93 Eclipse 4g37 turbo.

[Mischif]

So after roughly two years of collecting parts, i finally pieced everything together i needed to turbo my 1.8. Picked up my manifolds from a previous turbo 1.8 part out. Log style manifold, smim, ebay ic piping and bov, ebay afpr, safc neo, homemade downpipe, t3 to dsm flange adapter, 14b turbo, 390cc injectors.

Now i'm no stranger when it comes to the 1.8. For the past 5 years i've been playing with it seeing what i could get out of it all motor. Built a few motors, killed a few motors.

So back in may of 2012 i decided it was time to turbo one. the ginue pig was a 94 i was using as my back up dd since my 93 was totaled, and my 92 gsx was sitting needing an engine rebuild, and a second 93 that was my primary car. Anyway the 94 was on its last leg. It had an engine i built. It had a leaking head gasket and a rod knocking. So i set out to put the turbo on it with the intentions of seeing how long it took before i blew it up.

I made a very rough plug and play injector resistor harness. Since i had no intentions of really using this car i did not want to go through the hassle of properly wiring in the resistor. The engine was pretty stock besides having a shaved head that gave me around 10:1 compression. Once everything was on, took it for a spin. Right away i ran into a problem, wasn't getting enough fuel. I was running stock waste gate pressure(9psi) and really lean around 13's on the wideband during boost. Needless to say i blew the head gasket. So i let it sit for a week while i waited for a new fuel pump to arrive. Fuel pump came put it in and still ran the car with the bad head gasket. Now i lived about a block from a nice little side street where i would go do my pulls. I was able to do about 3 or 4 and make it home before it overheated too too much. Like i said i wanted to blow the motor for shits and giggles. Even with the new fuel i still wasn't getting enough fuel, still running the same 13's. So after playing around with it, using mmcd to log, i figured out it was due to the ecu limiting injector duty to a max of around 50%. Raised fuel pressure to compensate and get my a/f ratios where i wanted them. So then i kept doing my pulls on this little side street waiting for that bad rod to let go or the head gasket to give out completely. Well after about a week i gave up and decided it was time to pull the engine.

Got the engine out and ripped the head off to see the damage.

Despite the blown head and the knocking rod it still pulled hard. The rod knock never even got worse. Those acl race bearings are no joke.

So i decided it was time to get the totaled 93 back up and running. reworked the front end, made a custom solid steel tranny mount, and it was finally ready for an engine to go back in. So i pulled out the original motor for it out of the closet. It had around 200k on it so far. Dropped the pan and checked the rods, no play, bearings were still okay. Got a new head gasket and ordered some arp studs for it.

The bottom end is original and the valve train is original as well. Everything else has been replaced on it at some point in time.

Got the engine in and everything ready to rock.

So it took me about a week to get the fuel dialed in just right, playing with the maf, fuel pressure and safc to get some good 10's during full boost. Got my fuel setup just right so it started to take over dd duties again. Ran into some overheating issues. Played around with that for the next 2 weeks before i figured out it was a timing issue. Ignition timing was way to aggressive. Got my timing right and my overheating due to detonation went away. about another 2 weeks later i switched my timing method and set it up to run constant static timing. So now she's set no more issues.

So now my goal was to make out the 390's. I wound up getting about 12 lbs of boost out of them. DD'd it like that for the next few months. Got tired of 12lbs and decided it was time to go bigger. Put in some 450's and upped the boost to 15. My clutch started to slip. Ordered a ebay 6puck.

Now this thing took forever to break in. At around 4k miles it finally stopped slipping during full boost.

Now my goal was always 15psi of boost....but injectors werent maxed yet and i wanted to see just how much this old engine could take. up it went again. got about 16-17 psi out of them, with spikes to 18 from time to time.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuSEtcuILrU]Eclipse 1.8 turbo 16 psi boost.3gp - YouTube[/ame]

So quiet a few months went by with me dd'ing it like that. I've honestly almost never have to do anything to the car. Except adjust the tune just about daily, since the slightest change in air temp produces a big change in my a/f ratios. The only major issue i ever had was my fuel line connecting the pump to the hanger would burst every few months. But i finally put in a better line and haven't had issues with that in a long time.

