Lpruler
Greenie N00B Member
Hey Guys,
Here is my full writeup on my awd swapped MS3.
PLEASE READ THROUGH THE ENTIRE POST BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS. I am trying to be extremely thorough and cover the most frequently asked questions. If there is something I did miss I am more than happy to answer and share.
This was a very in depth swap, not really beginner friendly. At a bare minimum I would suggest you have access to a welder, grinder, and boat loads of determination.
Starting from the beginning:
Sorry some of the photos are sideways, I tried to fix a dozen times and gave up so uh, tilt your phone?
I picked up a fully bolted big turbo MS6 with a broken transmission. I threw in a replacement transmission, and fully resealed all the drivetrain components. This car was awesome and provided some fun in the snow. Cyclones are great!
Following the lead of a couple guys from way back and some more recently I decided what I wanted was the most OEM style swap I could accomplish. I wanted all factory features to work, I wanted all fit and finish to be comparable to a car that left the factory, and lastly I wanted to use as many OEM parts as possible for longevity, serviceability and replaceability.
The biggest piece to this very complicated jigsaw puzzle is the rear subframe. The awd cx7 subframe has the same body mount points and suspension pickup points as the ms3, along with the oh so important diff mounts.
The next most important part to get a hold of was a gas tank. Since in the late 2000’s Ford owned so many companies their global C1 platform was used in lots of different manufacturers and vehicles. This means that the volvo s40/v50 share lots of parts with the Mazda 3, including where its gas tank sits. There was a fairly rare option for AWD in these volvos which meant an OEM option for a fuel system. I went with a 2009 volvo gas tank which turned out to have been switched from a return style system to a returnless system similar to the ms3. I'm not sure of the year change over but 2009 is for certain returnless. The passenger side fuel tank strap bolts straight in from the volvo. The Driver side needed two weld nuts installed into the body. I did not have the driver side volvo strap so I modified my mazda one to fit, requiring some bending and drilling a new hole. If you got a non Broken fuel pump assembly with your volvo tank I believe you would be able to plug your factory mazda quick disconnect fuel line straight into the volvo outlet. Being from a 2.5L turbo 5 i figured the pump should be sufficient for moderate power goals. The breather and evap lines plugged right in as if they were meant for each other. The fuel pump and sending unit connector is different and will require some splicing if using the volvo parts.
Unfortunately the tank I got came with a broken fuel pump hanger assembly. Since I had to replace it I decided to try something interesting. I decided to keep the lower portion from the volvo pump as this has a venturi system with a fuel pickup straw that runs over the driveshaft hump to the driver side of the tank. I was able to remove the upper portion from the factory ms3 assembly, and put it on the volvo lower. The fuel pump plugs right in, the sending unit had to be cut and spliced. This allowed me to keep the factory body harness plug. I also had to trim the locating tab to rotate the assembly a few degrees to keep the outlet and the float in the correct location. The sending unit does work with the ms3 cluster however the reading is slightly off, I believe I can play with resistors to get it closer to the correct reading. There is also a chance the sending unit circuit board could be swapped as well.
Once the gas tank was in it was time to fit the rear subframe. Unfortunately other than the body mounts and suspension pickup points the subframe was hard up on lots of things. Firstly, the rear diff mounts fowled on the spare tire well. I had to cut a large half moon out of this to clear. Next, the front passenger diff mount fowled on the tank, It had to be completely removed, I will show my solution for this later. Lastly the front tube of the subframe was also contacting the gas tank. I had to make a roughly ½” deep 12” wide notch in the crossmember to clear. I'm not sure, but its possible the earlier tanks were slightly different in shape and will not fowl the crossmember the same way. I also found out that the ms3 filler neck was slightly the wrong shape and hit the subframe as well. I pie sectioned it to get the correct angles and pressure tested after welding. I also had to relocate the evap canister to behind the passenger wheel since there is a diff going to occupy that space now. I was then able to test fit the subframe with the rear diff.
Next I began to fit the transmission and transfercase. Fortunately the outside case half of the ms6 transmission is exactly the same as the ms3. This meant I was able to use the MS3 trans mount, shifter cable brackets, and slave cylinder. I popped the transfer case in and offered up the front subframe. Low and behold as others have said, there is actually plenty of room for everything. Plenty of clearance to the steering rack, the firewall, and even some decent exhaust clearance.
