Long overdue novel
Oct 26, 2009, 02:08 AM
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Long overdue novel
I've been meaning to write this for awhile but issues/mods kept popping up and I kept taking the "I'll fix this, then do the write-up" mentality. For those that don't know me, I'm the guy that always drags my offspring to the meets. Yeah, that party pooper! 
This is my first turbo'd car but I came from turbo diesels previously.
In case you don't want to read the rest - thanks to Buschur for their stages and parts, ETS for the parts and excellent customer service, Lucas for having one of the premier shops on EvoM that just so happens to be located "down the road," and Aaron for being the bad muh-fuggah that he is.
I might as well start from the beginning, so apologies for the novel. I started my mods with Buschur stages, and to this day I am very happy I did it that way. It helped me understand what I was getting into slowly and also see how the car progressed at different stages. I personally chose Buschur over AMS because it was less confusing (at the time, things could have changed since then). At the time ETS hadn't really gotten into the Evo game, at least not directly. I think they were making parts for another company (HPF?).
My first tune was a road tune done by a "Bro." I'll let ya'll figure that out. The car was obviously stronger than it had been stock, but I had added TBE, intake, walbro, Intercooler + piping so I expected it. I wasn't really super happy with where it was, but it was clearly quicker.
I then decided to do cams and went with the Cosworth M2s. The reason being - I had obviously heard of the Cosworth legends of the past and thought it would be cool to rock their parts in my ride. I had done research and they looked like they were pretty good comparatively. I had been hearing about English Racing, mostly from Paul's insane Evo, soon realized they were a local WA shop and found out they did cam installs for pretty damn cheap (and knew I had to have the car tuned pretty quickly after the install) so I decided to head down with a buddy.
When I first went to ER I thought I was being led out into the middle of nowhere to be relieved of whatever I had brought along for the trip. There was a little shop with a fence around it across the street from a little mini-mart, and surrounded by farms (at least it felt that way); one thing that eased my mind were the wicked assortment of Evos, DSMs, etc. sitting in the fenced yard. The notion of "leaving my keys under my car overnight" had me wondering wtf I had gotten myself into though. Of course, the introduction to Acropolis and other assorted Portland stops made me forget my worries.
Unfortunately the dyno time that we planned at ETS got bumped for a bunch of Supras, but I hopped in the car with this short guy that had some insane stories and clearly knew his shtuff. I had seen the midgetspec moniker in signatures and posts, but assumed it had to do with some tie-in with the midget style race cars. It was during the road tune that Aaron revealed his not-so-secret identity as he blasted off the various names he goes by. The car felt better than ever but still wasn't quite where I wanted it. After drving for a week back up North I was having knock issues and some weird bog in shifts.
I did some testing with race gas mixtures and eventually realized that the gas in this state sucks, at least up North. With e85 25+ miles in the wrong direction (Smokey Point I think?) I decided to do meth. Back down to ER for another round at Acropolis, er an install/tune (yeah, I pussed out of doing the meth kit; I didn't have the luxury of weekends at the time) and the car started to get where I wanted it. At that point was my first time on the dyno and between that and the Drift Office dyno day a couple weeks later (switched from 50% to 100% mixture) I was at something like 390whp/350wtq with no knocking, finally.
The current set of upgrades (Red + Magnus v5) was pretty much purchased for free. I sold various parts and things laying around the house, hustled some killer deals, and eventually got on the wait list for a Red. After waiting 8 weeks for the Red to ship, the timing was such that I had a trip to Reno and there was some temporary shifting going on at ER along with some trips Lucas was making. To make things less complex, I dropped the car off on the way to the Biggest Little City in the world. Ideally I would have installed the turbo and the Magnus, but it didn't work out that way unfortunately. I had switched to ETS IC/piping, only because I was getting the Magnus intake and needed a new upper pipe + t-bolts. I realized there was less work, and better pricing if going the whole ETS IC kit route so I sold more parts, hustled a bit, and got that installed before dropping it off at ER.
On the return trip from Reno I stopped off at ER for the car and the dyno tune. While the car kicked like an ox when it hit, I ran into what we're guessing was a sticky FP WGA. It would only hit 27psi and the car would plateau at 430whp. I went on the Deception Pass cruise (the day after getting back from Reno/ER, which is another reason the timing was tight) where we did a bit of "spirited photography" and it must have jarred whatever loose as my boost was hitting 32psi!
