Street Build bkrathwohl's Galant VR4 #1228/2000

[95eclipser]

I completely agree with him^

 

[bkrathwohl]

I did some little things to the motor today. The pictures all turned out terrible for some reason, oh well.

I mounted my Jay Racing alternator relocation. The instructions were a bit confusing. They told you to do something one way but in the picture it was completely different. I went with how I thought it should go together as it seemed to make the most sense to me.

First things first, clean those threads!

Per the instructions it says to make sure that the main alternator bracket (the lower one) has metal to metal contact for a good ground. I ground off the paint on the mounting holes.

Annoyingly I also had to grind down the anodized finish on the aluminium brackets. For as much as this kit costs you would think they would have done this for you. I only took a picture of one side but it's the same on both and on the right side where the alternator mounts.

I had a couple spare alternators so I grabbed the cleanest one. After a little bit of elbow grease it turned out great. Mineral spirits and a rag had it looking brand new!

I popped in the new cam seals as well. I took the easy way out and took the end caps off.

I tried cleaning up the cam gears a bit but they still look like crap. They will be covered anyway so it's not a big deal.

I think the motor is ready to be timed and dropped in!

I also cleaned the threads on all the bolt holes in my subframe.

 

[bkrathwohl]

Tonight I cleaned up the timing tins and put them on the block. I was originally thinking of doing them black to hide them away. I found some caliper paint that I had left and after a coat of that I was surprised at how good it looked, so I left it.

I also put on the motor mount bracket, tensioner arm, tensioner, and crank pulley.

Next I put the steering rack back in.

 

[Dsmkauai]

Lookin sick bro! Keep up the great work can't wait to hear it fire up

 

[bkrathwohl]

Lookin sick bro! Keep up the great work can't wait to hear it fire up

You and me both! It seems like i'm getting a lot closer, but at the same time i'm nowhere near ready.

 

[bkrathwohl]

It's been a while, time for an update. I haven't really done a whole lot with it being so hot out.

I did order new timing covers, for some reason I didn't take a picture of the lower one. Beck/Arnley = Hyundai OEM, got them for a steal too!

I got it timed yesterday, what an exciting feeling!

And then I figured it was time to either put the harness in or clean it up and remove a bunch of stuff. I of course picked the harder option. I'm not really sure what the hell i'm doing, or why I thought it was a good idea. Too late now! Hopefully I don't start chopping the wrong wires.

There's a lot of crap that can be deleted. ABS, EVAP stuff, factory alarm, and cruise control to name a few.

After figuring out what I wanted to delete, I started marking the ones that could be removed. I labeled them but I don't know that it will really matter once I remove them anyway.

Starting to unravel.

I pulled what I needed to from the other side of the harness. There were a few triple connections in some areas, I just snipped the one wire and electrical taped it up to insulate it. The ABS main power also runs to the battery terminal.

Then I pulled everything to the cabin side. These are all the wires I need to depin tomorrow.

 

[bkrathwohl]

After seeing a few GVR4's run at the shootout it makes me anxious to get mine up and running! I finished up the wire harness today, this was all the stuff I eliminated from the body harness.

Put the wire harness back in too!

While in the harness thankfully I thought about my alternator relocation. I had to pull the alternator wires back to the fuse box and I wrapped them separately. This will make running them to the rear of the engine easy. I'm not sure on lengths yet so I just left it as is. I'm sure ill have to either cut it or extend it a bit.

I've also read that the EGR port on the rear of the head can burn through heat barrier gaskets. To remedy this I drilled and tapped the head with a 1/4" npt plug.

 

[bkrathwohl]

I had to order a couple more parts, but i'm hoping to get the engine and trans in this weekend!

I was also putting on the power steering and motor mount brackets and noticed that they were rusty. I can't have that going into my nice clean engine bay. Now is a good time to try my powder coating gun!

After a quick sandblast.

The powder coater itself is kind of weird. I figured that more of the powder would attract to the metal but theres a good chunk that won't. You will end up with a pretty good coating of powder on your floor.

Also, if you can avoid it, don't use a toaster oven. It was terrible trying to get these small-ish parts in there. I had to modify the toaster a bit and stand it on its side to get the parts in. I ended up dropping one of the brackets on accident and there was a giant puff of powder and it all fell off the bracket. I had to start over

Overall I think they turned out great! I did my AFPR bracket too.

 

[95eclipser]

For a DIY project man, it came out good. Just cleaning it up makes a huge difference.

Got to drop that motor in soon!

 

[bkrathwohl]

Motor mount brackets, power steering bracket, and intake manifold on!

I also took a look at what I had for throttle bodies. It looks like a EXTREMELY dirty dsm throttle body and an Evo 8 throttle body.

I've not heard of anyone using an Evo throttle body on a dsm before, maybe I will see if it can work. Plus that's less cleaning.

Oh I mounted the AFPR as well.

