Right, with the car on the ground the sway bar should have no load on it nor have any impact on ride height. Yeah, the jack stands are a little behind the A pillar, so that could be why it looks like it's going to be so low. I'm hoping to have it on the ground within the next couple weeks and will go from there. Hopefully I don't need to find some different springs and/or struts. Your input is appreciated, thanks!
Rad fans showed up yesterday so got those mounted and installed. SPAL model 3010152 (12" curved blade puller fans). They came with nice mounting brackets instead of using the cheap ones that go through the core. There's about a 1/2" clearance from the fan to the IC piping. In the words of Goldmember, "It's very toight"! A video of the car in test mode after I wired them up. Wiring was very straightforward. The stock RS fans are only two wires, power and ground. I'm going to run these fans without a shroud and see how they keep up. I think I'll be okay...they move a lot of air! I'll be able to top her off with coolant and maybe make some noise tonight...
Good choice! I ran a 16" Spal on the buggy with the radiator tipped at a 45* angle (so the bug hood would fit) Temp never went above 220 even during the long desert sections where your almost redline for 40 miles. You will be fine as they are.
She lives! First startup went okay, had a small coolant leak out of a block plug (block heater) that I apparently didn't tighten. My goal was to break in the new cams by keeping idle around 2k, fluctuating +/- 500 rpm or so for about 20-30 mins. About 10 minutes in the coolant temp started creeping past half way on the gauge. Shut it down and investigated. Found I blew the 20a fuse for the main fan. Threw a new fuse in and fired it back up. A few minutes in it started leaking a significant amount of oil around the turbo area...the turbo drain tube was leaking. Had no choice but to pull the DP, EWG, UP, exhaust manifold and everything else in the way to pull the turbo. Royal PITA! The AOS near the turbo makes access to everything in that area difficult. A few hours later and I had it back together. The drain tube hose that I (reused) from the 07 was stretched out and had a couple small cracks in it. I should have caught this when putting it together, but my ideology was that it shouldn't really be under pressure as it basically drains via gravity...lesson learned. Topped off coolant and oil, fired it up and continued cam break-in procedure. Same thing again, coolant temp was climbing and the 20a main fan fuse popped again. I couldn't understand why they work just fine with the ECU in test mode, but not while the car was running. I figured I'd try a 25a fuse before wiring them on a separate harness and that did the trick. That's a relief. I'm not sure what else is on that circuit, but those fans draw about 20a each. Hopefully that doesn't cause any issues... Short video after everything was sorted out. No leaks, running well, sounds good. Don't mind the faint power steering pump whine...still need to bleed the PS system. ~1300 RPM idle for now I still need to bleed brakes and install sway bars/end links before it's truly road worthy. I'm still anxious to see how it will sit in the front...a bit nervous about ride height.
The ole' girl saw sunlight for the first time in over 6 months yesterday. And yeah, it's way too low in the front...I need to find some different springs . Also, my hood doesn't clear the AOS lol...so I'll need to figure something out there.
she looks good man, it was awesome to see this thing from a bare shell to and a pile of parts to where its at now, well done sir! now can we hang out more haha?
haha yeah that's the problem Joe! theres a whole other world outside the garage!! ill bring the blue mountains though!
But I like the world inside the garage. Can't wrench on the car if I'm not out there! Sounds good on the CL smoothies
well at some point its gonna be finished and nothing left to wrench on haha but plenty of CL smoothies to put down!
The hood was resting on a few different things...the top of the AOS, the coolant expansion tank cap, and the intake cone filter. I was able to lightly massage the hood bracing to make clearance for the AOS and coolant tank. I ended up routing my intake down and toward the passenger headlight instead of toward the fenderwell. No picture of that, but seems to fit better that way anyway. Hood is on! And dirty...And apparently I have easy access to the filler neck to keep her topped off with oil...
If you can see through the vent I'd be ditching the yellow fill cap though. That'd drive me crazy. I've got an aluminum one on my bugeye that was pretty cheap and works nicely.
