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wildcatgoal's Build - 2016 DIB GT PP

valentinoamoro

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Just came across your build. Very nice indeed.

Why did you switch from the Ultralites to Spec R's and how do they compare?
Whats your impressions of the Spec R's with Proaction adjustables? I'm toying with the idea of pairing GT350R springs with the Proaction adjustables as the rate seems high and drop minimal. I just read an article on Swift Spec R engineering and its pretty impressive (thin light coils with more stroke compared to equivalent drop and rate springs from competitors).


Also, do you feel a performance difference with the Gram Lights. Very nice wheel indeed, infact, seems like one of the top wheels Ive seen here. Whats the weight? They seem to retail for 500 a piece.

After all those choice mods I was surprised you paried em with the DWs. :p
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wildcatgoal

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I installed Steeda engine mounts last night. Aside from the two bolts holding the stock bracket to the frame having enough loctite on them to hold back Earth's rotation, this process is relatively easy if done methodically.

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I found the instructions from basically anyone that makes these things to be lacking. so I decided to do a small write-up. Sorry, I don't have a picture book here. Once you get under the car, what you have to do is obvious.

First, disconnect your battery because a ground wire will be temporarily removed.

To make this job easy, you will want real swivel sockets (13, 15, and 17mm), deep well socket (13mm), a bendy ratchet wrench (bends at the head), long/solid extensions (vs. connecting multiple short extensions), an impact gun (air or large battery), a 90° gun (air or electric), a T40 torx ratchet bit for the steering shaft, ideally a bendy head torque wrench (for the bracket that bolts to the engine; you can do without one, just frustrating), and your choice of procedure for lifting the car and jacking each side of the engine.

You will want to install one side at a time. Do NOTHING to the passenger side engine mount and start on the driver's side, since it is the most frustrating - get it out of the way. First, support the driver's side on the little ear at the point where the transmission connects to the engine. Careful, there are wires there and you should use rubber or wood to protect the area. See the example below. You will see this on both sides. You only need to make it so the jack will hold the weight of the engine when the mounts are removed. You don't need to jack the engine up to kingdom come.

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Then, from the engine bay with appropriate length of extensions, I unbolted the two 13mm (mount bracket) bolts almost until they are out. These are a royal PITA to get out since they are loctited on every single thread - at least mine were. I used an impact swivel socket and my Makita impact gun (the big kind that'll do lug nuts) and backed them out and even it was complaining. You can finish removing these bolts with a swivel head ratchet from the underside of the car or the top if you have the engine supported, but I chose to leave them until I removed the engine mount bracket (see photo below for what I'm talking about).

32607284436_afbd6810de_b.jpg


Before you remove that bracket on the drivers side, you will need to use the T40 torx to remove the two pinch bolts that hold the steering shaft together. Once you've removed those, just push down in the connection and back out the upper portion of the steering shaft and push it to the side. Obviously don't forget to re-assemble the steering shaft properly (and don't turn the steering wheel or front wheels while it is disconnected).

32607283966_cb0156ba01_b.jpg


Now fish out the bracket. You'll have to push up a bit to clear the OEM engine mount's center bolt... you have plenty of room to do so. Then finish removing the stock engine mount bolts and fish out the stock engine mount.

After that, wipe off the seat where the engine mount sits with your hand just to clear any debris and then pop in your new Steeda engine mount. I decided to go .5" lower, so I put it in with only once spacer. Start the two mount bracket bolts as far as you can by hand, then give them a little extra with the ratch until they're hard enough to screw down that you give up and say "I'll finish it from the top". This is just to make sure they are secure.

You'll then fish the through bolt through the properly oriented engine bracket with the two spacers and a small washer on top ABOVE the bracket opposite the engine mount and the single spacer. Hard to describe, but you'll get it. Start the threads on that bolt for a bit while holding the engine bracket in proper orientation.

Then just re-install the engine bracket to the engine with the 4 bolts positioned exactly as they had come out. Please note, the passenger side has a different bracket shape and therefore the bolts are in a little bit different spots AND there is a ground wire held on by a 15mm (instead of 13mm) bolt on the top right (top front) mounting point which you will need to be sure to re-install exactly as it was installed.

