I ordered the Descendant tuner kit on Monday, and Rob @ Descendant told me it'd be shipped Tuesday, then I called again on Wednesday and he said it'd be shipped like that day or the next...still haven't seen any tracking information about it so I'm a little bummed.

Rob was super cool though and we chatted a bit about setups and probable power bands and stuff. I'm definitely happy with the customer service I've gotten from them outside of the shipping so far.

I had been hoping to put it all together this weekend, but looks like that won't happen. /Sigh...this is really dragging on...

 

lame but it will be worth the wait! You've had it kinda rough on this, sux man. But at least you have the Prius to drive

 

Pfffft...I'm at the point where I WISH I still had that Prius, haha! I only had it for a few days then I've been bumming rides, taking the bus, using my motorcycle (for short trips only, needs a tune up badly), and working from home when possible.

One good thing that's going to happen with the car no matter what happens with the turbo kit is this:



What's that? Only $513 bucks left on the car payment!? You can't see me right now, but I'm playing a completely radical metal air-guitar riff in victory. Bought in 2008 paid off in 2010. /METAL /METAL /METAL

In the end, this experience is just an exercise in patience and composure. There have been plenty of times to flip out and more than enough chances to just throw up the hands and say "____ it I'm out," but I'm being as patient as I can and trying to keep a clear head. The reward is definitely worth the struggle in this case...and besides, what fun is it if it's easy? No challenge, no fun.

 

Update:
Just got a big box from Descendant so it looks like it's time to get this project moving again! I'm really sick and am rocking a decent fever right now so I'm not really looking forward to lying on the floor and working for the rest of this afternoon, but there's no way in hell I'm wasting any time now that I have the parts!

Will post more pics of the new kit and any progress updates later today if I have the energy.



Stay tuned!

 

WOOOOOH. Finally! I almost feel excited for you. Haha. Now get to working. lulz

 

Update:
Old kit taken off and put to the side for late refurbish/repair. I'm getting to be a pro at getting that old kit on/off the car. I took an inventory of the new Descendant parts that I have and it looks like I'm not going to be able to do much today...





What I have today:

• Turbo
• Pipes
• BPV
• WG
• Intercooler
• TRD Tapped oil pan (extra bonus, didn't know that was included in this kit)

What hasn't been delivered yet:

• Manifold
• Assorted hoses/lines
• Silicone couplers

I checked the shipping numbers that I got from Rob@Descendant and it looks like at least one of the boxes is still in Portland OR right now, so those parts most likely won't be here until Friday most likely.


/sigh

This is never ending...

 

lol I have a manifold sitting around here ................



































but it needs to be welded

 

You sir....are a tease.


After many bloodied knuckles and some rather inventive cussing, I've routed all the electrical wires and boost tubes through the firewall and am in the middle of setting up the boost and A/F gauge. I think I'm going to hold off on the oil cooler and the oil pressure/oil temperature guages until after I get the kit put together.

I still need to find a spot to put the oil cooler and to run the oil lines, but I'm hesitant to choose a spot until I know exactly how much space, and what space, the new kit will take up.

Focus on the gauges, grab another beer, pop a few more cold medicine pills, and back to work we go!

 

dude you know AS well as the rest of us we want you to put the oil cooler on the outside of the bumper.......do it.....

 

DO IT!

 

no turbo kits are horrible for fevers. Ship it to my crib and you will feel better.

 

^Very true, but hey! I'm closer so I can take it off your hands for a nominal fee and you wouldn't have to mess w/ shipping!

 

there's a substantial gap in between the radiator and the core rail of the bumper that would be ideal (you wouldn't be stealing any airflow from the radiator) but the oil intercooler would be getting some air. kind of win win.

this would be the same space taken up by the latch support and the horns. just a bit lower behind the bumper rail.

or route it into the opposite fender your CAI would normally sit. and pull the corner vent out.

realisticallythough real racers mount it on their antennae so it will whip the intercooler back and forth cooling it even further, its sooo jdm

just a few idea's.

also i have some high temp silicone reinforced fiberglass sheet you can have for a heat barrier of some sort.(do know if it will handle a direct turbo wrap) but i would do fine to isolate some intercooler piping so the charge temp doesn't increase dramatically.

anyways blah blah blah

 

Oil cooler on the outside...Looked so dope and I was so feverish yesterday that I actually considered ways to make this work. Too bad no sanctioning body would EVER let me run this at a race.




Pete, the spot you mentioned was one of the main spots I was thinking of putting it. I tried a few different areas there...right behind the crash bar on the A/C side of the radiator, in front of the driver's side wheel behind the bumper (no outside air flow), underneath the batter tray, etc. Hell, I even test fitted it behind the motor just above the intake manifold to see if I could do that. It wouldn't be getting cold air, but the air in the bay is waaayyy colder than the oil temp at race speeds...I dunno, I'm just going to re-evaluate it all when the rest of the parts come and I've got the turbo hardware all mounted in.

Let's talk later about that heat wrap. After I get everything in and tuned I'm going to be doing period temp checks on certain locations so this might be perfect.

I'm like 3x more sick today than I was yesterdy so I'm staying in. I'm not going to work on the car until I know everything has arrived so probably no status updates until Saturday most likely.

Stay tuned!

 

Damn one-nut, get better dude...You need to catch a break...

 

That is for damn sure.


I still haven't received any of the final boxes. I checked on the shipping number that Rob@Descendant gave me, but it said it was delivered on Thursday. Considering I didn't get any packages on Thurs, Fri, or Sat....I'd say it got delivered to the wrong house and now I have to file a UPS claim. Oh...they're not open on Sundays so I get to wait until Monday to even START the process.

Hooray! More time wasted and now more time I have to jump through hoops, and I STILL don't have a damn car right now. Seriously...if the parts where here I'd have them all on the car in a couple of hours and then be at the tuners by the end of the day.

I honestly can't even understand how every single thing that I do goes so horribly off course...feel like I'm in a movie about slow mental torture. "Death by a Thousand set-backs" Starring: One-Nut_McGee and a Scion tC!

 

Hey I wnat my name in the movie credits........I do a lot of work in that movie every day.

 

Update:
I just went to the UPS place and grabbed the 2nd package. When I got back to my office I found out that the final package was at that UPS place when I was there, but is now out for delivery!! Holy ____, I might finally have all the damn pieces I need to get the Mediocre tC up on its feet finally!!

Thanks to:
Rob Cardona from Descendant, thanks for sticking with it man, I really appreciate all the hard work you put in to help me get UPS on the right track. Definitely put in a lot of extra hours just to get your customer his kit.



Stay tuned!

 

Update:
Got the package, opened it up and found that while I've now got almost every single piece...I'm still missing the manifold.

I don't even know how I got fooled into thinking I was going to be able to put the car together this weeknd. This is just one big long ____ show and there's no escape from it...

Stay tune for next weekends update: "Something else goes wrong and Steve still doesn't have a car..."

 

told you I have an old zpi manifold here...I'm in Everett....

































but it still needs to be welded...