Zetsaz

A few select shots from this year's cruise-in. The car sure has come a long way! Was excited to have my brother join me in his MR2 even though his is still even more of a work in progress than mine and isn't quite as clean. Still a looker. Expecting clamps to delete the front diff crossmember soon which will hopefully solve my exhaust "buzz" problem. It's no longer a rattle but still a bother. Will likely still redo at least one exhaust mount to a more solid style with a rubber or urethane washer on a through hole instead of a rubber hanger to limit movement

Great to catch you too! Despite my little gripes like the small exhaust rattle and the constant work in progress nature of the thing, it's REALLY satisfying when other people enjoy it. I forget that even with the spots on the paint that aren't perfect it's still definitely a looker. Haven't seen it in bright sun in a long time and it's very fun right now 😁

Your "more vibrations" is probably still way less noise than the buzzing I'm hearing currently. I'm sure it'll be great!

I'm here until I move to Mexico! Third week of July I fly down. In the mean time I'm attempting to relax with family while also taking care of figuring out housing down there and submitting the last bits of employment paperwork.

Made it to Utah and have my car in the Cache County Cruise-in Drove 800 miles yesterday.... Only to find out that my less than stellar mpg was because I've been running on 5 glorious cylinders. Averaged 19mpg, which i thought was low for my setup and turns out i was right. Coil pack failed and fouled a plug. Replaced both today and even without adjusting my fuel map it feels SO much better Hoping to do a bit of road tuning after filling up tonight and seeing how much better I can make this thing feel. The increased smoothness on the engine even lightened up some exhaust tapping that was driving me nuts. Really only hear it on right turns right now which is more reasonable than any time I'm under load.

I'd love to see some better pictures of how you have that braced. I have some rattling on mine in that area that's driving me nuts. So much so that I'm willing to get rid of the front diff crossmember altogether since I have a top mount. With my resonator in the middle I just don't have great clearance if I drop it too far (and with the angles it has, dropping it too far leans the pipe towards the driver side of that little opening where it's already bumping.

Added a resonator to the midpipe yesterday with a vibrant straight through piece and shortened up the mid pipe by a quarter inch. Made a super basic jig to fit things up the same. 100% worth it. Downright tame at lower rpm now so droning around town doesn't bother me with the windows down. Looks like my ground clearance has been ruined however. Was hoping it wouldn't be toooooo bad but i already scraped a tiny bit on a particularly rough spot coming out of my alley so i plan on dropping by my friend's again to add a kick up and maybe one more brace near the diff or the transmission crossmember to help make sure I don't get occasional exhaust rattles

Mostly just cruising and shaking things down lately. Running much better and very smooth after some help from Richard Boyk to adjust settings. This thing is SMOOOOOOTH... if it wasn't for needing just a couple tweaks to keep the exhaust from rattling on occasion haha. The brake fade is noticeable after a spirited drive earlier. I think one of the first upgrades soon is a turbo blanket, and for major upgrades for next summer i might be getting the Z car garage brakes. A bit burned out on custom stuff. I think I'm okay paying more for a really well built kit that'll get the job done right without a bunch of reading and tinkering on my part

I run a mix of T bolt clamps and worm gear clamps right now because it's what I have on hand and they honestly work fine at my boost levels. I only have one support on the passenger side and it's to help make sure that the piping running under the engine doesn't dip more than the half inch or so it's already lower than the front crossmember. I would think with even shorter runs you don't need any bracing since it's fixed on one end by the turbo and on the other by the intercooler and brackets there. You should really only have 2-3 couplers between those spots which is enough to flex but still well supported so the entire length doesn't move much. If I upgrade any clamps I think I'll probably be using some higher quality worm gear clamps. I feel like the t bolts I have just occupy way more space than necessary, but better clamps will probably cost me close to $100 for every place I need.

What overflow tank is that?? Looks like a nice fit. I might try moving to that on my mishimoto radiator.

post pics! I was lucky enough to drive it before it sold. Super fun car.

I think other than their OEM bits they just have generic hardware store stuff in whatever the closest size is. Your diameter issue isore severe, but I've noticed the closest stuff i find is usually fractionally shorter than the OEM hardware which is why I had that issue. Protunerz might be running into the same issue on some of their kits. Still waiting on the rest of my hardware after they told me some of the hardware they got for the thermostat kits was too short. I know for a fact my bolts holding in the lower thermostat right now are shorter than stock and and really hoping to replace those soon with the new stainless bits

Was leaking kind of substantially from the cover but I'm pretty sure the only spray was out the pump. The higher rpms from highway cruising plus the fan being right next to it helped it splatter all over. Combine that with being thinner from running at operating temps and it made it easy to spread all over. Got it running a couple hours ago and sprayed engine degreaser all over the passenger side of the bay and the suspension components that got oiled up. Drove out to a car wash and hosed everything down thoroughly. I think it might be cleaner and drier than it was when I first got the new setup running haha. No signs of leaking so far after a double check and quick highway drive so I think the problem is solved. Will know for sure on a longer drive tomorrow.

New bolts and metal spacers purchased. Pics of the oil everywhere included, plus the old bolts (with the black on the end sort of indicating how many threads were actually grabbing) vs new bolts for the pump.

Well the first failures of longer drives have shown up. Had two MAJOR oil leaks (sprays more like) from the back of the valve cover and from the oil pump. I thought the gaskets failed, but it seems less likely now that I've torn into it. The spacers I used for the new coil pack mounts aren't as sturdy as I thought and can't apply enough pressure on the valve cover without distorting. Got a new gasket anyway, but I'm replacing them with metal spacers this afternoon. The oil pump might be more serious, but after pulling it it looks like the stainless bolts I had from Z Car Depot at some point are too short. They only have 3 or 4 threads into the aluminum on the timing cover and cross threaded. Got a new gasket for that as well, but also chased the threads and buying longer bolts today to get better thread engagement and a better seal. Hopefully that solves my problems, but there's oil EVERYWHERE on the passenger side from my drive home. All over the passenger suspension, on the wheel, and splattered onto the passenger fender and door from spinning around on the wheel while warm and thinned out. Lots of cleaning to do.