rmoltis build thread 96 aspire

[rmoltis]

I went ahead and cancelled my online order and went to AutoZone thx for the tip zoom zoom. And cleaned them with alcohol, scotchbrited them good, sprayed adhesion promoter on them, tinted them 2-3 coats, scotchbrited the imperfections from the wind/dirt, and cleared them a few coats. If I had a spray booth they would be perfect but outside painting is never perfect. And after drying for a few hours I installed them only to have some fingerprints left behind in the soft paint grrrrrr. I'm frustrated at myself for not waiting longer. I ran out of clear so I'm going to let everything cure for a week or 2 then come back with some fine grit sandpaper buff out the imperfections and clear everything one last time. Oh yeah and I couldn't remove my third brake light because it was sealed/ dynamatted In. so I will paint it when I touch everything up and mask the car off. It all looks good it just bugs me knowing it could have all been done if I didn't try and rush things. Enough venting heres some pics.









My trunk is still open in this pic.

[rmoltis]

Thx, I'm just trying to keep myself busy. I go crazy around the house if I didn't do something productive.

I finally found a header!! It was in australia and it was $360 total. And it is a 4-2-1. It'll match my 1.75" exhaust. It is for the 94-96 aspire with the 1.3 it took me 1 day/12 hours of searching and emailing to find what I needed. I can't wait! I'm glad I didn't have to pay 560 or 685 those prices were crazy. I've never owned a header before I'm excited to see the numbers it makes on the scanguage. It was a 1 item sale. He sent me pictures on request I'll see if I can post em.

[rmoltis]

Here's some header pictures.

[rmoltis]

Got it all sorted out. Exhaust shop cut the pipe and flange off the front of the cat and the tension released moved the exhaust like 3-4" forward, which stopped the rattles. There were also 2 exhaust hanger mounts (rubber) that were replaced cuz they got stretched. And the new pipe and flange were rewelded on and gasketed. The spring bolts were replaced with regular bolts because there is the ss flex on the header. So everything still moves freely. The header has thick metal so it keeps manifold noise down very well. being light on the gas makes the car move forward better without the pumping loss of exhaust gas expulsion. The powerband I'm not sure what happened, I still have down low power but it also goes good up high. It added power in the whole rpm range but fattened it up around 3000-4000 rpms. The exhaust tone is only slightly deeper but nothing crazy its just where I like it. Everything is perfect now. I'm loving it. I'll keep an eye out on gas mileage for a while and see where it puts me. Only downside to this whole endeavor is that the guy who sold it sprayed some coating on it and it all bubbled and peeled off. I would have enjoyed it the same without the coating, some people....

[rmoltis]

I haven't been driving my car lately because I have a list of things to do before I can get it "legal" for the road. Gotta get my birth certificate. So I can get my I.d. so I can transfer my title to pennsylvania. So I can get a state inspection. So I can get it registered etc. One of the things I needed to do was replace my front windshield. It had a giant crack that was growing since a rock hit it in washington and chipped my windshield. It wouldn't pass state inspection with a cracked windshield. Which means I couldn't register it yet. So I went and got my windshield replaced today. It was $267 after tax. I didn't go through safelite because their glass isn't as good and there's a ton of customer complaints online. I went to a place called Ryan's auto glass and they did a great job. they didn't use cheap aftermarket glass. They used new OEM glass. Had me in and out in an hour. And I even got the glass with the blue tinted strip on the top 6 inches. Neither of my aspires had this glass in them. I'm not sure if any even came with any did they? I've always had the sun glare past the visors above the rear view mirror. Now it should be better. I'll call it the windshield mod lol.

[rmoltis]

I got my new long tube header from dickmeyer today,
Along with the flanged flex pipe and the adjustable fuel pressure regulator.
Everything is really nice. You can see the quality in the final product.
I currently put everything back in its packaging and packed away temporarily
Until I can accumulate everything I need for the whole exhaust.
So there won't be pictures until much later. I currently have the catalytic converter.

I returned the 1.75" in/out high flow magnaglow cat that had the ceramic honeycomb catalyst which is what our cars come with anyways it says in the shop manual. And I got a 99004hm magnaflow cat which has the heavy metal catalyst and is 2" in/out. The metal catalyst apparently can withstand higher temperatures from performance cars that may run rich or have unburnt gasses reach the cat which can melt and over heat a ceramic core.

And all I have left to order which I will get done today is the magnaglow resonator which will go after the cat, and the straight through magnaflow muffler both 2" in/out.

Then I am going to have the only mandrel bending stainless Steel exhaust shop in Pittsburgh install everything and bend me a custom 2" exhaust.

Everything should work out great and I'm excited to finish this.

Also on a side note I will be offering my old header for sale later on.
I had paid $360 for it brand new from Australia. There are earlier posts about this happening in this thread. Now its broken in and the coating has burnt off
It's not new anymore I'd let it go for a reasonable offer.

The only reason I don't prefer this header currently is because with the 1.5" primaries
It puts the peak power at 4300rpm instead of 3000 which is stock.
And I understand headers are supposed to do this but with all my city driving I don't always want to shift at a higher rpm. If I still lived in Seattle and drove the freeways more like I used to. Then this header would be better suited for that application and I would get it up to speed more. I've even been thinking of installing the fpr with current header to see what gains I'm missing.

matt assured me that with the long tube header I had ordered it would retain lower rpm power.
And the fuel pressure regulator should help smooth out any lean condition I may encounter.
I'll post new status info as project moves forward. I'm hoping to have it all completed before July.

