[esm@logic.net ~]$ _

During a discussion on EvoM about organizing the community's work on modifying the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution ECU, I threw out the suggestion of a wiki. Since no good deed goes unpunished, I ended up setting up a quick MediaWiki instance, and various folks have been working like crazy to move some of the best information in the EcuFlash forum on EvoM to the new wiki. The URL, at least for now, is evoecu.logic.net, but if this looks like it'll take off, there's no reason it should be tied to my domain, so I'll probably register something specific for it.

It's nice being able to give something back to a community like this; I haven't been doing much disassembly lately, but hosting, I can do. :-)

I'm going to roll up a bunch of updates into a single blog entry, because it's been a very long week.

I usually don't talk about work-related stuff much on the blog, other than major updates, but since this has been all over the news: Fermilab had their operating budget basically yanked out from under them during a weekend House session, and had been implementing rolling furloughs (basically, enforced leave without pay) for all staff. Recently, a few planets aligned, and funding was restored enough to eliminate the furloughs, but some of us already had that time scheduled: we were asked to project our furlough leave through the end of the fiscal year.

That's a long-winded way of saying that, over the last week, I've been taking my planned furlough leave, but using vacation for it instead. The reason? Catching up on backlogged work on the Eclipse. I'd planned on this week for a while, with the intention of getting up to work on it in the morning, and running all day; treat it like a job for a week, and see how much I could get done. Turns out, not as much as would have liked: about half of my planned work got done this week.

The engine, sans a couple of small items (I have no idea where the knock sensor went!), is now ready to go in. That entailed a bunch of small, tedious items that I didn't expect to take as long as they did: getting the new GM alternator rigged up, the ATI damper hub pressed on the crank, the timing belt installed, the oil pan modified to accept a -10AN drain line from the turbo, fabricating that actual drain line, fabricating a downpipe for the turbo, relocating everything to fit around the downpipe (the oil dipstick now has quite a few more bends than it used to), and generally getting the details right. I sent off my throttle body to Steve Monroe of Throttlebodys.com for boring out to 63mm. He turned that around in practically record time; it should be arriving Monday or Tuesday. I also fabricated a hacky little bracket for supporting the intake manifold, since the USDM manifold support bracket doesn't mate up to the JDM Cyclone intake manifold properly.

The other major piece of business I wanted to tackle was the rear suspension and driveline. The rear subframe (with the new solid diff bushings) is back in the car, along with the rear diff. For anyone curious: that is a tight fit; with the steel sleeves in the bushings, there is no tolerance for misalignment. After three months of waiting, the Road Race upper bearing plates arrived, along with a set of rear lower control arm bushings from Prothane. The upper bearing plates, however, had the standoffs machined incorrectly, and since they didn't actually arrive in my hands until Friday (thanks for sending that "signature required", guys), I'm currently waiting on replacements. But, the bushings have started to go in, and I'm definitely getting better at "non-destructive" removal of these sleeved bushings; the cheap Chinese press I bought from Harbor Freight is getting a good workout.

Thanks to a friend of mine, the snapring grooves for the Koni coilovers have been cut in the shocks, and except for the upper bearing plates, they're completely assembled and ready to go on the car. Meanwhile, I'm still pulling suspension components, putting them under the wire wheel for a while, giving them a rustproofing treatment, and replacing any needed bushings.

As a side-note: it's depressing to see how poorly the steel portions of the suspension have weathered Chicago's salt seasons. Most bolts are coming off in multiple pieces, and I'm taking notes for another large order of hard-to-find specialty items from Mitsubishi.

Things that still need to be done: now that the rear subframe is back in, I need to get the swaybar back in place temporarily to test fitment for the fuel cell frame (no, that's still not done), and get the damn thing welded in already. It looks like I'm going to have to cut a bit more out of the rear wall of the car to make it cell fit: a 15-gallon cell isn't exactly small. Once that's in, I expect the rest of the fuel system to actually go in fairly quickly: most of what's needed is stainless braided line manufacturing, and placement determination for the pumps, filters, regulator, Y-fitting, and lines.

The oil system is basically ready to go, I just need the engine in the car to confirm fitment. The one big remaining item there is whipping up a bracket for mounting the oil cooler, and the rest is just line routing. I have a feeling I'm going to end up having to get some slimmer radiator fans to clear a pair of -12AN lines running across the front of the car...

Last but not least is power: once the cell is in, I can fit up the battery box in the rear, and start running some very thick power cables the length of the car. That leads to a fair bit of basic electronics work that's needed: fuel pumps, any new sensors that need to be added, and working through the issues of running a 1g engine in a 2g.

That's basically where I'm at. I'm probably a couple of weeks away from having the engine in, and if I can keep up the momentum on the rest of the work, I'll hopefully be very close to a test firing at that point. That's my biggest concern: having a week to dedicate to this was unbelievably good for getting my head back into it again, and I'm worried that once I'm back to work and spending time on typical homeowner stuff, I'll ease up on getting things done. I'll need to make myself do "one thing" every night, even if it's a small thing, just to keep myself working toward the goal.

The goal being August 17: the annual DSM/Evo Shootout in Norwalk, Ohio. I have some serious reservations about making that date at this point, obviously, but I'm still going to try and get the car together for it, even if I don't actually race it. Being able to simply drive it there would be good enough for me.

After a quick trip to Lowes for a few strips of 1" strap steel, and a bunch of hammering and drilling, the bracket for the Accusump is basically done; I just need to weld in a couple of reinforcement pieces so it doesn't vibrate all over the place. No pictures yet, but it's bolting to the firewall and the back of the passenger side shock tower, right where the battery used to be. (I'm actually reusing the lower two attachment points for the battery support for the lower part of the bracket; the upper part is attached to the firewall on one side, and the left upper control arm bolt on the other, with a welded piece in between the top and bottom for rigidity). I'll need to pick up a 1/2" NPT to -12AN 90-degree hose end for the plumbing on it, plus some -4AN line and a couple of fittings so I can relocate the pressure gauge somewhere useful, and I'll probably want to rubber-mount it to the bracket. It looks like it'll clear the hood without any trouble at all, and there's tons of room all around for everything else. Progress!

A quick update on happenings with the Eclipse; where it's at, what needs to be done, and goals for the season.

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So, after a bit of logging, I've finally narrowed down the fueling problem I've been having: my fuel pump. The stock Evo VIII fuel pump comes equipped with a pressure relief valve, which starts dumping fuel right around 65psi; with a stock base fuel pressure of about 43psi, that means you start dumping fuel at right around 22psi, and anything above that is pretty much a lean condition waiting to happen. So, your injector duty cycles spike suddenly, and you start knocking. The fix? A replacement 255lph high-pressure Walbro fuel pump, which turns out to be one of the simplest drop-in replacement items I've ever had the pleasure of installing (at least, as long as you install it when your tank is just about empty). Because of the unique design of the Evo's fuel pump relay circuit, you don't need to upgrade your fuel pressure regulator as part of this exercise, a welcome change from the DSM world. Injector duty cycles now get up as high as 93%, but that's much better than being completely out of fuel. I'll need new injectors before I can turn the boost up much more than a few psi more, though.

Another change I've made is the addition of a JDM MAP sensor (an original Mitsubishi part from the Japanese version of the Evo IX). This rather unremarkable direct replacement for the USDM MAP sensor gives you one very useful thing: the ability to both log boost (up to about 32 psi), and to alter the ECU to target a desired boost level, rather than a desired load. That makes for much more predictable tuning; rather than having boost spike during hot weather (which is exactly the opposite of what you want), it gives a repeatable boost target based on absolute pressure. One oddity to the ECU changes is that, because it's based on absolute pressure (rather than gauge pressure), you have to tell the ECU what your altitude is to get your calculations to work correctly. Where this becomes problematic is when you make a drastic elevation change (say, by going to a track in another state), but don't change the offset: your boost is suddenly lower or higher than before. Right now, I'm running about 21psi (only slightly higher than stock), and I'll probably bump that up a few psi before I'm done mucking with it.

Yet another change was finally getting the AMS downpipe that I picked up a few months ago onto the car. I bought a couple of 3" flanges and gaskets from Performance Autowerks, and using a bit of spare 3" stainless tuning I had lying around, welded up a rather ugly test pipe to connect the downpipe to the AMS catback that came with the car. It worked out pretty well; the car is obviously louder, but I don't appear to have any leaks, and the car pulls noticably harder early in the RPM band. The one downside: I had to remove both lower braces that would normally run underneath the downpipe, because the whole assembly hangs too low for them (for the front bar, there's just no hope of reattaching it; for the rear bar, it fits, but rattles rather distinctively when the car warms up). Small price to pay, and I can probably weld up a replacement frame that's stiffer later anyway.

Coming in a few days is the last piece of the puzzle for a while: an Innovate LC-1 wideband oxygen sensor. This gives me the last piece of information I'm needing to fine-tune the car: my real air/fuel ratio. Hopefully this will give me what I need to bring the injector duty cycles down a bit at the top end (since I'm quite certain the car is running rich now, but leaning it out without some way to measure it is asking for trouble). Once I have A/F dialed in safely, I can play with timing and boost to make more power.

