#139 - 2010 Reset Button

[NateCrisman]

It seems I have effectively hit the reset button on 139, it back on the lift with the engine and trans completely apart. figured I'd start a new thread with progress pictures and keep updating it till the car is on the road again. So typical rebuild thread I guess for posterity.

The mess I started with. Rust/coolant residue all over the engine bay from a ruptured radiator end cap on the last run at the dragstrip.

After pulling the head, intake, and turbo system out:

Radiator FAIL. Blown HG pressurized the cooling system enough to pop the end tank right off the radiator in 4th gear.

Kicked HG:

Stupid me left straight tap water in the cooling system after that track day while the car sat in the driveway untouched for about a month.
Notice the freeze plug. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif

Pile of parts to be cleaned and organized:

#139's "Default Position" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif

To Do list before the car can be reassembled:[*]Need to order up an engine gasket set. Going to use a stock composite HG again since this car isn't going to see nitrous anymore.
[*]Clean all parts and engine bay...I can't stand a mess and it was so sanitary before the HG incident.
[*]pick up another used aluminum flywheel...this one has some buggered teeth on the ring gear...it's suitable for "racecar use" but I want to replace it since 139' going to be a DD car for a season.
[*]POR15 another stock shortblock
[*]obtain & POR a set of rubber engine mounts...the prothanes are going in my 1g. The car just vibrates to damn much with the poly engine mounts.
[*]Brent @ JMF is going to repair my old 3" turboback exhaust...needs a hanger rewelded.
[*]Crack open a couple used trans I have in the shop, I think one has a 4 spider center diff that I may put in the GVR4 and move the welded center over to the 1g racecar.
[/list]

Hopefully early February the car should be back to drivable condition. Funny, seems like it was just yesterday that 139 was up on the lift and completely apart...actually it was only about 550miles ago in August. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bawling.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bawling.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bawling.gif

 

[gtluke]

part it out

 

[G]

Why would you put in water only even for track day? Why would you want to promote corrosion ?????????????? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif

 

[464/2K]

Ya, Nate be sure to pop a bottle of water wetter or royal purples version.

I always run dastilled water and water wetter, then from October till April I throw in 50/50.

Good luck getting both sets of jackstands free /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[NateCrisman]

Quoting G:
Why would you put in water only even for track day? Why would you want to promote corrosion ?????????????? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif



The car had 50/50 mix in it originally until the radiator blew up at the dragstrip. We ran back to the shop and got another one from a parts car, went back to the strip just in time to get back in and fix the car. Unfortunatly, the garden hose at the track doesn't spit out prestone 50/50. After getting the car home I just forgot about it since my intentions were to start pulling the motor apart "any day now". oh well. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

Straight tap water was only supposed to be in there for a day or so. Just a "at the track" quick fix.

 

[G]

So theirs not a parts store or gas station that sells antifreeze in between the track & the shop??

 

[Mysticalsnake]

a lot of drag cars dont even use water. the ones that do run fluids will run plain water as it cleans right up on the track with a little bit of work. if coolant gets tracked all the way down it takes nearly the rest of the day to get it back to where it was before the coolant dropped on it.

 

[CarRacer]

Racing doesn't work like that G. I believe he was in a rush to get the car together to squeeze in a run before the track closed. Getting the car together quickly is usually the main goal when racing not the same goals you have when wrenching on a daily.

If you're interested Nate, I have a composite headgasket from a Parts Dinosaur kit leftover as I used a MLS. It's yours for the shipping.

 

[G]

Oh really? Is that how racing works?

 

[turbowop]

In G's fantasy world of racing, there should be a pit crew that consists only of full blood Japanese guys that install only Denso parts. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hsugh.gif

Ken will probably think this is racial, but he only reads the Anything Goes section. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[NateCrisman]

Quoting G:
So theirs not a parts store or gas station that sells antifreeze in between the track & the shop??



Dude, the HG was blown, I knew that day the motor had to come apart. Why would I stop at a gas station, put in $10 of coolant, only to dump it out when I get home and take the head off. We also got back in with about 10 minutes to spare before they locked the gates, and I swapped that rad in no kidding..7 minutes...and got the car past the gate. My house is 11 miles down the street. Putting water in it at the track was simply to get it home under it's own power vs calling AAA...and that was simply my own pride and not having my wife be pissed since they car was "supposed" to be a reliable daily driver. I had convinced her I was building a nice street car and what she sees is a car that comes home on a flatbed from the racetrack every time I go. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif So I try to avoid the AAA call if any way possible.


