GA Limited 818S Build Thread - 07FIREBLADE & The Wizzard

[07FIREBLADE]

Nope still in school. I valet for a night club in OC called Sutra. These were just a few nice toys that came in over the last week or so that I had the honor of driving. Gold wrapped on the SLS. It was a poor quality wrap IMO. The T-rex has a hayabusa motor and the formula sae car had a 06 cbr600 engine. Liked the formula one the most. Very similar to the one we have at school.

[Mechie3]

So you're still in school, in CA, have a 2015 WRX, and are building an 818?

:winning:

[07FIREBLADE]

Ya trying to finish up my Bs in mechanical and electrical right now. Have 2 years left if everything works out will class and availability. I like living a bit more. Lol

[07FIREBLADE]

Christmas came early this year because I've been a good boy.

Also my turbo was giving me some problems, I think my actuator arm is messed up from the car crash. I can build boost, not even waste gate boost. So I picked this puppy up during a Black Friday sale.


Unfortunately I am out of town for the holidays so I cant play on the car for a few weeks, visiting some family up to Seattle but unfortunately missed out on Mechie3 K1 speed day. Oh well, I'll hit the car at full speed at the beginning of the year. I wonder what a solid 2 weeks of car building can accomplish.

[07FIREBLADE]

So I need to replace my current turbo and it doesn't have coolant lines at all it only has the oil feed and return lines. This was the turbo that was in the donor car. My question for people that have a stock turbo setup is where does this hose go to. I understand its the coolant return line that goes back to the motor but to what location. The top line goes to the top of the turbo expansion tank which was capped off from my donor. Thanks for the help guys

[Hindsight]

The feed line goes to a banjo bolt on the back of the cylinder head. Return line goes to degas tank.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

So I need to replace my current turbo and it doesn't have coolant lines at all it only has the oil feed and return lines. This was the turbo that was in the donor car. My question for people that have a stock turbo setup is where does this hose go to. I understand its the coolant return line that goes back to the motor but to what location. The top line goes to the top of the turbo expansion tank which was capped off from my donor. Thanks for the help guys

With the turbo and up pipe off you can see the hose. See picture below.
Bob

[07FIREBLADE]

Thanks guys. Time to hit up the subie dealership

[07FIREBLADE]

I've been really busy lately but I just got my VIN today, so next its brake and light and then bar and finally DMV, hopefully i will have plates by mid april. Might make the HB cruise in, cars a long way out though.

[07FIREBLADE]

Minor set backs always suck but at least I was able to get the car tuned finally. It only decided to break down on the dyno which wasn't fun at all. Luckily I was in good hands with Cobb being my tuner. It put down more than expect which I am very pleased with. i have an appointment for next week to get an alignment than on to brake and light inspection. I just want to get the car registered before I go further into bodywork since Im waiting for the hardtop to arrive.

Heres my graph if anyone wants to see what I put out. Its a 2.2L stroker.

[Frank818]

350isch?

[07FIREBLADE]

345 torque 348 horse. Cobb had to diagnosis a few issues on the dyno for me. They rushed the tune. I'm happy though I'm going to go back after I get the hardtop. I plan on doing an exhaust change and maybe intake routing.

[Frank818]

345-350 that's pretty good! Congrats!
Any plans to go over 20psi or that was your targeted boost?

[07FIREBLADE]

No real plans at the moment. I do plan on having it retuned after the hardtop comes out. I'm playing with a different exhaust and intake setup. Maybe upgrade for e85 I just don't know at this point. Really just want to get it registered and on the road so I can work out the kinks. Get it ready and finished for next years HB show.

[07FIREBLADE]

Man it's been forever since I've update this thing but I got some good news finally. I got my sb100 # and its 158. So I'm golden and so is everyone else in Cali. Good luck gents. Now it's time to drive this thing and get through BAR. More updates to come waiting on the hardtop to get here so I can finish body work. I'm going to finish up my ac in the next week or two.

[Tamra]

Congrats!

[Frank818]

All done!!! Great! Good job!

[07FIREBLADE]

Just finished up at the state ref. got my smog exemption tag. On last trip to the DMV and I will be street legal. Just in time for the hardtop to come out. The ref didn't even start the car up he just looked over my paperwork, did a walk around and checked for a PCV and that was it. Wait a bit while he may a few phone calls and then I was on my way.

[JeromeS13]

Just finished up at the state ref. got my smog exemption tag. On last trip to the DMV and I will be street legal. Just in time for the hardtop to come out. The ref didn't even start the car up he just looked over my paperwork, did a walk around and checked for a PCV and that was it. Wait a bit while he may a few phone calls and then I was on my way.

