[paulicat]

Its just a matter of timing, I'm all the way out in Mississauga so I don't know when I'd be able to pick yours up...
But post a pic anyways ;)

[paulicat]

Well I got a good jump on it tonight, got everything disassembled.
Basically, Im ready to mount the procharger mounting brackets, and decide how I want the FMIC mounted.
I'll take disassembly pictures before I start anything else in the morning, its too dark now.
Will update at the end of day tomorrow.
Cheers everyone and have a great weekend!

[paulicat]

Just a few shots of the blower mounted.
The A/C hose was a real PITA.
Otherwise, it seemed to go fairly smooth.
I think I'll be getting a half inch shorter (101.5) accessory belt though just in case. I think this one is a tad too long (102).
The blower sits quite a bit lower than what I was expecting from images I'd seen around the weeb, was a tad shocked to be honest. I had to double and triple check I hadn't pooched something up. Everything seems to be by the book though.
The intercooler and piping are sort of roughed in right now, pics of that will come at the end of day tomorrow.
Honestly speaking, I had a couple moments of "Good lord what am I doing!?"...but then I quickly straightened myself out and went back to work. :D
Yea, the engine bay is a mess, its gonna get cleaned up after all the work is done...for the record, its rust proofing.
Cheers!

[paulicat]

Quick status update, the cars all back together.
I'm not boosting yet, I don't like how the blowoff valve pipe is fitting. I've decided to revert back to a bypass valve. I've read a number of stories where the head unit seals get killed because blowoff's aren't open at idle, and the procharger blows a helluva lot of air even at idle. For the record, bypass valves (the stock one that comes with prochargers is a bosch valve) remain open at idle and close once you press the gas pedal.
Steeda's going to fab up a pipe for the bypass this weekend and I might be going for a tune next week if I'm satisfied with how the charge piping all fits together after the bypass is in place.
I did get the 101.5 belt and no more squealing so that problems sorted out.
One other odd thing, in the first pic in the post above you can see the outlet of the procharger is pointed slightly down to the ground. Well, after some searching at FF I saw that every other procharger install had the outlet horizontal. I called ATI and the tech told me you can undo the hex screws and literally rotate the two halves until you find the spot where you want it. So, it took all of 5 minutes to fix that problem too.
I'll get a shot up of the car all back together soon, with all the rain, it hasn't been great photo weather...
And, um yea, I LOVE the whine! :D

[ZTWsquared]

paulicat,Aug 8 2008, 10:03 AM Wrote:Quick status update, the cars all back together.
I'm not boosting yet, I don't like how the blowoff valve pipe is fitting. I've decided to revert back to a bypass valve. I've read a number of stories where the head unit seals get killed because blowoff's aren't open at idle, and the procharger blows a helluva lot of air even at idle. For the record, bypass valves (the stock one that comes with prochargers is a bosch valve) remain open at idle and close once you press the gas pedal.
Steeda's going to fab up a pipe for the bypass this weekend and I might be going for a tune next week if I'm satisfied with how the charge piping all fits together after the bypass is in place.
I did get the 101.5 belt and no more squealing so that problems sorted out.
One other odd thing, in the first pic in the post above you can see the outlet of the procharger is pointed slightly down to the ground. Well, after some searching at FF I saw that every other procharger install had the outlet horizontal. I called ATI and the tech told me you can undo the hex screws and literally rotate the two halves until you find the spot where you want it. So, it took all of 5 minutes to fix that problem too.
I'll get a shot up of the car all back together soon, with all the rain, it hasn't been great photo weather...
And, um yea, I LOVE the whine! :D
[right][snapback]270110[/snapback][/right]

Thanks for keeping us up to date on this - very interesting - wish someone made a SC for the Duratec ... what did you end up doing for the bead rolling?

[paulicat]

Actually I didn't do the bead rolling yet. Once I get everything fitting exactly how I want, I'll remove all the pieces and bring them in to whomever can do it.
So far, I've heard radiator shops can do it, but I haven't really searched this out just yet. Next time I speak with Steeda (probably tomorrow morning) I'll be asking them as well.
Cheers!

[ZX3_2NV]

when are you tuning I just retuned at Steeda.ca and made a lil more hwp with less psi and alot more torque Im pretty happy with the tune they did

[hardk0re]

Does your uncle know you went to steeda...shame shame :P

The guys at steeda do know their stuff pretty good, i'm guessing it was meister that tuned you?

[paulicat]

Tuning is still on hold, I have to redo some of the charge piping because the guy was running a huge ass intercooler on it before I got it with the much smaller 6inch intercooler.
Also, I switched back to the bypass valve instead of the blowoff as I stated earlier. I didn't want to risk damaging the head unit. This is part of the "redo the charge piping" statement above since the mounts are different.
I've got everything coming in, hopefully within the next couple weeks I can have it all set up properly.
The good news is that the belt seems to be on properly as a lot of other guys had issues with belts getting chewed up because the pulley wasn't aligned. So far, about 1000km's and the belt is looking great.
The bad news, when Steeda put in my front stabilizer they had to remove my exhaust to lower the sub frame. Well, it seems they moved it forward about an inch from where it was originally mounted and now its vibrating against the floorboard. Took me a couple days to find it because the sound seemed like it was coming from the engine bay. I kept going over the charge piping I had in place and couldn't find anything.
I installed the exhaust 4 years ago and the clamps the kit came with are now basically rotten. Plan is to cut the clamps off, use clamps temporarily until it goes in for tuning and have them weld it all in place.
meister, is that Pat?

