Jfornachon build thread
05-13-2010, 01:25 AM
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Jfornachon build thread
I guess it's about time that I started one. My car is a 2001 LS. I traded it for my SM for an even trade. I still think I got the bum deal with what I have had to deal with. The car has a factory hardtop, HDDDHT installed, along with an FM 2 suspension kit with blown KYB AGX's, a lightened FW and upgraded clutch. It came with sport brakes, 6 spped trans and a 3.909 torsen.
I have had to replace broken engine mounts, 4 tires (had 6 year old tires on it), 4 blown struts, it never had a timming belt sevice done. PO had over filled the trans beeing a Douchbag by draining the trans and filling it up through the shifter turrent with out removing the fill plug on the side of the trans. He tore the shifter boots while doing it. The brakes were worn and coolant was very old.
Needles to say he was clueless about working on cars but demanded more than top dollar for it. I still get calls from him asking what things on the car are even though they are factory parts. Over all the car is in very decent shape.
My plans were to go turbo and actually bought the kit stein built, but decided that I didn't want to have to remove it or pay for a illegal smog every two years. I am still going to be going Fi but it will most likely be the rotrex kit. The car is my DD and TT/track bitch. I traded one bitch for another.
In order to shead some weight I removed the soft top and frame since I was planning on installing fixed hardtop brackets.
First I replaced the tires with Yokohama S-Drives. I have been very happy with them. I heard some bad reviews about them. Go figure they complained that they were bad in the rain and cold weather mean while they were from states that got snow for a few months of the year. I was like no **** shirlock. Lets see summer tires on the snow. They must be good in the wet/snow. What ever.
Then the pads were swaped out with AXIS Ultimates. I had them on my 2000 that I managed to roll (long story that will have to be another time). I liked them till comming into turn 3 of CalSpeedway at 125mph and had to brake HARD. Lol. That was no fun, but did it stop me. Hell no. I was like one more time.
I bought some 6UL's 15x8 and mounted my 2 day old Ra1's and did 2 days at Cal speedway and had a blast. It was chalenging with the blown struts and sway bars that were adjusted *** backwards (part of PO's doing that I should have checked) but it was fun. So I ordered a set of Bilstein HD's and installed them. I think this is a decent setup for basic street, autoX and ocasional light track day. Me personally I like a stiffer car. Thats just me.
Since I got 5k in taxes and payed off some debt and put some aside and put 2.5k into parts for the car. The real work was to begin.
I bought a 5-point harness, slider bracket, a mounting bracket, Sparco Sprint 5 seat, harness bar, hardtop mounts, Mazdacomp enginge mounts, Adaptronic harness, JIC coilovers, Racing Beat 1.25 front swaybay and got to work.
I got to installing the harness bar not that hard, but did have to deal with a crossthreaded bolt from the PO's lack of skill in working on the car. It all went in though and is good to go. Harness went in next along witht the seat. I still have to instaal the crotch strap though. I am sitting fairly high up which I would say is about the same height as the factory seat without the foamectomy. I still fit fine with a helmet.
After that came the Motor mounts. I searched and found a few write ups on this and M.net that helped out. When rocking the engine mounts to seat in the holes my hand slipped from the dirt and oil and broke the VVTI solenoid. So now I need to replace that Part will be here on monday. the Same night I removed the factory hard top latches and strikers installed the fixed hharttop brackets.
Thats it for now. More to come later. Pics to come as well. Can't wait till the Adaptronic harness arives so I can start fiddeling with it.
Have a great day,
Jared
I have had to replace broken engine mounts, 4 tires (had 6 year old tires on it), 4 blown struts, it never had a timming belt sevice done. PO had over filled the trans beeing a Douchbag by draining the trans and filling it up through the shifter turrent with out removing the fill plug on the side of the trans. He tore the shifter boots while doing it. The brakes were worn and coolant was very old.
Needles to say he was clueless about working on cars but demanded more than top dollar for it. I still get calls from him asking what things on the car are even though they are factory parts. Over all the car is in very decent shape.
My plans were to go turbo and actually bought the kit stein built, but decided that I didn't want to have to remove it or pay for a illegal smog every two years. I am still going to be going Fi but it will most likely be the rotrex kit. The car is my DD and TT/track bitch. I traded one bitch for another.
In order to shead some weight I removed the soft top and frame since I was planning on installing fixed hardtop brackets.
First I replaced the tires with Yokohama S-Drives. I have been very happy with them. I heard some bad reviews about them. Go figure they complained that they were bad in the rain and cold weather mean while they were from states that got snow for a few months of the year. I was like no **** shirlock. Lets see summer tires on the snow. They must be good in the wet/snow. What ever.
