Houston, TX (New Member Intro)

[JoshuaCue]

Hey all,

Been lurking awhile, this forum hits Google SEO pretty well haha.

I picked up a 17' Spice Orange Fiesta ST (attached) two moons ago and am about to be taking on some projects/going stage 2.

Previous to this car I owned a
21' WRX
02' Odyssey (daily for many years, loved that van until the transmission went out.. had nothing to do with my driving habits )
89' 240sx first car

I've fallen in love with the Fiesta, not quite as fast as my WRX but man does it make me smile WAY more. To compensate for lack of straight line speed I've ordered the following to get her flashed with Dizzy.

Woosh RMM
Woosh Symposer delete
Drop in filter
VelossaTech Big Mouth
Mishimoto intercooler
NGK 6510s

I understand the stock air box does a decent job but figured a big mouth wouldn't hurt it and the other mods are inline with the numerous posts I read here and elsewhere about going stage 2

Looking forward to getting a bit more power and a more linear power curve.

For fun I got a good deal on some RokBlokz and installed them this weekend (attached)

This is the first car I'll be wrenching on (upgrade wise) and I'm looking forward to learning.

Though right now work has picked up so the car will be doing a lot of ambient sitting unfortunately... Including already getting a dead battery but by the looks of it, it's the OEM motorcraft unit and I'll be upgrading most likely to the Odyssey 96r-600 though the battery charger is keeping the other square for now.

Nice to step out of the shadows and I look forward to learning more.

 

[D1JL]

Dave

 

[XR650R]

Welcome! There's a lot of good info here as well as a friendly community. Enjoy your FiST!

 

[Roboticrocket]

Houston represent! Good looking ride man!

 

[Dpro]

Welcome to a fellow Orange Spice owner congrats on scoring it.

 

[Deadwood_ST]

Welcome and nice mode list to start out with!!! Car looks good!!!

 

[JoshuaCue]

Thank you all! Happy to be here.

Successfully installed the Symposer delete and RMM this weekend. Both made big differences in there own rights.

The Symposer delete is much more than sound difference, (I may have had a boost leak here though?), but I am noticing a much quicker Blow Off response (not sure how to articulate this but when I let off throttle or shift it purges much quicker) and the boost builds (gear dependant) 100-300rpms quicker. Also I'm a big fan of the "cabin noise" reduction... now I can actually here my powerplant versus a droning.


The Noise and Vibration from the RMM was not nearly as bad as what I'd read.


Intercooler and other 'stage 2' pieces going in this weekend.

Side note: this car gets many more looks/compliments than my WRX, I'm atoning it to the bright color... has this been y'all's experience?

 

[XR650R]

Thank you all! Happy to be here.

Successfully installed the Symposer delete and RMM this weekend. Both made big differences in there own rights.

The Symposer delete is much more than sound difference, (I may have had a boost leak here though?), but I am noticing a much quicker Blow Off response (not sure how to articulate this but when I let off throttle or shift it purges much quicker) and the boost builds (gear dependant) 100-300rpms quicker. Also I'm a big fan of the "cabin noise" reduction... now I can actually here my powerplant versus a droning.


The Noise and Vibration from the RMM was not nearly as bad as what I'd read.


Intercooler and other 'stage 2' pieces going in this weekend.

Side note: this car gets many more looks/compliments than my WRX, I'm atoning it to the bright color... has this been y'all's experience?

Good mods.
I'm guessing it's the color. Mine's gray and I get very few comments on it.

 

[JoshuaCue]

Good mods.
I'm guessing it's the color. Mine's gray and I get very few comments on it.

Ahhh, my WRX was gray, suppose they blend in better. That and if you throw a stone you'll hit 6 WRXs.

 

[ORANGEST]

'18 Orange Spice checking in... love your seats, mine are the grey Recaros and I have to admit I'm jelly.
I get a lot of "cool color" and "beautiful car" from non-car people. I get a lot of "rev it" from young people. Everybody else ignores me, including the police, which, I'm not even going to complain...

 

[JoshuaCue]

'18 Orange Spice checking in... love your seats, mine are the grey Recaros and I have to admit I'm jelly.
I get a lot of "cool color" and "beautiful car" from non-car people. I get a lot of "rev it" from young people. Everybody else ignores me, including the police, which, I'm not even going to complain...

Ahh jelly aside, yours will most likely age better (sun fade)

The reason I asked mostly was I had an M8 give me a 🤙 and it let me realize us here all drive decently unique cars in the FiST.

