Techboy's 99 4G63

[techboy]

For now I'm gonna run the OEM MAF, but I am open to switching it up SD in the future. I'll keep working on this car until I physically can't drive it anymore. It'll never be done .. .

 

[techboy]

With the car being down for the winter I haven't bothered to install the new ECMLink yet, but that will be the first thing I do when spring hits, and then take it to get a fresh tune.

One thing I did do back in the fall ... I've run my car for probably 15 years or so with the cam gears exposed. Never been an issue and I love the look, but I always wondered whether it was the best idea. So, I pulled the trigger on getting one of those clear cam covers.

Of course, nothing is ever straight forward. I had to spend several minutes modifying this to make it fit. Because I run a Hyundai valve cover, and not the OEM Mitsu one, it's dimensions are slightly different, so had to do some shaving with the Dremel to make it sit correctly. (Those aren't cracks you see, they are splines of plastic shavings from grinding).

Eventually I got it to sit nicely. If I don't like it in the long run, I can always take it back off and run the way I was.

 

[techboy]

Haven't been on the forum for a while so I figured I'd pop in and say hi and give a little update.

I noticed at the end of the last driving season I had a small coolant leak coming from somewhere, but I couldn't find it. When I pulled it back out this spring the leak was even worse but still couldn't find it. I took it over to a local shop and put it up on a lift and the mechanic and I still couldn't find it. So, today I decide to taking this apart to get a better look. I got lucky and just so happened to see a drip come from the coolant pipe where it meets the t-stat housing and splash on the transmission while I was removing something else.

I have no idea how old this o-ring is, but I guess it finally gave up the ghost.

I ordered some new gaskets already, but obviously I have to wait a few days till the show up, so I spent some time cleaning up the surfaces.

 

[techboy]

Heater core hoses finally came in (they were on backorder) and I was able to finish getting the car back together.

Replaced the leaking o-ring on the water coolant pipe, so we'll have to keep on eye on it and make sure it was fixed.

All back together, time to fill it back up and go for a spin.

 

[techboy]

Did a little, but necessary project today. For the past couple of years my headliner on the sun shade has been hanging, so I took it out today to repair. I didn't show how to remove it, but it's pretty simple. Remove the six torx bolts that hold your sunroof in, and then use a flathead screw driver to push the spring clips back and pop out the shade.

Here it is:

I started by peeling the headliner material off.

I quickly realized there was a film still on the plastic shade that the headliner fabric must have been attached too.

Here's both pieces peeled.

I figured while I was working was a good time to pop the handle out and paint it.

Had this fabric left over from another project.

I used Gorilla Glue spray adhesive.

I sprayed BOTH the shade and the backside of the fabric. Let it set up for a minute or so, so it's good and tacky. Place the fabric down and I trimmed everything up with an Xacto. This the rear piece.

This is the front piece.

I wrapped the fabric around the edges as well, the way Mitsubishi had it from the factory.

Popped the handle back into place.

And then just reinstall in the car.

Kinda digging the contrasting colors on the roof. Although, my sun shade is back 90% of the time so it won't get much notice anyway ... but at least it's not sagging now.

 

[chrisman287]

What a nice read this was. Love your build from the beginning to now

 

[techboy]

What a nice read this was. Love your build from the beginning to now

I really appreciate the feedback/compliment. I don't think I ever thought I'd have this car this long, but its been so fun and reliable over the years and now I just get so many comments on it at shows I don't think I'll ever get rid of it.

 

[techboy]

Decided on this Labor Day since my ECMLink has been sitting on the shelf for a year I give this thing a shot at install.

I started by working on the cruise / clutch switch thing. Not sure I even had to do since I removed CC years ago, but I did it anyway. Was a total pain in the butt to solder up under the dash like this. The clutch switch is not easy to get to. This is the orange and purple pigtail ECM sends you with a new purchase.

Then you have to cut pin91 and solder the other end of the orange wire to that.

According to the install instructions you just leave the other end of the cut wire hang loose.

This is the EPROM ready ECU I bought.

Time to swap chips.

Installed.

So I got the ECU plugged in and hooked the battery back up. I tried starting the car to see if it would even run. I couldn't get it to start. It cranks, but it won't fire. When I installed my SAFC I made my own wiring harness with a plug so it would plug-in-play. I tried hooking that back up and the car still wouldn't start. So, I plugged the 99 blackbox back in and called it a day. I need to do some digging on ECMLink issues. I might be missing a basic setup step or it's possible maybe there's an issue with the ECU itself.

