1025/2000 Galant vr4 Street Build

[habitatguy187]

This is the Build Thread for 1025/200 Galant vr4 Street Build.

This is the mod list the car had when I purchased it.

1g rod 2g piston combo
Link v3
Fic 850s
255 pump rewired
Aeromotive afpr
Evo3 16g
Evo8 fmic
Gm 3" mas
Cyclone intake mani (not hooked up)
2g exhaust mani
Full 3" exhaust
4-bolt rear
Lc-2 also used to simulate o2 (stock location)
Glowshift Boost, oil pressure, coolant gauges
Kyb gr2 front struts
Agx rear struts
"Lowering springs" all around
Rota Subzero 17s
"Supposedly" 1g Tre stage 2 trans. PO couldn't verify.

Also came with extra set of stock wheels and good tires, a used comp clutch disc and pp, 2 extra fmics and random parts.

 

[habitatguy187]

Got into dsms and onto this website back in 08' when I was 21. (Pls don't look over my old cringy broke-noob posts )

Started with a 1g n/a and then had a really fun 1g fwd tsi from 2008-2010. Had a really perfect awd that I flipped off a loading dock during an ice storm in 2010. The next summer (2011) I picked up a tsi fwd 2g from my buddy, drove that for about 3 months then traded it for an awd 1g. Tore that thing down the fall of 2011 with big plans, then, life happened and before you know it 10 years went by with me hardly touching the car. (It's just barely running and driving now, build thread on that coming later). Some pics of my 92 tsi fwd, the 91 awd I rolled over and the 2g tsi fwd at the bottom.

Fast forward to summer 2021 and I just happen to get on fb for the first time in about 2 months and what do I see in the local dsm forum but a gvr4 owned by someone I used to associate with. Car had a slew of mods already done plus came with a good deal of spare parts. Car is rough as it was found in a field and brought back to life by the POs dad and him. Salvage title. Said it didn't run "thinks something is broken in the clutch assembly". I messaged him right away and about 2wks later towed the car home.

 

[habitatguy187]

Got the car home and didn't even try to start it. Probably a little crazy of me,, but the PO is a mechanic and both his brother and boss have gvr4s, so I trusted that the trans needed to come off.

Pulled it (what a greasy filthy mess!) and found a clutch spring had popped out.


Replaced it with the spare comp pressure plate and disc he gave me with the car and got it back together (after pressure washing everything I could). After charging the battery the car started right up. Was tuned on link v3 for fic 850s and a gm mas. Drove it a little that night and parked it.

Next day I starting going over things and found the mechanical timing off 1 tooth. Fixed that and drove it for about a week while doing small things like oil change and interior cleaning. Popped the hood one day after 20 mins on the highway and found the tbelt had a groove wearing in it . Ordered a new one off Amazon for $17 and replaced it a couple days later, pulling this bolt from the lower timing cover . Also, here's a pic of what the engine bay looked like when I first got it.

 

[habitatguy187]

Drove the car for a couple weeks just enjoying it, cleaning it up a little and getting back into the swing of ecmlink and of wrenching. Crazy how much I have forgotten . So far the car was crazy inconsistent, but ran "mostly good". I ended up doing a boost leak test, fixing some leaks, and got it on e85 with the 850s. That was the night that the used comp clutch, that i just put in 2 weeks prior, started slipping

 

[habitatguy187]

Well, next order of business was to get a new clutch. I remembered xtd was a thing when I got out of the game so I hopped on ebay and started looking around. Ended up buying a "spc" brand "stage 3" 6 puck sprung disc for $50 shipped and a 2300lb xtd "stage 4" pressure plate for $65 shipped. The old flywheel I resurfaced this go-round. The machinist said he only had to remove .004 which is cool, however, prior to turning, the flywheel DID have a bunch of cracks in it and will probably get replaced with a new unit next year.

 

[habitatguy187]

So, off comes the trans again! As I'm working underneath, I realize that you can't even tell I power washed this stuff just a month before when I had it off! Last time I just assumed the oil mess was from years of vc gasket leakage. Started looking there, ended up, here

The bottom center stud hole for the exhaust manifold. I guess it shares space with an oil galley or something? Anyway, a little rtv around the threads of the stud fixed that problem along with an hour or so of cleaning the front of the block and crossmember pieces. While I had the exhaust mani off I painted it with some 2000 degree exhaust paint. Also re-cleaned and painted the transmission and t-case while they were out.

 

[habitatguy187]

When I pulled the trans the 2nd time, the trans mount bolts slid right out of the transmission,, so I had to drill and tap those and go up to a bigger size bolt .


While I had the turbo off, I decided to ditch the ps and bracket, along with cutting off the mount bracket. The rear ps lines were already hacked up and leaking and the aws was replaced with a 4bolt rear already, so, not a big loss. Also filled the front mount with 3m window weld. One of my favorite mods!


