Little Eagle

[CrackedDSM]

Quick update. I’ve still got the old buzzkill here. It’s been sitting a very long time and the paint is entirely ruined as are the decals…but I’ve still got it. Now that I’m an EMT and out of college, after we move and get settled I can focus on this thing again. Hope there’s still parts made for these things by the time I’m ready.

Pictures of its current state for lulz.

also, shameless plug, here’s the family hauler. 100% stock with only a tune and drop in k&n filter, and runs 13.2’s with massive traction issues. With 265 summer tires it’s got easy 12’s in it especially with e30 fuel. All in a super quiet super loaded unassuming CUV.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Well, I decided to move back home to Pensacola, FL to focus on family and stepping up to paramedic in an area I’m more familiar with. As a slight bonus, I’m right close to this thing again so that’s nice. Here’s pictures as it sits right now. Poor thing has been severely abused by my father. He’s an amazing mechanic, but is extremely rough on cars for some reason. Idk.

Poor thing. The paint is trashed, the badges on the back cried tears of abuse and have no clue how to start removing the gunk(any tips? Goo gone?) from them. Car runs and drives but the converter is super duper loose. Almost feels like it’s starting in 2nd. But it shifts and does fine. So that’s a plus.

Someone stole the magnaflow 3” muffler off of it though so it’s essentially just straight 3” catless turbo back. Lol. Loud AF. Sound clip later.

But, it’s good to be back home. Gonna teach my little girl how to work on cars and use it as a bonding experience.

Expect more updates more frequently now that I’m back home and back near little eagle again.

 

[v8s_are_slow]

Track opens over here next month. We need to meet up sometime soon.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Track opens over here next month. We need to meet up sometime soon.

I’m down! I’ll run the edge for giggles. Curious what minus 800ft altitude compared to NC will do for performance. Also, pm me and I’ll give you my number so we can link up/text to coordinate.


Also, sooner than expected but here’s a short clip of the exhaust. It sounds horrible IMO but at least it runs and drives. Have to get a new muffler ASAP.

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[v8s_are_slow]

Whoever took your muffler was only doing it to help you go faster. Less back pressure and all.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Whoever took your muffler was only doing it to help you go faster. Less back pressure and all.

Lol. I know who took it, and it’s a crackhead who has smoked himself stupid. He thought it was the catalytic converter then sold it to the local scrapyard for like $20 who then resold it immediately for $200.

It’s whatever. I was irritated at first but idc. It’s Florida and it’s ratty anyway. Add a muffler to the long laundry list. Lol.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Alright so I’m tackling small stuff(like free or really cheap) while I’m focusing on the home and paramedic stuff, but I couldn’t stand the VC and engine bay situation anymore so I’ve decided to tackle that first. Specifically just the valvecover.

This was how it was left to me. Sad panda. Cheap blue spray paint everywhere, rust all over exposed metal, and black spray paint on the firewall. I just…I don’t know man.

Might not look all that bad. But it is, I promise. There’s aluminum galling everywhere that there IS aluminum, and anything iron or even close to it is rusty. Everything blue you can see has been rattle canned that color. It’s gonna take some work y’all.


So here’s the first piece of the puzzle. I took a wire brush and stripped this thing down to bare metal, and painted it with high temp engine enamel. It’s a tiny…tiny step. And I am not a professional painter. But I think it looks a million times better.

Next step is installing the short route FMIC, and cleaning up the intake pipe. One step at a time though!

With the car being blue(at least it used to be ) I’m gonna go with a silver and blue theme in the engine bay. Probably gonna paint the spark plug cover blue to offset everything. The intercooler pipes are obviously chrome, couplers are blue. Etc.

Stay tuned!

 

[CrackedDSM]

True to my word, I had some extra time today so I decided to do something about this cheap eBay intake pipe. It was absolutely foul, as evidenced by the pictures.

Vomit emoji goes here. Lol. That black stuff is like…non-cured RTV. I have no clue what it is. I got some metal polish and after about 20 minutes of some easy elbow grease this is how it turned out.

It’s not perfect but oh my word it’s so much better! So much more appealing and it only cost $15 for the polish. I could take a drill and machine polish it and make it look brand new but eh. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

It’s small progress but it IS progress! Thanks for the views and all comments welcome.

Stay tuned!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Doing more painting today. Nothing crazy, just the spark plug cover, the BOV, and the oil cap. Oil cap will be pictured later, it’s just a vatozone el cheapo but eh. It seals great. Anyway.

