STi Intercooler Waterspray Into 2002 WRX Wagon

I found a great deal on a STi waterspray tank and switch and decided to take it. It came with the reservoir, pump motor, level switch, ~1ft of tubing, and the stock USDM switch. I picked up 20ft of tubing at a hose supply company for $15.
I did a little reading and got the wiring diagrams for the switch and pump, then went about deciding how to wire things up for my install. To compensate for the lack of time delay relay I searched my parts bin and came up with a 555 timer and then hit up Princess Auto for a $5 automotive relay & harness.
I knew that I wouldn't have the IC spray hooked up in the winter and I wanted it installed somewhere "covert" and out of the way as I actually use my trunk... a lot! I came up with the idea of removing the spare tire and putting the tank in that spot- works great after drilling a single hole in the tank mounting bracket and I can use my entire trunk as the cover/floor goes right over top like stock.
Hose and power/ground routing was done along the same routes as the stock rear washer/gas lines & wiring; along the driver side.
Here are pictures of the whole install and a little more info about wiring for anyone out there who may be interested...

Stock WRX intercooler shroud vs. STi with sprayer nozzles- not a huge difference:


Water tank bracket mounted in spare tire well. This is bolted right into the same spot as the stock spare tire hold-down. One hole needs to be drilled in the bracket where the bolt is seen (or where the blue dot is in other pictures):


Showing how the water tank bolts up to the bracket. Two 10mm nuts hold it on. You can just get at them with a wrench while the bracket it bolted down:


The water hose was run along the stock line and I brought it out through this existing bung (drilled holes though the plastic). My vacuum tube for the stock boost gauge also uses this:


The hoses run into the engine bay the same way as the stock wiper hose and wiring harness:


Then it runs along under the various wires, hoses, and what-not to come up in the same spot as the stock wiper hose and connects to the in-line check valve and the tube/splitter combo that runs to the IC sprayer nozzles:


The wiring of the relay to the stock switch and the 555 timer setup. In retrospect I should have used a pot instead of a 10k resistor for the timing as my test 12v source gave 5s but the car power gives 3.5s. With a pot I could have dialed in the spray time exactly. Oh well. Holding down the button sprays as long as you hold it :)


Wiring the switch into the car is pretty straight forward. The basic steps follow for a +12v switched relay that provides ground when "on". If you want detailed wiring instructions leave feedback on this post and I'll put them up.

1. Tap the existing wires for the illumination bulb & wire into the switch.
2. Wire up your relay to be +12v switched on.
3. Run a ground to the IC spray switch.
4. Run the output of the switch to the trigger of your 555 timer circuit (must be ground!)
5. Run power and ground to the 555 timer circuit. Use the same switched power source and ground as the relay and switch.
6. Run the output of the 555 circuit to the +12v switch of the relay.
7. Run the "on" output of the relay (should be ground when "on") to the IC spray pump.
8. Fill the spray tank, turn on the ignition, and spray away!

When winter comes just disconnect the wires @ the tank and tape-off. Cap the water hose and you're done until spring.

Hopefully this will help/encourage others out there to try this. I couldn't find any detailed instructions for this (and none for the 555 stuff) so I thought I'd share it with some pictures to help out. :)

Cheers!

Lenovo T61 + OCZ Solid Series 64GB SSD = No Love

I picked up an SSD on sale for $105 Saturday and I'll be returning it tomorrow. What a pile of crap.
First off the T61 doesn't even recognize the thing... BIOS update fixed that.
Then there are HUGE problems just trying to get the damn thing to seat properly in the HD bay and not throw a 2100 error. Finally solved that with some by not using the drive caddy and using the just the rubber ends, then wiggling just right until it seated in the SATA connections.
Then I find out that the T61 doesn't support SATA II.
Then I find out the SSD doesn't support AHCI.
Then I finally get all the tweaks done, mount the drive in another computer, track align @ the 4k boundary, format, get rolling with the XP install on the laptop and... NOTHING.
A blinking cursor in the upper left after the first reboot. Awesome.
Tried to fixboot, fixmbr, etc. No dice.

I'm done. The whole plan was to use this as a quick swap for use in the car (while tuning) to avoid issues with bumps and to ensure my original HD could be encrypted and thus used for work only; all personal use = SSD HD.
I suspect it's a partition issue and could be resolved but after all this I've got a sour taste in my mouth and this just isn't worth it. For a few hundred dollars more I could get a very decent NetBook and enjoy all the advantages that brings.

Oh well, nice idea but it just didn't work out... Shocking how many problems there were.

Designated Driver? We've been doing it wrong all along!

I had to post this. Sometimes a typo is just a typo... Sometimes it's this!

Gone Fishing

Trish and I bought a canoe as our first combined big ticket item for our 2 year anniversary and we spent the weekend fishing. It was great! We both got burned and totally relaxed... Without thinking about it this was by far the best anniversary ever.

As for the Fish Cam- I'll still be posting a how-to and I can saw it works. However, I need to put a tint on the lens as the B&W camera is way too sensitive to daylight and it washes out totally. I did a quick test by putting my sunglasses on it and it worked like a charm. Since the camera lens is small I may be able to get away with just putting a piece of old negative film over it. I can't wait to use it more!

Fishing has been going well. We've both caught loads of bluegill, green sunfish, and pumpkinseed. Plus various mixes of them. We've also caught smallmouth and largemouth bass, and Trish caught a rock bass at one point. I've caught the biggest fish so far with the best being a 2-3lb largemouth :)
We do have pics ;) Trish 98% landed a trophy perch. It was at least 20-30cm long and thick! She caught it while reeling in a tiny little perch- greedy cannibal perch! The wildest thing is that she was having trouble unhooking the small (10cm) perch she had on and the massive perch would just sit at the edge of the canoe and watch, then when she would put it back in the water to keep it alive the predator would strike immediately and she'd have to yank the poor little guy out again! I have NEVER seen anything like it! It actually managed to get her fish all the way in it's mouth and she had them both almost in the canoe when it finally spit out the poor little guy and took off for good. I wish we had that on video... just unbelievable and the whole thing went on for about 3 or 4 minutes.

We're thinking that we may try out carp fishing as the local pond in St. Thomas seems to have changed a lot since last year and the pan fish & bass have been largely replaced by carp, carp, and more carp. :( I hear they're tough fighters and there's no doubt they're shy (they go nuts trying to get away from the canoe when we come close) but I'm just not excited about fishing for something where it's just a throw in the line & wait scenario. Oh well, we'll see how it goes...