92 Galant VR4

[Imback]

Figured i should give a little update. Nothing to big since i've just been enjoying the car which is nice to say. I picked up the driver side axle a few days before my birthday and my vacay but didn't have enough time to install before i left. So i figured i would do it today. The torn boot made a mess and a half. So after spending 20 mins cleaning everything i threw the new one in

Shortly after this i made a concentrated spray of simple green and hit everything again as well as the whole inner fender to really clean everything. I was content with it. Figured i had no real plans for the day so i would spend a little bit on the engine bay. I normally use a pressure washer if i have the motor out but i didn't like the idea of it with the wiring still intact. So i used the same concentrated simple green and sprayed everything that had a layer or oil or grime. Then refilled the bottle with water and rinsed everything off like that. I used the air gun to dry everything off. It still needs work but much better than before since it's been well over a year since i really touched the engine bay

While i was on vacay which was during my birthday the guys at the shop had a chance to machine the billet clutch pedal bracket that attaches from the master rod to the pedal. I thought it was pretty cool they even 3d printed a case for it. I'm almost inclined to keep it as a gift since i appreciate little things like that.

I also finally hit 172,000. Feels nice to finally be putting real mileage on the car. We all spend so much time and money on these things just to able to drive them like newer cars and it feels so nice to actually be doing it. I can say confidently the galant hasn't let me down once. I even used it to give my daily a boost when the battery died.

All in all i'm super happy with the car. The next things will be adding the rear speakers and a small sub to the car. Finally buying the overly priced volvo pump to finish the electric PS swap. Fixing never ending leaks the more i drive the car . Also it's been over a year since i have had the valve cover so maybe install that. I've had a spare motor at the machine shop which i might just finish to throw something with fresh seals into the car. Well see by the following update. Feels nice that my only real concern is having to wash the car

 

[Imback]

Well small update. I was actually able to make it to the shootout this year in the galant. I have been fixing little things here and there and last week just doing maintenance before the long drive but it all worked out in the end. The drive was 9.5 hours with fuel stops each way and yesterday got caught in a nice storm for about 3 hours . Only issue i had was my biss needed to be adjusted on the way back. I have always wanted to take one of my 4g cars up to ohio but something always came up. It's nice to finally cross it off of my bucket list. I ended up going with 2 of my friends and we all brought our significant other with us which meant we drove the whole thing . Not sure if i would drive the galant back up there by myself again but well see how i feel next year.

 

[DSSA]

I'll try to find some pictures of her first trip to the SO and send them over to you.

Soooooo LOVE that she's made that trek again!

 

[Imback]

I'll try to find some pictures of her first trip to the SO and send them over to you.

Soooooo LOVE that she's made that trek again!

That would be amazing if you could find those. She made the trip with no issue and even took me to work the following day

 

[Imback]

Small update since my trip to ohio. I wanted a better mount for my fuel lab fuel filter so i designed something a little beefier then the one fuel lab supplies and gets mounted into the firewall with rivnuts. I printed it out of abs and the finish is beautiful. I've been testing it for almost a month just to see how it stands up to all the vibration and heat before i offer these to other people but i'm happy with the way it came out.

I also had a oil leak that got stronger since the trip. The stud that goes into the oil galley was leaking ever so slightly months back but it got worse. So in my head i figured i would take it to work and throw a helicoil into that hole since the threads felt shotty and i had 2 other holes that were starting to give out. A job that i though would be no more than 30 mins ended up taking a day and half . The stud that goes through the oil galley wasn't coming out. When i finally yanked it out the stud and helicoils came out with it. So apparently when the PO tried fixing this he messed up the original helicoil hole and ended up drilling it to fit a larger helicoil and then threaded the m8 helicoil into that one. So the hole measured out to being .485. I wasn't sure how to fix this on at the moment so i took some time to weigh out my options. Tap the current hole and use a loctite and a plug to seal it up or clean the hole out and use high temp jb weld. There was very little merial left so i figured i would try jb weld.I prepped up everything and cleaned the head and applied a liberal amount of job into the hole. I put everything back together and when tightening up the manifold 2 of the studs that were fine before decided to give up. I gave up for the night and removed everything and left it for the next day. Following day fixed the stripped holes and long and behold no more oil leak. This is a fix for now i really need to finish my other motor or at least my other cylinder head i have laying around.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Consider BIGCERT - expensive tool, but it worked really well for me.
Build thread - BIGCERT
Final result: - BIGCERT

 

[Imback]

Very nice. I will look into them next time i'm in that situation.

