Galant VR-4 Restoration #129/1458

[techboy]

Another paint question...what did you use for undercoating? One of my friends uses truckbed liner for almost everything so I was going to try for undercoating , but also was considering regular Rustoleum because its an Alkyd and pretty weatherable and durable.

I've only used two products for undercoating - the Rustoleum and POR15. POR15 is great, but it's expensive and you really need to be much more meticulous and thorough about your surface prep. I used in the firewall and trans tunnel of my Starion restoration.

I've used the Rustoleum on 2 other restos, 3 if you count this one. One dates all the way back to 2016. I did my 2G in 2019 and all have held up phenomenally. Although - I will be honest and say my cars are all garage kept and never see winter weather. So, there's that.

I've seen people use truck bed liner before, and the thing I don't like about it (and this is my opinion) is that it's textured - so it traps a ton of dirt and looks really dirty very quickly. It's same reason I stopped having textured powdercoating done. It looks cool for a while, but then it gets dirty and it's difficult to wipe down. Smooth and glossy cleans real easy.

 

[DreamChaser7]

FWIW I used Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Platinum on my underside before primer, paint, and clear. Really love that stuff and will use again! It’s smooth like paint. Not that anyone was asking me.

 

[techboy]

FWIW I used Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Platinum on my underside before primer, paint, and clear. Really love that stuff and will use again! It’s smooth like paint. Not that anyone was asking me.

I was actually recently just introduced to Eastwood products. I got to go to their warehouse a few months back. I was definitely impressed. I was doing some research on their Rust Encapsulator which looks like pretty decent stuff. Haven't tried it myself, but I wouldn't be afraid to.

 

[techboy]

So I think I mentioned the exhaust before somewhere in this build thread. We knew we had a aftermarket exhaust on the parts car, what we didn't know until recently is that it is a home-built all one piece, turbo-to-exit, that someone welded up. Our plan is to cut it up into more manageable sections so if he wants to swap mufflers or run a different downpipe or something he can more easily.

We started out by laying the homemade and OEM side by side so we could see where an intelligent spot to cut would be. (Side note - when I get the chance I'll probably cut the OEM at the rusted flanges as well and keep it - I can't imagine there's too many complete OEM VR4 exhausts in existence anymore)

We marked 2 spots with tape and marker. One at the cat - essentially giving us a downpipe, and one back at the muffler. That will give us 3 total sections - a downpipe, mid-pipe, and muffler.

Then we drove over to my work and cut it on the horizontal bandsaw to ensure we got perfectly square cuts.

Here's our downpipe section.

I suspected there was going to be some rust and debris inside from the car sitting. That's another reason I wanted to cut it up - so we could get that junk out.

This is a much more manageable system now. We'll order up some 3" flanges and weld them on and be back in business.

 

[DreamChaser7]

I was actually recently just introduced to Eastwood products. I got to go to their warehouse a few months back. I was definitely impressed. I was doing some research on their Rust Encapsulator which looks like pretty decent stuff. Haven't tried it myself, but I wouldn't be afraid to.

That’s awesome!

 

[techboy]

With the valve cover back from powder and a month of summer left, I really want to get this motor installed before my son heads back to school and football practice starts taking up the majority of his time. So last week we spent some time back on the motor buttoning up a few things.

We never torqued down the high oil pressure thingy on the head, so we had to do that.

Then it was time to learn how to put a valve cover gasket in place.

Put some dabs of RTV on the various spots the FSM calls for.

And here on the 1/2 moon.

All done.

Then we learned how to VERY gently and evenly bolt one of these down. First one of these I ever bolted down back in the early 2000's I cracked - so I've been extra careful since then.

We wrapped up our evening work session by bolting the exhaust manifold back on too.

 

[techboy]

The plan is to get this motor dropped in tomorrow, so we spent today digging up all the 1G and VR4 motor mounts laying around we could find and put together a set.

Here's the infamous rear motor mount that has caused some problems for people. The VR4 195 on the left is a tad shorter than the standard 1G 194.

And this is the 344 you need, not the 1G 347, which is offset just slightly different.

Took them outside and cleaned them with the wire wheel and then got ready to hit them up with some paint.

