303/2000 Build

[ZeroCharisma]

My name is Ryan, the owner of 303/2000. I've finally decided to start a build thread on 303 and keep it out of the Newbie section. I bought the car from Daenan in 2009 after making it through basic training and AIT. Have had several highs and lows and haven't been able to finish the car yet. Between being deployed to Iraq, being stationed in Hawaii and England (Can't complain about the locations and back-to-back overseas assignments). Need less to say most of my time has been spent away and travelling the world. The car has remained the only constant, I've gone through a handful of cars, two Corvette's, a turbo'd F-150, and now the owner of a ZX-10R. The G has been neglected and probably ran for half of the 6-7 years since I've owned it but I am making this a #1 priority and plan on finishing by the end of 2015.

Bought the car with quite a bit already done to it including an auto swap. First a few of my favorites

First time on the dyno, very baseline tune and run from 3rd gear for whatever reason...put down in mid 300's. Not too bad


Custom Garrett FMIC - Welds by Mike Vig at Real Street Performance

Charge pipes powdercoated wrinkle black

I have gone through 4-5 throttle bodies mostly due to weak throttle body shafts but this one seems to be holding up well. One of them lost a screw from the shaft and nearly sucked into the engine but was lodged on the lip of one of the runners on the Magnus SMIM

Replaced slicks with new KDW BFG Tires and lowered a bit

Got rid of the Honda half radiator for this slick tucked Scirocco Radiator

Temporary fitment of the 15 Gallon Fuel Cell

-10 Feed lines and -6 Return line

Other toys

Finally got a bath - Most recent and my brothers D-50 begging for a swap

Coming soon:
The Series 1 ECU (AEM) that came with the car finally took a dump and decided to replace it with the Infinity 6. Haven't been able to find another DSM or Galant with one. Should be quite an experience, received in the mail yesterday. Just waiting on the jumper harness and CAS disc.

Ordered the Works Bell quick release, steering wheel, and paddle shifters similar to the image below

When the car is on the street again it will finally get a dialed in tune by Jay at RSP, and a long overdue wire tuck from wire-worx.

 

[onesickcrx]

I like the big fat tires looks mean

 

[15psi88]

Loving the big rubber as well!
Can't wait for more.

 

[coyotes]

+1 on the wheel/tire fitment

 

[GSTwithPSI]

What are the specs on the wheels and tires?

 

[ZeroCharisma]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif There are two sets of tires imaged. Sitting on a set of MT 255/50/16 radials in the first two pics and the rest are BFG 225/50ZR-16 g-Force T/A KDW. The BFGs were discontinued, from what the rep said I bought the last set back in 2010 for 79 each. The car has been sitting for a while with an occasional joy-ride and they have not dry rotted at all. I don't have the wheel specs right on hand but will when I get the chance. When I had the MTs the suspension was raised up all the way and would still gouge the slicks launching and going over bumps.

 

[CutlassJim]

3.5" exhaust?

 

[ZeroCharisma]

Indeed it is 3.5" exhaust. I'll be heading home in two weeks to put in work.

 

[ZeroCharisma]

Lots of updates. Have spent a few days installing the 24 tooth high res CAS trigger disk (YoshiFab), cleaning up the fuel system, oil change, coolant change, and changing coolant hoses. After swapping to ethanol, the car sat for about a year. Being stationed overseas, the inevitable happened and had a lot of build up throughout the system. Went through about 4 bottles of Isopropyl (Rubbing Alcohol). I was hoping to find some 99% but got tired of looking and wasting time so settled for 91%. It worked out pretty well. Everything was extremely gummed up, especially the fuel pumps (See pics for ref)

I let the pumps soak for a few days in the alcohol, after going at it with a toothbrush and pick a few times I shook it out and these awesome globs fell out.

Also spent a bit of time on some wiring issues. I will be having the car completely rewired by WireWorx but since I already had the stuff needed and was rewiring for 2150CC injectors I fixed a few things here and there.

Homemade injector resistor bypass. Simply cut the wires off and solder them all together, I cut a permanent marker tip off to clean it up a bit. Hopefully it works!

Installed a homemade Coil on Plug set-up

Installed a Works Bell Universal Paddle Shifter Neo Kit, Steering Wheel and Hub adapter. I have never had a worse experience ordering from a company before, I will say that initially I was impressed at the customer service provided but it took over two months to receive the product(s). I placed the order in my opinion enough in advanced to receive it before I got home so that I could have it finished but apparently not long enough. It is installed but I don't think I'll have enough time to wire in the paddle shifters which is extremely disappointing. Two weeks after the order was place and payment provided, I asked a question about what depth of steering wheel was recommended with the paddle shifter (even though I ordered theirs, I debated replacing with a Royal or Nardi. They then informed me that they didn't have enough information to ship, which they originally said if I placed the order it would be shipped immediately. There was then several emails (about 7) where they asked individual questions rather than all at once dragging out the process a few additional weeks (seemed like a stall tactic). This is a very summed up version and I informed them that I would be reporting to the better business bureau and the Australian equivalent which i haven't had time to do but will when I return home.

Anyways, the products provided by Works Bell are awesome. The paddle shifters are better than I expected and such a solid and quality piece. The order for the Rapfix 2 was cancelled after I requested to cancel the order, they said they couldn't cancel the rest because it had been put on urgent so they couldn't...still sounds like BS but whatever. I will be purchasing the quick release system from a separate company at the expense of costing more but in my opinion is worth not supporting a garbage company regardless of cost.

Areas that need attention and things to come:
I don't know much about the TCUgo or how it is wired in. I will be looking into and tracking down all of the wiring tomorrow. It seems to work great but sometimes will randomly downshift under load which is a huge concern. Likely just a short in the mess of the harness that I have to track down.

The car currently has a MagnaFuel 7009 Fuel Filter.

I have replaced it twice due to the stainless steel filter being crushed (Likely due to running dual Bosch 044 fuel pumps to the single filter). I purchased a pretty solid filter that I planned on installing but will be postponed due to not having the correct fittings on-hand. It is a local company here in Orlando. Seems to be self ran by the owner himself. Awesome experience, was very fast at getting the product shipped out and even gave his personal phone number to contact if I had any questions. There was a slight hang-up due to some programming issues on the webpage so he was unable to access the payment information. This wasn't an issue at all to me considering he called me the next day and was very sincere and apologized for the slight delay, obviously cares about his customers. He was travelling for business but carried the product with him to be immediately shipped once issue was resolved. I'm local so I received it the following day. Anyway, here is the product; I won't have it installed while I'm home but will update when I do.

Will be installing a new timing belt, tracking down fuel leaks and electrical issues tomorrow, as well as doing a bit of first time tuning on the new Infinity ECU

Anyway, it's late and I'm spent. Hope you enjoy

 

[ZeroCharisma]

Fuel System from tank to rail have been cleaned out, installed FIC 2150cc injectors, Fuelab Prodigy fuel pump, FST Water separator/Filter and got new Brake Pads/rotors. I took the car to get tuned however had a no-start issue involving no injector pulse that I'm still trying to track down. Getting spark and there is fuel in the rail, could also have to do with the CAS or maybe a faulty fuse or sensor. She will crank (sounds healthy) but won't start. Sergio at Kings Performance was able to give me a base cal with adjustments to what AEM provides +timing. Thinking the issue stems from faulty wiring from my hacked up harness. The guy at Wire-Worx who used to build their mil-spec harness no longer works there. I've emailed Ohm-racing and awaiting response on a custom mil-spec harness. Other things to come include driveshaft rebuild, aluminum exhaust, BC Racing Coilovers, Braille G20 battery (PC680 isn't cutting it) and possibly some new gauges for monitoring and to communicate with the infinity. Unfortunately, I am deployed to Afghanistan so not able to put in work but it should help me fund and finish this build. Clearly wasn't able to accomplish my goal, had it running for a while but car saf for a long time while I was off in England for 3 years.

 

[iceman69510]

Thanks for the update. Good to see you getting back to it.