Brandon's 2012 ISM STI

Another update, forgot to get pics of some of the changes tho. So the black clad iron bolts that came with the spoiler rusted right after the first wash which was shitty so I replaced all those with stainless bolts and its been fine ever since lol

Next I had a little mishap with the rear diffuser. So a while back I was backing out of my buddies driveway and the middle rear diffuser brought up on the ground and buckles them all on 90* so the next day I straightened them out the best I could but a I didn't notice but I assume when I done that I broke free the self tapping screws and it must of been hanging down because a couple weeks later I was driving down the road and hit a bad dip and ripped the diffuser clear off, it flew like 30ft in the air hahah thank god nobody was behind me

Anyways I turned around and got it. All corners where buckled pretty bad so a while later I decided to straighten them out again and reinstall it but this time I used 5 self tapping screws and a lag bolt in the back and then bolted it to the two corners of the car hah should be good now

So next thing was installing my lower canards. I couldn't install them last time because they where too long for the flares so I needed to cut them

So first thing I done was cut a piece of cardboard out the same size as the lower canards and placed it against my flare to get a measurement of how much to cut. Anyways I got it cut and used a dremel to cut it out. The measurement looked great by holy cow was I off lol I don't know where I went wrong haha anyways a break down

This was after I cut the piece out and sanded it down

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Next I relocated the bracket ahead to retain 3 bolting locations on the canard

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Only thing Ill do is replace the bolt where I relocated the braket. Couldn't find the ones I bought for it so had to use some big clunky ones

After that I reinstalled my bumper and took some cell pics

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Followed by some other pics with the camera

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and then a funny pic from a recent show hahah

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So some other issues ive figured out and going to fix over winter is

1. the oil consumption
A. Must be from the turbo, leak down and compression test was perfect. She smokes white smoke when idling for a while and tastes oily so again im ordering a new turbo and hopefully that's the issue there

2. The feedback knock I was getting
A. Was from a couple things, first we thought the pump wasn't working because it was showing less bars on the led display gauge. Before it was 7 out of 8 bars but come to realize that means it was over spraying and it regulated out and is no displaying 4 bars. Also we are going to a bigger jet for the meth and switching to 100% meth and not just 50/50
Also we found out that the fuel pump cant keep up and starts to lean out towards the top of the rpm range so got a new AEM pump coming to fix that issue and also going to install a Cobb fuel pressure sensor to monitor that

3. Losing boost
A. I thought at first it was a boost leak but come to find out it was cutting boost due to the DAM dropping to compensate for the knock it was getting

4. Clutch cant handle the power
A. Replace it lol just not sure with what one yet. Looking at a Clutch Masters FX350 and a SouthBend Stage 3
 

Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Wow, pretty eventful mishaps. However, your car looks so fucking good, AS ALWAYS!!! :tup:
 
Well regret to inform but the day has come... I once again lost my engine ffs.

I figured I was on borrowed time with the car anyways. She has had some mishaps and set backs but I have a solid plan anyways.

So plan right now will take a couple years just because I have other priorities to attend too but either way I have a little garage the cars into for now until the house is built.

But right now the plan is to go with either a built IAG closed deck short block or some other reputable builder

Heads are also getting done. Not quite sure if ill do it myself or not tho but right now the brand of products is up in the air but thinking either Ferrea for valves, springs and retainers or GSC and either BC or GSC stage 2 cams.

Ill be going with BNM Fabrications rotated turbo setup which includes 2 piece downpipe, intake, up-pipe with dump and going with a 4-1 header (EL header). With a Garrett 3076gtx gen 2 turbo. Will also be getting a FMIC done by them as well and hes making me a rotated intake manifold pipe as well

Then driavtrain will be either South Bend or Competition Stage 3 clutch and flywheel with some upgraded motor/trans mounts

and thwn just some things to replace like oil pickup, new plugs, new oil cooler air pump delete and also either going with an injection plate to mount to the throttle body or a direct injection setup for each chamber not quite sure yet. Also going to be going larger jets as well. Might throw a gates timing belt kit on there too

Already have the turbo ordered, speed density kit and new fuel pump so this year im aiming at finishing the turbo setup and get the engine out. Going to take the intake manifold off and sand it down and paint it a new cooler.

Got someone who wants my old turbo setup and my used short block which is awesome.

Thinking about getting my piping done in copper or bronze
 

Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Man, that sucks!

Years?!?!?! :(
 
Update;

So started my tear down, taking my time but forst step was to get the turbo setup off and cleaned up then sold

So here I backed it out and backed it in lol

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Dont have much room in there. Luckily my dad felt bad once he seen my room and offered to put it in his much much bigger garage which ill do next week when I go to pull the motor

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So first thin I done was just remove some of the easy bits like the alternator cover, battery, intake and recirc valve

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Unbolted the tmic and disconnected the meth jets

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removed inlet pipe

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My shop dog haha

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Jacked it up and started at the header

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Sheared off the first two bolts and couldnt get the third one at all

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Was in such a weird placement lol so had to take out the big guy for it

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When we started to cut the bolt, got the heat wrap on fire hahaha quickly poured water over it lol

