Thread: Start of mods

Originally Posted by Bio248

who works on their car and doesnt tune it to work with the newly added parts? the colder you can run your motor the more power it will make, but the faster it will go away. a 180* thermo is a good choice to run a little cooler. now, if you were to argue the 160* thermo with me then i would agree. that is too cold.

Apparently I did , but it was only because I read the thread that said I could "drop it in" as a "maintenance item" before doing other mods... I am waiting until I get the downpipe and FWI installed (both sitting in my garage right now), then a seafoam clean, and 104 plugs. Then I will be hunting for a tune to get things working well, and later when I put on a PLOG and then a smaller pulley, I will get a tune again.

I can't find anyone near me that has a tuner, and I wasn't going to drive 2.5-3 hours to get a tune after putting in a 180* t-stat.

Originally Posted by Bio248

who works on their car and doesnt tune it to work with the newly added parts?

Your kidding, right?

Even with a 180* thermostat and your fans set to kick on at that temp, your car is almost always going to run hotter than 180*. Waste of time, waste of money. If you want to run cooler, do it right and get a bigger rad.

I think that there are several "conversations" going on within this thread.

Related to the topic of the subject, I was going to put in my downpipe tonight, but dang, I couldn't get the bolts loose under the car. I have been spraying it with PB Blaster every day for 5 days, and then again about 15 minutes before I tried to actually loosen them. No luck. I tried getting as much leverage I could by putting a small pipe on the end of my ratch, but no luck. I tried using a 5 pound hammer and hitting the pipe on the ratchet, still nothing, I got out my impact wrench and hooked it up to my air compressor, and still nothing. I am sure that if I could get under the car better than with it sitting on some jack stands, I could muscle my way to getting them off, but alas, I think I will need to call a shop and have them put it on. Kind of ticks me off. I like doing this stuff myself. I'll have to make some calls in the morning and see if someone will do it for fairly cheap. With a car lift and the right tools, I am sure that it wouldn't take any time at all.

Originally Posted by Bio248

you need a torch.

I have a torch, but was concerned with the PB Blaster that was soaking my bolts because the can says "flammable"...

Maybe I'll try one more time tomorrow night with a torch and no more PB Blaster before taking it to someone.

I've heated up quite a few bolts that had pb blaster on them, no fires yet.

On the same page with you about the downpipe though, my cat's shot and I'm due for an inspection next month, might as well take it to a friend and buy him a few beers and a pizza than spend a weekend swearing at the underside of my car as my workplace makes you pay labor for working on your own car off hours there.

Maybe if I could get under the car more I'd get better leverage. Has anyone had any luck with those "drive-on" ramps to get the front off of the ground? My floor jack claims to get 14 inches off of the ground (knowing that the car is already about 7 inches or whatever) so I am not gaining a whole lot. I just don't want to drop the $$$ on drive on ramps if the front of the car is going to hit them because it is so low.

Do you think that ramps will be enough of a gain to get more leverage, or am I just gaining some ease in getting the car off of the ground by not having to jack up each side and put jack stands under it?

I just ask because if it isn't going to help much, then I would rather use the money on getting it done by someone than buying ramps...

I like the idea of 2x6 pieces to help with the initial angle...

I was pricing up the ramps and to get 6.5" of elevation (which doesn't seem like much), it will run me almost $40 to get the locally. I haven't found anyone locally with anything higher. Maybe I will have to use the wood/jack combo with the jack that came with the GTP instead of my floor jack. The floor jack is on wheels and needs to roll into position to get where it needs to. I tried using that method last night, but the wood was getting indentations into it and the wheels wouldn't roll out of them. The jack stands can go quite a bit higher than the jack itself, so it seems like just a matter of getting it up there.

One more try with that and the torch, and after that if I can't get the bolts off, I am taking it somewhere.

Well, with some blocks and the stock jack that came with the car, I managed to get the one side up almost 17.5 inches off of the ground, compared to about 12 inches with my floor jack (keeping in mind again that the car already sits what 7 inches off of the ground) so I pretty much doubled my increased height. I had a jack on the front and one on the back of the passenger side, and then put the jack stands under.

While I did this, I turned on the air compressor and got the air impact wrench out, and then started heating up one of the bolts with the torch. Remember, these things have had a LOT of PB Blaster on them. I sat there with the torch on it for over 15 minutes before I tried the impact wrench... And still nothing moved. I put the heat back on for another 10 minutes and again tried right away, and nothing. I then put it on for another 5 minutes and get out my long handled wrench. I removed the heat and pounded as best as I could, considering I still didn't have a great angle to work at it, with a 5 pound hammer. Still nothing. I used just continual force from me pushing as hard as I could on the wrench (and I am far from a scrawny weakling) and nothing moved...

Not sure if it is worth messing with any more. I've had the car jacked up so many times and no progress is made. I think that I am calling a shop tomorrow and seeing if I can drop it off and be done with it. Ugh! I was hoping to do it myself. Oh well. I'll just be glad when it is done!

Well after hunting down a shop that would actually put on a "customer provided" part (the downpipe), I took it to them today. They were going to call me with a quote before working on it, but when the call came in, he quoted me $157.58!!!! YIKES! I told him "No thanks." and he said that he had to run out and have the guy stop working on it. What? He started working before even getting my approval? Anyway, the guy calls me back 20 minutes later and said that his tech already swapped the downpipe, so he wanted me to let him know what I thought was a "fair price". I spit him out a price equal to 30 minutes of labor, and they went with it. So it got done. I also now will have the old downpipe to send back to ZZP for a $50 credit towards a PLOG! Yeah!

Now, once I get my new black coupler from TDC for my intake, I'll be moving along!