suggestions to restore a vr4

[fongvr4]

I am a newbie to vr4, although I knew about vr4 long time ago, and always want to own one. Now, I finally had opportunity to own one. this one is a 92 model. it is just a shell with NO engine, tranny, driveshaft. well I am not even sure the engine harness is still there. body and interior are in pretty good condition. so, where do I start? first thing I need to figure out is where to find the engine/tranny/driveshaft etc.

what are my options for engine/tranny/drive shaft? Do I need US spec one? or JDM? the same year? or newer model, or from different car, like V6 VR4?

BTW, How much would it cost me to restore it?

or should I start with some thing easier? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[turbowop]

It'll probably cost m0ar than a dollar to restore...but less than a million. Good luck.

 

[Muskrat]

With no expirience with the car, or DSM's, and I'm guessing not a whole lot of technical automotive knowledge (going by the, "if you have to ask" rule). I'd say find a running one and learn on that. There'll be plenty to do without trying to put it together and diagnose problems when not in any way familiar with the vehicle.

 

[Barnes]

If it is *only* lacking the drive train and nothing else, it wouldn't be that hard. However once you start missing things like subframes, wiring hardness, etc it gets hard. Especially as you will be missing hardware and with lack of experience don't know where things go.

Any pics of the shell?

 

[moduleunknown]

Not bad timing though as there are a few GVR4's being parted out in the for sale section right now.

 

[fongvr4]

Thanks for all the replies.

I don't see anyone is selling the engine/tranny/.

I have some experience working on other cars. I used to have a conquest. the underhood is pretty much gone, not even power steering column. the car can roll, but can not turn. the differential is there. ECU is there. The front is sitting on two half shafts. that is all.

what are my options on engines? or good place to get JDM engine/tranny? I saw ebay has some, but those are for later model.

thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worthy.gif

 

[Muskrat]

Besides the drive shaft being a different length, drivetrain is the same as a 91-92.5 dsm. (6 bolt 4g63 (90-92.5), 91+ style trans). Stock the VR4 had 4 wheel steering, but the system tends to leak after all these years, and causes some interesting driving during high speed corners (it activates after 30mph for highway lane change assist). This had a pump driven off the rear diff, which was an open 3-bolt dif. Many eliminate the 4ws and swap to a 3 or 4 bolt lsd dif from a 5spd 1g dsm.

The 4g63 is a stronger motor than the 6a13tt that came in the later VR4's. It takes very well to bolt-on's, and is pretty much bullet-proof. No need to swap. If you want torque build a 2.3 stroker, or use a 4g64 (2.4L) block with a 4g63 head. There's plenty of info about that on this site. Use the search function (there's a good how-to search in the stickies)

 

Well if the car is a shell the first place I'd start is fresh paint. Then source a dsm steering rack (no 4ws), remove all the 4ws lines that go to the rear, remove rear 4ws stuff, pump, rack etc. Then I'd source an engine. You can get a jdm motor, talk to Garfield Wright on here I think he has good connections. Then find a trans and t-case and start putting her back together. Use the tech and how to section as most of your questions will be answered by searching there.

To search efficiently you put a + sign in front of the word, for example: +thermostat.

Good luck.

 

[DR1665]

Good advice in this thread, but I'd go with what ^^^ said. If you've got a bare shell, strip it down to the bare bones. Pull the glass and interior bits, then sand it down, fix the dents, and get it painted. In the end, a fast GVR4 is a lot of fun, but I think having a slower car that looks like a '10' is more enjoyable.

You're going to need a powertrain; engine, trans, driveshaft, and so on. Find any early AWD DSM (Eclipse, Talon, Laser) within the date range mentioned above and start scooping up parts. If you can get it all installed, you can get it all running, imo.

 

[fongvr4]

wow, lot of helps. I know I will need to do lot of readings. but quick answers will help me make my decision quicker and better, cuz I am a newbie.

1)why do I need to remove all 4WS? is it better without it? without AWD, then VR4 is not so special, just like a turboed normal galant, is it?
2)are those powertrain from eclipse, talon, laser interchangable to galant VR4? any good online information to list such information. it will be alot easier to find engine/tranny/drive shaft off eclipse/talon/laser than to find a VR4.

thanks

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Muskrat]

Quoting fongvr4:
1)why do I need to remove all 4WS? is it better without it? without AWD, then VR4 is not so special, just like a turboed normal galant, is it?



Quoting Muskrat:
Stock the VR4 had 4 wheel steering, but the system tends to leak after all these years, and causes some interesting driving during high speed corners (it activates after 30mph for highway lane change assist)



Also, Four Wheel Steering is not All Wheel Drive.

And the VR4 was unique for Turbo and 4WS, not AWD. Galant GSX was also AWD. There was no other turbo Galant for this generation.

Quoting fongvr4:
2)are those powertrain from eclipse, talon, laser interchangable to galant VR4? any good online information to list such information. it will be alot easier to find engine/tranny/drive shaft off eclipse/talon/laser than to find a VR4.



