Dustin's UltraMarine FR-S (Engine Blew - LS3 Time)

[Teseo]

Looks very nice, fits and looks like oem.

[DustinS]

Well this kind of really sucks. I went out to help a friend work on his car and was going to grab my welder from another friend who was also helping. He didn't end up bringing it, and I wasn't able to pick it up from his house. So I have no welder today, and it needs gas as he used the bottle to weld everything up on his rx7 project car. The welding supply store is only open until 4:30 and closed on saturdays/sundays. So I can't weld up the rear fenders this weekend. Any recommendations? I still plan on getting everything cut and fenders ready to go on. Sealing it up is the only issue at the moment.

Edit: Got a replacement tank of gas from the welding supply store on the bases that we bring the old tank back Monday. They have been extremely good to us before, so happy to see them go out of their way to help again. So rear will be welded tomorrow.

[DustinS]

I moved the ground to one of the tabs on the body after I ground it down for a better grounding spot.

[ILLSMOQ]

Looks like all your calculations worked out! Looks great! Good job.

Are you going to leave them black?

[sirsol66]

Sorry, would you mind posting the final wheel and spacer specs? The fitment looks fantastic, and I'm surprised you got so much tire underneath the car!

[DustinS]

Thanks I am going to paint them or wrap the car, haven't decided yet.

Front: 18x10.5 et22 + 10mm Spacer. Rear: 18x10.5 et15 + 25mm Spacer. Resulting in a 18x10.5 et12 front. 18x10.5 et-10 Rear. I am thinking about putting another 10mm spacer in the rear to get the rear wheels to fit like the front.

The tires rub pretty Much everywhere. I am still in the process of testing and sanding.

[DustinS]

Quality is pretty bad, but I still really like the photo.

[ILLSMOQ]

Looks mean!

[DustinS]

Thanks @ILLSMOQ

Took the car out yesterday to get some testing in. Need to wear the tires in a bit and wanted to check for more rubbing. I found some more rubbing in the rear, on the actual metal portion that I folded up and welded. Not sure how I screwed up not getting enough material cut, but nothing more hammering won't fix... as long as I don't break the welds. I also have rubbing on the kit itself. Seems every time I cut the portion that is rubbing, I get more rubbing. I rubbed in the front at one point during the drive, but couldn't find where.

Another Issue I ran into was braking. Car likes to swing the rear end out towards the drivers side under hard braking in a straight line. Enough that I had someone riding with me awhile back ask how I was able to keep the thing straight. It was super apparent with the much stickier tires that worked the brakes harder than they have been in a long time. Not sure if this issue is in my suspension or the brakes. Brakes were easy enough to check and wanted to see how they were wearing.

On the way home from the test I noticed the car having a lot of drag when coasting. I got back home and could feel the intense heat from the driver side front brakes about a foot away from the assembly. Passenger side wasn't nearly as hot and I would have to stick my hand inside the face of the wheel before I could feel any heat. I let them cool a bit before taking a look.

Drivers side lug nuts were still hot enough I couldn't hold them. Got in there and took the pads out. Inner Pad was still showing the split down the middle (the pads come with about 3/4ths of the material with a split in the middle, last 1/4 of the pad is full face). The outer pad was past the split. Pads were a little stuck, but nothing bad. The pistons still moved freely and cleaned up quickly with a wipe of a rag. Passenger side both pads were past the split.

I cleaned everything up a little, needed a little sanding of built up corrosion and brake dust on the sides of the pads. Everything looked really good despite being ran through winter with salt and such. So now I have an issue with uneven wear on the driver side front. Car needs new pads all the way around. So I can either rebuilt the front calipers and see if that fixes it, or replace the drivers side. Though I haven't really been impressed with the pedal feel of the wilwoods. Very mushy and bleeding them only fixes the issue for a few days.

[sqd]

Even though I'm longing to install my own kit, I am dreading the fitting of the wheels and tires :p 18x9.5 front with 245/40 R888, and 10.5, 285/35 R888 rear. If you have so much fitment issues, I'm afraid I'll have even more :/

Car looks great though, really like it!

[DustinS]

Originally Posted by sqd

Even though I'm longing to install my own kit, I am dreading the fitting of the wheels and tires :p 18x9.5 front with 245/40 R888, and 10.5, 285/35 R888 rear. If you have so much fitment issues, I'm afraid I'll have even more :/

Car looks great though, really like it!

Why would you have more? The only reason I have issues is how wide the tires are up front. You are stretching the fronts quite a bit, should be fine depending on how low you go.

[sqd]

Originally Posted by DustinS

Why would you have more? The only reason I have issues is how wide the tires are up front. You are stretching the fronts quite a bit, should be fine depending on how low you go.

Well I was first thinking in the rear - R888s are fat tires even at smaller widths, and I think they are thicker at 285/35 than most other tires? Even other R-compounds..

Front I shouldn't have problems width-wise, but the thickness of the 245/40 should give me problems, I've learned

Oh well, worst case I'll just buy other tires

[DustinS]

Not sure why you are running such tall tires. 285/30 is almost spot on same diameter as stock tires. You are going to rub a lot just due to that. The Federal and R888 at 285/30 are pretty much the same width, so rubbing would be the same in the rear. That is pretty well documented for wide tires though.

[DustinS]

In an attempt to attack the braking issue. Going to be rebuilding the front calipers, changing pads to DTC-30 Fronts, Street/Race Rear, New stainless lines Front/rear, and a good flush with fresh fluid.