1988 Isuzu I-Mark Turbo

Wait and see! nasty oil coming out of the trans

Autopsy: The key way on the crank is ruined. So my two choices were either to find another I-Mark turbo crank (non existent), or upgrade. My choice? Upgrade.
In 89 the I-Mark came out with a DOHC engine. (This is an 88.) The later version of that same engine was in the Geo Storm GSI and the Isuzu Impulse. A logical choice 130hp and a 7800 RPM redline. But, the motor mounts would have to be fabricated, and I would loose my turbo. Another option is the base model GEO storm. It has a 1.6 SOHC. The turbo manifold would bolt up and the same motor mounts would work. I decided to keep it simple and use the SOHC.

It is great you are revisiting an 80's love, and making upgrades that just wouldn't have been possible in that era. I am watching with great interest.

Is the Miata red loctite crank keyway solution not viable here? I am certainly not an expert on it, but it does seem to show up on these boards quite often.

Found a complete geo storm SOHC engine at a country junkyard for $75! It was in a wreck, so I know it ran when it was junked.

Nasty on the inside. Pistons were galled, so it couldn't gave been running well

It needs a full rebuild to be useable. (Which I expected to do anyway). The next step is to start accumulating parts.

Re-keyed my trunk lock to match my ignition. Really easy. Just re arranged the pins until they were flush with the cylinder while the key was inside. The ones that would never work in any configuration I threw away.

I do not intend to strip every bit of the interior out of my car. I want to race it, but I also want to enjoy driving it around town. Part of enjoying it is not having it sagging on my head while I drive.

Found this little goodie inside when I pulled everything down The trick is to use a hard bristled brush to get every bit of the old glue off.

Don't cheap out on the spray glue. Get the 3M stuff. Then cus a little while you struggle to get the whole works back in there.

I found this on a farm I was driving by and spotted it in the back. I HAD to get out and look. There was an abandoned mobile home out front. I left my number at the door and under the wiper, but when I went back to check on it, it was gone. It was the harder to find 89 model with the DOHC 1.6. I even like the totally 90s cheesy wheels.

makes me sad

I'm sure everybody has one car that is "their" car. The one you can spot 300ft off the road behind a trailer the way you can spot your kid on the payground full of other kids.

f6sk wrote: . .

As someone who came of age in the 80's I highly approve of those headrests. So rad!

We always called them "lice catchers"

The inside of this motor was so nasty. I had to let the parts soak in purple power for days. And days.

New clutch in the background. It is for a 1.8 Geo Storm, so it is slightly larger than the standard 1.6.

Broke the bolts off in my turbo trying to remove them.

f6sk wrote: Broke the bolts off in my turbo trying to remove them.

There is only one thing to do for this...

BIGGER TURBO!

Wouldn't the 4XE1W (Isuzu Impulse RS) motor also be a relatively easy swap into this? 160hp in stock form.

Swank Force One wrote: Wouldn't the 4XE1W (Isuzu Impulse RS) motor also be a relatively easy swap into this? 160hp in stock form.

Yes! That is, if you can find one. They only imported 800. I nod to your Isuzu knowledge.

I will get a bigger turbo one day but for now, I drilled them out. I slowly stepped it up from one size to the next until the remainder was so thin I could chip it out with a punch.

Nice work! This is gonna be so cool...keep it up!

How high will the single cam motor rev safely?

I'm working with an sohc 12v motor at the moment as well and trying to get a feel for what sort of rpm could be achieved.

I never intended to take over the family machine shop. I had moved an hour away from Charleston to Columbia. My father sold the machine shop and retired. However the man he sold it to was having financial trouble. He had not paid his rent in 2 years. The landlord had taken possession of the shop and equipment and offered to sell it back to my dad. So, my dad calls me and asks if I want it. He said either I take it, or he is going to get it back up to operational and sell it again.

So, I took it.

As a kid I never paid attention at the shop. I always pictured myself doing something different. But here I am, figuring it out as I go. Please forgive me if it looks like I don't know what I'm doing, because I don't know what I'm doing.

I put the flywheel in the blaster machine. It has a huge impeller that slings steel shot to clean engine parts.

To use the slightly larger 1.8 clutch I have to enlarge the flywheel to accept it. I put it on the brake drum lathe to take off about 3/8 of an inch.

You can see the shiny ring around the outside where the metal was cut. Next up I used the slide hammer to pull the dowel pins. Flywheel grinder in action. All done. The stone did not get quite as crisply into the corners as I would have liked, but it should do no harm.

Swank Force One wrote: How high will the single cam motor rev safely? I'm working with an sohc 12v motor at the moment as well and trying to get a feel for what sort of rpm could be achieved.

I dunno. My stock tach revs to 6500, and the DOHC version revs to 7800. I don't see why this one couldn't rev to 7800. It has the exact same bottom end.

Next up is the cylinder head. 12 valves of awesome. Super nasty. the previous owner never changed their oil. I'm surprised it didn't whipe out the cam.

This is a valve spring compressor, for those that haven't seen one before.

It squeezes the sring so you can get the keepers off.

All torn down

Then I put the valves in the "tumbler". It is full of metal that rotates inside the machine full of solvent.

This just keeps getting better

Next, I checked the head for warp with a straight edge. That is a .003 feeler gauge that slides freely underneath, so it needs to be resurfaced.

Then I put the head in the cleaning machine (think giant dish washer) to rotate while I worked on the valves.
This is a valve grinding machine. It rotates the valves at a 45 degree angle to the cutting wheel and cuts the face of the valve. all done. These valves were in pretty bad shape. I had to cut a lot off to get them back to round. You don't want the edge of the valve to come to a sharp point, or else it will need to be replaced.
The next step is to "tip" the valves. When you remove metal from the valve and the seat it cause the valve to sit a little deeper inside the head. So you have to cut a bit off the tip to compensate. Not a big deal with valves that can be easily adjusted, but a very big deal for DOHC engines.

I really debated buying new valves for this project. They were not the best. But, I think they'll do fine for now.

Wow, this is awesome! Thanks for explaining all the machines and what you're doing in each pic...now I want to hunt Craigslist for an old Isuzu or a Geo Storm.

This is amazing buddy. This is proper engine building, not "I stuck on a new carb, Im Jack Roush". Very cool!!!

Love the 80's turbo goodness! From memory these beasts had a nice presence in the rally world of the day...