Kansei's Garage Queen

[kansei]

thanks! yeah that's what I was thinking, which might be like.. more adjustment than I have with the Bilsteins. I think I can only go up maybe 20mm from here (see pic below). I'll dig into all this once I get the last corner installed, so I can get the ride height set before an alignment. That last pic in my parking space in the garage, there's a fresh full tank of gas as well as the bilstein box with all the stock suspension pieces + one assembled bilstein coilover unit. I'll lower the front more if I have to for it to look right, as long as it's not going to compromise handling. I think the fact that the opposite corner (passenger front) is stock strut/spring is making the rear driver side look abnormally low.. I hope.

oh right a couple photos from my phone during the job:

 

[Nexus]

Nice build man! Yea if you got all that in the back, it would certainly show. I was also eyeing the Bilstein coilovers but had to put those plans on hold for now. [emoji482]

 

[M-Sport fan]

Did you use a spring compressor to get the rear spring/weight jackers in, or did you drop the axle one side at a time when you did the dampers to install them?

 

[kansei]

Did you use a spring compressor to get the rear spring/weight jackers in, or did you drop the axle one side at a time when you did the dampers to install them?

Totally no need, that is the easiest part of the whole job. Once you unbolt the lower bolt on each side, the rear suspension sags enough that you can just pull the stock springs out. If you unbolt only one side you won't have enough room to pull it out. Since the car was on a lift we used a jack like you'd use to hold up a transmission or something to support the rear suspension --you can see it on the left in the picture showing the underside of the car a couple posts up. You don't even have to tear apart the trunk interior to lower the whole damper assembly, it bolts in from the wheel well with two small bolts (10mm heads I think).

 

[kansei]

updates from today, since a friend (who is almost definitely going to buy a Fiesta ST very soon) and I had time to get back to the shop to work on it.

- rear motor mount is installed
- the 4th corner of the bilstein setup is installed
- modified the non-ST weathertech mat to fit better under the upper position of the stock ST trunk floor. Now when I go hiking I can toss the muddy stuff below the floor and non-muddy stuff can go above.
- did the 1-pin relocation rewiring to get the LED strip in the euro headlamps to act as parking lamps, since reprogramming in forscan for the projector headlamps didn't seem to actually do anything.

few pics:

first one is with stock suspension up front and bilsteins in the rear, in the harbor freight parking lot

front and rear the bilsteins are set in the middle, which leaves 20-30mm more lowering possible but this is plenty low for me. Have only put about 10 miles on (the drive back to downtown Seattle from the shop) but so far it does seem to no longer be bouncy. The cobb motor mount is subtle, barely any noticeable vibrations at all. I welcome more vibrations though, I'm all about as Mazda would say jinba ittai (a feeling of connectedness, a symbiotic relationship between horse and rider or in this case man and machine). The rear motor mount's only immediately noticeable difference is that 1->2 shift is smooooooooooth now, like always

 

[kansei]

here's the latest arrival

by next weekend, I'll have the exhaust on and an alignment done hopefully, and then I can start figuring out some fun trips to go on with the car that don't involve going over the mountains since that's not happening on these tires ever

 

[M-Sport fan]

NICE!^^

They offer that 'piston' knob in ALL delrin as well (without the alloy base part), correct?

 

[kansei]

That's actually not a config he lists on the site. all stainless or the hybrid for the piston. The sphere knob comes in a bunch of materials though.

our silly reverse lockout collar makes this style of shift knob look super awkward, but I'll deal. The interior isn't a strong feature of the car anyway, but I'll probably pull the collar off and paint it flat black or something so it visually looks like part of the shift boot and not part of the knob.

 

[ron@whoosh]

great build
I enjoy watching your progress

 

[coneklr]

Quality build so far man!

 

[kansei]

thanks guys. It feels a bit half-hearted until I actually get some time in the seat, basically just tossing parts on every week but I have yet to do any fun drives with the thing. At the same time it's going to be nice to have the car modified to my liking and broken in just in time for spring hikes, road trips, and of course car photo shoots at all of these destinations

Anyone know if there are established safe/good ride heights for this car? I enjoy the way my car looks right now, but I'm a little fearful that it might rub if I hit a bump mid-corner or something. Plus I don't want to have the front suspension geometry all out of whack or anything compromising handling. Measured 31.0cm all around (wheel hub center to fender, miata-style ride height measurement), stock was I believe 35.0cm front 34.0cm rear... so in imperial uh 1.6 inches lower in front 1.2 inches in the rear, a fair bit more than the lowering springs I've seen for the car. Is this too "slammed"?

