Update

[kjewer1]

Well, I've been MIA for about a month. Been very busy. Condo is refinanced, and now all my bills are at my credit union, nice and simple. The divorce is finally done and paid off. Massive amounts of birthdays were completed in the last 3 weeks, including my own (time to give up on the birthdays, we're all old now...). Talon is finally gone. Garage is cleaned up. Etc.

I installed an AEM EMS into the EVO and went speed density. That thing sucks up an incredible amount of time, and I'm still not completely satisfied with it. After losing a bunch of power, I realized that with 950s on the stock turbo IDCs are only ~50%, and the intake valve is only open ~31%, so I could be spraying all of my fuel on the back side of the closed valve. Spent a couple days really wracking my brain trying to figure out how injector advance works in AEM, when I actually want the injector to spray, etc. The result was having to lean out 15% to maintain the same AFR, and picking up 5 mph at the track. Progress at last. I ultimately sat down and built a spreadsheet that calculates injector advance on a per cell basis based on IPW. Sweet.

At that same point my clutch finally let go after 25k miles and a full year of street driving and weekly racing. Stepped up this time and dropped nearly 2k on an Exedy cermatallic twin disc with the HD (2900 pound) plate. I just installed that saturday on my back in the POS garage. I don't ever want to do an EVO clutch/tranny again. The clutch however is incredible. The pedal is much stiffer than the standard Exedy twin, but it should hold my planned power easily enough. Extremely grabby, and has a VERY narrow window of engagement. Maybe a quarter inch total out of all that pedal travel. Still having a hard time driving it, but AEM is at least 50% at fault thanks to some idle issues. ALL of my cold shift problems completely dissapeared. I would have sworn that was the trannys fault. I can't wait to try some high RPM shifting, and see if there is any impact on my drag times. I think the stock type sprung organic discs are just too damn heavy. The two Exedy discs combine are lighter (unsprung of course), and much smaller in diameter. Should make much less work for the synchros.

I also toasted O2 sensor number 4 or 5 this season. Just installed and calibrated a new one yesterday. I've spent as much on O2 sensors this season as people pay for say, a 16g turbo. LMAO. Waste of time and money... Just can't get them to last all of a sudden. I've got a couple days to retune the car now that that's done.

Idle is hosed, most likely because of all the oil I got in the coolant last year when the HG went. The rubber hoses are all gone to shit, one burst a few weeks back. I'm betting the FIAV is toast. I'm going to attmept to block that off Thursday and use the ISC only via AEM to control idle in all conditions. I should still be able to get idle up to 1500 rpm, which is the highest I want it to go during warmup anyway...

I still need to get 2 more snow tires after losing one on the way to the Shootout. Still rockin the Advans... Got a couple low-mid 1.6s at the last import event a couple weeks back, but the clutch really didn't want to cooperate.

The track closes at the end of this week, so I need to get tuned and get the clutch broken in ASAP. I'll probably run wed and fri. Hopefully I can dip into the 11s without nitrous before it closes. I'm upgrading the turbo either way this winter... The clutch replacement and finding out the tranny is fine covers a huge part of the mods I had planned for this winter. Still have to do turbo (leaning towards Buschur GT3076R turbo kit) and safety equipment (roll cage, harnesses, fire jacket, etc) that I'll need next season.

It's also time to finally upgrade the PC. The Nvidia 590 boards are out, so I can use my conroe Core 2 Duo (e6700) that I got free from work, and both of my 7800GTXs, and all of my other hardware. Should be a real nice upgrade from my 650 single core processor and one 7800GTX. The gaming season is upon us...

It's also time to remodel the condo. Kitchen and bath are getting gutted and completely renovated. It's a shitload of work, and I'm not really looking forward to it. But, it will do wonders for the value of the property (and therefore my bank roll) and I'll actually like the place a lot more. Inlcuded in the work is adding my own laundry machines, community laundry sucks, despite the newly upgraded machines. I really should just pay someone to do all the work and sit on my ass watching startrek and CSI all day, but it seems so wasteful when I can do it myself. This sucks...

[Blackcrow64]

Wow, sounds like you've been one busy man Kevin... Glad to see your back in action with us though.

There has been much change brought to the forums if you didn't already notice. lol

[Thor06]

Hey Kevin! Yes, sounds like you have beeen a busy man. Good to have you back.

