The Shadow Type R Build

[fatherpain]

Amazing build. Found this thread searching for information on the HKS cooler install to help guide me. Great stuff and really appreciate the feedback on the Girodisc track performance. Looking forward to the next entries

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[Deleted member 31314]

Pretty awesome build and write up. Keep up the great work.

 

[TheShadow]

Yeah – sorry guys, this is a long entry… I had plenty to talk about I guess.

A new year, a new decade, a growing family, but the same motivation to keep tinkering with the R and blathering on about it here. It’s a good time to reflect though considering I now have officially been alive during 5 different decades (yeah we’re counting the 80’s since I was born in ’89.) It’s crazy though – this car has been with me now going on 3 years, which isn’t really that long but is longer than my daughter has been around. *Sniff* it’s like the whole family is growing up together. And as I say that here is a picture of my girl titled “when the hell will it be warm enough to use the damn 4 door car again.”

It has been a busy holiday break though. I’m fortunate enough to get a couple of week off with my job so that gave me some time rest, spend time with family, and tear every goddamn thing I’ve done to this car apart. Seriously. Just about everything I have touched in the engine bay that I’ve detailed in this build thread got touched for one stupid reason or another. To help illustrate my point I created this handy and informative bulleted list of what I messed with this Christmas season (so far) and why:

• New Parts Installed:
  • PRL High Volume Intake
  • PRL Titanium Turbo Inlet Pipe Kit
  • PRL Intercooler Piping Kit
  • Spoon Sports Front and Rear Rigid Collar sets
  • Hybrid Racing Transmission Shifter Bushings
• New Fluids:
  • Transmission drain and refill with AMSOIL Manual Synchromesh tranny fluid
  • Engine oil drain and refill with Pennzoil Platinum 5W30 and HKS oil filter
    • This isn’t really new, but I did do the work at the same time as the rest of this list.
• Old Parts Touched:
  • HKS Oil Cooler
    • Yeah – this bad boy had to come out to get the PRL intercooler piping installed. Joy. I made some improvements though, read on to find out how!
  • Radium Engineering Catch Cans (Both PCV and CCV)
    • So apparently I was dumb in my younger years and installed the PCV hoses backwards so the air flow direction through that can was reversed. It still worked, but not as intended. I fixed this. The CCV side then needed some fiddling due to the PRL inlet pipe.
    • I also adjusted my coolant hose that was re-routed as a result of the CCV side install.
  • J’s racing strut tower and lower monocoque bar
    • Nothing wrong with these parts, just the damn things are always in the way if I need to work under or around them.
• Parts Removed:
  • Mishimoto Intake
  • HKS Intercooler Pipes
  • Stock “monocoque” bar (more info in the HKS oil cooler section.)
  • Acuity transmission shifter bushings

A little disclaimer though, for how much I tinkered with I have taken surprisingly few pictures this time around. I mean it’s the middle of winter and I’m working in my 2 stall garage – it isn’t super photogenic. However I do want to share my working conditions here for all you guys wondering how many mods you can realistically do yourself without taking your car to an expensive mechanic or dealership. The answer? All the mods. Here is my “Service Bay” where you can see my lovely 2 foot working bubble around all sides and underneath the car.

I do have a 2 stall garage, but I also have a wife with a big ass truck. And two other Hondas. So yeah that space is not free or available. Fear not though weary readers. Like I said – I have done all my mods in this tiny space. Even the Spoon rigid collars. The only two exceptions to this statement are when I did the brake job at a buddies house (because I needed help bleeding the system, but his work space was only slightly more spacious than mine) and any wheel alignment / tire or rim work (which if you are holding that against me, they reserve a special hell for people like you.) It is all possible though. Not all of it is comfortable, or fast, and sometimes the lighting sucks, but since I’m reflecting I am proud at how much I’ve done on my own at my own house with my own hands. It is a good feeling knowing for sure that I didn’t forget any silly little bolts or knowing exactly why something is the way it is. If I can do it, so can you.

Let’s kick off this new year shindig post though, which I have titled “Ain’t no party like a PRL party.” Since, you know, I seem to have pledged my loyalty to their brand… In all honesty though they make some top notch parts and their customer service is right up there with the best of them. I’ve had good luck with their intercooler and figured if the heat soak mitigation benefits of their intake and turbo inlet pipe are half of what they claim then they would be a move in the right direction. And hell at that point I figured I would get their intercooler piping to keep things consistent (I also like how this piping kit claims to eliminate a weak point in the stock coupling right at the intake manifold that apparently had a tendency to develop tears and boost leaks.) I got some good black Friday deals on the parts though and I’ll say it again: I have nothing but good things to say about PRL’s customer support (they helped me with a couple minor issues regarding part quality.)

I’m lumping most of the PRL items as one discussion point here since they all went on at the same time. The quality was really good on all parts – I did have a strange little defect in one of the intercooler silicon hoses but PRL sent me a replacement right away when I reached out to them. Starting from the bottom up – the intercooler pipes assembled like butter. No issues anywhere with these pipes when they went into the car. BUT. I want to caution anyone about “step #12” here:

This is a lie. My experience was that this stud does not want to come out of the stock pipe. EVER. I mean it eventually did, but not before I mangled the shit out of the threads. So yeah – just spend the damn $2.50 and get a new one before you do this install. This stupid realization set me back 4 days while I waited for the new part to come in. Thankfully I had other things to work on in the meantime. Otherwise though, the piping kit assembled really well – some of the worm clamps and that one sensor are a little tight to get fully assembled, but not the worse I’ve dealt with. I would also recommend not having the J’s racing monocoque bar installed with doing this either – makes the hot side piping much more accessible. I also want to mention that I had zero issues with my old HKS pipes, and actually thought they were a little more visually appealing than the PRL kit. But, after some time with this car the heat management topic is a high priority and in that category the silicon hoses from PRL beat out the aluminum HKS ones. And the PRL kit is a little more all-encompassing since it includes the new silicon coupling that assembles right against the throttle body.

Next up was the titanium inlet pipe. Ended up having to pull out the CCV catch can just to get some clearance as I removed the stock parts, but not a big deal. And yeah, those lower bolts holding the pipe against the turbo are a bitch to get to – they were the last time I removed this pipe too. Although It’s also nice to see that some of the guides I wrote are still being of use – I saw the one I made for RV6 Performance’s downpipe install referenced in the PRL inlet pipe thread regarding how to get this stock inlet pipe off. Neat.

This thing is big though. When I first held the cast elbow section I thought it was cool they made a little depression on the forward facing surface to act as a handhold. Yeah I was wrong, that was intentionally designed for clearance to the wastegate actuator once the part is installed. I didn’t imagine how apparent the larger diameter piping would be, but it really is. The wire harness that secures to the pipe was a little tough to assemble in the correct spot, and the CCV catch can really wasn’t fun to get back in… I will come back to this topic. Otherwise though this is a cool piece (ha.) It is cold as balls here this time of year so I won’t really be able to comment on the lack of heat absorption for some time, but it really looks nice.

