damn youve been doing some insane work i cant wait till you finish up this build i wanna see the numbers on this thing

 

400whp and 400+wtq is the plan. It is more then doable with the turbo I'm building, people on Tuners have pushed it deep into the 500whp range. I'll be making 400 on a much smaller level of psi.

 

You actually do have an eclipse Justin!! I thought you've been lying the whole time!! :fawk:

 

why not just buy new o2 sensors? have fun with the build!

 

Thanks. A pair of o2's is like 100$ at the cheapest, and that's ordering off rock auto and waiting for shipping. It'd be cheap and easy to put a wrench on the current ones and reusing them. Plus I guarantee they work, some of the replacement stuff is hit and miss.

 

wow, looks like quite a project, can't wait to see it done:ndance:

 

I have been following this build for quite sometime glad to see some pics and info on here

 

Deffinately happy for you after reading all your posts the last few months, keep us updated..

 

awwwwww snap

 

:wub: Oh man guys. :lol: I hold no animosity for any other 3ger here except maybe a few of the idiots poluting the forum with their misleaded antics. By that I mean I am in no way competing with anyone, least of all Charles. I have a great respect for what he is doing and have learned through my own endeavors about taking ones time. I have afterall been working on this since June 15th 2009. That day I bought a 6g72, a hoist and a stand and began learning. Honestly I say for any noob starting from zero (and I'm sure some of you remember when I was there) who actually wants to get somewhere and get good with this car, just dive in. There's nothing you can do turning bolts that you can't fix or undo or put back together. Might be stressful, but as long as you don't cut something unreplaceable then you'll make it out fine. Reading is/has taught me the conceptual stuff, but for everything I know about the 3g I got from pulling apart my own car and others. Hands on is the way to go.

Anyway, I wasn't kidding when I said I was going all out on this. Yesterday was huge, here's a few shitty pics of what's going on.

I spent a good 4 hours at the junkyard on Monday looking through suspension setups. I wanted a few parts for my own so I could trade out some bushings ahead of time. Didn't find anything worth pulling, so I went ahead and ripped mine apart anyway. I must comment though, after looking through thousands (literally thousands) of suspension setups I have to compliment the 3g's. Geometrically its a great design, tubular rear arms, rigid geometry, the fault is the soft stock bushings. These things kill the handling of the car, along with a set of soft springs and shocks. However even with the stock springs and struts its extremely improveable. This is how:

Rip the worthless shit out. A full prothane bushing set for our suspension goes for under 200$. If you go for the gold get 2 pairs of GST upper knuckle bushings too to do the upper and lower bushings on the rear knuckles to perfect it (this is what I've done/am doing).

For anyone whose done motor mounts, particularly if they've sleeved them tight, take the difference that gave between stock and apply it to every bushing in the suspension. The difference is astounding.

For those who have the 00 like me, we have a slightly different control arm setup in front then the rest of the years. The big bushing has an outer sleeve but not inner. The peg on the C-arm rids rid on the bushing (other years have an inner sleeve too). This allows the peg to rust and bind up the bushing and tear it up. The small bushing has an inner sleeve but not an outer sleeve so you can press it out and pull the rubber out of cut the entire thing out.

The previous owner did a lot with sound, so there was a lot of wiring that I've been cleaning up. There's one hole in the firewall intend to use for the gauges, of course I may need to make it a bit bigger. The MN rust is killing me, though I'm getting rid of a lot of it.

Back to the C arms. For anyone wanting to do bushings, you don't need a press. It makes life hella easier but the second option is the employment of hole saws. I have 3 sizes that I've done the whole suspenion with. I'll need one more to do the rear upper arms later this month. The trick is at Ace Hardware, their Bi-metal saws are unstoppable and super durable. I've put them through 1.5" of solid aluminum and multiple bushings without issue. Only bit of warning is in any case that the bushing starts to burn or melt, DO NOT BREATHE THE FUMES. It is insanely toxic, it can kill you. That said I've never had an issue.

While doing the control arm bushings it is stupid not to do the front sway bar bushings too. They're a whopping 10$, and I garentee your stocker are shot. I could move my bar all over the place, as well as bend the crap out of the endlinks.

With the prothanes in it is rock solid, I can't wait to drive it. (camara is sidways, the bushing comes out the bottom)

Prothane everything with Moog endlinks freshly installed and greased, all set to go.

My 3 gauge pod was painted silver by the PO, so I went and returned it to black with some Krylon Fushion, very good plastic paint when applied right.

I used this same paint on my bumper inserts 2 years ago and it hasn't chipped or decolored even after 2 winters.

