1990 GGSX DD Edition

[1990GSXNA]

Well I just bought my GGSX a few weeks ago and I had to go right back down to Texas to finish up school. I still have a few months before I will be able to work on my car. As of right now I am compiling a list of maintenance and need to replace items. Its mainly tune up and replacing the valve cover gasket and a few other minor fixes, also I know it needs new front axles, and a good detail. I am also going to do a timing belt replacement, and am curious about doing the balance shaft elimination. I have read the vfaq and know the procedure how to do the elimination, but I’m confused about what do to with the rear balance shaft bearings. I will be getting a stubby shaft and leaving in the front shaft. What would I do with the rear shaft bearings? Would there be a build in oil pressure with doing this? And would this be harmful or fine on 210k motor? Should I even do this on my DD? I’ve read quite a bit on it and most people do this to get rid of one more rotating part that can fail, also get rid of the balance shaft belt that can also fail, both resulting in engine damage.

Are there any suggestions on what other maintenance I should do? Or should take a good look at?

I have plenty of time to continue to collect parts and be ready to throw them in once I get back up to Colorado Springs.

One more question I bought the EVO 8 suspension from LIV4PSI (Craig) and its not coming with the spacers to mount the fronts, is there anyone on here that sells them? Or should I have a machine shop to make me some? I can give them the dimensions from the EVO 8 suspension how to.

I only have these two pics of her as of right now, I can have my wife send me more pictures though.

 

[1990GSXNA]

A few things a forgot to add, the car is 100% (from what I've seen) stock even down to the original tape deck, also it has a manual transmission.
If you need any other info I'll try my best to give it to you, it sucks being hundreds of miles of way from your car!

 

[Spyke169]

Much of the concern with the balance shaft comes from the fact that it spins at twice the speed of the engine. So when guys are constantly talking the engine to near red line rpms the balance shaft is spinning at twice that speed, making it more likely to fail and get tangled in the timing belt. On a daily driver that you aren't going to beat on I would leave it in place. Especially if you want to keep the car bone stock.

If you still do want to eliminate it.to answer your question about the bearings,they need to be removed and reinstalled in a position that is rotated so the oil gallery holes are blocked as there is no longer a shaft there to be lubricated oil would simply be pumped back into the crank case.think of it as an internal leak that starves the rest of the engine of oil pressure.

 

[Spyke169]

Supercar-engineering. Com sells the spacers you are asking about. I was going to link you to them but can't get it to pull up on my phone right now.

Funny. My GGSX has the original dealership's sticker on the same place on the trunk lid. Haven't removed it because I'm sure there will be a distance in paint tone.

 

[Wolfpuss]

+1 on keeping your balance shafts.

I just did the timing belt on GGSX last weekend. Found that I was still running the original timing belt from the factory at 97k miles. I also found that my balance shaft belts were shredded in to pieces. The car runs great now and is a better DD compared to my VR4 without balance shafts.

Your car looks nice!

 

[1990GSXNA]

Quoting Spyke169:
Supercar-engineering. Com sells the spacers you are asking about. I was going to link you to them but can't get it to pull up on my phone right now.

Funny. My GGSX has the original dealership's sticker on the same place on the trunk lid. Haven't removed it because I'm sure there will be a distance in paint tone.



The only thing I see on that site, is stuff for the 3000GT, has the adapters for the rear struts, but not the spacers for the front it only has washers. click

This is what I am looking for!

Yea man I don't want to even touch that dealer sticker! It's probably going to be a huge color difference!

Quoting Spyke169:
Much of the concern with the balance shaft comes from the fact that it spins at twice the speed of the engine. So when guys are constantly talking the engine to near red line rpms the balance shaft is spinning at twice that speed, making it more likely to fail and get tangled in the timing belt. On a daily driver that you aren't going to beat on I would leave it in place. Especially if you want to keep the car bone stock.

If you still do want to eliminate it.to answer your question about the bearings,they need to be removed and reinstalled in a position that is rotated so the oil gallery holes are blocked as there is no longer a shaft there to be lubricated oil would simply be pumped back into the crank case.think of it as an internal leak that starves the rest of the engine of oil pressure.



So if I get the stubby shaft I would only have to remove and turn the front bearing? Because the balance shaft has an oil hole that feeds the rear bearing correct? So that one can be left alone? I'm just slightly confused about how the bearing work, mainly because I don't have an engine in a stand in front of me.

That is my biggest concern, the balance shaft belt failing. I do not plan on revving this motor to no end, and I also do want to mod it some nothing major, maybe cams lifters and an exhaust just to liven it up a little. And also I already have some Evo 8 suspenation bits that I am going to install, and I want to make it more aesthetically apealing with tint and also a new front bumper then of course new paint and wheels.

Quoting Wolfpuss:
+1 on keeping your balance shafts.

I just did the timing belt on GGSX last weekend. Found that I was still running the original timing belt from the factory at 97k miles. I also found that my balance shaft belts were shredded in to pieces. The car runs great now and is a better DD compared to my VR4 without balance shafts.

Your car looks nice!



