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Ok - so I finally sorted out a couple of my upgrades for the '96 Aero. General thoughts below:
1) Speedparts Stage 1 (265bhp, 317ft-lbs ) - This took about 10mins to fit and had me laughing on the first outing. I hadn't actually expected a huge amount but was well impressed. Reaction and spool up much quicker, and above 3k rpm it really is fast fast to the point where 4th feels more like 3rd did. Triple figures no longer seems to require any effort. Stage 3 must be chaos. Quite fun seeing the boost gauge going to it's old high point (1/3 into red) at 1/2 throttle and miles off the scale at full tilt...
2) After a quick run I removed the snorkel on the airbox and found an even quicker response along with a bit more noise (less than I was expecting though) but now you can tell when I floor it due a to little more induction noise. I'm half way through sorting out a nice funnel to imporve the flow - I think this will make a big difference as dawing air over a 'raw' edge is not very sound or flow efficient.
3) Fitted Brembo discs and Pagid fast road pads all round. The job went well until I sheared the head off a caliper retaining bracket bolt at the back - haynes said 80Nm, but the old bolts had gone soft = 1.5hrs of drilling out the old one.
Thoughts? Hard to tell after 10miles. They are currently 'poor' but seem to get better once they are warm, but I think after maybe 100+ miles I'll be able to make a proper judgement as I want to run them in carefully. Nice and smooth though.
4) Strut brace - Picked up the Elkparts WMSS silver one which looks great on the silver Aero. Had fun levering it into position and ended up using the old strut bolts for the inaccessible pair under the brace bar. This allowed me to leave them loose until everything was in place then gain access under the bar with a spanner (which I couldn't do with the allen bolts supplied)
I do need to sort this as I have 2 full length and 1 shorter length bolt on each side. Anyway, resorting to various levers (and a hammer) I got the brace fitted.
Reactions - bloody hell - hadn't expected to notice a difference in the first 3 ft of driving! I drive over an angled exit and the car usually tiwsts and creaks a bit - nothing, not a peep. Dash board creaks gone as promised - well impressed!
What's next?
Well - I must fit my Abbott spring and koni front dampers as the Stage 1 has exposed the standard Aero suspension a bit. Certainly stage 1 never mind stage 3 would be pretty dodgy to say the least on standard kit (imho!).
I've also got a pile of replacement standard bushes to fit.
What else has been done prior?
Just the ARB rear bushes,ITG air filter, konis at the back and the air inlet heatplate removed along with making sure everying is running well.
Anyway - not a bad afternoons work - plan to finish off the jobs mid-May and I'll report back then. (assuming the gearbox is still in one piece
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1) Speedparts Stage 1 (265bhp, 317ft-lbs ) - This took about 10mins to fit and had me laughing on the first outing. I hadn't actually expected a huge amount but was well impressed. Reaction and spool up much quicker, and above 3k rpm it really is fast fast to the point where 4th feels more like 3rd did. Triple figures no longer seems to require any effort. Stage 3 must be chaos. Quite fun seeing the boost gauge going to it's old high point (1/3 into red) at 1/2 throttle and miles off the scale at full tilt...
2) After a quick run I removed the snorkel on the airbox and found an even quicker response along with a bit more noise (less than I was expecting though) but now you can tell when I floor it due a to little more induction noise. I'm half way through sorting out a nice funnel to imporve the flow - I think this will make a big difference as dawing air over a 'raw' edge is not very sound or flow efficient.
3) Fitted Brembo discs and Pagid fast road pads all round. The job went well until I sheared the head off a caliper retaining bracket bolt at the back - haynes said 80Nm, but the old bolts had gone soft = 1.5hrs of drilling out the old one.
Thoughts? Hard to tell after 10miles. They are currently 'poor' but seem to get better once they are warm, but I think after maybe 100+ miles I'll be able to make a proper judgement as I want to run them in carefully. Nice and smooth though.
4) Strut brace - Picked up the Elkparts WMSS silver one which looks great on the silver Aero. Had fun levering it into position and ended up using the old strut bolts for the inaccessible pair under the brace bar. This allowed me to leave them loose until everything was in place then gain access under the bar with a spanner (which I couldn't do with the allen bolts supplied)
I do need to sort this as I have 2 full length and 1 shorter length bolt on each side. Anyway, resorting to various levers (and a hammer) I got the brace fitted.
Reactions - bloody hell - hadn't expected to notice a difference in the first 3 ft of driving! I drive over an angled exit and the car usually tiwsts and creaks a bit - nothing, not a peep. Dash board creaks gone as promised - well impressed!
What's next?
Well - I must fit my Abbott spring and koni front dampers as the Stage 1 has exposed the standard Aero suspension a bit. Certainly stage 1 never mind stage 3 would be pretty dodgy to say the least on standard kit (imho!).
I've also got a pile of replacement standard bushes to fit.
What else has been done prior?
Just the ARB rear bushes,ITG air filter, konis at the back and the air inlet heatplate removed along with making sure everying is running well.
Anyway - not a bad afternoons work - plan to finish off the jobs mid-May and I'll report back then. (assuming the gearbox is still in one piece