Next task, finishing the injector harness. On GT's the rear harness is a completely seperate entity that you can unplug. I had an extra one so I hacked that up ahead of time, so I had to finish the front now that its high impedence duties are over with.

10 ohm 20 watt resistors bought off amazon. Only get the 20 watt, 10 watt will blow during extended use.

I used to hate wiring and electronics. Now I don't mind at all. I've done probably 6 hours of soldering this week alone.

Resistor goes on the hot/red wire. I'm also switching out the injector clips to run my PT 550's.

Finished product. I taped the resistors to the plastic casing for the time being which is why its so ugly. Once I have the clips on the injectors I'll cut the tape off and place them permanantly in the perfect place so they won't pull on the wires. It'll look nicer too. Everything was shrink wrapped with super nice heat shrink, its a clear kind that melts on the inside when it shrinks so it makes a perfect seal.

For anyone who gets a mishimoto radiator... bring your dremel. The stock fans fit, almost. You'll have to enlarge the holes in the mounting tabs at least a little. I got the drivers fan to bolt up just fine but the bottom 2 mounts on the passenger fan were off so I had to cut it a little. Also, don't be freaked out if a few fins have been brushed when you open it up brand new. Its packaged wonderfully but even though mine was brand spanking new a few fins were mildly tweaked in shipping.

Finished product.

That's all for yesterday's progress. Now I'm off to go pick up the shortblock. Yes, for real, time to pick this mofo up.

 

Did you have to drop the cross member to remove the front sway bar

 

Yeah drop the cross member then the control arms. 10 bolts total, big parts but very easy.

 

Glory.

3.6 liters of fully built V6 goodness. She's being kept sealed under wraps until monday or more likely tuesday when I can give it full attention and can bolt the trans to it right when I'm done assembling. My only fear right now is the valve to piston clearance due to the stage 2 cams. They were specified when ordering and the stock pistons don't actually have reliefs nor do the cams hit so I should be fine. I'll be claying it either way.

The other thing that came home from the shop:

Spec stage 4, to be used with 6 puck unsprung hub and a Fidanza 9 lb flywheel. Why were they at the shop? Getting balanced, that's why. Believe it or not the fhywheel just a smidge off, the pressure plate was a tiny amount off. The assembly has been balanced together so it will spin in perfection. This thing is gonna rev like no tomorrow!

Rest of the engine parts to the garage.

4 jobs left.
1) Assemble transmission. Waiting on parts from dealer which'll come Monday.
2) Pull O2 sensors and make exhaust. Gotta order exhaust parts next week...
3) Assemble engine. Gonna wait until Tuesday to do it all in one shot.
4) Wire up the gauges. This we started today.

Pulled the stock pillar trim and test fitted the pod and gauges.

Unlike most of the interior crap I see people put in, this fits like a glove.

I'm going to wire the gauges in on their own circuit running right off the battery. 10 amp inline fuse and this switch put into the fog light switch trim (I deleted my fogs).

I'm fried so I'm going to take the rest of the afternoon off to be lazy and let this all sink in. And figure out how to wire up all the wideband..

 

Impact gun should take good care of them. I've got an 00 and I live up north and I have yet to break a suspension bolt or come to one I can't get out.

 

I've snapped plenty on this car haha actually come to think of it we had to torch some of them off because they were seized

 

good grief justin!!!! do it big baby boy!! i cant wait to hear this thing running. hella proud of you brotha. now i just have to keep reminding myself that i dont need to be the fastest so ill leave mine alone. lol.

 

:wub: Thanks BJ. I can't wait to rip them loose in first gear on a roll.

 

hell I can do that now and it also happens if i clutch dump in 2nd, but you'll be able to do it in third!

 

if those cams dont work out for ya you should sell them to me haha jus saying. Anyways back to pm's

 

No doubt you will be the first person I talk to if they don't work. However I don't see how they can't, the reliefs are deeper then those on the stockers and you can cam the stockers so by logic... That's what I keep telling myself anyway. :lol: I'm getting antsy. I'll probably go start working on it even though I'm supposed to be lazy right now.

 

Oh god, hopefully only once the turbo is in. Though with the balanced clutch and all this lightweight stuff it'll drive unlike anything I've ever driven.

I'm nervous as hell, I've done oils pans and stuff before but RTVing the main seal and oil pump is damn high stakes! Hopefully some pics later tonight.

 

Did mostly house cleaning tonight. I am short one part to start on the gauges and that's a 10 amp inline fuse, once I have that I'll get going on those. As for the motor, I finished dressing the block. Installed new freeze plugs and the oil galley plugs as well. Then put the windage tray on and decided to wait til tomorrow to do the RTVing as I need some new stuff.

