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Street Build 1g build - The Real Life Trials and Tribulations of building a DSM

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Took the car out for another cruise yesterday, seems like I've got partial throttle and cruise pretty good (or not, you tell me). Starting working on cleaning up the transition into boost. It definitely needs some work. It's pretty rich up top, running like 8s on the wideband at anything above 5 psi.

Also need to work on sorting out my open loop thresholds too and get them where I actually want them to be. I'm a little dense and am having some issues understand exactly where these should be set at so that I'm still in closed loop while cruise, and in open loop when I need to be as well.

Also out while cruising I think I was in 3rd just cruising and the damn power cut again, twice. It only does it for literally one second, I can hear the MPI relay click once, the dash CEL pops up and then goes away and the car continues running. I really need to figure out what the hell is causing that.. that should probably be the next thing I dig into so I'm not mid pull and lose power.
 
For openloopthreshold, there’s a black arrow that points left and right. That changes the setting back to stock.
Yeah i see that. Im just not sure if having them set to stock is the best option. LIke im not sure if targeting 14.0 in small boost is okay or not say if im driving up a big hill or something of the sort.
 
Picked up some New tires for these RPF1S I've got. I gotta say that the tires that are on those wheels right now look pretty weird. Too wide, and too tall.
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https://m.tirerack.com/tires/tires....ewall=Blackwall&partnum=245YR7SUR4G&tab=Sizes

The Enkeis are 17" / 8" +35 and the current tires are 235/45/17. New tires are 225/45/17 so I'm hoping these fit and will look better. On a 8" wheel this should be a TINY bit of stretch but not much. I ran this same tire on my OEM BBS wheels on my 06 sti and they looked great. Although those were +55.
Ol "Betty White" as I called her. I do miss this car, honestly.
LRM_EXPORT_52614104467925_20181030_103424172.jpg
 
Yeah i see that. Im just not sure if having them set to stock is the best option. LIke im not sure if targeting 14.0 in small boost is okay or not say if im driving up a big hill or something of the sort.

If it’s not getting into boost, 14ish is fine. It’s when you start building boost you’d want to be richer. I don’t think you have to mess with that setting as long as your target afrs are in line.
 
If it’s not getting into boost, 14ish is fine. It’s when you start building boost you’d want to be richer. I don’t think you have to mess with that setting as long as your target afrs are in line.
Yeah we tried to figure it out last weekend but i think im just going to set them back to stock. It seems that most people have good luck with them stock. Honestly, i feel like if im loading the engine going up a hill for an extended amount of time or something and the turbo starts to spool id rather be in open loop anyways to add more fuel than to target a leaner mixture in closed loop If that makes sense?
 
I Guess its time for another update huh.

So ive been trying to get ahead on wot tuning but no matter what i did it was crazy rich, like into the 9's AFR and staying there. As it turns out my global was way too rich (IIRC it was at like -63%?)
The reason that it was so low was so that i could get airflowperrev set correctly.

Anyways, after some trial and error i ended up where im at now, -77% Global, and like 11.1 ish AFR at 100% VE. Its a little richer than my target (11.5) but id rather it be a tad rich than lean. Now with this new global when i try to leave from a stop in 1st it kind of bucks and bogs real hard, and almost goes full lean, and it does the same thing when i shift into 2nd as well. I haven't gotten a log of that just by itself just yet but i will. My my other issue now is that i cannot get airflowperrev up. I mean, i CAN but it would require me to make my VE at idle like almost 60s? which seems ridiculously high. Right now AirflowPerRev is sitting at like 17-19. ISC position is around 30 at idle like its supposed to be, and my LearnedIdleAdjust is like 148-149.. Any ideas? Ill post a log later of the current setup.

Around 2 weeks ago too, I took the car out to check global after making a change to it again and the clutch that came with the car started slipping. Pretty much anything over 8psi it just slips. Been like that for a couple weeks. Ive already got an ACT 2900 sprung 6 puck kit waiting to go in, and an ACT Streelite flywheel. Last night i was able to get pretty much everything ready to drop the trans minus the speedo cable, the axles, the crossmembers, trans mounts, and the bell housing bolts. Hopping to get it dropped out today after work so i can work on getting the bell housing cleaned up. Ive already got new axles seals on the way as i have a new rear main seal, new main seal gasket and seal separator that will go in. Might as well since ill be in there too.|

Ive also got some new silicon heater core hoses on the way too so hopefully that will help with the nasty coolant leaks going on.

