Yeah, my thoughts too Dmini.

The fuel rail looks cool in and of itself but the injector assembly looks weak despite being upgraded. The cover can fit but needs to be trimmed which wouldn't be it's first time because it was trimmed to fit the blower.

 

So, the rodent had better shape up or it's 2002/m3 in the wake? Sounds frightening, too!

 

Meno,

Was this your engine before Norman got a hold of it? I'm thinking you need the Vtec cover... just for safety's sake.

 

Ewwwwwwwwwwww!

 

Now that's not a problem one sees everyday!

Yeah...the beautiful 2002...of course with a newer drive train and a/c. At minimum I love to look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lahyM...eature=related

 

AEM is good, just clip the cover an put it back on. it makes the bay look cleaner.

 

Agreed.

 

Was with Mike and Steve of Seven Enterprises yesterday checking alignment and such to rule out simple operations over suspecting solely the LSD. Steve removed three degrees of camber from the drivers side front wheel but to no avail. All other things check out: caster +1/4 - camber -3/4 - Toe out 1/16.

Spoke to Norman at Mini Tec today and am in the process of looking at an off the shelf Quaife gear set AND LSD. If available then I can do this operation just once.

Currently there is no final drive upgrade for the K series so the 3.71 from Quaife would fix all right now rather than me doing the LSD now then tear it apart to install the FD once complete.

I still need to get the A/C fixed.
Still need to dress up the boot some.
Need to drop the fender flares lower then repaint then chip guard.

Almost there. Stay on target. Almost there.......

Going in to get the alarm fixed today so I'll be without the car until Tuesday.

Surprise, surprise.

 

Meno,

Not to drag this out, but does this mean that the Phantom is causing the problem? I checked out their website and looked at the scant information regarding their LSD. I was very surprised to find that their LSD looks like a metalic "bar of soap" with two holes cut in it... (I was expecting some sort of "box" or case full of intermeshed gears).

Guess I shouldn't be concerned about my Phantom since I'll only have half the ponies kicking up the stride compared to yours. So the Quaife is providing the final drive ratio you were hoping for? That will be cool!

You're getting so close, but am I?

 

Agreed.

I don't think horsepower is the lone issue. Some A series have phantom "slip" in their gear box too. Mike at 7-Ent states that the consensus is they don't work all of the time so you get limited slip sometimes and slip others. He also doesn't like the fact it's putting pressure on the spyder gears. Perhaps I just drive the thing to damn hard. Dunno. I do know I got Mike off of his seat yesterday.

You'll be getting the phantom unless you pony up in horse country. Norman states he likes quaife but the units are expensive and in his experience unneeded though he hasn't ever run the quaife so I'm in uncharted waters it appears.

The black and tan Mini from which I took my leanings is now back in his shop with an OBX LSD. According to Norman it doesn't drive well. The Hondata guy out here says he will have nothing to do with OBX but uses Quaife for drag racing Civics. Sooooooo....you tell me. I'm not in the know but will have an opinion on Quaife soon enough. I'm supposed to drop Smallzilla (aka Steve Austin; aka Rimbaud) next week Wednesday.

Phantom could be fixed if it is indeed the culprit (the overwhelming amount of evidence seems to suggest such) BUT screw it. I don't want to deal with "bugs" any more.

I want to merely motor.

 

The LSD in my '06 MCS JCW is AWESOME! In fact, the whole friggen car is fantastic. OOPS! wrong car, wrong thread, wrong forum.

What I meant to say was I don't blame you for wanting to get it sorted out so you can spend your time motoring.

 

By the way, that snake picture is the favorite picture of my son currently.

 

Lance,

You had mentioned it before and yesterday mentioned it again and I cant stop thinking about this.
You say your flares need to be moved down. In the pictures it looks like you have actual sports pack arches. Is this the case?
I have the minitec arches that I believe are modified slightly from standard sports packs. Mine only seem like they are meant to go in one place as far as up and down. They can go foreward or back a bit but I tried to just center the tire/wheel up in that regard.

Please let me know. I hope to avoid having to move them once paint is on and everythings finalised..

thanks,

travis

 

i am more than certain that those are minitec's arches since they are the ones who built the car.

 

They are Minitec arches, which according to Minitec, are based upon the sportspack arches. I'm with Meno, if there's an option to position the flares at different heights, I'd prefer the "slammed" look.

 

I agree with you on the lower the better as far as looks.
On my minitec arches, there is a curve section on all of them that needs to be in line with where the bottom seam of the car is. Looking at it, it appears that they need to be in that one spot so they line up with the seam.

Perhaps someone can post a close up picture to help describe this.

I hope mine can be lower than what I am thinking they can.
If so, I want to find out now rather than later.

travis

 

T - I'll take a photo when I have the car back - it could be a while though - I'll look to see what I have already taken to see if there is a close up that catches what you are after.

In the back of my mind I have been concerned about the arches being unable to be adjusted down all of the way to the edge of the wheel well on account of the radius being different and unable to tie into the perpendicular return correctly. I've left this largely in the back of my mind and haven't spoken to Minitec about this at all.

D - perhaps you should email the hill people and let them know your concern although it may not be an issue since your front is not extended...you may be getting stock stuff rather than one off stuff like we toucans.

 

This was a picture when my car was lower but the issue is the same.

 

Does this help?

 

I like the Minitec arches... They don't have the notched out tops for the repeaters to recess into, nor do they have the the notched out fronts where the ends of the bumpers meet the arches.

Meno- I'm going with Wood & Pickett arches for my tiny 10s. Unless there's a mod I'm not familiar with, W&P flares are not adjustable in positioning.

I think yours are looking good. Its the jacked-up Rallye look with Sportpacks and undersized tires that I think looks kind of silly. Spend ten minutes looking through MM's classifieds and you'll see a few of these.

 

Exactly what I mean. You can see in the picture that they cant be lowered without major mods at the point where they tie in to the lower seam.

Those are not the same arches I have from minitec. Mine have a cut out spot for the blinkers where yours are smooth ans the blinker just goes in the wing above the arch.

travis

 

D Min - Sorry to miss your call - had a basketball game this evening. I'll call you tomorrow in one of the moments where I'm pretending to work. If I say something out of context like, "...well if we can earn your business, you won't be disappointed..." roll with it...someone's watching.

T - I don't get it.

If you don't drink of Niebaum - Coppola, you just don't know despite thinking you do.

 

I checked with minitec on this.
I do have the mini tec modified arches. Lance has them too but on his they filled in the blinker indention and smoothed the top off.

Lance: What I was saying is that if you look at the picture you posted, where the rivit/bolt below the door that attaches the arch to the car is, cant be lowered. The bottom curve of the arch has to line up with the bottm seam of the car. If you lower the arch that bottom curve part of the arch will be below the car...

does that make sense?

TTI

 

T - The bottom portion of the arch (the part to which you refer) would move towards the front of the car ~1 inch leaving a hole where the rivet once was and a gap between the sill of the car and the arch. The top of the arch too would need to be trimmed. Naturally I'd have to do a repaint of all of those areas.

Yes / No / Maybe so ?

 

T - one more thing, do you have the EP3 or DC5 tranny?