[walawn]

Hey guys. Just wanted to give the community an update on my build progress so far. I have installed:

Cravenspeed shift knob
Brisk sparkplugs
500Madness MAXFire Hi-performance coil packs
Forge Wastegate (green spring)
Eurocompulsion FMIC
Cravenspeed door bushings

Unfortunately, my V2 intake from Eurocompulsion is backordered. It should arrive to them this week so I'm hoping by next week I can finish my Phase 2 build by intalling:

Eurocompulsion V2 intake
Yellow spring in Forge Wastegate
Eurocompulsion Phase 1/Phase 2 tunes with pops and bangs
Moss Motors hood lift kit

I am very excited to finally have the build I wanted to have back in 2013 when I owned a Fiat 500 Abarth 6MT. That build was never finished, but this one will be by the end of the month.

I will post some pics soon guys!

 

[Clutch_22]

Were you at Hunt Valley Horsepower a few weekends ago?

 

[walawn]

No I was not. I have gone to it a few times in the past though, usually when the girlfriend wants Iron Rooster. I plan to do some cars and coffee, car meets, and light racing after the Phase 2 build is finished. Plans in the future of going to Phase 3 and/or Phase 4 as time and money allows.

 

[Clutch_22]

No I was not. I have gone to it a few times in the past though, usually when the girlfriend wants Iron Rooster. I plan to do some cars and coffee, car meets, and light racing after the Phase 2 build is finished. Plans in the future of going to Phase 3 and/or Phase 4 as time and money allows.

I will see you up there some time. Red Abarth with heritage stripe.

 

[walawn]

I will see you up there some time. Red Abarth with heritage stripe.

Look forward to it brother.

 

[walawn]

Just wanted to give the community an update on my build. I finally got my V2 intake in last night after about a month and a half of wating for them to get the silicone hose in stock. I've also made another order and received the pedal pro (just before they took it off their site!), turbo blanket, and oil catch can. Now I'm just waiting for the dealer to give me back my car after some warranty work so I can install these parts.

 

[walawn]

Just got a call this morning that my car is finally ready after months of being dismantled at the dealer waiting for parts. I will update later this week to let you guys know how the repairs went and hopefully move past this horrible experience.

 

[Clutch_22]

Just got a call this morning that my car is finally ready after months of being dismantled at the dealer waiting for parts. I will update later this week to let you guys know how the repairs went and hopefully move past this horrible experience.

Repairs? Feel like I missed something...

 

[walawn]

@Clutch_22 Yeah, I had a couple of warranty issues. The leather on the bottom of my steering wheel starting peeling off (almost like it was too dry) around 900 miles and the trip dial in my gauge cluster disconnected at 1,500 miles. I took it in, had a tech look it over, my dealership ordered parts, and was told to come back in a week to get the parts installed. So I dutifully dropped it off a week later and was told to come back in a couple of days to pick it up. That turned into a couple of months unfortunately. Hopefully all is well and I will be reunited with my car this afternoon.

 

[Chainringtattoo]

@Clutch_22 Yeah, I had a couple of warranty issues. The leather on the bottom of my steering wheel starting peeling off (almost like it was too dry) around 900 miles and the trip dial in my gauge cluster disconnected at 1,500 miles. I took it in, had a tech look it over, my dealership ordered parts, and was told to come back in a week to get the parts installed. So I dutifully dropped it off a week later and was told to come back in a couple of days to pick it up. That turned into a couple of months unfortunately. Hopefully all is well and I will be reunited with my car this afternoon.

You are a better man than I. There is no F#$&* way I would have left my car with the dealer that long.

 

[walawn]

@Chainringtattoo Yeah, I was pretty pissed. They gave me no other choices unfortunately. Luckily, all is well now. I just finished installing my V2 intake and some other goodies. Now I'm doing the long wait for it to flash to Phase 2...

