College Student First Car Build

Well, it's been a while since I've wrenched on the wagon but 323 is basically forcing me to at this point to make cars and coffee Williamsburg next Saturday. Even Naoto got his Protege back together so there's no excuse lol So yesterday I pulled the radiator (I missed the drain pan completely. I underestimated how far back the rad sat back over stock and coolant poured all over the oil pan and went everywhere *shrugs*. No issues other than that pulling the rad. Got the shroud off today (might make for sale might complain to Mishi and try to get my money back might throw it off a cliff. Undecided at this point) Spal fans fit so nicely. I got their mounting hardware but it won't work so I went to Lowe's and got a few L brackets. Unfortunately I don't live 10 minutes from Phillip anymore so I have to drive about 45 minutes to borrow my friend's angle grinder. Hopefully heading out there tomorrow to chop down everything and hope to have the rad back in Sunday if all goes well.

I am worried about the rag that I accidentally sucked into the intercooler piping. I can't reach it with my hands, tried with a hanger and had no luck. So I'm probably going to have to remove the last piece of piping before the intercooler on the hot pipe side which I hope I can get off without jacking the car up cause there's no way in hell I can lift my jack with my arm still tweaked lol

Also, another shoutout to 323 for letting me borrow his plugs and wires cause mine are in a situation right now lol he even left a little gift on them for me
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It's funny how more often than not, other people are the reason we get assed to work on our cars :^)

Cars and Coffee's going to be great. No one has a Protege, so you guys are going to stand out.

How did you suck a rag into your intercooler piping? That sounds rough. What you could do is get an old busted guitar string and fray the end. You can push the string easily through your intercooler, and then have the frayed end-wires grab on to the rag. Should be easy on the arm.

Hope your arm heals up well!
 
It's scientifically proven that boost rags are, in fact, good for the engine and increase both BWWAAAH and TSUTSUTSU when sucked in through a turbo :D

Hope you get it out, stuck rags are no fun!
 
It's funny how more often than not, other people are the reason we get assed to work on our cars :^)

Cars and Coffee's going to be great. No one has a Protege, so you guys are going to stand out.

How did you suck a rag into your intercooler piping? That sounds rough. What you could do is get an old busted guitar string and fray the end. You can push the string easily through your intercooler, and then have the frayed end-wires grab on to the rag. Should be easy on the arm.

Hope your arm heals up well!

So far its gonna be 3 of us. I wish I had a little more time cause I want to get a few more things done but all in time lol

The rag got sucked into it months ago when I busted the radiator. The intercooler piping wouldn't fit so I just disconnected 2/3 pipes that went down to the intercooler and drove the car maybe half a mile so I could park it cause I had to go home. Well fast forward about a week, working an 11 hour shift with and it being dark and me talking to my old coworker/friend and not thinking I started the car to add/bleed the coolant. As soon as I started the car I heard FLOOP and it started to run like absolute s*** lmao I started to panic cause the car stalled and then wouldn't restart. Then I realized my mistake and just disconnected another pipe on the cold side. I've driven this car unfiltered more than I'd like to admit since the turbo install lol

Guitar trick might work but I don't have any strings. I looked underneath the car today and there's a coupler facing down I can reach. It's like I knew I'd need to remove it one day lol
 
It's scientifically proven that boost rags are, in fact, good for the engine and increase both BWWAAAH and TSUTSUTSU when sucked in through a turbo :D

Hope you get it out, stuck rags are no fun!

It's for more clean air. Nothing like running your air through a filter and then a rag LOL
 
haven't attended cars and coffee for over a year. maybe even two. reason we're going is because the weather has cooled down and my wife picked up a new toy 3 weeks ago and wants to take it out. i also wouldn't mind cruising in the msp either because all it does it go on my sad work commute being surrounded by distracted idiots.

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haven't attended cars and coffee for over a year. maybe even two. reason we're going is because the weather has cooled down and my wife picked up a new toy 3 weeks ago and wants to take it out. i also wouldn't mind cruising in the msp either because all it does it go on my sad work commute being surrounded by distracted idiots.

