terror rising's street/auto-x build
 

Hello EvoM members. I figured I would start a build thread partly to chronicle the mods to the car and partly due to vanity. I bought the car in March of 2013 from a member on here (runny yolk). He was the original owner and had taken great care of the car. It had 65,820 miles on the clock when I bought it and had never been modified. Apex Siver Metallic is my third favorite Evo color, but I settled on it as the car was too good to pass up. I knew that with the correct wheels and accents it would look good.

Original for sale thread here:
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sa...3-evo-8-a.html

I used to own a ’95 Talon TSi AWD back when I was in college. I always wanted 350whp and a great handling auto-x car. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford to build it to meet my goals as being a full time college student doesn’t really pay that well. So, I sold the car and told myself I’d get another one someday when I could do it correctly.

When I first drove the Evo I was grinning ear to ear. My Talon couldn’t have dreamed of being so well rounded from the factory. I knew I wanted to do simple, cheap, horsepower mods and a decent suspension/wheels but that was the extent of my intentions. I made the mistake of taking the Evo to an auto-x when I only had minimal mods. My love for auto-x bit me hard and I started ordering parts. I decided I would buy as much as possible used so I could get the most bang for my modding buck. I have saved over $5k in mods so far by using this approacch.

Fast forward 9 months and the car has a good bit of mods and is about to get ripped apart to put on the rest of the pile of parts sitting in my living room. I’ll be updating this as I rip into it but I figured I would at least get the thread started. The parts installed and/or waiting to be installed are:

Engine:
AMSOIL air filter
STM intake
Mini battery
AMS battery tray
Homemade COP kit
GSC S1 Cams
Fidanza cam gears
Zaklee timing cover
ARP head studs
FP HTA71 turbo w/ ported 9.8cm hotside
ETS short route 3" FMIC kit
Synapse DV
FP race manifold
MAP heat shield
MAP Rev2 O2 housing
AMS catless TBE
Torque Solution exhaust hangers
Front mounted B&M oil cooler
STM sealed catch can
Kiggly HLA
Koyo radiator
FAL slim fan
OmniMAP 4-bar MAP sensor
GrimmSpeed 3-port boost controller @ 26 psi
AC removed
B&M oil cooler front mounted

Fuel:
Deatschwerks 200lph fuel pump
FIC 1100 high-Z

Gauges:
Innovate MTX-L wideband
Innovate MTX-D boost gauge
Innovate MTX-D oil pressure/temp
Gruppe-S dash pod

Drivetrain:
Torque Solution motor mounts
Torque Solution driveshaft bushings
Homemade shifter base bushings
Homemade shift linkage bushings
ACT Monoloc
Comp Clutch Stage 3.5
Comp Clutch Lightweight Flywheel
Jack's transmission
Jack's transfer case w/ Wavetrac LSD
TRE Max-Lock w/ upgraded side cover
ES diff/mustache bushings

Brakes:
Girodisc 2-pc rotors
Raybestos ST43 pads
Girodisc titanium shims
Motul RBF 600
Techna-Fit SS brake lines
Binary brake duct nozzles
Bumper blockoff plates with integrated duct inlets

Suspension/Wheels:
AST 5100 Coilovers with 12k/12k springs and Vorshlag camber plates
Whiteline KCA395 RCA kit
Whiteline KCA400M Anti-Lift/Caster bushing
Whiteline W0593 front LCA bushing
Whiteline KCA390 steering precision kit
Whiteline KCA388 rear bump correction
Whiteline W0594 rear lower trailing arm
Whiteline BMF48 26mm front swaybar
Whiteline BMR65XZ 24mm rear swaybar
Whiteline F&R end links
Cusco front STB w/ master cylinder brace
Cusco rear STB
RS trunk bar
ARP extended studs
Muteki SR48 lug nuts
17x9 +35 5-Zigen FN01R-C Hot Edition
255/40-17 Potenza RE-71R
18x10.5 +30 Enkei NT03+M (no tires yet)

Looks:
Evo VII tails
Amber side markers
Mynes hood struts
Rexpeed side spats
Mini wire tuck
Do-Luck style front lip
Binary seat lowering brackets

Nice looking car! How are you liking the z2's for auto-x duty?

