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George's 18 Platinum White Build

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#1
I am jumping into the build scene here. My goals are to have a good daily driver with useful, tasteful mods. I am not aiming for ridiculous power, a coal kart ride, or a show queen that sits in the garage. I plan of researching a lot and buying a few key parts to enhance the excellent base platform the Fiesta began with.

I have had 37 cars in my life and each one I heavily modified I got it to the point where it was extremely fast, handled extremely well and sat in the garage because it became a burden to drive, I was worried about it in a parking lot and I got "the look" from my wife when she rode in it and had to either listen to an exhaust, bounced around or have her back hurt from the uncomfortable ride.

I have an extensive background in track day events, autocross (on the national level SCCA) and I hope to just toss this ride into a casual track day or local autocross to enjoy what it stands for but then put on my work attire, drive it to the office, get groceries, take my kid to her functions and dust off an unsuspecting sports car if I can.

I think this car presents a world of possibilities and a very high ceiling for building it mild to wild. I am going to concentrate on bang for buck mods (AP, Front Mount, RMM, Catch Can, Springs, Shocks, Bracing, LEDs, and perhaps some other small items to compliment my tastes).

The car is a 2018 Platinum White ST that came with 4896 miles on it. The previous owner bought it and then was deployed in the military. The car was traded in at the dealer right around the corner from my house. And I having conducted a ton of research and talking to Jeff on here, decided to get an ST -here it was 3 miles from my house! It had been custom tinted with new Weather Beater mats, heated Recaros, heated mirrors and 17X7.5 XXR 527s. The dealer put me in touch with the previous owner who promptly sold me an xtra XXR wheel, the stock wheels and a complete set of brand new winter rims and tires for a song! So I now have the complete ST starter kit and am ready to begin tweaking.
 


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Thread Starter #2
First order of business was to do something about the back up lights. I have a backup camera and pulling out of my garage the first night I didn’t even think I had rear back up lights they were abysmal. Add a little rain and Pittsburgh fog and I immediately went to eBay lookin for LEDs.

I bought these flame throwers ?????? ?????? and it’s like a stadium behind me now. Very big improvement!

A865F3EC-92D8-4D13-981A-72C06B1DF24E.png

They popped right into the rear lights after removing two twilight torx screws and it was finished.

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I highly recommend them!
 


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Thread Starter #3
Winter up here is miserable with salt, cinders and something that resembles large boulders that they put on the roads up here prompted me to order some Rally Armor flaps.

I think the install is a bit convoluted and took a bit longer than I wanted but they and the snow tires and wheels are on to handle Pittsburgh roads.

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Thread Starter #5
What is the winter wheel/tire setup?
The wheels are 15 x 6 1/2 some form of generic wheel brand but they are very light around 13.8 pounds the tires are Yokohama ice guard IG52, 195/55/15

They are fantastic in the slick stuff and fill up the wheel wells so no skinny ugly winter tires for me [wink] I am doing a separate update post on the tires/wheels once I have a few miles on them for review.
 


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Next up was to take care of the oil blow-by turbo engines are famous for. My VW and Subaru would barf oil/vapor slime out into their catch cans in the winter time just about everyday.

I ordered the JBR catch can, and valve and installed it. It took some tinkering and adjusting to get it to fit level and get it to where I was happy with how it looked.

This is a bit longer (noticing a trend here-yes I am anal about installs) than I expected but it came out great! I ran the overflow drain valve down behind the steering rack so I can empty it when I change the oil. It's extra large ad triple baffled to stop gunk from coating the intercooler and charge pipes which I cam sure contributes to these cars popping them off. I also double clamped my intercooler hot side pipes to keep them from blowing off under upgraded boost :)

IMG_6356.jpg

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Thread Starter #7
One item I really wanted to do was a white shift knob to match the car. I ordered a Boomba weighted knob and it made a nice difference in the snick, snick feel of the shifting action. I am not much of a short shifter guy, I like a little throw-so I may just stop at this and bushings under the shifter and under the bracket in the engine bay.

IMG_6216.jpg
 


jeff

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Great to see the build starting! Glad you're loving the car!!!!

I'm gonna get those backup lights at your recommendation. Thanks!!!
 


