underpowerd

if you can build it to the standards you detail, you'll own the segment.

people here tend to get wet for ipt vb, because as you said, they're the basically only game in town.

 

i wouldn't worry about establishment v. individual; enthusiasts want pudding, period.

if you could offer a radically better performing product, at a competitive cost, with equal user install effort/downtime/reliability, i don't see any reason you couldn't become the go-to for what is already a fairly popular mod for power-hungry 5eat'ers.

Isn't that the basic fundamentals of boosted power: removing restrictions and lowering temperature?

 

i wonder if the world class engineers at fhi might have considered this when designing a compact lightweight intercooler which must sit confined atop a hot engine, often at rest?

good to see you here, jeff; have long missed your insight.

the wrx is an auto?

Underpowerd,

Do you have any pictures of the foreground on your retro? Just wanna see what I can acheive with my quest here.

 

none that would be fair (i've got 1 crummy cellphone shot, but the 55w 3000k 'deglassed' fogs running in it would kinda defeat your purpose )

 

if i get out there at night, i'll try to remember to snap one. really, i've got them subtly aimed for max distance and width without hurting anyone, so my shots might not be your best indicator. i drive a lot of unlit country stuff so i like to have those shoulders fired up and good distance without HBs. normally if i feel the need for more foreground, it's high noon with a snap of the fogs, but i don't think i ever really felt the mdx shields lacking, fwiw.

 

also note (if gauging my pics), i'm boosting the philips with 55w ddms. i had 35w initially for a few days, and they were fine, but 55w is hard to lay off of once you've tasted it.

sorry, all the pics I shot are in the mdx thread.

 

i'll say the mdx cutout looks identical to msg's rx pic; i think you can get a pretty good template mocked up between them all. i'd pretty much trace the bowl for the general, then find the horizon by relating/measuring the comparisons -- the foreground cut/margins will be the only real eyeball work. good luck.

So was just informed that my supplier for the RX Projectors sent me new Acura MDX D2S projectors instead, since the RX ones he had looked a bit torn up. He said the reflector bowls and front halves are the same as the RX's so I should still be able to do the same swap.

 

Edit, found that others have done this swap also, instead of the RX projectors. So I should have the Acura MDX D2S projectors with TSX-R clear lens coming by the end of the week!

 

RX writeup here should be absolutely fine with those if you use the lgt shield. here's the writeup for the full mdx: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/08-acura-mdx-hid-full-optical-retro-131276.html?t=131276

 

best luck!

^ +1 for the ddm 55s; the philips don't seem to mind the boost one bit, and the output is glorious.

Nice gathering, UD -- what shields are you planning to use?

http://www.acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/bow.gif

Not sure. My Accessport is for the 5EAT car so I wasn't sure if it would still work if I went to the manual ECU or reflashed the ROM to a MT.

 

But honestly, you would not know the car was converted except for the PND321 on the cluster.

 

Total swap cost about $1600 with all the factory stuff. But plan on adding the extra $700 or so for a good clutch and WRX flywheel.

 

If I were to charge a customer for the swap, I would say about a day or slightly more of labor so maybe ~$800 or slightly more in labor to swap it all over.

 

so about 3-3.5k and a 24-48 hour turn... with #s like that, MA might become a serious alternative mecca (opposed to nj/ipt) for those who hit the 5eat wall ...

 

aside from the obvious bump in material expense, would you anticipate any/many profound obstacles for an sti 6mt as opposed to the relative ease of 5mt?

good to have these pics at hand; just one caveat leaps out at me: there's only pressurized fuel in quite a few of the lines in pic 1, the thread title might mislead a greenhorn otherwise -- never can be too careful dealing with that stuff

^gotcha, agreed

the 3/4 shot looks awesome

 

i think that's b/c it's the only one where the abp bumper doesn't throw it off a bit -- sounds silly, but using a hand to shield it out in the other pics, the impact is equally awesome; mb lgt is sex from every angle, imo.

 

personally, i think the result is a huge win -- but love it/hate it, Tec delivers.

looking forward to some pics!

 

http://www.acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/popcorn.gif +1

what a beautiful sight. so how smoothly did the original plan go, i.e. hurdles that came up, etc. -- i ask, because aside from the obvious height trifle, it looks like it practically belongs there. if it's as smooth a transition as it appears, you might be... well... my favorite person ever

Except many people have made rotated kits, while not too many people put GM engines in Subarus. This configuration has already been done, including with a slightly bigger Garrett

 

Frankster probably spent $20k less though

 

ok, then a guy who does 'that'...in a 5eat

you can't call shenannys on the guy who does this:

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67873&d=1242584461

i'm in; lots of pics plz.

go for it, anxious to see the result

maybe you could use the grey double-sided 3m mounting tape for the AEs? (i don't have even a remote idea of how they mount, but that stuff pretty much locks down everything i've ever thrown at it ).

^re the moisture: reseal with high temp black rtv silicone. best luck with the other issues.

there's not much room, but there's enough to poke a screwdriver/socket extension in to tighten the clamp. you've got to kind of plan ahead and line the clamp screw up somewhat to accept whatever you'll use to tighten it once the inlet hose is seated properly on the turbo.

 

Any one know the torque on the harmonic balancer bolt for reinstallation? Use blue loctite?

 

it's pretty well up there...something like 120 iirc.

Well done, Boostin! But I'll add that you got lucky tugging on the harness wires (I saw early on that my white wire to black excuse-for-a-wire was also culprit) -- but I yanked all of them out despite hardly pulling from it, and had to figure out where they attached from the shape of the soldered terminals); better to tug from the relatively strong cloth ends of the unit.

I also did this without removing the seat; a little uncomfortable/cramped area, but I'm kinda small, and I decided beforehand that I wasn't even going through the seat removal for this fix if I could avoid it.

 

Oncle -- I scoped both sizes at ACE one day; they have the tool as well, both pretty cheap (well, cheap for ACE).

Contact Fred Beans Suby. I heard more than once ppl mention that the STI and our belt carries the same part number.

 

Confirmed....same part number..

 

yes, but there is also a 'heavy duty' STi-brand belt. reinforced, but i don't believe it is kevlar.

when i was shopping belts, it was by far the most expensive of all the aftermarket replacement options.

I settled on a PE kevlar II belt, which looks very much like a re-licensed gates; happy with it thus far after some 10k or so.