Street Build: 1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

[Dyesuperman]

This is the build for my 1995 GSX. Before I begin talking about it though, a little history might bring the build together more. Lets start with my former car.

I was in love with my red 1995 GST and planned on keeping it and doing the AWD swap because I hated FWD. I bought all of the swap parts except for the transmission. I started collecting parts like fuel setup, turbo, ecmlink, etc. It was super clean for having 190,000 miles on it and ran perfect. Never had a problem with it the whole time I owned it. It had a few bolt-ons but nothing major done to it.

Here it is shortly before I sold it



What it looked like when it left my house



Sometimes I think I should have just kept that car and done the AWD swap but then I consider how much I like the GSX and I change my mind..Now, a little about the GSX since that is what this build thread is even for.

A local guy owned the GSX and I knew a little about it from friends and such. 50 trim turbo, cams, gram lights, lowered, looks amazing, etc. Well one night sitting at Hooters, a friend mentioned that the guy is trying to sell it and I immediately became interested. When I got the guys number I never really thought that a week later I would own a new car. Talked to the guy that night and got the low-down on the car. 1995 GSX with 115,000 miles and a fairly new paint job. It had been sitting for a good while and was recently moved to the guy’s friend’s house because it was about to get towed from the place it had been at. I went to look at it on a snowy day, the car was covered in snow and sure enough it wouldn’t even start. He said the e85 was probably bad since it had been sitting so long. The front bumper was taped on and there was barely any interior in the car. Inside was trashed, no headliner, carpet, nothing. Had an aftermarket sunroof in an original hard top car (Probably the most saddening thing about the whole car). The turbo had no filter on it and therefore had some shaft play and the HID wiring was a mess. None of this bothered me though; I was infatuated with the car for some reason. I should have just walked away then but I couldn’t, I wanted the car. Now you may be asking yourself why I was stupid enough to buy this car, let alone pay $4500 for it. Well, because underneath all of its problems, it had a good amount of cash in it, with many of the parts on it things that I already had and could then sell and make back my money.

Here is what was on the car when I bought it:
Turbonetics T3 50 Trim Turbo (Already had H1C)
Turbonetics T3 Manifold
Custom 5-bolt O2 Housing
3” Turbo-back Exhaust
1050cc FIC Injectors (Already had 1200cc RC Injectors)
Aeromotive AFPR (Already had)
255 Walbro Fuel Pump (Already had)
Gram Light 57c wheels (Had wheels on the GST)
Tokico Blue Shocks and Springs (Had Tein SS Coilovers on the GST)
HKS 272 Cams
Greddy FMIC (Had a VRSF FMIC)
Greddy BOV
Ecmlink V3 (Just bought, came in 2 days before I bought the GSX)
Speed Density Setup
Double Synchro 1-2 by Jacks Transmission
ACT 2600 PP (Already had same PP)
ACT Street Disk (Already had Southbend Clutch)
Rebuilt Head 10k ago
1G CAS
AEM Uego Wideband
Autometer Boost Gauge
Shaved spoiler, wiper, and antenna

I think that pretty much covers the majority of parts on it when I bought it. I sold my nearly stock 190k mile GST for $4,000 and bought the 115k mile GSX with mods for $4500. As you can see, I had quite a few spare parts and ending up selling some to recuperate my money. I then sold Ecmlink w/ ECU ($525), the Greddy FMIC ($250), and 255 Walbro Fuel Pump ($55) for a total of $850 which covered the difference in the car price and the taxes on the GSX. I then had a spare clutch, AFPR, all awd parts, and turbo. I swapped out the suspension from the GST to the GSX and then bought stock wheels to sell with the GST so I could keep my aftermarket wheels. So began the journey of fixing the numerous problems with the GSX and greatly increasing my knowledge of DSMs.

*I do want to note that my plans have changed while I have owned this car, and I think you will be able to see the direction I am going with it. I want it to be different than most other DSMs...not something just to go fast but to look good while doing it. I have also recently decided that at this time in my life (this being my only form of transportation), I don't need something that has partial weight loss at the cost of losing comfort parts. This is the reasoning behind adding a few things at the most current part of this build thread.


