We just finished up a 2 day long job on this beautiful 2003 wrx. This car was purchased by its current owner 2 years ago and he decided it was time to start to modify it. He came to us and we outfitted the car with a full stage 2 package. This included a full Invidia turbo back exhaust and a retune. The car already had a Cobb short ram intake filter so the ecu mapping had to be modified to compensate for the change in the MAF sensor voltage. After the tuning the car put down 219 all wheel horsepower and 225 foot pounds of torque. This was pretty impressive due to the fact that the heat index put the ambient air temperature at 105 degrees Farenheight the day we tuned it. The customer also wanted the car to have a more aggressive look to match his body kit. We opted to install a set of Racecomp coilovers, 5 Zigen wheels, and BFG tires. He wanted to occasionally take this car to the track so the coilovers were a great choice for him.
SC300 gets a new pipe
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
This customer brought in a MKIV Toyota Supra exhaust to install on his SC300. The customer intends on putting a full single turbo kit on the car and since his old exhaust was rusting and falling off the car he opted to upgrade it now. The exhaust required a little bit of modification to work on his car but it was well worth it. He also wanted us to make him a 3 inch midpipe with a 3 inch high flow catalytic converter so that he would be ready for the added exhaust volume that a turbo will produce and be able to pass emmissions.
Chris’s Supra is Back in Action
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Just recently we finished up this MXIV Supra for one of our long time customers—and boy let me tell you has it been a long process. Unfortunately, this car was crashed over a year ago and it is just now getting back on the road thanks to an array of set backs ranging from insurance company delays to parts on backorder. Little by little, it just all adds up to a really long time. There is something to say about taking your time in the context of this situation because I can definitely say that this car was repaired 100% correctly and it is virtually impossible to tell that it was ever damaged. The insurance company was jockeying to total this car out, but after we were able to talk some sense into them when it comes to the value of the parts that were on it when it was wrecked, they decided it was a better option to fix it rather than total it. Being a Supra enthusiast at heart, I hate to see these cars get crashed and not make a comeback. There just are not enough of them in existence anymore. Since the front bumper, hood and wheels were getting replaced the customer chose to upgrade them to a Stillen front bumper and hood. While he was at it, he decided to bump it up a notch with a new pair of new kicks—CCW SP500′s. I’m excited at how nice it turned out! If I ever got my hands on another personal Supra, this is exactly what I would want it to turn out like.
Mitsubishi Evolution rally america car
Friday, July 9th, 2010
We put this car on the dyno a few weeks ago and I almost forgot to post about it. Apparently Rally America requires all cars to have a Dynojet Dyno test to be able to compete. Yet another sanctioning body that recognizes the Dynojet as the industry standard. This car competes in the stock class and it is an ultra simple setup with the 38mm restrictor on it. Trust me, its not an easy task to suck 230 all wheel hp worth of air through that little of a hole. Despite this I thought the power was kind of low. Joseph explained to me that his tuner would be flying back into town to do a more aggressive tune for him soon and that the car was still on the break in tune. I offered to tune the car for him so maybee he will give me a shot at it. It definitely gave me the itch to build a rally car and go and play in the woods with these guys. Who knows, maybee some all wheel drive Fiestas are in our future.
Old School Celica Supra Restored
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
This week a rare example of a Toyota Celica Supra Mark II stopped by for a dyno run. These vehicles are getting very hard to find these days, especially in this immaculate condition. This car has had a complete frame up restoration and you could not miss the attention to detail. From the pristine interior to the fresh paint on the exterior, not a flaw was to be found. The motor and drive train were removed for a complete rebuild, and the engine bay received a good cleaning and painting during the process. New tires, hoses and belts were added to finish off the project. The owner was very proud of the completed project and wanted to see how much horsepower the newly completed motor was able to produce. At just 213 miles since the full revival of the Supra it was pushing out 132.74 horsepower and 141.94 foot pounds of torque. Very commendable for a NON TURBO 30 year old stock vehicle, even in the earlier years the Supra was very nicely equipped.
White Fluffy Power
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
I just could not help myself and had to make a blog post about this car. It’s one of the nicest Supras I have seen in a LONG LONG TIME. I can remember years ago when almost every Supra I came across was this clean and well put together. With more and more of them getting crashed and ragged out, its hard to find a nice one.
The car came in to get a full AEM EMS standalone tune, so we got it strapped down on the dyno and started the process. It usually takes me about 4 hours to get a great tune with the AEM, but everything went so smooth on this car we were done in WAY less time. This customer had everything done correctly and nothing glitched, not even once. He wanted a conservative tune on pump gas for this session and decided he will be back for a race gas tune after the summer—with the fully built motor in it. The car made 550 whp on a 69 mm Precision turbo at 22 pounds of boost. I didn’t even make the car break a sweat, the knock sensors were silent and the customer was happy with that power level for now. I cant wait for him to return with his built motor installed. Check back for updates later!
Dan
Lexus IS300 Turbo, from lean to mean
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
The Lexus IS 300 was first introduced in North America in the year 2000 as an entry level sport sedan model. The IS designation is short for ” Intelligent Sport” and the features provided on this model definitely support the name. The first generation IS 300 was designed with enough power and features to take on it’s European rivals quite adequately. This particular IS has a single turbo kit with all the supporting mods needed to make 316 wheel horsepower.
