, but yes the plan was to upgrade to V3 and use link, that's why I didn't buy the progressive kit.

Ya, nothing wrong with the basic pressure switch, I ran mine like that for a few summers. Just that Link offers more options/conditions, instead of the basic pressure regulated, on/off control. Its just as easy to hook up (actually maybe easier), but not everyone is aware it has this option, so just making sure

Sorry Rob, but the ricer inside me won, I stayed with red, I thought long and hard but in the end I decided I liked the red in my color scheme.



Also fixed a CV boot that was cracked.

Before:



After:

The calipers look mint !!

Great job on those calipers Jason

Nice catch on that boot. Those things will ruin your day quickly.
Sexy calipers as well

Got my Power Stop Evolution pads in today and got the calipers reassembled and back on the car.







Prothane inserts arrived too.

Check out my build thread if you are interested in swapping the front and rear roll stops to solid inserts like you just did with your side ones.

Where did you buy your baer calipers?

My roll stops are welded solid already, these were just filled with urethane but they had started to crack and look like crap even though they were still fairly firm, so I figured now is the time to coat the mounts and get the prothanes.

I got the Baer's direct from them about 5 or 6 years ago.

Great thanks.

I was going to weld my roll stops too before I found the solid prothane inserts, how do you like the solid welded roll stops?

I honestly don't find them to be bad. I had the roll stops just filled with my previous motor with no balance shafts, it had some vibration, got used to it very quickly.

Now with this motor with balance shafts and the solid roll stops, I find it to be smoother, much less vibration.

I always loved my balance shafts and still run them. I feel better you been pushing limits out of your 4G63 with BS still in it

Those Baers are beautiful!!
Love the way they turned out! Love the colours!

Jason, did you add taller 5th gear to your build?

No, I just went with the standard 5th and welded center.

I'm supposed to receive the trans next week when I get back from vacation

That's what I've been waiting to here!

Awesome...now I just need them to send me the parts so I can rebuild MY tranny so I too will have a working DSM at the Shootout

That's such good news. Let us know how those HD gears shift

I will, I need to get in some track time before the shootout to make sure it's gonna hold up in Norwalk

I'll be picking up the tranny Monday, and hopefully the car will be rolling Tuesday

In the mean time I did a few more little things, changed another CV boot, not that it was torn, but it was a universal boot, switched it for an oem.



Rebuilt my oem slave, was fine but I figured now is the time to do it.



Also mounted a 10" slim fan, I didn't have any cooling issues with the main oem fan, but I want assurance for the long ride to Norwalk that I wouldn't have any issues.

You can keep fans always on and use cabin heater fan to battle heat in case of emergency. On the side note, I see you still using manual boost controller. Have you thought about switching to ECU boost control?

You can also use the A/C button to turn that fan on and off. I haven't had any heat issues since installing this rad anyway.

ECU boost control may come at some point, as well as speed density when I upgrade to V3, for now the mbc is doing a good job.

My A/C button turns AC which makes things even more hotter for my dsm

How do you tune airflow? Stock or GM MAF?

Stock MAF + gm map sensor for the time being.

Looks like it will be one of those special weekends where Monday does not disappoint. Good luck on Monday, hopefully everything arrived as expected.

Got my new bumper back from the body shop

Gawd dammit..... Beautiful!

It's Christmas in August

Soooo jealous....

I think we all are!! Very nice!

I'm going to quote this just so we see it again as we scroll down.

DAMN!!! I was waiting to see this thing here.

Hopefully I can snag one up next season..I mean tax season

Looks good! Get her installed so you can lay down some good times at the SO with the big turbo!

Get her installed? You don't know we that well, I picked it up at 4pm and it was running by 9pm

Atta-boy. That's what I like to hear

5 hours?! WTF took so long?! I kid, I kid. Well done man

I had to take my dogs for an hour long walk and stop for supper, geez, tough crowd

So far so good, took it for about a 20 minute drive, everything feels good, tried a couple NLTS shifts at 6500rpm, went in like butter, the shifter feels very firm, but good. Gonna take a little getting used to the welded center diff though.

NLTS shifts at 6500 with a 20 min drive? Jacks doesn't have some sort of break in procedure like the other tranny shops? Usually they don't want you to beat on them till the gears & the syncho's bed in.

Isn't that why it's called "break-in"...?

I wondered the same thing.

I read through the whole packet of papers they sent me, there is ZERO mention of babying it for X miles. To be fair, it was 2 shifts at the end of the 20 minutes, I didn't just go right out and beat it in the first 100 feet.

The gears (and synchros) need to bed. You're gonna wanna change the fluid after you put on a few hundred/thousand k.

Ya, I figured I would change the fluid after returning from the shootout.

Will you be racing at all?

Engine break-in & tranny break-in are not the same

Think they normally recommend ~1000 miles of easy shifting. Synchro's need to bed in for proper operation (likely won't shift all that great until this happens). Gears also need to bed in to each other for optimal power handling.

