My first 4g63- '99 Soranno Red GSX Build+ Photoshoots

[96awd]

Every DSM I have been in has never once gone under the quarter mark. It doesn't bother me one bit. I wouldn't let the car get under 1/2 anyway.

 

[razrman8]

That's how I am Lewis.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

That's how I am Lewis.

me too, except when funds are low... frickin 4.37 a gallon is INSANE! i walk to work while my DSM sits in the exact spot in my avatar

 

[Darkolako]

very nice!

 

[razrman8]

Thank you.

 

[Abe'sGST]

very nice car man! I think everything on it looks just right, including the mazda rims!

me too, except when funds are low... frickin 4.37 a gallon is INSANE! i walk to work while my DSM sits in the exact spot in my avatar

haha i know what you mean! Thank god I found me this nice saturn that's great on gas, now my gst is my weekend cruiser

 

[razrman8]

01JUL2011 Loose Oil Filter= No good

I was out and about this day doing some datalogging with DSMlink because I was new to it. I was in the middle of a pull when this puff of smoke decided to spit from my car. I instantly freaked out and pulled over expecting the worst. I get out of the car and there is oil spewed down the whole side of my car. My thoughts as to what happened got worse and worse. Upon getting underneath of the car, I noticed that the escalated oil pressure was enough to blow oil out of the already loose oil filter. A big mess nonetheless, but I just took it upon myself to do a premature oil change on the side of the road. Was a little late to work, but hey you gotta do what you gotta do right?

04JUL2011 Losing 2nd Gear

There's nothing like hopping into your car on the 4th of July and cruising out to watch some fireworks, right? That was the plan! Hopped in the car, went to pull out of my drive way and shift into second gear and I had NOTHING/NADA/ZILCH. I struck me as odd because when I would go to shift into 2nd, it literally felt like there was nothing there. So back in the garage it went. This was my first time pulling the transmission in this car. I was a little intimidated so say the least, but I hate turning down an opportunity to learn more about my car and save a few bucks. Now it's to the point where it is a race to see how fast I can get it out when I do have to pull it. I ended up taking a trip to Chicago, Illinois to pick up a semi-built 2g AWD transmission with a welded center differential and installed it. Welded differential was such a change in daily driving ability. Skipping around parking lots making tight turns, but later in the thread will prevail how welded differential worked out for me.

 

[nickfromfortfun]

love the car man!!! its cars like this that make me wish i had a hard top!!!

 

[razrman8]

love the car man!!! its cars like this that make me wish i had a hard top!!!

Thank you. Glad you like it. I have always had a soft spot for an AWD swap spyder though.

 

[razrman8]

20JUL2011 Painted Valve Cover

I got really tired of looking at that ugly valve cover of mine. So I pulled it and again, went with a flat black high temp coating for the valve cover. Came out exactly like I wanted it to, without being powdercoated. While I was here I decided to reroute the spark plug wires down and straight back. It kind of made for a cleaner look I thought.




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15AUG2011 Lower Control Arm Bolt

I was pulling into the parking lot of my work and backed into my parking spot, as I always do. Upon turning and going into reverse I heard this loud POP!. I got out of the car and assessed the situation. I notice that the front drivers side wheel looked extremely low. Come to find out, the lower control arm nut had came loose and popped off. So on my lunch break, I had to fix it. Went to the local Napa Autoparts in town and was able to find a nut that was the exact same and repaired it. Back up and rolling Shelly was.






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19NOV2011 Alignment Day

Took the GSX to a good friend of my father and I to get an alignment done. First alignment that I had done to the car since I have had it

 

[razrman8]

25JAN2012 Welded Diferential Transmission Fails

02FEB2012 EGR/Emissions ~ Cruise Control Delete ~ Semi-Wire Tuck

27MAR2012 XTD Stage 4 6-puck Sprung Clutch

I grouped these 3 things together because they all happened around the same time.

I never favored the way that the welded differential was always making things feel like they were binding up, and to be honest I didn't quite really like it. I guess this is what fate had in store for me. Went out for a drive and mad it up my road. That was about as far as I got when the crunching and crumbling started turned around, headed back, already knowing I was having transmission problems. Parked it, and later on went to town on pulling the transmission yet again.











So while the car was down, I decided to put a new clutch in the car. I did some research and decided to go with an XTD Stage 4 6-puck Sprung clutch. Some may be skeptical on the clutch, but to this day I have had ZERO problems with it. For the money that you pay and the kind of use that you can out of it, I believe that it is well worth the money. The car has been launched several times with this clutch and it still hold true. I would definitely buy another one.



Anyways, packed the transmission to Chicago to the main guy I deal with. I came to the conclusion to get the welded differential was putting a lot tension on the entire drivetrain. So I believe it prematurely made some gears fail in the transmission. I am convinced the welded differential caused a snowball affect of issues in my transmission. As much as I didn't favor the welded, I gave it another chance thinking something may change.

I took advantage of having the extra room in the engine bay and did an EGR/ emissions delete, and as well and deleted the cruise control and a minor wire tuck along with scrubbing some of the bay. The tuck consisted of rerouting the harness under the intake manifold, and turning the injectors around to have the clip on the back side. I have a few pictures of this, but for the most part it is pretty summed up in a few.









Here is a all said and done picture.

 

[razrman8]

04APR2012 Fuelab Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator

As stated before, the goal of this car was to get the car on e-85 with the 16g. Well in order to come close to doing so, I was in need of an AFPR. I was able to come across this killer deal on a red Fuelab AFPR with the lines and fittings. Did some reading and got this bad boy installed.






