Dirtysouth's Project Thread

dirtysouth_msp said:
It's alive! We got it up & running yesterday after a frustrating setback with the intake manifold. I can not stress this point enough. Use only an OEM gasket for the intake manifold! The one I got from Ken with the manifold was ripped when I received it, but since I had a Cometic gasket set, I figured I'd just use the on they gave me.
Everything was torqued to spec and should have been happy, but for some reason that Cometic intake gasket would not seal for s***. The car would barely start and ran like ass. We put the smoke machine on the car and smoke poured out from the intake gasket like it was not even there. Many of the other Cometic gaskets, such as the exhaust manifold gasket, seem to be superior in design to the OEM ones, but definitely not for the intake.
I called Mazda to see if they had a gasket and scored on for a 2001 626 which I thought would be perfect since that's the manifold I have. They had it in stock so I ran and scouped on up. An hour later we started the car up and everything was cool. Of course the ECU still has to do some relearning, etc. but other than that it's all good. Now I'm going to limp-mode around for about 500 miles, change/inspect the oil and double check everything.
I will be posting some more pics and info soon, but as for now, we are slammed at work. Also, I'm exhausted from this extravaganza and working all week at the same time.

(2thumbs) (rockon) (rockon)


Hell yea man congrats...thats awesome...I sure could use that smoke machine on my car I got leaks everywhere....
 
KzA said:
Hell yea man congrats...thats awesome...I sure could use that smoke machine on my car I got leaks everywhere....

The upside of being a manager at a shop - I can use lifts, tools, diagnostic equiptment or whatever I want and work on my car afterhours, when we are slow, etc.
 
Awesome! I can't wait to hear your impressions when it is all said and done.

My motor is out now so hopefully drilling the piece and removing it won't be too bad. I need to get new brackets for the engine stand as the bolts are too big. That or get a drill bit and bore the current brackets.
 
dirtysouth_msp said:
The upside of being a manager at a shop - I can use lifts, tools, diagnostic equiptment or whatever I want and work on my car afterhours, when we are slow, etc.

Hmm...where is the shop located? I might come down to fix some issues of my own that are preventing me from really enjoying my car..I go to school in SC by the way
 
Done with first part of break-in! Everything is happy, no codes, no leaks. Changed oil & switched to 02-03 WRX oil filter today and did not find any metal shavings in the oil or on the magnetic drain plug. The WRX filter is a lot bigger and fits perfect.

Finally got on it for the first time and it feels great. AFRs are a little back and forth at times. They seem a little on the lean side when in vac, but in boost they stay mostly below 11.4. Sometimes they are really rich, in the 10s. I'm running about 9 psi spike and holding at 8 on the stock turbo. The unichip is tuned for 12psi spike and hold at 10psi, but not tuned for my setup.

I think it runs a little leaner at idle and in vac due to the absence of the butterfly valves & dual intake runners. Powerband seems a hell of a lot smoother with this intake. The only thing that is kind of annoying is that this intake manifold forces you to warm the car up. If you don't you will not even get out of a parking space, lol.

The clutch and flywheel feel great. The clutch has a little stiffer pedal than stock and grabs good. It revs a good bit faster with the Spec flywheel. I thought it might be a b**** trying to pussy-foot it (low rpm, no boost) during break-in due to the flywheel, but it only took about 2 hrs to get used to.

I do not feel much difference in torque from the lower compression. It feels a good bit more powerful in the upper rpms. I figure the power has to be from the intake since it was the only real power adder. Not to mention, the lower compression should make less power at the same boost level.

I need to tune this ******, but I'm waiting on a manifold from Protephile's group buy. When it gets here, I'm putting in the the manifold, GT28rs, Walbro fuel pump, 560cc injectors, Perrin fuel rail, and some slimmer fans so the bigger snail will fit. I figure since it is rich when it needs to be, I should be fine until then. Not really planning to push the car that hard until then any way. Any suggestions on what brand/model fans I should get and where to get them for a reasonable price?
 
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dirtysouth_msp said:
Done with break-in! Everything is happy, no codes, no leaks. Changed oil & switched to 02-03 WRX oil filter today and did not find any metal shavings in the oil or on the magnetic drain plug. The WRX filter is a lot bigger and fits perfect.

Finally got on it for the first time and it feels great. AFRs are a little back and forth at times. They seem a little on the lean side when in vac, but in boost they stay mostly below 11.4. Sometimes they are really rich, in the 10s. I'm running about 9 psi spike and holding at 8 on the stock turbo. The unichip is tuned for 12psi spike and hold at 10psi, but not tuned for my setup.

I think it runs a little leaner at idle and in vac due to the absence of the butterfly valves & dual intake runners. Powerband seems a hell of a lot smoother with this intake. The only thing that is kind of annoying is that this intake manifold forces you to warm the car up. If you don't you will not even get out of a parking space, lol.

The clutch and flywheel feel great. The clutch has a little stiffer pedal than stock and grabs good. It revs a good bit faster with the Spec flywheel. I thought it might be a b**** trying to pussy-foot it (low rpm, no boost) during break-in due to the flywheel, but it only took about 2 hrs to get used to.

I do not feel much difference in torque from the lower compression. It feels a good bit more powerful in the upper rpms. I figure the power has to be from the intake since it was the only real power adder. Not to mention, the lower compression should make less power at the same boost level.

I need to tune this ******, but I'm waiting on a manifold from Protephile's group buy. When it gets here, I'm putting in the the manifold, GT28rs, Walbro fuel pump, 560cc injectors, Perrin fuel rail, and some slimmer fans so the bigger snail will fit. I figure since it is rich when it needs to be, I should be fine until then. Not really planning to push the car that hard until then any way. Any suggestions on what brand/model fans I should get and where to get them for a reasonable price?
Rogue has the Spal fans, they are working good for him, easy install
 
A couple of engine bay pics before the turbo, tubular manifold, etc.
 

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nice stuff man, betcha can't wait to get the gt28rs on and tuned!!

FWIW i'm running a 12" and a 9" SPAL slimline fan, they've worked fine for me although the 9" in particular is a little noisy. My A/C condensor fan is on the front of the radiator, which could help you get more clearance as well.

Pretty sure you can get the SPAL fans from *************.com.
 
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I don't know if someone mentioned this earlier but I heard that the stock fuel rail is more efficient than the perrin.
 
That cometic engine gasket set is s***. I used one and I ended up ditching the majority of the gaskets it came with. That oil pan gasket it comes with doesn't work either. Stick to Permatex gray and OEM gaskets. I'd use only the Cometic head gasket. BTW, you can take that damper off on the driver mount bolted on top with the 17mm nut since you have the inserts.
 
Glad to hear all is going well for ya. Too bad I sold you the block because now mine is in pieces :p

Looks like I'll be doing a build of my own soon!
 
daedalus said:
What?! I saw you driving on Thursday?!?!

Early this morning (4:45am) the 42nd street exit claimed a rod and a good chunk of my block...check my thread in this section for pics :(
 

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