Tim's evo x

[timschot]

Been posting some on evomn but talked to a lot of guys on here, and neighbors with a member on here too (hellomynameis, don't know if he gets on here anymore though). Anyway, I picked up a 2008 evo x about 3 weeks ago and got to modding...

Car was bought with 32k miles from Jeremy in Des Moines, pr3z on evom and evoxforums.



He had mostly demodded it, but left the comp stage 3 clutch, swift sport springs, stainless brake lines, dba rotors, and hawk pads in. I also got him to throw some parts into the deal that he was going to sell... 3.5" ETS intercooler, ETS UICP and LICP, and ETS intake, and a whiteline rear sway.


I put the FMIC, piping, and intake in a day or two after bringing it home...


Then MAP built me some exhaust.. recirc DP, testpipe, and modified a magnaflow to be full 3" (promised the wife I'd keep it relatively quiet! But it only had to be quieter than the last car, which was a built vette with longtubes, corsa, and no cats, so that doesn't say much). Also picked up a grimmspeed 3port from them.

Other than getting the stock o2 housing out (that nut/stud facing the driver side tricked me, was expecting it to be another bolt from the passenger side), the exhaust install was a piece of cake, and I'm very happy with the sound, as is the wife!

I couldn't resist the corn, so I picked up some FIC 1100s, a DW300 fp, MAP fp install kit, and DW fp hardwire kit.


Then I picked up the mandatory enkei rpf1s... 18x9.5+15, matte black


And put some nitto nt05s on them.. 275/35/18 (I've had good luck with other nitto tires in the past, first time trying nt05s, doing fine on the street so far at least, we'll see @ track)


No center caps on the rpf1s, so I used some rustoleum (or similar) flat black paint to clean up the rusty hubs while detailing it.



Then I picked up boost and AFR gauges from MAP and put them in (nice how the factory has a grommet right above where MAP put an extra bung in the dp for me! Boost sensor wires through the firewall were kind of a whore though, glad I have long skinny fingers at least).

AFR gauge works great. Boost gauge seems to not want to recognize vacuum in its auto-zero thing.. guess some x guys have had issues with it resetting between on and start positions, so it messes up the auto-zero... don't know, going to mess with it more tomorrow, otherwise it's going back to autometer if it's not just an install issue.

I intended on bringing it to Ron for a tune from the start, but was having difficulty getting ahold of him, so I set an appointment with MAP to do a tune, then got ahold of Ron the next day. I kept the MAP appointment to just get it swapped to e85 and hopefully save Ron some time, and make sure I don't have any other kinks to work out. Brought it to Ron this afternoon, and am VERY pleased with the results... (Ignore the baseline, was just a quick tune to get me rolling on e85... final numbers from Ron are 360hp/372tq)


Car is night and day better from stock power / stock tune. Looking forward to getting it up to BIR or at least an autox soon here (5 month old being the main challenge there).

[scheides]

You've done is right my friend! Welll...except the black rims...but that's your preference I guess...actually looks pretty decent on the white car.

Do you have an openport 2.0 yet? I decided to go no gauges on my car since you can just log them directly from the ecu...just a thought.

I have a video example of exhaust volume I need to send you.

[Murlo26]

Looking good!

I think I might have saw you driving on 35S around fairbault last week or the week before when i was working in Owatonna.

[tehehodi]

Wow, you move fast. Gorgeous!

[turbotalon1g]

Like

[timschot]

Originally Posted by scheides

You've done is right my friend! Welll...except the black rims...but that's your preference I guess...actually looks pretty decent on the white car.

Do you have an openport 2.0 yet? I decided to go no gauges on my car since you can just log them directly from the ecu...just a thought.

I have a video example of exhaust volume I need to send you.

Thanks man! I do not have openport 2.0 yet. Zack next door has a 1.3u cable, but it won't do for mine :\ I mostly just like to have a boost gauge to recognize any vacuum leaks right away w/ boosted cars, and I clock the analog afr gauge so that straight up is about 11.5, so if I notice it go past that, it's a good indicator of something is wrong.

