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99 Spyder GS.. working on the 'T'

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Checklist for next week while I'm on vacation:

- clean and install HLA's
- Install camshafts
- install timing belt
- install thermostat housing
- install intake/exhaust studs
- install ARP valve cover studs
- strip/clean/re-paint valve cover

basically what I'm getting at... is next week this motor will be done... finally. :hellyeah:
 
Took my valve cover over to Performance Partout today to get the chipping paint stripped off in their blast cabinet in prep for it to be repainted. Good thing I did too, once the old paint was off we spotted a hairline crack..

Oh well... I've been eyeing this thing up for the past few months. Finally had a reason to pull the trigger and buy it :hellyeah:
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Progress!

- HLAs are in, along with a new Kiggly HLA
- rocker arms are in
- cams are in
- valve cover is painted

Placed an order for a Gates Timing Kit and a new tensioner, decided I'd rather spend the $70 than risk the old components that I have no history on...

Installed the stainless exhaust studs I bought, only to discover two of the holes are stripped so I need to fix that.

Also discovered the ARP valve cover studs I ordered didn't fit... Even though they were listed as an 'exact fit' :ohdamn:

Oh well... One more day of vacation and I'm out of parts to install. I think I'll spend the day tomorrow doing the fuel pump rewire and eliminating the secondary relay the Spyder GS has.. hopefully that fixes the fuel trim issues I've had lately

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Well, vacation came and went much faster than I expected. I had every intention of cleaning the garage, but it's still a mess... look at it on the bright side though, the motor is soooo close to being finished.

I decided at the last minute to buy all new timing components instead of reusing some of the old pulleys and the tensioner. All of the old stuff appeared to be in good overall condition, but as I was looking at all of the new parts on the motor and the old pulleys sitting on the shelf, I knew I had to do the right thing and buy new. Because of the last minute decision, and finding out that the ARP valve cover studs I bought weren't in fact an 'exact fit' (thanks Amazon...), I have a few inbound packages holding me back from completion.

Since my timeline for the swap moved back even more, I decided I needed to do something about the ISC on my 4G64 throttle body that has been acting up lately. There was no way in hell I was going to shell out $300+ for a new ISC for the unicorn throttle body that only exists on the 98-99 Spyder GS... you know... this one: https://www.autozone.com/engine-man...ve/duralast-idle-air-control-valve/363925_0_0 . After spending some time staring at the throttle body and elbow I have for my new build, and noticing that all of the connectors were exactly the same, I decided to give it a shot.. figured worst that could happen is it doesn't work... or it fries the ECU which gives me even more of a reason to get the swap wrapped up. Either way, it was worth a shot.

I'm happy to report, it works! So for anyone dealing with a faulty ISC on their 98-99 Spyder GS... save some money, buy a 4G63t throttle body instead of a new ISC :thumb:.
 
Looking good man ... you're making a lot of progress.

Slow and steady! Youth Football season ran a bit longer this year since the kids made it all the way to the championship game, that put a huge damper on my weekend garage time but was well worth it. Now that it's over with, I plan on wrapping everything up with the motor this weekend. I put an order in with JNZ tuning for a brand new timing cover set, and I have to swing by Performance Partout for a set of Fidanza adjustable cam gears they have set aside for me, but everything else is sitting on the workbench ready to go.

Once that's done, I'm going to pull apart the wiring harness I got from you and give it a good look over. Then I have to schedule an extended weekend from work to give myself time to pull the old motor and get the new one settled in.

I'm way behind my originally planned schedule, but I'm glad I took my time, bought quality parts, and did it right. At the end of the day, none of this would've been possible were it not for you doing your AWD swap and having a spare motor to sell :hellyeah:
 
Slow and steady! Youth Football season ran a bit longer this year since the kids made it all the way to the championship game, that put a huge damper on my weekend garage time but was well worth it.

OMG! I must have been standing opposite sideline to you the other week and didn't even realize it. My son plays for the Spartans ... the game you guys beat us in overtime. What a game that was. Did you guys end up defeating Wilson? That was our only loss on the season. They were tough.
 
