I wanted to share my experience with Ripp's SDS Stage 1 kit. This is how things went for me. It is accurate and will be added to as time goes by. I am not trying to promote Ripp, I just want to share my experience as it happens. It is meant to help someone make decisions based on one individuals experience with Ripp in 2006 and document my experience. Please do not make negative comments, or "wait tell this happens" statements. Positive advice that offers helpful insight is always welcome.
Background
I live in California on the central coast, a long distance away from either Tearstone or Ripp, and most tuner shops. I wanted to go SDS because it fits me. I decided to go all Ripp as opposed to Ripp/Tearstone because I wanted one vendor to deal with. I have talked with Russ several times and I trust him, however I work in Information Technology and have many horror stories when dealing with two companies on the same project.
I am a home garage mechanic. I have worked on my cars (oil, brakes, exhaust, suspension, troubleshooting, etc), rebuilt a few engines in high school and college. As a hobby, I build R/C planes of fairly high quality, both electric and gas powered. I am very mechanical, and do most of my home repair. All work, unless noted, was completed in my garage, by myself, with a good set of tools.
I have never had a supercharger or a turbo. I did a lot of homework before the install, on this forum, other forums, magazines, books, etc.
Setup
I purchased Ripp headers off of ebay for $750. They have two cats. All O2 sensors where wired and function fine. I do throw code P0431, and I haven't done the spark plug fouler fix. I have an Invidia cat back with a HushPower II in place of the resonator for about $750 total. The sound is awesome. I had the clutch replaced by a local mechanic with an ACT HD and a Fidenza Flywheel $1500. I have a Zeitronix ZT-2 for AFR, Boost, EGT, and logging $550. I have a SpeedHut Oil Pressure gauge $150. Ripp front motor mount, SDS Stage 1, Brat and NGK BCPR7ES-11 Plugs. And more little goodies that I do not necessarily affect the SDS. I have ordered the belt tensioner and oil catch can from Ripp.
Project
I ordered my kit from Ripp in March; it arrived about a month and a half later. They were still working on the Brat and tuning cable availability, so I was told up front to expect it to be a while before the product was shipped. Mark at Ripp was very helpful on keeping me informed. I received the kit and it was missing a Radiator hose and my fuel pump had a cracked supply nipple (appears to have occurred during shipping?).
When the kit shipped I started doing the pre-install stuff. The existing exhaust manifold was fun to remove:bash:. The headers where easy. Installed all my gauges. I had my Ripp front mount pressed at an auto shop, easy to install. I had to turn my alternator bolt around by lifting/jacking the engine enough to clear the bolt easy but time consuming for the little accomplishment. I removed the oil pan and installed the return fitting (nylon washer goes on the inside), put a hose on it, and plugged the opening. I removed my intake plenum and change plugs (gapped at 32), wires, cap, and rotor. I modified the battery tray. All of this work took about 2-3 days, I did not rush, I was thorough, and I took breaks to do other stuff. After this stuff was complete, I drove the car about 200 – 300 miles. I did get the P0431 code. But everything was fine.
It was Thursday 4-27, I was going to install my Fuel pump first and try that for a few miles, but the nipple was broke so I had Ripp next day a replacement to me. I paid a few bucks extra for the expedited shipping; they also shipped the radiator hose at that time. I had already taken half day off of work so I figured I might as well start installing the remainder of the SDS .
This stuff was easy. Installed the Idler pulley (did not pay enough attention, see later), installed the SDS bracket, modified the radiator shroud, installed the FPR, installed the oils feed using a Greddy oil block, modified the washer bottle (not the frame, thank you Franchise), modified the MAS, cut the lower water hose (about 2” off), installed the shaft and blower, and installed the piping, wired the map and the injector relay. The piping was really tight and required some trimming of the silicone hoses. This all took about 6-8 hours of time over a day an a half.
I received my fuel pump and installed it. I wanted to try to do the Ripp method to see how it would work, but without much luck (and a broken pump clip) I used the Tearstone method. It was easy, just take your time, pay attention, buy a new grommet, and do it right. It took a couple of hours. Ran all new wiring into the cabin through stock locations. This is not the funnest task you will ever complete, but it makes for a clean install, no hole in the firewall, and is through the protective grommet.
So, I was ready to wire the BB and Brat the next day. My wife gave me chores, so the next day I took a day off work on Monday 5-1 and by noon everything was wired, soldered, shrink wrapped, tape, checked double checked, battery installed, triple checked at it was time.
