Road Race Build (Sold but not forgotten) Solomon's 2GNT Build ('98 RS)

[ṳṆḊḕṙḉṏṼḕṙ ṖṙṏḊḭḠẏ]

Looking good. Can’t wait to start mine. Hopefully I’ll have some work updates while I’m on my upcoming vacation

 

[Kai Hefner]

I noticed you’re painting your panels separately instead of, say, the whole car at once. Are you noticing that the paint might be slightly different panel-to-panel? Why don’t you just paint the whole car at once?

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

I noticed you’re painting your panels separately instead of, say, the whole car at once. Are you noticing that the paint might be slightly different panel-to-panel? Why don’t you just paint the whole car at once?

The reason I'm painting the car one piece at a time is because it will turn out much better then spraying the whole car at once. It definitely takes longer, but in my opinion it is worth it. By taking the car apart and masking individual spaces, I can ensure 100% paint coverage and no overspray.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

I diagnosed a bad upper intake manifold gasket. Went ahead and purchased the gasket kit. I also purchased some beautiful metallic silver paint that I'm going to spray the intake manifold with after I clean it up. I also plan the sand the outside of it so it is completely smooth, and I haven't decided yet but I might do some porting/polishing of it for better airflow. Trunk and spoiler are awaiting paint, should be installed on Saturday along with said manifold work. I'll try to get some pictures on Saturday.

 

[609DSM]

Turns out I have a bad upper intake manifold gasket. Just to be safe I went ahead and bought the upper and lower ones. I purchased some absolutely beautiful metallic silver paint that I'm going to spray the intake manifold with when I take it off. I also plan the sand the inside and out of it so it looks completely smooth, and I haven't decided yet but I might use my Dremel to do a little custom bore for better airflow. Trunk and spoiler are sitting in my booth today, should be installed on Saturday along with the manifold work. I'll get some pics of everything on Saturday.
I'm ripping through gears on this build!

Were you experiencing any negative feedback performance wise because of the bad gasket?

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

Were you experiencing any negative feedback performance wise because of the bad gasket?

Slight idle surging. Maybe a slight loss of low end power too.

I could hear it sucking the air in if I stuck my head down in the engine bay and listened closely. I found the leak by spraying it with starter fluid and the idle raised a bit.

 

[609DSM]

I need to find my leak, if I have one. My short ram intake filter is FUBAR. Gotta replace that to see if that's the issue. Got a lot to get done maintenance wise

 

[ṳṆḊḕṙḉṏṼḕṙ ṖṙṏḊḭḠẏ]

I have to dig into a handful of boost leaks I’m pretty sure. And of course the weather today said no

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

My short ram intake filter is FUBAR.

What brand is it? Or at least where did you get it from?

 

[609DSM]

What brand is it? Or at least where did you get it from?

Came with the car. The filter is AEM, 2.5inch inner diameter cone shape filter. No clue what the tube is, has no markings

Edit: the filter was extremely dirty, used a cleaning kit to help clean it out but kind of rushed the process cause I was visiting family in my home town. Re oiled it but now I think it's all clogged up with dust again, at least enough to cause minor issues. I'm pretty sure the filter part is in poor shape. The rubber is all cracked. I just need to get a new one. Scraping by at the moment cause of school and work is slowish...

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

Came with the car. The filter is AEM, 2.5inch inner diameter cone shape filter. No clue what the tube is, has no markings

Edit: the filter was extremely dirty, used a cleaning kit to help clean it out but kind of rushed the process cause I was visiting family in my home town. Re oiled it but now I think it's all clogged up with dust again, at least enough to cause minor issues. I'm pretty sure the filter part is in poor shape. The rubber is all cracked. I just need to get a new one. Scraping by at the moment cause of school and work is slowish...

Does it at least fit well?

 

[609DSM]

F

Does it at least fit well?

It's like a glove on the pipe, I'm missing the breather hose connection for my pcv system. Not sure how big of an issue that might be, doesn't seem to effect much. I need to replace all engine seals rubber hoses and gaskets and such. Got so much to do it I want this thing to last me. But there is a fair amount of rust so idk how much longer it really has, gets me from point a to point b so I'm grateful for that

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

gets me from point a to point b so I'm grateful for that

Amen!

The reason I ask is because I bought one of the cheap ones from Ebay and the filter didn't fit on the pipe too well. And also the system was angled so that it rubbed on the hood everytime I drove it, which eventually scraped some paint off of my hood. I now have a little bare metal spot. I tried to adjust it to angle more downward, but the pcv system hose wouldn't stretch any more.
I ended up cutting the stock piping up and building my own custom CAI.

