Project Black ValentNine AKA DSM9.0

[goodhart]

Ahh, all the free time of a single guy. :beer:

With no kids!

[scheides]

Hah, I would say, 'suck it bitches' but my aching back, neck, shoulders, and fingers tell me not to! Honestly it's all I can do to make time for this thing...after working 8am-7pm almost every day I am pretty keen on just chillin when I get home. Beer tonight I think.

[goodhart]

Drink 11 more for me plz :D

[evotuner]

I'm excited to see this car in action tomorrow night!

[scheides]

Forgot that the fender liners were flopping around on this thing so I took the wheels off tonight to get them snugged up. Before I knew what happened the zip ties were flying everywhere!

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_6937.sized.jpg

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Turbo gave me a hand! He's my new garage helper, seriously was sitting right by while doing this. he gets out of the way when I get the air tools out and keeps me company in the cold cold winter garage (har har)
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_6943.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_6946.sized.jpg

Yup it's a little ghetto but I used some big thick zip ties so it should hold for a while; tomorrow will be a test. The orange silicone hose was rubbing on the CV boots at first so I took it apart again and saw that I had the hose mounted too far down on the binary brackets. Once I slid them out to the end, a-ok! I'll re-do the bumper part later, just wanted to at least get some air flowing into the brakes.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_6949.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_6950.sized.jpg

Boost turned down to 18psi for tomorrow...fingers crossed!

[scheides]

I'm excited to see this car in action tomorrow night!

Don't be too excited, I'm really really really not that good of a driver!

[turbotalon1g]

^Lies!

[scheides]

Warning: this post is long, but I had so much fun yesterday, everything came together!

First driving event under my belt with this thing! Ron at RS Motors puts on an event at DCTC that utilizes the entire track. You make full laps, no standing start or anything, just 10-15 minute sessions for each rungroup. Time to warm up, learn the course, pick points of improvement, and cooldown....I've been to autoX events here and this was WAY more fun!

I got to get comfy with the car in a track environment but not go too fast, just learn how the car works and how I work. I started off in the beginner group and I'm so glad I did...first session I was all over the place, 2nd and 3rd gear, gunning for corners, pushing the brakes. Instructors pulled the reigns back a bit along the way and kept it safe.

Second and third session I was in a bit more traffic so I focused on rythm and lines with a few sections of going fast. Fourth session I missed half of due to a work call and not paying attention (I thought maybe they didn't announce it but whatever) so I only got a few laps in with Shawn C in the passenger seat. He gave me a lot of fantastic feedback and I grabbed him again for the 5th and final session where we basically did hotlaps the entire time.

I'm learning to power out of corners to get the car to rotate...I'm so used to this on teh street but I'm SO gunshy on the course I wasn't even doing it! Once I started applying that and following the lines and rythm I had setup for myself in the earlier sessions I was freaking SHOCKED to find myself coming OUT of the slalom just way too fast! This is a section where I'm usually like, 'whew I made it through' and all of a sudden with everything adding up I was all Ricky Bobby-style goin too fast!

This happened in several spots, basically after every section of the track that I was getting 'good' at and the repercussions get serious quick...Shawn says my instincts are good and to listen to them...I don't wanna go off track! With only a few words Shawn got me to dial it back a hair and look further and further ahead and we made some 'in the zone' laps that are honestly what I decided to get out there and do this for. LOVE IT!

Had a freaking blast blast blast and thank you to all the volunteers and leadership for putting this on. I am already signed up for the next event and am looking forward to applying it at BIR in not too long!

Reminder of how the car sits mechanically at this point:
-built 2.0 motor, stock compression, stock valves, stock cams
-very used Bilstein struts with fresh Swift SpecR springs, STOCK front/rear sway bars, press-in 70A front motor mount
-exedy twin clutch, minty fresh trans, evo8 4th gear (haven’t really tried this part out yet at high revs), brass under hood shifter bushings, ebay short-shifter on ‘tall’ setting.
-stock evo9 turbo, PTE1000cc injectors, walbro 255 pump, e85, 21psi for the track last night and turned up to 28 for the ride home.
-Schroth Rallye 4 harness, Open-face SA2005 helmet, neck donut
-Stoptech brake pads, fresh ATE fluid, homebrew brake ducts, Fuzion ZRi tires (300 tread-wear)


Mechanical take-aways:

Engine is healthy and sound. Doesn’t smoke with the new(est) turbo, idles good, no overheating, etc. I think I kinked the turbo oil drain gasket on install so I’ll probably replace that as there is just the slightest hint of oil leakage…other than that, no issues! I’m SO happy with the setup!

