Galant VR-4 Restoration #129/1458

[techboy]

Great pictures and work - This thread is going to come in handy - I've got a 6-Bolt on the stand - head just came back from the machine shop - but all the block work needs to be done to get that ready.

Love the progress -

Thanks! I documented a restoration of another car on different forum and it ended up being 34 pages! Hopefully when this is done it'll be a pretty thorough guide for anyone looking to restore a VR4.

 

[techboy]

We finished up the engine bay this weekend.

Started down by this cross-member.

And this is where we ended up...

Very pleased with how this turned out ... time to start putting things back together and get an engine in this beast.

 

[techboy]

Had off on Good Friday so my son headed out to the garage for several hours and knocked out some more things.

Started cleaning up the brake booster by grinding off the ruined paint by leaking brake fluid over the years.

Then hit it up with some fresh paint.

Also took care of some of the wiper cowl items.

Gave that stuff some time to dry and got them reinstalled on the car later that day.

We got the firewall blanket reinstalled. Used a little bit of construction adhesive behind it as well to help secure it in place.

Had to wrestle the brake booster back in. This has got to be one of the hardest cars I've ever worked on to get the booster in and out. It is really slammed against the shock tower. It'll go, but it has to be just right. If you own a VR4 and you've done this - you know what I'm talking about.

Also decided to install the new clutch master as well. We need to pre-prime it yet, but we'll do that shortly.

Progress.

 

[techboy]

Mounting up the brake master cylinder was a little bit more than plug and play. Turned out the fittings for the feed lines from the reservoir were not facing the correct directions, so we had to reuse some fittings from the old cylinder. You can see the one on the left is angled away from the firewall, but the reservoir is mounted on the firewall.

Here's the old fitting. You can see the difference in the angle.

With fittings swapped it's time to bench prime.

Prime until the bubbles are minimal.

Here it is bolted back on.

Here's a pulled back look of how things look right now.

 

[techboy]

Brackets ... Mitsu loves brackets. Tried to pull off as many brackets as possible and get them ready for refresh.

I've used Evaoporust before in other restores ... I like the stuff. Strips all the junk off back down to the bare metal.

We got everything soaking in a container.

Here's all the brackets after a day of soaking.

And here they are a day later with some fresh paint.

 

[saturn345]

I have had the same issue recently with masters for first generation Dsm weather it’s 1g or galant. For some reason you have to reuse on the old plastic fittings.
I love seen the progress yous are making on it.
Keep up the good work!!!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Should you bench bleed a new clutch master cylinder like a slave? Is that what you mean by priming?


Asking because I plan on replacing my clutch master soon and was curious.

 

[saturn345]

Should you bench bleed a new clutch master cylinder like a slave? Is that what you mean by priming?


Asking because I plan on replacing my clutch master soon and was curious.

Yes I definitely would bench bleed it. Get as much out as you can before installing on car.
It helps with bleeding the air out of the system. And can make life easier for sure!

 

[techboy]

Brake masters I always bleed in the vice ahead of time. Clutch masters I always mount to the firewall and hook up to the pedal and then bleed the cylinder itself before hooking up the line. It works nicely because someone can sit in the car and pump the pedal. I didn't take pics or show it, but thats exactly what we did with the clutch master. If you look at post 104 above and see the pic where my hand is on the new clutch master, zoom in just below there's a white plastic fitting in where the line should go - that's capped for now since we bled it.

 

[techboy]

Spent some time bolting on some of these brackets we cleaned up.

Brake master bracket.

Fuel filter bracket

Horn Bracket

Overhead shot.

 

[techboy]

Last night spent more time cleaning up brackets, painting, and cleaning up parts.

Cleaned up the charcoal canister

And then cleaned up the washer fluid res.

Looks almost like brand new. Look at the white on that cap!

 

[techboy]

Worked on the car for about an hour with my son the other night. Got a few more things bolted back into the engine bay.

Washer fluid tank.

Got the charcoal canister back in.

Got this random bracket back in place.

Go this sheet metal plate up front back in. I'm not a huge fan of this thing, and I'm wondering how necessary it is. It seems unnecessarily large just to have a mounting point for the IC pipe. Might end up eliminating this thing down the line, esp if we end up with a custom IC setup.

Almost done with STEP 2, I think in a few short weeks we'll dropping the gas tank.

 

[BeatupVR4]

Go this sheet metal plate up front back in. I'm not a huge fan of this thing, and I'm wondering how necessary it is. It seems unnecessarily large just to have a mounting point for the IC pipe. Might end up eliminating this thing down the line, esp if we end up with a custom IC setup.
View attachment 729867

I've never seen that plate! All my Galants were purchased with ETS front mounts already. I'd %100 leave it in. Without it there is a huge hole for air to go around the radiator as opposed to through it. I'm actually working to seal up that same area right now with a new intercooler/radiator install.

Any chance you could snap a few more pics of it and where it mounts lower down?

 

[92AWDHX40]

Looks good.

 

[techboy]

I've never seen that plate! All my Galants were purchased with ETS front mounts already. I'd %100 leave it in. Without it there is a huge hole for air to go around the radiator as opposed to through it. I'm actually working to seal up that same area right now with a new intercooler/radiator install.

Any chance you could snap a few more pics of it and where it mounts lower down?

This is exactly why I still love forums, even though they are a bit old school nowdays and why I take lots of pics and post. I love the idea of people looking over your work, offering their advice and experience - and most of all catching your mistakes.

I will totally leave it in now. And yes, without it there would be an air hole there - I didn't even think about the fact that it would force air through the rad, but it would definitely serve that purpose.

I'll be out in the garage tomorrow night, I'll take some more pics for you. It has a bolt hole all the way at the base that mounts to the lower rad support. I guess most guys just tossed it like I was tempted to do. (BTW - there's a few more pics of it in post #111)

 

[Drewpy Dawg]

Did you use anything in particular to clean that washer reservoir? It turned out way better than my efforts to clean my reservoirs.

 

[techboy]

Did you use anything in particular to clean that washer reservoir? It turned out way better than my efforts to clean my reservoirs.

I'll have to ask my son. He's the one that cleaned that up and installed it. He watches tons of details video on YouTube and has learned a number of tricks that are new to me.