372/1000 build thread

[SmoothCustomer]

So 924 was a bit (badly) rusty and never ran right, which was super annoying considering the time/money I spent on it. Late last year a 92 K Grey roller came up for sale on my local forum for a great price and I decided the best thing to do was jump on it. That meant I had to sell 924, but so be it. The shell came at a fantastic price considering all of the parts that came with it, and about 2 weeks ago it got delivered, and it took me until about today to dig into it. Unfortunately most of the parts I'm about to list aren't yet installed as you will see, but it shouldn't be too long before they are. This weekend I'm trying to get the interior all squared away, and every morning/weekend from then on I will be working on the engine. The body clearly needs quite a bit of work, but it is all there. Today I spent the day tearing everything apart and killing all the bees that lived in the door jambs/gas door. Here's the list of mods followed by the pics of my progress so far.

4ws delete
a/c delete
ABS delete
Emissions delete
50k mile front and rear subframes
4 bolt LSD rear
5-Lug front and rear
cmpe turbo to cat (3")
HKS Carbon ti muffler
Large apex'i fmic
powdercoated black 2.5" intercooler piping
custom floor mats
A-Pillar gauge pod
jdm front and rear bumpers
CF wingless trunk/proper brake light
Strut Tower bars
Evo 8 oil cap
Zaklee clear cam cover
Symborski shift kit
2g head
1g intake cam/2g exhaust cam
e3 16g turbo (new water lines)
walbro 255 fuel pump
fuel pump rewire
PTE 880cc injectors
aem uego wideband
gvr4zum blingin' battery tray
ngk plugs and plug wires
cometic head gasket
arp headstuds
90 ofh and oil cooler
mitsubishi oem oil filter
greddy catch can
89 tails
manual seat belts
89 under dash
89 glovebox
93 head lights
Amber Corners
DSM link v3
Black top cas
B/S delete
apexi turbo timer
Hallman Pro Boost controller
Curtisco Subframe connectors
Stainless brake lines

I have to remove this awful tint, and suspension is on its way.

Before:

After (Unfortunately it was starting to get dark out):

The carpet is the only horrible thing I've found on this car so far, but it seems to clean up nice.
Before:

After (It only looks bad because it's still wet):

Tomorrow I plan on finishing the manual seat belt install that I started today, and then I'm getting it all put back together and starting work on the engine.

 

[bmxkid415]

Looking great, I see you snagged it from Hendershot. He wanted me to buy it when I was over taking the 1G Auto TSI home. Looks like it will be a great car when your finished.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

^Should be. Hendershott's deal was so good that I couldn't pass it up. So far it's looking like the only issue I will have is wiring, and even at that a whole spare engine harness came with the car, but I don't want to take the time to replace it. I have the entire interior out right now, but it looks like it should be ready to go back in tomorrow. This is the second gvr4 I've bought from him too.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

Moving WAY slower on this thing than I want to be. Still haven't gotten the interior in, but it's ready so I am hoping to at least get the majority done tomorrow morning if I get up with enough time before work. The only progress I've made is finally getting the engine on the stand, so I'm planning on starting my BS delete tomorrow night.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

Interior is still not together mostly thanks to rain. Making pretty solid progress on the engine though. Unfortunately I couldn't get any pics because I was worried that would throw me off the roll I was on. Got the whole front case disassembled today, and got the stub shaft completely installed. I'm always very nervous about doing this sort of stuff because I will have to take apart so much stuff to get to this if I messed something up, but so far so good I think. Tomorrow I need to purchase and replace the front crankshaft seal, and jb weld/press in the front bs plug. I also need to take out the old bearing and put the new ones in, then it should be all back together. Might as well grab a shorter bs tensioner pulley while I'm at the auto parts store. I'm shooting for exactly this time tomorrow for everything minus the oil pan (which needs to be painted/sanded/cleaned) to be put back together. Then the rest of the week I will be cleaning the engine and installing my ARP head studs while I wait for the timing stuff to come. While I'm at it, does anybody know a good way to clean up the cooling system? Just before the water pump inside the block it is pretty rusty. It's not the end of the world as it is just surface rust, but it would be nice to clean.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

Christmas came early! I don't know what is taking my rear shocks so long to get here. According to the usps tracking number, it has been sitting in CO since 1 A.M. Saturday morning. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif But today, my lowering springs came!

And here are some pics of my bs delete. No good ones though since I didn't want to get the hands dirty.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

I FINALLY got my interior done today, short of mounting one a-pillar trim piece and installing the 89 glovebox, which I need to figure out how to do. The plans for this week are unfortunately cut a little short because I have family coming into town tomorrow so my time will be occupied. Starting Wednesday night though work resumes on my block, which I will be wire wheeling/sanding/painting/prepping to be put back together. This coming weekend, while it is daylight, I'm tearing apart the brake system so I can install my ABS delete, rotors, pads and rear suspension which I received. Thanks to belize1334 by the way for the absolutely fantastic deal on a set of good looking condition, albeit dirty AGX's. If I can have all of this done by exactly this time one week from now I will be ecstatic. The week after that I will be putting the engine back together, and hopefully by this time in two weeks the car will be ready to run possibly short of some wiring etc. Pics of the interior hopefully by tomorrow.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

Here are some pics of the interior. The only things missing are the a-pillar trim which just needs to be snapped up there and the glovebox which I have to figure out how to install. Let me know what you think about the 89 center console. The deal with that is it's a little bit lighter, but the side covers don't really go on (I don't care because it's not really noticeable), it's not bolted down in the back, which you can barely even tell and I can quickly fab some brackets if need be and the power window switch doesn't *quite* fit in the spot where that little well is, but I think I can make that fit too. Anyway, on to the pics!

 

[bobdole]

I really like the carpets. If you don't mind where did you get them?

