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95' GSX - Fun Street Build

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The DSM Returns - September 2022

Note: The section between the dashed lines is not related to my build plans and is more of a personal story as to how I'm getting back into working on the DSM. No need to read it if you just want the plans.
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The Drama of the Past: I went to a car meet in June 2020. We began to cruise on the freeway and my 16g turbo blew right then and there on the freeway... pretty embarrassing in front of all the car dudes with blue-ish smoke coming out the back of the car. I learned that day that the car I bought had a ebay 16g and it went kaput with the snap of a finger. I brought my vehicle to a mechanic recommended to me by a friend to replace the turbo on it. It was months and months of it being at his shop and he did a less than stellar job repairing it. At the end of this I did have a fixed turbo, but now also a massive oil leak on the timing side. I brought it to him again to fix it, but he didn't succeed, as the oil leak was worse than before. I take most of the blame for this situation. He had been an independent mechanic for less than 7 months at the time of him working on it and he had a ton of other vehicles from other clients that he was working with... all with just himself. This is also a car that was touched by my 19 year old novice fingers for some time. This was all too much for me, as I am still young and developing my career. I purchased a daily driver and threw the car in storage, as I plan to own this DSM for the rest of my life... this medium-quality designed and engineered vehicle is just so damn unique and rare, especially being a GSX, and the platform it offers for a complete build is very cool, on top of it's amazing look.

Fast forward to today; Unfortunately, I recently totaled my '98 BMW 328i, the daily driver I had, which is now out of commission. Logically, the last thing you'd want to do is work on an unreliable DSM to get it going to a daily-driverable position, especially with a demanding career. The reality is, my mental state just hasn't been the best. One of the few things I enjoy most and brings happiness to me is working on and driving the DSM. It's not buying a new car, girls, likes on social media, or partying 24/7. All it is is working on this damn car. Luckily, with my coding job I have some money to throw towards this thing. So to that, I say, f*** it, I am going to work on it and make it my daily, with all its hassles and issues. :cool:

Lessons this young adult has learned about working on DSM's and cars in general:
  • Mechanics won't work on your project car unless you're spending a lot on a mechanic who specializes in building cars. You bring this situation onto yourself.
  • Do not cut corners with cheap parts. In general, buying cheap stuff results in cheap performance and unreliability.
  • "Good enough" is often not good enough. Not spending the proper time and care to take on and off parts, measure correctly, and checking your gauges and data can lead to some real trouble. Doing the same to the exterior leads to some bad results too.
  • Modded DSM's are (mostly) unreliable... especially if you're not a pro.
  • Have the right tools for the job.
  • Always focus on making the car reliable before upgrading. Belts, liquids, and replacing what needs replaced is important.
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The Goal: Make my DSM reliable to where I can get to and from work without issues. My goal is no longer making it a super-duper fast car. Stay within your means.

Big Issues:
  • The car has a pretty bad oil leak on the oil sending unit... I believe.
  • The battery needs replaced, it sat over the cold winter with it connected. I knew this had to be done beforehand, just an oversight.
  • The car idles rough, this is due to having a 98 DSM ECU connected with no tune.
  • The vehicle overheats after a while and especially when cruising.
  • There is an exhaust leak post-cat because an exhaust clamp is what connects the cat to the catback.
  • The turbo MBC doesn't work... or the vacuum pipe has a leak.
Minor Issues:
  • A bolt is stripped in the bracket where the front bumper connects and the bumper sags. I have no idea how to deal with this.
  • The door has a massive dent after a family member drove into it in the driveway. It's ugly but nothing is broken or out of adjustment. The door panel will come from a junkyard and be-rewrapped.
  • The rear windshield wiper and radio antenna have been removed. I need plugs for these but I can't find any online.
  • The vinyl wrap on the rear bumper is coming up because of the oil leak shooting oil all alongside the driver side of the car. It won't stick down. I need to clean the area and replace it.
  • The side skirt on the driver side wont stay in correctly.
  • The hatchback struts won't hold up and need replacing.
My Plan:
  1. All new OEM gaskets kit on the timing side of the vehicle. I don't want it to leak anymore and hopefully this resolves the issue.
  2. Replace the battery.
  3. Place in my stock ECU for now.
  4. Fab up some ducting to force more air to the radiator since I have a punishment FMIC throwing the air all over the place. This should help.
  5. Reduce engine bay heat by wrapping my turbo exhaust manifold as well as a turbo blanket.
  6. Weld flanges on the downpipe, cat, and a new 3" catback exhaust for a proper exhaust.
  7. Replace the piping to the MBC and replace the MBC with a nice unit.
  8. Get the front bumper fitting correctly. My two ideas are somehow get the stripped bolt back out of the thread or cut off the bracket and weld a new custom one on. Fab up some bolt-on brackets to hold up the front bumper correctly to prevent sagging.
  9. Get plugs either made by my friend with his 3D printer or find some online.
  10. Bring my car to my buddy's detail shop and have him remove all the oil junk from under the car. Have his team clean up the interior too.
  11. New pins for the driver-side side skirt.
  12. New fluids.
  13. New door for driver side.
  14. Replace hatchback struts.
  15. Get my spoiler wrapped and put on and re-wrap all sections of the vehicle that look bad.
This is my plan to get it back in commission. I will update more when I've made some good progress. Thanks for reading and please reach out if you have any tips for the steps I am taking.

Peace!
 
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