The Rolling Toy Box #3

[wrenchspinner]

This is the Build Thread for The Rolling Toy Box #3. Reply below.

 

[wrenchspinner]

Snagged a 92 Eclipse GSX from a buddy that needed an engine, sound familiar?

The body's straight but the paint job's seen better days and the dash is absolutely toast. Has been an Arizona and Texas car so at least there's no rust to deal with.

In parts acquisition mode but the goodies are mountin up. The block/crank started life under the hood of a 91 Hyundai Sonata. Been haulin this block around for many years now so it's time to use it. The infamous g4cs 2.4 six bolt.

Decided to go full stand alone so a ECUMasters ECM Black, 4.9 Bosch 02 sensor, flex fuel module, bluetooth module and a harness are sittin in one box with some black silicone covered insulation to sleeve the new engine bay harness. Still need to get a crank trigger and I'll be reusing a 1G black version CAS which has a sweet aluminum CNCed cover (thanks to Derrick Geedy for that and a sweet CNC 2G brake fluid reservoir bracket).

There's boxes and tubs full of parts piling up. Placed my biggest order ever w/ Rock Auto and got all kindsa stuff: all new brake hoses, rotors and caliper rebuild kits for the rear brakes (even had the 3000GT front brake rotors to go w/the rebuilt calipers for cheap), suspension bushings, rear CV joints, front CV joints, tranny seals, transfer case seals, wheel seals, rear diff seals and bearings, several sets of Energy Suspension bushings, timing belt tensioner and idler pulley, AC compressor belt, timing belt (for a 94 4g64 Galant) and a few more misc items.

BTW, just wanted to give a shout out to Kurt at White Shed Speed for doin some very high quality machine work. Got a set of his rear toe eliminators, brake booster delete plate and a set of shifter cable bushings and the machine work on these parts is amazing!

Much more details coming :>)

 

[wrenchspinner]

Decided to go w/an electric PS pump out of a 94 MR2 and the plan is to mount it down low in the area below the battery tray (battery's re-homing into the area of the pass side rear seat base). That will keep the wiring and hoses down low and out of the way w/short runs of hoses to the steering rack. This also nicely cleans up the front of the engine bay and engine itself since the pump, brackets and hoses disappear from those areas.

Picked up black 4, 6, 8 and 10AN PTFE hose and black aluminum fittings to run all new hoses, then 16AN push lock hoses and fittings for the radiator and water pump block off and thermostat delete housings that gets coupled to a Davies Craig electric water pump and controller.

Gonna try something different here and back flow the coolant system. The cool water from the lower radiator hose will be pumped via the Davies Craig pump to the thermostat delete housing, through the head, then the block where it will exit the water pump block off housing and route to the upper radiator inlet. Wanna keep the head as cool as possible and this should help.

With all the new electrics along w/the stereo system slated for this build I'm adding a higher amp alternator and I'll have breakers on each of the high amp draw circuits. Have a nice relay and fuse block set saved in my Amazon list to simplify the new wiring system.

As mentioned previously the batterys moving to what was once the rear seat base area and the new fuse/relay panel, 2 amps and a DSP will live on the drivers side. Makin this one into a 2 seater by removing the rear seats and installing a raised carpet covered decking that will go from where the rear seat base started back to the rear shock tower cross brace. Plan to make a kinda complex new rear hatch base that will accomodate a full sized spare w/room for a HF aluminum floor jack and a tool set. Gonna be tight but doable.

The car will also be totally sound deadened w/sound deadening panels through out while all the body interior cavities get filled w/expandable foam and the interior and door panels will get the rear of them covered w/adhesive foam sheeting. This worked so well in quietening the noise in my 92 Laser so I'll be doin it again for this one.

This one will also get all new LED lighting through out. Did this to the Laser and it made a world of difference. Auxito head lights are amazing and w/just a flick of the high beams anyone comin at you w/their brights on immediately dim theirs. Picked up all the interior lighting, head lights, markers and tail/turn and brake lights on Amazon.

The parts and mod lists for this car are long and gettin longer so there's lots more to add.

 

[wrenchspinner]

A buddy imparted some wisdom long years ago that I've never forgotten. "If you're gonna build a hot street car it better be good at stopping too." With that in mind there's a few changes to the stock brake system that should help w/this.

