UPDATE!
Parts have arrived! I'm doing the Snoopy happy dance! Ok, maybe not, but its pretty cool. I guess. Whatever. sniff
Remember this?
Its back!
Had the intake, cold and hot sides, and the downpipe ceramic coated:
FYI: That's a 32mm impact socket in the middle of the turbo inlet.
Yeah, that's a good sized turbo:
Now I get to clean up a bunch of parts, source a few seals and gaskets and put it all back in the car!
Polishing the intercooler pipes, god why did I start this?
Cleaned and painted bits and bobs...
Turbo assemble!
Turbo installation in progress:
More work to come tomorrow/this week, but it's getting closer!
Lookin' good!!
tanx!
Jelly!
ITS ALIVE! IT LIVES! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
http://youtu.be/JnnYGpZE2D0
Now to get it legalized. Its pig rich at idle, so I'll need to dive into the Wolf3D EFI tuning, which should be fun....
Does your gauge cluster REALLY say TURBO all light up in red light?!?!? AWESOME.
Also am i seeing that it's pulling almost 30 inches of vacuum? 
Well the big red light is a fault with the ABS and/or the Airbag. I'll sort that out later when I swap steering wheels.
There is a boost gauge in the cluster, but it isn't currently functioning. I'll fix that later as well :)
Yup, it's pulling 30 inches. It was at 25 after I fixed a bunch of vacuum leaks and now that I've fixed the turbo and the intake system it looks like it is better still.
Time for an update; it's now legally titled and tagged! I've been driving it around and there are a few nagging issues to sort out. Took a while to get to this point thanks to the crappy weather we've had lately.
Once the snow melted and I felt it safe to drive the thing on the road, I headed to the testing station after a spirited drive through the hills to get it warmed up :)
Took three tries to get to pass emissions. The first time the oil seal for the turbo was on its way out, which led to rebuilding the turbo. The second time it was way rich at idle. So I opened the laptop in the parking lot of the test station and adjusted the fuel map cells at idle to lean it out, it idled like crap, but it passed! $21 later I had the above emissions certificate and them $232 at the DMV later I had new plates and an Oregon title on the way.
There's a few issues to sort still; a wandering from the front end, a battery drain, the brakes are a bit mushy still, the transaxle shifts like crap and is making ugly noises on decel and the transaxle mount is way too soft. I'll sort those out slowly but surely.
The front end could be some loose fasteners or the steering shaft is worn out, etc.
The battery could be due to whatever is wrong with the dash and the warning lights.
The transaxle mount will get filled with urethane and I'll improve the rear shift linkage while I'm in there. I have a friend with a low mileage turbo transaxle with a limited slip, just need to sell some stuff to afford it.
Anyway, I took the wife out to run errands on Friday since the weather was nice and she had the day off :)
She liked it, which is a win in my book!
I continue enjoying the look of your car with those wheels. I had 17" twists on mine back in 2000 or so and thought they were to big, how tastes change.
Awesome!
Thanks! I don't like the twists as much as I love the wheels I have now. Not looking forward to buying new 18" tires at some point down the road, but they do look damned good on the car :)
It's weird for me getting compliments on the car from complete strangers when I'm out and about, but I guess I'll get used to it :)
Have some fun planned for this weekend thanks to Only944, McMaster-Carr and Amazon:
Improve the shift linkage a bit more as its still a little loose due to the rubber in the rear arm being worn out and I don't like the rubbery shift knob anyway.
Try and build my own shift lever with a weighted shift knob (340g) and slightly less throw by moving the pivot upward on the lever.
Stiffen the rear transaxle mount with some 80a Urethane since it bounces around like crazy making smooth starts much more difficult than the lighweight flywheel and HD clutch make it already. For $30 its cheaper and more streetable than the solid mounts that people offer.
New inner shift boot should help reduce the heat and smell coming up from under the car.
Better window motor for the driver's side will make it nicer to open and close the window.
