Mr. Gasket and the Future
Havnt been on in awhile, just caught up on your build. I gotta say you might just be Mr gasket [emoji23] great build though man, your build inspires me to save money haha
And that's the damn truth lmao :^)
Let's just hope no particularly difficult gaskets start going out...
Sway bar looks great! They definitely add something extra to the handling of these cars
Swap the nuts over for Nyloc versions and they'll most likely never vibrate loose, blue Loctite will work just as well...
Thanks! It's definitely a nice accent in terms of aesthetics when I go under the car, but man the handling benefit is superb. Can't wait to race it once more!
But it's funny you mention switching to locknuts, since as I went under the car to inspect the leak once more, I found, yet again, that the bolt and nut assembly went missing. Chalk up two looses to me for being a dummy and not using loctite (and for not following up on my previous statement and getting a "proper replacement" LOL!)...but at least the gasket wasn't completely destitute. Did a shopvac test after all this, and I managed to seal this up after replacing the old assembly with a new one (which now had a nylon lock-nut on it).
I'm still going to replace the gasket that's in there with a proper one when it arrives though, since this one is smaller in diameter and sticks inside the exhaust pipe.
...what's next?
Maintenance-wise, I'm going to be much more intently investigating this fueling issue I've received. It prematurely clicks and shuts off the pump. Judging by the info pcb gave me, it could be that charcoal canister that's plugged up with fuel, or perhaps a purge valve failed. I actually have time to work on this, so hopefully I can come up with results soon. Less importantly, I got to get off my duff and find some rear splash shields sometime. While unlikely, my bumper could rip off while I'm driving thanks to aerodynamic forces or something. Not a lot of confidence in the two screws + 3 clips holding it in...anyhow, the final thing to investigate is my belts and pulleys. I got to double check, but my accessory belt was looking kind of janky, and could very well be the source of squealing in wet conditions. New pulleys would be mostly eye-candy, but I was told it's not a bad idea to replace these with the belts if the pulleys are old.
As for modifications, the likelihood for a VTCS delete is greater than getting an MP3 manifold. They're stupid cheap at the pull n' pay nearby (got one for 20$, although it was a very bad specimen missing the VICS). Plus, 323 brought up tapping threads, so I could do that rather than pack the holes full of the epoxy. I'd much rather put in a properly machined MP3 manifold, but hey those things are rare.
Relatively new to my ideas of mods is stiffer springs. I'm probably never going to find a brand new or lightly used full set of Tokicos, so I'm investigating the type of springs I could put on my OEM struts without destroying them. Racing Beat's springs are a likely candidate, but they tend to **** around with your car's dynamics mid-turn due to their progressive nature. Progressive springs in general aren't too great for racing, and I intend on doing much better next racing season.
If tokicos weren't so rare, and if coilovers weren't so damn expensive, I'd probably have this done already!