Sloppy second (and first)

12/1/2013
I had been having some problems with my transmission not engaging first or second gear all the time. I'd have to put it in first, then let the clutch out a little until I felt the shifter slide all the way in. After having a local guy take a look, it seems the roll pin on the shift lever was worn.

(photo taken from here: TurboDodge.com)

In the picture above, you can see the completed fix. The process is to drill out the shaft and the lever to accept a larger roll pin. I started out with a 3/16 roll pin, but mangled the hole on the shaft and damaged the roll pin trying to force it in. So I went and bought a 7/32 cobalt drill bit from Lowes and drilled out a larger hole for a larger roll pin. That shaft is one hard mother; drilling through the shaft tore the bit to pieces and it completely shattered just after getting through the other side. On the plus side, first and second are much easier to engage, and slide right in.

October 9, 2011

Not a huge update: put on the valve cover, installed the distributor, and did one half of the harness extension for the power module. The harness extension came out looking good. I need some slightly larger wire for the other half however since that half is power wires and not signal wires. The harness extension is also replacing some brittle power module plugs for some better pieces.

Left to do is:

• Finish the harness
• Find nut/spacer for FPR
• Ground injector harness
• Connect the alternator harness
• Mount the battery tray correctly (it was just hanging out before)
• Modify the down pipe angle (for some reason its now off?)
• Bolt on the hood
• Put suspension back together (cv shafts, ball joints back in knuckles, bolt down tie rods, etc)
• Install rear engine/trans bracket
• Bolt on transmission strut to cross member
• Finish intercooler piping (might have to find another L bend or two)

So not hard stuff, just a bunch of loose ends.

Here you can see the extension I made for the power module harness

 The power module is now in the nose of the car, here is a picture of the module looking towards the front of the car from the driver side fender.

March 2, 2012

Installed the rear shocks today. They are Gabriel Ultra's I bought new from a seller on eBay for $26. I also started re-angling the exhaust. I had to add some pipe to the v-band side, and remove some from the tailpipe size. I need to finish welding the downpipe/muffler to the v-band flange, and weld the tailpipe to the muffler.

I also plan to get the new crossmember and control arms prepped for assembly (poly bushings, new balljoints, new tie rod ends, new struts). This would also give me the chance to warranty my power steering rack.

I think I will wirebrush the springs and plasti-dip them. That should hold up fairly well.

October 1, 2011

Got the timing belt put on, and distributor hold down painted. I also cut a path for the intercooler piping, and figured out exactly where the power module is going.

Oh, and I painted the engine mount and bumper mounts

September 10, 2011

New oil, new filter, and primed. Figured out the new intercooler piping routing. Going to move the power module to the front bumper. That moves it out of the way, and the rewiring is much easier.

September 6, 2011

Put the injector harness on, started planning the intercooler pipe run.

September 5, 2011

The radiator I bought sticks farther to the driver's side than the last one did. The intercooler piping was ran right next to the radiator. Not any more.

My plan is to run the intercooler piping next to and behind the battery. A caveat is the power module sits next to the battery, so it will need to be moved. This isn't entirely a bad thing however since the harness side connectors are in terrible shape. Moving the power module will give me the chance to re-connector it.

Its either that or put the battery in the trunk, or route the piping under the car again

September 5, 2011

September 5, 20011
Had a Ford Taurus Fan lying around from the Jeep, decided to see how it fit the Daytona radiator, it well well! The stock fan moves around 1000CFM from what've I've seen on the forums. This moves 4000-4500CFM on its high setting, and its thinner than the stock fan!

The alternator was installed, I bought new heater hoses to by-pass the heater control valve, oil line for the turbo was installed, clutch cable and shifter cables have been connected, throttle cable is hooked up.

Forgot about the water line on the back of the block though, so I'll have to wrestle with that, or I might just plug the line instead of the block and call it good

Taurus Fan

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August 3, 2011

Redid my injector harness. Good thing too because it was starting to get really worn. I bolted down all the mounts, and removed the heater control valve too. I'll need to get some longer heater hose to make up for it.