“Gentlemen, Start your engines”. Nothing, oh shit, oops need to plug the BB into its harness stupid. Ok again, fire first crank, check everything immediately for problems, perfect. Shut down, check everything again seems good no oil leaks, no vacuum leaks, no rubbing, etc. Start again for warm up and monitor. It idles, but a little erratic at times, but gets better. My fuel pressure was at 28-29 which was too low but I did not change it. I set my blow off valve but it was sticking pretty bad and needed a little maintenance which I did not do at this time. After a few minutes I shut it down and checked everything again. Everything was good except that I noticed the idler pulley wasn’t exactly lined up. The belt appeared to be riding off the edge. I figured it would be ok for a little test drive. The test drive was ok. Idle and general running was good, not great but good. Car was a little lean at idle, but the ECU was working its magic during normal driving. I put in about 20 – 30 miles on it and everything was getting really good, when I decided I needed to address the idler pulley.
I called Ripp about the pulley; they were very helpful and confirmed through measurements that I had the right pulley. By this time I could clearly see that the belt was not running on the pulley and it was causing a very slight indentation on the belt. I decided it needed to be fixed before anymore driving. After several decisions, Ripp and I determined that the A/C mounting bracket in my car must be slightly different. My solution was to turn the pulley around so that the c-clip was on the inside and use the appropriate width and circumference washer to space it properly. Ripp (Angelo) tested this idea and saw no problems. I made this modification and it is working perfectly. The other alternative is to have the bracket machined to remove a portion of the lip. I will probably have this done in the near future; I would prefer to have the c-clip facing outward.
I also wanted to thoroughly check some other things set my FPR and BOV. I took the BOV apart which was very easy and used some spray lock and key graphite to lube the cylinder. This made a huge difference in the performance of the BOV. I reset the ECU and begin the setup process again. Idled to warm, set the fuel pressure to 32-34 with the vacuum connected, set the BOV to half of the main opening. The car idled perfectly, the slightly lean condition was gone and the BOV was working as intended. Lesson, take your time and adjust everything immediately to get the best results.
With this setup, BRAT installed, I ran the car for about 75 miles total in various conditions staying out of boost for the most part, maybe 1- 2 psi. Idle was good to great, cruising was good to great and becoming better, and acceleration was perfect. All conditions presented good AFR’s. Idle AFR was basically stock on the wide band. The car was running very near stock in all conditions. Remember, stock idle isn’t always that great in the 3g.
After this I needed to check the baro reading from the Brat to the ECU. Perry had asked me to check this because after several installs they had noticed that since there are two manufactures of the ECU, the voltage reading on the Brat baro signal was varying between the two. I checked it and unfortunately my readings were low at 2.93 instead of 4.1 – 4.3 which it should have read. You can check this by using a volt meter with the Brat installed and the key on – engine off. I sent my Brat to Ripp on Friday and expect it to be here in a couple of days. My understanding is that the new Brats have this fixed now. Perry offered to send me a part to correct the problem without returning my Brat, but recommended that I replace the Brat.
So I am now running without the Brat, about 150 miles. A few fairly minor cold start issues, but once warmed idles like stock, cruise is good but not as good as with the brat, acceleration is great as before. I have now hit about 3 psi of boost without the Brat, and I have received a P0108, P0300, and of course P0431 from the header. The power is diffenatly there, I feel it pushing me back and grabbing the street. Hopefully I will get some higher boost soon at WOT. I am just be careful and monitoring all logs each time I drive.
Ripp
Ripp’s workers have been very helpful. Mark as been great at getting all my questions answered. Tom has also provided a lot of input and you can tell he is trying to work on their customer support. He also knows there is still much room for improvement. I was able to talk to their machinist (Angelo?) about my idler pulley. Perry has been a huge help and walked me through the installation details of the Brat, and was very upfront about the potential Baro problem. Shipping has been good, the initial shipment could have been quicker but I wanted things that were not quite ready and Mark told me it would be a while. Overall I would rate them at 8 of 10 because I would like them to be more willing to ship things out quicker, like next day or 2 day for items that were their mistake, but that is my only bitch at this point. If it is just me that wants it now, I will bare the costs. Also, they need a better (standard) packing list with better parts descriptions. This would make it easier to identify everything and help to eliminate missing parts, like my radiator hose.
I knew everything would not go smooth. If it did what would I have to play with/test/adjust. I think we all buy stuff to experience the ups and downs, it is what attracts us. But, to tell you the truth it has been extremely better than other major modification I have done. It took almost a week for my clutch to get done. Mitsubishi had my car many times for several days to fix fairly minor problems. I took me several weeks to diagnose a simple relay problem on a Honda. I custom built an engine before that I had to wait on everyone, the machinist, the numerous suppliers, the mechanic, and the money tree. All and All, great experience so far.
