build #62 - UPDATE 9/10/13 w/ great news

[Whoodoo]

Warning: this may turn out to be the longest and most boring build of mankind.

Goals: reliability, comfort, and mild performance.

Background: I bought the car completely stock over the summer and it has been, and will continue to be doing DD duties if everything goes as planned. I don't have a huge budget or a lot of time to work on the car as I go to school in NY and live in Seattle where the car will stay.

So while talking to Mr. Hightower today at the XXX root beer meet, I got motivated to do a few 'free' mods.

1) removed the BCS restricter
2) removed the MAS silencer
3) eliminated the post-intercooler line of the BCS to wastegate

I guess it raises boost by about 1-2 psi, but I dont have a boost guage so I really can't verify any hard numbers. What I can tell you is that it pulls a little bit more a little bit quicker. I didn't notice the turbo or BOV getting much louder from the silencer removal. I guess for free I can't complain.

 

[Whoodoo]

Got some new wheels on and the short shifter in (see here for shifter build thread). I put on a new grill as well. Its from an Eterna and has the red mistu diamonds removed. I like it much better than the stock one because I've never been a huge fan of chrome. I also put on the vr4.org decals in the rear windows. I got the JDM lower rear door decals but am still on the fence whether or not I want to put them on.

The wheels are 17x8 with a 45mm offset and the tires are 245/45's and mostly fit well. The fronts don't rub at all, even at full lock. Keep in mind I still have stock suspension.





This is a terrible picture, but I'm working with a really old camera. The very outside edge of the rear tires barely rubbed on the trailing arm seam.



With the wheel removed, you can see in the middle circle the shiny spot where the rubber was contacting the trailing arm.



Simple fix though. Just get the angle grinder and take it down about an eight of an inch. I slapped on some black spray paint just to prevent surface rust.





Other than the surface rust on the discs and exhaust, the underside of the car is surprisingly clean. Seattle treats cars very well /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Now I just have to get the wub wubs sorted out /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/uhh.gif

 

[Whoodoo]

I smoked the corners. Thought about doing the tails as well, but I want to polish them and get all the raised DOT scribbles off of them before I do.

 

[Whoodoo]

Few things to update but yet again, nothing too special.

Took the taillights off and polished them like I'd planned. It was easy, just get a basin with a little water and wet sand with 220 to get the lettering off and then step up to 1500 then polishing compound and a few soft cloths. I would have liked to go up to 3000 before the compound, but didn't have any handy.



I noticed that the tray cover right in front of the shifter had seen better days, so I took it off and what did I find?



The glue holding all the little fuzzies on had begun to deteriorate. It took forever to clean off and was a big sticky mess. The razor didn't help any and solvents just made things worse. I ended up having to roll it all off with my fingers... not fun. I wanted to cover it with something nice and I found some microsuede that matches the door panels at the local fabric store. I pulled a cloth covered center console lid from a 92 at the junkyard and covered it with suede as well.



I like it because it breaks up the sea of black leather and feels cool too.

Also, I finally got the chance to use the car for what it was made for. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif



Probably won't be any updates for a while. School is starting up on the 7th and as its my last semester I don't know where a job will surface. Thanks for looking /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Whoodoo]

Its been done many times before - took the dash out and repainted the needles red. Also, because I don't like the green dash lights, I took off all the condoms from the green lights and I like result. Its a horrible photo because my camera is a billion years old, but you get the idea. Oh I also painted red over all the orange bits on the dash. This was a bit difficult because you have to make sure to put an even coat on or else it looks splotchy when the backlights are on.

 

[4thStroke]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/applause.gif

Nice work! I like where your build is going.

I wish I could have made it to the XXX meet. I bought my car from Hightower and have been wanting to catch up with him for some time now. Meeting local VR4 enthusiasts is always a good time.

 

[Whoodoo]

Yea Greg is a really cool guy. As far as the build goes, I don't have the resources necessary to get performance mods done right. So, because those will have to come later, I've been trying to do all the other little things that get sometimes get overlooked. I'm very fortunate to have started with an extremely clean car.

 

[cooliomo]

very clean ride, wish i could made it to the xxx meet but i was at the english racing dyno day

 

[Whoodoo]

Ok, so I think its time for another update.

