What are you working on?

A high school friend of mine passed recently, and his dad wants me to fix up a couple of his sons cars. First up will be a '92 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4. :drool:
So far, the work list includes a fuel system flush, tune up with oil change and all filters, and a starter. Really looking forward to the test drive after all the work is done! :vroom: :dance:

After that will be an '87(?) Chrysler Conquest. Again, basic tune up, oil change, filters...etc... oh yeah, that will be after I figure out why one of the cylinders lost compression. :doubt: Hoping it's just a valve job and not rings or a trashed piston. He's agreed to do a valve job if that's what it is but, he says if it requires tearing into the engine, he'll have to figure out something else to do with the car. Personally, I WANT the car, so I'm kinda hoping he'll give me the car at a low price because of all the work I'll be putting into the cars. :helpme: (Wishful thinking, I know) Oh yeah, the Conquest also comes with a "parts car". A Starion that was a track car with a huge turbo! Thinking 2 cars to make one? [smilie=i:

Should be some fun projects. :)
 
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Sorry to hear about your friend passing.

But hope you can get the cars all back up and running. Sounds like they are some real scooters. Pics when you can please! :)
 
Those are nice little scooters, perfect for people built low to the ground......[smilie=g:


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Got the camper all cleaned, sealed, prepped and ready for camping!


















I also got a car for free yesterday that I'm planning on entering it into our racing club's first ever rolling demo derby. It's just full contact circle track racing in demo cars. :giggedy: :dance:

1988 Olds Cutlass Ciera with a 2.8L V6.

 
some of this
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h2lb39jkg7wzgwt/VIDEO0052.mp4

and a FULL redo of the inside of the shop.....the guy who did our concreete for a crazy prize is retiring in 2 weeks....and is still willing to do the remaining stuff for half price.......sooooo a corner of shelving big enuf to park a pair of cars on had to come down and everything in ther out etc..the shop is a disaster area now..and ive got prep to do inside and outside..but..in 2-3 weeks time ill have a 2x20 slab out back 6inches deep FIBER reinforced as well as another out front plus the final section of 12x30 in the shop will no longer be gravel and a pad out back for the air compressor...within this there may alo become a "crash pad" room outside the shop that will get a pad too..and i now have shelving to put my lloyds on 8 feet up
heres the corner that had to move
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lbur0gl1g0o4jk8/IMAG2071.jpg
 
Got back on our bathroom. Dry wall mud is done primed and first coat of paint. I need more paint and I also need to pick up the trim and paint and install that.

As for why I hadn't worked on it in so long, I went to the NHRA route 66 natinals (As I do every year) And then spent the 4th on "Gills Gone Wild" My Father-in-laws boat in Kewaunee WI. Salmon & Lake trout fishing lake Michigain. (As we do every year). Headed back down there soon (Not soon enough) for more fishing and there is a tall sailing ship tour coming soon. We will be there for that and if Chrissie and I can get tickets we will be sailing Lake Michigain on one of those tall ships. I can't wait for that!
 
Set the motor in the car, finally... still have a bunch to do, but I did clear up some space in the garage.

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Looking good, 71. Man, I'd forgotten how ugly AC firewalls are in those cars... but it's easily to get over with an icy blast from the dash vents! :dance:
 
Yeah if the plan wasn't to drive it as much as possible I'd consider getting rid of it. But with an A/C season that could start in the beginning of April and end somewhere in October with days it could be used into December it's not going anywhere.
 
Hey, Fishy!
Fishy said:
After that will be an '87(?) Chrysler Conquest. Again, basic tune up, oil change, filters...etc... oh yeah, that will be after I figure out why one of the cylinders lost compression. :doubt: Hoping it's just a valve job and not rings or a trashed piston. He's agreed to do a valve job if that's what it is but, he says if it requires tearing into the engine, he'll have to figure out something else to do with the car. Personally, I WANT the car, so I'm kinda hoping he'll give me the car at a low price because of all the work I'll be putting into the cars. :helpme: (Wishful thinking, I know) Oh yeah, the Conquest also comes with a "parts car". A Starion that was a track car with a huge turbo! Thinking 2 cars to make one? [smilie=i: [/QUOTE]
If you end up with the Conquest and it requires internal engine work, I would seriously consider a swap to a different engine/trans setup. The G54Bt isn't a bad engine, per se, but it's a quirky little bastard and a few of its "features" flat-out suck (like the fact that it's throttle-body injection rather than multi-port). Parts can be tough to find as well, but a lot of "one-man" shops seem to keep stuff fairly available. If you take the engine from the "track" car, make sure you take the whole fuel system, as adding a larger turbo alone will melt it down in short order. If you stay with the G54Bt, consider the "minivan" swap seriously. you use a head from one of those Chrysler products with the "2.6 HEMI" badges on the fenders (it doesn't have to be a minivan). It makes a ton more power and is much easier to service than the "MCA Jet" oddball used on the Conquests, which is an extremely-strange "3-valve" setup, the third valve being a "jet valve" in the intake side. It's hard to explain until you see one apart. It sounds great in concept but it's not.