New hinge frame for the arm rest lid.
New cup holder.
New bushings for the rear hatch will silence that rattle. You know its bad when you can hear it over the exhaust!
Proper mounting solution for the Wolf3D ECU and J&S KnockSafe since I don't like it sitting on the floor.
Finally got around to doing some minor things;
Replaced the broken arm rest cubby hinge. I find I use it to help get my fat butt in and out of the car, so it didn't stand a chance.
Replaced the broken cup holder. Not sure how long it will last, but it will be nice to have a place to set a cup of coffee when I'm headed to the track, etc.
Inner shift lever boot was missing. So i pocked one up from Only944 since the foam insulation is half-missing and the heat coming up is noticeable. Whe it was smoking, it would come up through the shifter area. That was disconcerting.
New rear hatch lock grommet. It wasn't causing a leak, but I was working back there anyway.
New hatch pin bushings from Only944.com. So much quieter now! Considering how noisy the exhaust is, the fact that you can hear the hatch rattling is a good indication of how annoying that must be on a stock car!
Installed the rear wiper motor and arm. It rains here a lot and that big back window is nearly impossible to see out of when it is wet and quite frankly it's not a race car, it's a GT car for me, so a little comfort is a good thing.
Speaking of comfort, I swapped the steering wheel for a D-shaped wheel. The stock wheel was starting to lose the cover, was making it difficult to get in and out of the car and the airbags and horn weren't working anyway.
After the swap, I drove it to Flying Pie to get pizza and it feels pretty good, once you get used to the thicker grip and shape. I think I'm going to space it back further though since I feel like my arms are a bit further extended than I'd like. I'll try to find the proper multifunction switch plate so I can get my horn back again.
I did sell a bunch of stuff on eBay so I could order up a S2 transaxle since the gearing is better suited to my use of the car.
I need to refresh the internals, so that will be an adventure and I'm looking to it! I'm looking into doing an Audi V8 limited slip swap while I'm at it, we'll see if I can source one that isn't borked or too expensive. There's also the possibility for a 5th gear swap and adding a strengthening plate and a short shifter kit. If I can get it all together, hopefully it will be a pretty kick butt solution for the car.
Stay tuned!
Update!
New shift lever (shorten the throw slightly, uses a threaded rod to allow easier shift knob adaptation) built out of scrap aluminum channel material and a little JB weld to stiffen it.
Weighted (340g) shift knob.
Shortened the stock boot (which is badly weathered so no loss there, I'll try to find a new one to keep on the shelf) and added a chromed plastic finish piece I grabbed from a cheap boot I bought on eBay with a rubber O-ring on the shaft to keep it from rattling.
Mounted the D-shaped wheel and spaced it back a bit. I might find a slightly shorter spacer since it is a little harder to reach the turn signal and wiper controls. The D-shaped wheel feels pretty nice, but it takes a little to get used to when trying to park. Just have to adjust the muscle memory a bit to compensate.
Bought a spare transaxle mount, cleaned it up and filled it with 80A urethane.
Picked up a short shifter linkage kit and shift stabilizer arm from Only944.com.
Still need to install it all, hopefully later today or tomorrow.
Just the home-made shift lever with thrust bearings and weighted knob alone made a huge improvement in the shift feel. The box still needs new syncro's and bearings at least, which is why I bought the S2 transaxle to refresh and put in the car since I would prefer slightly shorter gearing for the type of driving I like to do and with the aluminum flywheel and racing clutch a little easier to launch gearing would be nice.
More stuff to sell on eBay before I can buy the rest of the parts I need to refresh the transaxle and front suspension.
Nice work!
Thanks!
I still have the transaxle mount and the short shift linkage to install, but I'm not feeling too ambitious at the moment. :/
Pure...verhicular...porn.
JFX001 wrote: Pure...verhicular...porn.
Is it ready for autocross on Saturday?
If not, co-driving a Vue? 
