Fixing the last owner's neglect and building for potential time attack

Well, second round with a speed3 first round with a bigger turbo. March of 2021 I picked up a 2011 with 103,000 miles. Checked the car in the rain, which was stupid, but I digress. Found that the motor was built at approx 70k miles with CP-E stage 2 pistons at stock bore, manley rods, ported intake manifold with VTCS delete, EGR delete, CP-E exhaust manifold, Cobb downpipe, Ultimate racing catback and front mount, HKS SSQV, ISC coilovers, GTX3076R, Tial 44mm wastegate, HTP 3.5" exhaust, SPC camber arms, Braum seats, Corksport short shifter, SURE shifter bushings and motor mounts, JBR catch can, and Freektune.

Now that that's out of the way, in the past nearly two years I've found small, stupid issue after small stupid issue. First being the passenger front tire was rubbing against the collar for the coilover. No visible damage to the knuckle so a new set of coils is in order. Replaced them with BCs and raised the car approx 3/4", and replaced the links with whiteline links. Then found myself with an invisible coolant leak that I was stuck chasing for months. Lo and behold the coolant line to the turbo was cracking and would leak when hot. New hose and it's good as new. Then the battery died.

Cue 2022 and the further I look with this thing the more I find. Doing some research I found that at one point a 6th port kit was installed with no signs of it anywhere now. The wiring harness is routed all sorts of stupid and I'll be redoing that as time allows. I also started having an issue with AFRs pinning full rich/lean randomly causing severe drivablity concerns. A couple of checks and found that the PO routed the upper o2 sensor against the manifold causing it to melt the insulation and having it ground out. New sensor and the pinning is fixed. New tires to hold me over until I get wheels, and at this point I really started digging into the car. Interior wise I found a bunch of broken tabs and poor fitment. I've also found that my camber arms are annihilated and will be needing to replace those sooner rather than later. My driver side axle boot is torn and at this point I'm thinking of just going with DSS axles to future proof it. Then my clutch pedal would keep loosing pressure. The clip to the master/slave line was destroyed. New line and clips, bleeding, and she's good as new.

I've found my rad support moves a LOT more than I'm comfortable with and there's some random brackets that I'm not sure why they installed them by it. New plugs have been installed and compression checked with 185-190 across the board. Cosmetically the last owner installed skyactiv lights for no readily apparent reason. My carpet also has a hole in it so it's time to order a new carpet and dash pad to fix the lifting issue. My fog lights don't work but that appears to be due to corrosion on the sub harness which destroyed the relay and the housings have since corroded after getting water in them. Horn? Yeah that doesn't work, I feel that's common with this platform. I'll be running a new power wire from the relay as the relay switches when pressing the horn. The head unit is ancient so time to upgrade to a carplay compatible unit and when the carpet's out I'll dynamat the interior. Yes it adds weight but improves daily drivability a good bit by quieting down the interior. This is also my first build thread so I have zero idea what I'm doing, same with building a car to this extent. I've also found my passenger axle seems loose but I've been told it's fine.

The goal I have with this thing is to keep it as an autocross car for the year and start planning on time attack/road racing down the line.

 

Okay it's been a while since I last posted, but recently got a new battery bracket as the previous owner left that off. Damond mounts are installed, JBR 51R battery tray/ecu relocation installed, and some maintenance has been done recently. Not much else at the moment due to a move but I also found I have several small boost leaks and decided it's time to change the FMIC setup as I hate the sheer amount of couplers. I'll likely be going with the corksport big core or a TR1035, just need to see what fits best with the other mods on here. Still have plenty of maintenance/light repairs that need to be made to really get this thing back to where I'm happy with but progress is progress.