Joe's Stage 3 build

[BrianEarlSpilner]

So the machine shop decked the head replaced valves with a fresh dress job?

You didn't get into a new short block rebuild?

 

I had to have all the exhaust valves replaced. Should have replaced all of them at this point. I get the price point, time suck and effort push to get it done!

 

Bummed we didn't get to see you pass the corvette.

 

Yeah they replaced the valves in question, decked them, and set them back within factory specs. There were 2 reasons why I didn't go the short block route.

 

1. Just spent $3-4k on stage 3, then another $2k on rebuild. No money left in the coffers for the short block.

2. "Zero" oil consumption on OE block. I am hoping to get another few years out of it. I drive under 10k a year.

 

I'm not living in denial though, I know I drive a ticking time bomb... I just like riding the concussion wave...

[kzr750r1]

All valid reasons. Least now you know the top end is fresh.

 

Sucks about the muffler shop. Go fond someone else that gets it and it may help.

 

Reminds me of the new cat back I had installed on my dodge years ago. Went with three inch from the cat back and new magnaflow. Once I picked it up and took off noticed it was leaking. Drove right back and said there's a leak...

 

BS the shop lead tells me so I throw him the keys. Upon driving back into the yard he goes straight back to the lift. Yes there is a leak... Top of one of the welds. He blamed his old age and eyesight.

 

Good luck and keep us posted.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

Well it's time for my lazy ass to update this thread. I haven't done a ton to the car recently. I did get my DIY grill done, came out pretty nice. I also took care of plugs and rotors before an auto-x day at Road America.

 

Brakes- I do remember changing the pads last year, and I was like why didn't I change the rotors? Then when trying to remove the calipers it hit me. I did try last year but they were pretty rusted on. Like others I snapped off one of the bolts for the caliper and spent the better part of an our trying to remove half a bolt. Changing the plugs wasn't all that bad, but I did discover that they weren't all the same! At least the right plugs are in now and it does seem to start up and run just a tick smoother.

 

Auto-x @ Road America

I have to say that this was one of the best days I've ever had and its got me hooked! I didn't have high expectations. I just wanted to have fun and be able to drive my car home, mission accomplished. I learned quite a bit from the helpful staff there. There was a lot of excitement in my driving style and I had to reign it in a little instead of starting slow and working up. I thought the car handled pretty well in its present state. Everyone complains about how bad they "push" but its very manageable when you don't overdrive the entry. I ended up 12th in auto-x and 8th in speed stop. Not bad for my first time out. I do realize that this isn't SCCA rules but merely a car club auto-x day so it was only broken down by drive type so the field is pretty wide open. I had my friend drive a couple rounds and I watched... scary! My car is up for the Holy Body Roll Batman! Award. Bone stock 115k mile suspension, she was throwing her weight around like a fat girl in a buffet line.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

Stopped by a part out and picked up quite the assemblage of parts. Got some headlight/taillight modding coming up. Finally found a door card to replace my roughed up driver side, starter (just in case), caliper bracket, bumper, vents, and my cars already wearing the wingless trunk...all good stuff

 

Been running E-85 for a bit now. Loving it! Gonna have to post a video of the car soon.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

Living in the salt belt sucks. Decided to do a little repair today. Just a grind and bondo job, but I don't have access to a welder for a patch panel. It sure beats driving around with a bubbly fender though.

[rebourne]

Stopped by a part out and picked up quite the assemblage of parts. Got some headlight/taillight modding coming up. Finally found a door card to replace my roughed up driver side, starter (just in case), caliper bracket, bumper, vents, and my cars already wearing the wingless trunk...all good stuff

 

Been running E-85 for a bit now. Loving it! Gonna have to post a video of the car soon.

 

E85?! You can't just drop that without sharing what you did to get there?

[BrianEarlSpilner]

E85?! You can't just drop that without sharing what you did to get there?

 

Ha. Well it was always in the cards after my rebuild. Had purchased a 93 and E85 map last year(Cryotune), but only had time to get the 93 done before the snow was flyin. Got the e85 done this spring. At the same time I moved out to a cellphone dead zone without an Internet connection so it's been a pain to update stuff. While e-tuning I had to leave the house just to send logs and receive maps.

 

Had another great experience tuning with Dave and the difference between fuels is night and day. E85 is fairly prevalent around me and it's actually kind of depressing to fill up with 93.

[Max Capacity]

Living in the salt belt sucks. Decided to do a little repair today. Just a grind and bondo job, but I don't have access to a welder for a patch panel. It sure beats driving around with a bubbly fender though.