Looks like a good start, got any dyno results or comparisons of the HTA71 to stock?

Whats your goals? Just have fun or looking to get competitive?

A lot of this stuff is going to be installed in the next month. I'm still on stock turbo with fuel pump, intake, IC kit, exhaust, struts/springs, and wheels. I don't have any dyno numbers as I tune it myself. From comparing my mods to other people's I should be in the 280-320whp range currently.

I ultimately want to start doing SCCA auto-x races and make it out to Lincoln. My setup is good for local events but won't cut it in SCCA $M at this point. With how I've been running with current mods my 2014 build should be untouchable in local events. Then I can just spend a little more for 2015 and get a killer suspension/diffs to be competitive in SCCA.

Nice work, the car looks super clean.

Well done

Having done a ton of DSM racing, I can say the rear diff (which you've already done) is definitely the biggest help. Front diff does help some, but its not like the results you get in the rear.


Definitely let us know how the HTA71 works for you, I've been eying that but waiting to read more reviews. Later this winter Ill be selling my AST5100s cause I'm switching to Ohlins (local re-valving support), let me know if you're interested.

I will let you know about the HTA71. I know 211ratsbud has one and loves his. He's making 400whp I believe. The turbo is sold with a 9.0cm turbine housing but I bought one of FP's sale units without the turbine housing so I will be using my stock 9.8cm. For the price I couldn't pass it up. Definitely keep me in mind when you sell that suspension. What are you running for spring rates? Also, cheers to all the old DSMTalk peeps that are now playing in the Evo world.

If you look through my old posts Ive gone through nearly an uncountable number of iterations and done the math, and its all brought me right back around to the standard suggestions of 2.5hz front and 2.6-2.7hz rear. I run 700/700, found that more spring and less bar has more steady state grip but hit a bump and the car just cant handle it.


For the ASTs I have I think 8k, 10k, 700lb, and 900lb springs and in various lengths and diameters. Basically, I have a box of hyperco and swifts springs to play around with :)

I'll have to look some of that stuff up. I decided to try out swaybars as a result of the Trackable Evo - Sway Bar Upgrade thread in the motorsports section. I know the GTWorx are super soft compared to the standard high spring rates used in auto-x. So I figured I'd add some swaybars and see if they help. I'm a suspension noob but it makes sense to me. I need to get all this stuff on and get a few events under my belt before I decide to switch the suspension up. None of the Whiteline parts or the Weir are installed yet and I'm sure it's going to be a completely different animal when they are.

I see you upgraded rear diff, i too upgraded mine I went with the fully built 12 plate max lock unit from tre...do you get any kind of chatter/binding at slow speeds (5-10mph) turning lets say into parking spaces or u turns? im wondering if its the rear diff, maybe agressive lock or fluid? or if its something else...ive also been running with no rear sway bar temp purposes

Yep, Mine did it real bad with the redline NS fluid (no friction modifier) which I used to break it in with. Switched to the regular LSD fluid and it got significantly quieter. 2.5 years later and it still will make a little noise when cold and turning tight radii but doesnt last long.

Good photo from my last event before the rebuild and most of my parts waiting to go on. I cannot wait for this to happen!

Looks good. Keep up the awesome work

Well the t-case and transmission have been removed. From looking at the stock clutch it didn't have too much time left. Not a bad run for 66k stock miles and 6k miles of elevated power and auto-x launching. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to upgrade the t-case as I don't feel like ripping it apart again. I'm already planning on sending the transmission to Jack's so I might as well send him the t-case and get a Wavetrac diff, right? Decisions, decisions...

I've reliably and consistently pushed 425-430 on 93. Solid turbo for sure. ( with muse o2 dump) torque trickling about 400 mark.

