Just another option, I am not sure what pod setup this is but it's what the previous owner gave me the Evo with. It's not exactly in the line of sight but a quick glance down and you can read the gauges, looks better than an A-Pillar pod to me as well
Untitled by whitacre.alex, on Flickr

Side note: This pic is from before I received the car, I made the previous owner take the NRG wheel off

 

I may end up getting something like that. Looks much cleaner. That wheel... I don't even. Why? Lol.

 

Yeah I really like it for what it is. And man....don't ask me. The car I got was clean and in 95% solid mechanical condition but you could tell it was going in the wrong direction lol

 

Haha as much as I like how my Evo's exhaust sounds I def need a radio at times. You can't see in the pic, but I still have one. It's located under the HVAC controls. There's an OEM radio relocation kit you can use to move it down there.

 

Ah, gotcha. That is definitely another option then.

 

Finally finished up installing a clutch in someone's wrx, so I got the evo up on the lift. Found a little surprise under there that I'm not too excited about.





So...yeah. The LCA has been replaced along with the sway bar end link and tie rod end. Maybe more, but it's tough to tell. It happened recently, as it's easy to tell that there are new parts up there comparing them to the other side. I guess the nut welded to the frame broke loose when they tried replacing the LCA, so they had to cut open the sub-frame and re-weld it as you can see in the first pic. They didn't even bother to close up the part of the subframe they cut. Everything else looks ok though, no structural damage and the underside is pretty clean for being a New England daily driver. One of the previous owners must have seriously nailed something. Maybe slid into a curb? The wheel on that corner has had a crack repaired as well. I'm really curious as to what happened! I don't see any evidence of an accident on the body panels, but who knows. I'm just glad the frame is all good.

I put the new wheels/winter tires on as well.



The car is still underboosting a bit as I'm peaking around 17psi on the gauge. Maybe it just reads a little low. I need to get some logging equipment!

 

I can't believe they cut the subframe open like that! I guess that is a good excuse to get a tubular front subframe!

 

Once that captive nut breaks free, you're screwed and it's really the only option. I've had to do it before on a POS cavalier lol. I just can't believe they didn't weld up the piece they cut! No tubular sub frame for me lol, I'm just going to bend the piece back, weld and paint it. I'm trying to keep this car SCCA STU legal as a back up car in case the STi explodes one of these days.

Another question. Vacuum wise, what do these cars idle at? I read somewhere that -16mm/hg is normal. Mine sits at -19 once it's warmed up. Just wondering if my boost gauge isn't calibrated well.

 

My AEM gauge tends to bounce between -18 to -20 when the car is warm idling

 

Thanks for the input. I thought -16 sounded off. Maybe for a cammed evo it's normal.

I suppose I'll do a boost leak check sometime to make sure everything is all good in that regard.

 

So I have a slight clunking coming from the front passenger side of the car, specifically over slow speed bumps. While researching ball joints for the car, I found out that a common way of replacing a ball joint is to replace the entire control arm with a ball joint already installed. So maybe the car was never curbed or anything afterall. It could have just been a mechanic or previous owner chasing a clunk, which is why the sway bar end link and tie rod end have also been replaced. This makes the most sense to me since nothing else on the car is tweaked. Yay! I'm going to 're-weld the sub frame back into place tonight after confirming the car doesn't need a ball joint on that corner. Another suspected part for the clunk I'm experiencing is the upper strut mounts. They're definitely the originals, since they're quite rusty.

I also ditched the a-pillar pod and relocated my boost gauge to the ash tray. I'll probably just take a hole saw to the ash tray cover and see what happens.

 

white line makes a servicable ball joint kit but you just have to be super careful pressing the old one out and the new one in. my 05 mr has the same clunk in the same spot that i have been trying to chase down. come tax return im gonna put it on coilovers and do the white line ball joints along with some new control arm bushings and hopefully one of them will get rid of it haha but if you find it to be something else let me know so i can look at mine and see. mine could be the crappy no name struts a previouse owner put on up front

 

I'm going to replace the top hats on both struts since they're relatively cheap. I'll let you know what happens. I checked the ball joint last night and it seems fine. I bent the cut piece of the sub frame back in to place the best I could, welded it back up and covered everything in primer. It's better than it was at least. I also noticed lots of bubbling paint on the oil pan so I scraped all of that off and covered it in primer.

 

yea my buddy had to replace his pan shortly after he got his really bad rust on the pan and he didnt want to chance it. let me know how that works for you im still doing coils and ball joints regardless because at 123k im sure the ball joint could use some love

 

Finished up relocating the boost gauge to the ash tray. Works for me



The best part is that it was free! I just separated the ash tray cover from the ash tray itself, found an appropriate hole saw, and done! Lol. The ash tray cover doesn't fit well in the hole where the entire ash tray was, so I just used some double sided tape to keep it in place. The cover also ends up being angled towards the driver, so it worked out well.