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I guess it's about time I made a build thread to keep up with what I've done to my car.
I bought this car back in March of 2013 with 108k miles on it from a friend of mine. I traded my 97 240sx with SR20det swap and some cash. Since it was a friend of mine and I knew my car would be going to a good home I jumped on the deal.
This was back in 2010 before my friend had bought it even. I still have those SSR's for it. Waiting on tire money! 2 owners ago
The first summer I had it:
The car had previously been built several times and been through a pretty rough life. The last 2 years before I had it it spent life on jack stands though and the body of the car was in really good shape inside and out. My friend had spun a bearing in the built 2.0 with a 6262 and then got over zealous with aspirations to make it a super fast show monster. He had wire tucked and shaved the engine bay, painted it silver (the bay) and let Chase Bays do a lot of prototyping on the car for their Evo products. To get it running he got a deal on an Evo 4 engine and had been toying with getting it going for a while. By the time I came along, it was running pretty well but definitely had some issues.
I immediately had to change the clutch as the disc had come apart from the center section, so as soon as I bought the car I bought the largest jack stands I could find (so funny..) and got to work doing the worst clutch job I have ever done. In my life. Hands down.
Oh yeah, part of the trans had broken off. I had to get that welded back on.
First off the car leaked oil and had been for a while, so the underside was coated in dirt and grit and all sort of undesirables. Long story short I got the new Comp stage 2 (I think) clutch put on and broken in and then started getting some of the other things in order.
There were some things electrically that didn't work like the fender lights, some of the interior lights, the engine harness had been hacked up pretty bad too. I bought used chassis and engine harnesses, took it down to my friend's house that I had bought it from and we got to work pulling out his 100% custom tucked in behind the radio fuse box and CB tucked engine harness..
I do want to say that this was all very good looking, it was just causing a lot of issues for me trying to daily drive this thing. Also the CB powersteering lines made the system whine soooo bad especially in cold weather. It was unbearable to drive. Oh and there was that time the line was rubbing the alternator and rubbed a hole in it and ran out of fluid on the interstate and locked the pump up and I had to get the car towed home. Oh and it doesn't have power brakes. However, I don't want this to turn into a bash thread.. So moving on.
Long story short I never got it to run just really well, I finally bought a house with a 2 car garage last fall after getting married and had started getting the last of the parts I needed to get the old original Evo 8 engine back together this past summer.
Some time in I think it was August I decided to compression test the engine and ended up getting 140-0-35-40 respectively on each cylinder and decided to go ahead and start slapping the engine together.
Always wear the approved engine pulling footwear, it was cold so socks were a must lol.
This was before I pressure washed the engine bay and got all the nasty out. I ended up pressure washing that transmission too
I was going to be doing the work myself mostly with leaving the machining to the local machine shop. I had the block honed, it had already been bored .02 over, and hot tanked, the deck was already nice and flat, and they painted it. I had the head cleaned, my friend had gotten the head ported and flow matched somewhere down in Alabama (I can't recall the name of the place) and it had been sitting in a bag on my shelf for some time.
I ended up having a lot of trouble with Evo 4 to Evo 8 parts and trying to figure out what to use because of one reason or another. Usually using the Evo 4 stuff only if I couldn’t get aftermarket parts cheap and if the Evo 8 stuff was dirty because of it being in an engine that had eaten a bearing. I didn’t want to risk this one doing the same thing because I cheaped out and reused a part I couldn’t fully clean.
I’ll spare everyone every single detail. Suffice it to say: I finally got it all together, took the time to polish up some parts and even clear coated them to keep them nice. I used the parts that I did, mostly because I either: already had it, it was a good option for the price, or it fit well with my intended goals.
Speaking of goals:
My goal with this car is to drive it. We don’t have any race tracks around here, there's a 1/8th mile drag strip a couple miles from my house, I enjoy a good stop light to stop light “cruise” from time to time, but mostly my favorite thing in the world is to drive down a good curvy road (at a safe speed for the locale) in a responsive, well-built car!
I believe in parts working together to make a car fast and not just putting a giant turbo on and calling it good. That having been said I agree I could have made a couple different choices that may have gone together better than what I have but that’s the good thing about bolts, most of the time they can be taken off.
Onto the parts!
Evo 8 4g63 bored 0.020” over
Wiseco 1400 HD 9:1 Comp ratio
Eagle Rods
GSC S2 cams
GSC Valve springs and retainers
Kiggly oil pressure regulator
Deleted balance shafts
Evo 4 intake manifold (much cleaner looking, I also don’t have a stock 8 IM)
Custom 4” intake with K&N filter
Custom 3” exhaust with Vibrant resonator and Magnaflow muffler
Megan O2 housing
FP Cast Race Manifold
FP HTA71 with 84mm Surge cover
Ported head stock valves
AEM EMS V1 (that’s what the car had in it)
GReddy Type S blow off valve (my fave)
Mishimoto radiator
Ebay intercooler
Pending mods:
Fluidampr harmonic balancer
ETS 3” intercooler.
