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

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That's a good idea about the bcs mount to the radiator. I might think about doing that myself.

As for your cooling, if you look through my build thread I made a kind of a windshield for the bumper cover. It works great and my car never even thinks about getting hotter than 206 or so, and I live in Texas. You can make one out of ABS plastic and call it a day. You shouldn't need those vents.

As for the vc outlets, I can't tell you which one to sue but only to use the one that will be shortest. There's very little room. I would even consider sawing the bottoms of the fittings off and leaving only enough room to screw the female fittings on. Very little room for error there or it will hit the hood.
Yeah, the bcs mount isn't a bad idea. I'm not sure of the long term effects of heat on the solenoid though. I just used a small piece of 1" aluminum flat stock, drilled holes through it roughly where the 2 holes are that pass through the bcs, and one up top for the bolt and then use some stainless steel wire to secure it to that flat stock.

I'll check out your build and that deflector idea. I'd really like to not cut up the bumper if possible

The valve cover fittings, I did order up some 90° fittings but either fitting I use I would cut them here on the lines to make them as short as possible.
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I do have a feeling that that first straight fitting, along with a 90° fitting on the hose won't clear the hood..
 
Other fittings came in today. I mocked them up with the an fittings on so that way I know how low to have it cut off and welded to the valve cover. I have a buddy that's going to media blast the cover for me to prep it for powder coating.
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This morning I was sitting though some classifieds and I found a 6 bolt Magnus SMIM for $420 shipped! I scooped that up and I'm sure it will be here next week. I'm super stoked for that!
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Another small update, Car is still in the shop. Im really hoping to have it back this week.
My garage is looking a little empty without that turd sitting in there leaking fluids 💔

In other news, i decided to pull the trigger on a MCR Remanned Galant 90a alternator:

Ill get that installed when it comes in. voltage dipping into the 11's while idle and cruising doesnt seem very beuno.

Ordered up a used Tcase from Rixracing, no picutures on their site for it and i tried to message them but unfortunately im flying blind into that one.. We'll pray its good.

My Grounding kit finally showed up, some thicc ol wire. Ill get the battery - Chassis ground on right away when I get the car back, i might work on the starter ground a little later because im lazy.
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Ill be sure to update when i get the car back. 🤞
 
Wow, I keep coming back to this thread every few months and find something new to be impressed with or learned. Great job writing this all up, and of course with the restoration.

Is clutch disengagement ok now, and consistently? I had the same issue earlier this year after replacing the clutch and pressure plate on my '92 Talon TSi AWD. The slave cylinder was bad too so I thought it was that, but when I replaced it and bled it several times with a speed bleeder I installed, the clutch still didn't fully disengage.

I tried turning the master cylinder rod all the way in (or is it out?) so it was on its final threads (but safely so as I could see the end on the pedal side of the nut), and that still wasn't enough. Then I noticed excessive play when the clutch pedal was all the way up. So I got under there and loosened the nut that secures the pedal to the shaft/rod, lifted the pedal as far up as it would go (I'd previously turned the cruise switch as far up as it would go), then tightened the nut.

Voila! Problem solved. Clutch now fully disengaged and no grinding. There was still way too little play after disengagement, meaning the pedal was pretty close to the floor at full disengagement, so I'm going to have to take the whole thing out like you did, see what's going on and fix/replace it. I'll also either replace or rebuild the MC, and put in a SS hose.

But the problem was definitely on the clutch pedal end, not the hydraulics, clutch, fork, fulcrum or trans. The trans is out now and fully disassembled to fix a different issue, 1st gear popping out 80% of the time (which I suspect was caused by insufficient clutch disengagement grinding synchros and gears till they wouldn't stay in position), so I might replace the fork and fulcrum while I'm at it. But mostly I need to permanently fix that slop, new bushings, maybe a weld.

Anyway, my point was that I had a similar problem to yours and it was caused by clutch pedal slop issues, temporarily solved on my end and hopefully permanently so soon.
 
Wow, I keep coming back to this thread every few months and find something new to be impressed with or learned. Great job writing this all up, and of course with the restoration.

