Street Build 1g build - The Real Life Trials and Tribulations of building a DSM

[Anfurnyy]

Update time

Since the last update i finished putting the blue car mostly back together. Got the hood re-installed, fuel tank mounted back up, Put the spare driveshaft in the car as well as the big box of parts that the red car came with in it and tied up the wiring engine harness. I dont see a use for any of them for myself so they'll go with the car when/if it sells.

Last weekend I worked my butt off getting the blue car outside. Like i said i had to play musical suspension to get it all moved around. Wasnt fun, On top of that it was raining.
Got both cars in the garage and pulled the suspension off the red car and slapped it on the blue one and rolled it into the driveway. Ill tell you what. WHAT. A PAIN. Rotors are a bit rusty so it didnt want to roll great and on top of that my driveway is slanted downhill. I rolled the car down far enough so it would be on the far side of my driveway and then had to push it back uphill towards the house. It took everything i had to make that thing roll, but finally got it.


Now the fun part, i had to pull all the suspension off the blue car....in the rain. The rears were pretty cake but the fronts took a little bit of time. I obviously didnt want to get wet so I decided to use my full brain and grabbed my tarp and some magnets and stuck it to the car over the wheels i was working over to make a giant umbrella. Worked really well actually! i put a fabric and rubber matt down, with cardboard on top so my butt didnt get wet. Who says adults cant make forts??


Got suspension back on the red car but had some extra time so i decided to put my new hatch struts on the red car. Its the little things, I swear. Now the hatch doesnt have to be held open with a stick or breaker bar or my head while im doing stuff in it AND it actually opens automatically.
Car now belongs to the left side of the garage


Put my old oil cap back on, since it seems to have sealed better.

And FINALLY the oil pan saga has finally come to an end. A couple days after getting the blue car into the driveway i went to work on fixing the oil pan on the red car. I absolutely demolished the old oil pan to get the Buschurs baffle out so that I could save some money and have a fab buddy of mine weld it into the new pan, which is exactly what i did. New oil pan seals correctly. I did rtv the pan slightly differently than i normally do since i didnt want it to leak for sure. Instead of spreading the rtv along the flange with my finger i just left the bead here and mounted the pan for it to squish out wherever it needed to. Seems to have worked. After a couple test drives and driving it to work 2 times last week back to back i didnt see any drops of anything on the ground before leaving or after arriving. #Win


The icing on the cake is i truly think that my shifting issues are resolved now. 3rd seems to shift quite nicely. I havent done any hard 2-3 shifts yet because the alignment is suuuuper goofed but hopefully i can get a few in before the snow starts.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Now some issues that id like to turn and try to address.
First off, since getting everything swapped over to the red car its had a pretty hard time starting. Sometimes it fires up really fast, sometimes i have to crank it for 8 seconds or so and it fires and sometimes it doesnt fire for a long time.

From what i can see, i have lower than average v while cranking but not enough to stop it from firing. I made a post on the Link ecu forums about it and what I got was basically POSSIBLY bad ground connection. What seems to be happening is my crank sensor is generating an engine RPM so its not firing the injectors or possibly the coils either. Verified this with Link by doing a trigger scope, and sending a log. They think that a bad ground somewhere is causing the voltage not to drop below the arming voltage if Im remembering it right? They say that the Armving voltages needed are rise to 1.5+ and fall to below 1.0v.


I did check some ground in the engine bay and found a few things that were wrong or different than i thought.

1: The bolt on the Ground on the firewall from the engine bay post was loose.
2: The ground for the starter was connected to the firewall and not to the Negative post to the battery, AND the bolt it was bolted to the firewall with was also loose.

Fixed those and verified that all other electrical connections were tight and did a few test starts and i THINK it helped but didnt completely resolve the ECU not getting an RPM signal BUT it still seemed to start better.


While checking around i also found coolant on the back side of the block behind Cylinder 1 and 2. Wonder if I did hurt the Head gasket? Maybe freeze plug is leaking?
I feel like i need a waterpump underdrive pulley.

 

[92Turbski]

Now some issues that id like to turn and try to address.
First off, since getting everything swapped over to the red car its had a pretty hard time starting. Sometimes it fires up really fast, sometimes i have to crank it for 8 seconds or so and it fires and sometimes it doesnt fire for a long time.