I think I might take the time to try to get some wiring out of the way. It would look way cleaner.

August 29, 2011

A Street Auto didn't have any injector plugs, and I was fairly sure they couldn't beat the online price, so I ordered a set of 6 (a couple spares) for $15

August 28. 2011

My Taurus fan seems to fit my radiator perfectly (ok, almost). The Taurus fan is thinner and flows more air than the factory fan (by nearly 3500 CFM).

I also plan to move the heater control valve elsewhere. It kind of gets in the way with intercooler piping.

I am also going to get my suspension parts painted, and ready to be installed. I have new struts, new strut mounts, crossmember, control arms, poly control arm bushings, new ball joints, and new tie rod ends ready to be put in. I would also like to take out the steering rack and warranty it for boots that are degrading.

August 28, 2011

I picked up a good short block from a local guy for a good price a while back. Yesterday I took the engine/trans out and separated them and removed the head. Today, everything went back together and the engine and transmission are sitting in the car. They still have to be bolted up completely and the accessories put on. Should be ready to go in a few days.

August 27, 2011

Increased oil consumption? Loss of gas mileage? Yep, that will do it.

That's the number #3 cylinder, which I figured was toast since we had no change in idle when we removed that spark plug wire on the road. I thought it was cracked, but it looks like I melted my first piston. Not entirely sure why it melted, all the others pistons look fine, the looks good, and so do all four plugs (well #3 is oily). I did notice that I have some exposed wiring on the #1 fuel injector plug, I think I might buy some injector plugs and rebuild that harness.

November 15, 2011

Back in November(October?) I think a piston cracked. I let off to make a turn (possibly sucked up some oil from the catch can) and heard a loud snap. Seemed to run fine for while until a Turbo Dodge get-together in Iowa. I was accelerating to catch up to the guy in front of me (everything still seemed fine at that point), but as soon as I let off, a huge oil smoke cloud let out behind me and the engine started burning/spraying oil. Went through about 4 quarts of oil driving it home from Iowa (it is a Dodge and all, but that still seemed a little high for oil consumption).

Bought a short block from a local Turbo Dodge enthusiest, and have the head gasket and head bolts. I started unplugging/unbolting things connected to the engine. Should be able to get everything swapped this weekend

July 8, 2010

I bought a new master cylinder as mine seems to have lost a seal. I also bought a caliper to replace the one that rattles (it uses an oversized pin which I didn't have and which costs $15 anyway), and a supra PCV valve since my stock PCV valve doesn't seal in any way/shape/form (the valve is most likely original to the car).

Hopefully tomorrow I can get everything replaced and try out the PCV system under boost. I did try it a little tonight, but with the bad valve it would only keep up enough to have 0 vac/boost when the turbo was fully spooled to 10psi. It does seem to run decently, it will spin the tires in the top of first and the engine seems to rev quicker.

July 8, 2010

July 8, 2010
New catch can is painted and ready to go in.

This is what the catch can looked like before painting and modification:

PCV system is all hooked up (engine and exhaust). The system is pulling 10" of mercury at idle (haven't driven it yet, but hopefully it maintains at least some vacuum). The oil cap gasket gets stuck to the valve cover.

July 6, 2010

Exhaust evac is hooked up. I had to use a 45* elbow to clear the exhaust tunnel, but it worked well.

I got fittings for a hole on the intake for the engine part of the PCV system. I still need some 3/8 hose. The catch can is drying and will be hooked up to the engine and exhaust based PCV systems tomorrow. I will also have a vacuum fitting on the catch can so I can see how much vacuum the system is really pulling.

July 5, 2010

Everything is wired up. I still need to trim the original fuse box bracket and bolt it down. These pics show how its going to look though (minus the roll of electrical tape holding it up).

July 5, 2010

July 5, 2010
In addition to getting rid of somewhat troublesome fusible links, putting in the power distribution center (PDC) also allowed me to fix some damage and modifications by the previous, previous owner.

