bewstin
Proven Member
- 131
- 0
- Dec 4, 2012
-
Groton,
Connecticut
So here I am, back in the DSM game for the 3rd time. First one was a Beautiful white 98 GSX, 5 speed, completely stock with 80k on the odometer with one previous owner, a 65 year old man who drove it off the lot in 1998. I was 18, stupid, and i sold it after 2 months because i thought it was slow. (my previous car was a 93 3000gt VR-4) and i knew nothing about modifying cars. A choice I will regret forever.
Second one was a 90 Talon TSI AWD 5speed. Loved it, bought it with a bad turbo, drove it anyway, starved it of oil and spun a rod bearing. Threw a new motor in it out of another talon with 125k on it. Drove it for 6 months with minor mods and a 16g on low boost. Ended up replacing the intake manifold gasket, and didn't tighten down a bolt on the fuel rail line, leaked gas, caught fire and i sold the car for $1000.
So now after dabbling and building a few other cars in between (properly), I've come accross my 3rd DSM. A 1997 GS-T with a billion miles on it had (181k when i picked it up last nov. currently at 209k), but was 100% bone stock when I bought it. I figured now with my knowledge with building cars and engine/mechanical repair, I could dive into this project with confidence and enthusiasm to spend TONS of money!
Took me 3 weeks to get my Apexi 3" turbo back exhaust, intake, and do the boost solenoid restrict-er mod, and a small FMIC. Put in a boost gauge, and lowered it on megan springs. I kept telling myself every month, i wanna rebuild this motor, its tired and I wanted to get my hands dirty, i wanna upgrade my turbo, i want to get a bigger front mount, blah blah blah. Took me a year and a clutch to start slipping to get me there, but i finally got around to it! This would be my first Piston Motor Rebuild bigger than a lawnmower engine. I had built 7 rotary engines while i was in my experimenting days
. My goal was and still is 400+ WHP. Here's the good stuff.
Alrighty so this was the car after a month of owning it. I painted the rims black, Exhaust, FMIC, and Lowering springs. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the car Before this.
So then I was in a predicament, and I still am, about Rim color. I plan on eventually getting Rota Grids in either Bronze or White. So in the mean time i decided to paint my rims white, to see how i liked it.
I DO like the white a lot, but I'm leaning more towards bronze. Rims will be next on the list after my tune when my DSMlink comes in.
One day i decided to take my wing off, I wanted to test the waters and see how i liked it. Here's a couple shots
I ended up loving it. I like wingless much more than the wing on. BUT BUT BUT, in my opinion, i think it looks funky unless the car is a little lower. I ended up putting the wing back on. Once i get my coilovers and drop another inch or so, its coming back off for good.
So here i was about 2 months ago, minding my own business at the skatepark not even in my car, and i hear WAM!! CRUNCH!!! SCREAAAAAAAACH!!!! I noticed a truck ON TOP of my car. Apparently when he was backing up, he didn't see my car in his mirror. Apparently a lowered car is hard to see in the mirror of a lifted dodge ram. So here's the aftermath.
My Cam hump had become anti-hump. So being smart like I was, before I tried to start it i popped the hood. Luckily I had my 9lb Snap-on deadblow in my trunk, and i pounded it up as best i could so that it wouldn't rub on my T-belt. After getting his insurance information we parted ways on good terms. Damage ended up being $1900. I milked it too for the damage estimator. "Well you see the side skirt over laps the fender so that will have to be blended. And the Door then will have to be blended. Also the hood and driver side fender will have to be blended, as well as the driver door and side skirt." Hehe, after all it was true! So i decided, I can buy a hood and fender at a junkyard for $40 a piece, paint em myself, and throw em on. So here we go $1900 Engine Rebuild Fund!!
Twas the start of my stockpiling.
This was my entire engine overhaul kit, NPR pistons, Kings race Bearings, ARP headstuds (not in picture), A valve cover I picked up off my buddy, o2 Housing, Crank pulley (which i didn't know the down side to at the time), my injectors, prothane mounts, Gates Racing timing belt, and balance shaft eliminator kit.
Next was the goodies
20G Godspeed Turbo, CX Racing intercooler, XTD Stage 3 Clutch and 11lb chromoly Flywheel, and my go fast bits Manual boost controller. I Know I went cheap on the turbo, intercooler, and clutch. But I've had great experience with all three companies in the past, and they haven't given me reason to doubt them yet, especially for the price. I had a Godspeed turbo in my 87 rx7, along with a CX racing V mount intercooler and XTD stage 3 Clutch, 383WHP for over 9 months, and sold the car in perfect running condition.
So it was time to start pulling the engine.
This is a shot of the engine at the very beginning, before I pulled it i figured it would be a good idea to get one last shot of the original engine bay.
Started to tear her apart. Mind you, i am 95% sure that this car had original axles, original clutch, and original engine. And not 1 single bolt broke or stripped out in the process of dis-assembly or re-assembly which was amazing.