TRE say no launches & hard/fast shifting for a min of 500 miles (when you should first change the oil). And will take ~2000 miles before best shifting is achieved.

Jason,
Awesome updates and man I'm impressed on the quality of workmanship!
Good job.

The 10 or so page document included with this transmission has zero mention of milage for break-in, lots on clutch adjustment, oils, inspecting it, etc but like I said, not one mention of no hard shifts for x-miles or anything along those lines.

That being said, I don't plan on beating the crap out of it either, I'm going to do some cruising tonight, should put on 100+ miles easily. I don't know if I will race at the shootout or not, likely not.

I usually recommend 5000km of break in on all the trannies I build with regular Canadian tire gear oil. You will notice the fluid slightly silver from the break in. It's normal, especially with tighter preloads and newer parts. The more you change the oil, the more cleaner it gets.

I wouldn't worry about the 6500 rpm NLTS, just try not to be too aggressive with it. You can obviously use NLTS and shift super slow or just slam it in. I don't even consider that high rpm

My 6500 was better than the max of 6000 the old tranny would engage at

Next year when I finish my built block & head, I'll see how fast it really can shift

Thought I'd give the "hd" lip a try.

I love how it's called the "HD" lip, so you think "heavy duty" rather than "$10 at Home Depot", haha.

Looks very clean and well molded. Let us know if you see any difference in intake temps!

After killing my second wideband sensor I bit the bullet and picked up a heatsink for it. I used to have a homemade copper heatsink when I had the Megan tubular o2 housing but it didn't fit right on the evo 3 o2 so I took a chance and ran without it, of course I paid the price.



This is directional and has to be installed in a certain orientation so the flow enters it properly. They include one copper washer with it but it was not tight in the correct direction so luckily I had a few other crush washers on hand, I think I added 2 and then it tightened in the proper orientation.

Finally had a chance to build my intake box, this should help the AIT's a bit. I think I'll powdercoat it black when I get the chance.

+1 for this. It looks "off" in there right now

Have you thought about matching it to your car/valve cover?

It crossed my mind, but I don't have any of that powder left and I'd hate to go buy a pound of it to do one thing. I could also do it in black chrome to match the other piping but I think I'd rather it be less noticeable.

So I pulled a log this morning while in stop & go traffic on the way to work, this was the max temp I saw(it was around 8C outside).

at cruising, that's not too bad. when it was 11 out I was getting 15.

51F = ~10C, so I'm only seeing a 2C raise in temps at pretty much a standstill, I'd say that's pretty damn good.

does it make much difference when you are cruising?

I didn't get a chance to log anymore but on the whole trip to work, the temp never went over about 2C over the outside air temp. While cruising it should be even less difference from outside air, under the box is completely open to the wheel well, so it takes in 0 air from the bay.

Jason are you running a stock MAF or SD with an IAT near the Tbody?

Stock MAF for now. I'm going to update to V3 and SD this coming winter.

Those are good temps then. Once you move your IAT you will get proper temps though.

Yeah after you make the switch i am curious to see the difference

Well I guess it's that time of year again, though it doesn't really look like it outside FFS.

So back in January I think it was, I did the upgrade to Ecmlink V3, popped it in last month and did the basic setup, got the car running fine enough to take it outside for a breather.



So now I've got everything to switch over to speed density, MAP is already installed, just need to weld a bung in my UICP.

I picked up some 4" tubing today to fab up my new turbo intake. This shouldn't restrict that red too much



Also sold my FIC 850's and pick up a set of FIC 1150's so I should have enough fuel for that 10.99 pass that I've set out for myself this year.

I think I'll also get a larger meth nozzle, or maybe dual nozzles, anyone with meth experience, what's your preference? Also will be letting ecmlink control the meth.

So this is the last time it ran on the stock ma

IAT sensor is in now, just waiting for my injectors to come back from FIC for cleaning and flow testing and it should be all good to start up on speed density.

Looks good. How often injectors needs to be cleaned?
Are you removing MAF or running both to help with the tune?

These are a set of used injectors, so I don't know their history besides what I was told, which I pretty much always assume I'm being lied to. So it's well worth it in my mind to have them professionally cleaned and flow matched, I'm still about $100 cheaper than buying a new set even after the cleaning/flow matching.

I'm going to load in my tune from last fall and adjust for the new injectors and roll with the maf for a bit, I know my air flow was well calibrated before so I'll start off on a good base with that.

Jason can you share the cost with us, or PM, I am looking at doing the same with my injectors.

$80 US for the service which includes a new set of seals, or $70 if you don't need the seals.

And you are going across the border for sending and pickup? I am wondering how much more it would be if I did it from here.

Yes, to and from my PO box, only $5ish to ship to Florida from state side. Shouldn't be much more to ship from Canada and you'd only have to pay tax on the service being rendered, FIC ships with USPS.

Ok cool! Thanks man!

It's $70 canadain dollars to have it done here.

And good call on having a set of used injectors tested Jason. Lots of people miss that step.