Here they are with some paint.

In prep for putting the motor in, we got the two lower mounts in ahead of time.
This is the front mount.

Here's the rear.

 

[techboy]

The big moment we've been working toward for 4 years. Time to put the motor in ... well, almost.

Started by getting the flywheel mount up. Torqued these down to 90 ft-lbs.

Brand new ACT clutch disk.

Got our free ACT PP mounted up.

And here's where we ran into a problem that brought us to a stop. As soon as we went to mount up the transmission I could see the starter plate did match up at all. I never thought to check, but I guess the car this engine came out of must have been a FWD car, not an AWD. So, the starter plate does not match. Fortunately, the AWD starter plates are still available, so we'll have to order one up and wait a few days.

So ... after about an hours worth of work, here's where we had to leave things:

So close. Hopefully we'll get it in sometime this week.

 

[techboy]

Well well well .... look what showed up.

 

[techboy]

If you look closely, you can see the difference between the FWD and AWD starter plates when they're matched up together.

We got the new starter plate on and here we're bolting up the front motor mount.

Rear motor mount.

Next thing we did was get the motor down on the ground and bolted up the transmission.

Then it was time to hoist this up in the air and get it in it's home. Quick shot of my son assisting with his first ever motor install.

We started by getting the rear mount bolt through, then we let it down a bit more and did the front.

Then we went drivers side - passenger side. I'm sure you can do this in just about any order, but this seemed to work really well for us.

There she is. In the car. Not sure how long this vehicle has been without an engine in the bay, but that just changed.

 

[Imback]

Nice i was wondering if you were going to use the flywheel and pressure plate. You should of asked for one of the starter plates a have a few laying around. Either way hope you get it moving under it's own power soon enough.

 

[techboy]

Nice i was wondering if you were going to use the flywheel and pressure plate. You should of asked for one of the starter plates a have a few laying around. Either way hope you get it moving under it's own power soon enough.

I would have had I known we had the wrong starter plate. Literally didn't figure it out until we were putting the engine in.

Yeah, thanks again for those parts. We ended up buying a new friction surface for the flywheel and a new ACT clutch disk. PP we used as is. Hopefully it'll be a suitable setup with some fresh parts to at least get him started.

 

[Drewpy Dawg]

Getting the motor in the car is such a great feeling, and a big milestone in any build!

 

[techboy]

Our plan last night was to get the AC compressor bolted up and maybe a few other loose things. However, after bolting the AC bracket on we could not get the AC compressor to line up with the bracket. After some time of messing around we got the idea that maybe the AC brackets are different between a 1G and a VR4, so up to the attic to dig through our stash of parts ... and guess what ... they are. So, we unbolted the 1G bracket and that was all the time we had. I told my son coming in from the garage that "sometimes when you work you accomplish, sometimes you learn - tonight we learned".

1G on the left, VR4 on the right.

Only reason for the difference I can think of is the compressors must be different. Eclipse/Talon is a 2-door sports car with small cabin, VR4 is a 4-door with a larger cabin. More volume to condition.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Our plan last night was to get the AC compressor bolted up and maybe a few other loose things. However, after bolting the AC bracket on we could not get the AC compressor to line up with the bracket. After some time of messing around we got the idea that maybe the AC brackets are different between a 1G and a VR4, so up to the attic to dig through our stash of parts ... and guess what ... they are. So, we unbolted the 1G bracket and that was all the time we had. I told my son coming in from the garage that "sometimes when you work you accomplish, sometimes you learn - tonight we learned".

1G on the left, VR4 on the right.
View attachment 741258
Only reason for the difference I can think of is the compressors must be different. Eclipse/Talon is a 2-door sports car with small cabin, VR4 is a 4-door with a larger cabin. More volume to condition.

I learned the cyclone intake, support bracket, is incompatible with the 2G AC compressor/bracket. I wonder if the VR4 AC bracket you have fits with a Cyclone, and what the VR4 compressor looks like.

 

[Drewpy Dawg]

Yeah, I bet the VR-4 bracket is meant to work with the cyclone manifold. Didn’t the JDM VR-4s all come with the cyclone? Makes sense that when they switched to the 1g style intake for the US cars they just left the JDM compressor bracket in place.