Table of Contents

February 13, 2011 – Getting the car
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
February 16, 2011 – FMIC and fuel replacements
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
February 17, 2011 – Coilovers on and newly found rebuilt head
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
February 23, 2011 – Current Pictures and Lean Issue Fixed
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

March 2, 2011 – Broken Exhaust Housing Bolts
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
March 20, 2011 - 2.4 Block, Rods, and Bearings
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

May 3, 2011 – Head Studs, Wideband Woes, First Track Times
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
May 6, 2011 - HD Lip and Exterior Photoshoot
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
May 7, 2011 – Painted calipers, wiring cleanup, fuel pump rewire
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
May 23, 2011 - Pictures!
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
May 27, 2011-New downpipe needs modified
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

June 25, 2011 - Carpet in, wastegate checked
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

July 6-22, 2011 – Saturn alternator swap, car troubles, and track passes
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
July 24, 2011 – Cam gears, quick release bumper kit, video from track
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
July 30, 2011-August 4, 2011 – Evo Brakes bought and in
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

August 9, 2011 – Hit and Run
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
August 17, 2011 – Evo Brake Install
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

September 2, 2011 – Photoshoot
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

Mid October, 2011 – Clutch install and track times
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
October 27, 2011 – Hit and run…again. Old wheel test fit with brembos
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

November 18, 2011 – Moved. Black interior, vented hood, misc acquired
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
November 29, 2011 – Stripping the vented hood
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

December 30, 2011 – Parts hoarding, master/slave cylinder replaced and no cutting required intake ducting
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

January 3, 2012 - Road trip over the holidays
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
January 4, 2012 – Black Interior Install
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
January 6, 2012 – Removed wheel spacers, solid carrier bushings, solid motor mount
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
January 11, 2012 – More work on the hood
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
January 12, 2012 – Snow Pictures
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
January 20, 2012 – Turbonetics Housing Machined for Holset
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
January 23, 2012 – Little bit of hood work and fog light bezels in
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
January 30, 2012 – Holset rebuilt, Downpipe wrapped, AC parts going in, and mud flaps acquired
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

February 3, 2012 – Made a fan shroud
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
February 8, 2012-February 10, 2012 – Aerocatch hood latches in, oil pressure gauge installed, cigarette lighter relocated
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
February 20, 2012 – Holset is on
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

March 20-27, 2012 – Pulling the motor and transmission
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
April 22, 2012 – Finally dipped into the 11s
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

June 24, 2012 - Prep for the S3 Magazine Shoot
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

July 14, 2012 - A/C Install
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
July 14, 2012 - Car Show Trip
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
July 22, 2012 - Hood is finally on
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

August 11, 2012 - Broken pressure plate, new clutch in
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

September 16, 2012 - BLT, E85 goo, and goodies (and car hit...again)
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

November 30, 2012 - S3 Magazine feature and recent pics
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

December 23, 2012 - New crankcase pressure evac setup (ie-new valve cover)
1995 GSX Build - Journey to a 450awhp daily driver

[95eclipser]

subscribed!!!!

[Dyesuperman]

February 13, 2011 – Getting the car
The night I got it home…almost

The guy was bringing it to me and it got a flat. Awesome. So, we decided that he would buy a new tire for it but I didn't feel comfortable putting just one new tire on an awd, so I decided to buy two...or four. The lady at firestone did her job well; I bought 4 new tires with road hazard warranty and a lifetime alignment (which I had on my old GST).
245/45/17 doesn't seem to fit very well...


So, added 3mm spacers and solved that problem
Finally get it home after the whole tire fiasco and begin the work.

Just to give you an idea of the interior when I bought it…



I worked on getting interior back in the car by searching craiglist and found someone parting out a 2g talon so I went and got most of the interior parts I needed. The HID wiring was terrible as I said before so I cleaned that up. The front bumper was hanging on with very little tape so I just went ahead and took it off.

Now I made a few goals to be done on the car when I first started posting the build…let’s see which ones I actually completed.

