Street Build: IrishBeatdown's 1997 GSX "Punishment" Build

[IrishBeatdown]

I guess I should start from the top. My automotive career, at least professionally, started with Honda. I find it particularly funny that I have become so fond of Mitsubishi 1G's and 2G's. I worked for Honda for 5 years, working in the parts department and as a service writer. However, I always preferred 4x's, and have never owned a Honda, nor had the desire to. My current 2G GSX 5 speed is the only car I have ever felt compelled to mod for speed. A friend in my hometown Chicago bought a 1G, and I liked his so much I wanted my own.

When I moved to Tucson, AZ I immediately started searching for a capable 1G. I didn't find it, but I found a listing for 1,000 for a barely-running boe stock 2G GSX. I went to check it out just out of curiosity, and took it home for 800$. I managed to limp it, it would die intermittently on start, but I got it going enough to get it back. The owner had no clue what was going on with it, but head and timing looked good, so I pulled the trigger. A little diagnosis and 2 days later it had a new crank sensor and was running again. Here is the car as it sat:



With the car running, I immediately wanted to clean it up a little bit and repaired the oem 17" rim (it was leaking when mated with a tire). I didn't want to have the bastard 16" rim (in pic) on there anymore. By repaired, I mean I took a hammer and 2x4 to it. This was the before pic:



I didn't get an after pic, but I couldn't pick that rim out from the other 3 now, it looks normal. Also, I got to work putting a new bumper on there, the PO rammed into shit frequently and with abandon. Thank God it looked like the only ramming they did looked like it was at the local walmart parking lot, and no serious damage. I also bought a grille set off of ebay from thegrilleguy to over the holes in the bumper, people on tuners love to hate this grille set, but I quite like the look and for now, its not inhibiting anything, I still get good airflow. New bumper:




With all the cosmetic repairs I had in mind done, I set to running through the car, rolled through all the normal maintenance, I won't go into detail, we’ve all done it. I figured id get right at the areas that needed upgrading to leave me a platform to build on, and after much debate, I decided to go with a full megan turboback. Unfortunately, I didn’t do my research and went ahead and bought the Megan catback, and when I tried to find the Megan downpipe to match, I found that no supplier had them. I called at least 15 places and Megan, who told me they were on nationwide backorder indefinitely. I had to substitute a pipe, and Tim from Punishment racing contacted me and let me know he had a pipe that would fit. I asked around, and everyone who had a Punishment pipe was pleased, so I went with it, along with a Megan o2 housing to complete the turboback. I set about taking off the exhaust, but after strapping on the o2 and downpipe with no problems, found that despite every configuration possible, the catback didn’t fit right, this is as close as I could get it, lol.




I still don’t know whether they sent me the correct exhaust or not, I had to cut off the supports on the muffler and re-weld to get it to hang, and also cut and re-weld the flanges. It still hangs low, but there is enough clearance to go over speed bumps and whatnot. I have after pictures, I’ll have to post them up later.
Not knowing which intake to invest in, I opted to buy a cheap 55$ setup off of ebay I could easily discard later. Fittment on this piece, despite it being a grade A piece of ebay shit, was perfect, unlike the 450$+ catback.

The shifter on the car loved to wander, so I did some searching on tuners and turned up several causes and solutions, and ended up buying a Symborski SS bushing kit and SS bushings for the shifter cables. I would recommend these products to anyone, my shifter is very stiff now, with much better response.
At this point the car was still bogging at boost, and I did a boost leak test. There was a hole in my dried out, cracking upper IC pipe sleeve, and I decided the next upgrade would be a new FMIC. Having had so much luck with Punishment, I called up Tim and ordered a FMIC from him, I really liked the design and I loved that I could save my fog lights with the kit. I got the kit and everything looked fantastic. The piping was overall great design and quality work, and fitment on the car was perfect. My faith in DSM’s was restored, I actually got a kit that worked perfectly on my car, ☺. The GSX was boosting great now, albeit with the stock t25 turbo. I set out to remedy that. Like most on this site, as a newbie to DSM, I was pointed in the direction of the evo III 16g.

