When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Part of the original set of sphericals I bought were the front strut bushings. Finally got myself a press, and had some time to have the car on the lift to get these pressed in. Nothing too wild.. but fixturing these damn control arms was probably the sketchiest thing I had ever done with a press.
I expect these to be inconsequential, but was a good test of the press. I think I need to start to get rid of all of the soft bushings in the suspension/subframes.... more later.
Cusco RS spec F 1.5 Way Differential + 5.12 Ring and Pinon + Rear Axle Temp Sensor
Woo, big modification here.. or at least one I am more excited about that anything else I've done to a car in a while. Started this process a few months ago at this point.. and just now getting it built up and in the car. So far, it's been worth the wait.
Easy start, wanted an LSD, wanted higher ratio rear end gears. Perfect time to build up my old S1 rear end was combining all of these things.. and hell.. diff temp sensor over CAN because why not?
Was able to get a hold of our friend in Australia and picked up the 5.12 ring and pinion set for ~600USD shipped. It came in like a week... so all it did was sit in a box for a while.
Looks like a rear end gear set.
I also ordered myself a Cusco RS spec F 1.5 way differential from a retailer in Japan (yay Yen to USD exchange rates, more so now then back then!) and it was on about a month backorder. Was expecting that, and it was gonna be a real tight squeeze to see if I could get it in for Mid Ohio. Unfortunately, we obviously didn't make the timeline as the diff arrived about 2 days or so before we were off to the track. I decided to go with the RS and the 1.5 way for a few obvious reasons:
Lots of initial torque that doesn't spank you
No lock on high decel, only a small bit of lock at low decel torque
Tuneability, though set to 100% lock for now
My rally and axle expert friend had nothing but praise for the unit, and it's obviously proven
Parts are readily availiable
Make sense? Hope so! I also ended up buying a few liters of the Cusco fluid from Japan seeing as, even with shipping, it was cheaper than getting it here. Fun story, customs apparently makes you sign off on the fact the fluid meets some toxic fluids import law which was a fun phone call. Funner story, when the exporter in Japan marks your differential down as a "Powertrain", customs also has a LOT of questions for you. Fortunately, I just said "it's not a powertrain, it's an axle component" and they just said "oh okay, why didn't they just write that down!?" and it was on it's way. So I guess what I learned is that, fluids are good if you just say they are, and engines are easy to import from Japan so long as you just say "it's not an engine". :D
When I finally had these bits and pieces in stock, I recruited the expert help of my aforementioned friend to help teardown the old unit, and build the new unit. To say he knew what he was doing was an understatement. He took about 5 seconds of looking at the rear end with the cover off and was like "ah yeah, one of these types". Simple teardown, nothing super interesting to see... but here are the photos nonetheless. I haven't seen anyone do a real "writeup" on how to do all this, maybe because people keep their craft to themselves, but here's my attempt to tell the story.
The things I learned on the teardown. poorly explained:
Mustangs use a similar OEM style diff.
The 5.12 gear set pinion is MUCH smaller, and that has to do with the ratio itself. Sorta/kinda the higher the ratio, the smaller the pinion gear
The unit doesn't use screw adjusters like some other style axles, and we were going to basically have to build the thing a bunch to set lash
I needed to buy all new bearings/seals/etc (I guess I knew this one before hand)
Fast forward a few weeks... and now I actually started a job at the same company as the aforementioned friend at a company called American Axle (AAM) working in their Advanced Engineering department. tl;dr I make science experiments work now.. mostly E-Drive stuff. The point of that whole information session is that I've now got access to a WEALTH of knowledge of rear ends (heh), and lots of tools to be able to build an axle good and proper. So we moved shop to our lab.
Should note, anything I'm mentioning here may not be completely correct.. I am just trying to paraphrase the people who know WAY more about this than I do. So I guess if you're an axle expert, don't tell me something I said was wrong, I already know it's gonna be.
First on the list was to open up the LSD and make sure it was set to what we wanted it to be at. We went into our clear room for this, though it really shouldn't have mattered. The initial setting was 100% lock on both axles, and though I am sure a Cusco manual says this as well (it does), I learned from my friend that adjusting the lock is as simple as interchanging the smooth and rough plates. If you want less lock, swap two roughs to be in contact with a smooth, and you've essentially taken one friction surface out of the equation. Makes total sense to me. Exact same way double/triple plate engine clutches work too.. sans adjustment usually.
