The Massive Evo That Couldn't

[Loren]

Yeah, it just looks weird.

[CaptainSquirts]

Fyi Loren, you're right about the angle of the endlink might being a concern. The bracket came with a big thick washer. The instructions came in Japanese so I assume the washer was for the bottom of the endlink but realized it's for the top. Which then would push the top of the endlink out which would put it less of an angle.

Welp time to disassemble and reassemble again...

[Loren]

Yeah, that would help.

[AScoda]

Unless that washer is an inch thick, not sure that will change much.

[CaptainSquirts]

Well it was like a 1/8th of an inch thick. Anyways I swapped the washer to be on the top. When there is no load, it makes the offset look pretty far out. When the car is sitting static, it doesn't look that bad.

When car is sitting on jack stands, no weight on the wheels.

Car sitting static on the ground, a lot less angle.

P.s I know the photo is upside down, this website does that for some reason randomly when uploading photos through my mobile device.

[Loren]

iPhones do that because iPhone.

Anyway, that does look better. No reason you couldn't add a little more spacer there, too.

[CaptainSquirts]

I was thinking about it but made me wonder if having too many spacers would cause more stress on the long theeaded section instead.

[Loren]

It will add to the stress there.

[twistedwankel]

I did not know Mitsubitchi invented brass knuckles

[CaptainSquirts]

Sent in my oil to get it analyzed. I'll just put here what they said about the report...

"DANIEL: Aluminum and potassium bumped up just a little in this sample. Aluminum can show piston wear,
and potassium might indicate coolant contamination, though it's too early to call that for sure at this point --
hence the question mark in the antifreeze box. Maybe the aluminum is just operational in nature, so that
might not be a problem yet either. In other words, we have a few things to keep an eye on going forward,
but nothing that we're ready to call an outright problem. Everything else still looks great. Check back in
4,000 miles again to monitor."

If you look at my 2 previous reports, the potassium was slightly less and aluminum was a little bit less as well. The oil report with 93k miles on the motor maybe had an autocross run or none. The oil report with 97k miles on the motor had pretty much the same wear(nothing bad) and that had like 5 autocross runs and was around summer time so it was hot. That report everything seemed pretty good as well. Now 20k miles later on the motor, I have more potassium and a nice chunk of Boron which both(more potassium) are mostly from coolant. It's only very little potassium extra so if there is a leak, it's stupid ridiculously small and I'm assuming would get more potassium in the oil as time goes on. The Aluminum went up a little as well but also this oil that is reported had probably a good 9 autocross events under it so I'm not surprised the very extra wear from that.

Overall not too concerned with the little extra aluminum and potassium showing in the oil. I'll have to send another report when I change my oil next time to see if more coolant(pottasium) shows up.

Now a friend of my had his oil sent in(new fresh 1 year old built engine). His first report on the fresh engine had 61ppm(part per million)of potassium(mine currently had 17) and the next oil report showed 249ppm potassium. So his engine def has a leak and grew a nice chunk. So I guess I have an idea if it jumps up more or an abundunt more I'll be looking into getting the engine refreshed. Hopefully that won't be the case though..

My Oil Report.

oil report.PNG (106.92 KiB) Viewed 10896 times

[twistedwankel]

I'm almost 72 and my blood results are way better than your car oil. More potassium and no aluminum at all. Hardonium was still up to snuff tho'.

[CaptainSquirts]

You need to eat more bananas! Good source of potassium there.

[Loren]

Or drink antifreeze, apparently.

[CaptainSquirts]

From last events impressions about the car, no real complaints about the handling. It felt pretty damn good and feels pretty damn good to neutral so suspension wise of modifications, I think I'll leave it here for a long while(still need to fix rear alignment though). It did get a little loose at the last half after the option if I went in a little too hot when I braked hard and then turned the wheel a little too quick but seems like a driver thing.

My RS-4's has about 13 events and regular daily driving on them, got them installed march this year. They're pretty much at the wear bars and I guess I was expecting a little more life out of them from what all the thread life praise it gets. My previous tires falken 615k+ got probably about the same amount of events and 10-11 months of daily driving. Since only having 1 set of wheels, I cant really go the one set being purely DD and another purely autox duty. So when shopping for new tires I still gotta think about cost/wear/performance. Decisions decisions....

p.s the extra stiffness from the front sway bar due to the brackets did not feel like the car was understeering any more than it had and honestly, it felt better(is it possible it would've made it less? Placebo!). I mean Steve would've gotten FTD if he hadn't knocked over a cone that he barley touched so I guess it def was a positive for this car. If you read this Steve, chime in on some feedback

[aw614]

Curious to see whats causing the higher levels of potassium and boron in your oil analysis. Have you done a recent coolant flush?

