Engine and Engine Modification Page

Well I have really not done much to my engine at this point. When I bought the car it had a freshly rebuilt engine and transmission. The car also has upgraded Dynamic Racing 13G turbos. The original plan was to leave the engine alone until I got the paint and body work done but as we all know the gods conspire against us every now and again.

I ended up getting a little side tracked due to some oil leaks and poor idling conditions. I took my baby to a local club member who is also a way kick ass mechanic. Tom (aka DoctorStupid on 3Si) performed a full blown 60k and installed 99' lifters (to get rid of the common problem of lifter tick) and a Kevlar T-belt. Tom also found that the clowns who had installed the motor for the previous owner had left a lot to be desired. Tom replaced numerous gaskets and bolts that had been "left out" and corrected numerous boost leaks. Tom also found that my factory y-pipe was leaking horrendously so I replaced that with a polished SS one. Tom also noted that my factory Bov sucked so I bought a Greddy Type S which I installed and relocated for better sound and ease of adjusting.

I relocated my new Greedy Bov for two reasons. One it was way to pretty to be buried towards the bottom of the engine compartment and two by moving it to the top of the engine compartment it sounds much louder. I needed to buy a piece of hose to run from the Bov so I ended up just getting a Silicone hose kit.

Well after the service my car runs better than I could of imagined, I mean damn before the idle started getting screwy I thought it was damn fast. I spoke with Tom about the "free boost mod" and he walked me through the porceedure. When I got home I removed the minor obstruction in the boost cylinoid and the increase in boost by my seat of the pants dyno was impressive.

Now that I have a decent Bov and a kick ass base line tune I figured I needed to get an acurate boost gauge to determine what boost I am really running (factory boost gauge is worthless at best). I purchased a set of Defi D-link black faced gauges off of e-bay. I got a hell of a deal on a boost gauge, EGT gauge, and the Link controller. I also purchased a manual boost controller (MBC) so I can raise my boost a little bit more to get me by until I seriously start into engine mods. On a side note I am also running MMCD logging software on a Palm V so I can monitor knock as well as a ton of other stuff. Tommorrow (11-13-05) I will be installing the gauges and their controller and will add some pictures to my Interior Modification page. My MBC shipped today so once I get it here and installed I will post an update on what boost level I am running.

At this point I am getting back to the main focus of getting my body work and paint taken care of. Hopefully the next time I update these pictures it will be with much more impressive pictures.

UPDATED 06/10/06

Now that I finally have all my paint and body work done it's time to get into the business of making her as fast as she looks. Take a look at what I have sitting in my garage right now.

Ok, I know the last pic won't make my car any faster but it sure will make the engine bay look nicer. I'm waiting on the powder coater to get me my upper (gloss black) and lower (gloss white) intake plenum done and then I can install everything. I'll be getting a custom 3" catback system made to go with the 3" downpipe.

Update 07-17-06
I installed my powder coated upper/lower plenum, powder coated valve covers, powder coated fuel rails, DSM 450cc injectors, SAFC II, 3" SS downpipe (no cats pre or main), and my AEM UEGO. All in all the install went well if you take into account the leaking fuel injector o-ring (that made a helluva mess) and the fact that I caused a massive boost leak that won't allow my car to boost over waste gate pressure (6.5 PSI). Before doing the above the car would boost to 14PSI and hold 11PSI to red line. Even with all of those issues I was still able to get the car tuned with the help of Ryan and I put it on the dyno to test the tune. My car put down 282.2 AWHP at 6800 RPMs at that crappy boost level. Not to shabby. This weekend I'm taking my car up to a friends shop to install a Walbro 255LPH fuel pump (hotwired) and i'll be doing a vac reduction, finish up my HKS EVC IV install, and pressure test the car to track down my boost issue. Well here are some pictures of my engine bay as it stands. Sorry about the picture quality they were all shot in my dingy ass garage.

08-01-06 Just finished up my vacuum reduction on the engine compartment and got my HKS EVC IV fully installed. Boost is currently set at .9 bar (13PSI) anything more and my IAT's start to climb due to my hammered intercoolers and I start seeing knock. So, it's time to get my FMIC so I can keep those IAT's in check. I am hoping to run between 15 and 18 PSI on pump gas after I install my FMIC. Well here are some new pics.

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