Next up was to press on the new bearings and toss on the ring gear. Easy stuff.
Now we needed to pop in the races of the new bearing into the unit and then make a set of "setup bearings". These are just the old bearings machined out a little so that they go on the new pinion, but aren't a total press fit so we can still take everything apart when measuring shims and lash. The new races in the case should set the point where everything would sit with the old bearings just fine, because bearing tolerances are crazy good compared to everything else we are dealing with, and usually isn't a big deal to use old ones because of this.
Then we just plopped on the setup bearings on the pinion and stacked everything up using the stock shims to see where we were at.
At this point, there was about 16 thousands of lash, which is about 4x the OEM spec. We had some work to do. We also decided to check pattern to see where we were at with that while we already had it together.
Pattern looked pretty good as is, which I guess meant we likely didn't need to play much with the pinion shim. Why? I can't recall why, but I think that was the case.
Another guy also said "if you were trying to win a race this weekend, I'd run it with the pattern looking like that. If you aren't, dial in that lash because that's too much". I trusted his opinion completely, so that's what we were going to do.
I lost my friend for a week because he decided to "go on vacation" or something silly.. so I got to see my axle sitting on the workbench outside my office for a week. Sad banana.
We got back to work, and by we I mean my friend, because he just started going mad scientist on the unit.
With not much of my help, we took some test shims and made some lash measurements with shim sizes to get a sizing for proper shims. We got the unit down to 4 thousands of lash, within the OEM Mazda spec.. which according to him was QUITE tight. Cool. My buddy then did some calcs to ensure the same amount of preload was on the bearings as the OEM unit, and machined some casement shims to the right size. I understood what we were doing while we were doing it, but not well enough to be able to teach anyone or do it as fast as my friend did. Like I said, to say he knew what he was doing is an understatement.
We then pressed on the new bearings on to the pinion, popped in new seals, did an oopsie with the little spacer that keeps the input flange dust shield from rubbing on the case that required us to machine it down with a lathe because we put the new seal on before the spacer, started to tighten the flange nut.
Another thing I learned here is about "torque to turn". There isn't really a spec that matters on the flange nut on the pinion gear aside from the torque it takes to turn the flange with the nut installed. Spec called for 1.7-2Nm, so that's what we aimed for. Using the actual right tool, I tightened the nut using an impact with a new compressible spacer, pulled the other bearing into place, and every now and then we would measure the amount of torque it took to dynamically rotate the flange until we hit spec at 2Nm. Badass, I had no idea that's how that worked. Bearing preload mattered way more than actual spec of the nut. Noted.
With all that done, we checked the pattern once again and it looked perfect. I forgot to take photos of it, but it doesn't really matter. The only thing left to do was pop on the cover, but I was planning to use the S2 axle cover that was on the unit in the car, so I boxed the unit up and took it home in the "parts delivery" GC!
When I got home, I got right to work throwing the Mazda on the lift and pulling out the OE S2 unit.
Got the unit out, swapped the cover cover to the new Cusco unit, and then popped in an 1/8 NPT Defi temp sensor, to an adapter that fit the drain plug. I then moved the magnetic drain plug to the top to keep the ability to gather metal shards. I will work on the temp sensor at a later date, but was just mechanically getting everything in and verified working.
Install was simple, and still a pain in the *** having to move one axle out of the way completely.. and of course on the way back in I cracked the axle boot of the left side axle. New one on the way now, but for now it can kick up a little grease.
And can confirm, wheels do lock on accel, and do unlock on decel
Started raining, and I need to align the front end before I can drive to test out the 5.12 ratio, but I've got a few more things to report back on anyways. Really glad we spent the time to set the rear end up correctly as it doesn't clunk, whack or any of the "normal" aftermarket diff sounds because we dialed the thing in so well. It feels (just from doing figure 8s in my driveway) like an OEM unit, sans wheels skrrtting.
Is that available on the normal canbus? I don't remember seeing it on any of the lists that were floating around before. Is it rounded to the nearest 100kPa?
It's from the ABS module via K line, since they still did diagnostics that way in 2004. Scalar is to the 100kPa, which was stolen from some Ford stuff of similar vintage (same place the seed and key for the ECM comes from too).
Wrote some software to talk K line to query the ABS module, and then send it out via CAN on the factory bus along with the rest of the CAN data at 20Hz which is where the AiM steals it from.