This particular IS 300 was brought to us running severely lean (16:1 air to fuel ratio) and was on the borderline of causing engine damage. We put the car on the dyno and began the tuning process. After 2 hours of dyno tuning the primary oxygen sensor failed and we had to stop. The customer left with the car and was instructed to change the primary oxygen sensor. Later that evening the customer brought the car back to us not running. After investigating what might be causing the problems we found many causes that were contributing to the lean condition. We also discovered that the cause of the primary oxygen sensors going bad was an incorrectly sized resistor that was installed in the oxygen sensor circuit. The AEM FIC requires the resistors to be installed in the primary O2 sensor circuit to function correctly. We also discovered that the secondary oxygen sensors were not working correctly and that the number 5 fuel injector was working intermittently. After fixing these issues we put a fresh set of spark plugs in the car and completed the tuning process.
03′ Evo 8: “We can rebuild it. We have the technology.” And it won’t cost 6 million dollars!
Monday, June 7th, 2010
The air cooled Evo 8 that we took in a couple weeks back is now ready to start getting put back together. We have ordered all of the parts we need and the majority is here now. The only part we have not received yet is the FP Red turbo that is going on in place of the factory unit. We ordered a new complete short block from Mitsubishi, this was actually cheaper than purchasing an empty crank case, crank, oil squirters, and all the other little bits. We are removing the factory pistons and rods as well as the factory bearings and replacing them all with upgraded versions. The pistons are Ross drop in 2.0 litre 8.5:1 compression ratio slugs. Connecting rods are Eagle H beams rated for over 650 whp. ACL bearings will replace the factory rods/mains/thrust bearings. While we are in there a balance shaft eliminator kit will be installed too.
This engine already had some head work done and we will be re-using the GSC 272 cams and Ferrea valve train. Ball Engine Parts and Service has already replaced the 4 valves that got damaged and completed the refresh on the head. This engine work along with the FP Red and an upgraded FMIC should yield in the neighborhood of 400 whp on straight 93 octane fuel and nearly 500 whp on race gas after tuning. We have removed the AFC-Neo and will be doing a custom tune using the Batlground re-flash software. Not going back in the car is a water/meth kit, we have suspicion that this kit might be to blame for the engine failure in the first place.
Stay tuned as this build progresses. We will be posting updates as the build comes together. Please enjoy some Muzak while you wait.
350Z Intake and an 135i dyno: Friday tid bits
Friday, June 4th, 2010
This week we had a clutch job on an 05 350z and while he was here we fabbed him up a custom short ram air intake. The clutch job was straight forward OEM replacement with a flywheel resurface. The intake is a 45 degree bend 3″ aluminum pipe, custom MAF adapter and a K&N filter.
Next we have a BMW 135i getting some power pulls. Modifications to this car are minimal but productive. A chip with a stage 3 map is the only mod performed to this car. The bimmer layed down a best run of 325 whp and 351 wtq. That is a gain of over 40 whp and 50 wtq compared to stock. This was the first upgrade on the list for his car and more are to come.
We are staying quite busy and we have a couple of big projects going on. Get your appointments scheduled now before it gets too late. There is nothing worse than having some money or parts burning a hole in your pocket, and then having to wait to get your mods done.
88′ Honda Accord: Put a cork in it old man.
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
We don’t generally see retired grocery getters turned street warriors here at the shop. If we do it is not an 88′ Honda Accord with a turbo kit. In this case that is exactly what we have. This customer is a member of the ASAP car club and is a familiar face even though we had not done much of anything for him up to this point. He has installed a turbo kit on the OE motor and was running an open down pipe. While this is pretty cool for a little while, it does tend to wear off and become annoying. Not to mention it can be detrimental to your motor if it is too short.
Our customer wanted to install a 3″, down pipe back, exhaust. He ordered a Vibrant Performance, 3″ inlet 3″ outlet, oval Stealth Series (black finish) muffler. He also provided us with the 3″ tubing we would need to get the job done. There was one problem though. After getting the car racked and looking at what I was working with, the down pipe was not fully complete. It cut off prior to the oil pan and had been crushed a little for clearance of the cross member. This was out of the realm of what I had estimated and would required some extra work if I were to complete it. Unfortunately it was beyond his budget and would have to wait for another day. No worries though, because I could still finish the exhaust and simply mate it to the down pipe later.
In general this was a fairly straight forward exhaust system. A long straight down the middle of the car, a couple 90 degree bends, a little kink and another couple short 90′s. Getting the 3″ pipe centered in the stock location turned out to be the most difficult thing to do. When the stock exhaust piping is a mere 1 3/4″ it is easy to see why it could be a bit of a hurdle. After getting the pipe centered and tacked into place, all that was left was to finish the welding and hang it back up. Even though I couldn’t get the entire exhaust done, the fabricated and installed unit looks great and is in perfect position.
We should be seeing this customer again in the next couple of weeks to finish the job and take care of a few other minor issues with the car. Then everyone can rest easy in his neighborhood, there will be no more rude awakenings at 2 a.m.
