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I'm sorry I don't have big boi money, I'm just buying a house! I'll just pack my shit and leave, JON.
all the poly bushings came in for my front end. Just waiting for SOMEONE to get that pile of crap TURDSTAIN off the lift so I can spend a day getting it all done.
Because someone just HAD to go and have a baby get delivered in about 3 days(congrats, thank for taking care of both of my kids Jon), I decided F it and am just gonna do my front end refresh on the ground. Just in time, rockauto sent me an email about closeout parts, and I ended up ordering new front upper and lower control arms for about $50 shipped.
I did test fit some 20mm spacers Jon had sitting around the other night, it really helped the look of the car. I'll probably end up switching to 1st gen 3.2TL rear hubs/rotors because of the taller hub height- last I recall they're about 28mm taller and I'm 99% sure the ABS tone ring is the same OD as the original 3.0CL ring(the prelude's is smaller) Then I'll just order a couple 25mm spacers for the front. If I can find another set dirt cheap, I'd love to buy another set of 02-04 RSX wheels and have them widened from 6.5 to 8". They just fit the look of the car so well and I would love to shove a 225/50 or 245/45 on the car. The 205/55 is the right diameter/ sidewall height for the look/function I'm going for, just not quite wide enough. I'll definitely need to roll the fenders in the rear, but I should be able to get away with minimal rolling up front.
No problem fitting 20mm spacerin front Pretty good in rear Rear quarter will need a roll Much, much better stance with 20mm spacers. Brings the +45 offset to an effective +20. 16x6.5 02-04 RSX wheels.
Been watching a for sale ad on facebook for a while now, guy had a set of Alphawerks headers listed for sale for $200 about a month and a half ago. He recently dropped his asking price to $80, so I drove the hour and a half to Fort Wayne from Toledo and picked them up today.... but not for $80 While I was out there I stopped by the LKQ pick n pull and grabbed a set of 1st gen 3.2TL rear hubs and rotors. The rotors look almost new, just with some surface rust. The calipers and pads on the car looked pretty new too, with nearly new hardware on them. When I got home, I decided to test fit one. BIG difference. The height of the rear RSX rotor from the rotor face to the hub face is 1.5" tall. The 3.2TL measures 2.5". The RSX rotor+spacer came out to about 2.125". Everything bolted right up, just like I thought! Put the wheel on and.... I'm gonna need a roll hahahaha.
Headers, gaskets, and hardware, brand new, never used!
Turns our those were 15mm spacers so that explains a lot for how aggressive the new rear hub setup is haha. Just ordered 25mm spacers for the front to compliment the rear.
Got the front spacers on and starting installing the headers before taking a picture. Basically, I'm not driving the car without an aggressive roll, possibly even pull on the front fenders.
As for the headers....The upper runners/manifolds fit fine, but the primary openings are smaller than at the head. Fitment wise, I had to leave them loose at the head to be able to get the lower Y/J pipe section on, and left those loose until I had all the bolts and nuts hand tightened. Then I tightened down the uppers at the head, and snugged everything at the Y pipe. If there wasn't a small flex section at the front secondary, theres no way in hell these would work on ANY J series. The two flanges from the runners to the Y/J pipe are clocked slightly differently as well, and don't quite line up. Lots of little alignment issues that I'm sure come from a crappy jig and sloppy production. The welds look pretty on the outside, but looking into the pipes, theres hardly any penetration and they just look terrible. I may have said it already, but I'm going to need to open up the runner openings at the head flange BIG TIME, they're easily a 1/4" too small all around.
The alignment issue bolting to the cat is purely 1st gen 3.0CL specific as there's nothing specifically for these cars that bolt on and work properly. I knew that getting into it. Ita about 2" off center and about 2" shorter than necessary. Bought a test pipe to rig up so I can get it to a shop and finalize my exhaust. It'll eventually all be 2.25" from the header collectorback, utilizing a 335i Boysen spun cat(2.36"), no resonator, and a factory 05-06 RSX-S muffler(2.1"). I don't need anything bigger or louder, not to mention impractical.
There's a reason these things are cheap. I'm glad I can fix most of these issues for little to nothing out of pocket.
I had a similar clearance issue with my headers, we had to cut and modify the lower subframe to get my headers to fit properly. Not sure why yours are that far off.