Anyway i got bored with the 450's so i started looking for some bigger injectors. So at the end of January i traded some parts for a set of evo 560's. Got those in and upped the boost again. Got it set for 20lbs now.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RNyrTLFg1k]1993 Eclipse 1.8 turbo 20psi - YouTube[/ame]

Middle of march it developed a really bad miss during normal driving. Turned out that one of the wires for my tps was barely making a connection.

Anyway turbo has been on for a little over 20k now. Last time i did a compression test it was still almost perfect, 180 across the board +/- 3 psi. Turbo still has zero shaft play.

The stock cam is really the weakest link in the setup right now. Its dead by 5krpms, and i dont get full spool until 4k. So right now im working on a new manifold that will hopefully improve my spool up time. I also have a reground cam waiting to go in that will be good all the way to the rev limiter of 6.5k. Megasquirt is also on the list of things to get, but that probably wont happen anytime this year.

So for now im just going to keep dd'ing it and see whats the first to go, the engine or the turbo.

Initial build cost:
Turbo manifold, intake manifold, mustange tb, 390'cc, oil pan drain, afpr, $500
machine work to fix warped flanges on intake $40
225 hp fuel pump $50
safc neo $175
sidemount, ic piping, bov $125
14b turbo , j pipe, down pipe, o2 housing, stock wastegate actuator $170
t3 to mitsu turbo flange adapter, external wastegate block off plate $70
aem uego $180
Boost gauge $25

Total cost about $1400

Safc tuning sucks. Anyone that wants to turbo their 1.8 save yourself the headache of having to figure out ignition and fuel tuning and just go megasquirt.

 

[TurboLaserRS]

May I ask what your impression is of the quality on the ebay clutch? I've seen a lot of people like the XTD's and a lot of people that don't. I'm afraid of any chinabay stuff, but I know my stock clutch hates it's life. Would you recommend one?

 

[buhay6]

Very interesting build that's for sure. I like it, very out of the ordinary, Can we get pic's of the car(s) by chance?

 

[Mischif]

The ebay clutch sucks. Haha. It took so long to break in due to the pads being uneven. After about 1,000 miles i dropped the tranny to see why it was still slipping. On both sides of each puck only the middle section was making contact. The ends still looked completely new. So in all there was about 1/2 to 1/3 of each puck that wasn't making contact at all. I dont think its completely broken in yet either. It has around 6k or so i would imagine and still occasionally it will slip. When it slips it produces a nasty vibration that leads me to believe that the pads still aren't making 100% percent contact.

This is the 94 1.8. Bought it off my friend after it stopped running on him. It was originally auto, but the transmission went out so my friend saved up and bought all the parts and i converted it to standard for him. I Never named it.

Bought it with the intention of fixing it, but once i tore the motor apart i found a busted rod and the block was cracked. So it sat for a few years, and was used as a parts car.

Totaled suzie, and the gsx was being held as collateral by my lawyer at the time, i i wound up pulling the motor out of suzie and putting it into the 94 and everything else i stripped from it over the years.
This is what i wound up with.

Used it to pick up another 93 from alb that was a 1.8 with a bad auto tranny.

Towed it all the way home from alb using an a-bar style tow hitch. and a ball that i drilled and welded onto my stock rear bumper. Now that drive isn't easy either because it extremely hilly and some mean hills at that. I'm surprised i made it up about half of those giant hills. Anyway got that car, then got my gsx back, made the new 93 reliable to drive and then brought suzie back to life. I then stripped just about everything off this car and junked it for scrap metal.

Car tipped the scales at 1060lbs, got 64 bucks for it.

The second 93 eclipse after i got it back from alb. Bought it for 200 with the intentions of fixing it then selling it. Never named this one.

So the issue with this was it slipped out of gear. It was auto and i know jack about autos. besides that it leaked coolant and leaked a shit ton of oil. It left pools of oil after every drive. Converted it standard since i had enough spare parts laying around that all i had to do was go to the junkyard to pick up the hard line for the clutch system. Got tired of all the leaks so i ripped the engine out and replaced every gasket on it and did a balance shaft elimination while i was at it. All leaks were fixed. It became a dd for a while. replaced the headliner, got visors for it, and then decided to try my hand at painting it. Stripped all the trim, wing, mirrors, rear lights and bumper.

