9th Mod, Rear Sway-Bar Upgrade

WOW, I have to say, by far the best mod yet. You can see in the picture the difference in size. The stock one is 17 mm in dia. and the new one is 22mm. Also the new one has 3 mounting holes, the further out ones being softer than the further in ones. I mounted mine through the stiffest hole so I could really really feel the difference.

The ride difference was noticed immediately. The ride is stiffer in the rear, and the body lean as little as it was has been cut to almost zero.

There is almost no sensation of speed in the corners. Autocross this weekend is going to be a total new experience.

The sway bar was $144 from a online store from Boulder, CO and I would HIGHLY recommend a 22 mm sway bar for the rear of your WRX, or upgrading your sway bars.


I did a quick study to see what difference the bar made analytically. I jacked up the passenger rear tire until it was Approx 1/8" off of the ground. Then I measured the space between the top of the tire and the wheel well.


Then I calculated the difference between the space from the jacked up, and ground side. Then I compared the difference after the sway bar. Before the bar there was a 2 1/2" difference in wheel clearance. Afterwords there was a 1 1/8" difference. This is a 55% reduction in the deflection of the rear "axle". I don't have the tools to calculate how much stiffer the bar is, but it seems it will take 55% of the rear end roll out.

I found a chart online, and switching from a 17mm to a 22mm adds 180% stiffness. With the stiffest seting being further in than stock, there is a chance this sway bar has 300% the stiffness of the original bar.

Auto Cross Numbers

Last week I received my auto cross numbers. A guy a work named Robert, numbers/decals dirt track cars as a side job, and made them for me.

When you run SCCA SoloII (auto cross) you have a class you run in, and within the class you need to have aunique number for the day.

I got 2 of each (one for each side) 1,0,9.

The numbers are blue chrome on a white magnetic sheet.

My favorite number is 9. But 09 is cool, and with the 1 I can be 19, or 91. The 9 can also be flipped over to be a 6. Overall there are 21, 1-3 digit numbers I can make for my car.

I will try to take a picture that shows the refection of the blue.

I feel like they will make me go faster!!!

8th Mod, Resonator Delete

There are several choices for an intake on a car. I have had a cold air intake before, and they are great. The WRX has a ram air scoop that pulls air from under the front of the hood. This air goes into a resonator in the wheel well, and back into the filter, and engine. I like that layout.

What I did was install a resonator delete elbow. This elbow removes the resonator, and opens up the intake. The only negative should be noise, which I want.

In the picture the delete elbow is in the foreground. The stock resonator is in the background. You can see that the elbow has the same in and out openings, and top mount point, but obviously the delete elbow doesn't have the milk jug sized resonator.

7 th Mod, Battery Tiedown

This mod is probably just as affective as the DRL delete. It is mainly just a fun thing. It replaces the stock pressed metal piece with a nice CNC milled tie down which looks like a wrench.

This mod was so easy to do, I actually did the whole replacement while on a 5 minute call with my wife.

Looks good.

6th Mod, Power Alternator Pulley

This mod was replacing the stock alternator pully with a larger diameter pulley.

This under drives the alternator, reducing it's revolutions in comparison with the crank. This means that in a certain period of time the alternator will have fewer revolutions, and there by will have absorbed less power.

The new pulley looks good, and I have not had the low power problems I had with them on my Accord.

In the picture, the pulley laying on top is the stock pulley, and the one you can see through the shroud is the new one. Maybe 20% bigger in diameter.

5th Mod, Lightened Carnk Pulley

This mod was to replace the stock crank pulley with a lighter one. The replacement pulley is 4 pounds lighter than the stock. The replacement is 2 pounds, and the original is 6. This is a large

weight reduction because it is part of the rotating mass of the engine. That means that every time you hit the gas, energy is spent just getting the part to turn, and not on speeding up the engine.



The replacement was pretty straight forward. Definitly need a cheater bar, braker bar, 22 mm socket and torque wrench.

Took me maybe 1/2 hour.

The first pic is the stock pulley the second is the replacement.

4th Mod, Short Shifter

Today I installed a short shifter. This is a shifter designed to reduce the hand travel required to shift gears.

The stock one is on top, the replacement is below.

The ball on the bottom goes in a stationary socket in the car, and the cross tube mounts to the shifter linkage.

Overall they are the same length, but you can see the point where the linkage attaches is probably 25% higher up the shifter.

The improvement is apparent. Much less travel. The new part is from DC Sports, and is one solid billet piece. The place where the linkage is attached is a pair of bearings instead of a metal tube in to rubber bushings. The result is a stiff strong short throw like you expect in a sports car.

Love it!

3rd Mod, Insulation Removal

A guy at autocross pointed out that an aluminium hood should conduct head out of the engine compartment, however there is a fiblerglass panel clipped the the hood.

I feel that it served no good purpose and removed it. Looks better without it.

Autocross

I love it!!.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocross

A group here in KC called Crown runs half the events here. Their events are going to be at The Woodland's all year.

I had a blast. Probably the best part is that you can meet people that own the same car you have, or different models, and see what they have done to it.

You get 4 runs, I cut about 10% from the first run to the 4th. I think I did really well for a stock car, with no real suspension upgrades.

There were cars from a crappy Lincoln all the way up to Porche's. The was even a formula V racer. I would say 6 cars were trailered. There was even a new Civic, and a couple CRX's. Pretty cool.