91 GSX Build (Good enough to beat Jobe)

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Ok, no innuendo this time, I promise lol

I present to you...............


COOKIE MONSTER

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1991 Mitsubishi Eclips GSX Automatic (AWD Turbo)

Our story began late this summer, shortly after moving into the new house. Travis and I were surfing the web, and looking at AWD cars because we think AWD is "Teh Beez Kneez". Not really thinking much of it, we came across a GSX with "Transmission Problems" for $1300. That's stupid cheap by anybody's standards, and ATX's arent THAT hard to rebuild if needed.

We went out to the old Independence. The car was in baaad shape. The paint didn't sparkle, the tires were old, the stereo was gone, and it had trouble starting... After a few attempts by the shop owner to get it started, I hopped in and got it to crank over and run. We let it warm up, and it idled fine... for not having any sort of muffler. Compression test said 180 across the board, which was spec for these motors...

Test drive went well, and Travis ended up buying it. There werent' any transmission problems... The dude had it on sport mode, and had OD off, so it was shifting abnormally... Kickdown shifts werent' working either, since the TPS +5V Reference wire was cut... We get it home, and took some pictures...

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I decided the paint needed major attention, so we bought plenty of polishing compount, and spraypaint to re-apply the stripes, and I went to work.

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For rattle canning the stripes, they turned out really well

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Next Shop, Sexon Muffler to see Rick

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The car was NASTY underneith.... But not rusty, and that's what counts

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The Cookie Monster made it home, and was looking sharp

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Everything went well for about a month, and it started developing blowby. Adding boost with my Manual Boost Controller didn't help...

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The blowby actually started clearing up unexplicably... so we decided we'd take it racing.... There are videos of it losing on my Youtube account lol. One one video, Jon noticed it was pinging really hard. I couldn't hear it from the passengers seat of the SHO it was racing... Too bad... That took the motor out. The next day, it was puking oil out of the dipstick like crazy.

Time for a rebuild...
 
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The old motor was gross...

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I didn't feel comfortable re-ringing the motor inside the car, so out she came!

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I'm going to go get some food. More on this later!
 
i like the stripes, that motor was beyond gross, i think it died a long time ago and just wouldnt admit it. whats your plans for the motor?
 
I spent a LONG time cleaning and deleting things out of that car... I decided I'd paint the frame rails once I got the oil buildup off of them... You can really see how black and gross everthing was in the pic from the last post.

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2TC has a strict No BS policy.

AC Delete
PS Delete
Evap Canister Delete
Vacuum Line Delete
MAF Delete
Etc.

I was planning on tuning it myself, so we got an LC-1 Wideband, and Megasquirt, my weapon of choice!

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On KCSR one day, I saw a car for sale down in Pittsburg, KS. It uhh... had seen better days... The motor, on the other hand, was pretty sweeet.

The kid who had it down there was maybe a JR in highschool at best, and had no idea how to work on a car, let alone give this project what it needed... he just saw a big freakin turbo and signed on the dotted line.

The Transmission would pop out of 1st and 2nd, no power steering, vacuum lines werent fastened togeather, but over all... runs and drives.

Enter Parts Car

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It was supposed to have a HX35 Turbo, XS Power Stainless Manifold, Tial 40mm wastegate, Ported head, Forged piston, Greddy kevlar timing belt, FMIC, and a couple more goodies. From what I've whitnessed, these are mostly true. The head looks like it may have a valve job at best. I can see some smooth parts at the bottom of the bowl, but the rest appears to be casting. Some of the casting flaws HAVE been removed... but a stage 3 ported head??? ehh... I kinda doubt it

The drive up to KC was OK... It made it the whole way home. It died a couple times at stops, but would at least start back up... The "Tune" was just a MAF calibration... How lame. We pulled off one time because the seller called and said he needed a signiture... so there we are on a back road.. Gravel... one and a half lane... with a Mitsubishi that wont start, and a F150 pulling a trailer tryint to turn around. THEN he calls back, and says he didn't need the signiture... I was PISSED! Went over to the parts car, like "EEEEHHHYYYAAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!!!" :eek: and ripped off the spoiler and threw it on the ground.