Stock ecu on Tephra v7 and SD with boost control??? Kind of on the fence about this as I already know quite a bit about the AEM, and I feel like AEM probably logs better and has more diagnostic abilities… May end up going to an Infinity before it’s all said and done.
1250cc or so injectors, I recently found there is an e85 pump 12 miles from my house!
Last pic, all together.. That manifold shield bolt is in there now.
I suppose for the moment that wraps things up as far as where I am today. Here’s some video of cool noises that I have never had a car make before
I just added a lot of stuff to the original post.
I have GSC S2 cams and GSC springs and retainers for them.
Are you talking about my car or yours?
If you're talking about mine, I was pretty much WOT in those last vids but Im only running about 10psi. I'm sure theres a boost leak some where and Im not to the point of pushing it for power. Right now I'm just trying to get the engine broken in and the rings seated/I was excited about it running so strong.
I just added a lot of stuff to the original post.
I have GSC S2 cams and GSC springs and retainers for them.
Are you talking about my car or yours?
If you're talking about mine, I was pretty much WOT in those last vids but Im only running about 10psi. I'm sure theres a boost leak some where and Im not to the point of pushing it for power. Right now I'm just trying to get the engine broken in and the rings seated/I was excited about it running so strong.
i was talking about your car.
Yeah seems like a boost leak. I have also seen some broken gear housing, how did this happen ?
Yeah seems like a boost leak. I have also seen some broken gear housing, how did this happen ?
On the transmission/transfer case??
Originally Posted by dookgvr4
Ridgid tools are nice!
I have the same kit, and I purchased the 1/2" impact as well.
I almost pulled trigger on the hta71 but went with another fp variety
Yeah man! I got those at an outlet mall down in Gulf Shores Alabama a couple of years ago. I think I paid like $150 for the impact, the drill, 2 Li-On batts, a case, and some other bits and pieces.
Overall I'm really happy with them.
So far I am digging this turbo, but thats coming from someone who hasn't ever really driven a stock turbo Evo before. I got to drive this car before it was mine when it had the 6262 on it and although it was really cool to floor it and then boost hit at 5000 rpm and nearly blow the tires off, its just not for me.
I think this is truly the perfect turbo for this car. However if I ever desire more I'll probably go BB HTA73 Green. I ended up having to buy another 05 turbo and the hotside was 100% perfect uncracked. So if I ever want to, that's an option now.
I rocked s2's and a 71 for some time. The HKS 272's were quicker responding, but s2's brought this thing alive. With. Built motor, I'd zing a healthy sized boost spike, and tapered down, just to have that incredible torque from the smaller turbo.
Also plus one on the Greddy type s. Imho.the best driving bov on the market, past and present, possibly future ( although the type fv is working well.)
I don't have an Evo 9 WGA so I modded the 05 that I have to work with this turbo.. hold on I'll add pics of that.
Right now I have some massive boost leak going on, I never changed my boost settings from the stock setup to this and I was running about 19 psi before. I know that on stock Evo 4 injectors 19 psi from this turbo would quickly out flow them, but just for sake of principle I should be able to hit over 10 psi and Im not.
I don't have an air compressor either so boost leak checking is going to be tricky.. I may go to harbor freight and get the little pancake compressor for $40 or $50 just for this task.
Agreed!
Ah I know what you are referring to now. I honestly have no idea how that chunk broke off of the transmission, it was cracked when I got the car and I had my friend's dad weld it back up for me. It's been fine ever since then though.
The biggest project has been getting this car back to systems that work like the power steering. I haven't had a single whine or squeal from the power steering since switching from that stupid stainless steel line and AN fittings. It was just awful 100%.
I won't even sell it to someone else. Im just going to scrap it.
Awesome, thanks guys!
Im really excited to get this thing tuned and turned up now.
I got about 60 miles on my first oil last night so I went ahead and changed it last night. I have been using Valvoline VR1 20w-50 non synth version. I figure I can get it at the auto store and its relatively cheap and recommended by FP then I can't really go wrong with it.
Once I put synthetic in it for its regular oil changes I think I'll stick with the 20w-50 (may go 10w-40 for jan-feb) but Im not sure what brand yet..
I just did a ton of reading on BITOG and I think Im more confused on what I should use now haha. I had been using M1 10w30 in the E4 engine but I want to stick to the thicker stuff on my built one because I have a little bit looser tolerances in the bearings and the PTW vs stock. Plus I believe FP recommends 20w50 for their turbos so I'd like to have a single weight that did it all for my engine. Sadly that probably doesnt exist..
I'd like to be able to go to the store and buy a 5 quart jug any time I needed it too...
Dec 28, 2016, 12:03 PM
