Adam's '99 Facelift Legnum

[Adam.Findlay]

Well I've been here for a good few years now. probably about time I posted a thread about all the ins and outs of my car and general build thread to keep track of whats going on.

Firstly I should explain the background of the car and the evoloutions Its gone through over the years

Well the saga all began in 2008 aged 18 when I sold my 2.5L V6 FWD '93 Ford Telstar TX5 XRi. I bought it for $2300 and then sold for $4000 after tidying it up a bit






I then used that $4000 to buy a manual Legnum VR4 in late november 2008.
After seeing the auction pic I couldn't wait to go pick it up.
Trademe Pic...





and then then after getting it home and spending a few solid days of washing polishing and waxing it looked like this..







At this point the car was relatively stock the mods it had was
-HKS mushroom filter
-Black duracon ralliart gear knob
-Tein "Low Down Spec Cool Style Master" height adjustable suspension
-Fake HKS SSQV blow off valve
-Rays Gram Lights 57S Pro 17"x7" wheels

The only thing I had done, was the Front bumper was in a bad way and the tow hook cover was missing so another member here Zitchu gave me a facelift tow hook cover he had laying around and I got a local spray painters to re-spray the bumper and attach the tow hook cover. This is the way it stayed apart from the addition of a Gizzmo IBC electronic boost controller until...

In early 2009 I moved to Christchurch to attend university. I joined the Universtity of Canterbury motorsport society dubbed "MOTOSOC" which gave me the oppurtunity to take the car for a blast around the local Ruapuna raceway. Unfortunatly a few sessions out on track the motor decided to snap a conrod punching a ~8" hole in the alloy section of the sump dropping all the oil onto the hot downpipes causing the engine bay to burst into flames
luckily I pulled off the tarmac and blasted the hell out of it with the fire extinguisher and another helpful chap in a skyline helped me push the broken car out of harms way.



After a depressing tow back to the halls of residence and a nights sleep I rung around some wreckers and horray! once just up the road from where I was living had a 6A13TT with only 30,000KMS for $500! SCORE. I of course had nowhere to perform the engine swap so I asked if I could buy it but not pick it up until I could hire a crane, find a car to tow it to a garage and of course borrow a garage for a weeked, to which the man at the wreckers responed "All good mate just buy me a bottle of bourbon and we can do it at my garage next weekend". turns out he was a fan of the VR4's so was keen to help. A weekend of work and a bottle of bourbon later my car was running again! yay


Inevitably, a few months later. Driving the car like the teenager I was caused the AYC to poo its pants and spread oil and gear teeth all over the road. and due to my lack of job at the time caused the car to stay parked up for a few more months until I decided to sell on my Teins to pay for an open ST-R diff. I replaced the suspension with stock stuff so a bit of a downgrade, but yet again the car was back in action!
In this time I also ditched the HKS mushroom for a stock airbox with K&N panel and sold the fake HKS SSQV in favor of a stock quiet BOV

Not alot happened between then and until I found a job due to lack of funds but the next thing to happen was I found a set of Evo 6 Brembos, discs, pads and braided evo lines on Trademe for $650 so snapped them up! only to find out they didnt fit under my +48ET rays, Bugger
So off to see Jeremy at Evoparts, turns out he Had a set of Evo 6.5 Tommi Mak edition wheels with Dunlop Direzza Z1 semi slicks for $1300, bought those and after getting Kalon to Paint up my brembos nice and bright red again everything was fitted to the car and looking good!








The next thing was a bigger FMIC which I decided on a 600x300x76 this required a small P/S cooler to be connected up to bypass the stock one and a PFL drivers side hard pipe. but that all went smoothly, no pics of FMIC install unfortunately




Then as expected from a 190,000km old clutch, it started slipping so on the hunt I was for a new one. after reading disaster threads about people using Evo clutches on VR4 flywheels and Not liking the Idea of the rubbish stock flexiplate flywheel I got a solid CrMo light weight steel flywheel made which weighed just over 5kg's I coupled this with a Exedy 7223HDCB cushioned button clutch as I wanted to retain some driveablility over a 5 puck clutch. this combo was beautiful to drive. assloads of clamp and the light flywheel seemed to give it a bit more go as-well.