I've been thinking of where I could mount the engine lift on the front of the block. Usually I use the power steering/motor mount bracket, but mine has been cut. Hmm...

 

[92AWDHX40]

I was at
the shoot out too lots of clean cars that's my goal for next year go looking for another shell to get started on good job.

 

[livedsm4g63]

Ah man, I just realized iugrad92turbo was in MI. You two should totally do a galant/dsm/evo meet up once this is done.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Yes sounds like a plan .

 

[bkrathwohl]

Oil pan studs installed.

Oil pan sealed up!

 

[GST with PSI]

Looking good!

I've never considered studs for the oil pan. What's the benefit? And is that a kit someone makes, or did you just source them locally or something?

 

[bkrathwohl]

I'm not really sure there is much of a benefit. Lining up the oil pan with RTV is a lot easier.

I had a 100 pack of m6x30 studs lying around so I figured I would see how it worked. I'm sure if the pan has to come off i'll have to take all of the studs off to clean up the RTV, but how often does that happen?

 

[GST with PSI]

I'm sure if the pan has to come off i'll have to take all of the studs off to clean up the RTV

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

But agreed, hopefully that's not anytime soon.

 

[bkrathwohl]

I had a few inches of fuel line left over so I quickly made this up. Three more lines and the fuel setup is complete!

I also got the motor in today! There is one slight issue that I will get to later.

These Avid racing motor mounts are a HUGE pita. The rear did not want to go on. I had to lube it up and give it a few good kicks before it would even start to go into its place.

So exciting!

So this is the issue i'm running into. If others have an aftermarket crossmember please enlighten me.

There is a considerable gap between the bushing and the bracket for the front motor mount. I've looked at other installation pictures for this and it doesn't look like anybody else is having this issue.

I've sent a message to Bulfab to see if they can help me out, i'm not sure what their response time is though.

It looks like i'm going to have to buy a new water pump pulley too. I've looked through all of my part boxes and it doesn't look like either motor had one on it, bummer.

 

[bkrathwohl]

Looks like I found the answer to my own question, about half way down:

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/bulfab-1g-dsm-crossmembers.428471/page-2

Some people are aware of this issue and Bulfab says just to tighten it and bend the bracket, or stack a bunch of washers/bushings to take up the space.

That's a little annoying...

 

[Nate355RS]

I had that gap too, I used a bushing I had laying around to make it fit flush. I didn't want to bend the bracket and I didn't trust the washers not to damage the paint and cause a rust problem down the road because I drive mine in winter.

 

[bkrathwohl]

I had that gap too, I used a bushing I had laying around to make it fit flush. I didn't want to bend the bracket and I didn't trust the washers not to damage the paint and cause a rust problem down the road because I drive mine in winter.

This is what i'm worrying about as well. I don't like the idea of needing to bend a perfectly good stock engine bracket in the first place.

Luckily I have some spare energy bushings laying around. I will have to see what I can come up with.

 

[GST with PSI]

That's janky. You'd think something designed from the ground up would account for something like that. Just one more reason to keep the stock stuff, IMO.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the extra space the 1 pc cross members create. Also, the weight savings is great, too. But, the factory front sub structure adds quite a bit of rigidity to the chassis in that area of the car. Even the front cross members I've seen which include the north south bars don't seem to add the structural support that the stock pieces do. Unless I was building a straight up drag car, I don't think I could bring myself to ditch the stock stuff.

 

[bkrathwohl]

I liked the room that it gave me. Plus my stock crossmember was cut out for what looked like an o2 dump. I figured if I had to get something I might as well upgrade it.

If I would have known that the front bracket needs to be "modified" I would not have gone this route. I'm sure a new OEM stock bar would have been less than this aftermarket one.

Oh well, lesson learned.

 

[bkrathwohl]

So it's been a bit, I haven't really made any progress. I gave the transmission a bit of a cleaning with mineral spirits. This crap is ON there. I'm not sure how to get it out of all the little nooks and crannies.

Eventually this will be rebuilt so it will get a nice bead blasting then.

I went to put it in only to find out that my crank is missing the flywheel dowel. I placed an order for a dowel...and a bunch of other stuff that I thought I already had (transmissions seals and such).

While getting my big OEM list of parts to order I somehow got sidetracked and ended up with a 3g brake master, KYB top hats for the front, and a $45 dollar WD Express clutch master cylinder from eBay....

I got a bit lucky here though!

Mitsubishi OEM, what a steal!

I was getting tired of looking at the prop valve, so I gave it a bit of love.

As i'm waiting for my crank dowel to come in I figured I would drop off another load of odd parts to the powder coater, things like the hood prop, windshield wiper cowl, and a box of random other parts. These will just be satin black, nothing fancy.

I also brought him my valve cover, we picked out an awesome blue for it. I can't wait to see the finished product! I noted the color for when I do my calipers and other accent pieces.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Nice I'm running a 3g master soon on in my car when I get my s.s lines.