Another trip down to ER under Aaron's watchful eye and I'm at ~470whp/385lb-ft 30.5psi! (tapering down to 24-25psi) I'm running a HFC and using a conservative meth jet; it takes me about a month of everyday usage to go through a gallon, if that.
So what's next? I already have a straight pipe in place of the HFC, but I need to get tuned and I would totally rock a certain masterfully crafted open dump if the opportunity arose!
I also have Swift Spec-R springs that will go on this week (fingers crossed) and eventually I want to do a stroker, probably a 2.2L 4G64 (minimize downtime, retain similar rev boundary, build more low-end twist), and possibly a bigger turbo. There is rumor of more colors under the FP rainbow, and I am by no means a racist!
My IX MR is still on the stock clutch, so that will eventually need to be replaced (I mostly drive like a grandma, and I don't launch, so here's hoping!) and we'll see what happens to the 6-spd. I personally like the 6-spd and am hoping that regular maintenance will keep it around for awhile.
If you made it this far I applaud you, and you are now entitled to a free packet of "brushing tablets" courtesy of Jordon! Again, I want to say big thanks to Buschur Racing (Jarrod is the man!), Michael at ETS for dealing with my paranoid questions before realizing the errorS of my wayS (yes, this has happened more than once!), Lucas with his bada$$ shop in the boonies, and last, and also least (in height, anyway), the man, the myth, the legend - Aaron aka Da Midge!
Also, thanks to all the people on EvoM, especially the NW group, for the help, camaraderie, and good times!
Current graph (with HFC)
Current mug (don't let the good from far/far from good CF hood fool you - it needs clear coat work!)
Current butt shot (I need to make a goodwill/dump run to clear the garage!)
Shot of my ramp/lift (see kwiklift.com for details). If anyone needs to do some work you're more than welcome to utilize this. I got this HD unit off Craigslist for like $200 after realizing most 2-posts are in the 12-foot high range, and wouldn't quite squeeze into the garage
This is my first turbo'd car but I came from turbo diesels previously.In case you don't want to read the rest - thanks to Buschur for their stages and parts, ETS for the parts and excellent customer service, Lucas for having one of the premier shops on EvoM that just so happens to be located "down the road," and Aaron for being the bad muh-fuggah that he is.
I might as well start from the beginning, so apologies for the novel. I started my mods with Buschur stages, and to this day I am very happy I did it that way. It helped me understand what I was getting into slowly and also see how the car progressed at different stages. I personally chose Buschur over AMS because it was less confusing (at the time, things could have changed since then). At the time ETS hadn't really gotten into the Evo game, at least not directly. I think they were making parts for another company (HPF?).
My first tune was a road tune done by a "Bro." I'll let ya'll figure that out.
The car was obviously stronger than it had been stock, but I had added TBE, intake, walbro, Intercooler + piping so I expected it. I wasn't really super happy with where it was, but it was clearly quicker.I then decided to do cams and went with the Cosworth M2s. The reason being - I had obviously heard of the Cosworth legends of the past and thought it would be cool to rock their parts in my ride. I had done research and they looked like they were pretty good comparatively. I had been hearing about English Racing, mostly from Paul's insane Evo, soon realized they were a local WA shop and found out they did cam installs for pretty damn cheap (and knew I had to have the car tuned pretty quickly after the install) so I decided to head down with a buddy.
When I first went to ER I thought I was being led out into the middle of nowhere to be relieved of whatever I had brought along for the trip. There was a little shop with a fence around it across the street from a little mini-mart, and surrounded by farms (at least it felt that way); one thing that eased my mind were the wicked assortment of Evos, DSMs, etc. sitting in the fenced yard. The notion of "leaving my keys under my car overnight" had me wondering wtf I had gotten myself into though.
Of course, the introduction to Acropolis and other assorted Portland stops made me forget my worries.Unfortunately the dyno time that we planned at ETS got bumped for a bunch of Supras, but I hopped in the car with this short guy that had some insane stories and clearly knew his shtuff. I had seen the midgetspec moniker in signatures and posts, but assumed it had to do with some tie-in with the midget style race cars. It was during the road tune that Aaron revealed his not-so-secret identity as he blasted off the various names he goes by. The car felt better than ever but still wasn't quite where I wanted it. After drving for a week back up North I was having knock issues and some weird bog in shifts.
