Spyder Build Thread

[mjannusch]

Axles are in, brakes back on, trans and tcase have fluid, brakes bled, more engine bay assembly. Getting there... Biggest concern right now is the FMOC - can’t start it without that.

Broke one of the AEM sensor pins on the cable side assembling it. Guess I’ll just get a sensor harness for their gauges to get an assembled pigtail.

Getting pretty close now...

[DCIV]

So if you wanted to you can plug the ports on the oil filter. Wayne did it to his car and delete his oil cooler. I don’t agree with that but if you were just gonna start it and do some testing then it’s deff an option.


Coop

[mjannusch]

Worst case, I can use my stock cooler or the sidemount Setrab setup I have temporarily I guess.

Bigger problems though - I fitted up the intercooler piping today and the front turbo is too close to the dual-pass radiator I have to allow fitment of the J-pipe. I’ll have to make another wastegate relocator bracket and have the compressor exit down like stock. I have an IPS outlet pipe that I can mate up with my SMIC, but I’ll have to cut down the pipe on the SMIC to mate it up, and beadroll it. That should be fun...

I’m on vacation doing family stuff soon, so probably can’t get much more done until I get back.

My intake pipes might need some work too, as the turbo positions have shifted a bit with the IPS headers. They look like shit, too. They were powdercoated “almost chrome”, but look far from that now. Not sure what I’ll do there... I have to mock up the rest of the intake to see how it all aligns.

[mjannusch]

Yup, intake pipe for the front needs some trimming. Back looks like it may be okay, though I might have to shorten the leg going towards the air filters a bit. Front is way off, coming up where my passenger side IC pipe is, but I figured that might be the case.

Driver's side IC pipe is VERY close to the header, but I may be able to make some adjustments when everything is fitted up. Otherwise I'll be making my own IC pipe for that section.

BOV might be a bit farther forward than it needed to be, but I wanted to make sure there was clearance for the battery. It'll work.

[DCIV]

That’s not close.... that’s a part of the header. Lol.


Coop

[mjannusch]

Haha, yeah... I might be able to just use a longer coupler at the Y-pipe to get it to clear better. Do two to match lengths so it doesn't look too strange at the Y-pipe.

Working out how I want to do the fuel setup. I have an ethanol sensor that I want to go after the FPR in the return. Thinking I may get one of the flow-through Fuelab FPRs and use aluminum tubing instead of braided line and just bend it into a 180 to go from FPR through ethanol sensor, then down to the stock feed line that I'll use for the return.

For now it'll be AN8 from the pump to the filter, then AN6 looping through the rails, FPR, E sensor, and back to tank. I don't think I'll be running out of fuel, and if I do I can always change it. Running hotwired Walbro 485-2.

[mjannusch]

Back from vacation now. Rummaged around in the garage and found the AN6 fittings for the ethanol sensor. Figuring out how exactly I'm going to mount the fuel components.

Discovered a puddle of break fluid under the passenger front brake. Guess I forgot to close the Speedbleeder after I was done (that was the last corner). Need to re-bleed that corner.

Various couplers on the way, etc. Should be able to continue work this weekend. Working on some of the ECU stuff, harnesses as time permits this week.

[mjannusch]

Work has been super-busy the last couple weeks I've been home. Put together most of the patch harness tonight. Just have to add the AEMnet connector it should be good to go... Should be able to spend most of Saturday working on the car.

[mjannusch]

Yo, Hans - what’s the status on that front-mount oil cooler kit? I’m going to need it fairly soon now. My Setrab sidemount kit won’t fit with the big SMICs I have now, so yours is the only solution the way it looks unless I make some sort of bracketry for the Setrab.

I was out in the garage most of the day, but it seems like I didn’t get anything done. What I thought was a leaky brake caliper was actually my failure to torque the trans drain bolt, so it was slowly leaking out trans fluid. Messed with the exhaust to get a little more clearance at the driveshat carrier ring. Fixed a fitment issue with the passenger SMIC. Reclocked the front turbo, but broke my saw blade cutting the aluminum for the relocator ring. Removed some old sensor wiring (ethanol content display, fuel pressure gauge) which are being replaced with AEM hardware to the EMS. Finished installing the Moliva C3 climate control system/display. LCDBC is close to done, and set up to feed the Moliva display. ECU patch harness is done. Put the baffle pipes in the exhaust so it won’t be too loud while street tuning.