I had a similar clearance issue with my headers, we had to cut and modify the lower subframe to get my headers to fit properly. Not sure why yours are that far off.
holy crap you cut your subframe? To hell with that lol. What brand did you use? As far as i can tell, these are basically the same as the Manzo ones floating around with the smaller flex going up to the front.
Cool thread! Enjoyed reading your storytelling posts.
I'll check in from now on!
and congrats on June 2019...you're in for a tread and a wild ride if this is your first.
holy crap you cut your subframe? To hell with that lol. What brand did you use? As far as i can tell, these are basically the same as the Manzo ones floating around with the smaller flex going up to the front.
I have the SS AutoChrome headers I believe, not even sure if they make them anymore.
Cool thread! Enjoyed reading your storytelling posts.
I'll check in from now on!
and congrats on June 2019...you're in for a tread and a wild ride if this is your first.
first kid, closing on our first house on Monday as well. Should be an interesting year for sure haha! I'm pretty excited.
Originally Posted by 97BlackAckCL
I have the SS AutoChrome headers I believe, not even sure if they make them anymore.
wow, been a long time since I heard of that brand.
Wish I had more updates for you guys. Been really busy with house stuff, closed on Feb 25th and have been painting non stop since then. Almost done with paint. Carpet gets installed on March 25th and were moving in right after carpet is in. Fell off a ladder yesterday painting and slipped a rib or two on my left side - nothing broken, just lots of discomfort. My father in law is a nurse and told me what I needed to know. Luckily no one was around so I'm still a super cool guy. Should only have the kitchen and cabinets left to paint after today. I can't wait. I've been spending 5-6 hours a day after working getting stuff done. Got the washer and dryer hookups and dryer vent moved back inside from the garage(this is Ohio, not Florida), flipped the old range plug for the dryer, and fixed a heat run in the crawl last weekend. We're replacing all the flat panel hollow core interior doors with some 6 panels, and those probably won't be done by the time we get in, but not a big deal. I'll have about.... 11 doors to do. Then I'm going to go room by room and replace outlets/switches/covers because they're gross, broken, and original to the house(1987). Once thats all done, I get to work on the bathrooms.
Id like to inform everyone that Chris is just too busy to work on his car right now so Ill be taking over. I'll take pictures of new exhaust installed and possibly a cold start video
All moved into the new house, and pretty decently setup in the house thus far for just being a weekend into it. Big thanks to Jon for his assistance this weekend with moving in, although he's slacking and HASN'T PUT ON MY EXHAUST YET?!??! I don't understand why I even pay him anymore....
Well, exhaust is on now, cat pipe needs made, rear header gasket needs installed. Its on the ground(for now) mainly because Jon needed to use the only set of jackstands we had(I've since brought over another set) and I wanted to see what the car looked like with the ebay 06-07 WRX lip. I'm not certain when I'm going to get around to rolling the fenders and really just wanna get the car driving to have it aligned and the exhaust buttoned up, so I bought a set of 18x7.5 +40 Kazera KZ-I's so I can drive the car without the spacer up front and shorter rear prelude hub setup, for $200 with tires, I couldn't pass them up. The tires are spanked on them so I'm not worried about hurting them driving the car to get aligned and then to the exhaust shop, then home so I can roll the fenders and put the RSX wheels back on the car with the fresh tires. The Kazeras will eventually get a nice summer tire, but I really just need to get moving with the car. I still need to press the bushings into the new control arms I got for the front end, adjust ride height etc. It's just hard to do with it being at Jon's and not in my garage, due to pregnant wife, house projects, and other things going on- if it were here, I could just go out and do things when I have an hour or two to kill. 56 days until baby is here and I have MAYBE 5 or 6 full days that I can really make progress on it.
In the meantime, here's some pictures. Its on the ground! Aggressive fitment with the 25mm spacer up front and 16x6.5 +45 RSX wheels Closer shot from the front 06-07 WRX front lip fits about perfect! Thats gonna need a roll.... 18x7.5 +40 offset Kazera KZ-I On my friend's 8th gen Si
And just like t at I took it back apart. Decided to re0lace the cap, rotor, plugs, and wires. Old plugs were some blown out autolite platinum, and very gross. Wires would barely clip onto the cap. Rotor was trashed and the points inside the cap were pretty toast. Cap and wires were OEM, plugs and rotor were not. Very odd. Got the gaskets in the headers and did the final tightening of all the bolts for those. Bought a set of cheap 2g Integra Upper control arms for the front to try to not have to go as crazy on the fender roller and to add some camber/caster, using the CL's anchor bolts-something i did with my 97 CD7 Accord as well. Also dropped and flipped the spring perches on the koni's to be a little higher overall, and to add some spring preload. All the bushings up front are being switched to poly. Front sway bar endlinks are new units that came with the car. Rear ones will get replaced with new ones as well.