Next on the list is the high volume intake. This thing has been out for a while so I won’t spend much time talking about it. I was originally let down that the box is plastic, but again heat management is pushing us this way. I can only hope that multiple thermal cycles in the engine bay won’t lead to cracks in the material down the road. I did use Loctite on the screws recommended and will keep an eye on them. I was also surprised to see that PRL omitted using the retention point on the far left side of the vehicle that the stock unit used to help secure the intake (the Mishimoto intake used it too) – I mean it doesn’t feel like it is going anywhere, but again from a fatigue standpoint losing one bolt to retain the intake will allow it to vibrate / flex more during it’s life. Time will tell. It also kind of sucks that once you buy the intake and the inlet pipe, you end up with two silicon hoses that assemble between those parts. Obviously only one of them fits since the other is designed to be used with the stock inlet pipe, but it makes me wish you could trade one in or return it for a small refund or something. Whatever – it will probably end up as a toy for my kid since it can’t even really be used as a spare.

While I was deep in the engine bay putting in all the PRL parts I figured this was a good opportunity to swap out for the Hybrid Racing shifter bushings. Honestly – they are pretty similar to the Acuity ones in terms of quality, both are nice. I will say that the HR ones felt like they were able to move a little easier - IE less resistance between the inner and outer bushing portions. The Acuity set also used a plastic outer bushing housing with some O-rings to help retain it in the shifter cable. The HR one was a metal bushing housing and no O-rings. I actually like the HR design better, and the lack of O-rings to become damaged or split down the road is a positive in my book too. In terms of the performance though – I can’t tell a difference between these parts (at least in the 15 miles I’ve driven on the HR ones so far.) Both sets worked well, but I still feel the HR ones win out in my opinion due a more solid and simple design standpoint. For the record, I only swapped these to keep everything in my shifter setup with the same brand (since I have the HR shifter installed.)

On a slightly more surprising note, while in the area I looked at the coolant line I re-routed when installing the CCV catch can and noticed I had developed a rub. Essentially the hose had drooped a little from where I initially installed it and allowed it to get rubbed by the lever on the transmission. I forgot to take a picture of the parts after I re-routed the coolant line, but I drew on this old picture how I updated it.

Basically the red circle is where I had the rub, and I moved the hose to roughly how the yellow line shows – and yes, it ended up going around / between the wire harness in that area. I also had a zip tie retention band thing that I used to secure this hose against the larger hose directly behind it in this picture in the green circled area. So hopefully that will fix my rub – I will check it some time down the road and see how it is doing.

Speaking of rectifying issues – lets talk oil coolers. Now overall this mod is one that I’ve been most happy with and it works really well, but I did find a few things that needed improving as I tore into this round of updates. So remember that I essentially had to remove the whole oil cooler due to the PRL intercooler piping kit (the bolt that secures the driver side intercooler outlet flange that you replace is essentially right under the oil cooler… if doing these mods together do the piping kit before the oil cooler.) So anyway I’m pulling this bad boy out of the car in my tiny little corner of the garage, and I come to find out I had lost BOTH of the nuts securing one of the mounting brackets to the main cooler assembly. In addition to that, I start looking at the hoses up closer to where they assemble into the oil filter sandwich plate, and look what else I found – a lovely (and very apparent) rub that was happening between the one oil cooler line and the downpipe. Yeah it rubbed through the heat shield that HKS supplied. And yeah, I’m glad I caught this – the downpipe will win in a fight against a braided steel oil line any day of the week.

There is a silver lining here though – I really hated the heat shield wrap that HKS supplied ever since first getting this kit, and this was the perfect opportunity to try for something better. Did a lot of searching and ended up purchasing some 2” ID titanium hose wrap from Design Engineering. You get 3 feet, and I essentially cut it into 3 pieces and replaced the two shielded areas near the downpipe and the additional shielding I put on one line where it attaches to the cooler core to protect some nearby wiring. Picture is below. I think it actually ended up looking considerably nicer than before, and since I went with the 2” ID wrap I no longer had a split piece of shielding wrap like HKS supplied. Took a bit to get it to lay nicely and secure with some wire, but I’m happy with the result. Below is the cooler after I finished wrapping the sections of the lines, and I also drew an arrow to where those two nuts rattled off that I mentioned. I ended up getting some 6mm flanged nylon lock nuts to use in this area. Should hold up better.

Keeping down the path of continuous improvements, as I was getting the lines routed back to the sandwich plate I made an executive decision. I’m dumping the stock monocoque bar. Not sure if this is the proper term for this piece, but it is essentially the flimsy little bar that is right next to the J’s racing bar. Go back a few pages and I’m sure I have a picture that shows both on the car. I made this decision for 3 reasons. One, upon closer inspection this bar actually was a little bent in the first place – so clearly she isn’t providing too much in the category of rigidity (I could actually see the stupid bar flex and deform as I tightened it’s retention bolts as I was fiddling with things.) Two, based on an inspection of how all these sub-frame pieces and bars interact I came to the conclusion that the J’s racing bar is basically doing the same thing as the stock bar, but providing much more stiffness than the stock piece. So even if I lost a little stiffness by not using both parts, I’m still far ahead of what the stock bar provided alone (especially since I also got the Spoon rigid collars in.) And three, omitting this bar allowed me to do some fancy routing with the oil cooler lines and get plenty of clearance to the downpipe. One of the oil cooler lines now routes ahead of the J’s bar, then wraps around and underneath it before threading back to the sandwich plate. And hot damn – everything packaged much better than expected! There is even a good amount of clearance to the under body shroud! So I mean yeah, if I bottom out the car just right there may be a risk I could damage this oil cooler line… but I guess I just won’t try to smash the bottom of my car into the ground? Seems like a strange concept but I will give it a go. And as a fourth subtle benefit of ditching that bar – weight savings yo. All like 3 oz.