The stock Evo boost control system is actually pretty good; wastegate duty cycles are controlled based on load, which gives a decent approximation to boost if you're smart about it.

The problem is, it can't actually hold boost beyond about 21-22 psi without modification. One popular approach is to remove/resize the restriction "pills" in the stock vaccuum tubing to the wastegate/compressor housing, but that only goes so far.

So, the next big thing (for those unwilling to switch over to a manual boost controller) is a 3-port GM boost control solenoid (AC Delco part number 214-474, or GM part #1997152; the wiring pigtail is AC Delco part number PT-374). You completely replace the stock BCS with the GM unit, which gives you more than enough fine-grained control and higher boost levels than most folks will ever need.

So, of course, I installed one today. ;) The installation went pretty smoothly; you just solder a 10-ohm/1W resistor into one of the pigtail wires, snip the stock BCS plug and solder the pigtail in it's place, find a convenient place to mount it, and the replace all the vaccuum lines from the compressor housing, wastegate, and post-MAF intake pipe to the new solenoid. After that, you start dialing in your wastegate duty cycle, boost error correction, and boost desired load tables. Here's a tip: don't accidently reverse the intake and wastegate lines; you'll find yourself dramatically overshooting whatever boost levels you think you've tried to dial in. ;)

So far, I'm happy, but I'm still running lower boost than I would under normal conditions. Over the next few days, I'll get back up to 22-23 psi, and see if I can get it to hold without tapering off. One interesting thing is that, because you can taper off the boost slowly with RPM if needed, you can pretty much completely eliminate boost spiking. Nifty stuff.

Next up in the area of boost control: adding a JDM MAP sensor, and changing the car over to targetting boost instead of load, which will inevitably make more sense when tuning.

To save someone else the trouble of finding this out the hard way: it seems that FIC manufactures two injector types, one for DSMs, and one for Evos. The difference is subtle: on the Evo injector, the outlet of the injector is a straight tube, which the large lower seals slide onto. On the DSM injectors, there's a flat surface on which the seal rests, and the outlet then dives inward, then expands outward, like a bell outlet. The outermost edge of that outlet is just small enough to fit into the broad opening in a DSM head, but is too large to fit in the slightly smaller Evo opening.

So, I now have a very nice set of DSM 950cc injectors that I'm not sure what to do with. I may hang onto them for initial startup testing with the 2g, since they'll be much easier to dial in initially than the 1600s I already have and plan on running regularly. It was half-tempting to throw the 1600s in the Evo, but they'd be far too much of a hassle to get working properly on something I drive to work every day.

I pulled the shifter base bushings out of the Eclipse and popped them into the Evo today. For anyone thinking this is going to make a huge difference, I submit to you that the entire shifter base is made out of plastic. I wasn't expecting a significant change of behavior, and I got exactly what I expected: a mild improvement in transmission activity transferring to my hand, but that's about it. The Laser and Eclipse both improved dramatically after changing those out, which probably says more about the state of the original bushings in those two cars than the stiffening qualities of the metal bushings.

So, if you're thinking of adding these, do yourself a favor: get a cheap set off of eBay; they're not worth much more than the cost of the metal and the time turning them in a lathe, but they're probably the only thing you can do to stiffen up the shifter.

Man, I'm spoiled by the WRX shifter, after we installed a set of poly bushings on that one...

So, we went to the rain date for the Shootout over the weekend. Despite cold temperatures all weekend, there was still an incredible turnout, which makes one wonder how big the event would have been if it could have been held on the original date.

As usual, I flogged whatever car I happened to drive out there at the track. I made the mistake of entering "Evo Stock Appearing", which turned out to be a pretty big mistake; I was the slowest car there, because I wasn't just stock-appearing, I was stock (sans catback, intake, and flash). As seems to be my style, my best run of the day was my first: 13.353 at 102.77mph, with a lousy 1.843 60' (I later discovered that I was running 40 psi up front and 35 psi in the rear, not exactly condusive to a good launch; at 25psi and a couple of tries, I was at 1.832, so I definitely need to work on getting this car off the line). I've transcribed the full timeslips, if anyone is curious.

Things learned? First, the tires on the Evo suck, but can be made slightly less sucky at lower pressure. Second, the constant 85% injector duty cycle I was seeing is about as high as I want to go; I have a set of 950cc/min injectors ready to go in (as soon as I find a few minutes to dial them in), and I'll get a pump ordered shortly. Third, I really want to run E-85. :D Race gas for the price of regular 93 octane? Yes, please.

Overall, it was a pretty good weekend; we froze our butts off Saturday night after the racing with Shep, Shearer, Yusuf, Mike, Adam, Vernon, Keith, and a bunch of other folks randomly popping in and out, and just generally relaxed (as much as we could in 35F weather, anyway). Good times.

As a friendly word of warning to those who decide to replace their rear differential bushings on a 2g DSM: don't.

Where would you get such an idea anyway, you ask? Well, if you're like a friend of mine, you notice that your rear diff is barely still attached because after enough hard launches, the stock rubber bushings have turned to jelly. So, you get the bright idea of replacing the stock bushings with something a little more sturdy, like solid aluminum. After all, you only want to replace broken parts once, right? (In my case, I opted for a special run of bushings made by Theo Aftonomos, because they had a steel sleeve for the retaining bolt, but the bushings that Dan sells above ought to do the job beautifully too.)

There's three identically-sized bushings fixing the rear differential to the rear subframe: the two obvious rear ones pressed into the subframe itself, and one on the passenger side toward the front of the differential, pressed into a removable bracket that bolts to the differential.

The bushing in the bracket is simple to replace: just unbolt the bracket, unbolt the front of the diff, and put the whole bracket in a press to press the old one out and the new one in. In my case, in true lazy fashion, I pressed the old bushing out with the new bushing. Worked like a champ. :-)

The part of this little exercise that causes problems is the two rear bushings. In my case, working on them in the car was possible because I've removed the trunk floorpan to make room for the fuel cell. If you aren't so lucky, you'll end up having to remove the rear subframe from the car completely: diff, axles, suspension, anything bolted to the rear subframe has to go. Fun stuff, honest.

Next up is actually removing the bushings. After an hour or two with a hammer, I finally came to the conclusion that the bushings just weren't going to move on their own. So, out came the holesaw to cut the rubber portion out. The passenger-side bushing drilled right out (mmm, nothing less pleasant in the world than the smell of burning rubber), but the driver's side bushing was a little bit different: it was filled with some kind of liquid or lubricant. As soon as the holesaw hit that, black steaming tar sprayed everywhere. Listen to Norm, always wear safety glasses, even if you think you're just cutting into rubber. ;-)

Once the rubber was out, the outer metal sleeve had to be extracted. After spending a bit of time with a punch and hammer, I did what I usually do: got frustrated and pulled out the sawzall. After cutting a nice slit in the sleeve, the punch tapped them both right out without any arguing.

Next up: since you can't put the rear subframe in a press (either because it's still on the car, like in my case, or because it's a flimsy piece of junk, if you actually took it off the car), you get out the deadblow hammer and spend the next bit of your life pounding those little bastards in. (Or, rig up a means of using a bolt and washer to press them in.)

Viola, you now have the ability to completely destroy your rear differential on a good launch! :-) There's a few jobs I've done on this car that I've very clearly said "Never again!" after completing, and this is one of them. A smart person would give up on the stock rear subframe entirely, and build their own with rigidity and weight savings in mind, but I thought this would be the easier approach. I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong, and this is one of those times. ;-)

This post is more for my own benefit than anyone else's; every time I fire up IDA Pro with a fresh ROM, I have to re-learn how exactly to get to a usable disassembled image.

Assuming you have an ECU image from your car saved as a .hex with EcuFlash, fire up IDA Pro (I'm currently using 5.0.0.879, so this might differ from version to version), and go to "File" and "Open...". Select the "Hitachi SH4B" processor from the drop-down, and just keep clicking OK until you're presented with the ROM view.

The first four bytes of the ROM tell the processor where to jump to when booting; so, type "g", and enter the address stored in those first four bytes and hit OK. Then, type "c", and watch as IDA Pro disassembles your code automatically in front of you.

After that, though, you're on your own. See AktiveMatrix for the latest in what people are doing with a disassembled Evo ECU, as well as the forums at OSEcu Roms and OpenECU.

We've been working on Erica's car lately (the WRX), and one thing I've noticed about that car: the shift linkage feels like a race car's, after installing the short shifter and polyurethane shifter bushings. The Evo shifter, on the other hand, feels a bit vague, especially when you compare it to the unbelievably crisp steering and suspension. So, when I came across a good deal on EvolutionM for a set of new Buschur Racing 6-speed shift cable end bushings, I snapped them up.

