mosquitocoils

Wait, which line is with the Plazmaman top half? The green line or the blue/pink lines?

Looks awesome, very jealous! What was the end use of that -10 fitting on the coolant pipe? Asking because I am looking at getting one of these soon-ish.

I got the S2 seat harness over the weekend and booyyy there's a lot going on there. Below you can see I had it roughly laid out with everything going in the rough direction they would in the car. The black taped harnesses go to each seat, the yellow taped harnesses plug into the car floor area, and everything comes together and runs to the two switches in the console. I rigged up another battery I had so I could test what would work etc as the guy I got the harness from cut this out of the main loom that runs through the car, so there are a number of cut wires I couldn't figure out easily although I suspected that each of them would basically need to connect to 12v or ground. After having some time to play with it I realised the following: - the 'power' portion of the seat is literally just 12v + ground, the wires more or less go straight to the seat plug and are quite thick - the 'heater' portion of the seat is a separate circuit that runs through a relay that isn't in the S1 Stagea (using thin wires to activate the relay) and draws the "working" 12v needed from the above thick 12v line - the S2 floor harness has a 4-pin connector for the seatbelts whereas the seatbelt itself only puts out 3 wires... the 4th wire seems to come from the console switches - maybe this means the heater can't be turned on turning on unless the seatbelt is done up? I would love if someone could verify this Anyway I was a little pressed for time so I never finished deciphering the heater circuit wires. Being in QLD I'm also not too fussed about the heaters although they would be nice for show. I decided to simply worry about getting power to the seats so I can move them and if I want to down the track (when I have more time) I can pull them out and keep working with the rest of the harness that's going to live in that random "TO DO" box in my garage... Now that I've bored you with what I couldn't do, let's talk about what I COULD do! Here is the main 2-pin seat connector in my S1, coming up from under the carpet under the seat. These pins supply constant 12v and ground: Here is the 4-pin seat connector from under the carpet of a S2... these have the same 12v and ground as above (for seat power), as well as a 12v and ground for the heater circuit. So long story short I figured out which 2 out of the 4 wires were meant to give the seats power, and cut the plugs off and soldered the 4-pin connector onto my 2-pin cable, just leaving the extra 2 wires tucked away/unused. The main 12v wire was the white wire and was thicker gauge than all the rest. The ground was the black wire in both S1 and S2 which made it easy. (Yes I twisted the wires together but just for testing! Once finished I soldered and covered correctly). Then I put the seats back in and connected all the plugs. With that done, I was finally above to move the seats forward (you might be able to tell from the previous post they were extended all the way to the back) I also decided to keep using my S1 centre console as the lid simply doesn't sit right. There are little tabs around the edge that you can't see, but stop the top box section sitting flat/flush with the centre console itself so I would need a S2 top box. Since I'm not using the heaters it doesn't really matter, but I'm definitely starting to get ideas for what else I could use those OEM looking switches for...

Thanks for the kind words and that tip man. I'm honestly leaning towards upgrading the whole hot side once I finish getting the ECU and fuel all setup properly and going with a proper branded turbo (a little smaller like 3076 size) and 6 boost manifold IDEALLY depending on $$. Would rather the peace of mind not using cheap gear down the track. But it's serving it's purpose of 'proof of concept' for the time being so we'll see. Funny you say that! I picked up a stock intake manifold recently for cheap with the intention of either doing a cut and shut forward facing manifold which retains the stock runners, or just going all out and getting the plazmaman top half. Either way I want those stock runners for exactly this reason. From what I've seen I'm probably losing around 500rpm from my torque curve without them

I (pretty unexpectedly to be honest) picked up a leather interior from a S2 Stagea on the weekend... and if anyone ever asks, you can fit the entire set of front + rear seats into both a CJ Lancer with 3 passengers (somehow!), as well as in an SG Forester (kind of expected that though). These seats are electric and also heated which is a HUGE upgrade. However my S1 Stagea has a slightly different electric plug in the floor (2 pin) which doesn't connect to the new seats (4 pin). I have the harnesses coming which have been cut out of the body loom and I'll just need to solder them into mine in place of the ones I have. It will be a little bit of fiddling but shouldn't be too hard to figure it out plus will be WELL worth it. I also got the S2 centre console which has the switch panel. Time to say goodbye to the old "pov pack" cloth seats... And time to start living that VIP life... I'm honestly stoked with them despite not setting out to get a set. The seller needed a double din stereo and I wanted to ditch the one that came in my Stagea (to fit a single din stereo instead) so we swapped... win win? There are some differences I still need to address like: - the seatbelt buckles (fronts, at the bottom of the seats) are different from S1 to S2 so I just have to swap my buckles over - the harnesses to make the electrics work (as said above I have them coming) - and the centre console... The S2 console physically bolts into my S1 but the top box screw points are slightly different, see 2nd and 3rd pics below: I can make it work by using some new, long, self tapping screws and it will fit snug but I'm not sure yet if I want to do that or just try and find a S2 top box. We'll see!

