Well I tried welding the slits in the MAF adapter just to try it out, and it hardly worked at all, but I was able to get some material in there for a base. The epoxy appears to have worked pretty well. The slits sealed together and the 90 degree pipe glued to the MAF adapter pretty well. I closed off each end of the adapter and was able to get negative pressure to hold. I'm going to slather on another coating of epoxy just to be sure it's sealed up tight.

The MAF adapter isn't exactly flat. When the cheap a** Chinese company welded the pipe onto the plate, it warped the plate. I'll try to find a 3" O ring that will fit, otherwise I'll just use some RTV.

Im super jealous of that exhuast work. Mine isn't bad, but it doesnt look that clean! Also reminds me that i need a secondary resonator.. the flowmaster alone simply is NOT cutting it and i will demand nosie reduction for trips outside of an hour. I have heard dynomatting the car will help cut down outside droneing.. you do anythign like that?

If you check out my build thread on the EXA forum, you'll see everything I did to the car, which includes RAAMmat and Ensolite for sound deadening. I didn't notice that much different with exhaust noise but it did quiet down the road noise a lot. The welding on the exhaust definitely isn't clean, but it should get the job done. I also only have one resonator right now. If that doesn't cut it I'll throw in another one where the OEM resonator was located. If that still doesn't cut it I'll throw in a high flow cat.

I put a coat of epoxy on the inside of the MAF adapter where it meets the metal pipe and it is now it is a solid single piece of material. I pulled ad twisted as hard as I could and I couldn't get it apart, and I did a simple pressure test and it's holding air fine. The 3" to 2.5" arrived and it takes up a little more space than when I lined everything up earlier, so I need to cut the pass through hole a little bigger. I'll clean that hole up and line it with some rubber hose to keep the intake from making any racket. Work will be postponed until the weekend because it is friggen freezing outside.

JB Weld/Epoxy to the rescue again! LOL, I'm glad it worked for you.

I'm the in same boat about the weather. I need to mount my bracket for my HydroElectric power steering pump, but it's 18°F and windy right now. Eff That!

I filled my propane tank so I can run the heater, but it won't be enough to counter act temperatures in the teens. The bungs and brass hose fittings are arriving today so at least I can start working on cutting the holes in the intake pipe for the BPV hose.

My car is outside, so if it's not decent out, I don't work on it.

Sucks. My daily driver sits outside while the wife's car and the Pulsar get the garage.

I'm buying Ground Control coilovers to team up with my Koni sport shock inserts. Does anyone out there have input as to the spring rates I should get for auto-x/daily use?

If you call ground control, with the vehicle specs, they can make a recommendation. The nice thing about the GC + Koni combo is that you have enough adjustability, you can easily change springs and adjust for the new springs later down the road.

Right, I know that. There's springs for sale all the time on the SCCA forums. I threw some posts up on the SR20 forums and the SCCA forums asking for advice and I just sent GC a message too.

The fittings arrived last night. Holy hell are the bungs I ordered massive. 2" in diameter and like 1" thick. I swear they weigh a pound each. Welding these onto the intake pipes is going to be interesting. I'll have to concentrate the heat on the bung itself then bring the pool over to the pipe, otherwise I'll burn through the pipe and not get enough penetration on the bung. The hose fittings appear to all fit too, although there is a burr or something on the IC preventing the fitting from going in, but that's an easy fix. So the last remaining piece of hardware are the two fittings for my heat exchanger with the weird male end and maybe two 90 elbows where the hose will need to run through the radiator support.

I should be able to get some work done early next week since it's supposed to warm up.

I pulled off the intake pipes and cut them up to accept the bungs for the BPV. The intake pipe hole came out a good size, the TB pipe is a little big, so I might have to toss it and make a new one, which is no biggie because I have a decent amount of stock sitting in the garage.

You know you can braze brass to steel, right? For what you're doing, brazing will give plenty of strength.

I did not know that, but this method will allow me to change out the barb fittings if I ever need to. It gives me a little more flexibility, say when I ditch this car and move on to another project, I can re-use some of the stuff. Plus I don't know anything about brazing or have the tools to do it. I have a MIG welder, and know how to use it, so that's the process I was planning on using.

Good points. You would need a oxy-fuel torch to braze steel and brass, so if you don't have one already, this was the cheaper option anyway. Just a suggestion as that's what I did back on the S13.

livelyjay wrote:when I ditch this car and move on to another project

LMFAO!!!!

Nice one mdb4879

More delays. Pond hockey tournament over the weekend, took the dog to emergency Sunday night, and had to put him down at the vet Monday afternoon. So awful end to a decent weekend. Got some work done today though. If the fitting store is open Saturday I'll be swinging by then for the two hose fittings for the heat exchanger and I'll grab two 90 elbows because if I don't, I'll end up needing them. Then I can finish up the IC system and put the car back together.

Got some nice work done today. You'll notice in the last picture that the CAI system isn't set up. When I bolted the MAF adapter to the MAF the aluminum bent more flat (it was warped) and the epoxy cracked and was rendered useless. I'll leave it with the filter as-is right now and I'll epoxy the MAF adapter again during the week.

The CAI system might give me fits because the MAF adapter is resting on the transmission motor mount and the way it's resting now the K&N gets jammed up underneath. I might be able to cut back the pipe to give the K&N some additional room and pull the MAF adapter away from the mount so it doesn't rattle. I'll build a mount bracket for the system once I get the position dialed in.

Battery wired in the trunk and distribution block set up in engine bay




Installed the recirculating valve


Built the rest of the cold air intake




Re-ran the MAF harness so it can reach


Built bracket and installed the water pump


Reassembled the entire intake system

Looks good man Can't wait to hear and see it in action.

It's looking good man! Reminds me of my Mazdaspeed Protege! Just make sure you get the radiator for the intercooler right in the air flow in the front bumper. I didn't get it far enough forward on my S14 and now I'm in the middle of re-doing it. Luckily I learned my lesson before I did it on the Protege, and it's a great setup on that car.

I was naughty and fired it up again. Doesn't sound as loud as I thought, but it will probably need a high flow cat to keep the volumes to where I'd like them. Adjusted the idle but it was still a little rough, likely because there's no O2 sensor. The one on the Mazdaspeed was so rusted it won't budge, so I just ordered another one and I'll pick it up this week at Advance.

Water pump hoses connected


Heat exchanger lines connected


Heat exchanger mounted

Finally got some friggen work done on the car, along with oil changes and summer tire swaps on the other two cars. Battery tie down made, circuit breaker mounted, main radiator fan wired, headlight relays wired, Boost/AFR gauge installed (not firmly mounted yet though), and CAI re-epoxied and hooked up. I'm ready to start reassembling the exterior and clean up the interior. I need longer sheet metal screws to actually mount the battery, then I'll work on getting the cables hooked up to the breaker. Not looking forward to routing the damn positive cable though, because I'll have to rip apart the passenger side interior.

Man that is one busy-looking engine bay, but I love your enthusiasm and efforts. I can't wait to see this puppy bark and run . Did you ever pick-up your ground controls? If not let me know because I might have something within your grasp and range.

You and me both Dee. I haven't bought the GCs yet because the tax man and the new puppy destroyed my bank account. I do, however, have the Koni inserts ready to install. What kind of goodies did you have in mind?

I hate to rain on your parade, but I think your heat exchanger for the intercooler is too small. I used THIS radiator, with the same intercooler that you have now, on the MSP. Mine may be a little overkill, but my IAT's never get more than a couple of degree's over ambient.

I'm not too worried about the heat exchanger. FrozenBoost rates it with their 350hp kit. If it's not enough I'll change it later.

Change of plans for this evening. My 62mm hole saw arrived today, so I decided to give it a try on the wheels. It actually worked like a charm, way better than I had expected. Ran the hose water over the cutter so it didn't over heat and just kept even pressure on it. Tore right through the metal. The wheels now fit.




Metal shavings after boring out all four wheels


Hub opening after boring out

Nice! making those wheels fit like a hoss!

boost_boy wrote:Man that is one busy-looking engine bay, but I love your enthusiasm and efforts. I can't wait to see this puppy bark and run . Did you ever pick-up your ground controls? If not let me know because I might have something within your grasp and range.

I have the GCs with extra springs (less than 1K miles on them) on KYB AGXs (all blown out out from sitting around). I originally purchased the GCs and then purchased more aggressive springs from Ground Control for to set the car up for a dual threat, but unfortunately I never got the chance to take advantage of them. If you're interested, I'll cut you a deal on the lot or just GCs and the 4 brand new extra springs. If this is something you might be intersted in, shoot me a pm or an email, so we don't clutter your thread with our personal conversations.

Ran into a problem last night. I finished installing the battery relocation, but I think that is causing a problem. The battery is a bit low on voltage, showing around 11.4, which is probably from my mucking around with it without running the alternator to recharge it. The problem is it can crank the starter a few times, but it won't turn over. My guess is either:
1) The battery cable, at 4 gauge, is too small to carry the amps.
2) The battery cable is too long to carry the amps.
3) The battery itself is too small to crank over that heavy as hell flywheel.
I'm going to hook up my other car battery, while running, to this battery with jumper cable and see if I can get the car to turn over. If that's the case I'll try moving the battery closer to the starter (behind passenger seat). If that doesn't work I'll try getting some larger cable. If that doesn't work I'll try getting a bigger battery.

It's the battery, brother. It's gotten weak or the alternator's output is not up to par. make sure you wire the charging system so that the battery gets it's charge from the alternator. I've used those braille batteries before and you can't let them lose power.

I just ordered a trickle charger to get the battery back up to full power, but it won't be here until Saturday. The battery is rated at 1190 pulse cranking amps, which I figured would be enough, but it doesn't have full juice right now. The batteries rated for this car at AutoZone are rated at less than 1000 amps. I'll try jumping the car tonight and see what happens. Worse case scenario I'll swap batteries with my daily driver and move the Pulsar battery to a bigger box behind the passenger seat.