2002 Steel Grey 6spd coupe Daily/Restoration project

[Tbonem3]

How’s the smell vs stock for the cats ?
Has the rasp decreased / increased ?

Also, which header is not based on the SS tubulare version (aside from stepped)?

Great build thus far!

Ya sorry, forgot to put my impressions!

So the fabspeeds are incredible. Immediately more power everywhere. Incredibly torquey. No tune. I truly don't remember being this impressed when I did euro headers years ago or even ss stepped v1s in 2017. This car pulls so hard. I dare say it's stronger than my 2004, which is saying something 'cause that car runs like a top. The 2 cars feel equal in power even though this one only has the headers whereas my 2004 has the airbox, stepped, tune, pulleys and is quite a bit lighter. The 2004 did get slower when I went from 20lb 18"s to 24lb 19s, though.

Rasp is pretty well controlled by the catted 2.5" pipe, but still there. Smell is as expected. There still a bit, but not enough to make anyone think it's catless. Similar to how eurocats smell, though once warm, euro cats (200 cell as well, but higher quality and longer) do a little better job at killing the smell imo.

I'm looking forward to putting the OM scorza on.

The one header that isn't a rep of SS long tube or euro/csl is the ARH, though those appeared much later, well after stepped and customs ones.

[rbg]

T thank you fit posting all this! Just reading your journal is like almost everything a new owner needs to learn the car, priceless!
Btw Instagram randomly showed me your car and I never looked you up, but was like “wait a minute I know that one”

[loudspeaker69]

How’s the smell vs stock for the cats ?
Has the rasp decreased / increased ?

Also, which header is not based on the SS tubulare version (aside from stepped)?

Great build thus far!

[Tbonem3]

The rear was a little low (under 13") even with some extra rubber shims, so I swapped rear springs from my favorite 6.5" GC eibach 550lbs to some QA1 high travel 7" 550lb (both 2.5" ID). I removed the extra rubber shim (only using stock lower spring pad and GC top nylon cone), so the car has now settled at 13.25" rear ride height which gives me a little rake which I like. I also like the car being a little higher since this is my daily.



Took off the front reinforcement plate and cleaned it:



It was missing the oil drain cover, so replaced that:



With that out of the way, I could finish my suspension refresh with OEM FCABs. Originals actually looked ok, might have been replaced at one point, but doubtful.



New. Nothing like fresh FCABs!




Why did I wait to drop the reinforcement plate? Because I wanted to put these in!



Randomly perusing Ebay, I found a used set of Fabspeed headers for $300 lolwut. They had a dent and were kinda dirty, but so what?
All but 1 of the aftermarket headers for our car are replicas of Supersprint's long tube "tubulare" header that was the upgrade for euro or csl guys (before stepped existed). Or they're a rep of euro/csl. IMO, Fabspeeds are the best, truest replica made. Best sound and power. Lightweight, perfect fitment, thin flanges. Just perfect.

Took the strut bar off. Already had the beauty cover off. Undid the SAP and the coolant exp line - I plug the tank and hardline with cork or rubber stoppers so I don't lose much coolant. Heat shields and o2/egt connections and you're ready to remove the manifolds.



Car has been in Socal for 17 of its 20 years, so removal was easy. Only one stud came out with the nut!



Be gone with you. Got new o2s as well. Will reuse EGT.



Precats were done lol



Changed out the CPV O-ring - thanks John! mpower22. Mine wasn't actually leaking, but best time to do it. However, while in there, looking up, I could see oil coming out the Exh CPS, so I'll need to get another o-ring for that.



New Bosch pre cats installed. Capped the post cat bungs.



Catted sect 1. Euro cats got harder to find and more expensive. I wasn't gonna spend $2400 on SS HJS sect 1. I found a listing on ebay from a German company who fabs up 100 & 200 cell metallic race cats in 2.5" piping for Sect 1 for only $400! ($100 shipping)

Link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/23335313314...53.m1438.l2649

Let's check them out!



Initial quality looks nice. Clean welds, everything is straight and smooth. post cat o2 bungs and egt just like factory euro setup. They didn't come with bung caps, however.

Let's look closer:



Cat looks good. They were very clear about the cats being metallic, not ceramic. These are the 200 cell. My goal was to cut the smell almost completely, but retain half of the gains of removing stock cats (400 cell). I also love that they did these in 2.5" (63.5mm) instead of typical 2.25" or 2.365" (60mm) - there's a fair amount of power to be had here - I want to say Hassan demonstrated an 8whp gain here.

All the insides have been smoothed out. Very nice. Overall, very very pleased for $500 spent!



Post cats capped for now since I just passed smog and have 2 years before I need to do anything (not sure of this car's future tbh)



I mentioned EGT earlier. I already installed the sensor in the header location, so I'm capping this location. I couldn't be arsed to extend the egt and o2 wiring down the driver side tranny tunnel since I wasn't bothering with post cat o2s at this time.

Anywho, luckily, I keep things, and have an extra EGT sensor that I could cannibalize to make a bung cap.



The spacer is so the cap doesn't bottom out on the pipe before sealing. The solid, thin piece of metal is used since there's a hole in the sensor's nut.




Headers went in pretty easily. First bank slid on, second took a little effort. Got the sect 1 pipes up, but their increased size caused the tranny cover to make contact.



Just nipped off some of the plastic at the bend:



All done:





All done! Heat shields back in, SAP and exp line back in. Added a little water back to the tank. Removed the post cat o2 plastic holder. If you slide a little nylon washer over the beauty cover studs, you can replicate that plastic sensor cover's thickness so that you don't over tighten the little chrome nuts at the end.