I wanted to buy new, but prices were around $1,000, and I wasn’t willing to spend that on a turbo I knew I would eventually upgrade anyhow. I bought a fresh rebuild from tron2119 for 250$ on the classifieds without a exhaust housing, and purchased a used housing off of the classifieds for 80$. I snagged the wastegate actuator off of ebay for 25$ and the turbine clamp for 20$, total investment $375. Tron2119 apparently did a pretty good job on the rebuild, because after a painless install, it ran like a champion. With the 190lph walbro I dropped in and the extremepsi install kit I bought, I was good to go. It is a great turbo, but I was thinking upgrade about 2 weeks after I got it (see below).
Unfortunately, it was back to reality of the everyday DSM’er. Nothing runs well forever, especially when modding. I had removed o2 heath shield when installing the o2 housing (didn’t fit), and the o2 ended up frying my alternator. I searched around and encountered the Saturn alternator swap for our cars. I thought that as long as I was replacing an alternator, the least I could do was upgrade. There was a great guide I used, here:

Saturn Alternator swap

It broke everything down nicely and made the swap a cinch. Today my power is much better with the Saturn alternator versus the DSM one. While I was at it, I decided to re-ground the engine bay, the stock grounds were looking haggard. I used another guide to make my own grounds, was great info, here:

Homemade 4-gauge Grounding Wire Kit

Total cost was around 50$ for everything for the grounding wires and such. Cheap and easy.
I’m going to come back and revisit this later to add more information, just trying get through the basics of my build so far. I ended up wrapping my o2 housing with DEI titanium wrap, a really great product. I bought the hi-temp silicon spray as well. I got it wrapped, sprayed on the spray liberally, and went for a drive. My engine bay started smoking 5 mins down the road. People were looking at me like, “Are you sure you don’t want to pull over?” Even after several days of driving, the damn thing was still smoking. I went to their website and it said they recommended to use the silicon spray on everything BUT the titanium wrap. I took off the wrap, and re-wrapped without the spray, and has been working good ever since.

In the continuing spirit of maintenance, I decided to replace all my vaccum hoses. I found this cheap kit from RRE that took care of the cutting and material here:

RRE's Larson Silicone Hose Kit

The silicon hoses look good in my bay and replaced some really tattered looking OEM originals. RRE was really easy to deal with, the kit was on backorder when I called, was going to make my own but their communication and customer service was so great that I decided to wait until they were in, and they called me promptly.

I decided to go a little Hollywood and get my valve cover fancied up like so many people have. I got her powdercoated and bought a spark plug cover, it ended up coming out really good, here is it out of the box from the powdercoater:



I threw on the spark cover and got a new fel-pro valve cover gasket and new valve cover bolts. Ended up looking really nice.

I’ve really written enough for now, but I will be updating this regularly, will be back to modding my DSM in 3 weeks once I return to Tucson, I have a mountain of parts waiting for me, time is the only restraint now. I am shooting for HX35 on e85 to about 450-500 hp My current mods:

Current:
FP race manifold
Evo III 16g
Megan 2.5" o2 housing
Punishment 3" downpipe
Megan catback 3"
Punishment FMIC
Extreme PSI intake
Walbro 190 lph fuel pump
1G BOV
Saturn alternator swap
ECU flash
Innovate MTX-L wideband
Glowshift boost gauge
Crappy ebay MBC

This build is about to go into high gear, I thought this would be a good opportunity to chart my progress, and if anyone enjoys it along the way, so be it. This is a rough outline I did on a whim, there will be more pictures and info as time goes on, I plan to document all the work I do. Stay tuned.

Almost forgot, more pics as it is today, all I have on my cell phone, don't take a million pics of my car.

[952g63t]

Nice find.

[97gst13]

hell ya man car came out looking sexy nice work

[IrishBeatdown]

Just wanted to update - im going to be doing a full write up soon on my new fuel system. I've looked around, there are some general how to's on running SS line from tank to rail to fpr, but nothing that has it blow by blow. I'm going to document exactly what i'm buying, how much of it, and through my trial and error, others can plan accordingly. I'm generally a bargain shopper, so these are the cheapest prices I could find online, and I hunted around. The fuel system will be a full -8 AN from tank to rail to FPR, haven't decided if I will run a SS return or if I will utilize the stock return. I am replacing the stock fuel filter with a higher flowing filter as well. Here are my buys:

From DSMtuners classifieds:

1 x 1200cc PTE injectors

Local:

1 x 450lph Walbro e85 fuel pump

From Welcome To Extreme PSI

1 x Magnus Fuel Rail -10 AN
1 x Fuelab 828 Inline -8 AN fuel filter
1 x Fuelab 515 AFPR -10 AN
1 x Autometer Fuel Pressure Gauge 1/8 NPT