My set didn't come with instructions, but it's really no different than any other car. Locate the shift linkage (in the case of the Evo 6-speed, the cable ends are actually mounted at the rear of the transmission, next to the firewall in an east-west arrangement, as opposed to the DSM transmission, where they're mounted up front and north-south), remove the retaining clips and cotter pins, muscle out the old bushings (in my case, the small one actually stuck to the shaft off the transmission, while the large one required a fair bit of convincing to eject itself from the cable end), grease up the new bushings (both the shaft and the outside, so it can slide freely around in the cable end), slide them into place, muscle on the new retaining circlips and cotter pin, and you're done. Take the strut tower bar off to give your hands a bit more working room, and remove the battery too if you find that to keep getting in your way (I did it without removing the battery, but wish I had).

Result? A slightly more crisp feel to the shifter, but it's still vague. Next up will be replacing the bushings where the shifter itself mounts to the floorpan (the bushings are even identical to the ones in the Eclipse and Laser), which I suspect will do exactly what it did on the DSMs: get rid of that slightly "mushy" feel, and let me feel what's actually going on in the transmission rather than hiding errors I might make behind a bunch of rubber.

While messing around with all of this, I made another discovery: the prior owner replaced the lower intercooler pipe with an aftermarket one. It definitely looks like an AMS pipe, but I'll need to look a bit closer to tell for sure.

Coming soon: I picked up an AMS 3" downpipe off of EvolutionM the other day (to go with the catback that came on the car), so now I need to either fork over $100 to AMS for a test pipe, or find someone who can sell me a couple of 3-bolt flanges that match up with the AMS flanges, and make my own. (I'm leaning toward the latter, especially, since I can probably work a nice resonator into the mix while I'm doing it).

So, after realizing that the intake that Buschur Racing sells is really nothing much more than the DSM eBay intake, I picked up one of those for $25 and got rid of the stock airbox. No noticable performance impact (as expected; even with a bit of tuning, an open-element air filter doesn't improve much on the stock Evo airbox), but I got out of it what I was after: I can now actually hear what's going on with the BOV (oh, sorry, "DV"; EvoM folks love to spend all day arguing over semantics, such as "blow-off valve" vs. "diverter valve"), and it became obvious that my part-throttle hesitation was happening just as the valve was fluttering. This was also the first time I noticed that I appear to have a metal Evo 9 MR valve; it's generally considered to be a decent upgrade over the stock plastic piece.

So, upgrades so far (that I know about) appear to be an AMS catback exhaust (with adapter to the stock cat), the metal MR BOV, the intake I just added, a reflash from some unknown vendor, and possibly an upgraded clutch (I still haven't had a chance to peek under there through the clutch fork boot to see if I can tell what it is).

I've started off with a disassembly of the flash that was on the car when I bought it, in an attempt to find where the various maps are hiding so I can actually dial the car in a bit better, but the reflashed image is definitely a significant improvement over stock; I tried a stock image with a few adjustments, where boost was quite a bit lower, and the car seemed to run significantly richer right across the board. So, until I can extract the fuel, timing, and boost maps from this aftermarket image, I'll leave it running that for now; it's significantly faster with the unknown maps. (One interesting change: the stationary rev limit was set to 6000 RPM, and a ton of timing appears to get pulled, resulting in very quick, very violent, building of boost at the line. Nice.)

Unfortunately, I'm basically starting from scratch with this image, like I did when I started tuning the 1g; I'm going to have to just block out large chunks of time to read the code and disassemblies other folks have done. (I don't even know what the registers are right now. ;-)

Overall, though, I'm extremely happy with the car so far. Planned changes to what I have right now include a downpipe/testpipe to finish off the exhaust, and probably a bit of playing with the stock boost control system to squeeze a few more PSI out of it (specifically, pulling a restrictor and resizing another one), although I'll need to get farther along with reading through this ROM before I'll be able to make significant boost changes without a manual boost controller. At that point, I think I'll be basically happy with the car; it's fast enough as-is.

Over the weekend, after a lot of searching, we finally found a replacement for the Jeep and Laser that I've been using as (unreliable) daily drivers: a 2005 Graphite Gray Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR. Just over 31k miles on the odometer, and the only mods I can see are an AMS catback and a set of engine hood struts (there's also a bit of confusion about the clutch; while it's certainly not stiff by any stretch, it definitely feels heavier than a stock Evo clutch). It also has brand new "Nexen N3000" tires; no, I'd never heard of them either, but the tread pattern is fairly similar to some of Toyo's tires, and they're "ultra high performance summer tires", meaning they're going to be a handful this winter (but a lot of fun until then).

First impressions: this car is unbelievably fun. It's obviously almost as fast as the Laser (if not faster), but it doesn't feel like it's straining to do it. Turn-in is crisp, and there isn't a hint of chassis flex (in comparison to the other cars in the household). Braking is just amazing. This car is pure driver confidence, something you just wouldn't expect from a four-door grocery-getter. The six-speed really didn't take much to get used to, although the gears are noticably shorter; you're spending a lot more time shifting. The active center diff seems to be a fun toy; I'll see if it makes much of a difference this winter. :-) One huge item for me is available head and leg room; I actually fit perfectly in this car, with a ton of headroom for a helmet, and plenty of room (almost too much) for my legs, and the steering wheel drops right into reach.

To say I'm happy with it is an understatement. Now that I no longer have to spend my free time working on the other "daily drivers" when they break, maybe I'll actually make some progress on the Eclipse, and I'll even have something DSM-derived to take to the Shootout this year. Good stuff. :-)

So, the day after we get the last of the fuel work finished, I get the Laser on a long on-ramp, and decide to mash the gas. Run second out to 7500 RPM, keep the gas planted, hit the clutch, hear the NLTS popping, smack it into third, drop the clutch, and get sucked back into the seat as it pulls forward again. Run the gear out to the top of third (pay no attention to how fast that means I was going), keep the gas planted while pushing down the clutch, hear that comforting "pop-pop-pop" of the lowered NLTS rev limiter, pull down to fourth, and pop the clutch out again, to the sound of the poor engine revving itself to the moon.

I caught second gear by mistake. Whoops.

Now technically, I shifted at 7500 RPM. However, thanks to the wonder of NLTS, my mid-shift RPM would have dropped to about 6000 RPM. With a third gear ratio of 1.000 (how convenient!) and a second gear ratio of 1.581, the engine was mechanically forced to spin at about 9486 RPM for a second, before I managed to get the clutch back in. (For more information on DSM gear ratios, see Tom Stangl's excellent VFAQ entry on the subject.)

Could have been worse; a second to first mis-shift would have netted over 10,000 RPM, which almost certainly would have caused a bit of valve float and head damage. However, thanks to the upgraded springs and retainers in the well-built head from Mitch, along with stock cams for a mild ramp profile, there doesn't appear to be any damage at all; timing is dead on, no untoward noise, and the car drove and pulled exactly like it should. However, later that night, we heard a bit of clattering from the bell-housing area, which we initially thought might have been a flywheel bolt backing out (a common problem with mis-shifts and other high-RPM misadventures).

So, after having just gotten the car back on the road, out comes the transmission; checked the flywheel bolts, and all are holding tight, so we have no idea what might have been causing that noise. The upshot is that we had a chance to check the condition of the clutch after a bit over 20,000 very hard miles (Erica taught herself to drive a stick on this clutch, and I've put a ton of drag passes and autocross events on it). The disc, surprisingly, was in amazing shape; the pressure plate and flywheel friction surface were showing a bit of heat-spotting, though. One interesting thing that I never noticed on the 2600 we put in the Eclipse: the hub and center section of the disc had blued from the heat.

Anyway, we just need to lift the transmission back into the, car, slap everything back together, and hope that whatever was rattling was taken care of during the disassembly. Whee.

It seems like I should give a quick status update for the Laser, since we've been pretty busy with it over the last couple of weeks. We've been playing catch-up; all the stuff that's been taking up room on the shelf with the plan to "eventually" put it on the Laser is now off the shelf and on the car. We finally got the rear Konis installed last week, and replaced the rear pads and rotors while we were at it; that required me finally getting off my ass and drilling out the seized lugnut on the driver's-side back wheel, and pressing a new one in. One new wheel stud, two new rotors, two new sets of pads, and a new set of lugnuts later, and the car was back up and running, with the rear shocks set at 3/4 stiff.

But, since I can't leave well enough alone, I found a good deal on a Buschur-modified SX fuel pressure regulator (basically, it's an SX FPR, but with a new machined base that bolts directly to the stock fuel rail, making installation a snap). I got that installed in an evening, along with a fuel pressure gauge, and after getting hose-off pressure dialed in at 37.5 psi, the car has never idled so well. I suspect some of the problems we've been having with idle quality may have been related to a very small leak I noticed around the OEM fuel pressure regulator, and possibly just an over-the-hill OEM FPR.

Finally, this weekend, I ripped the OEM fuel pump out, and installed the "Supra" Denso pump that's been sitting on my shelf forever, since I had originally planned on installing it in the 2g (and the plans there have changed somewhat dramatically, so we decided to hand it down to the 1g). In the process, I managed to snap off the two wires for the level sender and the idiot light right at the connector on the sending unit, which required me to whip up a rather ugly, but sealed, replacement for them. Wiring around fuel is something I've decided I don't like very much. ;-) I also took the time to run a 30A-fused circuit from the battery through a relay to the pump, to make sure it gets all the voltage it needs to perform properly.