Next up we have the Spoon rigid collar set! Damn I’m exited for this one. Literally like one of the first aftermarket parts I had purchased for this car, and I finally worked up the courage to install them. And you know what? It is way easier than my head made it out to be. I dunno – for some reason lowering the sub-frames scared me, and I thought I remember reading somewhere that a guy screwed up his fill neck for the fuel tank when doing the rear set because he dropped the sub-frame too much… Either way. This really wasn’t bad at all (other than the glorious lack of working space under the car.) But again, I did this with the car only on jack stands – without trouble. I just went slow and dropped the frame bit by bit until I had the clearance I needed to slip in the collars. Fitment was perfect, as I had hoped from Spoon, just took a little effort to pry the sub-frame around to get everything lined up when threading the bolts back in. But not hard at all. I did the front set first and then the rear set was even easier. Again, maybe there is some risk of dropping the sub-frame too far but I at least had no issues with this process. I also didn’t use any jack or stands under the sub frames when lowering them – I just cracked all bolts loose, then slowly un-threaded each one little by little to try and drop the sub-frame evenly. No pictures here. By the time you are done you can barely tell anything is different just by looking at it. I also only ended up using 1 of the supplied grease tubes (you get one with each set.) It had plenty to do both front and rear sets, and now I have some extra to re-apply in case I ever have to break these connections loose in the future.

And now – It is time for everyone’s favorite game show: “Who plays nice with who?!” Where I detail what parts assemble well with the others that I have installed, and which ones are on the naughty list.

• First up – Spoon rigid collars (front set) and the RV6 Performance solid compliance mount / housing: they work great together! The rigid collar slips into the RV6 housing just like the stock one and it even seemed to help line up the compliance mount better when re-assembling. Winner!
• Next, J’s racing monocoque bar and HKS oil cooler remote lines: With the above fiddling and adjustments they get the seal of approval here! I’m actually still impressed at how well this area packaged back up.
• Finally, the PRL titanium inlet pipe and the Radium Engineering CCV Catch Can / Engine decorative cover: Yeah… not sure who to really blame here, but this combination is on the naughty list. Remember how I said the PRL inlet pipe was a lot bigger? I didn’t really anticipate this, but since the OD of the pipe grew it adjusted the two retention points that secure the coolant line between the inlet pipe and the engine (and therefore the point where the CCV can remote lines assemble to.) Basically this bolting location was moved up and to the rear of the vehicle just enough that it was a bitch to package the CCV lines back around that coolant line, and to make matters worse when I first bolted the engine cover back on it interfered pretty badly with one of the CCV can remote lines (see the image below.) And to the keen observer, in the photo below I had already flipped around the little mounts from Radium Engineering that hold the catch can lines in an effort to assemble them as low as possible. Didn’t help. Thankfully I had some spare hose that I was able to replace one of the CCV lines with a slightly longer section to gain more clearance, but I am unfortunately now running without the engine cover. Weight savings yo? I guess this just gives reason to save up for that swanky Spoon valve cover.

As far as driving impressions go – I don’t really have feedback yet. I only have 15 miles on the parts listed above and it’s the middle of winter, so you know – cold. Plus I need an alignment now so I’m not pushing things. I guess the couple of things did seem stand out to me though. Most noticeably, the Spoon collar set is awesome – they actually did make a difference. I looooove stiff chassis. Chassees? Chassi? Whatever. The body is noticeably firmer and seems to move as a whole when driving, turning or hitting bumps. The stock setup is good don’t get me wrong – but these things are cool. Don’t buy that magic collar knock off shit. Get the real deal. They are worth it. Next – PRL intake setup. Nothing is wrong, and I need more time driving with these parts, but I don’t seem to hear the same level of whoosh sound. Again, I don’t have enough miles, and with the cold weather I only hit 20 PSI of boost, so let’s come back to this. Lastly – man I would recommend everyone change out their tranny fluid. I seriously thought that the guys recommending you do this were just shouting lies or slander, and any benefits were smoke and mirrors. Hot damn though it’s an improvement. I’m not going to sit her and say “AMSOIL ALL THE WAY!” because that is dumb. I think the better way of saying it would be swap out the OEM fluid to your preferred high quality fluid of choice and you will be rewarded with smoother and easier shifts. Nice! So with all of that out of the way, this is how my engine bay currently sits:

Man. This update was long. And I thought one of my last updates was a double feature. You know what though? I feel like Billy Mays because wait! There’s more!

I held my tongue for my thoughts on the RV6 Performance solid control arm bushing kit in my last post, but I think I’ve waited long enough. I wish it wasn’t winter when I installed this because I really was hoping to get another few hundred miles on the parts. Currently they have less than 200 miles on them, which is not broken in in my book. Some of my comments here reference noise that I wholeheartedly feel will decrease and disappear as time goes on.

This upgrade is awesome though - I honestly love it and it may be one of the favorite things I’ve done to this car. It is essentially aimed to remove slop in the steering, which it does wonderfully. One of the first things I noticed when initially driving my brand new R (all those years ago) was how it just went wherever you pointed it due to the responsive steering. It's like getting that feeling all over again. It also does a wonderful job of locking down the front end and making it solid, so your "connected to the road" feeling is really amped up. Remember how I mentioned the Spoon rigid collars increased the how stiff the body felt too? These bushings gave some of the same solid body improvement feeling all on their own. I can see this being a fine line for people though - I personally hate driving cars that feel like they are floating on a cloud (think of driving like a Crown Vic) and would much rather feel the road and how the car is interacting with it. I also would not call this effect harsh by any means. I'll try to use an NVH style ranking to give you a better idea:

• Noise: Yeah, let's address the elephant in the room first. FULL DISCLAIMER. AGAIN. I don’t think these parts have enough miles on them and, it's winter - cold makes everything shrink and make funny noises in the first place, so I think that is playing in. I think this category will improve as time goes on and things break in (and warm up.) With that out of the way - yes, I have experienced some "creaking". It isn't all the time, mainly in instances like parking lots and pulling out of my driveway - really slow articulations of the control arms. It almost sounds like the kind of "pop" you get when you crack your knuckles. I don't think it is bad, and honestly compared to some of the sway bar rattle / clatter I've experienced through the years, this isn't that extreme. I have 2 theories right now: 1 - Grease hasn't fully spread around the surface of the rear compliance bearing, causing a creak where it is still dry. I will continue to pump in a few shots every so often. 2 – The solid bushing portion of the compliance mount is slightly out of round after assembling over the control arm spindle, which is leading to one portion “binding” in the housing during use. And again, both of these theories will even out as the part breaks in. I spoke to RV6 and they feel it is the bushing binding, and we’ve been working on a few things to try and improve this. Final rating? Noise increase of let's say 30%. And again, this isn't road noise. This is a periodic slow speed or poor road condition creak. At speeds above 35 mph I don't really hear it, and I also don’t really hear it when hitting bumps in the road while driving at normal speeds.
• Vibration: I have a hard time understanding why you would get an increase in vibration from this change, and honestly I don't think you do. Vibration increase: 0%.
• Harshness: I kind of hit on this in the initial paragraph. I personally enjoy the increase in that connected to the road feeling, and I think that is the most apparent change with the "harshness" category. I don't really feel like going over bumps / cracks / uneven road is really that much different than the stock, maybe 5% increase in harshness when considering the specific condition of hitting road imperfections. The only other effect I noticed was at highway speeds (I have a good stretch of road at 60 mph on my commute) I noticed that I was "bobbing" up and down a little with the road as I cruised along. I had to be looking for it though - I originally lumped this difference in with the "connected to the road" feeling and marked it as a plus, but it's worth mentioning. Overall harshness increase: 10%.
• Fun factor increase? I’m going to put this increase at 30%.