Progress, but slower than I’d like. Hopefully more tomorrow. Would like to get the AEM in, LCDBC programmed to interface with the AEM, etc.

[mjannusch]

Made the front wastegate relocater bracket, need some more bolts from Home Depot to finish it off, but it lines up well and will work. Cleaned up the garage, as it was a total disaster and I was spending more time finding tools than working on the car.

It was my son's "family" birthday party this weekend, so we had people over the whole time. Just got a little done Sunday night on the car/garage.

Was considering using Evans waterless coolant, but think I'm going to stick with water/antifreeze and some Purple Ice.

Have what I need to make my own FMOC with a Setrab core. Just waiting on the core which should be here tomorrow, as the one I have had the mounting ears cut off to fit in the SMIC space.

Had a wacky idea that I think I may want to wrap it. I've kicked around the idea of painting it some sort of metallic blue in the past, and the 3M Gloss Blue Raspberry looks like it might be cool. I dunno....

Getting close though, I'm excited to be able to drive it again!

[Jeff V.]

We toyed with the idea of painting ours blue to match Vira's VR4. I think that'd look really nice.

[mjannusch]

Setrab oil cooler is here already. Now to fab up some brackets.....

[DCIV]

Nice!


Coop

[mjannusch]

Random stuff done... Finished the wastegate relocator place for the front turbo, got all the intercooler piping hooked up. Had to hack about 1.5" off the turbo side of my inlet pipe to work with the slightly different location of the 16G on the IPS headers vs. my adapter plates, seems to line up okay now. Had to rework the rear WG relocator a bit to give more clearance to get the coupler over the turbo inlet. Radiator cleaned up and installed, redid the wiring to be a bit better, but I will probably completely re-do it over the winter as 3SX used some crimp splices on it for the fans, etc.

I think I'm going to use the sidemount oil cooler after all, unless Hans gets me the front-mount one soon. I just ordered a 150-degree AN fitting which will let the inner-side hose make it past the AC drier and IC piping. I didn't see a great way to fab up brackets any way that I'd particularly like for the Setrab core I bought. But really I'm just getting lazy and tired of working on this car.

Got April's polished plenum and throttle body on. And my polished rear turbo pipe. Bling!

[mjannusch]

Getting a little closer... Should have more time to work on it some today and more so tomorrow... Keep running into needing little parts (AN fittings, clamps, material for brackets, OCD-types of things, etc.).

Working on the fuel system right now. AN8 line under the car and connected to Fuelab filter with fiberglass element. Ethanol sensor placement figured out, now just need to figure out FPR placement and mounting to finish the engine bay portion, then connect back to pump and put on the Skillard undertray.

Should have my oil cooler 150 degree AN fitting tomorrow, so then can work on getting that on and bumper cover. May put the '95 front back on for now, as I don't think I'll have time to get the '99 front painted and want to get some tuning in before I take it in for that.

[DCIV]

What are you going to do about the ips front header and that intercooler pipe?

Coop

[mjannusch]

I'm going to get this all fitted up and then figure out what to do. There's enough piping packed in there that I need to make sure everything under the intercooler piping fits first. I think I can make it work with just some longer couplers, but we'll see. Not sure how low the pipe has to be to clear the hood either.

[DCIV]

Didn't someone start clocking the turbo so that the intercooler pipe came out from under the 6 o'clock position? Am I dreaming that?


Coop

[mjannusch]

Yeah, the front turbo now exits down and straight over to the SMIC. I'm sure I can get the front cross pipe to fit somehow, not super worried about that one.

[mjannusch]

Made an aluminum bracket to mount up the '99 ('98?) front coolant bottle. I've never looked at one in person on a '99 ('98?) before, so not sure exactly how it is supposed to sit in the hood latch hole, but it is recessed a bit and easy to get to. Also easy to see the level lines on the tank through the hole.

All these little custom things I'm doing are taking a lot of time, but I'm a "measure 9 times, cut once" kind of person - so I probably overthink some of these things. If I'd just dive into each problem as it presents itself, I'd make a lot more progress.

I hooked up the battery to get the tonneau cover open - at least that still works. . Oh, and my Moliva climate control display works, too. That's a plus!

The end is in sight though... Just need to keep pushing through to get there.