David/Kenny's 1996 LGT

[Kenny]

Just a quick update:

We've done a little bit of work on the car in the past month. Nothing big as it's mostly been repairs.

We swapped the 96 intake manifold for the 99 intake manifold. We also swapped the fuel filter as it's brand new, and the coil pack. We swapped the intake as we were experiencing a lot of running issues that were causing miss-fires and generally running rough. I knew the 99 intake and all it's associated parts were in perfect condition as the 99's motor ran smooth with no issues. We also replaced the garbage spark plugs. The only issue now is I have to figure out a way to connect the charcoal canister to the system as 98/99 models had the canister in the rear of the vehicle and all the sensors and vacuum lines are a bit different. It's setting of a CE light at the moment... And there's a weird low RPM stumble. It's as if it's loosing fuel pressure. I'll get a video sometimes this week... It could be a a number of things.. Vacuum leak, crappy fuel pump, etc.. Ah, and the upper radiator hose has sprung a hole and leaks when the system hits a high enough pressure. So, now that has to be replaced.

Overall, though, the difference after the intake swap is monumental. She's running smoother than ever. More so, the swap rid the motor of quite a few ticking and knocking noises. The only remaining noise is the lower end knock after David ran her quite low on oil, but it's nowhere near as bad as before. These motors make WAY too many noises.. The past few years of it all is starting to drive me insane.

Overall the car is slowly heading in the direction we've wanted. We're going to be building the high compression motor sooner than we thought though. It will consist of:

- 99 Phase 2 EJ25D block
- STi crankshaft
- ACL Race main/rod bearings
- Eagle ESP H-beam rods
- EJ251 OEM pistons/rings
- Cometic MLS head gaskets
- Delta 1000 grind camshafts

I'm shooting for 11.0:1 compression with this motor.


The 4EAT is starting to get a little rough. She's binding up more and more lately. When the motor is built and ready to go in, we'll be pulling the current motor along with the trans and doing some work to it. We'll be replacing the duty-C, clutch pack, filter, pan, and fluid. Hopefully, with those repairs and the sport mode mod, we'll have a kick *** combo.

We'll also be doing some body work along with the motor install.


OH, and we took her to the track! I wasn't very impressed though. She actually ran 2/10th's of a second and 4 MPH slower than my original best time a few years ago. That could have been because of the weather and such, but it surprised me since the car should be making much more power. The original motor made 155 HP when new, and the current motor made 165 HP when new and now has a UEL header and a free flowing muffler as well.

*shrug*.... The transmission bind could just be that bad.

On my best run:

60' - 2.432 seconds
1/4 - 16.8 at 80 MPH


Here's a quick video of how she sounds at the moment. We have plans to have the entire exhaust behind the header upgraded. A single high flow cat, 3" mandrel bent piping leading to a Vibrant race muffler. I'll get some better videos/pics of the car in the next few weeks.