This was a day like any other, starting out with a very early morning breakfast after kicking out my annoying cat for his morning maul. Seeing as I would not be swimming today I didn't sample my cup of Mauritian Vanilla Tea - which also serves to alleviate morning duties - in a bid to reduce sugar intake and bla bla bla, wtf cares.
Moving swiftly on from where I abandoned the POS yesterday in a flurry of flailing arms and curses, I went and purchased myself a pair of appropriately named Flare spanners from the illustrious Halfrauds for the princely sum of £3.5billion. On arrival at home, I set forth immediately dousing the offending (and offensive - they said bad things to me :() union bolts in plenty of Plusgas, before setting to work on the non-massacred one. And:
Perfectly simple removal and re-installation! The otherside however said NEIN! And continued in its path to be an infinity-sided hex nut (i.e. a circle, i.e. its rounded, i.e. stfu). I have it on dubious Authority - Harvey, he cannot be trusted - that a replacement line will cost me in the region of £70. Lovely. I'll throw in my sphincter as well. Following that, and several failed attempts to remove the annoying locating tabs from one set of the brake hard lines located on the rear axle, I re-attached the wheels, and went around frolicking in the garden with a daisy garland in my hair. On my return, I then raised the front of the car and with little undue hassle got the exhaust system back on its hangers, and bolted onto the downpipe with its new hardware, seeing as I was an absolute Barbarian with the previous units having attacked them repeatedly with a super uber melee combo of destruction. They were absolutely in a dire state. And now they're not:
Naturally, with the exhaust system now in situ', it'd have been unwise to not have started it and enjoy a bit of an eargasm, so, I didn't. Realising the absurd move, I swiftly collected myself and launched myself asunder onto the ignition. And. Wow. That's quite silent, much quieter than I remember! "Awww", quipped my inner yoofness :(. Once warmed up a little bit I jiggled the throttle a bit, naturally, and was enthralled by the resulting crackles from the exhaust and the whooshing and shrill stutter of the turbocharger. Ahhhhh. I'm also impressed with the newly acquired responsiveness of the newer engine. However:
I quickly shut the engine off once the leak progressively got more dramatic and annoying, though on closer inspection I am somewhat relieved, as the leak seems to be emanating not from the water pump assembly itself, but either from a heater hose that's not been tightened correctly, or the pipe that is inserted into the water pump. Meh. Whilst I didn't film this start - you've had your fix, gtfo it - I did point the camera to demonstrate a new facet of discomfort/comfort introduced in this new guise of the vehicles progress:
Yes, as previously intimated, I will be driving an 880kg vibrator. ^_^
Other than that, nothing else has taking place/is taking place/smells like plaice - I am still waiting for a correct passenger-side Driveshaft (will this godfarsaken - yes, I spelt it like that on porpoise! - saga ever end!?), and receiving the driver's side one from the garage, getting the gearbox filled up with lovely 'Purps, and basically just diagnosing all these leaks and electrical issues, tidying up the wiring loom then final assembly. Oh, and that brake line kerfuffle. Otherwise, I am gladly bereft of major proceedings for the return of the wretched car ^_^.
Also, no farking bugs, its not a bug blog, GAWD!
So, this day started as any other, I woke up, had breakfast, had a cup of Mauritian vanilla tea and waited for it to take effect. I consequently then pooped and then went for my bi-daily 1.7km swim.
After which. I did nothing. Well, for a bit, then I bought an HKS FCon-V Pro v3.2. Oh, right, as you do. So, wallet emptied, I decided to then progress a bit further with the POS. Off to my friendly garage and off again after having collected my newly assembled hubs, whereby I was met with yet another delightful setback - the short driveshaft I toiled over for many moons, has turned out to be the incorrect driveshaft yet again. Joy! To add to that, being the vacant minded asshat I can sometimes be, I got grease all over my favourite jacket as I was too absent to remove it from the boot when bringing the hubs back. Bah.
