heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[0-60motorsports]

Yep!

Here's all the good things about it:

- ZCP
- Built 04/25/06
- Clean title
- No accidents
- California car
- Cinnamon interior
- Has every single option (even the rear sunshade!)
- VANOS done
- SMG pump rebuilt
- Completely stock
- Cheap!

And the not so good:

- Originally alpine white (which would have been awesome against cinnamon, sigh), but was resprayed some sort of metallic grey by the previous, long term owner
- Car sat in a driveway most of it's life, so paint is hazy, but looks like a paint correction can fix that
- 181k mi and still on original rod bearings (!). Actually kinda excited about this one, really want to see what those bearings look like
- SMG. It's still on all stock everything, so maybe the CSL tune will help, but man SMG is weird

Yeah it's going to be really cool seeing the condition of the bearings. Please do keep us updated when you do that.

[oceansize]

Yep!
- SMG. It's still on all stock everything, so maybe the CSL tune will help, but man SMG is weird

It is. No auto mode, ever, just yikes. S5 or S6 only. CSL tune will help. Let off the gas just a hair on shift. I've gone back and forth on letting off the gas and I've finally settled on it does seem to help a bit. If you've got a 181k and the original clutch/pp I'd say your due lol.

[heinzboehmer]

Yep!

Here's all the good things about it:

- ZCP
- Built 04/25/06
- Clean title
- No accidents
- California car
- Cinnamon interior
- Has every single option (even the rear sunshade!)
- VANOS done
- SMG pump rebuilt with Burkhart stuff
- SMG slave cylinder replaced recently
- Completely stock
- Cheap!

And the not so good:

- Originally alpine white (which would have been awesome against cinnamon, sigh), but was resprayed some sort of metallic grey by the previous, long term owner
- Car sat in a driveway most of it's life, so paint is hazy, but looks like a paint correction can fix that
- 181k mi and still on original rod bearings (!). Actually kinda excited about this one, really want to see what those bearings look like
- SMG. It's still on all stock everything, so maybe the CSL tune will help, but man SMG is weird

[Obioban]

Ha. Did you get a 2nd?

[heinzboehmer]

Waaait what

[heinzboehmer]

Isn't 45nm like 35 ft-lbs? What am I missing?

45 Nm + 90 deg. Ends up stupid tight after the angle

[discoelk]

Isn't 45nm like 35 ft-lbs? What am I missing?

[heinzboehmer]

So, uh, I might need to work on my critical thinking skills a little...

I had previously been blindly following the TIS torque specs for the seat bolts (shown below) and it wasn't until yesterday that I started questioning why they were so ridiculously high.



I think it's fairly obvious that I caused these failures by sticking to that spec.

Anyway, new bolts are torqued to much more reasonable M10 numbers (~50 lb-ft), which should help preserve the threads. I do need to add the passenger side seat rail bracket to my junkyard shopping list, though. Pretty sure those threads are also going to fail whenever I go to remove that seat.

[heinzboehmer]

Hardware I ordered to fix the seat studs arrived.

New studs installed with red threadlocker:



I wanted to get a stud with an unthreaded portion in the middle so that it was easy to tell when it was fully installed and also easy to tell if it ever backed out. Unfortunately, I was unable to find one with the correct dimensions, so had to use a fully threaded one. I measured it out and marked the threads that would not be exposed when fully installed. If I ever see that mark then I'll know it backed out. I also drew an arrow facing forward as another indicator of the same thing.


And of course that wasn't the end of my seat mounting troubles. When I got the car, the threads for the back right bolt were cross threaded. I chased them and they held torque well, but it was only a matter of time until they fully failed. No big deal though, this one was way easier to fix with a timesert compared to the front ones.

Destroyed (and masked so that metal shavings wouldn't get between the chassis and the carpet):



Fixed:



Hard to see, but I added some locating marks to this insert as well. Not as important as the fronts, since this one does bottom out when fully installed, but figured why not.

Now just waiting for the thread locker to cure while I do some math and figure out what to torque all this new hardware to.

[heinzboehmer]

Recently went through the partial throttle tuning process described here: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/s...or-drivability

Man, what a difference. It's hard to put into words how the car feels now because it just feels so normal. Almost boring? As in, the car just drives like a car and requires no extra attention/skill to drive it smoothly around town. No more weird bucking, hesitation or stumbling. Still a riot at higher throttle inputs though. I'm very happy with the outcome.

Wrote more detailed notes up in that original thread, but figured I'd post a quick summary here too.

Here's a comparison of my final warm VE table to stock CSL after all the iterations:



I also interpolated those corrections, applied them to the warm up VE table and did one iteration on it using the same technique. This is a comparison of the interpolated table and the table after one iteration:



Effectively the same, so I stopped iterating there.

Next up is WOT with a wideband. Should be fun.

[heinzboehmer]

Good to be 6’4, so no extra cushioning is required 🤣

Maybe I should look into spinal elongation surgery...

your comment about the nogaros and sitting in a race car but you're at a red light is so spot on. as soon as you let go of the steering wheel you enter the twiddling thumbs position and it does not feel casual at all lol

Ha, yeah. Driving around, you kinda forget that you're in the buckets, but it's painfully obvious that they're not factory street car seats once you get into any sort of traffic.

[usdmej]

your comment about the nogaros and sitting in a race car but you're at a red light is so spot on. as soon as you let go of the steering wheel you enter the twiddling thumbs position and it does not feel casual at all lol

[Obioban]

Good to be 6’4, so no extra cushioning is required 🤣

[heinzboehmer]

Thanks for your kind comment on the Nogaros in the 996 (they've been a gamechanger, the stock seats were awful) though I have to admit that extended time in them does create neck, shoulder and lower back issues, so there's price to pay for the improvement in driving position and the connection with the car when doing canyon runs.

Many thanks for your height, weight etc information, it's really useful information to have to be able to give to Mark.
As you've said, it sounds like we're very similar stature. I suspect the seat probably only needs widening in the wing area by a 2-3" maximum (probably just 2" if the curvature of the back can be reduced too)
I know Mark said he wanted to adjust the headrest section so it's slightly angled forwards, rather than being angled back, but the primary focus needs to be the width and I suspect the curvature of the backrest, in the critical wing area.
I'll report back once I've chatted with Mark.

Yeah agreed. Huge difference on track for me as well vs the stock seats, so worth messing around with the extra cushions on the street.

Thanks! Looking forward to hearing the response from Mark.

[HC1963M3]

BK makes Nogaro specific mounts for the factory 996 manual slides:
https://www.bkauto.com/R_9775_Cobra_...e_p/r-9775.htm

Looking at the BK Nogaro side mounts I suspect they're not as low as the latest ultra-low items Cobra now supply, and the seat height really was critical for me.
I used the complete Cobra mounting package, as they've redesigned the floor mount adaptor plate too, so you could say I was I was the guinea pig for the new components !!