2g build

[dsmspick]

Do not run a 2gb bumper. 2ga all the way man! Imo the 2ga is way better looking and is not seen as often. Look at all factors in over heating.

 

[952g63t]

It was fun trying to source some discontinued pillow ball mounts to go with the new Koni's but finally found some, they should be here this week. Also got some reconditioned, cleaned & flow tested evo 560cc injectors for a great price. I'm sticking to the build plan of having a fuel efficient DD, which it has been more so than I expected. Hopefully these 560's get me over the wall I hit. Also plan on doing a fuel pump rewire but I am moving soon so upgrades are on hold for about a month or so. Other developments, my phantom battery drain has returned so ive had to keep it on a trickle charger over night. Also developed a little bit of engine hopping in reverse from a bad rear engine mount. I have a kit to fix that but again its being put on hold for a few weeks.

 

[952g63t]

Just checking in;

Damn things have been pretty busy for me lately. Moved and had a baby boy, my second and probably last, Ha.

Still have a phantom battery drain which has made things a living hell. I am unable to drive it regularly as I would like and have to jump start it when I do. Still think its related to one of the 15-amp in cabin fuse/circuits. I need get a diagram and a circuit tester and just spend a day working on it. It's probably something really stupid...

The passenger side door needs to be re-cleared which makes me want to get the whole car sprayed. I refuse to pay 5k+ for this, so I will most likely resort to doing it myself. Might dip it until I have funds to paint it.

Still need to install the rear engine mount, Koni shocks and the evo injectors.

 

[boost97gst]

As far as paint is concerned, you can find really good deals using local guys on craigslist. I got mine painted, all dents removed and everything for around 1600,iirc. He did a great job. Just works at a shop doing body/paint and does a little moonlighting too. Those are the guys you want to find. theyll do just as good a job at half or less the price of a shop. I mean, a 1000 paint job is still going to be a 1000 dollar paint job, just cheaper.

Good luck on the battery drain, those can be really really hard to find as im sure you know already.

 

[952g63t]

As far as paint is concerned, you can find really good deals using local guys on craigslist. I got mine painted, all dents removed and everything for around 1600,iirc. He did a great job. Just works at a shop doing body/paint and does a little moonlighting too. Those are the guys you want to find. theyll do just as good a job at half or less the price of a shop. I mean, a 1000 paint job is still going to be a 1000 dollar paint job, just cheaper.

Good luck on the battery drain, those can be really really hard to find as im sure you know already.

I will give that a shot, thanks for the info.

 

[952g63t]

Took her out last night to go catch Lone Survivor, good movie btw.

Looks like my alt is going out on me, lights dimming on higher loads. Also, my radiator fans have not been kicking on. Checked my connections, nothing changed.

Is there a wattage/voltage requirement for the ECU to kick on the fans?

I tried turning on the AC to test and still got nothing. Fairly certain I have them both wired up to the main fan connection. I remember one of the two being a better gauge to run from, believe I went by the write up for the Mishi fans.

I need to hook up my logging tool to check to see if the ecu is reading the engine temp. If it reads I am leaning towards a wiring fault.

Fortunately it was pretty cold last night and I had good airflow the whole time.

Engine has been running great, still a little boggy on cold starts but after about 4 minutes the idle levels out and becomes steady at 850-950. An FIAV bypass sacrifice I'm sure.

 

[952g63t]

Question for you guys,
Was doing my shocks swap today & I may have missed something. It wasn't on the Tein directions so I didn't install it. Referring to the spring bushing.
Do you guys think it will be ok like this?

 

[952g63t]

I think the suspension setup works fine without the bushing. The difference is like night and day, and that was only having done the fronts. Was really amazed at the handling difference compared to the blown out Tokicos.

The radiator fans do work, I unplugged my coolant temp sensor and they kicked on. So again with that freaking connection. Possibly a bad sensor but how the F does something like that go bad so quickly? It has no moving parts and is made up of mostly brass? We will see...