The car promptly started after it was shown who was boss, and we made it back to KC. Closer to home, I put it in 4th, and laid into it about half throttle... I saw tripple digits faster than I was expecting to. Got off on my exit; First gear, no traction. Seccond gear, no traction, let off in 3rd.... Trav catches up with me, and we're about to the house so I put it in 3rd again and lay into it... Feels like the escort, and then -- Woah... The turbo spooled up and I was smashed back into the seat! Then POW POW POW POW POW POW POW!!!! The two vacuum lines that weren't clamped down on the ENTIRE FREAKING CAR were the BOOST CONTROLLER and the FUEL PRESSURE REGULATOR! The most important ones! GRR

Meanwhile, with the hood popped, we found some of the previous owner's handywork... The old turbo was coolant and oil fed. The new one, only oil. This left a pressurized coolant port exposed. The last owner hose clamped a short line to it, and clamped a bolt to the other end. Ofcoruse it leaked after meeting 2TC, and coolant was spraying everywhere...

SO out the motor came....

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More cleanup, and more repairs continue

Dad helped grind a stripped bolt off of the old flywheel

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We swapped a lot of parts over to the good car...

Door pannels
Shocks
Interior pieces
Speakers
Misc covers
Rear Tail Light
Speedo cable
Motor mounts
Just to name a few...

I'm still unable to mount the trans to the motor because BOTH the old and new motor are missing a bushing that centers the torque converter. It was $11 from Mitsubishi, but it has to be flown across the pond a bit, and won't get here until tuesday :(

I needed a motor mount for the transmission side anyway, as the solid mount for the manual transmission is dissimilar. It took all day, and I found two hockey pucks. Perfect fit into the old motor mount's shell. Epoxied them in, drilled the center out for the dowel, and it's good to go!

In the mean time, I did some reading on Megasquirt and how I would control my ignition coils. Mitsubishi has basically direct coil control through the ECU, and I can't steal it :( After reading, my options were lifting traces off of the MS Circuit board, and conditioning the signal to run two outputs, OR convert it to something completely different.... Something VERY familiar... Ford EDIS.

I went out to the yards, and found a 93 Escort motor on the ground from someone's failed attempt to pull it. I removed the crank pulley with attached 36-1 trigger wheel, the crank position sensor, and the EDIS-4 Module.

I sawzaw'd the trigger wheel off of the crank pulley, drilled two bolt holes in alignment with TDC on the mitsubishi motor, and fastened it to the crank.

While I was at it, I pulled the front cover off of the old motor, since the new motor had a big gaping hole in it's cover.....

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While I was in the OLD motor, I noticed that the exhaust cam was retarded one tooth. That explains the lacking performance and quick turbo spool time....

All painted, and with my CPS bracket installed, the final product was this:

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last night, I took the old cam position sensor wire off of the cougar (Since it's a shielded wire), soldered it to the crank sensor I just added, wrapped it with tape, and routed it up to the top of the motor for easy access. It's traveling below the alternator, up along the block, between the coolant outlet tube, and up to the motor mount bracket on the drivers side. I ran the wires through the inside of the bracket, and put a 2 plug male connector on the end, and fastened the shielding wire below one of the mount bolts so that it's grounded. This should make the wiring harness a lot easier to make.

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(white plug below the cam gear)
 
TO DO:


Transmission related
-Drill out motor mount for bigger dowel
-Pull pin out of crankshaft
-Put flexplate on crankshaft
-Put bushing in crankshaft
-Seat Torque converter on transimssion
-Mount motor mount to transmission
-Mount transmission to motor
-Mount starter to bellhousing
-Remount transmission cooler
-Flare ends of transmission cooler solid lines
-Run Flexi-tube to new trans cooler location

Car Related
-Fix lower brace on front bumper so the car doesn't have a fat lip
-mount FMIC
-Polish other fog light
-Mount oil cooler
-Mount EDIS-4 bracket
-Install neon washer sprayers i've had since I was 16

