takeajourney

iTrader: (2)

Autox was so much fun!! The course was pretty technical and I felt the car was understeering quite a bit. I'm definitely going to need some front camber and I noticed I had toe in-- so it's time for an alignment. A friend recommended to me that i remove my rear racing beat sway bar... does anyone have any experience with this? What are the technical reasons to do so?

takeajourney

iTrader: (2)

This is the aftermath of the autocross. I got four runs in the morning with everyone else. I stayed around for the "fun" runs, which were 5 runs for $5. Unfortunately I had only had $4 cash and they didnt have change, so I got it at a prorated price.

My friends and I honestly were just trying to slide the course during the fun runs and I spun out on my last turn. The steering wheel came loose and was misaligned. A constant 5 beeps occurred as well. Also my turn signal wouldn't click back off whenever I straightened out.

Taking the hub off, I realised that my turn cancel signal was broken.

takeajourney

iTrader: (2)

I had hesitation from 5-6k RPM before. While my engine was already torn apart to block off the OMP to be able to premix, I took a look at the secondary and primary injectors. Turns out one of the secondary injectors was cracked! I figured that this was the issue. I replaced it, but didn't have them cleaned-- it seemed to solve the issue for a little bit. The hesitation really didn't go away though. PUTTING THE RB HEADER FIXED THAT. Good riddance stock exhaust manifold & Bonez cat.




As i stated previously I passed smog and all, so it was finally time to slap on the full RB header and presilencer to complete my exhaust. I was going to heat wrap it, but I kept reading about people cracking their headers this way and that I should get it ceramic coated instead. I decided to go with neither and just bolted em on.

This task was a little bit more tricky than it should have been for me. I properly extended and soldered the O2 sensor to a longer wire and using heat shrink. I even used a shroud to protect the wire from heat since its right next to the header.

I was literally on the last step to plugging the O2 sensor into the engine harness, however, I snapped the connect from the harness side! O_O I was a little under pressure since I was getting the car ready to go to Sevenstock 2013. This would've been easy and all to fix, but the harness wire was beneath the top half of the block under the upper and lower manifold!

I ended up dremoling away at the connector to reveal the loose wire. Then after god knows how many attempts, I managed to strip the wire from the harness side so I could solder it. I literally felt like a "surgeon" in the board game Operation when I tried to solder the two wires together. If I touched anything else with the solder, I could've caused some real trouble! I got it to work though, *self-five*

takeajourney

iTrader: (2)

Next on the to-do-list was to upgrade to coilovers with camber plates! I've been running on Tokiko Blues and eibach spring for too long at stock height. My friend gave me a really good deal on Tein HA Coilovers that I couldn't refuse. These aren't the coilovers I want, but they will tie me over.






I took the tokiko struts off in no time, and put the Tein's on in even less time. I wanted to lower the car, but not to where I couldn't function or go on canyon runs. Therefore, I began measuring with a digital caliper and adjusting them. I got all three done, except for the front left. MY GOSH...this was a hassle. I was up til 1 in the morning with my roommate just to realize that the collars weren't gonna move easily. Believe me, I tried PB blasting, using a breaker bar, using a screwdriver and a hammer---AND IT STILL WOULDNT BREAK LOOSE.




We finally got it the next morning by unbolting it and putting it into a vice. Turns out it was just so rusted out that there was gunk underneath the threads.

Lowered the car from the jacks and took it for a spin so that the coils would seat. I got all the heights the same, except for the front right! It's one of those things where you have to minutely adjust them one by one, but you can do pretty well by measuring the lip of the rim to the fender to compare that to the bottom of the threads with the collar.

I started the dampening at 8 clicks out of 16 front and rear so that I could adjust from there. The car felt understeery and when I went over a bump, the pillowball joints in the rear just uppercutted the chassis! *HOOAH*

I ended up doing 6 clicks in the front and 2 in the rear with max camber in the front!

takeajourney

iTrader: (2)

Here I am at sevenstock! Staying at the official hotel at the Hyatt was fun the night before, but man we needa get there earlier next year!