1990 GSX Daily Driver Build and Restore to 400 WHP

[Beaubo]

This is one fantastic build. I love the restoration aspect from the wheels to the front mount retaining the fog lamps. You do really phenomenal work and pay great attention to detail.

 

[6772owner]

Erik,

Car is looking great man, let me know what you think of tuning on teh E85, Im about to get mine on the road and might want to convert to E85.

 

[ErikTande]

Saturday maintenance! Yay!!

I've had a pesky power steering fluid leak ever since I bought the car, and I finally got around to addressing it today. I ordered the OEM rebuild kit and took the pump out of the car. I Figured a couple hours and I should be done. Until you realize that 24 year old pumps don't WANT to be taken apart. They want to be left alone. It ended up taking me pretty much all day with several trips to the store. At least it's done!

To get this bolt out, I actually had to put the bolt in the vice (I had to go buy a vice because I didn't have one) and then turn the whole pump assembly to break it loose. A lot of the other bolts and seals were just as bad, none of them wanted to come out easily.

Finally got everything apart.

And then back together with all new seals.

 

[ErikTande]

Exhaust manifold change time! Mine is cracked and leaking. I picked up a 2g manifold and I'm going to port the manifold and turbo exhaust housing as well while I'm in there, and install my Megan o2 housing.

Here's a pic of the crack:

A DSM on jack stands, never before seen ever:

More pics coming tonight!

 

[Pipnorcali]

Great build ..

a few xtra bucks would have gotten you a fp manifold

 

[ErikTande]

Great build ..

a few xtra bucks would have gotten you a fp manifold

Thanks! I got the 2g manifold for $30

 

[ErikTande]

Got the turbo and manifold pulled out tonight. The original manifold have 2 other cracks on the bottom as well, a little bigger than the one I posted earlier. Turboless!:

Fresh out of the car:

New (used) Megan o2 housing that I got for $60:

Not looking great, lots of cracks. I'm going to port it and see how it looks.

And here's where I left off for the night, trying to get the bolts out of the o2 housing. I got the bolt at the top of the picture loose, the bottom one I've been able to turn (barely) and I still haven't been able to get the middle one to even budge. I'm going to let it soak in more PB Blaster overnight, hopefully that will help.

 

[KuckFatrina]

Might as well pick up a 16g. Many in the classifieds for not too expensive.

Great work on this restoration!

 

[lasershark]

could always go old school and try hitting that bolt with a torch

 

[ErikTande]

Erik,

Car is looking great man, let me know what you think of tuning on teh E85, Im about to get mine on the road and might want to convert to E85.

I love it! Car is running awesome on it, I'm going to Bandimere this weekend to get some runs in. Assuming I can fix this broken bolt before then.

 

[ErikTande]

14b and 2g manifold Porting pics!

Marked:

manifold

Broken bolt drilled out and re-tapped with a helicoil:

 

[ErikTande]

Before I put my new (used) Megan o2 housing on, I weighed it first. I saved a pound and a half over the stock o2 housing! Bam!

I got the new o2 housing bolted up, but not before a healthy coat of copper anti seize on all the bolts. I'll be upgrading the turbo in about a year, and I want to make sure a bolt breaking doesn't happen again.

 

[ErikTande]

Got my turbo cleaned up and put back on the turbine housing, and since I'm simulating my narrowband in ECMLink, I don't need my o2 sensor anymore. I found a m18 x 1.5 plug at O'Reilly's for $3

And here's a better pic of my porting work on my 2g manifold:

 

[ErikTande]

I finally got all my copper crush washers in today, so I'll be putting the turbo back in tonight and going to the drag strip this weekend Here's a couple beauty shots in the mean time:

 

[CrackedDSM]

That car is ridiculously gorgeous. My favorite color ever for a 1G DSM and the clear corners and clear(non yellow ) centerpiece makes it. The FMIC filling out the bumper helps too. Keep up the great work.

 

[ErikTande]

I got the new 2g manifold and turbo back on, everthing is running well, so I stopped by the local dyno today to get some base readings where I'm at. The car only did 1 pull though, the clutch slipped pretty bad, so we shut it down to make sure I could drive home

Luckly I was expecting the clutch to fail (it's stock), so I had already ordered one last month. Guess it's time to install it. I'll put a pic up later today of the new clutch.