 

[chrisman287]

There are a few things to be set up before starting the car.

Skip to 29:00

 

[techboy]

Thanks for the video link. That was helpful. I read through all the ECM paperwork and the Wiki ahead of time, but there was things mentioned on the video I hadn't come across. I think I need to swap my plug wires around for the alternate firing order. I'll make a 2nd attempt hopefully this weekend.

 

[techboy]

Last year at the beginning of the driving season I noticed "oil" spots by the rear suspension. It didn't take me too long to figure out the rear Tokico's were leaking, which is really disappointing considering they were only 2 years old. I bought them when I did the GSX conversion. My guess is they were NOS and had been sitting for a long time, so the seals were probably shot. I decided to drive on them last season anyway and then figure what to do over the winter. In the end, I decided it was time to just do new suspension all the way around. I was tempted to go with coilovers, but the Ebiach's have been great to me for years, so I decided to just go with what's familiar and swap out the Tokico's for Koni's.

Here's my Blues that were basically brand new ... I probably one of the last sets available 2 years ago, b/c I see they are NLA now.

You can see in this closeup that they were leaking.

Here's the new Koni's.

One of the things I didn't expect with the Koni's is, if you plan to use the dust cover, you have to drill them out a bit b/c the don't fit over the Koni spindle.

I really hope this is a product code, and not a manufacture date ... although 08 of 1999 would be about right. Yikes.

Here's the first one assembled.

Here's the rears reinstalled ...

 

[techboy]

I also discovered last year that my outer CV boot was torn on the drivers axle. The passenger side tore years ago and I replaced it with a temporary one from RockAuto. I've always wanted to go back to both being OEM since I've heard the aftermarket are known to shear under higher horsepower. I figured while I was doing front suspension work now would be a good time pull the drivers side axle and send both front axles out for rebuild.

I forgot how much you have to remove just pull an axle out of these cars ...

Nonetheless, I got it out....

Now I have to go order some new sway bar links ... b/c those things suck and never want to come out without destroying themselves.

 

[techboy]

Earlier this week I got both the passenger and driver side axles dropped off at a local speed shop for rebuild. Can't wait to get them back. In the meantime, I ordered the new sway bar links I mentioned in the previous post. They arrived.

I think I'm going to order a new clutch master and slave as well, but pedal didn't feel right when I started the car up after pulling the cover off and after some looking around tonight with a light, both of them look like they are leaking.

 

[Tina94]

Amazing thread, thank you so much for all the detail. Your car is gorgeous. Following

 

[SixBolt_16G]

One of the most inspiring build threads that ive read on ANY forum. Looking forward to more.

 

[techboy]

Well I finally got my axles back from the speed shop!

I decided before I install them I'd hit them up with a little bit of OEM green to get back to looking original. Honestly, they came out looking better than I thought.

Time to get this car back on the road. I didn't really "document" this like I usually do, I consider this pretty much routine maintenance. Got the axle in and some other things bolted up.

A little trick for you all in case you don't know: If you're bolting up control arms or anything like that with a ball joint on it, they can be tough to tighten down b/c the nut will just spin the ball joint. Take your jack and put a little pressure on the joint and you can often tighten down the nut then no problem. For what it's worth, both lower control arms have a 22mm nylon locking nut on them on the 2G DSM.

Got the driver side all back together.

I'll get the passenger side back together tomorrow night and then we can go for a little test drive.

 

[techboy]

I didn't really document the passenger side at all since it's pretty much the same process. I had to remove the temporary Rock Auto axle I mentioned earlier and then just swap the OEM rebuilt one in.

Here's the rebuilt OEM one installed with the new up front Koni's. You just barely see that axle sitting in there.

This the Rock Auto axle I had in there for the last 2 years or so. Not sure if I'll try to sell this or just keep it as a backup.

Got the wheels back on and back down on the ground.

FINALLY ... time for a drive after all the winter months. First stop - Fresh gas.

 

[techboy]

I was looking at my 2G thread the other night and realized I haven't posted anything since July. I've been working so much on the VR4 and posting in that thread that I let this one slide.

So, after getting the rebuilt axle and new suspension installed, I pretty much just enjoyed the car this summer. I did tackle a few things on my "overdue" list. First up was something that has bothered me for near 20 years. A previous owner of my car drilled 4 mount holes into the firewall to mount something (not sure what) and a few of the holes they drilled right through VIN tag. It's always bothered me and I didn't think there was really anything I was ever going to be able to do about it. You can see the drilled holes in this pic.