I did some testing with race gas mixtures and eventually realized that the gas in this state sucks, at least up North. With e85 25+ miles in the wrong direction (Smokey Point I think?) I decided to do meth. Back down to ER for another round at Acropolis, er an install/tune (yeah, I pussed out of doing the meth kit; I didn't have the luxury of weekends at the time) and the car started to get where I wanted it. At that point was my first time on the dyno and between that and the Drift Office dyno day a couple weeks later (switched from 50% to 100% mixture) I was at something like 390whp/350wtq with no knocking, finally.
The current set of upgrades (Red + Magnus v5) was pretty much purchased for free. I sold various parts and things laying around the house, hustled some killer deals, and eventually got on the wait list for a Red. After waiting 8 weeks for the Red to ship, the timing was such that I had a trip to Reno and there was some temporary shifting going on at ER along with some trips Lucas was making. To make things less complex, I dropped the car off on the way to the Biggest Little City in the world. Ideally I would have installed the turbo and the Magnus, but it didn't work out that way unfortunately. I had switched to ETS IC/piping, only because I was getting the Magnus intake and needed a new upper pipe + t-bolts. I realized there was less work, and better pricing if going the whole ETS IC kit route so I sold more parts, hustled a bit, and got that installed before dropping it off at ER.
On the return trip from Reno I stopped off at ER for the car and the dyno tune. While the car kicked like an ox when it hit, I ran into what we're guessing was a sticky FP WGA. It would only hit 27psi and the car would plateau at 430whp. I went on the Deception Pass cruise (the day after getting back from Reno/ER, which is another reason the timing was tight) where we did a bit of "spirited photography" and it must have jarred whatever loose as my boost was hitting 32psi!
Another trip down to ER under Aaron's watchful eye and I'm at ~470whp/385lb-ft 30.5psi! (tapering down to 24-25psi) I'm running a HFC and using a conservative meth jet; it takes me about a month of everyday usage to go through a gallon, if that.
So what's next? I already have a straight pipe in place of the HFC, but I need to get tuned and I would totally rock a certain masterfully crafted open dump if the opportunity arose!
I also have Swift Spec-R springs that will go on this week (fingers crossed) and eventually I want to do a stroker, probably a 2.2L 4G64 (minimize downtime, retain similar rev boundary, build more low-end twist), and possibly a bigger turbo. There is rumor of more colors under the FP rainbow, and I am by no means a racist! My IX MR is still on the stock clutch, so that will eventually need to be replaced (I mostly drive like a grandma, and I don't launch, so here's hoping!) and we'll see what happens to the 6-spd. I personally like the 6-spd and am hoping that regular maintenance will keep it around for awhile.
If you made it this far I applaud you, and you are now entitled to a free packet of "brushing tablets" courtesy of Jordon! Again, I want to say big thanks to Buschur Racing (Jarrod is the man!), Michael at ETS for dealing with my paranoid questions before realizing the errorS of my wayS (yes, this has happened more than once!), Lucas with his bada$$ shop in the boonies, and last, and also least (in height, anyway), the man, the myth, the legend - Aaron aka Da Midge!
Also, thanks to all the people on EvoM, especially the NW group, for the help, camaraderie, and good times!
Current graph (with HFC)
Current mug (don't let the good from far/far from good CF hood fool you - it needs clear coat work!)
Current butt shot (I need to make a goodwill/dump run to clear the garage!)
Shot of my ramp/lift (see kwiklift.com for details). If anyone needs to do some work you're more than welcome to utilize this. I got this HD unit off Craigslist for like $200 after realizing most 2-posts are in the 12-foot high range, and wouldn't quite squeeze into the garage
Last edited by yahu; Oct 26, 2009 at 02:12 AM.
Oct 26, 2009, 02:34 AM
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The "feet" on the front end come off so I usually park on it like that, or I have the pickup truck on it. Here is a picture of them flat/lowered for context:
The ramps can extend but are in the "mid" setting so that the Evo, S10, or Pilot can all get up there without changing anything. When I need to get under the car, or need it level (e.g. - fluid changes) I jack up the rear with a standard floor jack and a "foot" swivels down from the rear of each ramp:
The only thing I worry about is whether the little loading ramps will still work when I'm lowered on springs. I'm sure it will cause the clearance is pretty good now. If I add a lip that is a different story, but I should be able to use a 2x4 or build a longer loading ramp with a lower grade.
