Mad_SB's GG Build Log
 

Whats up peoples,
I took delivery today of my GG Sport Back just before a conference call this afternoon. This marks my official return to the land of 4B11T's. For those that don't know or remember me from the dyno4mance days (r.i.p.) I've been part of the evo community (excuse the hiatus for the past year or so) since 2003. Old Whips are in the sig.

Anyway, I manged to ditch the call around 3:00 and get to work on my first mod:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...r_original.jpg

Can you guess what it is yet?
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...r_debadged.jpg

I started to remove the diamonds as well, but it seems there are some protrusions on the back of the plastic diamonds that penetrate into the sheet metal. Anyone have any info or tried to remove the diamonds? I would prefer to remove them but as another option I may plastidip them. ALso thinking about relocating the ralliart badge to just under the center of the diamonds.

If you happen to know anyone looking for a well kept M3 pm me for info :)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...de_by_side.jpg

PlastiDipped the Diamonds and removed the ralliart logo (trying to decide where to put it):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...ckdiamonds.jpg

Update [2011/03/11]
Sold the M3 last weekend so now I have room to work in the garage again {thumbup}
Last night I managed to get Noizes old Stock X IC, Ultimate Hot Pipe, and my New Ultimate RA lower pipe installed. Daryl does not like the fitment of the X hot pipe on the RA, but I'm moving to the X turbo shortly so it should fit perfectly once I make the swap. In the mean time, it fits well enough for me!

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...UR_X_UIC-1.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...UR_X_UIC-2.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...R_RA_LIC-1.jpg

Update [2011/03/13]
So, I neglected to get a pic of the plastidipped nose for the last update, I did the nose ring while waiting on ups to deliver the lower IC pipe Thursday evening. Anyway... I finally got my jammer heads installed, still need to wire up the module but will do that at the same time as the gauges I have on order... hopefully this weekend coming up.

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...ammerHeads.jpg

Update [2011/03/21]
Well, Still waiting on my PLX gauge setup as well as my BC RAM's.... In the mean time, I decided to rip this out:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...k_Solenoid.jpg

And install the pierburg 3 port i got from tactrix. I made a little mount for it from aluminum bar stock from home depot (I use this stuff for all kinds of things from amp racks to meth kit mounts).
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...Pierburg_1.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...Pierburg_2.jpg

So far so good with the 3 port, peak boost is up from 19psi with a tapper to about 12psi (on the 93 stock pill gst base map) to 21psi with a tapper to 14psi at 6,750. Lots more work to do, but waiting for my wideband and boost gauge.


Update [2011/03/23]
Well, UPS showed up with my BC RAM's Monday evening... Managed to get them installed last night. This is 100% the way to go as opposed to doing lowering springs.... I did the whole car in 4 hours without rushing, including dialing in the drop to -1.5" front and -1.25" rear. I went for custom spring rates of 8K front and rear so that I hopefully won't need to change the rear bar. Default rates are 8kF 6kR. Need to get down to Gran Turismo East this week to dial in the alignment. Deffinetly picked up some negative camber up front just by taking the slack out with the stock bolts, top hats are still set on zero.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t..._SB_BC-RAM.jpg

Update [2011/03/24]
Got the alignment done yesterday... man am I glad I did not wait more than 24 hours after installing the coilovers.... check out the before toe reading on the front 0.41 inches toe in per side for a total toe in of .82 inches up front........ needless to say it feels much more neutral now.

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t..._Alignment.jpg

Update [2011/03/28]
Just a quick preview of what I got up to over the weekend. I got my PLX wideband, boost sensor, and DM-100 installed. I also finished wiring up the jammer. Sadly the DM-100 is acting about as flaky as Ally Sheedy's scalp in Breakfast Club... it has died on me about 6 times in 2 days (as in won't power up) and the screen has gone corrupt about a dozen times.... calling them today to get a replacement sent out.... in teh mean time, i got a pic of the boot logo i made for it, one of the few times it actually powered on correctly :)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...sc/plxlogo.jpg

Update [2011/09/19]
So, I finally got around to doing the X turbo swap last week. This being the 3rd time I have done a turbo on a 4B11.. I managed to get it done by myself in my garage at home in a total of about 10 hours from start to finish! Mileage at the time of the swap is right around 5,200 miles.

DINKY RA Turbo Vs Decent Sized X turbo..
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...914_130446.jpg

Dual Catch Cans installed at the time of swap.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...918_153838.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...918_153848.jpg

Big Thanks to Chad @ CBRD for the X-Swap Intake... works like a charm :)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...918_153746.jpg

Parts installed at the time of the swap:

• Buschur ported X exhaust manifold
• Ultimate Racing Coated 02 Downpipe
• Map ported and coated X hotside
• Stock X coldside
• CBRD XSwap intake
• Saikou Split DC3 Catch Can Set

Still working on the fine tuning but i did not have to change a lot other than fuel and timing.... I had already smoothed out the MAP Load tables and found they were very close (withing a few load units) to those on stock X roms (aside from the smoothing). I did rescale the maf to 1.01 * the stock X maf tables (CBRD Maf tube is a little larger than stock X).

