Wow, so a little over a month since my last update. Life got in the way for a few weeks but I've made some progress. The biggest issue I'm having is with the forums actually. I can't do my usual early morning and lunchtime browsing because for some reason my work network has flagged the forums as a malicious/fishing website (other forums are okay). Any idea admins?
Anyway, got the transmission straightened out. Realized I was missing the lower shifter bushing - the one that fits in the selector rod control end. Freaked out for a bit until I realized MMR sold a delrin replacement. Picked that up along with some motor and transmission mounts:
As other people have found the bushing needs to be milled/ground down from 19 mm to ~17 mm to clear the return spring. In it's final home:
Transmission selects gears super smooth now. Can't wait to get it on the car. Shifting away from the transmission now, I finally got my 929 MC. Waited >2 months for a
Dorman unit from Amazon. Gave up after it kept getting delayed so I picked up a Raybestos unit from RockAuto.
Definitely a "universal" casting. Too bad the "OEM" unit (Beck Arnley) was over $250! Got to work getting the 929 MC and booster on the car. 929 MC (right) versus stock N/A S5 FC (left):
And after much bending of break lines and trimming of the BPV bracket everything on the car:
Next everything comes off so I can paint the BPV and bench bleed the MC. The most exciting update is after nearly a year of waiting my Defined Autoworks header arrived!
I couldn't contain my excitement so I quickly mocked up the engine with exhaust and intake manifolds:
Notice something?
Yeah... Intake runners are ~1/16" away from the exhaust runner for the trailing rotor. In fact, the intake has to be installed first to even get the exhaust manifold on! Definitely looking into TBC/ceramic coatings now for both the intake and the exhaust. I'm also considering getting the intake manifold flange milled down .100" or so to give some extra clearance. I really want to squeeze a heat shield in there. With that "sorted" I decided to mock up the exhaust on the car. I installed the delrin mounts so everything was in its final position and went at it:
It's a pretty tight fit at the passenger's side of the transmission tunnel. The stock heat shield has to go and even then it requires some finesse to get it installed. TBC/ceramic coating is going to be vital. Good thing I know some guys with connections to Cerakote...
That's it for now. Once I get the brakes finished the car will go off to get an exhaust made. Here's where I could use some advice. I really want to go with a single exit to keep overall weight down. Just through eyeballing it looks like I'll be able to fit a presilencer/muffler or two mufflers in series with this setup. Logan at Defined recommends Borla XR-1 mufflers but I'm wondering if two of them in series would be enough to keep noise down. I'm not concerned about volume myself but I don't want to be black flagged on track so sound intensity needs to be <92 dB. The other options I'm considering are Racing Beat presilencer -> Power Pulse muffler or two Power Pulse mufflers in series.