I have a 10.5 though

Thanks for that, I'm going to switch to a different fluid to quiet her down I can live with the noise in the end though as long as I know she is performing well

If you can $swing the transfer case, do it. Peace of mind for having a SOLID drivetrain.

nice evoooo

Went to work today and spent a few hours cleaning up my front LCAs and installing some Whiteline goodies. It would have been much faster if I didn't have to make every piece to press the bushings out. Oh well, at least we have a hydraulic press. I also got my boxes from Jack's Transmissions on Friday so I can send out the transmission and t-case on Monday. I said what the hell and bought the Wavetrac, too. It's only money, right?

{thumbup}

Why not PSRS offset?

It's Whiteline's offset bushing. Even has bearing boots unlike the Perrin.

good to know. I hadn't questioned it and just figured id do a perrin. I'll look into the whiteline.

Got my Monoloc in the mail yesterday, thanks to STM for actually having it. Jack's received my trans and t-case today. Finally got a hold of Weir and got the second to last 12 plate on the shelf. Haven't been able to work on the car due to lingering ankle issues, but still progress in my eyes. It's going to be a rush to get this done and tuned by March, but we'll see.

Got the motor out last night so I can do some work while waiting for the trans/t-case to come back from Jack's. Ripped into the wiring harness today to prepare for my mini-tuck when it all goes back together. I'm also contemplating buying a full 3" turbo back exhaust to replace the QTP w/ cutout so I conform to SCCA rules for when I finally start racing with them.

keep it up man... i like it

Took the head off today and this is what everything looks like. The cylinder walls look good to me but why is there so much buildup on the pistons?

If you're looking for a bang for buck tbe: dc sports downpipe and hks sport cat back. Very simple set up.

Do you idle the Evo for long periods of time?

Before it got ripped apart it was getting idled for long periods as there was a cold spell in TX and my mini battery was getting pretty weak. So it idled for a total of a couple hours at an auto-x and a few other times for maybe another couple.

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

To me that perfectly explains why your engine is full of carbon.

If your running a mini battery have a back up then change it out when the one in the Evo gets weak. Mini batteries can be rebuilt cheaply.

When you idle any car from a cold start for a extended period of time it puts fuel into the engine oil(bad). This issue gets worse when you have high flow injectors dumping fuel into the engine. The fuel being supplied never fully combusts and just slides past the piston into the oil pan. So when the car is idling your washing your cylinder walls with fuel.

Here is the logic behind this: its mainly because of air flow. The more air that is flowing through the cylinder head the better the fuel can mix and the resulting explosions produce more power. Idling has the least amount of air flow and so the fuel is just mixing a little bit.

But driving right after startup when its really cold out is not good for the car either. I usually let my car idle for a while since it gets really cold here.

Deylag - I appreciate the input. However, I have a hard time believing that a few combined hours of idling at operating temperature caused this. I have spoken to some other people and they seem to think it's normal for an engine with my mileage running 93. I may call EvoDynamics and see what Kevin has to say about it. Regardless, what's the best way to go about removing this stuff? I don't want to try remove it as is sits and have particulate stuck between my cylinder walls and pistons. I'm thinking I may put it all back together and try some additives to break it up later. Back in my DSM days people used Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner but it was hard to find 10 years ago. What are people using now?

I may still have a can of MCCC. Iced some to clean parts when I rebuilt. Want it?

Aggie - I may have to take that off your hands. Props to you for having MCCC.

Got to work hogging out the 9.8cm turbine housing. I still need to sand everything smooth but it's matched to the gasket now.

you can also try seaforming the car but , since the engine is a part don't think it will make such sense lol

I sea foamed the neighborhood before. Stp makes something similar.

I don't think the carbon hurts anything does it?

I don't believe it actually hurts anything but I'm guessing it could potentially cause hot spots that lead to detonation. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than myself will chime in.

haha. Havent done it with the evo, but Ive smoked out the whole neighborhood with both of my jeeps. The neighbors love it.

Finished up the hotside and put new seals into my throttle body. Hopefully I'll be able to plug the EGR port in the head, get the head on, and the IM/EM/turbo this afternoon.

