how car pics are in.
Man was it hot a hell today. 100 degree's in the shop easy. Didn't start raining until after the car was loaded back up and on it's way home. I wish it would have started a little bit earlier so it would have cooled it down a bit. Ran into a few snags but nothing major. All in all it was pretty straight forward with the exception of that damn flat piece that comes with the Mugen Intake. Still didn't figure that piece out. I'll be searching on here in a bit, as I know it's been covered but with no internet at the shop I was at a loss. Oh well, I've still got a few things to do before the meet this coming weekend.
And.....on with the pics. The camera is on the fritz and on it's way out. Some pics are a little bit blurry and others are fine, go figure...
Bright an early at 8:30 I arrived at the shop. Shortly after the car was being unloaded.
Once the car was off the trailer and on the lift, I figured I'd tackle the exhaust first. So off with that stock junk...
This is an exhaust. Loud as hell too. I had to end up welding the pipe, resonator and down turn, well I didn't I had my body guy do it.
Next up since the exhaust was removed was the mugen oil pan. It's a stock oil pan with baffles welded in. Gotta love OEM fitment. :thumbup:
Once the Mugen oil pan was installed, I test fitted the SMS header. Man it was a tight fit. No way I could have either shaved some material off of the stock trans brace, or use a GS-R one. This thing is tight. I ended up wrapping the secondaries for now to try to reduce heat soak into the oil pan.
There is no room on either side. I'm suprised it fit with the header wrap...
Once the header was in place, I test fitted the exhaust and made marks where the hanger were going to be welded along with the rest of the pieces. No bolt on stuff here.
With the test fitment complete, my body guy tacked it in place. No way to get 360 degree welds with it up in place. Tack it and then remove to finish up the process.
Gotta have the right tools for the job.
Once it was all tacked in place, we brought it down and had the body man weld all the way around it.
Finished exhaust project.
Now on to the Mugen Intake install. I have the AC lines removed for obvious reasons so the intall of the main intake piece was pretty easy. Move some of the hoses out of my way temporarily and she fit right in without a fight.
Since I had already sold my stock intake when I first got the car, I didn't have all the pieces needed for this install. So instead of search all of HT for one, I just said screw it and went to the dealer for parts. The tube was only like $47 anyway and I probably would have paid as much on here.
Here is the key piece or secret weapon if you will to a Mugen Intake. It's the velocity stack. It mounts in between the filter and the stock intake tube.
With the intake tube in place, all looks done but your not there yet. The fender area is where I had the most trouble.
Intake view from the bottom, getting ready to strap it down and install the horn pieces.
This contraption had me scratching my head for a bit. You have to run the hose clamp through the bracket just right for it to hold the bottom of the intake in place. Once figured out though, it was pretty easy.
Once you get it bolted in place, it was time for the horn piece. Double sided tape for the inside and aluminum tape for the outside. For a $700 intake you figure they'd have a better way, but hey...it's JDM y0!
So after trying to translate Japanese ( I can't read that stuff) and looking at the engligh version I printed out from here, I'm still stuck as to where the flat metal piece goes. Oh well, from the top of the engine, all looks great.
Man I love the way that header looks.
MOOGEN baby!!!
So your probably wondering my overall impressions with said mods. So far, without really being able to test everything out I can say this. The header is a really tight fit, much tighter than the intake. The sound of the car now will make you want to change your pants. I absolutely love it. It makes Rob's BC exhaust sound like a stock unit. The throttle response with the Mugen is comparable to that of the J's racing unit, but it's also a cold air design, so I'm sure the HP is higher than that of the J's. Also, not pictured was the PS bypass kit install I got from user Padawan. I highly recommend this kit to anyone who is going to removed the PS from their car. Straight forward design, and all the right parts you'll need.
So, what's next for install? Well I've got my G-force harness to intall, my 5 panel Wink mirror, the Hondata IM gasket, some MSD parts (Yeah yeah, say what you want.) and some basic maintenance stuff. Plugs, cap/rotor, fuel filter and others. Show car or Race car, I'm still happy so the project shall continue on.