All that's left is to get some of the interior back in the car (I can't stand sloppy wiring installs, so out came the interior panels to run the new wiring tucked in neatly) and swap out the front lugs for the new ones that hopefully won't crack quite as easily as the last pair did. For anyone who reads this: if you absolutely must buy Gorilla "tuner" lugs for whatever reason, replace them as soon as they start showing any sign of rust, or you're going to find yourself in the same situation as me. Better would be to find a set of lugs that are tightened with a proper socket, rather than a hex key inside a thin-walled lug, that will crack eventually after enough removals and corrosion.

Now, I just need to talk Erica into a bigger turbo. ;-)

We're about half-way through the repairs on the WRX at this point; the new cold-air intake and carbon fiber hood are installed, and all that's left is a last little bit of massaging of the front frame, replacing the upper radiator hose, and draining and refilling the coolant and oil (20W50 doesn't like 0F weather very much).

My impressions of this hood just keep getting better and better; it was, by far, the cheapest hood we could find to replace the original mangled one, and the fit and finish on it are far better than they have any right to be. Seibon definitely get a thumbs-up from me; it looks like it came on the car from the factory. My only complaint, really, is the grille mesh they used over the intercooler vent inlet; I think we're just going to paint that black, and call it a day (the idea of having something there to catch random junk isn't a bad one, but that mesh is just plain ugly).

Similar kudos to APS for the cold-air intake; fitment (even with a few items slightly relocated because of the collision) was damn near perfect, and it's certainly unobtrusive. We'll probably keep the main front-oriented air snorkel that feeds the passenger-side fenderwell with air, just because I'm a little concerned about airflow back there, but otherwise this was a pretty straightforward affair. We'll see in a day or two if their claim that no engine management modifications are necessary hold up to real-world use, but for now, I'm happy with it.

Well, some of the new goodies for the WRX arrived. First, the new hood; it's a very nice carbon fiber piece produced by Seibon that we picked up from Speed N Stylez after seeing an ad that they'd listed on IWSTI. As an added bonus, it comes with a CF hood scoop as well (in STi size, of course), so the whole thing matches up quite nicely. The only downside: there's what appears to be "gutter guard" in the inlet of the scoop. Blecch.

We also picked up an APS cold-air intake from a local vendor, GRD (the 65mm version, not the 70mm, because I don't feel like trying to tune around the airflow changes just now). That'll clean up the engine bay a bit, and positions us nicely for the APS front-mount I eventually want to talk Erica into. ;-)

Next up: get the wheels back on the Eclipse and get it out of the garage so I can put the wagon back together. I still need to track down a new set of radiator hoses too...my quest for a set of pink ones (Erica's wanting to do the full-on pink thing with this car) failed miserably, so I suspect I'll have to settle for black. :-)

So, it's midnight, and I just finished pulling at least a bit of the front-end of the WRX apart, and we're "lucky". It looks like the only real damage was the hood, grille, and upper radiator hose; there's a few little plastic clips here and there that I'll need to replace, one of the driver's-side headlight mounting tabs snapped, and the radiator definitely bowed in a tiny bit (but not nearly as bad as it had first appeared), but no real show-stoppers.

So, in the interests of saving money on this repair, I've tracked down a heck of a deal on a replacement fiberglass hood by AeroSync, and I'll probably grab one of the plethora of eBay grilles (or just go without, for that rough, Max Max-ian look). There'll need to be a bit of painting too, from the looks of things. I'll probably do an intake while I'm in here screwing with stuff, since I'll have most of the front end apart anyway. What the heck, maybe I'll get a set of those pimp little hood struts too; I'm lazy like that. ;-)

One piece that's concerning me a bit is the upper front frame member; it runs across the top of the front-most portion of the engine bay, and is basically a locator for the headlights, radiator, air intake, hood latch, and some other random stuff. I'm tempted to have a professional straighten that piece out, but since it's not really structural, and the damage isn't too bad, I'll probably take a crack at it myself. Luckily, some of the pieces that attach to it are still where they belong (attached to other locations), so I can use them for reference.

Well, here we go again. The front end of the WRX was pretty badly damaged in an accident over the weekend, so I have another project on my hands. The hood and grille are pretty much toast, but the rest might be able to be salvaged; the biggest concern right now is the radiator and A/C condenser, which appear to be bowed inward a bit. We also need a new upper radiator hose, as the alternator pulley managed to cut through the hose quite efficiently. Beyond that, I'll know more as I start taking the front apart; the upshot appears to be that the headlights and front bumper cover are basically fine (although the cover is scratched). Yay, driving in Chicago. :-P

Bold claim, but I think I'm most of the way there, in terms of design. To be fair, none of this is my own doing; I'm building on the work of others, and just documenting it as I go. Here's a stream-of-consciousness version of what I have so far, in no particular order.

First up: wheels and tires. That's been taken care of already: 17x9+27 wheels with plenty of caliper clearance (mmm, 14" rotors, if I want them), and Falken Azenis RT-615 255/40/17s. Not the best tire you can buy, but best I'd ever consider driving on the street and taking to an autocross or HPDE. This piece comes in around $1400.

Next, sway bars. I went with the RMDSM front and rear bars, which ought to balance the car fairly well. These came with a nice set of poly mounts. New, this was a $300 set, but I got a deal on a set of used bars. In the front, I've created a pair of adjustable end-links; if they work out well, I'll probably do something similar in the rear. (There's really no magic there; a couple of rod-ends and a threaded rod from McMaster-Carr, and some simple rubber boots to protect the spherical bearings in the rod ends.)

Third, alignment adjustment. Up front, the SPC replacement upper control arms with camber and caster adjustment via the adjustable ball joint and eccentric anchor bolts. In the rear, some simple spacer washers and longer bolts for the upper rear control arm ought to the trick. I'll probably be spending just shy of $500 on this.

Okay, that's the easy and obvious stuff out of the way. Next up: shocks, springs, and their associated mounting hardware. For shocks, it's hard to beat Koni Sports ("Yellows"), so I'll be using the 8041-1207 up front, and 8041-1208 in the rear, with .062" snap-ring grooves cut into them about five inches down from the top of the shock body. Those grooves are for the Koni 1038.41.04.20 80-series circlip on which the Koni 80.0000.1 42mm-ID kit will be installed (25mm upper spring perch, lower perch with locking set screw, and threaded sleeve). Mounted on the perches will be a pair of Hypercoil 8" springs (rates to-be-determined, but I'm leaning toward 600/300, since that's what Dennis Grant settled on after doing quite a bit of testing with this particular setup), supported by a pair of Hypercoil zero-rate helper springs and a Torrington (nee Timkin?) thrust needle roller bearing (NTA-3648, with the TRA-3648 race) to keep the springs in place and make adjustment a simple affair. Above the upper perch go an upper bearing plate and spacers from RRE. Finishing the whole thing off, a Koni 72.34.48.000.0 25mm linear soft bumpstop. So far, this piece of the puzzle looks like it'll run just shy of about $2000.

After that, there's a few other bits and pieces that can be addressed; any rubber bushings can be replaced with poly or spherical bearings where appropriate, and a little time on the alignment rack would probably be worthwhile. :-)

I think that's the major pieces of what I'm looking at doing (eventually). So, for the low-low price of just under $4000, you'll have a 2g DSM that handles like it should have from the factory. ;-) I believe I mentioned once before that I have a history of going overkill on things like this, didn't I?

So, not a lot to report since getting the engine in my hands; I picked up a rather large order of random parts from JNZ Tuning (formerly the brains behind Conicelli Mitsubishi and their incredible deals on OEM parts), and have started mocking things up. With the front case, alternator, power steering pump, exhaust manifold, and turbo in place, I've started hacking up the tubing I picked up from ATP Turbo: a 120-degree and 90-degree bend for the downpipe, along with the 2.75" to 3" v-band transition piece that I got from Forced Performance. I need to swing past Harbor Freight tomorrow and pick up an exhaust expander, to open up the inner portion of the 120-degree bend a bit; once I cut it down for the first bend coming out of the turbo, I discovered that the bend narrowed just a bit too much at main radius. Whoops.

We also finally got around to painting the Cyclone intake manifold, with an "aluminum" color (yeah, I'm that creative). We still need to do the plenum and the valve cover; the painting has been kind of an "as we have time" project.

Also recently arrived: my new wheels! Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 17x9" wheels with a +27mm offset. They're hubcentric, weigh in around 24lbs each, and came over from England for the few of us who decided we wanted them. I finally decided on tires for them too, which should be arriving this week: Falken Azenis RT-615s, in a 255/40/17 size. It should be interesting seeing how the fenders will have to be mangled to make this work effectively (the inside clearance should be fine, but they're going to protrude pretty far). I also ordered up a set of bling-bling Kics Project R26 two-piece lug nuts, because dat's how I roll, yo. ;-) (Truth be told, I liked the 2-piece design better than most of the other lugs I looked at.) After gathering a few opinions, it looks like I'm going to replace the OEM lugs with the ARP Evo wheel studs instead of the Kyo-Ei/Kyokugen ones that RRE sells, since I've already found two first-hand accounts of wheels and cars getting separated due to Kyo stud failure.

