Joule's K20 EK9 build - Update 14/04/13 - Wiring time

[Trivium]

Looks good man, my old b18C'd EK made 131kw with headers/exhaust/intake and a VAFC tune. Seems you had a lot less problems than we had with my conversion

[Joule]

fail for taking it to a drive-in! teaches u a lesson for not washing it by hand haha

I know, I should have never started becoming comfortable with them.

Looks good man, my old b18C'd EK made 131kw with headers/exhaust/intake and a VAFC tune. Seems you had a lot less problems than we had with my conversion

Yeah, except the wiring issues (and the running lean part), it hasn't been too much of a hassle.


Update
Called the BP station up about it, and they said come down and they will look at it and I will need to sign some insurance forms for it...

Got there and wasn't at all impressed with the guys attitude towards myself or my car. First thing he asks me is "does it have low side skirts" to which I said "not really, the car is not much lower than standard" and thinking that if that mattered, why was I not informed about it first...?

He tried to make out that the machine didn't do it (for starters; I know that it definitely did cause it, and secondly; what the hell else could have made that specific pattern!?) and that even if it was, the insurance company might not even care since the condition of my car is apparently poor...

I was calm about it the entire time, and explained to him that while the condition of my car maybe "poor" (it certainly is a lot poorer now! ) it didn't bother me so much about the damage as I was planning on repainting my car anyway, I just didn't think it should go un-noted and have it happen to someone elses car (who may have a completely immaculate paint job).

Regardless of what the rude manager thought, its not up to him at the end of the day, and I just have to wait to hear from the insurance company. But unfortunately for Joe-Public it doesn't sound like they are going to do anything to fix the machine, which makes it even more of a reason to stay away from it.

/end rant

[Esprit]

Nasty... another reason why I'd never go to a carwash like that. I'd say you'll get some kind of payout.... regardless of how bad your door was before the incident, it's CLEAR what's happened to it (the damage could have only been caused by something very similar to their equipment... not easy to fake), and the insurance company will be obliged to help you out.... might just be able to get a payout and put it in to your respray fund, maybe knock a couple hundy off your upcoming overall bill

[Colza]

Points you need to be ready to argue:

When you use a car wash it is not in any way acceptable for your car to be damaged in the process.

It is completely irrelevant whether your car is a $1k Suzuki Alto or a $100k Ferrari, if they have damaged your car you should be compensated.

If there is a problem with lowered cars in their car wash they must tell you first, they cant just use that as an excuse afterwards.

If they are not going to be cooperative tell them you want to run an article in the local paper to warn other customers. I would expect that noone will use their car wash again if you do.

If you dont get anywhere talking to the manager face to face first tell him you will write a letter to head office. Then actually do it. Letters are great for making people actually do their job.

[Joule]

More good news. The insurance company got in touch with me last week, and the people who were going to inspect my car got in touch with me yesterday and the meeting happened today at BP. The guy got me to park my car in the car wash then activated it once I was out, and it did it again and he got it all on camera

Not that it matters, but the techie believes my low exhaust is what causes the sensors to misread and get the location of my front tires wrong...

(No pics) but I have a set of Blox front and rear camber kits on my car now.

Also after almost a month of waiting my blox shift knob finally arrived (albeit the wrong colour, but I have decided I prefer this colour anyway so I'm not going to bother complaining to Mac, as dealing with him is like "trying to get blood from stone" - to quote a friend):






Its a nice knob - feels real good in your hand and has a decent weight behind it.

My P1-SF's are still about 3 weeks off - can't wait!!

Also on their way are:

• Innovative mounts - om nom!
• Vertex dry cell batt
• Gold rear LCA's
• Water & Oil temp gauges (autogauge's fancy blue ones)
• More alloy piping for a cold air intake extension
• And a spare rocker cover so I can get my one painted

And in the near future I'm planning on acquiring:

• Hondata S300
• Suitable OBD1 ECU - preferably a P72.

Also going to be scouting for any old (non-NZDM) OBD2a ECU and OBD1 ECU plugs as well so I can make my own OBD2a->OBD1 adapter harness.

[Brent]

Good to hear some good news in regards to the car wash eating your paint. So is just the one panel getting repainted?

A few nice parts making their way onto this soon . Did you end up going for the billet or steel innovative mounts? What hardness bushes did you go for? PM me how much you are paying for them if you dont mind

[Joule]

I'm leaning towards N/A you lot. But if I was to go forced it would be SC'd (much to your disliking I'm sorry Sundeep ).

Should be both panels hopefully, but the guy I talked to was just a subbie and he saw it deploy on both panels so hopefully he will include that in his report.