Congrats! My final DMV appointment is tomorrow. :-D

[07FIREBLADE]

Its been ages since I've touched my car but now that school is out I have some time to make some real progress. Fortunately I was able to get the only crate that was available from FFR and I will have the first hardtop/front retrofit kit on the west coast very soon. I kind of feel bad for everyone else. FFR has a bunch of tops and fronts just waiting for shipping quotes to come back. I decided to pull the trigger and not waiting on FFR and Stewart to figure out shipping. I will have to wait on glass but at least I can make some body progress in the mean time.

I will keep this thread updated with the progress of the retrofit but it may taper off a bit. Working at iWire and planning a wedding may take up some of my spare time. I really want to get this car done for HB but only time will tell.

[AZPete]

Back in June you wrote that you ere going to finish up the A/C. Did you? Builders with A/C plans want to know.

[07FIREBLADE]

No I need a final charge and work a few kinks out before that. Im going to rebuild my iWire harness and its been on the back burner til the new harness has been built. I think i have a problem with the pressure switch and it doesn't want to cycle on. Which leaves me with a slight charge but not full.

[07FIREBLADE]

TOPS HERE!!! Finally only took 3 weeks with the holiday season really killing my timetable. Pics soon to follow I just need to figure out how to get it off the truck now.

[07FIREBLADE]

Lets see if I remember how to attach photos.

The 1st one is the freight company trying to figure out how to get my crate off their truck. I let them struggle for a bit but than told them to call for another truck.



On the ground and in my driveway. I have a bunch of firewood now. The crate dimension are a bit off from FFR. They measured out to being 122x66x36 and weight came in for me at about 650lbs. I was quoted 550lbs as an overestimate from FFR but I shipped air instead of ground so mine is a dimensional weight I guess.




Starting ripping the car apart right away. Like a kid on Christmas morning.

[07FIREBLADE]

After a quick inventory I'm only short a few items. All glass except the windshield no date yet on shipment. I've already been in touch with Courtnie at FFR. Headlight bucket and lenses are not included and also the led lights in the headlight. Lastly is the manual revision for the retrofits. This might take a while so I started to scour the forum to find some pics of partial coupe builds and left the rest up to the builders discretion. I will come back and make changes when necessary if something doesn't work out to my liking or copy Lance Corsi bumper design to an extent.

Brackets are slotted and leave a range of adjustments so I did the best a guessing and approatiate distance and went to town. The 1st pic is with the bracket set back 1.5" from the front edge of the subframe. 2nd is the opposite side with the lower bumper frame attached. 3rd is with the nose support attached. Here i mounted the bar to the most logical place which may be wrong but I will adjust accordingly later. Last one is motivation to keep chugging away. Getting a bit sick and having to redo a million things is not helping right now.

[Mechie3]

What mirrors are those? S2000?

[07FIREBLADE]

Correct, S2000. Got them off a old forum buddy for dirt that car was a long time favorite car while I was in high school too. I need to make a block off plate out of carbon or fiberglass to fill in the spot where the wrx mirrors would go. Looks like you might be able to just hard mount them to the A pillar like in stock configuration.

I will post more pics of any particular parts if needed. I need to rip the top off and redo the remote reservoir so I don't have to cut into the top frame and also switch out my master cylinder to the smaller piston Nissan equivalent. That is why the top is sitting high in this picture.

[Harley818]

I like the mirrors too.
I haven't bought mine yet. Donor didn't have any.

[07FIREBLADE]

I received Harley's Vman style bumper last week as a birthday present to myself. I was waiting to install the bumper after I work a few details out with mechie3 to make some of his rear grill/led light inserts into the new bumper. Before I do a full review of the bumper but from my quick once over I can tell that it is a top notch product. Easily 2x the weight as the ffr bumper and I wouldn't mind saying that it has the quality feel and fitment of an unpainted oem bumper. It gives you a quite of bit of confidence when you hold it in your hands.

I was waiting primarily on the new bumper grill/leds and the cutout for the bottom grill area. I might forgo this for the time being and get the bumper fitted this weekend and the front fully installed. Im trying to get the car to a point where it can at least make the HB show even though it wont be in paint of any sort. Planning a wedding is eating up so much of my little free time. Also the car is getting the newest version of the iWire haress treatment since we have progress so much over the last year. I can't stand the little features here and there that I want to change so its time for an upgrade. We will also be using my car as a full mock up for the finished coupe redesign.

[Solidworks-Mike]

I received Harley's Vman style bumper last week as a birthday present to myself. I was waiting to install the bumper after I work a few details out with mechie3 to make some of his rear grill/led light inserts into the new bumper. Before I do a full review of the bumper but from my quick once over I can tell that it is a top notch product. Easily 2x the weight as the ffr bumper and I wouldn't mind saying that it has the quality feel and fitment of an unpainted oem bumper. It gives you a quite of bit of confidence when you hold it in your hands.

