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Welcome everyone to my build thread. This is something I should have created years ago but I'm a slacker so it never happened. Well, here I am almost 11 years later and am typing this to force myself to finally create one.
This first post is essentially a placeholder and a means for me to get the ball rolling. Just like we were taught in school when writing papers to get our ideas down without thinking I'm implementing the same strategy.
I will update this thread with pictures bc who doesnt love photos and hope that I can keep with it and will both document my journey as well as offer feedback to folks on what parts worked well, what was an epic failure how I accomplished what and which vendors and folks within this community deserve recognition for their assistance throughout the years.
GOALS: Dont really care about the number, just want as wide of a powerband as possible and must rev to keep me off the limiter in 2nd in autox. Should be good for at least 500whp/500wtq, sub 3000#, as much meat as possible under the fenders, the drivetrain to stay together and proper suspension and brakes to bring it all together. Auto-x/ track beast and even though Im not a drag racer I want one 10 sec pass bc F&F
For now Ill throw in a few photos of Eva I have saved on my work computer. I've also included photos of my garage setup bc that's also something Im proud of and too has evolved over the years.
Here is a video of the last time my evo ran almost 6 months ago now and what is spurring this latest build:
Gameplan as follows: Most is already installed but some will be swapped with their replacements
ENGINE:
English Racing built 2.2 (4G63 with K1 crank, Carillo Rods Wiseco 10:1 Pistons)
Curt Brown head with R2s
Driven Fab Built Custom T4 IWG EFR7670
Plazmaman Sweptback Race Intercooler
Ported Intake Manifold & 65mm Mil.Spec Throttle Body
Tomei Ti exhaust & Test Pipe
Walbro 460 with dual voltage rewire
FIC 1650 High Z Injectors
DRIVETRAIN:
TRE Maxlock Rear Diff with HD Cover and Oil sight glass
TRE Built Trans Evo IX 1st & 2nd VIII 3rd 4th & 5th and badass 4th gear savor cooling plate
TRE Built Transfer Case with trick cooling plate
SUSPENSION:
Revalved Ohlins R&T DFV's with Ciro Design Racing Camber/Caster plates
650#Front 800# Rear Hyperco springs (for now)
Perrin RSB and End Links
CDR Front Sway Adjustable Bracket
Drilled FSB with Custom DIY End Links
Perrin PSRS
Whiteline bushings pretty much everywhere (Ill update when feeling less lazy)
R/T Ernie Rear Trailing Arms
WHEELS and TIRES:
18x10.5 +30 Enkei NTO3s with 295/30-18 Hoosier A7s
17x9.5 +38 Enkei NTO3s with 255/40-17 Continental DW
Stock VIII 17x8 +38 Enkei Rims with 235/45-17 General Altimax Arctic (need to list these bc no more snow for Eva)
BRAKES:
DBA5000 Front Rotors(thanks Paul) DBA4000 as backup
DBA4000 Rear Rotors
ST43 Pads
Girodisc S/S Pads
Techinifit SS Brake Lines
AMSOIL DOT4 Racing Fluid
WEIGHT REDUCTION:
Trunk stripped
No back seats/ seat belts
Shorai battery
STM lightweight bumper beam
Afterhours Automotive JDM rear chromoly bumper beam
AMS front crossmember
Plazmaman Tube & Fin Intercooler (counts bc my old Perrin is heavier, lol!)
Misc brackets under hood gone
Bill Englewood Chromoly & Aluminum Driveshaft
Firewall mat and behind dash mat gone
CBRD Radiator
Carbing Strut Brace
Tomei Ti Exhaust
No AC
No EVAP
DBA5000 2 Piece Rotors
MISC STUFF:
Turco Tune of course (until I fire him or he fires me)
Racefab Wetsump Oil Pan
Accusump 3qt Oil Accumulator
ACD Relocated to Trunk
BR Quick Release Harness Bar with Schroth ASM 4pt Harnesses
More to come later but hope that should attract some folks to check back. Stay tuned...
It's about time! This thread is going to be epic and I can't wait to see what happens!
Thank you! I have so many pictures I've accumulated over the years and am trying to figure out how I want to organize it. Realized as Im typing a lot of parts I've acquired Im replacing so I think it would be cool to show the "out with the old in with new progression" But I suppose the top will be the summary of where its headed if that makes sense.