I didn't get the spray gun dialed in right until about the last coat so it was kind of a bumpy paint job. Used safety red rostoleum paint from lowes with a harbor freight hvlp gravity feed gun. Turned out decent tho i thought.

Didn't paint the front bumper since it the bottom right corner was cracked. Didn't feel like putting the money into it to fix it properly. I just drilled a few holes and ziptied it back and left it the original color. Didn't put the side skirts back on either because i cracked one of the end caps pretty good. Wound up selling it for 1,200. Had around 168k when she went to her new owner.

 

[Mischif]

1992 eclipse gsx. 6/4 combo. Named her kayla. She was 100% percent stock, but had issues. picked it up for $1500. Went to the drag a few times with it. my best time was a 15.5 bone stock with some boost leaks and injector problems.

When i bought her, it didn't shift right and it didn't boost right at all and had a tick which po said was the lifters. Turns out the shift cables were both broken on the tranny end and the waster gate rod was unhooked. She was also missing a rear end link for the sway bar.. Fixed those she was good for about a month. Then the tranny locked up, wound up cracking the middle section and loosing all my gear oil. Sat for a few months while i tried to find a transmission. Got it back up and running and started fixing more things on it. It was retarded how many loost bolts it had. Cross members were loose, the gussests were loose, the rear axle nuts were loose. Im surprised it never fell apart. Had a bad front wheel bearing, and a bad rear wheel bearing, replaced the entire front knuckle and replaced the entire rear lateral arm. Ebrake cables were frozen and it had a bad rear caliper. replaced ebrake cables and caliper. It had a slight miss and kept throwing an injector circuit code. Replaced a bad injector, replaced injector pig tails, and replaced worn ecu pins on the harness end for all injectors and the coils. Injectors seats were bad, replaced those. fpr leaked boost, replaced that. bov leaked, replaced with hks ssqvII, fixed the leaking side mount. Turbo compressor housing o ring leaked, replaced with a better condition 14b. Exhuast manifold was cracked, replaced that with a 2g mani. o2 was bad, replaced that. knock sensor was no good, replaced that. coil was slightly out of spec, replaced that. tb biss screw oring was bad, replaced that. pvc leaked, replaced that. Finally got all the boost leaks fixed and all the issues worked out and had a good running gsx. Installed an aem uego, boost guage, and dsmlink v2. Tuned it for 15psi. Gave her to my lawyer to hold onto for about 4 months. Got her back and she was good for about another month. That tick that it had wound up being a rod bearing, and it spun on me. So i parked it. So it needed a complete bottom end rebuild and new timing components. Held on to her for a few more months then decided to sell it. Didn't want to put the money into all the parts i need for a rebuild. That and i hated how it was so hard to find the awd specific parts. So i wound up selling it for 1000.

awd was amazing in the snow and rain. Had alot of fun with it. I will admit i miss the awd, but not the hassles that come with it.

 

[Mischif]

1993 eclipse base 1.8. Manual everything. Named her suzie, have had her for the past 5 or 6 years...i've lost count. Got her with around 125k on it, and to date its a few hundred shy of 230k. Don't have any pictures of when i first got her. But a month after i had her, i went on a road trip to dallas and got in an accident that messed up the bumper and right fender and head light. I was pissed. I had barely had her after trying to get a 1g eclipse for the past 3 years since my original one was totaled back in 2002 or so.

This is the earliest picture i have of suz, after the first accident.

The first year or two i didn't really do much with it besides put an ebay intake pipe on it, unorthodox racing underdrive pulley, 2.25 exhuast with a pepboys muffler, and advanced the timing and ran 91 oct, deleted what little vacuum lines it had, 2.0 n't throttle body. Also converted to power windows. I also painted certain pieces of the interior red....yea we all have a little rice in us.

2.0 n't tb prepped to be installed on the 1.8 manifold

second crash happened and took out my front end again, and passenger door. People love to pull out in front of me and just stop.