Then the pads were swaped out with AXIS Ultimates. I had them on my 2000 that I managed to roll (long story that will have to be another time). I liked them till comming into turn 3 of CalSpeedway at 125mph and had to brake HARD. Lol. That was no fun, but did it stop me. Hell no. I was like one more time.
I bought some 6UL's 15x8 and mounted my 2 day old Ra1's and did 2 days at Cal speedway and had a blast. It was chalenging with the blown struts and sway bars that were adjusted *** backwards (part of PO's doing that I should have checked) but it was fun. So I ordered a set of Bilstein HD's and installed them. I think this is a decent setup for basic street, autoX and ocasional light track day. Me personally I like a stiffer car. Thats just me.
Since I got 5k in taxes and payed off some debt and put some aside and put 2.5k into parts for the car. The real work was to begin.
I bought a 5-point harness, slider bracket, a mounting bracket, Sparco Sprint 5 seat, harness bar, hardtop mounts, Mazdacomp enginge mounts, Adaptronic harness, JIC coilovers, Racing Beat 1.25 front swaybay and got to work.
I got to installing the harness bar not that hard, but did have to deal with a crossthreaded bolt from the PO's lack of skill in working on the car. It all went in though and is good to go. Harness went in next along witht the seat. I still have to instaal the crotch strap though. I am sitting fairly high up which I would say is about the same height as the factory seat without the foamectomy. I still fit fine with a helmet.
After that came the Motor mounts. I searched and found a few write ups on this and M.net that helped out. When rocking the engine mounts to seat in the holes my hand slipped from the dirt and oil and broke the VVTI solenoid. So now I need to replace that Part will be here on monday. the Same night I removed the factory hard top latches and strikers installed the fixed hharttop brackets.
Thats it for now. More to come later. Pics to come as well. Can't wait till the Adaptronic harness arives so I can start fiddeling with it.
Have a great day,
Jared
Last edited by Jfornachon; 05-13-2010 at 01:33 PM.
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05-13-2010, 01:34 PM
#5
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I dont know how ti insert pictures into the posting like I see other doing. If you can help me with it the pictures will correlate to the build.
Have a great day,
Jared
Have a great day,
Jared
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05-13-2010, 02:57 PM
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05-30-2011, 07:57 PM
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So it's been a while since I last updater this. My car has been through some very tramatic expariances since then.
Back in the middle of december while comming home from work one night. I took a different way home to get around trafficsince it was raining. I was on Topanga canyon when a boulder fell from the hill and I had no choice but to hit it head on.
This boulder took out the whole front end including the engine and subframe. So off came the JIC's and adaptronic to be sold to repair the car. Thankfully I had an engie in my garage. The car was repaired and the insurance paid out on the car. Now it has a salvaged title. With the car repaired and driveable. A quick phone call to a friend got me in touch with Oscar for a rotrex.
After install of the Rotrex car was putting down 164 HP and 151 TQ. Not bad at 5psi. car drove fine and was a kick in the pants to drive. So off to the track I went. Cal speedway none the less. the week prior I shortened the wires to the fuel box that came with the kit. This was not a normal feuling box so it was not a PNP box that comes with the kit. While going down the front straight I heard dettination this was after 15min of driving.
Pulled off went to download then looked at the car. The engine formed a bad lower end knock. So now thats engine #2. Thankfully my taxes had just come back. So the parts buying began.
I took the old block to the machine shop for the new 84 mill pistons. sent otu the cams and crank to have them inspected and pollished. Every thing turned out ok with the motor that hit the boulder. The build begins, so I thought.
Nope. My boss says I can't work on my engine till we move locations. So a month later after working 21 days with only 1 day off I start. A little here a little there. The engine starts to get put together. Another week of waiting so that I can have the weekend to work on my car at work. I was just going to put new valve seals in the head, but since the motor had 90k on it I decided to get the inspected, valve job and machined just to be safe.
Finally I get the keys to the shop and a weekend free from instructing and or other obligations so I can work on my car. The engine is installed along with the poly suspension bushings. The time comes to start the car. Crossing my fingers (since this was my first engine build) she started no problem. I cant tell you how releived I was when that happened.
When I got home that night I noticed that there was a very small oil leak from the front of my engine. **** me was my first thought. During the week I got some oil dye and put it in to my engine. Found the leak comming from the plug off the side of the new BE oil pump. Alittle teflon tape adn that problem was solved.
So now I am driving the car to put some miles on it to break it in and she is smoking like no ones buisness. I pull the plugs to find cyl 4 is coated in oil. I also notice that she is using a qt of oil every 120 miles or so. Not good. Off to ordering parts again.
This past weekend I pull the head drop the subframe and pull the pan so that I can get to cyl4. upon removal I notice that one of the oil controll rings was damaged upon install. **** me. Thankfully I had ordered a new set of rings. I honed the cyl out, installed new rings and put the engine back together. To find out that I had somehow damaged the oil line that goes to the head from the block.