Got the last of my engine parts in from STM today.

Gates timing belt
Gates tensioner
Gates Micro-V accessory belt
STM TB seals because I tore one of my Works while installing the TB shaft
OEM throwout bearing
Mishimoto magnetic drain plug
Oil return line to oil pan gasket
Energy suspension mustache/diff bushings

Also bought a used buschur 3" DP, Cobb test pipe, and Cobb catback so I can meet SCCA rules. Thanks, Dynotech Tuning!

So much to install, break in, and tune with so little time before the March 29/30 National Tour event with SCCA. I foresee many late nights and long weekends.

Not much to update on. Head's back on and torqued, decided to buy some GSC S1 cams today so now I'm waiting on those to get here so I can put the motor/trans together and into the car. I've accepted I won't make the National Tour event but oh well. I don't really want to get in a rush and start taking lazy shortcuts. This is how she sits...

It took a couple of weeks to get the cams, but they are now installed. Painted the valve cover yesterday and had a buddy help me set timing at lunch today. Going to button up the timing area and get to work putting the trans back on and both into the car again.

So I finally found some motivation and a helper to put the block/trans together and drop it in. It's been a busy weekend since then. The front suspension/brakes are back on and other than torquing the axle nuts it's ready to go back on the ground from that standpoint. I put a ~0.125" thick washer under the Whiteline KCA-400M Offset Caster bushing and it ended up not hitting anywhere on the subframe or control arm. I was pretty happy about that. I still need to lengthen the starter/alt/battery harness so it reaches my mini-battery while going under my IC pipe. Once that's done I can install it and put her on the ground. I'll work on the wiring harness and the tuck this week and hopefully have the rear in the air and parts coming off it this weekend. Some pictures for fun...

The mini-tuck is done other than about a 12" length of 1" loom. While I'm waiting for that I've got the rear in the air and have started to pull parts out. We'll see if I can get the diff out tomorrow and the Weir installed. I'm getting pretty antsy to get it running now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That's all for today.

Well, as with everything, it took a little longer than expected to get the rear disassembled. Got stuck for a couple of days with balljoints that wouldn't pop out even with a 4 lb sledge hammer. Broke down today and bought a $20 Harbor Freight ball joint separator and all four were out in 2 minutes. Also managed to ruin both camber and toe bolts in the rear. I couldn't believe they stripped as they're still new looking with no corrosion. A quick order from STM and I should be all set there.

I measured all the bushings (rear trailing arm, rear bump steer, diff mounts, and mustache bar) so I'll get the press tools made tomorrow at work. I'm also going to rip into the rear diff tomorrow and try to get the Weir 12-plate installed.

Nice progress! Yeah I went ahead and got the HF press before trying the rear ball joints. That thing made it very easy. Getting them back on was MUCH harder than removing. I just wound up using a c-clamp to put pressure on the ball joint to keep it from spinning.

I also want that rear diff.

tuck looks good.

I didn't put in too much work today due to some burrs in the diff case. I'll take it to work tomorrow to smooth it all out. Nobody had ever fixed my diff so the plates were improperly stacked. Planning to press out all the bushings Saturday and have the rear back on the ground by the end of the weekend.

Tunah - Thanks for the tuck props. I can't wait to get everything back together and see it. We'll see how the reassembly goes, I was already planning on having to use the old C-clamp.

Well, got some Diaqueen LSD oil and installed the Weir 12-plate LSD. Also got all my rear suspension bushings installed (diff, mustache, trailing, bump steer). Shot blasted my diff mounts and put a coat of paint on them so they're not all rusty looking. It's not going to be on the ground this weekend as I'm still waiting on the camber/toe bolt kits. I'll put everything in tomorrow and just wait on those bolts.

The rear diff, swaybar, and all arms besides the camber/toe are connected as I'm still waiting on those offset bolt kits to get here. Valve cover's on, injectors are cleaned and ready to go, battery's at the store to see if they can get any more juice into it (107 cranking amps instead of 170). I will probably end up with a new PC680 by the time it's ready to go. Going to extend the power harness tomorrow after work then take a long weekend and hopefully have it running. That totally depends on the camber/toe bolt kits, though. Cross your fingers!

did you port your wastegate ports? What actuator will you be using? What will be your target boost profile?

