Deadmau5X: MOAR Mods 'N Stuff - Page 6

Rmondoh · 09-18-2010

Well I just went and did a few errands, came home and got some rags, and went to wash the car. I LOVE how the car feels and sounds now. The exhaust note sounds absolutely perfect to me. It's louder than my old HKS Legamax but not obnoxiously loud. It's pretty much perfect. I know it will get a little bit louder when I throw the test pipe on there, but I don't care, it sounds great. It also feels great too.

I'm not sure I can really tell the bushings are making a difference though, but I know they are definitely better than the stock rubber ones. A visual comparison makes that obvious. Perhaps as I do more driving then I'll feel it a little more.

Either way, I'm super happy with everything!

**Kracka** · 09-18-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rmondoh

I'm super happy with everything!

Great to hear!

**mlomker** · 09-18-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rmondoh

which makes me a ricer according to Lomker, but I'm sure it adds "some" downforce so it's not total rice, lol

)

Get a big wing or walk in my shadow.

Rmondoh · 10-02-2010

So it's been a while since I posted anything so I figured I'd update this.

Last week I started hearing a noise coming from the front driver side whenever I would accelerate or decelerate and while in gear or out of gear and it only happens at around 18mph. It sounds like a "wump wump wump".

At first I thought it was something I did recently, but the only mods I've done in the past few weeks were my Specialty X catback, drive shaft bushings, and rear differential bushings. Since the noise was happening when the car was moving and whether in gear or not, I thought maybe the drive shaft bushings were to blame. So I put the stock ones back in and unfortunately the noise was still present. I was getting a little worried at this point because I've always looked after the car.

Well I ended up taking the car to Don Herring Mitsu and I explained to the service guy and the service tech what was going on. The tech took it for a drive and heard the noise I was referring to. After a bit of inspecting, I'm told that my front driver's side tire is cupping pretty bad. The inside of the tire is wearing a lot more than the rest of the tire and even then, the tire isn't wearing evenly. I checked the remaining tires and the front passenger tire doesn't feel anywhere near as bad, but it doesn't feel like even wear either. The rear tires feel fine though.

So I'm relieved that there is nothing wrong with the car itself. When I got home, I decided to do a google search and this is what came up:

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=goodyear+ea...season+cupping

Looks like the tires have been known to have some issues. Today I took the car back up to Don Herring Mitsu to get my alignment checked. Reason for that is I want to have some proof for Discount Tire that IF my alignment is perfectly fine, then I have an issue with the tires. I know if I had gone to them first and brought up the issue, they probably would have said I need to have my alignment checked so I decided to remove any doubt first before going to talk with them. I only have about 15k on the tires and they still have PLENTY of thread left. I don't really abuse them at all.

It's been about 3 hours since I left the car so I hope to be hearing back from them soon. I'll keep everyone updated as I have news.

*edit: I keep my tires at 32psi and rotate them every 5k.

**Kracka** · 10-02-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rmondoh

The inside of the tire is wearing a lot more than the rest of the tire and even then, the tire isn't wearing evenly.

This makes me think your front toe is out of whack which is very common with the factory alignment.

Rmondoh · 10-02-2010

UPDATE 1:

Just got the call from Mitsu. They found my alignment to be PERFECTLY fine (even after 29k miles

). The ONLY thing they found was that the passenger side rear tire was off 1/10th of a degree. Based on that, the only logical deduction is that the tires are crapping out on their own. I'll be going to pick it up in a half hour and then heading on over to Discount Tire and probably getting into a fight with them so we'll see!

Rmondoh · 10-02-2010

UPDATE 2:

Well I'm never going to Discount Tire again unless it's to fix a flat tire. They were less than helpful. They blamed the wear on the toe/camber settings of the car despite having shown them that it is up to par with the factory specs. So apparently factory specs are not good enough for any tires put on the Evo X. They also couldn't pro-rate them because of the thread loss and the uneven wear, so even if they sent them back to Goodyear, they would get nothing back. The only thing they could do for me was rotate my tires and tell me I have a really nice car.

Of course, they tried to get me to look at other tires but I said no thanks to that.

For now, I guess I'm just going to wear these out, rotating them as necessary to minimize the cupping damage. I plan on going to visit PTP in Ft Worth when I need new tires as it's better to support a local shop full of good guys than a store chain that can't help you. I should have plenty of time to decide which tires to get by then. I'll most likely have to change my brake pads by then so I'll probably do it all at once (EBC Redstuff or RB ET500).

If you have tire suggestions, I'd appreciate it. I think I'll be going with a summer tire this time.

**Kracka** · 10-02-2010

Good news about the alignment, bad news about the tires

Based on what I know about your driving habits, I'm going to suggest the Sumitomo HTR Z III (I've had 3 sets of these) or the Hankook Ventus V12 evo K110 (thinking about trying these next).

Rmondoh · 10-02-2010

UPDATE 3:

Managed to get my oil and oil filter changed after getting back from No Discount Tires. Also was able to put the Torque Solution drive shaft bushings back on. I could not manage to undo the bolts holding the cat to my catback. I blasted them with WD-40 and even busted out my dad's torque wrench to get more leverage and nothing. I ended up giving up as it was 6pm and parents were starving.