Next I offered up the factory MS6 driveshaft and to my surprise it was extremely close. Others before me have either shortened the factory driveshaft and removed one of the center support bearings or gone with a custom one. Again in the theme of keeping all parts replaceable and oem I wanted to see if I could get away with keeping the stock driveshaft. I determined I only needed about ½” of extra length to get away with it so I decided to redrill the rear subframe diff mounts and scoot the diff back the required amount. This was fairly easy other than needing to notch the subframe mounts to allow the factory diff mounts to slide back and not fowl.
The front passenger diff mount I had to completely remove earlier needed to be remade. Using a section of box tubing I welded to the subframe, I pressed the factory bushing out of the cast mount and pressed it into a ½” thick steel plate. I removed a section from the cast mount to get the correct spacing for my flat plate, I also added an extra wing to reach over and pick up on one of the bolts holding the two diff halves together. I also used polyurethane window weld to fill my factory cx7 bushings as there aren't any aftermarket options and the bushings have offset center holes so finding a universal one proved too tricky.
Now with the diff sitting roughly ½” further back the factory ms6 driveshaft was a perfect fit. Since I wanted to keep the exhaust tucked up into the tunnel above the lowest parts of the frame rails I needed to find some extra space. Since the tunnel was never meant to house an exhaust and a driveshaft I had to start cutting and hammering the rear most section of the tunnel. Unfortunately the most narrow part of the tunnel is also where the second support bearing needs to live. I took about a ¾” notch out of the driver side floor and bent the tunnel back to close up the hole. This is as much as is possible since the rearmost driver seat mount is directly on the other side of the tunnel. Since I brought the tunnel so much closer to the mount I needed to run a shorter bolt in that seat mount. On the passenger side I was able to get away with hammering a couple fractions of an inch wider. Finally I had enough width to fit the exhaust and driveshaft.
For the front support bearing mount I decided to weld a plate to the tunnel brace, this gave me the most room for exhaust. I also had to cut a small notch for extra driveshaft clearance. For the rear support I ran one weld nut into the frame rail and made a small bracket that reached around the exhaust and up to the top of the tunnel.
Others in the past have gone for custom axles. This being extremely cost prohibitive I wanted to find an alternative solution. For the front driver axle, I was able to retain the factory ms3 axle. For the front passenger axle I wanted to use the factory ms6 axle as it fits into the transfer case. The outer cv unfortunately has a larger spline than the ms3. Originally I wanted to use a fd rx7 rear wheel bearing with a ms6 hub pressed into the ms3 knuckle. However I found out the ms3 uses integrated wheel speed sensors in the wheel bearings. Therefore I decided to turn down the ms6 hub 3mm, from 45mm to 42mm, to press into the ms3 wheel bearing. The other issue is the OD of the ms6 axle cup is larger than the ms3, this also had to be turned down a few mm to 62mm to clear the wheel bearing retaining lip and the wheel speed sensor.
In the rear you must use cx7 wheel bearings as these have the required splines to allow awd time travel. As those before me have done, I redrilled my factory arms mounting pattern and opened up the locating bore to accept the cx7 wheel bearing.
For the rear axles I went down quite the rabbit hole. I was convinced I could make a factory solution work. I found out the hard way that the ms6 and cx7 offset the rear diff towards the driver side of the car, and of course its not the same amount. There's roughly 1.5” difference between two diff locations side to side. Because of this offset, after lots of head scratching and stress, I figured out I could run the factory ms6 driver axle if I was able to space the wheel bearing out ¼” to keep the axle from binding as it cycled through the suspension travel. This was fairly easy to accomplish with a spacer behind the wheel bearing and brake caliper bracket to push the whole assembly out. On the passenger side I mirrored my spacer however again because of the diff offset the ms6 axle was way too long. Digging around some more I found out that a CX7 driver side axle would be almost perfect for the passenger side. Unfortunately it was still off by roughly ?” or 16mm. Looking at the difference between the ms6 and cx7 outer cv’s I realized the cv actually sits much closer to the wheel bearing on the ms6. Hoping they were roughly the same internally I decided to machine the cx7 outer cup down the necessary 16mm to get the correct length. This pushed the outer splines further through the wheel bearing so it necessitated a spacer washer to properly torque the axle nut.
This is by far the least strong component in the entire drivetrain, not only is the cx7 axle and cv joint slightly smaller in diameter, but I also severely weakened the outer cv removing so much material. So far this has been holding up but I have been fairly cautious with it. I am still convinced there is some sort of oem axle that would be the correct length and splines. I found that NA/NB miata axles have the same diff splines however the outer splines are too small, Manual transmission RX8 axles are close in length however they are far too large both inside and outside. I will continue my research to try and find a bolt-in solution that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and is easy to acquire.
