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Installed some new parts on my car today to help keep me cool during rhe hot summers. I was in DIRE need of a new radiator and decided it was a good opportunity to upgrade some parts and bought a Koyorad radiator and Renegade Motorsport coolant overflow reservoir. I also replaced my OEM hoses and thermostat with new OEM parts as preventative maintenance.
Here you can see how bad my radiator was leaking between the plastic and metal seam. Apparently a common problem with the OEM radiator, which is one of the reasons I decided to get an all aluminum radiator.
Here are some photos of the Koyorad radiator and Renegade Motorsports overflow reservoir. The radiator was definitely a beautiful and quality part and can equally say the same about Renegade's piece as well.
Reused the OEM fan shroud for the new radiator.
Renegade does supply a clear braided hose for installation, but I have a couple gripes about it. First is installation, you need to use a small O-ring (they supply) to attach to the radiator and slip it into the hose and make sure it is seated perfectly to prevent any leaking, which me and my friend could not get it to fit right and it would always leak.Another reason is I don't like how the braided hose looks and it will yellow over time. So I decided to reuse the OEM hose, imo it looks a lot cleaner, no clamps needed, and more importantly, doesn't leak! I talked to Renegade about this, and he himself uses an OEM hose on his personal car, but some people have requested a braided hose to come with it. I personally think there should be a better way for the braided hose to fit on the radiator.
Anyways, here are more photos after everything has been installed! Love how it looks and now I want a cooling plate, nicer radiator stays, and maybe dress up bolts to make the engine bay look nicer. Please excuse the dirty engine bay, it's been a long time since I have cleaned it.
So I have never been happy with my front fitment on my wheels. I have always thought there were too aggressive, too much camber, have to run 245/35 instead of 255/35, and still rubs the fenders on hard inclines with the wheel turned. With that being said I luckily found another set of 18x9.5 Volk RE30, but they have a +40 offset instead of a +22. My plan is to run the +40 up front and +22 in the rear, I think the rear fitment is perfect. Running +40 up front will allow me to run less camber, run 255/35 square, and I won't have to worry about my fenders and it will look much better overall because the front wheels won't be poking out from the front as much. This leaves me with 2 sets of wheels that I plan on refinishing all 8 wheels.
Anyways, here are some teaser photos of the "new" REs. They have a bronze face and machined lip and in the sunlight, bronze color really pops, but in the shade, it turns to a more gunmetal color. It's crazy how much the color changes in the bronze. This got me to think of wanting to match the bronze for one set of wheels, while the other set will be diamond black, just like my current RE30s.
So my plan is to refinish the first set diamond black, just like my current wheels and for my second set I am stuck on 3 finishes, pearl white, Mag blue, and the current bronze/Hi-meta Bronze
Also, this is the Hi-Meta bronze finish I mentioned, which used to be a special edition color for RE30s:
Yesterday I was able to slap on 2 of the new wheels onto the fronts to get a better idea of fitment. There is a lot more room to play with, not surprising at all. I still have -3.6 camber with 245s, which look too skinny). Thinking of running-2.5 to -3 camber and probably going to cave and purchase 2 new 255s so I can be square. Selena is looking pretty derpy with mismatched wheel finishes haha.
and just for fun I decided to slap both of the new wheels on one side to get an idea of how it would look as a set. In my previous post I mentioned copying this bronze face onto the full wheel. After seeing it on the car, I don't think I will go that route anymore because the bronze and silverstone are too similar in tone. So now I am narrrowed down to pearl white or mag blue. I plan on autodipping my wheels white next weekend to see if I really want white wheels are not.
So a couple nights ago I was able to AutoDip my wheels. I did this for a couple reasons, first was so that my wheels would all temporarily be one color while I find someone to refinish one set of wheels and second was to see if I really wanted white wheels as my second finish. I choose AutoDip over PlastiDip because it has a glossy smooth finish and it's vinyl based instead of rubber, so it isn't grippy like PlastDip and even with PlastiDip's glossifier, it wouldn't be anywhere near as smooth as AutoDip. AutoDip definitely has a more premium price point, we shall see if its worth it durability wise, but for the reasons stated earlier, I understand why it's more expensive.
Overall the dip came out alright, I definitely needed more cans. I only had 2 cans for the barrels and 4 cans for the faces. Definitely needed at least 1 more can for the barrels and 1-2 cans for the faces. It was hard to get good coverage on all the spokes. The last coat is supposed to be thick to get the smooth gloss finish, but with the multi-spoke wheels, I was afraid of getting drips so I ended up with a more semigloss finish. Anyways, onto photos.
So I finally decided to do something to my intake and went with the Ballade Sports intake arm with velocity stack and filter paired with a Spoon OEM replica snorkel. I have always been undecided what I wanted to do with my intake, which is why I left it stock, but I think adding to the OEM airbox is a good set up since the OEM intake is solid. I am still unsure if I want to gut my airbox and cut the resonator off, but for now I just left it as is. Also slapped a Skunk2 battery tie down to get rid of my rusty and paint cracked old one.
I did have problem with the replica snorkel, since it is a replica the fitment wasn't...well there haha. The snorkel didn't have enough of a bend bend to it and cracked when I secured the airbox lid on top. I don't really care too much tbh since I bought this used and it was cheap, maybe this was a reason why the person sold it? not sure. On the plus side, I left my OEM hood untouched and so far no rubbing, so happy with that at least.
I also decided to keep most of the radiator shield thing? and just trimmed up one side. Wish I cut it little by little instead of cutting off a huge section so that it would fit perfectly around the snorkel, but I will be adding a cooling plate eventually so it won't really matter by the end of it all.
And just a couple photos the front end and seeing the snorkel in the bumper opening
Other things I will add later will be a APR cf cooling plate and PWJDM cf airbox cover to complete the look.
As far as first impressions with it driving, I want to say I feel a bit more throttle response, mainly when the car is already moving so I guess the snorkel is doing it's job. Sound wise is the same as stock since I left the airbox alone.
It's been awhile since I have last posted, but these are my new updates of the S.
So about 6 months ago, my Shine front was backed into and needed a respray. But I found a great deal on a used authentic Amuse R1 front and quickly swiped that up and sold the Shine replica. So now I need to wait on the other person's insurance to cover the respray.
As for my wheels, I initially bought the 18x9.5 +40 set to only run up front and continue to run the 18x9.5 +22 in the rear. Initially I liked this setup because I was able to run 255 square with plenty of room in the front, but I grew to dislike it because of the face difference between the front and rear. I didn't like that the fronts had a S2 (flat) face and the rears had a L2 (lip and concave) face. Made the car look like it had a staggered set up instead of square (other than offsets). So I decided to sell the +40 set and coincidentally found a set of RE30 clubsport 2 18x10 +39 set for sale! To me, these are the most ideal specs because I can run square tires, run less camber all around, and it will have an L2 face all around, imo the best face for REs. The only thing I don't like about the Clubsport 2 is the finish. It does not look good with Silverstone (I really wish I had white), so I do plan on refinishing to diamond black (I know so original). So now that I have the clubsport 2 wheels, I plan on selling the other sets. The +40 are technically sold and the +22 will be up for grabs soon.
07-08-2017, 03:40 PM