I swapped out the struts with lowering springs for just a stock set of GD STi struts/springs...actually the same ones that came with the car; ones I should have kept to begin with. I sold these to @Cody Weatherly before winter when I bought my coilovers. I didn't like the coilovers so sold those. Then I bought the struts with lowering springs that are way too low so bought my original struts back from Cody since he's switching back to coilovers again. At any rate, the car is sitting much better now and is finally drivable. I put 20 miles on it yesterday just cruising country back roads (no insurance yet, shhh ). Didn't have any issues and seems to be running well! Now I need to rack up the miles to get the motor broken-in then time for dyno tune.
Having a few years experience down in that area, I'm sure your back roads cruise was pretty desolate. I think in my 4 years going between Owatonna and West Concord for work I saw a cop a handful of times total. Definitely miss that part.
Yeah for sure. Not really my style, but I was itching to at least drive it once. My insurance agent is a bit of a water head, so it's been a challenge to get my insurance tee'd up for this thing...
Congrats! Re: insurance. I think that's par for the course. But hit up @Jerf if you're looking for a lesser of two evils type of situation.
Joe, i would definitely look into having the car appraised with the stack of receipts that you have. I got hosed after pumping $7k into mine and not having the insurance "adjusted" to reflect the new value of the vehicle.
Yeah for sure. That's what is causing the delay. The guy I go to is actually "broker" of sorts who shops around for insurance for you. He's trying to get something like that lined up with JC Taylor, but I'm not convinced he's dealt with something like this before. The lack of details with the coverage and slow communication isn't real confidence inspiring. We had a hail storm blow through down here last night so he's been busy today. Hoping to get more details and get it setup sooner than later.
Finally got insurance/registration squared away. Now just to rack up the break-in miles. Coilovers may be on my short list now. I put the stock struts back in and ride height is about perfect in the front, but the rear is like 1.5" higher. No bueno. The struts with the lowering springs are too low in the front and rear...too low to even drive. Soooo, yeah. I'll be monster-trucking it until I figure something out.
About 150 miles on the ticker so far. Seems to be running well. Showing it a little boost now (~5psi), but still limited to 4k rpm for now. Rumor has it that the Cobb GD flex fuel "kit" will be released within the next few weeks... I'll more than likely wait for that before I get dyno tuned. One thing about the FF kit though, is that it piggy backs off of (I believe) one of the TGV connectors. Well, I cut the TGV connectors off of my engine harness and tucked them away and taped the harness up...so I'll be playing a game of find the TGV wires and will probably have to hard wire the FF kit into the TGV wires instead of using the plugs...which have gone missing. Will figure that out when I get that far I suppose. I also found a pretty solid deal on a set of slightly used gen 5 Fortune Auto 500 series coilovers. They should be here this week and will likely be going on the car this weekend.
The FF sensor taps into one tgv, and the fuel pressure sensor (if used) taps into the other. It's really any v5 input to the ecu but the TGVs are nice because they supply power too. I don't remember the power requirements for the sensors.
Yeah that's what it looked like when looking at the GR install. I can't imagine the GD install will be any different. The wires shouldn't be too hard to find, but I'll have to bugger up my nicely wrapped engine harness to dig them out lol
Since it's crappy and rainy all week this week, I decided start buffing. The hood is definitely the worst panel. I have no idea what caused it to get this bad, but looks like it was dragged down a gravel road. I'm using Chemical Guys line of compounds, starting with the most aggressive (32) first with an orange, medium-heavy cutting pad and a DA. It took several applications to get the paint at this stage and I could use a couple more. I immediately regretted putting that tape down the center, but was going for a dramatic effect. I ordered a heavy cutting pad that I'm hoping will ease the process since the damage is so severe to the hood. Once I get that I'll finish up the hood with the new pad, then move onto the 34 or 36 compound. Thankfully the rest of the car isn't as bad as the hood. Here's where I left off. Not close to done, but night and day difference compared to what it was before I started.
I realized I had a bit of over spray all over the car from painting the engine bay...which lead me to clay barring the entire car. I should have clayed it before starting buffing anyway, but I wanted to be lazy. It needed it badly. Shmooth as silk
These are used (roughly 250 miles), but too good of a deal to pass up. 8k/6k springs. I'm hoping I'll like them.
Very low mileage. The guy I bought them from said he had them on a client's car for a short time and the client ended up selling the car and putting the stock struts back on before selling it. I installed the rear coilovers last night while taking a break from the buffing marathon...she's sitting pretty now! Will hopefully finish buffing and installing coils over the weekend, then resume getting miles on
