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Deric’s 91 GS-T

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The car has been down for a year this month. I got engine pulled out last weekend. A few more parts and a lot of time needed to get the rebuild going.
 

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After getting the engine on a stand a couple weeks ago I finally had a few minutes to pull the pan. What I found was no surprise, the rear balance shaft bearing was looking right at me.

I’ll continue to disassemble and inspect things at a turtles pace. One thing different about my DSM journey this time around, money isn’t what’s holding me up, it’s freeing up the time to be able to work on it.
 

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Absolutely! I have the same problem I just finished my 97 Gst build recently, it took a little over 2 years before i drove it regularly. I like the GST make the best, I put a closed LSD in mine, besides the bigger turbo that was my favorite mod.
 
I had the house to myself today, so I continued my tear down. One of the head bolts stripped out, but I had this huge extractor that worked perfectly. After I got the head off I flipped the engine over, got coolant in my shoe, and took a photo of the damaged caused by the failed balance shaft bearing. I wanted to get the pistons out today but it didn’t happen. I keep looking for another reason that could have caused oil starvation that caused the balance shaft bearing to spin. Oh well, we will see how bad the rest of the bearings look soon.
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I just realized that I needed to share this to the build thread, here’s the trashed cam journal that I found when I was attempting to install 3g lifters prematurely. I think the same weekend, I was working on the timing belt and that’s when I realized that The oil pump was locking up and I was going to be doing a full rebuild on this. Honestly the longer it takes I have been tempted to just find a running engine somewhere and get it back together. I wanna drive this thing!!!!
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Well, in my last post I mentioned just finding an engine to get the car going. I had been expecting a weekend road trip to Texas or further, but luckily a long block popped up just about an hour away and I jumped on it. Really cool to meet a “local” DSMer and get a fast forward button to getting this car on the road.

In other news—I suppose this is related to my build—My biggest update lately is that I visited my towns permit office last week and turned in plans to have a detached garage installed at my home. Trying to make dreams come true over here!
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This poor car saw the sun for the first time in a couple years this week. I have been working on getting this new shop building together very slowly. Unfortunately I’ve had to resort to just throwing things in there to deal with them later as I’ve got a newborn baby girl and some unexpected issues with my house that need immediate repair (of course right? After refinancing and spending all the equity money on building this shop!).

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Oof, 3 years down.

I’ve gotten a lot of things squared away with my home and we are settling in nicely with my second daughter who is turning 1 in July. Only a few things left to deal with plus getting my mess cleaned up and organized so I can think straight.

It’s certainly been a whirlwind of one thing after another, which I am sure any homeowner has experienced at some point.

I’ve been thinking more and more about the path for this project, and with the way things are kind of going right now, I think I’m just going to get the gaskets and belts replaced one day soon (I hope) and get this engine back in. So it would be mostly stock, but with ecmlink since I already got that and maybe some hard pipes to the s16g since all the rubber is in really bad shape.

This would do two things:

1) Get the car back up faster, maybe more reliable as well, and give me some much needed seat time.

2) Save some gas $$$. Even with the difference between regular and premium, my tundra needing a full tank every 4 days is eating my extra money up pretty quickly.

I know it’s not a great car to haul kids around in, but with the longer days (I’ve noticed it breaking daylight before I leave home for work this week) I would love to take this thing to work 2-3 times a week when I’m by myself.

That’s where I’m at everyone. Maybe I get the ball rolling before I’m making a year 4 update right below this.
 
My oldest daughter had dance finals out of state this week (yesterday, they WON small group for 12 and under!), so I took a couple days off to myself and put in some sweat therapy. After I pressure washed outside and cleaned the whole inside of the house, I figured I could have some guilt free garage time.

I called one of those “we buy junk cars” guys and he came and got this E60 that was a failed partout project. I learned to stick with what I know from now on.

Now I have so much room for activities!

Shop doesn’t look like much but I picked up and organized for 12 hours straight yesterday. Put together my HF 20 ton press that I bought in MARCH. Still got some hours to put in for organizing tools, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for getting wrenches turning again on the DSM.

A little before and after:

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My oldest daughter had dance finals out of state this week (yesterday, they WON small group for 12 and under!), so I took a couple days off to myself and put in some sweat therapy. After I pressure washed outside and cleaned the whole inside of the house, I figured I could have some guilt free garage time.

I called one of those “we buy junk cars” guys and he came and got this E60 that was a failed partout project. I learned to stick with what I know from now on.

Now I have so much room for activities!

Shop doesn’t look like much but I picked up and organized for 12 hours straight yesterday. Put together my HF 20 ton press that I bought in MARCH. Still got some hours to put in for organizing tools, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for getting wrenches turning again on the DSM.

A little before and after:

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Man that is awesome i got 3 princesses myself all involved with sports 5, 5, and 10. Very nice set up you got there.
I do the guilt free garage time thing too😁
 
Oof, 3 years down.

I’ve gotten a lot of things squared away with my home and we are settling in nicely with my second daughter who is turning 1 in July. Only a few things left to deal with plus getting my mess cleaned up and organized so I can think straight.

It’s certainly been a whirlwind of one thing after another, which I am sure any homeowner has experienced at some point.

I’ve been thinking more and more about the path for this project, and with the way things are kind of going right now, I think I’m just going to get the gaskets and belts replaced one day soon (I hope) and get this engine back in. So it would be mostly stock, but with ecmlink since I already got that and maybe some hard pipes to the s16g since all the rubber is in really bad shape.

This would do two things:

1) Get the car back up faster, maybe more reliable as well, and give me some much needed seat time.

2) Save some gas $$$. Even with the difference between regular and premium, my tundra needing a full tank every 4 days is eating my extra money up pretty quickly.

