Shiggz 6a13tt Conversion

[shiggz]

Yay! So finally updated all my photos in this thread, and now i'll be uploading more of the progression! And yes, at this stage the 6a13tt is completely running and driving. Amazingly.



Not sure if I got to this stage in the thread yet, but I did a test fit of the 6a13tt.
Its quite a tight fit as you can see by the rear turbo being only a few mm's away from the firewall. Despite this, the firewall does not need to be touched in order for the engine to fit.

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However, the dump does interfere with the hard steering rack line, and also a small section of the rack itself. Hence new (braided) lines must be made, and the dump needs to be cut and re-welded at an angle closer to the engine block. Another alternative to this is purchasing an evo steering rack that may clear?


Interference from the dump:

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Finished rebuilding the steering rack.. Added a braided line as seen from the last picture to clear the dump better.

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Moved onto relocating the fuel filter, by making 2 more braided lines:

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[shiggz]

Then finished rebuilding the gearbox; replaced a few bearings including the input shaft bearing. Then installed the Wavetrac with the supporting 2x MD710663 tapered roller bearings and the MD717879 speedo gear for the LSD. Put the gearbox back together and also replaced the CV/Driveshaft seals.

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I then moved onto rebuilding the brembos.
Bought the whole set from EvolutionRacingSpares, but they were in terrible condition in terms of the paint and rotors/pads.
Ordered a seal kit off eBay, then took them apart:

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The paint was super faded, so I planned to repaint them too. Stripped the paint back and sanded the calipers:

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Gave them a coat of high heat primer:

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Then a few red base coats, with some baking and brembo decals:

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Put in the new seals into the brembos and put them back together:

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Then installed my new DBA T2 slotted rotors and brembos:

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Bought some Rotas because the old XXRs would not clear the brembos. But they were matte black, so I decided to paint them a custom grey/silver colour:

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Put the new Federal 595-RSRR's on the Rotas:

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And back on the car!

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[shiggz]

Moved onto some more important work..


Mounted two 12" slimline Mishimoto fans onto the radiator:

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Used a blow torch to detach the old engine bushes from their mounts in order to replace them with the MadPoly ones; Solid rear and semi-solid front bushes.

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Once that was done, I put the engine seals to use.

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Removed the turbos, and rocker covers, replaced all the main seals:

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Used some exhaust wrap to wrap up the front and rear manifolds as well as the gear selector cables.

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On the top end of the engine, I ported and polished the intake manifold, replaced the injectors with 565cc STI Pink ones.

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Then painted the rocker covers, but the engine back together, installed some new coil packs for the new COP setup and timed the engine up:

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[shiggz]

Installed the 6a13tt back into the FTO along with the gearbox:
6mm plate was used as a spacer on the engine mount side as well as on the gearbox side and crossmember to lower the engine for clearance. However I think there could have been enough clearance without doing this?

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Replaced old rusted extrusions on bits and pieces on some of the coolant housings;

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Then installed the Haltech Wideband O2 Sensor:

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[shiggz]

Got the Haltech CAN hub so that I could plug in a few inputs such as the Wideband O2 Controller and OBDII scanner into the Elite 2500.

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The power steering hose also had to be made, being redirected under the car following the rail instead of the upper side of the intake manifold:

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Then took the car to the exhaust shop and got the intercooler piping made up. Forgot to give the guy the RHS headlight, so initially the pipework was in the way, but eventually that got modified to suit the headlight:

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At this stage the car was essentially done. The haltech was wired up, with the help of Rob, and the COP set up was wired too. I put in a new steering wheel and an Eonon head unit so that I could have all digital gauges on the screen through the OBDII feature instead of having gauges all around the dashboard.

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It was then time for a clean up, and tuneee!

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So I took the car the WTFAuto for tuning; big up to Tristan and Thor who looked after me. They tuned the car really well, fixed all the minor issues it had. The ECU harness adapter for the elite 2500 I purchased from RPW had the fan and injector wiring switched around. I didn't expect that wiring to be 100% correct of course.. just RPW things. Once that was fixed, the firing order was corrected and alternator set to 'off' so that it was totally controlled independent of the Haltech, hence being regulated ideally by the alternator itself. The car at this stage was tuned with 10psi of boost, and stock feeling and timing. A roller dyno was used which produced 210hp at the front wheels. This dyno I believe is one of the better dyno's around Perth, and hence doesn't have inflated values compared to tuners such as RPW. A 210hp figure at WTFAuto was expected to produce 300hp+ at RPW's dyno which is just ridiculous.

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Regardless of the hp numbers, the curve is really linear, and it can be felt when accelerating, the car is almost always on boost having no lag, and always has power through ever gear which is amazing. The 0-100kmph time is already between 4-5 seconds too. The new federal tyres are crazy sticky, even though I've been driving around with disconnected swaybars. I am still yet to properly test the LSD, but the fact that I can't even feel it there shows how much better it is compared to the Cusco one.

