Sort of like a reverse AWD conversion:







I finally accepted that I will never find a way to convert my 420A to AWD. So, I picked up a 1997 GSX last weekend and will convert that into my 1995 ESi. The body has a lot of dings and scratches, but the unibody portion is sound with no collision repair or rust. Everything damaged can be unbolted. On that note, I will bolt on my 1995 ESi rear bumper, tail lights, hatch, hood, doors, front fenders, headlights, and front bumper. That will give it good sheet metal and the Talon look I want. Suspension and brakes will also be swapped over. The engine and trans are bone stock on the GSX. Everything works and I passed emissions today, but I don't think any maintenance has been done, ever. I intend to build an engine, get a stronger trans, and swap over my turbo and FMIC. Of course, that means building a new manifold, exhaust, IC piping, fuel system, etc. I'll try to take it one step at a time, but that will be tough. I'll have to keep a close eye on the budget to ensure that I have money left over for paint (otherwise, I'll be rocking a black, green, red combo).


Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Not gonna lie, I first read this and saw it was Corbin and was like, holy shit, another game changer. Then I was disappointed, but alas I know you will never cease to amaze us!

She's a little rough, but I have no doubt she's in good hands. I still can't find a decent AWD shell down here that the owner isn't asking the sky for. :(

What is it with people and no maintenance on cars? It's in better hands now. Good luck and keep us posted!

That fuse panel frightens me.

Any electrical demons pop up, yet? I think I've finally gotten all mine tracked down.

Oh I got my first electrical issue within 1 mile of the point of sale. The bolt that holds the alternator output to fusible link in the fuse box was cross threaded and only making intermittent connection. I had to go back to their house and borrow a screwdriver to loosen it and jam a nut in there to make the connection. Then I drove 50 miles back home. At some point, the car took a hit in the fender and cracked up the fuse box (fuse box bracket bolts to structure under fender). The previous owner pulled the body back into line, but let the fuse box dangle. A used fuse box showed up today. I'll transfer all of the pins to the replacement fuse box soon. The wiring in the engine bay and interior is surprisingly untouched. No custom installs or half-ass repairs. They just left it stock and didn't repair what broke. Not ideal, but I can work with that.

Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Yeah, I'd take basic maintenance over sorting out someone else's fuck ups any day of the week. Unfortunately my car's previous owner half-assed a good number of repairs and installs.

Nice pickup, Corbin. Look forward to following the progress as it comes slowly, one step at a time. :thumbsup

Now your hood intake can cool the timing belt.

I kind of did the same thing with Jamesman's GS. The chassis and panels on my RS were in better condition, but the GS had all the goodies, so I fused the two cars into one. I think the only thing original on my car now is the steering wheel and dash.

I thought, "If anyone can pull of an AWD 2GNT conversion, it would be Corbin." I got excited. Then I realized this is Corbin's version of sell-it-and-buy-a-turbo. Then I noticed he's converting it to Talon.

This pleases me. Continue. Subscribed.

If no one objects, I'll turn this into a build thread. Last weekend, I pulled the rear suspension out of the ESi and the GSX. Here is a picture of 2 DSM's in their natural habitat:



Both on jack stands, with no hope of being driveable for a long time. My tiny garage is a war zone of parts and tools now. I pulled the complete rear suspension and rear subframe out of the GSX so that I could rust proof, paint, and undercoat everything. Here is the painted subframe ready to go back in:



Oh wait, lets pull the side skirts off and poke that rusty spot with a screwdriver. I'm sure it's just on the surface.



Or not. After I excavated the seam sealer and rust, both rear rockers have got quarter size holes in that horizontal area in front of the wheel. I intend on grinding/cutting back to good metal this weekend. If I'm lucky, I'll cut some sheetmetal patches and tack them in. Fortunately, I bought a TIG welder last fall. I plan on removing the side skirts permanently. If I make an absolute mess of it, I guess I can put 2GA skirts on.

Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

And it begins. Looking forward to checking in on this. Keep the pics coming!

I took a cut off wheel and cut back to good metal.



I bent up some 22 gauge sheet metal and welded it in. That was a real learning experience. It was impossible to work the TIG foot pedal and feed filler rod while laying under the car. I ended up borrowing a MIG. That was 100 times easier, but also 100 times uglier. My biggest problem was trying to weld metal that was clean on the front, but thin and rusted on the back (I kept blowing holes in it and chasing with more filler and patches). I eventually figured out that I needed to cut much further back to better metal. The difference in weldability was night and day.