Still to do: order up a few remaining parts for the engine (mostly related to timing; pullies, tensioner, belt, etc., but I also need a water pipe, the water neck, and some other weird miscellaneous stuff), and finish the assembly, then get the engine, transmission, and transfer case back in the car so I can start mocking up the line runs for the oil accumulator, relocated oil filter, and fuel feed/return. I also need to get the main hoop and tabs for the fuel cell ordered, cut, welded, and installed, then hang the pumps, filters, and check valves. After that, there's a ton of electrical work to do: pumps, fuel level sender, boost controller, gauges, and the wideband. Somewhere in all of that, I still need to figure out how I'm going to mount the oil and power steering coolers, and what cooler core sizes I can get away with. Then, the interior has to go back in. ;-)

I got a call yesterday from Mitch asking if I was doing anything this weekend. I said no, so he said I was coming by the shop to pick up my engine. :-) And so, after two years, I can finally post this picture for all my friends who kept nagging me about where my damn engine was. :-)

The amount of work left is almost overwhelming. The engine itself needs a bit more attention; specifically, a front case, water pump, a few gaskets, the cam seals, and a few other bits and pieces. Mitch gave me one of the 2.4L oil pans without a return fitting allowance, and I'm going to see about welding on a steel AN bung for a perfect return line attachment point. I also have to get the valve cover and block painted; I think Erica's going to be taking that on, since I can't be trusted with a paint can. Otherwise, I have a complete 4g64 6-bolt 2.4L engine, with custom 9:1 Wiseco pistons, Oliver billet rods, and a well-worked Engintecs head with dual valve springs, oversized valves, Forced Performance FP3 cams, and a ton of porting and shaping of the intake and exhaust ports. Mitch also took the time to dial in my Venom cam gears properly for me, and sent me on my way with my oh-so-pimp ATI "super damper", Evo III exhaust manifold (which he was apparently busy finishing the porting on this morning), and the rest of the parts for my Cyclone intake manifold, along with miscellaneous gaskets, nuts, screws, and such.

I have a ton of work to do now.

So, since I seem to have a bit of Google juice, I'll use a bit of it to shed light on as much information as I can find about a fellow who recently ripped me off to the tune of $575.

There was a post on DSMSource.com (previously DSMtrader.com) advertising a "complete 2g part-out" by the user "TurboAWD92GSX". A Buschur Racing coil-on-plug system and AEM CDI were listed for sale. I contacted the user via private message on the forum, and received an email from him from awdgsxownsu@earthlink.net claiming that the COP and CDI togther would be $550. I replied, asking for a Paypal address to send the money to, and he sent another email stating that the price with paypal fees would be $575, and that payment should be sent to mk4ownu@hotmail.com. Payment was sent on July 25, and that's when communication with him stopped. The PayPal account is registered to one "Cheryl Andrade", whom Google seems to think lives in Hayward, California, at phone number (510) 581-8869, and who appears to have been a coordinator for Hayward CA Chapter 29 of the Experimental Aircraft Association, was a member of the Young Eagles, and attended Thurgood Marshall College.

Further investigation revealed quite a bit, including a lovely picture of the thief, and plenty of examples of Manny Alves (whose name I finally had to go with the handle) ripping off Supra and DSM owners.

Other links of interest include several profiles for him, on DSMtalk, DSMtuners, DSMSource, and, of course, his DSMSource trader profile, along with several eBay profiles. SupraForums members listed old contact information for him (cell phone of 858-232-8943, and home phone of 858-536-1408), and apparenly a few folks have made the trip to his home just to recover owed money or parts.

As I collect more information about this, I'll keep storing it here.

Manny Alves, Manuel Alves, or Cheryl Andrade, this blog entry is all about you. Hopefully, Google will see fit to give it the attention you so richly deserve.

It seems like we've been busy lately. ;-)

Three weekends ago, we hopped in the car and headed down to Normal, IL for the 2006 Mitsubishi Owners Day at the Normal Mitsubishi plant (the Normal plant is where all DSMs were built, including both Erica's Plymouth Laser and my Eclipse). It was hot, and I managed to get a bit of a sunburn, but it was a pretty good time. Each parking lot was broken up into vehicle generations; Evos, 2gs, 1gs, 3/S', and "others"; it was basically a big car show for Mitsubishi cars. The plant had a few concept cars out for people to take a look at, a ton of free swag and food, and were running plant tours every fifteen minutes. Definitely worth going to see, if only to see how a car is assembled.

Then, the following weekend, drove out to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, to watch the first annual NASA Championships. We left the house at around 7:00 PM on Friday after work, arrived in Lexington at around 3:30 AM local time, then got up first thing the next morning to watch everyone make their qualifying runs and participate in the autocross that the Mid-Ohio School held for all attendees. Sunday was race day, and around noon or so we packed up to head home. "Rushed" is about the only word you could use to describe the weekend, but we had a blast; the event site was fantastic, there were a ton of people (and racers), and it was generally just a great time. Both Erica and I played tourist both days, snapping off a bunch of pictures both days.

Then, this past weekend, we drove out to Byron, IL, for the 2006 Midwest Subaru Showdown, organized by an ex-coworker and friend of mine. Unfortunately, the weather didn't agree with us; we managed to get a single pass down the dragstrip with the wagon, but the pair of cars behind us were the last to make it all day. Interestingly, the track was already pretty wet when I got up there, and the car ended up getting sideways a bit off the line; despite the terrible launch (a 2.3 60'), I still trapped 2.5mph better than the last time I went out, and came in with about the same ET, so I guess the reflash wasn't a waste of time. ;-)

Finally, yesterday's fun was getting six of us together and heading over to CIR for their monthly 200 lap team race. Basically, you get six people together to collectively pilot a go-kart 200 laps (about 30-32 seconds per lap, if you're any good), making five driver changes and one refueling pit stop. We'd never done it before, so coming in 13th in a pack of 20 teams didn't seem too bad at all. My arms and shoulders are killing me today, though; you wouldn't think it, but 30+ laps in a little go-kart is incredibly hard on the upper body (at least, it is in those karts; you have to wear a helmet, neck brace, and full fire suit to be allowed on-track at CIR). Adam set our best time of the day, at 30.99 seconds, followed by Kris who came in at 31.23 seconds.

I think that's enough car stuff for a while. We've had something automotive going on every weekend for the past month. ;-)

What a weekend.

We set out early on Friday morning, and met up with a bunch of folks at the Lincoln Oasis; Mike and Charlotte (with her new-to-her 2g), Mike W, Tony and another friend from SoCal, Kris (who drove down with us), Dan L, and a few others. Hit the road from there at about 11:30, and finally rolled into Norwalk around 5:00 local time, after several failed attempts at keeping the caravan together for the drive home. That night was pretty mellow; most folks who made it out Friday night spent the evening relaxing after a long drive, comparing setups, and talking smack.

The next day was the car show and dyno event at Buschur Racing, and as always, there was an incredible turnout. Albert managed a bit over 600 awhp on the notoriously low-reading Buschur dyno, both Brent Rau and John Shepherd were there with their 7-second monsters to be drooled on, and you could see how everyone there had really stepped up their configurations from last year; monstrously huge turbos could be see mounted everywhere, in some rather unique configurations. That night, fireworks and burnouts could be heard from the direction of the Econolodge and Best Western, but the Amerihost parking lot was quiet (except for a few people scrambling to get their cars ready for the next day).

Sunday was the main event: everyone packed up to head over to NRP for a day of drag racing. Several records were broken; AMS trapped 165mph in their Evo, Buschur gained the distinction of being the first Evo to hit the 8's, Shep broke his previous best time on nitrous (but did it without nitrous this time), Rau ran an ungodly 7.00 second pass, and Marco broke into the 8's and took home the Quick 16 trophy. I managed two new personal bests in the Laser (13.396@100.20mph, and a 1.763 60'), but overall this wasn't the weekend for the Illinois folks; Mike's rear diff was hanging by a thread, Steve broke another rear axle, Yusuf was having some difficulties getting the car to behave, and Dan L. was still getting used to the new transmission that was swapped in the day before the drive to Ohio.

That night was feasting and relaxing after a long day, followed by (for us, anyway) a good night's sleep, and a long drive back to Illinois the following day. Kris spent most of the drive home playing around with 110-octane tuning (and then 93-octane tuning, after the race gas was gone), while the rest of us took a pretty leisurely pace back home. This was, by far, one of the best Shootouts in the past few years; most of the drama was small stuff, and the view from the stands was fantastic this year.