From what i can see, i have lower than average v while cranking but not enough to stop it from firing. I made a post on the Link ecu forums about it and what I got was basically POSSIBLY bad ground connection. What seems to be happening is my crank sensor is generating an engine RPM so its not firing the injectors or possibly the coils either. Verified this with Link by doing a trigger scope, and sending a log. They think that a bad ground somewhere is causing the voltage not to drop below the arming voltage if Im remembering it right? They say that the Armving voltages needed are rise to 1.5+ and fall to below 1.0v.
View attachment 749580

I did check some ground in the engine bay and found a few things that were wrong or different than i thought.

1: The bolt on the Ground on the firewall from the engine bay post was loose.
2: The ground for the starter was connected to the firewall and not to the Negative post to the battery, AND the bolt it was bolted to the firewall with was also loose.

Fixed those and verified that all other electrical connections were tight and did a few test starts and i THINK it helped but didnt completely resolve the ECU not getting an RPM signal BUT it still seemed to start better.


While checking around i also found coolant on the back side of the block behind Cylinder 1 and 2. Wonder if I did hurt the Head gasket? Maybe freeze plug is leaking?
I feel like i need a waterpump underdrive pulley.

View attachment 749581

Couple of solid finds there with the grounds.
I know how important grounding is and how shitty or lacking these 90s car were so I'd installed a bunch of redundant grounds to help combat this. You can easily make your own or buy one of the kits that a guy makes on here, hmm what's his name. I'll look.

Looks like we've already visited this in your old build thread. Lol
Post in thread '1g build - The Real Life Trials and Tribulations of building a DSM' https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/1...tions-of-building-a-dsm.530076/post-153889385

 

[Anfurnyy]

Looks like we've already visited this in your old build thread. Lol
Post in thread '1g build - The Real Life Trials and Tribulations of building a DSM' https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/1...tions-of-building-a-dsm.530076/post-153889385

You are right I think i added a 10ga ground to the alternator body > chassis and it didn't make a difference it seemed. I will be added one from my junction block in the engine bay to the engine block though.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Little treat for you guys. Decent 2-3 rip on the way to work this morning. 3rd came in late because wheel speed wasn't high enough, and only put rpm at 5500 which is JUUUSSSTTT below 3rds boost threshold but she came in after. 49.6 psi

 

[Anfurnyy]

What's funny is dash only showed 90mph when the log shows 98mph when I let out in 3rd. Gotta love the speedo cable

 

[CrackedDSM]

Little treat for you guys. Decent 2-3 rip on the way to work this morning. 3rd came in late because wheel speed wasn't high enough, and only put rpm at 5500 which is JUUUSSSTTT below 3rds boost threshold but she came in after. 49.6 psi

That is a street missile, man. Freakin' rips.

 

[Anfurnyy]

That is a street missile, man. Freakin' rips.

It's really a lot of fun when I'm not worrying about fixing stuff. It's been nice since I've fixed the oil pan, being able to drive it to work and what not.

 

[CrackedDSM]

It's really a lot of fun when I'm not worrying about fixing stuff. It's been nice since I've fixed the oil pan, being able to drive it to work and what not.

 

[Anfurnyy]

 

[CrackedDSM]

View attachment 749708

 

[Anfurnyy]

Finally time to upgrade battery wire. Went with the regular 1/0 gauge. Adding an additional ground from engine block to negative post in the engine bay and upgrading the starter wire from 4 gauge to 1/0 also.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Im doing mine too where did get your wiring from this is my winter project.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Im doing mine too where did get your wiring from this is my winter project.

I actually ordered this stuff off Amazon. It's 0 gauge welding wire. Pure copper, not copper cladded.

25ft was about $180 for both red and black.
You can get some other good stuff from prowire and other places that have a plastic sleeve between the insulation and wires but it's a bit more expensive

 

[92AWDHX40]

Ok thanks

 

[Anfurnyy]

So like my previous post Ive decided to upgrade battery cables from the 4 gauge to 1/0 gauge from battery to engine bay.
This is try to mitigate the hard starting issues as well as just voltage issues in general.
So replaced battery cables from battery in the back to the 2 distribution blocks in the engine bay. Starter also has new 1/0 gauge power with starter bolt ground straight to the negative distribution block, AND added another 4gauge ground straight from the engine block to the distribution block as well. Then an additional 1/0 gauge ground from that same distribution block to the firewall.