OMG! I must have been standing opposite sideline to you the other week and didn't even realize it. My son plays for the Spartans ... the game you guys beat us in overtime. What a game that was. Did you guys end up defeating Wilson? That was our only loss on the season. They were tough.

Oh man.. that was such a good game! I’ve never seen a youth football game with that much excitement and support from families on both sides. Your son and his teammates played one hell of a game!

Unfortunately, Wilson was a heavily outmatched game and we lost 29-14. They essentially had two starting lineups this year since Williams Twsp chose not to field a team (all the township kids ended up on the Wilson squad) and used that to their advantage to wear our kids down. That... and they had a couple of cheap shots that injured a few of our players (one kid seriously head butted one of our players behind the refs back.. and another player was blindsided after the whistle that resulted in a 15 yd unsportsmanlike flag..).

Williams will be back next year, and I dont see Wilson making another championship run without the combined squad. Most of our starters will be heading up to the Varsity squad, my daughter included on the cheering side, and they want that championship trophy more than ever now.
 
Oh man.. that was such a good game! I’ve never seen a youth football game with that much excitement and support from families on both sides. Your son and his teammates played one hell of a game!

Unfortunately, Wilson was a heavily outmatched game and we lost 29-14. They essentially had two starting lineups this year since Williams Twsp chose not to field a team (all the township kids ended up on the Wilson squad) and used that to their advantage to wear our kids down. That... and they had a couple of cheap shots that injured a few of our players (one kid seriously head butted one of our players behind the refs back.. and another player was blindsided after the whistle that resulted in a 15 yd unsportsmanlike flag..).

Williams will be back next year, and I dont see Wilson making another championship run without the combined squad. Most of our starters will be heading up to the Varsity squad, my daughter included on the cheering side, and they want that championship trophy more than ever now.

Man, that's crazy. I did not know about the combo thing of the 2 squads. That makes a lot of sense then. Sorry you guys didn't come out on top. Wilson was the only game we played where we were totally outmatched as well.

OK .. let's get this thread back on topic now :hellyeah:
 
Timing belt is on, intake manifold and EGR delete are done, picked up a set of PTE 1000cc injectors and engine hoist brackets from Performance Partout...

I need to hit up my local Ace Hardware and pick up some random nuts and bolts.. but this project is very rapidly nearing completion!
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Motor is just about finished, nearly ready to get settled into its new home :hellyeah:

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I know.. my garage and work area are a mess.. once I get this motor and stand out of the way I'll get everything back to a normal working condition..

Major thanks to @gofer for suggesting the tight radius 90 as well as the 1G fuel rail to fix my AFPR installation woes. I went ahead and ordered both, painted the rail with VHT wrinkle black (my wife was oh so happy when I told her I had to use the oven to cure the paint ROFL... she puts up with so much.. don't know what I'd do without her). Fits perfect, and zero trimming of the new timing cover was needed.

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I'm still kicking around the idea of going SD right from the start, I don't know the condition of the MDP sensor that was on the motor when I got it, and the TB elbow I picked up already has an IAT sensor bung welded in.. pretty sure it's a sign..

Only things left on the to-do list:

- install the Damper pulley.. though I'm dragging my feet looking for an excuse to buy a Fluidampr (someone want to sell me one cheap? ROFL)..
- run vacuum lines
- install either the MDP sensor, or buy a SD kit from ExtremePSI (likely the latter)
- rebuild and install the throttle body (already apart, just need to swap gaskets and reassemble)
- re-assemble the turbo. I took it apart to clean/inspect it.. it's in great shape, no rebuild necessary :thumb:
- install an exhaust manifold. Had to order one from Performance Partout since the cheap-o ebay tubular manifold I got in a package deal with the turbo doesn't clear the exhaust stud at the top of cylinder 4.. and I'm not trimming brand new STM stainless studs to fit an ebay manifold. Nate and John hooked me up with a ported 2G manifold with an EGT bung already on it for $35.
- finally.. install the turbo and run the oil/coolant lines
 
It's looking great man! Is that silver paint or powdercoat on the manifold and thermo housing? It looks so shiny. I can't believe that's the same motor. Really looks good. Can't wait till you have it running.

