Whew! Who thought I'd have so much to update on in the last three weeks. Test drove the car today (pre-alignment). Definitely makes the S2000 feel like a Rolls Royce in comparison. Palms definitely feel like they're reading the road. It's a pain to turn sub 3 mph, but once I can get it inching, its a heckuvalotta fun.
1. Car is assembled again. Everything in the front half of the engine bay has been scrubbed clean.
2. Rewired my R-magic headlights one last time with a fire retardent loom
3. removed A/C
4. removed P/S
5. installed Atomic Rex rack (had a heckuva time trying to get it to align decently enough to drive off to get a full alignment and corner balance. Test run maybe this weekend before it rains?)
6. pulled off the driver seat again, undid the rails...and figured out how to move my seat up an additional 1 inch. Oh man, unbelievable bliss for my short self. Now its finally like heaven in the driver's seat. I don't know why I didn't do that originally. Maybe I was too lazy and eager to put the seat in and leave it there (over a year ago)
7. took off all the hardware for the supernow sway bar stuff and redid with threadlock - noticed it had backed out since the first time it was installed
8. washed a lot of bolts in Simple Green to clean up.
9. Warmed up the car once two weeks ago. Fans sound GREAT. None of that terrible broken bearing whine from before. I don't know why all the mechanics I used to go to sucked so bad that they couldn't foresee or diagnose a lot of these blatant issues like the leaking rack and the fan noise.
A few things I want to backdate to:
- well worth my money, the RS Engineering anti-surge tank cover, which turns the factory fuel control baffle into a sealed surge tank. Very well made, easy to install, with a viton seal.
- Chadwick's idler pulley. Helps add contact surface to the water pump pulley, which becomes an issue after removing the air pump. Well put together kit, and when I noticed the initial bearing provided seemed faulty, they changed it out asap and warrantied it. Great service! Waiting to put this on, because I'm not sure if I want to yank my engine out first for a rebuild in preparation for the single turbo..... spoke too prematurely? Maybe.
- maintenance item, new clutch switch courtesy of Ray from Malloy Mazda and his great prices
- My secret santa Elfster exchange w/ my friends scored me a much more sensitive Air Temp Sensor for me
- lastly, I've been eyeing this for a while...a braided stainless clutch line upgrade from Japan2LA on the forums