For the fronts it's gettin a set of 3000GT 4 pot calipers, caliper brackets, rotors and new hoses. Got a really good deal on eBay several years back on a set of freshly rebuilt calipers w/fresh pad slider pins and brake pads included. Someone had done a cheesy job of painting the calipers and the stock castings are a little rough lookin so these will get taken back apart, sandblasted, then lovingly hand sanded and then polish out the raised Mitsubishi lettering so they will visually be much more appealing before sprayin 'em w/Cerakote then reassembled.

For the rears I'll be reusing the stock calipers after doin a rebuild on 'em and they'll get treated to a full sanding job to visually clean 'em up and shoot 'em w/Cerakote to match the fronts. Also have new brake hoses for them as well as all new brake hose clips for the fronts and rears.

Runnin the show for the hydraulics on the brakes I'll be switchin up to a new larger bore (1-1/16") 03 Eclipse master cylinder mated to White Shed Speeds Brake Booster Delete plate and will hafta make my own custom length master cylinder engagement rod. This master cylinder differs from the stocker in that while it's designed for brake hoses to attach to the master cylinder from a remote reservoir (like stock) it uses a different arrangement for the hoses attachment to the master cylinder than the stock set up. So the new master cylinder will get disassembled so I can drill/tap the inlets for the hoses and use 1/4"npt to 6AN adapters at the master cylinder and then 1/8"npt to 6AN adapters at the CNCed aluminum master cylinder reservoir and bracket so I can use new black PTFE hoses to feed the master cylinder. Since w/the new aluminum brake fluid reservoir you can't see the fluid level w/out removin the cap I'll add some 1/4" push lock fittings and some clear nylon hose to act as a sight glass for the fluid level.

Doin away w/the brake booster will also clean up that corner of the engine bay and add some space while also deleting one more vacuum hose. The brakes will likely wind up a bit touchier and require more pedal pressure but that's a trade off I'm willing to accept for the increased braking it will should yield.

 

[wrenchspinner]

Suspension: Buddy deals and other goodies

The suspension goals for this project are to wind up w/something closely resembling a road race type suspension set up. It's gonna be as rigid as I can make it w/only the give the polyurethane inserts as dampening. I know, I know, it's gonna be rough riding and noisy overall but such are the down sides to any really tight suspension set up.

Decided to go w/coil overs so I can adjust the ride height to make it as low as is practical. Low means lower center of gravity and better cornering so long as the rest of the suspension plays along. Snagged a set of K Sport GT Pro coil overs from my buddy that he had gotten to do a rally car program but had back burnered that project after finding the GVR4 he'd bought 'em for was too rust riddled to use.

Gave the rear suspension set up a good going over and it just needs the upper and lower control arms, sway bar end links and new bushings. Picked up a set of adjustable upper control arms on eBay and will either get the lowers from Volk or make my own. Ordered all the Energy Suspension rear bushings I could find but may wind up usin my buddys Shop Smith to make up some of the urethane bushings no longer available. Picked up some really nice Adjustable Rear Toe Eliminators from White Shed Speed. For the quality and light weight design of these parts they were a real bargain. We'll be doin some minor reinforcement of some of the rear supension bracketry but nothing dramatic since the stock pieces are still in great shape. Just plan to add a little more gusseting/rigidity to the stamped steel brackets, run 'em through the sandblasting cabinet and shoot some VHT paint on 'em.

Up front the Energy Suspension K member bushings etc are still available and a real bargain from Rock Auto so those are sittin in a big tub of new suspension pieces. Picked up Boosted Fabs 1G AWD Front Cross Bar which comes w/the polyurethane mounting and an engine mount attached along w/a jack point built into the bar, which is kinda nice. Also have new lower control arms sittin in the tub which will have new Energy Suspension bushings installed before they get mounted.

Looked at Volks front cross bar to K member support bars and will just make these up myself. Though the bars they sell are sweet I feel like using smaller/lighter tubing and heim joints will get the job done while decreasing the weight by a few pounds. Since these bars just act as a stiffener between the front cross bar and the K member 3/4" heims just seem like overkill. These bars will require adding attachment ears to the front cross bar and will be one of the last things to go into the engine bay to make sure they'll clear everything.

While the front K member's out it'll get a thorough cleaning after the rack's removed and there's new rack boots to replace the well aged ones that are on it. At this point while everything's apart the new PTFE hose ends will be installed to make the short run to the MR2 electric PS pump and a 1L aluminum PS reservoir I got off Amazon. The PS reservoir will live just above the PS pump in the pass side rear corner of the engine bay, again keepin the hose run very short and almost completely outta sight.

I'll check out the inner tie rod ends and replace 'em if necessary then clean and repaint the whole K member/rack assy before slappin it all together w/the new bushings, then run and route the new hoses to the pump.