In recent years the VIN tag has faded so bad it's not even readable anymore. If you own a 2G you know what I'm talking about. So after asking a lot of questions and doing some internet digging I found someone who makes reproduction VIN tags. So, with that, I decided to pull mine off and fix this eye sore.

There was a "lip" on the sheet metal so peened it in and gave it a little grind.

I could have gone with with Bondo, but I didn't have any on hand, so I decided to mix up some JB Weld.

I used a cheap paint brush and just brushed it on real thick so that the holes were filled.

I let it dry for a day and then used a sander with a small medium pad and smoothed it out.

Then it was time for fresh paint.

Let that dry for a day and then installed my new VIN tag.

I love it. My only regret is, I wish I would have pursued this a lot sooner. When I say this has bothered me for years, I mean YEARS. So much better.

 

[techboy]

One other LONG overdue thing I did during this past summer was upgrade the fuel pressure regulator. I've been meaning to do this for years, but just never got around to it. This tiny OEM one is old and tired. Time to go.

Went to ExtremePSI and ordered up some 6AM fuel rail fittings. I ordered 2 b/c I'd like to upgrade the fuel filter and input side of the rail at some point.

Then I started mocking up some brackets so I could figure out a place to mount it. I spent a lot of time looking online at places other people have mounted these. Most mount them flat on the firewall, but I'll tell you if you still have AC it's pretty tough to find a clean spot to mount it and I am really regretting not eliminating my AC when I had the motor out years ago.

Anyway, I made the first one out of cardboard, then copied it out of sheet metal, and finally made my last one out of aluminum.

You can see I had to notch the bracket to fit under the AC line fitting.

Once I had the sorted out it was just a matter of hooking it up - which if you done this before is not very hard.
Built some AN lines. (Side note - I did have to grind some plastic away on the clear cover to make the 90 degree AN fitting fit, you can barely see it in this picture)

Then I mounted the FPR. Mine is mounted on an angle between the brake fluid resv and strut tower as you can see. It's pretty snuggly fit in there.

 

[techboy]

Some pics from the summer:

 

[techboy]

Well I've had the ECM Link installed for a while now, but never bothered to pull the SAFC out. It's just been sitting in the dash disconnected. So, today was the day to fully unwire this thing and remove it.

Had to pull the side panel and cut a bunch of wires. I did this right when I installed it and soldered everything in place, so it took a bit to remove it.

I knew I still had this, but I had no idea where. I dug through 3 different locations until I finally resorted to crawling up in the garage attic. That's where I found it.

Haven't seen this look in about 15 years. So weird. I guess I'll get used to it again. Just seems so "stock"

 

[techboy]

End of last driving season I dropped a bunch of various engine brackets off at my powder coater and a spring-clamp dipstick I had purchased from STM in the fall. I had instance last year where my dipstick blew out and got oil everywhere. Total mess - so that prompted the purchase. I finally got around to picking all that stuff up today and back on the car.

He always does a great job.

Back on the car. It looks just straight RED in this pic, but it's more of a dark blood-red with metallic flake mixed in.

This is the spring-clamp dipstick STM sells. Pretty simple - they weld a little tab on the tube and then just connect the spring up.

I was surprised when I bought this from STM it came with a dipstick as well - I thought it was just gonna be the tube. I have gone through about 3 or 4 of the 2G OEM dipsticks - most of them snapping off when the heat makes them brittle. So, I switched over to a 1G dipstick years ago and I'll be reusing that.

 

[techboy]

Picked this thing up finally after 7 months of being in winter storage. Usually winter storage doesn't last till July, but I had to build an additional garage bay to keep this car at home since moving last year. Nice to be in the drivers seat again AND have a place to park under roof.

I have had the same wheels on my car for something like 23 years. This year I'm finally going to make a change, although even I'll be the first admit stylistically they're not all that different. Picked up a set of Evo9 wheels.

Now for the big decision ... what color to powdercoat? I am very torn between two prismatic colors ... Evo Grey and Bronze Chrome.

I like them both, what do you all think?

 

[m_0ney_pit]

paint em purple . Does the bronze chrome have a chrome basecoat like a 2 coat?

I have the same wheels on my talon and was actually thinking lately about using a darkening topcoat on them with the factory finish something like the nightshades coating people used to put on taillights.

 

[techboy]

Im not sure if it's a 2-coat finish or not. I took the wheels to my powder guy for a quote and he told me to go to Prismatics site and choose a powder and he'd order.