With the gluing of the exhaust mesh pieces into place I have officially completed the GTM Assembly Manual.  I removed the diffuser to get to the underside of the mesh easier.  Hopefully the weatherstripping trim pieces will hold up to the exhaust temperatures, but if not I will either roll the mesh back (like the manual has you do), or come up with something else to use.

After gluing the mesh in place I secured the intake tubing to the frame. Josh found some cool swivel zip tie mounts that take 2 zip ties and have a swivel in the middle for flexible mounting. The bottom zip tie goes around the frame the tubing passes over, and the top zip tie goes around the tubing, effectively cinching it down to the frame without the need of any hangers or mounts.

Finally, I cleaned up the hosing that connects each fuel tank vent to the air filter. I lengthened the fuel hose and secured it to the top frame member of the chassis running  behind the rear window, and then secured the filter to the frame. Lastly, another fuel hose was attached to the fuel filter ‘out flow’ port and ran to the back of the car for disposing of fumes away from the cabin.

Finally got around to mounting the exhaust last night. Josh fabbed up an exhaust mount to replace the Kooks ugly (to me) mounts that wrap around the nice polished mufflers. The Kooks mounts mount to the trans (you make the brackets) to avoid flexing the exhaust against the stationary frame. Josh’s mount does mount to the frame, but it uses a rubber ‘bumper’ so that it can flex under revs, etc.  Works very nicely as I can see the exhaust moving with the motor as it idles, etc. The mount is out of the way and not very conspicuous.

With the exhaust mounted the rear mesh was set in place (with the cutouts made for the tips, previously). The mesh was slipped over the exhaust before it was mounted. After some fine tuning of the cutouts weatherstripping was applied around the cut edges. This creates a nice finished look. I will have to remove the diffuser to glue/silicone the mesh in place.

With the exhaust on I set to tuning again. The motor still dies after revs out of idle with the exhaust – I was hoping it would magically fix itself with the exhaust in place. Today I was blessed with an easy tuning session, however. I added 5g/sec of air across the entire base airflow table and it started up and idled great and took some flogging of the throttle without any problems. Revs, drops to idle flawlessly. It would seem that the garage tuning is done for now. Once I get the car inspected (the 20th!) I will be able to get it on the road and see what needs to be done (if anything) in regards to driveability.

I finally received the 3/16″ black rivets I needed to mount the louvers onto the diffuser this week.  Mounting the louver assembly is a straight-forward task. With the louvers in place I hammered (with a rubber mallet) the strakes onto the louvers and got them into place. With the strakes drilled and riveted I was ready to mount the diffuser on the car.

Since I had previously prepped the body for the diffuser install it didn’t take long to bolt it up. The only thing I have to do yet is jack up the car and rivet the underside of the diffuser to the frame of the car. That will not take long at all. The diffuser really completes the back end of the car and shows you how low the vehicle really sits.

In other news, I am still working on the tuning side of things.  I know I could pay a pro and have it done today, but I’m trying to learn how the computer works and if I can get it close on my own I will be happy! A week ago the car would not start with the 96mm tb, and it would not idle with it. I could only run it with my foot on the throttle (then it would die). Now I can start it and it will idle for 5-10 seconds before dying, and I can start it and coax it to idle indefinitely by bringing the RPMs down to idle manually then letting off. Rapid throttle fluctuations are the target of my tuning focus right now, as a hard rev in neutral (ie: 4000rpm+) will cause the car to stall when the RPMs try to come down to idle (overshoots the idle and dies).

The GTM actually looks like a complete car! Had the glass guy come by and install the windshield and rear view mirror. Looks great! I just have to wire up the mirror and the interior will be complete. Afterwards I mounted the wiper blade and tested that out and got it to park where I wanted.

Today I prepared the diffuser for the installation of the louvers. The louvers will greatly increase airflow through the engine bay, keeping the engine quite a bit cooler. To get the diffuser ready I first had to mount the diffuser on the car, find its center, and mark the inside of the diffuser for the body edge so that the louvers do not overlap the body where the diffuser mounts to. Once that was done I removed the diffuser and set the louver assembly in place. Once I had it where I wanted I drilled out all of the rivet holes, cleckoing it as I went. Holes drilled, the louver assembly was removed and the diffuser was flipped over and the louvers were re-clecko’d on the interior side of the diffuser. I then etched the inboard perimeter of each louver onto the surface of the diffuser to prepare it for cutting. With the perimeter scribed, I cut out the louver holes while leaving the scribe marks intact. This allows for the installation of the louvers on the interior side of the diffuser while keeping the aluminum edges hidden by the diffuser. Once the diffuser was cut I clecko’d the louvers in place and bent the fins up to match the angle on the strakes. The strake ‘ears’ had to be bent to sit flush on the diffuser.

