Levant IX Progress
 

2006 Wicked White IX MR
As she stands:

Power
Works Drop In Air Filter
Buschur Racing Lower Intercooler Pipe
Nisei Short Route Upper Intercooler Pipe
Full-Race Turbo Manifold 1st Gen
Works 76mm Downpipe
JUN B.L. Cat Back Exhaust w/ Test Pipe (V-Band from Test Pipe Back)
ACT HDSS
ACT Streetlite Flywheel
Walbro 255
Forge MBC @ ~24 psi (wayyy too much taper for my liking)
OEM Turbo
OEM O2 Housing
OEM Intercooler

Suspension
GTWorx Springs

Wheels/Tires
OEM MR BBS w/ OEM Advans (Out of Commission due to a blown tire. Extreme wear on the rest)
Volk CE28N Time Attacks 18x9.5 +34 (Out of Commission due to very worn tires)
OEM Evo VIII Enkei's w/ 235/45R17 Dunlop Winter Sport 3D (Current setup)

Future Plans
Sumitomo HTR Z III 265/35R18

CBRD FMIC - Coating TBD
CBRD BBK-B - Coating TBD
CBRD Oil/Coolant Lines - DEI Fire Wrap
CBRD Race Radiator - Coating TBD
All new OEM bolts/screws/gaskets
ARP Exhaust Manifold Stud Set

GSC Power-Division S2 Camshafts
GSC Power-Division 4G63T Titanium Beehive Spring upgrade
ARP Head Stud Kit

How it all started:
I picked up the car in June 2008 from one of my best friends. It came with the wheels and a bunch of other mods. It had the stock SUV wheel gap though.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...tedblurred.jpg

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Got sick of looking at the stock battery and the OEM UICP.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...9279edited.jpg

Installed the Nisei Short Route UICP, along with their battery tray for the Braille 11.5 lbs battery.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...tedresized.jpg

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I than picked up a JUN B.L. Exhaust
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I then changed my drivetrain fluids and gave her some AMSoil
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...tedresized.jpg

I also picked up a set of GTWorx Springs during the ground buy and had them installed by my buddy, Sam. I made sure to swap that eccentric bolt around.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...tedresized.jpg

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Euro Tire Aligned the car.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...-Tireresiz.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...tedresized.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...tedresized.jpg

A year passed without any real issues. And I hit up the CBRD Thanksgiving Feast.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2665/...aa274c8f_o.jpg

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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2737/...369f2bf8_o.jpg

Thanks to Chad for throwing her on the dyno and hooking me up with a very nice base map.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2493/...b28a3748_o.jpg

A few days later, in bumper to bumper traffic, tragedy struck!
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A few weeks later she was feeling much better!
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I was having issues with the car when I got it back from the shop. It was randomly not starting and it was becoming a hassle. I figured it was my Mini Battery, so I got on the horn with my great friend, Rob, at Team XXX Racing and had him ship me a Braille 15 lbs battery. It has the same width as their 11.5 lbs battery so it fits the Nisei tray without issue, and since the tray is adjustable in length, it fit like a glove. After a week without issue, the problem came back. This time, the car sat in front of my gf's place for about 4 days. It had to be the starter since all the electronics worked perfectly. After tracking one down, I picked up a used alternator from a low mileage Evo, and within 30 minutes, she roared back to life.

That's where we are today.

Money is tight right now, and so things are moving very slowly. I help a lot with my family so priorities are just to keep the care safe and reliable.

My plans are listed above and once I've got the $$$, they will happen.

I'll keep you guys posted!

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

damn, white evo 9s are so nice! good to know it's running well. was the frame bent?

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Nope, def not. Was such a low impact hit, and it was so slow. We were going like 10-15mph mph in traffic, and the dude in front of my stopped short just as I glanced to my right. When I turned back, I slammed my brakes and she dove and that's why my hood was bent. It was an old 90-93 Accord, and his bumper was just pushed in. All it needed was to be popped out.

The only damaged: hood, bumper, 1 head light lens, rad support.

I drove the car home that night and drove it for several days after that. Not a hitch. No leaks or anything. Everything worked perfect. I just couldn't open the hood. Was bent like a mofo. I def got lucky.

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Looks great!

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Thanks for the write up, your car looks good.

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Thanks, dudes.

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Nice photos. CBRD's shop looks like all of his parts do--quality.

Do you know what color the BBE coating is? I hadn't considered coating a radiator...

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Matte Black.

This belongs to Erik @ Mil.Spec. CBRD OEM Replacement Radiator with Swain Tech BBE coating.


http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z.../CBRDinBox.jpg

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He said it was $185 plus $40 for shipping to Cali. Swain Tech is located in NY State. More info with cost can be found here.
http://forums.evolutionm.net/vendor-...-radiator.html

http://swaintech.com/store.asp?pid=10968
-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

MAP has a matte black thermal dispersant coating too; I had it on my Rev.3 intake manifold (on the IX).

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

I've seen that. Is it actually matte, or does it haev a shine? I HATE shiney black. Always looks rattle canned unless it's a Piano black finish.

Also, what kind of pricing does MAP have on coating? I know I can contact them, but does anyone happen to know off the top of their head?