Have a pair of new wheel bearing assys to install for both the fronts and rears. Got those when Rock Auto still had some several years ago. Think you can still get the fronts since they're the same as the FWDs use but the rears are gettin hard to come by. Also have spare seals in case I need any of 'em.

Been stepping through every assy and sub assy in my mind and poring over parts diagrams in hopes all the wear parts will be replaced for the complete suspension. Crossin my fingers and toes in hopes I haven't overlooked something but I bet there'll be a few things that will wind up being needed at the last minute, always seems to just be that way!

Still in parts gathering mode but making every effort to make the assy work go as smoothly as possible by having as much as possible in the way of hose/wire/wiring clamps/Deutch connectors/connector pins/sleeving/hoses and hose ends packed away in Hart organizers. Even picked up a set of Koul Tools PTFE fitting assy tools and a snazzy impact driven tool they make for installing push lock fittings onto the hoses (real PITA to do by hard). Since all I have is a car port to work in the spare bedroom at the casa looks more like a small parts store back room w/racks of tubs of parts for this build as well as stuff for my 92 Laser, 07 Eclipse and Dodge Ram pickup!

Still more to come ...

 

[miliman13]

Post some pics

 

[wrenchspinner]

Post some pics

Right now, parts pics are about all I have since I'm still in gathering mode so here's a few

Bracket on the left is for the brake resevoir

I chose the plain aluminum reservoir, cool thing is the bracket and reservoir came from 2 different makers and they fit each other perfectly

Here's a mounted pic of White Shed Speeds Brake Booster Eliminator Plate

Kinda generic but there's 4, 6, 8 and 10AN hose and fittings

Koul Tools PTFE Hose Fitting Assembly tool for 4, 6, and 8AN hose

MAPs SS 10AN turbo drain fitting

A nice PTFE hose assy tool to help reshape the cut hose pieces and then separate the PTFE liner from the sheathing to help make the hose fittings easier to assemble

Got 2 of these mild steel weldable bungs for the oil pan. One's for the turbo oil return hose while the 2nd is for a bypass/return for the adjustable oil pressure regulator

Sweet piece of CNC bling, a new machined cap for a 1G black CAS

70mm S90 w/an ISC and TPS sensors installed, even came w/a nice nylon thermal gasket

Adjustable rear upper control arms

MR2 electric PS pump. should have inverted the pic since it mounts upside down compared to this view.

K sport coil overs

White Shed Speeds Toe Eliminators

These 3 pics are of new bronze pedal assy bushings, shifter bushings and a replacement for the nylon slider shoe on the shift cable assy at the tranny

White Shed Speeds aluminum shift cable bracket bushings, no more slop from those ancient rubber bushings

Found these clear front markers on eBay for pretty cheap. They'll be gettin LED bulbs.

 

[wrenchspinner]

There's so many parts piled into boxes and tubs. Really should have taken my own pics as they came in. There's also a lot of parts I've been collecting for years now. Hell, my Wisecos and Eagle rods are old enough to vote and are still in their original boxes!

The above pics are just ones from the listings I purchased them through or their website pics I've stored in a "Purchased Parts Pics" folder on the 'puter. There's also lotsa parts manufacturers that protect their pics so they can't be saved and misused by shady individuals so there are no pics in the folder for those.

There's actually a lot more to come as I lay out various assy/subassys and the parts choices I've made for this or that.

Life's always gettin in the way of collecting everything I need to complete this build. Like ... my daily driver 92 Laser w/a 4g37 just this last saturdee busted a ring and in efforts to get it back home locked the motor up completely so I'm now on the hunt for a replacement while I'm stuck in my old Dodge Ram till I find one.

I've been trying to nail down some of the big ticket items for the build in the last few months like a shiny new FP Black turbo, an ECUMasters EMU Black stand alone and flying lead harness, Bosch 4.9 wideband 02 sensor, flex fuel sensor (still need the bluetooth module and a tablet w/GPS to set up the digital dash I've wished and hoped for FOREVER!).

Some other big ticket stuff that's on the list to add to the build are The Driveshaft Shops aluminum drive shaft, CC Designs 02 housing and downpipe, sendin the head off to Headgames to get ported and reworked, and the machine shop work, which is gonna be a big chunk!

 

[wrenchspinner]

There's also a secret stash of parts I'm patiently massaging w/the welder, angle grinder, die grinders (yep, like 5 different ones!), finger sander, orbital sander and polishers. Like to take parts and make them into one-offs w/my own 2 hands. Like a totally ground and polished FP cast manifold, and Magnus intake manny, reshaped and polished timing pulley bracket assy, front engine mount bracket arm that's been chopped, welded and polished, timing belt tensioner pivot arm smoothed and reshaped and lots more stuff like these.