I'd have to ship them either way so for me it doesn't make any difference, I live right on the border so it's no inconvenience for me when you know the customs officers on a first name basis lol.

First time I've had the intake off since August, still looks like brand new.



Started messing around with my 4" intake as well.

Eye candy
With your airflow levels you should defiantly notice improvements with MAF removed.

Picked up this little beauty today, will go well with the SD.

Love the q.

It doesn't give you that crazy whistle some other brands do.

Tial ftw.

That's exactly what I want, I don't need to pull ricer fly-bys. Though the Evo 9 bov I was running was pretty damn silent so it won't be much of a change.

Just got a call a few minutes ago from FIC, to let me know the injectors were about 4% out from each other but they will correct them to within 1% and call me back with the final values later today. The guy I talked to was very nice and informative, +1 on FIC customer service.

Received my injectors back today, excellent service by FIC.

As stated earlier, I opted not to get new seals as I had just purchased a set from Ziggy, well they showed up today with brand new seals on them! Also they are rated at 1150cc but they actually flowing around 1250cc, so I have enough injector for over 600hp

Got the injectors in and went right into setting up speed density, got it started up and adjusted a few things before I ran out of battery power on my laptop.

Got most everything fabbed up now, just need to coat everything.

So as most have probably seen, the car is out and running well on speed density, ecmlink is controlling the meth injection as well now. All in all, it was pretty easy to get going.

Now I can't wait for the tracks to open up.

Now for some eye candy

Those are some really nice colours. Looks amazing!!

Also, did you notice a difference with the logged air temperature after putting in the box for the intake?

I should do a log with an without the box in place but I have a log on open right now of a 1st to 4th gear pull and the highest the GM IAT logged was 69F. While cruising it was around 53F, temps where in the high 40F's here today.

Wow. I've been seeing temps around the 150* area, no box or heat shield on the manifold during cruise. And that's during these colder days. Lol

The 2g with a manifold and turbo blanket logged about 70* during cruise, and up to about 100* sitting in traffic for extended periods during the hottest days last summer.

That's really cool Jason! Mine are usually around 70* after a pull, that's really high stephan.

Took the car to the 1/8th mile track tonight for the first time.

It was a "pre-opening" night, no track prep so traction was pretty much non existent and the tune is still in the early stages for sure, just no time to get out and work on it. I was actually breaking loose in the top of 2nd, that was a little sketchy!

First pass was a 7.70 @ 94 at only 23psi!

I think I got one faster than that but no one saw the time and this place doesn't give slips on Friday nights.

Real excited to see how far I can push it this year

no biggie, consider it a warm-up. SD is accurate so it has more tuning potential. Can't wait to get mine on SD again. My sticker expires in June...after that is SD
Feel any difference not recirculating anymore?

[quote=Jason Drew]So as most have probably seen, the car is out and running well on speed density, ecmlink is controlling the meth injection as well now. All in all, it was pretty easy to get going.

Jason how do you have the meth controled by link? adding meth to mine and this sounds like the right way to go.

PS nice pass: First pass was a 7.70 @ 94 at only 23psi!

Fuel pressure solenoid output activation based on load in V3, automatically sets the aux fuel maps as well to correct the fuel mixture, works REALLY well.

Thanks! Felt really good for the start of the year!

Here's a vid from Friday.

Not really an issue for us here in Canada but if you ever have any intention of running the flexfuel setup then you'll have to get rid of the ecu controlled meth.

Ya that'll never happen here.

Ecu controlled meth is probably way better than the AEM controller I'm using. 1st gear suffered from no meth syndrome so I couldn't up the timing.

Figured I'd get my worn out rear diff bushings replaced before the first competition this weekend. Only 1 of the three were still good and had fluid in it.

Took me all of about 90 minutes to swap them out. Drilled out the rubber, notched them and air hammered the old ones out, wire brushed and anti-seized the holes and drove the new ones back in.

Still got one more surprise coming for the rear

Brilliant work Jason as always
I recall Paul B (RTM) was working on the wright-up for this job

Well....not too impressed with these bushings.

I put about 200 miles and 8 launches on them and they are toast.

On the last pass at the SSPA event I heard a noticeable clunk between gear changes and knew something was up.







Contacted the manufacturer today and they agreed there's an obvious defect in them, likely the front one failed first, followed by the rears. They offered to replace them with express shipping and everything was taken care of quickly. I opted to replace these with the solid bushings though this time, I don't feel like changing these a 3rd time.

Wow that's brutal I was reading about the the ones that snowboarder and the other guys built on tuners as they looked identical and they seemed to like them.

That was my motivation for them as well, didn't work out so well for me.

Bought time I update this thread.

Well most of you've now seen the clutch issue I suffered a week and a half ago.







I want to give a HUGE thanks to Jamie Valcamp for helping out a fellow DSM'er, he offered me up this very lightly used Southbend disk for an offer that I couldn't refuse. I will be upgrading later on but this will get me through the rest of the year for sure and kept my down time to a minimum.



While it was down, I took the time to actually wire in my water tight quick connect for my boost solenoid.