I realize now that I probably should have done the cat first when the bolts were still hot/warm instead of doing the oil and bushings. Lesson learned!

I'm heading over to Kracka's early tomorrow morning (well...trying to be there before 730 if possible...which for me is a hard thing to do, lol) to try and do the cat/test pipe swap before heading out to Cobb for the dyno day. Hopefully all goes well and we can get the pipe swapped so I can flash to Cobb's OTS Stage 2 for the dyno day.

For those who might be wondering, I really want to dyno the car with Cobb's OTS Stage 2 map because my mods have stayed the same from my Stage 1 OTS dyno pull until now. Swapping out the test pipe will allow me to run OTS Stage 2. So it will give me a good comparison of how well Cobb's OTS Stage 1 and Stage 2 maps compare. I'm currently on a Stage 1 protune from Cobb and making 317whp/322wtq. I made 305hp/291tq on their Stage 1 OTS. I'm guessing that with Stage 2 OTS, I'll probably be around the same hp/tq that I'm currently running. I plan to go back in a few weeks for a retune with a Grimmspeed 3port and a Synchronic BOV. Goal is to be a 330whp daily driver. After that, the car will be donezo!

Rmondoh · 10-02-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kracka

Good news about the alignment, bad news about the tires

Based on what I know about your driving habits, I'm going to suggest the Sumitomo HTR Z III (I've had 3 sets of these) or the Hankook Ventus V12 evo K110 (thinking about trying these next).

Based on those 2 tires, I'd have to go with the Sumitomo only because the Hankook's look like my Goodyear Eagle F1 A/S. The guy at Discount said he recommends asymmetrical tires as opposed to directional tires, especially for a car like the Evo which runs negative camber. Whether he was blowing smoke up my ass or not, that's what he said. I looked at my Advans and they feel/look ok. Nothing like my Goodyears. Tirerack has those Sumitomo's for $123 in the stock tire size. That's a pretty good deal if you ask me. The other thing I liked about the Sumitomo's is this

Quote:

The inside shoulder is linked by another continuous circumferential rib that enhances wear quality to help reduce noise throughout the life of the tire, especially on vehicles with independent suspensions and alignment settings that specify negative camber.

Considering that one of my Goodyears wore pretty badly on the inside shoulder, that part of the Sumitomo description gives it a +1 from me. I guess I'm adding the Sumitomo HTR Z III's to my list, which consists of just 1 tire so far...Sumitomo HTR Z III, lol! Thanks for the recommendation Kracka!

**mlomker** · 10-03-2010

Star Specs are directional tires so I'll have to call bullshit on that--many people run them on Evos. Then again it looks like I'll only get 10k miles per set due to track use.

Rmondoh · 10-05-2010

NTEC Dyno Day 10/3/2010!!

Picture of Car

Strapped on the Dyno

*Note: Before anyone mentions it, the mods listed on the dyno graph are not entirely right. The ones listed in this spreadsheet are the correct mods.

Dyno Graph

Rmondoh · 10-05-2010

Here is a comparison of Cobb's Off The Shelf Stage1 vs Stage2 LWG:

Here is a comparison of Cobb's Stage1 Protune vs Cobb OTS Stage2 LWG:

**mlomker** · 10-05-2010

Going to get pro tune at some point?

Rmondoh · 10-05-2010

Yes sir! I'm hoping for the end of this month or early November. Just placed an order with our friends at MAP for an AMS LICP, so I'll wait for that to come in. Final parts going on will be a GrimmSpeed 3port, AMS LICP, and Synapse Synchronic BOV. Once those go on and I'm retuned, car is donezo!

**cmspaz** · 10-05-2010

Awesome graph, power all the way across feels good, doesn't it?

Rmondoh · 10-05-2010

Yes it does! Yeah it's a little disappointing that Cobb's OTS Stage2 produced basically the same thing as the Stage1 protune I got from Cobb back in April, but I expected it. However, comparing Stage1 vs Stage2 (only real difference between them being stage1=cat, stage2=HFC/test pipe), they seem to line up pretty well. I think if I had gone with the Non Lowered Waste Gate map, I probably would have been closer to 320whp. Then the difference between Stage1 and Stage2 would have been more apparent.

Stage1: 305whp
Stage2 LWG: 315whp
Stage2 (estimated): 320whp

Assuming I would have gotten to 320whp with 3 more PSI of boost, then the "test pipe adds between 10-15hp" statement would hold true. Either way, once I go get retuned, I'll hopefully be at 330whp since I'll be running 26-27psi and Calvin (Cobb Plano's tuner) will be working with a 3port. Hopefully that will give him enough control over the boost that I'll break 330whp, which was my goal from Day 1.

It's been exciting every step of the way and I can't wait to see how it all ends up! Then maybe after it's all done, I can go about life again trying to find a girlfriend and writing code in my spare time, lol!

Rmondoh · 10-11-2010

Hello brand new nice and shiny LICP.

Rmondoh · 10-16-2010

Just installed my LICP a while ago (using my brand new Craftsman tool set

), rechecked the clamps, put her back together, took for her a spin making sure to throw down the hammer every now and then, and everything checked out perfectly!

**Halon** · 10-16-2010

Nice. You going to keep those worm clamps on there that are shown in the pic, or get some T-Bolts on there eventually?