Yeah, Anthony. He doesn't know it yet. And ironically there isn't much left that I can't do myself now. But he's not doing any more to it.
Bryan - it's starting to appear that way. Except she'd be employed for 2 days and then complain about how unfair the job is and quit. Or just quit for no reason.
Add a new driver's side driveshaft to the mix. Rage is now starting to simmer nicely. This is like Christmas, except Maslack keeps getting all of the cash and my mechanic gets all of the boxes. On the bright side, they have time to do the tires today as well. 16s are dropped off at the shop as well.
Car's back. It IS possible to have it feeling as tight as the 08 Escape, apparently. "other friend" seems to have ground the header out of flush as they were unable to get it to seat any better or leak any less.
Going to take it to a known good exhaust shop after next pay and see what they say they'll charge to fix it, roughly.
Otherwise, with the tires on the 16s now, it looks like a proper sleeper Focus. Just needs an alignment in the front and the header fixed for functionality to complete everything.
I'm so happy right now I could s**t rainbows. Given the amount of money I've spent in the last 2 weeks, you might be wondering why.
Alignment - the car's in right now getting one. THANKFULLY. So excited to have everything bang-on.
So, my "real" mechanic buddy asks me if the car is hard to start. I said no, but the battery is s**t but should hold. I proceed to bite the bullet and buy a new battery from CT. Starts flawlessly after the install, time and time again. This morning - 15 attempts to get the starter to turn over. FML.
Salvation was at hand, tho. Kev had an extra starter and gave me a wicked deal on it. Considering this was like the original starter on my car... I'll take it. It should arrive Monday or so.
Also, had a revelation talking with Kev: the "checkerboard" / "perforated" exhaust gaskets that come with aftermarket parts and even some OE-replacement manifolds have been known to blow out at the #3 cyl collector. Not surprisngly, I'm 99% sure this is where the guys at the shop said it was leaking. Also was told I could re-use the stock gasket, which is in fine shape (and currently is sitting in the rear hatch area, LOL). Guess who's swapping gaskets tonight after work? If that doesn't work, I'll just get another Ford gasket from the dealer.
So... alignment. New starter. Revised gasket for header. NOTHING LEFT except for body, paint and interior mods that aren't necessary but desired.
Gentlemen, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Oh, and the seat needs another steaming. It's better, but not great yet. LOL.
First-gen owners - and who knows how many newer models - BEWARE THE DAMN CHECKERBOARD GASKET.
I replaced the junk gasket with the OEM one...
SUCCESS!
Now, I have a smaller, much smaller leak at the rear flange of the race cat. Shouldn't be a problem. I've even got another OEM gasket for that flange to try. It was always there, I knew I heard it, but it was mostly masked by the much larger, and louder, header leak.
Ahh... relative silence. Sad eh? The car sounds SO much better with a header. If you're N/A and you can run one... I recommend it.
Today's lesson: OEM gaskets are better than aftermarket gaskets. Fixed my last exhaust leak, but it's going to the custom muffler shop next week to replace the section between the magnaflow and the racecat.
Stan - wtf is that rusty exhaust crap between the cat and the magnaflow? It looks almost stock!
The car sounds MUCH better and it pulls way better as well. Can't wait to hear it once this last bit is rectified!
This was a fun weekend. Fun as in installed SVT interior panels and tried to finish the rest of the exhaust leak. It still leaks a bit when the exhaust is cold (I think) but then it comes around when the exhaust warms up. Still calling a local custom exhaust shop to replace a section of pipe as soon as they open. Also, I installed the euro-style K6 mirrors I bought off Gord in what seems like forever ago! The first mods I bought for Subsonic, actually.
So, revelations after yesterday's visit to one of the best custom exhaust houses in North Bay:
Subsonic has what equates to a Magnaflow axle-back. Actually, not sure if it was a custom build or if that was an actual offering, but there's no way that the pipe between the cat/flex and the Magnaflow was also stainless.
That said section of rusty pipe and resonator (or so it looked) sounds really fuckin solid when it hit the shop floor. Solid as in clogged, not solid as in good.
Jay at Security Muffler did a wicked, wicked job on the car. I was in and out in 20 minutes. Cut old pipe, weld in new pipe. It's aluminized, but that doesn't bother me as the car will never see snow / salt again.
The sound? ANGRY. Group N rally car angry. What's more, EVERY SINGLE HESITATION OR DEAD SPOT FOR POWER DELIVERY IS AS FAR GONE AS THE OLD PIPE. I can pull to the limiter in each gear in a disgustingly good and hard fashion. All of my misconceptions about the Zetec's power band are thusly wiped away.
In fact, that section of pipe was likely my biggest hold-back the car had for performance. I could have left on the stock manifold and cat and still made more power after removing that pipe.
I'll post a vid when I get time to make one. For now, I'm really enjoying the car. The clutch break-in period is done. With the Spec clutch and everything else, it chirps 1-2 HARD and even chirps 2-3. Just needs an intake for now and I might even forego the high-compression build for a while - it's that much more fun after the exhaust fix.