And finally, back out on the road.

Nice work Jason, I just went with the old boost solenoid connector, seemed to work well.

I deleted mine when I did the wire tuck, never thought I'd need it again. I actually had to open up part of my harness to get the wires back out.

Haha wow, that's pretty wild than. It definitely looks nicer!!

Well done and welcome to boost by gear universe! Hopefully redesigned SB disk will hold this time.

Are there any AWD guys that use boost by gear?
I was debating on it but my plan was higher boost in the lower gears, I wish there was a way to adjust timing by gears.

I was toying with the idea of dropping my boost in 1st a little, track conditions need to be good to hold 28psi in 1st.

So I guess it's time to update on 2015's plans.

First off, pulled the intake manifold off a while back, it's off to a new home, it's getting replaced with a shaved and coated Evo 3 intake manifold.

Here's the progress on that so far:





Motor is ready to pull as of a couple nights ago.



I'm also moving on from the Southbend SS/TZ, it's been a great clutch, I really enjoyed it but it just doesn't deal well with hot lapping the car at my power level.

It's getting replaced with a PTT twin disk.



I didn't ever think I would go to a twin but I'm willing to try it out. If I don't like it I can also switch back to a single disk.

I sold my HKS 264/272 combo and replaced them with a set of GSC S2's, along with Evo 8 behive springs/retainers, so that should open up a top end along with the Evo manifold.

I also have a girdled rear diff cover to install at some point.

There will also be a lot more wire tucking and maybe even a respray of the entire bay, we'll see how much time I have. Also toying with the power steering pump relocation as well. At this rate the roads won't be in good condition until May, so time is on my side.

Looking great man. I'm a big fan of the manifold.

ya.. some fool sold it to him for halfnof what is worth!

Someone got a nice set of HKS cams for a nice price as well

Looks wicked!!

Oh, I forgot I also picked up a Walbro 400 fuel pump.

Gonna get a staging brake to help with the launches with the twin?

It's a possibility.

I may not race the car a whole lot until I find a set of slicks for it but then again I might lol.

Sounds like a nice pack of upgrades to punch 2015 like never before. I hope stronger pump, twin clutch, and EVO manifold will work together nicely to break new records this race year. Hopefully i can make to the shootout to meet you and your beast in person.

Keep up the great progress

I read this thread over in its entirety every so often.

<3

Edit: Mitsu-media is down by the way

Hmmm, thanks for the heads up Michael.

Small little update, intake manifold is ready for powder.

Before



After

Gonna purpleize it?

Probably not

Aww come on!!

It's gotta be the purple, or possibly black chrome.

Looks good! What's that thing that runs perpendicular to the runners?

It's a hollow tube that connects all the runners, it's what's supposed to pull the gasses from your crankcase from the pcv port. They all have it.

Oh ok, never noticed, the 1g intake looks like it curls in more.

Can you remove it?

Ya the 1g manifold has longer runners and thicker casting.

It could be removed but it would be a LOT of work. I tap the end of the rail and use it for a hidden vac source.

Cool, that's a good idea!!

So the head is now torn down, about half my valve stem seals were leaking, the seals are hard as rock and crunchy, they've never been changed to my knowledge with 150k miles on the car, long over due.





The valves themselves were in pretty good conditions, I cleaned them all and lapped them all in their respective seats, also pretty good for their mileage, no pitting, just dirty.

Cleaned it all and started to reassemble and found I received the wrong valve stem seals, so it'll be a couple days before I get the right ones. Then I'll get the new springs & retainers in along with the GSC S2 cams.

I spent a week or so tearing down the bay and cleaning it up and as of yesterday it's all primed and ready for some color.

Nice work Jason, what colour you going with? Special type of paint?

Nice work indeed Jason! Were you burning visible oil with those dry stem seals? The reason i ask as i have 200,000 miles on mine & no signs of smoke as of yet

OEM color, Dupont Cromax pro base and clear.



I had a small puff on start-up and when the car idled for a while. The valves affected were noticeably tarnished by oil running down them.

What springs and retainers are you throwing in? Is that all your doing for the head, no machining or anything?

It's just getting a set of Evo 8 springs/retainers. No machining other than the lapping I did. It's still flat, seats are good and polished up nice with the lapping. I also don't plan to be revving this to the moon on the stock bottom end.

Ok cool, am hoping to do something similar with the head I have sitting on my work bench but it has a bent valve, wasn't sure if I can just swap it and lap it or if I needed to take it to the shop.

Bent valves mean your guides need inspection and likely replacement.

Thanks Mike, I will be sure to get that done before putting everything back together.

Got the correct valve stem seals today so the head is now fully assembled.

Locked down and ready to install keepers Total time to install all the springs/keepers/retainers was under 20 minutes.





GSC S2 cams installed.



One little downfall with the spring compressor is I found out the tube I used is slightly too large for the smaller Evo retainers, no big deal though, just used an old valve seat and it works perfect.

