You may want to put band clamps on the ends of the push-on hose. I wouldn't trust the barbs to hold 100+ psi.

Also, are you retaining the factory t-stat. If not, it will just take you a little longer to reach temp

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excerpt from aeroquip.com FAQ:
Q: Should I use a clamp with the FBV (SOCKETLESSTM) hose and fittings?
A: No. In fact, the use of a clamp has been known to cause premature hose failure at the point of the fitting. This hose and fitting are designed and manufactured to work to the indicated specifications without a socket or clamp.

have you ever tried removing a socketless hose from its fitting? the fitting will break before the hose comes off.



yes, i'm keeping the thermostat bypasses that are build into them. do people actually remove them on stock coolers? why would you do that?

Whoa, another fun wknd plan I see. Mever see the zada tech gauges before. Looking forward to seeing them in your car.

Do you know where you will be putting your oil temp sensor?

yes i'll be installing the sensor in the oil pan via a 1/8npt drilled drain plug:

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The Zada tech gauges look to be a little more budget friendly. So I am definitely interested in what you do.

i think you guys are gonna like the results! i'm currently looking for an additional DIN map pocket (the mazda 626 one i got i'm not a big fan of) if any of you have a spare one :)

i actually gave the zada-tech guy the wrong zip code (typo) and the stuff ships from the UK, so i've had a big shipping delay. so it may be an additional week before i get the stuff :/
totally my fault.

Wow. How did I just now come across this? That was my BB base. Bought it from a guy in AL. Sold it to Mike in SC as a shell/roller. Looks great. Awesome job. Love the direction you've taken it in.

HEY thanks for the compliment :)

this has been the most work I've ever done to a car. it has come a long way.

the chassis is really clean and straight. too bad jim kept all the good parts off of it :)

Car drives well to.

Yea that chassis was really clean and straight. A lot better shape than the VR touring project I'm working on now. I still have a ton of the original drivetrain parts from that car.

which parts?

Most of the disassembled engine and stock twins, transmission, diff, ppf, fuel tank, wheels, motor mounts, etc, etc.

i dyno'd the car today and paid Chris Ludwig to tune it.
i had done a bit of street tuning, but there were some untouched cells (particularly in the midrange at medium load) that i wanted chris to smooth out.

the highest HP run was 310whp @ 11.5psi
after tuning/smoothing it ended up at 305whp.
the secondary transition is barely noticeable, somehow. i'm not sure how this is, but it's great, and the torque curve is quite flat.
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the hp and tq don't cross at 5252, because supposedly the dyno was setup in shootout mode, so the HP is reading as a Dynojet would, but the torque is not (and is supposedly 13% lower than dynojet)
this is not ideal, and is not the best dyno/location/setup, but the tuning was done well, and it made adequate power for 11 lbs. my guess prior to dynoing was actually 305whp.

and just because i was curious, here's a comparison vs my old red FD that had the EFR8374 turbo (and running ~12psi) vs the black one above (sequential 99 twins):

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Here are some pics of the racing beat sway bar brace and new sway bar end links.

check out my bent driver side mount :(

if anyone has any good sway bar mounts, I really need a pair !!!

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The AWR mounts and inexpensive and strong. You can also get adjustable end links to realign your sway bar for a lowered car. There are lots of options out there right now for sway bar mounts. If you want Strong and cheap you can't beat the AWR mounts. GoodfellaFD3S runs them and I had planned to run them and bought a set.
I went another direction and may sell my new only mounted and never driven on AWR mounts in the next few weeks. PM me if you are interested.

Has anyone ever bent stock mounts while using a sway bar brace like the RB that attaches to the subframe? It seems just about impossible.


also my car is only lowered like 0.5" so the sway bar geometry isn't far off...

I've bent them, though not with a brace. But, it's not that outlandish. Could bend on a radius, I guess, and the brace isn't infallible. It could be untrue'd through impact.

I have no data or experience on the brace. If the stock mount is already bent the brace is pretty much useless in my opinion. Out of all the solutions I find that brace a bandaid remedy. I would prefer to fix the problem at the source.

The AWR mounts are similar height to stock. They are incredibly stout; I would say these are the heaviest duty part on the car.

The SakeBomb mounts are nice and they serve a purpose for lowered cars. They also make a spacer for cars at stock ride height. They are a nice product but they come at a premium. You have the option of using an adjustable end link to accomplish the same thing and maybe even more precision than a fixed height sway bar mount; but that's not really what your car requires only being lowered .5 inches.

The AWR mounts are probably the best solution for the money if trying to replace the stock mounts that are garbage. They are almost identical to the Mazdaspeed mounts but about half the cost.

the AWR mounts do look great. I was considering taking my stock mounts up to my fabricator buddy and paying him to make something similar to the AWR out of 1/8" boxed steel instead of buying this brace, but that idea wouldn't work perfectly unless I gave him two STRAIGHT non-bent mounts to work with.

honestly, if we're talking about value for the money, it seems like the RB sway bar brace is the perfect solution. the brace-to-subrame attachment points are the front steering rack tie down bolts that are I think m10 14mm head, and the brace looks like it's mostly 1/4" steel. there is no way the swaybar mounts are moving while attached to this thing. it was also $110 new.

I will still need to get some straight mounts though, as my passenger one still isn't perfectly straight, as you can see, even after "convincing" it straight-ish with my vise.

Next time at Carter's take a look at our reinforced stock mounts, 7 years on car and no problems with big TriPoint bar. If our car doesn't bend the mounts I think they are bullet proof.

I didn't keep ALL the good parts, just MOST of them lol.

the racing beat bar looks like the perfect fix. I will be fine with some flimsy stock mounts if I can find some! I may reinforce them just for the hell of it though.

KTS makes a swaybar bracket/brace all in one. Seems similar to the RE-Amemiya one.

It's like the AWR mounts, with a tube welded between the two. I picked mine up from RHDjapan for under $150 shipped, depending on YEN to USD conversion.

Ive bent one without the brace but never with. Only reason I knew I bent the stock mounts is because I was trying to install the RB brace. And two cars I bought in the past also had bad swaybar mounts.
I just installed the Sakebomb Garage mounts. They run larger M10 bolts vs M8's the widefoot runs. I ran into little bit of an issue trying to use the Tripoint bar. The holes were little too small (for M8) so I had to drill them out and get longer bolts from McMaster.