There's some info about figuring out the ABS module PIDs and such in some earlier posts, but it was a whole process haha.
CAN Based Diff Temp Sensor + Cluster Display Update
Just making this a separate post since it turned into a fun little mod.
To view/log my diff temp sensor I popped in the new axle, I repurposed some old prototype hardware I had laying around. It's pretty much identical to the board running my oil temp/pressure CAN sensors, but only using one temp input. The best part about these is that they are a software flash away from being completely stackable. You could use hundreds of these things in parallel if you wanted, and everything is loggable with my Solo.
To get it wired up and mounted, I just printed a small mount out and drilled some holes into where the old curtain airbags would mount and then wired it up using some DT connectors and pins. Custom harnesses make me happy.
I tied the CAN lines to a bussed connector with extra pins, so if I ever want to tie things into CAN, all I need to do is run two wires to the bussed connector and it'll be read to go. That bussed connector then took over the old airbag connector mounting clip and popped right into the OEM hole for easy mounting. Also because a bunch of other stuff was removed, I was able to grab switched power and ground from an unused connector right at the mounting point. Super nice, and I got rid of the unused plug and replaced it with a 2 pin DT connector that ran to my board.
I then tied the bussed CAN lines into the OEM bus via another 2 pin DT for what I think is a super clean install.
I pulled the cluster out to reflash my screen hardware with an update to look for the new CAN message (in hindsight, using one board with multiple sensors is better, but like I said.. spare hardware) and display the temperature. Easy peasy!
Super stoked to have more data.. because why not? The logging of the data is going to be way more important than the actual display.. but if you've got the means... may as well pop it up.
The sensor is queried at 10ms, but to save some bus traffic (probably not needed) I capped the CAN TX rate to 100ms since temperature shouldn't be that dynamic. I can always reflash it to a higher rate if need be.
All for now. Going racing in another week... will have more then
Well I knew something felt off about my stopping power.
Think I got my life outta these.
Cobalt friction pads I put on last September. Guy was not lying when he said they were a once a season pad.
This was after all day sat really using the brakes hard to learn the track.
Was great catching up with you sat. You and your car have come along way. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Hahahha!! those are cooked! Goood to see ya dude, I was trying to get over to ya in the afternoon but my buddies and ended up playing car swap bingo at the end of the day and we had like 4 minutes of down time between all the sessions.
I kept seeing ya blast into T1 with your S2 telling my girlfriend RX-8s were the best.. and she wasn't disagreeing!
Ya it took a bit to get used to that track and about that time I wasn’t getting good braking so that’s not a recipe for confidence.
I swapped the ebc yellow for Sunday but boy they grab amazing for the first 3 laps then are faded out so bad I was downshifting and pitching it in a bit sideways. Luckily gingerman is the track to do that if you do spin out.
Chad the guy that runs midnight came over and was loving the fact we were both shooting huge fireballs out the back even on downshifts.
Those musical car sessions are a blast.
Midnight Motorsports Track Day- Gingerman Raceway - October 1, 2022
Track day. Gingerman. New LSD and gearset. Let's see what we can do.
Midnight has always been a bit of a mixed bag to do events as it draws in a bit different of a crowd than any of the usual events I go to. By that I mean it's a group of people who like to buy a car and then go run it on the track. Often times there are a lot of super cars with people playing for the first time, or people who are just dipping their toes wet for the first time after they've bought a sports car they like. Not saying it's a bad thing, but it definitely makes run groups a little more confusing, busy and chaotic. This time at Gingerman was very much so that. The speed disparity in cars made it quite hard to find track real estate without a 911 GT3 trying to fly by, so after the first two sessions I stopped trying to set a blazing time, and mostly just tried to enjoy my track day with PERFECT weather and friends.
That being said, my friend so kindly offered to tow the Mazda out there.. so I planned to get the car on a trailer after work on Friday pronto. We were planning to camp out that evening before getting up early to turn gasoline into noises. The night before I had swapped over to my other set of front pads just because they had a biiiit more life in em, as well as swap out the rears to XP10s. I went for a nice sunset drive to try to 5.12s at highway speeds for the first time.. ya know.. before going to the track.. In love.
