yeah I have the aluminum vise jaws. Koul tool looks interesting. Guess it gives you a good grip. I’ve worked 2 straight days on the car and need a day off. So I’m chillin with my 18 year old Jack Russell today.


Libby

The KOUL tool help guide the line into the fitting, to me that’s the most annoying step, with the tool it takes 15s and 1 try

I’ve always used this nylon braided hose. I hear the steel braided stuff is a bear to work with, I find that using the jaws in a vise it’s fairly easy to make a good line that doesn’t leak. I use the Russell classic braided AN hose. -6 for fuel and these coolant lines, -4 for oil feed to turbo, -10 for the turbo oil drain and catch can. You owukdnt want to use this line the whole length of the car though as it’s not PTFE and will stink up the garage with a fuel smell. For the length of the car from the tank to,engine bay use hard line or PTFE line.

Hey Johnny,

So the long term plan is to have the car go into a limp mode and ultimately shut off if certain criteria are met with things like Fuel Pressure, Knock, oil pressure, coolant temp etc.

I am doing some hardware changes before I can return to tuning the car and getting it ready for the Dyno. Right now with the stock harness there are limited things available. Choices are to just run additional individual sensors and pin them to the Haltech or go with a complete custom harness in the future which would include traction control and integrate all the cars subsystems like water meth, boost control that are stand alone kits... Boost control is being done with the Greddy Profec Type S. Eventually everything will go through the Haltech so it has complete control to back off/cut boost pull timing/RPM immediately like a modern OEM ECU in the event we have problems with anything. I can still do it with the stock harness and add what I need to integrate.

Im slow so there is a time gap between thinking of what I want to do next and making it all happen.

Small update. Took a break from working on the car.
Meanwhile had a project arrive in the mail.
I sent out an Efini wheel to a boutique steering wheel shop in LA California. After speaking to the owner Eric Choi. He seemed to really get my vision for the wheel modifications I had in Mind. I REALLY like how it turned out.
On to the photos. Before and After.

Before

White/Red/White representing the Japanese flag

Perforated leather with red stitching

Flat bottom

Matte carbon

^^Wow, now that is amazing.

Reach out to Eric at https://www.realcarbontastic.com/
he will help you design a custom wheel that is to your spec. This wheel is exactly my vision and he made it to perfection.

So the airbag light and buzzer... you will need a resistor to trick the air bag ECU to think it’s still in the car. I need to order one. Fourtyounce recommended to grab one off the auction site so that’s what I’m going to do.
The Efini wheel doesn’t have an air bag. for those wanting pricing info for the custom work. Check out the Real Carbontastic website. Eric has my wheel on display on the site along with some design choices and pricing that includes him providing the Efini wheel.
i really love mine. Thanks Eric!

You are absolutely correct. But that pricing is with him providing the steering wheel. I just want to point out that I sent him a used one to modify and my cost was much less.

Consider that when contemplating the price. It can be had for well under $1000. Contact Eric for actual pricing if you process de the steering wheel.

It’s not an airbag, just a horn there. I’m not sure about the airbags for those years in Japan but none of these Efini wheels have airbags,

Efini wheel has no airbag, Nardi wheel does.

It came with this really nice cover in case you park it out in the sun, you can protect the Carbon Fiber from UV damage.

There is something else I am having made. I don’t think I mentioned it yet. I was going to wait until it arrived so I could show you guys with pics of it on my car but I decided I would show you guys ahead of time.
With all the titanium hardware I’ve used in the engine bay and the wrinkle black powder coating I wanted to add some more contrast. I was looking at replacing the stock red strut bar with either a custom color or a different bar.

While looking at titanium strut bars I wasn’t seeing anything I really loved.
I accidentally came across a car with a titanium strut bar I had never seen before and it had the “Carbing” logo on it. I went to the OKUYAMA website but they never made a production titanium strut bar for the FD. They show their current production bars as well as their discontinued products for every car make and model.
Eventually I tracked down the car and owner. It’s a shop called “SuperLap” in Cyprus. It’s their shop/track car. I got in touch with the shop owner and he said that the bar is a “one off” bar, not a production piece. He said he could contact Carbing in Japan for me and see if they will make me one.

After a a few days I heard back from SuperLap and was given a price. A close friend of mine with an FD said he would like one as well. It’s been about 5 weeks. OKUYAMA in Japan estimated they would have them made in about 8 or 9 weeks so we are about half way through the wait.

Here is a photo of the bar on the SuperLap track/shop car. I will get pics of course when it arrives as well as photos of t on the car. Until then; we wait.

Thanks Ian, he has t said anything about the inner frame. It’s a little late as it’s installed on the car now and it can’t be seen otherwise.

I have some work to do reinstalling the turbo and attaching all the lines before I can drive it again. I took a break for the last month leading up to and with the passing of my dog as you know. It hasn’t been a rush to finish it with that and the 3 projects at work having me work 60+ hrs a week right now.

I plan on getting it back on the road this weekend. I’m still toying with making the custom AC lines so I can leave it alone once it’s tuned. After 3+ years on this project I want to turn my attention and disposable income elsewhere. We have some house projects we want to do like bathroom remodeling, new windows and hardwood floors on our second floor that will take some considerable revenue that is typically spent on car projects of mine. Then I want to replace my daily driver with an F80 M3 or something along those lines.