Spyder Rescue

[KDittoe]

KDittoe submitted a new DSM Profile :

Spyder Sound Quality Competition Car


Read more about this vehicle here...

 

[KDittoe]

Here's a little history about this car and what I plan on doing with it.

I bought this car from a coworker who drove it daily for many years. It was just another cheap beater car for him, and he neglected it like most do with cheap cars. Aside from some ugly 20" rims, the car was mostly stock with a few good bolt-ons from the owner previous to him. I've wanted a DSM since the late 90's, so I bought it from him for $800 and started on my journey to restore it and turn it into an IASCA Sound Quality competition vehicle. Not many people have tried to build a high end SQ car in a convertible, so I figured why not give it a try.

This is what the car looked like when I bought it.

I had some terrible rims and low pro tires, it hadn't been washed in what looked like years. The convertible top had patches on it where my buddy had to cut his way into the car when both door handles broke. It ran like crap because he had put a timing belt on, but was a tooth off on the exhaust cam and the balance shaft wasn't lined up. The valve cover was cracked and leaked oil like crazy, there were vacuum and boost leaks all over the place, coolant leaks and the list went on.

This meant the first part of my project was dedicated to catching up on all of the overdue and improper maintenance to make the car run like it should and last as long as possible.

To be continued...

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

It could use a little cleaning up and some new parts, but other than that it appears to be a decent ride. Update this build thread as you go, I'd like to see where the build goes and what happens with it.

 

[Jblank99spyder]

Here's a little history about this car and what I plan on doing with it.

I bought this car from a coworker who drove it daily for many years. It was just another cheap beater car for him, and he neglected it like most do with cheap cars. Aside from some ugly 20" rims, the car was mostly stock with a few good bolt-ons from the owner previous to him. I've wanted a DSM since the late 90's, so I bought it from him for $800 and started on my journey to restore it and turn it into an IASCA Sound Quality competition vehicle. Not many people have tried to build a high end SQ car in a convertible, so I figured why not give it a try.

This is what the car looked like when I bought it. I had some terrible rims and low pro tires, it hadn't been washed in what looked like years. The convertible top had patches on it where my buddy had to cut his way into the car when both door handles broke. It ran like crap because he had put a timing belt on, but was a tooth off on the exhaust cam and the balance shaft wasn't lined up. The valve cover was cracked and leaked oil like crazy, there were vacuum and boost leaks all over the place, coolant leaks and the list went on.

This meant the first part of my project was dedicated to catching up on all of the overdue and improper maintenance to make the car run like it should and last as long as possible.

To be continued...

I myself recently purchased a 99 Spyder GS that had the advantage of being well taken care of mechanically. Unfortunately the audio system was not. All original, complete with dry rotted speakers and blown outputs on the head unit. I've done a lot of upgrading thus far on my own without much research and have found a lot of challenges unique to this vehicle. Very interested in following your build to see what ideas you came up with and where I may have gone wrong!

 

[KDittoe]

Like I said previously, there was a considerable amount of maintenance that needed to be done to get the car back to a reliable condition. I didn't take a lot of pictures of this portion of the build because its not the main focus of the thread, but everyone has seen tons of pictures of timing belts, vacuum lines and shit like that.

This is what the engine bay looked like when I started.

I started with the engine repairs first; a new Gates timing and balance belt set with OEM tensioner, pulley, water pump etc. I had to find a new valve cover because of a HUGE crack in the corner by the cam gears, and while replacing that I put in a set of 3g "no tick" lifters, new plugs, wires, coil packs, and fuel injector o-rings. I also changed out the engine and transmission oil, as well as the oil and fuel filters. Engine mounts were good except the front anti-roll mount, so I replaced that too. I fixed the wiring and replaced the oil pressure sensor that the previous owner installed, as well as the boost gauge that was janky.

After that I was able to get the car running enough to drive it some and start figuring out the CEL codes. I had P1104 and P1105 codes, so I replaced the boost solenoid (it wasn't even installed), I didn't hook up the vacuum lines, just the electrical connector. I also replaced the fuel pressure solenoid and now no more CEL.

Boost leak test revealed a TON of leaking vacuum lines all over the place, so I replaced every single vacuum line in the engine bay. While I was doing that I also replaced all of the old and cracking/leaking coolant lines with new ones. I had to put in a new thermostat, and then I had to pull the thermostat housing off of the head and replace the o-ring on the coolant tube from the water pump because it started to leak from there after I fixed all of the other leaks.

I pulled and cleaned all of the I/C piping, painted the rusty steel upper I/C pipe and BOV, I put on new gaskets and silicone couplers that were the correct size, unlike the ones that were on it.

I fixed the wiring in the engine bay, someone had replaced the battery terminals at one point and cut the wires from the fusible link to short so they were stretched across the upper I/C pipe and dangerous, so I ran 4ga wire to a distribution block and then into the fuse block. I replaced all of the grounds in the engine bay with 4ga OFC wire, and ran a second run of 4ga OFC from the alternator to the fusible link.

The turbo was only held on by a single nut on the stud, all three of the bolts had snapped at some point and the exhaust manifold had 5 loose nuts as well. I replaced the broken bolts and re-torqued the manifold and everything works great now and no exhaust leaks.

The A/C wouldn't hold a charge and I found the short high pressure line from the condenser to the drier was broken in half, so I replaced the line and drier, pulled a vacuum and it held for 12 hours. Pumped it full of refrigerant and now I have ice cold A/C!

I added a Megan Racing downpipe with an O2 sensor bung and installed my AEM wideband UEGO.

That just about did it for the engine bay, next I'll go into the suspension, brakes, and exterior

 

[The616darkknight]

Oh man, you had it easy. Haha mine I got from my neighbor that had it sitting for years. Sounds a lot like what's am dealing with right now, replacing EVERYTHING. And my engine clean up... I don't even know where to begin. Black belt dust, dirt and grease/ oil everywhere. My ex crashed it on the highway a month after I got it, EVERYTHING rattles. So much work before I can even begin to think about performance, the possibility of a a/t to manual swap, head swap etc... And I'm already broke. I feel your pain.