As some of you may know, 62 had a balance shaft belt fail, which caused the main timing belt to jump some teeth on the crank sprocket, which caused the pistons to hit the valves. All of my valves were bent and even a few rockers got busted up. So, I am now in the middle of fixing that as well as doing a BS delete and timing belt replacement.

Here I have everything removed. Pretty much the only thing I haven't taken off is the transmission and crankshaft.


A friend of my brother's let me use his lathe, so I turned down the rear balance shaft a la AMS.


Most of the valves bent so much the rockers came off and flew around. One of them even broke apart and sent its rollers everywhere. I think I found them all.


I think this was the first time the turbo has been taken off because all but two of the studs broke. The old manifold will be replaced with a 2g because it looks like this.


I've been doing a lot of cleaning because three of the four front CV boots tore and sent their lovely goo all over everything (I'm replacing these as well, I just need to get a 32mm socket for the wheel nuts). Also, it may have had an oil leak from the passenger side front corner of the valve cover at one point because everything in that area is caked in oily dirt.

I just got in from taking the turbo apart and, turns out, it was the culprit for my car's oil appetite. The cold side was pretty oily inside and all the o-ring seals had become really hard and broke in some spots. Right now the turbine wheel and center section are soaking in kerosene so they can be cleaned tomorrow.

Parts should be coming in sometime soon, including a jdm head with some sweet cams in it, so I'll get more pictures up once newly cleaned bits and pieces find their way back into the car.

On another note, I found a set of 2g 3kgt vr4 calipers at the pull-a-part yard a little bit ago. Due to the mounting ears being longer on these 2g calipers, I'll be making my own brackets to mount them. I also grabbed the rear trailing arms so now I have the parts for 3kgt brakes all around. That might take a little while, though, as I don't yet have a full time job. Stay tuned.

 

Nice car. I just bought a 92' shell with suspension and the interior done. It's really clean and I also go to school out of state. Im going to follow your thread and make my own soon /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Whoodoo]

Ok, more pictures for you all.

I've been working the last few days at my part time job so I didn't have much time to work on the car. Also, I have been not very good about taking pictures while I'm doing work on the car so I apologize about that. What I can do is show you where I work.

Back story: last summer my dad asked if I would help him fix the boat. It needed a new engine, and I needed a place to work on it. So, I decided to clean out the shed thats in the back yard. It had been used as storage for all the yard tools, chemicals, paint, camping supplies, building materials, etc. for the last twenty years. It's not a whole lot of space, but I can listen to music and get the place dirty.

Here you can see the new CV boots I just finished. Now I can get that and the oil pan back on and clean the block off with degreaser.


The other end of my workstation. These are some of the parts I've cleaned. You can see the lack of space makes things a bit difficult but I have a few things hanging from the ceiling to avoid too much clutter.


Here's a box of covers and hoses and things that have all been cleaned of the goop that seemed to have permeated every surface of my engine.


The 14b is now rebuilt and bolted to the 2g exhaust manifold I picked up for 35 bucks. I have plans for more power, but I need to get all the supporting mods out of the way before that can become a reality.


One of those mods will be these bad boys /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif. More go means you need more stop and I think these will clean up and do that job pretty well.


And the trailing arms that will let me keep the 4ws. (sorry my toes crept into the frame, I didn't have any room to back up /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif)


So maybe tomorrow I'll get some pictures of my pan/front case/driveshaft install... And lets hope I can have her back up and running by the weekend!

 

[SouthCaliVR4]

What are the trailing arms off of? Am I seeing drum parking brake?

 

[Whoodoo]

Second generation 3000gt vr4. Yes that is a drum parking brake. The reason why I did this was so I could use the rear two piston calipers from the 3kgt. There has been talk about people wanting to use the rear brakes because they are using the fronts but the problem with that is you would be getting rid of the parking brake. Ours is a mechanism in the rear caliper itself whereas the 3kgt has a drum.

RedTwo had success installing these trailing arms and, as I have already broke new ground installing evo X front struts (more on this later), I thought I would be one of the first to put 3kgt calipers all around as well. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hsugh.gif

 

[SouthCaliVR4]

Definetly want to hear how this works out.

 

Interesting^^ +1 on this!