Just curious to see how your setup compares to mine in regards to spool and creep. My hotside is ported by FP, but the wastegate ports are untouched. Same o2 housing as you. Did you do any porting in the o2? I didn't see the need...

I didn't port the wastegate ports. I'm going to be using the stock actuator and will probably be shooting for the same 27 to 25 taper you have per your thread. I also saw no need in porting the O2. I have to break in the clutch so it'll be a hot minute before I get to tuning the boost but I would like to compare our setup performance when that time comes.

I got everything back together and all fluids are in. I need to solder on some connectors to my COP kit so I have spark, then she's ready to start. I was expecting a package from MAP today with my ETS rad pipe, EGR plate, and Zaklee upper timing cover. I found out my ETS pipe just shipped today, and my EGR plate and clear timing cover show as delivered but they're not at my house. I took the day off and was home the entire day so there's no way they delivered it. Luckily I had made my own EGR plate and I can use my stock timing cover and rad hose for now. Still not happy they're not here and not looking forward to waiting again for them to show up.

The car is running and driving! Started like a champ and I have about 30 miles on her so far. I have a clunk in the rear at low speeds which I think is the diff, but I'm going to retorque everything in the rear suspension tonight. Had some issues with Tephra V7 so I ended up editing my old tune for new injectors to get her driving and datalogging. Fuel trims look pretty decent so far.

It feels good to drive her again after four months. I can't wait to break in the clutch and start tuning for power. I need to thank the stranger who delivered the package that UPS lost to my house today. I assume it was whoever got it on their doorstep and noticed the address was incorrect. Anyway, that's all for now!

Here's a quick engine bay/idle vid I made for my out of state friends/family.

Idle Video

Sweeeeet!

Got everything torqued again in the rear and still have a weird squeak/knock from the rear. I don't hear it normally driving but it would happen if I release the clutch too early though. I wish the clutch was broken in so I could throw some abuse at it and hear what happens. All diff bushings are tight so I don't know what would be doing it. When I first bought my car it clunked in the same scenario and I ended up putting a Blox front roll stop on which settled it down. Apparently the combo of roll stop, mustache bushings, and diff bushings is known to make noise but I haven't searched enough to see just what it sounds like. I also have some loud decel rattle assumedly coming from the lightweight flywheel and clutch combo.

On a positive note I really like the handling with all the new bushings and sways. The car felt planted before but now it's incredible. Again I can't wait to break in the clutch so I can start auto-xing again and see how it performs. Only about 370 miles to go.

I went cruising some back roads today to break in my clutch and listen for noises coming from the car. I can't believe how incredible the car feels and handles. It handled well before, but with all the bushings (most notably the offset caster) and swaybars it feels absolutely glued to the road. The steering is definitely heavier than before but in a totally acceptable way. The car feels very flat and controlled in corners including over bumps with the swaybars; the front isn't adjustable but the rear bar is set on medium. I honestly cannot come up with the words to accurately describe how planted the car feels. I now have a little over 200 miles on the clutch. At this rate I'll have it broken in by the weekend and then I can get to work diagnosing the rear end noise.

{thumbup}

Sweet build, have you gone back to auto x with this setup? I recently installed that whiteline rear sway but haven't gotten around to testing it out yet.

First auto-x is next Sunday. Finally got the 500 city miles logged on the clutch today and almost done with injector scaling and latency. I haven't been happy with how the transmission feels going into 2nd and 3rd even when warm. It wasn't grinding but it was super clunky feeling. It turns out I just had the clutch adjusted too far out. I bled the clutch line twice, bled the slave, and have been screwing with the adjustment but never thought of going the other way. About 2 minutes at a local Evo shop and they told me to adjust it down. It feels a lot better now. I still have to address the clunk in the rear and I'm getting scared it's my diff. Now that I can start tuning for power and throwing some light abuse at it hopefully I'll find out if it's the sound the Weir makes or if something else is wrong. I really want to race it next weekend.

I also found a cool spot for a black and white photo so I took advantage.

That shot looks great. Hope you find out what that problem is and hopefully it's nothing too troublesome.

Thanks, man. At least it's in the rear end and not up front. It's a lot easier to drop the rear diff than it is to drop the trans/t-case. When I put the Weir in it didn't have as much spring pressure as other's I've seen in writeups when I put the diff case together. It wouldn't have affected gear backlash. With all the emphasis on not mixing up bearings/spacers in there I can't believe that I would have done that. Perhaps tomorrow I'll figure it out.

Keep us posted. It will be good to know. Good luck man!

The injectors are now dialed in and they're running -0.3% at cruise and +1.3% at idle. I think I'm happy enough with where they're at. Found an awesome stretch of road for doing third gear pulls and have gotten a few in today. I'm still working on my WGDC profile but 70% is netting me around 18 psi dropping to 17 at redline. Even with this low boost, my HP numbers in EvoScan are right where they used to be at 23 psi. Once I get my profile to where I want it I'll have to weigh my car and download Virtual Dyno. I also still need to boost leak test the car but I don't have a compressor so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to borrow a friend's.

I haven't heard the clunk all day today. There's no weird sounds when going WOT, but I haven't launched it or anything yet. I'm going to keep daily driving it to work this week to see if the noise is gone or I just haven't heard it. I was a little immature while turning left from a couple stoplights today. I was expecting to feel the rear loosen up a bit but all I felt was insane levels of grip and the car just putting me in my seat. I can't wait to get this onto an auto-x course. This is going to be the longest week ever.

Well, scratch that, I made it clunk again. But I also got some more pulls in and am really happy with how she pulls. I entered my old WGDC profile for 23 psi and it only netted me 20 on two runs. Then I did a run with the cutout open and it jumped to 23. I did a third with the cutout closed and it was back to 20psi. It never used to do this so now I get to figure this little riddle out, too. I've also developed a squeak at idle that goes in time with the cam lope. I can pull on the intercooler and it goes away, but it's not touching anything. I'm going to have to see if the LICP is hitting the end tank inlet.

Like with anything, it's amazing how much time you can devote toward hunting down <insert annoyance here>. I miss the days of having a garage to work on my car although it was mainly maintenance and waxing ha

Alright well I am nowhere near done tuning (pretty much just started) but even with the boost leaks fixed I can't get the same WGDC to produce the boost I want with the cutout both closed and open. I don't know if I'm just giving my WGDC more due diligence than last time or if something's changed. I'm now running 83% duty cycle from 3500 to redline and it's getting me 22 tapering to 21 with the cutout closed and 26 tapering to 23 with cutout open. If I really wanted the same boost pressure at all times I could handle it with boost error correction but I'd rather not. I also don't like how much duty cycle I'm having to run so I'm probably going to order an 18psi actuator.

The noise I don't like is still there but is staying consistent. I'm going to auto-x it tomorrow as a shakedown and see if anything gives or affects the sound. I did fix the squeak at idle. I spaced my intercooler out another 1/8" than before and it was just enough to rub on the bumper which was creating the squeak.

I also took some underpass U-turns today and got to feel the diffs work a little more than I have as of yet. I may be in love. I'll report more on the diffs after tomorrow's event.

what bcs and wga do you have? How much preload on the wga?

edit: just looked at the mod list again....grimspeed bcs and stock wga?

Grimmspeed BCS and stock WGA. It used to take 76% to get me to 23/24psi so it's not that much higher, but still.

How much preload?

It's never been adjusted.

FWIW, Ive got my stock wga threaded down as far as it will go and Im running around 65% down low to around 45% wgdc up top with an Ingersoll-Rand solenoid. 10.5 hotside vs 9.8, but still might make the difference. Have you ran with the hta71/9.8 before now?