Suspension: Real happy with the setup. Rear swaybar is on my list of to-do’s but I think I’ll do the rear diff mod first. Mostly because it’s free and what it will do to the car is part of a piece I focused on a lot last night. If I can get time in the next few weeks, I’ll do it.

Alignment: steering wheel isn't straight while the car is tracking straight and its been apart so many times it’s probably due. I think Mike (like me on beaterX) had just a street alignment on it before….I think its time for something more aggressive! Pretty sure I assembled the front camber bolts as they came out ‘arrow in’ for –1° of camber and probably will re-situate them to ‘arrows out’ for –2° camber.

Clutch/trans: golden.

Power: STS. I’m firmly done thinking about this for the next few weeks. No budget for anything else and I’m not even using all of the stock turbo’s power yet. Freaking love STS. HoMyGahd I can’t believe how much I missed it; my evo8 was at this power level about 6 years ago and it always always put a smile on my face. I can’t help but think about putting something bigger on this thing but man this is just a great setup on e85.

Safety: happy happy happy! I used the 4-point a lot in the last few weeks to get comfy with it and I’m glad I did. Recommend this to anyone even thinking about doing this…for $200 you are snug in your seat and they install in a few minutes. Helmet is good, donut was uncomfortable at first but did its job once I stopped fighting it.

Brakes: Hard right turns resulted in rubbing of ducts on CV boots still. Gotta check into this!
First session out I was cussing at the brakes, mostly because I was overdriving I think. I didn’t cook them or anything, they just felt like ‘not enough’ when coming in hot. Last session I didn’t even think about them to be honest, these pads did ‘ok’ for this track and my skill level. Better pads and titanium shims at least in the front are on my list here but I’m not set on what yet. Budget is a huge concern. $80 for the shims, no-brainer. Ron, Brandon, others all recommend the Hawk HP Plus pads. ~$150 for the front set and they squeak like hell during DD. Good all-around pad for cold and hot stops and track use. I’m told that if this will be a track-only car the Raybestos ST43 is the way to go but ~$250 for the front set alone. Some decision making and budgeting to do here.


http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_6953.sized.jpg

Photos taken during parade lap, not actual hot laps!
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_6954.sized.jpg

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Ok funny side story…the silver evo next to me is @kiprocket’s car. He came in one session with what we thought was a blown IC pipe. Turned out to be a (re-)broken BOV he had Jbwelded together. I had brought a small pile of tools and jack and such and rolled them over to give him a hand as he pulled up, car stumbling. As we’re thinking about what to do it dons on me that for some reason…NO IDEA why, but when I was preparing I literally took the pile of tools I had been using for the turbo swap and brake duct install off my workbench and dumped them into a plastic bag from NAPA. I took that bag and threw it into a bag with straps and misc stuff in it….including a (plastic) stock evo8 BOV! The lightbulb that came on and the look on Kip’s face, priceless. Enjoy it dude! :D

[turbotalon1g]

Sounds like an awesome time, re affirms my opinion of the evo as a true track car.

[scheides]

Welp, I'm having a blast with this thing...I'll be honest it's been a bit of knuckle busting rustyness but I'm taking it in small doses and it's actually been fun. After the track event, I drove it once and then got out the murlostands to start on my little laundry list:

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/14_1_001.jpg

Spent the first week leading up to the cruise doing 30-60 minute intervals of fixing leaks, misc problems, etc. Turbo oil drain was leaking after swap swap swapping it too many times, still tweaking the front brake ducting so it doesn't rub, and oh...wait for it...

A good good guy on mnaudi.com offered me up a very lightly used set of Hawk HP Plus pads from his '08 STi...the car has the exact same brembos front and rear. I made a generous (I hope it was enough!) beer donation in exchange and now am the lucky owner of some track pads! Thanks again @supercoolptw!!!

