The backstory I have on the car is it was first built ground up by excessive out of South Dakota, then made it's way to Nebraska where it was again built by 3Dmotorsports in Council Bluffs. It was runing AEM/E85/GT35R consistantly at one point at over 400awhp. Then they sold it to the guy I bought it from, but supposedly it was too much for him and he wanted a low mile JDM stock motor swapped in instead. Although I'm not sure what would posess a man to get rid of a set up like that and go back to stock block I have to say that 3Dmotorsports did a great job on the swap and added plenty of bolt ons. The guy I bought it from never really did anything with it in a few years and it was just waiting for someone to add a few more bolt ons, give it some maintenence, and start banging gears.

Parts list when I bought it:
- 35k mile JDM motor/ manual trans
- Stock head /Cometic HG
- BC 272's/ ARP headbolts
- ACT 2600
- big FMIC with hard pipes and J pipe
- Greddy BOV
- Mishimoto aluminum rad with 2 12" SPAL pullers
- Precision 680cc injectors
- ProEFI engine management
- td05h SBR bastard 20g
- Skunk2 coilovers
- 3" buschur exhaust (o2 housing back)
- 2G caliper upgrade in the front
- AEM wideband/Autometer boost and EGT gauges



As you can see the care came pre-loaded, just missing a few bolts ons....so this isn't a normal build, it's more of a keep adding more parts/tuning/boost to the 20g and stock block and see what I can get out of them. Then see which one let's go first. When that happens it will probably be stroker time for me. Another main goal of mine is to keep it simple and clean and fully functioning as a daily. It has potential to be a pretty sharp car, and I'm going to get it there.

So now I am just waiting on parts, cleaning and freshening up anything I can get to and then I will be doing a bunch of maintenence, throwing all the parts on and taking it to the tuner to see what I can get out of it. Next thing will be finding an AWD dyno. Here is what I have ready to throw on now:

Gates timing kit, SMIM, FP exhaust mani, new SPAL pull fan (one melted), FIC 1650's, SS O2 Dump pipe, Clear timing cover, aftermarket tachometer (to spice up the interior a bit).



Going to go with a black and chrome theme with purple accents for the bay. Shiny SMIM with black FP exhaust mani, with the SS O2 dump, 3" exhaust, and shiny J pipe should all look nice together. I will be painting the valve cover black and polishing the intercooler piping. Calipers will be purple, BOV and AFPR are purple. Have some purple interior strips for some minor floor board accent lighting and that should be about enough.

Front of hood is all chewed up from rock chips other than that the body is great. A 3M carbon vinyl hood wrap and some billet hood pins should take car of the look of the hood and give the car an all around more aggressive look.

Interior is also undergoing some work. Should be pretty clean when done minus the tear in the driver seat i still don't know what I'm going to do about. Double din Monitor in the cd player slot will be the finishing touch after its up and running.

Car had a compression test today before all the bolts on get installed....150 across the board!!! Ready for boost please.

Got the tach looking pretty:


The FP exhaust mani is on and looking mean. Paired up with a SS O2 dump.

Valve cover is cracked so just waiting on a new one. Sent Paypal and the guy still hasnt responded about shipping it out. So....if anyone has a valve cover they can get to me soon PM me

Haha my valve cover is cracked too, pooling oil like crazy. Good group of Dsm buddies I have in Omaha if you're new here. I'm pretty similar to that setup, minus some things like the SMIM and I'll be E85. Used to go to 3D for tuning all the time, have someone else now for E85 but Chad had been a great help to me. Hope to see you around.

CountryDSM said:

Haha my valve cover is cracked too, pooling oil like crazy. Good group of Dsm buddies I have in Omaha if you're new here. I'm pretty similar to that setup, minus some things like the SMIM and I'll be E85. Used to go to 3D for tuning all the time, have someone else now for E85 but Chad had been a great help to me. Hope to see you around.