Torque the engine bracket bolts down (I did 41 ft. lbs). This especially is where swivel sockets and swivel head torque wrenches make life easy. Some of the angles you need to get are weird and you need this articulation to make the job easy. Fortunately I was able to borrow both. But, I was able to get the job done with a swivel ratchet and a standard 3/8" torque wrench, it was just going too slow so I borrowed tools and made life easier.

Once that engine bracket is torqued down and you've verified you didn't screw something up, you'll then lower the engine onto the new mount, head up top, and torque the two bracket bolts down (I did 41 ft lbs) and the isolator bolt down (I did 37 or 38 ft. lbs, can't remember exactly).

Repeat this process for the passenger side - don't forget the ground wire. Speaking of this ground wire, this is a dumb way to ground a wire. You'll see it is grounded sandwiched between a 13mm coated bolt and a 15mm bolt. Grounds need direct metal connection for the least resistance, not through zinc coating (or whatever it is the bolts are coated with that makes them gray). I left it as is from the factory, but... not impressed with that.

Also, tip, while it isn't necessary at all, removing the wheels keeps you from hitting your head on said wheels. Ask me how I know...
 

robertwsimpson

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lol nice write up. I was just thinking about my motor mounts this week... I feel like everything shifts around a lot more than I want it to...

What do you think about the results?
 

cgreen5150

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Great write up. Have you noticed any change in engine/transmission vibration after the install?
 
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wildcatgoal

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I used the red (softer) isolators. Really, there is SOME... SOOOOMMMME additional NVH - mostly you can just hear the engine and transmission "doing stuff" a little more. Once you get up to speed and just general road noise happens - you don't hear it. Car feels firmer accelerating, easier to downshift, less clunks going into gear (not gone, but less), and the minor minor minor additional vibration felt in the steering wheel actually really helps me sense where the engine RPM is at. I usually drive with the rear seat down for more exhaust noise but now I really don't have to because I can feel it just that teeny bit. Your mileage may vary. I have an MGW shifter that was installed by George at MGW and it hasn't rattled ever, still doesn't. My stock shifter would rattle randomly - I'd bet this might affect a stock shifter more. Not sure... can't say. I think this mod exceeded my expectations... I was expecting a chorus of noise. It just makes the car feel sporty. Oh, I lowered the engine .5" which from what I can tell seems to have helped a little with steering response. It's a little bit faster to react to what I tell it to do and I don't seem to move as much in my seat... could be placebo effect here but... lowering a big V8 means lowering center of gravity.
 

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Damn, given that, I might have to add this to my list of future mods, haha! If you would have said the NVH was really noticeable I would have had a good excuse to not spend the money and do the work, but now I'm sold! Thanks again for the feedback.
 
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wildcatgoal

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It's not anything that will bother the average joe I figure.
 

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Well hopefully you've aided drive line angles by lowering the motor. Good write up though Wild. Thanks!
 

gameovergt

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nice color choice!
 

Coyote Red

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This write-up has influenced my build, thanks for the instructions as well. The turn-in response is what I am impressed with as well as center of gravity being lower. Gotta
run thru them Twisty's!
 

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wildcatgoal

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Did a little installation video of the Velox Motorsports diffuser. You also get a nice side profile of me a few times showing my massive Roman nose. The ladies (do not) love it. Contact @Veloxeric for info or go to their website at https://www.velox-motorsports.com. I really love this thing! Looks bad ass and you can feel additional stability at higher speeds - car feels more... planted, stays straighter, less affected by wind gusts, too. :headbang: :first: :clap2:

(Yes I know the video is long and poorly edited -- I don't have the patience.)

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wildcatgoal

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Upgraded to the Steeda aluminum differential inserts the other day. NVH increase is very minimal compared to the red poly inserts - honestly, I could handle a lot more NVH! The only difference I notice is some muted whine when gunning it and any driveline clunks I do get are just a wee bit more abrupt, but they don't reverberate across the car as much. Frankly, I'm pissed I didn't go aluminum in the first place and now I'm really contemplating dropping the IRS entirely and putting in true aluminum bushings! Throttle application is a little snappier compared to before, but we'll see how they perform on a road course and on a drag strip since the season is starting soon! I used Steeda's upgraded 12.9 hardware, but my original 10.9 hardware was perfectly fine. :thumbsup:
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Agent_S550

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I feel like solid sleeve bushings would be absolutely worse. The rubber is insulting a lot of noise and taking 90%+ of the movement out of the diff. I still have mine sitting in my box unfortunately since my bushings weren't threaded.
 