Fittings:

From AN Fittings and Stainless Steel Lines

3 x Stainless Steel Line Straight Adaptor, -8 AN Black - (1 for fpr inlet, 2 for inline fuel pump)
20 x PTFE Braided Stainless Steel Lines, -8 AN, per ft. - (enough for tank to rail to fpr, will update how much I actually used)
1 x Stainless Steel Cushion Clamps for -4 AN Lines (5 Pack) - (for my SS wastegate & hallman mbc lines)
2 x Stainless Steel Cushion Clamps for -8 AN Lines (5 Pack) - (for mounting feed line on the underbody)
1 x AN Lines and Fittings Pressure Test Kit: -8AN
1 x AN to Barbed Fitting Adaptor, -6 AN to 8mm Black - (fpr adapter for stock return hose)
1 x Stainless Steel Line 45° Adaptor, -8 AN Black - (fuel filter inlet fitting)
1 x Stainless Steel Line 30° Adaptor, -8 AN Black - (passenger side fuel rail fitting)
3 x Stainless Steel Line 90° Adaptor, -8 AN Black - (drivers side fuel rail fitting, fuel sender fitting, fuel filter outlet fitting)

From Summit Racing ? High Performance Car and Truck Parts l Edelbrock, ACCEL, Moroso, K&N, MSD, Holley & More!

1 x Summit Racing SUM-220031B Plug -10 AN O-Ring - (for plugging extra fpr port)
3 x Summit Racing SUM-220162B -8 AN to Straight Cut Male -10 AN O-Ring - (2 fuel rail reducers, 1 for fpr inlet port)
2 x Summit Racing SUM-220832B -8 AN to -8 Coupler - (ended up not needing these, apparently fuelab revised their fuel filters)
1 x Summit Racing SUM-900102 AN wrench kit -4 to -12 - (can buy individually if needed)
1 x Aeroquip FCM3661 - Aeroquip Vise Jaw Insert Tools
1 x Aeroquip FBM2874 - Aeroquip -8 Steel Weld-In Bung - (weld bung for fuel sender)

Grand Total: $1083.36 - Pretty cheap if you ask me, for a basically brand new fuel setup that will support 600 hp. Not that i will make it there on my turbo, but im building so i won't have to go bigger in the future. Also, have all the tools I need now to do more stainless line in the future. Will update with pictures next week when I actually have time to install. Going with the new Walbro e85 compatible 450lph now, its the biggest and best for our in-tanks right now.

[Boggsy]

Car is shaping up nicely! Glad to see you went against getting a Honda. Haha

[IrishBeatdown]

Got a snap of all the new parts I got in:

The turbo justin rebuilt for me, its a HX35 H1c w/12cm2 divided housing. Also All the parts mentioned on the list above have come in as well. I picked up a FIC fuel rail on trade, still not sure which one im going to use, most likely the magnus. I now have all the parts I need to completely redo my fuel system from tank to FPR in -8an SS. Also picked up some P2P Phenolic heat gaskets for the intake manifold and 2 for the 1G TB I have, ive heard good things about the heat reduction. School has ramped up quite a bit so im not sure when all of this is going to happen, thought id update with a shitty picture, excuse my terrible cameraphone, but its all i have



Also, my AC compresser clutch has shit the bed, so im going to take off the entire IM while im switching out the fuel rail and such to be able to replace it. Too hot here to get rid of the AC. Bleh.

[HighpsiaddicT]

dam nice find a running gsx for 800 holy crap

[BaldEagle95]

Nice setup, good call going twin scroll. Super responsive. How much was your manifold or is it in the works?

[IrishBeatdown]

Originally Posted by BaldEagle95

Nice setup, good call going twin scroll. Super responsive. How much was your manifold or is it in the works?

Manifold is in the works. The entire setup is being made by tim from punishment, its costing 1350$ for the manifold, 2 dumptubes, and custom 3" o2 housing. I'm sending in my hotside so he can fabricate it to fit this week or next hopefully. It's flanged for 2 tial mvs gates, those i picked up on the cheap brand new for 385 combined. Had to lurk the classifieds for awhile to get a good deal. Just working on putting together the stainless lines for my wastegates and fuel system right now. I ordered the wrong service kit for my injectors, im waiting on the new seals so I can throw in the fuel system finally.

[Alan11]

any input on how the heat wrap is holding..

