Altered Mental Status (1G AWD 5spd)

[Spleen8urLSX]

I couldn’t tell you which BC 272s I have or what the differences are when they changed them, but I can say I’ve always been satisfied with them.

 

[CrackedDSM]

I couldn’t tell you which BC 272s I have or what the differences are when they changed them, but I can say I’ve always been satisfied with them.

Sounds good. As far as I know, the new Stage 2's are a 268 intake and 272 exhaust. I'm not good with looking up cam specs and comparing so I've no idea, but I know the ramp rate/other stuff is different.

But, I've decided it's stupid to swap cams unless I notice a significant problem with them. Running what I have now is the best idea. Bird in the hand, and all that jazz. I only wish I could dyno them/test them. I may talk to a few people and see what they set their adjustable gears to with these cams and try that out. I've got adjustable cam gears, might as well use them. Feels ricer-ish to have them and not need them. The poor scammed previous owner got told by BogusSVO that they'd be degree'd in, and they're not.


Update: As if to prove my point from an earlier post, was talking with a good friend in South Florida(same guy I got my black leather interior from) about how stupid people are with their prices on a rear carpet, he mentioned he has one laying around he doesn't need. So it's mint condition, and I got it for a steal.

Seriously. Done with FB marketplace and the parts groups. Just gonna deal with friends from now on. So that's freakin' exciting though. Got a mint condition OEM rear trunk carpet. Now the seats won't be lonely, they'll have the rear carpet to keep them company too. Now everyone in the interior can all be friends.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Finally did something I've been meaning to do for like 2 months now. Lol.

Finally bolted down the spark plug cover with matching stainless allen bolts. They're absolutely perfectly sized for the thicker spark plug cover OR the OEM cover(may need a wider washer for the OEM cover depending on how wallered out they've been from time and heat). I also added in an eBay special oil cap. One the terrible little sticker falls off I'll get a better one made of an Eagle or something. I'm also a little annoyed because it was supposed to be chrome, but whatever.


As a bonus for anyone reading this far, if you need some spark plug cover bolts and don't want to pay the $20 for them that other places charge, I'll just send you these for the cost of shipping. Hit me up.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Finally did something I've been meaning to do for like 2 months now. Lol.

View attachment 698719
View attachment 698721
View attachment 698718


Finally bolted down the spark plug cover with matching stainless allen bolts. They're absolutely perfectly sized for the thicker spark plug cover OR the OEM cover(may need a wider washer for the OEM cover depending on how wallered out they've been from time and heat). I also added in an eBay special oil cap. One the terrible little sticker falls off I'll get a better one made of an Eagle or something. I'm also a little annoyed because it was supposed to be chrome, but whatever.


As a bonus for anyone reading this far, if you need some spark plug cover bolts and don't want to pay the $20 for them that other places charge, I'll just send you these for the cost of shipping. Hit me up.

View attachment 698720

Ok - I’m asking how you managed to get stock cam gear bolts and original AEM cam gear hardware to fit under your timing covers without running into everything.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Ok - I’m asking how you managed to get stock cam gear bolts and original AEM cam gear hardware to fit under your timing covers without running into everything.

I honestly have no clue. Lol. I’ve heard they’re supposed to scratch or rub but they don’t. Not even close.

My best guess is that this is an original zaklee clear cover from early 2000’s or whenever he first produced them. On IMVFilms Texas streets video you can see the clear timing cover in the under hood shot and that video was shot ages ago. When Supra’s were the top dogs at TX2K.

But yeah. I have no clue . AMS built this car so maybe they took a heat gun to the cover and widened it inside.


Oh, forgot to add this.

I sold my other ECMLink/ECU setup off because unexpected stuff happened. But now I've got it back, and this time it's brand new. So that's exciting.

 

[Vegas Smith]

It's sad that DSMs get forgotten so quickly. This was a top-of-line car back then and to see it go to shit so easily is crazy. Glad you're rehabbing it. On the contrary, half the cars this car beat back then are probably 7 second show cars now.

 

[CrackedDSM]

It's sad that DSMs get forgotten so quickly. This was a top-of-line car back then and to see it go to shit so easily is crazy. Glad you're rehabbing it. On the contrary, half the cars this car beat back then are probably 7 second show cars now.

