SuperPro and Powerflex both make them. They are supposed to bridge the gap between soft rubber and hard poly. Plus sides being smoother idle, less vibes/decel noises, and stupid easy install...We shall see!

 

I'm running the same inserts ^. They are honestly great, 100% recommend, and I have no desire to go stiffer. I went with the inserts since my OEM bushings from the newer 1.8 diff in my car were in such great shape, that and the ease of install sold 'em to me vs pressing/cutting/burning out the OEM bushings and pressing in poly.

I have no regrets at all, and no desire to upgrade to full poly. Also definitely would not go back to just rubber. They are just right, IMO, and pair well with my SM "hybrid" engine mount kit.

 

That’s great to hear another good review!

I am also going with the 949 hybrid mounts! <insert Step Brothers best friends meme> in the same vein; seems like the perfect tolerable track/turbo car mount setup..

did you go from stock mounts to the hybrid setup?

 

I went from a full mazdacomp setup to the hybrid setup. I had a weird issue with my kraken kit where under heavy/cambered right hand corners the downpipe would contact the steering shaft and buzz the whole car (and you'd REALLY feel it through the steering wheel). The hybrid mount setup solved that, and otherwise keep the motor/trans from moving around as much after shifts and whatnot. Overall a good experience, though they absolutely did introduce some NVH it's not too bad and 100% worth it for a dual duty car.

 

I’ve been working little by little over here. Ordered a few orange parts to put on. Waiting on a bunch of Oem gaskets to knock out the timing belt and water pump. I’ve heard about this reroute thing, so I’ll try that out I guess.

 

Wrapped up the timing stuff. Almost done with the valve cover and 2 VTA 10an ports. Worked on the turbo and fittings. Got the pan tapped too. Next will be mocking up the mani and turbo to determine oil and coolant hoses

 

She's coming right along! Love to see it.

 

Did you pull the engine just to make the servicing easier? I assume no major teardown/rebuild?

I'm jealous of drilling the pan with the engine out. With the turbo related jobs and doing all the maintenance pulling the engine was probably the way to go.

 

Yep, pulled it out for access. It hurts my back just thinking of doing it the other way.

 

Fired up the welder
1/2” npt to 10an on both sides
Enlarged both hot side holes to 3/8”

 

I'll second what Sim said. Would've been so nice had I drilled and tapped mine when I resealed the oil pan 6 months prior to the turbo install. There were so many shavings in my pan even with greasing the drill bit and tap.

Will the valve cover be getting painted too? That's a borderline necessity to let people know your engine means business.

 

I've got some flushing to do, as I don't plan on taking the pan off. Yeah I greased up both too. It turns into a where-do-u-stop project. I'd have the pan off then be lookin at rods lol.

Hell no on the paint haha, its got some good patina- and matches the other scrapes and dents.

 

Timing done and supermax bolted up. If you can see the chicken scratch on the balancer; I will know if my balancer slips again
Running setrab sump screens on the valve cover. I'll run separate cans to track oil loss.
Wrapped up the length of lines for turbo coolant and oil.
Installed the OE 2 piece exhaust manifold gasket. I found that I needed to hold the gasket up when tightening down otherwise it slightly covered the ports. fwiw.

 

Glad to see she's making progress still! Is the plan to have it running by Spring/Summer?

 

Oh for sure. Been a cold winter.

 

I swear I've been working on it. 2 little ones and other hobbies get in the way. Currently replacing all the transmission seals and hydraulic parts. Also threw it on the picker for a test fit.
@Z_WAAAAAZ What you guys use for brake cleaner out there with your regulations? I bought some 50-state brake clean and ohhh myyy. I ended up using meguiars aluminum wheel cleaner on the bellhousing that worked extemely well in a pinch last night.

I have a thorough to-do list on my phone, but majors before spring are:
-depower rack, install fat sway bar
-bolt motor in
-reinstall rear subframe
-front brakes
-exhaust & intercooler (a/c and p/s are now gone)

 

 

That's lookin good! What exhaust are you gonna run? I gotta say I'm a big fan of the Kraken straight through 3" I have. It's not super quiet, but definitely not loud, and has the perfect balance imo. The mufflers/silencers on the kraken exhaust are good sized which must help keep the exhaust quieter. The exhaust on my honda for comparison is too damn loud/droney and I'm going to have to fix that as it makes me not want to drive the car as much.

 

Hahaha our brakecleaner out here might as well be watered down. I'm pretty used to it at this point so I don't think much of it anymore.

We started using this other stuff at my work for engine decarb services though that's straight magic.



The stuff on the left is a foaming degreaser that's meant for cleaning throttle body gunk/pcv deposits. It's way more potent than our 50-state brake clean haha. I usually douse gunked up components in it and let em sit for a few minutes, then use standard brake clean to blast all the sludge and grime off once the foaming agent lifts it all. It breaks up gunk like it's nothing. Really great for cleaning up gunk from oil leaks/etc off the underside of the car too.

Seconded with Teg on the Kraken exhaust. Our setups were different (I had the high flow cat in mine), but the volume was perfect. Just loud enough to know you're driving a sports car when you revved it out, but quiet enough to blend into traffic while cruising. I ended up ditching the resonator when I did my trans swap and it had almost zero effect on the noise level, FWIW.

You planning on welding the pinion while you have the steering rack apart? I'd highly recommend doing so. The difference in precision with the welded pinion was noticeable and worth it, having run my old rack with and without it welded.

 

I used that exact Johnsen's 50 state can. I was in disbelief spraying it on the bellhousing; it beaded up and just ran off the caked-up oil & clutch disc buildup. We're in a 45% VOC limit state, so we have access to decent stuff, as opposed to WI and other states with no VOC limits. I did get some better cancer causing stuff today. You're on to what I think will happen, wholesale/retail side I think will just pivot to items not called "Brake Cleaner".

I may or may not have contacted the Bulgarian metal melter.. I tried to find clips of w/ resonator and w/o unsuccessfully. I hope its not too quiet with the resonator. I think I'll need a Vibrant flex piece welded in once state-side, as it's solid from FM mani all the way to Kraken cat back. I have the hybrid mounts, so there shouldn't be much flexing anyway.

Will definitely get the pinion welded. Having had a factory manual rack car, I can't believe how the loud the echo-chamber is on not depowering. I'm just over here on skinny 205's too. That is great to hear you had back-to-back experience with welded & non-welded!