I've noticed that cops tend to look at my car as an ecobox; no surprise in the land of TX with V8s and lifted trucks, it's nice to blend in for a change.

 

[ORANGEST]

It sure is. I've got "1.0 L" and "SE" badges on the back of mine
WELCOME TO THE PROMISED LAND! I love these forums

 

[JoshuaCue]

It sure is. I've got "1.0 L" and "SE" badges on the back of mine

Love that, trolling at its finest 😄😄

WELCOME TO THE PROMISED LAND! I love these forums

 

[JoshuaCue]

An update (should probably make a build thread..)

This weekend I installed Intercooler, big mouth intake, sparkplugs and got my ECU flashed over to Dizzy 93 stage 2.

Also I mounted up the license plate

Some photos and captions from the time.

Headlights off and in the boot.





Taking on the bumper... fender-bolts, I was happy I had a lot of extensions and elbows (not sure technical name for the joints)





Cardboard diagram (good thing I made this because right after getting bumper/headlights off we got rained out)




Rained out means Bumper on the dining table



And a sad Doggo who wanted an afternoon walk



While we where rained out, I decided to take the extra time and fix up my license plate mount and bend the back plate/license plate and frame to follow the lines of the bumper

(Stock mount, a bit angled for me)



After some bending





Final fit



Now for fitting everything back up photo dump







Done


Victory dance




After finishing it all up and going on my test drive I just missed the next days rain storm.. BUT check out this cloud formation that Blue and I bumped into.. photo doesn't do it justice, but the center was concaved in by ~20ft



Before hitting some boost on the way home, doggo loves the boost.



Overall I'm very happy with the Stage 2 Flash tune from Dizzy, makes the car a touch more fun... following this and leading into next year will be chassis upgrades, we have a lot of sweepers here in Houston, and the rear body roll 🥐 is a wild ride haha

 

[Roboticrocket]

An update (should probably make a build thread..)…

Awesome man! I laughed when I saw you using cardboard with labels for your nuts and bolts, I did the same thing when I did my FMIC! Good job!

 

[flbchbm]

Awesome man! I laughed when I saw you using cardboard with labels for your nuts and bolts, I did the same thing when I did my FMIC! Good job!

Wait, I was supposed to be organized when I did mine? Haaa, I went half gorilla warfare and just laid them out in order they came out and somewhat grouped, top and bottom. No extras and none missing. Whew. I bag and tag other tasks, when needed. The squarish snack bags are good, not the long ones. Cut index cards to write on and insert.

 

[Zijian Wang]

can I buy your stock symposer?

 

[JoshuaCue]

can I buy your stock symposer?

sorry Zijian, I still have the symposer, PM me happy to give it to you, just pay shipping. Pardon the super late reply here for you.


ALSO! I went E30 with Jason (Dizzy) and the car rips, unfortunately I had a boost leak that we discovered at the beginning of the custom tuning process... soo off comes the bumper and up goes the car to track it down... I did... and ordered charge pipes hot and cold and a new intercooler. The leak was in two places the notorious spots that can be found all over this forum with the charge pipe system... as well my Intercooler was damaged when I installed it (bent to a flat spot on the hot side port it was 50% off for a reason haha) and thought I could get away with it if I just "clamped it down real hard" well on further inspection it had a slight hiss... and my knowledge/desire to fix an intercooler is beyond me and I'm happy to go with Woosh's V3 Model...

While I wait for my parts to arrive I figured I'd go ahead and start cosmetic disassembly of the bumper and headlights. Through further boredom I decided to make a custom lower grill that I could also affix a intercooler water sprayer system to; maybe help combat the 100 degree days coming here in Houston, whether it helps with charge air temps or not I'm happy with the cosmetic results (from exterior you cannot see the system at all)

(the water system is still in drafts stages but is 85% there, I also hooked it up to the rear windshield motor and it rips without a problem and did a decent job atomizing the windshield washer fluid, excited to get the chamber filled with regular water to see how it does, my only fear is the fitting with the crash bar, on eyeball I think I'm right in there.)

additionally once I finish up installing all my new parts and the car is back on the road and I no longer need a place holder intercooler I'm happy to part ways with this Mishimoto model at no cost, would love to help someone out looking to build their Fiesta, big preference on it being picked up I'm in Houston and it leading to meeting someone with an ST thats more local (Sorry if offering parts for free here is not cool) I know the part is damaged but on research it appears to be mendable