I think it is worth mentioning that initially I did not think an alignment was required after this install. I didn’t notice any pulling when driving and my steering wheel was still aligned once everything was torqued back up. However, after conversations with RV6 we decided to try getting an alignment done to help with the sound I mentioned. It unfortunately didn’t help with that, but I’m sure it squared up things otherwise. So I think I still fall in the “an alignment after this mod isn’t necessary” camp, but getting one done is generally in your best interest anyway.

At the end of the day I think the caution on RV6's website that states "this will make for a harsh driving experience" is over stated. I would say the same thing as a supplier though - I would rather oversell the harshness increase rather than having customers complain that it was worse than they were led to believe. I personally think these parts are very street-able. I do not think the components really make a harsh ride, just a stiffer suspension setup that I feel should have been on this car from the beginning. The biggest downside is currently the creaking but I am also hopeful that this will get better with time. I will post some longer term feedback when I have more miles on them. All this being said… I cannot wait to get these puppies some track time, I can already tell they are going to make a noticeable difference. So my friends, I say take the plunge and go solid suspension with me. Or don't - I really want anyone's sour feelings pointed at me if they are less than impressed.

That’s it though. That’s all I’ve got. I know in my last post I said I had some brake related projects to try and tackle this time around too, but I didn’t get to them. There always has to be something on the to do list I guess. I really don’t know where I will be going from here though – I know I want to try and get back to a couple of tracks this coming season, but as far as mods? I’m at a loss. We’re officially in big money territory now. I feel like the only two steps to make from this point are a bigger turbo or some exterior accessories (I seriously love that swan style wing from Spoon.) Neither of those paths are really cheap though, especially if you start lumping in the possibility of building the motor or fuel system upgrades. This thread may be sitting idle for a while. While I drive this car very, very fast. Speed jokes. For everyone who made it to the end, here is one of my current favorite pictures of my daughter, titled “Project racecar basket.” She was holding the handle like a steering wheel, but I couldn’t get the camera out in time. Until next time!

 

[fatherpain]

Thank you for the informative post Ben. Awesome stuff and your daughter is a cutey-pie. Congrats man, so blessed. Cherish the moments as the time flies by so fast. Can remember my sons at that age and now the older one is asking for a gold chain..Say what?, lol. The good news is love for your children grows as they get older so lots of fun ahead!

Nice adjustments to the HKS oil cooler and thank you for sharing your findings. In process of installing the same cooler so will make sure those core bracket nuts are tight or add lock nuts or washers.

+1 on replacing the less than optimal HKS supplied heat shield wrap.

Thank you again for posting the Radium dual catch can install video on YouTube. I found it invaluable when installing mine. Would have been much tougher without.

Curious, have you caught anything in the CCV can?

 

[TheShadow]

Thank you for the informative post Ben. Awesome stuff and your daughter is a cutey-pie. Congrats man, so blessed. Cherish the moments as the time flies by so fast. Can remember my sons at that age and now the older one is asking for a gold chain..Say what?, lol. The good news is love for your children grows as they get older so lots of fun ahead!

Nice adjustments to the HKS oil cooler and thank you for sharing your findings. In process of installing the same cooler so will make sure those core bracket nuts are tight or add lock nuts or washers.

+1 on replacing the less than optimal HKS supplied hose insulation sleeve.

Thank you again for posting the Radium dual catch can install video on YouTube. I found it invaluable when installing mine. Would have been much tougher without.

Curious, have you caught anything in the CCV can?

Thanks for the kind words! Glad to hear my ramblings are helpful - and yeah I would definitely recommend some additional retention on those HKS nuts, I was really surprised to find both had rattled away.

As far as the CCV can goes... I haven't really caught a lot. Both Radium cans have been on the car for over 4k miles and I probably have only caught maybe 3 drops in the CCV? I have a hard time saying that the CCV side is super critical, but I also really love this car and want to do everything I can from a longevity standpoint... I will say when I originally installed the PRL intercooler I did find a couple oil dribbles down at the inlet when I removed the stock core, which was what pushed me into getting the CCV in the first place. The PCV on the other hands usually catches about a half oz. every couple thousand miles.

 

[boosted180sx]

Nice long post but it was very easy to read at least. I only have a one car garage so i feel your pain on working on a car in such a confined space lol.

No issues anywhere with these pipes when they went into the car. BUT. I want to caution anyone about “step #12” here:

This is a lie. My experience was that this stud does not want to come out of the stock pipe. EVER. I mean it eventually did, but not before I mangled the shit out of the threads. So yeah – just spend the damn $2.50 and get a new one before you do this install. This stupid realization set me back 4 days while I waited for the new part to come in.

I do want to mention for other people looking at this thread that It's actually easy to remove it and reuse it. Although it's cheap so you can just buy a new one i guess.
i saw that picture and wondered who the hell posted to use pliers or vice grips to remove a stud for a DIY. Such a dumb thing to do. Your asking to mangle the threads using tools like that on a thread.
Your suppose to remove it and install it like you would install an exhaust stud as an example. Thread 2 nuts on it and tighten them against each other. After, turn the bottom nut to remove the stud. To install, tighten it onto the new pipe like you would a bolt using the nut on the top. Remove the two nuts and your done. Takes 1 min to do

 

[TheShadow]

Nice long post but it was very easy to read at least. I only have a one car garage so i feel your pain on working on a car in such a confined space lol.


I do want to mention for other people looking at this thread that It's actually easy to remove it and reuse it. Although it's cheap so you can just buy a new one i guess.
i saw that picture and wondered who the hell posted to use pliers or vice grips to remove a stud for a DIY. Such a dumb thing to do. Your asking to mangle the threads using tools like that on a thread.
Your suppose to remove it and install it like you would install an exhaust stud as an example. Thread 2 nuts on it and tighten them against each other. After, turn the bottom nut to remove the stud. To install, tighten it onto the new pipe like you would a bolt using the nut on the top. Remove the two nuts and your done. Takes 1 min to do

Agreed - I knew using pliers was a recipe for a bad afternoon. In that novel I wrote I left out the part where I spent far too long digging through my spare parts drawer looking for an M6 nut to do the method you mentioned, only to end up pissed off that I didn’t have any. So yeah, it was my own frustration and anger that lead to me ruining the threads - like you said grab another nut, get them back to back and that stud should come out no problem. But yes - I hope no one follows that picture I listed - don’t use pliers!

