AJ, for my AC I just wired it to a 12 volt source and used the Vintage Air controls. My ECU doesn't know there is AC. For the 12V source, I put 2 small fuse blocks below the dash with one powered by a direct wire from the battery and the other powered by a connection through the ignition switch. In addition to the AC power, these have been handy for other stuff like audio, back-up camera, microwave oven, etc. OTOH, if you want to use the donor AC controls, then you have to find another way.
Edit: Oops, I went back to see your thread about Infinity and a touch screen. It looks like you are already thinking of separate power and controls. Stay cool.
Last edited by AZPete; 07-05-2019 at 11:28 AM.
Reason: updated
818S/C : Chassis #25 with 06 WRX 2.5 turbo, ABS, cruise, PS, A/C, Apple CarPlay, rear camera, power windows & locks, leather & other complexities. Sold 10/19 with 5,800 miles.
Mk3 Roadster #6228 4.6L, T45, IRS, PS, PB, ABS, Cruise, Koni's, 17" Halibrands, red w/ silver - 9K miles then sold @ Barrett-Jackson Jan 2011 (got back cash spent).
I decided to save the infinity for another project and ordered the Coach-One harness. I’ll use the Vintage air controls for AC. Harness is supposed to arrive today, but I’ve got a few other things to test out first. Been working on shifter this week, will post update on that later this weekend.
I'm not a fan of having the fuse panel / brain of my electrical system under the dash behind the console. I have it there on my Mustang and it's a pain in the rear. Looking around the cabin, there is not a lot of real estate to place it. I don't think the kick panel is big enough, and since I will have AC I can use under the passenger's side dash. I don't have my rear upper firewall with me (it's at the storage unit), but I don't think I would want it up high anyways, so I was thinking of on the lower rear firewall. Does anyone know of anything this will conflict with as I start finishing out the car?
I moved my gas to the front of the car because I need leg room in the car. Most people have there seat tight against the firewall. Did you test your seat before you decided on that location?
I have ordered seats, but not test fit yet. However I'm not overly concerned about the passenger seat. My wife under 5 foot, and she will be the passenger 99% of the time. That is why I picked passenger instead of drivers.
Looking at where your's is located, doesn't that get covered by the upper inner firewall? Did you make a removable cover so you could access that to change fuses? I'm also wondering if I will have speakers land there in the future.
I have ordered seats, but not test fit yet. However I'm not overly concerned about the passenger seat. My wife under 5 foot, and she will be the passenger 99% of the time. That is why I picked passenger instead of drivers.
Looking at where your's is located, doesn't that get covered by the upper inner firewall? Did you make a removable cover so you could access that to change fuses? I'm also wondering if I will have speakers land there in the future.
Your buddy's are going to want to go for a ride. You can mount a sign that says "Small Females ONLY"
My engine firewall actually ended up the same surface as the cover to my ECU compartment.
I would have to pull at least one seats to get into the ECU box. It's been 4 years and I haven't had a need to get into that box. No fuses in that box. Fusebox is under the dash.
Bob
My ECU will probably be in the same place as yours, but I'm looking for where to put my fusebox that is not behind the console, and not under the dash where the AC will be.Based on how I plan to recline my seats, I think the spot is in now will be in the clear, the tops will hit before the bottoms. I'll know for sure as soon as my seats show up, until then I won't cut anything to length.
My first order of business now that I have the car home was to determine if I am happy with the stock shifter, or if I need to look into an upgrade. I have one of the early kits that uses the stock piece to attach the cables to, and a bracket that got me no where near close.
The side to side cable was okay, but the front to back cable was too low, and way too far to the drivers side. No where near enough flex to reach the pin.
I spent about an hour on the forum, and couldn't find a single picture (I'm sure it exists, but not easy to find) of someone who installed the stock shifter with the stock cables/attachments. I decided that was a good indication that I needed an upgraded shifter, but since I was going to probably by something new anyway, why not hack up what I got to see if I can make it work.