I know. Looking at old pictures and footage vs now hurts my soul a little. But I'm trying. Eventually I'll get the body straightened and get it repainted nice and new. It's a slow restoration. I call it a "smolder restoration". Fire will spark eventually, but it'll take awhile. It was definitely neglected and left to sit for far too long.


But, it'll never be a fire breathing liter bike walking monster like it was before. It just won't. It'll be the ultimate street DSM. A nice street friendly powerband, cold A/C, powersteering, nice comfy leather interior, and an 'okay' sound system. Fast with class is the goal. Maybe not "today" fast. With that said though, an 11 second DSM on the streets is surprisingly hard to beat. Even my slow AF high 12's AWD SUV hurts a lot of "faster on paper" cars feelings.

 

[CrackedDSM]

I've been meaning to dig into why the car has a gangsta lean on the back left side, and I think I found out why.



Everything else under the car looks straight and fine, or at least the same as the right side doing a direct comparison. It looks like the spring is either broken, or just gave up. Lol.

This is the Left side

To compare it, this is the right side rear

I'll have to give a better look but it doesn't appear that the wheel is severely towed in or anything either, so IDK. I may just go with some replacement control arms just to be safe. Here's a booty shot of said gangsta lean.

Well, that's one problem addressed. Not in a negative or bad mood, just a fact finding mission. Guess I'll put coilovers higher up on the priority list. Anyone got any feedback or theories? I have a video of the control arm and stuff I can upload, but to the naked eye nothing looks wonky.

Coilovers here I come.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Talked with the wife and got her input and decided that I’ll paint my spare valvecover after all. Kinda excited to see how it’ll turn out. I love painting these things. Lol. I’d do it for free if people supplied their VCs and the paint.

 

[CrackedDSM]

This came via UPS while I was at work. Freakin stoked. I got a fantastic deal on this and this is my favorite street manifold for a dsm ever. I think I especially got a good deal for everything that was included.

And something I’ve personally never seen…

The jdm coil pack with bracket! It’s a complete manifold. Blows my mind. The throttle body is still tight and not that dirty inside tbh, and inside the manifold itself there’s some oil but not bad at all. I’m gonna clean it out with some gasoline. But I’m stoked.

I’m gonna paint the manifold too, I’ve decided. It’ll be the inverse of the VC. Can’t wait to see how this pairs with the FP Green.

 

[CrackedDSM]

This came in while I was at work(getting my ass absolutely handed to me by a freak popup storm, more details in bottom of post) and I'm excited. It's tiny and less than $30 but good stuff nonetheless. From our very own @Gamble97 as well!

So pretty. Sad it'll be hidden away inside the TB. Can't wait for the paint to come in so I can paint the Intake and the other VC. Because then I can install the Cyclone.



(super long winded stuff/details incoming, stop reading here if you aren't interested. Non DSM details to follow.)

Details mentioned in beginning of post: I am a Pensacola native, and have been through Cat. 4 and 5 hurricanes. I am not a newbie to our freak thunderstorms and their power, so trust me when I say I have never seen a non-hurricane storm like this. Ever. Every hospital in the city was running on generators because at one point something like 80-85% of the city was without power. Transformers were popping like fireworks, power lines were down everywhere, and the big problem was flooding. Almost all of our major roads were 3+ feet of water, and in a LOT of cases the water was so deep even our big ass 25,000lb big boi ambulances couldn't make it through(picture the largest size uHaul truck, that's how big our ambulances are). I stopped counting at 25 cars that were almost submerged entirely/entrapment calls for cars due to flooding.


Several houses had trees fall on them(one of which resulted in a fatality) TWO tornadoes touched down simultaneously (also killing a couple, one of which was so bad we couldn't find an arm to put a BP cuff on), and the rain...my God. Seriously, biblical flood levels of rain. The lightning was cool...until it struck like three people one after the other. Lol. Honestly, don't know how we got through it. Dispatch deserves a f**king medal because just the two of them held that shit down for the entire county(fire, EMS, and Sheriffs/PD are all separate and need separate communication lines, some dispatchers handle two at once) and all four or five of our trucks ran themselves ragged. Was an epic...but crazy ass night. God I love EMS.