To be continued in build thread: This week
Completed interior (Swap my black interior in along with seats) – Fail, swapped in seats and center console and that’s it.
Fix oil leak – Didn’t get it within a week but tried, turned out to be the oil return for the turbo.
Fix coolant leak (I think there is one?) – I honestly don’t remember if there was a coolant leak
Clean up under the hood and conceal some wires and sensors – Did do this, along with relocating the battery.
Replace shifter assembly with the one from my gst – Did it
Change oil and refill coolant – Did it
Get IAT bung welded on my VRSF fmic and put it on in place of the greddy fmic – Did it
Put bumper back on – Of course I did this
Put on end cap – Finally got this done months after owning the car
Wash the damn thing – Did it immediately
Swap over the coilovers from my gst – Did it because the GST had to go
Put on camber kit and possibly replace upper knuckle bushing – Put camber kit on but still haven’t replaced the upper knuckle bushing
Swap out radios between the gst and gsx – Done, the one in the GSX was ancient


Later on: Within a month or two depending on how much my gst sells for and how quickly
Put on my complete fuel setup that I bought for my GST. (-6 AN line from tank to filter, to rail, to fpr, then stock return line) – Nailed it
Change all fluids in drivetrain – Couple months later this was done…except for the rear diff
Fix gas leak (Can't fill above half a tank or it leaks) – Had to fix this, gas leaks are annoying and dangerous
Fix exhaust leaks (Gaskets are bad) – Took off catback, problem solved
Get it tuned – Most definitely…car probably wouldn’t even be running right now if I hadn’t

Reeaallyy later on: Whenever I get around to it/get money/something blows up/decide to go faster
Build 2.4 bought from previous owner – On hold
Put on either hx35 or hx40 – Putting on my H1C
Get new downpipe – Finally done, the old one was crap
Do a custom catback like on my gst (I loovveedd the sound) – Actually did within a couple weeks. Basically take out the muffler and put two tips on to make it look like stock.

[dsmtwins2g]

Nice,it's similar to my 2g that I awd swapped

Untitled by Josh865214, on Flickr

[Dyesuperman]

February 16, 2011 – FMIC and fuel replacements

Since the previous owner said that the E85 was bad in it, one of the first things I did was drain out the old E85 and replace all of the fuel lines. The car would barely run and I couldn’t even think of going WOT without going lean, so I was hoping this would fix it.


Drained the e85, replaced all fuel lines with -6AN lines and replaced the fuel filter.


Put new e85 in and it runs much better, although something is still off. It goes waayyy too lean anywhere close to WOT, so either the fuel pump is dying, the fpr is messed up, or the leak directly in front of the wideband sensor is causing it to read lean…highly unlikely but I was hoping that this was the cause

There is also a leak somewhere that I need to find, I think it is the seal around the fuel sending unit but not sure.

Today I took off all of the old fmic setup (Greddy with the ghey piping)


And am replacing it with this (VRSF)



Got the iat sensor bung welded into the throttle body elbow


And thats as far as I got today. Only a few more things to do and I can bolt the new fmic on. Plans for tomorrow are to swap suspension, get an alignment and finish putting on the fmic.

[pos4g63]

Nice build, does this car eventually become the car in your sig. You have one of the nicest cars the pics that were in the calander are awesome.

[Dyesuperman]

Originally Posted by pos4g63

Nice build, does this car eventually become the car in your sig. You have one of the nicest cars the pics that were in the calander are awesome.

Sure does, and thank you!



February 17, 2011 – Coilovers on and newly found rebuilt head
Swapped out my coilovers from the gst




I use my parking lot very well...and the cement blocks and pieces of wood

Also finished up the fmic as well, had to do some trimming to the front of the car though


This is the test fit before the bumper goes on and before I fixed a few fitment issues



I changed the valve cover gasket thinking that may have been where the oil leak I spoke of earlier was coming from..but it wasn't...I did find a nice surprise though


Apparently the head was rebuilt by the previous owner of the previous owner, or in other words it is fairly new and clean as hell! I wondered why there was no lifter tick. But even though I was happy about that I still have a damn leak from somewhere. I will probably drop the oil pan and replace the gasket to see if that could be the problem (I just changed the oil with synthetic…what a waste).

Got an alignment today but didn't take any pictures since it was kind of cold outside, but I hope to have some tomorrow! Looks amazing to me, even lower than my gst with some nice fat tires on it, can't even fit a finger between the fender and tire

[sypherzero]

Gorgeous! What wheels are these? And excellent work on the GSX so far!

