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Jeez, quite the project. Just read through it today, really interesting project, cant wait for the retune results. Love all the custom work so much. wish there was more of that around
Appreciate it! I just like to find any excuse to work on this thing lol.
Took care of a few small things since last post.. Went around and fixed any panel gap issues, had to fix the driver door, headlights, and rear bumper. Waxed the car, restored the plastic/rubber trim as well (after these pictures).
Not sure what happened with the tail lights, but they had water spots that could not be removed, redid them completely. This time I used 2k clear over them, a bit darker than before as well, oh well. Rewrapped the roof again, as the bodywork beneath had issues, now perfect .
When making the 4'' intake, I made sure to have everything smoothed out inside.. With the new heat shield, it was causing the v stack/filter to sick incorrectly.. Fixed it by adding a little more room on the side.
Decided to smoke test the exhaust/intake. intake was 100% sealed... Exhaust leaked everywhere.. The generic flanges off amazon leaked no matter how tight the bolts/nuts were, leak at AEM O2 sensor, U clamp, and Vbands.. Headers/test pipes had no leaks thankfully.
2 bolt flanges = Remflex gaskets fixed the leaks....U clamp = Used JB fiberweld for a temp fix.....AEM O2 sensor = New crush washer.....Vbands = Copper liquid gasket... Leaks all fixed.
Going to wait till my vacation is over next month to get a tune.. Hoping to be able to get a map as well for stock intake bore and have a quick dyno run between them. Speakers n sub will be receiving an upgrade, all the old stuff from the z will be going into the daily sonic. Looking forward to Aug
Been a chaotic month, just got back from vacation so I got a few things to finish up on the car and OFCOURSE, MORE DELAY !
My Sonic ending up spinning a bearing at 105k miles. I recently bought some springs, spent 3 hours installing and threading the shift ****[ YEPP 3 FKEN HOURS],dash cam, installed new pulleys and timing belt, etc.... Drove it 25k ish in 11 months lol. I ended up buying a 2024 Kia Forte GT, which ended up being vandilized and damaged by employees at the dealership, long story short, they bought it back... I now own a 2024 VW Jetta . Love it so far, except for the sound system sounding worst thn my phone speaker. With this new car comes more delay, as I was not expecting this to happen :/.
Threw on some better speakers, Kicker DSC650 (x4). Needed a 1'' spacer to clear the window smacking the back.
Upgraded the sub as well, to a Kicker Type R. The Kicker C10 will now go into the new VW... I got a new SKAR amp as well, it was DOA, in the processing of getting a new one now.
Threw on some new bolts for the steering wheel, as the old ones were destroyed. I really wanna restore this wheel, not sure how though after all the info I have read on the subject lol..
Decided to wrap the mirror bases black to match the rest of the car and break of the carbon a bit.
This is how it sits now. Changed out the old lug nuts and valve stem caps to simple black ones. Trying to get rid of the takyness on the exterior.. The interior is allowed .
Since I'm going to be waiting another month for a tune now, I have a few more things to fix. 1. Resealing hatch lexan. 2. Fix the hatch cover (pic below). Need to add a bump stop to even out the gap and refinish it, as the rubber trim is horriible. 3. Install new amp that I am waiting on. 4. Rewrap driver QP, as it got debre behind it. 5. Realign hood.
Alrighty. Getting close! Car is registered and insured now.. Last few things that were done..
Redid the center piece in the hatch, removed the rpm switch and relocated into the passenger cubby.
Fixed up the spoiler cover I made, even got the hatch to sit level now with the added bump stop.
Had more overheating issues.. Car would overheat right away.. Drilled a 1/8'' hole in the thermo, which made it last like 20 mins till it overheated.. Ended up removing the below thermostat (at least for now) and repaced the rad cap with a mishi one.. Solved all the overheating issues now.
Today was the first test drive that went without issue .. I did learn my gas level sensor is not working correctly, so I'll open up the tank after I run it dry and I somehow rewired my reverse cam slightly wrong as its always on or off.. Hope to start the tuning process this upcoming weekend, as my free time is dedicated to moving atm. Next up after tuning, would be getting tint, either going to an exhaust shop or getting a new catback to lower the volume lol (want a single/tomei for the weight... but I really dislike the single look), and weighing the dam thing before contining the weight loss..
If lowering volume is your goal, forget about the Tomei. It is light, looks and sounds great, but it's super loud and there's no feasible way to tame it.
If lowering volume is your goal, forget about the Tomei. It is light, looks and sounds great, but it's super loud and there's no feasible way to tame it.
Truee, but I figured if its going to be loud I rather it be light weight and loud lol, but I did get a decent fix for it.
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So, have made some really good progress so far.. Started the tuning process On my first revision of the tune now with mutiple maps and the CRUISE LIGHT WORKS! Never was able to test if the gauge cluster was 100% working good since I was on the base ROM. On my first revision of my etune now and will get more logs tonight. Still having issues with it stalling, so time to try the resets.. Also got it registered for 5 years!
I ended up fixing a few things...
1. I THINK I fixed the fuel gauge not filling to 100%, wont know until I fill up again (seems the wire harness was blocking it).
2. Fixed a HORRIBLE rattle in the QP.
3. Fixed belt screeching.
4. Fixed stripped nitrous gauge port (leak).
5. Fixed slight fuel leak at the FPSS.
6. Got an alighnment, running pretty much 0 toe/2.5 camber all around.
7. Fixed Hazard Switch wiring 100% now.
Bought some 7'' TOTALFLOW mufflers and had them welded in, they ended up redoing the entire muffler section and making it much cleaner.. Cut out 70% of the rasp and quieted it down by about 20%.. Might throw some 4" ones in later as well.
Upgraded to the NX aluminum 4an line. I could never get the nylon line from Dynotune to stay where I wanted.
With the hood almost closed..
Tired of using double sided tape on the skirts in the corner so Bolt + rivnutted finally.
Switches ended up dying that i used in the cubby.. So I'm gonna remake the gauge pod through 3d printing with better switches..
Still need to set up the NOS window switch n fpss.. When I started, I has an issue (turns out I forgot to bolt back the main ground, luckily it only took me 5 mins of tearing apart a harness to remember that).. So because of that, I decided to make this quickly to remind myself how I wired **** up. I wired everything up to be independent of each other, as they the whole nitrous system wiring can be removed in a few mins and still in be intact (not meant to be detailed, just more so how the wires are ran, if I need pinouts, I have the manuals.)
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TODO STILL - Remove wrap from side splitters + diffuser... Recieve the new gauge pod, paint, setup.. Fix 1 license plate light not working.. Back up camera wiring.. Figure out the stalling issue.. Continue the tuning process.. Waiting on some small decals I made to get to me..Fix door rattles (pretty sure its how the handles are set up).. Window tint finally.. Ensure fuel gauge is fixed before weighing....
06-23-2024, 10:09 PM
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