Post any small tricks you've learned or tips you have after doing things to your car. Things that you don't really see mentioned on the boards/vfaq.

When you're porting your exhaust manifold/turbine housing, you should use a used gasket to mark the outline of the hole. I used a new 7cm^2 gasket and ported to that, and when I pulled it all apart after a year running on it, I noticed that the sealing ring had crushed causing the gasket to bulge slightly into the exhaust flow. If you're going to use a new gasket, leave maybe a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch to allow for it to crush and seal fully.

 

Well I never researched much on the 1g on how to run wires/hoses/tubing through the firewall into the engine bay.

On three cars 1g,1g,2g I did the following...
Boost gauge on the 1g I cut a hole on the steering rack boot and ran the hose through there.
On my current 1g I tried running the Water Temp. gauge tubing through where my shifter cables were but that eventually got pinched, so I cut a hole on the steering rack boot and ran the tubing through there.
On the 2g I did the same thing I posted for the 1st 1g.

This might have been somewhere but thats what small trick I learned inorder to get something to read in and out from the engine bay area. Might be ghetto but hey it works and you can't see any of it

 

when your puttin in the tranny, put a scissor jack behind the engine to push it forward. makes life ALOT easier.

 

dont start modding a dsm. that is all.

 

+1918270987098798798709876476537463.1

Unless you are and ASE certified mechanic

or

Have more money than you know what to do with.



John and Jerry you know who I'm talking about


and to add something to the thread:
When tightening your exhaust manifold bolts make sure to snug the 14mm bolts first then work your way in tightening a little bit at a time then going back to the 14mm on the outside and working in again repeat until tight. if you don't do this you will be snapping off a stud and that is an exhaust leak waiting to happen. trust me I know.

 

Don't buy another DSM. EVER.

Thats a trick I've found to work quite well.

 

Something else related to porting that I forgot to mention-
The VFAQ doesn't mention this, and a lot of the porting guides I read didn't provide a clear explanation or didn't mention this. When you're porting your turbine housing, you can port the turbine outlet->o2 housing inlet to match your o2 housing as long as you leave enough to seal between that and the wastegate passage. Mark the size of the inlet of the o2 around the turbine outlet and start grinding, taking it in with a with a conical shape- porting less and less until you get within 1/2" an inch or so of the machined area by the turbine itself. You don't want to touch that. I think the VFAQ actually specifically said not to mess with the turbine outlet, then went on to say he had done something with it on another housing- the VFAQ is pretty confusing and not very detailed. The best indicator that I had done something right in porting the turbine outlet the way I did is that the Evo III turbine housing comes from the factory with this kind of outlet- if you can look at one of those, you'll see how to do it.

I matched mine to within an 1/8th inch of the opening of my Evo o2 which was as far as I could go while leaving a comfortable amount of sealing surface between the turbine and wastegate outlets. I only barely touched the opening of the Evo o2- I mostly ground down the indented bosses for the bolt holes, ground the boss for the o2 sensor down flush, ground out the step in the outlet and changed the angle of the wastegate path's entry into the exhaust by grinding the outside wall of the o2 in that area.