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First, a little background:
This is my 1991 GSX. I bought it for $300. It was sitting in the back of a used car lot. It had been reposessed. They told me that the engine was frozen when I went to look at it. I originally wanted it for spare parts for the 1993 Laser AWD Turbo. I connected my jumper battery to it and twisted the ignition just for grins... All the accessories turned! Hmm... not frozen. I figured the timing belt was broken. I towed it back to my shop and removed the valve cover and discovered that all the intake valves were bent. Just as I had suspected, it was a timing belt problem. I pulled off the timing cover and was shocked to find a whole timing belt. I removed the belt and discovered all the teeth that were near the crank were ground off. Hmmm... I started to line up all the timing marks and the oil pump wouldn't turn. I scratched my head a little and decided to pull off the oil pump case. It wouldn't budge. I had to pry it out by the balance shaft. The balance shaft bearing came out with it. Okay, I know the problem now. The balance shaft lost oil pressure and burned into the bearing, effectively "freezing" itself in place. I removed the other balance shaft (no simple feat mind you), pulled out the other bearings and turned them 180 degrees and re-inserted them. Then I cut the rear balance shaft just beyond the length necessary to come out of the oil pump. Viola! Balance shaft removal. I filled the hole for the front sprocket/pulley with a freeze plug and JB Welded it into place. I got a new timing belt and another head for $125 from a friend that works in a scrap yard. I went ahead and ported the head, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, turbine housing, and o2 housing. Then, I reassembled everything. Next, I did some checks and discovered the fuel pump wasn't working. The stock replacement was $85 and the Walbro pump was $100, so I bought the Walbro. It fired right up after that. It surged like mad after it warmed up, but was drivable. I replaced the ISC with one I found in the junkyard and fiddled with the BISS. There was no difference. I tried swapping the MAS and FPR from the Laser and still no progress. I checked for vacuum leaks and found none. What the??? Finally, I swapped the ECU from the Laser and everything worked fine. So I got another ECU that I found on DSMTrader.com. I went ahead and ditched the stock air can, pulled out the silencer and honeycomb, ditched the EGR, disconnected the hot water lines from the throttle body, and hollowed the converter. I could say a lot more, but I'm boring myself and probably you, too :), so I'll make with the pics: :)
Just click on a pic to make it larger
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Overall pic. Missing 3 of the 4 center caps. |
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New tires. 205-55-16. H rated. 60k mile warranty. :) |
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Rear hatch is wavy. Both doors are wavy by the door handles... probably from closing the door halfway and just bumping it to shut it the rest of the way. There are a few other minor dents. |
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Here is the crappy window tint. The rear is blurry, but not this bad. The passenger side is only flawed in the very corner. |
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Interior is pretty nice. It was a womans car, there was lipstick melted to the rear floor. That stuff is hard to get out. |
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Somebody spray painted the roof to try and match the rest of the car. The cowl behind the hood and all three wipers were painted crappy purple. I sand blasted them and repainted them black. |
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Engine runs okay. It needs a new coil or power transistor (perhaps the wiring is simply bad) and a TPS. A good K&N filter wouldn't hurt either. |
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Crack in the turbine housing. I welded the first one, this one started just outside the weld. The inside of the housing was spiderwebbed. I could really notice it when I ported it. I had pics of everything apart, but have lost them somewhere. |
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I have a spare turbine housing from the original turbo that was on this car(I have a few spare parts from the laser). The original turbo would not spin. I pulled it apart and found serious carbon buildup. I completely disassembled it and cleaned it. The stud was broken down inside the housing, so the only course of action was to drill. Unfortunately, my first bit broke. The second bit could not drill through my first carbide bit and wandered to the side. At this point I became frustrated and haven't touched it since. |
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Some spare parts. |
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More spare parts. That's the original head under the radio. All the intake valves are bent. The a/c compressor goes to my 1990 Nissan Sentra. |
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Spare throttle body and a couple of ISC motors that are bad. The EGR is in the box below my hand. That white box contained my Walbro 255lph hp pump that is now on the car. |
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The now free spinning, but unbalanced, original center cartridge.
Good God, I'm white. I'm a disgrace to Florida. :) |
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Autometer Boost Guage and Dual Pillar Pod |
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This one was supposed to show the broken original trim that goes along the top of the drivers side door. |
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Here is the crack in the passenger side trim and the messed up window tint. |
Page 3 (stuff for trip)
Page 4 (she broke on the trip)
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