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Great to see the build starting! Glad you're loving the car!!!!

I'm gonna get those backup lights at your recommendation. Thanks!!!
Thanks brother! It’s so much more fun to drive than anything I’ve had in say, 20 years.
 


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Next up was to take care of the oil blow-by turbo engines are famous for. My VW and Subaru would barf oil/vapor slime out into their catch cans in the winter time just about everyday.

I ordered the JBR catch can, and valve and installed it. It took some tinkering and adjusting to get it to fit level and get it to where I was happy with how it looked.

This is a bit longer (noticing a trend here-yes I am anal about installs) than I expected but it came out great! I ran the overflow drain valve down behind the steering rack so I can empty it when I change the oil. It's extra large ad triple baffled to stop gunk from coating the intercooler and charge pipes which I cam sure contributes to these cars popping them off. I also double clamped my intercooler hot side pipes to keep them from blowing off under upgraded boost :)

View attachment 19450

View attachment 19451

View attachment 19452

View attachment 19453
You had better get some sleeves for those OCC hoses.....Damond sells them separate from their OCC KIT when your hoses don't chafe or rub on engine bay components. Just food for thought! [thumb]
 


TyphoonFiST

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Great to see the build starting! Glad you're loving the car!!!!

I'm gonna get those backup lights at your recommendation. Thanks!!!
Jeff your reverse lights might be an 1156 I do believe.....contact me and ill look up my amazon order and tell you....they are epic! They are 1156 if you have Spec-d Tail lights like me though....DUH! Totally forgot I had spec-d lights!
 


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jeff

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You had better get some sleeves for those OCC hoses.....Damond sells them separate from their OCC KIT when your hoses don't chafe or rub on engine bay components. Just food for thought! [thumb]
I second that...mine touch in a few spots so I sleeved them for safety.

George is old school, he probably did that in his sleep already before reading this...
 


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Thread Starter #13
I second that...mine touch in a few spots so I sleeved them for safety.

George is old school, he probably did that in his sleep already before reading this...
Funny you should mention this I have been looking and looking for sleeves that I like. I started with pipe foam but it’s too large. You guys have any suggestions or links for some sleeves in the right size (circumference)?
 


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Here's a photo of the sleeves that Damond sells for their kit, as used on my car:

View attachment 19457

They are woven nylon and JUST large enough to slip over the connectors on the ends of the hoses. It rests a little loose over the hoses themselves, but is flexible enough for whatever routing you go for. They have done a great job for me. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you what diameter it is at the moment. You could possibly use plastic split loom for ultra-easy installation after the fact, but I have doubts about how flexible it would be for you.
Thanks man. I guess I will see if I can order these separately from Damond?
 


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Thread Starter #15
So just a teaser pic as I just finished hardwiring in my Uniden R3 radar detector with warning LED and remote mute button. As soon as I get a drill bit size to permanently mount both I will finish the install pics. IMG_6355.jpg
 


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Thread Starter #16
And we have some new parts (Dizzy Tune) getting ready to make their debut!
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Spent a little time putting in my RamAir panel, one step colder Denso’s and loading up the AP with Dizzy’s 93 octane Stage 1 tune![thankyou]

Can’t wait until it stops raining/sleeting/snowing to try it out. I’ve wrenched on a lot of cars in my time slinging them, and this car by far is the most foregiving and easiest to work on!

E64018DA-FDA9-43D9-B80C-25B113A308DD.jpg

Also I didn’t like the way the feed line from the PCV valve hose would crush as it twists around going into the OCC. So I decided while I was under there and waiting for my eBay hose sleeves to get here I would get a 90 elbow to keep the hose open at the turn. It fits much much better and the hose stays completely open and doesn’t kink as it bends and turns.[thumb]

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M-Sport fan

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That Damond OCC hose re-route configuration is a good idea! [thumb]

Let us know how those colder plugs react (crank time, fuel dilution in oil, etc.) in this Arctic air we are getting now.

Every time I change my oil, even in the summertime when it gets PLENTY hot enough to 'cook off' any diluted fuel/water in the oil, it REEKS of raw, un-burned fuel, so I am really reluctant to go to the one step colder plugs in our area, until I absolutely have to due to tunes/big turbo/etc. [wink]
 


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