I used to be an active member of this community. I got my Evo VIII new in 2005, using it as my daily driver, tracking it a few times a year, and going to Autox Nationals in SM in 2008. I ended up parking the car in storage to get something more practical in 2011 (driving it a few miles every few months to keep it alive) but I've decided to get back into it and finish off all the mods I dreamed about when I started 17 years ago. Honestly, I had to come back to the forum to see what was even done to the car previously (see signature). I'm planning an extensive build and would love your two cents on it as I've been away from the community for so long. I'm planning on basically going over every single bolt of the car and refreshing / upgrading it accordingly to get it back to new reliability-wise and make it much more fun in the process. The goal of the car is to be my daily again for a few years, with some occasional track days mixed in:

External Power Parts:
ETS LP2 LICP (Current one is damaged)
AMS V2 FMIC (current one is damaged)
FP Race Manifold
AEM Intake
MAP External Dump 02 Housing
Synapse DV
FP Red JB Turbo MHI W/ 18PSI Actuator
Grimmspeed 3 port Solenoid

Fueling / Ignition:
E85 & Pump Gas Tune
FIC 1650cc Injectors
Dual Walbro 255's
Denso ignition system

Head:
full port and polish / rebuild
GSC S2 Cams
All other reasonable head work (still figuring this out)

Block:
2.2l Stroker
(still figuring out the details)

I really want to knock this all out in one go, so any advice would be appreciated. I do want to keep it as daily driver friendly as possible, and want it to look as stock as possible under the hood (California sucks). Let me know if I'm missing anything and what you think of the list above!

 

Since they check CVN's in the ECU now in California, good luck. Or, get used to swapping all fuel related mods back to stock and flash the ECU back to 100% stock every two years.

 

reason number 579 not to live in California.

 

Yeah, I’m getting it smogged before diving off the deep end with mods, then will hope to find a loophole in 2 years when it needs to get done again. Would love any tips on doing this if you have them lol.

 

When I bought my latest IX late last year, I was very surprised to learn this. I could have sworn that when you tuned me over at GST years back, I was still able to pass smog. When did the new checks get implemented in the smog check process?

 

Last year or so.

 

You won't even pass with your current modifications.

 

Alfred at Tuning Technologies took care of me. We put the stock intercooler and piping back on with the stock cat and stock map and it passed smog! Now waiting on the parts for the build.

94mm Callies Crank
153mm Callies rods
9:1 compression

excited to post before and after dyno results when it’s all built and broken in!

 

Did you put the stock intercooler and pipes back on to pass the "visual" inspection of the smog? And did the stock map restore the ECU to factory settings?

I'm in a very similar situation. Just got back in the Evo game after a 13 year hiatus and looking to convert back to near stock form for smog purposes, and daily driving reliability.

 

Not the hijack this thread but I have a 2003 Evo 8 with a Works p2 flash with and exhaust and everything else is stock would I get flagged? I've read from other post here that it started with the 2005s because the 2003 ecu didn't have enough info for the car or something like that.

 

The flash changes the CVN, which is what CARB is checking so yes, no bueno.