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

It looks very similar to the coating on the radiator above, I suppose it was closer to a semi-gloss black that a true matte black. I thought it looked pretty decent on my intake manifold. They charge $90 to coat an intake manifold which includes the thermal dispersant and also a thermal block on the flange face. Ceramic coating an exhaust manifold is also $90 (all prices according to their website).

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Yeah, I just took a peek. I'll keep them in mind. I saw the porting/coating that was done to a BBK and it looked real nice. That Swain White Lightning is definitely bad ass though.

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Looking good buddy!

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Thanks, mang.

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Nice looking rid for sure, let me know if you would like to talk more about the radiator coating as well as those GSC Cams / Valve Springs as we almost always have them in stock ;)

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

.
Will do, Chris! Thanks.

I'll definitely be contacting you guys about porting the hotside of my BBK-B, as well as getting it coated along with an O2 Housing from you folks (Megan or MAP). Is there much room to port match the turbo to either of these O2 housings? Does your coating fade a lot of discolor much after a lot of use? My car is daily driven hard. :)

Thanks.

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

I am LOVING the pictures in this thread :)

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

No there's not much to port on either of those two housings, and our coating has been holding up exceptionally well :)

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

^I have a manifold coated its about 4 yrs old and in great shape.
Over 70k miles.

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Thanks, mang. If you couldn't tell, I love photography.
That's great to hear. Do you have any photos showcasing what your coating looks like on manifolds, hotsides or o2 housings after a good amount of miles? I'd love to see what they look like.
Great to hear! Any photos that I can check out to see what it's like now after 4 years?

Thanks again guys!!!

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Nice, sharp looking ride man.

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

You know I'm not sure that we do, all I could find was freshly coated items :(

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

I'm pretty sure that I'll be utilizing your services when the time comes. :)

Turbine Housing - ported and coated
Full-Race turbo manifold - coated and possibly ported
Megan Racing O2 Housing - coated

I'm hoping at the time of purchase we can set something up!

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

For anyone that cares, it's been since Feb '09 that I've had my car aligned. Here are the results.

http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1280944572

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

I know you will get some guff from some guys here for having toe :)

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

LOL, I'm unaware. Do they demand 100% 0° of toe?

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Read the last 3-4 pages of MLomker's project thread, you will understand.

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

I'm on it!

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

mlomker had .26" of toe in the rear where as I have .06" & .07". The .19"-.20" difference is pretty decent if you ask me. I should be ok.

Does anyone think otherwise?

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Sounds good sir, and you may want to hold off on that manifold, we've got something in the works ;)

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

I already own the manifold. It's one of their first gen pieces. I'm not against upgrading at all, but it really comes down to my financial state at the time this all happens.

Of the products I'll be purchasing from you folks, right now it would be the Megan O2 Housing. However, I will be utilizing your services for the coating and porting of the turbine, and possibly the FR manifold.

Going back to the manifold you have in the works. I really hope there will be dyno tests performed, which compares MAP Tubular vs. MAP ported stocker vs. Full-Race vs. whomever else (Shearer, JMF, etc).
A single car with a generic parts setup (3" TBE, IC pipes, Intake) would be used, with each manifold being fully tuned to show the actual differences in gains. Not fully tuning the baseline and swapping each manifold on without any changes made to the tune. That kind of thing happens all too often and skews results since a/f changes as well as the kind of timing and such which can be maximized. Cams can skew this test as well.

Sorry for going off! LOL

Just as an example, I feel the same way about your O2/Downpipe Recirculated combo vs the traditional O2 Housings such as Megan and TiTek. There really is no way of justifying the purchase without being able to physically show the benefits.

I hope you don't think I'm hating at all. These are just things that I would definitely want to know before buying an item. Especially if I'm spending $500+ on the product. I can easily spend Between $100-$150 knowing I'll be in a ballpark for gains. Going higher than that in regards to price is nothing something a lot of people are willing to do.

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Don't worry I understand, there are a lot of people in your same boat. Testing these things up to those standards, especially during the peak season, is tough to squeeze into our schedule though :(

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

No worries, Chris.

My setup will still come out great and I'll still be utilizing your services!

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Picture I took last night. Ghetto street lamp lighting!

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/...b4e719c9_b.jpg

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

soooooooooooooooooooo.....

i'm at work on saturday at the restaurant. worked a long a$$ day, and a few people i work with pissed me off because they are effin' tool bags. but whatever, my shift was over and i head outside to the car. i get to my passenger door and notice a broken piece of plastic, i kick it away and think nothing of it. then i'm like.... wait.... wtf..... take a step back, and look at the car.... first the front.... ok, it's cool, than the rear. WTF!!! of course this sh!t happens just to top off the night.

the dude backed into my car and nails the quarter panel/tail light/bumper right at the edge of the quarter panel. tail light is broke, bumper is scuffed real good, and looks possibly bent, and the quarter panel is pushed in pretty good right where it meets the bumper/tail light, and the bend put a nice kink in the wheel arch. the hit actually pushed my car over a good 4-5 inches because i was parked in the space completely straight, and my wheel was straight, too. well, when i get in the car, the steering wheel is turned to the left about 1/8th of a turn! dude really rocked it! He def nailed the car at least @ 10mph to push it like that.

turns out he left a note under my wiper.