Here's a cuppla teaser pics of the FP manifold taken at work, yeah I print newspapers for my daily bread:>)
The exterior is almost complete but I haven't worked on the runners or plenum yet. When I get it finished it'll get sandblasted and baked to leach out any impurities, finish cleaned then Cerakoted and baked again.

As functional as I know a manifold blanket would be no way I'll cover up this piece of automotive artwork. Polishing aluminum's pretty easy, but cast iron's a whole 'nother thing. Problee have like 20-25hrs in this so far.

 

[wrenchspinner]

Now we're gettin to some juicy stuff: The Shortblock

Always been a big fan of doin stuff others claim can't or shouldn't be done. Hard headed, yeah, but it's my stuff so I get to do it MY way!

Starting w/the g4cs Hyundai 2.4 6-bolt block and forged steel crank I pulled out of a 91 Sonata 20+yrs ago.That was an epic day!

Strolled up w/my tool bag in a rented wheelbarrow and then drug over an overhead hoist rollin on donut spares the JY let folks use to a complete unmolested engine w/the AT tranny still attached. 2hrs later I had separated the tranny, yanked the long block then stripped it down to just the block and crank, put those and the tools in the wheelbarrow and left the rest of the engine sittin as a pile of Hyundai garbage I'm sure no one else was gonna be interested in! And ... I did all this w/ just hand tools: wrenches, ratchets and sockets. Didn even own a cordless impact back then.

Since then I've drug this block/crank around through multiple moves all over central and NE Texas. I've had it up on an engine stand numerous times over the years and it's now a very custom piece. I've ground away and polished most of the blocks exterior surfaces and doubt anyone will ever notice but I even ground away the nomenclature pad off the side of the block leaving nothing but the serial#. Also ground off any bosses on the block that won't be used for this build. Then went inside the block and removed a lot of the rough cast surface and opened up the oil return channels and smoothed 'em out.

For those who've never seen a g4cs 2.4 6-bolt block up close and nekkid there's one very big difference between it and a 6-bolt 4g63. It uses beefy individual main caps instead of a main girdle. These are similar in size to a 350 Chevys main caps, they're BIG!

Was workin w/a machinist back when I picked up the block and crank w/a mill at his house and had him mill off about 8lbs from the sides of the crank throws. Kinda resembles a flat plane crank now. Made up a custom jig to hold the crank and bullet nosed the lead edges of the crank throws and tapered the trailing edges. It's been just patiently waiting all these years to finally be married back up to its block and in the coming year it finally will be.

Also have a crank scraper goin into this build so between the scraper and the crank mods the windage losses should be greatly minimized and with all the weight removed from the crank throws will also allow it to run up the rev range more easily. All good stuff for a hot street build.

Did a similar engine build for a customer years ago also using a g4cs w/an also lightened and modified crank, minus the crank scraper, which we installed after initially building it w/a stock crank and he said the way it revved w/the new crank was like night and day comparatively.

Having watched just about every video Jafromobile has put out and took one of the block oiling mods he's outlined and did my best to improve on the process. Cleaned up and buffed the oil channels in the face of the block to a polished sheen, then made a clean smooth radius where the channel turns to supply the main oil gallery.

Made sure to keep the stock width of the channels in the block but made them slightly deeper (between .010 and .020). This will allow for the oil to have an easier time flowing through the channels as removin the rough sand casting to a smooth surface removes a lot of restriction to the oils flow through the passages, then radiusing the entry where the flow turns to enter into the blocks main oil gallery again improves flow by making the pathway less restrictive compared to the as cast oil gallery entrance.

Something in that or another vid he did really got me thinkin. He mentioned that due to the length of the main oil gallery Mitsu had drilled it from the front and the back of the block w/the 2 drilled holes meeting in the middle and likely having a step where they met. I removed the plug at the tranny end of the block to inspect this and sure enough there was a helluva step there!

Took about an 18" piece of 1/4" SS rod stock, cut a slit in it, wrapped some 80 grit emory cloth around it, chucked it up in a drill and began honing the main oil gallery while swapping back and forth from one end to the other. At 1st the step where the 2 holes met was such a mismatch that even just the 1/4" rod couldn't navigate it. After gently massaging the gallery back n forth I was able to eventually pass the rod and emory cloth through the step and then buff the step completely away then gave the whole gallery a final buffing.