I welded up the holes for bolting to the transmission so that I could drill new ones that would move the bracket closer to the end of the transmission. this was necessary to clear the sensor that was behind the bracket when I started to bend it towards the transmission.
GRAPHIC PICTURE WARNING: My welding skills are pretty crude so this doesn't look pretty.
Once I had verified that my new location would clear the sensor, then I rolled the attachment for the cable into the shifter, so that it was more in line with the attachment.
This allowed for the cable to finally attach to the arm, so for the first time I could actually shift gears. The side to side motion can be adjusted by going up or down the arm to get more or less throw, but the front to back movement has no real adjustment for the throw. It's really short, and also very very stiff. I might could help the stiffness a little by dropping the cable a little bit, and then angling it up so that it is more parallel to the linkage, but I'm thinking it will only help so much. My biggest concern is that going from 2-3 or 4-5, I will wind up going 2-1 or 4-3 because the shifter is so stiff that when you try to come out of a gear you blow right through neutral. I'm probably going to start working on a MR2 shifter soon since I don't like the look of the K-Tuned shifters.
Now that I had determined that I don't like the shifter, I was ready to pull the transaxle and take it to have the LSD installed. Normally this would be pretty straightforward, except that when I went to pull the wheels off so that I could pull the axles out, I realized the PO (previous owner) had not given me the key to the locking lug nuts. After trying a few I had around the house to looked close, I had to get creative.
Not any progress this week, but lots of stuff has arrived, and I invested a full day at the pick-apart-today. And boy was it perfect weather for the junkyard, 100 degrees, 80% humidity, and not a cloud in the sky.
I forgot give the specs on the seats. They are Braun Elite-X. I got them from Relentless Garage because they were the only ones who had white stiching in stock. I initially found them on CarID.
Yesterday was mostly about ergonomics. With seats in hand I was able to test my seating position, and instantly knew I needed more room. So I pulled out the console, so that I could pull out the firewall, so that I could pull out the gas tank. Before I pulled the firewall, I marked it's location and then moved it back 3" to test how a Boyd's tank would work for me. This was a huge improvement and very livable, however going all the way back would be preferable. That is when i decided to start looking into what Bob_n_Cincy did for a front tank. A cardboard mockup showed I could easily fit a 10-12 gallon tank up front, I just couldn't figure out how to get it in without cutting the frame (I couldn't find Bob's thread, turns out he didn't actually make the first post, so searching for thread's started by him didn't turn it up). But he did send a PM to the link I saw that he had cut the bottom of his frame to install the tank from the bottom. I'm not really keen on cutting my frame, so I kept thinking as I tinkered with pulling the motor out about a solution.
That's when I thought about the GTM, it has two tanks and an equalizer tube. I could very easily slide 2 five gallon tanks through he openings in the frame, and then use a short piece of filler hose connect them together. I think it's a brilliant idea, but unless you can weld aluminum yourself, probably on the expensive side. By time I bought two five gallon tanks, sender units, 2" rolled necks (one for each tank), fuel pump etc, and then paid someone to weld it, I was going to be at the price of the boyd tank designed for the car, which goes is the safest location. In the end I ordered the boyd's tank. I may try to take out my column and collapse it to get me a little more room in the cockpit.
I also pulled the motor out while I was thinking so that I could install the AC Compressor, inspect the motor, and powder coat some of the parts.
I also worked on mocking up the dash. It looks like I can keep all of the factory AC ducting, which will be really nice. I think I am going to have to trim the back corner of the glove box door to clear the frame. Might have to trim some more after I install the AC Unit.
I have the Boyd tank and Sparco seats that look similar in size/shape to yours. For me the limit is the top of the seats when using a reasonable angle (for me). There is still more track adj. to go back but it's too upright (for me). Driver space is my biggest complaint with the 818 design, and it's hard to imagine how bad the first gen tank would be, but pretty sure I would not fit.