After I hit it with self etching primer, you can really see the rumpled metal. My second learning experience was how much to grind to smooth it out. I burned right through a few times and had to fill with more metal, blow more holes, fill with more metal, etc. I eventually decided just to grind the weld close and leave it a little high. Ugly, but functional. At this point, I decided to cover my work up with side skirts. CODE4 kindly supplied me with some nice Talon 2GA side skirts.



Here is the interior patch panel tacked and primed. It looks like Frankenstein's monster took a shit on it.



Fortunately, I can cover all of that up with seam sealer. Interestingly enough, I found a 1 inch length of seam higher in the wheel well which was not sealed. Any water entering there would roll right down to where my rust occurred (on both wheel wells). Coincidence?



The patch and sealer were then top coated with paint and the wheel well was undercoated.




One down. The other wheel well is about 75% done.


Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

UPDATE! :)

Also, it looks like a guy on Tuners did a 2GNT -> GSX conversion. You read that right; Not "doing" but "did."

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/dsm-build-journals/434084-esi-4g63-awd-evo-8-he351ve-project-warface.html

Congrats to that guy. I think his build confirmed that it would have been too big of a project for me.

Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Underneath the side skirts, next to the pinch weld, I find this:



It looks like someone used a floor jack right where there is a vertical seam under the door. This allowed a little water in and rust started. I had to cut it out and weld in patches:



I'm actually getting the hang of the patching and welding thing, but I hope that I'm done. I then used rust converter on anything that looked vaguely like rust in the rear of the car. Primer, topcoat, and undercoat. I undercoated everything I could see:



I installed the rear subframe and diff today. The suspension will start to go in tomorrow. I am cleaning and painting most every component. Nothing too anal, just giving it some decent rust protection.


Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Looks sharp! Any particular underbody spray you using?

I'm just using rattle-can undercoating. The the one comment I can make is about "standard" and "professional" grade sprays. Every auto parts store seems to carry both grades. I used to always buy the standard grade, because the professional grade label gives you no good reason to pay more for it. A couple of times previous, the standard stuff has made an absolute mess, turning into a useless water/oil emulsion that never dried. I had to strip it off and try again. Eventually, I figured out that it was the temperature. The standard grade is useless below around 50F. The professional grade performs well at the same temperatures. To improve dry times, I've starting keeping my garage at 60F for this project. That helps a lot. It also encourages me to go out there. When the garage is 35F, it is real easy to watch TV instead.


Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Rear suspension and brakes are fully installed:



I guess I'm committed on the Talon conversion thing. I painted all of the stock suspension and brake parts. That should keep the rust at bay for a while. I changed one loose joint and one bad bushing (replaced with spare used parts). The Harbor Freight 12 ton press is paying for itself. I also replaced all of the ball joint boots. New axle seals were installed along with Redline Shock Proof gear lube, but I do not intend to perform any actual service to the stock rear LSD.




Moving on to the front, I pulled the complete front suspension and brakes. Dinged up fenders were removed as well. I dropped the transmission and finally got to use the Harbor Freight trans jack. It was very helpful since this trans weighs about 130 lbs (used a bathroom scale). The output shaft from the transmission came out with the transfer case. When I pulled the cover off of the transmission, I see that whoever rebuilt the transmission forgot a ball that retains that output shaft. That same genius also only installed one of the three bolts holding the rear roll stopper (mount) to the transmission. I found a few other missing bolts along the way. This is why I never let anyone work on my cars (that and I'm cheap).




After dropping the transmission, I see the one aftermarket part on the car. A no-name clutch and aluminum flywheel. The flywheel has part numbers on it, but nothing pops up in Google. I'll assume that it is an E-bay knock-off and will dump it in the garbage. The good news is that this proves that the car will drive fine with a light aluminum flywheel (I was waffling on whether to purchase an aluminum flywheel or resurface a stock iron one).


Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

I pulled off the original, beat up fenders and doors:




Roughed up the door jam with a die grinder and primered:



Base coat green G36 and clear:




I have been buying my base coat and clear from http://www.automotivetouchup.com/. They sell aerosol paints which perfectly match the stock color codes. Metallics are sensitive to how heavily you coat, so some care is needed. After that, I threw the Talon doors and trim on:




The Talon was professionally painted three years ago, so the doors are near perfect. I will swap the fenders on soon.


Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Fenders are on now:




I cleaned and primered both strut towers. Here is one:




Then resealed all of the joints affected by the hit this car took in the passenger front fender:




Final paint on that strut tower:




Interior stripped out pretty thoroughly so I can run all of the stereo wiring:




I cut Lexan panels to cover up the largest holes near the rear speakers. I sealed the panels and speaker "boxes" with aluminum tape. It sticks hard and is very conformable:




The doors received a similar treatment:




I used fabric dye on my 19 year old Talon carpet. It actually worked out well:




Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

I assume the lexan is to help cover up areas where excessive road noise would come from? More or less supplemental soundproofing?

I had similar success using some fabric dye years ago when I had my Talon. It does work rather well.

The Lexan is to diffuse the rearward sound wave from the nearby speaker. I am trying to minimize the interaction between the rearward and forward waves for improved sound. Adding mass to the sheetmetal and Lexan panels with Dynamat would bring it to another level, but I don't want the weight. It is a compromise, but the same install worked well on the Talon which I am pulling parts from.


Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Finally, we are getting to the fun stuff. Fidanza aluminum flywheel went in. Of course, the stock bolts were too short (only engaged 2 threads). That was a surprise to me, but fairly well known/debated in the 4G63 world. I had to buy longer bolts from one car and combine that with a spacer ring from an automatic car (because the bolts were then too long).




Then a Spec stage 3+ went in. That is a full face ferramic disk, which I loved on the 420A. I hope it works just as well here.




I sent the existing transmission to Jacks for a rebuild. Of course, while I was tearing apart the rest of the car, they obsoleted the rebuild package I wanted (the cheapest one with 4-spider upgrade). Now, I'm in for several hundred more dollars. While I'm swallowing that one, I figure, why not throw another thousand at it to get a Quaife front LSD. Of course, you need additional parts to make that happen. Then, the inspection found that I had a crack in the end case, trashed second gear, and several things that needed "detailing". In the end, my transmission rebuild cost more than the purchase price of the car. It looks good though.




Upon receipt of the rebuilt transmission, I notice that two bolt holes in the case have funny looking threads. It turns out that the previous owner had stripped them and installed heli-coils (poorly). I torqued the bracket down and the bolts immediately stripped out. I drilled that out and tapped to M16 thread (stock is M12). I threaded in solid steel locking inserts with the correct M12 internal thread. They feel great and torqued up without complaint. I have a transmission jack (great considering the weight of the AWD trans). It was still a colossal pain to line up the input splines to the clutch. I think I blew an hour and a half just fiddling with the engine height and trans angle to get the splines to line up. I installed the transfer case and wouldn't you know, the threads on one bolt hole in the transmission looks funny. I feel the threads give nearing the correct torque and I call it a day. I'll install an insert there when the trans comes out this fall for the new engine. Meanwhile, I install the full front suspension without any trouble.




I'm using Moog adjustable upper A-arm mounts. Those should work out better than the SPC adjustable upper ball joints that I had before (they bent on the first use). Then I moved on to the exhaust.




Essentially nothing from my 2GNT exhaust fits the AWD. I reused the muffler, but even the hangers had to be adjusted to get it to hang low enough to get the pipe under the rear subframe (I went through the 2GNT subframe). The cat converter is also in a completely different place, but I can reuse the cat itself. I was able to cut and reuse some straight pipe, but everything else was new. I fitted it up and tacked it over the fourth of July weekend. I'll finish welding over the next couple weeks. Everything is 3" mandrel bent tubing made from 0.065" 304 SS. I'm using 304 SS V-band connections everywhere (I love these). I'll make a temporary downpipe to connect the stock T25 with 2" tubing to the 3" cat. I'll run that until I build the new engine and turbo system. That should be in the fall, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took a few months longer.


Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

I finished welding the cat back portion of the exhaust. I tell you what, back-purging is a good way to kill a tank of argon. I purged the entire section of pipe, letting argon escape from every joint. Now that I think about it, I probably should have taped all but one joint shut and welded them one at a time. Live and learn. Here it is, hung in the car:




I pulled the piping up as tight to the body as I dared. It is probably 0.5" away in some places. I'm still a little worried about hitting the clamps on speed bumps. I might have to measure a speed bump or something. After the cat back, I moved on to the downpipe. It's a disposable piece to get me through until the next engine/turbo. Design credits to Dr. Seuss:




The downpipe was finish welded and the wheels are back on the ground. I have driven the car to work a couple times. I was thrilled that nothing smoked or caught on fire. The clutch is rather light. I think the little coil spring on the clutch pedal assembly is partially to blame. There is an fluid accumulator on the transmission that I'm also figuring out if I want to keep. The transmission shifts fine, although it is a very different feel from the 2GNT. It seems heavier and like there are more mechanical things happening with every throw of the shifter. I'm also trying to figure out how many of the noises coming from the rear of the car are normal (I'm not used to having a diff back there and I have the interior removed so all the noises come right in).