The car seems to get rpm signal more often but still having the same issue.

Decided to pull the timing cover off to check and make sure that the crank sensor was okay (at least visually) and that it didnt somehow get eaten up by the trigger wheel or the air gap messed up but it looked alright. I did notice while in there that there was some coolant on the sensor. I think this is from loosening the tensioner arm bolt that goes through the waterpump so much. A very small amount of coolant seems to be present around the waterpump.
I visually inspected the sensor and it seems brand new, none of the wiring seems bad or torn/burned or anything. The air Gap is within spec of Kiggly's specs (IIRC it measure in at .030")


Ended up getting a warranty replacement battery from good ol walmart, and got the cover and everything put back on and still pretty much has the same issue. Car will crank over and over and over but sometimes wont get RPM signal.

While the car was kind of apart it decided to finally throw on the underdrive pulley for the alternator. This had to be bored out to a 17mm to fit over the shaft of the Saturn alt. I also ordered a waterpump underdrive pulley too from Evospec. Figured this would help a few ways like giving coolant more time to be cooled down through the radiator, and help with not creating as much coolant pressure while in higher RPMs.


The issue im currently fighting is that with 2 underdrive pulley's I now need some weird one off belt for them. Ive already been through 3 and i ordered up 2 more to try out. a 41-3/16" was too long, i couldnt even get the belt to tighten, 40-7/16 was too short. Ive got 2 somehow different 40-9/16" belts coming in today that hopefully one of them fit.. but i doubt it with only 2/16ths longer.

With all this going on and black friday stuff happening I took a dive into the headlight world and ordered up some cheaper ish LED headlight. Ill be the first to say that i cannot stand when people ass lights are giving me an xray while driving towards them so i picked up some that had apparently had good cutoff and a decent bulb pattern as well.
Got them in and tried to test fit them but alas, they were not plug and play being H4 plug style. I was able to test them and get them to work however they are switched 12v and not switched ground I quickly learned. I also picked up a Holley negative switched relay harness and some polarity reversers to see which i like more. I think ill probably like the Holley harness since its just 2 small relays and wiring instead of the big reverser boxes. I think either one will work.
Car has both headlights installed and they are only wired to the low beams as of right now, no high beams. I did also convert the plug on the car to the regular H4 plug. I feel like this gives more compatibility to better headlights as well.

I cant say that im a huge fan of the style of light but honestly they'll likely never be seen unless i flip the headlights up without the lights.

Cut off and beam pattern do seem to be pretty good, IMO. I havent had a chance to aim the lights yet but i did hook them up to my jump pack for 12v power and compared them against my garage door:

Low: High:

 

[1cleangsx]

That’s crazy your still having voltage issues after the wire upgrade and having a Saturn alternator, I hope the new pulleys work out, I know heat definitely plays a part in voltage drop, upgrading to a 2awg from battery to alt noticeably increased voltage at idle but was the same at wot

And I love your in car videos, you’ve got yourself a rocket for sure

 

[Anfurnyy]

That’s crazy your still having voltage issues after the wire upgrade and having a Saturn alternator, I hope the new pulleys work out, I know heat definitely plays a part in voltage drop, upgrading to a 2awg from battery to alt noticeably increased voltage at idle but was the same at wot

And I love your in car videos, you’ve got yourself a rocket for sure

Im not sure im having VOLTAGE issues still it seems to be some sort of ground offset between the sensor and chassis grounds maybe? Doesnt really explain why the sensor seems to work just fine during running but only an issue while cranking.

Thank you sir! Its definitely fast. Once i actually decide to try a flat foot shift im sure itll be a riot

 

[Anfurnyy]

Got both headlights I and installed and fixed up my alternator pulley. When i first got it installed it actually needed another 5mm spacer to space the pulley out away from the alternator. Now the belt dont make tons of noise.