Commencing work and spurred by the fact that the part numbers for the Cynos and Glanza hubs differed, I instigated a quick comparison. Oh dear:
It seems like the steering arm is slightly different on the Glanza hub, appearing to be slightly longer and more inboard. However, this would serve to provide more leverage onto the steering arm, thus in theory imbuing a quicker steering ratio. Could this be a fortunate oversight? Based on these wildly speculative theories, I am looking forward to finding out. Whilst I'm comparing, he's an illustration of the difference in the driveshaft spline diameters between the two cars, the crux of many a heartache:
The Cynos hub on the left obviously demonstrating a far larger opening for the CV Joint shaft. These will be kept as a spare, regardless, as I am a parts hoarder and only feel satisfied surrounded by greasy bits of metal....*shivvers* ^_^. Anyway, cleaned myself up now. Straight to work with the hubs, which is quite basic anyway; applied copper grease on the tie-rod end and ball joint shafts, slipped the hub onto the ball-joint, tightened the bolt, slipped in the tie-rod end, tightened its bolt, then fit the hub loosely into the strut assembly. However, the annoyance came with one of the most mundane things ever. EVRAR. Lining up the brake caliper bracket with the associated boss holes on the hub. BAH! Such a proliferation of needless faffing was required, but it got done. Not without the passenger-side caliper attempting to kill me by falling on me unannounced. How very dare it. Whilst there, I also replaced the old caliper bolts as I rounded a few of the old ones in my infancy - around a day or two ago. And here's a picture to prove it:
And now with the APP Braided line finally attached:
L'autre flanc aussi:
So a lovely, semi-restored hub assembly, and now with the brake assembly fully installed:
MOAR PICS.
No moar. For now. After getting the hub assembly installed, the car was ready to be lowered. Ah, well, almost, it needed some means of rolling stock. Enter, the Sparcoluls of destiny:
I do very like, despite the crappy ET7894.5 offset, they don't sit too badly, a 20mm spacer should sort the wheel out very nicely. Confirmed as well when the car touched the ground. Whilst there, I also found myself rather amused by a previous observation of Harveys' and how seemingly the track-rod end positions on the steering arms were at completely different levels - a rather long-winded approach to saying "the tracking is out". And so it proved, with a Bird's eye view of the wheels looking roughly like this ---> \\ || and that's not even much of an exaggeration! Obviously the longer steering arms on the hubs would serve to exacerbate the steering angle (promising). Anyway, no time to dilly dally. Well, actually, plenty of time to dilly dally, I have no real commitments. ANYWAY, dilly dallying done, off to work on the badunkadunk. So, after being - quite a recurring theme seemingly - of the gentler sex and getting a bit apprehensive about lifting the rear of the car without being able to have the car in reverse, before rightly being reminded that rear wheel drive cars are lifted in the same manner, I proceeded to lifting the rear of the car. So, chock blocks in place, Longchamps infront of the chock blocks (not taking any chances), the rear of the car is up and in the air.
First challenge, get the muffler back up on the hanger, and all premonitions of the most annoying struggle in the world, compounded by the surreal effort required to remove the muffler FROM the hanger in the first place, were soon all quashed as I caught sight, of my lovely can of Plusgas. Bit of a spray, bit of a push, done. That's it. DONE! Woot.
That was easy, so, bolted in the Panhard rod, and progressed onto the rear brake line install. Ah....AHH. Things were going FAR too easy for me. Ofcourse, Damnation rears its ugly head yet again. You cheeky devil...you cheeky, annoying prick. So. Firstly, I was initially confused and disorientated and befuddled, as I looked at the array of 3 million hoses per side for the brakes, and the one braided line. A dormant brain cell then reawakened and brought me to the conclusion, and a remembering of yore, that said line replaced several of these plethora of lines. And all these lines naturally are located with unions. Great. I love union bolts, absolutely heart them ^_^. Festering rusty fiends. So, liberal spraying of Plusgas, and commence, with the main caliper bolt, and nearby union bolts coming undone quite easily, until reaching the final one. Yes, ALWAYS one. Why can't you conform to my requests like your brethren you wretched bane of my existence. And when I force it to conform, it just surrenders and becomes round. KKTHANKX. POS. Bah to you, etc. Cursing.
So, off to the next side. BASICALLY a repeat effort. Other than this time I do the wise thing (again?!! TF is happening to me) and decide not to destroy the union bolt. After much fidgeting I managed to at least get the brake hoses onto the calipers, and leave it at that. After glaring at the union bolts I then tidied up and went for noms.