I swapped the hatch and spoiler from the 2GNT over to this car:




You can barely tell in the picture that the hatch is a different color. The whole car is so dirty, that it all blends together.


Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Exhaust looks good Corbin. Definitely tape up all the joints, purge from the low point and bleed out the high point. It should not take a bottle (depends on your bottle size I guess) to purge it out. The average calculation I use for sanitary work is at 25 CFH, it takes 1 minute per foot of 4" tubing. It goes without saying that tight fitups are always nice to have, as any gap bleeds the argon pressure out and requires a higher purge flow.

And on your DP/mid pipe assembly, is that a sanitary reducing fitting? :)

I appreciate the advice. Most of my welding education was trial by error. I wasn't too far off on my flow rate. I settled on 20 CFH after trying everything from 5 to 35. That worked fine, especially for exhaust standards. I'll try taping all but one joint on the next project. I'm not sure on my bottle size, but you might consider it mid-size (3 feet tall including valve). It took a major hit, going from 1,500 psi to 500 psi with just the cat back and downpipe. You must go through a lot of argon at work. Good eye on the sanitary reducer. Looks weird, but it makes a reasonably smooth transition.


Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Corbin, what did you get yourself into? lol

Actually the welding and chassis work looks quite good. When mine eventually rots away (hasn't happened yet, because I keep it off the road in the winter as much as possible, but eventually mother nature and new England weather will catch up to her), I'll have to send the car and some money your way.

It was easier for me to just get the Ralliart :)

The existing headliner was a little gross from someone's greasy head rubbing on it for a decade or so. I am focusing on a black interior, so why not recover with black fabric. My local fabric store actually carries "headliner fabric" in a variety of colors. It has a foam backer and everything. Headliner adhesive from the parts store and gentle smoothing of the fabric clung to all of the contours:




I also disassembled and recovered the sun visors. They are a plastic clamshell design. You have to break the adhesive to pop them apart, but it is fairly easy. You can use the old fabric as a template to cut the new material. A little headliner adhesive and teeth on the clamshell holds the fabric until you can epoxy it shut. The fabric pulls tight and it looks surprisingly good:




I used satin black exterior trim paint for any plastic parts and vinyl dye on the weather stripping around the sun roof. It looks pretty good installed:




Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

The Eclipse to Talon conversion is moving along. First, I had to remove all of the Eclipse bumper skin support brackets. The Harbor Freight spot weld cutter actually worked well.




Then, I painted the bare spots and riveted the brackets onto the Talon location. I used seam sealer on all of the joints. Once that cured, I covered all of the rear sheetmetal with undercoating.




There are some wiring differences between Talons and Eclipses since Talons have dedicated turn signal bulbs and Eclipses just blink the tail lights. I cut the wire to the turn signal/hazard controller which lets the controller know that the brake pedal has been depressed. I then ran a wire from the third brake light power back to the brake light bulbs in my tail lights. I had to remove pins from a spare wiring harness and add them to the existing Eclipse plugs. The functionality was there, but the turn signals blinked too fast. That is because the Talon uses a single turn signal bulb (per side) and the Eclipse turn signal/hazard controller expects two bulbs. I wired a 3 ohm 50W resistor in parallel with each turn signal bulb to simulate another bulb. That slowed the blinking down to the correct pace.




The bumper and tail lights are installed and I'm half Talon now.




Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Looking good man!

The car has been down for a few weeks. Actually, there was snow on the ground last time it moved under its own power. I was swapping in the old turbo and intercooler from my 420A car.




Yes, this looks like an upgrade. The tiny sidemount intercooler went in the trash an in goes my old faithful Apex'i frontmount.




Another obvious upgrade. The T25 goes to E-bay and in goes my old GT3071 twin-scroll.




Yeah, of course there is clean up to be done. The radiator support was fairly rusty, but still structurally sound. I used a wire brush on an angle grinder to knock off the heavy stuff. I then followed up with rust remover (the good kind that sizzles).




Then I primed the front end.




Then it was painted. I hit the lower regions with undercoating afterwards (then another top coat over that). It should hold up for long enough).