[paulicat]

Ok, next snag.
The noise I mentioned in my previous post has gotten a bit worse, and its proving to be a real pain in the ass to track down.
Its when the engine is under load, accelerating from first or accelerating in 3rd for example. Its hard to track down since it only happens while moving. From inside the passenger compartment the sound seems to be coming from the front, but there's no noise if I rev up the engine while standing still.
Fine tooth comb time.

[Flofocus]

what does it sound like? Coming from the engine bay? Sound like a can of marbles?

[paulicat]

Its actually hard to describe this one, its a metal on metal sound, the closest thing I can think of is the sound you'd get if any part of your exhaust system were to be too close to the floorboards (or any any part of the car). So when I accelerate, the torquing of the engine causes it to move enough to make the knocking/rattling/vibrating sound. For the life of me though, I don't see the exhaust being to close anywhere from the front to the rear of the car.
Prior to the mechanic looking at it yesterday, the exhaust was definitely rubbing against the big heat shield that is located in the exhaust tunnel, but he cleared that out of the way. I was underneath yesterday and moved that exhaust a bunch, but could not get it make ANY sound at all.
Rather frustrating.

What were you suggesting with the marble sound though so I can check that out just in case?

[Flofocus]

I dont have time to read everything...

Are you propducing ANY boost? What kind of tune are you running?

To me - sounds like your detonating. Stop driving and get a tune done right away or you can kiss your motor good bye very soon.

[paulicat]

Great news, a bunch of packages showed up this week.
Bypass valve mounting pipe.
T-Bolt clamps.
All the silicone couplers.
Charge piping kit (various straights and angles).
Urethane lower motor/tranny mount bushings (Energy Suspension).
Plus, had my timing belt replaced as precautionary measure thanks to NikiterZTS's mechanic recommend.
The bypass valve mounting "T" pipe is a nice piece I got from Ebay. Steeda didn't stock anything like this and they'd have to fab it up costing fairly large $$ for a small piece of pipe. The Ebay piece is a really nice piece, its machined so there's no welds on it at all. Plus it came with an extra 4 T-Bolt clamps...
Only thing I'm waiting for is the MAFia which is in the mail right now.
So, whats left to do: swap out the motor/tranny mount bushings, fab up 2 pieces of charge piping, take piping to get beaded ends rolled, connect the vacuum line for the bypass, sort out PCV and find where the hell that knocking/rattling/vibration sound is coming from! I think that's it before it's ready for tuning.
I'm almost there, it's taken longer than I wanted, freetime barely exists. Mostly though, I want to make sure everything is top notch before I bring it in for tuning.
When everything's said and done, I'll post up a bunch of pics and a movie clip.
Holy crap, I just noticed this thread's gotten up to 114 posts! :o
Thanks everyone!

[paulicat]

No problem Flofocus, no, not producing ANY boost yet.
I didn't connect the charge piping to my intake yet, so definitely no deto.

Something is rubbing/vibrating, I can feel it in the floorboards. If you've ever driven a car where the exhaust is rubbing/vibrating against the floorboards, this is EXACTLY what it feels like. Except I can't see that it could possibly be the exhaust, it doesn't seem to be close to anything at all...
With only 94000 k on the car, I wouldn't think its my lower motor/tranny mount, but since I have the bushings to replace it anyways, I'll find out this weekend if that's causing it.
Its definitely the flexing/torque of the motor/tranny that causes the noise though, so who knows.

[NikiterZTS]

don't forget to jack the engine up a little when you switch that tranny mount
and soke them 3 bolts that hold it.....mine were seized......actually everything was like seized on my car when i used to work on it :(

[paulicat]

Thanks NikiterZTS, back when I "attempted" to install the front swaybar, I actually removed the dogbone as part of that install attempt.
Thankfully, nothings seized up down there on mine.

[paulicat]

Last piece of the puzzle showed up today. The MAFia is in.
This weekend should get pretty damned close to have everything wrapped up and ready for tuning.

[paulicat]

Tried to remove the torque/lower enging mount tonight.
Epic Fail.
Goddam it, every bolt that goes through a sleeve is made from incompatible metals on this thing!!!!
I love my car, but seriously, this kind of crap is really getting on my nerves.
Any suggestions besides the obvious of "bring it to a mechanic?".

<EDIT>Ok, now that my ranting is done, it's just gonna go to a mechanic to hopefully get it out. What a mess, the large end of the mount's bushing is mush now, the sleeve is seized pretty good to the bolt...which reminds me, WTF is up with mixing imperial and metric bolt heads?? The bolt in question's head is 1/2 size...that crap is even more annoying than the incompatible metals.

[paulicat]

Ok, mechanic got the bolt out. Salt was the culprit. Lots and lots of salt.
Tonight I'll "attempt" changing the bushings out. If that ends up being another fail, I already warned the mechanic he might see me again tomorrow. :D