I was waiting primarily on the new bumper grill/leds and the cutout for the bottom grill area. I might forgo this for the time being and get the bumper fitted this weekend and the front fully installed. Im trying to get the car to a point where it can at least make the HB show even though it wont be in paint of any sort. Planning a wedding is eating up so much of my little free time. Also the car is getting the newest version of the iWire haress treatment since we have progress so much over the last year. I can't stand the little features here and there that I want to change so its time for an upgrade. We will also be using my car as a full mock up for the finished coupe redesign.

Hope you can make it to HB, I'm going to be there and will hopefully be about a month in to my 818S build, so it would be cool to have an 818 to see up close. I've taken a bunch of pics of the various 818's at FFR in Wareham, but it's always nice to see others builds. I heard there were no 818's in HB last year, so I'm hoping a few show up.

If I see you decide to go I'll make sure to stop by.

[07FIREBLADE]

[07FIREBLADE]

[07FIREBLADE]

[07FIREBLADE]

I finished mocking up my new rear bumper. All the credit goes out to Vman and Harley818 for making this possible. I love the new look and might be changing it a bit more once Craig, mechie3 gets his to make some grilles for his leds lights. Onto the review though. I am going to do this on a 1-10 scale since this is the first production bumper that was made for a customer I want to give a fair review so others can see the quality when its being compared to the ffr part.

Fit (Harley) - 9 Its really hard to say a 10 here because I already had my panels drilled and set in place. It only took me 20 mins to mount this bumper after I did my initial cutouts. Harleys had the notch in the bottom where I made the same exact one for the transmount. Bumper was more pliable and easier to work with
Fit (ffr) - 7 This was the initial bumper and took several attempts to get mount and working correctly
Finish (Harley) - 8 I wish I chose the white option just so my car would of been more uniform but I getting ready for paint. There were a few voids but they are extremly minor and Im really nit picking here. Easily 2x the weight and thickness
Finish (ffr) - 5 The original bumpers had so many voids and pits. Also the was very thin. I have chassis 127 so its after the initial push but an older car. Since than ffr had made strides forward in qc for their parts. I wish my old panels were similar to the hardtop and front end I got.
Misc (harley) I liked how harleys bumper had the old mounting tabs for the hood pins. Personally I wont be using them and cut them off. But I would honestly trust them if I were to use them. They are quite thick and give you a ton of confidence if you had to rely on them to hold your panels together. FFR replaced this tab on there bumpers and provided a bent aluminum bracket where you could mount the studs for the mini quik latches. Personally I would like a little less glass in the middle of the bumper to keep weight done. Since most of this will most likely get some sort of cutout. But thats about it I cant really find any real flaws with the bumper and would definetly recommend it if you want to change the look of your rear end. Pricing is also not bad at all. Last time I checked the rear bumper was like $700ish from ffr and you get a far inferior product in both looks and quality. Even though Harleys is made a fiberglass it gives your a unfinished oem plastic bumper feel to it. I wouldn't be heart broken If I happen to back into a wall when reversing the car since my bumper wouldn't shatter upon touching an object.

[Harley818]

Looking good. Thanks for the feedback Robert.
I think I'll ask people ahead of time if they want the hood pin tabs. No point putting them on if we don't use them. I'm not using mine either. I like the angle in the corner better myself for the quick latches.
And good suggestion to thin out the glass in the middle.
Glad it fit well and I'm looking forward to your painted product.

Harley

[07FIREBLADE]

No problem. Those fitted shots were taken with only C clamps holding the bumper in place before I installed rivnuts. I was extremely happy with how easy and quickly I was able to get it fitted. The most frustrating portion was tearing the car apart to do the install. But this seems to be a reoccurring thing with this car.

[Harley818]

Robert,
In post #64, you show a picture of the front end without the body on, and the front panel wheelwell aluminum sheet looks like its coming off at 90 degrees from the frame.
I'm about to install this piece and was wondering if it attaches to the fiberglass body right at the front of the tire (so its 90 degrees), or further towards the front (so that it angles about 60 - 70 degrees from the frame). the panel comes with a 90 degree bend for mounting to the frame sheet metal so I would expect its 90.

[07FIREBLADE]

Thats for the old front end. But yes that aluminum piece comes out at a 90* and meets up with the rear of the front bumper. Maybe 1" inward from the very back. Bulb seal goes on the outside edge to form a seal with the bumper. You might want to put bulb seal on the top too or some sort of weather strip/edge guard due to the headlight bucket resting on top of the fender liner.

[Harley818]

OK, thanks.
How goes the C conversion?

[07FIREBLADE]

Slowly chugging along but school and wedding planning are taking up so much of my time. I also like to add to this project and constantly change my plans halfway threw the build. For example I'm pulling the car apart to get my V1 iWire harness out and we are going to redo it. Time to integrate the new changes we have made and the changes that the coupe/new nose have added.