Dd Turbo Build

[rbodor3]

Friends are always asking how much money I've dumped into my S60, and that's always one of the worst parts of talking about the car. What I didn't know was just how bad it was....

I just finished adding up how much the car has cost in maintenance/performance/cosmetic since day one (only 2 years ago). This will (hopefully) help me as I build my project car. I won't post the final number because it's really quite embarrassing. Hopefully others can learn from my list of lessons learned.

- go big first I wasted so much time and $ "stepping up" the power just a little bit, only to have to replace components later down the road because I wanted more power.

- get the right tune I should easily be pushing 280whp with my current setup, but right now I'd be lucky to be at 240. not to mention the countless hours, and cash, spent trying to fix a crappy tune with "add-ons"

- go urethane having to replace spring seats, bushings, etc. twice in the span of 30k miles is annoying, especially when I could have gone urethane a long time ago for a bit extra $$

- take my time this applies to the actual work. I can't count how many times I've tried to do too many things on the car in one day, and have to redo all of them days later because none of them were done right the first time

- buy parts in bulk/list I'm actually pretty good about making lists of what parts I need, and doing comparison shopping. I'm pretty stupid about ordering the bare minimum, which is annoying when you need 6.5 feet of silicon hose but you only ordered 6...

- have a goal in mind this goes hand-in-hand with going big first (turbo). But I also spent too much money buying different brake pads, rotors, fluid, coolant, catch can, etc. for me to only upgrade them all to a big brake kit or something else a couple months later. Worst part is not only did I buy parts twice, but my old parts don't fit my new ones, and I sell them at a huge loss or let them rust in my basement. did the same thing with the suspension parts, and shelling out 1grand twice sucks.

- don't buy a narrowband

- buy tested parts this may seem obvious, but I bet everybody here doesn't do it. Instead of buying something I know will fit, with all parts included, I'd save a couple $100 bucks by getting parts from Summit and piecing the rest together. It wasn't until a couple trips from the hardware store, I realized I was over budget, and would have saved money buying the part from IPD in the first place.

- don't buy off ebay and not just because the parts aren't normally what you expect. But because the best deals for the parts you want, you can get on VS for sale. Honestly, I could have bought my 19t for less than 1/2 the money I paid for it on eBay... Just be patient and wait for a good deal to come along.

- don't invent what exists trying to piece together your own WMI kit is going to be more expensive, and tedious, then buying one from devil's. Unless you're experienced at doing this beforehand, I wouldn't advise it.

- use a torque wrench seriously. especially when you have to call a friend to drive you to the stealership to pay $20 for a bolt that costs $0.50 at fcpgroton.

- listen to the advise here on VS (sort of) what you want to do has been done before. Nearly nobody is trying to lead you astray (although some are smarter than others). Listen to the advise that people give (with a grain of salt). I'd say 50% of all the mistakes/overspent cash I spent, could have been avoided if I'd of listened to the a-holes that said "why don't you just buy one from ______ instead?"

there's more, but I hope others can learn from that long list.