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17MAY2012 FIC 1150cc Injectors

In conjunction with the AFPR, I was gonna need some way bigger injectors to push enough fuel for this 16g on e-85. Again came across pretty good deal and picked up these injectors. Caught up on my DSMlink calibrating skills, and installed these along with getting the deadtimes set.



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21MAY2012 Denso 300 Fuel Pump

Finally the last component of my fuel system that I needed in order to run e-85 in Shelly. Was looking around on ECMlinks classifieds and came across this Denso 300 fuel pump with new strainer, which was right up my alley! Install wasn't bad at all. Just had to some cutting and connecting for the different plug. The old fuel pump, filter, hell EVERYTHING was nasty in there. Had to do some deep cleaning while it was all out.

 

[ebailey95]

great thread man! great looking car as well!

 

[razrman8]

great thread man! great looking car as well!

Thanks, I appreciate it!

 

[razrman8]

24MAY2012 Exhaust Leaks & Garage Clean-Up

I was getting some pretty off AFR and I couldn't for the life of me figure it out. I could have sworn up and down that I didn't have any exhaust leaks. I convinced myself to get under the car again, and lone behold exhaust leaks! Since this repair was relatively easy I took the day to pull everything out of the garage and do some much needed cleaning











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25MAY2012 DSM Door Handle...AGAIN

Friend of mine came over with his e30 and I want to say we were doing tune related things to the GSX. Well needless to say he went to get in the passenger side and man-handled the handle! Lol. Broke it clean off. I wasn't necessarily mad he broke it, more so of the fact that these things are a pain in the a$$ to put in! But all I could do is man up and do it. I made him help though! Remember earlier in the thread where I replaced the driver side door handle? I just so happened to have the passenger one all painted up and ready to install.

 

[Roberti 2G]

F**kin door handles! Its so stupid too cause twice they went in pretty much without a hitch but there was another time it was such a PITA I wanted to kill. Build is coming along very nice man. Keep it up

 

[razrman8]

29MAY2012 Photoshoot

I was finally able to get some halfway decent quality pictures of Shelly and her engine bay. For your viewing pleasure.











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16JUNE2012 Transmission Problems Part 3


As if I hadn't had enough transmission problems with the car. I was driving to work on this morning and heard a grinding/crunching sound. I didn't think much of it because it only happened once. Then it happened again, and again, and again. Realizing that I had heard this sound before, the ride to work was painful. I finally had gotten to work, only to stop with the car dripping gear oil. Needless to say I wasn't the happiest. SO up on a flat bed and to the homestead went Shelly.

Upon getting the transmission out, it seemed like the axle seal that sits right in the transmission had let loose and allowed the axle to jump around and damage the case. I think that we had used the same seal from when the transmission went out the first time with the welded differential. Being that the welded was always binding and straining this transmission, I am pretty certain it did a number on this seal and just made it prone to fail. Moral to this story, spend money on new seals! As you can tell welded differential was not benefiting me much, so THIS time around I got rid of that welded differential bull!!

 

[ed1380]

if the bearings are preloaded properly, then a welded diff would not affect the seal.

I'm having problems with the same seal. Replaced it, and it's still dripping.

 

[razrman8]

if the bearings are preloaded properly, then a welded diff would not affect the seal.

I'm having problems with the same seal. Replaced it, and it's still dripping.

Yeah, it makes sense. But to this day, ever since I got rid of the welded differential its been so much better for me. I will admit, I didn't really need the welded differential for much. Of course there was planning of tracking the car, but the pros of not having it outweighed the cons, and I am much happier not having welded differential.

 

[KazooGS-T]

Very nice thread, I subscribed

 

[razrman8]

24JUN2012 New Airbag Cover

Being that my car sat in a lot for at least 5 years, the sun did quite the number on my airbag cover. I took a trip to a junk yard down in St.Louis and just so happened to come across a whole new airbag assembly, with a perfect cover! This was the only piece that made my interior look like crap. Got a hold of a nice camera for some interior shots.










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25JUL2012 Buffed & Waxed Photos

Was able to get my hands on a buffer and decided to go to work on buffing the GSX. Spent a good amount of time on that, then waxed and washed it. I'd like to say it came out rather nice.

 

[razrman8]

20AUG2012 Photos with Friends & Shelly In a Creek

Close friend of mine came over with his e30 and we detailed the cars. So why not take some pictures right? Also A few days later I took the GSX out for a cruise taking pictures at random places. One of which ended up being a dried up creek. Got to love AWD status. Yes, these are cell phone pictures, I can only get my hands on a good camera every now and then. I figured cell pictures are better than no pictures right?

 

[razrman8]

20SEPT2012 Plasti-Dip Wheels


I had been wanting to change something about the look of my car for a while. I need something to spice it up just a little bit. I debated for a long time as to whether to plastidip my wheels black or not.

15JAN2013 Would be the day that I would be getting sent off to U.S. Air Force basic training, so I decided there's no reason to not plastidip them. I wanted something new appearing before I left. So then it happened. I am really impressed with the difference in look that it gives the car. I would say that it was exactly what I was looking for when I did it. Sure as hell didnt make my wheel gap any better

 

[Geier]

This is a great thread. A nice slow progression, which is the route most DSMers should be taking. Enjoy.

 

[95talongirl]

Car looks awesome! Keep up the great work!