95 GSX / 97 GST Spyder

[miliman13]

I will be in the market for a full black interior swap if anyone has or know of someone willing to sell.

I’ve seen some great results with non aerosol dyes .

Also I tried to search your thread for any details of the 6-bolt you’re using , as far as those dry and wet values that really depends on how the engine was built.
And it’s intended purpose/boost expectancy.

The clearances chosen for the pistons, depending on their thermal expansion properties and the gaps on the rings.

For reference my dry cold numbers are around 150,
Some were in my build thread are the exact values for my clearances.

No idea what they are warm /wet.
But I’m the loser side of tolerances but not to much.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Sadly I don't have those numbers. I had a local shop build the short block, and went through issues with them. I want to say they gave me the specs, but it's been several years now, and can't find anything.

I think the no start culprit is fuel though. The fuel in the tank is quite old, and I have nowhere local that recycles old fuel. No one seems to know where I can take it even. So I just ordered a 30gal fuel storage tank to siphon the old fuel out of the spyder (full tank sadly) and will try again once it comes in and use fresh fuel.

 

[dwb]

I think the no start culprit is fuel though. The fuel in the tank is quite old, and I have nowhere local that recycles old fuel. No one seems to know where I can take it even. So I just ordered a 30gal fuel storage tank to siphon the old fuel out of the spyder (full tank sadly) and will try again once it comes in and use fresh fuel.

How old is the fuel? Was it winter or summer mix? Does it smell like varnish?
As I understand it, a full tank is better for preserving fuel than a partial tank. You could mix old/fresh and maybe use it up that way, just be careful about knock since the old stuff is likely low octane.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Next month I will have had the car for 1 year. I have no idea how long the fuel has been in the tank prior to that. The seized pump had crystals formed on it. In comparison, my GSX tank that's been sitting in my garage for the past 5 years with the same fuel had no crystals on the pump. It does have a bad scent to it, my sinuses have been messed up since 2005, so I can't tell what it smells like specifically, but it's bad.

 

[Dusty Landrum]

Sadly I don't have those numbers. I had a local shop build the short block, and went through issues with them. I want to say they gave me the specs, but it's been several years now, and can't find anything.

I think the no start culprit is fuel though. The fuel in the tank is quite old, and I have nowhere local that recycles old fuel. No one seems to know where I can take it even. So I just ordered a 30gal fuel storage tank to siphon the old fuel out of the spyder (full tank sadly) and will try again once it comes in and use fresh fuel.

I can take the old gas as we have means to dispose of all fuels at my aviation job. I'm not far either as you know, so always feel free to reach out with anything you need man.

 

[spyderdrifter]

I can take the old gas as we have means to dispose of all fuels at my aviation job. I'm not far either as you know, so always feel free to reach out with anything you need man.

Hell yeah bro. That would be amazing. I ordered a 30gal fuel storage tank yesterday that'll be here on or around the 20th. It comes with a pump to dispense and siphon, so once I get it all out of both fuel tanks, I'll get with you to work out a time.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Successful Progress...

The spyder has officially had its first start up, and she sounds healthy enough. I didn't want to run it long as I only have oil and fuel in the car for fluids. Didn't want to dump in gear oil or coolant in case I had to pull the engine back out. Now I can progress with everything else.

I tinkered with the check connector and got nothing from the feed line. Turned off my music and only heard a dull click from the pump. Didn't like that since I had already put a known good pump in. That was when I still had the old fuel in the tank. So I put in the Walbro, that I had to re-search for as I thought I had installed it already, and finally got good flow from the check connector.




So I got everything hooked up again and tried starting once more, and she fired up...

 

[spyderdrifter]

The Fun Continues...

Just my luck, the spyder is on hold again. I don't have a spare radiator. Time to order.

 

[spyderdrifter]

...and now, for a sad moment of Silence ...





Nope, just kidding! She runs.... ish...





These videos only show the beginning of the spyder's first extended idling. I was trying to get the coolant system burped. About 10 min after the initial start up, she started spraying/spewing coolant from my funnel, and got to 221°. I chose to shut her off, and I'll continue tomorrow. Not sure what exactly went wrong, and I didn't see anything in my brief look. No known leaks either. I'll update as more comes.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Continuing Tweeks...