Is clutch disengagement ok now, and consistently? I had the same issue earlier this year after replacing the clutch and pressure plate on my '92 Talon TSi AWD. The slave cylinder was bad too so I thought it was that, but when I replaced it and bled it several times with a speed bleeder I installed, the clutch still didn't fully disengage.

I tried turning the master cylinder rod all the way in (or is it out?) so it was on its final threads (but safely so as I could see the end on the pedal side of the nut), and that still wasn't enough. Then I noticed excessive play when the clutch pedal was all the way up. So I got under there and loosened the nut that secures the pedal to the shaft/rod, lifted the pedal as far up as it would go (I'd previously turned the cruise switch as far up as it would go), then tightened the nut.

Voila! Problem solved. Clutch now fully disengaged and no grinding. There was still way too little play after disengagement, meaning the pedal was pretty close to the floor at full disengagement, so I'm going to have to take the whole thing out like you did, see what's going on and fix/replace it. I'll also either replace or rebuild the MC, and put in a SS hose.

But the problem was definitely on the clutch pedal end, not the hydraulics, clutch, fork, fulcrum or trans. The trans is out now and fully disassembled to fix a different issue, 1st gear popping out 80% of the time (which I suspect was caused by insufficient clutch disengagement grinding synchros and gears till they wouldn't stay in position), so I might replace the fork and fulcrum while I'm at it. But mostly I need to permanently fix that slop, new bushings, maybe a weld.

Anyway, my point was that I had a similar problem to yours and it was caused by clutch pedal slop issues, temporarily solved on my end and hopefully permanently so soon.
Thanks I appreciate it! It's been a lot of work but it's been a huge learning experience as well. Im happy that what I'm learning I can also help other with too.

Clutch engagement is perfect now. As it turns out it WAS the pedal assembly for me. I distinctly remember that the nut was pretty tight for me when I tore my assembly apart. I wish the nut was all mine was, although tearing it out wasnt hard it was annoying LOL

It really does sound like we're in the same boat. Thankfully mine doesn't pop out of gear, it kind of crutches when going into 2nd and 3rd. If I do it quickly, it doesn't make any noise at all. Im guessing it's because of the pedal assembly.

I'm going to mess with my shifter cable adjustment again and see if I can get that's squared away. I tried to adjust it before but it still feels like it's too far to the left.

It sucks that that stuff for the clutch gets replaced, but at least we know it's new :D
 
Actually, the clutch pedal/lever nut WAS pretty tight, IIRC. It's just that it was tightened with the pedal-lever-shaft position all the way in, where I wanted it to be all the way out, around an inch or so IIRC. Loosening it, pulling the pedal out, then tightening it again, gave me more than enough extra play to fully disengage above the floor. Like I wrote I view this as a temporary fix and will pull everything out and fix it permanently soon.

And to think that a relatively simply mechanical issue may well have damaged the trans internals and probably led to premature clutch burnout, to the cost of $500-$1000. I'm not upset, that's the price you pay for driving a performance car without being a car expert. Had I known more about cars when these problems first came up, I would likely have nipped them in the bud. But, such is life and you have to just learn from your mistakes.

I'm now fixing the trans. Just took it apart a few days ago and am now diagnosing what's worn or broken and in need of replacement. Definitely the synchros, maybe the hub/slider and gears. I'll replace some other parts as a precaution, per the advice of folks here, e.g. keys, springs, tapered bearings, magnet, etc., and do the proper solder method shimming.

Have you ever opened up your trans? If it's grinding even after fixing the pedal issue, replacing and bleeding the hydraulics, tightening up the shifters/cables, etc., there may be some internal damage that you'd best get to earlier than later, so it doesn't turn into something more serious. Given all the other work you've done on the car it shouldn't be too bad.

Took me 5-6 hours on a hot afternoon to completely disassemble it down to the gear stacks (still have to take those apart but lack the right tools so I'm still looking into that), using basic tools, including an impact wrench. Check out my threads on this if you're interested. I just put up some new photos of the intermediate shaft and gears.
 
