Today on Ratchet Ralph, we have a throwback to new years! This post is a little out of place but was a great experience.
So the s2k bumper was driving me NUTS with the single HKS. Was scouring the web for aftermarket bumpers I liked. Once again being laughed at by many of the aftermarket 3rd party suppliers I realized I didn't even like what they were offering. I kept studying different styles and many of which came from S2Ki. Really liked a few members rear bumpers and realized, you just have to cut it... So, we CUT IT!! This one was special cause the whole fambam worked on it.

 

 

Nice. Always a good time wrangling family to help out. What are plans on the now showing rear frame. I've done both cutting them off and painting them flat black.

 

Flat Black!!!!

 

Greetings S2K Brothers & Sisters,
Been a hot minute but never despair! Many things have been shaken & baken over here @ camp IFBB. Today on Ratchet Ralph, we dive into an upgrade fuel rail which led into many more additions through the install, which made this one extra fun!
(These events happened before the header install, before I saw my mechanic's work)
So, I had decided to pick up an extra Intake Manifold with the throttle body & Inline Pro fuel rail from my mechanic. The soul purpose was to use it as a learning tool to get more familiar with the part as well as techniques of disassembling & reassembling car parts. To be quite frank, it was an amazing idea. Taking the whole thing home and disassembling it during the winter storm was actually quite rewarding. I can totally understand how one can get lost in car work, just the same way in bodybuilding. Positive results are addictive, and higher and higher goals are set. I never thought I would have gone down this path. I love cars, but after my vow I didn't think I would ever get comfortable under the hood of any car. Playing around with the intake mani, TB, fuel rail, and injectors was a massive tool in my upcoming success. I went out and picked up an M18 impact drill to further get acquainted with. I even called the family around and timed to see how long it took me to dissemble and reassemble everything. Best time was 16mins, I used my hands with installing and M18 with Uninstalling. I may be wrong, but it feels more natural to tighten a bolt safely via hand and use a tool to take bolts/nuts off, as to not strip anything going in. I could be mistaken but I have taken this theory with my journey to not overtighten with fear of stripping. I scoured S2Ki & YouTube for every single fuel rail upgrade. I came across Chase Diaz, he has quite a thorough build on YouTube which was very similar to my original idea for Rinzler. Watching many videos, some focusing on fuel injectors, others on fuel pressure regulators, and some on gauge and rail installs. So came the day, after many videos, many searches here, I mustered up the courage to do the install. Thankfully all my time with the extra Manifold paid off. I felt very confident and prepared for this install. I had also picked up a AEM FPR & Gauge so I can adjust pressure with the upgraded Inline Fuel Rail. Everything went smooth, I red loctited the gauge & pulsation dampener (this thing stumped me throughout the whole research process) I had all necessary parts and we finished everything in an hour or two. Oh yea... I figured I'd switch out a few of the fuel injectors with the extra Manifold I had gotten. I thought why not, I was told it was an 05 same year as My cars. I chose the cleanest 4 of the total 8. So we buttoned her up, wiped off all fuel and dirt and kissed the twins goodnight. I read red loctite takes 12hrs to cure so I was planning on starting her up next day middle day of work.
Ad the next same arrived, I opened up shop early and counted down the minutes I was going to fire her up with her new goodies and adjust pressure. The time came to fire her up, I was so excited. Told one of the girls to turn the key while I inspected, turn key, PSSSST ... fuel everywhere. ****... welp back to the drawing board, pulled fuel rail out. Failed/damaged 0 ring. My mechanic's voice popped in my head, careful with the O rings, use vasoline." Yea, he was right, was able to quickly replace the damaged O ring and reinstall. Turn Key, NO FUEL leak, SICK!! FIRE HER UP! (Car roars/HKS 75mm) Alright!! Listen closer, shes running rough, shes misfiring. Think to myself how?! Hit up my mechanic for guidance, he did sell me the items and said they were 05 & compatible after all. Well, turns out it wasn't an 05, it was an AP1 Manifold using AP1 fuel injectors which are different from AP2.1 injectors. Well, alright, goes back in and uninstalls everything. As I'm inspecting which injectors were originally Rinzler's I get a tap on my shoulder "don't you have to meet with the painter soon?" OH SHIT! I had totally forgotten, I had scheduled an inspection with the guy painting the car THAT DAY! Look at the time, ok had 2 hours to get this right and get Rinzler over to the shop to be checked out. Despite how I feel about my mechanic, and kind of ironic, he's are FAR better mentor than a mechanic. We had an verbal altercation before receiving the vehicle a while back, essentially he was leaving to the West Coast to work on some Lambs and twin turbos, and he didn't finish completing the work on my car. I had already waited 4 months and if he had left he was gone for another 4-6weeks. After paying everything he asked and waiting 4 months and he was about to leave to Cali, I spoke up. I had enough of being on the back burner. Lambo after Lamborghini, McClaren after super car it seemed my car would never be done. I get it. Little ole s2k isn't fun anymore and its boring to him, but to me Rinzler & Purist are my world at the moment. I finally received my car at 1am the day he left to Cali. Sometimes I feel taken advantage of and mistreated, other times I pity him. What came out in that conversation wasn't the guy I first met and hired for my work. Clearly he was under a ton of stress, and he realized he was yelling at the wrong person. He would tell me dates and I would just follow up with him to get snapped at. Now looking back, I feel bad for the guy. He had a rough upbringing that effects him today, maybe we got too close too fast who knows, but we both knew we were going our own ways. We still keep in touch here & there, everything positive, just ironic he can walk me through an install and my errors via text and photos but sticking to his own deadlines, thats impossible for him. With some good advice and now uninstalling and reinstalling countless times, figured out which injectors were originally Rinzler's, put them in buttoned her up. Fired her up with no leaks, she ran, no CELs or large misfires. Wasted no time and drove off to meet the painter! No CEL or any issues, I figured out 43.5psi was the sweet spot. 47psi she left choppy to me and misfires a little and anything under 40 wasn't enough, she felt off.