After dropping in the aluminum radiator and slim fans, I had been wondering if I did the wire mod correctly, which is a bit weird since the mod was so simple. I decided to hook up an oem fan and wait for it to cycle, and it did.



So I unhooked it and put the connector on the slim fan, and it too worked, and cycled properly after this video was taken.



However, for whatever reason, this apparently wasn't good enough to me, and I kept thinking that maybe my water pump had failed since I hadn't seen much for coolant flow, just the coolant pooling up in the funnel from heat expansion. I finally put that concern to rest as well, I got decent flow.



This is the first time for many things on this car, for parts I have installed and sadly just don't have experience with them as all my old DSMs only really ever got stock rebuilds. With that in mind, is this a normal oil pressure reading for idle and the small revs?



Love that she's running finally though. Just little things to take care of now before I can take the first drive.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Little Things...

I finally filled my transmission today. Been waiting on a transfer pump I ordered so I can do it easier. Definitely was. I fixed a tiny fuel leak under the fuel filter. I guess I just didn't get the fitting as tight as I should have. It was only dripping slow.

Decided to get a video of the top working...



I got the tops working on the last spyders, but not like this I guess. Minus the canvas, this roof is great. The floating rib is still attached, and with the original arms, not aftermarket. No bends in them. The motors work great too.

All I have left before I can drive her is fill and bleed the clutch and brakes, build a bracket for the coolant expansion tank, and figure out what's wrong with the OBD port. Got the car titled and registered today even. Should have done that a year ago, but oh well, I paid the retarded late fees. Hopefully my next post will be of the first drive, hopefully....

 

[miliman13]

Great videos!
First time ever, seeing a spyder top functioning.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Success... and a Fail...

She runs, and she now drives...! Mostly. As my last post stated, this post is due to finally getting a first drive, short drive, but still. I ended up forgetting my phone in the garage as I backed the spyder out, and wanted to get her moving before the fuel pump fried.

Got my brakes and clutch bled, and backed her out of the garage, drove back in. During that alone, I started hearing a high pitch squeal from the back half of the car. Couldn't figure out what it was, but it was louder from under the car. Decided to drive around the block, and around one turn I got a power cut. Got back in the garage and pulled the back seat cushion. Was the pump.



So gonna order a new one. Even though this one was new, I don't know its age.

However, I have a potential theory, hopefully someone can confirm it, or tell me I'm just retarded. Early on, I relocated my battery to the rear. I have not built an actual mount for it. No real reason, just haven't gotten to it, I know it's necessary. Don't need to be told that If the positive terminal arched to ground while moving, could that have caused a power spike or whatever that could affect the fuel pump?

Next drive will absolutely get recorded, but at least now I know the car works and moves under its own power. She sounds nothing like a 4cyl. From the exhaust side, sounds like there's a V8, no joke. Other than that, she sounds mean. The videos I've posted do not reflect the way it sounds in person. More to come...

 

[spyderdrifter]

Small Updates...

A few weeks ago, I ended up going deer hunting on my way to work and totalled my DD. To be clear, it was repairable, but insurance totalled it due to costs. So I rushed to make the Spyder a bit more road worthy, and somehow lost a bolt (I think) from somewhere. Heard it hit the road and the car when it came out. Been under the car since, and nothing was missing except the rear-most bolt that mounts the cross-brace from the core support to under the firewall. But the holes didn't line up, so who knows. The car is fine, and runs fine. I also bought a new Odyssey battery and mounting tray, really nice tray. That is temporarily mounted under the hood, but will be making its way to the back where I had the large battery. Still fighting the battle with the OBD port not communicating, and still no solutions. I'll find it eventually.

Also got the fog lights (half) installed that I pulled from my wrecked car.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Interlude...