Quoting Muskrat:
Besides the drive shaft being a different length, drivetrain is the same as a 91-92.5 dsm. (6 bolt 4g63 (90-92.5), 91+ style trans). [...] Many eliminate the 4ws and swap to a 3 or 4 bolt lsd dif from a 5spd 1g dsm.



No offense, but did you read my post?

 

[boostedinaz]

I agree with Mike and Brian. If it is already taken aprart that far go all the way and make it very nice. One of these days I will pick up a GVR4 and pull every little nut and bolt apart and make it crazy clean.

 

[raptorWagon]

We're talking about the 4 Wheel Steering system not the AWD ability. Some people choose to keep theirs intact if all the lines are in good shape, however in a lot of cases the lines rust out and start leaking all your powersteering fluid out, creating a big headache until you remove it. As everyone else has mentioned, a 91-94 dsm transmission will interchange, the driveshaft on the other hand is too short (mainly the center section of the 3 piece driveshaft). The driveshaft is going to have to come from a VR4, our cars overall bigger than a dsm, remember your car has 4 doors and a trunk. You will need a 6 bolt 4G63T motor which can be found on a 90-92.5' year DSMs, 92.5-94 are 7 bolts (number of bolts dictated at on the flywheel). Halfway through 92' is when they switched over to the 7 bolt blocks, thus why we say up and from 92.5' for which cars had which numbers.

A few of the parts you can get off a DSM, just to name some.
Front/Rear Suspension (subframes, control arms, trailing arms, spindles, etc)
Rear Diffs
Axles
Steering Rack - Manual or Power
2 Piston front brake calipers found on 93-99 DSMs
Transmissions - However, the trans came with two output shaft spline counts, 90' DSMs and some 91 GVR4s came with 22 spline transmissions, the rest with 23 splines. In which case you are going to need the matching transfer case with that transmission. You will want the 23 spline as it is known to be stronger than the 22 spline.

 

[fongvr4]

Muskrat, thanks for the replies. I read all the suggestions. I don't understand some of them as I am still learning all the new terms, such as 1g, DSM,(don't laught). just need to be patient with me. I am trying to learn.

So, if I can reuse some parts(engine, tranny etc) from 91-93 DSM, then should I just go get a running eclipse GSX as part car to restore the VR4. would that be easier or cheaper?

any one done that before?

thanks

 

[nickbuilt]

buy a 90-93 t,e,l for a parts car thats what i did but if you never messed with dsms before good luck also if your on a budget prepare to spend alot of money i built mine and i am alot of money in the whole!


-nick

 

[fongvr4]

will the ecu, engine harness from 90-93 eclipse/talon/RS work for 92 VR4?

thanks again for all the helpful information.

 

[ApexHunter]

Quoting fongvr4:
So, if I can reuse some parts(engine, tranny etc) from 91-93 DSM, then should I just go get a running eclipse GSX as part car to restore the VR4. would that be easier or cheaper?




It is important to understand that 92.5 is the cutoff for a suitable donor engine from a DSM. If the car has a build date later than May of 1992, it's pretty much guaranteed to have the 7 bolt engine. Some cars built in May 1992 have a 7 bolt, some have a 6 bolt. Make sure and do a visual inspection before purchasing a parts car to determine this, regardless of build date, as you never know what you will find these days since so many of these cars have been modified. You can learn how to identify the engine here --> click me

 

[broxma]

The overwhelming majority of the parts on my GVR4 came off of junkyard DSM's. The head, rear diff, trailing arms, shocks, bushing kit, steering rack, front spindles, rear spindles, rear subframe, etc. About the only original parts on the car are the tranny and the block. The majority of the block and head are rebuilt using Evo parts, Evo pistons, valves, springs, caps, locks. I even have Evo springs on my 1G struts. I am currently waiting for the Evo 8 ECU I just ordered to show up so I can convert it over to OBDII and tune through the factory ECU.

There is a remarkable amount of interchangeability between all the 4G63 powered cars, some parts you wouldn't expect in many cases. Don't limit your search to just the GVR4 forums, you can find parts on DSMtuners, EvoM, and any major DSM sites. Also remarkable is that many of the DSM NT 4g63 parts are essentially the same, in some cases arguably better, the NT cams having .010 higher lift for example or NT throttle bodies. In addition, the 4G(63) was not exclusively used by Mitsu and was farmed out to Hyundai. Many early and mid 90's model Hyundais have various parts that work on DSM's, valve covers, throttle bodies, etc.

If you have a pick-n-pull or decent U-Pull-It junkyard near you, you should be able to rebuild any 4g63 powered car in the world for pennies on the DSM dollar. The body parts are Galant specific but base model parts are generally identical. I have spent about 200.00 on my interior and all of it is out of base model Galants, 90-93. Headlights, plastic trim, buttons and switches, radio mounts and bezels.

If you can get a running GSX under 1K I would say go that direction. If you plan on rebuilding the motor anyway, go as cheap as possible and don't worry about the condition of the motor except that it doesn't have a rod through the block or something along those lines.

/brox