It has been on my "to do" list to pull the head since that weekend and I just got held up with another parts car being stuck on my lift and another vr4 shell sitting in the yard. I couldn't get rid of the cars till I bought a trailer (which I finally did right before christmas. Week between christmas and newyears I got rid of the two junk gvr4's, got the lift open, and finally got 139 inside on the lift to start taking the motor apart. The car shouldn't have sat outside with water in it this late in the year..it should have been apart long before it got that cold outside.


Anyway...the freeze over is really no big deal at all. It popped out a freeze out plug from the block. Oh no...I gotta knock it back in. (last time I bought a set, they were like 37 cents each at napa for shiney new zinc coated ones). Would have been a pita if that was the only issue with the engine in the car (intake manifold and starter would have had to come off). But this longblock is going into my 1g racecar, needed to be broken down anyway..so it's no big deal.


My 1g, yeah that car will run straight distilled water. It makes it so much easier on the track crew to not run antifreeze in the even you kick a HG or overheat going down the track. water cleans up instantly...coolant is a major cleanup. They let streetcars run coolant because it's just not realistic to ask people to flush the cooling system before coming out with their everyday driver. But trailer cars on slicks with no exhaust and no interior that are obviously race only cars ...Island will ask you to only run water. It shouldn't be a problem unless you forget to take the car apart before December. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif

 

[NateCrisman]

Quoting 464/2K:
Ya, Nate be sure to pop a bottle of water wetter or royal purples version.

I always run dastilled water and water wetter, then from October till April I throw in 50/50.

Good luck getting both sets of jackstands free /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif



It shouldn't be that big of a deal putting the car back together. Just need to take care of that list of little details before I can put a motor back in. The cleaning and painting will take a couple days. Another shortblock is already on an engine stand waiting to get POR and start putting head/intake/tbelt stuff on. I have another stock head with stock cams sitting on shelf ready to go. Just really need the gasket set to get started assembly on the new motor.

some other stupid stuff to do...bolt in the pass seat, put street wheels back on, fix one damn persistent leak on one of the AWS blockoff plugs.

Mid Feb is going to be my guestimate. It will have 50/50 anitifreeze in it, I promise /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif 1G will get a water wetter.

 

[Chim55117]

That valve cover was so beautiful... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bawling.gif

Good luck getting her back on the road, Nate. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[NateCrisman]

The valve cover is the only thing Im unsure of putting in the parts washer. I know the solvent doesn't do anything to the POR15paint, but im not willing to try it out on the powdercoated valve cover. Hopefully I can get it spotless again with a toothbrush and some soapy water.

going to order the gasket sets today...one for the motor going into #139, another for the motor going in the yellow 1g. Ugghhh going to be like $400 in JNZ mitsu stuff

 

[NateCrisman]

Looks like Im going to change my plan in order to get the car on the road quicker. Im picking up a complete JDM longblock that came out of #78/1000 on monday, Ill swap the oil filter housing and intake manifold and stick it into #139 this week. Hopefully if the temperature isn't too cold and I can work at nights this week, Ill be driving #139 next weekend.

Likely, Ill now have another stock shortblock, head, cams, cyclone intake for sale soon.

 

[NateCrisman]

Finished assembly of the longblock today and got it bolted into the car. I ended up using the engine that came out of #255/2000 (the white rusted through VR4 I parted last fall) since the JDM engine mentioned in the above post ended up having a broken rear trans mount ear /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif. The longblock is all stock other than a forward facing OFH, ARP head studs, and BSE kit. Went back to OEM cams, intake, and unported/built head compared to the 2009 setup. I used the prothane insert in the front and rear roll stops. The tbelt side and tranny side mounts are good conditon OEM rubber mounts. Hopefully this will knock down some vibration.

Tomorrow or friday I'll bolt in the 50trim T3T4 turbo setup, radiator, hoses, TB, flywheel, ACT clutch, and maybe bolt in the trans. Planning to really hammer on assembly this weekend with hopes of driving it next week.

