4AM: I am finished baking the ceramic paint. I am too tired for a shower. I crash on the couch.
7AM:
Wife: “Why are you on the couch?”
Me: “I was dirty and didn’t want to wake you up or drag grime into the bed. Plus I had some stuff to do.”
Wife: “Stuff to do? That paint still? Did you even sleep?”
Me: “I caught naps between heat cycles.”
Wife: [Sigh] “I knew you were this crazy when I married you, but you’ve seriously gone off the deep end this weekend.”
Me: “I know honey. But look how happy I am.” [sly grin]
Wife: “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better, or worse.”
8AM: I wrap everything with heat wrap and seal it with the accompanying paint. Everything is ready to go back on the cars.
9AM: Mod #5: Bypass Valve Crush Mod
A bypass valve (BPV) sits on or around your intercooler. It’s there so that when you switch gears or take your foot off the gas all the air that’s rapidly moving from your turbo to your intake has somewhere to go. When you shift, the throttle plate closes. The backpressure opens the bypass valve and the valve dumps the air into a tube that leads back to your turbo’s intake side.
If you’re running a lot of boost, some BPV’s will open before you reach full boost because there’s too much pressure in the system. There are two solutions to this, buy a new and improved BPV, or take your current BPV, stick it in a vice, and whack the crap out of it with a hammer. I have mine out so I stick it in a vice and whack the crap out of it with a hammer. This piece used to be flat at the top:
12PM: Alex's car is back together and running smooth. Mine is also back together. I however have an exhaust leak. I am pissed.
Mod #6: Helix Uppipe
If your car has a turbo but isn’t a Subaru, you don’t have an uppipe. An uppipe sits between the collectors and the hotside of the turbo. My previous uppipe (which I procured from eBay) was cracked which was the cause of the leak. A trip to a local tuning shop later, and I have a brand new Helix Uppipe and get to start the ceramic paint/heat cycles all over again. I want to slam my head repeatedly into a wall. I take no pictures at this point because I'm too pissed off.
Mod #7: The Summit Hat
This counts as a mod because it modified my luck. We re-do all the uppipe and turbo bolts and I still have a leak but this one sounds like a boost leak. Alex and I normally have really amazing luck working on cars together so this doesn’t make sense. I almost always wear the same hat when working on cars, but today I’m wearing a Summit Racing hat that came with my most recent box-o’-stuff…
Alex: “Dude, we’re the same, the cars are the same, the tools are the same - it’s gotta be that hat.”
Me: “You got a lighter?”
Alex: “Yeah. Roast it?”
Me: “Oh hell yeah. Grab a heat shield.”
After the ceremony we figure out that Captain Dumbass (formerly known as Alex) didn’t tighten a few bolts on the exhaust correctly. I fix it. IT RUNS! I RULE!!
2PM: Captain Dumbass's now ex-girlfriend stops by with a Jamba Juice as a peace offering to get back together. College kids are funny. They go off somewhere to “talk”. I start working on my stereo.
Mod #8: Pioneer Deck Installation
Even after everything I’ve done to my car, I’ve rocked the stock stereo for six years. I’m only replacing it now because I need the room for more gauges. My only requirements for the deck were that is was cheap, could take an ipod hookup, and was green to match my dash. This was surprisingly difficult to come by but I ended up finding a Pioneer unit that fit my needs for $92 shipped and I also bought a $5 wiring harness on eBay.
3PM:
Everything is in and the install was WAY easier than I expected. I hadn’t ever done it before, but now that I have I can conclude that anyone who pays CarToys or the like to install a deck (that isn’t getting other stuff like amps, subs, etc.) is a chump.
Mod #9: Dash Bezel Gauge Pod
I got this idea from another Nasioc member. Basically I filled in the section with a piece of plastic, then used some body filler to finish it up. I then cut the holes for the new gauges and painted it.
Mod #10: Painted Interior Trim Pieces
Since I had the bezel out I decided to pull a few of the other interior items out and paint them the same color. I used Duplicolor Graphite Wheel paint. I like how everything turned out.
5PM: Mods 11-13: Innovative LM-1, XD-16 gauge, and custom mounting
In between coats of paint on the dash bezel and interior pieces I installed an Innovative Wideband Controller and XD-16 guage so I can start tracking my air/fuel ratio. The install was really easy, just had to run a few wires and find a switched 12V power source.
Here's the 02 Sensor in the downpipe:
And where I stashed the controller:
The only thing I don’t like is that despite fitting in a 52mm gauge size bezel the actual gauge is the size of a 60mm gauge so is much bigger than anything I currently have.
I decide this looks rediculously stupid once I get the now-dried interior bits back on the car and decide to install the gauge into one of the air vents.
I pull the air vent, and as luck would have it the inner circle here is the exact size of the gauge. All I had to do was cut out the inside pieces and secure the gauge.
I broke the trim pulling the vent out though so I had to use some glue and Gorilla Tape. The tape is just holding everything in while the glue dries.
8:30PM: I break for dinner. I decide to call it a night as I didn’t really sleep the day before. Little did I know this was to be the last good sleep I had for several days.
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