• Haven’t been able to work on the car in a few weeks due to my college club’s (Georgia Tech Wreck Racing) competition a week ago. We built a turbocharged LS-Swapped BMW E28 for competing in the GRM $2000 Challenge. Now that that’s over I have a few weeks to get some work in before finals come around.
• Exhaust
  • I finished the exhaust modifications needed for the EJ207 swap. I welded the exhaust bracket back together and welded on a secondary O2 sensor bung just before the muffler.
  • Painted in the same silver VHT exhaust paint that I used before. Doesn’t look quite as good as before but still looking pretty nice for an exhaust that won’t be terribly visible with the body on.
• ABS
  • I ran the iWire ABS wiring harness that I’ve been putting off for a while. Thankfully, nothing too complicated to it. Just mounting the small fusebox and routing the wires to their respective destinations. Seems to be hooked up correctly- no ABS warning light- but I have not tested the system yet.
• ECU Issues
  • I’m almost certain that my ECU is no good. The JDM place I bought my engine from said it was not the original one to the engine and I have been unable to fix the flashing CEL issue (no codes displayed though) despite deleting O2 codes, correctly installing both O2 sensors, confirming AVCS wiring is correct, and trying different EJ207 ROMS. Internet says bad ECU is a likely outcome, so I’m going to replace it and see what happens. I did not have any of these issues with the last setup and the only wiring that has changed is the ECU and AVCS wiring.
• Seat Brackets
  • I’m cleaning up and painting the seat brackets for final install this week. Brought them to school with me to work on that. One of the many small things to take care of so I can get the car into a “complete” go-kart status.

The post November 2019 Update: Exhaust finished, ABS Wiring appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• Engine
  • I mocked up the exhaust using my existing Boig Motorsports exhaust and a portion of the downpipe from the EJ207. It won’t be as nice as the original Boig exhaust but it’ll do and it didn’t cost me anything extra.
  • A short drive with the exhaust confirmed that all my low-speed engine issues were just caused by atmospheric air interfering with the primary O2 sensor.
  • After the exhaust is finished I should be able to drive the car with full boost and no codes!
• Chassis
  • Fixed my front left upper control arm which was installed with the bushings upside down. I’ve known this for a while but haven’t resolved until now.
  • Tied down the front portions of the coolant pipes.
  • Changed front alignment for less toe in and fixed the positive camber to make it ~2 degrees negative now. Made the car a lot more stable than it was last test drive.

The post October 2019 Update: Exhaust and Continuing The Go Kart Check-List appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• Chassis
  • Reattached rear suspension, axles, and crossmember to put the car back on the ground
  • Bled my clutch line. I’m not sure why exactly, but I have had a very difficult time getting my clutch master to actually suck new fluid out of the reservoir while bleeding. Instead it tries to suck fluid back from the slave (compressing the slave). Sometimes it works and eventually I got it to a useable state. Anyone have advice on this?
  • Fixed my vehicle speed sensor- just a corroded connection in the trans harness connector to the VSS.
• Engine
  • Engine is still running well, but I’m having weird issues while trying to get it to ignore the rear O2 sensor. Right now, I have not finished the exhaust for the new turbo flange so I do not have the rear O2 sensor installed in the exhaust. Because of this, I figured I would delete the codes for the sensor so it doesn’t turn off boost control and set a check engine light. However, deleting the codes did not actually delete the check engine light and in fact set a flashing check engine light instead (no misfires or anything with the engine. Just the same code). It would do this whether I had the O2 sensor plugged in or not. I’m going to hope that installing it correctly will fix all this but I’m at a loss as to what exactly is going on with the whole codes thing.
  • I have found that the BTSSM app and a USB-C to USB-A adapter allow me to use my tactrix cable to connect my phone to the car for logging, code reading, and live gauges. Highly recommend this setup!
• Interior
  • Passenger seat and bracket now installed thanks to some help from a friend (who coincidentally also helped install the driver’s seat). The passenger seat has to be quite upright because of the fuel tank and interior crossbar but FFR doesn’t really seem to have given many options there…oh well I’ll be on the left side most of the time anyways
• Test Drive
  • I drove the car around and overall everything is great! Only had 8psi of boost because of the CEL turning off boost control but my passenger monitored AFR and timing while we drove and everything looked good. Car will be crazy fast with full power. Also, my alignment is in serious need of fixing. The car is darty and all over the place right now but I didn’t have high expectations since I haven’t really put effort into aligning it. So it was driven pretty gently while I work out the bugs but now I’ll finally be able to start sorting a few of those.

The post September 2019 Update #4: Back to Go-Kart appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• Coolant pipes have all been switched to silicone couplers. No leaks yet! They seem to have a better seal than the FFR provided adapters.
• Did an oil change and have mostly filled with coolant although some bleeding still needs to happen.
• Installed JDM ECU and ran wiring for AVCS (variable valve timing in Subaru-speak)
• I got the engine and transmission in the car and everything hooked up. Engine runs well! I was a bit concerned about the large quantities of smoke that came out initially but it went away after 30 seconds and nothing after that indicated an issue. I found out engine codes are quite hard to read with the JDM ECUs because they don’t use an OBDII standard protocol since that’s only a US requirement. You have to get an adapter that supports the SSM (Subaru Select Monitor) protocol which is the manufacturer-specific diagnostic protocol and works on all Subarus globally. The Torque app supports the protocol if I can find a bluetooth adapter. Thankfully, I was able to borrow a snap-on scan tool that did the trick for this weekend. Only code was for rear O2 sensor (Which I don’t have). Hoping I’ll have it back together soon and drive it around a bit.

• Install new brake booster/master
• Finish E-brake install
• Wire ABS
• Install passenger seat
• Install A/C
• Fix throttle pedal mounting position

The post September 2019 Update #3: EJ207 is in and running! appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• Engine
  • I re-shimmed the valves to bring everything back into tolerance on the passenger side head. To my relief, the leak down tests following this were good! I put everything back together and sure enough the car is now firing properly on all cylinders .
  • Dyno tune coming shortly! Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly this time.

• Go-Kart Wrap-Up Items:
  • Brake master/booster swap to a larger master cylinder size. This is to fix the pedal feel issue I have.
  • Parking brake handle mounting.
  • 3D printed throttle pedal mount for better pedal placement.
  • Fix small coolant leaks using new silicon hose couplers.
  • Finish seat mounting on passenger side.
  • A/C component installation.

The post August 2019 Update: Running on all cylinders! appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• It is driving!
• I drove the car for the first time, at parking lot speeds, which was quite satisfying. The brakes are not up to the task of any higher speeds yet and and the engine isn’t tuned so I hope to get both of those solved soon and get a real driving evaluation of the car in.
• Brakes
• I actually managed to install my NC Miata master cylinder. Fit is extremely tight and my plan is to see how this setup works and replace with a RHD NC Miata master if I like it and decide to keep it. 
• However…brakes currently feel like mush and I hope it’s only because I did not do the most thorough bleeding job. They are barely functional at the bottom of the travel of the pedal.
• Georgia Tech Auto Show
• I brought the car to its first auto show a Georgia Tech. Got tons of questions, met a couple other FFR owners, and besides getting covered in pollen everything survived the trip :). It was a good photo opportunity for this stage of the build.
• Tiny website update: Google Sites now lets you map a custom URL without forwarding. Good option if anyone is looking for a cheap way to build a simple website. This plus Blogger has ended up being a very good and simple way for me to document the whole build. I pay just $12 a year for the domain with no other costs.

The post April 2019 Update #1: It Drives! appeared first on Lawson's 818C.