Im missing fuel injectors as I traded the 750's from this car for a set of 1000's. The 1000's are going on the 1g for 14b/methonal use. Need to get something in the 650-850cc range for pumpgas use on this car now. Otherwise I have all the parts to put the car together as soon as time permits.

Would have had the turbo setup in today, but I forgot that I wanted to drop the spring pressure in the external from 23psi psi springs down to 19-20psi range incase I need to lower boost for bad gas or I need to use a set of smaller injectors for a while. Didn't have the tial chart at the shop, so I'll look up the right spring combo tonight and swap it before bolting the stuff on.

One other thing "to do" that could hold things up, I haven't taken apart the two busted trans in the shop to see if one has a 4spider diff. (one trans has broke bell housing, other has worn syncos....I'd planned to make one good trans out of the pair and use it in my DSM.) I might not get to this for a while, and really it's not any more/less work to swap the center diff with the trans in the car vs the trans on the floor. Well other than it being messier.

The engine bay needs a good wash/wipe down to get all that rust/coolant mess off, but there's no running water in the shop yet with the ground frozen and I really don't want ice all over the engine bay when Im done.
Anyway: few pics

 

[bazeng]

I love these type of threads...

Good stuff!!
The stock type gasket seemed to hold up quite well!
What boost were you pushing to lift the head/pop the gasket?

 

[NateCrisman]

28psi with a little nitrous on top (about 35hp worth) on the last pass (10.8@131). But I think I might have kicked the HG days prior to the dragstrip on the street running pumpgas when I was messing with the boost controller trying to get it to not spike/drop-off...there were plenty of times it spiked it up over 30psi and leaned it out/made it misfire as I was only running the GM 3.0bar map sensor. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jawdrop.gif


I'm expecting to run about 25 to 26psi on 93octane pumpgas with this setup, that's my guestimate. The stock composite HG should be fine so long as I don't get too aggressive with stupid tuning or overheat it. Last time out I got the boost controller to hold nice and steady up to 8000rpm, so I don't think I'll have to mess with the system as much this year and can just tune it safe and leave it for a while.

 

[NateCrisman]

I got a ton of work done on my GVR4 today, I'd say im 2/3 of the way to a running car. PossibleVR4 came up today and gave me a hand getting the trans up and in...again on the first shot.

Ran into a few missing part issues:
[*]Stripped wheel stud..gotta pick one up at napa
[*]Leaking crush washer on 4WS block-off plug...pick some up at napa
[*]Need a 1/16" -27 NPT plug to remove the NOS Fogger from the ic pipe.
[*]Need a 2bolt 2.5" downpipe gasket...again napa
[*]Missing an EGR blockoff plate. Thought I had one, but seems I gave it away.
[*]Need to go to hardware store and hunt through pipe thread bins for oil drain line elbows...my current drain line is HACK and want to replace
[*]Forgot I need a new battery: the walmart lawnmower batt won't take a charge after sitting dead for so long.
[*]Also need to order a rebuild brake master cyl or the rebuild kit from NAPA. mine's leaking BAD between master and the brake booster.
[/list]

Left to do:
[*]Vac lines between external wg and boost control solenoid..I forgot which go where...need to lookup diagram online
[*]Radiator and hoses...I ran out of long zip ties to mount the aftermarket fans.
[*]Driver side axle, Xcase, driveshaft, front wheels.
[*]oil feed and drain lines to the turbo....(want to confirm that the single 1/8" NPT hole on the forward facing housing is post filter oil and not pre-filter before attaching the feed line)
[*]Exhaust system and subframe connectors go back on after fixing the steering rack leak
[*]battery, intake pipe, EGR blockoff plate, and valve cover vent hoses on top
[*]Add fluids
[*]Set base timing & put a pumpgas map back into the ostrich
[/list]



Pics after todays wrenching:

 

[NateCrisman]

Frustrating day: I got pretty much all the big things done today, but ran into a snag; one of the driveshaft carrier bearing studs snapped. So I'm hoping to get someone with a mig to come weld a new stud onto the body before I can out the exhaust on.

After that it's just battery, fluids, fix the leaking brake master, set base timing, and load pump tune.

Hopefully Wednesday.