Now I just need to get my car done so it can be there next year. :-)

After finally getting EcuFlash working under VMWare on my Linux laptop, I uploaded a new ECU image with a few fairly simple responsiveness improvements (remember, we haven't added any performance modifications to the car at all yet). I'm pretty impressed so far; the shuddering that we used to experience as soon as you got on the throttle is completely gone, and power delivery is as smooth as any other turbo car I've driven. That's not to say it's dramatically faster than before; it's targetting 16psi of boost now instead of 13, so there's a marginal improvement there, but the biggest improvement is that the car is much more predictable. In day-to-day traffic, I know exactly what it will do when I stomp on the gas to pass someone; previously, I'd have to wait for the bucking to stop before I'd know whether my attempted lane change was going to get there in time.

For those looking to do something like this, you'll need a few things. First, you need to hop over to OpenECU; they've become somewhat of a clearinghouse for information about flashing WRX and Evo ECUs. Next, you'll need an OBD-II cable; Colby Boles (the administrator of OpenECU.org) sells cables and reflashing connectors (you'll need both, although the reflashing connector just jumpers a couple of pins on a connector under the dash, and any old wire will do the job) through his Tactrix website. Finally, you'll want to see what other tuners are doing; on the Open Source ECU Roms website, tuners share custom ROM images, and with tools like Enginuity, you can modify and distribute your own.

So if you've been following these Laser blog postings at all, you might notice that there's a very small increase in the milage on the car since February. Sometime a few months back, we started having yet more transfer case issues: specifically, the yoke was leaking. We went a few rounds with the JBWeld, and finally got that sealed up. However, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to swap on the 2g downpipe that I had lying around from my car, to give the Laser a bit more go, thinking that the cat that had been modified to fit my old catback would mate up just fine to the stock exhaust on the Laser. Wrong. After going a few rounds with trying to weld up a new flange to the stock catback, I finally gave up and we ordered a shiny new 3" Megan Racing catback off of eBay, and picked up a new VRS catalytic converter from DSMotorsport.

A few installation notes: first, the Megan catback only came with gaskets for assembly, not for installation (apparently, you get the gasket for mating to the cat-eliminator downpipe they sell when you buy the downpipe), and the VRS cat was missing the promised gaskets as well. DSMotorsport sent out a couple to replace the missing ones in record time, kudos to them. Next, if you're planning on mating an RNR downpipe for a 2g to a VRS cat, be prepared to drill a couple of extra holes in the exit flange; RNR used a much larger flange, which actually worked out pretty well, because the downpipe could still be mounted on a 2g now. Finally, the tip of the Megan catback sits very close to the rear bumper cover; we're considering getting some longer rear exhaust hangars, since large bumps seem to give it a pretty decent rattle. (Actually getting around to installing the rear shocks would probably help too, or installing polyeurethane exhaust hangars instead of the 100,000 mile 13-year-old stock hangars.)

The catback came with an insert to reduce the noise, and it works like a champ; with the insert in place, the car sounds like stock. Take it out, and it's a typical fairly loud 3" DSM exhaust. Overall, fitment was just about perfect, the welds looked good, and there's only one bend in the entire thing. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

One final difference seen, as a side note: the car is currently running 17psi of boost, which has always meant it spiked to 20psi, then quickly settled back down to 17psi and stayed there. Since adding the exhaust, it's not nearly as stable as it used to be; we'll initially spike to 20psi, drop down to 17, then fluctuate the remainder of the pull between 17 and 20 psi. No significant creep, but definitely the early signs of it setting in. After seeing what a difference a new wastegate actuator made on a friend's car, I'm suspecting that flutter is likely due to a weak OEM spring coupled with 13 years of duty, but it's really not a problem right now, so I'm leaving it as a mental note to look into later.

After quite a bit of run-around after UPS lost our first shipment, we finally received our Draw-Tite hitch from Hitch-Finder. Installation was a bit of a pain; the charcoal canister needed to be dropped a bit, and getting it up past the tip of the exhaust was interesting. It's a VERY snug fit; in the end, the only way we could get everything to line up properly was to loosely attach one end, and muscle the other end into place and get it bolted in. The end result, though, is a hitch you can barely see; it tucks up into the bodywork very well, and the only obvious bit is the actual attachment point, which doesn't protrude at all. Overall, I'm pretty happy, although my arms are a little sore from the install last night.

This weekend was interesting; after spending most of Saturday working on the fuel system for Kris' car, we got up at the crack of dawn on Sunday to drive to Cordova for the DSM Central Sport Compact Drag Challenge (an AMS event planned as a follow-up to last year's Midwest Mayhem event at US-41 Dragway in Indiana). We met up with Albert/Mel, Mike/Charlotte, Kris, Dan Lewis, Yusuf, Mike Reichen, Ian Koe, Nick Andersen, and a bunch of other folks, and watched a pretty good day of racing unfold; Mike and Albert won their classes (Street Modified and Quick 16), Yusef took second to Albert, and Dan took third in SM. As always, there was dinner afterwards, and a pretty long convoy of vehicles home. Yusuf's alternator gave out again on the ride home; of all the friends we met out there, he's the only one who drove his car all the way there, competed, and drove home. Everyone else brought their car on a trailer, or didn't compete. We're still waiting to hear whether Yusuf made it home, but the last I'd heard, he was on the phone with AAA, and he was well within 100 miles of home, so we suspect he's okay.

So, it's been a month since my last update, and there's very little to report given how busy life has seemed to be in the interim. On the fuel side of things, after trimming the fuel level sensor and test-fitting the whole assembly in the tank, it didn't fit. I was about half a centimetre too far to the outside on the fuel level sensor position, and as a result that lid was rendered pretty much useless. So, I ordered up an aluminum replacement; the price wasn't much more than the steel plate I had before, and it's quite a bit lighter (and should be easier to cut, since I still need to get the same holes drilled in this one too). And this time, I'll be a little more careful with my cutting; lesson learned.

The front RMDSM sway bar is temporarily on the car for fitment, and it looks pretty good so far. The original bar didn't come off without a cutting wheel to the end links, so rather than paying the cost for OEM replacements, I made my own adjustable end links from a pair of rod ends and an aluminum threaded tube from McMaster-Carr. Looks spiffy, and with the spherical bearing boots that I ordered as well, they should remain in decent shape for their life on the car. I'll be doing something similar in the rear, since it looks like those end links won't be coming off without a fight either.

Other weird news: a friend of mine is negotiating with Rimstock to see if he can import a few sets of their Pro Race 1.2 wheels for him, me, and a couple of other folks on DSMtuners. They're exceptionally nice wheels, and not because they look spiffy (I'm still rather so-so on the looks, actually). First, they're fairly light, coming in at around 9kg (which is a little beefier than some on the market but on par). Second, they have an enormous amount of rear clearance; clearing pretty much any brake package won't be a problem for these wheels (which is good, because Mitch is now talking about putting together a Wilwood-based brake setup, which he'll probably convince me to get in on). Third, and rather importantly for the guy who gets accused of pouring unlimited funds into a project that still doesn't run: they'll probably come in at under $200 a wheel, which is actually cheaper than the wheels I was originally considering, which won't have nearly the same inside clearance that the Team Dynamics wheels have. Tack on another $120/tire for the Kumho Ecsta MX tires that I want (which weigh in at an additional 24.6lbs each, ouch), and I might be able to pull off wheels and tires for around the $1200 I'd budgeted for this.

I still need to get all the metal for the fuel cell cage cut and welded, and there's a bit more interior left remove as well (specifically, all the sound deadening material, and the ECU so I don't fry it when I'm in there welding). As much as I'd love to do a cage this season, I just don't see it happening.

The ATL fuel cell I bought is pretty spiffy, but not quite perfect. Specifically, I want to run -10AN line from the cell to the pumps, but the cell only has -8AN outlet ports natively. So, holesaws to the rescue; I widened the openings for the outlet fittings, and added openings for the -8AN return line and the fuel level sensor, then added a light touch of paint over the exposed metal (shame to have to ruin such a nice powdercoating job...). The end result is a pretty decent setup; -10AN feed lines look ridiculously large, by the way. Next up: trim the fuel level sensor to fit, and finish the cell assembly.

As a side-note, I decided to relocate the fuel filters; rather than have a single filter where the two pump outputs converge, I've decided to filter the fuel in front of each pump, so as to avoid any crap that might cause issues for them. The downside is that I now have a second filter to keep an eye on (and the associated cost; -10AN filters aren't cheap), but the upshot is that I now have twice the filtering capacity in the system, and that restriction is in the low-pressure portion of the system rather than the pumps having to fight with the filter along with 70-80psi of fuel pressure. The whole filter, pump, and check valve assembly is going to be a bit unweildly; I might locate the filters just outside the trunk area (tucked between the rear wall and the bumper) to get them away from the rest of the assembly and to make inspection/replacement easier.

The driver's seat is finally out, which proved to be somewhat interesting to remove without any power available; the trick is basically unbolting the power seat mechanism, removing the drive shaft/gear, and manually sliding the seat where you need it so you can reach the attachment bolts. The carpet came out next, and I can't believe how much sound deadener is glued all over the place; that ought to be a few pounds saved after it all comes out. I also pulled the remote opener for the trunk lid and the gas door; there's no tank, so it's not like I'll be opening the gas door very often, and the trunk was purely a security issue (it's incredibly easy to fish something between the glass and the chassis to grab the pull-handle for the hatch on a DSM).

