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  • 4 weeks later...
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I'm still around, and I've completed some more stuff on the car now so I'm ready for an update.



Mostly last year I was bombing around in the car, extremely happy with the direction it was going in and how it drove.



Then some scrubbing from the rear of the car starting happening, and the exhaust was banging on the rear axle. It was clear the car had lost ride height, and this had obviously swung the axle over hence the scrubbing. It turned out to be 2 knackered standard starlet shocks, which I quickly replaced with some KYB gas jobs which have been brilliant.



Then it was time to install the parts that had been sitting in my study for a while - the WEPR manifold and the Gizzmo EBC.



It took me a total of 2 days to finish the install to a satisfactory level. I couldn't get to one of the nuts holding the turbo to the mainfold, so I removed the power-steering pump to remove the manifold with tubby still attached.



Whilst taking this all off it gave me opportunity to check the turbo for play and it was still sweet as. Standard CT9b too.


So in went the new manifold


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This meant I could up the boost to 1bar safe in the knowledge that the 3rd runner restriction wasn't going to result in a melted piston. The gizzmo was then used to up the boost. I set the actuator so that it sat closed (Around 0.6bar) and used the EBC to up it to a bar.



This turned into a very irritating day. I'd had a lot of the intercooler pipework out to make room for moving things, and somehow when reinstalling all the gubbins the angle the hot pipe was at wasn't quite right, and this put the corner under a lot of pressure and kept blowing the joiners off. This was extremely annoying as it meant I was taking the bumper on/off.



Eventually I got the angle right, and could experience full throttle at 1bar for the first time.



Holy Crap! The roads where I live are very uneven, so the starlet scrabbles and launches its self over imperfections. It seemed so much faster than it did before.


Even the girlfriend was impressed (and she is not a fan of starlets lol).



So that was it as far as I was concerned. Did a few amateurish photos.


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Glanza's get you all the pussy...


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I was happy with the car for a while, but I started to notice this flat spot in the middle of the rev range. It was like I had no torque, and then it would all come at once.


I thought it was a misfire, so preceded to replace the whole ignition system, one component at a time. Sparks - worn but ok, Dizzie and rotor arm - very worn. New coil, changed NGK blues for some magnecores. Each time I looked at something, it looked spent so it was replaced.



This went on, even to the point of replumbing some of the vacuum lines in a bit to rule out stuff, but even when I found issues, they still didn't resolve my "misfire".



It dawned on me it was probably the JAM - I was asking too much boost and as it I don't know what it was mapped for, couldn't supply the right amount of fuel. I decided to go down the Emanage route - sold the JAM to a mate, and booked a visit to Tuning Developments.



It was a great day - easy install and mapping session - Mike had originally said they had needed to the car to about 4, but they were done by 1:30pm. Absolutely no issues with the car for them to resolve - hence the easy time of it.


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Now my setup is slightly compromised again by my unwilling to remove the aircon, and hence I still use the stock EFI which is proving to be slightly restrictive at high revs.



Despite this, my car made an extremely healthy 186.1bhp and 200 lbft at the fly. Mike commented on how healthy overall the car seemed, and how "tight" it had felt on the test drive. All of which made me feel very pleased with my little starlet.


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I left TD extremely happy - the map has made the car feel extremely smooth and very torquey. It has oodles of power in the mid range it was missing before, which means it gains speed so much faster than it used to. Its taking so getting some getting used to, and a fair amount of accidental tailgating.



At the moment the V is in winter mode on some scruffy alloys with rubbish tyres until I get some new rubber for my summer wheels.



The engine is about as far as I can go on a ct9 now, so next up will be some further chassis and aesthetic improvements - first up will be better brake pads!



Thanks for reading.






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  • 7 months later...

Well it's been a while since I updated this, so here it goes.



Since it was mapped at TD, I was thinking of ways to have my cake and eat it, namely have AC but shorten the intake route. Unfortunately the hot pipe had been rubbing on the AC piping, so a pinhole opened up.



There is a very nice guy with an engineering shop near me who can weld aluminium, so he plugged the holes in my cold pipe and in the AC pipe.



Refitted the pipework, and went to the local STS to have the air con checked and refilled. The car held a vacuum just fine, and then filled with no leaks. As soon as we turned the AC on however, BANG!


One of the rubber pipes exploded and dumped all the gas out. We had to run as that stuff is very poisonous!



As it turned out, you can't get hold replacement pipes, so I ended up stripping out all the air con, and running a short intake behind the grill. Surprisingly, this makes a massive difference. Before, my boost tales off to 0.7bar and 186bhp due to the restrictive intake. Now it holds 1bar to the redline, and it feels much stronger top end.



I took the car then on its first track day.


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And then when I was starting to get the hang of it:



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Thankfully later in the day, it started to dry up (not after spinning it through 1080 degrees!)



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I was very happy about how the car performed, the handling was predictable, the engine had good power. The only let down was the standard radiator, which after a few hot laps started pushing water back into the overflow which true to its name, overflowed. It was very warm by this point, but the car managed to keep to the temperature down. I'm currently saving for a new civic duel core half rad.



I'm in the process of painting the tattier bits of body work, namely the wing and sideskirt, and whilst the paint colour is spot on, the cans I used weren't the best finish, so once the paint has hardened, I'll crack the buffer out.



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