Looks like the winter project has come to an end finally! This post and a few following are some of the stuff that was done while the car was sleeping for the winter. Shouldn't be too much of a surprise as I can't really keep it quiet what I had planned! Want to give a big ups to everyone that helped me with all of the projects as they busted their asses helping me out. Oleg, James, Jordan, Shane, Dan and Lou. Good times everyone.
I had purchased the AEM Intake for the car as I had read
some great write-up done by Eric Meyer about the best intake to match his exhaust build (which is very similar to what I will be building for an exhaust soon). Apparently the AEM/Mazdaspeed intake setup, but modified with a single 90' degree bend instead of two, seems to make the most overall power and torque. This is very desirable as I need more push when it comes to autocross, especially in 2nd gear.
We installed the AEM intake the standard way as listed in it's instructions (kind of a no brainer, no need for a writeup), just make sure that the piping is as straight and flush as possible as that can cause problems for the air if it's not. Once we had it all in, we verified the filter could fit on the piping if we made a cut on it or not (which it can!). After a few dremel disks and some WD40 to lubricate the cutting, Oleg pulled it off nice and smooth.
We washed off all the metal shards from the pipe, because you really don't want that stuff going into your engine, and then installed the piping, followed by the filter. The results is seen in the pictures here, and it looks pretty aggressive. The filter just lightly sits on the plastic undertray, luckily not too much that it pushes it down.
I can't wait to test out it out at the start of the season and see just how much it will help, especially when paired with my upcoming exhaust build. The sound it makes when revving is interesting as I swear I could hear the engine coming straight from the intake filter and not the actual engine or even exhaust.
I'll be heat wrapping this at some point so it doesn't get too hot with the engine temperatures. Also, for the water sock for the filter, I plan to keep that on for the most part except dry events. No need to have it off on the streets really.
Ordered a nice Sparco Bag that just came in today. Decided that grocery bags were no longer cutting it in terms of storage and carrying things to autocross events. Looks really nicely made with plenty of room for goodies, so I can't wait to try it out this weekend. Already packed up and ready to go to! For the price, the quality and the size, I would have to say this bag was certainly worth it. Big ups to Dan from Assaultech.
As for the power steering update, sadly it had taken Liberty Mazda a whole week to receive the harness from Mazda North America. Splice off the old one, solder in the new one and wrap is all they did. Upon inspecting the old one, it looks like radiator fluid from the overflow had managed to leak into the connector. Everything feels great right now, so we'll see what happens during this weekend's event and overtime. Stay tuned.
