As the list is whittled down, the items seem to become more random. They're not, I promise. Anyone building a car will knows what I mean.
Not the first on the list, but one of the easier ones, required a trip to the auto parts store. I picked up a new switch for my fuel pump, and a new relay for the same circuit. During driving the car to and from work, the fuel pump decided to stop and start intermittently. As it turned out, it was a bad connection between the relay and the switch, but I had already opened the switch to check out the new LED on the toggle, so decided to install it anyways. I kept the old switch with the new relay in my just-in-case bucket, which I've been loading into the car for every field trip these days.
When I first tightened the suspension, I should have specified that I tightened as much of it as I could. The top nuts on the shock towers were a bit difficult without something to hold the shock and keep it from rotating as I torqued down the nut holding it in place. The nuts got down to their locking feature and would turn the shock shaft instead of tightening any further. I tried to hold onto the shaft from below and tighten the nut, I even jacked up the car, removed the wheel, and tried to grip it again, all to no avail. I tightened it to the point that the nut wouldn't come back off the shock without it, again, turning, but this was not a long term solution.
What the shock tower tops looked like while the car was in the air with the suspension hanging from this nut.
Three out of the four corners, or so I thought at the time of my move, were relatively tight. The fourth had a quarter inch gap that you could hear while driving. It was a bit unsettling, but at the time it was one of the last things on my mind which was more concerned with moving in the middle of the night, not getting into an altercation, and not endangering anyone due to lack of sleep. This obviously needed to be addressed, however, and an impact socket and gun at Haydn's house was the solution.
Yes, that is a thick rope tied around the shock tower between the bearing and the nut to keep the suspension top in place temporarily. Once removed you can see the obvious gap that could not be bridged with a mere box wrench and my grip strength on a machined shaft.
After putting the wheel back on and slowly driving over to help him with his now welded differential, we tackled my suspension. At first we were going to try to protect the camber plate top with an improvised cover as I did not want to mark up the nice surfaces. This proved too much of a pain and it was much easier to just carefully hold the impact gun and blip it a few times.
It worked like it was made for the job, no superman grip strength required. We went ahead and tightened down the other three, of which the passenger side rear was also obviously not tight enough solely based on the echoing inside the car during operation. They are all securely tightened now.
The dwindling list.
Sorry, I get a little excessive with the pictures. Usually I have trouble with lighting, focus, or random things creeping into the picture frame without my notice, but the 4s iPhone has proven it's weight, and then some.
The new t4 dei titanium turbo blanket kit came in the mail and it was time to try it out.
AAAH. More excessive.
Final pictures of the turbine before wrappings.
Final pictures of the turbine wrap before blanketing.
Remember, don't handle this with bare hands. Gloves required.
The t4 blanket had two pieces that actually pulled around and under the turbine. I'm not sure how the blanket fits onto a larger t4 housing, or if it's able to wrap under like it is on the smaller housings. It covered the t3 turbine a lot better than the t3 blanket did and I'm very glad I switched them out. I had an exhaust flange to v-band adapter on the aft end though which made the housing larger than normal to cover, but in theory you would have to have something bolted there to attach an exhaust.
Maybe the t3 blanket wasn't designed to be used with a flange? Maybe it was intended to only cover the turbine and be pulled taught above the exhaust flange bolts instead of around them? Maybe dei had a much thinner exhaust flange adapter? Either way, the product is amazing, and I recommend getting one size bigger.
I pulled the under fingers of the blanket tight, up around the lower part of the turbine, and then looped it over the rest.
The larger blanket easily fit around the entire exhaust flange adapter, covering down to the tube diameter. Once I pulled it taught in all directions, I looped the wire in half, and tied it down. I inserted the looped end from the driver side of the car under the downpipe and around the aft side hook to anchor it. I pulled the wire forward above the center hook securing it down towards the lower turbo flange, and then wrapped it under the journal, looping around the forward hook. There was enough wire to bring it back, almost to the aft hook again. I secured the end, twisting it around the beginning of the wire that I previously ran.
The turbo blanket and exhaust wrap from DEI are top notch.
You can see where I pulled the ends of the turbo blanket up under and around the bottom of the turbine.
The engine side of the blanket covered all the way down to the flange.
The journal side was also completely covered with the t4 blanket. I was worried the larger blanket would be too bulky or loose, but not in the least. Whether it was a thick exhaust flange or not, the blanket fit snugly and entirely around the t3 turbine.
All done.