Got the Barcelona red laid down today

Just an afternoon project, no big deal.

Damn jay I thought the 2g was impeccably clean before ...guess I was wrong

Very impressive progress as usual Jason. Looks like you are reusing rocker arm on this build. I heard good things about evo aluminum rocker arm MD375091. Price adds up quite a bit when buying all 16 of those.

Pretty well ready to drop in the motor, probably going to happen later today.



I've also known my SBR manifold has been cracked(notorious) for a year or 2 but now has developed into 2 cracks so I decided to take care of it. This tig is so handy

I blasted the cracked areas then ground out and drilled the ends of the cracks, preheated it and welded it and returned it to the oven to cool over a couple hours. Time will tell how long it holds. If it fails I may just build my own manifold.





Re-coated.

Looks good Jason, hopefully she holds.

Motor is now back in, power steering and all



She'll hopefully be running tonight.

You really do some nice work Jason

Lighting fast progress I don't even want to look at my engine bay after yours

I only had to threaten to sell the damn thing 3 or 4 times today but she's alive. Somehow, somewhere there's a break in one the outputs from the PTU to one of the coil packs. After changing out every part possible that could cause lack of spark on cylinders 2&3 I tracked it down to the wiring and where in the wiring and it doesn't sound like a Subaru anymore. Guess the wiring harness is probably just getting old and brittle and has been moved around one too many times.

Enough said, lets listen to thos GSC S2's rumble!

Looks good Jay!! Was the side exit open?

No I didn't have the downpipe on yet.

Oh haha, sounded a little like an exhaust leak

Here's a better idle video

Now lets see some launches while preloading!

I like GSC S2's idle a lot more than your previous setup.
Idle is defiantly smoother compared to before:



I do like the "No low end power is lost vs the stock cams" That alone is good enough reason for me to upgrade.

Here is a full description for GSC S2's

S2's and the hx35 were by far my favourite street setup. Still had good bottom end, would spool up quickly and had awesome airflow all the way through to 8k rpm.

Good mid power band, while maintaining that "big turbo" feeling (delayed spool and loud spool) but still hit hard and early enough to not feel laggy.

Jason,
Any issues with high rpm at cold idle after switching to EVO 3 IM?
The reason i asked is this:



Evo 3 IM vs Stock 2G - Install by Ryan L

Not at all, if anything I have to give it gas to keep it running for the first 15-20 seconds as I have the FIAV closed internally.

I managed to get out to the track one last time for the year, it was cold but sunny and I couldn't resist one more chance at the 1320. I'll be installing a staging brake over the winter to try to get these 60' times in check.

Pulled off my best ET of the year and MPH.

Congrats Jason You made some impressive times and drove her home on her own wheels. Sounds like you all set for your winter projects.

Nice work Jason, what is that beside you?

A 10 second Mustang.

Good work Jason.

I really like what you've done with the car

Thanks

Good run! That setup has a lot of potential in it. What were you running your turbo at for that?

Going with a black intercooler this winter?

It was kind of an experimental run. I got an idea from a fellow DSM'er about running both an MBC and ecmlink boost control in conjunction. The idea is the EBC clamps the external gate 100% closed until a certain point via the top port and the MBC sets the maximum boost. So it gives you slightly faster spool up, the WG doesn't gradually open like with a MBC, it opens instantly when it gets to the desired boost and you also don't get that annoying fluttering noise of the EBC caused by the pulsing of the EBC. I set it up about 11pm Friday night and tested it on the way to the track.

I'll have to say it seems to work very well. I was spiking to 32 psi and dropping and holding to 30 psi with a fairly mild timing curve.



I'm thinking of picking up a 4" ETS core and probably going black

That's pretty freaking neat with the two BCs, thanks for giving me more ideas.
(yayayayaya....get my sh!t running...)

Can't you get rid of it using these parameters?

Possibly, I haven't really played around much with it.

So took a co-worker for a ride the other day, too bad she's used to being on a bike or the reaction could have been better lol.

No bikini top? WTF

Another day sir, another day

awesome top end! Co-worker is hot too

Not 100% sure what my plans are for the car this winter but I finally have my -an bungs welded on my valve cover.



Other than that, I will be taking off my wheels and actually powder coating them, the plasti-dip has held up fairly well for several years but it is starting to peel in a number of spots, time to do it right.

I have brand new slotted rotors and parts for it all around but I'll wait until spring to install them.

A staging brake is also on the top of the list of things to do.

1st mod/upgrade of the year complete, swapped out the GM 3 bar sensor for a Omni Power 4 bar and fired her up no problem.

Got a haul of parts to bring back from my work trip next week in the US, plan on using that $800 tax credit to the max lol.

Picked up the staging brake, Innovate MTX-D digital boost gauge and a few more bits.



I started working on the brakes when I had some time last week, simple job of putting on new pads and rotors turned into a cluster.

These Baer (cobra) brakes have been on the car for 8 years now, yes I got 8 years out of the original rotors. It was only last year that they got some good pedal thump going on.