At this point I need to pull the louvers off again and take them for powder coating. Afterwards, I will be able to rivet them in place and mount the diffuser.

Today I set the console in place to test switch fitment before I have the shift box welded back in tomorrow. After I did that I put the radio in place just to test its clearance when it opens (to make sure it clears the AC controls). When I tried opening the unit I realized I did not have enough clearance cut out for the bottom edge to tilt out without catching the edge of the console cut-out. Pulled back the vinyl, again, and trimmed the top and bottom edges down a bit more, then put the radio in place and tested – good to go now. Just need to re-glue the vinyl and get the radio mounted to the tunnel frame. I also cut out the ignition switch hole in the console trim plate.

Silicone’d the bottom and sides of the front mesh to hold that in place. That should be good to go tomorrow.  With the mesh in place I installed the front camera. I attached the camera to the under-side of the hood mouth using a few left over black duct screws from the AC parts, then routed the cabling through the nose of the hood with some adhesive-backed wire holders. Once I get the car off its jack stands I will fine-tune the  positioning of the camera.

I’ve delayed the fog lights installation until now because I simply did not know what to do with the lights provided by Factory Five. They have a funky bracket on the top, and do not have a rear post that mounts through a hole in the fog light recess as shown in the build manual. FFR advised me to ‘just flip the bracket back and attach through that’, however the bracket is positioned so that it is impossible to center the light, plus it would stick out way too far. No thanks.

As a solution I did the following:
1. Remove the brackets, silicone the holes left from the bracket screws.
2. Remove the wire grommet
3. Drill a 3/8″ hole next to the wire grommet hole, recess the edges a bit with a dremel tool, and push the grommet/wires through that new hole.
4. Push a long bolt w/ washer (I used a 1/4-20)  through the former wire grommet hole and secure it on the back of the housing with a jam nut. The hole is centered perfectly so this bolt acts as a post to mount the light through the recess with.
5. Drill a 1/4″ hole centered in the fog light recess. Drill a smaller hole next to it for the wires.
6. Run the wires through, push the fog light into the recess, secure with a lock nut and washer.

Having to prep the lights is a pain, but it works. After the lights were installed I attached and loomed their wiring up.

After all that, I took the clamps off the side louvers since the adhesive has cured – solid as a rock and they look great. Silicone’d the rear mesh pieces into place.

The guy that does the powdercoating for me finished the louvers and some other things today so I went and picked those up and set to installing them. Rear end jacked up, tires removed, louvers fit into place, contact points marked for adhesive, fun times.  Since I had a half container of 3M 8115 Panel Bonding Adhesive left I went and rented the applicator gun from the local auto store and used that to adhere the louvers against the body. 24 hours to cure, so they should be solid as a rock tomorrow afternoon.

The hood mesh looks good so far. Still have to adhere the bottom portion of the ‘mouth’ mesh with silicone.

I wasn’t in the mood to do much tonight so I just formed the small mesh pieces for the lower ducts on the hood and siliconed them into place. After that I decided to do the top of the hood mouth mesh as well. When that is dry and secure I will secure the bottom of the mesh.

I also received the replacement turn signal stalk from Fparts today. No burned wires in it – good sign! They forgot to send the mounting bolts along, but I taped it into place and gave it a quick test. Turn signals work! Previously, the right side turn signals would work half the time, and when they did they were often slower than the left side. Now they work perfect, and I’m glad that issue is resolved.

I recently revised my CAI design again and moved on to ‘version 3′. This version eliminates the bends as the piping goes towards the side ducts. Instead, I purchased 2 45-degree silicone sleeves and ran straight pipes with the intake filters on them to sit directly behind the side ducts. Very nice clean look. I will install some hangers to help support the ends of the straight pipes as well, and probably fab a heat shield to sit between the exhaust and intake.

Painted the remaining mesh inserts (front/rear small ducts, and hood ‘mouth’) black. They are ready for install.

I noticed when driving the go-kart that the trans was spewing oil from the breather cap on the top of the trans. Not a lot, but enough to make me want to do something about it. The solution is an overflow tank that will catch any leaked oil. The tank has a petcock  that allows me drain the oil when needed.  To complete this setup I need to install a hose attachment in place of the breather cap, and run a short hose to connect the tank to the trans.