[IrishBeatdown]

Originally Posted by Alan11

any input on how the heat wrap is holding..

The heat wrap is fantastic. Definitely going to use it on my new manifold too, DEI makes some really great heat wrap. No alternator problems from heat from o2 housing, underhood temps significantly down. Heat wrap seems like a vastly superior solution to ceramic coating, especially given my car is in a extremely dry climate and moisture is unlikely to collect under the heat wrap. Ceramic coating is expensive, and it seems like most of the coatings out there don't even last long, the ones that do cost an arm and a leg. Going to stick with DEI and put the money toward where I really need it. I got my DEI wrap of eBay for really cheap, would reccomend people look there first.

[IrishBeatdown]

I figured I should update this - I've been doing more purchasing than actual work on the car, not much time during daylight hours and no garage. Every time I go out wanting to do a little work I get mobbed by mosquitoes. 2 of my exhaust manifold nuts stripped when I was removing my FP manifold - I sold it off on the classifieds. I had an exhaust manifold stud kit so I replaced those, and when I did, I found oil all over my gasket, all 4 ports, looks like I need new valve stem seals. What started out as an idea to do a timing job soon has morphed into a whole other beast. I'm now planning to pull my head, replace the valve stem seals, install 3g valve lashes/lifters, replace the headgasket, install ARP studs, eliminate the balance shafts, and replace all timing components. I ordered all my parts from partsdinosaur.com, I heard really good things about the site, and was not dissapointed. Bruce was very helpful, and has the best customer service ive found so far in the dsm sphere. In addition, I ordered a bunch of oem parts from Mitsubishi Parts | OEM Mitsubishi Parts | Genuine Mitsubishi Parts I really liked getting oem parts from jnztuning, but this new site im trying has cheaper parts. I picked up everything I need for my clutch job, im replacing all the parts with new oem, clutch fork, tob, pivot ball, new slave, new master, SS line throughout. I'm going to have enough parts to keep me busy for a long time, now I just have to find some time to actually WORK on the car, haha. At least my car is going to get some much-needed maintenance. This means that the dsm is going to be on jackstands for awhile, because im not going to be able to do it all at once, as im pretty busy this semester at school. I haven't bought a timing belt yet, as im still figuring out which one I want, not sure if im going to go with the gates racing blue belt or go OEM. Any reccomendations?

[IrishBeatdown]

Figured id update this, build is ready to go, shes riding high on jackstands. I'm pulling the head this weekend, more pics to come. Punishment manifold is in, ive got to be the worst photographer on here, I really should get a digital camera. But here is the newest goods:


Hello feet!

[PrimerPLus]

Looking good man. How did the tear down go? I'd give you a hand but I'm a million miles away
I know how it is to want to do 1 think and ended up having to do 10 other things at the same time. But in the end it's nice knowing its all new.
If I were you and had some money I'd look into new valves and springs! Beehive
What fluids are you running? Keep us updated your car is clean.

[williamdsm]

Cars looking good, great find! Question, are those black wheels stock GSX wheels? I remember my 1g had 'em but I sold that car. I'd like a pair of those for my panda 2g talon!

[IrishBeatdown]

Originally Posted by PrimerPLus

Looking good man. How did the tear down go? I'd give you a hand but I'm a million miles away
I know how it is to want to do 1 think and ended up having to do 10 other things at the same time. But in the end it's nice knowing its all new.
If I were you and had some money I'd look into new valves and springs! Beehive
What fluids are you running? Keep us updated your car is clean.

You aren't kidding, since last update ive pulled everything fully, head is off and 3g lifters and dks 272 cams installed along with new valve seals. Fluids are royal purple 10w30, tranny fluid is redline something or other, I have to check.

Originally Posted by williamdsm

Cars looking good, great find! Question, are those black wheels stock GSX wheels? I remember my 1g had 'em but I sold that car. I'd like a pair of those for my panda 2g talon!

The black wheels are the stockers. The original owner (before last one i bought from) had them powdercoated. They still look good, but are getting to the point where im going to sand em and paint em up. Soon enough.

So let me let you guys know what is going on:

I've gotten really anal with everything, and because of that, this build is coming to a grinding slowdown. I've been pulling everything metal from the engine bay, dissassembling it, cleaning, and coating. I really want to get to some of the how-to crap that this build is centered around, but until i get done with the sanding, painting, cleaning, emissions-deleting, ect, ect, im not really getting much of anything done. Pulling everything off really wasn't all that bad, and the timing components weren't difficult as i thought with the limited clearance. DSM's are pretty simple once you get down to it, everything is in plain sight and for the most part, easy to get to. (Keep in mind this is my first dsm).

