So this is it. This is the final set of photos for the engine upgrade. I am still working on the 2 piece wheel well liners but you can see them cut in these photos. You can also see the modified Werks cold air intake. You will also see the duct that comes up from the radiator area to meet the opening in the hood. I didn't take any photos of the battery area as I am still wiring up the turn signals. That is where I am going to put the 80 amp 5 volt power supply and also the fuse block for the LED's along with the controller. I changed out my battery for a 1200CA dry cell that has a crazy small footprint and weighs 33 lbs. I changed the position of the battery due to the duct I ran from the turbo area to the fender vents on the passenger side. Everything is going to fit perfect. I am going to use some of the 1/2" thick poly-carbonate that is left over from the turn signal lenses as a shelf of sorts to hold the fuse block and the LED controller.
I will take some photos of my work in progress on the turn signals. I am in the process of soldering up the control board and I have added a display so I can get some debugging information out of it. I will probably add some kind of a directional control so I can have a menu system on the thing for changing some settings. right now I have these "settings" hard coded but it would be nice to change them without having to flash a new firmware to the thing each time.
One of the settings is adjusting the turn signal speed. I wrote the software so it learns the speed of the flasher and it will match the on and off duration but if it needs to be adjusted up or down I would like to have a way to do that.
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I will tell you what.. having the open wheels like that is friggin awesome. I can lean on the tire and not have to worry about collapsing the fender liner. I can also set tools on the tire and they will stay and not slide down into a place that take you 20 minutes to get the thing out. If a tool falls it falls onto the ground!!!
This is going to 100% solve the issue with the liners cracking and also having the paint rubbed off the hood or other areas. The part of the liner in front of the wheel and the part behind the wheel are connected together by about 2" of the liner where the shock tower is. I can keep the front and back bolted in place using 7mm's and fender washers so they will not wiggle about in relation to the fender or the bumper cover. because the liner is now allowed to flex between the fender and the bumper cover no more cracks are going to happen. because the top of the liner it going to be attached to the hood it is not going to wiggle about taking the paint off the hood.
I cam up with a fantastic way of sealing the 2 halves I am using a door seal from a 2010 Volkswagen Jetta, you can see the seal clipped onto the passenger liner. I made a fiberglass backing plate for the top piece of the liner. the backing plate is about 1/4" thick so nice and rigid and it is larger then the liner. the backing plate is what is going to sit against the seal. because the seal is higher then the lower portion of the liner when the backing plate makes contact with the seal the top portion of the liner is going to drop into the opening making the liner complete again.
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Now don't laugh at this idea. It is actually quite ingenious. I hate the way that the turbo shield looks. I think it looks hideous. I am going to go and buy either an aluminum or a stainless steel cooking pot that is roughly the same diameter and use that as the shield. with a little bit of cutting and make a bend in it to make the mounting tab I think that would look pretty sick! and it would only cost 15-20 bucks!!! It would also be some pretty thick metal (has to withstand direct contact with a 1200 degree element) and not flimsy like the OE one.
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This is a really cool perspective.
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