The FTO is now in the garage for a few weeks, just want to finish everything up 100% with both the mechanical and aesthetic side of the car. I ditched the dstocks fibreglass bumper as it had spider cracks all through it, and instead cut up the PFL bumper. In the next few weeks the car should be completely done and ready for its final tune which will involve fueling, timing and probably 15-16psi of boost.

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[bjk]

Nice stuff m9. Car is looking mint. At least the whale shark will be good for your intercooler :p

[Rob Furniss]

Great work there Shiggz, a quality job, bet you're very pleased with yourself.

[shiggz]

@bjk, yeah it will be Still making some changes to it so it doesn't look as lame haha

@Rob, definitely! I've gone from not knowing how to check oil levels to doing this in under 2 years.. I've learnt a ridiculous amount and am still so stoked that it's all done

[spetz]

Fantastic work there, really nice update. Should be awesome to drive.

As far as the RPW dyno is concerned they use a hub dyno from memory so you can't compare the power rating to roller dyno

[Vectose]

Hi I have a question about the parts of the rear axle that you used in the conversion of fto 3a13t. Where to get it. Sorry for my English I am from the Czech Republic

It is still front wheel drive, rear axle is the same.

[shiggz]

Really should update this, its been a while!
Rear axle is the same, still FWD, unless you're talking about the LCA / suspension components

[shiggz]

Many things have been done since that last post!

I'll bombard this place with more photos and less words.. [Not sure why some of the photos have rotated in a different direction]


After cutting that bumper, I made a splitter for it:

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Then acquired a set of DC side-skirts, which I repainted along with mi whale shark bumper:

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Replaced my trailing arm bushes:

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Took apart the foglight housing, to get rid of the disgusting plastic ridges inside. Sent them to a machining shop, who sanded them out, and also polished my intake. Here's a before and after:

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Noice and shoiiinyyy.

Then got myself a set of Evo X BBS rims. Which had a really bad paint job on them. So decided to clean it up a little and get them powder coated. Then whacked a set of Michellin PS4's on them:

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After that, I replaced all the brembo hardware; sliding pins and retaining springs:

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Got her fully tuned, and installed a CF missile switch because I'm a ricer, which toggles my haltech map into low and high boost; low boost at 8psi for daily driving, and high boost at 16psi with some fueling, pops and flames for spirited driving.. because why not.

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Having some fun with the car...

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And henlo here I am, happy with everything before it turns to sh*t.

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And yep, this happens, doing some 4th gear pulls at 100kmph on the freeway, I hear a massive bang from the gearbox, and find myself 5 neutrals. Had to coast to the emergency lane and get towed home.

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Initially thought it was the clutch that had failed, since all the gears were going in fine but not engaging/not being able to move the car.
Replaced the clutch with an Exedy Heavy Duty Cushion Button Clutch MBK-6429HDCB which has a clamping load of 876kg and torque rating of 503Nm. Along with that, I replaced the Flywheel friction plate with the Fidanza 2290001:

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Put the gearbox back in, and turns out I still couldn't properly move the car in any gear. So... took the gearbox out againnn, pulled it apart, and found this: A broken output shaft...

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Bought all new seals, synchros, rings, hub sliders and an output shaft (MD747931, with MD770265 apparently being the newer revision)

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It is very subtle but it appears that the new shaft has a slight fillet at the step where my previous shaft had failed.
The following two pictures show the difference at this point; 90 degree step vs. fillet.

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Anyway, rebuilt both input and output shafts with new components:

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The outer race of the outer bearing on the output shaft was totally stuck in the box. No point sending it to a shop because they struggle with it too. Instead, just grind it out. I struggled to press it out and made a small crack in the aluminium casing.

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Looked like that outer race had gone through some heat or even fused to the box slightly - maybe due to the vibrations when the output shaft snapped:

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Ended up replacing the box with a CE Lancer box for peace of mind - ripped the internals out and replace it all with the FTO rebuilt internals:

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Got some new mesh for el whale shark bumper, put in the clear foglight and installed a lightbar:

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Looks pretty deec. She's back on the road now, running well. Just need to bed in the clutch for a while, and replace the gearbox oil soon as the synchros start to wear in.

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I think i'll start repairing my old dstocks bumper, fibreglass and respray it again. Just has a cleaner look.. throwback to the time when my FTO looked much cleaner:

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[bjk]

I dunno if it's just me or not but I can barely see any of these pics lol

[yotka]

same here, most pics not loading.

[shiggz]

Bennoz help
I just attached them straight to the thread like all my other pictures. I feel like its internet dependant - some of them load sometimes, and sometimes they don't idkk