Did a bit of reading on the hardness of the mounts. Was a tossup between the 60A and the 75A, both had mixed opinions but in general it sounded like the 75A's would vibrate a bit much for a daily so I opted for the 60A's which should provide a lot stiffer support for my engine than the current standard ones do anyway (engine moves like its on party pills). Oh and billet bling of course

[Joule]

I wonder what's in this box...


...
...
...

It would appear to contain some engine mounts!








And something else too:





After taking these pics, I rushed down and installed the cambelt side and upper gear box mount, and my gawd what a difference they make! Installed pics to come soon, among other things

[Brent]

Mounts look good man, Same as what im getting next week

[sunskreens]

Get a nissan lucino, sundeep now recommends them

FUCK YEAH! Especially in faded pink with the sad sad horns, especially when you yell at girls to honk if your horny hahaha. Blox air filter=sad. At least get like a Mugen or a J's or Spoon or something (since you actually have money and are baller central nyehahaha). You also forgot to order the mugen fuel tank cover.

Your wish list for Christmas, BYS kit, EK9 spoiler, Project Kics Lugs, Spoon/Endless/AP Racing/Brembo Calipers, Ultra C pillar and room bar, quads, and killer cams (or your stage 2's) since you want to stay with this NA crap oh and at a minimum 6 degrees of -ve camber all round(or is that my secret wish list if I had money??) DO a poll. I vote dirty stinking turbo on there! Just drive around in the Ruggered till the engine build is done. Or just build a turbo block now dooooo it.

PS: Don't tune it twice, just do it when you have the set up you want! If you really want to waste your money donate it to Sponsor a Poor Asian Charity. I'm sole member, chairman and auditor mean hahaha

[Joule]

Yeah I know, I don't want to tune it twice.

Update & Opinions needed
Right, the insurance company has given me the thumbs up for getting my car repaired, so I was thinking, now would be the time to get the rest of the car done at the same time (panel + paint). But I there's no point starting till I have all the other exterior bits I want, these may include (but are not limited too):

• CTR style headlights - have some new better condition lights for it that need to be modified
• CTR spoiler
• Rear lip - All I know is I don't like my cars ass
• New front bumper - I much prefer the look of the facelift bumper, but this requires changing a lot of other bits = expensive (but not out of the question). The other option is a c-west style bumper..?
• Front lip - CTR?

Here are some recent pics of it (as seen in the post-whore thread), any opinions on possible improvements would be much appreciated.






And here's some possible colours I liked for it, again opinions welcome:

• First the brightest of the lot:
  
  
  
• This looks like an awesome blue:
  
  
  
• A couple of silvers
  
  
  
  
  
• And some greens
  
  
  
  
  
  

Decisions decisions... And this is what it will be rolling with (once they finally arrive...):



And finally, where in Wellington would be the best place to get a panel and paint (to the quality of above colour pics)?

Cheers all

[DbP]

Update & Opinions needed
[lots of content]

Have you considered Slipstream Performance's BYS style bumper? It's a bit more subtle and won't look retarded if you can't be bothered doing sills etc at the same time.



Vis-a-vis colour, IMO either stick with the factory green for stealth or the second of the silvers you posted up. The greens you posted are pretty cool, but there's a high chance of them looking arse with your new rims. I'd only take the yellow if you don't mind the extra attention – including from the Police.

As far as paint places go, I've been very happy with Autobodies and Blair Wright in the Wellington CBD, plus I've heard good things about Airflowe (including their price) out in Kaiwharawhara.

[SiRge]

Just to be weird, i think it would be cool in the browny colour?

[sunskreens]

Strauss Grey

Ray Pipers, DE Mclennans, Ashton P and P did my crash repairs, they managed to look pretty decent....

[nva2nd]

Honestly just stay factory colour unless your doing engine bay and door jams etc.

Looks fine any way?

[Joule]

Have you considered Slipstream Performance's BYS style bumper? It's a bit more subtle and won't look retarded if you can't be bothered doing sills etc at the same time.

Vis-a-vis colour, IMO either stick with the factory green for stealth or the second of the silvers you posted up. The greens you posted are pretty cool, but there's a high chance of them looking arse with your new rims. I'd only take the yellow if you don't mind the extra attention – including from the Police.

As far as paint places go, I've been very happy with Autobodies and Blair Wright in the Wellington CBD, plus I've heard good things about Airflowe (including their price) out in Kaiwharawhara.

Cheers for the comments, exactly the sort I was after. (I'm no good matching rims to cars without seeing them on).

Yeah I like the gold, but as you said it will attract a lot of attention (more than I would want).

No love for the blue?

Just to be weird, i think it would be cool in the browny colour?

Can you quote which one?

Strauss Grey

Was that one of the silvery ones I linked to?

