SVT Focus System Torn Down *Pics*

[kinville 10+ year member]

I am currently on a little vacation, visiting my folks and checking up on my brother and sisters and yet car audio still beckons... I got in late monday night and my dad had some new music he had been listening to that he wanted me to hear so we jump in his car to go get a listen. This would be the SVT Focus (pics further down) for reference, and he opted for the "Audiophile" option when buying it a couple years ago. This includes an 8" sub with a small amp pushing it in a plastic enclosure in the hatch. Back to the story... we're driving around and while the front stage still sounded really nice, however the sub sounded horrible... just muddy and completely innaccurate. I have him stop and open the hatch, and then turn up the volume while I listen to the sub... and its just completely bottoming out... I'm newer to this and my ears may not be as tuned as some yet, but this was unmistakable lol...

So of course I took it upon myself to work on this problem haha... I took out the stock enclosure which has the small amp mounted to the top of it... the enclosure is made of ABS plastic... it is quite thick but I would still feel alot better about a MDF box, but he wants to keep the stock stealth look... a couple things about it astound me tho in the stupidity of its design... first is that the wiring for the sub goes UNDER where the sub is mounted... like a small indent to let the wires through... and secondly besides being mounted to the enclosure the traditional way, on the back side of the enclosure there is a hex bolt going through the enclosure and into the motor of the sub! Craziness... Anyhow we picked up a RF Punch S1 8 today as he didn't want to wait for something to be shipped up here, however it was a little too deep for the enclosure. The only info we could find on the enclosure said we would have about 4 1/4" of depth and the specs on the RF site said the sub had a depth of 4 1/8". Even with the boot for the motor off it still is about 1/4" too deep... so tomorrow I'll buy or make a mounting ring for it...

And for the hole left buy the hex bolt on the back, I going to get a carriage bolt and have the head on the inside of the enclosure and then get some sort of gasket material and but it around the thread against the back of the enclosure on the outside of it, a washer, and then a nut... and then silicone just to be sure. Oh and silicone where the wires come through also... maybe not the best solution, but better than how it was before. Now for the photographic evidence //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Oh and any advice or suggestions are certainly welcome!

Click to read more...

 

[ItalynStylion 10+ year member]

Make sure you seal up that hole in the back. A leaky enclosure is useless....

 

[dcole18 5,000+ posts]

ive seen a bunch of ford factory subs that bolt from the back, in explorers i rip the basket off the motor and drill all the way thru the pole piece because its easier than pulling all the pannels to get the whole enclosure out //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[kinville 10+ year member]

Well luckily there were only 4 bolts holding the enclosure into the car... and you dont think that would make a good port, ItalynStylion? JK, I know, thats what I was talking about sealing with the carriage bolt, gasket, and silicone.

 

[James Bang 5,000+ posts]

paragraphs are nice

 

[ThatChevyGuy 5,000+ posts]

you can get shallow mount 8"s FYI....

 

[kinville 10+ year member]

Like I said he wasn't willing to wait for something from the net... I think he wanted me here to help. And on the paragraphs, I agree //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif duly edited.

 

[partyanimal]

I did a aftermarket sub with my SVT I actually did a 10" P3 in it. Here is a "how to" on how i did it. http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=161394&highlight=reverse+mount For the hole on the back (though my box seemed a little different) I cut out the protruding section where the hole was and used a flat piece off of a PVC pipe cap and epoxied it over the hole.

 

[kinville 10+ year member]

That looks super clean. Surely it doesn't have anywhere close to the specs for air space, but it also leaves you nearly all the space in the hatch you would have had with the stock setup, and gets louder as well I assume. Maybe something similar is in his SVTs future, I couldn't say haha... I know its hard to stop once you start going bigger... we'll see! To update, we got the mounting ring, a local shop made it for us for free. Also the hole in the back is sealed up... Went the carriage bolt/washer/gasket/locknut route. Will upload pics tomorrow.

 

[partyanimal]

Actually the airspace is quite close to specs. The Rockford is made for about .66 cu. ft. where as the enclosure has I think .63

 

[kinville 10+ year member]

I wasn't aware of that. Its such an odd shape, its hard to tell. Knowing that might intrigue him to move up to 10" in the future... Of course that will involve alot more money and time than this little job took... Obviously need better power and ground... the stock run is 2 each of 16 awg it looks like haha... And hopefully by then he'll have an aftermarket HU, because his is starting to be on its way out it seems. Of course this is assuming the obvious which is he'll need a new amp to push it as well... And honestly I don't know how hard running the wire to the hatch will be as I've only had to do that in my ranger, and obviously only had a very short space that I needed to run wire under the carpet.

Looks like a good learning experience haha... next time I'm visiting maybe //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Tho my mom wants something in her Bronco by this fall, and she's thinking alot bigger. But that should be a lot more straight forward... alot more room to work in and with, and the rubber flooring comes up nice and easy! Btw, what amp did you use for the P3, and where did you mount it? He wants to keep as much space as possible as this is very much a daily driver that needs as little space compromised as possible.

 

[partyanimal]

I have an Alpine MRP-M500 in it currently. It is under the drivers seat. The carpet had to be cut out for clearance. Soon I am going to get rid of the Alpine though. I am going to get a Polk PA series amp 1ohm FTW!! The only reason i need a 1ohm capable amp is the fact that i bought the sub and didn't realize it was a 2ohm DVC. Soon I am going to put in a 4-channel as well that will go under the passanger seat barring any clearance issues.

 

[kinville 10+ year member]

Sounds like a nice little setup that keeps nearly all your usable space still usable. Got done with install, and while I had taken some pics to post, the camera got left in the hatch of my Dad's car and I just kept forgetting to grab it when he was home...

 

[mobeious 10+ year member]

how does it sound and how much louder is it?? keep it on the factory amp?

 

[sick1 10+ year member]

how does it sound and how much louder is it?? keep it on the factory amp?

+1, getting ready to do this in an HHR SS