Actually, the clutch pedal/lever nut WAS pretty tight, IIRC. It's just that it was tightened with the pedal-lever-shaft position all the way in, where I wanted it to be all the way out, around an inch or so IIRC. Loosening it, pulling the pedal out, then tightening it again, gave me more than enough extra play to fully disengage above the floor. Like I wrote I view this as a temporary fix and will pull everything out and fix it permanently soon.

And to think that a relatively simply mechanical issue may well have damaged the trans internals and probably led to premature clutch burnout, to the cost of $500-$1000. I'm not upset, that's the price you pay for driving a performance car without being a car expert. Had I known more about cars when these problems first came up, I would likely have nipped them in the bud. But, such is life and you have to just learn from your mistakes.

I'm now fixing the trans. Just took it apart a few days ago and am now diagnosing what's worn or broken and in need of replacement. Definitely the synchros, maybe the hub/slider and gears. I'll replace some other parts as a precaution, per the advice of folks here, e.g. keys, springs, tapered bearings, magnet, etc., and do the proper solder method shimming.

Have you ever opened up your trans? If it's grinding even after fixing the pedal issue, replacing and bleeding the hydraulics, tightening up the shifters/cables, etc., there may be some internal damage that you'd best get to earlier than later, so it doesn't turn into something more serious. Given all the other work you've done on the car it shouldn't be too bad.

Took me 5-6 hours on a hot afternoon to completely disassemble it down to the gear stacks (still have to take those apart but lack the right tools so I'm still looking into that), using basic tools, including an impact wrench. Check out my threads on this if you're interested. I just put up some new photos of the intermediate shaft and gears.
Ahh that makes sense about the shaft.

I definitely want to. It's been on my "bucket list" of things that I'd like to be self sufficient at but to be honest I'm a little intimidated haha I don't really have a proper place to tear it apart at, and I don't QUITE understand how the transmission works, as well as how everything is installed. Not to mention how to properly shim whatever needs to be shimmed.

I also don't have a hydraulic press either :/
If youve got a good diagram of the internals you wanna share I'd be happy to take it haha

I'll definitely be checking out your posts!
 
Before I even thought of undertaking it I did a TON of research, basically the FSM, YouTube videos, online tutorials, multiple threads here and elsewhere, extended discussions with folks here (to the point where I was probably being a PITA), etc. I basically memorized the entire assembly, or nearly so, so when I look at a part I know what it does, where it goes and what generally goes wrong with it (or so I like to believe).

But once I actually got around to taking it apart, it wasn't that hard. The hardest part was unstucking stuck parts, but eventually they all came off. And I did it all literally on the street in front of where I live, by the curb, since I don't have a proper place to do it. It wasn't raining or too windy, plus that's less of a concern taking things apart.

Putting it all back together will be a bit more worrisome as I don't want dust or grit getting in there. But all I had to do was put a large black garbage bag on the pavement, then some thick brown paper to soak up the oil. After I took each part off or apart, I put them in a ziploc bag with a label to ID it (although I pretty much recognize everything on sight now), then put it all in a large bin that's in my car.

The only thing missing was an actual shade tree! My block's got lots of trees but the one spot I chose to work on this was missing a tree. I could have used the shade since it was around 90 and very humid. But I got it done is the important thing.

I'm sure you can do it. Any tools you lack you can buy, loan out, rent, borrow, or pay a shop or get a buddy to do it. A neighbor lent me his trans jack. I don't have a press either so I'll probably have a local shop pull and press what's needed.

I don't have any diagrams but they're easy enough to find here and elsewhere. The FSM is the first place to start. Hopefully my photos will be of some help though.
 
Got my manifold today. I gotta say I was worried that I got an empty box when I picked it. I had absolutely no clue that these sheet metal manifolds were so light.

Anyways, it's pretty dirty, and it looks like maybe the mounting flange is warped. I'm going clean it up quite a bit and polish it and take it into the machine shop and see if they can mill the flange back to flat.