Honestly just stay factory colour unless your doing engine bay and door jams etc.

Looks fine any way?

Going to do the entire car and the bay. Was considering doing a flatter colour in the bay as I've seen a few like that and it looks pretty good.
Most of the pics I have posted don't show/capture the damage/state of the car. It really needs some work done to it

[Ali]

That green is mint, would look good.

Quite a few BYS around in Wellington now, I may sell mine if your interested, BYS style with CF lip.

Airflowe did my CTR, was ok but I found Ray Pipers in Lower Hutt exceptional, they did a great job on my current EK, great prices and easy bunch to deal with.

[SiRge]

LOL picture, but a nice coffee brown is a semi-neutral colour but still in that 'different from others" class. I think it fits in with the stock-ish look. And nobody rocks the tidy brown paint job these days either

[Hayce]

Go to a painter/paint shop and look at real paint's. Just 'cos you see it on the Internets doesn't mean it can be done IRL.

Remember the colours etc you see in photos can be shopped or even cameras themselves can mess with it.

[P Wizz]

Brown = "Root beer"
Can't put any colour on just any car. Needs an aggressive/ 'different' look to pull it off, IE slammed, nice rims, good aero. Like the FC above

[SiRge]

Definitly agree on the slammed, but I think regardless of mags, any car can look good slammed with a nice paint job. I mean usually people dont roll on steelies, but if you have seen civtec's ek, stock 14's i think, and that thing is sexy as hell

[DbP]

No love for the blue?

Again, likely to look average with the black rims, even more so with CTR headlights. If you look at the photo you posted, the car's running the chrome bezel headlights, which gives a better contrast with the dark blue.

[spoon.]

No love for the blue?

depends what kind... my eg is the oem torneo/accord blue which is a nice blue

[sunskreens]

But Mike, he's getting dark gunmetal rims, he'll need a really light hue of blue to set the wheels off otherwise it'll just look like a space under his guards cant see the wheels too well. Will need like a pastel blue (inspiration in a magazine I showed him lol) but that would border on being a bit too pansy and no BYS for Joule-san.
He will crack to my peer pressure and do this shit last. Going H2B first There's no replacement for displacement baby!

Edit: Good work on the wire tuck uso, very stealthy, me likey likey you got something new to show off at the next meet
PPS: Dont want to add another post, but lol Mike H2B=freaking good value for moneys especially since all the hardware is already there and he can reuse two of his bling as mounts!

[Joule]

That green is mint, would look good.

Quite a few BYS around in Wellington now, I may sell mine if your interested, BYS style with CF lip.

Airflowe did my CTR, was ok but I found Ray Pipers in Lower Hutt exceptional, they did a great job on my current EK, great prices and easy bunch to deal with.

Cheers for that, will keep them in mind. Just in case... (see below)

LOL picture, but a nice coffee brown is a semi-neutral colour but still in that 'different from others" class. I think it fits in with the stock-ish look. And nobody rocks the tidy brown paint job these days either

Its not so attention grabbing which is sweet, but I don't feel the brown paint job. Cheers tho

Go to a painter/paint shop and look at real paint's. Just 'cos you see it on the Internets doesn't mean it can be done IRL.

Remember the colours etc you see in photos can be shopped or even cameras themselves can mess with it.

Yeah, duely noted. See comments below.

Again, likely to look average with the black rims, even more so with CTR headlights. If you look at the photo you posted, the car's running the chrome bezel headlights, which gives a better contrast with the dark blue.

Good point.

depends what kind... my eg is the oem torneo/accord blue which is a nice blue

Was referring to the blue I posted in the list of possible colours that tickled my fancy. Had a look at the blue you mentioned, and it doesn't really do it for me either. Cheers nevertheless.



Update
Right, so I have a mate that's a panel beater, and he wants me+him to do the panel work could be a great way to save a bit of coin...
He also has a mate that's a (automotive) painter, and will be showing some of the colours I'm interested in to him. I want to see some of his work first before letting him loose tho.

And Sundeep has hinted (albeit not very subtly) that a H2B conversion *may* be in the works. Likely to be cheaper / more reliable getting the power figures I want out of a H2B conversion than a B18c. Feel free to express your opinions over this too.

And so my post isn't entirely pictureless, here's some updates of the status of my car...

Gauges have been installed:


Upper gearbox mount installed (yes that's a zip tie on the intake piping, better ideas for securing it would be appreciated):


Cambelt side mount installed - this made the largest difference, stock camblelt side mount = teh ghey. (Still need to wire tuck this side...)


Here's a bay shot (still lots to be done...):


And the (water) temp sensor for one of the gauges has been installed (with a bit of effort spent on hiding the wires):