 

[davemarco]

Nice long post but it was very easy to read at least. I only have a one car garage so i feel your pain on working on a car in such a confined space lol.


I do want to mention for other people looking at this thread that It's actually easy to remove it and reuse it. Although it's cheap so you can just buy a new one i guess.
i saw that picture and wondered who the hell posted to use pliers or vice grips to remove a stud for a DIY. Such a dumb thing to do. Your asking to mangle the threads using tools like that on a thread.
Your suppose to remove it and install it like you would install an exhaust stud as an example. Thread 2 nuts on it and tighten them against each other. After, turn the bottom nut to remove the stud. To install, tighten it onto the new pipe like you would a bolt using the nut on the top. Remove the two nuts and your done. Takes 1 min to do

Just to add my 2 cents: I attempted using the two nut method to remove a broken turbo stud and only succeeded in stripping the threads. I think that any stud that's exposed to our furnace of an engine bay may not be extractable.

 

[fatherpain]

When we encounter stuck threads (bolts or nuts) in the power plant, we use heat. Get the area red hot then hit the stud with a squirt bottle filled with cold water and ice chips.

That plus the the (2) nut method described by Boosted180sx should do the trick

Just to add my 2 cents: I attempted using the two nut method to remove a broken turbo stud and only succeeded in stripping the threads. I think that any stud that's exposed to our furnace of an engine bay may not be extractable.

 

[fatherpain]

Curious when it comes to oil changes with the HKS oil cooler installed...

Imagine it intitially took more than the standard 5.7 quarts to re-fill the oil..

Do you disconnect the oil lines from the oil mount and force oil trapped in the cooler out (Thinking with compressed air) or just leave the old oil in?

Could see leaving it in, rather than disturbing the fittings, then just adding 5.7 quarts each time

 

[TheShadow]

Curious when it comes to oil changes with the HKS oil cooler installed...

Imagine it intitially took more than the standard 5.7 quarts to re-fill the oil..

Do you disconnect the oil lines from the oil mount and force oil trapped in the cooler out (Thinking with compressed air) or just leave the old oil in?

Could see leaving it in, rather than disturbing the fittings, then just adding 5.7 quarts each time

Yup - bone dry everything takes about 6.5 quarts. From all the reading I have done most people tend to say to hell with trying to get that last .8 quarts from the oil cooler when doing changes and just let it mix in with the fresh oil. Under normal circumstances that is what I do, and you are right it is just about the 5.7 to fill from that point. This last round of updates I did empty the oil cooler but only because I had it pulled from the car anyway.

As a note - you do get some conical seals for the remote lines, so you technically should replace them if you ever break the lines at the sandwich plate or the radiator core. I reached out to KamiSpeed a long time ago and had them order me a few extras knowing I would be breaking them loose over this winter.

 

[TheShadow]

Holy hell in a handbasket - the last few months have been a roller coaster. My little girl turned 2, I survived for another full revolution around the sun myself, I found out my wife and I are actually expecting another little girl (score!) and apparently the world decided say screw it, I'm out and went to shit? I won't lie, I wasn't expecting that last one. Can't say I've ever experienced anything quite like the way life is right now. I've been working from home for the past month - which was cool for about the first week, then magically turned into a bit of a nightmare. Ever try and do productive professional work with a toddler? Let me give you some advice: don't plan on actually doing productive work. The best that you can hope for is an hour in between being asked for snacks or entertainment where the kid is rotting their brains with TV or the iPad.

The wife still works (she's in healthcare, and I salute her) and we can't go outside because it is still cold and crappy where I live. That and you know, my daughter hasn't grasped the whole "running full bore into the road without looking will equal death" concept yet (goals to strive for.) So it is just us for several days of the week. I don't think I've really left the house more than 3 times in the past month. My whole world is now a two block radius from my house that I see when we go for walks. Are these walls closing in? Are those the same walls that were there yesterday?! I'm pretty sure this is what slowly slipping into madness feels like.

I got off topic quick though. Let's get back to the real action, where I was able to (somewhat) stave off insanity by working on the car to install the full set of RV6 Performance's rear suspension upgrades (plus more!) in this quarterly update dubbed "Never skip leg day!" Get it? Leg day? Where I portray the suspension as legs? Yeah, I know you got it without me explaining it, I just miss talking to people. Not all people, but some. I will make up for that bad joke with this bitchin photo called "I wear my sunglasses at night. Or at least inside during the day like a rebel."

So buckle up, this is going to be another long one. It will also be a pretty suspenseless suspension update, I mean I already gave the main topic away - I got one of the initial shipments of the full rear setups from RV6. We're not just talking sway bars here though, we're talking 5 way adjustable sway bars with billet end links! We're talking rear toe links! We also have rear lower control arms on the docket! Adjustability for both rear toe and camber angles? Yeah we got that now! Solid suspension bearings? Shit yeah let's throw some of those in the rear knuckles and the rear trailing arms while we're here! BAM! LIGHTING! LIGHTNING! Yeah I know I stole one of James Pumphrey's catch phrases there - that dude cracks me up. I love watching his videos. Seriously though, these parts look gooood. The wrinkle red peeking out from under the rear of the car is just gorgeous.

I mean who wouldn't like the way that looks other than tasteless yokels or monsters? These parts are even pet friendly and toddler approved. Don’t believe me? Here's proof with two photos, titled "Red with darker-than-the-night black" and "New car parts?! EPIC!!" respectively.

OK I'm finished joking for the moment. These parts are built like brick houses. I don't think they are ever going to break. I will say that I found it convenient to get all of them installed at the same time though. Not that you couldn't do one part at a time and spread the work out, but you will likely be breaking some of the same connections loose over and over again - especially the lower control arm to the rear knuckle connection. If you were doing all the parts at once I would say rip out the OEM toe links, lower control arms and sway bar right away. Install the new sway bar first (this is key) then do the rear knuckle solid bearings while the control arm is off. Then get the new camber arms installed and get the end links for the sway bar hooked up. You can honestly install the toe links and solid trailing arm bearings at any point, but the above couple parts I mentioned are the ones that make a difference what order you do them in.

I can hit on some of the high points with each of these pieces. First the toe links - and I hope you like steak because damn these are beefy. Install is probably the easiest of the bunch, out with the old and in with the new. It is even idiot proof in the sense that the spacers in each heim joint are about 10mm different so the links only install one way. Nifty. The only mention I will make is that you need to get those heim joints lined up properly - don't just ram them into place. No Hulk smash here. Stick a screwdriver through the heim joint bore and move them until they are aligned properly. And just like that you have adjustability for your rear toe angles!