I plan on replacing all the barb fittings on it too.

So my question now is do I polish it and leave it as is, wrap it in some heat sheilding tape (like DEI), or have it powder coated? 🤔

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Finally some good stuff again. Brought the valve cover and baffle in to the fab shop to have everything welded in.The shop actually told me they welded the fittings from the inside of the cover as they weren't sure a TIG cup was going to fit all the way under the curved part of the AN fittings. This seemed to work out great. And didn't leave huge mounds of aluminum on top! They got it done and it looks pretty great! Time for powdercoating!!
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My alternator showed up as well. It's kinda weird. It's branded as a "WAI" brand alternator, which I've never heard of. Here's a picture of the unit and the part number. Maybe people following this can find it cheaper somewhere or just for general knowledge. I forgot to take a picture of the connector, unfortunately because that's what I was most curious about. Hopefully it fits!
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I would have the baffles removed before powder coating. Any sand that’s gets in there will ruin the engine. It’s impossible to get out when they get in the baffles.
 
I would have the baffles removed before powder coating. Any sand that’s gets in there will ruin the engine. It’s impossible to get out when they get in the baffles.
Yeah, i was going to have it powedercoated before hand and they said that they should weld the baffle in first as theres a chance that if they did it after powder coating, it could melt it and or cause it to flake off. When I take it in, ill make sure that they tape it off reallllly good. All holes covered.
 
I remember reading a build on here years ago about this with a guy who lost a motor from powder coat that ended up in his oil system from residue in the baffles, I’d rather remove the baffles before the process to know for sure, instead of going off some else’s assurance on “taping it off” LOL, after all it’s your motor not theirs, and again when I bought my powder coated valve cover with similar fittings on top and no baffles underneath I was hesitant at first, but pleasantly surprised to find very little oil accumulation in the catch can, as I now swear by the efficiency of a vented set up over a sealed system
 
+1 for being reluctant to the tape, especially when there are vendors in the community that have good results with welding them in after PC. Detective Coatings, can find them on IG, have a good reputation. They quoted to remove, PC, then weld in aluminum baffles. I thought about going local and may have finally stumbled upon a vendor that understands, which I might use. Overall, it seems to make the most sense to pay the extra coin for piece of mind/someone that is confident in there ability to weld after PC.
 
I remember reading a build on here years ago about this with a guy who lost a motor from powder coat that ended up in his oil system from residue in the baffles, I’d rather remove the baffles before the process to know for sure, instead of going off some else’s assurance on “taping it off” LOL, after all it’s your motor not theirs, and again when I bought my powder coated valve cover with similar fittings on top and no baffles underneath I was hesitant at first, but pleasantly surprised to find very little oil accumulation in the catch can, as I now swear by the efficiency of a vented set up over a sealed system
Valid point.
I'll be tuning a vented setup as well, but I'd still like the baffles.
I'll likely end up removing the baffle
 
Decided to start spiffing up the manifold.
I'd really recommend some sort of scotch Brite pad on a Dremel or wheel of some sort because sanding by hand, getting in all the little crevices sucked. I think a sanding wheel would be too aggressive and actually remove too much material. I guess if you used something like a 3k wheel that might be okay.

Hit it with 800 grit first, and then 2000 grit.
I only really did the plenum part of the manifold with the polish, just testing out some stuff.

I wouldn't recommend using DA and pads as it will pretty much ruin the pads, mine were already kind of ruined so.. yeah.
Surprisingly, I used my DA polisher, a microfiber cutting pad, megs 205 and 105.
First was the 105, about 3 passes of that, and then 2 passes of 205 as it's less aggressive.

Here's how it came out:
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Worked on the welds a bit with some more padded 3k grit. Picked up some Mothers Aluminum polish for the runners and getting into the welds and corners. That polish works great! Both cylinder 4 and 3 runners are about 80% done, the backside of the runners and underneath the plenum need sanded a bit more and then I'll hit it with that Mother's again with drill attached polish bits.