Craziest part about it all though..is how kick ass the power company and city workers were. They had almost all the power restored, all the lines fixed, and almost all but 2-3 stoplights fixed(of 45+ that were completely blacked out) before people even woke up to get their coffee and news. I couldn't even tell how bad the night was on my drive home. Insane. If I didn't work it, I never would've believed what just went down.

 

[Dericsh]

Sounds like a crazy night. That’s definitely hurricane level craziness.

 

[fourgsixty3]

Glad you're safe. Sucks that people lost their lives. My hat's off to you sir for doing what you do.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Sounds like a crazy night. That’s definitely hurricane level craziness.

It was for sure. Totally surreal.

Glad you're safe. Sucks that people lost their lives. My hat's off to you sir for doing what you do.

It does, especially leaving a kid orphaned who saw the whole thing happen. But with EMS you have to look at what good you did vs the bad or you'll never survive(it's how suicide or just outright quitting happens), and we saved a good chunk of people last night(as did Fire. Sheriff's office "sheltered in place" which means they did nothing/refused to respond to any calls while EMS and Fire ran around like chickens without heads.) so that's a good thing. Plus we all got forged in fire into one homogenous piece of hardened steel. Nothing builds a team like throwing them into a hellfire situation and them having no choice but to survive. We all got a little closer last night.


DSM Related stuff:

I got this from a friend in SoFla. The same one who sold me the black leather and the cyclone. I joked with him that soon I'm gonna just buy the whole car from him piece by piece.

Before

(still gotta fill the holes you see, I'm gonna line the whole floor with some sound deadening mat. That should do it nicely.)


After!

God that looks so much better. The stains you see come out easily with a toothbrush and simple cleaner, so I'll steam clean/detail the interior at a later date once the car is running. But it looks SO much better even with just this. So good in fact, I couldn't resist installing the terrible quality rear privacy cover I have just to complete it.

Dirty AF, but man. The cars interior is finally factory complete. Cannot describe the feeling. It's like the soul of the car is back. Now I just gotta get her started, and get the exterior all shiny straight and new.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Well, I pulled the TB off to inspect it and install the FIAV bypass plate, when I discovered something.

This is what greeted me.

It's a brand-ass new Throttlebodies.com unit! Well that's just plain awesome. Here's a comparison of it and the JDM/Stock throttle body.

That was pretty cool to find TBH. I'm also starting to go back and forth whether I want to use the bypass plate. The little lines that are machined into it to make it pretty, I don't think are gonna end up sealing very well against the OEM gasket/o-ring type material. I'm gonna pull both TBs apart and compare the FIAV, because I think the TB.com one has the FIAV valve screwed all the way shut. If not, I may just take that route and do it anyway. Or I may honestly just make my own bypass plate out of sheet metal. Lol. IDK, we'll see what route I take though. I may just slather the hell out of the instagrammable plate in some RTV and hope for the best.

Regardless, this was an awesome find especially considering throttlebodies.com isn't in business anymore. It looks so much better in person!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Decided to use the bypass plate anyway but sadly it spaces the lower portion of the TB too far down and it hits the cyclone. So that option is out. I’m not gonna be deterred though so I filled all the passages of the FIAV system with RTV, and then cut a thin little piece of sheet metal to make my own block off plate. I was kinda worried about the rtv blowing out under pressure and I was worried about how thin the sheet metal was so with them combined I’m 100% confident with it. Improvise, Adapt, overcome!

Not gonna show pics of my work because I’m proud, but not that proud.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Well, it’s finally done boys(and girl). With this one last interior trunk panel, the interior is finally 100% factory. It’s not perfect, but it’s all there. Including the little trim panels that cover the ecu/tcu area that I didn’t know existed. It’s like a cherry on top.

Feels so good to complete a project and cross off a goal I had. Thanks to everyone who helped out with everything.

Now it’s time to fix a few wires, get it all filled with fluids and pop a battery in her and start it.


Also: I've decided it's 100% getting coilovers. I'm not gonna just replace the struts and springs. I can always do that in the future if I hate the ride of the coilovers. Anyone got any recommendations for a street-focused coilover that's quality? I'd like something that doesn't rip my teeth out over every tiny bump. It's never gonna be a corner-carving monster, but I don't want it to float like a caddy either. I liked how the stock springs and Tein S-Techs rode, but when launching they were just too soft in the rear. Real world experience appreciated!

