i made the switch to the dark side, and put on my uppipe and turbo-back exhaust. the install went mostly smooth --- no broken tools or bashed knuckles. it took collectively 6 hours with my friend and myself doing the job. neither of us have installed an uppipe before, but he is a seasoned detroit mechanic.

details:
vishnu 304 flex uppipe w/ new factory gaskets
cucso dp ( jdm )
a'pexi gt spec catback ( jdmodded[stretched] )

when doing the job, i sprayed the mess out of the bolts with liquid wrench. i followed the shiv instructions pretty religiously, even though they are explicit for their 321 installs. i went with the flex in hopes of preventing leaks ( my fingers are crossed ). after listening closely for any exhaust leaks, we put the car back together and took it out for a drive.

since it was getting dark, i opted out of wiring in the MIL eliminator, since there aint no sensor there anymore. when i fired up the car, the CEL went on within a couple minutes. bummer. i'll solder in the fix tomorrow, and reset the ECU again. i'll probably speed up the ECU learning process as well.

as far as driving impressions, wow! the turbo has a much more harmonic sound... i could hear the wastegate fluttering, or at least i thats what i think it is. i already had the silencer removed, so i was already used to the spool. the exhaust is nasty loud. it sounds really good, especially at idle. highway driving is a little louder than i'd like. i guess i'm still in shock from the whole experience. i think i need to drive it more, so i'll probably roll it out later tonight to test the butt dyno. all in all, i'm pleased --- the car is a lot more obvious, so it will test my patience to keep it tame.

there is however, a smell present. it doesn't smell like exhaust, but something else. i'm hoping that it is the liquid wrench, but will troubleshoot it more tomorrow. i do have a hose that is in contact with the dp, so i will be actively looking for an option to keep it safe. this may indeed be the source of that strange smell. i also need to do some modding to the turbo heat shield, since the cusco is a lot wider than the stock setup. once i work in the CEL fix, i'll post more results. be prepared for questions... i may have a few.

thanks,
.roland

 

i'm 99% sure the smell was the hose. i was able to re-route it slightly to the side of the dp and the smell didn't come back after about a 1/2 hr - 45 mins of driving. boost comes on much differently now. it seems to build more consistently, or should i say earlier. since it is present upon cold start, during, and after spirited & regular driving, i'm writing it off for now as turbo noise.

more to come after MIL installation and tricking the IAM into giving me some more horsies.

 

today i went to home depot and picked up a few supplies. i ended up wiring the MIL fix quite nicely. this was my first soldering job and it ended a little messy, but totally effective. we sealed it up with electrical tape and zip tied the disabled sensor to the frame. i rigged a way to avoid contact with the hose that was causing the problems with zip ties.

took it out to set the IAM after resetting the ECU, and held it stable for about 20 seconds at 2500 on an empty strip behind my house. we then pulled it smoothly to 5k and turned around to roll it back to the house. after a strong pull to red back towards the house, i felt the improvements from the mods. the car now has a totally smooth powerband, unlike the clotted feel it had with the cats in. the powerband is totally smooth from rev to red, and the exhaust is totally intoxicating when under load. last night the car seemed less impressive, but clearing the CEL and doing the IAM trick really made the car come alive.

samco hoses are going in next week... i will post the butt dyno results if any. after shiv has his way with it, i'll post the wheel hp numbers.

.roland