Got the main components for my mild fuel setup in the mail recently: - Bosch 1000cc injectors - Billet top feed fuel rail (black) - Turbosmart FPR800 fuel pressure regulator (black) + worlds tiniest gauge haha All I need is a fuel pump and that's fueling taken care of! I also picked dynamically flow matched injectors so all 6 are within 2% of each other at multiple duty cycles for peace of mind. Haven't had a chance to get them out and into the rail just yet, probably won't get a chance to do much more with the stagea for a while as we're moving house soon and it's actually running at the moment (for once!) so that is the priority for the time-being.

Haha hey, it definitely helped save my nice concrete floor from catching fire so that's a bonus!

Wow, it's been a while since the last update. I borrowed my mates welder, learnt how to weld (really badly) and set about fixing up the dump to suit the new turbo. The GT35 I got came with a dump but it didn't meet up with the cat, plus it actually fouled on the auto transmission. So I had to cut + bend it sideways about 1-2 inches, weld in some new pie cuts to fill in the gaps, then fix up the flange on the cat section to meet the new angle of the dump. Here's a quick pictorial version... keep in mind I've never welded before and learnt a lot, the hard way, and in a very compressed format as I could only work on it for an hour or two each week. So please, no judging... haha Cutting out my 'pie cuts': Welding the pie cuts into place Now you can actually see daylight between the dump and transmission: Once the dump was fixed up it was time to re-jig the front pipe of the cat, to mate with the rear of the dump: (I welded the flange on, but no pics.) Test fitted it all back together - A-OK! While I had the welder I also welded in a new o2 sensor bung, as the one already in the dump pipe was on a bad angle and if the sensor was installed it would foul on the strut tower/ABS lines in that back corner. Once running on the Haltech fulltime I don't think I need an o2 sensor for normal driving so I plan to use this hole for a Haltech wideband anyway. Had to buy a new badass stepper drill bit, this thing is mental and has made quick work of these holes that my other drill bits couldn't. The final product (ignore my over-zealous wire wheel work haha): So that's where it's up to for now... exhaust is back on and the car is driveable once again! It's a laggy setup (only hitting around 2-3psi at around 3500rpm, which is as high as I dare take it just yet), although with the exhaust on it definitely picked up low-end power. I know I need more fuel, properly tune etc which is all coming. But the couple of short trips around the block have at least appeased me that the idea looks like it might actually work!

Getting to the pointy end now, not much to go! Good luck with the welding, I've just started a bit here and there over the last two weeks (to get my exhaust hooked up) and I gotta say, I suck haha. I'm realising the preparation is important as well which I now know I haven't been doing enough of. Slowly figuring it out.

I've been told no need for 2200... I'm leaning towards 1000/1050 for ease of tuning idle but have also been recommended 1650s. I'm looking for 450-500hp on e85. If you're shooting for more horsepower and e85 and want the headroom for future then 2200 obviously. Also - that exhaust system is so nice!! I love the work

Managed to take the stag for a spin around the block this week! With the exhaust not hooked up (so just the dump off the turbo)... obviously it was always going to be loud as hell! I don't think I took it above 2500rpm the whole time it was just so obnoxiously loud hahaha... seemed to drive very differently too, not sure if that's the GT35 lag or if I missed something and have a big boost leak so I will be checking everything over. Picked up my mates welder so the next thing on the agenda is to hooked the dump pipe up to the rest of the previous exhaust... Once it's a bit quieter I'll be able to drive it around a bit more and focus on what's going on with boost.