Originally Posted by letsgetthisdone
No wonder your tire machine is hard to use, you bought the wrong kind...LOL
Lol not a fan of the Hunter stuff? And I no longer think its hard to use; was more of a learning curve shall we call it. Still can't M&B in 15 minutes like you bc #boss but Im getting there
I wanted to try and start off this build thread by showing where it all started and then transition to its current state.
Over 10 years ago I picked up my evo. This was going to be my DD so I ended up with a 2005 SSL which at the time had 7200 miles. I wish I could find all my pictures but it seems some were lost. This looks to be the fall after so about 1 year later. As you can see the car the car had gram light wheels as they came with snow tires and I got them locally. I liked the wheels so I swapped the snow tires onto the factory wheels and my summers went on these.
Anyway at this point like most evo owners and did some basic bolts ons. In its first rendition it was around 23# on the stock turbo. Actually one step back in its first rendition car was tuned by a local shop and it never ran right. Thats where this these photos come in. This was right around 14000 miles when my HG had enough of all the timing the "tooner" though was necessary. The top photo although very blurry has sentimental meaning to me as that was my first first real evo project.
Anyway I car got back together and at that point I was introduced to a man, a legend...some say hat he lives in a tree, and that his sweat can be used to clean precious metals. We know him by the name Turco
I tried to get a set of HKS272s to throw into the car when doing the HG but instead got scammed on here for a set of unknown cams that I later sold off on here for a nice loss lol Anyway at around 23# with essentially full exhaust and intake and intercooler and LICP 255 and metal DV yielded this:
The goal for the car was responsive street car as always. I started getting into autox and also did so some basic suspension mods like MR Bilsteins springs camber plates etc. One of my best friends had a certain "other" car so we raced together a few times. Don't worry those motors are super reliable and he only killed 3 before learning to hate cars and sold it. But we did race together a few times. Here are a couple pictures of that and just the two cars there together that I could find.
At some point between then I found a set of HKS 272s and remember taking a road trip to NJ to get them, and she made something like this at around 25-26#
Car ran awesome for years. As mentioned car was my DD so she saw things like this. Apparently I took a lot of photos right here so well photos! It was awesome then evos are a blast in the snow but Im regretting it now in the form of rust. More on that later.
I ran the car at around 25 26# for a couple years until I finally tried ethanol. At around 28 29# maybe on the stock turbo she made around 400/400. I happened to have those old VDR charts I posted above but from here on out Im missing charts. Ive got numerous logs but dont feel like going through that and at this point I dont remember weights or things like that anyway.
The car was great at autox on e85 and stock turbo and I tired to focus my efforts more on suspension and keep power where it was at. I had Bilsteins with springs think they were called Espilar or something which I changed to Robispec springs along with Cusco camber plates and ran that setup for a little bit. I had a Perrin RSB in there too. At some point I added a TRE rear diff which was still to this day one of the best things for my car. Then I decided to do some bushings and put in a I also put in some CDR plates and ran that setup for a while. Here are some pictures along the way then. Notice the JDM rear and NT03s...Man my car used to be so clean what happened, lol!
I was getting more and more into autox so it was time to step up the game to some coilovers. I picked up some Ohlins and was loving life.
Dat inside rear tire lift #evolife. Went through a few different spring setups with the Ohlins to where Im at currently.
Of course as tires and suspension improved and since more is always better it was time for more power. Sooooo I picked up a BBK Full to step in and save the day!
Looks like I also have a Spoolinup COP at this point and know I missed a couple small things like ported IM and TB and o2 housing changes. Its hard to sit here and summarize this stuff years later!. Anyway BBK went in as shown in pictures above and I first tuned it on 93 at around 29# and she made around 430whp. Keep in mind all of these numbers were VDR stuff most off memory now since I did a poor job of keeping everything together as Id get new computers. Then I put on a stiffer WGA and switched over to e85 and the car made around 460ish
I will leave the story here for now and pick it back up tomorrow as I cant type all night.