 

[walawn]

So a little update on the Phase 2 progress. My handheld froze on me during the flashing process. The guys at Eurocompulsion were great helping my frustrated self through the email, but unfortunately it's going to take the manufacturer DimSport to remote in Monday morning to fix the handheld. So hopefully middle of next week I will have Spidy sorted and running Phase 2 like a champ.

 

[walawn]

Here's another update on the Phase 2 progress. Unfortunately, my handheld was bricked when it froze during the flashing process. Neither Toby nor DimSport could sort it remotely out so I'll ship it back to Eurocompulsion this week. And they will send me a replacement of course. Then I'm off to Peru for a couple of weeks so it'll be yet another month before I can finally get her running correctly. Of course I'll have to redownload my ECU file and upload it and download all the maps again. Hopefully end of February guys! I will post more pics for sure. Everything else is done. I'm just waiting to tune.

 

[Clutch_22]

Maryland 124's must be cursed; you never get to drive yours and mine doesn't drive in a straight line.

Awaiting your next update with good news!

 

[walawn]

@Clutch_22 Haha! Hopefully things are getting better for us both. Thankfully, Eurocompulsion sent me a new replacement handheld this week! I just downloaded my stock ECU file so hopefully I will have my Phase 1/2 files sometime later today. I'm looking forward to finally being able to enjoy my car! I will give an update later today.

 

[Squish]

Interested to know if you find the new bushings make much of a difference?

Hey guys. Just wanted to give the community an update on my build progress so far. I have installed:

Cravenspeed shift knob
Brisk sparkplugs
500Madness MAXFire Hi-performance coil packs
Forge Wastegate (green spring)
Eurocompulsion FMIC
Cravenspeed door bushings

Unfortunately, my V2 intake from Eurocompulsion is backordered. It should arrive to them this week so I'm hoping by next week I can finish my Phase 2 build by intalling:

Eurocompulsion V2 intake
Yellow spring in Forge Wastegate
Eurocompulsion Phase 1/Phase 2 tunes with pops and bangs
Moss Motors hood lift kit

I am very excited to finally have the build I wanted to have back in 2013 when I owned a Fiat 500 Abarth 6MT. That build was never finished, but this one will be by the end of the month.

I will post some pics soon guys!

 

[walawn]

Interested to know if you find the new bushings make much of a difference?

That's a tricky one to answer. They were cheap enough where I didn't care if I bought into the hype or not. IMO, I don't notice much. Maybe the door shuts with a better sound? Maybe not. Maybe the chasis is stiffer? Maybe not. One thing is for sure though; they are definitely very red and very noticeable when you open the doors. They're like a condom. I'd rather have them and not need them, than need them and not have them. They are cheaper ones in the aftermarket as well.

 

[walawn]

UPDATE! It works! I successfully uploaded the Phase 1/2 tunes yesterday with pops and bangs and everything went through without a hitch. So it was just my luck that I got the rare bad handheld out of the bunch. I'm only driving it in Phase 1 now for the time being and everything is going great. I will try to post some pictures later today. As a quick note, I will say follow the directions to the letter and reach out to Toby or Brandon if you are not sure about something. My case seemed to be an isolated incident since I did everything right, but the flash procedure is deceptively easy to screw up if you're not double and triple checking your next steps.

 

[sharkcohen]

Why not run P2 now?

 

[walawn]

@sharkcohen Since I'm a tech by trade, I want to give it some time at the lower power level. I'm usually pretty thorough, but just in case I installed something wrong, or there is a manufacturer defect, or I'm just plain unlucky, I would rather the damage be less (and potentially less to fix!) due to the lower hp/tq of the Phase 1 tune. I'll give it a week or so at that power level, and if all looks good and stays together, I will migrate to Phase 2. I learnt in motorcycle school that the bottom end of most engines can handle a 30% increase in power. The Phase 1 tune puts me a little under that mark. Phase 2 would be about a 40% increase. Now this is not my first rodeo with the 1.4L Abarth engine. I had a 2013 Fiat 500 Abarth that had about 230 hp after I was done modding and I put about 25K on the odometer at that power level with no issues. So I trust our little forged engines.