Started this about 2 weeks ago after doing the front suspension and the next day being a really miserable wet one so couldnt do the rears.
Basically for all those that dont know its a 'Scoot' (Big Rotary Company in Japan) replica vented bonnet. The official ones are 2k in price, mine was substantially cheaper than that from a reputable place on the MRC that had made countless numbers of them and even amended it to make it stronger. A group buy on the MRC was started in sept so I promptly stuck my name down......weeks turned into months and eventually the week before christmas it turned up. I promptly ripped all the paper off to see what the Rotary Santa had brought me !!!
Christmas went by and because of all the poor weather I didnt get a chance to have a look till 2 weeks ago, I took the old bonnet off the car making sure I didnt catch any panels and scratch my paint. Then whacked on the new one for a test fit to see what it looked like. Imagine my horror when I was faced with this.....
OMG...another mod that was supposed to be a straight fit gone to ratshit !!
So I started looking at the cause and found the culprits....
Basically the intercooler and pipes plus the HKS Induction 'Mushrooms'.
If you look at this pic it shows where the highest spots in the enginebay are..
So therefore I weighed up all the options including scrapping the bigger Stock Mounted intercooler and getting a large Front Mounted one. However the price (new, no 2ndhand ones) and the fact that a) its a lot of work to fit one (radiator has to be moved) plus b) the jury is still out on them compared with mine. Basically a FMIC will lower you intake temps but on long journeys as its blocking the rad then the water temp increases (a big rotary NO NO !). Now before Scott pipes up with 'I dont have any problem with mine' please consider all the extra work he has done with his, as I wasnt into that and as I have said time and time again...these are cooling mods rather than performance ones I stuck to my guns and thought....lets have a crack at cutting up the bonnet round the offending areas.
So the idea in hand I grabbed a drill and prepared to drill holes along the marked areas on the side of the intake tunnel.
Now before I go into that I would just like to say that I wasnt sensible to wear gloves.....
fibreglass + bare hands = pain like you wouldnt believe for days afterwards !!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway back on track, some pics of the work...
Until finally I hacksawed the holes to pull out the piece needed to clear the intercooler piping.
Back on for a test fit.....b'sted still didnt fit !!!
Some evidence again of where I had hacksawed off.....
Again look at the pic above and see I was sensible enough to put down a sheet to protect the enginebay from fibreglass pieces.....hindsight is a wonderful thing !!!!
So began the monotonous job of cutting pieces out from the same places and then carrying it back, mounting the bonnet and seeing how it fitted.....even though the bonnet is light its still back-breaking stuff.
I cut a bit more out of it before packing up for the day.
This morning I started again to sort out the issue.....
Donning blue rubber gloves worthy of a 'bend over sir' moment to protect the paws from the excruciating pain they had last time I began.
As usual, armed with the trusty saw I took some more out and things started to look more promising....
With more work and finding out that the lower I got the more things it caught on eg the bonnet stand, the battery cover and still the induction kit I took these out to make it easier to fit.
The plan being to just get it down to where I wanted.
Eventually.....it looked like this.....
A right result !!!! :thumb:
However the problem of the induction kit still is present until we came up with this.....
Not sure of the effects of having a longer pipe, whether it will cause problems with turbo lag I am not sure but have asked the question on the MRC and if anyone has any thoughts then much appreciated.
Also the other dilemma is where to fit the aerocatches.....
I am planning to have mesh fitted over the vents to make it look nicer but will leave that to the experts to fit I think....it'll also be black mesh or sprayed black.
Thats all for now, sorry for the horrendously long read, I do tend to waffle on and like taking pics.....all thoughts greatfully appreciated.
)
