Spyder Build Thread

[Hans_GZP]

[quote=""tabasco122""]I feel like the CF shafts on the 3s break often, havent heard of it that much with other cars. Actually cf would be better than alum in most cases, the cf shaft flexes somewhat and can absorb some of the shock of a hard launch. That said, seeing two get shredded one year i went to NG, id pass on running something like that in anything but a race car lol.[/quote]

The problem is not the shaft itself. It's the rear sway bar. When people upgraded the rear sway bar, it would interfere with the driveshaft if they had bushings that were less than stellar. Now, with poly bushings available, there should never be an interference issue. If you look at all of the failures, it's always at the very rear.

[mjannusch]

Went back through the trans and set the preloads by feel on each shaft and diff individually instead of using the seemingly unreliable solder method. I ended up pretty close to my original shims with just a little extra on a couple to tighten it up a smidge. Front diff was less shim, which I guess isn't unexpected since that's a new part (SCE OBX LSD). Going through the shift sequence by hand everything is really smooth. So far, so good.

Got the wiring for my dual AEM X-Series Inline Widebands run through the firewall. That took a little while... I should've done it before I put the motor in, but was still able to do it from under the car on the lift and feeding through from the cabin. Rear bank wideband sensor cable is long enough to go through the hole and feed by the ECU, front bank I fed out from the controller through the hole out into the engine bay. I couldn't get the ends through the hole of the rubber donut, so I cut a slit in one side of the donut, fed the wires separate and put the donut on after and pushed it back into place on the firewall. I think it'll work okay. Didn't have much choice though, unless I felt like cutting the harnesses and soldering and shrink tubing them (I didn't). If it leaks, I'll inject some Flex Shot in there to seal it up.

Test fit the front of the exhaust. Looks like downpipe is a little off on the rear O2 housing angle, but hopefully it'll be okay with gaskets and tightened up. I ordered some M12 stainless steel carriage bolts for the exhaust fasteners. The front-back alignment looks good where the downpipe will mate to the highflow cat. Haven't fit the Tanabe Concept G-Blue exhaust yet, but it looks pretty mean.

Next steps: get the trans on, IC pipes, fuel feed upgrade to AN8 with E85-rated line and new style flex fuel sensor, wire up a harness for various AEM sensors (AIT, MAP, ethanol sensor, fuel pressure, oil pressure).

My AEM startup map should be good to go... Feels good that I'm making some progress on this. The end is in sight!

[DCIV]

I really like that dual aem set up. Saw it in futureman’s ride, nice and slick.


Coop

[mjannusch]

Yeah, I wanted the quickest responding widebands and the AEM X-series looks to fit that aspect. Fairly compact as well, and I can feed the AEMnet outputs into the Series 2 and log the digital data instead of having to do an AD conversion with a table and have possible offsets there. Unfortunately, you can't use AEMnet input data for things like O2 feedback, but that'll be okay. I've been kind of eyeing AEM's digital dashes, too. That might be pretty trick to have in the car in place of the original dash cluster, but then the mileage on the car wouldn't be accurate any longer.

[mjannusch]

Got the trans in today. Fiddling around with the trans to block brackets to get everything lined up. Trans mount was a little off, but eventually got it. Using the "old" Ek2 poly mounts and Pampena's transmission mount bracket.

Next steps:

• Wiring harness for the AEM add-ons (MAP, AIT, Ethanol, fuel pressure, oil pressure sensors) - all will be wired through the stock MAF connector harness.
• Aluminum driveshaft
• Transfer case (and cage)
• Downpipe / HF cat / cat-back
• IC Piping
• FMOC (when it arrives from Hans)

Excited that I seem to be on the home stretch of this finally...

[DCIV]

Looking good.


Coop

[mjannusch]

Spent a good part of today looking for the bolt that connects the trans to the block right above the starter. There are only two, and they are M12, fine thread, and long. I have no idea where the original is hiding, but I eventually found one in my box of parts that I had ordered to put the drag car back together.

Got lots of little stuff done, nothing worthy of a photo.

[mjannusch]

Aluminum driveshaft is on.

Transfer case brace didn't fit quite right, so I'll be putting it together without it. Or I might try squashing it a little bit in the press. Basically the flat piece that fits over the tailshaft bolts is welded square to the front face of the bracket, but it should be at a bit of an obtuse angle to align properly. How it is now, it doesn't sit flat on the tailshaft flange and the upper main bolt doesn't fit right.

I think I have like 6 extra transfer cases on the shelf, so if I don't get the bracket on and end up breaking it - I'm still okay. Will probably get the case on tomorrow night one way or another.

As I'm putting all this back together, any old parts are going through the parts washer and getting cleaned up. My old JPDC 14B setup had a bit of an oil leak at the front turbo oil return, so a lot of the parts that sit low on the car have a cake of oil and grime on them. Everything is going back together clean, and I'll take the pressure washer to the undercarriage when it is all reassembled.

Slow progress during the week, but as long as I keep at it and make progress I'm happy with it...

It'll be interesting doing all the hoses. I got Hose Candy stuff, and shrinkable hose clamps - so we'll see how that works.

[J-Groove]

6 extras, dang! I know who I am hitting up when I need one again. haha

-John

[mjannusch]

More little stuff done... Transfer case on, starter hooked up (new wiring), downpipe on.

Tried swapping out the stock oil pressure sensor with an AEM 100psi sensor and the Autometer 1/8 BPT to 1/8 NPT adapter, but that's too long and would be close to the axle. I don't want a stack of adapters on there, creating more potential cracking points.