 

[Imback]

Well i've been dailying the galant since the shootout and it has made me want to fix a few of the small things that have been annoying me so i have been able to chip away at them slowly. I finally ordered some rear speakers but the PO butched the rear deck lid. I didn't want to butcher it anymore then it had been. So i made adapters to fit 6x9 speakers in the rear. The first set was made with neon green filament and wasn't meant to be a permanent thing but it has grown on me .

Next on the list was to finally install the FP red i got over a year ago . I made an adapter to reuse my intake since it was all relatively newish. I made the ID .015 smaller for a tight fit and made the OD .100 bigger for a snug fit as well. I ordered a new feed line with a FP inline filter and picked up another Morrison drain line kit. By far my favorite return line kit i've used and i'll keep buying them for every turbo i buy moving forward.

I'll get some more pics once we get another nice day. But intal opinion without redoing the tune is this turbo feels amazing and the new aero compared to the older reds i've tuned feels super responsive even at light load. I'll update as i continue to chip away at making the car my rendition of a perfect sleeper.

 

[NextLevelDelica]

Weld

View attachment 670323

View attachment 670324

View attachment 670326stunning welds there! Mine are nowhere near that level. gimme 2 years tho.

 

[Imback]

So a few things have been going on since the last update. I blew a section of my endtank out . I ended up overboosting and it gave out. It was a very simple repair and had it fixed the same night.

I also have been playing around with my adapter i made for my turbo to keep my 4" intake and i am much happier with how it came out. No more fighting with it being right up against the lower rad hose.

Next i wanted to redo my feed line in my fuel system. I had -6 originally but this is also a PTFE line which has a smaller ID then regular AN hose. I went with a -10 which has a 1/2 ID which would be similar to -8 in regular AN hose size. I also switched to a different fuel filter and went with a 10 micron SS filter element. I had a spare fuel rail laying around so i welded on two fittings and called it a day. I was tempted to order a nice rail but that would only be for looks and i'm not up to that point in my build where i care to much about that.

Also finally washed since ohio

 

[Imback]

Small but meaningful update. I finally installed my valve cover that i powdercoated 2 summers ago . I used female orb fittings and welded it from underneath to have no visible welds from the outside. Then got radium engineering low profile swivel orb to an fittings. Used PTFE line again since i'm getting decent at make them now . I ended up going with a vibrant gen 3 catch can. I still want to make custom one i've been talking about. But unfortunately the shopis in the middle of finally moving so i'm swamped currently. I installed this last night after work since rain was on and off but it was surprisingly warm so i said why not. I did have to fix to stripped holes but that was simple since i already had a helicoil kit from when i fixed some other stripped holes a few years back. I ordered a pack of SS flanged bolts in 25mm. I trimmed 5mm for the middle and timing belt cover bolts and the rest of them i gave them a little heat treatment to match with the valve cover.

I also spent an hour today cleaning the engine bay since it's been a few months. I got a weldon regulator awhile back shortly after redoing the feed line since i wanted a bigger return orifice.

There is still more i want to do but i'm no longer in a rush so when it happens it happens.

 

[Mahreeoh17]

Small but meaningful update. I finally installed my valve cover that i powdercoated 2 summers ago . I used female orb fittings and welded it from underneath to have no visible welds from the outside. Then got radium engineering low profile swivel orb to an fittings. Used PTFE line again since i'm getting decent at make them now . I ended up going with a vibrant gen 3 catch can. I still want to make custom one i've been talking about. But unfortunately the shopis in the middle of finally moving so i'm swamped currently. I installed this last night after work since rain was on and off but it was surprisingly warm so i said why not. I did have to fix to stripped holes but that was simple since i already had a helicoil kit from when i fixed some other stripped holes a few years back. I ordered a pack of SS flanged bolts in 25mm. I trimmed 5mm for the middle and timing belt cover bolts and the rest of them i gave them a little heat treatment to match with the valve cover.
View attachment 714650



I also spent an hour today cleaning the engine bay since it's been a few months. I got a weldon regulator awhile back shortly after redoing the feed line since i wanted a bigger return orifice.
View attachment 714652

There is still more i want to do but i'm no longer in a rush so when it happens it happens.

That Intake pipe is really nice. Whole bay looks great!

 

[Imback]

That Intake pipe is really nice. Whole bay looks great!

Thanks i appreciate it

 

[Imback]

Finally got around to ordering the volvo pump each time i slept on them on ebay they went up 50 bucks . I ordered all the fittings. I'm going to actually include links for whoever is looking to do this to their car. It's not a new thing but i finally had time to do it and it's a nice upgrade from the old system. I did not have time to take detailed photos but if your doing this kind of mod this is all pretty self explanatory.

