The Project Pad

I bought a beat up old 90 coupe this winter. Car was set up by a friend of mine for rally cross events. I figured Minnesota winters are like rally cross in the snow, especially when you are commuting on roads that haven't been plowed like I frequently am. Bought the car with the intentions of only keeping it running. Well I like coupes too damn much and I found myself hating the no sway bar setup that this car had. The car also had a very bad rear suspension bang. I swapped in a set up I had lying around which was a 26mm control arm mounted front bar (late 89 90 style) in the rear, and an RS2 28mm front bar, with HD trans-mounts, Poly diff mount, and AL subframe mounts. Car is solid behaves like I wanted and has lots of grip.

Here are some pictures of it playing on the Tail of the Dragon (in the wet)




Well having gotten the handling to my liking and such I needed to address the damage the dragon dealt me which was a busted exhaust system that was rubbing on the diff output flange/cv. Little Craigslist score and I had a SS Brullen exhaust for $160


well with that on I love the sound of the car and I love it's handling needs some cosmetic love, but really not to worried about that with it's intended beater/dirt lifestyle. The next major issue is the cars oil Consumption. I know that this car has had at least 1 engine replacement and the head gasket blew a while ago so it's no surprise to me it's consuming oil, but it's leaking it as fast. Good thing I'm a parts hoarder I happen to have a little pile of goodies that recently got bumped to the spares bin. 3B harness with IA stage 3+ ecu, k26, 7At, 2.2 bar wg setup, and a spare 7A clutch. So 270HP should be just fine on this thing, not looking for monster power just want something durable and it also solves the hitachi over fuel issue!
The AAN intake will be replaced by my ABY unit

Oh man SUPER jealous of the Brullen! Best sounding exhaust on the NA 20v's in my opinion. Can't wait for a video clip both before and after turbo 8)

WOMBAT wrote:Oh man SUPER jealous of the Brullen! Best sounding exhaust on the NA 20v's in my opinion. Can't wait for a video clip both before and after turbo 8)

thanks I love the sound of this car. Especially with the catless exhaust. I'll be pulling the Brullen for the turbo build and installing a Vband instead of the stupid V-band since it's a shitty location for a flanged connection.

I also have to reweld the floor since the damage included the body mount being ripped from the floor. I also have to fix the overheating issue. Nissen rad isn't putting up with NA use, turbo use will kill it. really want to come up with something a little wider, and thicker. SQ style angle the rad more and put a newer style 16" fan on. I did the 16" fan on my old 20v 90 made the fan cycle much shorter with a 2200 cfm fan that draws 1/3 the power.

x2 on Brullen exhaust vid. I'm quite partial to my cat less Stebro, but it'd be nice to hear something new

If you haven't already, check out Afterthought's build thread here, he went with this Honda radiator from Summit. Looks like it'll be a nice upgrade when he's rolling.

http://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/m ... /overview/

Word of caution though - I've seen a couple people try the mishimoto Honda radiators (Dana - death4ktq) only to have overheating issues.

thats going to need a ton of ducting to make it work, but I think its possible. I didn't have good luck with mine, and ended up going to a full ron davis setup with factory aux rad added back in.
Side mount radiator cools like shit if they are not ducted up really well.

I have a good condition brass rad. I'll gladly work something out for some of the stuff you have sitting around, Sean.

well yesterday in traffic I blew out the high speed fan relay (smelted is a better term). So I think I just wounded an already gimp engine. Doing some diagnosis now, but the coolant was a brown burnt smell which means she got real toasty. Oil temps got to 130C before I could do anything, stuck in freeway parking. I guess this is forcing my hand a little as I now need to completely overhaul the cooling system since it's not functioning correctly at all.

I've also got a hole in the brullen exhaust now since both the rear exhaust hangers are ripped off the body. Guess I'll need to fix that. It's just the part between the two mufflers so it won't be hard and I can get the flanges out and put a v-band in there. I also need to put a flex in the exhaust I guess. The exhaust is currently welded straight to the header (not my doing) so I think it's over flexing the exhaust and causing my issues.

Time for turbo race car status I guess. Dewiring this car of all the non functioning, no longer used items will be fun. I know the HVAC system alone is like 5 circuits and a mess of wiring since it runs into everything. Ditching the stock heater since the harness is smoked (best guess for cause is something in the AC delete shorted) so it's all or nothing at this point.

I'm also rebuilding the tail lights as it's a coupe it has fucked light boards and bad grounds. I've not seen a coupe in this area that has been wintered and not had some issues here. I am going to go LED bulbs in new sockets with all new wiring with weather pac connectors so moisture is no longer an issue. These cars have lots and lots of grounding issues and I've chased them in the past for hours, this time I'm cutting my losses and just rebuilding before I go nuts.

things are coming along. I bit the bullet and ordered a few more parts than originally planned, but the goal is reliability not total cheapness. IROZ Downpipe, new radiator, race heater, 3" borla XR1 exhaust, and 10 row oil cooler to start out.

So ripped the entire factory heater out since well this was one of several melted/burnt areas and I'm never putting AC back in.


Look at all the space i have now!


Test fit the new intercooler Going to be a little on the large and bulky side, but it'll work.


We started not looking to bad, but time for new more powerful things.


Empty bay ready for clean up


Also ordered some heavy duty wires to take care of stable spark with all the abuse I'll be giving this little bastard. Some 10mm Magnecor wires should hold up good to all the spark needs.


Up next pulling the 7A engine harness, Procon10 BS, power seat wiring, HVAC wiring, ABS wiring, and front accessory harness. With all that stuff removed I'll have plenty of spots left for rally lights, and the new race heater.

any details on what youre doing for a heater?

my2000apb wrote:any details on what youre doing for a heater?

It's a summit racing heater. It's a small box with a heater core in it and a 260cfm fan. It comes with some mounting and the wiring. It's much smaller than stock has to outlet vents and a simple 4 position switch. I'm going to install the heater to the front dash vents from one outlet and one into the foot wells, as the car has nonfunctional rear seats No heat will go back toward the rear. I will also be installing heating pads on my FX1 seat so I have that for added warmth.

Pics and more details of fitment when it arrives.

heater came in it is an incredibly compact unit with a race theme no extras, only function.




Should have plenty of room under the dash now for all sorts of stuff.

New brakes still in the works. picked up a set of porsche 944 S2 calipers to go over the stock CQ rotors. The rears will be v8Q calipers on S8 carriers over redrilled S8 280mm rotors.


Another piece I'm adding to add some durability is a Power steering cooler since I will ice race and rally x this car plus lots more events.


the new griffin radiator I'm going to make work. Was $173 on summit even if i have to do some welding to it I'll still be well ahead of 034's.



next up is to pull out all of the other ratty wiring that's already in a mess on the driver's side.



Getting going Clutch came up today so hopefully get it on the engine and the turbo mounted. Hopefully monday I can get the engine sitting in the bay with the bay cleaned and all the extra holes welded up.