I bought a compact exhaust manifold with divided T3 turbo flange and twin V-band wastegate from JM Fab. I really pondered building a manifold, but the last one was way too much work. JM Fab did a better job than I could have and everything fit the first time. Two Tial MV-S wastegates are installed. These are just beautiful and come with tiny V-band flanges and clamps, as well as every spring imaginable.




Now, I did have to build the downpipe. The main pipe is 3" OD SS tubing. The wastegate lines are 1.5" OD SS tubing with little flex joints. Ace Stainless (Ace Race) came through with the mandrel bends, except for a tight radius 120 degree bend I had to get from ATP Turbo (I also get my V-band flanges and clamps from them). Vibrant had the 1.5" flex joints without the bulky braid around them.




I had to modify the E-bay intake tube for the larger turbine inlet. I cut the tiny outlet off and welded some 2.75" OD aluminum tubing on. My aluminum welding sucks, but the end result is passable.




I also had to build the intercooler piping. 2" OD SS tubing from the compressor outlet transitions to 2.5" OD tubing for the remainder. After this picture, I welded beads on the ends of the tubing to keep the couplers from slipping off. Then, everything was roughly polished with a fine pad on an angle grinder. You end up with a satin type finish without much labor.




The intercooler install actually came together pretty well. The intercooler was rotated 180 degrees from my 420A install. I threw a pusher fan on the A/C condenser. It should be functional and offer a little help for the radiator fans.




Speaking of that, I had to swap in a radiator from a 2G 4G64 Spyder which moves the upper connection far to the passenger side (avoiding the turbo manifold). I ran my wastegate lines to the downpipe in what seemed like a sensible way, with the gentlest bends. Unfortunately, that put the wastegate flex joints 1.6" from the radiator. Only the slimmest fans would fit and I still had to position the motors away from piping. The small fan is right in front of the manifold, so I put a little SS heat shield on it. The small fan is low speed and the large fan is high speed.




Everything is still a tight fit. I wrapped the exhaust manifold and downpipe. Turbo coolant lines are reinforced silicone with a fiberglass sleeve over it. Those held up well on my last install. I ran 1/4" OD SS tubing next to the manifold to get the air signals to the driver's side wastegate. My old Greddy Type-S BOV makes an appearance on the final installation. Everything came together pretty well.




There's my old friend. The Talon conversion is nearing completion. I fired the car up and let it get up to temperature. The header wrap smokes terribly for a while. No leaks, so I took it for a drive. The header wrapped smoked again as I reached higher temperatures. I put 30-40 minutes on it. It didn't catch on fire and didn't overheat. That is success in my book. I didn't push it hard, but the turbo does spool up later. the T25 spooled at really low RPM, so I always felt like I was lugging the engine. The GT3071 needs a little more RPM, so it doesn't come into play unless you want it. That is really the way I prefer to drive. I'll put some miles on it this week and see how it likes commuting. I now keep extra oil, coolant, and a fire extinguisher in the car (just in case).


Corbin
'97 GSX dressed like a '95 ESi

Nice work Corbin! Love all the pics and updates.

Originally posted by Fallen4ng31
Also, it looks like a guy on Tuners did a 2GNT -> GSX conversion. You read that right; Not "doing" but "did." http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/dsm-build-journals/434084-esi-4g63-awd-evo-8-he351ve-project-warface.html

a guy in Montreal did at least 5 conversions I wrote about them years ago ,
also a few guys on ASEC did conversions of Avenger/Sebring to AWD either from 420a or 6g73 cars

Nice!

Very nice. I've been looking for a car to build up. thinking a e46 4door bmw would be fun. 2.8 or 3.0 straight 6 turbo. fun.

Always looking for a 2gnt to mess with also but the people down here either destroy them or what 6k for a 150k mile 18 year old car

Good job, Corbin.

Questions, which type of seam sealer did you use advance has few different ones.

Did, you look for an Talon TSI awd 4g63 before deciding on an GSX.


Does the noise you hear sound something this in the video.