The metal for the fuel cell cage has been ordered, and should be here on Friday; I also have even more fittings on the way, for plumbing the fuel lines to the pumps. I have a bit more carving to do on the rear floorpan and some minor trimming around the existing opening before I can really get started on that part, but for the most part the prep work for the fuel system is done.

Which leads me to...oil delivery. I have most of the major components already, but there's some plumbing questions I've bounced off of the only guy I know who could probably draw out the oil passages in the 4g63 block and head in his sleep. My current thinking is that the accusump will plumb off of the return line on the oil cooler, giving the benefit of both clean and cool oil, and the oil filter relocation will just be a standalone thing; the other option is to hang the accusump off of the filter relocation return line, which saves the cost of a check valve (the filter and oil pump do a good job of filling that purpose), but subjects the accumulator to uncooled oil fresh from the pan (but filtered).

And, at some point, I really need to get around to wiring in some of the electronics I have waiting to go on the car; specifically, the boost controller, turbo timer, and new gauges. Most of that can wait, though; what I really need now is the engine, for test-fitting a few things. But, that's still delayed, waiting on pistons the last I'd heard. I really don't think this is going to be done by this year's shootout. :-P

So it's not quite as bad as I thought. I've mocked up the catback, removed the now-useless fuel-filler line, and pulled off an exhaust hangar that isn't needed with my catback (how did I miss that before?), and suddenly things are fitting a lot better. The taillights are off, and the bolts on the rear fascia are soaking in PB Blaster, so hopefully that will come off uneventfully this weekend, and I can see how much of the rear sheetmetal "wall" behind the bumper I can cut out to give the cell a bit more room back there. Regardless, I'm not going to be able to go quite as low with it as I'd hoped; after getting the exhaust mocked up, it's pretty obvious that the rear canister is in the way, so at best I'll be lining the top of the fuel cell up with the main floorpan of the trunk area. Not the most perfect arrangement (because I still need to put a bulkhead over it to be legal for tech, which will interfere with usable storage back there), but it'll have to do.

I think I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to mount the fuel pumps now, and it's a bit different than originally planned. Instead of mounting them east/west under the rear seat area (where the stock tank used to be), I think I'm going to hang them from the fuel cell frame, one on each side. That simplifies the feed lines pretty dramatically, and the merging of the two pump outlets becomes pretty trivial too. That will start to come together visually once I start to get the frame welded in.

Two cut-off wheels later, the rear floorpan is out of the car, and as with everything on this project, there's a couple of small problems. First, the rear sway bar and exhaust hangar sit a bit farther back than originally anticipated, so the tank might have to either sit a bit farther back, or a bit higher, than I'd prefer. I probably wouldn't have this problem if I had gone with the 13 gallon fuel cell, but I'm just not willing to sacrifice that much fuel capacity; I would have gone with a 20 gallon tank if I had thought it could fit.

Next up: finish trimming the floorpan and rear wall a bit more, get the rear fascia and taillights off the car, and figure out the cell mounting position. From that, I can map out the lines and pump mounting; first indications are that I'll end up mounting the pumps horizontally where the original tank used to be, and the lines will probably end up running through the fake aluminum floorpan I'm planning on bolting in where the old steel pan used to be (around the fuel cell). I also ought to get the aluminum hard lines attached to the main floorpan with their fittings, and get the AccuSump mounted up where I want it. Once the engine is here, I can get the final line run done. Hmm, I should probably mock something up in the oil cooler location to get some idea of how much space I have to play with, too.

Still needed: at least one fuel pressure sensor with remote gauge and a 5-bar MAP sensor of some kind, for logging.

Way ahead of schedule, the new fuel cell arrived from ATL, instead of the two to three week backorder that I'd been expecting. I'd like to give a tip of the hat to OG Racing; Steve over there has done a fantastic job of keeping me appraised of the status of my order. First, there was a possible delay for the fuel cell, which he told me about immediately (ATL was supposed to be backordered 2-3 weeks because of the start-of-season purchasing) and gave me the option of cancelling the order if I wanted. I was fine with the delay, and lo and behold, the order arrived today...all of it, including the cell. When I checked the rest of the order, though, it turned out that I'd received the wrong battery kill switch. I contacted Steve, and he quickly made it right; they're going to express order the right switch, which should be in next week, and they'll be sending it out to me as soon as it comes in with a return tag for the incorrect one. No messing around with cross-shipping it back to them; they checked, they confirmed it was their mistake, and were happy to make it right. We need more online businesses like this, and I'll be glad to send my business their way in the future.

My plan for locating a tank or two in the stock location died the moment the stock fuel tank hit the floor. The service manual doesn't really do a good job of representing scale to the reader, and I got tripped up by that; the stock tank is incredibly shallow (but wide), and doesn't get much deeper at the saddlebags. They've relied on the oddball shape of the tank for the volume of fuel that fits in there. So, out with plan A, and on with plan B: we're carving the rear spare tire well out of the car, and I'll be putting an ATL 15-gallon aluminum fuel cell back there that I ordered from OG Racing, along with a nifty battery kill switch with a detatchable handle. I have all the fittings needed to mock up the pumps now, so once the cell is here, I can start mounting everything to determine line routing.

If anyone's curious, I've thrown a gallery together with pictures of the build-up progress so far, the parts I'm using, and the parts I bought with the best intentions of using but ended up selling or otherwise finding a new home for.

So, after much debating with both myself and others, I've dropped the idea of using the stock tank and fuel siphoning setup. Along the way, I've learned an incredible amount about how the original system works, and I'm pretty thoroughly convinced that it is incompatable with a high-flow fuel system. *sigh* So, the Supra pump is going to eventually make it's way to the Laser, and two Bosch 0-580-254-044 fuel pumps are on their way from Jay Racing as a substitute. The reason for two pumps? I'm going to replace the 950 cc/min injectors I was planning on using originally with 1600 cc/min injectors, and most of my fuel lines are bumping up a size to -10AN, all in preparation for what I might do with the car next season. As the car sits now, the fuel tank is almost out of the car (just need to disconnect the filler line; as a point of note, it would probably be a lot easier to remove the tank if you dropped the rear subframe first, instead of trying to leave it in like I did), and the current plan is to see if one or two cells can fit nicely in the stock location. If they can, I'll go that route, since it both allows me to use the stock filler port, and keeps the weight of the fuel as close to the ground and the center of the car as possible.

I've also been pulling out interior pieces in the back of the car, along with the stock 6-disc CD changer, to make room for the battery relocation; I'll be running the battery about as far to the rear of the car as you can get, all the way to the passenger side, mounted in (probably) a Moroso battery box (so I can remain NHRA-legal). I'll also need to rig up a rear-mounted battery cut-off switch, which I think I can squeeze behind the license plate bracket so people don't mess with my car day-to-day. ;-)

Still to be done: get a BUNCH of parts ordered, mock up the FMIC, and get some dimensional measurements for the oil cooler location. I should also get the Accusump mounted up as well, just to knock that off the list. It's going to be another long weekend... :-)

Since the Laser is running again, the Eclipse has finally made it's way back into the garage. Some fun things I've noticed already: first, the brake rotors are now so corroded that the car is practically impossible to move. Second, the rear hatch struts are completely shot; one isn't strong enough to hold anything, and the other is seized. Third, I forgot just how much work I have left to do on this damn thing.

So, today's progress: the front bumper is back off the car, and I hacked out the old rubber bushings and sleeves from the engine mounts and replaced them with polyurethane replacements. A tip for those doing this: if you can hack out the center of the old rubber bearing somehow (press it out, torch it, etc), it's pretty easy to cut the bearing sleeve out with a hacksaw (assemble the hacksaw with the blade on the inside of the mount, and you have plenty of range-of-motion). Also, lubricate the hell out of the new bearings, and they'll pop right in.

Next up: I have a plan for redoing the fuel system such that I have a working OEM-style return setup. Basically, I'm going to drill out the original hard lines in the sending unit that fed the feed and return lines, and replace them with a couple of bulkhead fittings. For the return fitting, I'm going to attach an AN cap to the end of the bulkhead fitting, with a hole drilled in the middle to allow some, but not all, of the fuel to return there. Outside the tank, the bulkhead fitting will connect to a tee that runs a line to the other saddlebag as well, and I'll do the same thing over there, but without the drilled cap. I'll need to experiment a bit with hole sizes to see what it'll take to equalize the flow between the two sides of the tank, but I think this will work nicely. The end goal is a -8AN feed line (fed by a Denso "Supra" pump), and a -6AN return line that works like stock. The factory had a good reason for setting it up this way, and I intend to keep it like that until I go to a fuel cell.

Also on the to-do list: mock up the monsterously huge/cool front-mount intercooler, and trim the front fascia for it. I also need to work out the power steering and oil cooler mounting locations and line routing, as well as decide where the oil accumulator is going to go; if it goes where the battery currently lives, I'll need to pick up a battery box and rear shutoff switch, and rewire the battery in the trunk. I also need to pick up a scattershield before the tranny goes back on.

