My new car!

[VRx8]

There is one like 10 min from where I live on Culebra Rd/Farm to Market 471 N, I know there a few more around. Lot of guys running e85 down here.

[SecondGenPAt]

you should be ok with mounting the cat(s) right after the transmission. they won't do anything to clean up the emissions, but they should help combat the smell.

[chickenwafer]

Eduardo, I thought about E85 but it isn't available enough up here. Not to mention I would need a redo most of my fuel system. Pump gas and water meth it is for me.

Thanks for the heads up, Pat, I'm really hoping the smell gets cleaned up.

[chickenwafer]

Got the lowering springs and some other stuff in yesterday, so I'm planning on dropping the car on Tuesday since i have the day off.

I also ordered some fancy 316 stainless steel metric studs from McMastercarr to replace the bolts I used for the turbo. I'm pretty sure the rear exhaust port is leaking at the manifold simply because I can't torque down the bolt enough. It's threaded into the soft aluminum rotor housing, which I don't want to strip or damage, so I can only tighten it so far.

So the studs I got will replace the bolts, but they also have an Allen head on them (set screw) so they are easier to screw in with an Allen key, plus I can then use said Allen key to hold the stud while I torque the nut down with a wrench. Small detail, but I think it will help. It should also help greatly with installation, effectively making it a 1 person job. With the bolts it's an impossible task of holding the entire manifold + turbo assembly with one arm while pushing a bolt through the manifold flange, with a gasket on the end of it, and trying to thread it in. Yeah, not fun! The studs will be nice since I can put the gaskets on beforehand and then slide the turbo/manifold assembly onto the studs.

While the cars in the air for suspension work and the cat installation, I think I'll go ahead and do an oil change as well. I'm also thinking of changing the transmission fluid, I've never done it since owning the car so for safeties sake it should probably be done.

I'm also going to have to swing to Lowe's and pick up some lumbar to make ramps so I can in and out of my driveway after lowering the car, hehe.

[alpha]

I'm also going to have to swing to Lowe's and pick up some lumbar to make ramps so I can in and out of my driveway after lowering the car, hehe.

So you're giving it lumbar support!!

[chickenwafer]

LOL, typographical errors. Haha lumber I meant.

[Shadowden]

I'm still going back and forth between fully adjustable coilovers or Koni's and lowering springs. You would think such a decision would be easy.

I like the decision to have your car on the street more. May as well enjoy all your efforts as much as possible. Good luck with the installs. I'm sure it will go well.

[chickenwafer]

^Thanks, man! Koni's and springs vs coilovers is a tough decision...it honestly boils down to a few key options to weigh out;

1. What are you using the car for? All out track machine? Daily driver? Weekend warrior? This will help narrow your options. And 2. What is your budget? This will bring the options down even more and narrow the field.

For me, I already had the Koni shocks, which handle fantastic, so it made adding lowering springs an easy option. And that way, if I don't like the combo, I could always sell it and go with coilovers later. Remember you're never tied down to something forever.

Thanks to some help from Matt, the Sprint lowering springs are installed! Installation was actually pretty easy. Like I said, I had the same combo on my RX-8, and the FD suspension is surprisingly similar to the RX-8 layout, so it was real easy. It probably took a total of 4 hours to get the car in the air, wheels off, all 4 shocks out, springs removed and new ones installed, and back in.

I'll post up some pictures later (hard to get good side shots in my tiny 1 car garage) but the car is a solid 1.5" lower. Front fender is right at 25" and the rears are super low at 24.5", they are actually tucking a slight amount of tire haha.

[Shadowden]

Does the fd have adjustable camber on all 4 corners already or is it capable of handling that much drop without anything?

With my car being a daily driver, I'd probably be best off with konis and springs as well.

[speedjunkie]

So you're giving it lumbar support!!

This reminds me of this conversation on Seinfeld...

"Hal: I threw my back out about 15 years ago. Ever since I have been very careful. I only buy furniture in the ergonomics store.
Elaine: Oh those places have the stupidest names. Like, uh, "Back In Business", or "Good Vertibrations".
Hal: Not this one. It's called the "Lumbar Yard"."

LOL

[chickenwafer]

Does the fd have adjustable camber on all 4 corners already or is it capable of handling that much drop without anything?