Here's the failed Dyno pull, I still made 278 ft-lbs of torquw and 265 HP, even with the slipping clutch.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Nice its really coming along finally I got mine out of the garage after the throttle body shafts seals were replaced good numbers on the dyno im headed there soon.

 

[ErikTande]

Nice its really coming along finally I got mine out of the garage after the throttle body shafts seals were replaced good numbers on the dyno im headed there soon.

I need to do that too, my throttle body has a faint boost leak.

 

[4stAir]

You have done a great job, I can only hope that one day ( when I get a garage to put the car in) I can have my blue 1g look like new again.

Have you put the blue valve cover on just wondering what the engine bay looks like now?

Keep up the good work!

 

[ErikTande]

You have done a great job, I can only hope that one day ( when I get a garage to put the car in) I can have my blue 1g look like new again.

Have you put the blue valve cover on just wondering what the engine bay looks like now?

Keep up the good work!

Thanks! I haven't put the new valve cover on yet, I'm going to do that when I put my ARP head studs in since I'll have to be in there anyway.




For now, the clutch needs to get done ASAP. I ordered this last month (I got it for $260 brand new on amazon.com, talk about a lucky deal!) I opened up my new clutch, the Centerforce twin disc. I'm going to get this installed next week, I won't be trying this one myself. I don't have the time, tools or experience for this job.

 

[4stAir]

Thanks! I haven't put the new valve cover on yet, I'm going to do that when I put my ARP head studs in since I'll have to be in there anyway.




For now, the clutch needs to get done ASAP. I ordered this last month (I got it for $260 brand new on amazon.com, talk about a lucky deal!) I opened up my new clutch, the Centerforce twin disc. I'm going to get this installed next week, I won't be trying this one myself. I don't have the time, tools or experience for this job.

Im glad with all the time and quality that you are putting into this car, you know when to hand work over to someone with experience when its needed.

 

[second_amendment]

Man this thing is amazing. loving the detail on the paint/ body work. Makes me miss my 1gen

 

[ErikTande]

I have the car up on jack stands again to fix an oil leak, so I decided to add a lower air scoop to try help keep temps down.

I started with a 2' x 1' piece of aluminum from Home Depot.

I'm using some existing bolt holes under the car and I made my first bend with my bench vise:

Then I measured and drilled some holes. then bolted it in place:

Bending the bottom piece:

Once I had it fitted the way I wanted, I painted it blaaaaaack.

Pics of final install soon.

 

[ErikTande]

Here's the final install of the scoop, I went with steel wire to hold the scoop up instead of bolts, I realized if I bottomed out on the bolts, they would damage my intercooler. Using wire will allow the scoop to flex up if i hit something without damaging anything except the $10 piece of aluminium that the scoop is made out of.

 

[LandSpeed-DSM]

First I want to say that you have executed this very well and with great detail. I wish my exterior was as clean as yours!

I'd reconsider the ducting up front, however. Not in the way you made or attached, it which is excellent! But how you have the air routing.

This layout if I can interpret correctly from the pictures may well slow/stall flow across the FMIC and possibly the radiator as ell, because the air going through the bars/fins is going to have to fight the new relatively high(er) pressure zone between the IC and the radiator at speed. It's the low(er) pressure zone behind the IC and yet lower again behind the Radiator that draws the air through and pulls heat from the cores.

Much the same in principle that a recirculated stock O2 housing increases manifold pressure and decreases massflow from harming VE through the entire system vs. a dumped unit where the two streams of gas no longer interfere..

You basically want to have the air funnel through a solid "tunnel" that uses the face of the FMIC as the inlet and the bottom of the firewall as the exit.. dumping the faster, hotter air under the car and ideally having the side effect of creating a beneficial low pressure zone under the chassis.

Seal the bottom of the bumper, and build your ducting to connect between the core of the IC and the radiator core. That will make your fans much more efficient too. This with ensuring the hood is sealed well at the leading edge as well as at the cowl by the windshield will be key to keeping cool.