I know it’s not a great car to haul kids around in, but with the longer days (I’ve noticed it breaking daylight before I leave home for work this week) I would love to take this thing to work 2-3 times a week when I’m by myself.

That’s where I’m at everyone. Maybe I get the ball rolling before I’m making a year 4 update right below
Homeowner problems are literally never ending and money consuming. Add in the family dynamics, I commend you sir. Nothing worth having or being proud of came over night.
 
Homeowner problems are literally never ending and money consuming. Add in the family dynamics, I commend you sir. Nothing worth having or being proud of came over night.
All of that is so true! I have a “DSM day” on the schedule for September, cooler weather maybe. Hope to post some progress then.
 
Dude! Beautiful shop and congrats on the dance finals LOL, I just have 1 “princess” who’s turning 11 this year that also did dance back in the day:). I just wanna say hope all the plans with the car work out, your 91 looks just like my 90 from the rear LOL,
 
Pulled an all dayer (it was rough for a little bit) and cleaned the shop today, minus running out of time for a bit of tool organizing. I’m bad about using a tool for something and then just throwing it in a bucket or container instead of putting it away. I’m going to try to get better about that after I get it back in order.

Maybe tomorrow I can finish that and give her a quick wash. The inside is awful too but I’ll get it cleaned up. The dark shop plus the humidity here is quality environment for mold growth. Hope to get the replacement engine cleaned up, new gaskets and belts, and stabbed in on Sunday. I’ve called in reinforcements!

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Well, I always set my goals too high, but it was a successful weekend.

I got the shop cleaned out, including organizing all of my tools. It’s no longer like a haunted house full of cobwebs. It’s REALLY nice to be able to walk around in there without it being like a “floor is lava” situation.

The car was cleaned up inside and out -not detailed- but, clean.

All the mounts have been modified with prothane inserts. For some reason that seemed like a good first project. This included mounting my vice to my table. Some bushings were discovered completely deteriorated in the front center member. Found replacements thanks to JNZ.

Replacement engine is on the stand, started with checking things out on the head. Swapped the aftermarket cams for stock and installed 3G lifters. Cleaned and installed valve cover with all new gaskets including oil cap gasket and pcv valve. Lastly new spark plugs gapped and ready to go. Intake manifold that’s on there is spray painted black, I’ll leave it for now. Exhaust manifold is still somewhere on the shelf yet to be rediscovered.

Balance shaft and timing belt and associated parts (water pump, pulleys, hydraulic tensioner and seals) are all installed and torqued down. Ended up stopping here to clean up the mess before it got dark, still no lights in my shop unfortunately.

Fun experiences: using bread and a socket inverted on an extension to remove the AT pilot bearing.
Digging thru stuff I ordered, opening boxes and packages that have sat unopened for up to three years was better than Christmas morning. Everything I opened was something that I wanted!!
Cleaning out an old hand-me-down craftsman box to turn into a DSM special tool box, and unboxing my dealer special tool kit that I ordered on eBay 2 years ago. So cool to have all the original pegboard posters and everything!

Unfun experience: I was unable to remove crank to flywheel dowel from original engine. Heat, PB blaster, more heat, hammer, vice grips, nothing would budge it.

Since I needed another dowel, I crafted a list and ordered a bunch of random gaskets and parts from JNZ this afternoon. Some things that I didn’t realized weren’t included in my gasket kit, and others I just wanted an OEM version of something I bought earlier. Looking forward to receiving those and finding some time here and there to get back at it.

Progress feels good. I’m a lot closer than I was last week!

I was super focused and only took one photo, it’s not much but I’ll post it since it’s all I have. It was a bit cloudy which didn’t help the no light situation, but it’s not really quite as dark as the picture makes it look. Pictured are my two buddies that both enjoyed the trip down memory lane. We used to work on DSMs in each others driveways late at night after working at our first jobs, sometimes we never went to sleep just right off to school after a quick shower. That was over 15 years ago now LOL.

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Question for you guys-

The service manual states a maximum protrusion spec for the hydraulic tensioner, at 12mm. The one that came off this engine goes beyond that. It is also not stamped with the 533 (so i don’t know if that means it’s aftermarket or not). Also, I can push it by hand against a hard surface and move it back and forth about the distance that’s it’s over spec, a couple mm’s.

Is this one trash? Im not here to throw away spare parts, but I’m also not here to hoard scrap metal.

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If its easy to push in, throw it away. We need to try and save all we can though. Put it in a vise and slowly compress it all the way to the grenade pin hole and then see if it will extend, with pressure, from that point. You should not be able to keep it in with your fingers, it should push out, as it is supposed to. The over-extension wouldn't bother me if the unit reacted correctly after taking it out of the vise. I saved one 533 unit and it took a vice to compress it slowly. When I took it out, I couldn't hold it in so I recompressed it and put a pin in it and hung it on the wall for later use if needed.
 
If its easy to push in, throw it away. We need to try and save all we can though. Put it in a vise and slowly compress it all the way to the grenade pin hole and then see if it will extend, with pressure, from that point. You should not be able to keep it in with your fingers, it should push out, as it is supposed to. The over-extension wouldn't bother me if the unit reacted correctly after taking it out of the vise. I saved one 533 unit and it took a vice to compress it slowly. When I took it out, I couldn't hold it in so I recompressed it and put a pin in it and hung it on the wall for later use if needed.
Thanks Marty, so I can only compress it 1-2 mm by hand, the rest of the travel has to be done by vice. It extends fully with pressure when released. What say you?
 
If you CAN'T HOLD IT IN BY HAND.....I would keep it. It won't over extend unless the belt stretches super bad as long as the initial setup is done right and I know you will do it right.
If you assemble the engine and take tension off the tensioner arm, as long as it takes up the slack and keeps the belt tight, then you are ok. If in any doubt, replace.
 
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