You can see that the driver side front is bent some, it was worse but i hooked up a chain to it and a tree, threw the car in reverse and pulled it out. Before i did that my a/c fan was making love to my exhaust manifold.

A door taken from a pos 90 laser that i had for a few months, getting prepped to rattle can

This is where the safety red came from. Door turned out pretty good and has lasted the years. Its still that same paint job from back then, just faded from the sun.

So i went ahead and did a balance shaft delete. I tried every trick in the book to brake that crank bolt loose. Starter bump, the car on the ground with blocks in front of the wheels, in gear, ebrake tight, and a friend standing on the brakes. Damn bolt just didn't want to let go. Wound up jamming the crank up this way. with a 2 foot breaker bar and a 5 foot pipe for leverage.

When it broke loose finally it sent such a harsh shock through the breaker bar/pipe that my hands were numb for a good 5 minutes.

Got around to rattle canning the front end safety red again to match the rest of the car better.

It was finally one basic color again after a year or more...but it was short lived.

Ran into some bad luck and one day doing 90 on the freeway my hood flew up on me. Boy did that do some damage.

Pounded it out the best i could, sanded it down to bare metal and threw on a cheap can on $1 walmart paint to keep it from rusting for now until i got around to bondoing it. Got a new windshield and hood.

 

[Mischif]

My very first build

Managed to save up a grand to go toward learning to rebuild an engine

Bought a junkyard motor, tore it down and started with my first build.

.25mm oversized clevite pistons

Bored/honed and hot tanked the block

cut and polished crank

Ported the head myself

Then sent it to get a 3 angle valve job, with new oem valves and springs, and had it milled .2mm

Ported bot the upper and lower intake manifold

Prepped another 2.0nt tb, this time i was gonna keep the tps

Started assembling my first bottom end. Crank in after plastigauging and checking clearances.

Go the rest of the engine together. Bought a cherry picker. Bought some urethane motor mounts and put those in the old mounts. Pulled the original engine out, nicknamed old faithful. Dropped the rebuilt engine in. Went to fire her up....and nothing. Messed around with it for about an hour, gave up and pulled the motor back out and dropped old faithful back in, pulled the head off, and put the built head on old faithful from the rebuilt engine. Still didn't fire up. turned out my distributor i was using on that new head decided to crap out. Only reason i pulled the new engine is because i didnt measure the ring gaps, so i thought thats why it wouldn't start. Oh well lesson learned the hard way...but its one i'll never forget.

Second attempt at the rebuild

Saved up some more, did some more research. Tore the rebuilt block down. took the block to get rehoned. Bought new bearings and rings. This time i got the rings in .03 even tho my pistons were .02. File-fited them to the tightest that the spec sheet allows for for the 4g37. Picked up a reground cam(284/294) and a custom smim. Got another head, but reused the valvetrain this time. Had a 3 angle valve job done and only had it shaved .1mm this time. Got it all assembled and ready to go in.

I kept going through head gaskets left and right. As soon as i started the car on a fresh head gasket, within 5 minutes it was leaking oil. had no idea why, but the car drove normal, just didn't have the power i expected. So i didn't take very good care of it, it was just a toy that i beat the crap out of since i had other dsm's as back up at this point. Anyway after about 15k i lost all compression in one cylinder. Which was entirely my fault. i ran it bone dry on oil and the ring threw in the towel. I would of kept driving it, but it spit out so much oil and smoked so bad everytime i took it for a short drive i got a nice dose of exhaust poisoning. So needless to say after 3 days of that i said f that and parked it and started on a new rebuild on another engine i had laying around.

Third engine build

Rebuilt the bottom end of another block. Reused the stock pistons, and just had the crank cut and polished and the block honed. Acl race bearings again and hastings rings i file fited again. This time around building the bottom end was a walk in the park.

Pulled out the engine with a bad ring

dropped the rebuilt stock bottom end back in

pulled the head off the blown block

Put it on the rebuilt block

Fired right up. But again the head gasket kept leaking. Tried a new one and same thing. So i said screw it and just rolled with it. It kept destroying lifters too. So i wound up pulling the engine again after some time. Ditched the smim since i couldn't get it to idle below 1500, and went back to the stock cam. While i had the engine out a did a little bit of a wire tuck and re wrapped my wire harness.