While doin all these shenanigans I got to thinkin about a new idea for a block vent. In the past I'd always used the balance shaft check hole on the back of the block and just tapped it out for an NPT fitting then run a hose off that to a catch can. Easy peasy, quick and easy.

But, lookin at the now empty hump on the front side of the block that used to be where the front balance shaft hung out I thought, why not use the nice flat surface at the end of that balance shaft hump and vent it from there instead? So I started thinkin about how best to do that.

Here's the idea. Stuff the balance shaft hump full of stainless steel pot scrubbers then cap off the bottom side webbed openings where oil originally drained back from the balance shaft to the oil pan w/stainless steel sheetmetal w/holes drilled in it, creating an in-the-block catch can then drill/tap high up on the end plate of the balance shaft hump for a block vent. Any oil mist and vapor will be drawn into the balance shaft cavity through the holes in the stainless steel sheeting and pass through the stainless steel pot scrubbers which will act as a cooling baffle to allow the oil vapor to cool and collect on the pot scrubbers and drip/return back into the bottom end while allowing any remaining vapor to then flow out to a secondary catch can where it then will go through a 2nd cooling baffle and allow any remaining vapor to be trapped there.

The 2nd catch can is just a knock of a Greddy catch can that I added a center dividing wall that extends to within 1" of the bottom of the catch can. It has 2 baffling/vapor cooling chambers, one on each side of the divider wall. Any remaining oil vapor from the block vent gets plumbed into the top of the catch can, along w/the valve vents, down through the pot scrubber material, makes a U turn at the bottom of the catch can w/a secondary pot scrubber and cooling baffle plate located on the other side of the catch can near the top of the catch can where it then gets plumbed out to a hose running to the exhaust.

A really old school block vent set up is to create vacuum on the block vent using the exhaust flowing past a 1/2" nipple welded into the exhaust. The 1/2' nipple is welded in at a 45 degree angle and only extends about 1/4 - 1/2 " inside the exhaust pipe with the tip of the pipe also having a 45 degree angle on it. This way the exhaust flow passing over the nipple creates a vacuum on the catch can/block vent circuit. You also hafta plumb in a check valve at the pipe nipple so that pressure can only be vented and never allowed to return to the engine.

Venting the block and valve cover into the exhaust is an old school trick to positively vent the block and head which makes the sealing job of the rings much easier. But, gotta keep this on the QT since the EPA says this is strictly verbotten!

Before droppin the parts at the engine machine the pistons will have all the sharp edges radiused to help minimize risk of detonation and the rods will be smoothed to help eliminate any possible stress risers while also allowing the oil to more easily flow off the rods. At the machine shop the crank will get balanced and micropolished, the mains line bored/honed, block bored .040 over for the 10:1cr ceramic coated Wisecos and then mate the pistons to the Eagles. This baby will be gettin King coated rod and main bearings.

Once I get it back from the machine shop it will be torn down again for a final inspection and cleaning, then painted before being finish assembled.

Decided to go w/GSCs balance shaft eliminator kit for this build. Never really liked the whole stub shaft thing so this one will have the supported rear shaft instead. Just seems like such a better way of doin things.

If I had just too much money I'd be gettin one of those bad ass CNC oil pumps from Frontline Fabrication but unless I happen upon a really good deal on one, I doubt it :>(

However, I do have a few unusual parts that will wind up in the oiling system. Picked up an oil filter bypass housing so I can run an oil cooler and remote filter housing set up for a much larger filter but there's also a Peterson Remote Oil Pressure Regulator and a Derale Oil Thermostat gettin thrown into the mix. Never liked the cut n fit method of hacking away at the oil pressure relief valve so I decided to go w/a set up that will allow me to set the oil pressure externally instead.

The Peterson set up has a pressure regulating adjustment stud and jam nut and bypasses the excess pressure back to the pan. The return fitting for the bypass pressure will be welded down low into the NA oil pan I'll be using to help w/aeration and also help keep more oil in the baffled sump area of the pan.

The oil thermostat will go inline between the oil outlet coming off the oil pressure regulator and the oil cooler so the cooler only gets fed when needed. All oil gets passed on to the remote filter base before returning back to the oil filter bypass housing and into the pan. The oil thermostat opens at around 180 degrees with the goal to keep the oil temp at least close to that of the engine coolant.

Attached are some pics of the oiling system goodies

Derale Oil Thermostat

Mr Gasket Oil Filter Bypass Assy.

Peterson Remote Oil Pressure Regulator