 

[techboy]

Yeah, I bet the VR-4 bracket is meant to work with the cyclone manifold. Didn’t the JDM VR-4s all come with the cyclone? Makes sense that when they switched to the 1g style intake for the US cars they just left the JDM compressor bracket in place.

You are probably exactly right. Makes sense to me.

 

[19Eclipse90]

A/C mounting bracket for the E39A JDM Galant has different part numbers than the E39A USDM Galant (MB568808, which does not cross-reference to any JDM vehicle).

JDM version has part numbers MB439663, MB657689, or MZ701092, depending on drivetrain, model (options), and date of build.

It seems like a solid theory. I’d be curious to see a couple of these Galant brackets side-by-side to learn what is different between them.

 

[techboy]

With the correct AC bracket, installing the compressor was no problem. Well, we did find out the bolts are slightly shorter too that hold the bracket to the block - but that was minor all things considered.

After looking at the drivers side motor mount, we realized we probably should have installed the PS and waterpump pulleys beforehand, b/c unlike a 2G these really aren't accessible after. So, we took the drivers mount back out and got them installed.

The pulleys we had previously powdercoated.

Pulleys installed.

And then everything back in and buttoned up.

And while we were in the area we figured we'd install the dipstick, which was also powdercoated a while back.

Fresh o-ring and a little bit a grease to help it slide in.

And there it is.

Last thing we did was just generally get the wiring harness back into the car somewhat. We had removed as much of it as we could when we were working on painting the engine bay. It might not be laid out exactly perfect, but I figure we'll sort it as we get more things connected back up.

Final thing we did was move the car into a different part of the garage for what is going to be a few month break....
Yep! For those of you that have been following along that means no more updates or posts until around Christmas. Don't worry, we WILL get back to work on this car. I've never had a project I didn't finish - I'm just not wired that way. But, I need to do some suspension and poly bushing work to the rear of my Starion and, I've got some other plans for the Eclipse as well. So, I needed to get the VR4 out of the "working bay" in order to get to these other projects.

 

[faqinshiet]

updates?

 

[CrackedDSM]

Yeah what gives, Christmas 2024 has come and been gone. Did you mean by Christmas 2025? BOOOOO, everyone BOO THIS MAN!


But seriously, updates.

 

[techboy]

. Well ... yeah, as pointed out ... it's WAY past December. Here's what happened - we moved, somewhat unexpectedly.

So, my wife and I had been looking on and off for a place for the last 4 years, and something popped on the market in October of last year, and we went and looked at and next thing we knew - we were moving in November. The move was great, but that meant the loss of a 3 car garage and built-in workshop. I now have a 1 car garage that I am trying to convert into a makeshift workspace. I ran wiring for an air compressor the other week and the tool box is set up - so I'm pretty close to operational.

In the meantime, 2 cars (the Eclipse and Galant) are currently in storage that I'm paying for and the Starion is home. Basically, I need to find a place that's not $200 a month to store the Starion so we can get the Galant home and start working on it . I'm trying to work with the township to get permits so I can build a pole barn/shop but that process is going slow and it might not happen until the fall. So, in short, my whole timeline for this car got turned up-side-down and we are way behind schedule. My son and I were just talking about bringing the car home though and putting up on stands outside and just working on it there(??) I've never done that before, but it might be the makeshift solution to get this thing moving forward again.

Anyway, thanks for checking in. I love that you guys are invested in this build. This is still happening; I promise. Just a little hiccup here.

 

[faqinshiet]

Oh man I understand! My galant sat in California while I was in Virginia for 7 years. We have a house that has two car garage and finally had it shipped here 2 years ago and then last year all my parts were shipped out. Good luck!! I love this build!!

 

[92AWDHX40]

My friend has one of those thing its black its really nice 4g63 coming soon to it.

 

[DreamChaser7]

Oh man I understand! My galant sat in California while I was in Virginia for 7 years. We have a house that has two car garage and finally had it shipped here 2 years ago and then last year all my parts were shipped out. Good luck!! I love this build!!

Agree. My Talon sat in storage in Maine for 6 years before I could move her south.