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Bring subie and MSP. Duh
 
Well, after many painful hours I got the car back together and running properly. The rag was jammed in the intercooler somewhat deep, so there was no way it was coming out without taking the piping off. However on first startup I . heard what I thought was a massive vacuum leak, ignored it cause I just wanted to bleed the coolant and call it a night. Drove the car maybe 2 miles and it was in boost and started breaking up real bad. Felt like rapid fuel cut and a horrible misfire at the same time. Backed off of it and stopped, put it in first and floored it and it maybe went up to 4500rpm and would go no further and when I let off the gas no stutututu. So a coupler fell off unfortunately*
 
what is the plug you are running and what gap? i dont remember if you kept my old plugs.
 
it's really not that bad. at least you have a lip!

need hydra bumper brackets

Lip is actually the wrong color lol I didn't know the MSP and the P5 had 2 different shades of yellow... and guess which one I gave the guy lol It needs a respray bad cause of the raccoon anyway.

As for the bumper, I don't have sag issues! The intercooler is actually rubbing against the bumper cause it had bolt holes on the top and bottom of the IC. I cut out a few slits but not enough and have been too lazy to remove the bumper to cut some more out. Maybe one day
 
Well, nothing really to update. I had a few medical emergencies the Friday before cars and coffee (Fiance needed to be picked up from work and then one of my closest friends had to go to a hospital an hour and a half away for some tests so I offered to ride down there with her). I had to stop working on the car at 4 pm and got back home around 12 am. I took a break and decided to **** with the car some more. Got done around 3 am. I'm having issues with my U pipe staying connected to the pipe going down on the hot side. Tightened the **** outta it decided to do one quick test pull on the road next to my apartment. Started the car, accelerated towards the gate, heard the blowoff sounding kinda weak but figured I wasn't in boost too much. Pulled out onto the road and 5 feet later I hear a loud pop and have NA power and the car dropped to like 100rpm when I pushed the clutch in. So I turned back around and literally said the car is being driven NA. Turn around and try to figure out if it was that pipe, but everything was tight so I was at a loss. All the piping felt tight. So I start digging around and I blew my BOV clean off the piping lol it was still being held on by the vacuum line. Which explains the thud I heard but assumed it was just my usual suspension clunks. Propped it on the engine, took a shower and finally fell asleep at like 4. I had to leave at 6 to get to cars and coffee on time, but I ended up leaving at like 8 lol Tried to do some field surgery on the car at CNC but the u pipe coupler popped off as soon as we left. I've tried everything, hairspray, cleaning the piping and couplers, nothing works. I got a longer coupler which should work but we shall see. No issues driving to and from Williamsburg. Got home, took a nap and then drove the car back to Richmond for the race that night. Although having issues it felt good to drive the car again! And I got the most miles outta a tank lol about 330 (with some questionable amounts of driving with the low fuel light on) but I didn't get back home until 5 am and figured the car would be parked.

I went to teach the fiance how to drive manual again a few days ago, and somehow she forgot every last bit of information from a few months ago when she had pretty much gotten it down. My car has never been treated so poorly lol We are gonna have to make it a weekly thing or something so she can get comfortable with it or something.

And lastly, thanks to 323 for cleaning out his garage. Managed to get some filled motor mounts, his original clutch, and flywheel (hopefully I won't need the clutch and will be upgrading/replacing when the new motor goes in) and a coupler which should help my issue. Will update when motivated to work on the car lol
 
crimp the ends of the pipe all the way around the lip to give the coupler something to sit on. or have someone weld a bead around it...but that costs money.
 
yeah i dont know why his couplers keep popping off. all of my cut ends on my piping aren't bead rolled.
 
Well after neglecting the car for a while, I finally got the car to boost reliably :) not I just gotta hook up the boost gauge cause it feels like it falls off in 3rd gear and up. Will update soon
 
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