Next on the list was urathane engine mounts as the stock ones were well shagged. they got rid of a wee rattle that was coming from the D/S engine mount







After putting up with the tortuous handling of the open diff I picked up another AYC diff for $100 and bunged it back in. which didn't last very long at all so the open diff went back in yet again so I rapidly started searching for Evo LSD's and after getting ripped off over trademe for an Evo 9 unit ~400 bucks out of pocket I found an Evo 8 RS unit which went into the car quick smart.









The rear LSD was installed at the same time as the RWD conversion transfer case I had purchased from Kenneth. and after a spirited drive through the hills this is what happened










OOPS!. Firstly The P/S Axle snapped at the diff. Replaced that, then the D/S Axle snapped. Replaced that and then the diff went KABOOM so out with the RWD transfercase and back to 4WD the car went. along with the LSD going into another ST-R diff case with gears that were in one piece. (for those counting yes that's diff #4 )


Time to end this post I think

To be continued...

[scott.mohekey]

Hahaha, good times!

[Adam.Findlay]

A few purchases later I now owned a new set of Tein Super Wagon Type Flex's with 8kg/mm front springs and 5kg/mm rear springs. also nabbed a Greddy Rear strut bar (which made a big difference to the stiffness on the chassis in the wagon) along with an 255LPH Walboro intank fuel pump and some Evo 9 Enkeis with Slick Ex NZV8 rubber on them








with the new suspension, brembos, LSD, FMIC, Fuel pump, remap and strut bar I went out on track and did a ~1:46 Lap which I was pretty stoaked with. keeping up with much more powerful cars


Next thing to happen was 2nd gear was getting a bit crunchy so out with the gearbox. and I figured while it was out I may as well much about with the ratios so I bought a Evo 4 gearbox with a damaged casing and put 1st-4th from that into my gearbox while retaining the VR4 5th and final drive. using the better synchros from the Evo box and new bearings gave me a Box with a taller 1st and 2nd gear without sacrificing the high cruise 5th.
This was good. but now I wanted more power, and fiddling around with KS-Mods and remapping had taken me as far as it was going to.
So I went down to see Peter at Kennelly cams to see what he could do in terms of cams. Ended up with the grind that I now sell on the club 262 degrees and 9.8mm lift. and also figured out that the Evo valve springs are a direct replacement. I bought A set of these cams in the initial group buy as well as some valve springs but couldnt install them because... Unfortunately 2 years of hard abuse launching etc had taken its toll on the clutch I had installed and it was beginning to slip on high load so I whipped it out and took it in to see if it could be re-buttoned for cheap. but turned out this clutch plate had the friction material sintered on so was unable to be rebuild, so in the bin it went
After much ummm'ing and ahhh'ing I decided to Bite the bullet and fork out for a proper multiplate clutch which resulted in me buying an MM023HBMC1 Exedy Carbon R triple plate clutch including flywheel, which I fitted using one of Nick Mann's adapters, cheers Nick!





OUCH expensive! but while the car was in bits I decided to slap in an Evo 5-6.5 Helical front LSD which I picked up from Evoparts for $400.




After installing all these shiny new bits (clutch, front lsd and cams) and giving it a quick re-map with the KS-Mods rom I had the chance to take it out on a track day, which didnt end well as I had a rather embarrassing accident where I had missed my session and went wayyy to fast around a corner onto pit lane to try catch up and ended up sliding out on the pit lane exit which dinged up my P/S front guard, bonnet, smashed D/S head light and knocked over a big ass yellow bollard. so again after a depressing drive home from the track I had a car to fix.

luckily a new bumper, headlight and guard fixed it right up apart from the facelift flares which I to this day still have not attached as Im waiting to save the funds to get the whole lot resprayed in one go.


But once it was fixed I strapped the thing onto a local rolling road Dyno to see what power the thing was making with my half assed tune and the new cams. The car pumped out 214.5 kW ATW / 287 hp ATW which I was pretty happy with. The guys who own the workshop with the dyno say most late model Evos put out about 170-180 kW ATW so not a bad effort for a crusty old family wagon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHAVw...ature=youtu.be





Also mixed in there there I got a set of D-Teknik fog light covers and some replacement fog lights which again are waiting in a cupboard somewhere until I can afford to get the car resprayed and the flares re-attached.