The ramps can extend but are in the "mid" setting so that the Evo, S10, or Pilot can all get up there without changing anything. When I need to get under the car, or need it level (e.g. - fluid changes) I jack up the rear with a standard floor jack and a "foot" swivels down from the rear of each ramp:
The only thing I worry about is whether the little loading ramps will still work when I'm lowered on springs. I'm sure it will cause the clearance is pretty good now. If I add a lip that is a different story, but I should be able to use a 2x4 or build a longer loading ramp with a lower grade.
Last edited by yahu; Oct 26, 2009 at 02:37 AM.
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Oct 26, 2009, 09:45 AM
#9
I just read that whole damn story...and the hustling for parts cracks me up. I am glad I hustled some back from ya Car looks sharp...you need to come over this way I want to see a AS car wingless...I used to really hate it but it is growing on me the sleeperish look, especially since my friends with shiny lights might not bug me as much.
Car looks sharp...you need to come over this way I want to see a AS car wingless...I used to really hate it but it is growing on me the sleeperish look, especially since my friends with shiny lights might not bug me as much.
Oct 26, 2009, 01:23 PM
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Thanks, guys. Here are some replies to the above:
Just parts would be approximately $8000, including gauges and a ported exhaust mani from Jeff down at ER. I forgot to mention those items when meth went in the car. Also, that cost includes ~$1000 That I spent at ETS for a different IC/piping (ie - I didn't have to spend that, but I decided to do it anyway). Labor has been a mishmash of me and ER - some of which I would have preferred to do on my own but timing didn't allow.
730 on the dot. I hope you like balut!
Thanks! It definitely makes wrenching on the ride easier and more enjoyable!
LOL - one of the secret reasons for running meth was so I could consider myself a methhead. I should get a license plate. My wife may not appreciate it so much seeing that her mother was into that nasty crap a couple years back. 
Well you know how much of a petite guy I am... I fit with room to spair under the side "runners" when lifted but they are the width of the car apart anyway so they haven't been an issue. BTW - there are a couple middle braces that I don't have pictured that you can use to jack the car up off the lift system for working on suspension/wheels too.
You sir have earned yourself some brushing tablets! Just paypal me $5.95 for s&h! 
I actually wasn't thinking about the tires as part of the hustlin'! lol! I think we hustled each other on that one! I really try to stay away from parts of the family if I can. I'll let you know when I'm there, though. You should get over to a meet sometime!
Just parts would be approximately $8000, including gauges and a ported exhaust mani from Jeff down at ER. I forgot to mention those items when meth went in the car. Also, that cost includes ~$1000 That I spent at ETS for a different IC/piping (ie - I didn't have to spend that, but I decided to do it anyway). Labor has been a mishmash of me and ER - some of which I would have preferred to do on my own but timing didn't allow.
Thanks! It definitely makes wrenching on the ride easier and more enjoyable!
I should get a license plate. My wife may not appreciate it so much seeing that her mother was into that nasty crap a couple years back. I fit with room to spair under the side "runners" when lifted but they are the width of the car apart anyway so they haven't been an issue. BTW - there are a couple middle braces that I don't have pictured that you can use to jack the car up off the lift system for working on suspension/wheels too.I just read that whole damn story...and the hustling for parts cracks me up. I am glad I hustled some back from ya Car looks sharp...you need to come over this way I want to see a AS car wingless...I used to really hate it but it is growing on me the sleeperish look, especially since my friends with shiny lights might not bug me as much.
Car looks sharp...you need to come over this way I want to see a AS car wingless...I used to really hate it but it is growing on me the sleeperish look, especially since my friends with shiny lights might not bug me as much. I actually wasn't thinking about the tires as part of the hustlin'! lol! I think we hustled each other on that one! I really try to stay away from parts of the family if I can. I'll let you know when I'm there, though. You should get over to a meet sometime!
Oct 26, 2009, 01:28 PM
#14
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Ryan - when you want to lift the car you have the forward "feet" in the elevated position, so that it is a ramp. You then swivel the crossbar in the rear to the up position, get a floor jack under it, and jack up the rear. Once that is elevated you release a couple pins to pop down the rear legs and voila - the car is lifted.
Did you see the pic of the Corvette above? That is from kwiklift.com. Check this link on the site for step-by-step pictures. It basically is a ramp that lifts.
Did you see the pic of the Corvette above? That is from kwiklift.com. Check this link on the site for step-by-step pictures. It basically is a ramp that lifts.
