Been to the Jigsaw myself.

 

Thanks Ian for getting that antifreeze for me, good to see you earlier today.

Also the SuperPro steering rack bushes and radio ISO adaptor loom I ordered turned up today.

Tomorrow should see the arrival of a Nomad Racing A pillar twin 60mm gauge pod.

 

Ty, does the Prestone say it's compatible with other types of antifreeze? I can't check their site as it's down.

 

Yes it is Rich, fully compatible for all types of antifreeze.

 

Rich,

You can mix it with any colour or type without any adverse effects. It's also longlife at 150000 miles.

 

Cheers guys, Costco pizza for lunch tomorrow then!!

 

Drop me a text Rich and I may join you .

 

Lovely hot food from Costco, I went to the Avonmouth branch recently and had a fantastic tasting Pepperoni pizza and some hot wings.

Great value for money.

 

The Nomad Racing pillar twin pod arrived today, most if not all of the interior and mechanical work (with the exception of the new brake discs, pads and hoses) will be completed this weekend.

So it's the inner arches to be stone chipped, minor paintwork jobs, minor wheel refurbishment and undersealing to be carried out after that.

Oh, and the remapping plus the suspension geometry as well.

 

Gives me an idea for a pair of cup holders for the Land Rover

 

I never knew that Landy's could have such refinement.

 

Just a quick pic of the centre heater vents plus cup holder in position to give an idea of how well the freshly painted items look now.



How they looked before.

 

That pillar pod similar to mine Ty ,what disc and pads you fitting

 

I've gone for Performance Friction brake pads all round - Z compound I believe, the ones rated for fast road use.

I know they work well on the Brembo calipers from my previous S202.

 

Today saw some further progress on the inside of the car, mainly the install of the Defi gauges, centre pod, controller etc.

I made a decision on the pillar pod that I wasn't happy with the fixing point, I don't like the screw and wall plug arrangement so an alternative fixing method was sought.

This involved the filling of the hole, plus smoothing the pod sections of the pillar pod and then painting both the passenger and driver side pillar trims in matt black which I believe looks far better than the factory colour.

Below is the drivers side pillar pod having just been painted, also the fixing plugs from the factory trim have been now moulded into the back of the pillar pod which will give a far stronger mounting given that the pillar pod incorporates two 60mm gauges.





This is how the twin pillar pod looks as it was supplied from Nomad Racing, it matches the factory colour well enough but that top mounting point just really bugs me.



Below is the passenger side pillar trim in place having been refinished in matt black.





The biggest pain of the day was probably running the wiring for the 5 Defi gauges, a slight problem was encountered in so much as the output for the BF gauges should be off output 2 and not output 1 as it was originally plugged into - this caused all kinds of spurious faults which were really causing heads to be scratched for a little while.

All the Defi gauges all carry out there sweep startup routine properly and the next thing is to get rid of their annoying beeping when the ignition is switched on without the engine running.





All the remaining Samco hoses are now installed, although I believe I may be missing the vacuum hose which connects on the passenger side bulk head as I believed this was in the last Samco engine ancillary hose kit that I had.

Below is where I think the missing hose should be installed, I will speak to Samco on Monday to clarify.





The coolant has now been filled and bled up correctly, I know from bitter personal experience what can happen when the two hoses (left hand side of the header tank) which connect to the header tank from the return and the coolant overflow are connected up incorrectly. So I made sure that when I removed the factory hoses that the new hoses went back in the correct positions, there is no better learning tool than personal experience.

The head unit and Forester single pocket (again in matt black) both kept over from my Blobeye Spec C has also been installed, upon checking the sound output I had forgotten just how poor the factory speakers are.

So now I'm looking at ordering a set of uprated front and rear speakers, speaker rings, uprated speaker wiring and door noise deadening (probably Dynamat unless someone can suggest an alternative).

Don't get me wrong I prefer the sound of the exhaust, but when you want to listen to music I would prefer to listen to it properly rather than it sounding more like some stones rattling around inside a tin can.

 

Nice update there Ty. I like the idea of the black pillar trim. I'll have to catch-up and see it in person.

 

Thanks Rich, yes the black A pillar trims look a lot better - I'm now thinking about getting the B & C pillar trims done the same.

Also does anyone know of a better cost option to Dynamat? I know it's good quality stuff but it's bloody expensive.

 

What mix did you use on the coolant?

 

Allowing for a little spillage it's approximately 60/40 in favour of the coolant, lovely colour as well.

 

It is a lovely colour. The figures quoted on the container are very impressive, glad it helped.

 

Yes it's a very good product, great value for money as well.

 

Here are some pics of the driver's side side A pillar pod, to say I'm pleased with the end result would be an understatement.





Ryan has done a great job on the car and it's all going well, the biggest stumbling block for me at present is who I shall I get to map the car...

 

Gauges look nice mate, most important is to get yourself a Phormula KS-3 mate

 

I've done **** all to mine so far apart from spend shed loads on as yet unfitted parts

 

I've had one and it drove me up the wall, sorry but I wouldn't want another one.

Give them to me then, next for me are some decent speakers, Dynamat or similar and better wiring to the speakers.

 

I love the knock reader on my commander though. Been invaluable in identifying spikes that have occurred and allowed me to rectify. No point having perfect oil and water temps/pressure if it's detting under certain driving

Lol I can't remember what I've bought tbh, need to get the list out

 

I suppose you can have too much information, I found myself watching the KS3 over everything else and listening for beeps.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

 

Well I've ordered uprated Kenwood front and rear door speakers, a bulk pack of Dynamat - enough to coat all 4 doors, uprated speaker wiring and speaker adaptor rings.

It's not going to be an ICE heads dream car or anything, I just wanted to improve upon the rubbish factory setup.

I know the purists won't like that I'm going to add weight to the S202 but given that the car is considerably lighter than the standard STi it's not really going to make that much difference in the big scheme of things.

Given the possible plans for an extended road trip that might come to fruition for the late Summer / early Autumn the improved ICE might just save me from going mad.

 

The dynamat will make the doors sound nice and solid when you shut them. Couldn't believe the difference when I did mine.

 

I had the front doors on my previous S202 sound deadened and it made the door closing sound more like a heavy German car rather than a tinny, rattly Jap car.

It's really surprising the difference it makes.