Aaaaaaand that about brings the story up to where the car was at before the latest round of modifications started. which means time for another post.
To be continued...

[Badger_01]

Awesome

[Bender]

Awesome thread, Can't wait to see the rest..

[Adam.Findlay]

Awesome

Awesome thread, Can't wait to see the rest..

Cheers. will update with another novel-of-a-post in the next few days when one of the key parts to the next step arrives

in the mean time for people who want a bit of a laugh, and to judge me for being a bad person...

This, I bet is what caused the diff to go bang when the car was RWD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHH95P5nDm4




and this is what front and rear LSD's do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwonDXB06qM




all performed on "closed roads" of course

as I said its ok to judge me for being a terrible human being

[Badger_01]

Hahahaha good stuff!

I am yet to do a skid or some such thing, too scared I'll break my car haha. Though there was one time that I went around the round about sideways haha

[SEAN-NZ]

ive never done anything like that, had the ass out a few times, but subs not secure, so tends to roll around, put a hole in a part of the boot to lol

[Bender]

Nice videos Adam.

I have launch mine a few times, Know that the clutch can handle it but worred about breaking the gear box and only had ass end out few times. I don't want to break it haha.

[SEAN-NZ]

ive launched mine to, forgot about that, i wouldnt say the clutch can handle it though, slipped a bit the last couple times, so ive had to lay off that to lol

[Adam.Findlay]

Nice videos Adam.

I have launch mine a few times, Know that the clutch can handle it but worred about breaking the gear box and only had ass end out few times. I don't want to break it haha.

Launching will roast your clutch or smash your AYC well before you damage the gearbox.

[Bender]

Yeah true.. I do have hd 5 puk clutch in mine...

[Atik]

Nice work Adam. Good to see a progress thread like this with some unique work carried out.

[WOODY72]

Good read Adam, and yes they do look like closed roads????????

[Adam.Findlay]

Nice work Adam. Good to see a progress thread like this with some unique work carried out.

Cheers, decided it was finally time to knock together a propper 'all in one' build thread instead of spreading all of the progress over multiple threads. and also gives me a place to update all future progress with the motor build which I'm obtaining parts for

Good read Adam, and yes they do look like closed roads????????

they were! honest!

[Ryan]

Cool clip but you might want to edit out your reg plate number?

[Adam.Findlay]

Cool clip but you might want to edit out your reg plate number?

unlisted youtube vid. only those with link can see it. so no sharing

[Ryan]

unlisted youtube vid. only those with link can see it. so no sharing

Your call *shrugs*. Pretty easy for the link to be copied, pasted and distributed.

[Adam.Findlay]

Me and a bunch of mates a few months back all did a group buy on Link G4 ecus. this landed me a Link G4 Xtreme ECU (is re branded as a ViPEC V88 in UK and some other places outside of NZ) with 3-port boost solenoid, Inlet air temp sensor (IAT) , 4 Bar MAP sensor and the loom to go with the new ECU.





The G4 Xtreme was the obvious chose as It has the ability to run sequential ignition and injection on up to 8 cylinder engines, has onboard knock control and has much more inputs and outputs compared to the cheaper Storm variant. I had also Recently purchased a Innovate LC-1 Wide-band controller with matching Innovate G3 AFR Gauge.


Then, after 60,000km's of very hard abuse and many trackdays, the $500 engine I had bought back in early 2009, combined with a steady 15psi of boost over those 4 years and some very basic tuning done my myself which must have had a wee bit of knock in it eventually caused a piston ring land to crack.

The story:
I was cruising down the motorway when all of a sudden a large loss of power, so I limped the car home. Upon taking the rocker cover off I saw a rocker had popped off. I proceeded to try put it back on. in the process of this I noticed the valve which had lost its rocker was sitting lower than its counterpart for that cylinder. So instead of just putting the rocker back on and trying to start it I removed all of the intake to check the valves. I shone a light down the port and saw a small piece of something holding the valve open.
so a few hours later and the cylinder head was off, only to reveal what I had feared.
Cracked piston!

http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/v...728_153507.jpg
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/v...728_153514.jpg

