Scorch3's 91 DX

[FE3-323]

i do reccomend better octane in all instances. the price difference doesn't mean fuk all when it comes to the sake of your motor/fuel filter/pump/gas lines

[Ace]

on a stock b8, I really doubt he is going to see any benefit from running 87 or 91/3.

[Mazda_Powered]

yea lol I'd stick to 87/89 octane on the b8 to be honest.

Cone filter, timing bump, and a BP ECU would be a nice upgrade...at least I've read ppl like the BP ECU swaps lol...never done it personally.

[Scorch3]

Seems crazy to swap the BP ecu without atleast the head to me but I'll have to look in to it. Oddly enough it came with an extra ecu so I'll check that out soon.

[Scorch3]

Started the rust repair on the dirvers strut tower, god damn rust holes get big fast when you start hitting them with a hammer.



Here it is form the inside cut back to good metal:



Almost done cleaning all the metal and the templates for the patch are just about done. Going to finish that stuff up tomorrow and start welding

I realize its and enough its probably almost not worth saving but it seems to be just about the only rust on the car. Plus I'm broke and my dad used to do a lot of welding when he was running the performance shop and my cousin is a welder at the ship yard here so this is basically his job. So fixed it will be. Hopefully things go as well as they have so far. *knock on wood*

[Mazda_Powered]

yikes, that's ROUGH man

[Scorch3]

Things actually went pretty good today. Patches are in. I'll have pics up later tonight or tomorrow. I need to get myself clean in time for dinner with my gfs parents first.

[Scorch3]

The patch is all welded in and painted/sprayed with asphalt undercoating now. We had some trouble with the welder blowing holes straight through at first but we got it figured out and filled them in. Ended up having to go with a two piece patch because we couldn't quite manage to replicate the sharp curve along the edge of rounded part of the tower.

Bare welds:


After seam sealer and paint/undercoating:


Still need to install the new drivers strut (did the passengers last night) and put the battery, fuse box and intake back in. Planning to do that tomorrow.

[progt91]

yeah i have seen waaay worse than that. looks like its all solid. hows it look from the engine compartment side?

[Scorch3]

I couldn't find the primer I had for the engine bay side so I ended up just using the same black as underneath. The welds ground down well and with the seam sealer on everything looked pretty damn smooth. Its just black so it really stands out.

Finished putting everything back together just a few minutes or so ago and going to go for a test drive with the new strut assemblies in a few moments. It looks like my ride height may have a raised quite noticeably compared to the 20 year old stock springs. Hopefully they settle a bit or lowering springs will have to be purchased.

Edit: Just finished the little test drive, rides way way better now. Its so nice to have functioning struts lol, like a whole different car.

[FE3-323]

anxious to see more pics!!!

[Scorch3]

I sorta rushed to put everything back together and thats all i took. I'll try and take more but the whole area is damn hard to see with the battery and fuse box back in.

[Scorch3]

Rear end links are replaced. Also got the rear hard lines up into their clips on the struts as the PO had neglected to do that when he changed the struts. Sanded out all the surface rust int he rear wheel wells and undercoated them as well. Did find a small hole in the front of the drivers side well but I got that patched too. Also gathered all the exhaust parts I had up and combined them into one functional no-leaking exhaust. I had to use the cherry bomb as the muffler but it actually sounds alright without all the leaks. Also swapped out the tail lights as one had a small crack in it, didn't notice when I got them but they're actually tiny bit different than the old ones and have rounded indicator sections instead of perfect squares so I'm glad I got both. I actually think they look a bit better.

[Scorch3]

Turns out un-baffled mufflers are illegal here so I threw in a universal form Canadian Tire and passed my safety inspection today. Talk about a stupid rule though, technically a 3rd gen with an RB cat back wouldn't pass and they're super quiet. Anyways the BG passed and is good for 2 years now, though it is depressingly quiet. Probably going to put the cherry bomb back in, it was pretty quiet mated up to the stock exhaust too and sounded alright, plus I could hear when to shift which is nice when you don't have a tach. Going by feel alone is really weird. All in all super good news, prob going to celebrate with a Ultra Racing strut tower bar if I can get the money together.

Also going to get the stereo in to decent shape, currently the front passenger side speaker is blown, the drivers side has no wires run to it at all and the HU has an incredibly ****ty ground. So boasically ti sounds like ****. Rear speakers seem to be decent pioneers though and I have some 6.5 pioneers in the front of the 3rd gen I can steal so that should be easy as long as getting wires in to the drivers door isn't a huge bitch.

[Scorch3]

So now that it's passed safety and I care about little things what can I do about aftermarket head units sticking out too far past the console?