Then put the engine back in.

So my head gasekt was still leaking and it didn't have the power i knew it should have. So i gave up on it for a few months and turned my attention to the gsx.

 

[Mischif]

Bought link for the gsx and started reading up on tuning. I already knew about a/f ratios, and what i want them to be, but i knew nothing about ignition timing. So i read up and played around with that and learned a great deal.

So i was at the junkyard one day walking around looking at the cars. The junkyard to me is like going to a mall for a girl. Haha. Anyway i stumpled across an old colt. Kept my fingers crossed, popped the hood and saw it was the 4g32. Looked at the bottom and noticed it was exactly what i had been looking for, for the past few years. One of the early 4g3x blocks that didn't come with balance shafts. Now from surfing fourms about the 4g32 i learned that the block without balance shafts, had a spacer where there the balance shaft gear would be on the crank. So i snagged the spacer, and the 4 exhaust side rockers. they were the mechanical slider type. These parts got me excited again to pick up where i left off with the 1.8

That spacer on the right replaces the entire balance shaft gear on the crank. It fit perfectly on the 1.8 crank. You just have no more timing mark. There's more than a lb of weight difference between the gear and the spacer.

After countless hours of scouring the web i finally found part numbers for the exhaust side rockers to the 4g32. After countless more hours i finally found a vender. Ordered 4 new rockers to complete my set.

Spent a day figuring out how many little metal spacers had to go where on the intake side to get the rocker adjustment screws to sit in the center of the valve tip.

So i went back to my big cam. Finally no more destroying hydrolic lifters. They are noisy as hell tho. I also put my smim back on.

By now i've figured out why my head gaskets keep leaking and why it feels underpowered. Its detonating almost 24/7. Probably due to the high compression im running. With that .1mm shaved head it bumped my compression up to around 10:1. So i switched from a 6 to a 7 to an 8 rated ngk plug. Still not doing anything. Went with a ngk racing plug with the short ground strap rated at 9. A little better but still detonating. So then i played around with water injection. Made a super cheap setup from lowes racing.

It helped a bit but it was on just a toggle button and i had really no way to know how much iw as injecting. I only knew when i injected too much water when it would bog down. But damn does it cool my smim like a champ. Without the water that manifold will be burning hot to the touch. If i inject water, even after a minute of normal driving, the manifold is still COLD to the touch. I was super impressed with how much it would cool it down. But it still wasn't fixing my detonation issue so i stopped using it. put that idea on the back self until i have a better way of injecting and controlling it.

Ran out of ideas so i gave up on that issue for a while. Decided to try and bondo my roof

never finished the last sanding to smooth it out and get the shape perfect. Was alot of work. But its held up great over 2 summers without cracking one bit. I think the key is alot of thin layers.

Then accident number 3. This one was all my fault. Completely totaled the car. Sucks that it happened, but it did get me to stop popping pills.

Walked away from that without a scratch or bruise. These 1g's are built tough as shit...
Anyway the engine came out and went into the black car as well as some odds and ends.

I knew the only way i was going to figure out my detonation issue was by logging the 1.8. So i finally bought a palm pilot, downloaded mmcd, and built a cable to connect it to the obdI port. I logged everything everytime i went anywhere. Right away i noticed something that jumped out at me. But before i was sure i wanted to log a stock 1.8. So i hit up my friend and logged his 1.8. Same readings as mine. My time spent with link and logging on that made it clear what the issue was. The damn ignition maps on this thing are ridiculous. Not only that but this thing is in love with closed loop operation. It almost never comes out of it during normal driving.

Closed loop operation is anything under 4k rpms. Thats the only variable the ecu looks at to determine open loop or closed loop. Under 4k is closed loop, over 4k is open.

Wot timing is 35 degrees with the distributor set at +5. It only varies 1-2 degrees through out the rpm range. cruising its anywhere from 35-54 degrees. Idle is around 30 degrees.

So now i know why i could never keep a head gasket on 100%.