From what I've read about balance shafts failing is that your very lucky the balance shaft belt didn't destroy your timing belt or anything! I just want to prevent that all together! I don't mind a little more vibrations! My last "car" was a 86 Isuzu P'up that was loud lowered and very shaky! Still loved that truck though wish I never had to sell it!

Thanks very much! It'll look a lot better soon...ish!

 

[LIV4PSI]

So now I know why I was confused. My parts car just used washers. That's why I had no chance of finding them. And those soacers look pretty easy to make, I doubt anywhere makes them to sell.

 

[prove_it]

Nope they were a copy of the stock VR4 strut ears. Custom made by the mad scientists here on the org.

 

[1990GSXNA]

Quoting LIV4PSI:
So now I know why I was confused. My parts car just used washers. That's why I had no chance of finding them. And those soacers look pretty easy to make, I doubt anywhere makes them to sell.



So I'd assume the washers were hardened, and how many were on each side of the mount? Buying a few washers is a lot more simple than trying to hack up my old struts or having to find someone to fab them for me.

 

[Spyke169]

Problem with washers is the evo shocks have larger mounting holes than the Galant.so you can drill out your steering knuckles and use evo bolts. Or get these I mentioned. When i first put the evo suspension on my dsm i hacked up the dsm ears to use as spacers, eyeballed what looked like 0 degrees camber and marked the position. After 100 miles or so i checked back. They had shifted. At that point i opted for the spacers from supercar engineering instead of drilling out the knuckle. Here is a link to the spacers click

You can get just the front, and chop and weld for the rears, or get both to make it a no welder bolt on affair.

 

[prove_it]

I drilled out my knuckles and used the evo bolts. I also ovaled out the lower strut bolt holes to allow more camber. This proved to be bad as they would slip on very hard corners and cause my camber to go positive. Also I attempted to use just one plate in the front ear. This too was bad, as during turning the wheel took on a little positive camber.

The outside of my tires are bald, when the inside is not. bad. I think drilling the knuckles helped a lot in maintaining the correct tension on the strut ears and knuckles though. I didn't like having the holes slotted though.

 

[LIV4PSI]

I didn't realize there was anything special about the front hardware when I remove them. His rears are already welded and ready to go though

 

[1990GSXNA]

Quoting Spyke169:
Problem with washers is the evo shocks have larger mounting holes than the Galant.so you can drill out your steering knuckles and use evo bolts. Or get these I mentioned. When i first put the evo suspension on my dsm i hacked up the dsm ears to use as spacers, eyeballed what looked like 0 degrees camber and marked the position. After 100 miles or so i checked back. They had shifted. At that point i opted for the spacers from supercar engineering instead of drilling out the knuckle. Here is a link to the spacers click

You can get just the front, and chop and weld for the rears, or get both to make it a no welder bolt on affair.



Have you had any issues with the spacers from supercar-engineering, such as the positive camber prove_it had? The mounts didnt need any modifications with the spacers from supercar-engineering? The spacers make this a bolt on affair for the front? The rears are already welded and ready to bolt in.

 

[Spyke169]

No. The issues he had were from the slotted hole allowing the bolt to move on hard corners. This is not an issue with the spacers, as you can see they have a step on them. The smaller diameter portion takes up the space in the larger diameter strut holes. The larger diameter part is what acts as a spacer. When installed the larger part of the spacer is against the steering knuckle. Using only a thicker spacer on one side changed the caster angle resulting in a greater camber angle and results in a more negative camber gain when cornering. The spacers from supercar center the steering knuckle in the strut base maintaining the caster angle.

Edit: Yes those spacers make it a bolt on affair. Alternatively drilling out the steering knuckle holes and not slotting anything makes it a bolt on affair as well. But you will then need evo bolts. FWIW I believe the evo bolts (versus galant camber bolts) allow for a degree or two more camber adjustment, not really an advantage of you are aligning to factory specs.

 

[prove_it]

The evo bolts do allow camber change, however it's a fixed change. The upper bolt can be turned 180 to change camber, not turned to fine tune the camber. I liked the Evo bolts mostly due to the fact they are bigger and can handle more torque. I was hoping it would stop the slipping, but with 235 wide tires and extremely hard cornering, they still slipped. Biggest issue I had with the evo struts was the lack of camber adjustment even with camber plates. No matter what I could not get over 1* negitive camber. The top hat would barely clear the body. With my evo coilovers though, this is not an issue anymore. (I used Evo coilovers since I got a hella deal on some JICs)

 

[1990GSXNA]

Awesome, these spacers are definetly the route I'm going to go. The camber isn't really a big deal because the EVO suspension I am getting has camber plates so I will be able to adjust the camber to where I would like.

 

[prove_it]

Like I said, there is a limit since the factory top hats will hit the body. Don't be surprised if you can't get over 1*.

 

[LIV4PSI]

He doesn't have factory top hats. He has Hotbits camber plates

 

[prove_it]

I know that, but the top spring plate diameter is huge. Unless he has ground controls, then your camber range is limited.

 

[LIV4PSI]

Gotcha, sorry for my confusion. OP, FedEx emailed and said they arrived this morning /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif