+1 I gotta hear this thing. I'm glad the cats are checking to make sure there aren't any scratches or dents from shipping.

I think you've mentioned this before, but what coilovers are you going with?

I still have an FI catback w/ the 18" resonators, the normal tips, and the CF muffler option, from back before I had fully committed to making this car track only. Combined with FI's Long-Tube headers, the car is kind of ridiculously loud under throttle by any normal person's standards. I think, being the kind of people we are, our perception of what is or isn't "too loud" is a little warped. Flooring the car through 2nd or 3rd is a great way to find out if there are any cops within a half mile radius :) It sounds great to me though, and it's pretty damn quiet at warm idle.

Ksport Version RR coilovers.

The spring rates are the closest to what they need to be for this car, out of the box, and I'm willing to give them a shot. They have rebuild service and have most all of the bells and whistles I'm looking for. They're a good compromise until I'm ready to drop the cash for "real" motorsport coilovers (AST's or JRZ's).

I think the VVEL system allows for very tiny openings @ idle, because after the first 15-20 seconds, the car isn't loud even open header.

I've had Mandingo's old Y pipe on the car with no other exhaust (just enough pipe to keep backfires away from the O2 sensors) and have started/ran the car periodically to keep everything moving inside the engine and it barely sounds like anything beyond a modded car at idle after that first bit.

Of course, the racket it makes when you wrap it up to 4-5K without an exhaust is... well... The neighbors can't be the biggest fan of me at this point.

I got the passenger side header off, cleaned up and touched up with ceramic paint.

Got it wrapped and mostly re-installed.

What a total bitch it was. I don't understand why PPE had to make the runner layout so dramatically different on the passenger side, but it is a huge pain the *** to remove/replace. Actually have to remove a stud to get the thing in and out. We got the top nuts on and the bottom nuts started, but I ran out of time and had to call it a day. Hopefully get a chance to get out there and finish the job this weekend.

After that, I need to finish the TB heater delete and work on the EVAP delete in preparation for reassembly of the car.

Next week I should be ordering the supplies I need to finish the exhaust prep as well as a new radiator (hopefully one of the vendors I'm working with comes through) and some intake parts to re-configure my intakes.

After that I'm still waiting on Wedge Engineering to ship my seat bracket so that I can get the seat mounted and the sizing to the pedals/wheel finalized. I'm doing it this way so that when it goes to the cage builder (Hopefully early June) it will already be in the proper position and the bracket can be welded in.

Once it's back from the builder, it's coilovers, finish out the cockpit, and then hopefully some ******* racing. It'll be close to a full year since I drove the thing by then. :(

I want pics and videos!!!

Welp, looking at over two weeks before I get my damned seat bracket. Meaning an "over 5 weeks" wait for a damned seat bracket.

Both cage builders have stopped returning my calls and emails...so yeah. I dunno where I am on that. Sigh.

Hopefully get to order my radiator and other bits to finish up my engine bay this week or next. We'll see. Kinda bummed out. :-/

It's hard to build up a car and drive it too. I try to bite off small chunks and get it drive-able again before the next event, but even that doesn't always work. Right now the radiator/bumper/oil-coolers area of my car is still completely dissasembled and in the middle of fabrication/mod work involving drills and holesaws and dremel tools. I've got an event booked for 11 days from now, and a birthday party and mother's day taking up the remaining weekend. So, we'll see how that goes :)

Be happy it's only 5 weeks. I waited over 2 months for mine but at least the Z was in winter hibernation at the time.

I've got to get a new wing and maybe a new hatch too. But I don't have anything planned yet through June, maybe in July.

The aluminum is cracked on my hatch where the old spoiler mounted from the down force, and I'm switching to Aeromotions, which will mount differently, and hopefully not in the exact same area as the APR one did.

Need to do this to delete the water hardline on the driver side.

http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6ae84cd3.jpg

Haha, something like that would be nice, but it'd need to be a lot larger, I'm thinking.

That tiny line is replacing two 1" water lines..

Size is no issue (that's what she said). But the other smaller line ill be deleting anyways.

Well it's 3 lines really, but the true bypass is 5/8", the heater is 3/4", and then there's the throttle body line that's more like 5/16". I'm guessing the thermostat closes the true bypass as it opens the radiator flow path, but the heater line remains open full-time? In either case, I suppose a machine shop could make an adapter plate that goes on the side of the engine there and connects one or both ports to a single AN fitting like Spohn's pic.

I really don't think the car needs gargantuan amounts of bypass flow anyways, just to keep from boiling fluid in the heads till the thermo opens up. I still kinda think you could get away with a thermostat-only solution, too, though. Close off the heater/bypass lines completely, and install a modified thermostat that allows sufficient "bypass" through the radiator even when "closed" (by drilling out the plate that closes it a bit - it already has a tiny hole in it, just needs a bigger one).

(Oh and for the record: I did drive mine with the stock coolant path setup and no thermostat for a couple days recently: definitely not a viable solution. What everyone says about flowing too fast in the radiator is true. The temp spikes dramatically in response to airflow and engine RPM issues, but also falls back down dramatically. It's pretty ugly how poorly the system operates without the thermo.)