YouTube.com

Jafromobile videos will help you out, during your time with the 4g63. Enjoy! Cheers


Lastly,

Sorry for the delay. I've been caught up building the engine (almost done). I'm pretty sure the seam sealer brand was Dynatron. That was the only one available locally. I have been happy with the results. I scoured Craigslist for Talons and Eclipses and almost bought a different car, but the guy flaked on me too many times. I just wanted a running 2G AWD with manual trans. Almost all of them were automatic and/or not running (just needs a tune up). I got desperate and bought one in poor condition. I was going to rebuild everything anyways, so condition was not top priority. I followed the Jafromobile videos to replace a couple of the driveshaft joints and yoke. That cut down on the noise dramatically. I also found that a driveshaft bearing mount was loose and that helped even more. When I pull the old engine, I expect to find a messed up crank pulley or incorrectly timed balance shafts to explain the remaining vibration. More pics will be coming.


Corbin
'97 GSX dressed like a '95 ESi

Update on the new engine. Miller Import parts supplied a very nice 1999 Spyder 7 bolt 4G64 SOHC block (2.4l). Steve was very helpful in finding me the right year block with the latest split thrust bearings. I had Jackson Auto Machine true the deck parallel to the crank, bore the cylinders perpendicular to that, and align-hone the main bearing journals for studs. It took forever, but the workmanship looked very good.




This time, I was prepared with outside micrometers, snap gauges, bore gauge, and dial indicator to measure all clearances. I recorded everything in a book, in case I need to reference it. I was a little rusty on installing pistons and crushed a ring in a band ring compressor (retarded). After waiting for new rings to come it, the rest slid right together. I used a stock crank with Manley forged pistons and long rods (to bring my rod/stroke ratio back down). ARP studs hold the crank girdle in place. I had to tap freeze plugs into some of the oil return holes in the block since I am fitting the wrong head to it.




Again, Miller supplied a nice 7 bolt 4G63 DOHC head (2.0l). Jackson decked the head, installed new guides, and did a basic valve job. Comp Cams stage 3 camshafts were used with 3G style HLA's. All new exhaust manifold studs were installed (I've had two old ones break).




A Cometic head gasket and ARP head studs hold it all together. Compression is supposed to be around 9.0:1 after the machining. I used Fidanza 2.0l cam gears and adjusted them for the longer timing belt needed on the 2.4l block. This time, I used a timing wheel and dial indicator to degree the cams. Colossal pain in the ass.




I built adjustable solid lifters to degree the cams. They cannot be adjusted while installed, so you have to loosen the cam bolts and slip them out to adjust for zero clearance. I probably did that 30 times for each cam to get it just right. I also made a piston stop out of a spark plug. Ugly, but it works.




Once the new engine was together, it was time to rip out the old one. Again, pain in the ass. The AWD trans is really tight in there. I had to drop the engine and trans together, separate them, and pull the engine out the top. I did notice that the crank pulley had a small chunk missing around the outside. I assume that the pulley hit the unibody when the car was nailed in the fender (before I bought it). That might have also bent the pulley and might explain the vibration I felt at 2000 RPM. A new crank pulley was installed.




Empty engine bay. Now is a good time for cleaning and painting. After this picture was taken, I painted the firewall and any remaining black parts of the bay. Lower unibody and subframe were hit with engine enamel and then undercoating.




Why am I not showing you a picture of the installed engine? Well, I installed it. Even more of a pain in the ass than removing the old one. Actually, a pain in the back too. It took forever to align the input shaft on the trans with the clutch disk and dowels on the engine. Then all of the accessories take twice as long to install as to remove them. There are so many hoses on this engine. I pulled the injector connectors and turned the engine over until I got oil pressure. Reconnected the injectors and the engine fired right up. Cool. I am watching RPM, A/F, coolant temp, etc. After 30 seconds or so, I walk around to the engine bay and see oil dumping out of the head right under my thermostat housing. It dumped about 2 quarts on the floor (luckily I had filled it slightly above the upper fill line). The machine shop had removed pipe plugs in the head to clean oil galleys. They reinstalled all but one. I didn't even notice. It just goes to show that you must check everything yourself.




I borrowed a plug form the old engine and used The Right Stuff to quickly slam the thermostat housing back on (didn't want to wait a day for RTV to cure). Refill oil and coolant, engine fired back up. No other leaks. I set off to find a country road to break in the engine. I worked it hard for 40 miles with alternating load and engine braking. The extra displacement spools up the turbo faster. It didn't catch on fire, so that's a plus. It actually held together fine. Fuel trims were fine, coolant temp was fine, no noises. It does lope some at idle and vacuum is around 15 inches Hg. No stalling or CEL, so I guess I'll let it lope. I changed the oil when I got home (dark with moly assembly lube, but no sparkles). I'll put some miles on it driving to work and see what happens.




Corbin
'97 GSX dressed like a '95 ESi