The rear ms3 arms bolt right into the cx7 subframe. This is great news as it keeps the correct suspension geometry and track width. The cx7 wheel bearings are obviously different as they need an axle running through them. Factory ms3 brakes bolt up with no issue.
I next split apart both a cx7 rear differential and a ms6 one to retain the dual mounting points of the cx7 and the limited slip of the ms6. This was a fairly straightforward process, I believe the electromagnetic couplers are the same as well but I didn't bother swapping them.
Onto the rear sway bar. The factory cx7 sway bar was far too wide as it was meant for the wider track width of the suv. Unfortunately the ms3 bar was too short to use the cx7 mounting positions. So I decided to make my own sway bar mounts and use a larger ms3 bar since it would retain the factory endlinks. This position is very low, the lowest point on the entire car. Fortunately since they are in line with the wheels they haven't been too much of an issue with scraping. I want to investigate a sway bar from possibly a volvo or a focus RS as these cars move the sway bar up and behind the rear subframe.
For suspension the biggest problem is the ms3 rear shocks mount to the bottom of the trailing arm which sends them right through where the rear axles need to live. I figured I could use another C1 platform vehicle for this. Originally I was thinking volvo, however there are no good aftermarket performance shocks for the awd models. CX7 shocks are too long as they are meant for a SUV ride height. Finally I came to the Idea that a Focus RS is based on the C1 platform and AWD with lots of aftermarket suspension options from cheap to full blown race car. Turns out the rear shocks are fairly hard to come by themselves. After some research I found the front pinch clamps shared the same diameter and the upper strut mounts also share the same bolt pattern. I decided to order a full Focus RS coilover kit. The front bolted right in, the only issue is the mounting stopper tab is higher than on the ms3 suspension, I believe this is due to the RS having a taller pinch clamp. I made up some spacers to keep the struts even left to right, you should be able to run without these spacers if you're careful keeping the depths identical.
The sway bar endlinks are also a different length, I cut and sleeve my factory ms3 ones however I believe some of the adjustable aftermarket ones would work just fine.
The rear control arms needed new shock mounts added to locate the bottom of the rear shocks. The upper shock mounts in the body needed to be drilled out from 10mm to ½” to fit the new shocks. The rear RS springs did fit however are too short, my guess is the subframe or control arms are a different shape on the RS. I used some ms3 springs I had laying around for now, however I am going to try and get some lift spacers for the focus RS to retain the coilover springs.
I modified an aftermarket ms6 rear motor mount to fit into the aftermarket ms3 motor mount, I don't love the extra degree of freedom this modification gives the engine, however so far this seems to be holding up well and has fairly low NVHl. This is another one I would like to revisit. Apologies I don't have a great picture of the finished product.
Finally It was time to tackle the exhaust. I had a full turbo back 3” catless single exit ms6 exhaust from my parts car which was a great starting point. After lots of cutting, head scratching and frustration I had a downpipe and even managed to squeeze in a cat! It is insane how tight getting this thing in and out is, literally having to do more than a 360 degree rotation while being put in from underneath the car. It is doable with the subframe and Tcase in place though! Whoo! The midpipe was very easy, a straight shot for almost 4 feet right to the back of the fuel tank. I wasn't able to keep the factory fuel tank heat shield so I purchased some stick on stuff, the closest part of the exhaust is the clearance between the second connection and the back side of the gas tank. I was able to put 2 layers of heat shielding and still have some space. I will keep an eye on this for sure.
After buttoning the car up It was time to take it for its maiden voyage!
Had a blast running up and down my local mountain roads with some of my friends' other awd turbo cars. So far I have put a couple thousand miles on the car and all seems to be good. Some small teething problems but overall I couldn't be happier. The car drives like a Ms3 but now has the traction it always deserved.
Currently I am running cx7 wheel speed sensors and tone rings but unfortunately they don't seem to be playing nice with the ms3 abs and traction control systems; I am investigating alternatives. Long term I am planning on setting up a raspberry pi with multiple inputs to make a tunable map for the center clutch lockup. Currently I am running a cheap dccd controller from a subaru however It doesn't put out the required current to keep the center diff fully locked up.
For now the car is “done” however I am already planning a v2 of the car where I go for more power, a built motor, billet t-case caps, a front LSD from damon motorsports, and maybe some of those spendy driveshaft shop goodies. Stay tuned for more updates.