[Dyesuperman]

Originally Posted by sypherzero

Gorgeous! What wheels are these? And excellent work on the GSX so far!

Thanks they are Work Emotion CR-Kai lookalikes, Drag DR-31 to be specific. A knock-off of a knock-off haha.





February 23, 2011 – Current Pictures and Lean Issue Fixed

Finally got it cleaned up some, but even then it still looked pretty rough. I was happy with it though, it was making progress. It was brought to my attention that the projectors looked like crap and the previous owner didn’t swap them out with 2gb headlights, so the bumper didn’t even fit right. Another thing to add to the list to fix. Also notice the tape from where the bumper was taped on…and the missing end cap :fail







Way more exciting than the exterior pictures though, I fixed the lean issue!

GREAT Update, I think I fixed the lean issue I have been having. I noticed the fuel pressure was low earlier today (about 41 when it is supposed to be 43.5) so I decided I would raise it some, which led me to taking out the fpr...which led me to deciding to put in another one I had lying around which had an electric gauge so I could monitor in car. I don't know whether it was the gauge or making sure the fuel pressure was right but I went onto elm to see if it would go lean again and it did NOT! Afr was a little bit lean but not too bad, I was too excited to check anything else.  

[Alex7747]

looking good so far

[Dyesuperman]

March 2, 2011 – Broken Exhaust Housing Bolts

Put my car on stands to drop the oil pan and try and find/fix the oil leak and figured while I was at it I would fix the broken bolt in the turbo exhaust housing...



It didn't work out too well as you can tell...THREE more bolts broke off in the housing, making that FOUR bolts that are broken off in there. FML, I planned to drill them out myself and use an extractor to get them out but the extractor broke off too. I ended up taking it to a small shop in a very small town and he got them all out for 30 bucks

[95eclipser]

5 bolt housings are my least favorite. They always seem to be the ones that i broke studs off in.

keep the pics coming.

Drew

[Dyesuperman]

March 20, 2011 - 2.4 Block, Rods, and Bearings

Finally got the 4g64 2.4 block from the previous owner. Got the block, manley long rods, acl main bearings, and rod bearings for $450. Hell of a deal if you ask me. If I get some money back from school I will begin on putting it together asap. (It still hasn’t been put together…) I think I am going to go with a 9:5:1 compression ratio since it will be on e85. Anyways, here are some pics

[Dyesuperman]

May 3, 2011 – Head Studs, Wideband Woes, First Track Times


Well I kind of slacked off when I first started doing the build so I don’t have pictures for a few things that I did…Without further ado though, here is where the car was at the time.


A 50 trim that hits full spool at 4700rpm is messed up. So this led me to hunting down every little thing that could be causing it. First things first, I got a local to tune it for me. Ran much better afterwards but I didn't get a chance to fix some issues before he did it. After the tune and learning about my spool issue, I fixed an exhaust leak that we thought could be the cause. Tore everything out and replaced all of the turbo gaskets and painted the manifold while it was out. Also unhooked my mbc to see if it could be the cause and that wasn't it either. Well it didn't fix the issue but I decided to hit the track anyways after he had tuned it and ran a 13.3@105 with a 1.9 60' as my best run, which can be improved greatly. I learned a lot from the runs as when I popped the hood, a local and I noticed that the coolant overflow was completely full...so I was pushing some coolant. This could explain why I kept losing ALL boost between shifts, which took more time off of my run to build the boost back up. I know now that it is a bad turbo, but at the time it seemed a logical conclusion. The head studs did help it though.


So I got it home and ordered head studs immediately. I have seen some success with replacing one stock bolt with one head stud at a time so I did it to see if it would work. It helped, but I was still pushing coolant into the overflow. My last resort for the cause of pushing coolant was my radiator cap, which turned out to be bad! Well, that's if the guy who tested it at autozone did it right...he seemed a little confused about how to test it. So anyways, I got a 1.1 bar evo radiator cap and threw it on and I don't believe I have pushed coolant since then, haven't checked or drove much though.

Next things to do are test the wastegate and check the turbo. I am going to check the turbo later today to see if it is spinning at idle and continues to spin after I shut the car off. If it doesn't spin with either, turbo is likely bad…which would really ruin my day. Hopefully I can test the wastegate this weekend if the turbo checks out. If neither of them are bad I am going to be extremely confused and lost as to what is up with this car.