Took the car for a spin last night to check the lights and make sure the pullies were working fine.
Had to bump idle up to get idle voltage high enough to charge the battery.

Checked the headlight and damn these are freaking nice man. They are NOT aimed appropriately yet but i popped onto the road to make sure i lowered them enough that i could see decent but not blind everyone else. Im not sure how wide they are supposed to be but its pretty wide the cutoff does seem decent.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Honestly I'm really liking where the talon is at lately. I've driven it to work a few times last week and it went off without really any issues again.
There's still small things for the time being that need to be address but it's ultimately a running driving car.
After 6 belts I finally found a water pump / alternator belt that fits with multiple under drive pulleys.


Found a gen 3 Vibrant Catch can that's a bit smaller than mine and has a good mount that I'll be able to mount on the firewall next to the wiper motor too. Ordered some -12orb > -10an fitting adapters for it since the ports are -12.

On the way to work last week it was fairly cold and I ended up hitting 51.6 lbs of boost. Never in my life would I thought I would hit that high. I can't say it was any different than 45+ because I hit boost cut. It probably would have ripped. At that boost level I was seeing 80% injector duty and that was only at 6200rpm.




Over the weekend I addressed some other small issues. Those being my coil pack wires and crank sensor plug wires going bad. The COP wires were starting to shed the insulation and the crank sensor wires were pulling out of the connector.



My Holley switched ground adapter harness came in and it works so I'll get that put on the car sometime in the next couple weeks. Honestly the lows are so bright that I'm not sure I'll need the brights but it'll be nice to have them.


Drive the car to work Monday and parked and took a little Christmas photo shoot with some lights.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Love this thing. You inspire me to try to drive mine to work tomorrow. Might also blatantly copy you and throw some LED headlights in this thing.


I missed it, but what are you using for boost control?

 

[Anfurnyy]

Love this thing. You inspire me to try to drive mine to work tomorrow. Might also blatantly copy you and throw some LED headlights in this thing.


I missed it, but what are you using for boost control?

I'm really starting to love it too. I'm getting the cold starts dialed in so it fires up right away. Its 13° here today and 3° with wind chill and it fired right up on 75% ethenol after work.
I actually plan on driving mine tomorrow as well!
Honestly I'm a fan of HID over LED but for these cars it's just too good and easy of an upgrade to not do. I Love the light output now and makes it feel more modern and comfortable driving while dark.

The Holley harness was like $23. But I did accidentally buy TWO sets of polarity reversal boxes and got one refunded so it's free if you want a set!

I'm using a MAC 4 port setup in open loop control. I REALLY need to setup closed loop so I'll actually sit around my target.

 

[CrackedDSM]

I'm really starting to love it too. I'm getting the cold starts dialed in so it fires up right away. Its 13° here today and 3° with wind chill and it fired right up on 75% ethenol after work.
I actually plan on driving mine tomorrow as well!
Honestly I'm a fan of HID over LED but for these cars it's just too good and easy of an upgrade to not do. I Love the light output now and makes it feel more modern and comfortable driving while dark.

The Holley harness was like $23. But I did accidentally buy TWO sets of polarity reversal boxes and got one refunded so it's free if you want a set!

I'm using a MAC 4 port setup in open loop control. I REALLY need to setup closed loop so I'll actually sit around my target.

Hell yeah. To everything. I'm sure the HID would work better for sure, but man the setup is so convoluted. This car had an HID setup on it and it was a wiring nightmare with all the ballasts and stuff. Only one side worked too, so I'm assuming the other side's ballast or driver or whatever just went bad. I kept the housings and stuff though, so maybe one day I'll just get some new ballasts or whatever and see if it'll work. Keep myself some options. Halogen, HID, and LED. Lol.


And PM'd!

 

[Anfurnyy]

Finally got the catch can mounted. This has bothered me for awhile. It's been just zip tied to the strut bar for forever.

Now it's nice a and sturdy, just 2 rivnuts on the angle portion of the firewall right above whatever the hell this A/C thing is.

 

[1cleangsx]

That’s the bulk head from the AC evaporator core under the passenger side dash, I only know that because I had to pull it out to repair the wiring harness I drilled thru