These are the adapter fittings for the rack and volvo pump. The M16 is for the pump and the M14 is for the rack. The low pressure line is also a M16 but i ran regular return line hose for that. The return line i used a sunsong fitting with a 90* to run the line close to the firewall and then the frame rail.

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Steel-Power-Steering-Box-Adapter-Fitting-16mm-1-5-IFM-6-AN-80-Up-GM,37128.html

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Steel-Power-Steering-Box-Adapter-Fitting-14mm-1-5-IFM-6-AN-80-Up-GM,37133.html

Amazon product ASIN B014XF4N3W
I personally ran -6 ptfe line for the high pressure line from rack to pump. I ran the sunsong fitting to keep it simple and use a regular 3/8th return line you could source from autozone.
The volvo pump pump gets input for how much to assist via can. Obviously our cars don't communicate like that. I lot of people just run the power to the communication wires to power and get full assist all the time. Some have it wired in to a rotary knob.I used a guy from Portugal who has a board to control assist via gps and it works beautifully.

NEW Automatic GPS | Volvo C30 C70 S40 V50 power steering controller kit - ANT Steering & Electronics - Bruno Steering

New automatic electric power steering controller box With GPS Antenna included to get Vehicle speed To use with steering pump from: Volvo C30 C70 S40 V50 With this new GPS based system you will have the perfect electric steering experience. With the GPS antenna / sensor included in this Kit the...

www.brunosteering.com

Next is powering the pump. It is super amp dependent. In my personal car with a 90 amp alt its fine but regular driving and turning while in motion. I did log the voltage during idle and in my driveway and it was able to drop it from 14.1 to 13.0/12.8. In motion while driving it only knocked it down .5/6 volts. I currently have it wired to the battery in the back with solid strain copper 10 gauge wire and a 40 amp fuse. I will be redoing all the wiring to the alternator since i plan on switching to a 200 amp single wire alternator from mcr. I'm still up in the air on how i want to redo the wiring but i will include a link to the alternator.

MCR - MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE CUSTOM 1-WIRE ALTERNATOR

www.motorcityreman.com

As for driving impressions . I loved it. It really gave it a modern car feel and the gps based assist was nice. I wasn't a big fan of the rotary knob to have to adjust all the time.



All in all well worth the endeavor. I'm including a current engine bay shot. I will be redoing my bracket for my coolant reservoir so it sits parallel to the body line where it is sitting.

Next up is getting rid of silicone tubing and barb fittings.

 

[Imback]

Figured i would update on the car since its been a few months. The power steering pump died and then i got another one from the seller which was DOA. So that turned into a fiasco which i eventually lost because i didn't return it in time and now i'm stuck with a dead pump. The car has just been sitting in the driveway so i finally turned it on 2 weeks ago and drove it to work since it had rained and washed all the salt off the floor. Fast forward to today i took the car to work and it was a nice day out so i was ripping on the car on our private runway and the motor finally let go. This motor didn't owe me anything and i was surprised it had lasted as it did considering the way i found everything else on the car butchered up. I was pretty bummed out so didn't investigate to much besides looking for the hole in the block. I've only lost 3 motors in the past 20 years so i'll take it . I'll look into the cause when it gets warmer out and turn the block into a coffee table for my office. In the meantime i'll be on the lookout for either another short or long block. I'll also be calling my machine shop and see how booked he is since he has my spare block and parts. If anyone has some leads on something PM me and hope to have the car back up and running by may the latest.

 

[92Turbski]

Dang, man! Well that sucks about the pump and especially the motor.

 

[Imback]

Dang, man! Well that sucks about the pump and especially the motor.

It happens. I found a long block in jersey already so hopefully within the next 2 weeks i can head out there to pick it up

 

[Justin DuBois]

Pump is refurbish-able. I found a e-bay pump and Rich found the rebuild kit. Rich powder coated the parts it to make it pretty and rebuilt the pump to make it work like new.


Bummer about the block - no fixing that - time to build a replacement.

 

[Imback]

Pump is refurbish-able. I found a e-bay pump and Rich found the rebuild kit. Rich powder coated the parts it to make it pretty and rebuilt the pump to make it work like new.
View attachment 723586

Bummer about the block - no fixing that - time to build a replacement.

Thanks for the heads up on the rebuild kit but i'm using a volvo EPS not the oem one. I mean i could fix the block if i truly wanted to and found the chunk that broke off but it's not worth my time.Let's see if i can get this car going by the end of the month

 

[Imback]

Haven't had an update in awhile but we all know how that goes. I really wanted to be able to drive my car to the shootout again so august has been been a bunch of running around trying to get things going. I got my shortblock back last friday evening and have been working on it through labor day weekend. I had the longblock complete by sunday night and dropped it in monday.