The other thing I've managed to do is finally get my Haltech ECU powered up... required multiple power/ground wires and I have to give many thanks to Haltech support because I'm such a potato. I'm not bad with electrical stuff but I've never seen these pins or plugs, or made my own loom so needed to be put on the right track. These pins have to be pushed far, far further in than I guessed, and there's also a little locking tab on the connector itself that locks the pins into place... of course if that's 'locked' from the start the pins won't go in properly... Anyway... got that sorted out and BOOM! Laptop hooked up and communicating! Then a couple of days later (I work slowly...) I managed to trace the coolant temp sensor (CTS) from the ECU loom and patch that into my Haltech loom as well - showed 16 degrees which matched the ambient temp so I'm satisfied that's correct (for now...). So far this is the only sensor I have piggybacked, next up will be CAS and MAF, then after some more time run some vacuum line to the internal MAP sensor on the ECU and install the IAT sensor. Hopefully by the time I get to that point I can get on the road and start datalogging.

I'm happy with MAF for now just to get things running... The Haltech has an inbuilt 3 bar MAP sensor, so one of my goals is to get that hooked up sooner rather than later. Then I'll need the IAT sensor as well (threading into cold side piping) which is only about $50 and I'll be good to go MAP tune. No dyno yet although I'd love to! At this stage I just need to get the dump pipe plumbed into the rest of the catback system then I can at least drive it on the road again without having an insanely loud dump exit haha. Hopefully getting a welder soon so I'm going to give some pie cuts a go myself. Should be interesting! Once the exhaust is fixed up I'll be taking it for a spin because it won't be drawing anywhere near as much attention!

It's been a little while, things have been slow but I've had some time to get some minor things done. I managed to get the power steering reservoir relocated by gently bending the hardlines (very, very gently) and making up a bracket to mount the bottle to the front support next to the radiator. I've started it and moved it a couple of times and I had a small leak from one of the soft hoses, which was easily fixed with a fresh clamp as those old press clamps are all old and ratty. This meant I can be happy with the turbo output placement and I also made up a new intake pipe that's a bit longer with a bend in it to keep the MAF happy. I found out the hard way that the MAF didn't like the previous setup AT ALL... like even pushing the accelerator slightly, to just move the car in and out of the garage, would cause it to stall immediately. As soon as I put this stainless bend in, the idle improved dramatically and I could accelerate normally again with no stalling. I know the previous setup was going to cause problems but I didn't expect it to be so noticeable!

My mate came around with his welder and we pulled everything off to check over and weld up if required. We just quickly pulled back some of the heatwrap and found that it had previously been welded up which is awesome! There are some cracks on the inside around the collector but none of them goes all the way through. We tried pouring a little water very carefully around the cracks and none came through the outside of the pipes so I guess based on our very scientific test that we're all good and didn't worry about having a go ourselves. I also tidied up one of the bolt holes on the T3 flange as it was burred and I couldn't get a bolt into it. Ended up using a tap/chaser my friend had it so hopefully it holds alright. Cleaned it all out then got it torqued onto the motor. Next is trying to figure out the turbo itself... after looking around for a T3 "offset spacer" for a while, I realise they don't exist... So my current plan is to just go ahead as is and leave the outlet up near the strut tower. I just have to relocate the power steering reservoir but I think I have enough room in the stock lines to get it next to the radiator. Time will tell! Also I know the MAF is no good there, this was purely to test fit my piping/filter haha. I'll eventually either run a 90 degree down into the corner of the engine bay, or what I'd prefer to do - run MAP sensor instead since the Haltech has it.

No manifold welding today but hopefully in the next few days. However I did manage to snag a pretty good deal on an Optima yellow top battery to replace that cruddy tiny thing that's in there at the moment. - 750cca - 55ah Vs my current battery: - 340cca - 30ah - things are so bad I drop 0.3v instantly by turning the headlights on... and the battery voltage slowly depletes while driving So this will require a relocation to the boot which I'll start sizing up over the next days/weeks or so. I also really like the fact that the battery came with a lid... and an instruction booklet...

Ah gotcha, that's a good distinction to make and one my level of knowledge/experience hasn't had the need for yet! Hopefully this stagea will be that car though so I will work towards welding a 90 degree bend on the turbo. Meant to be welding tomorrow so we'll see what happens.

That's not a bad idea about welding a 90 degree bend on to the compressor outlet... Might see if my mate can help me with that later this week as well. Although I find it hard to believe that a turbo's hot output would be enough to damage/melt a silicone elbow, most cars I've owned or mates that I've worked on have had silicone couplers coming off the turbo and they've lasted forever. I'm really just curious about the direct heat from the exhaust manifold cause it's so close. That heatshield stuff looks pretty good too! Might be unnecessary if I end up with a welded compressor but would probably make a good intake shield!