 

[Whoodoo]

Unfortunately that might take a little while. In order to do the swap with a (so far) stock drivetrain and suspension, I'll need

1) a 4 bolt rear end because the 3kgt trailing arm is 4 bolt. Plus I want an LSD in there eventually anyways
2) a front 5 lug swap because these trailing arms are 5 lug already and it might look a little funny to be 5 lug out back and 4 lug up front
2.1) a set of 5 lug wheels. I'm currently selling the 4 lug wheels I bought last winter and will use the stocker until I have sold the old ones and bought some evos to use at first
3) custom brackets to mount the 2g front calipers on my gvr4 front hubs. TunersNation brackets are for 1g calipers and the 2g calipers I have will stick out too far with them
4) to sort out how my ABS works and how the 3kgt ABS works so that I keep that going - OR - just rip it out, but I'd rather try to keep it
5) to have the calipers bead blasted and powdercoated
6) to get stainless lines for the new set up because this is a go-big-or-go-home kind of job
7) to get new ball joints for the rear control arms because the GVR4's are smaller than the 3kgt VR4's
8) [I'm sure there is a few more things I've missed]

I'll also probably do wheel bearings and replace the brake fluid and maybe get a different master cylinder depending on how the pedal feels. So as you might see, it's not going to be ONLY as simple as bolting the trailing arms up. In fact, that may be the easiest part /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Whoodoo]

I got a bit of work done a few days ago. I got the bottom back together, mostly. I wasted about two hours because I thought I lost the bag with the oil filter housing bolts in it. Turns out it was with all the other bags of bolts and I had just missed it about twenty times.

Here's what the front case looks like with the race shaft in it.


Hooray for clean looking things!


The transfer case was really heavy and a pain to fill up.


And I looked back and never showed the damage to the valves. Needless to say, they are fubar.


I'll be getting the timing belt tools in on monday and I should have her running early next week! I'll also be doing a bit more write-up regarding the evo suspension. The evo X fronts bolt right up and as of right now it looks like it will make the car sit a tad lower without cutting any springs. Although, I made some comparison measurements with half the engine out of the car, so I'll have to wait until the engine bay is all buttoned up to know for sure.

 

[RedTwo]

Quoting Whoodoo:

4) to sort out how my ABS works and how the 3kgt ABS works so that I keep that going - OR - just rip it out, but I'd rather try to keep it




The GTO ABS ring has something like 40-ish teeth, where as the VR4 has 90-ish. Maybe you can look into the 1G? ABS ECU swap someone else did to keep ABS when you swap 1G? 5 stud hubs, but I have a feeling the GTO runs a completely different number of teeth to either of those.
You *could* swap the 3 bolt axle flanges on to them to keep the 3 bolt axles, you know, for reliability /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif

 

[Whoodoo]

I @#^*ing stripped one of the exhaust manifold threads in the head. I was torquing it down and it didnt even get to 10 ft-lb before it started spinning /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif. So I think I'm going to time-sert all of them so I don't have to worry about stripping them again...

I was hoping to get it fired up today but it looks like that will have to wait.

 

[Whoodoo]

OK, so I used the stripped-manifol- threads ordeal to get other little things done. I got all of the evo suspension in place. Now I just need to get everything back into the engine bay to see how low she sits. I think I have everything all hooked up as far as the wiring harness goes. I bought more MT90 for the trans which will be filled back up after I get the passenger drive shaft's CV boots all done.

Helpful hint:

If you are doing your CV boots and also want to replace the transmission drive shaft seals, I found a couple really good tools for doing so. The timing belt idler pulley is a perfect fit for the driver side seal while the passenger side seal fits perfectly around a 14b compressor backing plate. Couple the backing plate with a 30mm socket and ten inch 1/2 drive ratchet extension, and you have the perfect tool for tap tap tapping that sucker in. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Onto the pictures. Not too many today as most of the pictures I took today will be heading toward an evo X front strut install thread.

However, this is what I did today. Here is a rear evo 8 strut happy in its new home. Everything under the car is pretty dang filthy. Good thing its not rusty though! Sorry the exhaust hanger is in the way.


Yes, I know I have electrical tape and a zip tie to hold the brake line bracket in place. This will only be temporary because I'll go to stainless lines when I put in the 3kgt brakes and a better solution will be found.

And the other picture... stock exhaust woo! I tried to just drop the downpipe to do all this work, but the bolts were stuck so bad on the cat that I just decided to leave it whole. Doesn't look too bad for being almost 20 years old.


I had wanted to put timeserts in for all of the exhaust manifold stud holes, but it would cost me about 75 bucks to do so. So, I will be using a not quite as good but much cheaper alternative. Stay tuned.