By tuesday i finished up buttoning everything up and this is my first start up video. Don't mind the noisy lifters they needed a few mins to quiet down. After fixing 2 leaks and letting it get up to temp as well as burping the system i wanted to take it for a test drive around the neighborhood and that's when problems started arising.



The car stalled when i pushed the clutch in to move but there where a few amount of changes to the car so i chalked it up to that restarted it and gave it a few more revs to get it out and on with the road test. The issue persisted and i needed to get gas since i was almost on E and didn't want to get stranded. I got to the gas station but there tap to pay wasn't working so i went back to grab my wallet. The issue was intermittent with the stalling. I grabbed my wallet went back out and same issue. I got back to the garage and started going through the car to see what was going on then that's when i checked the crank endplay.



My heart sank to my stomach. I was filled with many emotions and was ready to part the car out with how much money i've been sinking into this. I didn't mess with the car anymore and took the remainder of the day off to cool off. I stopped by my machine shop today explained what happened and was told to bring them the whole long block so they can check everything to see what went wrong. I'll start tearing into the car next weekend and see if i can pull everything out again. If the crank is toast worst case senerio i need to figure out the next move and maybe just take the car off the road. We will see.

On another note i did get my two other friends VR4's ready for the trip and it will be there first time so that's pretty dope. Maybe the shootout will give me the push to go forward with the car but at this current moment i'm burnt out.

 

[Imback]

I finally got around to pulling and the motor and inspecting the bottom end. The rear thrust face is almost gone and the crank got slightly heated up.

 

[92Turbski]

I finally got around to pulling and the motor and inspecting the bottom end. The rear thrust face is almost gone and the crank got slightly heated up. View attachment 743995View attachment 743996
After going through the motor i found the cause of the failure. The machine shop didn't rotate the rear balance shaft bearing all the way and was partially open leading to low oil pressure on the main. I didn't check the rear one during assembly since i have used my machiest for over 15 years and never had an issue until now. I dropped it off tonight. The block is salvageable but the crank is done. Mistakes happen so i'll chalk it up to that. I'm waiting to hear back from him monday so see what we can do moving forward. I still want to have this running since i miss driving the car. Hopefully next update can be something more positive.

Dang, man. I hate to hear that for you. I'm glad you're pushing through it to get it sorted. You enjoy it so much, it'll be worth it when it's back together and driving.

 

[Imback]

Dang, man. I hate to hear that for you. I'm glad you're pushing through it to get it sorted. You enjoy it so much, it'll be worth it when it's back together and driving.

Yes sir. I was annoyed at the beginning but got over it. Maybe by next month i could get to enjoy it again.

 

[Imback]

Well i was finally able to get the 2nd motor done. I thought it was a mis clocked rear balance shaft bearing but i ended up being wrong. The bearing was close but not open. I ended up finding a oem 4g64 in nevada. I got the 64 crank in and i found a few differences between the eagle and the oem. I reached out to eagle and they were initially helpful but then stopped responding. I didn't feel like getting caught up on getting a response from them and just chalked it up as a loss and just moved forward with the oem 64 crank with the same block. I went to my machine shop last friday morning to assemble the long block and was able to finish. Than later in the evening i fully dressed it.

Saturday i was able to drop it in and get a few things buttoned up. Sunday i finished but like any new build i forgot a few things and had some leaks. On initial prime i got 40 psi. I had a misfire ended up being a stuck injector from sitting for a few months. After some run time it got unstuck and was fine. I did switch a few things from last time. After a vac test on the head i found a few leaky valves which lead down the path of upgrades .

I was finally able to bring it home sunday night. I did do a few other things with the build which i will share when i get free time.

I will start getting this tuned shortly i just have a lot going on personally and juggling between personal life and customer cars can sometimes be hard. Hopefully next update can be some cool ones.

 

[Imback]

Well it's been a bit since the car has been out and about. I've been fixing little issues here and there. I switched all my vacuum fittings for push lock to clean up the bay and stop dry rotted lines and fittings popping off. I did have a issue finding fittings for my 38mm wastegate but if anyone is in the same boat you need 1/16 npt fittings. I made a bracket to move my coil pack next to the manifold instead of it sitting on the manifold. I started tuning the car around 30 psi but i'm having an issue with my KS picking up false knock. I did find that my driver side axle is not seating on the half shaft without moving. It's been a bit cold so i haven't had the motivation to take all of it apart. Also have a drivetrain noise which i think has to do with the axle not seating. Maybe once it gets a little warmer i can find the issue out. Besides that the car has been great and pulling harder then ever so i'm happy.