Power Distribution as it came stock:

One Modification by Previous, Previous Owner:

Damaged fan relay plug:

Almost done wiring in the fuse block. I just have to solder one more connection and one more diode for the A/C clutch to activate the fan relay.

July 2, 2010

Here is what I started with:

Here is mid-way through the switch over. I only have 3 fusible links left to replace and 3 relays to wire.

June 15, 2010

The crossmember and control arms have all been degreased and are ready for paint. I purchased a new throw out bearing, rear main seal, clutch cable (mine was too short) and the exhaust evac stuff.

Debating on spending $125 to have on the fly ECU programming as opposed to having to burn and swap chips all the time. The tuning software for the TDs has come a long way and several cool options are available. There is 2-step, anti-lag, flash the CEL when knock it detected, etc. all available on the stock ECU.

June 28, 2009

June 28, 2009
The fuel line between the pump and the carrier came off so I had to lower the gas tank and reclamp the hose. While I had it down and everything disconnected I went ahead and replaced the all of the rubber fuel line under the car(under the hood had already been done). I got the hose from Autozone knowing they had decent FI hose. Its a Goodyear J30R9 spec hose, with a working pressure of 135psi and a burst pressure of 900psi. As well as a Viton inner liner.

Took the car out for a 10psi run, since I'm waiting on new wires, and it hits a solid 11.3:1 A/F ratio.

June, 2009

June 04, 2009
Ray and I tackled installing the diff-pin retainers on the new diff. Upon inspecting the differential from the old tranny, all three pins were there. I'm not entirely sure what caused the giant hole, but the inside of the old case was torn up pretty good(besides the massive hole in the cover).

June 05, 2009
I soldered together my new wideband controller and display. When I had the company/guy replace my old version with the new one, I didn't even think of it needing to be assembled. Everything went together pretty easy though, and my soldering got pretty good after the first 20-30 connections.

June 06, 2009
I removed the old, flat, oil pan and installed the sump pan and pickup I had for this car. I had been putting it off, but since I had the tranny out and the rear main seal housing(between the pan and the housing, not the seal itself) was leaking too, I decided to go ahead and replace it while RTVing all surfaces so the leaking stops

February 10, 2009

Got the intake tube mounted. I decided to go with an Autozone ricer intake tube since I didn't have much room to work with it made it easier to get around the intercooler pipes. It was only $20 and is black, so it's not too flashy.

Went to Olston's after school and got myself an O2 sensor plug. I wired it to the wideband harness and wired in the wideband controller.

Knock sensor went back in(seemed to have missed it the first time).

Battery tray is ready to be welded completely when angrysk8r quits being angry. I was thinking of having the battery mounted parallel with the car, but decided to keep the stock overflow bottle, so its mounted perpendicular.

Intercooler is now mounted behind the bumper. Still had to run one pipe under the lower radiator support.



I am going swap to a deepwell oil pan instead of the flat one I have now. It just depends on the weather and when the pickup tube gets here.

New ECU is installed and seems to be working correctly now, gauges aren't going all crazy. I think there was a connector not fully plugged in under the hood

December 09, 2008

Wastegate bracket and actuator fit and head grinding went well. Head/new turbo are bolted on. When I first started I wanted to see if the cylinders had any rust so I turned the engine over by hand. It had a limited amount of movement so I thought some rust had formed. Then I realized it was in gear

I'll get the all the other stuff hooked up(cam shaft, timing belt, fuel hoses, intercooler pipes, battery, TB cables, etc) once its not so cold. Or this weekend if it doesn't bother warming up any.

December 2, 2008

Put the intercooler behind the bumper where it belongs, fabbed a new battery tray so intercooler pipes could fit by the battery, welded myself an awesome(not going to lie, its pretty ghetto looking, but function over form right?) waste gate actuator bracket. Just have to test grind a borrowed head to see how well the turbo outlet will clear and I can bolt it all together, see if the exhaust still fits (it won't), and wire up the o2 sensor.

May 11, 2008

...clutch is probably broken I wasn't even driving it hard, I was turning off of cornhusker and now I can't get it to go into any gear while the car is on(no grinding, it just won't go in). Also if I try to stick it in first with the engine on, the car will move slowly forward even though the clutch pedal is all the way down.

