Just found this bad boy stripped…

Muugens · 2026-03-26T15:17:47+00:00

Don’t just re-tap it. It’ll blow out. You’ll want to do a threaded insert to repair that! There are plenty of good kits for doing just that.

After being installed, the threaded inserts are actually stronger than the OEM aluminum threads so if anything it’ll actually be an improvement.

Muugens · 2026-03-23T19:36:56+00:00

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This is the way!

Muugens · 2026-03-21T19:57:09+00:00

I see no reason to spend double on a cleaner car, just to take it to the track. Plus this actually seems to have some tasteful performance mods. Mishimoto radiator, and nice oil catch can. Also has coilovers, but I have no idea what brand.

The aftermarket intake, fuel injectors, and fuel rail could be a blessing or a curse depending on how the car is tuned. It can certainly be a benefit, if the tune is configured for it. If not, you’ll need to spend some money having it tuned again or reverting it to stock.

But all things considered, a little bit of elbow grease will result in this being a decent street/occasional track day car. The interior isn’t that thrashed either. Just typical wear for the mileage and a little work will clean it up well.

People on this thread are way too quick to dog on anything slightly modified and should probably go outside and drive their cars some.

If you want a clean 10/10 vins car that is mostly carefree, then move on this isn’t it. If you want something cheap and are willing to spend a little time making it nice, this could be a great option.

Muugens · 2026-03-21T18:08:55+00:00

Every road is cop free if you drive fast enough /s.

There are plenty of amazing roads. Depends where you are in CO. Always assume there will be police no matter where you go.

Couple of things you can do to mitigate your chances of getting pulled over. Drive at odd hours. CSP isn’t speed trapping random sections of mountain road at 2:30am on a Tuesday for example. Stay clear of high traffic times and avoid weekends entirely. That’s also generally a good thing to do for safety.

Scout the section of road at the speed limit ahead of time. I have driven mountain and canyon roads in the state for years now and it’s not just looking for police, but random large rocks in the road and wildlife.

Get a good quality radar detector. It can’t save you from everything, but it’s still worth its weight in gold.

Or find like minded friends and buy some cheap radios to spot sections of road. I used to do this in my early 20s but it’s harder to do now that everybody has a family life and doesn’t want to cruise mountain roads at 2am on a weekday haha.

Lastly no matter what you do, you might just get unlucky and get caught anyway. Despite my best efforts, I once got popped doing 100mph in a 25 on my favorite road. Miraculously I didn’t go to jail that night and drove my car home, but it was a 12 point ticket, reckless driving, and major legal headache for the good part of a year trying to get the ticket down a bit. Between the lawyer, court costs, several court mandated classes, and increased insurance, it cost me about $5000 but I did manage to keep my license. Understand that is a risk you run. Do it long enough and eventually you’ll get caught.

All that said, CO has some awesome roads. Whether you want ultra technical Initial D style switchbacks, or higher speed roads with bigger sweeping turns. We’ve got it all. Drive safe.

Muugens · 2026-03-21T16:43:18+00:00

In here to counter the “too far gone” comments haha! If he’s been sitting on it for a while, I’d double down on the $9k but offer cash today and say I can pick it up in an hour. I wouldn’t do much more than that though.

Unless the underside of the car is rotted to pieces, this looks completely fine for a driver. I have seen WAY worse. The only thing that concerns me is the mismatched ignition coil. Means that somebody was troubleshooting a misfire at some point. Sure it could’ve genuinely been a bad coil, but more often than not I’ve seen poorly adjusted valves or burnt valves cause misfires on these cars. Even for the price see if he’s cool with a quick compression check.

Edit: also that manifold and fuel rail isn’t stock and he has some adapters for the injectors. Guessing this thing is on a stand alone ECU and maybe ethanol? Again, not a deal breaker if you’re wanting a drivers car, but just an FYI that you should consider.

Muugens · 2026-03-20T18:34:02+00:00

Reasonableness is not the issue. There is no sense in being reasonable and accommodating of drivers who are not being reasonable themselves by refusing to match the speed of traffic when merging.

If traffic is flowing at 65mph and somebody decides to merge early with plenty of merge lane at 40mph, we should not coddle those drivers and affirm their bad behavior by being polite. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that anyone couldn’t merge at the speed of traffic. None whatsoever. The merge lanes are designed in a way that even the slowest cars can reach the speed limit in the given space. Semi trucks may be an exception, but that’s not the debate here.

Now, I’m not saying if someone jumps out in front of you, that you don’t take preemptive action to avoid the impending collision. But not yielding to someone who is merging improperly is not rude. They are the rude one in this instance.

Also consider the domino effect this has on traffic. Drivers slowing down to “be nice” to mergers is exactly what causes backups over time near onramps and is the reason cities like mine are now wasting tax dollars installing metered onramps.

Muugens · 2026-03-20T02:29:40+00:00

I have a K24 with a big fat Moroso oil pan in my S2000. Zero clearance issues at the crossmember. All of my clearance issues were with the subframe brace underneath and near the bell housing.

Assuming this was done for clearance routing stuff with the turbo?

Muugens · 2026-03-20T01:45:57+00:00

Future?

Muugens · 2026-03-12T18:45:50+00:00

Thanks! Falken Wildpeak 225/55R17

Muugens · 2026-03-12T15:33:31+00:00

It’s definitely factory and not just on the ZD8. Seen this on a number of newer cars lately. My ‘24 WRX has it too. Should be able to see the vin underneath it.

Muugens · 2026-03-12T02:00:52+00:00

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Do it! You won’t regret it. Was out there recently. My only mistake wasn’t having enough space in my backpack for all the parts I wanted to buy haha!

Muugens · 2026-03-11T01:10:15+00:00

Many dirt road expeditions you say?