I found the reason for my detonation. I decided it was time to finish piecing together my turbo kit. Got everything i needed and tested out my setup on the black 94. Found out the ecu is limited to the 50% injector duty. Only way around that besides standalone is raising the fuel pressure. So i set out to bring suzie back to life.

"fixed" the front end and got a new driver side door...and dropped old faithful back in and transferred all the turbo parts onto it.

Its no where near perfect, but it works...sort of.

Used my old method of a chain and tree plus a jack this time around to pull the side of the body out some.

Got tired of that purple ass door so i painted it. Also dropped the shit out of my front end to help reduce weight transfer to the back and made some lowes racing droop straps for the front, and put coil spring spaces in the rear. before all that you could tell it transferred a ton of weight to back during launch and acceleration, now you can't even feel it.

I honestly hate how it looks dropped in the front like that. But function over form. Before if i stagged at 2k and tried to launch it would just sit and smoke the tires. I did it once and i laughed my ass off. Haven't launched it since that one time. But i can tell theres an improvement in traction in all the rest of the gears.

So in my quest to see how much a stock block can handle i've been comparing its parts to the 4g63. Cranks are practically identical. So i would say its safe to say the crank is just as strong as the 4g63 crank. 4g37 rods could almost be twins with 6 bolt rods. They can definitely handle more than 7 bolt rods.

Whose who?

Pistons would be the weakest link in the bottom end. They Do have a slightly larger distance from crown to the top of the first compression ring landing than the n/a 6 bolt pistons... Still small compared to the turbo pistons. However they do have a very nice quench area on them which may be their ace.

As for the block im not sure. Does anyone know how thick the cylinder walls are on the 4g63?

Now the head seems to be good for a sohc head. From my understanding the 4g37 head is an improved design based on the 4g32t head. Which those engines have been into the 350hp range. From what the 4g32 guys say, the valve springs are good for 7k. I personally know stockers are good at 6.5k. When i was n/a with that big cam I would keep it pegged there at 6.5k sometimes and they never missed a beat. I really need to get off my lazy ass and put that cam back in. I know im missing out on alot of untapped potential running the stock cam.

 

[TurboLaserRS]

Thanks for the info on the ebay clutch, I think I'll pass.
Looks like you've been through a LOT of DSM's haha. It's kinda neat that you play with the 1.8s though, seems like it's sort of uncharted territory. Atleast around here anyway.

 

[Mischif]

Yea i dont know what im going to do when it comes time to replace the clutch. Since ebay is pretty much the only source for upgraded clutches for the engine. I think when that time comes i'll probably look into a custom flywheel that can utilize the 4g63t clutches/pressure plates.

Right now im working on an exhaust manifold adapter. using a stock 1.8 and 2.0 flange to make it. If it turns out good and i can get a better spool up time out of it i will probably wind up getting an adapter made out of 1.5" thick solid steel.

 

[Mischif]

Okay so got a little bit more done on the manifold adapter. Decided to use some pipe i had laying around to connect the two flanges. That way i dont have some rather big gaps to try and fill up. On the 2.0 flange i cut it shorter leaving mostly just the flange. On the 1.8 flange i trimmed down the outside diameter of the runners to allow the pipe to slip over them. So the the pipe slips over the 1.8 flange, and on the 2.0 flange i shaped the pipe to fit inside the flange.

As it sits its 3.25" wide. Once i get the other two pipes made im going to try and make it just a bit smaller.

 

[1990AWD]

wow, I really gotta commend you on your commitment to the 1.8. that's ridiculous how many engines you've been through and keep going.

 

[nevarezaaron5]

no disrepair man, but with all the money and time spent on the 1.8L. why didnt you just dump it into your gsx? or bought a running awd turbo dsm?

 

[CrackedDSM]

no disrepair man, but with all the money and time spent on the 1.8L. why didnt you just dump it into your gsx? or bought a running awd turbo dsm?

Because he, and the 1.8 forum he frequents, all believe the 4G37 to be superior to the 4G63. Best part is I'm not joking either.



Hop on over to DSMTalk and check his "build" thread in the 1.8 section there. This car is one giant hack-job that he wisely chose to leave all that hack-jobbery out for here. It makes for a great laugh.