 

[609DSM]

Amen!

The reason I ask is because I bought one of the cheap ones from Ebay and the filter didn't fit on the pipe too well. And also the system was angled so that it rubbed on the hood everytime I drove it, which eventually scraped some paint off of my hood. I now have a little bare metal spot. I tried to adjust it to angle more downward, but the pcv system hose wouldn't stretch any more.
I ended up cutting the stock piping up and building my own custom CAI.

I'll have to add pictures of everything. It's just kind of embarrassing. I didnt have a car at the time, didnt know much about DSM so when I went to buy it I was like f**k it I'll buy it, hadn't driven in years. Last car I owned I totaled in a bad accident so I was really nervous didnt even want to test drive it. Heard it run and then bought it. Could have gotten a decent gsx for what I paid...

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

Could have gotten a decent gsx for what I paid...

uh oh .

No worries, there is a bright future for everyone who seeks it. Maybe one day you can find a GSX that fits you well.

 

[Kai Hefner]

It's like a glove on the pipe, I'm missing the breather hose connection for my pcv system. Not sure how big of an issue that might be, doesn't seem to effect much.

Not an issue at all. Some people just put a little filter on the valve cover.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

Not an issue at all. Some people just put a little filter on the valve cover.

Called a microfilter I believe

 

[609DSM]

Called a microfilter I believe

Yeah I got one those lil guys on there. Replaced the one that came with the car cause the blue rubber was brownish , filter was super dirty.

 

[AWD-Tony]

Just put a fire extinguisher in the car. I plan on taking it to all the car meets I can, and going to the track ocasionally too. Gotta have a fire extinguisher for these things just in case.View attachment 580439

It came in handy for me when oil leaked out from the center manifold stud and onto my turbo which caught fire when I stopped. The only time I used it but sure glad I had it.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

I've seen a couple engine fires. It's never pretty.

 

[609DSM]

I've seen one car on fire. Was on I-81, very random. Looked to my left and entire thing was on fire. I was like wtf . Saw someone flip a 4 banger truck on 51 one time too. This was when I lived in WV. Crazy times. Also saw multiple car that decided to drive off mountain sides or roads that had extremely steep hills.

 

[ṳṆḊḕṙḉṏṼḕṙ ṖṙṏḊḭḠẏ]

As a firefighter I’ve seen way too many vehicle fires. And you’re right, it’s never pretty

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

120 grit at 3000 rpm's for 3 hours straight. I can't feel my right hand. The paint on the trunk is the harshest paint I've ever sanded in my life. I don't know what the deal is, but it sucked. I'm glad It's done now, moving on to the primer stage. I will post a bunch of pictures when I am finished.

 

[ṳṆḊḕṙḉṏṼḕṙ ṖṙṏḊḭḠẏ]

When I run into that, I just use aircraft pain stripper, strip it completely and then start with bare metal to prime

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

I've been making progress lately. I have definitely made discoveries. The car is currently up on jackstands in the garage with the engine only half assembled and parts all over the floor.

So I started this "small" project only planning to replace gaskets. But as soon as I started taking things apart I found more issues, and made my decision on some upgrades.

Very first thing I did is sprayed the inside of the manifold with brake cleaner, that shit was nasty. Then I took my Dremel and ported out the intake runners a little bit, removing extra grit, and opening the ports all the way up to a gasket match, hoping for some better airflow. Then I sanded the outside of it to make it completely smooth and laid that beautiful metallic paint on it. I proceeded to do the same thing with the lower manifold near flange, Dremel porting/polishing. No paint for this pasrt because I ran out of time, but it almost cannot be seen from the bay anyway. I'm sure I'll have it removed at a later time for the spray.

Before deciding to bolt up the fresh manifold, I realized that my fuel rail looked absolutely terrible! Black coating was chipping off and exposing a strange dark brown primer. So I checked my box, and
I still had some high-heat gloss black. I removed the wiring harness, a little wire wheeling/sanding, masking, then I sprayed it, nice again.

In this process, I deleted a busted black box... I realized this broken reservoir has 2 hoses coming off of it. Both of which go to the manifold as vacuum hoses. But wait, they both go to the manifold, so this box was for what? For the cruise control, which had been incorrectly bypassed. So I had a large vacuum leak! I deleted this box and capped off the ports on the intake manifold. I used the diagram under the hood for proper referencing (still present and good shape). I'm able to run a line straight from the manifold to the cruise control servo, full functionality with no leak, or risk thereof.

All I need to do now in re-install everything. Then I will start it up and see how it runs and looks!