When I went to pull the car out from the garage to get packed up, I noticed I had a flat tire. Yeehaw... not the thing you want to deal with when you're a few hours away from loading a car. Luckily it still seemed to hold air, and I saw no penetrations.. so I let it sit while I loaded it up for a few hours. When my buddy pulled in, I was telling him about the issue. He asked if I wanted to spray it and just see if it was a leaky valve stem. Not having even thought of that, since I had these tires thrown on these wheels in a rush at Midwest I got the squirt bottle and luckily enough bubble like mad from the stem. Easy fix.
Still brought a spare wheel/tire with me though..
Loaded the car on the trailer along with some friends who were bringing their cars, and off we went in a 3 rig/car train.
Got there while it was dark.
Did the beer drinking thing.
Stars looked nice with a clear sky, good seeing, and no moon.
You know how it goes if you do race track things.
Woke up to a FROSTY morning and went out for some laps.
Super slick session due to the cold, cars all over, and I learned it takes a little bit for the diff fluid to warm up when it's at an ambient just under 40F. I ended up running 3 tenths from my fastest time ever, with a full tank of gas and a passenger while sliding all over and figuring out new shift points. The car had SO much more pace in it with the gear and LSD now. I just had to make it work.
Throughout the day grip levels got better, but the track got busier. I didn't really get a chance to string a lot of laps together to run a heater.. but I was able to manage a 1:45.649, which was 5 thousands off my best time ever, while still making mistakes... with a passenger.. and a lot more gas than I'd usually run. Ambient temp helped quite a bit, but there is a LOT more jam in this car now. I found it quite hard to unlearn the way I used to drive the car, and I still feel like I am unlearning as opposed to learning. Seat time will make me faster.
Things that had to be unlearned the hardest were obviously things to do with the rear LSD. Understeer (limit grip during a turn, is really what I mean I suppose) before the LSD was maintained/reduced by letting off the throttle a tad. With the LSD, if you want more turn in.. hit the throttle harder. It's like dating a girl who's safe word is "don't stop". Quite confusing to figure out what the hell that's all about.
That aside, the gearing also begged some new questions.. do I shift into 5th on the back straight? I sure could... but.. now I am braking hard with more speed, and have to double downshift. I kept messing up the double downshift.. which is weird because I had no problems at Mid O with the double downshift.. so I looked at some data from different laps running 4th all the way out (I have the revs to) and shifting into 5th. I determined that the speed difference at the braking point wasn't anything due to time lost during a shift, and combined with my driver mod for downshifting, staying in 4th was the move. I at least learned that bit. Watching some onboard video, I am also wondering now that with the shorter gearing if it makes sense to downshift into turn 7 as well.. seems like I downshift, just to get on the gas barely to maintain speed through the long corner. I think if I were to just hold gear and not brake as much I could gain a TON of time on course maintaining that speed through the corner. Don't know! That's why I still feel like I am unlearning.
I had my friend who towed the car out take the car out for a session, and he loved it. It was really good to see a new perspective in the passenger seat, and also watch someone who didn't have to do the unlearning I had to do. I think he ran a second off my best time of the weekend, and in a car he's never driven before.. I'd say that's absolutely flying. He's used to driving Miatas and his CTS-V around the course, so I am sure this was a pretty happy middle ground.
Only other thing worth noting was that the diff temp was getting a bit hot in the later sessions. max I saw was 151 degC, which according to my axle guy is a bit hot... but nothing to be super concerned. Told me to back it off at 175 degC and if it hit 200, to change the fluid ASAP. I think I'll chalk the fluid temp being a bit high to the LSD break in.. or... maybe it's just getting hot. Either way.. glad I have a temp gauge for it!
Oil temps weren't too bad at all. Ambient was basically 75 degF and I only got it to 120 degC during the last session after LOTS of hot laps. I was expecting a bit more temperature with the shorter gears, though ambient likely kept it in check. I am likely going to replace the coolers with new(er) OEM ones this winter. Should help a little.
Swapping to the XP10 rears I think REALLLLLLLY helped the rear end stay in check. Looking at some data quickly, I don't see the fast decel spikes on the rears I would see during an braking event when ABS would kick in briefly, and the car stops just as well, if not better. Calling this one an improvement.
