boostforfun
15+ Year Contributor
- 184
- 2
- Apr 1, 2004
-
Glenwood,
Iowa
Just a quick run down of where we are at and where the car has come from.
-While driving the car home, I boosted it to a whopping 8psi (car was set at spring pressure), it promptly blew the dipstick out and barfed oil all over the engine bay, ruining the alternator.
-A day after replacing the alternator, the car would not start. After bench-testing it 3 times (pulling the starter every time and it testing good), replacing the grounds, power wires, and all relays, I just replaced the starter (which the owner told me was new).... Works fine now.
-Spent a day tightening all the loose and missing bolts on the transmission and mounts. There was only one bolt holding the trans to the mount, and it was only threaded halfway in.
-The car had a "new e316g" on it when I bought it. Got it home and noticed a little side to side play. Decided I would run it for a bit to see if it got worse... It did. A week later, the side to side was very bad, but had not made contact with the housings, so I ordered a rebuild kit. Just before I pulled to rebuild, it started blowing massive oil by the turbo seals, filling the intake with oil and making nice pretty clouds out the back of the car. Yippee.
-When pulling the turbo, I realized that there was 1 turbo/manifold bolt missing, 1 o2 housing bold missing, no turbo/manifold gasket, and no water hooked up to it (feed line from pipe was just cut and kinked.) Also, no o2/downpipe gasket and the flex pipe of the 3" DP has a good hole in it. Classy.
-Realized the exhaust was nothing more that a 3" DP to a glasspack, necking down to 2 1/2" for 2' then a turndown. Plan to finish it in 3" and put a dual tip muffler on it.
-The car had 3" drop without any camber correction. Looked like a moron driving down the road riding on the inner half of the dry-rotted tires, so I ordered and installed 3SX's upper control arms.
-K&N filter doesn't fit. Can only clamp 2 sides at best.
-Headliner was sagging so bad I could hardly drive it without getting beat to death by cheap, rotten fabric, made worse by the air whipping in from the windows because the "cold A/C" is puking hot stanky air out the vents.... I am not exactly a slim-trim kinda guy, which is a nice way of saying I'm fat and like it cold. Bummer.
-And best of all.... did a compression test after blowing the oil out all over..... 130/115/115/65 !!!! AWESOME! Just what I always wanted....
But, according to the Previous Owner, this is the cleanest 1g he has ever seen.
----------------------------------------------
So, those are some of the problems. My solutions have been successful so far with the exception of the turbo (which we will talk about later.)
-Installed 3sx control arms... perfectly easy... at $150, there is no excuse for rear camber problems on a 1g.
-Recovered headliner... Took me a night and $8 in fabric from walmart and a can of adhesive. Super.
-Replaced starter and alternator... at least it starts.
-New tires to replace mismatched, reverse mounted crap-rings that were on there... $375 (I love Tire Rack)
-Pulled turbo to rebuild (got kit off ebay). Everything went fine and fit just like it should, except the turbo is still blowing oil by. The car runs really high oil pressure (100+ on startup and high rpms, settling to 60-75 when its warm, 20-40 at idle) There will be a separate thread on the turbo issue.
-I would like to get turbo working properly before I tear into motor so that I know I have a working turbo to put back on it when I'm done.
-----------------------------------------------------
So anyways... as it sits now, I bought another DD (97 Taurus... awesome) and am tearing into this in my spare time. I start my 2nd year of Law School in a week, so it might be slow going until winter break.
Fortunately, I have just moved into a shop that has 4 bays, heated floors, and plenty of room to work, so that will help during the cold Midwest winters.
Let me know what you guys think, and I will post as I go along
-While driving the car home, I boosted it to a whopping 8psi (car was set at spring pressure), it promptly blew the dipstick out and barfed oil all over the engine bay, ruining the alternator.
-A day after replacing the alternator, the car would not start. After bench-testing it 3 times (pulling the starter every time and it testing good), replacing the grounds, power wires, and all relays, I just replaced the starter (which the owner told me was new).... Works fine now.
-Spent a day tightening all the loose and missing bolts on the transmission and mounts. There was only one bolt holding the trans to the mount, and it was only threaded halfway in.
-The car had a "new e316g" on it when I bought it. Got it home and noticed a little side to side play. Decided I would run it for a bit to see if it got worse... It did. A week later, the side to side was very bad, but had not made contact with the housings, so I ordered a rebuild kit. Just before I pulled to rebuild, it started blowing massive oil by the turbo seals, filling the intake with oil and making nice pretty clouds out the back of the car. Yippee.
-When pulling the turbo, I realized that there was 1 turbo/manifold bolt missing, 1 o2 housing bold missing, no turbo/manifold gasket, and no water hooked up to it (feed line from pipe was just cut and kinked.) Also, no o2/downpipe gasket and the flex pipe of the 3" DP has a good hole in it. Classy.
-Realized the exhaust was nothing more that a 3" DP to a glasspack, necking down to 2 1/2" for 2' then a turndown. Plan to finish it in 3" and put a dual tip muffler on it.
-The car had 3" drop without any camber correction. Looked like a moron driving down the road riding on the inner half of the dry-rotted tires, so I ordered and installed 3SX's upper control arms.
-K&N filter doesn't fit. Can only clamp 2 sides at best.
-Headliner was sagging so bad I could hardly drive it without getting beat to death by cheap, rotten fabric, made worse by the air whipping in from the windows because the "cold A/C" is puking hot stanky air out the vents.... I am not exactly a slim-trim kinda guy, which is a nice way of saying I'm fat and like it cold. Bummer.
-And best of all.... did a compression test after blowing the oil out all over..... 130/115/115/65 !!!! AWESOME! Just what I always wanted....
But, according to the Previous Owner, this is the cleanest 1g he has ever seen.
----------------------------------------------
So, those are some of the problems. My solutions have been successful so far with the exception of the turbo (which we will talk about later.)
-Installed 3sx control arms... perfectly easy... at $150, there is no excuse for rear camber problems on a 1g.
-Recovered headliner... Took me a night and $8 in fabric from walmart and a can of adhesive. Super.
-Replaced starter and alternator... at least it starts.
-New tires to replace mismatched, reverse mounted crap-rings that were on there... $375 (I love Tire Rack)
-Pulled turbo to rebuild (got kit off ebay). Everything went fine and fit just like it should, except the turbo is still blowing oil by. The car runs really high oil pressure (100+ on startup and high rpms, settling to 60-75 when its warm, 20-40 at idle) There will be a separate thread on the turbo issue.
-I would like to get turbo working properly before I tear into motor so that I know I have a working turbo to put back on it when I'm done.
-----------------------------------------------------
So anyways... as it sits now, I bought another DD (97 Taurus... awesome) and am tearing into this in my spare time. I start my 2nd year of Law School in a week, so it might be slow going until winter break.
Fortunately, I have just moved into a shop that has 4 bays, heated floors, and plenty of room to work, so that will help during the cold Midwest winters.
Let me know what you guys think, and I will post as I go along