Also some random things that have happened since that last update. The wiring for my wideband got caught in the steering column and ripped it in half and shorted out something. Spent a couple hours replacing the AEM with a LC1 thinking the gauge was bad and turns out it was the sensor. So got a new wideband sensor for it as well. Bought rit dye for my carpet and picked up a headliner while I was visiting my dad in Arkansas, so interior should be coming together sometime soon. I am hoping I can get everything fixed before the next Midnight drags but only time will tell.

Sadly no pictures of any of the above, there may be videos of my runs at the track and if I find them I will add them, but as of now I have nothing. Sorry guys!

[4G63_GSX]

Originally Posted by Dyesuperman

May 3, 2011 – Head Studs, Wideband Woes, First Track Times


Well I kind of slacked off when I first started doing the build so I don’t have pictures for a few things that I did…Without further ado though, here is where the car was at the time.


A 50 trim that hits full spool at 4700rpm is messed up. So this led me to hunting down every little thing that could be causing it. First things first, I got a local to tune it for me. Ran much better afterwards but I didn't get a chance to fix some issues before he did it. After the tune and learning about my spool issue, I fixed an exhaust leak that we thought could be the cause. Tore everything out and replaced all of the turbo gaskets and painted the manifold while it was out. Also unhooked my mbc to see if it could be the cause and that wasn't it either. Well it didn't fix the issue but I decided to hit the track anyways after he had tuned it and ran a 13.3@105 with a 1.9 60' as my best run, which can be improved greatly. I learned a lot from the runs as when I popped the hood, a local and I noticed that the coolant overflow was completely full...so I was pushing some coolant. This could explain why I kept losing ALL boost between shifts, which took more time off of my run to build the boost back up. I know now that it is a bad turbo, but at the time it seemed a logical conclusion. The head studs did help it though.


So I got it home and ordered head studs immediately. I have seen some success with replacing one stock bolt with one head stud at a time so I did it to see if it would work. It helped, but I was still pushing coolant into the overflow. My last resort for the cause of pushing coolant was my radiator cap, which turned out to be bad! Well, that's if the guy who tested it at autozone did it right...he seemed a little confused about how to test it. So anyways, I got a 1.1 bar evo radiator cap and threw it on and I don't believe I have pushed coolant since then, haven't checked or drove much though.

Next things to do are test the wastegate and check the turbo. I am going to check the turbo later today to see if it is spinning at idle and continues to spin after I shut the car off. If it doesn't spin with either, turbo is likely bad…which would really ruin my day. Hopefully I can test the wastegate this weekend if the turbo checks out. If neither of them are bad I am going to be extremely confused and lost as to what is up with this car.

Also some random things that have happened since that last update. The wiring for my wideband got caught in the steering column and ripped it in half and shorted out something. Spent a couple hours replacing the AEM with a LC1 thinking the gauge was bad and turns out it was the sensor. So got a new wideband sensor for it as well. Bought rit dye for my carpet and picked up a headliner while I was visiting my dad in Arkansas, so interior should be coming together sometime soon. I am hoping I can get everything fixed before the next Midnight drags but only time will tell.

Sadly no pictures of any of the above, there may be videos of my runs at the track and if I find them I will add them, but as of now I have nothing. Sorry guys!

Hey man i got a 95 gsx as well and stay up in kansas you going to import face off this year?

[Dyesuperman]

^^Was import face off not held at KCIR? I thought it was for some reason. Where do they have them at?





May 6, 2011 - HD Lip and Exterior Photoshoot

Not too big of an update, but here is how the car looked after almost 3 months of owning it. You will notice that I put my other wheels on and replaced the headlights with oem 2gb ones.






I also made the HD lip for it and made a how to seen here. But linking to it is boring, so I will post it here as well

Ok so I have seen a lot of questions about how to do the "Home Depot" (or HD) lip as it is called. I have seen the material at both Home Depot AND Lowes, so it is pretty common. I believe I have bought my materials from Lowes every time however, but it doesn't really matter. I have done it numerous times so I figured I would share how to do it so people can stop asking what products to use and where to find it. So here goes.

