GSTwithPSI Galant VR4 1837 of 2000

[We're on Boost]

Nice!
Sometime could you show a pic of how you mount your camera in the car? It seems nice and steady.

 

[GST with PSI]

Nice!
Sometime could you show a pic of how you mount your camera in the car? It seems nice and steady.

It's just a GoPro suction cup mount stuck to the front window.

 

[iceguru1114]

Dang man. Livin the dream out in SoCal; very cool. If you don't mind me asking, what is it you do for work?

 

[19gsx91]

Check my build thread. Page 2 post #35. See if you can find him

 

[iceguru1114]

Check my build thread. Page 2 post #35. See if you can find him

Ah, I see. , thanks for the game of "Where's Brett". I'm guessing he's not the tow truck driver, so stop me when I'm wrong. Brett's an Airman and the relocation to San Diego is to work at god only knows which base containing aircraft.

 

[GST with PSI]

Brett's an Airman and the relocation to San Diego is to work at god only knows which base containing aircraft.

Not quite...I'm currently serving in the Marine Corps. I hold both 2651 and 2611 MOS's.

 

[iceguru1114]

Not quite...I'm currently serving in the Marine Corps. I hold both 2651 and 2611 MOS's.

My bad, Brett. I think the shade in the picture threw the color of the uniform for me. Not that I'm an expert in distinguishing the differences, anyway... I was using a chart to guess:

At any rate, thanks for your service

 

[We're on Boost]

What I think is interesting is the 26xx cryptolinguist MOS's.
2611 --Cryptologic Digital Network Technician/Analyst
2651 --Special Intelligence System Administrator/Communicator

Cool!

 

[GST with PSI]

Sorta unrelated to the build, but related in a sense that it's impeding my progress. My new garage...It was f***ed. So, I built a workbench, and added some other man shit to make wrenching on the grocery getter as painless as possible. 4 days, 6 trips to Lowe's and ~$400 bucks later and wrenching can finally commence. Hoping to have some updates on the car soon.




Workhorse:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

 

[We're on Boost]

Well if you are using your car as a lumber truck already, does that mean the head gasket is ok now?

 

[boostdawd]

Looks like a sh#% ton of work. Great weather tho Brett. Very clean Vr4. It amazes me how a car so old looks like it just came out the showroom. Looking for future updates!

 

[GST with PSI]

Well if you are using your car as a lumber truck already, does that mean the head gasket is ok now?

That's 820, not 1837.

Looks like a sh#% ton of work. Great weather tho Brett. Very clean Vr4. It amazes me how a car so old looks like it just came out the showroom. Looking for future updates!

Thanks, man. Hoping to have a bunch of stuff done by Xmas. Stay tuned

 

[We're on Boost]

That's 820, not 1837.

Ahh yes.

How's the availability of E85 down there? Are there lots of stations that sell it or not so much?

 

[19gsx91]

Is that a stroller I see in the pictures!? Brett......

 

[Vegas Smith]

That's a beautiful pink picnic table you've built for yourself Brett and I'm certain the blue matches your eyes.

 

[GST with PSI]

Ahh yes.

How's the availability of E85 down there? Are there lots of stations that sell it or not so much?

E85 here is plentiful and pure. One of the few good things about fuel in SoCal.


https://www.fuelfreedom.org/buy-california-e85-good-stuff/

Is that a stroller I see in the pictures!? Brett......

That's a beautiful pink picnic table you've built for yourself Brett and I'm certain the blue matches your eyes.

All that shit belongs to the people who previously owned my house. I'm not about that kid lyfe.

 

[19gsx91]

Heynow.. kids aren't so bad. I didn't know how I'd do but it's definitely a learning experience. I keep seeing gvr4s up for sale on facebook in your neck of the woods and I keep wanting to text you the links but You've got enough already Btw that garage looks awesome now. Want to take some time off and come help me do mine?

 

[We're on Boost]

E85 here is plentiful and pure. One of the few good things about fuel in SoCal.
https://www.fuelfreedom.org/buy-california-e85-good-stuff/

That fuelfreedom page is very interesting. I had no idea. The way I read that, the state tax per gallon is only 9 cents if the stuff sold as E85 is actually E85, but the tax goes up to 28 cents per gallon if the ethanol content is anything less. Pretty good.
Here in WA, over the last 12 months or so, our E85 costs about the same per gallon as 92 octane gas, which is our "premium". Mid-grade and regular are cheaper than E85. How does the E85 price compare to gasoline where you are?

 

[GST with PSI]

How does the E85 price compare to gasoline where you are?

On average, it's a dollar or more cheaper than the lowest grade pump gas, because California is dumb AF. The highest grade pump gas here is 91...So there's that. Trying to make any power on 91 CA piss water is pretty much worthless. I'm glad my car was already on E85, and I'd say universally most car guys here are on the corn.

 

[We're on Boost]

On average, it's a dollar or more cheaper than the lowest grade pump gas, because California is dumb AF. The highest grade pump gas here is 91...So there's that. Trying to make any power on 91 CA piss water is pretty much worthless. I'm glad my car was already on E85, and I'd say universally most car guys here are on the corn.

A buck a gallon less, WOW. Well that is easily enough to get people buying it and buying flex-fuel cars so they can use it. Here hardly anybody buys it because it's no cheaper per gallon and of course the mpg is less and your range per tank is less. Fortunately I do still have my 1 station operating with it here, a mere 18 miles away by pleasant country roads.

 

[GST with PSI]

Well, go the head off the car last night. The results were not what I was hoping for...

It looks to me like the casting was porous and just overall garbage in that area. I'm thinking a pit became a hot spot, which eventually torched a hole in the casting? I'm no expert in trashed heads, though, and I've never seen damage like this, so I'm definitely open to other suggestions @donniekak. I just know the head was clean when it went on, and not it has a gouge in it right where the fire ring was. I was hoping to just do a head gasket job, but looks like I'll be in the market for a head at this point. Sucks.

On the plus side, I checked crank end play to see how my ACT 2600 has been treating the thrust, and it's still right where I set it when I built the motor: http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/gstwithpsis-galant-vr4-1837-2000.482807/page-4#post-153580952

I'll sort out what I'm going to do with the head, and pull the trans to install my QM twin disc in the mean time. I should have some updates on how that goes here soon.

 

[iceguru1114]

I might have a head that you can have if you pay for shipping and maybe an extra $20 for my time. The cam bearing bores got roughed up at one point, so they'd need some attention, but the firing deck looks good. If you're still in need in early January, shoot me a PM and let me know.

 

[We're on Boost]

Pretty interesting. That might be another good point for o-ringing a head. If there is a flaw there in the casting, it might become a lot more obvious when you cut the groove through it.
I'm thinking of a sub-surface flaw though, and for all I know maybe your problem just started from small pits on the surface.

 

[donniekak]

The head is torched from combustion gasses leaking past the gasket. When you get a breach in the fire ring, the combustion gasses are like a plasma torch.


Any decent machine shop can fix that. One nice dab of filler rod will fill that right in. They'd probably only charge you $50 on top of their usual resurface fee.

 

[buddahboost]

Are the washer and dryer upgrade included in the $400??

I'm jelly of the emptyish garage