Got it out start to finish in 2 hours. Little faster without dropping a transfer case, but not by much =p
Borrowed a buddy's engine stand, had to buy some bolts, and mounted her up.
I then started to tear down the engine to bare block. This was my first time doing this so i took it slow and labeled bolts in baggies and grouped parts. As you can see in the first picture the engine was COVERED head to pan with 208k miles of dirt and grime that was about 1/4 inch thick. This was the most fun part of the build for me, just set my 1/4" impact to reverse and went to town.
So greasy i went through a pair of gloves every 5 minutes
And i pushed the car outside so i could have the garage for a good work space.
The was the machine shop that did my work, VERY reputable. EFI Logics is the Top Tuning and performance shop in CT and they send all their head work there from over and hour away.
This was the day i got the block back, very fast return time.
Decided to paint it while i could because it looked hideous.
Started gapping the rings And put the pistons in.
Ended up going .018 on the compression ring, .022 on the scraper, and the oil rings were .024 so I left em alone.
Put in the headstuds
Then i had to check bearing clearances using plasticgauge.
I'm also glad i did my research before putting it together. Like a fool when i was taking apart the engine, i didn't label the rod caps. So i had to bring them to the machine shop to have them line bore and match them up for me.
Next was the head gasket and head and timing belt.
Pictures of everything on and ready to drop into the car
So after about 4 hours I got the engine in, bolted up, and ready to start up, with the new intercooler bolted up as well.
I made A nasty Rookie mistake and forgot to put Teflon tape on the oil galley plug behind the flywheel, and sadly it leaked all over my clutch. It was slipping within the first 100 miles to where it was impossible to drive. I ended up getting a free stage 4 replacement clutch from XTD and he let me keep the old one! I didn't have to pay a dime out of pocket.
All in all the build wasn't too hard and was extremely fun aside from my clutch setback. I guess it was for the best, the stage 3 felt like oem as far as clamping strength. The stage 4 he replaced it with is MUCH stiffer and grabs a hell of a lot better. It took me a total of 4 days start to finish for the whole build minus redoing the clutch. But i was burnt out, very tired, and my brain was fried. In the future I will have to force myself to spread out the work and not try to jam out a ton of progress in one day.
The hood and fender I'm getting this saturday, cant wait!
Hope you all enjoy this thread, its my first time making a project build thread so please be nice if i slacked a little bit! There's much more to come as well. Ill be updating as much as I can. Hope you all follow me on my journey to 400+ WHP. Currently waiting on parts.
In the mail as of right now is : FP exhaust manifold, Fuel Labs AFPR, FIC 1200cc injectors, Walbro 255lph, and of course my DSMlink v3 full. Ill post updates when its in! Thanks for check out my build, feedback is great!
Second one was a 90 Talon TSI AWD 5speed. Loved it, bought it with a bad turbo, drove it anyway, starved it of oil and spun a rod bearing. Threw a new motor in it out of another talon with 125k on it. Drove it for 6 months with minor mods and a 16g on low boost. Ended up replacing the intake manifold gasket, and didn't tighten down a bolt on the fuel rail line, leaked gas, caught fire and i sold the car for $1000.
So now after dabbling and building a few other cars in between (properly), I've come accross my 3rd DSM. A 1997 GS-T with a billion miles on it had (181k when i picked it up last nov. currently at 209k), but was 100% bone stock when I bought it. I figured now with my knowledge with building cars and engine/mechanical repair, I could dive into this project with confidence and enthusiasm to spend TONS of money!
Took me 3 weeks to get my Apexi 3" turbo back exhaust, intake, and do the boost solenoid restrict-er mod, and a small FMIC. Put in a boost gauge, and lowered it on megan springs. I kept telling myself every month, i wanna rebuild this motor, its tired and I wanted to get my hands dirty, i wanna upgrade my turbo, i want to get a bigger front mount, blah blah blah. Took me a year and a clutch to start slipping to get me there, but i finally got around to it! This would be my first Piston Motor Rebuild bigger than a lawnmower engine. I had built 7 rotary engines while i was in my experimenting days
. My goal was and still is 400+ WHP. Here's the good stuff.Alrighty so this was the car after a month of owning it. I painted the rims black, Exhaust, FMIC, and Lowering springs. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the car Before this.
So then I was in a predicament, and I still am, about Rim color. I plan on eventually getting Rota Grids in either Bronze or White. So in the mean time i decided to paint my rims white, to see how i liked it.
I DO like the white a lot, but I'm leaning more towards bronze. Rims will be next on the list after my tune when my DSMlink comes in.
One day i decided to take my wing off, I wanted to test the waters and see how i liked it. Here's a couple shots
I ended up loving it. I like wingless much more than the wing on. BUT BUT BUT, in my opinion, i think it looks funky unless the car is a little lower. I ended up putting the wing back on. Once i get my coilovers and drop another inch or so, its coming back off for good.