 

You do awesome body work...I suck at that.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

Well I put together a little video of my recent dyno day along with a little country road pull. The E85 tune put down 302hp/321tq on an unmolested Mustang dyno. I was pretty satisfied with the results knowing that I asked Dave to keep the tune pretty conservative. I know there's a few hp left on the table if I ever go with some equal length headers as well. In the end my car is a blast to drive with plenty of power on tap and a great engine note to match. It puts a smile on my face every time I drive it so that's good enough for me.

 

On a side note the shop owner claimed it would be roughly 361hp/385tq if it were done on a dynojet. Again not my words and I know you really can't compare dyno to dyno because of the many factors to account for, but it was nice to hear.

 

link to the vid

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce1JDr0AL9M]05 Legacy GT dyno pull - YouTube[/ame]

[BrianEarlSpilner]

I decided to start a little paint project recently. For the past couple years I’ve been running a wingless trunk covered in black plasti-dip. It wasn’t my first choice of color, but I happened to stumble across a part-out and pick up the trunk lid for a good price. I thought plasti-dip would be a relatively cheap, easy, and quick (which would equal “not good” if you’re familiar with the performance triangle) way to get an acceptable finish on the car. The trunk itself was silver and flat black seemed acceptable to me at the time. The black color has long worn out its welcome and I’d just rather my car had matching panels. If given the option to do something myself I will most likely make an attempt. I know that the body shop I use has always produced great results, but I really just wanted to see for myself what kind of finish you can get with a rattle can. Maybe I watch too much mighty car mods and other random youtubery…

 

 

 

Removing the plasti-dip was largely a pain. It didn’t peel off at all. I put 4 coats on which I thought would be enough. Goo gone made really quick work of it but was also pretty messy. I let it soak for a bit and used a few different scrapers. A plastic scraper would work fine and not damage the paint. You can see a metal one in the picture which was fantastic but did make a few scratches. I was going to be sanding down the paint so it didn’t make much difference to me.

 

 

 

After that I sanded down through the clear and into the color. In some areas into the primer and bare metal as well until I got a satisfactory surface. Primer went on followed by color and clear. I’m letting it sit for a few days and I want to wet sand and either add more clear if necessary or just polish. I’ll probably add more clear though, just because I have enough.

 

 

 

No project is without its setbacks though. While removing the trunk garnish I happened to break it. One of the pop its was extremely stubborn and I was doing my best to gently pry it out, but snap it went nonetheless. Luckily I have a spare one to repaint, but I can’t say it makes me any happier about it just less sad. Does anybody know if there’s a way to fix the trunk plastic? A plastic welder perhaps? I thought about fiberglassing the back or some type of reinforced epoxy patch might work. I think repainting the spare is my safest bet.

[dzehner2]

What were your painting conditions like in your garage? I've been nervous to pull the trigger on repainting my hood for a while because of the lack of control for humidity, dust, etc. I also have a rust spot on my roof that is going to require repainting the section between the windshield and sunroof... Any tips on doing that in a garage?

 

Also, can you give some more detail on your surface prep regimen? Things turned out really great for you, so I was wondering what grits of sandpaper you used, what type of sander (orbital or RO?), etc.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

I should probably start off with a disclaimer that I have no real prior body panel painting experience, mostly just spots here and there. That’s not to say I’ve never painted anything or have a basic understanding of how it works. I used to airbrush a lot of r/c cars back in the day, but I really can’t say a lot of that transfers over. The conditions in my garage were less than ideal. I didn’t really have any way to control the humidity, just the temperature. As far as my garage was concerned the air was pretty still and dust was minimal, but it was nowhere near the surgical level of cleanliness one would really prefer. One thing I had thought about doing was using some large rolls of painters plastic to create a small makeshift spray booth. That wouldn’t be a bad thing to think about with something as large as the hood. You could even add a couple of box fans and an air filter if you wanted to get real creative.

 

 

 

I used a palm random orbital sander with 240 grit on the larger flat surfaces and block or hand sanded around the nooks and crannies (not a ton on the trunk and garnish). The 240 seemed to be pretty manageable without removing too much material at once. With the sander it was enough to dig in if even pressure wasn’t applied. This is the part where you really want to be sure you’ve left everything smooth though. Any surface imperfection will show up no matter how good you are the rest of the way. After sanding I shot a couple thin-med coats of high build primer. That’s just the primer I had so use whatever you feel like. I sanded the primer before color but I cant remember if it was 1000 or 1500. A few coats of color went on then 2 coats of clear coat. The clear coat had ominous instructions about applying a second coat within 4 hrs or after 36 hours, and also not to apply too much at once or the paint could lift. I opted to just do 2 coats and wait. A few days later I added one more coat of clear. A few days after that I sanded it all with 2000 grit until the surface was uniformly scuffed. I used meguiars high cut polish (that’s not the exact name) and an orbital polisher to remove the sanding marks. I plan on purchasing a dual action polisher and doing my whole car this spring yet. 11 yr old paint is aging well but could use a facelift.