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wildcatgoal

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I don't see why you can't do the following: find a really long appropriately sized drill bit or the right drill bit with a hex connection vs. just a round shank at the end where it connects to the drill. Then drill using a 90" angle tool from the rear of the car forward (for the front differential bushings). If you need more drill bit length, there's gotta me some kind of very small diameter extension piece you can find. I know I have something that would work, personally. Just be slow and careful not to go at a bad angle and you have it all drilled out. Then run a through bolt which can probably slide in from the rear of the front different mount forward toward the front of the car, no issues. Then just a wrench will hold the bolt in place while you torque from the rear bolt head face. Certainly would be better to run the bolt from the front of the car back, but that requires getting the IRS down more to clear the pesky gas tanks, and the stock solution doesn't even thread all the way through like you would, adding a nut at the end. Never tried this, though! But it's not hard to drop the IRS enough to drill this out, just really time consuming.
 
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wildcatgoal

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This is my best (recorded) time at TGPR with Just Track It. My best session was after lunch and naturally I forgot to start the flippin' camera app. I thought I did but I got back and nothing was recorded. Oh well, you get to see me totally screw up a downshift right at the beginning (I just passed someone far too fast and far too late and got mentally overloaded) and thoroughly mishandle most of the subsequent turns. You may notice the gauges don't seem totally in sync - I don't know why. And it sometimes says I was in 1 or 2 when I really never left 3 or 4, so not sure what the deal was there...

I started the day at 1:24. Got down to 1:20 pretty quickly on my own. Instructor got me down to 1:18 or so. Then with my learnings and mimicing some more experienced drivers, I got myself down to consistent 1:13s once traffic cleared the rest of the day, including while drizzling in the second to last session I did. The day started out wet and raining, dried up for the most part during the session I didn't video record (of course being my smoothest session, I'm so aggravated!) and the session in this video was when it had stopped raining long enough to dry up but it had its slippery spots here and there (especially on the patched parts of the road), but not bad. Also, in the session in this video, a few new cars came in that I hadn't seen before and they had more track-oriented tires and certainly more experience, so I benefited greatly from getting pulled around a bit and (before this video) being able to mimic their lines.

I made the grave mistake at this event of doing all sessions except one solo. I did get an instructor once, but I missed almost two laps of my session waiting for him to come back from the previous session, and I let myself be impatient about it the rest of the day and just skipped instruction. It was good for me to get seat time alone, but I really liked JZilla's model where you get an assigned instructor the first half of the day - that helped me improve so much in just a few sessions and avoid bad habits. Going solo so much, especially the first two sessions, set me off with some bad habits I had to work to correct the rest of the day. I was in Novice 2, FWIW.

I used my square 19x10.5 ET 35 Rays wheels with Conti DW tires. I'll just say that, while the tires did better than I anticipated and do seem to be a reasonable good "beginner track tire for cheap" (which is the reason I have them), I liked the PZeros much better. The Conti's did great in the rain - I was passing a lot relatively easily which was a false confidence boost, unfortunately. Once it dried up, while they would grip, they just felt funny - just... soft... hard to describe - and, maybe because it was wet most of the day and there were slick spots, their grip was oddly sporadic sometimes. Like there was grip, but not a consistent feel of grip. Car didn't react as it used to with the PZeros. I do feel I could have given them more, I just couldn't shake that I wasn't confident on them. They held up seemingly really well, but it was far from a hot day and so we'll see how they hold up at AMP next month, where I'm sure it'll warm up significantly.

I left my adjustable shocks and my sway bars at the street setting for this event, figuring it was going to rain the whole day. By the time it started drying up, I felt like I should be able to accomplish better times without going full stiff due to taking lines better and getting braking right, so I didn't bother. And I was right, I got down to this 1:13:4, which isn't world renowned in the least, but I look at the progression happily! And, by the end of the day, I got the heal-toe in fast situations down really well (not perfect, but... I made a lot of progress), which was my #1 goal for the entire event. I'm really excited about that!
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