I've never run with the 71/9.8 combo but the 9.8 is what was on my stocker. I don't know why I didn't think to adjust it but now I don't want to have to retune the WGDC this afternoon to be ready for tomorrow. Those percentages are netting you your 27 settling at 25, correct?

The attached WGDC map gives me ~28-29psi tapering to 25 up top in 3rd. Little more in lower gears, little less in upper gears.

I agree I wouldn't mess with it before the event. But its worth looking into adding as much preload as possible before going much further with boost tuning.

How's your timing map running 28/29psi through the HTA71 with only 91 octane available? I will have to go back and adjust the preload as I like your WGDC numbers way more than mine. I also need to figure out what I did wrong with V7 so I can run gear by boost as well. I don't know how I'm going to fall asleep tonight as I haven't auto-xed in 5 months and I'm giddy like a schoolgirl.

Well I had a super humbling day at auto-x. Nothing broke, which was nice, but it was a really tough day. I had an idea in my head of how the car would handle with all the new parts and it definitely was not what I was expecting. I started the day with the rear bar on medium which ended up spinning me in a slalom. I put it on medium/soft which felt better but never went to full soft.

I was able to achieve mild power oversteer with the diffs but as soon as I let off the gas it was straight back to ungodly amounts of understeer. I wish I hadn't done the front and rear diffs at the same time as I feel like the amazing amount of grip the front has masks the extra lockup of the rear. I only got one good run in out of four. There were 188 people at the event so I didn't get as many runs as I was hoping for. It's amazing how different the car is. I couldn't predict it to save my life and the extra power only made matters worse as everything was coming at me faster which meant all of my inputs had to be more upsetting to the car.

There are three events next month and I'm not changing any of the setup between now and then. I need to relearn the car and verify that it's truly spring rates that are holding me back. I have the tire, I have the power, I have the brakes, but I don't feel like I have enough spring to put all of my tires to good use. I've always known that my GTWorx/Bilstein combo was light on spring and was holding me back but now it's readily apparent. So, upon verification, I'll be throwing some coilovers at the issue to hopefully cure the chronic understeer I have. I did ride in a friend's STU STi with ZIIs on it (245s as compared to my 255s) and he was fighting grip the same as I was but he didn't have the understeer issues. In a rare showing of emotion I let my performance affect my driving which didn't help anything. I ended up 45th out of 188 in raw time which bumped to 82nd in PAX.

I also found a couple of issues. When I hopped in my car I noticed my clutch pedal had almost no travel. I thought maybe the lock nut had loosened up but it hadn't when I checked it. I pulled the pedal up and while regaining full travel my engagement point had moved up drastically. I didn't launch the car as I was the only one in SM so I saw no need to beat the car for no reason. The clutch didn't give me any issues during the event but on the way home the clutch pedal did the same thing again, almost no travel. Also on the way home I noticed that with the cutout open I wasn't hitting full boost even with error correction on. I've got a couple of weeks before the next event and will be working on the clutch pedal/wastegate issues.

Just saw this. Im running 0 deg at pk tq and 13 up top. Really get on the timing ramp around 5500. Slight sporadic knock on spool up, but clean everywhere else. Now its almost the same timing I was running at 23psi on the VIII 10.5 turbo.




Too bad about your 1st venture out with the new setup. But at least you got it out of the way. Im glad I went ahead and splurged for the coilovers this year, as I feel that was my biggest improvement for a/x. Im sure if you just dial back the right foot a little, it will pick up time. Its amazing how slow=fast most of the time.


Good luck with the clutch. Bleed it and also check the floor mat area for leaks from the master.

Do you ever autox in College Station with TAMSCC? Just curious.

Aggie - Yes I auto-x in Bryan with TAMSCC. You going to run there sometime or just wondering?

I don't have any updates as I went up north for Memorial Day weekend so it was really hard to work on the car.

I did a few times when I was at school there. Haven't been back in forever. I'd really like to when I get everything sorted out.

I think I just found some of your YouTube vids while looking at Texas autox :) Good stuff!