Future, I am adding the tensioner and oil catch can. After I reinstall the Brat I will go to a tuner with a dyno and have it tuned. I will have pictures of my entire car when my body kit work is complete.
Background
I live in California on the central coast, a long distance away from either Tearstone or Ripp, and most tuner shops. I wanted to go SDS because it fits me. I decided to go all Ripp as opposed to Ripp/Tearstone because I wanted one vendor to deal with. I have talked with Russ several times and I trust him, however I work in Information Technology and have many horror stories when dealing with two companies on the same project.
I am a home garage mechanic. I have worked on my cars (oil, brakes, exhaust, suspension, troubleshooting, etc), rebuilt a few engines in high school and college. As a hobby, I build R/C planes of fairly high quality, both electric and gas powered. I am very mechanical, and do most of my home repair. All work, unless noted, was completed in my garage, by myself, with a good set of tools.
I have never had a supercharger or a turbo. I did a lot of homework before the install, on this forum, other forums, magazines, books, etc.
Setup
I purchased Ripp headers off of ebay for $750. They have two cats. All O2 sensors where wired and function fine. I do throw code P0431, and I haven't done the spark plug fouler fix. I have an Invidia cat back with a HushPower II in place of the resonator for about $750 total. The sound is awesome. I had the clutch replaced by a local mechanic with an ACT HD and a Fidenza Flywheel $1500. I have a Zeitronix ZT-2 for AFR, Boost, EGT, and logging $550. I have a SpeedHut Oil Pressure gauge $150. Ripp front motor mount, SDS Stage 1, Brat and NGK BCPR7ES-11 Plugs. And more little goodies that I do not necessarily affect the SDS. I have ordered the belt tensioner and oil catch can from Ripp.
Project
I ordered my kit from Ripp in March; it arrived about a month and a half later. They were still working on the Brat and tuning cable availability, so I was told up front to expect it to be a while before the product was shipped. Mark at Ripp was very helpful on keeping me informed. I received the kit and it was missing a Radiator hose and my fuel pump had a cracked supply nipple (appears to have occurred during shipping?).
When the kit shipped I started doing the pre-install stuff. The existing exhaust manifold was fun to remove:bash:. The headers where easy. Installed all my gauges. I had my Ripp front mount pressed at an auto shop, easy to install. I had to turn my alternator bolt around by lifting/jacking the engine enough to clear the bolt easy but time consuming for the little accomplishment. I removed the oil pan and installed the return fitting (nylon washer goes on the inside), put a hose on it, and plugged the opening. I removed my intake plenum and change plugs (gapped at 32), wires, cap, and rotor. I modified the battery tray. All of this work took about 2-3 days, I did not rush, I was thorough, and I took breaks to do other stuff. After this stuff was complete, I drove the car about 200 – 300 miles. I did get the P0431 code. But everything was fine.
It was Thursday 4-27, I was going to install my Fuel pump first and try that for a few miles, but the nipple was broke so I had Ripp next day a replacement to me. I paid a few bucks extra for the expedited shipping; they also shipped the radiator hose at that time. I had already taken half day off of work so I figured I might as well start installing the remainder of the SDS .
This stuff was easy. Installed the Idler pulley (did not pay enough attention, see later), installed the SDS bracket, modified the radiator shroud, installed the FPR, installed the oils feed using a Greddy oil block, modified the washer bottle (not the frame, thank you Franchise), modified the MAS, cut the lower water hose (about 2” off), installed the shaft and blower, and installed the piping, wired the map and the injector relay. The piping was really tight and required some trimming of the silicone hoses. This all took about 6-8 hours of time over a day an a half.
I received my fuel pump and installed it. I wanted to try to do the Ripp method to see how it would work, but without much luck (and a broken pump clip) I used the Tearstone method. It was easy, just take your time, pay attention, buy a new grommet, and do it right. It took a couple of hours. Ran all new wiring into the cabin through stock locations. This is not the funnest task you will ever complete, but it makes for a clean install, no hole in the firewall, and is through the protective grommet.
So, I was ready to wire the BB and Brat the next day. My wife gave me chores, so the next day I took a day off work on Monday 5-1 and by noon everything was wired, soldered, shrink wrapped, tape, checked double checked, battery installed, triple checked at it was time.
