I decided to finally finish up the front mount this past weekend and what was supposed to be just a simple mod finish turned into an entire weekend full of lots of little mods. In the end I am happy with how everything turned out. I know that some of the mods will not be liked by all and I have no problem with that… but I am happy with it and thats all that really matters… lol. Here they are in no particular order:
- Washer fluid reservoir “reassignment”: In order for the FMIC piping to fit properly (without looking like it was just thrown in without a care in the world), I had to either relocate the battery or turn it 90*. I opted to turn it so I didn’t have to worry about any relocation issues. Well in order to turn the battery I had to get rid of the small add-on washer fluid bottle and reassign the washer fluid reservoir. Since the factory IC sprayer tank was no longer useful without the TMIC, I decided to use that since it already had a good size pump attached, its a nice large tank, and its completely out of the way. I started by re-routing the rubber line from the TMIC sprayer location and connecting it to the washer sprayers instead. I then re-routed the rubber hose so it didn’t just flop around in the breeze when the hood was open.
I’m going to keep an eye out for chaffing with it just tucked under the fender like it is, but I think it will be ok. I rewired the factory washer sprayer switch to activate the IC sprayer pump. I still have to find a way to bypass the timer module for the IC sprayer (one button press latches for 5 seconds of spray; not a big deal, but something I will fix later on)
- With the washer fluid bottle out of the way I was able to get to work on the battery. I completely cleared out the front corner of everything that was there and cleaned it all up (tucked any harnesses, etc). I drilled 2 small holes in the lower battery hold plate to accept the “J” hooks for the battery hold down. I also had to make a 60* bent in one of the “J” hooks to be able to fit around the battery. I re-ran the factory chassis ground to a lower bolt that is a little less visible. I also had to extend the starter wire and the engine ground so I replaced both of them with 1/0 AWG for the starter and 4awg for the ground.
New chassis grounding point:
Battery installed and rotated:
Clearance to piping:
New starter wire and engine ground:
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One of the brackets that holds the O2 sensor plug and a few others was sticking out quite a bit more than it needed to so I popped the bracket off, cut off about 1" and re-welded the bracket back together. Not a big deal, but it pulls it in a little tighter to the strut tower.
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Upon trying to get my trunk open Saturday, the cable decided that it was going to freeze up on me. Well since I had the camera in the key slot (no key to open it) and the sub box blocked the access to the trunk for the safety release, I ended up having to work through the rear deck-lid and release the trunk. I had to walk away from it before I ended up breaking it (I was getting pretty livid at that point) so Drew got it open for me. Since I didn’t feel like going through all that again, I decided to take the camera out and put my key cylinder back in. Well I found the key cylinder, but couldn’t find the linkage rod that it uses so it was off to lowes to buy some metal rod. Made a few bends and got it to work.
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I didn’t want an atmosphere venting BOV so I had Brooks weld my HKS BOV flange so that I could re-use my pre-existing recirc. silicone hose. It wasn’t quite the right angle, but it worked fine. Also drilled the underside of the piping for the water/meth injection.
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During the entire time I was under the hood, the cable from the alternator to the battery was bugging the hell out of me. for whatever reason, Subaru decided to just lay the wire on top of everything where it stuck out like a sore thumb. So I disconnected the mounts, pulled it back to the battery, and re-routed it so it sits behind the bracket and looks much better. I will keep an eye on it to be sure there won’t be any heat issues from the intake manifold, but it should be ok.
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Another item that was bugging me was the upper coolant reservoir. Since my STi has the FP Green oil only cooled turbo, the coolant reservoir had already been capped off in most places. So I decided to remove the reservoir completely. I capped off the engine block exit hose (I referred to the cooling schematic before capping anything off. This was just an additional flow exit for cooling the turbo). I also put an easy vent on the radiator where I removed one of the lines. This will allow me to let air escape the radiator when filling with coolant.
Apparently I don’t have a picture of the coolant reservoir removed, but it opens things up quite a bit and looks a lot cleaner. -
I added an AEM Tru-boost system so that once it is tuned properly, I can keep the boost turned down for everyday driving (save gas and wear & tear on the engine). Then if I want to turn it back up, I can do so easily.
I made a quick little bracket and mounted the solenoid on the passenger strut tower.
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Well with the addition of the AEM UEGO, AEM Tru-boost, my existing Aquamist fail-safe / flow gauge, and soon to add Oil pressure, Oil temperature, and most likely fuel pressure, I needed a place to put the gauges. I did not like the clock pods and to me the a-pillars just never quite match right. So I did some brainstorming and came up with what I think is a great solution… so i got into it and started fiber-glassing. Its not done yet because I want to run it like it is for a bit to make sure I am going to like it before I spend the time and money to finish it up. But so far it is working great. Everything is very easy and quick to see without having to turn my head. And even though it may look like it obstructs the view, even the highest gauge only sits just slightly above the factory hood scoop… so I personally don’t notice any loss of road vision. I tried taking a picture from my perspective, but I’m not sure if it still really gives a good idea of it or not.
The back of it directly follows the factory dash lines. So once it is finished and vinyled, it should look almost factory.
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While wiring up the gauges I decided to make my life a lot easier when it came to adding additional gauges, or quickly disconnecting a gauge if I needed to. So I picked up a couple terminal blocks, attached them to a piece of plastic, wired them up, and mounted it behind the factory cluster. It works great for quickly connecting the gauges and has power, ground, and illumination (dimmer).
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I tucked the Labonte controller and Aquamist control box also behind the factory cluster to keep everything together.
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And finally, I was able to complete the FMIC install. I also finally got around to painting and remounting my hella horns to center them a little better in the grill.
Yea, it was a long weekend but I am very happy with the results. It came out great and it seems to pull quite a bit harder. I do still have to get it re-tuned but it actually went the opposite way than I thought… it seems to be running richer with the FMIC… where I though it would run lean due to the added air flow. Either way, a re-tune is coming soon.