As for black wheels.. they don't show brake dust.. they just look like slightly less black wheels.. haha. And I think they look much better in person than in pics.

Originally Posted by Murlo26

Looking good!

I think I might have saw you driving on 35S around fairbault last week or the week before when i was working in Owatonna.

I think we were both at C&C the other day. 35S that far south... probably wasn't me unless I was heading north when I bought the car (woulda been stock wheels), I'm more west of the cities near waconia / mayer. Would love to check out your car closer before you sell it though. And curious what I might want to look out for... I really like the car as it is, but my power addiction will probably require me to go further with it, and I don't want to regret going further, should I decide to... if that makes any sense.

Originally Posted by tehehodi

Wow, you move fast. Gorgeous!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by turbotalon1g

Like

[scheides]

Haha awesome, does Zach still have his Evo? Ask him if he still has my red sweatshirt I left at his place like 3 years ago, LOL. 1.3 cable won't work sorry but the 2.0 + a microSD card are worth every penny.

Enjoy the car!

[timschot]

Originally Posted by scheides

Haha awesome, does Zach still have his Evo? Ask him if he still has my red sweatshirt I left at his place like 3 years ago, LOL. 1.3 cable won't work sorry but the 2.0 + a microSD card are worth every penny.

Enjoy the car!

He does. But he mostly drives the h3 lately.

Can do

[goodhart]

Nice I had those same gauges. Do you let the gauges go through the whole seqeuence before turning the key to start the car? Those you have to turn it to the on position, let them zero, then start the car.

[asshanson]

I just replaced the front Invos on the vette with NT05s, they definitely grip better but I'm expecting less life out of them. With the Invos still in the rear it wants to oversteer now without much effort, the front just wants to stick. Hopefully they work at the track for you.

I like the white with black accents look a lot, car looks great, have fun with the build!

[scheides]

Does your car have anything done to the shifter yet? IDK when your next round of mods will be, but the AMS gate kit, underhood bushings, and a front motor mount are all I have on my car and they made a WORLD of difference. Then some redline fluid in the gearbox and its heaven.

Hughes has a short shifter in his on top of the above and he loves it, I'm indifferent about it...just some stuff to look at next, def cheap mods that are way worth it.

[simulatedwood]

Looks awesome Tim, plus all the right parts for tracking this thing too.

If you don't already have it on your list, add the AWC relocation off the steering wheel to the center console. Its so easy for the car to be switched from tarmac to snow\gravel during a autocross run because of the location in proximity to hands on the wheel.

White with black wheels looks good, and should hide the brake dust nicely.

Shawn

[timschot]

Originally Posted by goodhart

Nice I had those same gauges. Do you let the gauges go through the whole seqeuence before turning the key to start the car? Those you have to turn it to the on position, let them zero, then start the car.

I do zero them in the on position, but it seems like between on and start, they lose power, so they end up redoing their auto-zero once it's started, and therefore are seeing vacuum at idle and think that's zero. I'm wondering if there's a different fuse I can tap into that won't cut between on and start, currently using the cig lighter fuse for key on power. Or maybe they aren't losing power (like I'd read in some evox thread), and there's just something wrong with the gauge :\

Originally Posted by asshanson

I just replaced the front Invos on the vette with NT05s, they definitely grip better but I'm expecting less life out of them. With the Invos still in the rear it wants to oversteer now without much effort, the front just wants to stick. Hopefully they work at the track for you.

I like the white with black accents look a lot, car looks great, have fun with the build!

Yeah, I don't expect a ton of life out of them, but they were a pretty good price and I honestly don't drive much on the street anymore. I work from home mostly and don't really go out much, other than when I want to enjoy the car. Looking forward to seeing how they do on the track Thanks!

Originally Posted by scheides

Does your car have anything done to the shifter yet? IDK when your next round of mods will be, but the AMS gate kit, underhood bushings, and a front motor mount are all I have on my car and they made a WORLD of difference. Then some redline fluid in the gearbox and its heaven.