 

[Mischif]

no disrepair man, but with all the money and time spent on the 1.8L. why didnt you just dump it into your gsx? or bought a running awd turbo dsm?

I dropped probably about 1500 into the gsx in upgrades and fixing stuff that broke. But i hated having to search out parts and wait. Took me a little over a month to find a replacement tranny for it when that went. With the 1.8 if anything ever brakes i can find replacement parts that same day pretty much and for dirt cheap. Besides that, i also want something thats cheap, fast, and reliable. So far with the 1.8 i've had all three. I suppose the cheap part is a matter of opinion but i think 1400 for a turbo setup maxing out a 14b is pretty cheap.

Because he, and the 1.8 forum he frequents, all believe the 4G37 to be superior to the 4G63. Best part is I'm not joking either.



Hop on over to DSMTalk and check his "build" thread in the 1.8 section there. This car is one giant hack-job that he wisely chose to leave all that hack-jobbery out for here. It makes for a great laugh.

Cracked...my biggest fan. How are you doing buddy? I have all the same stuff in this tread as i do on the talk thread. Besides my "steel square tube" front end, but i did post up the picture of the completely totaled front end. So i dont see how im leaving anything out. As for my hack-jobbery, well that may be so, but how else are you suppose to turbo a platform with no aftermarket support what so ever? I may be wrong but i do not believe there to be a single upgrade path chart or anything of that sort available for the 37. Yes there may be a few writeups on modifying or turboing a 37, but All of those writeups besides one, were written by people that never did anything beyond intake and exhaust pipes.

Now i know everyone on talks says its the biggest hack they have seen and that it wouldn't last and it would rip itself apart. Well its been a little over 11 months that i've been dd'ing it. Its still giong strong. Haven't had to take a wrench to that engine once yet. Not to shabby for something thats considered a hack.

The Important hacks

Hack #1 Static timing

I have my ignition adjustment grounded all the time.This keeps my timing advance static, it doesn't change at all from idle, to cruise, to wot. This forces the ecu to run 10 degrees of timing plus whatever you have the distributor set at.

Hack #2 o2 delete

I have my o2 sensor completely unplugged, i also have the pin at the ecu removed. This forces the car to run in open loop all the time. Without this i would be hitting full boost while still in closed loop.

Hack #3 Maf mod

I removed the tubes and increased the unmetered air flow. This makes it possible for me to tune my 560's with just a safc. Since my 560's are about 150% bigger than the stock injectors and my base fuel pressure is more than double stock fuel pressure I would be way to rich without it.

Update on Manifold

Just need to trim the pipes a bit and then its ready to weld up. Should be somewhat easy to weld it since it holds together pretty nice.

 

[Mischif]

So changed a few things on the 1.8t. Decided to upgrade my front brake calipers. replaced them with 3000gt dual piston calipers and the rotors. With the normal brakes it would brake just fine but with the dual pistons i can tell it brakes a hell of a lot easier.

My radiator has been leaking for the longest time so i also replaced that. Swapped the stock radiator for a 3000gt radiator. Seems to have a made a big improvement in cooling.

I also changed my front tires since they were almost bald. I had 185/70/r14's on and swapped them for 225/55/r16's.

Got my exhuast manifold tacked together. Just need to finish welding it up and then make a new downpipe.

 

[redheadbov]

This is by far one of the ugliest dsms out on the road...
but with that being said I have to give you props for how much work your doing, and sticking with the 1.8

Its a road far less traveled with very little mods done to them,
but you obviously love the car so more power to you

Have you looked into getting a colt or mirage? possible pcm swap? just ideas to go faster,

Cant wait to see what the car can do when you get your megasquirt wired in, its by far the biggest thing holding you back

 

[Mischif]

This is by far one of the ugliest dsms out on the road...
but with that being said I have to give you props for how much work your doing, and sticking with the 1.8

Its a road far less traveled with very little mods done to them,
but you obviously love the car so more power to you

Have you looked into getting a colt or mirage? possible pcm swap? just ideas to go faster,

Cant wait to see what the car can do when you get your megasquirt wired in, its by far the biggest thing holding you back

! It is pretty ugly...Suzie's been through alot. It turns heads...maybe not for the right reasons tho. I do catch alot of people staring at my engine bay tho. I do plan on fixing the body and making her look pretty...but that probably wont happen this year. It will probably be a year before i can afford the megasquirt as well.