Time for a night out. And no, this is not mine, but I dig it.
Not the first on the list, but one of the easier ones, required a trip to the auto parts store. I picked up a new switch for my fuel pump, and a new relay for the same circuit. During driving the car to and from work, the fuel pump decided to stop and start intermittently. As it turned out, it was a bad connection between the relay and the switch, but I had already opened the switch to check out the new LED on the toggle, so decided to install it anyways. I kept the old switch with the new relay in my just-in-case bucket, which I've been loading into the car for every field trip these days.
When I first tightened the suspension, I should have specified that I tightened as much of it as I could. The top nuts on the shock towers were a bit difficult without something to hold the shock and keep it from rotating as I torqued down the nut holding it in place. The nuts got down to their locking feature and would turn the shock shaft instead of tightening any further. I tried to hold onto the shaft from below and tighten the nut, I even jacked up the car, removed the wheel, and tried to grip it again, all to no avail. I tightened it to the point that the nut wouldn't come back off the shock without it, again, turning, but this was not a long term solution.
What the shock tower tops looked like while the car was in the air with the suspension hanging from this nut.
Three out of the four corners, or so I thought at the time of my move, were relatively tight. The fourth had a quarter inch gap that you could hear while driving. It was a bit unsettling, but at the time it was one of the last things on my mind which was more concerned with moving in the middle of the night, not getting into an altercation, and not endangering anyone due to lack of sleep. This obviously needed to be addressed, however, and an impact socket and gun at Haydn's house was the solution.
Yes, that is a thick rope tied around the shock tower between the bearing and the nut to keep the suspension top in place temporarily. Once removed you can see the obvious gap that could not be bridged with a mere box wrench and my grip strength on a machined shaft.
After putting the wheel back on and slowly driving over to help him with his now welded differential, we tackled my suspension. At first we were going to try to protect the camber plate top with an improvised cover as I did not want to mark up the nice surfaces. This proved too much of a pain and it was much easier to just carefully hold the impact gun and blip it a few times.
It worked like it was made for the job, no superman grip strength required. We went ahead and tightened down the other three, of which the passenger side rear was also obviously not tight enough solely based on the echoing inside the car during operation. They are all securely tightened now.
The dwindling list.
Sorry, I get a little excessive with the pictures. Usually I have trouble with lighting, focus, or random things creeping into the picture frame without my notice, but the 4s iPhone has proven it's weight, and then some.
The new t4 dei titanium turbo blanket kit came in the mail and it was time to try it out.
AAAH. More excessive.
Final pictures of the turbine before wrappings.
Final pictures of the turbine wrap before blanketing.
Remember, don't handle this with bare hands. Gloves required.
The t4 blanket had two pieces that actually pulled around and under the turbine. I'm not sure how the blanket fits onto a larger t4 housing, or if it's able to wrap under like it is on the smaller housings. It covered the t3 turbine a lot better than the t3 blanket did and I'm very glad I switched them out. I had an exhaust flange to v-band adapter on the aft end though which made the housing larger than normal to cover, but in theory you would have to have something bolted there to attach an exhaust.
Maybe the t3 blanket wasn't designed to be used with a flange? Maybe it was intended to only cover the turbine and be pulled taught above the exhaust flange bolts instead of around them? Maybe dei had a much thinner exhaust flange adapter? Either way, the product is amazing, and I recommend getting one size bigger.
I pulled the under fingers of the blanket tight, up around the lower part of the turbine, and then looped it over the rest.
The larger blanket easily fit around the entire exhaust flange adapter, covering down to the tube diameter. Once I pulled it taught in all directions, I looped the wire in half, and tied it down. I inserted the looped end from the driver side of the car under the downpipe and around the aft side hook to anchor it. I pulled the wire forward above the center hook securing it down towards the lower turbo flange, and then wrapped it under the journal, looping around the forward hook. There was enough wire to bring it back, almost to the aft hook again. I secured the end, twisting it around the beginning of the wire that I previously ran.
The turbo blanket and exhaust wrap from DEI are top notch.
You can see where I pulled the ends of the turbo blanket up under and around the bottom of the turbine.
The engine side of the blanket covered all the way down to the flange.
The journal side was also completely covered with the t4 blanket. I was worried the larger blanket would be too bulky or loose, but not in the least. Whether it was a thick exhaust flange or not, the blanket fit snugly and entirely around the t3 turbine.
All done.
Time for a night out. And no, this is not mine, but I dig it.
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