“Gentlemen, Start your engines”. Nothing, oh shit, oops need to plug the BB into its harness stupid. Ok again, fire first crank, check everything immediately for problems, perfect. Shut down, check everything again seems good no oil leaks, no vacuum leaks, no rubbing, etc. Start again for warm up and monitor. It idles, but a little erratic at times, but gets better. My fuel pressure was at 28-29 which was too low but I did not change it. I set my blow off valve but it was sticking pretty bad and needed a little maintenance which I did not do at this time. After a few minutes I shut it down and checked everything again. Everything was good except that I noticed the idler pulley wasn’t exactly lined up. The belt appeared to be riding off the edge. I figured it would be ok for a little test drive. The test drive was ok. Idle and general running was good, not great but good. Car was a little lean at idle, but the ECU was working its magic during normal driving. I put in about 20 – 30 miles on it and everything was getting really good, when I decided I needed to address the idler pulley.
I called Ripp about the pulley; they were very helpful and confirmed through measurements that I had the right pulley. By this time I could clearly see that the belt was not running on the pulley and it was causing a very slight indentation on the belt. I decided it needed to be fixed before anymore driving. After several decisions, Ripp and I determined that the A/C mounting bracket in my car must be slightly different. My solution was to turn the pulley around so that the c-clip was on the inside and use the appropriate width and circumference washer to space it properly. Ripp (Angelo) tested this idea and saw no problems. I made this modification and it is working perfectly. The other alternative is to have the bracket machined to remove a portion of the lip. I will probably have this done in the near future; I would prefer to have the c-clip facing outward.
I also wanted to thoroughly check some other things set my FPR and BOV. I took the BOV apart which was very easy and used some spray lock and key graphite to lube the cylinder. This made a huge difference in the performance of the BOV. I reset the ECU and begin the setup process again. Idled to warm, set the fuel pressure to 32-34 with the vacuum connected, set the BOV to half of the main opening. The car idled perfectly, the slightly lean condition was gone and the BOV was working as intended. Lesson, take your time and adjust everything immediately to get the best results.
With this setup, BRAT installed, I ran the car for about 75 miles total in various conditions staying out of boost for the most part, maybe 1- 2 psi. Idle was good to great, cruising was good to great and becoming better, and acceleration was perfect. All conditions presented good AFR’s. Idle AFR was basically stock on the wide band. The car was running very near stock in all conditions. Remember, stock idle isn’t always that great in the 3g.
After this I needed to check the baro reading from the Brat to the ECU. Perry had asked me to check this because after several installs they had noticed that since there are two manufactures of the ECU, the voltage reading on the Brat baro signal was varying between the two. I checked it and unfortunately my readings were low at 2.93 instead of 4.1 – 4.3 which it should have read. You can check this by using a volt meter with the Brat installed and the key on – engine off. I sent my Brat to Ripp on Friday and expect it to be here in a couple of days. My understanding is that the new Brats have this fixed now. Perry offered to send me a part to correct the problem without returning my Brat, but recommended that I replace the Brat.
So I am now running without the Brat, about 150 miles. A few fairly minor cold start issues, but once warmed idles like stock, cruise is good but not as good as with the brat, acceleration is great as before. I have now hit about 3 psi of boost without the Brat, and I have received a P0108, P0300, and of course P0431 from the header. The power is diffenatly there, I feel it pushing me back and grabbing the street. Hopefully I will get some higher boost soon at WOT. I am just be careful and monitoring all logs each time I drive.
Ripp
Ripp’s workers have been very helpful. Mark as been great at getting all my questions answered. Tom has also provided a lot of input and you can tell he is trying to work on their customer support. He also knows there is still much room for improvement. I was able to talk to their machinist (Angelo?) about my idler pulley. Perry has been a huge help and walked me through the installation details of the Brat, and was very upfront about the potential Baro problem. Shipping has been good, the initial shipment could have been quicker but I wanted things that were not quite ready and Mark told me it would be a while. Overall I would rate them at 8 of 10 because I would like them to be more willing to ship things out quicker, like next day or 2 day for items that were their mistake, but that is my only bitch at this point. If it is just me that wants it now, I will bare the costs. Also, they need a better (standard) packing list with better parts descriptions. This would make it easier to identify everything and help to eliminate missing parts, like my radiator hose.
I knew everything would not go smooth. If it did what would I have to play with/test/adjust. I think we all buy stuff to experience the ups and downs, it is what attracts us. But, to tell you the truth it has been extremely better than other major modification I have done. It took almost a week for my clutch to get done. Mitsubishi had my car many times for several days to fix fairly minor problems. I took me several weeks to diagnose a simple relay problem on a Honda. I custom built an engine before that I had to wait on everyone, the machinist, the numerous suppliers, the mechanic, and the money tree. All and All, great experience so far.
Future, I am adding the tensioner and oil catch can. After I reinstall the Brat I will go to a tuner with a dyno and have it tuned. I will have pictures of my entire car when my body kit work is complete.