I'm always trying to think of ways to go faster. Not really sure if a pcm swap from a colt or mirage would be beneficial. The only swap i could see that would benefit me would be using a 2.0 turbo ecu with link. I know i could get everything to work minus the cam sensor. Not sure if the cam signal from the distributor would be compatible with the 2.0 ecu or not. For now im not worried about it, when the time comes i'll figure out which route i want to go.

 

[GPTourer]

What an interesting read. I gotta give you props for your bravery and commitment. Hope you continue to stay off the pills.

 

[Mischif]

So i developed this bad vibration under acceleration. Started checking the typical things. Wound up finding a missing bolt to the transmission, and a loose bolt to the transmission mount. Fixed those, still had the vibration. Saw that my passenger strut tower would move some if i shook the car. So i went and re welded it back up about 2 or 3 weeks ago. While i was doing that my cv axle popped out of the cup in the tranny and i saw that one of the 3 fork things had a busted bearing and the metal roller thing was wobbling around on it. So i need a new axle. Will get around to that one of these days. As for the strut tower, its holding solid now. Alot of the body roll i had is gone and the front end feels a ton stiffer. I plan on adding some extra bracing to it eventually for added security. But for now its cherry. As for my manifold adapter i got about half of it done. The end of it that has the 2.0 flange is proving to be a major pain in the ass to weld up. I'm almost out of welding rods so i'll need more before i can finish it. Also picked up a 3" inch downpipe to go along with the new setup, i just need to weld in a bung for the wb sensor. Hopefully i'll be done with it in the next couple weeks.

On a side note...at times i really hate having poly motor mounts and a solid metal tranny mount. Its ridiculous how much stuff vibrates itself loose. Last week sometime i was driving and i hear a thump and then something smacked the crap out of my firewall. Then all of a sudden my engine sounds like shit. I honestly thought i just lost i rod bearing, because it sounded like it was knocking bad. Turns out one of the turbo flange adapter to manifold bolts fell out. Haha. Thats the second time i've had one of those bolts fall out. And the rest have worked themselves loose a couple dozen times now.

 

[serviceguy]

How was that type of front damage repaired? If the car wasn't properly straightened and new parts for the front bracing welded back on I wouldn't be surprised if it had a vibration since the repair, your poly mounts could be the least of your concerns. Given how there seem to be not one single consistent panel gap on on sight on that thing I would seriously question the straightness of that frame.Another hint could be the dsm-chain-tree combo...

 

[Mischif]

Frame hasn't been straightened. There were no abnormal vibrations after all the frame/body damage. Handling/stability hasn't been effected by any of it. They really did build the 1g's to be tanks. That and i probably got lucky, like 1 in a million chance that it could sustain the amount of damage it did and still be fine.

 

[Dhan]

This journal is always a good read! Major props to you for powering forward despite all the setbacks. A weaker DSMer would have been done in by now

GL with all that's to come!

 

[Mischif]

Well it finally happened last night. Something finally broke on the motor. Compression test reveals that i have zero compression in cylinder 2, all others are still perfect.

 

[Mischif]

I already knew what happened when i posted. Once i saw i had zero compression i was going to do a leak down test, but that would of taken me some time to dig up all the parts i need to do it since i dont have an actual tester. So i decided to pull the valve cover since it was quick and easy.

This is what i found on the intake side of cylinder 2

I was relieved that it was just a busted rocker but at the same time pissed off. First off i dont really enjoy removing the rocker assembly, secondly i can't afford to order a replacement mechanical rocker. I have a ton of hydrolic rockers and lash adjusters laying around so im just going to swap one of those in for now. While im at it im giong to grind down my cam bolt some so in the future i'll be able to remove the cam gear without having to take off the driver side mount.

Wish i knew why it broke, probably due to an internal defect. Probably worth noting that it is a non oe part. with less than 30k on it probably. Might also be due to the fact the adjustment screw is almost worn flat. Which sucks because i have had no luck in finding a source in buying just the screws.