I got my final fitting for the brake booster which was a 1/8th NPT to 1/2" barb. Hopefully that's the right size LOL. I also replaced all the other barb fittings too. All new errything.

Also picked up a JMF coil pack mount. I've seen a few posts where people have been able to keep a/c with this bracket and a SMIM so that's my hope for it.

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Was doing some looking into some new rods and Pistons and found a setup that seems like it might work decent for my current setup, as well as in the future too.
So someone help me understand if these will fit together or not?

Ultimately I just want to increase I'm compression ratio a little bit to 9.0:1 without boring or stroking. I'll be running flex fuel from 91-e85. Looking for 22mm wrist pin size which I understand only "2g" Pistons have?

I'll be doing a bit of reading and research so I'm not looking for a handout. As far as I know these are standard size rods (150mm)? With stock stroke, crank, bore.

Any input?
Rods:

Pistons:

Screenshot_20210702-172903.jpg
 
So I took the plunge and ordered this set of rods and Pistons:
Screenshot_20210702-172903.jpg

I'll likely just get the car up and running with the current setup and maybe throw on this Magnus Manifold and call it good for this year and build it over winter or early next year. I don't think I'll throw my cams in until I do that.

I also remembered that Everytime I open my door, my interior door panel comes off so I know I need to adjust the door up, as well and replace the door clips too. So I ordered an entire set of door clips from here:

Went ahead and picked up a rear wiper delete as well since I don't really feel the need to have a rear wiper.

Also some good news about the talon.
Its ready for me to pick up, but I won't be back into town and able to pick it up until Tuesday after work.
My body shop said that they thought they found the paint code from a 91 Corvette but it turns out that it was a bit too yellow. So shortly after they actually found an identical match with a Newer Fiat color? :hmm: interesting since the car was painted this color definitely over a decade ago. Much exciting!

I'm getting a little worried about this new Tcase I've ordered through RixRacing though. I ordered it on June 18th and gotten the order confirmation, but I haven't received literally anything after that. I emailed them on thursday (7/1/21) and I'll see what they say, if anything. If it comes to it I'll give them a call and give them the benefit of the doubt.
I've heard a lot of good things about them so my hopes are high, although I wish I would have had it here so I could swap it quick and get it done.

Keep ya posted!
 
Guess who's back!
New paint looks great. They ended up painting about 3/4 of the rear bumper to blend it and fix some other chips and what not that was in the previous paint. So most of the bumper looks brand new.
IMG_20210707_082011.jpg

Car drove pretty great home, no issues or over heating.
I got a notification saying that my T-case was shipped finally but no email back from Rix Racing. We'll see when it gets here.

Got The car home and got right to work, swapped out the alternator first.
This was easy, but fairly time consuming. The hardest part was Getting the new one in, and aligning the pivot rod to go through the alternator and the block. After that it was all easy. You CAN install the alternator without pulling the power steering. For me, I just had to remove the wastegate, and I bent the dispstick tube out of the way, but I'd recommend just removing it and not bending. I had to drop the alternator in facing the wrong way and then finagle it around facing the right way. It bolted up the factory location, and tensioner just fine, as well as the factory plug too!

On the new alternator there are 2 studs.. I didnt know which to put the wire back on so i picked the small one. I havent hooked the battery back up yet and thank god i didnt yet. My old alternator didnt have 2 at a glance, but after really looking at it, it looks like there were 2, but one got broken off. Im assuming there is the main power to the battery and then theres another ground. Currently i have the power to the battery hooked up to the ground. Ill need to switch it it seems. The other issue is that the Stud on the new alternator is Quite a bit bigger in diameter than the old one, so ill need to either replace the End connected on the wire to the battery with a bigger one to fit over the stud, or drill the current one out. I think ill likely just replace it.
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Also, my cams finally came in. Some Billet Gsc s2s. I feel like this will support my goals pretty well for quite some time! These things look beautiful!
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Theres a few Meets im trying to make it to with the Talon this week, One Cars 'N Coffee on the 17th, and One this weekend for A Veterans Suicide Awareness this Saturday.

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