Ace Hardware brand Hi-temp grill and barbeque paint. I bought a whole lot of it for a smoker I was restoring a few years back, tried it out on the water pipe on my 4G64 during that rebuild and it's still holding up great nearly 2 years later, so I decided to use it again. As always.. it's all in the prep work. I took my good old time with EVERYTHING when it came to the finer details. I'm not 100% sold on the finish of the VC though and kinda want to have it powder-coated in a wrinkle red. I thought I wouldnt like wrinkle finishes.. but after doing the fuel rail this weekend I'm sold on it.
 
Let me give you a warning about wrinkle finishes ... they dont stay clean looking for very long. I had a wrinkle red VC years ago and dirt gets into the "wrinkles" and it's hard to clean b/c you can't just wipe it. I eventually took it off and sold it. I prefer a smooth finish.
 
Let me give you a warning about wrinkle finishes ... they dont stay clean looking for very long. I had a wrinkle red VC years ago and dirt gets into the "wrinkles" and it's hard to clean b/c you can't just wipe it. I eventually took it off and sold it. I prefer a smooth finish.
Hmm.. yea I didn't think about that..

Guess it's staying gloss red :thumb:.

Now... time to buy some parts...
 
Minor update as I haven't had much time to wrench in the garage with the holidays and all.

I finally got all the parts in that I needed to rebuild my throttle body. Like everything else in the build, I had zero history of any seals or sensors, so I wanted to do a complete rebuild. I initially tried to piece together all of the parts and stainless hardware needed to do the full rebuild on my own, but finally decided to just pull the trigger and reach out to @snowborder714 for one of his install kits with the install tool. WORTH EVERY PENNY.

The install tool, as simplistic as it is, made shaft seal installation a breeze. It took me longer to rewind the springs than it did to install the seals.

I didn't take any photos of the before, but here's the after (excuse the mess on my desk):

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cleaned up and ready to make some boost! :hellyeah:

- new copper crush gaskets
- new water lines
- new stainless oil feed line
- -10 AN oil return

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can't wait to get this thing bolted up tomorrow...
 
A few weeks back I hit some debris in the road and shattered the internal parts of my eBay exhaust resonator. Needless to say, it was annoying to drive the car listening to that rattling every day. Boy was I excited when I walked into the shop at Performance Partout and spotted a Greddy FWD cat-back on the car they were disassembling.

$80 and about an hour's worth of work later.. and my crappy eBay exhaust is gone.
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It sounds soooo good now :hellyeah:.

I also picked up rear LCA's with sway bar provisions so I can finally install a rear sway bar, a passenger side front fender (mine has a small crease in it that effects the way the front bumper lines up), and a new fuel door release cable.

Also considering picking up some 17" Evo 8 Enkei's they have. There's some decent curb rash on them.. but nothing that can't be fixed. Someone should talk me into buying them ROFL
 
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New shoes are on. When I pulled the rear wheels I noticed the d/s rear hub was binding and making some noise, so I went ahead and swapped that out while I had the wheel off. I wish every hub assembly was as easy to replace as the rears, full swap in under 10 minutes.

Next up is the rear sway bar install. I started on the bench grinder wire wheel with cleaning up the brackets. I still have to clean up and paint the LCA's and sway bar, which will likely be a full evening's worth of work. Snow is in the forecast for the next few days here in NE PA, so I should get some time to work on it.

I also have a set of GSX dual piston calipers I need to rebuild. Ordered the seal kits, I still need to order some pads and rotors.

Still on the ever-growing to do list: paint the new front bumper, find a front lip/splitter (cheap one I have didn't last a week before it tore and just looks bad..), and the most important thing... finish the damn 4G63t motor I've had on the stand for a year (16g water lines threw me for a loop, finally have the right parts and just need to get them installed).
 
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