Well its been over a year since the last update
I haven't been able to really go at it like I'd hope because of life. The war in Ukraine is a big factor in that since my wife is from there and has family there still. We've also moved from South Dakota to Georgia, which has been quite an undertaking. In saying those things though I've been working on various parts of the car when I get free time. I bought a 3d scanner to help model parts with before I build them to check clearances which has been a huge help. Before I bought that I also bought the 3d scans for my engine and transmission. Being able to accurately place things has been a huge boon. Because of that I've modeled some of the intake piping, started the engine mount designs, found I could use at least 2.5" exhaust all the way back in the transmission tunnel rather than the side of the car (might see if 3" would fit since turbos like the least amount of restriction as possible).
As far as the front suspension I've decided against inboard suspension because of cost and ease of building. I have not redesigned the coilover mounts yet to facilitate this however.
IntercoolerI plan to use a frozenboost.com air to water system. I'll be using the type 117 heat exchanger, though I may buy a cheap honda half sized radiator and having a buddy of mine weld the inlet and outlet closed to change them to a pipe fitting rather than use the frozenboost unit since it's got some odd mounting design, we'll see. The intercooler will be either the type 8 or 9 kit and mounted above the frame rails over the ducting for the radiator and intercooler heat exchanger. I previously was going to use a larger one but have decided against it.
CoolingI've decided on using a drag scirroco radiator and mounting it upside down to be able to mount it without having to modify the mounting brackets on it. Thankfully it does not come with a cap on the radiator. Placing it in the model however I've found the lower port on the radiator would run right into my steering rack. This means I'll be swapping racks for this project because the radiator is staying.
SteeringSince I'll be using wilwood pro mustang II drop spindles I can move the steering arm to be front or rear steer on the spindle. I'll be going to a rear steer rack since the radiator will be in the way, and after seeing some center take off racks like the 89-93 Chevy cavalier I figured I'd do some searching. The cavalier racks are hard to find anymore, even if they're cheap still. The input shaft also has a different OD and spline count than my steering column (more info on that soon). I've found that the 02-06 Acura RSX had a rear steer center take off rack that mounted tie rods to arms on the mcpherson strut assemblies and they are about $230 price wise. So a rack that I won't need to cut open to modify and I can adjust the bump steer however I want! I'll post some info on the two racks below.
Quote:
88-93 Cavalier
Splines = ?
Input Shaft OD = 17.42 (11/16 x 36 probably)
Power = 2.66 turns lock to lock
Manual = 2.83 turns lock to lock
RSX
Splines = 36
Input Shaft OD = 17.29
02-04 = 2.63 Turns lock to lock
05-06 = 2.59 Turns lock to lock (Type-S only)
Steering ColumnI was originally planning on using my old 02 WRX column and rack and pinion, however since I'll be using a different rack I also decided to see if anyone in the subaru world had sucessfully used an FRS/BRZ steering column in a GD Impreza (02-07) while retaining the GD impreza stalks on the column. These columns also have electric power steering on them that is very easily used with a add on potentiometer setup from a guy in portugal. This will allow steering difficulty adjustments on the fly. The column also has tilt and telescoping functions. I found a guy that had does this exact swap so I plan on doing what he did to swap the stalks on the column. That basically amounts to cutting off the old mounts, enlarging the hole for the new column and re-welding the old mounts to the new column for the stalks to mount to. The clockspring will also need to be modified since the 02 WRX clockspring is 3 turns lock to lock, while the FRS/BRZ one is ~2.5 turns lock to lock. A buddy of mine had a Scion TC column which is exactly the same as the FRS/BRZ columns so I picked that up for $100. They can easily be found with the computer on ebay for a similar price.
Here's the link to the guys writeup and a link to some plugs for the computer for the steering module.
https://b.obsdian.com/category/retrofits/https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showpo ... stcount=22Here is a writeup in a mustang forum that goes over these columns and what they can be found in a bit more thoroughly.
https://www.corral.net/threads/35-elect ... s.2321889/Rear SubframeThe last thing I've done in the interim is model up a rear subframe. It's designed so the laser cut parts will be used to locate the rear upper and lower control arm mounting tabs easily. It also incorporates the rear differential mounts.