Here’s the spark plug cover on the VC. I actually really like how it turned out. I almost painted the plug cover blue with a silver stripe but I like this better.

And finally is the BOV. Again I’m not w professional painter but I’m still super pleased how it turned out. This time I prepped it better than before, and I’m gonna make sure it won’t hit the hood. Lol.

Oil cap is just blue. I think it’ll compliment the VC’s silver nicely.

Progress for now is done. Waiting on my new door handle, and some new hatch struts. I am exceedingly tempted to pull the intake manifold and fuel rail, and clean them up/paint them this same silver but that’s a lot of work. Lol. We’ll see how I feel.

Stay tuned!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Finished product. I know it’s not like 8 second street car stuff, but I haven’t touched this car in over 5 years, so it’s just good to be around it again.

Love it. It’s high temp cleared too so hopefully it’ll be a little more grease/oil resistant. Lol.

Comments welcome!

- Stay tuned

 

[CrackedDSM]

Lame progress today, but I fixed and adjusted the passenger door handle and lock. I’ve done so many of these it’s like second nature now. Lame progress is still progress!

There was an issue with the tab. I never got to fix this side and the previous owner or the guy who I left the car with must've went gorilla on the inside tab for the inside door handle bolt, because it wasn't lined up at all. Sometime later I'll go in and fix it properly, until then I'm gonna seal the inside with silicone so it's water-tight. I point to where the visible gap is in the video. Also, video was originally shot in 4K 60fps but can't find anywhere to upload it in that quality, and it's a door handle. doesn't need to be so high def.




Bam! Progress. Lol.

Also, my daughter immediately decided to give her stamp of approval. Future DSMer/car guy!

More coming later when FedEx gets the stick out of their collective anuses.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Did some work today. Not much but enough. I installed new rear hatch struts the other day, you can imagine the hatch opening on your own.


But I bought an upper timing cover/cam gear cover from @1SloEvo and it arrived like the next day. I’ve been sanding it and primed it and finished shooting it in blue today. This is how it turned out.

I am proud of how it turned out. There’s a few scratches and imperfections that won’t come out without some hardcore sanding and maybe filler and I’m just too lazy for that. Lol.


After that I was curious how it would look with everything, so I bolted the VC up, and just set the spark plug cover and cam gear cover on top of it. While I was at it, I mocked up the dirty AF intercooler pipe just to see how everything would look. Keep in mind everything is dirty, so the IC pipes will be polished like the intake a couple posts up, and the IM and Exhaust manifold heat shield will be cleaned up. Engine bay is gonna be pressure washed too. But you can see the potential. I hope at least, because I can.

It’s coming together. Slowly but surely. Stay tuned fellas.

 

[CrackedDSM]

On a more negative note, man this engine bay/car is trashed. The more I work on it, the more I find jury rigged stuff, man. Sad day. The stock UICP had a ton of spots that were RTV'ed and obviously leaked. The upper outlet of the stock SMIC is bent and almost like..square. Lol. Three out of the four injectors in it, don't have pintle caps! So they're not even sealed in the head at all. On and on and on. To top it all off, I was messing around with the engine just looking at it, and noticed this.



The timing belt is super...super loose. There's more, but I won't get into it yet. Regardless, what's gonna have to happen is I'm gonna have to have pull the engine, put it on a stand, rebuild it properly. While it's out I can pressure wash the engine bay and clean up all the idiocy that's been done. I can't even image the wiring harness damage or transmission. Sigh.


Anyway, back to positivity.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Did some polishin' today on the IC piping kit. I began to sand down/properly polish one pipe but oh my God doing it by hand...that's for the birds. And I don't have a spot to put a polisher/grinder thing that would make it easier, so I just took the easy way out and just skipped sanding and hand-polished the pipes and left the scratches/divots. It honestly looks a MILLION times better than it did before.

Before

They were dirty/had mystery liquid dried on it..scratched, dinged..etc.

Aaaand here's after.

I'm honestly the most proud of this. This is the TB elbow and it turned out like...perfect.

I mean, none of them are truly perfect. They still have some noticable gouges and scratches...but so much better than before. They actually shine now! And honestly they're never gonna stay perfect even if I sanded them, smoothed them, and polished them to a perfect mirror. So, in this instance, good enough is good enough.

Next will be cleaning up the IM plenum and the exhaust manifold heat shield.