Wiring related
- Wire main relay below battery tray
- Rewire factory harness to accept FORD TPS, +1 Output
- Run heavy gauge +12v to the starter
- Run heavy gauge +12v to my harness
- Hook +12v to Wideband (Switched)
- Hook +12v to EDIS-4
- Hook +12v to Megasquirt harness
- Hook +12v to Injectors and Coils
- Bring ground from fender well to Megasquirt, EDIS-4, and Wideband
- Run a wire to GM Temp Sensor
- Run wires from CPS to EDIS-4
- Run wires from Coils to EDIS-4
- Bring wires to megasquirt from Temp Sensor, EDIS, Injectors, TPS
- Document, Solder, and Assemble high quality connectors
- Tape and loom everything

MOTOR INSTALL!
 
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thats not to much, you should have all that done by new years?

might be a little longer :p I'm going to try for next weekend.

TODAYS GOALS:
-Polish other fog light
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-Pull pin out of crankshaft (Ended up grinding it since it wouldn't pull)
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(Did some cleaning too)
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-Put flexplate on crankshaft (Missing a bolt! GRR)

-Mount oil cooler (Need to re-route tubes down the road.)
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-Mount EDIS-4 bracket
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(Middle left on firewall)

-Wire main relay below battery tray
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Random Repair while on the phone:
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(The actual socket was unplugged and had fallen down in the hole. Re-attached.)

TODAY's GOALS:
- Rewire factory harness to accept FORD TPS, +1 Output
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(hard to see but it's laying on the timing gear cover)

- Run heavy gauge +12v to my harness
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(Mr.PlasticMouse holds +12v away from ground :D)
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Looks terrible. I'm going to have to redo this already. Should have used an O2 connector like I did on the cougar.

- Hook +12v to Injectors and Coils
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- Run wires from Coils to EDIS-4
- Run wires from CPS to EDIS-4
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ADDITIONAL GOALS ACCOMPLISHED TODAY:
- Run a wire to GM Temp Sensor
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- Bring wires to megasquirt from Temp Sensor, EDIS, Injectors, TPS
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And KINDA worked on this:
- Document, Solder, and Assemble high quality connectors
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SATURDAY GOALS:

- Hook +12v to Wideband (Switched)

- Hook +12v to Megasquirt harness

- Bring ground from fender well to Megasquirt, EDIS-4, and Wideband

- Finish wiring Megasquirt Connector

DO HOMEWORK
 
Progress:

Found other missing flexplate bolt, and installed it

Antiprogress:

While tightening that bolt, the crank turned, and the tension on the timing belt yeilded, thus allowing the crank to slip, causing PTV interference.

Progress:

Kicked the parts car a couple times, disassembled the motor, re-timed it, and painted the valve cover.

It is partly assembled now. I'm pissed still.
 
ouch, my brain is starting to hurt lol. looks like your having alot of fun. glad its you and not me :)
 
ouch, my brain is starting to hurt lol. looks like your having alot of fun. glad its you and not me :)

Hahaha I know, right? When I do stuff, I go all out.

Redid the gross connectors with some radioshack bought power couplings. Looks and works better.

Megasquirt wiring is complete

Did some grinding on the framerail where the new timing gear sits, just incase my "Excessive driving" causes something to shift and create contact.

Going back down to the dungeon to wire the LC-1, and then it's off to bed for me. I'm worn.

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LC-1 Wiring is basically done. I have the signal wire in the cockpit for the gauge, and I have a substantial ground wire running in as well to be connected to a switch. I'm out of crimp connectors to affix it to the switch :(

Other than that, wiring is done.

Dad finished the passenger motor mount (hockey pucks).

I'm picking up my bushign tomorrow. Wish me luck guys
 
yet another setback.... Won't come in until tomorrow (maybe)...

Does not look like I'll be making the holiday meet unless there is a 2TChristmas miracle
 
Ended up switching out some interior pieces with some that I'd gotten from the yard. These are the most noticeable differences...

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Added my personal touch...

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This piece was horribly contorted, and it looked like jason
 
Still not asleep. Added more prettyness. Pics are self explanitory

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AFR pod where the heat/ac blend control was.
 
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