The videos should only get better. They're posted by donkey_518 on youtube. I also might have just bought some AST 5100s from a member here. Hopefully I can get them here, installed, and corner balanced before next event. So much for not changing anything. I've always known my suspension wasn't enough so I said screw it and dropped the money.

sweet! what rates?

Starting out with a square 12k setup. I am also getting a pair of 10k for the front if I wish to use them.

Are you still running the Bilsteins and GTWorx now? Lemme know if you're selling them :)

Aggie - Yes I'm still running the GTWorx/Bilsteins/Tein camber plates at the moment. I will be selling them and there's already some local desire for them. I'll PM you when the time comes closer. Plus I think I'm going to go to EvoD to corner balance and align the car so I may be up near you in the next few weeks.

Sounds good. We should meet up either way.

Do you feel like the 16 plate weir kit would be too aggressive? Was the 12 hard to install?

Tunah - The 12 plate wasn't hard to install and I can't imagine that the 16 would be that much different. I went with the 12 due to the warning about the 16 being super serious performance based. I don't daily my car but was trying to keep aggravating noises to a minimum.

Aggie - I'll get a hold of you.

I adjusted the preload all the way down and it didn't have much effect on my WGDC values. I'm now hitting ~24-25 cutout closed with 85% WGDC. I haven't logged it open but I'm guessing it's going to hit ~27-28. I looked at my clutch pedal assembly and it seems to be the spring that is sticking slightly and messing with my pedal height. My new suspension will be here on Wednesday and I need to figure out if I'm going to try to install it and align it before my next event (Sunday) or if I'm just going to leave it alone and do it all before the event after that in three weeks.

A couple pieces of candy showed up today.

Sorry for the lack of updates. The AST coilovers are installed and it's been rough aligned by myself. It drives great and with the extra caster from the Vorschlag plates my car really doesn't care what the road's doing anymore, it just goes where it's pointed. The caster from the LCA bushing made the steering feel heavy, this additional caster from the plate feels great. I'm waiting on a new 3-port to arrive to keep working to diagnose why I can't get full boost. I won my class at an auto-x a couple of weeks ago and hope to do the same this weekend.

Sweet, glad to hear they're on and setup. How much camber are you running with them?

I'm really looking forward to this weekend's event so I can feel these in action. As of now they're sitting around -2.75 F / -1.25 R. I tweaked them to match side-to-side but that's just sort of where they were when I installed them. I figure I'll see how I like it before adjusting it any further.

Moaaaar! Lol

Had a good day at auto-x winning my class. That's actually a joke as it was only me and a WRX that was pretty much stock. I got a crappy pull of first heat (course sweeper) but still made the most of the day. I only got four runs so not really enough to do any testing on the rebound settings. Car was not as tail happy as I wanted it to be so I'll adjust the rear bar before next race as well as try to play with the settings. I've pretty much decided I'm going to take a course at a local track so I can get some time on a track to play with suspension as well as improve my driving skills. My new Grimmspeed 3-port will be here tomorrow and hopefully that's the reason I'm not fully boosting.

Vids definitely look like you are pushing a bit and not much rotation. With that setup I ran rear Hotchkiss bar at full stiff and front whiteline 26mm at either full soft or me with the cusco bracket. I also had a fair amount more front camber too, running -3.5deg on street tires and -4.2 on race tires.

I also don't know how much the ACD is helping compared to a viscous center on the Evo, my DSM days are really a good comparison cause the floppy chassis made swaybar weight transfer basically a single ended tool.

sounds good! Run looked good. Definitely looks a lot more composed than mine! My acd seems to just push it all the front these days. Not sure why.

The car definitely wasn't rotating on entry like it was before. The corner exit understeer has definitely improved I just need to focus on improving turn in. I don't have Cusco brackets up front so I'm stuck with the only hole in the 26mm Whiteline bar. I didn't mess with my rear sway as I wanted to see how it performed on med-soft before changing anything. Perhaps I'll start on med-hard next event. I still wish I had a bit more power oversteer but since I'm down on power due to boost issues I'm not going to worry about it for now.