Time for an impromptu photoshoot:

In progress polishing of holset compressor housing:

Stock:


Shaving in progress, sanding down casting smooth:




Also new parts that were within arms length:

1200cc injectors mounted on the -10AN Magnus rail:



Fuelab FPR w/Autometer pressure gauge:



HKS Adjustable Camgears w/Zaklee clear cam cover



I'm hoping to get a nice digital camera soon, hopefully before im done with the entire project and dont need it anymore. Will do more pictures soon.

[IrishBeatdown]

Pics from the other day, first time the head has been seperated from the block since it rolled off the production line:

Everything pulled basically except for shortblock, trans, alternator, and ac compressor:



Cylinder money shot, everything looks good for an all stock setup with north of 100k.



My workbench lol, cylinder head before all components removed:

[PrimerPLus]

Nice bench! That thing is classy
How goes the tear down?

[IrishBeatdown]

Originally Posted by PrimerPLus

Nice bench! That thing is classy
How goes the tear down?

Going great, the head dissasembly was so simple. The biggest pain in the ass was seperating the camgears from the bolts, I probably should have loosed them before I removed the head. After that was done, it only took me 30 mins to completely remove the cam retainers, cams, rockers, springs, lifters, & valves. Happy about that. On the head, many of the coolant holes were plugged with goo. Previous owner looked to have run tap water as well, good amount of orange everywhere. Water pump was rusted to shit. Head is going out to the machine shop. I am also rebuilding a 1g throttle body, I couldnt get out the bolts that hold on the fiav for shit, I heated em up, but only ended up starting to strip the philips threads. I got annoyed with spending too much time on it, and just grabbed a drill and knocked the heads off and vicegripped the shafts out of there. Need new hardware now

This next weeks activities include:

- continue rebuild of 1g throttle body.

- emissions delete (everything is already removed, just have to relocate all the wiring lower and out of sight to make room for the AFPR on the firewall).
continuing to finish polish job on compressor housing.

- port intake manifold opening for 1g TB, and drill out bov line inlet and tap to 1/8 npt so I can run -4an stainless line to the bov. also going to round out intake manifold work by sanding and polishing it.

- continue cleaning of all metal parts ive pulled off the car & coating of said parts.

- balance shaft delete while head is out so im ready to re-install timing components once it is back.

- replacing all motor mount inserts with prothane, 2 of them are going.

I could use some structure, i just randomly do tasks, and i normally switch between things without finishing. This allows me to forget what the hell parts I need or whats next. Things are getting done, however, due to the raw amount of time im commiting to work on the car. I'll tell you one thing:

I spend an INCREDIBLE amount of time on minutiae. All this sanding, polishing, cleaning, painting of parts takes an incredible amount of time, since i am dissasembling every part. I wish I wasn't so anal. Sometimes I wonder why the hell im spending all the time I am on details like that. Till next time.

[IrishBeatdown]

Thought i'd post up pictures of my custom -12an holset oil return drain. I had to make a few modifications because the H1C has the vband compressor cover which gets directly in the way of the outlet. I got it to fit however. Picture of the line in its entirety:



Flanges and fittings I used, before grinding:





Went to work with the grinder on the flange and fitting to clearance it enough to fit on the holset CHRA:





Bottom of flange, there was some overlap when fitting was screwed in all the way, ground that down and ported all around the inlet so that the oil flows unrestricted from the odd shaped H1C oil return port:



Finally, fittment of the oil return on the CHRA, with vband on literally clears the compressor cover by mere millimeters, even without the vband on you can see how tight it is:



Voila, a -12an return done the right way with fittings. I could have jerry-rigged it with hoseclamps, but i wanted something that looked slick and was rock solid.

Next update back ill take more pictures of the compressor housing, the polishing is really coming along, it is almost done! I'll never shave and polish another holset cover again, thats for damn sure, I have over 10 hours into the one I have and I want out! Stay tuned.

[PrimerPLus]

Looking good. What color for your engine theme? Looks like you will be mostly black? Maybe some red.
When you plan on having this thing smoking tires?