 

[Tina94]

View attachment 699222
View attachment 699223

Well, it’s finally done boys(and girl). With this one last interior trunk panel, the interior is finally 100% factory. It’s not perfect, but it’s all there. Including the little trim panels that cover the ecu/tcu area that I didn’t know existed. It’s like a cherry on top.

Feels so good to complete a project and cross off a goal I had. Thanks to everyone who helped out with everything.

Now it’s time to fix a few wires, get it all filled with fluids and pop a battery in her and start it.


Also: I've decided it's 100% getting coilovers. I'm not gonna just replace the struts and springs. I can always do that in the future if I hate the ride of the coilovers. Anyone got any recommendations for a street-focused coilover that's quality? I'd like something that doesn't rip my teeth out over every tiny bump. It's never gonna be a corner-carving monster, but I don't want it to float like a caddy either. I liked how the stock springs and Tein S-Techs rode, but when launching they were just too soft in the rear. Real world experience appreciated!

Godspeed mono ss. If you have reasonable expectations of a $675 coilover, you will not be disappointed. Would I use them to race? Or for a daily? No, maybe not, I doubt they’re as robust as a $1500 set. Weekend warrior fun ripper? All day. I have 3/4” tire to fender clearance and am running on max stiffness up front on what I promise are way way way shittier roads than you have and it’s great. May have to trim the rears down if you want to get it good and low

 

[CrackedDSM]

Godspeed mono ss. If you have reasonable expectations of a $675 coilover, you will not be disappointed. Would I use them to race? Or for a daily? No, maybe not, I doubt they’re as robust as a $1500 set. Weekend warrior fun ripper? All day. I have 3/4” tire to fender clearance and am running on max stiffness up front on what I promise are way way way shittier roads than you have and it’s great. May have to trim the rears down if you want to get it good and low

The only thing that gives me pause is there for a FWD and the rear struts on a FWD are a different length than the AWD variants. Or I absolutely would give it a try! I don’t want it super duper low, just a reasonable low.

 

[Tina94]

The only thing that gives me pause is there for a FWD and the rear struts on a FWD are a different length than the AWD variants. Or I absolutely would give it a try! I don’t want it super duper low, just a reasonable low.

Oh shoot, I just assumed they had hem for both fwd and awd. That’s bizarre that they’d only have them for fwd

 

[chrisman287]

I would suggest Tein coilovers

 

[Spleen8urLSX]

In for start up video

 

[CrackedDSM]

I would suggest Tein coilovers

The Tein EZ Streets or whatever they're called? I'm sad I missed the train on the old school super street Teins. They were so nice.

In for start up video

Yeah me too! OP is a fa--wait, I'm the OP!

But it'll be a momentous occasion. There's still quite a lot to do though. I want to yank the oil pan(which requires yanking the transfer case) and check the main and rod bolts are all tight(because the cam cap bolts were finger loose). Gotta finish a few wires, hang the exhaust, get the custom IC pipes made so I can keep the OEM A/C or "secondary" cooling fan, then from there, there'll be no excuses. Fluids, battery, load a tune, and start. Should probably peek inside the tank and make sure it's good in there too, because the original owner drained it completely before it sat but you never know.

But yeah. That's all! I'm currently painting the Cyclone IM but there's a ton of corners and hidden crevices. I am NOT about to pull it apart either because it's got OEM gaskets in great shape on it, and I don't want to risk tearing them if I pulled it apart. So..it'll probably be a solid 3 footer paint job like the VC. But..it'll be better than dirty AF/rusty like it was.

 

[chrisman287]

I think they’re either Flez Z or Street Basis

 

[CrackedDSM]

Cyclone is painted and curing. I’m not happy with how the TURBO INTERCOOLER letters turned out so I’m gonna sand it off and do those letters by hand. But it’s a good idea of how it’ll look. All the paint you see is dry so it’s a nice gloss black. The rectangle area around the “CYCLONE” will be sanded and polished nice and shiny too so it’ll be a shinier barrier. I think it’ll be a nice offset to all the red on the VC and intake pipe. I’m happy with the scheme.

Maybe one day I’ll get it powder coated. Who knows. In the meantime thanks for stopping by.