Now let's talk rear sway bars. I previously had the Karcepts bar installed, and while I'm not here to bash or promote any one company in my threads, I will say I personally like the RV6 kit better. Yes, the Karcepts bar does get to a higher overall stiffness rate, but honestly I never ran it that far up. The RV6 kit is also a solid bar and arm design, rather than splined arms to the main tube like the Karcepts - less parts to work loose or make noise. And I will also say that I had issues with the end link to the sway bar arm connection in the Karcepts. I didn't experience the arm breaking, but the bolt kept wanting to work loose on me and would lead to nasty clunking. I also really love the solid billet end links from RV6 over the Karcepts ones.

One nice part of the Karcepts bar though, being a modular design (splined arms to the tube) the install was super easy. You can just take the arms off from the bar and get it all lined up and assembled while working around the exhaust and lower control arms. I didn't have as much luck with the RV6 bar. I tried getting it installed without taking anything else off the car first, and maybe I didn’t try hard enough, but I couldn't get the thing in the proper position. The bar kept getting hung up on the exhaust, springs, or the lower control arms while manipulating it into place. I didn't want to booger up that nice red paint job so this is where I opted to change direction and pull off the OEM lower control arms (which worked out as I was replacing them anyway.) But that gave more than enough room to get the bar lined up and assembled into the chassis.

The next part that threw me for a loop with this bar was getting the end links to assemble into the lower control arms. The rear suspension apparently droops significantly when the car is jacked up, because I couldn't get things to line up properly. The solution was to put the jacks underneath the outboard end of the lower control arms and raise the rear knuckle until the holes lines up. The first side was easy, but plan on having two jacks because the second end link required me to have both lower control arms raised up somewhat. Once she is all assembled and on the ground this isn’t an issue, more of a quirk with the installation.

One last kick in the nuts during this sway bar install? I didn’t check the torque my wrench was set to before going to the end links - so I straight up pulled the threads out of the nut because I didn’t think it was tight. Super. By the way - to hell with your sub-standard selection of metric hardware Menards. Get with the program. Remember kids, check your tools twice, torque once.

OK the sway bar was the hardest part of the whole install, but for silly reasons honestly. Since I kind of talked about them during the last section I can hit on the lower control arms now. Another sweet, sweet looking part. You get two, and they are identical for all intents and purposes, but you want the name plaque facing the rear so everyone can rightfully drool over the parts. No issues with this install at all. The inboard bolt at the rear subframe was a bit tedious when removing the stock eccentric washer in the joint, and overall tool access here was kind of crappy, but otherwise just make sure your heim joints are lined up in the solid rear knuckle bearing (assuming you did that with this install) like I mentioned with the toe links. Still no Hulk smashy smash here. Easy way to get some camber adjustability though!

In between doing the rear sway bar and control arms I actually did the rear knuckle solid bearing (since they assemble in the knuckle where the control arm bolts in - I didn’t want to undue any work during this process.) This is pretty similar to the solid spherical bearing RV6 sells for the front control arm, and the process was about the same. I will say I continue to hate using ball joint removing kits for this process. They work, and I used one for some of the job here, but it is just a pain to get everything lined up. You end up stacking several parts together and have to hold them in place while tightening like I show below, and it just sucks. Also - those with a keen eye can see I tried cheating and wasn’t using a properly sized driver on the pushing side. Yeah it only worked once. The second side ended up separating the rubber in the bearing, so I had to find I socket that was the right size to push just the leftover husk of a bearing housing out. Yeah, haste makes waste, I know. I ended up driving them in with the same bolt / pipe method I used at the front control arm and wish I used that during the removal of the OEM parts. It is so much easier. Just get the correct sizes of pipe, don’t forget your shim at the rear side and you are good to go.

The only thing that is left here is the solid trailing arm spherical bearings, and it is in principle the same as doing all the other bearing replacements. And let me tell you - this is one nice heavy duty bearing. This job did require a press due to the bearing being a trunion style though. I feel like getting the old one out was a little easier than getting the new one in, but only because I had a hard time finding the right size of pipe section to brace the trailing arm with. Make sure to press the OEM bearing out towards the rounded edge of the trailing arm and then press in the new RV6 one from that same side. Here is my bearing going into the trailing arm. Then it's just a snap ring and you are good to go. Other than needing the press this part was pretty easy. I also used this opportunity to actually buy my own press (I got a cheap Harbor Freight one for like $125 - it works just fine.) Sadly I apparently didn't take a good photo of the bearing before assembly to show how awesome it looked. Hit up RV6's website and find some high quality photos there.

I used a friends press to originally get the OEM bearings out, and had my little girl with me. As you can see she wasn't interested in watching the car work, documented in this photo called "iPad is life."

So there we have it - all sorts of rear suspension goodies. And I just have to say how much I continue to love the products coming out of RV6 Performance. Everything is super high quality and I can't stress how much I love what the solid bushings have done to the car. We are talking about going from a wimpy wimpy wimpy to a HEFTY HEFTY HEFTY style here folks. Just a kickass solid and connected to the road feeling. If you don’t want to feel that then get back in your Camry and go about your business. All of the improvements that happened after installing the front solid bearings have been mirrored in the rear setup - and it just feels awesome.

What's that? You say that it wouldn't feel like a real update without me telling you how I removed and replaced a perfectly good part? You savvy reader, you. With some help with the fine folks at RV6 performance I received a revised solid bearing for the front compliance mounts that included a groove around the center to help with grease distribution. I loved the way those parts felt before, and I was willing to deal with the popping / binding sound that came after installing them (which hadn’t yet gone away in the ~750 or so miles I got on the parts since installing.) That said I was also excited to give the new parts a try. It also gave me a good reason to take over the garage, which my daughter also appreciated because it gave here the opportunity to steal a good parking space. “Mine now. Suckers.”

So yes my friends - it's finally time. Pull out your hammer and let your inner spirit Hulk smash as much as he wants to get the old solid bearing out. I ended up taking the front cover of the compliance mounts off to get a little more access and used a punch and hammer to drive out the old bearings. And I wasn't super surprised to see that there was a noticeable area on the bearing that didn't appear to have much, if any, grease on it. So yeah - it looked like the bearing was running partially dry. It did look like grease was starting to work around the housing so I can't say for sure but I feel like this sound issue would have resolved on its own with enough time. Nobody has time for that though. Here's an old bearing (cleaned) next to a new one.

I even figured out a slick way to get the new ones in without cracking the compliance mount housings loose, so no need for another alignment (which was a bonus considering I just had one done after jacking the rear suspension all around.) I was able to work a C-clamp around the top side of the bearing and hold it firmly in place, and then use a hammer to pound on the bottom edge to slowly work in the bearing. I kept tightening the clamp and repeating until I was able to screw the cap on and finish seating the new bearings.