[IrishBeatdown]

Gloss black with polished aluminum will be the general theme. Valve cover design will be revealed in due time, rather leave that a surprise, im doing a graphic. I like shiny shit, so shall it then shine. The only red will be the engine bay surround, its staying stock for now. Car will be rolling in 2-3 weeks time, right now im grinding out the end of school and my 19 credit hour schedule. I want to have it done before I leave to Chicago for 2 weeks on the 18th. The mechanical end will be easily done, its the polishing and painting and detail work that is holding me up now. Basically finished shaving the comp cover:







This thing has been a labor of love, too much sanding as it is! Got some new wire wheels to attack the casting marks in the crevice around the inlet, hopefully they work good and i can begin the finish sanding process.

[PrimerPLus]

I hear you man. 19credit hours >.<

Your car is going to be clean. One day I want to do a complete tear down re-spray, clean top to bottom front to back, all AN and SS fittings, and probably a mild wire tuck. One day, one day....

[IrishBeatdown]

Originally Posted by PrimerPLus

I hear you man. 19credit hours >.<

Your car is going to be clean. One day I want to do a complete tear down re-spray, clean top to bottom front to back, all AN and SS fittings, and probably a mild wire tuck. One day, one day....

That day is this day for me my friend, only sans re-spray. A man can only be so lucky. Be glad you aren't doing it though, it isn't as glamorous as it seems. I'm starting to drive myself crazy with how anal im being. It's like i have to knock every last little bit of discoloration off every metal part in the engine bay or all the work ive done will be wasted. I've also gotten used to 3 am nights, just me, the grinder, my array of sandpapers, and my plethora of coatings. I did some fabricating this morning on my oil drain, after selling a duplicate drain I had, I ended up talking on the phone to a fellow dsm'er. He brought up the idea of putting the drain on an angle. After thinking about this a bit, I headed over to my cutoff saw and angled the bung upwards a little, not too much as to run into the overhang that us 2g guys have. I also hacked off about a third of the nipple so my hose can make the turn quicker to the turbo flange. The results:

From:



to





Not bad, looking forward to it actually serving a purpose instead of sitting on my desk. Hopefully I will get my head back from the machine shop so i can do some meaningful work on my car.

[TalonKid92]

Good come up for a good price! Looks like it's gonna be an great build.

[leecastillo]

Looks outstanging man sorry to hear the Megan racing did not work for you I was lucky enough to get the dp when they had one and now have a full Megan exhaust that for me worked excilent what bov are you planing on using? And out of personal opinion I would recommend brad peen motor oil it's some good stuff would suggest you do some reading on it and see if its good for you. Are you using redline mt90 or mtl would suggest mt90 even though its thicker it's a slight upgrade over but that's if this car is driven often or a dd but for some really thick and synchro loving trans fluid is redline 75w140 is really thick but better to be safe then sorry when making power keep us updated on your build its looking good

[IrishBeatdown]

Originally Posted by leecastillo

Looks outstanging man sorry to hear the Megan racing did not work for you I was lucky enough to get the dp when they had one and now have a full Megan exhaust that for me worked excilent what bov are you planing on using? And out of personal opinion I would recommend brad peen motor oil it's some good stuff would suggest you do some reading on it and see if its good for you. Are you using redline mt90 or mtl would suggest mt90 even though its thicker it's a slight upgrade over but that's if this car is driven often or a dd but for some really thick and synchro loving trans fluid is redline 75w140 is really thick but better to be safe then sorry when making power keep us updated on your build its looking good

I'm using mt90 in my build, ive heard great things about it from others, it came recommended. As far as oil, i got a great deal on some royal purple so i went with that, 10w30. I'm actually pretty glad I didn't use the megan downpipe. especially now since im about to lop off the end and put in a custom elbow to adapt to my holset 12cm2 housing. Speaking of housing, I need to do quite a bit of porting, it falls well short when mating with the gasket. This picture will show you what I mean:



As you can see, i really need to chop into this housing, it doesn't even come close, my punishment manifold is a dead match for the gasket, but the housing clearly isn't. I don't know why these holset housings are so far off when it comes to the standard t3 outlet. Oh well, onward:

I was working on some porting for oil relief in anticipation of deleting my balance shafts. I got started on porting the oil relief hole on my OFH:



This mod is to increase the size of the oil relief hole, so that when the oil pressure rises and displaces the piston, more oil can be released, thus lowering the oil pressure more liberally than with the stock sized hole. I think I went a little overboard on this one, I ported almost to the top of the piston, you can see the piston top in the photo, I think I lost my bearings a bit when I removed the piston to port and I thought I had more room to work with than I did. The last thing I want is an overport and end up with low oil pressure...we will see how my numbers look when the time comes. Hopefully this is going to be all right? Maybe someone could give me some insight into whether or not I ruined an OFH... Also, I ported up the oil drain hole on my cylinder block:



Really skirting the edge here of where the gasket seals here. A mild overport. Sensing a pattern? I'm dangerous with the die grinder in my hand. Again, probably going to be fine, but I could use a little discretion when going nuts grinding. This is the BogusSVU oil port mod, Bogus is phenomenal, ive been reading quite a few of his articles lately on cylinder head porting to guide me along.

Lastly, ive been rebuilding my 1G throttle body, installed the mil-spec throttle body seals tonight, mil-spec seals are basically the coup-de-grace to leakage from the shaft of the throttle body. Also, they are a bitch to install. These things wouldn't fit right for the life of me. Their level of annoyance to install must be equally proportional to their effectiveness, because they took me well over 30 minutes to put in. I started out trying to gently guide them in, and when that didn't work, i resorted to hammering. I ended up with a slightly bent seal and fury in my heart. I bent that sucker back into shape and hammered it in eventually, though. The key to these things is lots of lube and positioning. They have to be seated equally, if the seal is tilted even a tiny bit, it will favor that side and start to tilt when installing, which is not good. I positioned them, and then started tapping lightly with a rubber mallet. Usually, they would jump off or go in unevenly, but eventually I got them right. Success! Also, since i am eliminating the extra vacuum lines from the throttle body, and I didn't want to deal with capping them off, as those vacuum caps are prone to cracking, I just clipped off the nipples and JB welded them closed. I hope there isn't any problems with doing this, I haven't seen it done, but I doubt ill have any problems. I then sanded it flush in anticipation of painting the TB. I snapped a pic:



Thats it for now, im going to get into that housing porting and porting excess casting on my cylinder head before it gets shipped out later this week. Hopefully I can summon the energy to continue polishing that compressor housing as well, that thing is my nemesis.

The hit list:
Prep cylinder head for machine shop
Finish painting engine parts
Complete emissions delete
Finish rebuilding throttle body
Timing components installed
Balance shafts deleted
Mini wire tuck
Finish polishing intake manifold & compressor cover
Assemble cylinder head & install
Custom vband downpipe build
Custom 4" intake build
SS Wastegate lines & MBC install
Welding done
Wiring for speed density
Jackstands ON [OFF]
Car rolling

[IrishBeatdown]

Throttle body finally rebuilt. All new mil-spec shaft seals, oring for isc. biss screw oringed, fiav bypass plate installed. Throttle body painted gloss black. Replaced hardware with SS hex drive screws. Vacuum nipples deleted and jbwelded closed. Need to clean and spray some misc spots that I dinged up tensioning the those damn springs, what a bitch. Turned out pretty nice, im pleased, need to get it perfect before im ready to go, build is going to go through the roof in the next 10 days, stay tuned, there is going to be lots of updates, im planning on ging hard every day on this. Polishing my intake manifold to a mirror shine tomorrow. Hopefully this will put an end to leaks from the throttle body, the tb plate is seated perfect after a little machining. Spent 5 hours on this just to get it absolutely perfect. One thing I have to say is if you rebuild your throttle body, mark the plate when you do so, I had to bolt and re-bolt to find the correct configuration. Pictures of the results:

[IrishBeatdown]

More rebuild, power steering pump was much easier to rebuild than the throttle body

Followed calans guide here:
How to rebuild and modify a power steering pump

My pump was a little different, but same general principle, was really helpful, as opposed to rebuilding my throttle body without the guide, which took me forever. Thanks Calan!





Wrapped up my punishment twinscroll t3 as well last night, twas a whore with no clearance between the runners, pleased with how it turned out though:











Finally just some random pics of a custom intake I made, not sure im going to use it though:
Full 4" with a K&N filter, it polished up nice. Some lucky dsmer will pick this up in the classifieds im sure, maybe i will even autograph it.











Seriously though, wasn't too hard to make. That's it for now, more to come soon.

[PrimerPLus]

Holy Shiz nizz man! This thing is going to be soo sick lol.
I applaud your hard work! Keep it up, I wish I had done what you're doing! Like I said someday I will lol. I can't wait to see it all come together for you and be a sweet ride.