"Sorry we hit your car. Please call us. ###-###-####"

I call the cops first and get their opinion. They show up and tell me that it's not worth getting a report written up yet because it'll screw me with the whole NJ zero liability BS. He said to get an estimate and see if the guy turns out to be nice and see what happens. If he's a d!ick and give's me issues, then come in within 30 days and get a report going.

So I call up the guy and we're talking. I'm being super nice, and telling him that accidents happen, etc. He said that he looked at the damage and it doesn't look too bad. That it looks like it just needs some paint, etc. I'm like, it's definitely dented and the bumper is all scuffed, etc. I really have no idea how much it'll cost, but let me get an estimate and I'll let you know. He said, yeah, no worries. Just let me know what it is and I'll take care of it. In my head I'm thinking this dude has no idea. this is definitely going to cost $1,000+ in my opinion.

The cop tells me to get his name, license place #, and insurance company, so I ask him for that info. He starts to spell out his first name, and low and behold, HE'S MOTHERFACKIN LEBANESE!!! WTF! Haha. So that was humorous, we shoot the shit a little, but I keep it all business.

Today, I go out to the car to get something out of the trunk. It opens but makes a weird sound as if there was some tension built up. Well when I go to close to trunk..... donk.... it won't latch on. The hit definitely knocked something out of whack and I don't know what. Great. So I had to ghetto rig the trunk and tie it closed from the inside. Since I forgot to undo the trunk light and didn't feel like undoing the rope, I just disconnected the battery for now. I'll undo the bulb tomorrow when I get the estimate.

I'm going to get an estimate tomorrow and see what happens.

The upside is that the dude left me his number, which rarely happens, so I don't have to worry about my deductible. Also, this allows me to get my bumper repaired, which it needed along with my CF exhaust shroud. It also allows me to upgrade to some JDM Evo VIII MR matte black tail lights. If I get REALLY lucky and the car needs a new bumper, I MAY also be able to pick up a JDM rear bumper. If I can get the JDM tail lights, AWESOME! If I can get the JDM tail lights and shroud, double AWESOME! If I can get the JDM tail lights, shroud (JDM style shroud) AND the JDM Bumper.... FOCKIN AMAZING!!!

Hopefully this dude accepts whatever the estimate is, and that if he does accept it, that the car isn't in the shop for ever. I already have a friend that has offered me her accord coupe while my car is in the shop. Lets see what happens.

Another day in the lift of Jalal.

Pics to come tomorrow.

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Shitty.

Expect a week for each round of parts to arrive, and hope they get everything they need in the first shipment.

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Estimate has come in....$3,227.73.

I called the guy and left him a message. Lets see how long it takes for him to get back to me.

-Jalal

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Your exhaust manifold is swaintech coated isn't it? I have a FP race manifold on my DSM and it is doing that same crazy blistering / flaking that is in your nighttime pic. I wonder if they warranty that?

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

So did it bend the frame or what? I'd assume it did since your trunk wont close anymore. I'm guessing that guy is going to flake since its $3,000 plus! lol. Good luck man!! I had something similar happen to me but, when I went out to check on my car the dude's car was still backed into mine LOL!!!

Re: Levant IX Progress
 

Yeah, it began the blister about 25-30k miles into it. And then started with a very small crack about 35k miles into it. I have about 50k miles on the manifold with the coating and it looks like what you see above.

I don't know what kind of warranty Swain will offer. However, I would definitely recommend calling them up and/or e-mailing them just for good measure. I would include links to photos of your own manifold as an example.

I've heard someone tell me once that they offer variations to their White Lightning profile, but I don't know how true that is.
LMAO! Damn!

I don't know if the frame is bent to tell you the truth. I surely hope it's not. I guess we won't know until it's on the frame machine. I'll be kinda pissed if it is, but not really since it'll be getting fixed. When does an accident really effect the title on your car (clean, salvaged, etc)?

I called the guy earlier today around 11:30am and left him a message. It's 6:40pm here now, and I'm going to the mall with my gf a little later. If he doesn't call me back by the time we get back from the mall I plan on giving him another call.

I did not tell him how much the estimate was for, but said that I got one and that he should call me so that we can discuss what he wants to do. I told him that I would like the car to get into the shop ASAP so that I can get it fixed. I let him know that this is my only car and that I will most likely need to get a rental while it's down.

We'll see what happens.

My quote included a new bumper $814.22 which doesn't include the brackets and foam absorber; and one tail light $348.47 and for these 2 parts only it will be $1,162.69. I can get a JDM Evi IX Rear Bumper and JDM Evo VIII MR tail lights for $1,284.04 shipped to my door (assuming their shipping costs are correct $168.83). I would gladly drop the extra $121.35 for that, plus the cost of the deamonwerkx crash beam to have the piece of mind.

Time will tell how this all plays out. My guess is that he will flip a shit about how much it costs and that this will go through his insurance. If it doesn't and he cuts me a check, amazing!!!

-Jalal