DrGubi’s Build

One of the first things I did myself.

Plasti-dipped the wheels today and painted the calipers. Very satisfied with the results.

drgubi said:

Plasti-dipped the wheels today and painted the calipers. Very satisfied with the results.

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I like the look. To further your color scheme, consider these:

Finally installed the headlights and fog lights. I just need to find an evening that it’s NOT downpouring so I can align the headlight beams. Side markers will be in the future I’m dead atm.

Now that I finally have some energy, I can clarify and provide an update. The headlight assemblies I installed were one of the Spyders available for the cruze and the fog lights are Spec-D DRLs. The installation was difficult as there was no specified direction as to what each of the arbitrarily colored and located wires on the back of the unit did. So I just took the pairs of wires and touched them to the according battery terminal to see what lit up.

For the actual wiring process, I cheated a little due to the odd geography of attempting to wire both headlights and foglight DRLs simultaneously. I took the cord from an old Nokia phone charger (ensuring it could handle the amps), spliced it into the sidemarker lamp wire, ran that up to just behind each headlight assembly, and then spliced all DRLs into said phone charger wire. Trust me it makes sense with this weird setup.

okay finally an update! I installed Cougar Motors LED headlight bulbs into the Spyder’s projector housing. They take an H7 bulb. The pair cost me $40, fit like a charm, look fantastic, feel fantastic, and perform swimmingly. I would strongly recommend this company for this price and quality. Like wow. Pics provided.

Magnaflow exhaust and BNR tune arriving shortly. Bank account crying. But my face is smiling so lol.

Just ordered the PCV fix kit V2. There is a 110% chance I’m going to mess something up. But as Bilbo Baggins said...

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The Magnaflow exhaust (15070) is in! Installation was again met with many unforeseen hardships.

First the original exhaust was so rusted in place, to remove it from the catalytic converter required penetrating oil PLUS sawzall-ing the darn rusted bolts off. Next, magnaflow saw fit to not include nuts for their bolts (I guess they assumed I was going to use my heavily rusted bolts I just sawzall-ed off?). Then it began to downpour like Malaysia in the rainy season.

Next, and this is what I could use some input on: the magnaflow exhaust hung lower and was looser under the car than the stock exhaust. I blame worn/too lax rubber exhaust hangers, but I didn't have time to run out and go trial a bunch to find a more rigid/tighter set of hangers. So I just stuffed a bunch of heat resistant insulation (pics) between the exhaust and the body of the car to hold it firmly in place (don't worry I tested with a blowtorch to confirm this stuff does not catch fire).

Lastly, the exhaust tip was directly contacting the fiberglass body so I had to utilize a dremel built in 1942 to cut an additional 1/2 inch of space around the tip... I screwed up many times. I will be purchasing a new dremel and likely cutting off an additional 1/4 inch to make it look a little nicer.
Otherwise the installation was a piece of cake usual exhaust install. Had to cut the stock system up to remove it of course.

Overall, I am so satisfied with the results. This is exactly what I was looking for. It makes a big mean growl when it starts up and then quiets down to a deep hum. It produces additional deep growls when accelerating around 1500-2500 RPM but at highway speeds it's satisfyingly quiet. It even gives a nice growl when you turn the ignition off. The exhaust system from a quality standpoint felt excellent, and the tip looks great! Sorry I forgot to take pics of the system other than the tip, I'll add some more later.

Been a while since an update, here’s what’s gone down:

Used BNR autocal to look at my LTFTs. Turns out they ranged between -9 and -16, indicating a likely boost leak. Hissing was audible near the throttle body at idle. Throttle body removed and cleaned and new gasket installed. Hissing persisted.

I had a PCV fix kit v2 I was waiting to install, so I promptly (and painstakingly) removed my intake manifold, installed the kit, and simultaneously ordered a boost leak test kit.

LTFTs improved slightly, coming to -12 at their worst. Boost leak test kit came in, system pressurized to 22 PSI producing a profound leak from the front of the valve cover just beneath the oil dipstick, as well as near the throttle body. Valve cover and gasket were both replaced with observable damage to old valve cover in the area of the leak below (valve train doesn’t look bad for 83K miles?).

LTFTs dropped to an all time low and spend the majority of their time around -2 to -4, but I have seen them as low as -9 rarely. I have yet to pressurize the system again as I had to catch a flight to Miami, but overall the vehicle seems to feel more stable and responsive.

IN OTHER NEWS: while I was investigating my PCV fix, I noticed my inlet hose was leaking very slowly at the junction to the water outlet.

Upon further investigation, the head had broken off and adhered to the inside of the water outlet.

I scraped out the broken pieces of the head and replaced the hose, but I still need to replace the water outlet. It’s sitting on my dining room table and will be completed post-Miami.

In OTHER OTHER NEWS:

My tires have a modest amount of dry rot and are nearing the end of their tread life, so they need replacing soon. Figured I’d upgrade the rim while I’m at it. Thinking about upgrading to 18x8 40mm offset gloss black Helos with a 225/45 set of directional tires.

So things have been pretty busy lol.


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