Sold the Kazeras and made a quick $100 off them. Bought for $200 and sold for $300, mainly because so found another set of wheels I've always he my eyes out for. Dream wheels, no, but still a set I've wanted and will keep for a long time. 17x7 +42 5x114.3 Centerline Monsoon Series Storms, forged. Go them for $250, including the original paperwork, locking gorilla lug nuts, and some shitty spray paint someone used to go OVER the raw, beautiful polished aluminum. Kinda annoyed about that. The tires are monsters, 225/55/17 and are roached. Replacing those with probably a set of the same tires on the RSX wheels, but in a 215/45/17, mainly because they're dirt cheap($68 per through walmart) and I was pleased with them on the RSX wheels.
Removed the Koni's to flip/drop the spring perch DA(bottom) vs CL/CD Accord UCA's(top). Slightly more caster and camber when used with the CL/Accord anchor bolts Who would spray paint these beautiful, lightweight(15lb), forged wheels? 17x7 +42 Centerline Storm's Came with OG paperwork too! Already using these in 205/55/16 and very pleased.
Finally got the bushings pressed into the control arms for the lowers and into the anchor bolts for the uppers. Had my friend do that since I haven't had time with house stuff basically taking all my time. He also welded up my "cat pipe" for me. OEM BMW e92 335i Boysen primary 300cell catalytic converter. Hopefully it's clocked at least semi correctly, as we kind of eyeballed it. As long as I can drive the car to the exhaust shop it'll work. The borla type-s muffler I had on the fiesta ST I am daily driving for the next month(lease ends June 28th) is probably going to go on the car in place of the rice can immediately, and then if it's too loud, the 05-06 RSX muffler will go on(pictured). Tomorrow I should have all the parts on the car and driving!
Well, got th car "done enough to drive it home. This exhaust is LOUD. There has to be ZERO packing in the muffler. The flange clocking on my cat pipe was off probably 10-15 degrees but I was able to get it to fit by removing the next section/flange back to get me the rotation needed. It a tubing on something under the car and unfortunately the CELis on because the secondary o2 sensor didn't fit. I think I may just throw the RSX-S muffler on as well as using the borla as a mid-muffler due to just how loud it is and the mid pipe and cat sections will need modified anyway. But the car is home! It needs aligned badly and the fenders absolutely need rolled, but the DA arms got me the camber to keep the tires out of the fenders for the most part. I didn't hear any noises from the rear so that should be good but I'll probably end up rolling those as well. I ended up putting the springs/perches back how they were on the konis because it wouldn't work due to the perch design(circlip groove on only one side of the perch).
Now that it's home, I can get the exhaust done easier, as well as the front LCA's and the radius rod bushings done. My friend that aligns is gonna be going to bimmerfest in cali(bluebimma) with his n54 335i swapped 318ti, so I have about 2 weeks to get things done. Plenty of time now that I don't have to drive to go work on the car.
It was raining almost all day and the car is filthy, so when I get a chance to take better pictures, I'll post them!
Back on the ground again! First time out of the barn in 6 months!
Working on getting a new passenger fender for it now, the closest one I've found so far is about 3 hours away! No fancy pictures until that's all done.
Went out for a cruise with the 37 week pregnant wife!
Not much of an update, but it's nice to have the car home. Took it for a quick twilight cruise with the wife tonight and identified a few noises and issues I'm gonna have to resolve.
02-06-2019, 05:44 AM
While I was out there I stopped by the LKQ pick n pull and grabbed a set of 1st gen 3.2TL rear hubs and rotors. The rotors look almost new, just with some surface rust. The calipers and pads on the car looked pretty new too, with nearly new hardware on them. When I got home, I decided to test fit one. BIG difference. The height of the rear RSX rotor from the rotor face to the hub face is 1.5" tall. The 3.2TL measures 2.5". The RSX rotor+spacer came out to about 2.125". Everything bolted right up, just like I thought! Put the wheel on and.... I'm gonna need a roll hahahaha.