Between being down with Bronchitis (Steroid!!! I've got insomnia, so I'm posting at 3AM) last weekend and tearing half of the interior of the mustang apart chasing a wiring gremlin (broken ground wire under dash from over-crimping), I've made sadly little progress on the 818. I did get a long day in on Friday and a half day on Saturday, so I have some pics to show for my effort.
First is progress on the motor. I had pulled it to check it out (Bore scope visuals check out nice, turbo is in great shape) and also to powder coat all of the stuff that was painted red. My wife loves copper, so the car will either be copper, or more than likely black or grey with copper accents. Either one would not look great with red engine components (or calipers, I'll get to that soon enough). Some of the intake piping and the alternator were red and I powder coated them black so they would not stand out. I was going to powder coat the valve covers black as well since they are mostly hidden when installed, but decided it would be a good idea to powder coat them copper so that I could have some practice with the copper before I attempted the intake manifold. The copper is a candy, that goes over a chrome base.
I must say I was really impressed with the Eastwood chrome powder, it is actually really shiny:
The copper is applied by hot-flocking the chrome. Basically spraying it on while the part is still hot from curing the chrome. The hock flocking is a little trickier than the base coat, I think because the electrical charge isn't as strong going through one coat of powder, and so the copper doesn't suck to the part nearly as well as the first coat does. You have to work a little bit to get a good even coat. It's not perfect, but for valve covers that are pretty much hidden, I was really happy for my first attempt at a candy coat powder:
Next up was the manifold... but much to my dismay, it was about 3" too long to fit inside the oven. At least I check the fit before I started, but then like any good redneck I decided to proceed anyway.
To cook the manifold I went totally bush league, I turned the bottom burner on (bake) to 450 and let the back bottom half heat up and cure, then I turned the top burner on (broil) and let the upper back half cure, then I flipped the manifold and repeated. The chrome actually came out perfect, and I was really stoked to get the copper on. The copper was looking really good at the halfway mark when I pulled it out and turned it around to cook the other half, but when I turned it to broil, I think I had the manifold on a higher rack slot than I did the first half, and the middle section closer to the broiler heat source got really hot (520F), and it yellowed. I guess the candy coats are way more heat sensitive than the base coats:
At this point I had a few options. One is I could leave it. I'm not really a fan of the gold, but the two tone does look pretty cool. Couldn't sell my self on that though. Two was to blast/grind it off and start over. Seemed like the best idea, but I couldn't see why I shouldn't try to salvage it before I blew it away. Three was to just paint it with some copper VHT... No, that stuff looks terrible. Four was to heat it back up and re-flock it and be more careful curing. I opted for four with the option for two if that didn't work.
The center section that was candied over gold instead of chrome is definitely darker than the outer edge, but it's not terrible, and I'm betting in the engine bay with shadows on it, you won't even be able to tell the difference. If you can then I'll be pulling the manifold to re-powder coat it.
I went ahead and re-installed the alternator (powder coated black, disassembled), AC Condesor (right off the donor), valve covers, fuel rails (also powder coated copper, they were red anodized), and then set the intake in place just for some mock up pictures. Next I have to install the new belts (AC is slip fit, yay!!), and figure out the mess of piping, hoses, and wires before I can permanently install the manifold and get it back in the car.
Before I installed the tank, I wanted to take care of sound/heat insulation. The PO had installed some open cell foam with a shiny skin on it, but I've never had much luck with open cell foam. I opted to rip it out and replace it with some closed cell foam. I covered my mustang with the stuff, and even though it was 102 today in the blazing sun, I felt just fine inside the car, and even turned the AC off of max at one point.
I like using this Noico because it has a diamond pattern on it that disappears as you roll it on. If you can still see the diamonds, you need to keep rolling:
It's not the most ascetically appearing installation because I couldn't remove the panels and cover them in big pieces, but it will all get covered up, so as long as it's on good I should be fine.
