Spent some time under the hood the past few days. For some reason, I have decided to change everything that was painted blue to black. I also wanted to continue mocking up the new fuel lines. The braided SS lines are pretty forgiving as far as non movable parts. You can simple add a bit of hose to make it work. The hard lines that come all the way up from the cell in the back take a lot more effort to end up exactly where you need them. But, it's getting there.

I had to mock up the manifolds to figure out the fuel lines, and I couldn't help snapping some shots of them.

Also covered the fuel rails, because well why not?
25XP

Since I have all the empty space where the driver side muffler used to be, I made this little surge tank a while bak that was mounted in that space along with the filter and twin Bosch pumps. Fed and returned from/to stock fuel tank.

3 -6AN inlets

1 -12AN outlet (for Aeromotive 100 micro filter)


I been going over how to ditch the stock fuel tank but keep the surge tank system. Your write up makes it easier for me to understand :nod:

I would love to see more pics of the car!

Nice Surge tank. I wish I had those aluminum welding skills. I am glad my posts make it easy to understand, its always a learning process.
25XP

Soo...
Much...
Gold......
Did you know you have a shiney engine?

I have been making progress on the fuel system. I ran the SS lines in the engine compartment. Also, I have bent all the aluminum hard lines from the cell to the engine bay.

Here are a few pics of the progress.
I still have to mount the FPR gauge and reinstall the injectors.
25XP

I wanted to decrease the aluminum dash that I have been running, eliminate some of the "fluff" gauges and indicator lights as well as bring everything down as low as possible.

I could have simply bought a CF panel, but I really wanted to make my own. I have done some fiberglass work, although not a pro. I bought a kit of Ebay to give it a try, learn and build it myself. The CF panel had a few heavy spots of expoxy, but when it is cut up, you can't tell.

I made one just big enough for my tach and essential gauges. This fits right behind my steering wheel, and although it doesn't look that it does, I can see all of the guages from drivers POV. I think it came out alright, not perfect, but my first attempt. I am also working on my switch panel and I will post up some pics when complete.

25XP

I searched all the local auto parts stores looking for a quality SPST switch for my accessories, I gave up and took a chance that the Pegasus switches would be good quality. Upon opening them, I knew just my the feel of them they were what I was looking for. I know I am picky, but I just didn't want to have some cheap toggle switch that didn't "snap" with conviction when I pulled the toggle.

The switches will control the ignition, fuel pump #1 and #2, and the fan over ride switch. New push button cover for the starter button.

This is the carbon fiber panel I made that fits around the shifter. Although the CF was rigid, I made a aluminum panel to support under it. I may just double the CF in the panel and do away with the aluminum. Still not sure about a boot yet, I sorta like the minimal look without it.

25XP

After a few seasons with the Mazdatrix swaybar end links, I needed to take care of the bent male rod ends.
The may have bent from the car being low and not having proper tie rod ends that correct for it. I now have the Super Now rod ends that shoud bring the control arms level.

I was tempted to just purchase another complete set from Mazdatrix for $65.00 as 2 Aurora male rod ends were $50. I am glad I went with the Aurora units, they are thicker and I hope they will hold up better.

You can see the severe bend in the one on the right that is still in the female end. The rod on the left is the new Aurora unit.

Have others had these same bending issues with the Mazdatrix units, and if so, is the car lowered more then 2" in the front. Lastly if so, did the car have a bump steer correction kit on when it happened?

Thanks,
25XP

Ater changing to a FMIC, I have always thought the stock oil filler looked like a big ol donkey dong just sitting there out of place. In the previous oics, you can see that I trimmed mine down and repainted it black.
I still was not happy with it, and had been looking on Ebay for a NA filler with not much action.

I just won this unit, and I couldn't be happier. Its a nice thick aluminum short filler that will look not only look great, but is about 1/3 the weight of the stock unit! Bonus!

25XP

pics

I have an ST front bar, and with the supplied hardware, the endlink binds at full bump. Chances are that's why yours bent, and replacing with stronger units wont solve anything. Make sure you cycle the suspension through its full range and check that out. I had to use a funky combination of spacers to get it to work.

Trick piece. Who makes this?

I found it on Ebay, the seller said the brand was "Euroexport". Honestly I was expecting some cheap product, but was very pleasantly surprised with a well made unit.

Hope it helps,
25XP

I too have a ST front bar, and would very much like to not have bent rod ends.

Do you have a bump steer correction kit on the car, did you when yours bent?
I am thinking that they bend due to the control arm not being level, due to agressively lowering the car. With a bump steer correcting tie rod kit, it should bring the control arm closer to level, as it would be with stock or "sport" lowering kits.
My thinking is, without the bump steer kit, and agressive lowering, the outter end of the LCA is at too harsh of an angle for the sway bar end link to funtion, thus bending it. (outter edge of LCA higher then inner edge) If the LCA is at on a more level plane due to the tie rod end link being lower and allowing the outter edge to remain level with the inner edge to the LCA, this won't happen.

Could you go into more detail (PICS) on the funky combination of spacers?
Thanks,
25XP

a tie rod spacer isn't going to do anything to the LCA angle. you're going to need a balljoint spacer of some sort to fix that. and yes, that should space the control arm down a bit, but I'm not sure it'll space it down enough to fix the bind.

I'm going to have to test my bar now... I'm using an adjustable whiteline bar at full stiff which probably does all kinds of funny stuff to the geometry of the linkage. I just installed my mazdatrix endlinks the other day though, so not sure if they bend yet.

no its important! we spent half of the 2009 25 hour charging and changing batteries every 2 hours, we thought the alternator died, but it turned out to be the master on/off switch!

Indicator LED above each switch.

LED is cheap, reliable, light, simple!

Bumpsteer kit has nothing to do with the swaybar problem. Its just a flaw of ST's design (the way the arms are positioned). I'll take pics next time I visit my car, sometime in the next week or two.

you're in XP, you should be using a speedway bar anyway :-P
cut holes in the wheelwells and mount it on top of the frame rails, in front of the engine. I cant due to my big chevy, but you can lol

Oil filler
 

For my oil filler I ground down and epoxied an AN-12 fitting in to the block. I then built a catch can with an AN-12 fitting in the bottom and built a hose to connect the two. When the oil surges up, it just runs back down at the next straight.

-Trent

Speedway bar is on the list of things to do, along with so many things it makes my head spin. All in time and money....

Anyone out there using a Speedway bar on a FC?
Thanks,
25XP

AWR makes a kit:
http://store.awrracing.com/products/...yle-Front.html

I've seen it on a few cars.

mounts like this ->

http://www.mazdatrix.com/pictures/fa.../ep120502a.jpg
http://www.mazdatrix.com/pictures/fa.../ep01063cb.jpg

Frijolee (on norotors.com) mounted one in the stock location, using longer arms. required custom mounts.

it mounts like that to try to fix the travel geometry of it on a lowered car. I wouldn't mount it in the stock location unless you have to (because you have a v8 :p: )

What if it was near stock location and you flipped the sway bar end link brackets to the bottom of the arm like on an FD?