Final impressions? Yeah - I'm super impressed. Through and through, with everything. The rear end of the car feels like a rock now, and the front end is no longer making popping sounds from the compliance bearings. My only regret is not having the car lowered yet to be to fully take advantage of all my newfound adjustability. That and the fact that it appears any plans of getting on a track this season seem to be down the drain. Which sucks - I had an event booked at Road American at the end of May that I'm pretty sure will be cancelled (I even footed the money for some ST43 brake pads....) Maybe there will be a chance later this fall if I'm lucky. Hell maybe I can even get my summer tires back on one of these days - if it ever stops snowing like it is today that is.

Once again though, I'm at a bit of a loss on where to go next. My two dream parts are either the Spoon GT wing or a Varis hood. One should help with cooling, which would be nice, and the other just looks oh so cool. Recommendations anyone? Ideas for things I haven't considered? I did get the "ultra-hard" shifter spring from Hybrid Racing and will probably throw that in one of these days, but that feels like peanuts at this point. I think I've rambled on long enough though so I'm going to close this one up, and leave you with one final picture I like to call "Waffle theft - A premonition of an early morning betrayal."

 

[DaveGrohl]

Excellent thread, really enjoy your writing--and your mods! Impressive

 

[TheShadow]

This year… I don’t even know what to say at this point. It's like Baskin Robins decided to shell out 31 flavors of bad news and release them once a week. I mean I remember Australia being on fire, we tried to impeach a president, we got into a pissing match with Iraq with some drones and missiles, I remember Kim Jong Un is either dead, brain dead or seemingly just fine? Never heard what really happened there. Of course the 'Rona: working from home (still), being told I still can't even visit a playground with my kid (or at least get caught doing so), people freaking out over toilet paper, some crazy low gas prices… and all the associated other jazz. Man, we lost some good musicians this year too - Bill Withers and Niel Peart. What about those murder hornets? They apparently didn't scare enough people because that story didn't last long. We also officially conformed UFOs exist? Unexpected. I can't shoot a 3-point shot of garbage into the trash can without saying "Kobe!" in a sad voice now… Although, a helicopter crash? That is about the most rich-person way to go out that I can think of. And now it's riot season? I still have my Covid decorations up! Seriously though, I'm just exhausted from this news whiplash - and I'm not the only one, proven with this photo titled "Eff it, I'm spent."

As a disclaimer, I don't really want to get into any conversations arguing one way or another on any of these topics - my summary above was just my particular poor memory of any dirty laundry that managed to get stuck in my head. On the bright side things do seem to be getting better? At least not getting worse? I can go into more stores than I used to be able to… and hey, we finally managed to get some of our general household items that have been sold out for months. Have you seen the price of meat though? Over $100 for a brisket? Get out of here with that shit.

I actually feel bad making this post though because for the first time I actually do not have any new modifications to blather on about. I'm still in a waiting game with everything. Waiting for new parts to release and waiting to save up money for big boy fancy parts. I did get my summer tires on though! And not a moment too soon, shown with this still image I call "A determined quest to improve traction."

Otherwise I've spent my isolation time doing isolation things, wearing my isolation pants and generally trying to avoid other people. The desire to distance did allow me to get some pretty photos taken of my car though. Special thank you to my lovely wife for taking several, and for Jacob Hoffman at Simply Modified Photography for the rest.

Before the photos above were taken I also for the first time ever in my life used a clay bar. And I have to say it is equal parts amazing, maddening and disheartening. They are awesome because yeah, all those tough baked on grease stains actually do come out. However, the closest thing I could liken the process to is rubbing your entire car with a goddamn eraser. Tedious. Just tedious. And after all that effort, after getting all those little asphalt specs finally cleaned off the car, it looks wonderful - but you also get a very up close and personal introduction to all those itty bitty little paint chips your car has accrued. That last part is fun.

Outside of all the above I did change out my rear brakes from worn out OEM to fresh shiny new OEM pads. It's about like everyone says, doing the manual process to retract the park brake piston is a little unnerving the first time but isn't really that bad once you've done it once. I did have to push the piston in with a compressor tool, but that really wasn't too out of the ordinary for a brake job. Everything worked afterwards so that's all I care about.

Speaking of brakes, I also swapped out my fronts for those Raybestos ST-43 pads. Why you ask? Because racecar that's why! Road America baby! The stars aligned with the state of Wisconsin, my schedule, and my incredibly understanding wife and I was able to keep my track day. So I took the 3 hour drive out to the track and put all of my mods to this point to the test.

It was a very interesting day compared to other track events I have attended. No family allowed, and I don't think the number of participants was more than 50-60% of the max people that could have participated… it was nice and eerie at the same time. I don't think I will ever have that open of a day at any track again. Seriously, almost every session I had there were periods where the track seemed entirely to myself. Weather turned out great, right around 80F with low humidity, partly cloudy. Met some cool people and hung out with some guys running some swanky Stingray Corvettes. And yes, by the end of the day I earned their respect - especially after the more experienced driver got wind that this was my first time at this particular track and yet he never managed to find / pass me once. 4 bangers for the win yo.

I ran the intermediate group, despite never being at this track, but can't say I was disappointed with that choice. The novice group only got 1 session on the track all day where they were allowed to spread their wings, which I can kind of understand, but due to the Covid situation there was no 1 on 1 instructor feedback prior to that. I liked the feedback part when I had an instructor at Black Hawk Farms, but here they had 3 hours of class, and 3 lead / follow sessions. There wasn't any radio communication between the leader and the students or anything. So I'm very satisfied that I was able to start slow and warm up to the track on my own, because I think I really benefited more just getting the track time like I did.

My takeaways for this event were:

• Road America is a fast track. Christ it is fast. I would say nearly 50% of the 4+ mile track is at triple digits or above, and I was topping 135 on the longest straight. The other track I've been to only had me thinking about going into 5th at the end of the one long straight. So it was nice to work gears 3-5 consistently here, although the abundant straight portions of this track did put me at a disadvantage. Time for a turbo upgrade…

• Remember what I said about the track being fast? Yeah say goodbye to your pads. The two longest straights transition into tight corners at the bottom of a noticeable elevation drop. So it was first of all hard on the brakes, but second it was also super tricky to judge where the sweet spot for braking should be. I will also say I slightly overheated my fancy Raybestos brake pads on my second session… they got a little spongy. I think it was partly that due to being my second session after a very short break from the first one of the day (I think the car only sat for a half hour before going back on track.) So in addition to not having a proper amount of time to cool down I think I was also on the brakes longer and softer than I needed to be. Throughout the day I tried to push my braking zones later and later to keep from just dragging them for long periods of time. The last 2 sessions of the day went smooth as far as brakes were concerned. Also took extra time to drive around and let the calipers and pads cool down after each session. Pretty sure I used half the life of my brand new rear pads through this day.

