Little more progress today, FI 12 inch resonated CBE installed today

On the way to the shop


Last shot of the "old rear end"


Purty Sebring muffler


Looking much better

 

Now that's a good reason to get out of the rain, great look Chris, glad it's working out just as you planned.

 

Thank you Brad! I think everything else went in for its final coat of paint today. Hoping to see pics by tomorrow.

Almost ordered a sport front clip last night but managed not to. Did order a sport gas pedal so I can start gathering the parts for that conversion. Heading to my first show next weekend, should be interesting

 

(Moved the convo over here.)

I do see what you're saying. It would be nice to see the R2C heat shields powdercoated. Do you think they'd hold up well enough to powder-coating?

FSTB? I forgot you bought that CUSCO bar. Still haven't installed it? If you're on the fence about powdercoating that bar, wait until the meet-up and you can see my GT-Spec bar in person. I used 4-naught (0000) steel wool to polish the clear-coat and laser etchings off the bar, then countless hours of elbow grease and metal polish to get it to a mirror-like finish. You may like that look better than paint.

 

They're fairly thin, that's a very good point. I'll have a talk with my uncle and get his thoughts if I go that route. We're doing a family reunion in August that I may drive to but I'm not sure I want to do that again. Once a year to NJ / PA is plenty if windshield time I think, especially if I go to the Dakotas as well. I suppose the other "issue" is whether I'm going to keep the R2Cs long term now. I'm fairly certain that I will, I'm not sure the HP difference will make that much of a difference to me.

No, the CUSCO bar is still in my living room patiently waiting. I decided to have the bases painted since I was going a different direction than what I had initially planned. The blue may still have worked but what the heck. I saw your photos of your bar, that is sweet for certain! I'll take a look while we're there. I think by them mine will be on but just as it sits right now until I make some final decisions. Right now I think my bay will be somewhat dark so you may be right about a mirror finish in the bar. Black chrome is nice in my head but sometimes I really do need to see things in order to really see how they will pull together.

I'm really trying to take a step back on the modding and the projects but right now the stress relief is definitely a good thing. I can't wait to sell the house in Pittsburgh and get a garage either here in Memphis or wherever I wind up.

 

Are you R2C midpipes Black Nickel, like mine? If you're willing to pay two-way shipping costs, and the cost of plating, R2C once told me that they would add my FSTB to a batch of midpipes when sent out for plating.

I've really wanted to do that, but it was a lot of money, without any guarantee on the results. Not that I won't do it someday, just not this day.

 

They are yes. That would be an interesting idea. They were looking for a couple hundred weren't they? I'm not worried about shipping costs, one if the perks of the job is I can ship dirt cheap. Thats part of why I was thinking to send it to my uncle to see what he could do with black chrome.

Then I was gonna paint it. Then polish it. Then I decided I don't know what I want to do so best to just wait and leave it as it for now.

 

$170 + shipping both ways. Tempting, isn't it?

 

It certainly is. I figure shipping would be maybe $30 round trip insured... I'll have to think real hard about that one now.

After the install of the CBE I can't really hear the intakes anymore. I like the R2Cs an awful lot but with the tone change now I'm feeling like I may as well go with the Stillen and chase some HP. If I can use an R2C filter with the Stillen that would be ideal but that is a bit down the road at this point. Of course if I do get it done in black nickel then I would want to keep the R2C intake....

Today I installed a sport accelerator pedal (no HP gain dammit) the brake and dead pedal should be here Tuesday so I'll pick them up on Weds when I drop the car off to have the differential bushings and some other odds and ends looked at.

Also installed a grounding kit. I do notice an immediate though minor difference in the stereo. Shifting... Not a huge difference but it seems to be shifting better when in D or DS. But manually shifting when driving aggressively is still just awful. I'm sure eventually a tune will solve that but it is a bit disappointing.

Going back and forth on tires right now. I feel like I should buy all-seasons but I really want summer tires. Leaning towards Hankook right now to save a couple hundred.

 

You know my opinion on tires. Go 3-season and don't skimp. You won't regret it.

 

Sounds like you have some nice plans man, subbed for more!

 

I do, I keep going back and forth between the PSS or the Hankook V12 or R-S3s. Then I'll just run either a set of all-seasons or snow tires depending on where I'm at come winter. Size wise looks to be the same with 245/40/19 though I may go a little more narrow for the winter set. I'm fairly certain any of those three sets will give me the performance I'm looking / hoping for. It's just a matter of reorganizing things so I can store the winter set or at least the winter rims for now.

I found a buyer for my current BBK which will help a bit. Hoping to have the swap done and the engine bay back together by the end of March. Then tires, paint on the new grille and roof spoiler and getting the head liner done and I think it will be time for a break. Had a good conversation with John
Visconti tonight, looks like an etune is a viable option for me whenever I'm ready.

 

Thank you sir, much appreciated. She's coming together, not as quickly as I would like but I've done much more than I ever thought I would.

 

Let's see if I can do this right

Here's the OEM exhaust paired with a set of FI RHFCs.


And here's the full FI exhaust. RHFCs and FI CBE with the upgraded x pipe and 12 inch resonators. I know I was talking a bit, sorry it was my birthday and the family kept calling.

 

Vast improvement. Jelly.

Mechanic checking for leaks and fitment before the pipes get too hot, LOL.