Now my question is, should i paint the trans while its out? Silver or black?
 

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Long evening last night and today.
Got everything out of the way and the trans ready to come out. I called in a favor from a buddy to help drop it. We used just our tiny muscles and my regular ol jack. Big mistake.
Ive seen people pulling the trans with a hoist and chain which is what i was going to do but i didnt have a chain long enough or big enough for a decent size bolt to go through to bolt it to the trans to lift it.

Anyways we fought it for over an hour, everything loose and out of the way, it kept getting bound up on the pressure plate, and the little subframe connecter piece under the battery tray. We took that little subframe piece out and we were FINALLY able to get it out. thats pretty much where it ended last night. Then he took me for a ride in his 600whp sti. fully built everything, including trans and pte 6466.

Fast forward overnight, im off today so i get to work on it right away this morning. My goal today was to:
Replace the oil pan
Replace the Rear main seal
Get the New Clutch and flywheel installed
Paint the Trans, i picked silver. This is what i used: https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...unce-flat-silver-spray-paint/vht1/sp106?pos=7

Oh yeah, i forgot to mention that my Transmission was missing 3 bell housing bolts , the driver side axle was missing 1 bolt that bolts to the A/C housing and my flywheel inspection cover was broken I haven't confirmed if the axle was my doing when i removed the compressor or not. I ordered a whole new set of bell housing bolts, and a new bolt for the axle as well. And OF COURSE the inspection cover is NLA.. so now i have to source of those too. IF all else fails i have a buddy that has a plasma table and could probably make one for me, but we'll see.

Long story short, the rear main seal gasket sucked. Old paper gaskets that have 150k miles like to stick. I think i messed with scraping it off the rear main housing for over an hour? This went pretty easy after that.

Trans painting went okay. I picked up some degreaser from oreillys this morning when i went to get paint and it didnt work the greatest. I had some oreillys foaming degreaser too that i tried and that did a better job. Someone had previously tried to paint this transmission black and the paint was failing. I hit the trans with a few rounds of degreaser, blew it off with pressure washer and then dried and then some brake cleaner after. After that i used a pressure washer with one of those turbo jet bits that spins and does all sorts of crazy voodoo that takes paint off. That took care of the rest of the flaky black paint. After it was dry i shot it with 3 coats of the paint above. The silver looks good, but the texture looks pretty bad because the paint underneath. oh well, i just hope it lasts for awhile.

While the Trans was drying it worked on getting the oil pan replaced. Pretty straight forward honestly. Drain the oil, undo all the bolts, get a putty scraper in between the pan and the engine and work your way around until it breaks loose. OH yeah, don't forget to either jack the driver side of the motor up, or drop the driver side subframe. I learned that while trying to get this done. Anyways, the rest was easy. Clean out the new pan, throw some rtv on it install in reverse order trying not to get rtv everywhere. Fun time.

The flywheel and clutch kit went easy as well. Not much to tell with that one. Although now that i think about it i tightened the flywheel bolts, but didnt torque them... and the clutch is already installed. so ill be undoing some of what ive done already to redo that again.

Somehow i was surprisingly able to get everything done that i had wanted to today. Today was a good day.
 

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Both the axle seals showed up today. I also picked up a torque solutions driver side motor mount too, to clean up by the timing cover. That motor mount was 600% easier to install than the OEM.. and I didn't even have it connected to the front..


New throw out bearing in, took the clutch fork off and cleaned up the pivot ball, and the receiver on the back of the fork and regressed them both. HOPEFULLY reinstalled the jesus clip correctly..

Waiting in the new bell housing bolts before I go start getting this ol turd thrown back together!
 

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I’ve fought with the trans using a floor jack and it sucked. Get a chain. It’ll make life so much easier. Also remove the lower radiator hose helps if you have to rotate the trans to align the bolts. Glad you went with silver paint. Think that looks better imo

Once you bolt the trans, put the slave on and see where the fork sits. It’s a good time to check if the pivot ball needs to be shimmed.

What injectors are you running? Have you tried adjusting the tip in or injbatteryadj?

 
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I’ve fought with the trans using a floor jack and it sucked. Get a chain. It’ll make life so much easier. Also remove the lower radiator hose helps if you have to rotate the trans to align the bolts. Glad you went with silver paint. Think that looks better imo

Once you bolt the trans, put the slave on and see where the fork sits. It’s a good time to check if the pivot ball needs to be shimmed.

What injectors are you running? Have you tried adjusting the tip in or injbatteryadj?