So last fall I ordered a new set of slotted Cobra rotors from Rotorpros, received them and stored them away until now. Everywhere I ever rear and see said these kits used 94-04 Cobra 13" rotors. I never actually measured mine, just knew they were bigger than stock.

Fast forward to last Tuesday, after fighting for 20 minutes to get the drivers side rotor off the hub I see an issue right away.



The old ones are 12" and a different offset. Either I have an oddball early set or or maybe the 1g kit, either way 8 years ago it bolted up and worked.

So obviously I can't return these rotors, it's been 6 months, nor do I want to, bigger=better right? and to use them my calipers need to move out a 1/2". So I check RTM's site as I know they sell this kit. The brackets are out of stock, Tuesday night I email Abbas, to this day, still no response. I know they're busy with the move and all so I'll give him that. I don't have time, nor patience to wait around. I also don't like how their brackets mount the calipers in a 10-11 o'clock position instead of 9 o'clock. I know it works just fine either way, just personal preference.

So I designed and fabbed up my own bracket, cut an MDF prototype on the laser at work to make sure they were correct and to figure out the spacers needed. I then had some plasma cut in steel, spacers turned on the lathe and I welded them up and finished them.











And finally complete.

nice!

Looks wicked man!! Pretty sweet setup you got for the for making that, turned out wicked!!

Purdy! Awesome fab work.

Well done sir! Very nice.

Somehow i missed it. Congrats on the first start of 2016.
Are you helping her idle until warm up? you can adjust higher idle via BaseTipInAdj in DirectAccess tab to have her idle 1500/2000 until specific coolant temperature of your choice.



^ wow! Is there anything you cannot do? well done! You can help RTMRacing restock their brackets




^ Correct me if i'm wrong but your calipers are too small for larger rotors and old pads does not cover all the rotor surface. They most likely run cooler but pedal response should not change? I am not expert so feel free to school me on this


^ Will they clear Evo 8 17" rim?

Yes, this was just a first start, I'll deal with that when the time comes.



I like challenges and have a lot of resources at hand. I do what needs to be done.



Most likely but this kit was mostly sold with 13" so I'm not reinventing anything here.

And yes, no issues with clearance.

Correction!!! not BaseTipInAdj (that's for SD throttle response) but FastIdleMTISCPos as show here:

Nice welding work there Jason!

Looks clean.

Although, I'm curious, how thick are the brackets from RTM?

Thanks Mike.

Theirs are 1/2" thick but also a different design that's much narrower.

Maxed out my tax exemption on the way back from Florida

parts parts parts.....whats in those boxes

That's looking pretty good.

those cobra brakes fills in so nice ...yai!

So to bring this thread up to date;

Staging brake is all installed and plumbed in.





I've tried out the brakes, almost ate glass lol. They look so good with the fresh wheels.



Some of you have seen the little oil res I built,



Well it's my solution to my girdled rear diff cover, which isn't baffled like the stock cover. I've messed around with various vents but they always leak. So this should solve it once and for all.





As the diff heats up the oil should push into the can and then as it cools get pulled back to the diff like how the coolant res works.

Also installed my Innovate MTX-D boost gauge. I did a review video for anyone interested.

Looks good Jason, how does that get plumed into the existing lines?

There's a few options, some people T the rear brake lines and have it lock up the rear wheels only. I took the other options which is plumbing it into the proportioning valve, which locks up one front and the opposite side rear wheel and also doesn't require cutting or flaring brake lines. Just requires a few metric brake fitting to -an adapters.

So you still T it in though? or are your breaks no working liek they usually do now?

No T's. This intercepts the line from the master to the prop valve, then back to the prop valve, so the brakes work 100% normally.

Ah ok I got you! So when the staging brake is not in use fluid passes through it, right?

Exactly.

Thank you sir!

FYI it works awesome for brake boosting too lol

Really pushing that clutch hard eh!! haha

Nicely done Jason, the video did not load in my browser (Chrome & IE) so i had to extract the link by "quoting" your post. Here is the raw link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GxfXJFLUng

Ya I don't know what's up with that, it worked at first and now I can't edit it.

I was going to order one of those flexible mounts for my tablet but decided last night just to fab up something. All made from aluminum angle. It screws into the hvac bezel, on the underside so even if I remove it the holes won't be visible.

That's slick, did you put some foam in the bezel or is the aluminum tight enough to hold it.

No foam, its tight and doesn't move at all.

Pretty slick and clean but it blocks the HVAC controls which kinda kills the whole 'function' aspect in all but a pure race car. What is nice is that it doesn't get in the way of a passenger at all

Takes 2 seconds to pull it out to have access to the HVAC. How much to I use the HVAC in the summer anyway? I don't have A/C so almost never. My HVAC is the window switch.

Like this mod! Clean and super functional! Well done Jason!

2-60 air conditioning!

2 windows down, 60mph

Cool summer evenings I love cranking the heat and both windows down. I like being toasty.

I do the same occasionally, still can.

Like I said, it just slides in and out so it's not like I lost the use of anything.