Ah that throaty idle

[Tbonem3]

Ah, nah I'm not a fan of that type of stuff. I'd sooner just buy a new rad.

[jet_dogg]

Flushing in the sense of running a dedicated cleaner and a couple of times to remove any buildup in the coolant pathways.

Like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s--5ft5YiHg

[Tbonem3]

What do you mean by flush? Usually flush means replace fluid.

[jet_dogg]

Btw I was going to mention this earlier, for those who want to clean their rads an air comb is worth a look.

Typically used for larger equipment but I bet would be beneficial if you have compressed air in the garage.

[jet_dogg]

You ever consider doing a flush?

I seen chrisfix on his ranger and looked intriguing.

[Tbonem3]

Cooling

I had noticed a little bit of coolant was dripping at the expansion line in the upper hose elbow. I also believed that all of the parts were original, and at 123k, it's time to refresh it. I didn't go full ham like I did on the 2004 car, however. Decided to wait on the rad as it looked good and the car's temps have been well under control even through the summer. Decided to simply replace the waterpump, thermostat, o-rings/gaskets and the fluid, of course. I reused the sensor and hoses themselves as the O-rings are the issue. O-rings courtesy of Gary aka Wolfn8tor here on the forums.



Oops. Went to see if the exp line would come out and it just broke. Looked like shit, so not surprising. Also explains the slow leak, if it's not the o-ring.



Fan clutch and shroud are already out of the way from the vanos solenoid replacement, so I was albe to start with just undoing the belts. OP confirmed for me that he had belts and idler pulley done recently, and it seemed so. The belts looked perfect and nothing in the system was making any squealing or chirping. The theme of this "build" is, "if it ain't broke..."



I use a flathead screwdriver in between the bolt heads to hold the WP pulley while loosening the 10mm heads.



Right above the vanos accumulator, is where the coolant drain plug resides. You can see my 3/8" extension sitting on it.



Have a big tub ready, it's messy! I start here, then pull the lower rad hose. Doesn't matter which way you do it.



Luckily, my friend Good had a spare exp line I could use so no downtime!



Got the thermostat and housing off. Next, the water pump. Water pump didn't have much play, but it was pissing coolant out the front.



Original parts looking crusty! Sand, dirt, flat o-rings. Surprised the cooling was as good as it was on this car.




Cleaned some components up for re-use with new, lubed o-rings.



New OE waterpump, Tstat & gasket




All back together, belt back on. Greased the end of the WP shaft to avoid rust.



I start by pouring in half a bottle of OE coolant, squeezing the hoses to suck more in so I can then add distilled water. I stop after adding a gal of distilled, start the car, open the heater, and then start adding more water till the level pops up. Go for a little drive, get the car hot, then come back and shut if off.

The system is self bleeding, so come back the next morning or day and check the level and maybe you have to add a little more coolant/water, but shouldn't have to add much. It's always been pretty bang on for me.

[Tbonem3]

I've been hearing great things. I do believe he does revalve, and adds a blow off valve (or 2, one for compression, 1 for rebound?). He guts the internals afaik. He likes to start with a bilstein monotube and I can only agree with that.

That said, $5-6k is a lot of money, and there are other great monotube solutions out there.

[jet_dogg]

I still don't understand what you're getting with fcm (terrible name btw) for 6 grand. He said he doesn't actually revalve, so what is it that he's doing? From what I gather he is selling you benefits and his expertise, not the actual product, an old school marketing technique. He charges a consultation fee I read somewhere?

Sounds a lot like the water treatment industry. Companies will sell you a system for your house that removes chlorine, will make your clothes cleaner, your dishes sparkling, give you a spa like shower experience etc for 4k but they don't explicitly mention it's just a carbon media tank and an ion exchange salt based softening system you can get for less than half that. They're selling you on the benefits, not the actual cost of product with an honest markup.

[Tbonem3]

They're not that good. They're twin tube standard replacement that get lauded because you get rebound adjustability (which you don't really even need unless you're doing a GC conversion with stiffer springs). But if you're trying to get more performance, you should just get a monotube.

Twin tube has a longer stroke, they're more comfortable, better at lower speeds over rougher streets, Good DD choice - like I said, standard replacement. In a twin tube, oil and gas mix together which leads to frothing/aeration and loss in performance. They are comfy though, at stock like spring rates like eibach/dinan.

Billy monotube (or other monotubes) are more stout, shorter stroke, but firmer. If you can correct for a loss of travel through stack height, they're a good choice. If you can be at stock height, they're a great choice as stock replacement if you want more performance than B4s or sachs or konis.

TCK custom valved are the only twin tubes (koni) I'd consider. Otherwise it's Ohlins, MCS or bilstein (incl Fat cat custom billys) for me.

[loudspeaker69]

Curious,

Why don’t you like Konis ?

[Tbonem3]

Thanks! I love it. I do not like Konis. The drawback is that the billys aren't adjustable (rebound), and I think they're at their limit even with these spring rates. If we believe they're made for stock or aftermarket lowering springs where rates are like 143-200lbs front, then I'm basically double that at 325lb. The rears being 550lb act more like 300lbs or so at the wheel. I wouldn't go much stiffer. I wish I could slow rebound down just a hair. A bigger front bar would help, but that's ok. Adding both the front and rear strut brace adds a perceptible amount of rigidity. FCABs are def needed. Fresh rubber RTABS are blissful, but spherical is better, even with a "plush" trade off.