Eventually the car went back on the trailer in the same way it got off.. and went on home after just one day. Pretty damn satisfied with the car, as always... and the Hibachi buffet in Kzoo is the best post track dinner ever. Now to throw a few more parts on the car (mostly consumables) and get it ready for the Subaru Speed Expo next weekend at the same race track. Super excited to end the season once again at Gingerman.
you'll need an oil cooler setup for tracking on a 5.125 R&P too
likely to fall on deaf ears again, but suffer it to be so; the only thing wrong with the OE engine oil coolers on your car is the OE t-stat setup (regardless of the t-stat temp setting). Just pulling those out, plugging the internal bypass, and then installing a proper t-stat control between the two engine oil out/in lines will do wonders …
Subaru Speed Expo - Gingerman Raceway - October 15-16, 2022
Hey look, it's only a completely different month than when I actually did this event. Sorta/kinda ruins the effort of categorizing thoughts from places while they are still fresh in the head RAM, but it's how she goes.
A few weeks back now, the Subaru gang and I decided it would be a fun idea to go to Gingerman when it was going to be in the 20s at night and camp out at the racetrack. This doesn't at face value sound like much fun, and I think you're right... but it was definitely some type 2 fun... the kind that you think is fun after you're done doing it. There was only a week between the last Gingerman event and this one, and with my glowing success of the previous track day I was jazzed to be on the track with some old GC Impreza Forum people, as well as some good Subaru buddies. My original plan for this event was to take my GC there... it was the SUBARU Speed Exo after all... but it seemed silly to not have "just one more lap" with the Mazda and a test and tune day to eek out some more speed in the car after going just as fast as my best time ever the week prior. After some reflection on the drive home in the Mazda I regret not bringing the GC, however we definitely tested the Mazda, as well as my patience. For this last event of the season, I was driving the car out to the race track.. something I hadn't done in quite some time because of awesome friends. I definitely also hadn't driven it with the 5.12 rear on the highway.. and let me tell ya.. cruising at 68 never felt so good.
It was a really pretty evening getting to the track.. I even managed this sweet hat trick of a photo....
The night was gonna be quite mild and then the closer we got towards the water.. the greater chance of rain. One fun thing about the Mazda is that because the HVAC panel is jacked up, like every single RX-8 one ever, and it comes loose from the panel connector everytime you hit a small curb, the HVAC sometimes allows control, and sometimes doesn't depending on the drive cycle. Never really a big deal since it's a race car, and it's very low on the list of things to get sorted.. but driving it 2 hours makes you wish you didn't have full blast heat in your face. My solution was to just vent the passenger side window every so often. It's a hollow complaint because it's 100% my own doing... but it is pretty funny. Budget race cars rocking street duty is always a pain... the things we do to go zoomin'
So.. anyways...I don't really like setting up track day camping shop in the dark, but it's not the end of the world. Setting up shop in the wet, dark and windy though... that's just character building. Unfortunately for us, I got out of work super late, rushed to get everything together in the car, and made it to the race track in the dark. 1/2 isn't too bad.. but.. the rain started as soon as we turned down the country road 500ft from the track entrance. Sick. Met up with some friends and tried to get an easy up.. up. Too windy, not gonna happen. Instead we did what everyone else just getting there was doing, and hiding under a metal car cover at the top of pit lane, and drank beer. When in Rome!
The rain finally calmed down for a bit and we got tents and easy up sorted. Popped the fire pit under the easy up and let er rip. More people started showing up, and more friends were coming by. Turns out, fire at the racetrack when it's approaching the low 30s is a popular thing to have.First session out was at 9AM, and I don't think it was going to be much over 40 degrees.
When I woke up with a slight hangover, I saw 29 degrees. Car was basically ready to go sans bringing tire pressures down.. but I don't even think I bothered to lower them from street pressure due to how cold the ground was going to be. The sun was finally all the way up and was warning things up nicely.. had to get the car through tech while trying to stay warm and I laid eyes on this lovely thing.
For a moment I also wondered if he drove HIS racecar to the track. Must have been the hangover thinking
There were still some patches of dew on the track when it was time to party. I was running in the Advanced class which was open passing, but during the drivers meeting it seemed like a lot of people in the advanced group hadn't ever run the track before. Kinda weird.. but sure. This definitely appeared to be true, as a few laps in while trying to get through traffic, I ran into a lot of drivers who seemed quite lost. A bit frustrating to deal with, but whatever. They let me by.. for the most part.
Unfortunately, given my confidence from being at Gingerman very recently with a fast car... and what I believe to be a leaky Subaru, I had the worlds most boring off into a sand trap at T11, which basically ruined the ability to go fast for the rest of the weekend.