Question for the night: is there a gasket that goes between the water pump and its housing? Time to investigate.

 

Progress looks great!
And as far as i know there should be a gasket between the pump and the housing, usually your new water pump comes with one.

 

Ah shit man. You'll let me know the instant this thing is done right? Hell, I should stop by and check it out before then! Let me know. My phone is not with me right now though. But either way I definitely want to check it out.

Good luck!

 

Drop by anytime between 10 and 3 during the week exc Memorial Day (working overtime). I'm always working on it. Hoping to have it running by Thursday, just depends on if the trans parts and ROM come in quick enough.

 

Went to the yard and grabbed a gasket. 5$ worth of gas and an hour of my time, it was in decent enough shape to use but I cleaned it up a little bit and installed it with some blue permatex to keep things tight. Put in some solid hours today...

Torque specs. Lots of them.

Timing stuff. Getting anxious now!

RTV-ed everything and installed. Oil pump, main seal, upper and lower oil pans.

Lower oil pan was done up with some silver high temp paint.

Water pump in.

All timing components in.

Got a bit frisky and put the PS bracket too soon. Gotta time it and put in the timing covers before that guy.

I spent probably 45 minutes just cleaning stuff. Went through half a roll of shop towels and half a can of brakekleen making sure the decks were 100% spotless.

Installing ARP head studs. Lubricate the threads with ARP moly assembly lube.

Fully dressed. Ready for the heads.

Head ready for installation.

Heads in! Not torqued yet, had to take a dinner break and figure out some misc stuff.

Whenever I'm not working on it it is covered by the bag.

I must thank BJ (boostzealot) for his help. He's been nudging me along through this keeping everything on the right track, I can't thank him enough for his help. I've done timing belts and head gaskets but this is a whole different league.

My current hang up is I don't have a torque wrench that does inch pounds, just foot pounds so I can't rebuild the fidanza's yet with locktite. I have to go to my shop tomorrow for a baleout there. Also need to bleed the lifters so I can install the rockers so I have to pick up a gallon of deisel tonight and find some wire. Once those two jobs are done timing it will be 5 minutes and if the valves clear then its another 10 minutes worth of stuff to install before its ready to drop in. Should be getting the trans stuff tomorrow and I'll zip that back up then its drop in time!

 

I wish I had more hands. So I can give this thread 4 :yesway:'s

 

Fuck your thought Rico make it 10 thumbs up

 

:clap:

 

Oh yeah, now we are getting somewhere.

 

Whew, what a day. I put some miles down and got my shit together. At this rate, I might have it fired up sooner then I thought.

Pushed in the cam seals, lubed up the journals and popped this baby in there. Front cam in.

Slid in nicely, its tight but not too tight, perfectly in spec.

One of the big thorns in my side today.

It was half a degree off, and assembled without locktite so I (with BJ's advice in mind) took them apart.

Then I went off and ran 2 hours of errands. Stopped at the shop and picked up 5 quarts of Break In oil and got the gears torqued. Kenny was nice enough to do it for free.

Assembled with red locktite and torqued to 45 inch pounds.

Stopped by the dealer for this business.

GST speedo gear and new rollers for the diff. Fucking dealership didn't even call me to tell me they were in like they said they would. The douchebags.

Finished up the cams and gears. They spin so easily without the rockers in.

Wetted down the wavetrac and tossed it in the freezer.

The fun didn't stop, time to time it at last!

These engine are very easy to time if you pull out the center tensioner, just the roller itself not the rotating bracket. Pull that out and hole the belt over the crank cog, then bring it up and match the teeth over the front bank gear. Move the gear to match the teeth then turn it to make it tight. Then install the belt over the water pump and other gear. Turn the rear gear to match the teeth then crank it back to pull it tight, the only slack will be between the rear gear and the crank, install the center tensioner. I pried it tight with a screw driver and tightened the bolt. 2 sets of hands helps. Pulled the pin on the hydraulic unit effortlessly. Cranked it 10 times and they match perfectly.

Painted the valve covers with VHT Flame Treatment paint. Lots of coats. Lots...

Turned it to TDC and install the distributor with the rotor pointing to cylinder 1, she is set to go.

Then of course I had to go to work. While out I also picked up a half a gallon of deisel to use to bleed the lifters which I'll do tomorrow. Once those are in its the lower manifold, water housing and the accessory bracketry and its ready to bolt to the trans. Gotta reassemble the trans tomorrow too. She's comin' together!