Where to start,need some advice

So here is my Pulsar story,

I imported the car from Japan to Canada last fall,drove it for 2 weeks then parked it for the winter. Ive been driving it on and off since about April and have spent the last couple months listening to it.

The car has a few aftermarket parts;
Defi gauges (water temp,oil temp, boost)
Greddy E-manage blue
Greddy boost controller
Apexi Pod filter
Autobahn88 FMIC
Autobahn88 Oil cooler, mounted in the factory intercooler position.
Autobahn88 Oil filter relocate
Custom 2.5" exhaust
Aftermarket clutch ( i think, not sure how to tell, but the peddle is fairly stiff to push down)
Stainless steel braided brake lines

The car gets hot sitting in traffic,according to the Defi water temp gauge, but the factory temp gauge doesn't move. It has Calsonic electric fans in there and i think the aftermarket thermostatic controller that it is hooked up to is shot, Because if i run straight power to the fans they turn on.

The Exhaust has quite an audible rattle/ vibration at 3250rpms, i think this has to do to the fact that it is a custom job. Has no flex pipe or flanges,just one piece all the way back.

Has some sort of a boost cut / fuel cut power loss at gradual acceleration, but it goes away as soon as i put my foot into it. Likes to do it more when its cold. Not sure if this has to do with the E-manage or the factory BOV is not working properly.

Several rattles, one of which sounds like it is coming from the center of the roof.

Sometimes shifting into 5th i get a bit of a crunch.

My end goal for the car, at this point, is to just make it a faster for some 'Spirited' road driving. I have no particular bhp goal but i dont want to be replacing the gearbox and major parts at this point.
I will get some pictures tonight and post them up, because everyone likes pictures!

It would be easy enough to cut the exhaust and put a flexi on either weld on or clamp on ....

Where would be a good spot for it? a couple feet after the turbo?

I would say roughly just after the engine .... think my first port of call would be sorting out the cooling side ...you dont want to cook it ...

I have no experience of e-manage, can it not control the fans via the engine coolant sensor like the stock ecu? Can you read what the e-manage is seeing? What temperature is the defi gauge reporting and where is the sender located? The stock gauge sensor must have quite a broad range before it will waver from central, for reference the stock ecu should kick the fans on around 90C, I'm not sure at which temperature will encourage the stock gauge to move up. FYI there are 2 separate sensors for ECU and Gauge.

If you think it's the thermostatic valve can you test or replace it to confirm? Perhaps its range is wrong?

The roof bars will probably have came away from the roof skin and will be vibrating, you will need to drop the lining down and squirt something like tiger seal in there to bond them back together, pain in the arse job but doable.

The exhaust flexi is usually located in the area between the engine and firewall.

5th gear crunch, could be syncro starting to go or could be something in the clutch fork/slave cylinder area not disengaging the clutch fully though I would expect it to do it in other gears if that were the case. With heavier clutch plates the slave cylinder sometimes punches a hole right through the clutch fork, it can be repaired and then strengthened. These gearboxes are getting on now remember too so could just be wear.

If you suspect the BOV is leaking the bung up the pipe to see, again these bovs are very old now and getting weak, what boost are you running? I wouldn't run a standard BOV on anything more than standard boost (0.7bar) though it kind of sounds like you have a misfire at partial load I had the exact same thing a few months ago, try changing the ignition leads and go from there, lugs, dizzy cap, rotor arm and coil, it was my leads btw.

ya, i started looking at that the other night. Its a set of calsonic fans that has a thermostat switch hooked up to it, going to a fuse, then going straight to the battery. and if i bypass the thermo switch the fans come on. Just not sure if i should buy a new thermo switch for $20 and keep it wired the way it is, or try and wire it back to the factory switch.

From factory the fans are controlled by the ECU via the coolant sensor, if the e-manage doesn't support that you will need to keep the thermostatic switch.

I have almost no knowledge of the e manage either. I bought a cable to connect it to my laptop but i cant get it working properly to see what it is doing.

i bypassed the thermo controller the other night and the fans kicked on right away so i think thats the problem.

I am just running stock boost (0.7Bar) Ive changed the plugs already, guess i will try leads next.

afaik the e-manage is just a piggy back air fuel controller. I'm not too sure why the car even has it as the turbo and injectors are stock. as far as i can tell at least.

It's a step up to get slightly more control over fuel and air say to run more on Standard turbo or uprated turbo  standard maf  and injectors. Gives you a small scope before you need different maf and bigger injectors

Ah I thought it was maybe standalone, have googled it now.

In that case I would run the fans from the ecu, if you have a consult cable and software you can check what temperature the ecu coolant sensor is seeing. the plugs for the fans are on the loom that runs under the slam panel.

i don't have a consult cable or software. What exactly is the slam panel?

The part across the font that the bonnet sits onto

Slam panel =is the metal bar that is over the raidiator and joins to the bars over the headlights ....

Ah, okay. Ill have to look tonight and see if i can find the factory connections.

Large grey plugs, 2 pin I think, one each side.

Okay ya, thats what is plugged into the fans right now.
Fans->Thermo switch -> Fuse -> Battery
Its totally separate from the main loom.

Johnny you don't think he's having the same problem I've got do you with a "glitchy@ aftermarket and stock gauge and loose heat shield? Got a gut feeling he might find a short like mine since they were the starting symptoms

No I think he has faulty stat ( thermo switch) and I would like to know where the defi stat is plumbed into

im not sure where the defi gauge goes. Any way to find out other than just following the wire?