Oh, and wiring. Tons of goddamn wiring. :-P I have two gauges (a Steward-Warner 30inHg/40psi boost gauge and an AEM wideband O₂ sensor) to wire up, and I still need to track down a bezel for them. I also need to get the HKS EVC EZ-II boost controller on the bench and see if I can read the boost output from it; if I can, I should be able to get it working as a loggable boost metering source for DSMLink. If I can't, I'll need to pick up a 3.3 or 4-bar map sensor for logging as well. I can't wait to see how much custom wiring I'm going to end up doing once the engine is here.

Oh yeah, a quick update on the engine. It's currently in someone else's car. ;-) Greg Collier, the winner of NASA's Super Unlimited class for the last two years running, was going to have Mitch build his engine, but there was a small problem: he needed it in about three weeks, which is a crazy turnaround time given that Mitch didn't have a spare 2.4L core lying around that was already align honed and prepped. So, he asked if he could use the block he'd already prepped for me; Greg's a cool guy, and would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it, so it's not like I could say no. Greg also got screwed on getting his turbo wastegate, so I shipped him mine while he placed an order for a replacement one to be shipped directly to me when they finally get back in stock. Long story short, Greg's up and running with the new engine and wastegate; he's going to be running at Mid-Ohio in September for the NASA Championships, so I think a few of us are going to head out for the weekend to see him win a few races. :-)

Anyway, I should have an engine in my hands in a week or two at this point; there's just a couple of minor things holding it up (specifically, there appears to be a minor quality control problem with the connecting rods that we were planning on going with; if that doesn't get cleared up properly, we'll probably end up going with another brand), and we're waiting on a new set of custom pistons (since Greg has mine).

Whew, long update. But, that's where things are at with "Project Cash Money DSM" (as Kris has started calling it), in case anyone reading this was curious. Ugh, I don't think I even want to see what the pricetag on this whole thing is going to end up being...

So we wimped out, and just packed the old carrier bearings with silicone and popped the new-to-us transfer case on the car. First impressions are extremely good; rather than bouncing, we get a ton of wheelspin at launch (which probably has a bit to do with both the stiffer front suspension and the new motor mounts). We also don't get any driveshaft thump, so the main problem we were after is taken care of. With any luck, that was the only remaining problem causing us to eat through transfer cases, and we'll be good for a while.

Before taking it back out, I set the front suspension to a half-turn from full hard (these are Koni yellows), and it's definitely too hard for the street, although it sticks very nicely up front. ;-) I'll need to back that down a bit (when we drove to Norwalk last year for the Shootout, it was set to almost full soft). I also need to get the rears on the car, but we need to decide what to set them for, since they're not adjustable once they're on the car. Foo.

So, when we last saw the Laser on the road, we screwed another transfer case due to what we believe was faulty carrier bearings. So, five months later, we finally ordered the parts we need to do the carrier bearing replacement, and last night I finally dropped the exhaust and driveshaft. What a PITA; I didn't originally think I'd need to drop the exhaust, but the only way to get the transfer case and driveshaft down was by undoing almost every attachment on it, so it just ended up being easier to pull the whole thing. (Now to convince Erica to let me put a real exhaust on the car, rather than that POS back on.) Next up: see what's needed to get the bearings off, and the new ones on; it looks like we're basically going to have to take the entire driveshaft apart, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for parts that need replacement.

One fun thing I discovered when separating the shaft from the rearend: only three bolts holding the shaft to the rear differential, instead of four. Goddamnit, I keep finding stuff like that on this car; someone really enjoyed ghetto-rigging things on here. :-P Good thing I never launch the car hard or anything, right? Grr.

It took about three weeks to get the car back, but the shop got it back to us in practically perfect condition; the body work looks fantastic, and I haven't noted any mechanical problems so far after about a week of driving it. The smell from the coolant that leaked everywhere is finally starting to subside, which is really my only remaining complaint (aside from having to fill out forms for three different insurance companies for the accident, and pay a $500 deductable out of pocket for being in the wrong place at the wrong time; bleh). So, no more rental cars. Yay. :-)

We visited Erica's family for New Year's Eve tonight, and about five minutes from their house, as we were waiting for a light, we witnessed a side-impact collision between a Toyota Land Cruiser and a Chevy Lumina that was having some stalling problems in the middle of the intersection. After the Lumina was hit from the side, it drove straight into the front of our WRX, crushing most of the front of the car; the radiator, hood, driver's-side fender, and driver's-side headlight were completely destroyed, and I'm not sure about anything else (it's was towed away by the city, awaiting a clearing up of events with our insurance company). Noone was injured, and ours was the only car that couldn't make it away under it's own power. We've owned this car for just a bit over six months now, and it's possibly already totalled. Happy new year. :-P

I finally understand Mazda Miata owners. Over the weekend, a few of us went over to participate in Mazda's Zoom Zoom Live! event, and we had a blast. The gist of the event is that Mazda supplies a bunch of cars, and you supply some excess testosterone beating on them. There were four main activities; first, the "School of Zoom", which included seat-time with an instructor beside you who both encouraged you to go as fast as you could through an autocross course with an RX-8, but also gave you tips as you went to improve your lap times or correct bad habits. Next, there was "Jinba Ittai", a timed event driving a Miata with a bowl suctioned to the hood with three golf balls in it; the goal is to make it through the event without dumping any of the golf balls, and do so quicker than everyone else. Then there was the matched-time "Gymkhana" event, held with Mazda 3, 5, and 6 vehicles; the closest time to the "Match Time" wins (rather than the fastest through the course). Finally, there was the "Performance Challenge" event, which was an all-out timed autocross event in Miatas.

The RX-8 event was probably the most useful to me, mainly because I initially didn't take to the RX-8 at first, and didn't do as well as I'd like. After six runs in the RX-8, I'm convinced I was running lap times similar to the instructors (although there was no timing gear, so you'll have to take my word for it). That car is a heavy pig, and with rear-drive and no low-end torque, it was challenging to keep it moving on the course; if you screwed up, the lack of torque down low really penalized you. There was one corner that I consistantly came into far too hot, and I nailed it perfectly on my final run after doing an at-rest talk-through of the corner with the instructor. Fun car, and it would probably be very enjoyable with a large shot of nitrous to take care of that small torque problem below 4000 RPM.

The Jinba Ittai event was my worst of the weekend, while Kris set the record for the weekend. The time to beat was 31 seconds the first day, and 30 seconds on the second; I managed a best of 32 seconds or so without dumping the golf balls, while Kris pulled off a mind-boggling 26 seconds, and backed it up twice with a pair of 27-second laps. The only thing I came away with from that event was that you should keep everything in the car securely fastened while autocrossing. ;-)

The Gymkhana thing was weird. The Mazda 3 and 6 are four-door sedans, with the 3 having a pretty peppy V6, while the 5 is a minivan, complete with GPS navigation and comfy seating. The goal is to come as close as possible to the match time, and I pretty much aced this one; I got a 26.014, with a match time of 26 seconds, and did it in the minivan driving it as hard as I could without squealing tires or rolling them over on the sidewalls. We drove the Mazda 3 later, and taking the same approach to the course, I ended up with a 24.212, so obviously a) the minivan was never meant to win, b) we were driving WAY faster than they wanted us to for that course, and c) you'll go quite a bit faster in the Mazda 3 than in the Mazda 5. ;-)

Finally, the event I fell in love with: the "Performance Challenge". The gist of this is pretty simple: hop in a bone-stock MX-5 Miata, and drive it like you stole it through the course. I only got two runs on this course over the weekend, and I know I could have nailed this one if I had a chance to go one or two more times. The car was perfect for autocross; it is unbelievably light, and there's a ton of low-end torque (for the weight), making it easy to place the rear of the car pretty much wherever you want it. It didn't get in my way, and acted more like an extension of the driver than as something to push around the course. The "time to beat" was 37.5 seconds; I managed 37.6 my first time in the car, and knocked another second off for a 36.7 the second time, and did it with a few obvious errors (I drifted all the way around both the first and second corners, and mistakenly clutched for the second corner...WTF?!). There was easily another couple of seconds to be found out there, and it would have been a blast trying to find them (and maybe taking a few cones with me). That car was amazing as an autocross car, and maybe that's my biggest problem with it: it's almost a single-purpose vehicle, and it literally owned that course, but day-to-day, the lack of torque across the powerband would really get on my nerves. Performance upgrades would probably just ruin the car's original purpose, because at that weight, you really wouldn't want it much stronger without slicks and a proper roll cage.

Overall, I had a blast. It wasn't the same as the Rev-It-Up event they held last year, which had an almost pure autocross focus (and operated a lot like a real SCCA event), and I missed some of that, but the event did go smoothly, and the personal instruction was worth more than any amount of individual seat time I could have gotten out there (it didn't hurt that the instructor I got took me out with me in the passenger seat for a lap; I got more out of that one lap than the rest of the weekend). I'll definitely be there again next year.