[l_eclipse_l]

Glad to see your back cruising the forum Kevin. Good luck at the track, we expect some 11's by Saturday morning

[gthompson97]

Jesus has risen again. All hail thine great one! Nice to have ya back Kevin.

[ned032002]

Good to see your back noticed ya kinda vanished.

[SLoe]

Sup Kev? Long time no see.

[blk_srt]

busy man

[kjewer1]

I hope to see some 11s too! In the parking lot at work this AM I spent 10-15 minutes assing around with the DSMlink to try to get it back to where it was before the O2 sensor died. I got the idle much smoother by playing with injector timing some more, and got the AFR where I want it. It's much easier to drive with the twin disc now that it will actually idle well. Cruise tuning is back to normal, but WOT is still too lean. Hopefully that will be sorted out on the way home today, since I go to the track tonight. The clutch is also breaking in nicely too. Combined with a little more practice, I can actually drive it and not make the EVO look like Fisher Price "My First Manual Trans Car." It's gonna be cold and windy tonight though, hopefully I can get some traction. I have a feeling tonight will be mostly for tuning, practice, and more clutch breakin. The weather (and odds for running 11s) looks much better for friday.

[Thor06]

Wait, wait, you are running AEM and DSMlink?

[kjewer1]

Oops, that should have been AEM. At any rate, I set it up so I can swap between the two in 5-10 minutes.

[kjewer1]

Update again:

I got an email notification from an old thread, which reminded me to come back and check in. I'm glad I still see the same good ol boys rollin in this forum. Still feels like home...

Since the last update,

-I've upgraded to an FP EVO Green/Buschur 20g-LT turbo. It's a 50 lb turbo that makes full boost around 3800 with 272s. With the 280s and Revolvers it's more like 4200, but still quick enough.

-The AEM is much closer to being dialed in. I had buschur tune it so I could get more appropriate injector timing settings, big difference. It idles well cosidering the setup, throttle response is fanatstic, gas mileage is normal, etc.

-Cams have been upgraded to 280s and then to Revolvers. The Revolvers are nasty cams, extremely rare and for standalones only for the most part. I get very little vacuum (like 8") and a mean idle, even at the 1100 rpm I have to run it at. Torque increase was insane. It already did 420 ftlbs on Buschurs heartbreak dyno on 272s, no idea what it is now.

-I installed a boost actuated cutout inline with my exhaust to act as a boost actuated baffle, to get around the cops. Way too much info on this to even try to talk about it. As part of this project, I upgraded to a 3" stainless buschur v-band turbo back. This thing is an absolute work of art...

-Gauges installed in the center panel, pics on my site. I like it.

-WBO2 upgraded, got the newer techedge 3B1, and sold my 2A0. The 2A0 has been with me for a long time... At least 4 years. It was like losing an old friend...

-Just picked up another Cummins turbo diesel, a 92 Dodge D250. Much older and crappier than my doolley, but no payment is a plus. The EVO is enough...

And many more little things I'm sure I'm forgetting...

Took a second place trophy in the local Import event Saturday, but the car was still slow with an 11.9 at 117. I've come to the conclusion that even though it's open, my exhaust baffle is costing me a significant amount of airflow. I have no airflow sensor, but there are still ways to tell with the AEM. If I'm right, and my bench math is still good, it should easily breach the 120mph mark tonight at the track. Not too worried about the ET, I can't launch with my nearly broken transfer case (shep is building me another one as we speak) and I still don't have a cage (don't have the heart to pull the trigger and ruin this car).

In the near future the new shep Tcase goes in, FMIC gets upgraded from the 24x12x3.5 SBR unit to the 24x13x4 buschur race core, snow tires get swapped for summer tires, and the tuning process continues. Then when it traps that 122-124, the NAWS gets hooked back up and I go for one glory pass before the track boots me...

[Killa]

My car gone kevin, Im getting a GM soon. BTW its good to see your update man .

[Blackcrow64]

Wow... Kevin lives on... lol

You never cease to amaze me dude. I can't wait to see what you run with the new setup at a perfect tune and run...

[NOFX0617]

It is awesome to see that you are still alive Kevin. I hope you are able to keep some free time out there for us

I am very jealous of your set up right now. I wish that I had the money to put something like that together. But congrats on everything man and make sure to take care of yourself.