Recent content by chiefmg

Got some good news today. Back on Saturday after getting home, I packaged up my supercharger to send off for overhaul. Went to the local UPS Store to ship it, only to find out their system was down. I was told this only affected them being able to accept credit for payment, which wasn’t an issue...

Thanks. I agree with this look, now kind of wish that there was a small spoiler to put underneath of this (like Mazda sold for the RX-8, I think this wing is the same as on that one). The new risers are thinner in cross-section than the factory ones. This meant my screws were a bit too long...

Washed her garage dirty butt yesterday and took some pictures today. I went to the same place I have used in the past so if anyone so desires, they can compare similar pictures with the different risers installed. Here ‘ya go:

Nice to know who one's friends are. She's a dirty creature and not fit to be photographed as yet. Patience is a virtue...

Finally back home. One of the first things I did was to find and open my package with the risers. They were packed very nicely with bubble wrap in between so there was no chaffing. I went with having them powdercoated to match how the factory risers are. After removing the wing and the stock...

Been having an intermittent rattle when opening the hatch. Today was warm enough that I felt comfortable removing the plastic trim to see what it was. Turned out that the two outboard nuts on the spoiler/wind smoother were gone (found just one inside the hatch), the left inboard one was very...

Coolant leak didn’t show up again for a bit so I thought it had maybe migrated from when I did something with the temperature sensor. Of course then it did show up again. Haven’t felt like pursuing that since I’m headed back to work soon. I did pick up a slightly used Boundary Engineering Stage...

Got the brakes bedded in, stopping is really good. Interested to see how the new caliper pin lube I'm using (CRC Silaramic) works at keeping things operating as they should and maintaining the performance. Was looking at things since it appeared there was not much if any clearance between the...

Swapped out the Corksport rear sway bar for the stocker. Never planned on doing that as it's a PITA requiring dropping the rear subframe, but the bushing brackets both broke (not at the same time) and I decided I didn't need the extra handling over not worrying about another breakage. Also did...

I’ve been doing some research and thinking about my AFR issues. I finally decided to just swap back to the Innovate MTX-L wideband I was using to see if that fixed things. Did that over the past two days (I was pacing myself 😉). Got everything connected, calibrated and fired her up. Started...

FYI for all, the 2015 2.5 liter water pump pulley is solid, so you can't do the zip tie trick.

And were those comparisons with new factory vs new aftermarket? If not then it's false information. I used Dayco belts. Fact of the matter is, any new belt is going to be harder to install than a used one. Especially true of something like this arrangement with no means to move the pulleys.

Replaced the serpentine and water pump belts. More of a PITA than it should have been thanks to the "flex" belt for the water pump (there is no tensioning assembly for it) and the auto-tensioner for the main belt. I'm going to get a specialty tool to make the next auto-tensioner job on whatever...

Oil/filter change, new wiper blades, waiting on a call to go pick up the wheels with the new tires. Went with General Altimax RT45 since they discontinued the RT43, hoping they are as good as the 43s have been.

I've always liked how the rotor wheels looked, but at 13" they are too small for me. They've always been rare in the US and that always means pricey. My 7 has 14" wheels currently, once I get her spruced up with the widebody kit she'll be wearing 15's.