 

 

 

Hope everyone is doing well during this time! Today on Ratchet Ralph we go into Oil Catch Can, Coolant reservoir, and Rear mirror upgrades! I know it seems that all the installations are fun, header was nostalgic, radiator & old header de-installation with late night beers, rear bumper having the whole family chip in. However, this installation I felt really brought the car’s engine bay to a new level. After review what seemed like endless different generic oil catch cans and rear mirrors, the search was exhausting as well as calling around to make sure they had the proper parts, which they usually didn’t. I made contact with a West Coast company, Renegade Motorsports out in Oregon. I had ordered the Amuse Titan R1 Hood from Japan, through their company and sure enough the Hood actually came a day early. After discussing different product ideas and finishes, we both agreed that we should go with a nice clean polish look for the engine bay to match the Koyo Rad radiator. Luckily for me, Renegade expedited a polished Oil Catch Can to match the Polished Coolant reservoir replacement and I decided to pick up some SquareCraft carbon fiber mirrors and a Carbon Kevlar rear view mirror with blue lens Zoom technology.

 

I decided to stash the SquareCraft Mirrors for now. I have been at war within myself if I want to keep the OEM side mirrors or go aftermarket. Every single aftermarket side mirror reviews are always lack luster, and while I am not 100% if Rinzler will ever get on a Track but for now I want to keep the OEM/CR look. I have aspirations for fold in mirrors but we will cross that bridge when we get there or if we can even do it. I digress, after discussing installation with Renegade, since Rinzler is an 05’ we would need to delete the cruise control to make way for the new Oil Catch Can. I read SO many different way people took it out. Some people just cut the wire and ripped it out, while other removed it properly. I decided to go the latter, now that I’m more mature than my younger years. Cruise control delete wasn’t too hard to take out, just have to unlatch it from under driver side bay. Removed cruise control unit. Unbolted reservoir bracket/stay, did a deep clean of the area and pulled back & zip tied a few flexible lines. Took a look at OEM reservoir bracket, and it looks like it just need some slight modification. So I measured & marked it and went ahead and cut it to right dimensions. Fabricating this piece was especially fun! After cutting, I cleaned it up wtih some sand paper and respray painted it black with Acrylic paint. Not too shabby if I say so myself!