The build everyone has been waiting to be unveiled. My official Build thread

[95LegendGS]

I only ask one thing, as I add information to this. Please reserve the first 15 replies for me. There is a LOT of information, parts, companies etc that need to be posted.

Firstly, I’d like to formally introduce myself. As most of you already know I am GreekPower’s father. I’m a 47 year old man currently married. I’ve always been into cars since when my dad was bringing home cars we would fix up and sell during the 70’s and on thru till he passed away a few years ago. I’ve had a lot of cars over the years right now I have my project car, weekend car, show car and my daily driver and work car. My legend is my soon to be show car, those who know what my other cars are ask me why a legend? why is THAT one the show car? Well it is quite simple to be honest with you.

In 2005 when Lou brought his Legend to my house, I thought it looked nice and after a few fixes it ran great. I even enjoyed driving it. As he built his car I watched it transform from a completely stock legend into a car that would turn heads by the sights and sounds. I didn’t think all of his modifications were the best but they were nice for what they were.

At this point I became interested and was intrigued enough to look into finding a Legend for myself. I was considering a coupe but after driving one for a week it just didn’t feel “right”. So I told Lou to start looking for a GS model sedan. After about 8 months I stumbled upon one on the local craigslist (06/23/07) it was the rarest of the rare. A 1995 Black on Black GS 6speed with every option, including fogs, wing, and cornering lights even a phone! Now when we went to meet the previous owner he said it he hasn’t run it about a year because he couldn’t get it to start. So we buy it, thinking it’s the main relay. We were right, but we just didn’t count on the BHG waiting for us. So at this point I paid 2000 dollars for a BHG GS.

Well at this time the 3.5 swap was just becoming popular. So we located one at All Foreign Auto Parts (http://www.allforeignautoparts.com/) in Pittsburgh, called ahead and picked it up 2 days later for 400 dollars. Engine was from a 98 RL with 90k. Once we get it home Lou and myself have never seen a RL motor up-close and knew little about it. When your in this situation what better thing to do then rip it apart right? Well 8 hours later we had just a short block that was cleaned and prepped ready for reassembly. The engine was rebuilt using a Felpro Engine gasket kit (www.napa.com) along with a new OEM thermostat (Acura of Augusta). Using a few DIY’s on the forum and few dealer manuals the engine was complete and living on a engine stand.

After some searching on the former home to many of us (www.acura-legend.com) we thought it might be best to just go ahead and swap in the 3.5 with OBX headers and Type 2 intake manifold, CAI and custom exhaust (Thanks to Domination Chassis). The first time we did this swap it took my brother John (Toyota Mech.), Lou and myself about 3 weeks to complete. We had a few troubles like the mount, and a few vacuum lines and some other minor details that I escape me right now. Once we did have it running and running good. The tracks were closed by the time we completed it and it was my daily driver while I fixed pieces and learned more about how this reacted with this and how it reacted with that. During this time I had begun gathering parts because at this point I only wanted to have a nice daily driver, which could hang with newer cars if I decided to push it on the street or the tracks.

After the first winter I owned the car by March 2007 I had a stock pile of parts. I had currently all these parts in my garage waiting for one day when I would just install them all and see a big improvement.


Modifications I had purchased were as followed:

Addco Front Sway Bar (www.shox.com)
Addco Rear Sway Bar (www.shox.com)
MLS Copy Bar (Forum Member Fut)
Fut Rear Tie Bars (Forum Member Fut)
SPC Balljoint Extreme Front Camber kit (www.summitracing.com)
Ingalls Rear Camber Kit (www.tirerack.com)
K-Sport Coilovers with default and Harder Spring Rates (Never Enough Motorsports)
Special Addco Rear sway bar bolts (Forum member)
Good Ridge Stainless Steel Brake Lines (www.tirerack.com)
Brembo Slotted Front and Rear Rotors (www.tirerack.com)
Hawk HPS Plus Pads Front and Rear (www.tirerack.com)
New Type 2 Calipers (www.advanceautoparts.com)
New Rear Calipers (www.advanceautoparts.com)
New OEM Master Cylinder (Acura of Augusta)
(Forget the name) DOT 4 High Temp Brake Fluid (www.advanceautoparts.com)

I did have all the calipers powder coated Corvette Red before they were installed. Thanks to my good friend Jason at AMF Coatings (http://www.amfcoatings.com/) These later will be change and get a different color.

