Introduction of New owner of #708/2000 1991 GVR4

I just bought "Paula", looks like there is a wealth of knowledge here. I've been around a lot of cars (and forums), from a lot of makes, done plenty of maintenance stuff, done lots of head gaskets with DOHC set ups, and rebuilt lots of bottom ends on military engines. I'm a mechanical engineer and love to tinker. We're installing a nice Bridgeport II CNC mill at my place now, and will soon have pretty good welding and some fabrication capabilities. The shop will be slow coming as everyone involved has full time "day jobs". I've got lots of other hobbies - MX, SuperMoto, sport bikes, WRC, politics, hobby farming (goats, chickens, gardening) and have 2 kids and a wonderful wife.

My goals with "Paula" are as follows:
reliability... she has quite a bit of maintenance stuff that needs to be taken care of. Shifter bushings, adjusting cables etc. Sounds like she has had all the fluids replaced remotely recently. The front rotors are warped, so that will be a quick project as well. Has new pads already, hopefully those aren't beat to death from the warpage... Tires are OK, but I would like to have a matching set of the gnarliest snow focused all season tires I can find. I ride the sport bike from March till thanksgiving. Paula will be more of a "rally inspired commuter". Some small HP improvements maybe coming her way. I'm thinking the 14B is probably on it's last legs (puffs a little after sitting at idle). May go Evo III 16g and go for a nice, clean easy tune. injectors, fuel pump, and dual stage boost controller. I'll leave it at the 16g oem wastegate psi, and maybe shoot for 15 psi on the high pressure setting. She's already got a 3" turbo back... I don't need more than 300 hp for a a winter daily driver.

I need to get the hood and fenders fixed, and locate a grill insert and a passenger side OEM fog light.

Interior is pretty good, I'll pry just treat the leather several times a month (seems like the leather is starting to dry out) until all the seams loosen up some.

 

[GSX_TC]

Hey I remember that car. Take care of her man and welcome aboard

Also, nice SVX in the backround /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

eh that pic was from the guy I bought it from lol... So SVX = someone I have never known lol... I'll get some better pics of her before and after. I always like to take pics of the cars I buy in the "as found" condition then when they get sold I take pics of the "as left".

 

[GSX_TC]

yeah thats always a good idea, that way you can show the progress you make starting from there on

 

Yahoo! Paula is back!

I actually bought it from the guy who sold it to you, fixed up a few things, bought a motorcycle and then resold it back to the guy who I bought it from. I'll leave you with a few comments:

1) It's "Slutty Paula", not just Paula
2) Please leave the pedobear on the back, it adds character
3) Like that valve cover? Yup that was my first attempt at powdercoating a vc
4) That svx is my old roommates car haha
5) When I checked, the turbo had absolutely zero shaft play and there were basically no boost leaks
6) Could probably clean up the idle if you did a vfaq search for BISS adjustment
7) I have an evo8 fmic I'd sell ya in you're interested

enjoy her man!
click

 

according to that post it says it has a 16g on it already, are you sure?, I do like the powder coating, except the vaccum fitting on the passenger side is loose, and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to seal that up, I'm thinking I may pull it out, then use like a tapered pinto tap the fitting trying to enlarge the end just a hair. That should give it a tighter fit I hope. That should take care of 75% of the oil missing problems.

I need to watch someone else drive the car, the smoke that is blowing is hard to see from the driver's seat. It's possible it's a rich fuel puff... I'll get a better eyeball on that and see if it's fuel or oil. If it's burning oil I hope it's turbo...

As for "slutty" paula, that's fine, I don't mind sloppy seconds when it comes to cars, actually generally the sloppier the cheaper they are /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I Plan on doing maintenance, and a few tweaks and just thrashing her anyway. Maybe do some auto crossing, maybe some rally crossing, and just over all using her on any gravelly wet nasty road I can find on my way to work and when going to the "grandparents house" (my parents). I'm thinking I pry won't replace fenders now, maybe I'll pull them and try to gently beat out the dent and spray bomb it.

As for the FMIC eh that's just more frontal area of sensitive components to get pummeled by rocks... I've got a K&N coming for it, and a better quality manual boost controller. I think I have an old boost control solenoid from a sunbird turbo, so I may put the manual boost controller in one channel, and then straight to the waste gate on the other channel. Then I can pick between low/high boost settings for gas mileage.

And I dunno about the bear... I don't know if "slutty" paula can do "cutesy"... It's just too stripper-esque...