2015 was a big year for the evo. My main goal was to fit 18x10.5 +30 NT03s on the car and fit a 285 tire. I picked up a set of wheels and went to it. They came in a silver color but I wanted something cooler so I had my buddy powdercoat them a gunmetal instead.
After being blasted
And behold
Tires mounted
Then all I had to do was make them fit. So out came the fender roller a hammer, a bigger hammer a cutoff wheel and some tears. Its one thing running large wheels but actually matching the wheels with proper tires is a whole other beast. Since I wanted the car to perform I also couldnt screw with the alignment just to make them fit. So I rolled and pulled and grinder and bent and did what I could to get them to work. I also picked up a Evodave front fender spacer kit after trying to avoid using one and attempting to roll the front fenders where instead I cracked it and wasted a perfect fine AL evo fender Anyway pictures of my hackery below
I also took this time to clean up the e brake bracket so it wouldnt cut my tire should it come in contact with the rear trailing arms. This was a good idea as when I went to Hoosiers they made serious contact with this area and I ended up moving to offset arms instead.
I also picked up a set of fender braces as I heard good things about them and well the fenders were off so why not? In the quest for stripping weight I question whether I should keep them on the car but theyre staying for now.
Anyway at the end of all of this I was successful and managed to fit the tires. I remember going to the first auto-x and thought for sure when really loading up the suspension the car would rub but I was pleasantly surprised that the large hammer I made sure to pack with me didnt need to come out.
The car looked something like this at that point (this photo is at a later date as its parked at my house which I didnt have yet but just to show the stance with the new wheels)
On the way to one of my races the car blew out the dipstick and spewed oil everywhere. So like any reasonable person would do I ziptied it down and raced it for the day. But after that I knew the crankcase pressure needed to be addressed so I opted to drill out the side vent tap it to 5/8 and run a -10AN fitting to help her breathe. I then drilled out the baffles tapped them red locktite and was off to the races again.
The engine bay looked something like this:
Then my coolant expansion tank started filling up with coolant so I thought my head was lifting and decided it was time to pull it back apart. Off came the head I had it checked decked and put in some GSC S2's along with their beehive springs and put it all back together. Here I am with the head on the work bench as I was bleeding the lifters and reinstalling the cams.
Then about a month later during an autox aka where I always break my car I did a pretty sweet modification to my clutch. Thankfully I was able to limp the car home before complete failure. Off came the trans and this is what I found. This clutch was a comp stage 2 sprung that had about 1 year of service at that point. No bueno.
I got the car back together this time with an ACT XTSS and hoped for the best. This was June of 2015 judging by the dates on my photos and I closed on my first house in the beginning of September of 2015. I remember closing on a Friday and then racing both Saturday and Sunday. It was a crazy few days but was the last time I raced for a little bit as I took some time off to work on my house. Of course I didn have some fun too as I finally got to setup my own garage. Here is a picture the first time I put my evo up on the lift.
I was pretty busy with house stuff but the evo needed work mainly my ACD pump finally had enough. I always said when my pump went I would relocate it to my trunk so what better time but the present. This was my first car project in a while and it wasnt the most fun but was certainly rewarding in the end.
Gross #allthatnoseweight
No turning back now!
Solder detail
Heat shrink
Mess of wires
Getting better
Almost
Hacking up old mounting bracket
Roughly how itll go
Done!
My brilliant means to bleed the ACD. This plus some jumper cables and a battery and I was in business.
One thing that I didnt take great photos of and probably the most important part is of the actual line I made. I wanted to use a hard line so thats how I did it. It turned out great but that was also the most frustrating and time consuming part of the relocation. I struggled towards the rear around the suspension so I ended up making two lines and merged them. The back half I used NiCop line I believe its called vs the coated normal brake line and that was much nicer to work with. If I were to do it again I would go all Nicop and I may have been able to get away with 1 line. Either way came out great and it works as it should. Ill try and snap a picture of the underside next time I have the car up in the air.
I drove the car as is for a while running on 285s and racing it in my street trim. Here are a couple nice photos showing how beastly she is:
Last edited by heel2toe; Apr 10, 2018 at 07:59 AM.
Apr 3, 2018, 01:24 PM
Anyway at around 23# with essentially full exhaust and intake and intercooler and LICP 255 and metal DV yielded this:
