Major Milestone: Rolling Chasis

Today we reached a major milestone with project Domino, we were able to roll her out of the garage for the first time in six months.  Aside from that, the JDM STI version 8 6 speed transmission is also in.

The tranny is bolted up with fresh new bolts.

The frontal view.

Domino standing on her own for first time in these many months.

Rolled out for a little clean up.

The first time the garage has been vacated for a while.

And after being washed.

Ok, the paint isn't too bad considering that the car is 14-15 years old.  But the clear coat and some of the base coat on the wing are diffidently gone.

And the engine bay after a ton a degreaser.

New Rails for Domino

I ordered this fuel rail kit to test out on Domino.  If it works well, it may become the next new product that SteamSpeed will sell. :)  In any case, the stock rails on the ej207 motor looked a little mangled, so they would be good to replace.  

The quality of the rails and the kit looks great actually.  And I was impressed with quality of the fuel regulator as well.  In a production kit, I think I will go with parallel stainless steel feed lines and return lines.  At some point though, it must connect to the small hard lines in the chassis.  

Rear Sway Bar Buttoned Up

The rear sway bar is in!  I believe it is the 26mm Whiteline sway bar for a 2005 USDM STI.  Note: the rear sway bar mounts on the GC8 chassis are different than the GD chassis, so the sway bar bushings I got were not compatible.  Lucally for me, I saved my GD mounts when upgraded the rear mounts in my other car!  :)  I swapped them out, and everything worked great.

Finally I used the Perrin rear end links for the 2005 USDM STI with spherical bearings.  The only thing is the clearance seems super close between the rear sway bar and the mud cover for the fuel filler pipe.  I'll have to keep my eye on that.

Next step will be to mount up the version 8 JDM STI 6 speed gear box.

Domino's New Turbo

As we all know, making the correct turbo selection is critical in determining how much power you car makes and how responsive it is.  

This is Domino's new turbo.  It is a Steam STX 71 with the JDM twinscroll style turbine housing.   With the low inertia 9-blade turbine, it is nearly as responsive as the stock VF37...except it makes 400-450 whp. :)