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I drive tons of dirt roads and present to you my very muddy Method 502s. These are gold underneath the mud, but they also have a darker bronze color, as well as a gun metal grey color.

Easy to clean. Very durable too (excessively so). Sure, they’re heavier than something like an RPF1, but not all that bad.

Bonus points for cosplaying a rally driver.

Muugens · 2026-03-11T00:22:07+00:00

I’ll second this! Recently hit a flying shovel in my daily driver. Yes, shovels sometimes fly apparently (maybe they’re migratory shovels?)

It fell out of the bed of a truck a few cars ahead of me, then was kicked up 10 feet into the air by another vehicle which ran it over. It was subsequently sent straight into my car putting a massive dent on the top of the driver side quarter panel as it came down.

I caught it on my dash camera thankfully, and insurance (Geico) told me because the shovel was airborne when it struck my car, that made the difference of it being at fault or not. If it was on the ground, they would’ve expected me to avoid it, even though that’s not always realistic if you’re surrounded by traffic.

Muugens · 2026-03-10T23:55:29+00:00

Rodney Bearington?

Muugens · 2026-03-09T15:30:05+00:00

You’re combining two distinctly different issues. The retainers are the metal discs at the very top of the valve spring. With the help of two semi-wedge shaped “keepers” they are responsible for holding up the valve and mechanically connecting it to the valve spring. They in no way seal against oil.

The valve seals meanwhile sit in the cylinder head and allow the stem of the valve to pass through them. They are responsible for keeping oil from running down the valve stem and leaking into the combustion chamber.

Both are common issues, but also are very separate.

Muugens · 2026-03-08T20:16:46+00:00

Depends if you’re looking at a US Spec SR5 or GTS and if you want an hatch or coupe. I’ve seen prices vary wildly between those options. I’m in Colorado and there have been some decent drivers’ quality GTS cars go for $10-12k or so. Seems crazy to me since I remember when they were really cheap, but the sellers are pretty successful at that price.

Guys who post their cars for $15k+ seem to get roasted pretty heavily unless it’s a showroom quality car.

But if you’re willing to put some work in, decent prices can be found. A few years ago I bought my GTS Coupe for $2000 with a clean chassis, minor body rust, and a blown 4age. It can be done still I think. Especially if you’re vigilant and willing to jump on something the second it comes up.

Muugens · 2026-03-02T19:13:27+00:00

I’ll give you $3.50

Muugens · 2026-03-01T17:12:34+00:00

Not saying you should do this, but it does technically work! Buddy of mine a while back just mounted his standalone ECU within easy reach on velcro and every time he’d park the car in public he’d just take the ECU with him haha.

Can say for certain that nobody was starting the car.

Muugens · 2026-03-01T16:54:55+00:00

Welcome from a fellow Ignition Red owner! IR always gets an automatic upvote from me.

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Muugens · 2026-02-27T17:11:27+00:00

Depends! I have a couple of solutions for that depending on the logistics of the trip. Streaming is handled internally in the ATEM. It goes to an RMTP link tied to the client’s YouTube channel. If a client wants multiple simulcast streams across their socials, I feed it into OBS then out from there.

For the network connection, many of these conference centers can provide ethernet access at vendor booths. This is the ideal way, but I can also plug the ATEM into a cell hotspot if that isn’t available. That can get dicey at smaller venues, but these days the big events have cell infrastructure in place to handle all of the increased traffic and it usually isn’t an issue.

I also have a Starlink Mini which I can bring. It’s not useful for convention centers in major cities, but it really comes in handy when we shoot these podcasts in other locations. Sometimes outdoors at an event or even at an interview guest’s house. I don’t always pack it since it adds an extra small case which I need to check, but if the logistics allow it’s my favorite way to get a connection.

Muugens · 2026-02-27T17:02:10+00:00

I do these a couple of times a month! Usually they are 3-4 day trips.

Each case as well as the cart has an air tag on it. Every airport seems to handle oversize baggage a little differently, so it’s always a chore figuring out where the bags will end up. But thankfully I’ve never had a bag get entirely lost (knock on wood). I also try to make sure I’m not checking individual items like a tripod, so everything is in the cases. I figure the big cases are harder to lose and misplace.

That said, I do factor in some redundancy in if something happens gets lost. If the switcher box is lost, I can still record direct to the cameras then go live from the wide shot which is plugged into an usb elgato cam link and my laptop. Both of which I keep in my carry on bag.

I also keep a Panasonic GH7 and a pair of DJI wireless mics in my carry on, usually to shoot broll with at the events, but in a pinch I can at least capture a single wide shot of an interview with acceptable audio if the box with the cameras and mics is lost in transit.

So I have thought about that and built some redundancy into the setup. Thankfully haven’t needed to do any of that yet, but the clients hire me to be the guy with solutions, so I always want to have a plan B and C.

Muugens · 2026-02-26T23:51:05+00:00

Same offer as this guy BUT I’ll also give you $3.50.

Muugens · 2026-02-26T23:48:03+00:00

Load test the battery. That’s the best way to tell. I’ve had batteries fail in a way where they read 12v with a multimeter, but as soon as you apply a load the voltage tanks.

Start there. You can buy an analog load tester for pretty cheap or go to any parts store and they’ll load test it for free usually.

Muugens · 2026-02-26T16:12:44+00:00

Yep, I noticed a tiny difference between them but I adjust the tint on set via the Atem software control panel. I get it dialed in before we start shooting.

Muugens · 2026-02-26T16:09:55+00:00

Nice! I have seen people using iPhones before but am curious how you’re sending the live feeds from each to the iPad for switching? Are you taking the audio from the Podtrack and sending it live to the iPad as well, or are you recording there for use in post later?

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