To begin, you are obviously going to need materials. I prefer to attach my lips using 3M double sided tape, while others prefer to use screws. 3M tape works very well, but be warned that it can take off some paint if you ever have to replace the lip. (It will remain unseen however, as the tape should be out of sight.) Next you will need 9' of garage door sealer. It is 2 1/4" wide and is a soft, yet durable foam type material.


Now that you have your materials, unwrap the packaging (obviously) and lay the sealer around your front bumper to get an estimate on how much you are going to need. I usually have about 1'-1.5' left over when I do mine.



Now that you have a guesstimated length, you are going to want to put the tape onto the lip, leaving the part that will stick to the bumper with the cover still on. Here is a section I had left over that shows basically how it should be. (Excuse the purple marker, it is all I could find.)

As you can see, you want the tape about 1/8" to 1/16" from the bend. Make sure you get it on the right side too or you will have to do it all over again.

Ok so here comes the more difficult part, sticking it onto the bumper. Make sure you clean it first where the tape will be because if you don't, it will not stick on properly and fall off. What I do is start from one side and start pulling off the cover on the tape so the adhesive is showing. I then start by putting the lip on the bumper so that it is right at the bend of the bumper. It is hard to explain this so I will provide pictures of where I put it. Keep pulling off the cover on the tape and working your way around the bumper, trying to keep the same line as you go around. Once you reach the other end of the bumper you should have some extra. Just grab a razor blade (makes for a clean cut) and trim off any excess. There are a few different ways you can cut off the ends, you can cut it off flat with the fender or you can angle it so it blends with the bumper. Both look fine, it is just personal preference.

Here is what the final product should look like.
You can see what I mean by right at the bend on the bumper, much like any lip should be placed.

On this one you can see what I mean by cutting it so it blends with the bumper, it is more angled towards the bumper.

Here is a picture from down low so you can see how far up on the bumper it should be placed.

Annd, the latest one I completed for my GSX.



Total cost is probably around 15-20 bucks when you include the tape. Keep in mind that you want to be careful when pulling in and out of driveways because it can be ripped fairly easily if not careful. It is durable to a certain extent but steep inclines will rip it off. If the lip separates from the tape, I like to get a dab of super glue and glue the lip back onto the tape. Do not put super glue on the bumper however as that will for sure take off paint. I have had to do this numerous times as my car is a good 3" from the ground, so any incline is bad news for me. Best thing is if it rips it off, just go buy some more and redo it.

[Dyesuperman]

May 7, 2011 – Painted calipers, wiring cleanup, fuel pump rewire

Since classes are officially over, except for finals...I probably should have studied instead, but, I worked on my car. Got a lot of things I have wanted to get done finished.

Started working on it because it seemed like first gear was gone all of a sudden. Just didn't want to go in most of the time which I thought was weird because it showed no signs of wear or anything. I figured the clutch just needed to be adjusted. Well before I adjusted the clutch I wanted to make sure the slave cylinder wasn't leaking and come to find out it was pretty bad. So I bought a new one from Autozone and put it on. Bleeding the clutch seemed like it took forever. I really need to get a speedbleeder for next time as I got tired of getting out from under the car every minute. So when it was finally to my liking I adjusted the clutch, which needed it pretty bad. Haven't driven it yet because I wanted to take care of a few other things but I am anxious to see if I fixed the first gear problem.

I figured while it was up in the air I would change my front brake pads which were pretty much toast. The rotors and calipers were pretty rusty so I cleaned them up as well. Just accented it in red for now as I have to custom order the color I want. Put in EBC Green Stuff pads which I have heard good reviews about so I am looking forward to testing those out as well.



I decided that I was tired of my afpr just hanging on the side of my engine so I am going to relocate it...I got distracted by other things before I could finish this so it will be finished tomorrow. I had wanted to look at my return line to see if it could be rerouted to give me some extra slack, but while I was checking this out I noticed my feed line was hanging kind of low to the ground. So I pulled the slack out and realized I might be able to put my fuel filter back in its stock location. (I had to relocate it under the battery because the feed line wasn't long enough.)
Back in the stock location..sorta. Had to angle it for the hose to clear.


The wiring for my HIDs has been pretty bad since I bought the car so I decided to finally clean up the mess.
This is the mess I set out to clean up.