Thats it for now. Comming soon will be an AEM EMS4, 550 injectors, TSE 12 tooth timming wheel, an intercooler, and a bigger restrictor for the Rotrex. This will all be dyno tuned at wotk. I am planning on max 250hp. I don't need any more.
Have a great day,
Jared
Back in the middle of december while comming home from work one night. I took a different way home to get around trafficsince it was raining. I was on Topanga canyon when a boulder fell from the hill and I had no choice but to hit it head on.
This boulder took out the whole front end including the engine and subframe. So off came the JIC's and adaptronic to be sold to repair the car. Thankfully I had an engie in my garage. The car was repaired and the insurance paid out on the car. Now it has a salvaged title. With the car repaired and driveable. A quick phone call to a friend got me in touch with Oscar for a rotrex.
After install of the Rotrex car was putting down 164 HP and 151 TQ. Not bad at 5psi. car drove fine and was a kick in the pants to drive. So off to the track I went. Cal speedway none the less. the week prior I shortened the wires to the fuel box that came with the kit. This was not a normal feuling box so it was not a PNP box that comes with the kit. While going down the front straight I heard dettination this was after 15min of driving.
Pulled off went to download then looked at the car. The engine formed a bad lower end knock. So now thats engine #2. Thankfully my taxes had just come back. So the parts buying began.
I took the old block to the machine shop for the new 84 mill pistons. sent otu the cams and crank to have them inspected and pollished. Every thing turned out ok with the motor that hit the boulder. The build begins, so I thought.
Nope. My boss says I can't work on my engine till we move locations. So a month later after working 21 days with only 1 day off I start. A little here a little there. The engine starts to get put together. Another week of waiting so that I can have the weekend to work on my car at work. I was just going to put new valve seals in the head, but since the motor had 90k on it I decided to get the inspected, valve job and machined just to be safe.
Finally I get the keys to the shop and a weekend free from instructing and or other obligations so I can work on my car. The engine is installed along with the poly suspension bushings. The time comes to start the car. Crossing my fingers (since this was my first engine build) she started no problem. I cant tell you how releived I was when that happened.
When I got home that night I noticed that there was a very small oil leak from the front of my engine. **** me was my first thought. During the week I got some oil dye and put it in to my engine. Found the leak comming from the plug off the side of the new BE oil pump. Alittle teflon tape adn that problem was solved.
So now I am driving the car to put some miles on it to break it in and she is smoking like no ones buisness. I pull the plugs to find cyl 4 is coated in oil. I also notice that she is using a qt of oil every 120 miles or so. Not good. Off to ordering parts again.
This past weekend I pull the head drop the subframe and pull the pan so that I can get to cyl4. upon removal I notice that one of the oil controll rings was damaged upon install. **** me. Thankfully I had ordered a new set of rings. I honed the cyl out, installed new rings and put the engine back together. To find out that I had somehow damaged the oil line that goes to the head from the block.
Thats it for now. Comming soon will be an AEM EMS4, 550 injectors, TSE 12 tooth timming wheel, an intercooler, and a bigger restrictor for the Rotrex. This will all be dyno tuned at wotk. I am planning on max 250hp. I don't need any more.
Have a great day,
Jared
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05-31-2011, 04:00 PM
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I will tell you that it has been a challenge this last 6 months. I have not even looked at any of the receipts. It sort of scares me to even think what the total is.
Have a great day,
Jared
Have a great day,
Jared
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06-04-2011, 02:40 PM
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So a little update. After replacing the oil line the car runs great. So I get in the car to go for a drive. I let her warm up a bit put her in reverse and give her a little gas and...... wait for it she dies. I think whatever so I try to start her and nothing but the engine spinning. I try her a few times and notice that the check engine light will not turn on after I turn the car off. Now I am worried so I check the wiring to be sure that's all there and connected. All is good on that front. I get my scanner and see if there is any codes. Now I can't even connect to the computer.
If its not one thing its another. Will this ever end? I am getting fedup with it all. I just want to drive my car.
Have a geat day,
Jared
If its not one thing its another. Will this ever end? I am getting fedup with it all. I just want to drive my car.
Have a geat day,
Jared
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06-04-2011, 08:14 PM
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After calming down I found the 30amp maxi fuse was blown. Spent a good part of the day going to the local dealerships to see if they had one. Turns out they didn't, but a friend did. Thank you though.
Have a great day,
Jared
Have a great day,
Jared
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08-17-2011, 03:03 PM
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She's alive. I got her up and running on a MS that was built be Reverant. Thank you. Now the tunning begins. Going to do more street tuning tonight. Thank you to all the people out there that have helped me in the endevor. Its been a rough road.
Have a great day,.
Jared
Have a great day,.
Jared
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