 

 

 

I would say if you’re a DIY type who just enjoys doing the work yourself then go for it. The only word of caution would be that the hood is a pretty big panel so spraying with a can will take a long time. They just don’t produce a wide spray pattern. Plus they have to spray continuously for the width of the panel which always makes me nervous for splatters or sputters in delivery. You just gotta keep shaking the can. The spot on the roof shouldn’t be too hard to do. Just feather the paint out and it should blend fine. Maybe that would be a good place to start and see how you do in your garage and decide if the hood is worth it.

 

 

 

Also I got my paint from a mom-n-pop auto shop locally. Feel like I probably overpaid, but it matched well. I’ve looked at automotivetouchup.com and might try some of their products if I end up with another project. Would have gotten 50% more paint for my money just going by ounces on the can. Like I said though, I’m just a random dude who tried to paint his trunk. There’s a lot of room for improvement and yet I ended up with satisfactory results. That should give any regular schmuck hope they can do it to

[dzehner2]

Thanks for the great writeup! I actually bought some paint and spray guns to do the job a while back but haven't gotten up the gumption to tackle it. Maybe this summer when the weather is more predictable I'll do it.

 

I've also got a Festool Rotex RO150 (I do a lot of woodworking on the side) to do some polishing with, so I'll let you know how that turns out if you like (keep an eye out for a thread on it when I start it!).

[Merc6]

Seems like I missed out a lot in this thread.

 

Yeah similar issues with my daughter born November 1st and my son 28 December with 2 parties and a Christmas set up. Car was pretty much untouched until like last month. Dyno sheets look like you picked all the right parts.

 

The trunk piece broke on me too back in 2009 when I tried to add LED license plate lights. Trying to fix it was pointless, I ended up replacing that when I got hit by a truck when I had to stop short for a J walker. Looks like it turned out good.

[rzgibbs]

A little necro but I also bought the gimmick intake and regretted it. Ended buying different brass fittings for almost everything and I also felt that I needed to clamp each port to seal the vacuum properly. With all the work I've done with mods and having reroute some of the PCV, I'll probably wait til I get a catch can/ao separator before I put a new inlet in. I swear it is one of the most time-consuming DIY mods especially with an ill fitting variety.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

Well let me start with the positives since I last updated. I did take care of a few maintenance items recently

 

-bled the clutch

-T6 oil change

-replaced all vacuum lines

-replaced passenger front caliper with reman unit

-changed OEM FPR to 05 STI FPR

-added a couple company 23 (frmly turkeylord) tees

 

That list would normally leave me feeling pretty good, but there are some gremlins I can’t seem to shake. So I had been talking with Cryo about some leaning out at cruise. While driving along at 55-60 mph at a steady speed or very light throttle input the afr’s would go lean like 18:1 producing a stumble until you got out of the throttle or applied more. The car shook with a “water hammer” like resonance that made me think fuel delivery had something to do with it. I played around with different length hoses, but ultimately the change to the 05 STI FPR has remedied that situation and I haven’t seen the random cruise lean since. My car also had the infamous 2400-2800 stumble which the new fpr seemed to all but eliminate. There’s still a hint of it there, but not enough to bother me anymore.

 

She’d been running fine, but boost leaks develop from time to time because the Perrin TMIC fitment is awful (to be fair the Invidia UP and BNR 18G could be playing a role as well) which caused me to strip one of the holes. I can get it tight enough to seal, but it works itself loose over time. With some nice weather and spare time I figured I’d take care of a few things and hopefully enjoy the summer driving season without any headaches… WRONG! I checked the a/f learning the next day after building some data and a/f learn A was pegged at 15. It was running fine, and idling well, but clearly there was a leak. So after addressing the leak and testing for other leaks it was back on the road. Now the learning view was adding about 5% to A,B, and C and that’s when it happened. All of a sudden my idle started creeping up 15.5:1…16:1…16.5:1….17:1. The car never stuttered or stumbled but then the P0171 Lean bank 1 CEL.

 

So far I-

checked for boost leaks, none

swapped MAF with same results

 

Now I wonder-

did I miss some leaks even though I thought I was thorough?

injector issue, the passenger bank is noticeably louder than the driver?

O2 faulty? It was just replaced a few months ago

Plug/coil? Perhaps not firing properly resulting in more oxygen in exhaust and lean reporting

 

I dunno, I’m pretty frustrated and starting to have those “wish my car was stock” feelings. I’m moody so I know it will pass, but if you guys have any ideas of what to try next let me know. There was a thread started with a similar lean idle issue, but it never got resolved. Also when cruising the a/fr’s are solid, no leaning at all. It just drives like it always has.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

Turns out it was a couple things.