Been a while since I've gotten anything posted. I've been busy at work doing mostly double shifts nearly every day, there's a reason for it that I'll share in the coming weeks/months once the reason happens. Until then, with what little motivation I've been able to muster, I've been working away in the garage on the spyder as well. Haven't driven it since the last post as I ended up with another car to drive. Once I have a real update ready to post, I will post it. Until then, here's a current pic of the work. Can't see much, but there's at least 1 noticeable change...

 

[NWHTanK]

Beats learning this CAD stuff.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Over Due...

Been a few months, so it's time to get this update posted. In the last update, I hinted at a change, and no, it wasn't the front end panels being gone, although those being off were to be a slight indication. I got my windshield replaced. Since parts are hard to find as we all know, I decided to remove everything to keep the glass tech from having to do it, and potentially breaking something else, that I couldn't readily replace. I'm glad I did as the canal that the wiper motor sits in was filled with all sorts of debris and dirt and was absolutely unacceptable for my standard of having the car clean. The tech did a great job replacing the window and even assured there was zero rust under it. The old glass was even the original factory windshield. Makes me happier that I bought this car.

Since I choose to remove the dash for this as well, I decided to install all the new HVAC parts I had already ordered a month prior. I ordered EVERYTHING, minus a compressor and all the lines:

Condenser
Blower Motor
Blower Motor Resistor
Evap Core
Evap Expansion Valve
Heater Core
Accumulator
O-Rings
Shredder Valves
Service Caps

I bought everything possible, as I want the entire system to function flawlessly. As I mentioned, I did not get a new compressor or lines, for one reason. I'm converting to electric A/C. Once I find a suitable electric compressor, I'll buy it, and mount it in the back under the soft-top storage area with my battery. As for the lines, the hard lines are good, and I'll just need to build my own flex lines reaching from the rear where the compressor will sit, up to the OEM locations under the hood. I even went and bought the crimping tool specific to these lines. So it is all waiting on me to find the right compressor.

While I was replacing these parts, I also decided to replace all the material that had been dry-rotting from the blend doors, and replace all the other seals to prevent as much air-leakage as possible once I have the system up and running again. It was a long and tedious job, but I got it done, and glad I went that far.

As you all can see, I even replaced the seal in a door vent. That was just the driver door since I already had the door panel off for the next item to update. I still haven't removed the passenger door panel, but once I do, it'll get the same treatment.

Next thing is the driver door window switch, or more precisely, the mounts for the switch assembly. We all know how brittle these are, and mine of course was no exception. Since I now have certain tools, I decided to try to fix it. So I bought some plastic rods from Amazon and a new, better, glue gun along with black glue sticks. Using the glue gun coupled with my plastic welder, I attached portions of the plastic rods to recreate the screw mounts on the underside of the trim panel. It seemed to work out for a while, until it didn't....

It worked for a few weeks, then one day the front portion gave out and went back to being broken. So I pulled the panel back off, and threw in another piece of metal with the plastic welder, and a lot of hot glue. It's solid now, but not sure how long that will hold. But it might. I made the glue flow in and around things, so it may very well never come off without doing it myself. That's good though. In the event that it does break again, I have a new idea to attempt, we shall see... one day...

After the windshield replacement, I replaced my window sprayers with 3G Eclipse sprayers off Amazon, as well as the tiny clips that hold the seal in front of the window cowl at the top of the firewall. No more seal looking like crap from clips being broken.

I also bought new tires and re-wired my aux gauges. This was all in preparation to go back to the Shootout. I hadn't attended the Shootout in six years, and this time I was determined to return with my own car. The last two times I went, the car I had wasn't able to go with me. I knew I wouldn't be driving it there though, and since I had destroyed my DD in March hitting a deer, I had already decided upon buying a truck. Which I did, a 2025 Tacoma. I know it's not the best option for towing a car across the country and back just for a weekend, but I wanted this truck to be my new DD anyway and it works out for everything else. I did have a Trailhunter model allocation in the color I wanted (Bronze Oxide), but things didn't work out with the car I had on loan to me until the truck was built and at the dealer. So I had to get one basically a month earlier than the Trailhunter was arriving. So I settled on a black Limited model that has mostly everything I wanted anyway, and was also $10k cheaper. Plus I got a full black interior which the Trailhunter does not get at all, and I prefer the black interior. Overall I'm happy with the truck and once I got the tow-mode to activate (user error), it towed the spyder fairly well with very minimal struggle.