• Speaking of brakes, I got my first real understanding of just how light this car is compared to others. By the time I was starting to figure the track out I was noticing I could easily brake 2-3 markers later than almost any other car out there. That was a fun feeling.

• Overheating is still real. I did try something new with this event though - I ran the heater at full blast during my sessions. And while I came down with a severe case of swamp ass, it did manage to keep my temps reasonable in each session. That is until I ran to fill up on gas and forgot to turn the heat back on for my last session… Check out the video below, you can see me chasing down a blue Porsche I had been battling all day (you can see him bobbing in my side mirror starting from around 3:20, held him off for a bit in the twisty sections.) And yeah, I was holding my own - until I realized the car was getting hot at about the 11:25 mark, hit the button to turn heat back on, but unfortunately had to back off shortly thereafter because I got too warm… That Porsche was the one that got away. As much as I want that bitchin Spoon wing, I think a cooling hood is my next mod.

• The kink is the devil. The kink is an optional set of really sharp turns after the main twisty portion of this track they can open up to help break up the faster sections. So first of all I swear the officials said that we were not going to be running that section, and it scared the hell out of me when I first came to the tire barricade over the portion of track I was expecting to run on. Even after knowing it was there it is just a nasty section to navigate - especially if you are chasing someone (also shown in the video at about the 2 minute mark.) Being able to brake so late almost burned me a few times because I would all of a sudden be on someone's ass in that section without even meaning to. Man I also was Jonesing for a harness after running this track - I got thrown around that much.

• Solid suspension feels oh so good. I've had the RV6 front control arm kit in the car for a while, and recently had done the full rear setup. And yeah, they make for a bit of a rough ride through town. Yeah they make a little noise (much better with the revised compliance mount bushings mind you.) We do it because it's cool though. Because racecar. My wife asked me recently "why do you need to take corners so fast?" Umm, because I like to, that’s why. I quickly apologized because that was the wrong thing to say but still. The suspension on this car is a rock. I can't say I found any area where I found it flexing or doing something quirky or moving in a way that I didn't want it to. Everything was planted and smooth. And any of those times I regretted taking a crappy road in town just melted away - because this is where everything shined. Highly, highly recommend these parts. And for what it's worth, the drive to the track actually wasn't bad at all - once you are up to a certain speed the bearings really ride pretty nice.

As the days passed since going to the track these were the big points that stuck in my head. I made sure to do a thorough cleaning and inspection of the car afterwards and I think the only real thing I noticed (other than paint chips) was one of the remote lines for the HKS oil cooler was ever so slightly loose. Looked like it spritzed some oil, but not enough to drip onto the belly pan. So gave that another turn and I will continue to monitor. So yeah, pretty long post considering there really weren't any new parts to talk about. I did do a thing though, which I kind of like.

But for now I will call it a day. And I may be calling it a day for a while. Kid #2 is expected in August so I'm not holding my breath for another track day this year (Autobahn Country Club or GingerMan Raceway will be my next stops.) Also will likely just be low key maintaining the R. I plan to do a brake fluid swap and may rebuild the seals in the front calipers (one was torn last I looked.) I also have plenty of things to do otherwise, some general maintenance on the 9th gen Si, and I get the pleasure of fishing out a sheared off brake bleeder in the rear drum brakes in my ek hatch… that will be fun. Until next time, I leave this post with "Get in loser, we're going cruising."

 

[BlueFalcon]

Just stumbled on your thread-

I've watched a number of your videos prior, when attempting install, as it seems we have many of the same mods.

Postings by you and others, such as @fatherpain, have helped to avoid pitfalls during a number of installation processes. Appreciate it!

Things that I've noticed/done for several of the changes on my car-

HKS Intercooler to PRL pipe kit- you must keep the HOT SIDE HKS elbow from compressor to intercooler. I feel like everyone always just kind of blanket says something like "you have to keep the HKS pipe to elbow" or something vague. Basically you need half the HKS kit and half of the PRL kit (sort of.)

I locktite'ed, like, everything on the HKS oil cooler, after people talked about it vibrating to pieces after install.

Made sure to trim the rivets protruding from the wheel well cover, as they can contact the mesh tubing.

I also ditched the lame HKS oil line heat shielding, and used DEI's Fire Sleeve instead. The length of the sleeve basically covers the entire span from filter mount to fender pass-through.

I have Cusco's front brace/beam, which seems to be similar to the J's beam, which caused a similar issue with the oil line placement. I seem to have solved this by adjusting the conical fittings to point slightly toward the front of the car, and I ran the lines in between the fan shroud and DP. There is only about an inch of clearance between the pipe and lines, but this is mostly due to the fact that the DEI covers are installed, and are really bulky. Without those, there would be more room. I gently secured the lines together with stainless ties over the DEI covers, as they run the length of the bay, and they have a bit of wiggle room, but stay away from the DP. I haven't noticed any stress from engine movement or otherwise using this method.

I used the nutsetter trick with the oil cooler bracket install, as chronicled by fatherpain, which saved me a ton of time and stress!

The Radium catch cans- where to begin with those...?

The PCV develops a leak around the 90 degree fittings, oh, I don't know, every other time I start the car. I feel like everytime I fix one by tightening the fitting, it springs a leak somewhere else. Might have to replace one of them.

Fitting the tubing over the barbs is, well, a lesson in anger management. I ended up using a pair of Knipex plastic-jawed locking plumbing pliers to slowly work it over the fitting while clamped in a vice. No heat applied. Worked pretty well, and fully seated.

I also intended to install the CCV can, but I swear the heater hoses from the reservoir are wayyyyy different than yours. Like, I can't even fit the can in there on the mount without it coming in direct contact with the hose connected to the hardlines, and it basically just sits directly on top of the lower hose. I would have to get into replacing those lines/bending hardlines to keep from extreme rubbing/contact. So, on the shelf it sits. I wanted to keep the slop out of the turbo inlet, as I noticed the same line of oil on the stock pipe when replacing it. Oh well, maybe one day.

I also run the RV6 front compliance mounts- and DAMN are they noisy. I typically don't care about vibration/clicks/ticks/etc. because, you know, racecar... But I will say that these things squeak and pop a lot. It creates almost a binding in the control arm movement, and is noticeable. Again, it's more of a situation where I just get some funny looks in parking lots and from neighbors, but I'm anxious to try the revised bushing to get the grease moving around the housing. I will be installing those within the next month along with a set of coilovers. Pretty excited to test it all out as a set.

Just for reference, the RV6 rear sway can be adjusted on the ground with nothing more than a pair of 2" high wood planks. It gives just enough clearance to adjust on the ground, and will allow for link position movement without preload- the endlinks are free to move without binding. I'm sure you might have played with this, but for others thinking of trying the unit, it's a nice piece and very useable.

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