Two choices:

• BPT to AN adapter, braided line to sensor mounted on firewall somewhere
• Retap the BPT to NPT threads

Hmmm.

Hans, if you are reading - did that front-mount oil cooler ship, or is it close to shipping? Thanks!

[DCIV]

I have an adapter, a splitter, and both stock and aftermarket sending units so that I don’t have a gauge not working.


Coop

[mjannusch]

Hmm, got a pic or part numbers?

[DCIV]

It was 10 years ago, don’t know about part numbers, I will try and get a pic.


Coop

[aaronatstate]

[quote=""mjannusch""]More little stuff done... Transfer case on, starter hooked up (new wiring), downpipe on.

Tried swapping out the stock oil pressure sensor with an AEM 100psi sensor and the Autometer 1/8 BPT to 1/8 NPT adapter, but that's too long and would be close to the axle. I don't want a stack of adapters on there, creating more potential cracking points.

Two choices:

• BPT to AN adapter, braided line to sensor mounted on firewall somewhere
• Retap the BPT to NPT threads

Hmmm.

Hans, if you are reading - did that front-mount oil cooler ship, or is it close to shipping? Thanks![/quote]

I had the same issue with the Autometer pressure sensor. I put a 90 degree NPT fitting on, and positioned the senor towards the belts. Has worked for almost 10 years now!

[mjannusch]

More baby steps tonight. Cleaned up the cat-back and realized that I need a couple more 2.5" exhaust gaskets. Thought I had some, but they are the larger stock gaskets so 2.75". Ground down the heads on two of the carriage bolts for the exhaust where they were hitting the welds on the high-flow cat. The bolts are really hard stuff, so took a long time. A different tool probably would've worked better (belt sander?)

To polish the "resonators" (hardly seems right to call these "mufflers"), I used Flitz Liquid Metal Polish on a cotton rag. Did a good job on it, not much effort involved. Same stuff I used in the vibratory polisher to do all the stainless steel bolts.

[Hans_GZP]

[quote=""mjannusch""]More little stuff done... Transfer case on, starter hooked up (new wiring), downpipe on.

Tried swapping out the stock oil pressure sensor with an AEM 100psi sensor and the Autometer 1/8 BPT to 1/8 NPT adapter, but that's too long and would be close to the axle. I don't want a stack of adapters on there, creating more potential cracking points.

Two choices:

• BPT to AN adapter, braided line to sensor mounted on firewall somewhere
• Retap the BPT to NPT threads

Hmmm.

Hans, if you are reading - did that front-mount oil cooler ship, or is it close to shipping? Thanks![/quote]

I had to get new cores in. The core for yours ended up being damaged. Sorry about that! Should be here early next week.

Also, we just did an AEM oil pressure gauge with just the autometer adapter and the sensor. No clearance issues.

[mjannusch]

[quote=""Hans_GZP""]I had to get new cores in. The core for yours ended up being damaged. Sorry about that! Should be here early next week.

Also, we just did an AEM oil pressure gauge with just the autometer adapter and the sensor. No clearance issues.[/quote]
No worries with the core... Thinking that I might not quite get this done this weekend, but the weekend after is a possibility of needing it.

Which AEM sensor did you use? The stainless steel version, or the brass version? I think the brass one may be shorter, but I have the stainless steel one for the higher accuracy.

I've also read people using the Autometer adapter but trimming it down so the part the sensor threads into isn't as deep to reduce the overall length.

I think what I'm going to do is retap the sensor for BSP and just thread it direct into the pump port. If I screw it up, well - I can get a new sensor easy enough.

[mjannusch]

Got the exhaust all mounted up properly. The Tanabe exhaust seems to hang pretty low - lower than my Borla did. I guess they had to for the straight-shot they did to the back with the angle to the sides ahead of the rear diff. Wish they would've put a rotating collar for the front flange instead of a welded one. The bolt portion of the flange points straight at the driveshaft mount ring. It is close, but not hitting. I have poly exhaust hangers, and the downpipe isn't moving around at all, and poly engine mounts - so hopefully it won't bang against anything.

Cleaned up the wiring harnesses, patched up areas where the stock shrink tape wasn't holding up well... Looks good now again. Mounted the passenger side-mount intercooler. The rear bolt which is now covered by the intercooler itself was a bitch and a half due to the pipes being in the way also.

Still moving kind of slow, but it is coming together...

[mjannusch]

Not a lot done today. Poly bushings in the shifter cable ends, aluminum bushings at the bottom of the shifter cable mount. Stainless braided clutch line. Clutch slave mounted up. Figured out all the wiring mods and harness stuff I need to do for converting back to the AEM.

My wife has been in Asia the last week (Singapore and Japan), so I figured I had better spend some time with my 9 year-old son. We rode ATVs around the yard for a while and I taught him how to ride wheelies on his Yamaha Badger. lol... I guess the next step is riding around on two side wheels, then on to jumps.

Ended up with a screw in the passenger side back tire on the Stingray. Boooo! Guess I'll have to deal with that this week sometime.

[mjannusch]

I got like 20 minutes in the garage today, so not much completed.

I did get the 100 psi AEM sensor retapped to 1/8" BSP threads, which actually worked awesome and fit perfectly in the oil pump port. Since I'll be losing my stock oil pressure sensor (and they kind of suck anyways), I will find the wire for the stock oil pressure gauge in the dash harness and connect that to an available PWM output on the AEM and drive it with the data from the accurate AEM sensor. I'll have to see what works, but thinking I can either just scale it from 0-100 psi, or I could make the "normal" range between the middle tick marks and anything below that read "very low" to indicate a problem. Looks like the correct wire is Y-R in connector D09.