< INSERT PIC HERE> Parts before install
< INSERT PIC HERE> Front suspension
< INSERT PIC HERE> Rear suspension

Other things that were fixed in the meantime were soider Main Relay, Brand New Ignition with Key (Acura of Augusta) When these parts were installed the car handled great and was braking like a it was 1995 all over again.

Around this time time Lou was building his giant stereo system for his car. So for everything he ordered I purchased some for my own car.

From Rick at RaamAudio (http://www.raamaudio.com/) I purchased 6 rolls of “Extra Gooey” Raammat along 6 yards of Ensolite. I also purchased a install kit to make the installation just that much better and easier. While I had the interior completely removed, I had sent off all of the gray parts a local upholsterer (Richs Auto Upholstery). He and his wife did a fantastic job rewrapping all the parts in new black vinyl that best matched the stock pattern. While he couldn’t do the sun visors or safety handles, they did dye them so they are still soft and jet black. Like Lou I also had a suede headliner done by Rich, the suede he used was very thick and heavy which he said would never ever fade from its color. It was also black, so by this time the car is gutted and all new panels are being done.

While these parts are being done, some nights after work I was applying the deadner and ensolite all over the car. While I had the sunroof assembly out the glass was professionally (unnamed company) tinted with a 5% ceramic window tint. The tilt mod was also completed at this time, which really brings the car into the 21st century.

On reassembling the interior all the wiring was run for a sound system which was not yet purchased. The wiring which all came from KnuKonceptz (http://www.knukonceptz.com/) included the following for now.

35 Ft of 0/1 Kolossus Kable (Silver)
150 Ft of 12ga KASA Kable Silver Plated Speaker Wire

Once all this was done, I daily drove the car for a few more months while I researched getting more power out of my GS. One option was nitrous, but I wanted the power to be there all the time and not just from little button. So I searched into the possibilities of a M90 supercharger system (Thank you Telion for the idea). Although it seemed to be the best solution to my problem, Lou showed me pictures of Gary Diprest’s Turbo Legend. At this point I was hooked and willing to do anything to achieve what he had attempted to do years ago.

We drove the car back down to Domination Chassis (www.dominationchassis.com) were we met with Jay and discussed starting a turbo project. Only to find out Jay himself was a legend owner, he liked my GS and showed me his sisters cobalt blue sedan that was wrecked and sitting outside. From that moment on, a partnership was formed to create more products and parts for my car then we thought was ever possible.

[95LegendGS]

When we first started making parts I was questioning his skills but he and his crew were very good at convincing me they were professionals. Starting early and even staying late to finish the first project I had them doing. It first started out as a simple project, remaking the stock strut bar in the engine bay out of solid aluminum. This didn’t take long I think 2 days because getting the bends right took some time. Only because if someone messed up they discarded the piece and got another and started over. Once the bar was completed I was pleased with the outcome and wanted to see what other modifications they could do. So we started with a custom seat install, using 2005 Hyundai Tiburon black leather seats. Which I picked up again from the guys at All Foreign Auto Parts. The first seat did cause troubles, but not from not being able to finish the task but getting the angle perfect and spacing correctly. The first attempted work till about the last inch of the track which would cause the seat to bind up. Another day at the shop and it was corrected, and rolling smoothly.

Now onto the more serious stuff which everyone wants to know. The ‘Domination’ Turbo kit, it was only nicknamed this because they were the company to do the production for me when no other people would do the task I wanted. In the beginning of this turbo kit, it originally started the day the seat install was finished. I had asked If they were interested in doing a kit because I said I had a idea which I think would work and make the kit be still cheap and effective enough to make nice power on a street legend. Jay hoisted my GS in the air and commented on how the underbody was so clean for a car of this year with no rust and everything looking like it was kept in a nice condition. First I was asking questions about how I wanted to turn my single exhaust which was poorly done by another shop (unnamed) and how I wanted to remake it into a dual muffler setup. He said it could be done, which made me want to pull out the cash and throw it at him until it was completed. His crew was looking over doing the downpipe, were they said if I moved or deleted the power steering we could run a downpipe through there and it would follow factory routing and then do the custom exhaust like I wanted.

So in a week I brought the car back to have more work done. We decided to work on the exhaust first and work towards the turbo kit so it would give us time to research and fix problems as they arose. The exhaust consists of two Vibrant Performance VIB1794 resonators (ebay) directly right after the Y pipe. After that a 3 inch pipe is split into two 2.5” piping which runs out the rear bumper using two Borla 20120 Round Angle cut intercooled tips ( 2.5”in 3.5” out 9” long). All of the piping was made from only stainless steel and each bend was mandrel bent to provide best flow. When this was attached to the factory y pipe for testing it sounded AMAZING. It would sound quiet at idle and bark when needed, even at higher rpm’s the noise was not that bad for a performance exhaust.