Yeah I'm definitely going the chain route to get it back in. You'd definitely have way more control with it hanging vs it being pushed up by the jack. I definitely agree in the silver paint. I wish I would have prepped it a little better though but oh well I was in a rush.

And thanks for the advice! I'll definitely be checking that. When I pulled it off I checked for play while the slave was still mounted and the clutch fork was solid with no extra movement but I'll make sure to double check!

I'm running FIC 2150s. I haven't adjusted or checked the tip in as I was just trying to get to the point where I could verify my global was correct before I really do any other driveabiltiy tuning. injbatteryadj is still just what I pulled off the sheet from FIC, so I haven't messed with that yet. Not sure if I should?
 
I’d plug in those values and it will probably help with all the other tuning issues you’re having. As for bolting up the slave, it’s to check the resting position of the fork. If it’s in the middle or to the passengers side, you have to shim the pivot ball.
 
I’d plug in those values and it will probably help with all the other tuning issues you’re having. As for bolting up the slave, it’s to check the resting position of the fork. If it’s in the middle or to the passengers side, you have to shim the pivot ball.

The values in the injbatteryadj are what are off the sheet FIC gave me so I'm Not sure what else to put in there.
Screenshot_20210325-094903.jpg


Clutch fork, got it! I'll make sure to check that.
 
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If that’s what their data sheet says, then I’d leave it. I had Bosch injectors kind of do the same thing where it would go super lean at cruise and light throttle. Ended up being a one injector sticking. They were brand new and had them tested with FIC out of the box. Afr at idle would go lean for a sec and bounce back to stoich
 
If that’s what their data sheet says, then I’d leave it. I had Bosch injectors kind of do the same thing where it would go super lean at cruise and light throttle. Ended up being a one injector sticking. They were brand new and had them tested with FIC out of the box. Afr at idle would go lean for a sec and bounce back to stoich
I suppose that's not out of the question.
I did have them sent out, cleaned and flow tested and new filter baskets put in before I used them. That would suck if I had to send them back in again.

I'm assuming it wouldn't have anything to do with locking the car in closed loop while logging would it?
 
Got the bell housing bolts in but after doing some research i also decided to order a new Forged Clutch fork and pivot ball. Those should get delivered today. Hoping to get the trans at least mounted up today after work.

I was also able to get some new silicon coolant hoses installed. pretty much everything on the passenger side of the head replaced. That should hopefully resolve my coolant leak issues.

i also picked some some 3scx rear upper control arms to fix this nasty negative camber in the rear. Not sure when those will get installed, but hopefully sooner rather than later.

After staring at the engine bay for awhile I wanted to clean it up. I ordered up a Non cruise control cable from RTM Racing, so that will get installed and ill be doing a Cruise control delete. It didn't work anyway and it wasn't ever a priority to get working. I also decided to do a manual Rack swap. Ill be picking up one of the NDD manual racks to clean up the bay and shed some weight too. That will happen a little later but it'll get done.

Got the tires mounted on the RPF1's, they look great but I gotta say that I'm a little surprised. They're wider than i thought they were going to be. Just sitting on the wheels, it really look like they fit just the same as the 235/45/17's that were on there previously. The car is still up in the air now so i cant really see how they fit on the front, but I will throw them on the back when I get home to see how they fit. Hopefully they don't poke too much.
 

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Can I get an F in the chat?

Today I learned a valuable lesson about proof reading before you submit an order.

Clutch fork came today, got it installed as well as the 2 back wheels with the new tires. Hoisted up the trans and fought with getting the passenger side axle around the subframe for about an hour. Lowered it and then tilted the bell housing back up first, and then raised it and it cleared it no problem. Go to mate the trans to the engine, I can feel the input shaft slide in, and when I twist the trans I can see the pressure plate and flywheel twist as well, so I know the shaft is in (giggity) but it will NOT to together.

Turns out I ordered a FWD flywheel... Instead of an AWD.

Big sad.

Already placed an order for the correct flywheel, and I emailed extreme psi to see if they'll le me exchange it even though it's been installed and shows light signs of being installed (light scratches, scratches where the flywheel bolts are)

I'll keep you guys updated when I find anything out.
 