Here's a little video demo of it.

Well done! Ok.. I like it.

Lot more stable than mine will be in a hard corner

Seeing Jay's thread reminded me to post that I installed my Evo 8 Recaros a few weeks ago

That... now that is proper. How are you liking them?

Very much so, much more firm than the 2g seats. Does for sure take a bit of getting used to. I'm looking forward to not scalding the backs of my legs when wearing shorts as well.

You'll probably find them a lot more comfortable too on long trips!

I've ridden to the shootout in them, they're decent.

You make your own brackets?

Congrats, looks really good. I will also get a set once i find one

I drilled out the rivets on the 2g seat brackets and welded them to the Evo rails.

That would have been easy.. I had to bend cut and weld to get my brackets to work. And mine don't slide.

Have you tried sitting with a helmet yet?

*easy* yeah, lol. I have about 8 hours of work into modding the brackets. I tacked, cut apart and readjusted the drivers seat about 6 times before I got it where I like. The last time was to move it over a 1/4" to the center.

Yeah I test fitted it with my helmet on, it's tight but feels good, they do sit slightly higher than the dsm seats.

So, most know a month or so ago I was out attempting to nail down my 10 second pass, I made 3 passes, made a new personal best of 11.2 @ 128, decided to give it a couple more psi of boost and I think the combination of hot lapping the car and a trans that was initially shimmed tightly, now well worn in after 3 years of abuse and lots of mileage finally gave up, took out 4th which also took out the casing.






Still managed to pull off a 12.2 @ 124 with the trans broken lol.

Sourced a replacement 90 gearset and while I waited for that to arrive, I decided to coat the casing.




Gearset arrived, pressed off my double syncro 1-3 gears which were still good and put them on the new intermediate shaft and got it assembled and took my measurements for the shims. I ordered the shims through Tim Zimmer(TMZ Performance), he got them to me in 2 days flat.

I also decided with this tightly shimmed trans that I would give it the best chance possible by installing active cooling in it. The actual pump and rad will be a winter project but it was now or never basically for getting the fittings installed in the trans. I chose to direct cooled oil onto 3rd and 4th gear, the two that are the most common to break. I installed a 4 port manifold for the option of expansion in the future if it all works out well.




I will pick up a Tilton electric oil pump and radiator over the winter and plumb that in. Not sure if I might add a temperature switch to activate the pump or maybe just have it run manually, that is still to be decided.

Fast forward to a week ago, took the car back to the track for the last SSPA event, plan was to go all out, competition wise and to get that damn 10! I had done a few pulls on the highway at 35 psi and the car felt very good, I was pumped.

First time up at the line:



It was a very loud bang from within the car, when I exited the car I saw liquid on the track, my heart sank and thought the worse, the trans had blown again. To my surprise, it was coolant. The good news is the trans held the launch, the bad news is the rear axle did not and I had a coolant leak somewhere. I noticed in the video a good puff of white smoke, which initially I just shrugged off as typical water vapor, as it was pretty cold out and other cars were puffing white vapor as well.

I had brought a spare axle with me and I would have just swapped it and continued on if it wasn't for the leak. After pushing the car back to the lot I looked it over, the coolant appeared to be coming from behind the t-stat housing, I figured in pulling the trans and whatnot, perhaps the gasket got disturbed so I gave the bolts a little more torque and started the car up, ran normal, no leaks but decided not to risk running it again. The axle was also broken inside the boot so from past experience I figured it would be ok to drive home easily(welded center diff). Got about 10 minutes into the trek home and the broken axle was rattling around like crazy, so in typical dsm spirit, stopped off in a Home Depot parking lot and pulled out the broken shaft lol.







Back on the road in about 15 minutes with no more noise and still no coolant leak.

Damn man you can't catch a break this year! That's a much easier fix than a stripped 4th though, I'm pretty sure you'll be back out before the season ends

After I got home I swapped out the axle and resealed the t-stat housing. I took the car for an easy drive and all seemed well.



The next morning I took the car to work in the morning and gave it some boost, when I arrived at work, it was leaking coolant pretty bad once again. At this point it was time to pull the head. I found the culprit.



After draining the coolant into a pail and it sitting for a while, there were several little globs of oil sitting on top of the coolant, this almost went really bad, no signs of coolant in the oil at all, so that's good.

While tearing it apart, I believe I found the cause of the head gasket failure, when I pulled the vac line to the AFPR, gas came out. This is the second time the diaphragm in this Fuelab AFPR has failed on me.



So as of tonight, the car is all back together, with a Felpro composite once again, just waiting for the new diaphragm to arrive on Wednesday. Plan is to throw in some L19 head studs over the winter to help prevent this again.

As much as I'd love to go back out, I might hold off.

I'd really like to go back to back to a 4 spider center diff and pick up a set of slicks. We'll see how the weather pans out. For now at least I'll be able to get in some nice fall cruising.

Good thing you caught all that before something worse came from it.
Is fuel lab replacing the diaphragm for you?