1)vac leak-like some of the cool kids I've relocated the reference line for the FPR to the BPV hose. Well the cap over the nipple on the intake popped off, driving the idle lean. Sorry cylinder 4.... I relocated the line as an attempted fix for a stumble. I just checked it yesterday so it must have popped of yesterday sometime.

2)bad gas-even with the leak fixed it was adding fuel in ranges A,B, and C. Pegged @ 15% in A...filled up from another station and reset the ecu and now all learning is under 5%. This particular station has always had what o considered to be suspect e85. I don't think I'll be buying any more from there.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

Getting all set to make some eyelids

[Max Capacity]

Turns out it was a couple things.

1)vac leak-like some of the cool kids I've relocated the reference line for the FPR to the BPV hose. Well the cap over the nipple on the intake popped off, driving the idle lean. Sorry cylinder 4.... I relocated the line as an attempted fix for a stumble. I just checked it yesterday so it must have popped of yesterday sometime.

2)bad gas-even with the leak fixed it was adding fuel in ranges A,B, and C. Pegged @ 15% in A...filled up from another station and reset the ecu and now all learning is under 5%. This particular station has always had what o considered to be suspect e85. I don't think I'll be buying any more from there.

 

 

I'm getting ready to do that relocate thing myself. I've been planning what to do for a cap... Been thinking about plugging short piece of hose with a small bolt and zip tie it. Just like we did back in the old days...yea, back in the 1970's. Well we didn't have zip ties back than. The bolt worked fine by itself.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

I just used a little rubber vacuum cap and zip tied it to the manifold. It seemed tight but the manifold sees 20psi. I suppose if it was only vacuum it would have been fine, but pressure the other way was too much. The hose and bolt should do fine. I thought about finding a bolt the same size as the manifold opening and just threading it in with some thread sealer.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

So I've had these rallitek springs sitting around collecting dust. I've been meaning to put them on but life has been getting in the way. Also finished a couple different headlight eyelid designs. Obviously the bigger set needs to be modded with led bars for the turn signal/parking light but it was an idea. I'm just running the normal set till I get my other headlights done.

[Merc6]

I'm getting ready to do that relocate thing myself. I've been planning what to do for a cap... Been thinking about plugging short piece of hose with a small bolt and zip tie it. Just like we did back in the old days...yea, back in the 1970's. Well we didn't have zip ties back than. The bolt worked fine by itself.

 

Think I'll jump on that bandwagon too when I get Humpty Dumpy back together again .

[BrianEarlSpilner]

Well I haven’t updated this in like 5 months. No better time than now to do it I suppose. Sometime along the way this fall I re-booted one of the cv axles after it sprayed grease all over the downpipe. At the time I threw on the front Rallitek springs I had seeing is I already had some of the disassembly taken care of. I didn’t mind the look at first, but I hated the spring rate differential. The front was just way too stiff and the rear too soft for my liking. After a while I decided to go ahead and put the rears on as well. I regret not doing it right away. The car just felt more planted and quite a bit of the body roll has gone away. The Ralliteks don’t leave you with the worst squat though. I can deal with it even without the saggy but spacers. I also threw on my spare set of tail lights because I started making some tail light garnishes with my good set. I don’t like the spares very much, but there’s a crack in the top of one of them, and it wouldn’t be suitable for the project. I also added a decal because I just don’t care anymore.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

Then, about a week later, I hit a deer. I know I complained about it in the WDYDTY4GLT? thread awhile back. In my defense I had just worked 16 hrs from 2pm-6am the following morning and most likely had a slower reaction time than normal. FWIW I didn’t want to work the extra shift, but was forced to do so. It was just about dawn as I was driving home and I thought to myself “man it’s a bad time to be driving, I hope some deer don’t run out.” About 2 miles outside of town, bear in mind I only live 3 miles away, a deer comes out a marsh at full song right towards me. I swerved to the gravel and tried to stop, but the it ran right into my fender… mostly. Then the damn thing went up in the air and did a complete flip coming down inches from my driver’s side view mirror and slamming into the road right next to me. It looked right at me and when it came back to its senses it struggled to get up. It then ran back off into the marsh. Well it hobbled and not well. I doubt it made it too far.

 

The damage wasn’t too severe. A crumpled fender and cracked headlight were the worst of it. Being an opportunist and a gambler I decided to take the insurance check and attempt to fix the damage for less (I have a spare headlight and fenders aren’t that $$$) in hopes of freeing up some funds for more mods to the car.

[BrianEarlSpilner]

In the time since I've been collecting a few items...

 

-Perrin ELH

-Grimmspeed TMIC'S

-DW 300C fuel pump

 

I still haven't addressed the damage, but it's winter and I can let it slide till it warms up outside.