Hughes has a short shifter in his on top of the above and he loves it, I'm indifferent about it...just some stuff to look at next, def cheap mods that are way worth it.

None of the above are done yet. I want to get the car on a course, then see where I think it could be improved. But honestly a lot of the potential for improvement is just going to be driver mod... new car, and I have only done a few road course and autox events in the past anyway, so I'm looking forward to doing a lot more in this car. All sound like great suggestions though, will add to the "eventually" list! I like to do a few things, then see how the car does, then a few more things.. etc. Too many changes at once and it's harder to tell what caused a problem or to really appreciate each change and know whether it's worth doing next time (or for the next guy). The previous owner did experiment with various transmission fluids and I can't for the life of me remember which one he settled on (have it written down in the garage, wasn't redline though), but compared to other evo x's I test drove, it feels better for sure. @Short shifter, I've had good and bad ones... the stock shifter isn't too shabby, so I'm not in a big hurry to get a new one

Originally Posted by simulatedwood

Looks awesome Tim, plus all the right parts for tracking this thing too.

If you don't already have it on your list, add the AWC relocation off the steering wheel to the center console. Its so easy for the car to be switched from tarmac to snow\gravel during a autocross run because of the location in proximity to hands on the wheel.

White with black wheels looks good, and should hide the brake dust nicely.

Shawn

Thanks! I have noticed already hitting that AWC switch once or twice on the street and was thinking "this is going to be annoying for autox..." I will definitely look into the relocation.

[timschot]

I will be heading to the Amery Airport event this Saturday. I might be taking a buddy's spot if he doesn't get some parts in early enough, otherwise I will just be spectating / riding with a friend or two.

[timschot]

Couple things....

First...

After a lot of stop and go traffic earlier today (first time since dw300/hardwire/fic1100s/e85 swap). The return line had worked it's way off, then after popping it back on and driving another half hour in free and clear traffic, the car died and would not start. It cranked, had spark, had voltage at injectors, fuel pump clearly making noise, won't pop over with injectors unplugged (not flooded)... no leaks under the car... pop fuel pump out.. that line looked loose.. tug both ends out of the bucket, yep that used to not be a 2 piece fuel line. So... I suspect I AM having issues with idle/low throttle fuel pressure being too high and will have to address that. Thanks Scheides for the info/pms last week, it will likely come in handy here! Either that or that line is not e85 proof as advertised. Thoughts?

Second...

I may be a wee bit impatient? Oh well.

[asshanson]

Haha, already building the motor, nicely done.

I'm pretty sure those lines are e85 safe, they look like other OEM in tank lines and I've run e85 for awhile, as well as other Evo owners not having the line separate like that. That's the line right off the pump, right? I don't see how the high pressure would cause it to split though, because during boost you're pushing over 60psi through it.

[timschot]

You know it

Yeah, I am kind of scratching my head at the busted line. Haven't searched on it much yet, just figured I'd post the pic and get people's thoughts. It's an easy fix, but I'd like to know why it happened. It's not an OEM line - it came in the MAP fuel pump install kit - http://www.maperformance.com/map-fue...evox-fpik.html. There were no kinks, wasn't squished under anything (bucket gets pushed down when you put it in the tank, so I was careful to route the line correctly), just odd.

I guess I'm not sure if they advertise it as E85 safe, so it could just be the wrong tubing is all. Going to give them a call and sort it out in the morning. Car's sitting in a church parking lot right now... hoping baby jesus watches over it? lol

[timschot]

Gonna just pick up some fuel hose in the morning. Found a couple other instances of this style line breaking down in e85, so that's probably all it was.

[Kracka]

That plastic straw hose stuff is junk IMO, I've seen a few instances of it breaking, get the rubber submersible fuel injection hose that is ethanol-safe. It should be around $15/foot...

[JET]

Agreed, that clear stuff is junk. I don't know if I would even trust it on a stock car.