I noticed I had an excess of wire for my fan when I was cleaning up the headlight wires so I set out to fix that as well.

Almost finished doing that and realized I wanted to finally relocate my battery since I was doing wiring anyways. Sooo, went and bought 2ga wire and went to town relocating the fuse box to where the battery was.


And all done, need to get some better pictures tomorrow when I finish up some other things.

Moved the HID relay under the passenger side fender.

Ran the battery wire back to the trunk and figured I would stop along the way and finally do the fuel pump rewire to give the pump better voltage. To give you an idea of how much the voltage drops with stock wiring, I can hear the pump slow down and speed up when I have my blinker on. So this should help.


And that is it for today. Tomorrow I will be painting the rear calipers and putting my gramlights back on for a while. Painting my intake as well..blue-->>gunmetal gray. I will need to finish wiring up the battery and moving the afpr and then it should be good as new! Hopefully I don't lower it back down and drive off only to realize first is still messed up. I would then proceed to kill myself. (First was still messed up…I am still alive.)

[Dyesuperman]

May 23, 2011 - Pictures!

As I said, I put my gram lights back on for a little while and during that time I had a friend take some pictures of it. I think they turned out great and I wish I could have new ones taken like these with how the car looks now

[_801_]

Your car is very clean sir, I have never been a fan of the "home depot" lip, But your car has just changed my mind

[Dyesuperman]

Thank ya. I have thought about going with an actual lip but then I think about how it would be a waste while daily driving the car because the home depot lip hits in a lot of places but never gets messed up because it is so flexible. Any other lip would just rip off.




May 27, 2011-New downpipe needs modified

Seafoamed the car today and changed the oil and spark plugs afterwards. While I was at it I wanted to see if I need to modify my new downpipe, and sadly I do. I think it may bend to where it needs to be by heating it up in a vise then bending it to more of a 90 degree angle but I am not sure.

Here it is on top of the old downpipe...the old one doesn't fit exactly right but it gives me an idea of how the new one needs to bend to fit



No way for it to fit without modifying it...

[Doubleot]

Awesome stuff, I am now considering the HD lip.


Keep up the good work!

[Dyesuperman]

Seems to be a trend Thanks man






June 25, 2011 - Carpet in, wastegate checked

It seems that I took a break from working on the car or something, or that I just didn’t document anything because I can’t find any posts or pictures from this month span. Oh well, things start happening now

Finally checked out my wastegate and no leaks to be found. Diaphragm was in good shape and the valve sealed up. Went ahead and put two springs in it in case the small one was worn out. That was a freaking pain but with the help of my roommate I got it done. Even if it doesn't fix my spool issue I can run more boost with the current mbc now




Also put the carpet that came with the car in. I planned to just dye it black and keep it for a while but decided it wasn't worth wasting the 20 bucks worth of dye. So, I just put it in the car as is for now. Looks much better and much less road noise.
How it started out

Seats out

Carpet in


Next is the leak down test. Bought the tester today from harbor freight just have to find an air compressor to use. If the leak down test shows bad results I will be ordering a timing belt, headgasket, exhaust gaskets and other misc items and then tearing it apart and hopefully have it together by the 9th.

(I was trying to get the car ready for midnight drags on the 9th but it didn’t happen…the next few updates will explain why Also, I did do the leak down test but either the tester was bad or I did it wrong, so never got any results from that.)

[307dsm]

Nice, keep up the good work. really like your car

[Alex7747]

Your car is now my screen saver haha. Nice build!

[91rsturbo]

absolute beautyyyy wow

[blueskittle]

Super clean! Love the progress

[_801_]

Cant wait to see the finished car, And hopefully some high res pictures of your car with the red wheels.

[Dyesuperman]

^^ Getting there..keep in mind I am just now getting to July of last year



July 6-22, 2011 – Saturn alternator swap, car troubles, and track passes


Ok so this update is spread out in a week or so but I have no documentation of when it was finished, so I am compounding it all into one large update.

Alternator was going bad so I decided I might as well do the Saturn alternator swap while I am replacing it anyways. Going from a 65amp alternator to a 105amp that keeps power during a wot pull should be helpful. Also picked up a spare intake from a friend and bored it out to match up with my 1g throttle body...going from 53mm to 60mm(?) there, so another big difference.