The bit of piston had broken up. a small piece had wedged the valve open which caused the rocker to fall off. the rest decided to go for a journey to say hello to Mr turbine wheel. the result is as follows.

http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/v...824_205819.jpg


AAAAANY way. Due to this engine being toast I decided to not bother putting my spare engine in to get the car going again, but instead go in the complete opposite direction and pull the poor broken thing apart .
luckily I can just use my super carry van as a daily get-around in the mean time.
While the car is in bits I so far have pulled the entire interior out including dash, loom and seats to rewire the whole thing
Rewiring it started off as just wanting to install the Link ECU but quickly spiraled out of control to cutting out absolutely every single un-nessacary piece of wiring as well as relocating the battery to where the AYC pump used to be and removing the engine bay fusebox.

First it started with removing the stock engine loom from the car, then off with both front guards, starting with the passenger side. engine bay fuse box, headlights, foglights, fan, A/C and alternator wiring was all unplugged from the dash/cabin loom and removed. then the same for the drivers side headlights, A/C, Wiper washer motors and foglight wiring. And last the entire dash and dash loom was removed
Then I put all the components back together on the floor so Carl ( @Patryn999 ) and carl and I could begin the process of back tracking all the sensors and wires back to the source armed with nothing but a multimeter, label maker and stock ECU pinout diagram.

http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/v...708_201151.jpg

After tracking the engine loom back to the other looms and labeling what wires do what such as speedo signal, tacho signal, Engine check light etc, I moved onto hacking the AYC loom out (after of course first testing that removing it would not affect the ABS system). I removed the AYC computer and then proceeded to back track all the wires and remove them. same thing with the fuse box. traced all wires coming in and out of it and peeled everything out of the passenger side loom except for the wires that need to go to the front of the car (headlights, foglights and horn)
also all of the AYC power wires were removed from the loom running down the side of the car to the back where the pump used to be.

The results were a ~7kg pile of wires on the floor and a dash loom which was considerably tidier as well as the loom which goes through the passenger guard being 1/6th the thickness it was from factory.

http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/v...721_000002.jpg

Instead of simply relocating the stock fusebox to behind the dash, Carl has sourced me all new fuse holders and relay holders so when the time comes to connect everything back up again It will be all wired up properly and out of the way.
but that will all get done when the link gets wired in, (I will upload photos with progress of the new loom as it gets done) which I have been waiting on a few bits to arrive so I can run the loom properly the first time. for example I was not going to bugger around with wiring in the stock wasted spark coils only to cut the brand new loom I am going to make open to change it to individual coil per cylinder later. this resulted in me buying a set of these

http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/v...67789_full.jpg

except mine are mounted in two sets of 3. so now I can mount the coils and wire it right the first time.


Now to the main thing that brought on this post!
MY MIVEC MOTOR IS HERE!!

http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/v...824_180354.jpg

http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/v...824_180418.jpg

There has been a bunch or hype over various forums over how easy it is to do a MIVEC 6A13TT. The only evidence Ive found of it being done is here

http://translate.google.co.nz/transl...dcar%2F29.html

Q bought a motor with the intention of building a 6a13 MIVEC a while ago and then gave up and nothing ever came of it. because as per his Oz VR4 profile, hes a "Do'er not a Say'er" LOL

but I took a cylinder head off the block tonight and had a look at it. (Pics to come, as it was dark and I was using a cellphone light for illumination whilst dis-assembling the thing )
I lined up the 6A12 headgasket over the bottom of a 6A13TT head. and all the head bolt holes, oil and water galleries line up. the only difference is the 6a12 has a 78.4mm bore instead of an 81mm bore like the 6A13's

Although my reason for buying the MIVEC heads was not for the MIVEC (as stupid as that sounds) it was because the MIVEC heads are solid mechanical valve adjustment ie. not hydraulic lifter.
the rockers are roller type and also attached to a piviot shaft (much like hondas VTEC or nissans VVL from the SR20VE's) so the rockers cannot ever get thrown off the valve stem. so long story short its the perfect combination for a rev happy engine.

More updates to come when I get the time to have more of a play with the Mivec heads

[Badger_01]

That mivec motor looks buggered, probably because of how the rocker covers look lol.

You sir are a crazy man and I like that

Can't wait to see what crazy thing you come up with