Ditto

Actually, I can't wait for a ride in this car!

Looking good Tim.

Your "event" caused me to redo mine within two weeks of that thread.

I still get a little sick thinking about that! I can't imagine being you! :lol:


Sweet looking FD though, hood fits well. Love the build, good parts choices and a well executed plan. Top notch!

Wow. It seems everybody has a horror story with this. I will make sure to be very careful with this in my upcoming build, which, BTW, is a step closer from having just bought the turbo today.

Tim has what we like to call, "Attention to detail." :)


If you are me...and after all that work and time, you lose an engine like that...you go NA V8...that is what happens. :lol:

Thanks Classic. Appreciate the compliments! Can't wait to get the final few details sorted out and start the break in period!

LOLOLOL!!!! Thanks Brian. What a politically correct way to say that I'm anal retentive. Oh well, I love detail, what can I say. From one "detail" person to another, I consider it a huge compliment since I know you've got the bug as well. ;)

Well, we ran again on Saturday, this time for more than 30 minutes. Ahhh, the smell of curing heat wrap on your downpipe. Nice ;)

Anyway, all the fuel leaks are fixed now, however, I need to shore up a small oil leak. Wideband will be in on Tuesday, so hopefully we can get a map loaded by Wed and start driving her.

Here are todays progress pics on my undertray and IC hood shroud mockups. Should have these items completed by this coming weekend as well.

I think you restrict flow through your radiator a little bit by fully boxing the back side like that. I can't see the 'true' rear opening of the radiator from the pics, but from my recollection, your fans have to be pretty dang close to that panel.

I would at least louver it (if possible) so that your fans have more area in which to push air out of the radiator.


I know a lot of people overlook the rear side of the radiator when addressing cooling concerns. In a stock FD the rear side of the radiator is almost completely blocked by the battery, intercooler/ducting and intake. This is the primary reason for its failure to cool the car properly. Why open up the whole back side of the radiator (with a vmount) and then close it off (even partially) again?

Never the less. Glad things are coming along. Let me know when this thing is rolling.

Thanks for the observation Cozmo. IMO, the side panels just ensure that air keeps moving towards the rear of the shroud. I can always take them off if I find the setup to be restrictive. With this car, I've found that blocking off as many air gaps as possible to get more "direct" flow pays huge dividends. The only time it may be detrimental is in stop and go traffic when the lack of ram airflow limits the design's ability to move air. But even then, one flick of the fan switch and voila.... instant airflow. I know that you and I talked about the possible detrimental effects of "reverse flow" if the system were too restricted. That's why I kind of like your louver idea.

We'll see.....

Thanks again for your suggested improvements.

Side panels are great! I meant the bottom panel that sort of covers the back of the rad/fans.

If you will be cutting sheet metal soon let me know, I will come over and share my $.02

But it is pretty much worth exactly that!

I dont know if I have your email... but the oil pressure wire is sourced from connector x-12 (larger of the two grey connectors up by the diagnostic terminal). Oil pressure is the grey with red strip wire. This just connects directly to the oil pressure sending unit that is mounted over by the oil filter pedestal. I was told NOT to use teflon tape as the sender grounds with its connection to the housing. That is why the threads on it are pipe thread so it seals propperly just with the threading.

This is the part that was really surprising to me... The Japanese car had standard tread on all the sensors, the American engine (LS1) had metric thread on all the sensors like M14x1.5 I think. I had myself a laugh at that one.

Thanks Cozmo. I'll try it tonight. PM'd you my email address.

I agree with Cosmo. I cut a bunch of small squares into my stock undertray and noticed a difference in temps both on track but particularly in stop/go traffic.

In stop/go traffic, the vents in the undertray it resulted in a small difference in cooling temps (~1 degree C) but a slightly bigger difference in air temps and related to heat soak.

Also, I recommend using some of these hose clamps on the silicon coolant hoses:
http://www.breezeclamps.com/ct.htm
I had tried using some expensive, high quality, worm type hose clamps and they would loosen over a few heat cycles. These Breeze constant torque clamps work incredibly well and never loosen up.

Thanks for the real-world feedback both on the undertray and clamps. I may switch to something like the clamps you're specifying. Had my first real-world driving experience yesterday when I took the car on her maiden voyage to our club picnic (30 miles round trip). All went well and temps were extremely cool, especially given the fact that I was running without the undertray. Temps can only get better once I get that completed and installed.

Just added a new fuel pump last night (Bosch 044) in place of my Walbro. The Walbro was working OK, albiet my fuel pressure regulator needle would oscillate 2-3 psi while the car was running.

Fuel pressure is now ROCK solid. Wow, that Bosch unit looks like your stuffing a little beer can in your fuel tank, but man, can that sucker pump! Now, once we get her broken in we shouldn't have any fuel starvation issues :) Just wish I would have taken a pic of the pump before install so you guys could see the size difference!

Bosch 044