Got everything back together and it's looking much better already! Clutch feels great. A little chatter here and there but overall MUCH easier to drive than I expected. Very pleased with it so far

Little before and after

 

[pieceofcloth]

Thats the j pipe i needed, oh well. Will you be cutting the power steering line/looping or save it as is? Sick whip

 

[habitatguy187]

Thats the j pipe i needed, oh well. Will you be cutting the power steering line/looping or save it as is? Sick whip

For whatever reason, a well-made J-pipe always seems hard to come by. Looks like you got set up tho .

Whenever I decide to take the IM off for cleaning/wire tucking, I will cut the line down closer to the rack. Eventual plan is to "miata mod" the rack. Did it on my current 1g and I like the result. Thanks man.

 

[habitatguy187]

When I did my boost leak test a couple weeks ago, I fixed all leaks except for the throttle body shaft seals. They weren't leaking bad, but I decided now was the time to attack them and hoped that it would also help with getting the car tuned better as it was giving me fits when it came to consistency.

I know that it's, taboo, but I personally scraped the old shaft seals out of the seal race and popped in some 10x14x3mm seals from ace hardware.


I will say that they seemed to fit TOO snug, but they fit and they're working. Boost leak test after install verified as much. While I had the throttle body off I hit it with the bench grinder brush

Also, I took some time to relocate the throttle cable and clean up the fuel rail area a little. I'm not finished by any means but it's a step closer. Here's a before vs after.

 

[habitatguy187]

I had been wanting to change the yellow valve cover. It's not too bad but I'm not a huge fan. I DO like the "mitsubishi" on it tho. I will be prepping it sometime to put it back on, but, it was pushing a tiny bit of oil out of the oil cap during boost, and I had a couple spares laying around plus a new VC gasket that came with the car so I figured why not.

First thing I did was drill two 1/2" holes in the new VC. My ocd is already getting to me that I didn't drill at the same angle, but I'll get it right when I go to work on the yellow "mitsu" one.

After that I cleaned it and sprayed it with the same high-temp paint I used on the 2g exhaust mani. My bros kept teasing me about all the t-bolt clamps on my upper IC pipe so I decided to spray that too along with the gm mas .Pic from when I first got the car to this point.

 

[habitatguy187]

Did the free fuel filter "mod" where you line up the fuel exit-hole of the banjo bolt with the fuel line.

Also painted intake/added VC breather barbs. Chose clear lines for now so that I can easily see if it's blowing any oil through.

 

[habitatguy187]

The PO had #2 welding wire running to the trunk - attached under-car running along the frame rails and secured using the old rear powersteering line clamps. Cool deal. I went to advanced auto and picked up a battery box and a 125amp fuse. I used a rear shock tower stud for ground. Here's some pics

 

[habitatguy187]

The Honeymoon is Over

So at this point, the car is running pretty hit or miss. Takes forever to build boost and feels like an absolute turd until it builds about 12psi....at 4500rpm. I decided to turn the boost down and get the tune ironed out. Well first off, boost won't turn down. I have an exhaust leak in the flex part of my downpipe and it seems to be creeping. Put that on the list.

While doing some tuning the first night my alternator starts chirping. Went home and swapped it with the good one from my 1g and called it a day. Next day the alt belt won't shut up, so I picked a new one up at the local advanced. Next day, car starts overheating and water pump pulley starts chirping! I'm like and realized that I left off the inner pulley of the two-piece pulley that goes on the water pump... the one that runs the ac belt . So I put it back on and water pump is making noise still and still overheating. f***. Parked it and ordered a new water pump. Tuning wasn't going well anyway so I also ordered gm map and iat sensors so that I can ditch the gm maf and run speed density.

Pump came in 2 days later and i put it on that night. Noise is gone but car still running hot. Picked up a t-stat from parts store the next to no avail. Also while out testing t-stat, a ZIP TIE in the engine bay broke. It was holding the lc-2 sensor wires away from the alt pulley.... well it broke and the wires got caught up in the alt and shredded them. I'm running narrowband sim I drove it home super rich and parked it again.

Next day, went to Ace and picked up a soldering gun. Went to town on the galant tightening up a bunch of wiring including the wideband o2. Went to test it and no power. Checked the fuse panel and one was blown. Replaced it and had power, but wideband gauge was flashing non-stop. Re-checked solder job on sensor and decided to order a new bosch 4.9 sensor from ebay.

New sensor arrived so I went to calibrate and install it. The lc-2 controller was stuffed between the dash and steering wheel but I got it out only to find that the light on the controller is dead. Tested for power going to the controller and re-checked complete install using the ecmlink wiki along with grounds. All good. Still no light. Fuuuuuuuuug. Must have shorted out the controller before the fuse blew.. Guess I'll order a $130 controller next.... all because of an old and crusty zip tie. Sometimes I hate being a dsmer .