Splitter was munched, and when I skipped the next session to repair it and clean out all of the nice packed and wet sand, it decided to fly off the next session out on the front straight a lap in which made me bag the idea of trying to get it back on safely. Seeing bits of the Mazda lip flying in the rear view mirror was quite hilarious give the circumstances though. After I tied up the uprights to they didn't drag, and kept a close eye on temps without an undertray the car felt understeery, tires felt shot after being in the cold all night, and the driver was already exhausted from racing, working, and general existence. They can't all be slammers.
The silver lining here was that I got to take some people out for rides in the ever slowing Mazda, and just in general had a good time with friends. Lots of Subarus blew up, including my buddy's pitted with us, which was something we were joking about.. but man.. Subaru people love slapping together EJs with aluminum foil, 30 lbs of boost and some paper clips while trying to run their car at 110%. I sort of respect it, but in the same way you respect someone who so does such goofy **** with more confidence than you would have walking into a Home Depot doing the "I know more than you" spiel. Wild.
Best time of the weekend was a 1:48.17 during the first ugly session.. and I only got slower and slower from there. It was even more of a kick in the teeth when the times were super consistent, and slow.
I still need to completely unpack the car, but the tires are cooked. Something with the Falkens really dies when they go through a heat cycle, and then getting quite cold. I've always stored my tires in my heated basement, but maybe having a few nights below freezing (usually my barn isn't below freezing until it's been under freezing for a week) cooked em off for good. Not sure.
Either way, looking more at the off that killed the weekend and I am struggling to see where it went wrong. Speeds were identical the lap prior, and I just understeered right off. the racing line. Once I realized my trajactory was not in a curve, I did hit the brakes the try and scrub speed off as I knew we were gonna go off... but I just can't pinpoint what caused it aside from assuming the Subaru in front of me was dropping something. I did have some sudden lacks of grip elsewhere following the guy in the turns where he sort of was on the right line.. and no where else did he go on the racing line properly until 11.. but he wasn't in front of me at all when I slid. No idea. It wasn't super dramatic, just always trying to root cause a situation I haven't been in. First time I ever had to get towed!
I did also have a few other 4 offs during the weekend.. which was just really, really sloppy. I've never done so many offs, and definitely not at a track I know most. Needless to say I am happy to toss the car in the garage for the winter and start doing some wrenching. More on that in a later post to just keep this tidy.
I love this thread. Curious though, (and maybe I missed it) now that you have done a few more events with that exhaust setup, have you ran into any noise violations? Any idea on decibels?
I haven't had it at a track that's had sound limits since I did the exhaust, so no idea.
It sounds about the same as far as loudness as the old exhaust from outside the car, but hard to tell as I removed a lot of sound deadening in the vehicle at the same time.
Been trying to get this written up for weeks, just too damn busy these days.
Figured I'd go ahead and get the front end fixed up a bit, and also add in the bumper I wanted for the car anyways. Got a decent deal on a Mazdaspeed bumper over in Japan, and with the Yen being so weak I figured I'd take advantage. Came with all the standard equipment that usually you don't see since it's been long destroyed, removed or never existed in the first place. I was happy to have the foglight brackets, as well as the ducting for the oil coolers in proper place.
Fitment was easy, as it should be, and I just swapped on my cut metal bracket from the old bumper to the front, and the quick connects went right on. I do still need to add in the side quick connects, but because the bumper is a tight fiberglass material, I need to make some aluminum backing plates for the mounting of them on the sides... will edit this later once I get those in.
I didn't do a delta on weight, mostly because I wasn't quite done with making everything sorted on the bumper, but also because the factory bumper I had to compare to it was mostly in pieces somewhere in South Haven. My guess is that is is juuuust a tad heavier. Some other benefits from this are that I technically get to make a larger front splitter (material on the way!) because the bumper itself reaches further out as well. The added cooling benefits I am sure will be a nice thing too, and also helps me duct some larger ones if I choose to use them in the future.
While I did get rid of the foglights and heavy mounts, I did still needs to place the area where nothing was with something to duct air properly, so I brought back the idea of front mounting brake ducts... seeing as I'm sure my upright mounted ones sucked anyways. I recreated the OEM fog bracket in a few pieces to easily be printed, and then added a 2.5in hole to run a line too.
Still need a few more modifications to the design to finalize (flush bolts on the front so they don't hit the mesh.. maybe a slightly offset hole based on splitter mounting... etc), but it's a damn good start that fits perfectly. More on that later, I am sure.
08-23-2022, 07:00 PM