Ordered up a rewire kit for the fuel pump. Since changing to a 15 psi spring, i've noticed that it does not hit cut at low speeds/gears. Even If I jump on it from 2-3-4-ish. Glad I went with a quality wastegate, its been seeing a lot of use, haha.

This weekend I should be able to fix the radiator fan issue and tinker around with a few other things until some parts arrive.

My list so far:
Re-ground gauges (to rule out the ghost drain)
Oil return kink (barely noticeable but needs attn.)
Rear engine mount/inserts (going to probably be a huge PITA)
Secure CPS (somewhat exposed wiring makes me paranoid)
Alt heat shield/rewrap downpipe & exhaust? (Trying to fab up a heat shield for the next alternator)
rad fans (loose connection or bad sensor)
Install rear suspension (am going to try and replace the upper control arms while i'm in there)
Fix windows (both are a little loose)
Tighten PS lines/clamps (very tiny bit of residue under the res.)
Install injectors & rewire pump

 

[952g63t]

Didn't get as much done as I would have liked this weekend.

Replaced alternator - 96 galant 90 amp - done
Secure CPS - done
Alt heat shield/rewrap downpipe - done
rad fans temp sender - done
Re-ground gauges - done

Going to try and knock most of these out this week:
Oil return kink
Rear engine mount/inserts
Install rear shocks
Fix windows
Tighten PS lines/clamps
Install injectors & rewire pump

*Still seeing a very slight variation/dimming of my lights when in low rpms, or just coming into low rpm and it will even out again. I think my alt relay may be bad. Definitely an improvement from the last one though. No more squealing, for now...

 

[dsm_94_4ever]

After reading through this thread and seeing what you put into your turbo setup I got to ask why even mess around with the small 560 injectors and a rewire kit why not go with some big injectors and a wally 255 with afpr and be done in case you want to run high boost in the future.

 

[952g63t]

Fuel efficiency.

I want to daily this when its nice enough weather, and really need to keep the mpg reasonable.

But who knows, I may change my mind and make it a track car or something. But until then its only getting 15 psi.

OK, MAYBE 18, but thats as far as its going! hahaha

 

[dsm_94_4ever]

First of all great job on your build it was a great read and really nice to see someone resurrect a broken down dsm like that.But your setup has so much more potential those injectors and pump you could max out with a bolt on big 16g or 20g with a decent amount of boost no need for the expensive turbo setup your running now you might as well get some good use out of your setup and if you want to save gas just stay out of the boost.But either way you go nice job on the car I think its one that anyone of us would be proud to own.

 

[952g63t]

Thanks,

Yeah, I guess you could say I am working my way up to it. Sorta like foreplay

Of course, I've thought about going to bigger injectors, a MAF translator & SAFC. But I'll be itching to turn up the boost and then I will most likely destroy my rear diff or bend a rod.

I think about these things constantly. I have a forged rebuild parts list already to go.

Maybe if I can get my setup dialed in as is, I will start working on going to a forged setup this fall.

 

[952g63t]

Made a trip out to PA to pick up a hatch. Ill need to fix a small rust spot but overall its in pretty good shape. Thanks to DSMLOVER

Got the rear shocks and upper control arms installed tonight. I tried to experiment with less shims but that did not turn out well. Although the ride is MUCH softer, there was a slight shimmy in the rear. Ill need to fix that this week hopefully. Also, threw in my turbo timer. Primarily because it has a voltage readout. Works great, getting 14.5+

Still have a long list. Hopefully this ECU swap sheds some light on my CTS issue. Thanks again YUPOK

Still need to finish installing interior panels, but have them out for troubleshooting wiring, etc.

Engine bay is still a mess, no real "theme". Eventually going to paint bay black and try and polish up the aluminum parts. Shooting for a black and gold/polished.

Also, I have decided to do a forged build this fall. So a full body strip and respray is coming. Going with Northstar White. Originally wanted an auto gsx, so I may try and find a blown awd to swap. Probably won't get that lucky though.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Looks good, what's the purpose of one exhaust runner without the wrap? Just ran out?