The transmissions are notoriously weak, but 1st gear seems to be the problem so if you can keep from beating on it in 1st it'll last a while. What always confused me about it is that the front bearing fails, and it's the same bearing as used in an 833.

There are some easy swaps and some that aren't that easy. Forget a Mopar V8; it's a bastard to do. The one that intrigued me uses an oddball 2.0L block from an early-'90s Mighty Max pickup. It's a bolt-in, but accepts the cylinder head and accessories from the 1st-gen Eclipse/Talon turbo cars. It's not a total bolt-together deal, but it doesn't require the fab skills and labor factor of other swaps. The downside is finding the block.

The rear axle is essentially bulletproof, and unless it's an SHP car ('88-'89 only), it should be a 3.54:1 rear gear. They were all limited-slip diffs.

I did a ton of research into swaps, upgrades, etc. when I had mine. Should you end up with the car, Project Zero G and the StarquestClub forums are great sources of information for both stock upgrades and swaps, including transmissions.

I wanted to post all this earlier but was unable to do so. Sorry it took so long; it's been an interesting month for me. :dgt:
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Thanks for the heads up Doc! If I do end up with the car, I'll most likely keep it a 4cyl of some kind. I know virtually nothing about them as of yet, so no idea how easy a 6 cyl would fit. I wouldn't put a V8 into it at all! I'd never even consider it! That would be worse than putting a big block into an A body! :dgt: Just a bad idea as far as I'm concerned! I like corners too much to go that route! :D
 
I looked into a Chrysler 3.5L V6, but that won't fit. One fella on the Starquest forums was doing a 1st-gen Taurus SHO engine (the Yamaha 24V V6) with a pair of turbos, mated to a RX-7 trans. It was all fitting in neat as a pin, but for some reason he lost interest and progress was halted deep into it. I think he even had the accessory drives ready. It might have been a customer bailout; I don't recall but it sure would've been cool. A Mitsu 3.0L V6 will fit, but unfortunately you have to use a RWD block, which is different enough that all the cool FWD MPFI stuff doesn't fit it and you'd have to make a trans adapter.

As fond as 69.5 and you are of the Trenton 4-banger 2.2L/2.5L with turbocharging, that might work nicely, too. With the right bellhousing, the Toyota R154 Supra 5-speed will bolt to it, as well. Once again, you'll need to start with a RWD truck block for the mounting provisions, but those are easily found in Dakotas.
 
Dr.Jass said:
I looked into a Chrysler 3.5L V6, but that won't fit. One fella on the Starquest forums was doing a 1st-gen Taurus SHO engine (the Yamaha 24V V6) with a pair of turbos, mated to a RX-7 trans. It was all fitting in neat as a pin, but for some reason he lost interest and progress was halted deep into it.
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That's a shame! I'm really fond of those motors! My cousin has an '89-90 SHO that's worked, even has a Paxton on it. Bad ass car, and quick, especially considering the weight of the Taurus. I like the Gen 2 better as long as it's the 5 speed.
 
Make no mistake, the Conquest is not light for its size. Curb weight on the stocker is nearly 3,000lbs. Part of the reason for that is about half of the unibody is double-wall steel. It's a very-solid construction, but it does push the weight up.

One of the advantages to losing the G54Bt is that it's actually a pretty-heavy engine (in some circles it's called a "wide block"). I'm not familiar with the various generations of SHO, but I know the 5-speed went away before the V6 did due to slow sales of the stick, and the V8 cars are slow, heavy pigs. The early V6 cars are lighter and quicker.

I would've really liked to see that car finished. Even with only 6PSI it probably would've had well over 300HP on an otherwise-stock engine.
 
I'm pretty sure my cousin said his tips the scales a little over 3800#, so an 800# diet sounds good! :D

I had a couple, so I kinda know the details. They started with the 3.0 and a 5spd and that was the only option through '92. In '93, do to the wimps complaints, they added a sissymatic, and up the engine size, automatic only, to 3.2 which bumped the torque slightly. Through '95, the 3.0/5spd and 3.2/autos were available. When the '96 "Rosie O'Donnell" Taurus came out, the decent looks and the power went away. The V8's were ok, but very problematic, the pressed on cam gears came loose and IIRC Ford didn't address it until '99. The aftermarket came up with drilling and roll pinning the cam gear to the cam and most dealers went that way with the repair. Oh, Yamaha had nothing to do with the 3.4 V8 and very little to do with "upgrading" to the 3.2, that was mainly Ford's doing as they already had the Yamaha heads.

As great as the 3.0's were they were still installed in Ford bodies and related issues were mostly due to that. Another big issue was the manual transmissions, they weren't up to the task of the power that little V6 was capable of producing.
 
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