With my car being a daily driver, I'd probably be best off with konis and springs as well.

Yeah, the FD has adjustable camber. Fortunately it doesn't look like my alignment settings changed much. That being said, I still think it's a good idea that I get an alignment, but I might be going a complete polyurethane bushing job in the near future so Id like to save the alignment for that.

Don't underestimate a Koni/spring combo. Many entry level/club/Auto-X racers use that combo with great success. A friend of mine in AZ was highly competitive, on the national stage, in SCCA Auto-X in an RX-8 with off the shelf Koni Yellows and good springs.

Honestly, most "budget coilovers" are all pretty similar..made in Taiwan or China with cheap parts, have horribly inconsistent shock dynos and valving, and if improperly setup and/or installed they can actually make your car handle significantly worse.

Koni's are relatively inexpensive, you can get them re-valved by Koni to your spec, you can also pair them with custom springs or off-the-shelf springs for a dialed-in pair, and they are rebound adjustable. They are also valved much more consistently than those "budget coilovers" which leads to consistent handling. The main drawback is they aren't ride height adjustable, that will be in spring droop/height that will dial in your ride height.

But honestly, even with coilovers, unless you're changing your tire/wheel combo all the time, you're rarely going to be adjusting your ride height. Once it's dialed in, you're going to leave it.

This reminds me of this conversation on Seinfeld...

"Hal: I threw my back out about 15 years ago. Ever since I have been very careful. I only buy furniture in the ergonomics store.
Elaine: Oh those places have the stupidest names. Like, uh, "Back In Business", or "Good Vertibrations".
Hal: Not this one. It's called the "Lumbar Yard"."

LOL

LOL you and Seinfeld

[Shadowden]

I agree with that. I dropped my MZ3 on Eibachs. I had a blown rear shock, so put konis in the rear. Car developed rod knock just before I dropped the money for the fronts.

If I went coilovers, I would get Buddy Club N+ Specs, which are decent, but not great. I only plan to change between my street wheels (SSR GT7s) and some stockers. If I trailer to "shows" like I am considering, I would drop to a very mild tuck. Tucked S2000s look funny to me because of the different dimensions of the front and rear wheel wells. I looked more at Springs and am still unsure. Might go with Swift Spec R. I wouldn't mind a 1.5" drop, but i am going to need to roll rear fenders and relocate a bumper tab once I put my SSRs back on as they sit very flush and will rub on a decent bump even stock height so 1.25 is good enough.

[chickenwafer]

Swift springs are very good, if you do those I would run them.

[chickenwafer]

So, been busy lately.

First off, some pictures of when I lowered the car. Pics aren't good because it's hard to see the drop within my small garage:

Previous wheel gap:



New









I'll get better pics once the weather clears.

Next, I decided to move forward with doing something I always wanted to do with my interior- wrapping interior plastics in black suede. You know, to give it that Porsche GT3 RS feel, haha. Plus, since I painted my tan plastics black, the paint hasn't been holding up that great. I figure the fabric would hold up better.

So I decided to start small and do just the door sills first to see how it looks, so I ordered some fabric off eBay. I get the fabric in and yeah...I ordered A LOT, haha!

I get the door sills off and use some 3M spray fabric adhesive, let it tack up for a minute, then put the fabric on the sill and it works great. Then I used hot glue to secure the corners and edges. The door sills went easily and turned out great, so I decided to go for broke and door the rear quarters and the divider.

The divider was easy. It's a relatively flat piece but does has radius corners that were tricky. Plus it's a big, highly visible piece so a mess up would be obvious. Luckily it went really smoothly without a hitch! I was thrilled.

Next up was the rear quarter plastics...holy crap! They were MUCH more difficult, with all the changes in direction and slopes and edges. I'm not 100% thrilled because I did actually get some wrinkles...not many but a few. Given it was my first time I'm happy...plus most wrinkles aren't very visible. Regardless, I'm very happy with the results. Wish I would have taken pictures during the whole process, but....I didn't haha.

Anyways, results. Good pics are difficult due to the angle. And for some reason the suede looks almost purplish with the flash, but it's black in the flesh:





And an overall interior shot, sorta:

[speedjunkie]

I still wanna do that myself. Looks pretty good!