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New flywheel came in, on Easter.
Didnt get to work on it on Monday but I got some work done yesterday. got the flywheel installed, clutch setup installed, transmission mounted, axles in (driver side bolted up with the new bolts and spacer since the A/C bracket is missing), axle nuts on and cotter pinned, wheels on. I went to put the trans mount on and 2 things happened.
1) One of the smaller 12 MM bolts that goes through the frame rail into the trans mount completely stripped out and ripped the threads out of the mount. I guess ill Be buying a new mount soon :D
2) I went to tighten one of the 17mm Trans bracket- trans bolts and it completely stripped out the aluminum threads on the trans. A local shop last serviced this trans ("Replaced" the clutch and Trans) and i think they hit it with an impact and messed the threads up. I didnt put any more than maybe 15 ft/lbs of torque on it because i was just snugging it down

So now im going Helicoil it. First time ive ever had to do this.. so wish me luck!

Got the new Non cruise control cable installed, i gotta say I'm not a fan of how long it is. I thought the whole point was to make the cable smaller and go directly to the throttle body from the firewall. Instead it still wraps around the whole intake manifold like OEM, but still goes go the throttle body. I might look into this later to make sure that I got the right one, or if theres a possibility making it shorter?

I think I'm going to do the Flyin Miata mod for the power steering and see how much I hate it before moving to the NDD manual rack. I understand that this is irreversible so maybe I wont. Not 100% sure if i will or not. Im definitely going to move to manual rack though, sometime.

As it sits right now I just need:
T case installed w/ driveshaft
Downpipe hooked back up
Flush and Bleed the Slave Cylinder and clutch Master Cylinder
New Trans Fluid
Shifter cables
Intercooler piping
Subframe stuff bolted back on

I think that's it and I should be good to go!

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I almost stripped out one of the top bolts for the trans mount. Luckily caught it early and tapped the threads. Heli coil should work fine. Before you break the tab off, just make sure the threads are deep enough. I’ve made that mistake once and had to remove the heli coil which sucks.
 
I almost stripped out one of the top bolts for the trans mount. Luckily caught it early and tapped the threads. Heli coil should work fine. Before you break the tab off, just make sure the threads are deep enough. I’ve made that mistake once and had to remove the heli coil which sucks.
Yeah, i made sure it was deep enough. So deep I actually thought about putting in a 2nd helicoil but then I thought to myself I have no clue if they would actually like up correctly or not.. and if they didn't how would I get the 2nd one out. But now that I think about it, there's no way that it WOULDNT line up because. I'll probably go back through and add that 2nd one for extra insurance.
 
Success!
A buddy came over (he's got a 2014 5.0 mustang with a paxton blower) and helped me out on the talon. Got everything put back together minus the top end stuff like intercooler piping and turbo inlet etc etc.

We were able to successfully helicoil for my very first time! Not too bad if I say so myself! Like I said in my reply above, I thought about 2 but decided against it in the moment as I was unsure about how the end of the coils would have met but now that I think about it, it should work just fine.

wheels back on, all fluids in. I ordered some mt90 gear oil to put in when it comes in. For now I'm running just some mobil 1 75w90 regular gear oil.

There's a cruise on Friday that I'm hoping to make it to, and a cars n coffee on the 17th that I'm also hoping to make! Gotta have some spare time to get it cleaned up!

Oh yeah I forgot too, I checked my clutch fork resting position (when pressed against the pressure plate by hand) and it seems that mine is dead perfect in the middle. So I don't think I have to shim my pivot ball. I tested the clutch pedal and wow this clutch is going to take some getting used to.

I had a stiff clutch in my sti (act xtss) and removed the clutch pedal return spring in that and I still think this is stiffer LOL

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Got everything back together last night. Bled the slave cylinder and started the car.
I went to put it into gear and it wont go into gear while running. I tried reverse but it just grinded.

So no the clutch isnt fully disengaging it looks like. I extended the Master Cylinder rod out all the way, and that didnt fix it. So its either 3 things at this point:
1) I did a shit job of bleeding the slave. This is possible, ive never had any luck with the 2 person bleeding method
2) The pivot ball needs shimmed. This would absolutely suck! it has a brand new flywheel, clutch kit, new Comp Comp clutch forged pivot ball and fork. I DID verify that the fork was in the middle of the inspection window. Its basically dead center, which I've read is okay? When pressuring the clutch the end of the clutch fork doesn't get as close to the end of the bell housing as my buddies that he showed me. This makes me think it's a bleeding issue maybe?
3) Slave or master Cylinder are bad. The clutch disengaged alright before so.. this is both likely and unlikely.

I'm going to pick up a good vacuum bleeder after work and try that. Hopefully that works because I don't really fancy pulling the trans again.

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