San Jose Build - Chassis 155.

[rv8air]

May 23, 2017 1:45:56 GMT SeanW said:

May 23, 2017 0:15:34 GMT rv8air said:

My Name is Dan, aka rv8air on the MEV forum. I getting ready to pull the trigger on my project, but there’s one thing holding me back. I’ve never seen an exocet, completed or otherwise. Would it be possible to get a look at yours? My work takes me to Berkeley a couple of days each week; a trip from there down to SJ would be convenient on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. BTW; I can't PM yet, as I've not passed the 20 posts prerequisite, but I can receive them.

I'd be happy to meet up with you some place for you to take a look at my car.  Unfortunately, I'm heading out on vacation for a week starting on Wednesday so either tomorrow night (down around Santa Clara) or next week will be the options.

Sorry to be late getting back to you.  You're work is VERY impressive,  and would love to see it.  Timing is an issue, so I'll have to get back to you.  Life happens, as you know.

[SeanW]

Jul 26, 2017 0:00:32 GMT einy said:

Sean ... what are you doing to post pics these days? I have some I need to post on another thread, but my former way of posting by using photobucket is not working anymore.

Thanks - John

I'm using Tapatalk to make posts that contain photos.  They seem to handle all of the image hosting, at least when using their app. ( tapatalk.com )

[SeanW]

Quick update, installed a cargo basket. Three bolts to remove it, for now. I've already ordered a set of quick release clamps that will make installation and removal completely toolless.

The whole thing fits and works pretty well though it does increase drag significantly when it's on the car. Should be great for weekend road trips, camping, and auto crosses.

[gwnwar]

Looks good.. I would add a couple of pieces of rubber under the clamps. And a couple of straps around the frame of it to car bar
just in the P clamps let go.. At least till you knows it isn't going anywhere when loaded.. Windshield turned out nice..

[SeanW]

More injector-fu last night. ID1050x injectors. Super overkill but they're really nice. 1065cc @ 3 bar, super smooth and tunable at idle.



The top o-rings that came with the injectors leaked. A little troubleshooting later and I sound myself swapping the top o-rings with a fresh set of from OEM injector seal kit I had on my parts shelf. Once I swapped out the top o-rings the issues with fuel leaking from the rail under pressure went away.

Once squared away and not leaking, they tune very nicely at idle. Crazy amounts of headroom for boost with these squirters!

[SeanW]

Improved quick-release basket mounts.

[gwnwar]

Were did you find the Basket and quick release mounts?

[SeanW]

Aug 8, 2017 17:12:09 GMT gwnwar said:

Were did you find the Basket and quick release mounts?

Parts details listed in the following post on my WheelWell.

wheelwell.com/sean-wally?pid=598942892aa64a132831a0e0&title=Basket-Mounts-Mk.2

[gwnwar]

Thanks for info.. Looked like a good trip to Japan..

[phocup]

Love that you went to Gunma to reinact Init.D. One of my memory from early dating days with my GF is a boring road trip back from LA. I was falling asleep driving home at night so decided to wake myself up on 152 by reinacting Gods Foot and yelling DORIYAAA during my turns. Woke myself AND my sleeping gf right up and she wasn't happy. LOL

[SeanW]

The past few days my wideband sensor/controller has been giving me some grief. On the way into work this morning, in the middle of a tuning run, the damn thing went out on me. Had to pull over to the side of the freeway and cycle the car to get it back reporting. Not the really desired behavior.

Since I was also logging this morning's drive to work I had a little bit of data to look at. Everything is fine for about the first seven minutes of my commute, then the wideband suddenly starts to read rich for about a minute before completely shitting itself. Unfortunately I had to drive for a while before I could find a good spot to pull over and restart the car.



After the restart everythign was cool again. I'm going to try a free-air recalibration this evening to see if that helps this cut-out issue any at all. It's an Innovate LC-2, they seem to like being recalibrated fairly often when run hard or during tuning for everything I've been able to glean from their documentation. (and the festering soup known as Internet tuner forums.)

Barring that, I may be in the market for a new wideband sensor.

[SeanW]

I've taken the car off the road to begin the long over due turbo build. It's not going as smooth as I would have like but that's a story for a longer post.

Short post tonight, finally deleting the heater core fittings and losing the looped 5/8th coolant hose.

First, the old water pump inlet pipe is replaced with a billet inlet from Hawley Performance.



Then the half inch heater fitting gets pulled from the Hawley Performance reroute spacer.



Thankfully the Hawley spacer uses a 1/2" NPT heater hose take off and finding a pipe plug for was not at all an issue at my local AutoZone.

Water from the turbo will come from the front of the engine and return down to the AN6 fitting at the back of the new water pump inlet.

[SeanW]

Some time ago I picked up spare valve cover on EBay, sent it off to be cleaned and powered coated. The results are quite nice. So much so I've picked up a spare intake manifold to have powder coated as well!

[SeanW]

As mentioned, I've taken my car off the road to work through the turbo installation which is not a completely plug-and-play solution. I knew that going in so I'm not too bent out of shape, just sharing some of the fitment issues that I'm working through on this turbo installation. In the grand scheme of things, the issues I'm encountering just aren't that big a deal.

First, I'm using a TD04L-13T turbo from a Froester XT. It's been rebuilt and upgraded into a TD04HL-19T which will be a small hit to spool but a will give the turbo the lungs to produce boost all the way to redline.

First task is the test fitment and turbo clocking, including the manifold, down-pipes, and cooling fittings. This gives me a list of things that I need to adjust to make my build happen with the fewest possible number of issues. And man, a ton of small things change at this stage. At least the manifold itself fit with no issues.



The turbo fits, but as expected, I needed to clock the outlet to keep it from hitting the frame. After seeing another Exo using the same manifold and TD04 turbo setup I'm using clock his outlet upward I may go that route as well to greatly simplify the plumbing. (Running the intercooler piping over the top of the radiator.)



The turbine outlet has a couple of issues that are making me change course on that. There's not enough clearance with one of the manifold-to-turbo studs so I'm going to have to swap to using cap-head screws and nordlock washers to secure the turbo to the manifold. Related, I'm going to have to do a little grinding on the turbine outlet cover to clearance it so that nuts/bolts will sit flush.




And last, the down pipe almost fits. Almost. Unfortunately it presses against the steering column and the bell housing, there's no way to really rotate it so that it fits. The solution here is to influence the fit with some love taps from Clarence the Clearance Hammer. (A new DP is being fabricated but that's going to take a little while and I'm impatient with getting a turbo installed at this point.)



As a side note, I've also been helping a friend build up his Ultima Evolution. (Upgraded Ultima GR-T kit) I've been considering bumping up to a larger battery and found the simplicity of the Ultima's solution for mounting a larger Odyssey AGM battery kinda nice. If I bump up to a larger size battery I'm going to use a similar mounting solution and will build in a battery cut switch.

[SeanW]

More fitment joy and rapture. Attacked the down-pipe with a MAP torch and 5lb hammer and got enough clearance to continue on with fitment and fabrication.



Following that, I threw the hood back on and checked for clearance with 2.5" tubing for an over-the-top plumbing route. I've got about 1/2" of space the play with so I'm doing pretty good there.