Idle actually isn't that terrible, once it's good and warm it hunts MAYBE 100-200 rpm... Except for cool down before turning off i try not to sit at idle any longer than I have to. And this is small town Iowa so it's not like I sit in traffic for 2 hours each way to work...

 

haha I should read furhter it is 14B turbo /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[AnotherNewb]

Quoting GSX_TC:
nice SVX /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif



Oxymoron /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

argh! Paula didn't want to get out of bed this morning and it was only 55, so much for a reliable winter stead... Gonna have help "slutty paula" grow up to reliable-early riser-slutty-milf or something to that affect... I think first things first I'm going to try to figure out what was done to the vac system, there are multiple solenoids that are un vac lined...

Does anyone have a good vaccuum diagram?

 

found one. So basically don't need anything under the hood vac wise. I think I'll be doing the catch can shortly and PCV delete. I may buy some new silicone vac line also... Just to make sure that isn't the issue... THEEEEEEEN I think I'll be suspecting the caps on the ECU /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

Wow... She is completely dead in the water, it wasn't the cold or the early morning... she has spark and it apears to be rythmic with engine cycles so since it was running I'll have to assume that isn't the issue.

I guess I'll see if I can get some fuel inter her somewhere and if that gives momentary life I'm lacking fuel in the equation. Since the damn door chime is so loud it's hard to listen for a fuel pump priming I'll have to see if i can get a buddy to listen while I hit the key...

It's pry time for an upgrade anyway. While I'm at it i'll stick a new fuel filter on too.

Any other maintenance stuff that I should check on while I'm replacing stuff?

 

Battery dead? Only reason I ask is because the car struggled to start for me once and I swapped batteries with my other car and it started. Make sure the ground has a good connection.

 

It's got an optima red top, connections are good and cranks like a champ. It's super sweet that the fuel pump is so easy to get to! I pulled the cover in the trunk off and had the wife hit the key nothing... I opened up the top of the fuel filter while she hit the key... Nothing... I replace the fuel filter... Nothing. I check voltage on th black w/ white wire 11V while cranking, 0v when key is released. So pretty much fuel pump is dead, unless there is something else I should check. In the mean time I've got a walbro 190 and a FPR coming for it. My guess is that the vanes in the pump stuck or something like that. It doesn't seem likely that an electrical coil broke.

Hopefully that pump and FPR will be here in the next couple days and I'll give an update. Also I pick up a nice XS MBC. I'll bump boost somewhere near 12ish. Then I'm working on sourcing a transmisssion also. Pry send mine in to get rebuilt to avoid all the stupid 22/23 spline ridiculous discussions...

 

[Galactica]

Hey welocme to the site. Sorry to hear about your issues...I've been having some of my own as well! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif Mine sat for almost 5 years and I've been bringing her back to life. I LOVE the car though! You will too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

Than you! man can't wait for that pump to get here...

 

muwahahahahahhaaaaa She lives again. Though I will say that the standard DSM pump inlet is rotated 180 degrees from the outlet when compared to the galant fuel pump... Took a little rigging to get that sorted out. The fuel lab FPR from extreme PSI went in Really well. Bumped boost to 15 psi runs pretty good. I'm going to get some parts from a VR4 that's being parted out in Chicago this weekend, including a transmission. there is a possibility that this one has been rebuilt remotely recently so that *should* take care of my issues. It will be a week or 2 before I can shove in the tranny though...

 

[dsmkid]

Awesome to hear she's alive again. I have a grill ill sell ya if your still looking. Its nile and off my 92. Its just the grill, doesnt come with the inside "fins". lmk.

 

I found some cheapo, non-mitsu, chrome grill that looks like it will work. Found out the upper radiator support is a bit more bunged up than I originally thought... So I might even leave the banged up hood and fenders on it... My luck i'll get new ones and they won't bolt up and I'll have to do a ton of radiator support work to get all that lined up. I'm thinking get the drivetrain squared away and just drive the wheels off of it.

 

[minneSNOWta]

Welcome. Did you get this car from Duluth, MN? I think mine might be the only other one up there now. I see that you are into gardening. Any favorite plants? Good luck on getting Paula into shape.

 

lol gardening is for food I LOVE a garden FRESH Tomato and Broccoli from the garden is UNBEATABLE! Other than that I'm pretty fascinated by hedge trees whose wood is one of the hardest natural to the US and is a great fuel source (almost same energy content as coal) as well as for making stuff.

As for Paula she has a serious black eye at the moment... Parked her at work came out after words and she had left a HUGE oil slick under neath of her... Pretty sure the front main failed...

And the guy I bought it from came out of Fargo, SD so I'm not really sure but think that's up near Duluth...