Over all impression is amazing... does not feel like the turbo lost anything to the stock RA turbo down low and it gains a LOT up top where the RA turbo pukes and dies. Combined with the SST... this thing is a mean little hatch back now.

For the time being I am going to run 24psi peak.. once I do a synapse bov and a CBRD front mount I will go up to 26psi to tide me over till BBXL time :)

One last Under Hood Shot after trimming the cover to fit the catch can routing :)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...920_083259.jpg

Update [2012/05/01]
Enkei Fujin 18x8.0 ET40 & 235/40/18 GForce Sports
So, the stock advans gave up at about 14,000 miles... The inside edges of all 4 started to de laminate. My tire guys over at Grand Turismo East said those stock advans just can't handle the indside edge load from what we consider reasonable camber (-1.8 front -1.5 rear). To make matters worse the driver front spring settled more than the others and i ended up with -2 on the left front which accelerated the wear at that corner even more. After days of messing with tire calculators, measuring clearance etc etc i settled on 18x8 et40 (tire rack only lists the et50 version of these btw). Jon over at Oaks Auto hooked me up a great deal on the wheels and the folks over at GTE found me a set of the now discontinued GForce sports in the size i requested.... I could not be happier with the fitment... just enough additional offset (about 16mm further out than stock) without any clearance issues. I did roll the rear but in hind site i don't think i needed to do so..

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...Fujin_side.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...fujin_rear.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...ujin_front.jpg

Nice whip, and congrats!
As I understand it, on the SB the diamond logo is connected to the body (due to the curvature I would suspect), revealing holes when removed. I also got a can of Plasti and have been contemplating the same idea :)

Thank you sir,

Yeah that's what it looked like, a prong behind each of the diamonds, though I only pried behind the one to the right side... Bummer, it would look so clean with those diamonds gone....

Guess it's plastidip time ehh :beer:

Removing all the advertising was the first thing I did to mine, too :lol:

I covered my emblems with vinyl overlays. They leave the sides chrome which is kind of interesting.

^ Nice ^
Good option as well.

Someone needs to hurry up and make some nice looking tails for the Sportbacks... Really digging those RA tails

nice mod

i see the mod. a very bad move!

shouldnt have removed the beer! ;)

Lolz, well technically I just relocated the beer... {thumbup}

We're slowly getting there, aren't we? Keep it up!

Yes we are, my little dump truck needs some grip now :lol: Coilovers should be here late next week I think.

We need to get crakin on your BBXL install {thumbup}

Mad Sb what part of GA are you from. Did you get a good deal? I think that I test drove that car a few months ago. Wasn't a fan of the the SB and I want the recaros. Does it have a NAV? What are you plans for it?

I'm in alpharetta but the car came from Herritage Cadilac / Sabb / Mitsu down south of atlanta. It did have nav but I had them remove it. I still don't know If I got a good deal or not, car had 2 miles on it when I purchased it.. 2010 base model.. price after rebates but before tax tag and fee's was just abut 24,900 maybee a little lesss.. hard to say they way dealers jack around with numbers.

I was only looking for a sportback, they are so hard to find now new and I don't like to buy anything evo like that is used since you just never know how it was treated. Anyway, this is stricktly going to be a daily driver and fun weekend car. I might take it to a few road course events and I'm sure it will see deals gap every few months.

Anyone that doesn't mind a low miles used car can get a heck of a deal right now, I saw a bunch of used fully loaded (reccaro, fosgate, nav, hid) sportbacks with less than 10,000 miles going for between 23k and 25k.

pretty nice sportsback. was wondering how u like the coilovers and how much is it compared to stock??? i was looking to pick up a set my stuff just wanted to hear an owner's opinion.

great ride...love the color... :D BTW that UR intercooler pipe looks great..

Thank you sir!

The coilovers I went with are the BC RAM model with 8k front and 8k rear springs. In my opinion the dampers need work. I had to increase the front shock setting to a minimum of 20 clicks in (0 is full soft, 30 is full firm). Any lower than 20 clicks and the front end just feels way too bouncy (not enough rebound damping). Rears are currently set on 15 clicks, need to up that to 20, but have to drop them out to get to them because it is a sportback (no access to the top of the shock).

Over all I'm happy. The price was low enough, the quality high enough, and with 8k front and rear spring rates and the mild alignment posted above, the handling is very neutral compaired to the stock push like a dump-truck under steer. Plus the ability to dial in the ride height and the easy install.... no way I would even consider doing lowering springs.

They don't even come close to comparing to the KW V3's I had on my VIII but I did not expect them to given the price.