So here i was about 2 months ago, minding my own business at the skatepark not even in my car, and i hear WAM!! CRUNCH!!! SCREAAAAAAAACH!!!! I noticed a truck ON TOP of my car. Apparently when he was backing up, he didn't see my car in his mirror. Apparently a lowered car is hard to see in the mirror of a lifted dodge ram. So here's the aftermath.
My Cam hump had become anti-hump. So being smart like I was, before I tried to start it i popped the hood. Luckily I had my 9lb Snap-on deadblow in my trunk, and i pounded it up as best i could so that it wouldn't rub on my T-belt. After getting his insurance information we parted ways on good terms. Damage ended up being $1900. I milked it too for the damage estimator. "Well you see the side skirt over laps the fender so that will have to be blended. And the Door then will have to be blended. Also the hood and driver side fender will have to be blended, as well as the driver door and side skirt." Hehe, after all it was true! So i decided, I can buy a hood and fender at a junkyard for $40 a piece, paint em myself, and throw em on. So here we go $1900 Engine Rebuild Fund!!
Twas the start of my stockpiling.
This was my entire engine overhaul kit, NPR pistons, Kings race Bearings, ARP headstuds (not in picture), A valve cover I picked up off my buddy, o2 Housing, Crank pulley (which i didn't know the down side to at the time), my injectors, prothane mounts, Gates Racing timing belt, and balance shaft eliminator kit.
Next was the goodies
20G Godspeed Turbo, CX Racing intercooler, XTD Stage 3 Clutch and 11lb chromoly Flywheel, and my go fast bits Manual boost controller. I Know I went cheap on the turbo, intercooler, and clutch. But I've had great experience with all three companies in the past, and they haven't given me reason to doubt them yet, especially for the price. I had a Godspeed turbo in my 87 rx7, along with a CX racing V mount intercooler and XTD stage 3 Clutch, 383WHP for over 9 months, and sold the car in perfect running condition.
So it was time to start pulling the engine.
This is a shot of the engine at the very beginning, before I pulled it i figured it would be a good idea to get one last shot of the original engine bay.
Started to tear her apart. Mind you, i am 95% sure that this car had original axles, original clutch, and original engine. And not 1 single bolt broke or stripped out in the process of dis-assembly or re-assembly which was amazing.
Got it out start to finish in 2 hours. Little faster without dropping a transfer case, but not by much =p
Borrowed a buddy's engine stand, had to buy some bolts, and mounted her up.
I then started to tear down the engine to bare block. This was my first time doing this so i took it slow and labeled bolts in baggies and grouped parts. As you can see in the first picture the engine was COVERED head to pan with 208k miles of dirt and grime that was about 1/4 inch thick. This was the most fun part of the build for me, just set my 1/4" impact to reverse and went to town.
So greasy i went through a pair of gloves every 5 minutes
And i pushed the car outside so i could have the garage for a good work space.
The was the machine shop that did my work, VERY reputable. EFI Logics is the Top Tuning and performance shop in CT and they send all their head work there from over and hour away.
This was the day i got the block back, very fast return time.
Decided to paint it while i could because it looked hideous.
Started gapping the rings And put the pistons in.
Ended up going .018 on the compression ring, .022 on the scraper, and the oil rings were .024 so I left em alone.
Put in the headstuds
Then i had to check bearing clearances using plasticgauge.
I'm also glad i did my research before putting it together. Like a fool when i was taking apart the engine, i didn't label the rod caps. So i had to bring them to the machine shop to have them line bore and match them up for me.
Next was the head gasket and head and timing belt.
Pictures of everything on and ready to drop into the car
So after about 4 hours I got the engine in, bolted up, and ready to start up, with the new intercooler bolted up as well.
I made A nasty Rookie mistake and forgot to put Teflon tape on the oil galley plug behind the flywheel, and sadly it leaked all over my clutch. It was slipping within the first 100 miles to where it was impossible to drive. I ended up getting a free stage 4 replacement clutch from XTD and he let me keep the old one! I didn't have to pay a dime out of pocket.
All in all the build wasn't too hard and was extremely fun aside from my clutch setback. I guess it was for the best, the stage 3 felt like oem as far as clamping strength. The stage 4 he replaced it with is MUCH stiffer and grabs a hell of a lot better. It took me a total of 4 days start to finish for the whole build minus redoing the clutch. But i was burnt out, very tired, and my brain was fried. In the future I will have to force myself to spread out the work and not try to jam out a ton of progress in one day.
The hood and fender I'm getting this saturday, cant wait!
Hope you all enjoy this thread, its my first time making a project build thread so please be nice if i slacked a little bit! There's much more to come as well. Ill be updating as much as I can. Hope you all follow me on my journey to 400+ WHP. Currently waiting on parts.
In the mail as of right now is : FP exhaust manifold, Fuel Labs AFPR, FIC 1200cc injectors, Walbro 255lph, and of course my DSMlink v3 full. Ill post updates when its in! Thanks for check out my build, feedback is great!
Last edited by a moderator:
smart 
well the insurance agent told me I could just cash the check and I had the option to fix it myself. And the guy was from out of state I didn't know him. 
.