 

[952g63t]

Looks good, what's the purpose of one exhaust runner without the wrap? Just ran out?

Thanks,

Was wondering if someone was going to point that out. The reason is because the stud on that runner has very small gap. I ripped up the first attempt and was going to add a shorter peice. But yeah, need more wrap.

 

[952g63t]

Sh*ts gonna get real this weekend. Still waiting on some AN -6 steel braided nylon hose. I was considering a evo VIII pump and fpr to match the injectors, but after some considerations on possible future upgrades I figured wth just get something that you can grow into if need be. Adjustable fpr with a wally 255.

 

[952g63t]

Installed the fuel pump, injectors and AFPR yesterday. Didn't finish in time to be able to start it so I had to wait till today. Had everything done except setting the base pressure with the the fp hot wire in the engine bay. Made a switch so I could avoid any possible fires :/

I got lucky, not one single leak. I set my base pressure to about 42 psi, tightened the set bolt and crossed my fingers. Cranked it over and it fired right up without issue.

Edit: Re-adjusted to 43.5 base.

The idle is actually better than before. I probably had some really dirty injectors that were in need of replacing/cleaning. My idle A/F held steady at about 14.7

The only thing I am unsure of is the pressure loss after turning it off. The needle goes to zero about 20-ish min after shutting down. Not sure how or if I can fix that.

Pretty happy with my first fp rewire/upgrade, no issues so far.

 

[Zufelt]

What's up man, great looking build you've got going on. I noticed in the video at 8 seconds something white around the pipe.. that's not Teflon tape is it?

 

[952g63t]

Yeah, I looked into it a bit and the consensus says that its fine if you are using decent fittings and are not relying on the tape to make the seal. I will be keeping a close eye on those connections. I plan on using something that's more suited for fuel exposure when I start my forged build this fall.

 

[ErikTande]

Awesome thread, the car looks great. Good choice on the 2gb bumper, 2ga's are too plain looking Can't wait to see pics!

 

[952g63t]

Awesome thread, the car looks great. Good choice on the 2gb bumper, 2ga's are too plain looking Can't wait to see pics!

Thank you Erik.

Just got back from a nice long drive. I swapped in a mishi thermostat and kept the bumper off to see what the temps did and man o man did she run cool. I must have driven for a straight 2 hours mixed highway and she ran cool the whole trip. It was by far the most enjoyable drive I have had yet. Just so nice looking down and seeing your temps stay rock solid.

Getting ready to slap some paint on this bumper. I am trying some code matched color from AutomotiveTouchup.com. Hoping it turns out better than the duplicolor.

Ill throw some pics up for you guys after the first coat or two.

EDIT:

Still have some trimming to do on the bumper for the fmic clearance, and need to figure out what goes in the bigger spaces. I think there are trim pieces that go with the bumper that are suppose to go in the bigger duct holes. Overall I am happy with the paint. Could have used another coat but not really worried because I plan on doing a respray eventually. Also got some shots of the cooling ducts I rigged up. One is going to be fed to the oil cooler and the other is going to feed up into the air intake through that circular hole into a cold air box I am going to fab up. She did not like sitting in the rain, blinker fuse keeps frying all of a sudden. Waiting till it dries off to see if its a short caused by all the rainwater.

EDIT: Blinker fuses blowing was caused from a passenger side bulb that was blown. Not water related/fixed.

 

[sirbow2]

never seen anyone use the fog light holes like that! but, dang, that paint is nice!

 

[bucken13]

wow love this build will read entirely soon haha. Looks so clean.

 

[952g63t]

never seen anyone use the fog light holes like that! but, dang, that paint is nice!

wow love this build will read entirely soon haha. Looks so clean.

Thanks guys.

Some updated images. Shame the weathers been so lousy, I would have been in the mood to do the hatch swap. Meh, next weekend.