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7061.sized.jpg

Brakes on an evo/brembo setup are super duper easy once the wheels are off, just knock out the two pins and pull out the pads right? Weeeeeeellllll one of the pins was SO STUCK I pounded on it for probably 45 minutes to get it out and bent a bunch of shit....I don't have an actual hole punch so it was basically typical scheides awesomenesss...comedy of errors....finally got the fronts done, put the wheels back on, and spun the car around to get started on the next project...


New license plates!
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7066.sized.jpg

LOL seriously though I did finally get the car registered and rosey wants the old plates so I ponied up the $6 for new ones...I very strongly considered getting 'VALENT9' plates but honestly it was another $100....I'm nickle and dimed to death right now, so I just skipped it. Gotta draw a line somewhere.

Eibach stepped up and replaced the broken spring! When I showed htem pics of the rest of the rusty springs, they just sent me a whole new set! Freaking sweet! I am selling them and keeping the Swifts though, better setup for this car and the eibachs can live on in a car that will be on the street more...
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7069.sized.jpg

Once the rear end was up in the air I started on the brakes...freaking goddamn all of the pins are siezed...fuck it, tapped the one I got half out back in and moved on...30 mins later, lil buddy Turbo and I are staring at this and high-fiving (never done one of these before):

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7071.sized.jpg

Picked up a set of torque solution bushings for the side mounts and new seals all around since.....another surprise! Both of the existing ones were leaking. Not much, but enough to warrant the $8/side to replace them :)

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7079.sized.jpg

Here's something fun, the exhaust sits so close to the diff mount that it actually slowly has been wearing away one of the bolts. Fits like a GLOVE :D

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7081.sized.jpg

Few days later, spazzy stopped by and in about idk, an hour? 90 mins? We tore the diff all apart (sorry no pics of the fun gears and such, they are SO COOL!) and 'fixed' the plate arrangement situation:

USDM Stock (note plate plate clutch clutch arrangement on both sides):
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7082.sized.jpg

JDM Stock and USDM 'rear diff mod' (clutch plate clutch plate clutch plate etc):
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7084.sized.jpg

Random shot of gearzzzz:
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7085.sized.jpg

This is supposed to improve lockup and overall help the car rotate out of a corner. Also, the fresh fluid I put in might help a bit too :D

All buttoned up:
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7087.sized.jpg

Looks good ok hurry up and put it back in:
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7088.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7090.sized.jpg

Commence scheides fail! After an hour of wrestling (ok STFU it was like two), I figured out what I did wrong:
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7091.sized.jpg

PS Thanks to Shawn C (@simulatedwoodgrain) for letting me buy you lunch/borrow your press!
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7092.sized.jpg


Got it back in, bolted all together, good to go! Borrowed a punch tool from @Matt D. and Marky TKR Mark helped me pound the living fuck out of the rear brake pad pins...cleaned them up and voila we have race car brakes all around now! Yaaay!

Today, a trip to Jeff The Alignment Guy. A few quick anecdotes:

"Leave women wanting your approval, they don't like it when you seek theirs."

"what women say and what they mean....to be honest with you, my girlfriend is impressed by me eating a hot pepper even though she pretends she isn't"

"your words say one thing but your damp underpants say something else"

"your inner tie rod end is worn out on driver's side"

"I fucking hate this shit" yes valent9 is a rusty rusty hooker, but I brought along freshy fresh starbucks and a 12-pack of cold Mt Dew and just kept throwing them at him until the job was done...for such a stock setup, i'm happy!

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7107.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evo9/IMG_7108.sized.jpg


So yea....focusing on budget budget budget for this so I can keep it and keep having fun with it! With the deal on brake pads, a stock turbo back on the car, and a selling other parts...I'm starting to work my way back towards a number I'm happy with invested in this car, still have a set of wheels (well two actually) that I should sell and I'll be in a good spot.

LICP blew off once, my fault, t-bolted that fucker on...boost is up to 28psi now and the car just rips! Next DCTC event is Friday...shakedown time the next few days and then back to the track to test out the new setup :D :D :D