Made some progress tonight and will finish it up over the next few days.
Had to do some grinding on the alternator for it to fit right. I had to grind more than this but I forgot to take a picture of it when I was done.

Here is how it looked when I started on the intake tonight

And when I finished for the night

Cleaned up and brought my injectors inside to soak in gasoline for the night to get rid of the black goo buildup



I took out the ac compressor since the lines and condenser are long gone and had to figure out a way to recreate the spacer for my cv axle, so I came up with this


But, I didn't like that, so I cut up the ac bracket instead. The piece on the bottom is what originally bolts up there, I just didn't need the top piece anymore.


The alternator tension bolt was too short so I found that one of the bolts that held on the ac bracket was the same thread pitch


It didn't fit into the tensioner so I got out the grinder and went to work again.


All finished and tightened up


Everything off and ready for the new throttle body and intake manifold


I made a gasket that I figured would work for the thermostat housing...but I was stupid and didn't extend it out to the bolt holes...


So therefore this happened when I went to do the last nudge to make sure all the bolts were tight..



Luckily a friend of mine had one so I went to ozark and got the replacement which had a rusted and broke water neck going to the heater core


So, I hammered out the one from the housing that was on my car and then swapped everything over to the new housing


Almost finished!


Annnnnnddddd..Started it up when I was finished and it was running on 2 cylinders and the tach was fluctuating erratically. Bummer. Proceeded to test all of the electronics and make sure they were within specs. Everything checked out, got fuel, spark, everything. I took out the injectors and tested each one individually, put them back in, then took them back out again to switch them around. Swapped out the ptu, coil pack, checked all connections to make sure they were tight. Put the 2g throttle body back on and hooked the fiav back up with no change, then put the 1g throttle body back on. Checked all grounds to make sure they were good...it was a long process and made me angry that I couldn't figure it out. I somehow got it running on 3 cylinders but something still wasn't right. Bought a spare CAS from a local dsmer and put it on and still ran on 3 cylinders. Hooked my laptop back up to take a log and noticed an engine code that hadnt been there before. Downloaded firmware to eliminate it and car started up and ran fine.


I would like to note here that to this day I do not know what the problem was. The code that came up was a common one with the Saturn alternator swap so it shouldn’t have caused the issues I had. The CAS I bought started leaking so I put the old one on and it is still good, so the CAS never was the issue like I suspected. I’m thinking the thing was possessed or something and magically came back to life. The car was down for a week while I tried figuring this out and it wasn’t a pleasant time for me and my relationship with the car.

So got it back running and had it tuned again yesterday morning. Set the boost at 26psi and improved spool by 400rpm. Turbo is most likely bad though as it is a 50trim and hits full boost at 4300rpm, so something is wrong with it. (I was denying the inevitable; the major shaft play was likely the cause the whole time.)

Went to the track last night (I want to say this was July 22nd) and ran a new personal best of 12.61@112 with a 1.89 60'. Never got the launching technique down so it could be improved still but I am happy with that and will settle here for a while until I get a new turbo. I am going to focus on radiator/fmic ducting now. Plan is to buy a new front bumper as the one on it is cut for a greddy fmic and doesn't look too well. Then I will cut and modify the new bumper and use sheet metal to seal the fmic up to the bumper. Then I will use the fog light hole to duct air up to the air filter and seal it off from the engine. Going to install a pusher fan in front of the turbo manifold for a little extra air and then seal the radiator to the fmic. Last on the list will be a hood vent or buy a vented cf hood. All of this is to prevent such hot intake temps in the summer and to prevent overheating on the hot days. Plus it will help for my future goals of autocrossing it and road racing.

[Dyesuperman]

July 24, 2011 – Cam gears, quick release bumper kit, video from track

Got a few goodies. One in the mail and one from autozone
Cam gears! ::oohyea::


Annnddd spark plug wires..ones on it were so bad that the metal electrode things inside the spark plug wires all stayed on the spark plugs when I pulled them out


Also, I bought the quick release bumper kit earlier in the month.
2g Quick Release bumper kits - DSM Classifieds


Video of my car from the track a couple days ago…notice my loss of spool and slow shift to second. Trans issues and spool issues really slow ya down
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[zeroscore]

That was pretty good