This is a follow up thread/project thread from my original introduction here.
http://www.galanttuners.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=800Sorry, I haven't been around here much. I must own too many DSM's, if that's possible.
I've made a ton of progress, and things have popped up which need attending to. In short, rod knock, but now that the motor is out, I'm taking the opportunity to go all the way so to speak, and get everything that has been begging for my attention for so long taken care of in one shot.
To be brief, I picked up this gem, #145/2000 1/26/2009 as it looks below.
As with any vehicle that is almost 20-years old, it's beauty was only skin deep, although not really too bad at all. She has spent her whole life in Orlando, FL and pretty rust free, very clean compared to many.
Still stock, I started with rims/tires. Kumho 225/45-18's on ADR 18 x 7.5" White powdercoat.
Looked hideous, so I gave her a drop. Eibach 1g Pro-kit's on KYB GR-2's with a 1" spacer in the rear.
After that, it just underwent general maintenance/oil changes, took it to the track a couple times in stock form.
She went almost 1-year before I started upgrading stuff.
First I ditched the small crappy stock FMIC in favor of this with custom 2.5" piping, all custom work.
Upgraded to an MHI Small 16g.
Also, somewhere in there I put on a custom made 2.5" exhaust (soon to be 3" turbo-back), 4ws delete, and some other odds and ends.
This is how she looked as of last week. Not entirely accurate, but pretty close.
Well, irregardless of having been told I bought her with a rebuilt motor (top to bottom, yeah right), 10,000 miles later (as of last week), the bottom end developed the very early sound of a rod knock.
Time for a tear down. I started Friday, 4/16.
Progress...
And more progress...
Not too bad. .020 over should take care of the scoring in the walls.
Doesn't look like the head was built 10,000 miles ago, but the seller lied to me many other times besides that, so oh well, it is what it is.
Head is as clean as I can get it for the time being. Not too clean at all, but I'm sure the builder will have it spotless. It will be sent off to get work done soon. 5-angle valve job, 1mm OS stainless valves, revised lifters, port-matched intake/exhaust ports, either Evo valve springs, or BC Standards and Brass valve guides.
These will have to wait until after the new paint/body work. Pre-facelift JDM corners (clear, just with colored bulbs), perfect for a White car.
Engine and Tranny out completely, sub-frame and all.
I accidentally bent the custom battery tie-down I made for the custom tray, I also fabbed. Oh well, no biggie. Everything else came out clean, even though I don't have a lift to use. The Jack barely got the front high enough to clear the block, but I made do. I plan to re-install the engine in the same way as to avoid scratching the fresh paint that will soon be in the bay.
Made some progress over the past few days. It is a bit of a long road ahead, but I hope to have the engine and bay done in the next couple months. Hope! I know how these projects can go.
ABS removal. It never worked anyway.
Big empty hole as a result. I'm sure I'll figure out something to do with the space.
More emptiness.
Rust spot under where the battery tray used to be. I'll stop that dead in it's tracks. POR-15 FTW!
Lots more dirtiness. Probably a good 19-years of caked on grease.
Progress stopped today around the time I figured it best to pull the dash out to get the rest of the harness out of the bay. I hate pulling dashes. LOL. Seems like a good task to start the day off with tomorrow.
The plan is to strip everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) out of the bay, strip the paint down, lay down primer, paint a nice fresh coat of Summit White, and get it all back together, of course with squeaky clean new parts. Being that it is rare, I want to take the time to get it good as new. It's been on hold/neglected for some time until a couple weeks back when I picked up a solid '92 Eclipse GSX to drive while the Galant goes under the knife.
The main goal is to take the time, do it right, do it once, and hopefully not have to dig into her again for many years to come.
Although my goals have changed slightly since I've owned her, I've got a good solid plan in concrete. Keeping in mind this is intended to be a daily driver (I'm not required to drive much during the day, so not your typical DD duty), the overall goal is 350HP. The small 16g is very potent and spools as fast, if not faster than the stock 14b, and will easily achieve that goal with supporting mods, so I will keep it. I'm planning on putting in Evo 9 forged pistons on 1g Rods (forged, perhaps), as well as an Evo 8/3g style MAF, 560 injectors, and most likely ECMLink, and will likely stick with the Walbro 190, and tune for a solid 15-17psi from the Small 16g.
That's all for now. I have this build thread on a few different forums at the moment and I will copy and paste here what I post everywhere else to keep it updated, and respond to any questions/comments along the way.
Thank you for taking the time to read over.
