2017 plans slowly coming together – first major change, moving from OEM 17×8 BBSs to 17×9.5 WedsSport TC105Ns. Wheels look much better in person than they did in pictures. Despite being 1.5″ wider, they are roughly 16.3lbs, 1.5lbs lighter than the OEM wheel. Will move from 245/45-17s on OEM wheels to 255/40-17s, hopefully see a…
Wanted to encapsulate my timeline for the Evo brake situation this year now that it is resolved. Took the Evo to a track day with NASA HPDE 7/9-10 Brakes failed near the end of day 1 – turned out I wore one of my pads to its backing plate Got some brakes from a fellow…
Been looking for a solution for my soft brakes since the track day – flushes, new pads, new brake master cylinder, and finally new calipers. My suspicion is that the calipers’ pistons and/or seals started to go bad after the track day, prompting a replacement or a rebuild. Had a few different options for what I…
A common area for boost leaks in evos is the throttle body seals. There are two seals that leak, and since I didn’t feel comfortable replacing & servicing the throttle body, I removed it and sent it to mil.spec, well known for their work. They cleaned the throttle body and replaced the screws and seals. While…
Part of my ongoing effort to improve my brake system post-road race, I’ve swapped the pads and rotors out. Rear rotors were okay, but fronts were showing some pitting/abnormal wear. That plus wearing out the pads on the rotors probably wasn’t a good idea. Went with 2 piece DBA5000 in the front, and DBA4000 in…
Too many things going on with the Evo not to make an update – JDM headlights are next! I’ve taken the front bumper off a number of times now so that part was cake. Took a little bit of finesse to get the headlights out and the new ones in. Pretty much a direct bolt…
Had some downtime for the Evo to make some major updates for this season. Most of the plans were for reliability for the Evo’s slow transition to road racing: Clutch was replaced and polished for better engagement. Originally pulled the clutch to do just the polish, as I was having trouble getting into 1st and…
Got some new bushings installed by Solo Performance Specialties! These are the SuperPro DURO3741K bushings that go in the front control arm. These bushings are offset in order to allow for a caster increase. I got about 0.2-0.3 degrees of added caster with these bushings, but more importantly, they moved the wheel forward again. The caster…
A relatively busy off-season for the Evo – following the issues I had with the balance of the car last year, I had a few changes I wanted to make before going with more mods. Also had a number of maintenance to do with the car: Reversed the rake of the car (higher in front, lower…
While this car is going to my daily driver, one thing that really bugged me about my old ’08 Mini was all the rock chips in the hood. Most of those rock chips had turned into dark red rust spots, and the quotes that I had gotten to fix them were exorbitant. Since then, I…
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