I used two bolts from the bottom and two rivers-nuts on the frame to hold the tank in place:
Now I can get on with fabricating seat mounts. Probably going to be a few weeks as we are headed to the beach next weekend. I plan to take AZPete's idea to the next level, for super easy to install seats.
I went ahead and ordered up the Griffin radiator with side tanks, and also slightly shorter than stock. This should give me plenty of room for my inverted scoop on my hood. For mounts, I decided to copy the idea of the factory mounts. This meant adding studs to the radiator. I used some bond-on threaded studs I already had lying around from MC, and epoxied them on. Since the tanks are not eh side, I'm going to have to move the mounting points inward just a little. On the top I can just add a new riv-nut, but on the bottom I had to do a little more work. I didn't want to cut and re-weld the stock mounts since all of that is powder coated, so I just fabbed up some new brackets that I will riv-nut on.
A lot of those mailbox places like mailbox express and postal annex will take those packing peanuts. At least the one near me does. Beats filling the landfill with them.
I got the rear bracket fabricated for the seats. I need to add a little more 1" square tube in the bottom to make a proper "sandwich" for the seat brace to sit in. I'm going to make something very similar on the front, but I'll have a place to bolt the bar running between the seat tracks to the brace on the frame. This will keep the seats from sliding out of the sandwich. And yes my welding is still ugly. These will get smoothed out and powder coated when I'm done. As always I start with CAD (cardboard aided design).
That copper looks great, even with the gold tint. I also saw how nice the chrome from Eastwood looked before I put the translucent blue over it. They say it has to be clearcoated if left chrome. I've not tried that yet but probably will because I have some chrome look I want to do. Copper contrasted to black here and there is a great look.
nice idea for the seat mount. And, the copper looks good, too.
818S/C : Chassis #25 with 06 WRX 2.5 turbo, ABS, cruise, PS, A/C, Apple CarPlay, rear camera, power windows & locks, leather & other complexities. Sold 10/19 with 5,800 miles.
Mk3 Roadster #6228 4.6L, T45, IRS, PS, PB, ABS, Cruise, Koni's, 17" Halibrands, red w/ silver - 9K miles then sold @ Barrett-Jackson Jan 2011 (got back cash spent).
Two pictures isn't a whole lot to show for 10 hours in the garage, but when you aren't experience in metal working and don't have maybe all the right tools, it can be tedious.
Fabbed up the brackets for both seats, and went through a few trial and error iterations. In the end I wound up welding the cross brackets to the sliders instead of bolting them on. I just couldn't find a good way to avoid all the complications that bolts were causing. If I put them to the outside they were hitting the X-Brace of the frame, if I put them to the inside it kept me from moving the sliders where i really needed them. In the end they are together, and the seat goes in and out in under 2 minutes. Set it all the way to the front, up against the triangle brace, slide it back until it snaps in place, reach under and hand-thread a single bolt to hold it all in place.
Looking for some direction from the forum. I've never worked on an EJ before, and I didn't get to take this one apart or start putting it back together. PO had the motor mostly together when I picked it up, but still some things not hooked up, and I'm not sure where everything goes. I've made a video to highlight what gaps i have I. If anyone could take a few minutes to watch and let me know if anything is hooked up wrong, I would really appreciate it.
Main questions I have:
What does the PCV hook up to?
What does the small side of the BOV hook up to?
This looks like a factory setup with no AOS or catch-can. Will this be sufficient for a car that sees under 3K miles per year?
So a couple comments (I had to do all this insane hose routing as well since my donor was a mess):
The throttle body connections are for coolant, not PCV. It's a throttle body warming feature for cold climates. They connect to the pipe that is used for the heater loop.
Looks like your PCV is in the correct spot. I think I just capped the second crankcase vent (this is apparently common) but the correct routing is in the service manual for that.
Several of the other ports you mention are vacuum ports. They are for things like the vacuum brake booster, fuel purge solenoid, boost controller, etc. The factory service manual and forums have a lot of info on these. I documented some of this stuff as I went on my build website. Obviously on things like the brake booster that you might not be using you can cap.