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Yeah I have heard Chad doesn't like to mess with E85 when he can avoid it. Not sure why, the dude knows his stuff. I'd love to cruise with some fellow DSMers all I ever see is Evo's. We don't get out much all together, but I have a good group of buddies that know the scene well I'm just the lone DSM....so are you saying you might know someone with a valve cover locally? haha

Nice I gotta get my mani coated great set up.

Okay, found a valve cover....phew. Now the car can be tuned tomorrow.

Today alot got accomplished. All new gaskets, belts, and seals are in, timing done, plugs, oil, filter, trans and transfer case fluid change, AFPR installed and mounted, re-mounted manual boost controller. Next up is SMIM, replace the 680cc with 1650cc then I can get the valve cover painted and baked, then pick up some plug wires and start the tuning!

iugrad92turbo said:

Nice I gotta get my mani coated great set up.

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Mines actually not coated either. It's just VHT 2000 degree flat black that's been baked on twice. We'll see how long it holds up. Might need to invest in an exhaust blanket anyhow seeing as I keep melting my slim fan. Sooner or later I will probably have to give up the looks and go nuts with shielding and wrap to keep temps down, we'll see.

Nice build bro. You might wanna recirculate that bov like it's supposed to be when using the stock maf setup. And def get a blanket for that fp mani! Nite and day difference bro!

Dsmkauai said:

Nice build bro. You might wanna recirculate that bov like it's supposed to be when using the stock maf setup. And def get a blanket for that fp mani! Nite and day difference bro!

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Yeah I forgot to mention I'm running SD on proEFI standalone. The MAF is just there because I haven't replaced my intake pipe yet. I am really considering a blanket for both the mani and the turbo hot side. Are you just talking about noticing a difference of the hood being cooler to the touch, reduced IAT's, or have you seen and/or felt a performance difference?

Big difference all around bro. I have the stock heatshield around my turbine still. You can touch the blanket even after a pull. So ya def a performance diff keeping under hood temps down. Also it's helping keep the heat going thru the mani and turbine and not in the engine bay. My ic pipe goes right across the mani in the gvr4, so the blanket seemed like a must for me. For the $110 I spent on it was well worth it bro. All my cars will have them from now on.
http://turbo-performance-products.m...m-products-1/products/dsm-fp-manifold-blanket

^ I'm with ya. I'm sure I'll be putting blankets on shortly after the first tune. However, I'd really like to do a comparison on what the IAT's are now with no heat shielding vs. with the blankets and heat wrap. If nothing else just to know by how much they decreased by.

I'm getting my SMIM put on now. Guess it's time for me to source a non-cruise cable to get rid of that clutter on top of the SMIM...looks terrible. I've already deleted cruise so I'll just research what all my options are. I want to be able to see the purple fuel rail.


Also going to have to re-locate the battery to the rear...doesn't quite fit with the SMIM anymore. I could either go for a smaller battery or relocate. I'm leaning more towards re-locating it....because racecar.

You could ditch the charcoal canister and just lower the batter on to the subframe. Should be easier and cheaper than moving the batter to the trunk. It doesn't take much to rig up a tray and secure the batter down there.

Nah, I think I'm settled on the relocating....You're right it would be easier and cheaper...but it would NOT be more awesomer than relocating After the bolt ons are all installed all I will have left to do is slowly start tucking and cleaning up the bay so it was going to go eventually.

Got these ordered today:

Motor is tuned and all cleaned up. Rocking a 25psi safe level for now. Feels much different now with the FP mani and the SMIM. It lost a little of low end power (not spool), but the mid and upper RPM's it's so fun! It even sounds incredible with the O2 dump pipe when the wastegate opens. Chad at 3D motorsports is DSM Jesus!


I'm not unveiling the rest of the car until I get the goodies all on. Stay tuned!

This happened yesterday:


It's true...you can blow the welds on your intake!

Well, for the time being JB weld epoxy is holding great for now on the SMIM until I can get it off and welded up correctly. Got the hood wrapped, hood pins in and the car is starting to look like the vision I have for it. Next on the list is some new pads/rotors and some suspension parts (lower control arms with ball joints, sway bar end links and some new struts.