Here is my full writeup on my awd swapped MS3.
PLEASE READ THROUGH THE ENTIRE POST BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS. I am trying to be extremely thorough and cover the most frequently asked questions. If there is something I did miss I am more than happy to answer and share.
This was a very in depth swap, not really beginner friendly. At a bare minimum I would suggest you have access to a welder, grinder, and boat loads of determination.
Starting from the beginning:
Sorry some of the photos are sideways, I tried to fix a dozen times and gave up so uh, tilt your phone?
I picked up a fully bolted big turbo MS6 with a broken transmission. I threw in a replacement transmission, and fully resealed all the drivetrain components. This car was awesome and provided some fun in the snow. Cyclones are great!
Following the lead of a couple guys from way back and some more recently I decided what I wanted was the most OEM style swap I could accomplish. I wanted all factory features to work, I wanted all fit and finish to be comparable to a car that left the factory, and lastly I wanted to use as many OEM parts as possible for longevity, serviceability and replaceability.
The biggest piece to this very complicated jigsaw puzzle is the rear subframe. The awd cx7 subframe has the same body mount points and suspension pickup points as the ms3, along with the oh so important diff mounts.
The next most important part to get a hold of was a gas tank. Since in the late 2000’s Ford owned so many companies their global C1 platform was used in lots of different manufacturers and vehicles. This means that the volvo s40/v50 share lots of parts with the Mazda 3, including where its gas tank sits. There was a fairly rare option for AWD in these volvos which meant an OEM option for a fuel system. I went with a 2009 volvo gas tank which turned out to have been switched from a return style system to a returnless system similar to the ms3. I'm not sure of the year change over but 2009 is for certain returnless. The passenger side fuel tank strap bolts straight in from the volvo. The Driver side needed two weld nuts installed into the body. I did not have the driver side volvo strap so I modified my mazda one to fit, requiring some bending and drilling a new hole. If you got a non Broken fuel pump assembly with your volvo tank I believe you would be able to plug your factory mazda quick disconnect fuel line straight into the volvo outlet. Being from a 2.5L turbo 5 i figured the pump should be sufficient for moderate power goals. The breather and evap lines plugged right in as if they were meant for each other. The fuel pump and sending unit connector is different and will require some splicing if using the volvo parts.
Unfortunately the tank I got came with a broken fuel pump hanger assembly. Since I had to replace it I decided to try something interesting. I decided to keep the lower portion from the volvo pump as this has a venturi system with a fuel pickup straw that runs over the driveshaft hump to the driver side of the tank. I was able to remove the upper portion from the factory ms3 assembly, and put it on the volvo lower. The fuel pump plugs right in, the sending unit had to be cut and spliced. This allowed me to keep the factory body harness plug. I also had to trim the locating tab to rotate the assembly a few degrees to keep the outlet and the float in the correct location. The sending unit does work with the ms3 cluster however the reading is slightly off, I believe I can play with resistors to get it closer to the correct reading. There is also a chance the sending unit circuit board could be swapped as well.
Once the gas tank was in it was time to fit the rear subframe. Unfortunately other than the body mounts and suspension pickup points the subframe was hard up on lots of things. Firstly, the rear diff mounts fowled on the spare tire well. I had to cut a large half moon out of this to clear. Next, the front passenger diff mount fowled on the tank, It had to be completely removed, I will show my solution for this later. Lastly the front tube of the subframe was also contacting the gas tank. I had to make a roughly ½” deep 12” wide notch in the crossmember to clear. I'm not sure, but its possible the earlier tanks were slightly different in shape and will not fowl the crossmember the same way. I also found out that the ms3 filler neck was slightly the wrong shape and hit the subframe as well. I pie sectioned it to get the correct angles and pressure tested after welding. I also had to relocate the evap canister to behind the passenger wheel since there is a diff going to occupy that space now. I was then able to test fit the subframe with the rear diff.
Next I began to fit the transmission and transfercase. Fortunately the outside case half of the ms6 transmission is exactly the same as the ms3. This meant I was able to use the MS3 trans mount, shifter cable brackets, and slave cylinder. I popped the transfer case in and offered up the front subframe. Low and behold as others have said, there is actually plenty of room for everything. Plenty of clearance to the steering rack, the firewall, and even some decent exhaust clearance.
