My first freeway boost experience
 

Well guy's I got my first taste of my newly HMT Integra last night on the highway. I wanted to be able to really open her up and do some Uber tuning ;) Anyway, after a little messing around all of a sudden a black Firebird pulls up aside me and was just hanging there.
It was a newer Firebird I'd say like 99 or newer. The guy had the T tops off and started reving his engine and trying to intimidate me or something :-\. I slowed down and he just zoomed by me. Not too far down the highway though there was an intersection with a light and guess who I ended up getting stuck next to at the light...
After the light turned green and we started driving again, the guy continued side by side again and waiving hand signals to me to go. He was giving me a head start. I shook my head no and he started yelling "why not"? Again I dropped back and then I was like wtf? Why not give it a try...
Keep in mind this was about 9:00 at night, and no other traffic. I'm not encouraging street racing and this was honestly the first time I've ever done it. But back to my story, I pulled aside him again, looked straight at him and he knew what was up. I downshifted to third and gunned it. The boost was amazing and the car pulled hard as hell! He stayed right up with my rear bumper and all of a sudden I heard "Pop"! and there was a huge loss in power, as I looked out my pass. side window just to see him fly by me.
I knew what happened. I "limped" home with no boost all worried yet still happy with my HMT setup. Pulled it in the garage and found out I blew off one of my charge pipes. Re-attatched it and it's good as new. I just have to find a way to keep those couplers in place. I've learned a few HMT tricks I'll give a try, but I just thought you'd like to hear about last nights adventure ;)

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Put that ---- back on and go find that bastard!!! :)

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

damn that'd been nice to see u just pull his ass all the way and then see his expression... glad nothing was broken! =)

Whats the ghetto way to keep the charge pipes on???

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Someone a while back said hairspray works well :) Either that or I'll just weld a bead around aeck charge pipe to keep the couplings from slipping off. Yeah and I too would rather loose a coupling or two than grenade my engine. The tuning is pretty much at an end. I've got a near perfect 14.7 at idle and 12-12.5 under boost. Now it's up to fine tuning at the dyno.

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

good job man. That the kind of ---- i like to hear.

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

hairspray huh... good idea... the bead is also a good idea. I shall do that on mine! =)

Damn I wish I had a wideband O2!

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Damn thats cool trance... Im glad you handed his ass to him even for that short period of time. I used to blow couplers off left and right even in planned races and looked very stupid. Its all behind me now though. You can do several diff things to keep the couplers on though.. Get longer ones for start. Tighten ur belt clamps with a socket instead of just a screw, Lastly the mod to the actual piping.. Weld a bead or 2 as u said and then knife edge it a bit so the surface for the coupler to slid onto isnt so smooth. itll catch a spot once nicely and should stay in place.
Good luck at the dyno and let me know how the clutch is holding for you.

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Sweet, I'll give that a try Mike. The clutch is holding up fine man. Drives and feels exactly like it did when it was still NA. I am very confident that the clutch will last quite a while :)

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Thanks for sharing with us, i hope u see him again soon

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

now come to the ne hmt meet so i can run you

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

haha thats interesting same thing happened to me when i first boosted. i just gunned first and then second then boom. i was like wtf. i feel like im all motor again. my lil bro's like what the ---- was that. u fucked it up huh. i was like nah i think i know what it was. i just laughed. its pretty funny mang. atleast u were ahead of the bastard. imports 1 domestics 0

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Sorry to Jack ur thread trance.. The first night i was boosted.. no wastegate... so i was hitting about 15 psi or so everytime b4 my couplers blew off. My cousin was over my house and everytime the coupler would blow id drive back to my House N/A and then put that coupler back on and drive out boosted, it was like midnight and all my neighbors were like wtf. I must have blown each coupler off 5 times that night because i was so excited. i didnt even bother tightening them all the way.. i just wanted to get right out there and boost, ------- felt like my car was gonna lift and fly that first night. You gotta love the nice boom u get when a coupler pops off though, scared my ass a few times... the final boom i ever heard... i thought it was my charge pipes.. cuz my car wouldnt boost anymore... searched those fuckers up and down, finally saw that a blew a chunk off my intercooler, lol
Sorry Steve

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

I never would have figured out what the ---- was wrong with my first setup if it hadn't blown a hose off. I had no Missing Link and the car would shut off at 4 psi. One night I blew the hose off the MAP accidentally and it idled like ---- but would boost to ten psi. Other than that, never blew a charge pipe off. I took all my pipes and fucked the surface up with a grinder where the hose seats on them. Seriously. oops yeah, forgot. Dave blew one of my charge pipes off once.

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

i used to blow couplers like projekteg blows coke.... often

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Just take a sharp exacto knife and mark the edges where the couplers attached. that should make the surface rough enough to hold em on.

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

im boosting 10-11psi on my d16. im using the Lowe's rubber couplers with pipes with nothing done to them. I blew off a couple the first day, but i havent since.

tighten them down with a ratchet and socket.
make the pipes achieve the best "butt joint" as you can so there is more rubber area on the pipe.
I use three clamps on some of my connectors.. 2 on the outside ends, and one in the middle.


works great.

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Hahahaha, that's EXACTLY what happened the first time I was boosting on the freeway; it was around 8:00 or 9 and I was like, "sure, let's try it out" except with me it was a riced out Prelude. :P POP went the chargepipe.

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

my coldair on my NA car would pop off sometimes, but then i tightened up the pipes!! ;)

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Good story!!!

Whats your setup....

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Hah, glad to hear I'm not the only one to experience that at such a horrible time. I just hope the guy heard the loud POP and knew something happened after he passed me ;)
As for my setup I posted some crappy disposable camera pics of it a few weeks ago, but I've got a digicam now I'll get some more detailed pictures to my fellow HMT members with.
Setup is a T3 .60/.48 turbo, Charge pipes were all made by me, 2.5" downpipe made by me, open dumptube made by me ;), Turbonetics Deltagate wastegate, HKS SSQV blowoff, SS autocrap mani (Fully braced and re-welded and have absolutely no problems), Uberdata fuel management, "High flow" (straight through) cat, back to a full 5zigen catback system, and of course all the oil lines etc.
Setup rips and starts to spool about 3000 RPM, pulls absolutely crazy up to redline and just keeps bulding power. Actually it started spinning tires around 5000 RPM going around a corner in third gear at one pont :o
more pics to come.

Re:My first freeway boost experience
 

Hey you better be careful there Steve, I dont want to see anything bad happen to that beast