Now onto the bigger project was taking my GS down to Domination for its months of downtime. When we arrived on that morning I will never forget how it happened. We arrived at 6am before anyone else arrived so we could get the little things off the car like intake, bumper, headlights, and hood. When they arrived at 8am we drove the GS onto a lift were we worked till about 11am getting the headers off. The original plans were to use the obx headers and modify them so that they could be used. What I mean by was reversing the headers on the engine and cut them at the collector and build from there. First thing to try is cut the headers at the collector so we have them at a better size so we can put them in the engine bay. But before we could put them in the engine bay the power steering pump had to be removed. With some trusty scissors the belt was done and a few bolts later the pump fell to the ground. With the pump gone and a few other items removed, we attempt to force the headers into the engine bay. After about 30 minutes we gave up on the driver side ever fitting, so we checked the passenger side. We did notice the passenger side WILL work, with a slight modification of the pipes, but we didn’t want to risk making the metal to soft by modifying them so it would work. So we did the next best thing we could think of, hacked off all the piping from the flanges and cleaned them up. By this time it was almost dinner time so we headed home leaving the flanges bolted to the engine.

The next morning we all come back with our own ideas so we draw them on the whiteboard and discuss the pros and cons. Being it was cold outside one of the designers came up with the design to use flex tubing from a hardware store to get the correct bends and tack weld it as we go. We take a trip to the local Home Depot and grab the piping we thought was the best idea and was still be able to be welded. Using the 1 3/4th inch tubing we bought we started using a few 90 degree bends as soon as we get off the flange. Bending the pipes were very easy because they are flex pipes, the whole process took about 3 weeks to complete, doing work off and on. After they were complete I had to stop down to check the progress to see how it has evolved. The headers could be easily taken off and on and all bolts could be used which is something I was not going to give up. I wanted the manifolds to full bolt using every bolt no matter what, once they did that I was pleased. I then had to make sure my collectors which I bought from http://www.coneeng.com . I bought two of CL3-1752-SS collectors which are weld in collectors which slipped onto the dummy headers and worked how we originally planned.

At this point they had a company they used come in and make a template of my heads to make sure it was a perfect match for my heads. A week later he came back with a set of perfectly cut flanges made out of 3/8th thick stainless steel. They were test fitted and swapped the headers onto his flanges to make sure everything lined up good and it did. This would be the last time I see my car for almost 3 months.

I was away for a few months off on business but while I was gone I had Lou occasionally going in and checking up on the project. I do have pictures of the build process but it is not as many as I would have hoped for. After about 6 weeks and a few flaws were addressed and fixed and the completely stainless steel headers were completed which used a V band clamps to attach to the pipes which connected to the turbo flange. Now the problem now was going to be were exactly will the turbo sit and how to connect each header to the actual turbo. The spot for the turbo was chosen to sit right behind the passenger side headlight. So connecting the passenger side header to the turbo would be an easy task . The driver side however needed to run across the engine bay to meet the turbo. After some discussing we thought running a 90 degree bend off the driver side header over to the turbo area was the simplest and best flowing method. Now with the turbo in place we added a 45 degree angle to the passenger side manifold which merged with the driver side to be welded to the turbo flange.

< INSERT PIC HERE> SS Flange

< INSERT PIC HERE> Flex header

< INSERT PIC HERE> Finished header

< INSERT PIC HERE> V band clamps installed

< INSERT PIC HERE> Header Installed

< INSERT PIC HERE> Merge Pipe

< INSERT PIC HERE> Merge Pipe installed

So at this point they had completed hooking up the turbo to the headers. Next part was choosing the properly sized turbo for a mostly stock 3.5 RL swap in a legend.

[95LegendGS]

The turbo we chose was a Garrett GT4202RS Ball bearing turbo with a polished housing, 1.15A/R T4 Divided 4” v-band exit. I bought this used off a member of supraforums.com. Once it arrived we checked it for shaft play and had it rebuilt on site. Once the turbo was freshened up we installed the unit and began running the intercooler piping. To do this all things like the battery, main fuse box, window washer container, coolant overflow, power steering container (was previously moved but we re-moved it). The battery was placed in the trunk, the main fuse box was placed under the driver side dash, window washer was deleted for the time being and coolant overflow was replaced by a chrome universal unit from www.summitracing.com .