Next I offered up the factory MS6 driveshaft and to my surprise it was extremely close. Others before me have either shortened the factory driveshaft and removed one of the center support bearings or gone with a custom one. Again in the theme of keeping all parts replaceable and oem I wanted to see if I could get away with keeping the stock driveshaft. I determined I only needed about ½” of extra length to get away with it so I decided to redrill the rear subframe diff mounts and scoot the diff back the required amount. This was fairly easy other than needing to notch the subframe mounts to allow the factory diff mounts to slide back and not fowl.
The front passenger diff mount I had to completely remove earlier needed to be remade. Using a section of box tubing I welded to the subframe, I pressed the factory bushing out of the cast mount and pressed it into a ½” thick steel plate. I removed a section from the cast mount to get the correct spacing for my flat plate, I also added an extra wing to reach over and pick up on one of the bolts holding the two diff halves together. I also used polyurethane window weld to fill my factory cx7 bushings as there aren't any aftermarket options and the bushings have offset center holes so finding a universal one proved too tricky.
Now with the diff sitting roughly ½” further back the factory ms6 driveshaft was a perfect fit. Since I wanted to keep the exhaust tucked up into the tunnel above the lowest parts of the frame rails I needed to find some extra space. Since the tunnel was never meant to house an exhaust and a driveshaft I had to start cutting and hammering the rear most section of the tunnel. Unfortunately the most narrow part of the tunnel is also where the second support bearing needs to live. I took about a ¾” notch out of the driver side floor and bent the tunnel back to close up the hole. This is as much as is possible since the rearmost driver seat mount is directly on the other side of the tunnel. Since I brought the tunnel so much closer to the mount I needed to run a shorter bolt in that seat mount. On the passenger side I was able to get away with hammering a couple fractions of an inch wider. Finally I had enough width to fit the exhaust and driveshaft.
For the front support bearing mount I decided to weld a plate to the tunnel brace, this gave me the most room for exhaust. I also had to cut a small notch for extra driveshaft clearance. For the rear support I ran one weld nut into the frame rail and made a small bracket that reached around the exhaust and up to the top of the tunnel.
Others in the past have gone for custom axles. This being extremely cost prohibitive I wanted to find an alternative solution. For the front driver axle, I was able to retain the factory ms3 axle. For the front passenger axle I wanted to use the factory ms6 axle as it fits into the transfer case. The outer cv unfortunately has a larger spline than the ms3. Originally I wanted to use a fd rx7 rear wheel bearing with a ms6 hub pressed into the ms3 knuckle. However I found out the ms3 uses integrated wheel speed sensors in the wheel bearings. Therefore I decided to turn down the ms6 hub 3mm, from 45mm to 42mm, to press into the ms3 wheel bearing. The other issue is the OD of the ms6 axle cup is larger than the ms3, this also had to be turned down a few mm to 62mm to clear the wheel bearing retaining lip and the wheel speed sensor.
In the rear you must use cx7 wheel bearings as these have the required splines to allow awd time travel. As those before me have done, I redrilled my factory arms mounting pattern and opened up the locating bore to accept the cx7 wheel bearing.
For the rear axles I went down quite the rabbit hole. I was convinced I could make a factory solution work. I found out the hard way that the ms6 and cx7 offset the rear diff towards the driver side of the car, and of course its not the same amount. There's roughly 1.5” difference between two diff locations side to side. Because of this offset, after lots of head scratching and stress, I figured out I could run the factory ms6 driver axle if I was able to space the wheel bearing out ¼” to keep the axle from binding as it cycled through the suspension travel. This was fairly easy to accomplish with a spacer behind the wheel bearing and brake caliper bracket to push the whole assembly out. On the passenger side I mirrored my spacer however again because of the diff offset the ms6 axle was way too long. Digging around some more I found out that a CX7 driver side axle would be almost perfect for the passenger side. Unfortunately it was still off by roughly ?” or 16mm. Looking at the difference between the ms6 and cx7 outer cv’s I realized the cv actually sits much closer to the wheel bearing on the ms6. Hoping they were roughly the same internally I decided to machine the cx7 outer cup down the necessary 16mm to get the correct length. This pushed the outer splines further through the wheel bearing so it necessitated a spacer washer to properly torque the axle nut.
This is by far the least strong component in the entire drivetrain, not only is the cx7 axle and cv joint slightly smaller in diameter, but I also severely weakened the outer cv removing so much material. So far this has been holding up but I have been fairly cautious with it. I am still convinced there is some sort of oem axle that would be the correct length and splines. I found that NA/NB miata axles have the same diff splines however the outer splines are too small, Manual transmission RX8 axles are close in length however they are far too large both inside and outside. I will continue my research to try and find a bolt-in solution that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and is easy to acquire.
