g14novak

iTrader: (1)

Today marks the beginning of my swap. After some long planning and the help of friends, I'm building my turbo car. It may not be done in a week, but I'll end up there. I've been planning several different builds over the past year or so trying to find out something that would be quick and not rob me blind (insert owning rx7 joke here).

A local friend ran into some issues ordering his motor. He unfortunately got screwed by tigerjapanese. I went to his house to check the motor, it spit water all over us that was rust colored and smelled of old sushi. So, in his current situation, not having extra cash to send the motor back and get another, I'm trading him my 91 NA block with carb accesories (carb, IM, coils, pump) for his blown 91 vert block with turbo accesories. This is fine for both our cases since he needs a car immediately to drive to and back from school. And I don't need a car any time soon because my license is suspended .

As I go through my build, I'm going to post why I did some of the stuff I did to help out others who are starting their own build and are looking for what direction to take it.

So far on my list of parts collected, I have:
Stock turbo
Stock downpipe
UIM
Throttle body
Stock charge pipe

S5 frankenmotor
-S5 N/A 9.7:1 rotors
-S5 TII streetported tapas
-S5 N/A housings ported to/bigger than stock turbo housings
-GSL-SE pacmans
-RA super hard seals (pending the specs of the ones currently inside the motor, this may go a different direction)
-"Superseal" reusable soft seals (my mechanic showed me these, I still need to do more research about them: who makes them, reviews of them, etc.)
-Dowel pinning where needed

The motor is not going to be started in the car until it is being pulled up onto a dyno to get tuned. Don't worry guys, no hi-comp screw ups here.


I've spent the past couple days polishing up parts.

UIM ~2 hours on the brush:


UIM ~4 hours on the brush:


Cleaning (not modding) the TB:



A lot of people choose not to clean their motors when they get them. I find this a huge problem. If I were to have just dropped in this JDM motor for my friend, it wouldn't have ran correctly. The secondaries in the TB were STUCK closed. They would not move. I let it sit overnight soaking in PB Blaster and hit it with a screw driver and hammer in the morning to get them undone. I know some people remove the secondaries completely when they do anything with the TB. I chose not to because I feel the smoother throttle control is better IMO. If I wanted faster throttle response, I would have stayed carb.

~2 hours on the brush


The shaft play in this turbo is fine. It barely wiggles around. But it doesn't spin very freely. I searched but didn't end up coming up with much on how to dissassemble/reassemble the turbo. It sounds like the bearings are bad. If this ends up being the situation, I'll ditch this turbo completely and go on further with my project. This turbo was mainly going to be used for the break in of the motor anyway.


I'll continue to post as I get further with the build including the teardown and rebuild of the block.

g14novak

iTrader: (1)

A important note to mention in this build is that when completed, I want the car to run like stock. Boost like stock (with more psi of course), blow a/c and have p/s like stock, but with more power. Enough to blow by LSx cars with the a/c on and windows up.

The current turbo of choice is the GT3076R on a Haltech E6K ECU (which was very thankfully found by a local friend for a very good price). Keep in mind, all parts are subject to change if they do not meet my goals listed below.

Car is not going to go past 93 pump gas. A AI water mist kit from RICE RACING will be installed for safety reasons.


Whops. Forgot to post the goals.

Final goals for the completed car:
-12.0 in the 1/4 without having to change/remove anything on the car
-P/S with no play in the steering
-***A/C***
-Full interior
-All the major body wiring/computer fixes (i.e. the horn, blinkers, and wipers)

ecko

iTrader: (57)

nice....are you using that fork lol.

g14novak

iTrader: (1)

That fork was super important when I was cleaning out the TB. I used it to stick in the side of the throttle so the plates would stay open.

MaczPayne

iTrader: (5)

What's your HP goal?

g14novak

iTrader: (1)

Well, with full interior and street tires trying to run a 12.0, I'd imagine that puts me somewhere between 400 and 500.

But as I stated earlier, I'm aiming more for a time than a HP number. A car can be making 800WHP but if it doesn't go down the track in under 10 seconds, its a big hunk of wasted money.

Like I said earlier, parts can change, but the goals are pretty solid. 12.0 at the track.

puhpaper

iTrader: (6)

When you say "on the brush" are you using just a wire brush and your hands? or do you mean a wire wheel on a drill?

p.s. very inspirational.

g14novak

iTrader: (1)

Wire brush on the end of a 20$ 500rpm drill. Using a hand brush may have been faster....

And thank you. I got tired of looking at swaps where the motor people put in looked dirtier than the one they pulled out. Plus, keeping things clean means you don't get dirty when you have to take it back apart **AND** you can find leaks easier. It's a all around win-win situation.

puhpaper

iTrader: (6)

man, i've been sanding that gritty texture and polishing the manifolds, and i've gotta say that it takes forever. I didn't know what a big investment it was to actually clean/polish all the components and replace all the according gaskets.

But I agree completely, I'm all about performance, but I'll say that appearance also has its place and would like to knock some socks off when I pop my hood.

Great work - keep it up.