 

[kansei]

finally, my first bolt-on engine performance mod (no bolts on the accessport ) has arrived

almost as tall as me

mmm custom foam packing inserts

this satin finish is everything I wanted, looks like a BMW exhaust in a good way (the satin finish and the staggered dual tip arrangement)

cannot wait to get this on saturday

 

[M-Sport fan]

That is going to look GREAT on your car, and sound even better.

I had that whole rear tail pipe/tip section (from the pivot clamp/joint back) black satin CeraKoted, and I'm picking them (I also had the cp-e single tip/pipe I bought from haste done as well) up tomorrow.

I hope they look good on my magnetic.

 

[kansei]

Nice. Can't wait to see what the black tips look like, and the single tip. I still think I'd like a well situated single tip over the dual.

The sound I cannot wait for.. the crackles and pops of the stratified tune are cute and oh so quiet with the stock exhaust. Most of the stock sound is definitely on the induction side of things, not exhaust.

I realize now I had 2.5" exhausts on my two previous turbo cars (and they were a 2.0 and a 1.8).. 3" piping looks so serious, like way overkill for our little 1.6 heh

 

[kansei]

Nice. Can't wait to see what the black tips look like, and the single tip. I still think I'd like a well situated single tip over the dual.

The sound I cannot wait for.. the crackles and pops of the stratified tune are cute and oh so quiet with the stock exhaust. Most of the stock sound is definitely on the induction side of things, not exhaust.

I realize now I had 2.5" exhausts on my two previous turbo cars (and they were a 2.0 and a 1.8).. 3" piping looks so serious, like way overkill for our little 1.6 heh

 

[WeTheNorth]

Kudos on the Canadian magnet on the fridge, you're after all, close enough[emoji854]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kansei]

lol I went to test assemble the exhaust since I've heard people mention some fitment issues. None of the pipes fit together, they aren't round. Considering how well it was packed, have to assume it left CP-E like that. Second thoughts on the CP-E intake group buy now. Everyone raves about CP-E's quality but I don't see it at all, gonna have to bash these pipes with a hammer to install. Bashing things with a hammer is never a good way to make something round so it'll probably just make things worse.

 

[ron@whoosh]

lol I went to test assemble the exhaust since I've heard people mention some fitment issues. None of the pipes fit together, they aren't round. Considering how well it was packed, have to assume it left CP-E like that. Second thoughts on the CP-E intake group buy now. Everyone raves about CP-E's quality but I don't see it at all, gonna have to bash these pipes with a hammer to install. Bashing things with a hammer is never a good way to make something round so it'll probably just make things worse.

I'd suggest never using a hammer on exhaust installs
Probably best contacting cp-e for a replacement exhaust or use a $19.99 Harbor freight pipe expander to make the slip joints slip together easy
I can help either facilitate either way - please let me know....

 

[kansei]

I'd suggest never using a hammer on exhaust installs
Probably best contacting cp-e for a replacement exhaust or use a $19.99 Harbor freight pipe expander to make the slip joints slip together easy
I can help either facilitate either way - please let me know....

Thanks Ron. So http://www.harborfreight.com/large-tail-pipe-expander-69549.html ? Is this something I can hit with hand tools (ratchet/breaker) given the material of the exhaust? I'll contact CP-E and see what they think the best route is. Definitely not keen on sending it back since that'll add another month, I'd sooner pay someone local to fix it.

Downside to having to pay for garage time is I can't take the time to figure things out as I go, have to make sure it's fully ready for install --especially given that the stock exhaust comes off in a permanent way.

 

[ron@whoosh]

Thanks Ron. So http://www.harborfreight.com/large-tail-pipe-expander-69549.html ? Is this something I can hit with hand tools (ratchet/breaker) given the material of the exhaust? I'll contact CP-E and see what they think the best route is. Definitely not keen on sending it back since that'll add another month, I'd sooner pay someone local to fix it.

Downside to having to pay for garage time is I can't take the time to figure things out as I go, have to make sure it's fully ready for install --especially given that the stock exhaust comes off in a permanent way.

that's the tool
it's super easy - just hand tighten on the larger pipe section that is slightly out of round then use a socket on the end of the expander and crank it a few times
back it off and try slipping the smaller pipe section in
do it a few times cranking a little harder until you have it the way you want or need the pipe

trust me, once you try this, you'll be like "dude, super easy and painless"
it's a must have cheap tool if you mod cars