Progress has been slow lately, been super swamped with school projects and tests. Did manage to get my ethanol sensor and readout working about two weeks ago. Should hopefully start tearing into things this weekend.

Goals for this weekend are clean the inside of the car, get the seats out, dash out, get the intake mani out and at least start porting it, clean the back of the engine bay and maybe start tearing off the firewall insulation. If I get all that done and don't feel super lazy I might pull the engine harness and start stripping it.

Been eyeballing Crower (not BC) stuff for my head. Can't really find much results on their grinds from any searches but they're a pretty hard price to beat and are certainly going to be better than stock. Plus their valve spring and retainer kit is only $135 so I'll probably pick up a set of those once the time comes.

Link to Crower Mitsu stuff: https://www.crower.com/media/masterc...ex.html?page=2

 

Crower did the head and a cam in my LTR450 back in the day. It made good power. The spring kit being that cheap is a little suspect lol

 

The price is because the kit uses chromoly retainers. They offer titanium retainers too but then it pretty much doubles the price of the kit. I think most people don't realize that the majority of the cost in spring kits is the titanium retainers. Spring steel isn't exactly an expensive material. Titanium is a pretty small weight savings and yes of course lighter is better but it can be offset with a slightly stiffer spring.

The retainers can be purchased separately as well, and from measurements looks like they'll work with Manley springs and possibly others too.

 

gotcha. Makes sense.

 

Finally got my box finished for my Defi gauge controller. It used to be zip tied up to my dash bar on the passenger side and was pretty much unusable; now it's within reach of the driver while strapped in.

 

Nice work

 

Started to go through the jungle of wires zip tied to my dash. Does anyone recognize any of these connectors?

None of them are currently used, but I'd like to know what I'm yanking out. Any help is appreciated, I have a feeling I'm about to become good friends with the wiring diagrams for this car haha

 

Got a few more hours put in on the wiring. Slowly making progress. Probably about 70 feet of wire pulled out so far. I'm honestly really excited about how much cleaner the interior of the car is going to be. It drives my OCD insane seeing loose connectors are aren't plugged in. So in other words, this definitely isn't worth the time and effort, but to me it is.

 

I found it easiest to start at the back of the car and work forward. And do harness by harness. Lots of hours noting each pin in dozens of connectors from the FSM to make sure I wasn't deleting anything essential. I would prob go a bit farther if I was to do it again. Then again I don't even know if my car is going to start so there's that haha

 

Haha well you'll find out! I don't have as much wiring to pull as you since whoever put the car together did a bit of chopping on most of the bits in the rear and roof of the car but left most of the wires for that stuff (in a glob of tape) partway down the harness that runs down the sides. The only wiring I need to pull from the way rear is for the evap stuff.

There's probably about 7 connectors that aren't plugged in behind the dash so those are probably going to take a good chunk of time. I still have to find my way into the bay and pull out all the emissions connectors and crash sensor stuff.

I'm also trying to figure out a way to get the wires that run underneath the front fenders higher as my tires rub the harness when the suspension is compressed. Fortunately the harness looming hasn't been rubbed through but I noticed marks so now would be the time to fix that.

 

Nice man. One of these days my Evo won't be a street car, at which point it will get stripped, a cage, dry sump, etc. Until, then I'll enjoy the AC and full interior...LOL

 

Thanks. A dedicated track car is x10 easier to work on than a street car. Everything is "right there" so there's no stripping paneling, covers, etc. to get to stuff and then have to put everything back. I love it, literally takes 4 mins to yank the dash, 2 mins per seat and the entire inside of the car is empty lol.

I'm hoping to get a dry sump come springtime and put it on the car about this time next year. For this coming season I'm hoping that the pan I'm making will keep the engine alive.

 

I've been impressed with my wetsump so far. A lot of negative nancies in the Motorsports section saying its not a "complete solution". But the PA car seems to do OK with it, and my car holds excellent pressure with it around Chuckwalla.

 

Yea I'm pretty fond of the design you came up with. I'm actually using a similar design. I would probably jump on that list to get one but college budget = make your own. Luckily I've got access to machines for getting all the metal cut out and a few friends who are good welders.

I was talking with Mike from PA and we got to talking about it and the only way to really improve the wet sump options out there would involve running a hood exit or bumper dumper exhaust to allow for the sump to be moved to a more central location under the engine, allowing more drainback oil to get into the sump.

 

^Lol completely agree. Im still on the fence about adding an accusump into the mix as well just bc its cheap insurance but its also added complexity and more point of failure. Either way as much as I want a drysump if there are folks like PA or the RS Motors group who don't have one then who am I to say I need one?

I can't lose another motor however so I guess I'll keep an eye on my oil pressure with the new pan when I eventually get it and go from there. I dont need the "ultimate" solution just need enough to get me by and protect my motor.