The passenger side plumbing was the first to be done it came off of the throttle body and 180 degree turn and then a 45 degree then straight till the fender were it went another 90 degree turn and straight into another 90 were it met the intercooler. The intercooler was a 32x12x3 intercooler which was purchased from just-intercoolers on ebay. After the intercooler the pipine ran 90 – 45 – 180 were it met the turbo side of the piping. The turbo was run with a HKS Turbo Intake Funnel (cone with no filter/mesh). The oil lines were custom built by a turbo shop (shall remain nameless) which we later found out the design was right and installation was good just cheap parts were used which caused us to rebuild them multiple times. The wastegate which was chosen was a 44mm TIal unit that just had a dump tube setup.

Then we added 550cc PTE injectors, 255lph Walbro Pump and a Innovate LC-1 Wideband controller was installed

At this point, with novice experience we did what anyone would do. Start it up and see how it drives That dream was very much short lived, with absolutely zero tuning and on a stock chip the most that was possible was to spool the turbo for about a millisecond and then it would shut off (Fuel cut). So after attempting to contact hotlavaflow for a few months, the project sat on the backburner while we played email tag as to what we could do.
Fast forward through those few months not much had changed with my GS. For example we relocated the power steering unit to sit were the A/C compressor sat and had a belt that would run on the stock pulley so I could retain power steering. The fluid container was located were the stock cruise control was located (cruise control was deleted). The A/C wasn’t completely deleted only the compressor was out of the way and the lines were capped incase I ever did swap in a/c again. To mount the power steering unit were the a/c was I again called on domination chassis to make a custom bracket that would securely hold it in place and make sure it would work.

After those few months had passed and still not getting and other real answers besides “go with a ems, I don’t know” I finally bit the bullet and bought a AEM EMS from a member on www.nsxprime.com. I was foreign to this idea of the standalone and didn’t know how to use it, so I had flown in a tuner from TurboTrix (New Jersey) and used a local dyno shop and began to tune the car. I will admit it took a couple hours to get everything running right because we would have issues with the dyno and reading no signals. So we did 3 pulls total. First pull was I want to say 278fwhp at wastegate boost and the second pull barely broke 300fwhp. So we had a “base” map almost sorted out. On the third pull at about 3400rpm the engine started making a horrible nose, we aborted and shut the car off. We let the car cool down and came back a few hours later, only to find out that one of the ringlands(1) had broken off and a piston(5) had cracked from detonation. This had put me in a horrible mood and made me want to stop there so I just left the car sit outside under a tarp all winter till Lou and I decided my new plan for the car either to keep it or junk it.

When winter had passed, we went back to the drawing board and learned that the guy who we had tuning the car had it super rich (according to pros from AEM.com) and this is what had killed my motor. None the less it gave us a idea of where to start for this next engine, and this was the end all be all engine that only one other person had ever done and it was about to be redone in a 2008 fashion.

My engine before was basically just a stock 3.5 with a turbo kit when it came down to actual mods. Well this time learning from mistakes there was going to be zero mistakes and plenty of overkill to make sure nothing bad would happen again. This is will be the current engine in the car and all the companies etc who helped in building it and making my GS what it is today.

[Captain Kenpachi]

Now for the competition the war of numbers I believe you have a surprise for everyone...

[The Crowing]

Originally Posted by 95LegendGS

I only ask one thing, as I add information to this. Please reserve the first 15 replies for me. There is a LOT of information, parts, companies etc that need to be posted.

Originally Posted by 91ls 3.5

NOW we're talking.......

Originally Posted by samblaze

Waiting and watching......

There's already some serious fail in this thread

[whats77inaname]

Originally Posted by 95LegendGS

Testing

I see your toes.

[95LegendGS]

I'm glad you can enjoy my toes Mike, just don't fall in love with them . I just want to make this clear now before the thread goes any further. I don't know all of DV8's modifications for his build but this is going to be a friendly competition. If there is no competition how do we expect to push the platform even further? So even though there is competition between us. I have no problem sharing information between us to help his numbers and maybe even mine.

[whats77inaname]

I'm not a toes guy, sorry *lol*, at least not yours.

Now let's get down to the brass tacks, shall we?

[The Crowing]

So. How mad are you now that your 15 posts are... gone?

[Russian]

Originally Posted by The Crowing

So. How mad are you now that your 15 posts are... gone?

They're not http://forums.acuralegend.org/build-...4842#post34842