782/2000: Too rare to live, too weird to die - Phase 3: So long.

[Got Insulin?]

Turns out that the battery was mismatched for the car's CCA and was progressively not holding a charge especially with all of the testing I was doing with it. Swapped in a new guy, cleaned up the connection points and slightly rewired the terminals, and voltage shot right back up and ran right at 11.9-12.0v at idle with no problem. Rad.

Coolant system needed some going over and the rad fan wiring needed to be gone over, so that's handled, too. Rad x2

Dropped the FP to match the 440s with the 2G MAF and the improvements just at post-warm-up idle. Rad x3

After all of this was kind of stable, idle tune looked was semi-solid, and I temporarily mounted the WBo2, I took the car out for it's maiden voyage and made it literally a block. In a butthole-clenching moment, the car suddenly went totally lights-out dead halfway across an intersection after having just fully engaged first gear, less than 10mph. Turns out when I was rooting around in the engine bay checking over wiring and fuses searching after the alt/battery/wiring issues, I disturbed the harness for the battery relocation and managed to expose part of it to the frame rail, essentially turning my battery into a big ol' fuse and toasting it. A quick jump, and some idle time allowed me to take the car on a quick 1/2 mile jaunt. Wastegate pressure is pretty cool after not having a boosted car in a while, but having not recirc'd the BOV nor tuned for anything other than idle, the car wasn't too stoked on it.

I need to track down a few weirdo CEL issues, but it looks like we're getting pretty closer to roadworthy!

[Foolinaround]

That seems low still to me, but could be from all the gauges and ish in the car. Keep at it man the videos sound great

[SpendOne]

Voltage should definately be 13.5-14.0 at idle. Theres a draw somewhere in that car. CCA should matter much unpess ypu have a starter that demands alot of amperage from high compression, super heavy oil dragging the crank or whatever else. You should go over the wiring on the car bc its not right.

[Got Insulin?]

That seems to be the general consensus. Time to break out the meter...

[stover]

yup x3 , voltage should never drop below like 13.5 while running

[Got Insulin?]

Baro sensor in the MAF is bad so I grabbed a working one off of DSMRob along with a 90amp alternator to see if replacing the other big part of the charging system helps at all. I'm not positive that there is a draw because the battery after 4 days of sitting still started and idled the car for 15mins at 12v. I'm thinking that maybe the alt either is from a 1g DSM and at 75a is not producing the power to hit 13-14v or maybe the brushes are wearing out in the alt in my car. Either way, replacing the alternator eliminates one potential issue, but the car still has a bit of a hacked wiring harness, so soon afterward, Ill have to get cracking on repairing the rest...

I really just need this car up and running while the MINI is down, but I'm trying not to cut corners.

[bl@ckvr4]

My Galant VR-4 is the same way. Low voltage. My buddy's Galant VR-4 was the same way. He invested in a high output alternator a few years ago and never looked back. I'm thinking of going the same route.

Congrats on finally picking it up! I know you were looking for one for a while. Welcome to the very exclusive family!

[Foolinaround]

Originally Posted by bl@ckvr4

My Galant VR-4 is the same way. Low voltage. My buddy's Galant VR-4 was the same way. He invested in a high output alternator a few years ago and never looked back. I'm thinking of going the same route.

Congrats on finally picking it up! I know you were looking for one for a while. Welcome to the very exclusive family!

This. I'm sure their are threads somewhere in the galant forums(if they exist) about what alternators will match up.

[blackvr4]

Damn I cant believe you got one! Congrats! Treat her well! shell treat you well lol

[Got Insulin?]

Originally Posted by bl@ckvr4

My Galant VR-4 is the same way. Low voltage. My buddy's Galant VR-4 was the same way. He invested in a high output alternator a few years ago and never looked back. I'm thinking of going the same route.

Congrats on finally picking it up! I know you were looking for one for a while. Welcome to the very exclusive family!