So, Episode 2 will occur shortly, where I shall endeavour to find the right tools for the union bolts - apparently open-ended spanners are for tools - get the exhaust installed, and at least I can start the engine and not have it sounding like an automated fart. From thereon, it'll be a case of diagnostickingneegnednens all the leaks and electrical issues, and then final assembly really! Closing in, a nanometer at a time, and a precursor of things to come:
^_^
Oh and:
I dropped the jack on the Fender >_<
Also, this is a bug on my desk:
^-^
Modifications List
- Autobahn Oil Catch Tank (Not plumbed in)
- AutoStaff Intake Manifold Insulator Gasket
- Blitz K1-200V Turbocharger (Waiting to rebuild)
- EP91 Glanza-V 4E-FTE Engine
- Extralube ZX1 Engine Oil Friction Reducer
- Ford Focus ST FMIC w/ Hayward & Scott Piping
- Hayward & Scott 2.5" Downpipe-Back single Muffler Exhaust System
- JAM Racing 1Bar Actuator (Waiting to install)
- Magnecor KV85 Spark Plug Wires
- Ported & Polished Stock 4E-FTE Throttlebody
- Redline Water Wetter Radiator Fluid Additive
- SARD Mag II Oil Filter
- SARD Magnetic Sump Plug
- TRD 1.3kg/m Sports Radiator Cap
- TRD Duracon Oil Filler Cap
- Versa Cruise Voltage Stabiliser (removed)
- Zisco SUS321 Tubular CT9 Manifold
Drivetrain:
- Zep Racing Braided Clutch Hose
- Racing Gear Clutch Cover
- TRD CV Joints
- "TC Tuning" Solid Brass Shifter Cable Bushes
- C56 Gearbox
- Royal Purple Gear Oil (Yet to install)
Suspension:
- SPATS Cynos Front Strut Tower Brace
- Ultra Racing EP82 Fender Braces
- Whiteline Anti-Lift Kit
- Tanabe 4 Point Lower Control Arm Brace
- Silkroad RM/A8 Coilovers
- TRD Lower Control Arm Front Bushes
- TRD Front Anti-Roll Bar
- TRD Front Anti-Roll Bar Mount Bushes
- Cusco Hyper Metal Rear Axle Arm Bushes
- Zep Racing Engine Damper
- Zep Racing Pillowball Panhard Rod
- Zep Racing Rear Trailing Arm Brace
- Zep Racing 4 Point Floor Brace (Yet to install)
- Zep Racing 4 Point Rear Strut Tower Brace
- BYP/Energy Suspension Polyurethane Engine Mounts
- Okuyama Carbing EP91 3 Point front Strut Tower Brace (Need to Modify)
Brakes & Rolling Stock:
- Prodrive by Alcon 4 Piston WRC Brake Calipers (Yet to install)
- SW20 Rev3 Rear brake Calipers (Yet to install)
- Hawk HPS Brake Pads
- Cusco EP82 Brake Master Cylinder Stopper
- Brembo Discs (Grooved by Hi-Spec)
- Starlet GT Rear Axle Conversion
- 16" x 7" Enkei RS 3Pc. Wheels (Need Spacers)
- 205/45 R16 Yokohama S306 Tyres
Interior:
- Eastbear Elite Bucket Driver seat
- Bride Ergo Passenger Seat
- Comrade's C Short Shifter Kit
- Cruise Gear knob
- Dension DH100ix HDD-Based Headunit
- Nardi Classico 330m Leather Steering Wheel
- SARD 60mm Boost Pressure Gauge
- TRS Clubman 4-point Purple Road Harnesses
- GT-1 Motorsport 30mm Steering Wheel Spacer
Exterior:
- Philips Premium Sidelight Bulbs
- Cracked out Indicators w/ Ring Clear Indicator Bulbs
- Ultra Clear Repeaters & MHW Clear Bulbs
- Factory Optional Aero Lip Package
- R33 Skyline GTR Replica Bumper Vents
- Stebel Nautilus Twin-tone Horn
- Toyota Cynos Optional Window Wind Deflectors
Weight Reduction:
- Airbags & Airbag ECU Removed
- Boot Trim Removed
- Shock Tower Trim Removed
- A/C System Removed
- Rear Seats & Belts Removed
- Interior Carpetting & Mats Removed
- All Interior trim panels removed
- Headlining Removed
- Front Crash Bar Removed (Rear one missing!)
- Powersteering Pump, Lines & Reservoir Removed
- Sound Deadening Removed
- Foglights Removed
- Spare tyre and Jack removed
- Center Console removed
- Parcel Shelf removed
- Rear speakers removed
- Seatbelt assemblies removed
- HID System removed
- Doorcards removed
- TRD Front Anti-Roll Bar (2.4kg lighter than stock)
(Grand Total of about 135kg removed so far...)
* Official vehicle weight: 880kg
* Unofficial vehicle weight (not-verified): 871.6kg
Pending Setup Items Gathered:
- HRF 5E Connecting Rods
- HRF 5E 74mm Bore Pistons
- Cruise 264 Degree Camshafts
- Cruise-style TD05H Manifold & Downpipe
- GReddy TD05H-18G Turbocharger
- Synapse Synchronic 40mm Wastegate
- ACIS Intake Manifold
- 5E-FHE Crankshaft & Block
- OS Giken Twin Plate Clutch Kit
- HRF Intake Manifold with SR20 Throttlebody
Other Project Blogs...
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About Me
- Enrico - Beddu
- I am Enrico, Italian/Mauritian, not affiliated with the Mafia/not a Dodo Bird. I have of late taken to the world of blogging - its a simple way of writing down haphazard memoirs, which I attempt to give structure to my life. It largely fails but it helps to circumvent boredom.