With christmas holidays in full swing I had a bit of time to start pulling the hotside off and see how much room I had to play with. It's nice seeing an engine this clean. The new manifold is going to get a once-over before it's all torqued down finally (cleanup and add some weld in a couple of suspicious spots, typical of a china manifold I'm told) but the purpose of this was just to test fitment. I left everything how it was when I got it and we ended up like this (which is less than ideal with the turbo output positioned up in the air): It might work... but I would like to avoid running the piping over the strut tower ?. I also need to figure out what to do with my power steering reservoir, it's a little in the way now. So I reclocked the turbo so the output is down nice and low which looks much nicer and easier to work with: Can anyone tell me if running a silicone 90 degree off the turbo output this close to the exhaust manifold is a bad idea? Too hot = melt? Or would the silicone pipe be fine as long as it's not touching, keeping in mind the manifold is wrapped? Once everything is tightening properly I will have around 0.5-1 inch extra space so I think I can rotate the turbo some more, which should push the output further away from the manifold (to the right of screen).

Can you get a copy of the tune from your tuner and load it yourself?

Haha yeah I agree! I figure this will be able to do everything I need and more... spending the little extra now will be a big help in future for things like knock control, launch control (probably not necessary but pretty neat!) and having the extra CAN port as I like the idea of adding on the extra stuff down the track. For example the wideband controller and multi-gauge (which I might like to run later to see ethanol % etc) both run on CAN so can both plug into the 2000 without an extra CAN adapter. And the flex fuel sensor and boost controllers both run on a standard digital connection to the haltech so don't need a CAN port. Anyway, now I have options.

Things have also taken a more serious route this week... picked up a Haltech Elite 2000 along with the "Plug and Pin" kit so I can snip the injector and ignition wires going into the stagea ECU and feed them into the Haltech, leaving the stock ECU to control the auto shifting (my ECU seems to be the early Hitachi version with only 1x ECU which controls the engine and auto in one). May not be perfect but it will do the trick for the timebeing, plus it has a tonne of extra features that will come in handy later when I can run it as a standalone.

A week ago I took the stagea to All Asian Day at Lakeside here in Brisbane. It was a pretty fun time and the stag felt great on the track. It was a happy laps style of event, two lanes of cars the whole way around the track then everyone lined up for roll races down the straight. Despite having a refreshed motor, the stag is basically still in stock form, only with the boost turned up a little bit (which is kind of pointless hitting R&R anyway haha) and felt heavy and slow down the straight. Will definitely benefit there from some tuning and turning things up a bit. Corners were a very different story though! Being AWD and sitting so low on the Tein coilovers meant I could power through corners insanely fast! I kept pushing harder and harder to try and see where the limit was before chirping the tyres but ultimately it wouldn't do it, it just hugged the road even at some quite high speeds which was very damn impressive. Here's a pic pulled up after some laps to cool off -

Another thing that's been making progress difficult is my battery situation. I'm having a hard time getting it to start sometimes, especially at night once I've been driving for a while with my headlights on. So far I've replaced the alternator and starter motor, it's a new battery (replaced the week I got the car) but I wonder if it's too small as it's a 340cca ... and I've never heard of the brand Mixtech before... The battery is usually sitting around 12.5-12.6v when left overnight which isn't terrible. When I first got the right tensioner bolt in it was only charging at around 13.8v so a quick adjustment tighter and I got it up to where it is now at 14.1-14.2v but I can't get it to charge any more (14.4v is the goal, isn't it?). In the process of checking all my cables I found the earth from the exhaust manifold to chassis was basically non-existant... it had burnt away at the manifold end and was dangling in the engine bay... so I've now run a new temporary earth cable there. I've also since added another decent gauge ground cable between battery -ve and the chassis for peace of mind. With that done the car has started mostly ok (maybe just coincidental), however there is still a voltage drop of 0.3-0.5v when using the headlights. Combine that and voltage drop that happens when under load (every time I accelerate hard the voltage seems to drop to 13ish and maybe 12ish sometimes) and quite often the volt gauge in the turbo timer starts flashing due to 'low battery' haha... If anyone has any ideas I'm all ears, because the next step is going to be a battery relocation to the boot and a big ass battery to go there as well! Which is a decent chunk of change I could be spending on go fast bits

I haven't had much time to focus on the stagea much lately, but have tried to fix up a couple of things... For one I put the front driveshaft back in... the more I thought about it the more I thought having a RWD auto just for the gimmick was kinda silly and it wasn't any more fun overall... plus the risk of not disconnecting everything properly etc... just makes sense to keep in AWD!