Nope, this is the second time I replaced it. I'll just add it to the yearly maintenance from now on to put in a new one, $20 is worth it for peace of mind.

Forgive my ignorance, but how does a failed diaphragm cause your head gasket to fail?

Massive drop in fuel pressure=lean condition/higher combustion chamber pressures.

Gotcha. I was thinking about it all wrong.

Bout time I update my thread

2017 Update!

Pulled the motor at the beginning of April to start my upgrades.

First upgrade was to remove the welded center diff and replace it with a 4 spider.

New cross shaft from TMZ Performance



Diff housing before machining



Housing after machining



Oil scoops added



All parts ready to go





Finished

Next mod, Kiggly oil pickup mod, helps reduce oil starvation.







Installed

Kiggle Racing valve springs









Also installed a Kiggly HLA



And ARP L19 head studs

One of the last thing to do was to change my exhaust. Want to look as stock as possible.

I opened the OEM GSX muffler and change the inlet to 3" and 2x 2.5" outlet and stock top still fits perfect.



3" Aluminum stock



3" V-bands



Making a jig from the old exhaust



First I cut the downpipe and welded on the steel v-band



Now connected to the downpipe with an aluminum v-band and first section made



Making the final section to the muffler



Sandblast and ceramic paint



Installed



All done with oem tips installed

Nice work Jason!! Why do we need to machine the housing?

Thanks.

Because there isn't room on the other axis for the added gears. I also had it machined for double washers.

Do you have more pics of the dissected muffler? It's cool you hacked apart the stocker.

Ah ok cool!! Wicked job!

I do, I'll get them up later

Okay sounds good

Could have saved you some hassle on the muffler, Vibrant makes a very nice 3" in, dual 2.5" out universal muffler. Used this when I switched to a stock looking muffler years back.

I wanted as stock looking as possible, the Vibrant muffler size is very close to the stock size, they sell tips that are the same size & slant as OEM, had these welded on staggered just like the factory setup, then bead blasted the whole muffler to ditch the polished SS for a nice satin finish. Have had DSM owners not realise it wasn't a stock muffler

Ya I knew that muffler existed but I kinda rage built this one after having to deal with court 3 times over the winter. Fabbing up something to stick it to the man while pissed off is very soothing

Ha, that is exactly why I went with the stock looking setup, probably 7-8 years back now. Had an Apexi N1 that was super quiet, but regularly got pulled over for it. Talked my way out of a ticket 3 times & was given 3 or 4 at other times (all thrown out). Had enough, went to a stock looking setup (that was much louder) & haven't been bothered since

It's crazy how much is just the "looks". Doesn't matter how loud it is, really. If it is big, shiny and round, you're getting a ticket. With that being said, it's also easy to get away with running an open downpipe as long as you hang your rusty stock muffler at the back as a decoy

That's very true, I'm sure this is actually louder than the Thermal was but it's got that all important Mitsu emblem embossed on it and the SQ's famous "wire check" won't pass through it so I'm in the clear. One last thing I want to do is get the aluminum heat shield off a cat and tack it to the aluminum mid section so it looks all legit. Although last time the cop asked if I had a cat and I said look for yourself, he pointed at the flex pipe and said, yup, looks good.

I have this Vibrant exhaust you speak of! It's awesome!

Same with my magnaflow 😉 but Jason just looks like he is having way too much fun

Decided I'd clean up these oem tips a little.

So last month I had a little incident on the half mile. I ran the same tune I did last fall when I ran 11.2 on the 1/4 mile, mostly because it's been an extremely busy year so far and haven't had a chance to do much with the car. I guess 14 degrees peak timing on 35 psi with standard ARP's was just a bit too much for the Felpro composite. Side by side with a ZR1 and I wasn't lifting, maybe 100 or so feet before the finish I lost power and a cloud of steam poured out. Blew off the lower rad hose, ballooned the rad and blew off the coolant line to the oil cooler.







Melted a small spot in the head but I managed to salvage it. This is the original head to my car and probably the last original drivetrain part in the car. I ground out the melted spot till I hit fresh material and welded it back in, leaving plenty of material to make sure there were no low spots after getting the head resurfaced.





Like new



OEM MLS this time around.



She's been all back together for a few weeks now, went and did the first try on the 1/4 mile a week ago, 11.5 @ 126 for the first pass of the year, revving it out to 8500, then the rain moved in. Can't wait to go back and turn the boost back up and see what she'll really do this year.

Impressive to see all that on the stock 7 bolt. I hope you get it into the 10's. How's the new exhaust treating you? No more hassles I assume?

It's actually been a built 6 bolt for 2 years now. 7 bolt was tired with low compression, so I took the opportunity to do a little upgrade. My real issue is lack of time to do anything with the car lately.

Cops have eyed the car a few times, haven't been pulled over yet. I pretty sure it's louder than before lol.

Haha that's great to hear Jason!! Looks great!

Well I must've been sleeping through that entire time period

I kinda wish it would still be a 7 bolt ))