April 24, 2008

Alright another thing to fix; was driving nicely since I just paid $3.86/gallon to fill up, and clutch cable snapped.

March 29, 2008

Intercooler piping is all back together, installed new front speakers(they were missing), put the new column in and hooked it up, battery is charging (sat in the car too long/often with out it being started), mirror was reinstalled, the other one will be painted tomorrow?

March 18, 2008

Got a heck of a lot of work done today thanks to the weather. I fixed my injector harness, got my new injector o-rings on, installed a new power steering pump and lines, got my power locks fixed, reinstalled all the belts and removed a broken rubber coupler on my intercooler piping. Should be good to go once my steering column is fixed.

February 28, 2008

Yay! Steering column took a ****! Pretty much destroyed the upper part of the steering column where the tilt mechanism, turn signal lever, and ignition cylinder are. Lost power to everything right after I turned left, and the steering wheel got locked for a few seconds until I wiggled it free. Started pushing it home since I was about 3 blocks away on 56th street, finally wiggled the column enough to get the ignition switch work, popped the clutch, and as long as I held the steering wheel to one side I could drive it. So far my $200 jeep has proved more reliable Oh well its a project car for a reason.

February 26, 2008

Well the tires just could not handle all this power I am making and it completely shredded one, so I am now looking for a 205/50/15 tire if anyone has one laying around. Pics of the brutal beating to come tomorrow...

 

 

February 21, 2008

Took it for a break-in drive today, pulled decently for 6psi until pipes blew off, I think I got them all tightened down now though.

January 16, 2008

I have a FMIC to go in there and I have some reducers for the intercooler and turbo outlet. And that A/C compressor is just chilling there to take the stress off the lines.

Not the best pictures/intercooler but it gets the job done:

January 15, 2008

In position:

 Finally, its in!

January 15, 2008

[B]January 15th[/B]

Finally got to working on putting the new engine in. I decided, against popular belief, to not pull the tranny and then install the engine/tranny combo. Honestly this was probably a better decision as it really didn't take too long to get it in.

Here it is before it went in:

Backside:

January 14, 2008

I removed the intermediate shaft/halfshaft combo to replace it with a single long axle. The bearing that supported the intermediate shaft was worn and the shaft was rubbing on the lower control arm. After tearing it apart, I found out it really isn't that difficult:). In the picture below you can see the shiny new black axle:

January 10, 2008

Trying to get this stupid braided oil line situation figured out as well as an oil galley plug that is missing(found that out after I was priming it and oil rushed out of the block) Hopefully engine will be back in this weekend and driving around. Gotta learn to drive a manual pretty quick for the break-in though :D

December 27, 2007

Engine has been pulled:

A new arrival

I picked up an 87 Dodge Daytona Pacifica from someone on the boards last year. Needless to say it needed some work. The exhaust needed to be put on (it was running open turbo), the power steering line leaked, and the oil feed to the turbo leaked as well. We got that all fixed, many thanks to a friend of mine for the help! I drove it around for a few months until an adapter we used for the oil distribution block broke and sprayed oil all over Hwy 2 causing some great rod knock. Then it sat in my driveway for a little bit while I gathered parts to rebuild it bigger and better.

Halfway through I weighed my options between keeping it and trying to upgrade parts that needed to be to handle some more power as well as trying to deal with some rust, or finding a shell in better shape. Well I found another '87 Dodge Daytona up in O'Niell, NE. It only had about 100k on the clock and was recently repainted. It too had a great engine failure, but at least I had a better starting point. I decided to put in a rebuilt engine with some minor upgrades.

It has:
2 Piece Intake
3" Swingvalve and mandrel bent exhaust
Boost Controller set at 14.7 psi
TII Rods and pistons(I started building an 86 TI engine block to TII specs)
A555 Manual Trans
FMIC

Here it is before we picked it up:

Here it is on the trailer:

Here it is sitting in my garage awaiting a new engine: