Build Thread of 1415/2000

[transparentdsm]

was dying the carpet in 1078 due to water leaking issues and the carpet already being out of the car. so i figured if im going to do this i might as well do it for 138. carpet came out real nice. i used the rit stuff that one of the other forum members did the right-up on and i actually used an 18 gallon bucket and 2 boxes of the powder dye. i let the carpet sit overnight outside under a tarp because it happened to rain and i had no where to dry it except outside. next day it was nice out so i took the carpet out and it looks great, nice and dark. i let it sit outside all day in the sun and then hung it in my basement overnight by my de-humidifier to finish up drying it out 100%. i will take pictures later as im reinstalling the carpet and evo seats.

 

[transparentdsm]

Ok so it has been 6000 miles and 2 oil changes and the VR4 is still running super strong. i love my car. its so much fun.

im starting with the pictures of the new carpet installed.



i think it came out really good.

the front is a little dirty, but at the same time i drive the car so i kinda like it to be dirty.


after we got to tahoe i decided to add a strut tower bar. made a bit of a difference through turns and it looks pretty good in there.

 

[omertaitalia]

sorry shane haven't been on in a while, so your back in tahoe now? pm me, gotta catch up.

 

[transparentdsm]

so i did a little work on 138 today. painted the underside of the hood, removed the heat sheild and opened the vents so there functional, ran the rest of the lines for the meth kit, drilled, tapped and lightly ported the throttle body elbow and then jb welded the nozzle in place, added a FIAV block off plate that i had laying around.

 

[Steve885]

Nice work!!! Does the owner of the evo even know what your driving...I've come across so many evo drivers that don't know the origin of the car. Not that it matters

 

[transparentdsm]

Hey had no idea till i told time. I told him it was a vr4 and he looked blankly at me. I then told him its an evo 0 and he looked even more puzzled so i told him a little history and the next day were outside and he knows the life of the car. He is a mechanic and his evo has a broken balance shaft. Nice guy through.

 

[Steve885]

By the way where did u get that TB elbow I need one like that

 

[transparentdsm]

Its a stock 2G that i modified for my needs.

 

[transparentdsm]

So i have been driving the car a lot, i go about 120 or so miles 6 days a week. i love driving the car and can not wait to put the evo mr suspension on and make the ride that much nicer. i even have been using it like its meant to be used.

this is some grocery getting..

 

[transparentdsm]

so i have put about another 1000 miles on the car and everything is running great. i love driving the car so much. well with doing all this driving and this up coming weekends journey i have gotten some parts in the mail and decided that saturday im going to install a whole bunch of stuff for sunday.

parts to install:
Custom VR4 Shift Knob
Rear Strut tower bar
Aluminum Civic half rad - mine is slightly leaking
Brand new OEM AISIN waterpump - if im going to drain all the fluid and upgrade the cooling system i might as well put in a BNIB pump
NT waterlines - im going to block off the holes in my 16g and just run oil through it because ill be putting a PTE SCM 4431E that doesn't have water lines on in the next 6 or so months

 

[transparentdsm]

so today wasnt bad, i ended up getting the shift knob, aluminum rad and rear strut tower bar all installed, i didnt to the waterpump or the water pipe because i didnt have the time to pull everything apart as i noticed my tires were almost bald so i went to walmart for some cheap douglas tires to get me through the winter.

 

[transparentdsm]

last few days have been hectic, car overheating here and there. so i pulled it all apart, changed out the water pump, but that didnt help. today im going to change the thermostat out and see if that helps me any, if not im going to have to make some ducting to force the air through.

 

[bmxr152]

Try running a 180f thermostat and set the fans to come on sooner on dsmlink. I had the same problems and thats why i had to do a pusher and puller fan setup. Another thing that helped was using water and water wetter.

 

[transparentdsm]

ok ill get some water wetter at the store too.

 

[Steve885]

I guessing u have a aftermarket temp gauge I'm always stumped by this...my dash gauge is always pinned straight up while my after market can be from 180 to 220 depending on how hot is out side and if I'm in stop and go traffic what temp do u consider overheating ?

 

[Steve885]

I answered my question in your others tread ......lol

 

[transparentdsm]

219 is as hot as i let the car go and that is with the needle at 12 oclock. i dont have an aftermarket water temp gauge i was using link to read. link also reads down to 180 and the needle only moves a tiny bit to the cold side. maybee a mm or 2

 

[transparentdsm]

The car is running great, i have put a lot of miles on it and its been so much fun to drive. i now have something close to 15k miles on the car and everything is good. im thinking about getting another car and putting this one away for the winter though. i pulled the lower fender bolts to clean it out and check for rust and there was none so i dont think i want to drive this in the snow. i might get another VR4 if not i think it will be minivan or station wagon time...

 

[transparentdsm]

So i finally got around to installing the Evo 9 MR suspension that i had and i have to say that it is 100% night and day. took me about 20 minutes to install the rears after i welded and painted them, took about an hour to prep, weld, paint and let dry. the fronts were a little bit harder, but not bad took about 2 hours. i had to drill out the holes for it to mount up top, then i had to drill out the lower mounting holes to fit the bigger bolts i needed to use(1/2 harded bolt 2 1/2" inches long) i also put in 2mm spacers to make everything sit properly, put the rims on and adjusted the camber with a level and tightened up all the bolts. all in all it wasn't that bad of an afternoon. mind you i didn't remove or cut my springs. my rears stayed about the same and i gained about 1/2" up front, i don't mind it though as winter is about to come and if i end up driving this all winter ill want the nose a bit higher. i had stock hight h&r springs, kyb agx up front and gab 4 way adjustable in the rear.

now for the results:
im not a race car driver and i really don't know much about spring rates and other suspension related things when it comes to tuning, but i can tell you what i have noticed from normal driving and how things have changed. my drive to work right now is about 64 miles each way and about 45 of those miles is winding roads. 30 or so miles is high speed long sweeping turns(55 mph road), those turns i gained about 12-14 mph, i usually do about 62-63 and i had the car between 74-77. the other 15 miles are tight, quick turns with lots of left to right turns(40 mph road), those turns i gained about 7-9 mph, i usually do about 36-38 and i had the car between 43-47. there was no sliding, no tire screeching, it was like i was on a railroad track. i didn't really push the car, i think it still has a bit more in it before it will brake loose. im very happy with the results and come next spring i think im going to put in some lowering springs and get a light set of rims and some really nice tires. i think that will help gain a few more MPH in the turns.

this is my drive and i love it. click

 

[desant78]

First off, SO JEALOUS OF YOUR COMMUTE!

Now that I got that out of the way, is your comparison against the old KYB set up you had? I assume it is, but I'm just curious.

thanks! keep up the great work!