In reply to Javelin:
Yes, but I won't be there Saturday. The DSC in the morning hosed my schedule up and I have a doctors appt in the afternoon.
So I'll be there Sunday!
In reply to Javelin:
Well, crap. There's an issue with the front suspension. It's just not enjoyable to drive right now. So I've got new ball joints, tie-rods and bushings arriving in the next few days to sort that out.
I suspect the steering shaft is really the issue, however I figure steering with a good foundation isn't a bad idea on a 26 year old car :)
Plus, I've got a bunch of work to catch up on to be ready for a big presentation on Monday :/
Stupid responsibilities...
I'll catch ya next time!
So I missed the first two OR-PCA autcrosses due to a lack of time and due to an issue with the front suspension. Annoying to say the least, especially considering how easy the solution to that problem actually was.
First some pics:
Co-existence? 
Out with the old linkage, in with the new courtesy of Only944.com. Huge, huge difference when paired with the weighted shiftknob and custom shift lever.
I also installed the poly-filled transaxle mount and it made a huge difference. No more bouncing around when trying to leave a light, it just more or less just pulls away like a car should. Now to refresh the S2 transaxle and I can enjoy a more reasonable set of gears with fresh syncro's.
New front suspension parts!
Once I dove into replacing the front end parts, I found that I didn't have my pickle fork so I couldn't do the tie-rods.
So I replaced the caster blocks with the updated 968 pieces and torqued all of the hardware down. That's when I found out the balljoint pinch bolts weren't torqued properly and the caster block bolts were loose on the driver's side. 
I swore I checked those when I put the brakes and lines on the front end. Sigh, the joys of being your own mechanic is you can't always blame the PO for your own stupidity. 
The result?
No more front end wandering and random steering inputs. The steering actually feels taught and provides actual feedback, like a sports car should. Helps that I had previously installed a set of polyurethane steering rack bushings.
Stupid Photobucket. I think I'll start leveraging Picassa since I'm hitting my bandwidth limits a bit more often on Photobucket and with the amount of ads they show, I don't think I should pay for the bandwidth.
My runs from Sunday's Oregon Region PCA autocross:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thkr5R30_ok
It was supposed to be the debut of the 924 CGTS wannabe, but it didn't want to start Sunday morning, even though it started and ran Saturday without issue! So I took the 951S instead and it almost didn't want to start either!
A newer MegaSquirt setup is being built for the 924 to add new features to help fix the cold-start tuning as well as the other tuning issues I've had with the ITB's. The MS1 will be rebuilt as a MS2 and reused in another project at some point
The weather was typical schizophrenic springtime PNW. Rain in the morning turned to sun for the morning runs (when I was working the course) then after a couple of runs in the afternoon, it rained, then hailed, then the sun came out again (the pavement was steaming at this point, always a cool effect). So the course was a sloppy, slippery mess as there was still moss and mud and oil on the pavement (it was held in the paddock area of PIR which is used by the road and drag race folks and the track is built on a flood plain so the water never fully goes away).
The 951S ran great and aside from the lack of a limited slip handled fairly well. The driver needs some work, but what else is new? I did have an intake nipple pop loose causing a massive vacuum leak on a couple of runs, so a ziptie was used to hold it in place until I can fix it properly (JB Weld to the rescue!) When it had popped off, the idle was around 3000rpm, but it was like a little anti-lag feature, heh. Made stopping at the end a bit more tricky though.
The rebuilt ball bearing turbo worked great and with some chassis and driver adjustments I should be able to get a few more seconds out of the car.
I still got beat by a mildly prepped Chevy Spark EV(39.9 versus 41.1) Hi Nashco! and a Lancer Evo hit a guardrail trying to correct a spin in the slalom, so it was slick and difficult for the cars to put power down out there (would have been perfect for the 924! )
Well, crap. Split a coolant hose and that has apparently toasted the headgasket. Not something needed right now. I guess I'll order some parts and dive in.
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