 

[habitatguy187]

Alllllright time to catch up! I was fed up with the galant and ignored it for about a week or so and then decided to put a stock o2 sensor back in it and just drive it easy for awhile.

During this time I replaced the flex section of my downpipe, then realized I was still leaking exhaust at the turbo-o2 housing gasket and o2-downpipe gasket. Both gaskets turned out to be a pita. The o2-downpipe ended up taking TWO gaskets AND some permatex exhaust gasket sealant to get it to stop leaking. Sheesh.

The o2-turbo gasket came apart while on the car actually, but the rear bolt got stuck on re-assembly. Ended up pulling the turbo off to get the bolt unstuck and still couldn't get it, so I did something odd. I swapped over the 6cm 14b turbine housing onto my 16g until I could get the bolt out of the 7cm turbine housing.


Put it all back together and happy to report zero exhaust leaks, but now a new oil leak appeared from the turbo oil drain flex section.... ugh

Ended up pulling the turbo off again to repair the leak. I cut out the flex section and clamped it with some reinforced hose from O'Reilly.

Somewhere along the way I ditched the gm maf and switched to speed density which really helped the car a lot.

 

[pieceofcloth]

i thought about cutting that flex at one point too. I hate that mf piece. Can we get a video of a pull please?

 

[habitatguy187]

Most recently I installed a brand new-old innovate mtx-l wideband that my friend gave me (I have some great friends, man )and had to learn how to use the linear wideband function in link in order to get it to log the same as the gauge. I can't tell you how happy i am to finally have a synchronized wideband and no exhaust leaks . I'm finally able to do some real tuning.

Also replaced the wally 255hp for a new in box aeromotive 340 that I've had sitting in the garage for years. I also bumped my base fuel pressure from 40 to 50psi in order to bring my idcs down. Check out the wiring on the pump when I pulled the hanger . I soldered shrink taped then electrical taped em

 

[habitatguy187]

Spent $5 and 60 mins removing and spraying the hood with a can of clear coat

 

[habitatguy187]

Spent a day buffing the paint. Could still use more but the results were amazing in a lot of places.

 

[habitatguy187]

Two more things that happened in the past 3 months: e85 goo and new exhaust mani studs. I didn't notice the car running poorly or anything but a friend bought a fuel injector flow machine/cleaner so of course I wanted to clean em. I'm curious how they look now since I've been running a 50/50 e85/unleaded mix since it got cold out. I'll pull them again in spring and see.

Exhaust mani studs are the basic maperformance stud kit. I've bought all my gaskets from them and their shipping is top notch. 2 shipping day on each of my 4 orders so far

 

[KCDsmDude]

The tap you're using to drill into the heads, what tool is that attached to? Is that attached to a drill?

I always put the tap directly into the drill and go super slow, 99% of the time it works well but sometimes the tap gets stuck in the head and the drill doesn't keep it's grip on the tap.

 

[rabenne]

The tap you're using to drill into the heads, what tool is that attached to? Is that attached to a drill?

I always put the tap directly into the drill and go super slow, 99% of the time it works well but sometimes the tap gets stuck in the head and the drill doesn't keep it's grip on the tap.

um, why?

This is a BAD idea. Don't do that...

 

[pieceofcloth]

Two more things that happened in the past 3 months: e85 goo and new exhaust mani studs. I didn't notice the car running poorly or anything but a friend bought a fuel injector flow machine/cleaner so of course I wanted to clean em. I'm curious how they look now since I've been running a 50/50 e85/unleaded mix since it got cold out. I'll pull them again in spring and see.

Exhaust mani studs are the basic maperformance stud kit. I've bought all my gaskets from them and their shipping is top notch. 2 shipping day on each of my 4 orders so far

View attachment 647888

View attachment 647889

Does the goo happen because the vehicle sits on e85 or because you recently changed from pump& then it sat for the 3 months?

 

[KCDsmDude]

um, why?

This is a BAD idea. Don't do that...

I've done this on eight + DSM's, and I replace every exhaust stud, never had any issues except for what I mentioned .

Guess doing it by hand is the preferred way?

 

[pieceofcloth]

The tap you're using to drill into the heads, what tool is that attached to? Is that attached to a drill?

I always put the tap directly into the drill and go super slow, 99% of the time it works well but sometimes the tap gets stuck in the head and the drill doesn't keep it's grip on the tap.

With soft metals like aluminum, your natural strength should be enough. Especially with some type of lube, rotating 2 turns in and one out. Have you ever had a situation where the drill was absolutely necessary? (On a aluminum head)jw