[rmoltis]

I went ahead and installed the fuel pressure regulator sent by dickmeyer.
With the current header i have on now it helped a tad bit by raising the pressure 1-2psi. now i actually like the header i have even though i have a better one at home. this current one does its job and it has a bit more mid range power now with the adjusted fuel pressure.

i had to mount the regulator sideways on the firewall because straight up and down there was the bottom brass fitting you connect to the fuel hose that runs to your gas tank and it touches that piece of the firewall that juts out. and i wouldnt have been able to mount it onto its bracket if i had mounted it up and down.
i also had to buy 3ft of extra fuel hose to reach that bottom fuel line in the engine bay that runs to the gas tank but all in all it was super easy install. the fuel rail only had 2 bolts holding the regulator in. the new fitting made by dickmeyer with the oring on it seals good and mounts up well.

it seems like a quality unit.

[rmoltis]

Decided to go mount my long tube yesterday.
Took out my current header and put the oher one on for fitment.
And to our suprise it didn't fit because there was a yet to be seen variable.
An undiscovered beast lurking to stop you from modifying your car lol.

On the 96-97 aspires there is a housing where the lower radiator hose connects to the block.
And it prevented me from installing the header.





Called up Matt-D-Meyer and sent him some pics and apparently this is only obdII equipped vehicles.
So I drained my coolant and removed the header to get to the housing.
Took the housing off and mailed it to matt for some (chop/shorten/weld back together) action.
So that there will be no more fitment issues.

He said next time he does an obdII aspire he will move the number one primary over about .5"-1"
So there will be no issues. I am the test mule.

So now my car is sitting out front with no header,coolant, and paper towel filled holes for the time being.

I am working on making 02 sensor and air fuel sensor extensions
so hopefully I don't have to chop any wiring.
Just plug and play.
I have the 2 connectors for the HO2S to make one.
But I am missing the 1 wire female connector with wire from the harness side
To complete the extension.
I would buy premade extensions if possible but I'm having a hard time finding any.

I have an appointment for the exhaust shop on July 8.
Gonna get a 2" mandrel bent stainless bent up
along with the ss magnaflow muffler, resonator, and catalytic converter.
And new O2 sensor down stream and upstream.

So close now!

Now I just need to find a new home for my old header.

[rmoltis]

So that water pump inlet housing I sent to dickmeyer arrived a few days ago.
It looks great he soda blasted it to get it clean it looks brand new.
The gasket surface was milled flat it seemed.
And everything fit perfect. It bolted up and had no leaks.
And also it gave me an extra inch of clearance from the number one primary.

I went a head and bolted the longtubes to the block.
I removed the studs and,
I used new grade 10.9 USA steel bolts for all the bolt holes.
And removed the studs.
I figured over time the pinch nuts would eat away at the threads
And possibly cause the flange to not stay sealed over time.

Also the flange was thinner than stock so I used a couple washers on each bolt. It also helped cut down on scratches in the coating.

Refilled the cooling system with all new coolant.
As well as scrubbing the overflow container the best I could from the built up residue over the years.

Here's a pics of the housing. photobucket won't let me copy links.
Stupid f******* piece of s*** photobucket.
I liked the old version better

[rmoltis]

Here's a couple shots of the extractors to go with the last post.



It's not super visible but there's about "1-1.5" of clearance for primary #1 now.


And here is the collector. You can see where I had my cat relocated from the last header.
Also the old o2 sensor plugged in with a temporary splice job.
Until I can get my extensions made for the new o2 sensors.

[rmoltis]

It's ok zoom I talked to chobobulous on ff.com.
He's got both connectors with a bunch of wire being mailed out currently.
Thx for keeping an eye out though.

And yeah he took the housing chopped it and shortened it welded it back.
Then he soda blasted it clean.
Milled the gasket substrate.
It seals and fits perfect.
You can see the old pics how dirty it was in comparison.

I made sure to use new header flange gaskets again.
And everything is good to go.
Now I just have to wait until monday

I feel special I'm the first aspire to try these out.
It's pretty loud when I started it straight header.
It's got a strong signal at the collector.
I felt bad for the neighbors.
But I still haven't driven it yet I'm excited.

[rmoltis]

Got my stainless steel exhaust bent up today.
This guy doesn't mandrel bend
but he packs his tubes full of sand
to help prevent corners from getting super crushed
like my last exhaust.
I'll get a clip up later but for now here's pics.

[rmoltis]

How much weight did the dynamat add to your car total? Just curious I have been thinking about doing the same thing to one of my festivas.

44lbs was the shipped weight of the dynamat and I used all 72 sq ft.

[rmoltis]

Please excuse the sound quality.
This was recorded on my cell phone.
So the lower rpm revs might not record well
The low revs have a lower tone than my phone picks up
No fart can.
No bumble bees.
Not super loud.
Not super deep.
Quiet and clean note.

I think the sound is better on anything but tiny cell phone speakers.
Or at least it was hooked up to my t.v.

http://youtu.be/fSjYhPFaSu8

[mattdickmeyer]

Glad to see your progress!