Anyways after I got the intake off, inlet pipe, downpipe, header, alternator cover, recirc valve, tmic I cleaned it all up and packaged them up and sold them lol

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Then once I got back home I brought the cherry picker and engine stand to dads garage and put that together

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And thats where im at right now. Ill prob be placing the ordre with BNM Fabrications soon for the turbo kit and next week ill haul the engine and possibly tear it apart see what it looks like in there
 
Alright another update for my journal haha

Anyways first thing I done was move it too a bigger garage. My fathers garage is messy as hell but I dont have any other option lol so once I got her in :) bought and put together some nice automotive dollys and bought some fender covers to protect the sides

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Next step was too unbolt the alternator

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And another bolt going straight down into a bracket

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Once I had that unbolted I decided to let the coolant out. Moved the bracket back and unplugged the rad fan

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Same on the other side as well

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Removed the rad cooling plate and rad stays. Snapped off a bolt somehow so ill have to drill that out

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Disconnect the coolant lines from the overflow tank

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Once thats done you just haul the rad right out

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and here is all the space. Literally can climb in there and get at the back bolts alot better lol

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Next I disconnected the fuel lines. There clips can be a bit of a pain. I would def recommend the little tool you can buy for these fittings haha we managed to get them off by sing to small pick screw drivers with 90* ends. Slide them in the notches on the clip and haul left and right to open the clip and then haul the hose off

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Next I started disconnecting the AOS lines. First one was the line going to the top of the coolant tank

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Then disconnected the AOS line going to the turbo

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Then the two hoses going to the crankcase on the right and left

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Disconnected the line going from the fuel reg to the manifold as well as the masteer cyl to the manifold

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Next was labeling the recirc valve line lol label everything

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Then I just labeled the boost gauge line and removed the recirc valve hose from the engine bay

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Covered the intake manifold throttle body which made zero sense hahah

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and then started to unbolt the AC compressor. I didnt disconnect any lines. Because I dont want to recharge it and also found you arent suppose to release the freeon to the atmosphere

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Then I started back at the AOS unit again lol so unhooked the top entry of the middle of the crankcase

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Another middle crankcase connection but the side entry.

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The we bolted the cherry picker to the engine to take some strain after I unbolted the engine mounts

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Next was prob the most difficult part lol taking off the starter hahah what a pain. Anyways its two long bolts that bolt it too the back of the bell housing and then another two bolts that go through the starter bracket and through the bell housing to the short block casing

One of the bracket bolts through the bell housing

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here you can see one of the two long skinny bolts what hold the starter together

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Next after you remove the starter oh side note there is also a small wire for the starter that needs a 10mm nut to be removed and also a 12mm nut for a ground but like I was saying next is a allen head bolt that holds the clutch fork into place youll need to remove that

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all together there is two long bolts for the bell housing on top, one more on each side, two on the starter and two more nuts that are on bell housing studs if I remember correctly
 
This is the hole with that allen head removed

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and the fork pin

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once all that is out you can now start to split the block from the bell housing. Best thing I found was a small pry bar and a few taps from the hammer and it come right apart

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you can see here where the clutch fork is still connected and dangling from its boot hah

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and after some wiggling and lifting shes out :) nothing to it, dad popped by to help taking it out hah

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clutch and flywheel dont look to bad

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Turboooo which is for sale

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and then took off the coolant tank, couple 10m bolts I believe it was

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Now the fun part lol disconnecting the 4000 sensors hahah

first up the injectors

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next I disconnected the ground

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plug under the ebc bracket for the ebc

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then the other two fuel injectors

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plug going to the head, not exactly sure what its for

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then the two coil packs

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two more on the bottom of the head

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then two more going to the front of the intake manifold

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andddd one more on the front of the intake manifold

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two going to the front of the engine block

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disconnected the ducting for the air pump

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two more plugs on the bottom of driver side head

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another right above the fuel rail

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driver side coils next

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and have a little beer while doing so :)

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then there was one more hose connection going to the throttle body

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Removed the air pump on the back, only two bolts

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Took off the ebc bracket

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removed the 4 bolts that kept the throttle body on and removed that

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one last hose to the throttle body

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then disconnected the line going to the fuel lines

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then I removed the injectors from the tgv and drained the fuel left in them and the lines. TGVs are a simple removal only 6 bolts for each unit

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tied up and braced my ac compressor as well so no kinks in the lines

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and thats about it for right now lol when im off work again ill remove whats left and split the block and have a look. Judging by the amount of oil that came out which was only about a quart she def spun a bearing. But I need to figure out where 4 quarts went to in 2 weeks
 
Well another little update :) got my first parts ordered. Ordered my BNM FMIC kit and the widebody. Next will be gauges so I got some stuff to keep me occupied over winter. Then I think Ill either order my head stuff or all my other little things I need
But either way picked at it a bit over on these days off
So removed the fuel lines altogether because I sold my fpr and going with a aeromotive one and iag lines
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then air to driver side head
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along with passenger head
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then coolant feeding to the bottom of the engine
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sensor haha
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the coolant lines
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and I honestly have no idea what this is
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everything pretty much removed
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I believe this is the pcv valve
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removed the flares and sold them haha no turning back now
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