After handling this long trip, there's plenty of plans I have to make it a more capable towing truck so that it'll be even better for next year's Shootout.

Before coming out to Ohio this year, I had only managed to get 18 miles on the engine. Not that great. However, while in Ohio, I've put another 110 on it and she drives quite well. Boost hits around 4500 rpms, but leading to that, she isn't really slow at building the boost. I managed 22psi of boost as well. I haven't been too hard on the car yet due to the OBD issue still being present, and the CEL is on. However I don't believe the engine light issue is due to anything major (yet) as the car runs well. I know I got three boost leaks to fix, among a few other improvements to make, but she seems very stable in idle, and consistent in how she's performing. I'm planning to replace the entire wire harness under the dash to rid myself of the OBD issue, but that'll be a long term issue as I need that harness specifically from a spyder. So the search is on. If anyone knows of one somewhere, please let me know. It's the harness with the OBD plug and goes to the ETACS and the doors (the door plugs are the reason it's spyder specific). My goal is to hopefully race the spyder at the Shootout next year, so along with the few improvements, I have mods planned as well. Not much time to make it happen, more to come...

 

[FIBA M - EC17PSE]

I just picked up a Tundra yesterday. I knew I wanted a truck so went with the bigger one so I could tow more and carry more weight. Its a nice truck for the year and looks brand new! Im excited to be able to drive to the shootout next year (except the distance ) 16 hrs is not a fun trip

 

[spyderdrifter]

Very nice. I'd love to have a full size truck, but sadly it wouldn't fit into my garage. Even the Tacoma with only the 5ft bed barely fits. Don't want to leave it outside since we get hail here seasonally, and more frequently this year.

 

[miliman13]

Much respect

For all that work under the dash , what material did you use to replace the dry fuzz in the evaporator , heater and blower assembly?

I’m currently in that same process myself and wanted to make sure it’s well sealed, but was unsure of options.
Also the seal on the top vents you showed I noticed that peeled off.

And apologies if you already covered this but why the desire to go electric AC ?

I want an electric AC but to feed to my intercooler.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Much respect

For all that work under the dash , what material did you use to replace the dry fuzz in the evaporator , heater and blower assembly?

I’m currently in that same process myself and wanted to make sure it’s well sealed, but was unsure of options.
Also the seal on the top vents you showed I noticed that peeled off.

And apologies if you already covered this but why the desire to go electric AC ?

I want an electric AC but to feed to my intercooler.

These are the materials I used, both from Amazon:

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

So far it seems ok, but I don't yet have the system complete, so I won't know until that happens.

As for why electric, simple answer is my body runs really hot, and I don't want to give up A/C just because I'm turning this into a track car. To add more to that, I'm so sick of dealing with the accessory belts on these engines. I currently don't have my pwr steering functional because of a belt problem. My last spyder (the silver one) never functioned properly with the A/C belt and its tensioner. Even my last daily driver car gave me issues with its serpentine belt. The part number that was correct according to the computer was still too short. Long story there. So this is a way to get rid of the belt system, except the alternator, and still keep the system in the car and functional. I'll even be converting to electric steering in the future too. Just need to find a good enough alternator to run everything.

 

[Fyke]

Looking great! Keep it up. Hoping to get the Spyder out to the shootout next year myself.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Looking great! Keep it up. Hoping to get the Spyder out to the shootout next year myself.

I'm looking around for some spyder specific parts if you happen to have spares for spyder only items.

 

[Fyke]

Not much Spyder specific. I’m going to be looking around for some top goodies and whatnot. Let me know what to keep an eye for though!

 

[spyderdrifter]

Not much Spyder specific. I’m going to be looking around for some top goodies and whatnot. Let me know what to keep an eye for though!

I need the entire dash harness that plugs into the ETACS, the doors, and the OBD port. Unfortunately it's spyder specific. I got spares from hard-top models and the door plugs aren't the same. Due to this my OBD port is inop. I appreciate the help.