Ive been debating doing this for a year, well today i had some extra time and went for it. Might do 3 more holes in between and paint a flat black strip between the holes to mimic the diffusers you can buy. I didnt want to pay $100 for extra weight...lol.

 

Not done yet, need to paint the rear bumper bar and a black strip between the holes.

 

Put some work in tonight, despite a busy day. Painted a flat black strip across the rear bumper diffuser holes. Removed the JDM tail lights to resell for more important parts. ($150 USD shipped If interested, great condition) Reinstalled the stock lights and found out they were actually lighter than the jdm led versions, weight reduction bonus! Lol

 

Also removed the rust filled bumper bar, one bolt stripped but managed to break it free. Maybe have to get a new one or something lighter that will take it's place. That thing is nasty.

 

Looks better! Not 100% crazy about the aesthetics but if it functions to improve mpg, 1/4 mile time (maybe not at my power level) then im good with it.

 

you have rear seats!? you of all people i would have thought removed them. i am about to remove mine but....... after removing the spare wheel/tire and nonsense from the boot, i found the rear to be quite floaty. the weight distribution sucks ass on the gd3.

you're rear end looks good btw!

 

yes, still a daily driver, working on that problem too lol. Wife is ever more convinced we need a regular vehicle after installing innovative mounts. They are a real relationship tester!

I can imagine the distribution would be way off, those rear seats are about 60 lbs according to my scales.

 

I'm not a fan of bumper holes in general but, that being said, you did a really good job! Looks much better than most. And, like the saying goes, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. In other words, I can see the reasoning.

I missed that you have Innovative mounts. How did you find the fitment? I've heard people complain that they are not right for our USDM Fits. Which firmness did you go with?

 

Yup I agree, I was deathly afraid of having crooked holes cause it looks terrible. The black strip across makes it look so much better and i was lucky enough to get everything lined up well. Lets see if the function outweighs the form.

I have the 85A innovative mounts and I only mind when other people are in the car, lol. It makes it difficult to hear conversation. Different parts of the interior rattle at different RPMS too. But I like it otherwise. It is a bitch to install the rear mount, there is no easy way around it. I did shave down the ends of the bushings/dowel pin on the drivers side mount to fit into the stock bracket. Other than that it was OK, DEFINITELY a 2 person job.

 

i want those innovative motor mounts but not for $350, that's just way overpriced

 

agreed, I wish they were polished billet aluminum for that price!

So I finally got the correct fidanza flywheel, and although it's stated as being 7 lbs it's actually 6.85 lbs...slightly lighter, bonus!


I've also been thinking about removing the EGR plumbing from the stock lower intake manifold plenum for a cleaner look and minor weight loss. I decided to practice on my spare one and here are the results so far.

Stock lower plenum weight is 5.34 lbs.
Some rough cuts with a cut off wheel.
Some more rough cuts and its down to 4.15 lbs. Much more smoothing out to do and filling in those old holes.
I'd like to eventually port the top part of this and have a custom plenum welded on. At this current length runner, it should bump the peak torque up to around 7000 rpm.

 

More finishing done on the manifold.
Holes left behind from the EGR plumbing. Started some porting, this was the fun part!

 

Working on those smooth transitions!
Removed the coolant pipes off my r18 throttle body. Haven't hooked them up for the past couple winters with no issues.

 

Almost ready to have these installed! Took forever to acquire and its what my car needs most to handle the juice. Can't wait to see what a lightweight flywheel feels like too.

 

The new drums installed for inspection were already rusting so tonight I decided to paint them to keep them from rusting further.
Rust roughly removed with drill and wire brush
Flat copper painted, will repaint with a thicker coat of flat black after winter is over.

Also now I'm only about $100 short of the cost to install the clutch and flywheel, woot! Can't wait!

 

Since my front bumper is so messed up with cracks, I decided to remove the lower grill and paint the rad supports black in behind. The latest curb hit from the wife broke a bunch of tabs on it. I'm looking at it as an opportunity to lose more weight, hahaha. Now the trick is to make it look like I'm not just missing something from the car....the black paint in behind really helped with that, plus I removed the tabs that weren't broken as well. Obviously I need to repaint the front bumper, or just have the wife buy me a new one. 😉

Front lower grill weigh 700 grams. Plus I'm also removing some now unused metal tabs where the a.c. condenser was in from of the radiator. There is some surface rust here so also cleaning that up and will repaint flat black too.


My custom intake manifold project is on hold! Found a good price on a weapon r! More clutch installation delays, HAHA.

 

Let us know how the Weapon R looks when you get it. I've seen a cutaway that shows the intake runners don't line up so well.

 

oh really? Which area? Do you have a link? I know weapon r doesn't make the highest quality parts, but for half price I had to try it out.

 

Here it is:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...d-garbage.html

 

Got some more small things in the mail, Spark plugs and a new wideband O2 sensor. Extra spark plugs incase i damage some with nitrous use. The innovate psn1 gauge requires the wideband to run the nitrous functions. This will be my 3rd sensor replacement as it seems to deal out after 3 or 4 months of daily use. I didn't install the extra bungnonnmy header which spaces the sensor so it's flush with the exhaust flow, so that is most likely why. It sits in where my secondary O2 would be.