The rear ms3 arms bolt right into the cx7 subframe. This is great news as it keeps the correct suspension geometry and track width. The cx7 wheel bearings are obviously different as they need an axle running through them. Factory ms3 brakes bolt up with no issue.
I next split apart both a cx7 rear differential and a ms6 one to retain the dual mounting points of the cx7 and the limited slip of the ms6. This was a fairly straightforward process, I believe the electromagnetic couplers are the same as well but I didn't bother swapping them.
Onto the rear sway bar. The factory cx7 sway bar was far too wide as it was meant for the wider track width of the suv. Unfortunately the ms3 bar was too short to use the cx7 mounting positions. So I decided to make my own sway bar mounts and use a larger ms3 bar since it would retain the factory endlinks. This position is very low, the lowest point on the entire car. Fortunately since they are in line with the wheels they haven't been too much of an issue with scraping. I want to investigate a sway bar from possibly a volvo or a focus RS as these cars move the sway bar up and behind the rear subframe.
For suspension the biggest problem is the ms3 rear shocks mount to the bottom of the trailing arm which sends them right through where the rear axles need to live. I figured I could use another C1 platform vehicle for this. Originally I was thinking volvo, however there are no good aftermarket performance shocks for the awd models. CX7 shocks are too long as they are meant for a SUV ride height. Finally I came to the Idea that a Focus RS is based on the C1 platform and AWD with lots of aftermarket suspension options from cheap to full blown race car. Turns out the rear shocks are fairly hard to come by themselves. After some research I found the front pinch clamps shared the same diameter and the upper strut mounts also share the same bolt pattern. I decided to order a full Focus RS coilover kit. The front bolted right in, the only issue is the mounting stopper tab is higher than on the ms3 suspension, I believe this is due to the RS having a taller pinch clamp. I made up some spacers to keep the struts even left to right, you should be able to run without these spacers if you're careful keeping the depths identical.
The sway bar endlinks are also a different length, I cut and sleeve my factory ms3 ones however I believe some of the adjustable aftermarket ones would work just fine.
The rear control arms needed new shock mounts added to locate the bottom of the rear shocks. The upper shock mounts in the body needed to be drilled out from 10mm to ½” to fit the new shocks. The rear RS springs did fit however are too short, my guess is the subframe or control arms are a different shape on the RS. I used some ms3 springs I had laying around for now, however I am going to try and get some lift spacers for the focus RS to retain the coilover springs.
I modified an aftermarket ms6 rear motor mount to fit into the aftermarket ms3 motor mount, I don't love the extra degree of freedom this modification gives the engine, however so far this seems to be holding up well and has fairly low NVHl. This is another one I would like to revisit. Apologies I don't have a great picture of the finished product.
Finally It was time to tackle the exhaust. I had a full turbo back 3” catless single exit ms6 exhaust from my parts car which was a great starting point. After lots of cutting, head scratching and frustration I had a downpipe and even managed to squeeze in a cat! It is insane how tight getting this thing in and out is, literally having to do more than a 360 degree rotation while being put in from underneath the car. It is doable with the subframe and Tcase in place though! Whoo! The midpipe was very easy, a straight shot for almost 4 feet right to the back of the fuel tank. I wasn't able to keep the factory fuel tank heat shield so I purchased some stick on stuff, the closest part of the exhaust is the clearance between the second connection and the back side of the gas tank. I was able to put 2 layers of heat shielding and still have some space. I will keep an eye on this for sure.
After buttoning the car up It was time to take it for its maiden voyage!
Had a blast running up and down my local mountain roads with some of my friends' other awd turbo cars. So far I have put a couple thousand miles on the car and all seems to be good. Some small teething problems but overall I couldn't be happier. The car drives like a Ms3 but now has the traction it always deserved.
Currently I am running cx7 wheel speed sensors and tone rings but unfortunately they don't seem to be playing nice with the ms3 abs and traction control systems; I am investigating alternatives. Long term I am planning on setting up a raspberry pi with multiple inputs to make a tunable map for the center clutch lockup. Currently I am running a cheap dccd controller from a subaru however It doesn't put out the required current to keep the center diff fully locked up.
For now the car is “done” however I am already planning a v2 of the car where I go for more power, a built motor, billet t-case caps, a front LSD from damon motorsports, and maybe some of those spendy driveshaft shop goodies. Stay tuned for more updates.