 

[blackvr4]

Yo man, REALLY REALLY diggin the custom floor mats! Where did you get them?

 

[SmoothCustomer]

They are pricey, but you can get them here:

Edit: The link won't work for me for whatever reason. Click search on top, select the parts for sale section, copy and past this: +"floormats" and it will be the thread titled "floormats! come get your floormats!" or something along those lines. Thanks guys!

 

[SmoothCustomer]

I was happy to get some work done today by getting up early and barely beating the hail. I removed the bad purple tint from my rear window and rear quarters. Just have to remove the rear windows and I'm all set! You may have seen the other thread about removing my tint. Here is a copy and paste.

I had this steamer:

And I was able to go from this (it really doesn't look horrible in the pictures, looks more black, but in real life it is a bright horrible purple):

To this!

And I was left with this:

It all probably took about half an hour.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

I got the rear window tint off. Maybe pictures of no tint car tomorrow. Tonight I was busy trying to pull the front case on the n/t block I have since I damaged the seat on the old one. It was being a HUGE pain though. I got it loose enough that I can wiggle it around in pretty much every direction but can't get it off. I think it's because I didn't remove the oil pan, since the block is resting on the oil pan on the floor. In other news, this block came up on my local forum and if I buy this and the shell the guy is selling it would cost $1250. Should I do it? Here are the specs:

HKS 264/272 cams
ARP head studs
felpro composite head gasket (better sealing than MLS. have trapped 130mph at 30 psi on 93 with one of these bad boys before).
forgot exact compression numbers but did a leakdown test and 4% leakage on 3 cylinders. the number 3 cylinder has 11%. leaking out the exhaust valve seal.
motor was only run at a idle for a couple days. never finished the car to really push it.

Also comes with a used act 2600 and a lightweight flywheel. Basically my brother would take the shell and pay me for it, and I would take the complete engine. I would be saving money on not buying a flywheel and clutch because those are among the few parts I don't have. The only things I'm worried about are that 11% leaking and he said he tossed on a spare timing belt he had and a lightly used tensioner. I have no problem changing the belt as I have one with all of the components on the way, but that is just more money I would essentially be spending because I could send that stuff back. So basically is it worth about $600 for all this?

 

[iceman69510]

Quote:
. Tonight I was busy trying to pull the front case on the n/t block I have since I damaged the seat on the old one. It was being a HUGE pain though. I got it loose enough that I can wiggle it around in pretty much every direction but can't get it off. I think it's because I didn't remove the oil pan, since the block is resting on the oil pan on the floor.



Oil pump pickup still attached.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

There you go. Never even thought of it. Thanks man! Hm. Now I need to figure out how to get that oil pan off without the engine being on a stand...

 

[SmoothCustomer]

Well I had bad luck today. I started to do my brakes (abs removal, stainless line install, rotor/pad instal and caliper refinish), and realized that I didn't have our flare wrench. I think we loaned it out to a friend a while ago. So I decided I might as well get to work on prepping my engine. I wire wheeled as much as I'm going to today and just barely beat the rain. As soon as I have time, hopefully tonight, I'm going to do a little hand sanding, then I'm going to blow it out with compressed air to get any dust out of the crevices, then I'm going to wipe it down with just water. Once that's all done, I'm going to re-tape the top because I didn't really do that great of a job the first time. Next time it's nice out/not humid I will paint it and be done. If I'm done with everything besides paint I will set to work on getting out my front case and finishing that up.
Post wire wheel:

 

[SmoothCustomer]

The weather was really on my side today. Sun was out, there was a very light breeze and no humidity to speak of. The only reason it doesn't look fantastic is because I taped off the bolt holes to be safe. Here is the finished product:

And I was able to jack up the car for the first time (shamefully):

 

[donkeylips]

So that's what a 50k rear subframe looks like on a 188k car...

 

[SmoothCustomer]

So I need to get my balance shaft out of the front case, and the bolts is rounded off with is awesome. Once I finish that front case and receive my 2g head (in the mail) it will be ready to go back together! In the meantime, the wiring on this car is super hacked up. I'm pulling the current engine harness and replacing it with a good stock one I got from the P/O with the car. Also still haven't had that wrench to get my abs stuff out, but once I get the abs stuff and that old harness out I'm going to prep and paint the bay.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

FINALLY!!!! I got all my stuff today. Luckily I bought the car from I guy I've dealt with several times before so he held on to this stuff for me. I have a full day ahead of me tomorrow. I'm trying to go to the local auto paint supply place and price out various options for paint and see if they sell por-15. If not, I'm going to order some por-15. Once I get home I'm tearing apart the brakes for sure (finally got a line wrench) and hopefully, but not definitely tearing out the old wiring harness. It seems like time is always against me with these pictures, and it was starting to get dark out. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to take some better ones.

50k mile front subframe.

1 set of stock usdm 91-92 headlights 1 set of 91's and 1 set of 89's. Luckily I nabbed a set of 89's that nobody had tried to tint!

A good condition 92 center section, my turbo to cat (and a 2g down pipe my brother got for free from the guy which he needed for his 92 gvr4) and some amber corners, which I didn't even know I was getting!!

Wiring harness, front stainless lines.

Intercooler core. I was in a big hurry so I couldn't measure the core, but the center section is there for a point of reference.

Cat-back. I don't really know what brand this muffler is, but it looks nice. At first I thought it was maybe hks carbon but it looks to only be carbon wrapped (kind of ricey but hopefully you won't see it once it's on the car).

Rear jdm bumper, clearly unmounted.

Front jdm bumper. This was probably the biggest selling point for my car. The fogs are in perfect condition too and even have the little trim pieces on the sides. This is kind of half mounted.

Gas tank. This is in really good shape with a sending unit also in really good shape.