-Stay tuned

 

[vanilla gorilla]

Yea thats really loose for a timing belt. Id be scared to even turn it over like that. The pipes look great though

 

[CrackedDSM]

Yea thats really loose for a timing belt. Id be scared to even turn it over like that. The pipes look great though

It’s horrible, man. I didn’t know it was that loose when I started it and only found out by leaning on it when the engine was off and was like uh, wth? Soon as I found that, the plan became concrete. Not gonna start this engine again until I yank it, fix the horrible “brand new rebuilt engine” I bought from Miller, and pressure wash the engine bay. Just not comfortable with everything that was going on with it. I’m amazed it honestly lasted as long as it did. This car was a daily driver for my dad for awhile! *insert screaming emoji here*


But now I need to add another part to the list, an OEM cooling fan/passenger side cooling fan. My original one was replaced with an eBay unit.

 

[TheDude236]

Lame progress today, but I fixed and adjusted the passenger door handle and lock. I’ve done so many of these it’s like second nature now. Lame progress is still progress!

I will never not have a problem with my door handles at this rate, progress is indeed progress even if it breaks again after a week

 

[CrackedDSM]

I will never not have a problem with my door handles at this rate, progress is indeed progress even if it breaks again after a week

For real! I ended up discovering what the trick to keeping them working was.

1) Dorman brand replacement handles or OEM if you can find them. Dorman works great though, just anything but Amazon or eBay branded ones. The Dorman brand handles have a thick metal tab for the actuating rod, just like oem. The eBay and Amazon ones are paper thin. This is important for the next step

2) adjusting the actuating rod. An m12/m14 thickness bolt about 1/2 inch long and an accompanying nut is perfect size. It takes all the slack out and spaces it up perfectly. So you don’t have to pull the door handle all the way up to pop it. Only about 1/4 or 1/2 way. If the metal tab is paper thin, it’ll bend up and just keep doing the same problems as before. OEM or Dorman’s thick ass tabs prevents this and can stand up long term.


Legit have to do this on every single 2G I’ve owned. Lol. They never give me issues after that but I’ve done it so many times I’m like an expert on it now.

 

[v8s_are_slow]

Metal door handles and the bolts in the rod and it's definitely a nice feeling.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Did more painting yesterday. No before pictures because you could imagine how galled/aluminum rusted it was before. I took a wire brush to it and painted it in high temp engine enamel. I think it looks great. Makes it look brand new!

Boring. I know. But every step helps this engine bay look better again.

Also: new pintle caps finally came in! It is impossible to find the original dual nozzle 2G style pintle caps so I just ordered the 1G/blue top style. Should be fine honestly. Here they are all shined up and new! They had like blue paint and rust all over them before.

Before/old filters

Phew. Left is old and right is new. Difference in length made no difference in flow testing.

New hotness. Sonic cleaned, new filters, all shined up and ready to go! Wish I could’ve found OEM dual nozzle style pintle caps but alas.

I know I could’ve(and will in the future) just bought new 850’s but it’s still stock ecu and stuff for now and I’m not ready to make it a race car yet. I want to restore it first and that way have a good foundation to build on. Gotta revive this bird whose lost its feathers.

Stay tuned fellas and thanks for the views. Comments welcome.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Been messing with my spare valve body today. I did a really good job on it, but glad I went back over it. The pressure adjustments were done according to the directions, which John from IPT said are actually incorrect. So glad I did that.

I’ll do pictures later when I actually clean it and reassemble it proper. The transmission shop that rebuilt the transmission are idiots and forgot a lot of stuff. So I’m just gonna throw my valve body in it to make sure that’s right because it’s doing a few things like someone installed a shift kit incorrect. But more on that later.


Need some prayers and good vibes from anyone who can throw some my way. Got something big happening on the 19th of this month(April) that could change my life good or bad depend on which way it goes. Pray for/hope for good things for me.

 

[v8s_are_slow]

You need a 2g torque converter. Lol.

 

[CrackedDSM]

You need a 2g torque converter. Lol.

Definitely. I know a guy who has one too.


100% still gonna grab it from you, but I gotta get past this first. After the 19th I’ll know more one way or another.

 

[v8s_are_slow]

Definitely. I know a guy who has one too.


100% still gonna grab it from you, but I gotta get past this first. After the 19th I’ll know more one way or another.

No hurry here.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Messing around with some of my boxes and found a couple things from my 1G. Found a fuel rail, exactly 3 blue top 450’s, and a relatively great condition Walbro 190LPH fuel pump w/ sock. Lol. Good to have spare parts I guess?