Small side of the BOV is for vacuum (that's how it "knows" when to open/close). It goes into one of the ones near the throttle body I believe.
I think you have everything correct for the most part.
5:01 barb under the manifold goes to PCV barb
5:06 barb on top left of the manifold goes to the brake booster (I capped this one)
5:14 tiny barb under manifold goes to the small barb on the BOV
6:01 big barb on turbo inlet tube goes to the BOV (bypass valve) recirculation hose. I capped this since I'm using an aftermarket BOV.
6:30 BOV hose goes to the barb in at 5:14
You probably have a newer motor since some of your hoses are different than mine (02). I only have a single hose coming off the valve covers. I ended up putting in oil catch cans and replacing many of those rubber hoses with new ones, so my setup is a little different.
After having to work the last several weekends, and a delay from ordering the wrong gaskets, I finally have the motor assembled and ready to put in the car. Thanks to everyone for the input on the vacuum hose routing.
Thankfully I saw a post somewhere around here the last few weeks that reminded me I needed to do Wayne's Cooling Mod, that would have been a pain to accomplish with the motor reassembled and put back in the car. I have an aftermarket turbo inlet pipe of unknown origins, but it makes for a really really tight fit with the barb on the cooling exit. Not sure if anyone else had issues with other pipes. I looked for something alternate, but those pipes are stupid expensive, so i made it work. I had to cut the barb down from 4 steps to 2.
On a side note... I managed to jack up my TMIC and my degas tank has a broken nipple. If anyone has either and wants to unload them cheaply, please let me know.
I ordered the wrong size Power Grips, so I couldn't proceed with putting the coolant hoses on and then putting the motor in the car. So instead I got started on trying to separate the ECU wiring from the chassis wiring. For some reason I had though it would be a simple task. Wires run from ECU to the coils, fuel injector, cam sensors, etc... all in the engine bay right? Boy was I mistaken. The ECU is spidered into everything. With a 2006 having drive-by-wire, the cruise, accelerator, throttle body, all run through the ECU. Even the rear defroster and lights run through the ECU. Additionall there are quite a few relays that are triggered by the ECU.
As a refresher I am using a Coach One chassis harness, and only using the ECU from the donor. Although 1 day into trying to separate the harness, I'm 100% sure it would have been easier to just use the donor harness completely.
I first started out trying to work from the ECU and chase wires back to the source so I could decide what to keep and cull, but that was an impossible task, so instead I started identifying connectors that I knew I wouldn't need, and cutting them out all the way back to the fuse box. Getting the airbags out was easy because all of those connections and wires were yellow. Next I tackled the lights, starting with the relays for hi and lo beam, and then finishing up from the light switch. I followed that up with the integrated body control module, immobilizer, and keyless entry harness. I also culled out all of the HVAC and radio wires. Almost 10 hours and I'm probably about 80% done with dieting the main harness. The primary thing I have left to do is figure out the wiring of the fuse box so I can cut it out and set the wires up to connect to my Coach One fues box.
Once I get it all culled, I'll lay out in the car and see what needs to be shortened/lengthened, and then when I start cutting I can try to clean it up and group it into trunks that are more managable.
Nothing pic-worthy today, just a rats next of wiring, which many people have posted pics of.
Took a break from wiring to put the motor back in. Nothing really significant to it. I had to resend the clutch line because the PO had it sitting right where the AC Compressor is now. So today I put the motor in, changed both clutch cylinders, and put on my new unequal length headers.
The headers were "slip joint" style, which is apparently pretty common on Subarus. I didn't like the idea, because I don't see how they wouldn't leak, so I welded them up. My welds are still ugly, and when I went to tack the first one in place, I had too much juice on the MIG, so I blew right through. Luckily I had to trim the slip fit, and had some extra tube I could use to weld a cover over the hole I created. Once they were welded up, everything went well.
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Originally Posted by Ajzride