KhanArtisT

iTrader: (2)

Cool project, but the 3076 won't get you 400-500whp. You might want to look into different turbos, mainly the 35R if you have the cash for it.

g14novak

iTrader: (1)

What about the 3071? If not that, I'll try and end up with the 3582. I just want something that spools as fast as/faster than stock.

I'll look more into it as I get closer to that step of the project, but for now, I still need to install and reinforce a drivetrain.

Step by step till its done!


EDIT: keep in mind, if I reach my time goal on the 3076, I'll stick with that turbo. I'm going for track #'s, not dyno.

magus2222

iTrader: (22)

you like clean? you dont even know what clean is till i post up my engine build.

seriously though, get a wire will, get a die grinder and get a pump, WAY faster

Lloyd

g14novak

iTrader: (1)

My compressor took a crap a week or so ago. Harbor Freight stuff .

I'm going back up there before the weekend to get some other stuff so I'll probably pick one up then.


And trust me, my POS drill is much better than what I started off with. I do a lot of lapping on computer parts so I'm use to it being easy to remove material with regular sandpaper. I got one of the the TB side intake tubes done with the regular sand paper (first pic, 2nd tube from the left) and decided it was time to quit being THAT cheap...

ecko

iTrader: (57)

hey if it works its all good.g/l with the project.

bad 83

iTrader: (3)

A brass wire wheel makes for some durable shine without all the wire marks. I do all my aluminum that way. Looks descent so far. Get you a gallon can of carb cleaner to soak that throttle body in before your done with it. Some pics of my last engine build to maybe inspire you to do all your aluminum.

arghx

iTrader: (3)

skip the dowel pinning, waste of money for that power level

puhpaper

iTrader: (6)

After I wire-brush, i wipe down with mother's polish, and man does it shine.

p.s. i'm using a steel brush.

g14novak

iTrader: (1)

Really? I was under the impression that was the power range where the rear iron usually starts cracking. It's not going to cost me any money out of pocket since I have a couple extra blocks that I'm going to be pulling the pins out of.

Bad 83, that polishing looks good, your motor turned out pretty nice. But I'm not trying to end up with all polished parts. I'm just trying to clean a lot of the surface and make it smooth for paint to stick.

So upon pulling my old motor today, I noticed something. I removed my A/C condenser with a cut-off wheel about a year ago so the A/C idea just went out the window.

I've been doing some more cleaning with the wire brush but haven't taken any pics yet. I'll get some once I finish cleaning the stock charge pipe and turbo.

I have 2 questions so far:
-Is it possible on the T2 manifolds to pull the vacuum nipples out of the LIM and UIM, not just cap it? I don't want to start tugging on it and bend it all up if its not gonna come out.
-What size fuse do people usually use for their inline for the fuel pump?


And I picked up some more parts yesterday.

New total list:
Stock turbo
Stock downpipe
UIM
Throttle body
Stock charge pipe
S5 N/A harness (un-modified)
N374 S5 T2 JDM ecu
Walbro drop-in
T2 coils

finishline

iTrader: (13)

pretty nice build. keep us updated. =]

Righty

iTrader: (4)

I've removed them on the LIM, I'm not 100% on the UIM. They can be stubborn though, definatly not reusable after removal.

g14novak

iTrader: (1)

Re-usable isn't a issue for me. I want to know if they can come out so I can fill the holes with liquid aluminum and smooth them.

arghx

iTrader: (3)

Like so many things in the realm of car modification, it depends which internet forum post you believe. Some say it is necessary on all the 2nd gen castings once you get to the 400-500whp level. Others say it is only necessary on the series 4. From my own experience my series 4 irons could take plenty of detonation and never broke, but I upgraded to series 5 anyway when I tore my engine down.

I know the FD engines are good to 500-600 at least, hardly anyone dowels an REW unless they are making stupid power out of a 2 rotor.

cosmo7

iTrader: (3)

Yeah if u go wit a gt35r turbo it could be possible to get the hp your looking for. Good luck on your build bro

g14novak

iTrader: (1)

Really? When I go to pick up the plates, I'll have to be sure and pick out a set that has the thicker casting.

And it wasn't by this forum, it was a local pretty well known mechanic (Curian) that told me the dowels would make a difference in reliability terms. I still want to try and pull 100k of DD miles out of this block once I put it in and tune it.

I've heard from a different people locally and on here that AI (water inj. pre-compressor to be exact) helps prolong the life of the motor as well as lower the chance of knock.

g14novak

iTrader: (1)

So I picked up some stuff today.

After countless hours trying to use wire brushes in this drill, I gave up on it. I went up to the local ACE Hardware and picked up a Dremel and some sanding and polishing bits. Off to the side in the pics below, you can see where I spent some time on the charge pipe practicing with the Dremel. It definitely cleans and takes material off ALOT faster than that drill. Probably one of the best investments I'll have made throughout this whole project.

Also, I decided it was time to change my motor mounts. These old ones still look usable, right?



I went ahead and got some Himni solid mounts from a friend locally for a pretty good price.



So far, this brings the total spent on this build to:
Manifolds, ecu, harness, and turbo: 0$
Dremel & accesories: $50
Himni solid mounts: $70
Total: $120