Originally Posted by blackvr4

Damn I cant believe you got one! Congrats! Treat her well! shell treat you well lol

Not only did I get one, but I got it from a dude that knows you two, haha. I just moved over the weekend so I haven't had a whole lot of time to play with it, but hopefully this week I can put some wrench time in...

[97TurboDSM]

you rat bastard. congrats.

[Got Insulin?]

Thanks, bud!

The more and more I fiddled with the car, the more I realized how hacked both mechanically and electrically it was. Got a hold of an unhacked harness that I'll splice the 2G MAF into, but keep the GVR4 plug end so that I can run the PNP SD harness when I switch it over to the Green, and started picking up maintenance/stock parts that were missing so that I can at least get it running and diag any other issues it might have. As an added bonus, my dad's business is expanding into a bigger space and since I don't have anywhere to work on a car at my apt, he told me I can take over a little corner of the shop to work on the Galant when I was ready.

So, the plan is twofold:

Stage 1:
Take off front end/ fix wiring for headlights/ fab a bracket so brace hood latch
Water pump/ Timing belt/ Harmonic damper/ BLT (and maybe pause to eat a BLT at this point, too)
Fluid change/ Oil pressure gauge plumbing/ get water lines for 16G
Replace harness from ECU to bay/ rewire in the LC1 into the ECU/ mount the LC1 gauge somewhere neat (read: pillar pods are ghey)
FBG$/ simple tune on 2G Maf/16G/ 272s and drive it to monitor and identify other issues

Stage 2: (subject to change)
-FP Mani, Steve93 heat shield, FP Green, EWG, Punishment o2, 25-28PSI
-Retune from KP or Petey depending on who's available in SD
-Driveshaft rebuild/ Tcase recall/ bushings from hell
-Figure out what's up with the rear suspension
-Clean it up, fix minor junk, and enjoy the snot out of it.

Eventually:
-JDM goodies/unhacked bumpers/ CF hood and trunk painted to match with RS hood vents/ cool AMG bits maybe
-A2WIC system
-Meth injection
-Paint correction/ respray.
-Undercoating


Maybe I'll even take some pictures along the way. Have my work (and my wallet) cut out for me for the next few months

[97TurboDSM]

I read all that and all I can say is, I hate you. The end.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Got Insulin?]

Welp, harness is out after putting up a considerable fight. Wound up taking the blower box and everything attached to it out of the car to get to a single bolt hidden up on the firewall in the cabin. That's the second time in 6 months I've pulled the HVAC out of an old Japanese car, thrilling every time.

Curiously, the new harness has some deviations from the one that was in my car, so I'm going to have to contact some gurus and figure out what I'm looking at.

[stover]

would you be rebuilding the driveshaft yourself? im looking for someone in the area who may be able to do my 1g driveshaft but not cost me an arm and a leg , im capable but its more time then i want to invest in a driveshaft and id rather leave it to someone who has experience with them

[blackvr4]

Damnit this thread needs more pictures! We need to see the progress!

[Got Insulin?]

Been working like a madman. The long and short of it is that I bought a second VR4 and parted it down the unibody and have had a lot of my time taken up by that, but have also been spending a lot of time swapping parts and generally un****ing the P/O's previous mods. A few more details and pictures to follow in the days.

Things I've upgrade or changed:
-New to me GVR4 wiring harness that is unhacked and being gone over with a few new connectors spliced in. Speed density harness also added.
-ETS GVR4 specific intercooler kit. Can't say enough about the quality of this; super stoked to be running it on my car.
-Wired Innovative LC1 WB o2
-Removed Forrester IM

[blue91lx]

Glad to hear it's progressing! Car is gonna be sweet when she's finished up. Don't you just love fixing bull**** from the P/O?

[agencyone0one]

Have I ever mentioned how much I love GVR4's? They are so badass when done right.

[PaleDSM]

Sounds like a typical DSM/GVR4 that has passed through untold hands before it got to someone that would do it right. Good to hear you are still working through it.