[CaptainSquirts]

Nope, last time coolant was done was almost 3 years ago.

[twistedwankel]

I cant really go the one set being purely DD and another purely autox duty. So when shopping for new tires I still gotta think about cost/wear/performance. Decisions decisions....

Spare wheels cost much less than tires, especially when you get them mounted and shipped together. Depends what fits your car? 17" wheels are cheap tires and plentiful selection. A used set is even less. Assuming you have a place indoors to store them when not being used? Check with Carl McKim who got me an awesome deal on a matched set of 18"x10.5" vette STU wheels last year. Then I simply had tires drop shipped to his place. No fuss no muss. 300 wear tires are not all that expensive and last forever for your daily set and they work super in FL rain. I put a set of 255/40/17" on my RX8 and dropped the car 3/4" from the stock 18". Have to drive on 2" plank to get jack under it.

The old RS3's did outlast the RS4's for me too (still using) but RS3's were stones the last 1/2 tread. Gerry raced on them yet one extra year in a miata as stones. You probably have a much more radical alignment than I will ever have plus I only put on 2500 road miles on my cars each. Your car is roomy enough to put all the race tires in the back seat on a moving blanket? Talk to Jamie about his walnut lifting device. Neat.

[CaptainSquirts]

I cant really go the one set being purely DD and another purely autox duty. So when shopping for new tires I still gotta think about cost/wear/performance. Decisions decisions....

Spare wheels cost much less than tires, especially when you get them mounted and shipped together. Depends what fits your car? 17" wheels are cheap tires and plentiful selection. A used set is even less. Assuming you have a place indoors to store them when not being used? Check with Carl McKim who got me an awesome deal on a matched set of 18"x10.5" vette STU wheels last year. Then I simply had tires drop shipped to his place. No fuss no muss. 300 wear tires are not all that expensive and last forever for your daily set and they work super in FL rain. I put a set of 255/40/17" on my RX8 and dropped the car 3/4" from the stock 18". Have to drive on 2" plank to get jack under it.

The old RS3's did outlast the RS4's for me too (still using) but RS3's were stones the last 1/2 tread. Gerry raced on them yet one extra year in a miata as stones. You probably have a much more radical alignment than I will ever have plus I only put on 2500 road miles on my cars each. Your car is roomy enough to put all the race tires in the back seat on a moving blanket? Talk to Jamie about his walnut lifting device. Neat.

I would keep my current wheels as DD wheels and the new set as the fun wheels. Current is 18x8.5 would like 18x9.5. I'm down for getting used wheels but I would need to look at what a good offset would be and then having to worry about the whole wheel/tire clearance.

[twistedwankel]

https://tiresize.com/wheel-offset-calculator/

This site is awesome. I used it to determine what spacers I needed to put my STR Mazda wheels on my Crown Vic and see if the 255 tires would fit. 1.5" put the track almost exactly stock and gave me 5/8" clearance from suspension going from 6.5" wheels to 9" wheels. Cost $73 for 4 of them delivered. Billet. Came with mounting lugs. I got the proper centering rings from Tirerack who sells those wheels new for $10+sh. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0189 ... UTF8&psc=1

[CaptainSquirts]

So I was driving around this morning and while in stop and go traffic, just coasting in first I heard a clunk and I thought I ran over something metal? Looked back and didn't see anything so continued driving. I noticed now when in just driving in first gear I hear a clunk, clunk,clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, u get the point. When I push the clutch in, the sound goes away and it doesn't happen in any other gear, just first when driving, straight, turning whatever direction.

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, then does that mean my transmission needs a rebuild?

I'm at work now but I plan to have the car towed home and then start from there. If I see nothing wrong visually, then I'll prob drain the tranny oil to see if anything bad comes out. Also what other things should I try before I have to start digging into it(attempting to take out tranny). Never done the clutch/pulled transmission from this vehicle so if it comes to that, I'm sure that'll be fun...