Here are the pic.s I had been trying to take and post of the exhaust and gauges .
Here is the complete exhaust with wrap installed . The bar across the muffler may be removed and another way of hanging the muffler will be used .
Here is the exhaust flange that I had to have made for the engine swap . Surprisingly the outlet on the exhaust manifold was 2.5" , but this is not unusual for the newer V6's since some of them ran 2.5" exhaust piping from the factory .
Here is a shot of the gauges . Yes I know it is sort of dirty but hey I still have to clean the car . It has been a good home to extra parts and wiring for about a year now .
Here is the new instrument cluster which is using a lot of the factory cluster pieces . The clear cover is still there and some of the usual idiot lights are being used . I still need to work on the lights . I may be using one to many LED's in the cluster and not getting enough voltage to run them . The idiot and turn signal cutouts look like they are off a little but that is just the way the dash piece is sitting over the cluster .
Now I have a Cavalier with a 10,000 RPM tach , and a speedo which goes to 160 MPH . If you see me doing 160 it will be the back of my car that you will see for just a little while . LOL
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looks pretty cool , nice job
The wrap that I installed on the pipes are for other reason instead of trying to get more power . They are a form of heat shield since I had to remove the factory heat shields to squeeze 3" under the car . The main thing I was concerned with was around the gas tank .
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AWESOME!!!!
Did you take that beast to the track to run some times yet?
2004 Cavalier
13.2@105........
Mods...
BFG Drag Radials
Saab Turbo kit
2.5 exhaust, w/cutout
Spec Stage 2+ Clutch
i like how the guage cluster and exhaust turned out , cluster looks sweeeet !!!!
Looking very nice. It's good to see these things finaly coming together. Keep up the great work!
how did you do the gauge cluster, looks awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
honda's are like tampons.......
EVERY PU$$Y'S GOT ONE!!!!!
I started out making a mold of the shape of the cluster I wanted . Then from there I made it from which ever material I decided on . The carbon fiber used in the cluster is not an overlay on fiberglass . The cluster is pure carbon fiber and it took a while to figure out how to do it and get good results . That was attempt # 5 that you see now . Even with that I see room for improvement on the mold and how to do it better . Later on I may redo it and get better results .
The biggest thing was to visualize how I wanted it and then go from there to make it happen . I wanted to keep the stock gauge cover and make the Autometer gauges fit behind it . That is how the shape of the cluster happened .
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but how did you hook up the guages???
honda's are like tampons.......
EVERY PU$$Y'S GOT ONE!!!!!
I am running a stand alone engine management system . I don't have to worry about the PCM just some of the lights that operate off of the BCM .
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where do you get a stand alone engine management system and how much do they run??? how did you mold the cluster? was it hard??
honda's are like tampons.......
EVERY PU$$Y'S GOT ONE!!!!!
The TEC3 is on up there in price and one of the you are looking anywhere from $1,800 to $2,400 for a complete system . You can check Electromotive's website for a dealer near you . When I bought mine I went to Electromotive and toured the place .
Anyway There are usually dealer's in every state . The cluster started out as a cardboard idea . That way I could test the gauges and see what needed to be done to make them fit . Once I figured out the two 3 3/8" gauges needed to be tilted back 1/2" at the top I was able to get some MDF board and get the shape of the gauge cluster from that . From there I used some duraglass to get the corners rounded the way I wanted them around the speedo and tach . When your working with fiberglass and fixing or touching up a mold you want to use duraglass or a comparable filler . Bondo will absorb some of the resin and will come up with the piece you are making .
They say to use parafin wax to coat a mold , I did'nt have any right off hand so I used a soft TEA candle that I melted down and coated the mold with . Once I had the excess wiped off and the mold rubbed down . I used regular automotive car wax to wax the mold with . I did several coats and buffed it out , from there I was ready to give it a try and see what I could make with it . The first cluster looked pretty good but was screwed up when it was cut a little to short or a hole was drilled off center . I tried a second time and did some changes to the mold . This time I used two piece's from when I cut the 3 3/8" holes out and ran some toggle bolts through to press out the excess resin around the gauges . That worked great and the 3rd and 4th clutsers came out even better . Each time the cluster would look better than the previous one . cluster #5 is the one with the gauges in it . I am going to redo the mold and make a two piece unit that should give me better results . The only bad thing is when you make then you are working from the top layer back . That means that you put down the layer you will see first and hope that it will look the way you want when everything is said and done .
The good thing is if someone did'nt care how it looked they could just paint a fiberglass or carbon fiber cluster to look stock and use aftermarket gauges with black bezels . I did make a fiberglass cluster and tried doing a carbon fiber overlay . That was the very first one ever made and then I went to using solid carbon fiber cluster faces .
The only way to really learn how to make a mold or work fiberglass or even carbon fiber is to pick some up and go at it . I do have a preference on resin also , I like using epoxy over vinylester or polyester resin's . Epoxy just seems to set up and hold better when the others seem kind of flexible . I have some polyester resin and have no idea what I will use it on because I am not going to use it on my car .
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can i use my existing equip. to hook up the guages or do i have to get the e-manage to do it. by the way what u did is awesome!!
honda's are like tampons.......
EVERY PU$$Y'S GOT ONE!!!!!
Actually you don't need to replace the PCM to run an aftermarket speedo . On the back of my speedo there is a connector to go to the PCM from the speedo . You would wire up the speedo to the speed sensor on the tranny and from there run the wire to the PCM's speed sensor input . Water temp. and oil press. gauges can be done the same way . The oil pressure sending unit that comes with the gauge can be plumbed in with the factory oil pressure sending unit by using a tee to screw both sending units into .
Most people that replace the stock cluster will usually go about the same route I did and stick the stock gauge cluster circuit board in the dash out of the way . I ended up sitting it in the center of the dash right behind the defroster vent .
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awesome, thanks!!!!
honda's are like tampons.......
EVERY PU$$Y'S GOT ONE!!!!!
