Your RL is sooo nice! Wish mine looked as good.

 

I appreciate the kind words! My car has imperfections but it doesn't show up well in pictures. haha

 

J pipe finally installed.
Tips: If your J-pipe is not fitting well, loosen the 4 front precat bolts (don't remove them) so that the front precat can wiggle around a bit. Once you do that, the RV6 J-pipe should be able to fit all 6 lower precat bolts. Hand tighten those down first and then tighten to front precat bolts on the top LAST. Everything should fit fine afterwards.

Impression: The car does feel a little more peppy. Not a huge amount but somewhat noticeable. Exhaust tone is pretty much the same until 4-5k+ RPM.
Things I would improve or change: With the design of the J-pipe, there is 1 precat bolt that is difficult to access when you are tightening everything. Good thing my hands aren't massive and I was able to get a 14mm wrench in there. Also, there is no hanger for the j-pipe anymore. The exhaust seems to sag down a bit compared to stock. Not sure why a hanger was left out of the design. Eventually, I will have a custom mid-pipe made so the exhaust is not bottlenecked and I'll have a hanger welded on somewhere for better clearance. Also, will have straight through instead of 2 resonators like the factory mid-pipe.

 

 

 

Sexy shit!
Love this build thread...
and Richie is the man, always trust what he says.

I have always loved this model RL even though the TL owns my heart...
You have done a great job!

 

Thanks man! I've had a soft spot for this car with the Mugen kit since I saw it years back online. It works out well since we get a lot of rain and the occasional snow here in the PNW so the AWD is appreciated.

 

oh if I lived up there...I'd be RL all day...
although I have hankering for manual transmissions.

 

Man I miss driving manual sometimes. My previous TSX was a fun car, but this is much more comfortable.

 

LOL...
I have a dual clutch S4 and I still opt for my manual TL-S on most days
3 out of 5 cars in front of the crib are manual.

 

At this point, I just want to get some bolt ons to make it more responsive. Still contemplating which intake. I'm undecided on the UR stock diameter crank pulley ( I hear mixed things from it such as potential accelerated engine wear).

 

from what?
throwing off the balance?
That sounds like horse shit...
I've had a stock size one on the TL for probably 100K
with no issues.

 

Yeah, I've read a bunch of things online. Most people never have any issues besides maybe some noises when AC is on or whatever. Worth the $200 investment? From what I've read, seems like people really notice it in lower gears driving around town (where I spend a lot of my driving)

 

stock size and not underdrive might be the key

 

Stock size FTW.

I've had mine for going on 5+ years/60k+ miles with zero issues.

 

I might have to pull the trigger soon then. Bang for buck, I hear it's an awesome mod.

 

Helps make the car "feel" lighter. I did it at the same time as the manifold spacer which also helped the cause.

 

That's good to hear. With this car, it definitely needs to "feel" lighter. It's tank down the road. In other news, I got my rear calipers back from some wet blasting.

Before


After

 

RV6 is local to me, great products!! Looking good

 

Richie is a great person.

 

Discussion time: Which design would be better? I'm planning on getting the mid section of the exhaust redone. The stock one is damaged (flattened in a couple spots due to previous owner being too low) and I figured it would be best to remove the bottleneck within the exhaust system. Basically 1 has the Y split later versus the other.

 

What if you did a true dual system?

 

The 1st picture is pretty close to a true dual. Splitting into 2 pipes all the way back from the J-pipe. I just don't want to hack the pretty RV6 pipe to make it a precat back true dual.

 

Richie's original true dual was the only exhaust that seemed to kill rasp best.
I think getting them to merger earlier on is probably more efficient but obviously
at such small gains, it's splitting hairs.

 

Yeah, I'm probably overthinking this. My gut is telling me to try to keep it as close to a dual as possible, so probably have the Y as near to the J-pipe as possible.

 

This quarantine is making me browse so many parts online. lol AEM intake ordered. Working on crank pulley and J37 TB next.

 

you are gonna love it.

 

Yeah I'm excited. It's off a TL-S so hopefully a direct fit. Figured I'll do the install when the KB2 throttle body arrives.

 

AEM V2 finally arrived. Anything to look out for the install? Any curveballs or is it the typical straight forward install?

 

I think typical although you might have to get creative with the bracket and not having it rattle against the metal...
and the filter might be tight up against your fogs.

 

Will attempt it today and hopefully it's straight forward. I remember reading about the bracket issue.

 

I tie wrapped a piece of rubber hose so it would have a buffer...if that's any consolation.

 

So intake was installed. The OEM intake and resonator was a pain to remove and I'm glad that it's out. The AEM intake has a hose nipple that doesn't really line up with the factory lines so I'm going to figure out how I can remove that metal line that has the coolant line to the TB.

• I was considering routing the hose that goes from the thermostat straight to the throttle body + a hose from the back side of the motor to the intake pipe
  • This should eliminate that OEM metal hose/line
• Also thinking about putting some rubber around the body of the intake so that it has something to bump into if it shakes around because the lower bracket location is pretty far away from the chassis hole.

The intake sounds great, however I did notice a small hit to low end torque, but higher RPMs feel better.
Excuse the missing covers and stuff. I got annoyed of it all getting in the way. Once the hoses are routed properly, I'll put everything back together.

 

Move the IAT over to the intake tube rather than the intake manifold. (assuming it's like mine)...
Just tie wrap a piece of rubber on the underside of the tube where it'll make contact with the body.

 

I will have to try the rubber piece on the intake. I think the IAT is fine and not in the way? I'll take some pictures of what I'm talking about.

 

not in the way but that bung on the intake is to move it over to the tube so the intake temps are cooler going in and timing advances.

 

Oh, you're referring to the bung towards the front of the car?

 

Yep.

 

Was able to loop the line that goes from thermostat directly to the throttle body nipple and bought a new hose to replace the bigger hose further back. All is well.

 

Parts came back from paint. In the process of cutting down the minor orange peel and then polishing everything. I effed up the rear spoiler while sanding so it needs to be touched out (I'm an idiot).
Next up:

• Finish sanding flares, front bumper, polish and apply 3M tape to everything
• Install "Endless" calipers and refurbished rear calipers when weather is dry
• In process of securing J37 intake manifold and throttle body.

I'll post pictures when everything is installed. Or at least when the flares are on.