Project Add power to make Sith - waiting for new home 8/20

ya'll wouldn't expect something non star wars aka geeky from me now would ya ... so ya'll aren't disappointed then i suppose :wink:

here's a small history & our new beginning with Vadar:

after searching and reading for 1 1/2 years for "the alltrac" for us, we finally found him & named him Vadar, for he would be the most powerful car joe & i had ever owned.
we bought our 1990 alltrac from the original owner, a very nice man & his wife located in California.
there is ZERO rust on the body, no major accidents, cloth interior in very nice condition, decent repaint in original super red,
the main engine problems were minor compared to other alltracs we had seen for sale & included a CEL due to EGR malfunction, valve cover leaking oil, stock turbo leaking oil.

the car was stock other than a few things the owner's son had done which included ricer pep girl pedal covers, sub & amp with cheezey wiring job, crappy pep girls chrome shift knob & magnaflow dual tip muffler welded on.

after a long flight we finally arrived to meet the owner.

i'll never forget walking outside and seeing Vadar for the first time, what a moment that was...i've been hopelessly in love ever since.

here are a couple of pics below of Vadar with his bra on ready to leave his home of 16 yrs to come to a new home with joe & i.




after the 1600 mile drive in 2 days, including a speeding ticket :shoots:
Vadar came home to meet our '89 MR2 (Artoo) and my '99 Camry (Darth
Maul).

the first "mod" performed was debadging for a much cleaner look



the next step was fixing the annoying EGR CEL by removing it, plugging in a JDM ECU & replacing with the EGR with KO Racing block off plates.



bye bye EGR & CEL. hello leaky valve cover
after removing the valve cover and cleaning with simple green and adding the twosrus.com bolt kit things were looking much better.

the next addition was the replacement of the stock plug wires with Magnecor 8.5mm wires, new OEM dizzy cap & rotor & new Denso plugs.



more OEM parts arrived to perform more maintenance, better safe than sorry

the HFH, HFHOE, oil return hose, radiator hoses, and a variety of gaskets and other hoses were all replaced with the turbo & alternator off.

a used but supposedly "ok" stock CT26 was purchased & installed only to crank the motor & see smoke pour out from the turbo & exhaust & cover the entire neighborhood
it was no good to say the least.

in the meantime, trying to save money & unable to spend it on a turbo rebuild due to an unstable job situation, the alltrac has been sitting since the summer

however, things have happily changed on the job front and we have recently purchased many new parts to install along with a rebuilt & upgraded CT26 "while we are there anyways" (at least that's the excuse i am sticking with)

after selling some star wars stuff & saving money we will be able to get the turbo rebuilt & upgraded in a short couple of weeks.

Wow, that car looks like it is in great shape!!

finally, getting back on the road!

looks great!

now if only gets a little warmer here.... next week

Nice Alltrac, but that MR2 is pimpin'.

^^^more about the mr2!

Hey the paint job looks nice! I guess it's a little hard to see it in the dark when i was there heh.

It baffles me how some people can have the exterior look nice, but the motor just isn't up to the same par.

Bryan

dunno about the bra. But otherwise, very sharp.

thanks for all the compliments everyone.

the MR2 really is the biggest project car that needed the most work and we have worked on it for about 3-4 years now.
it is a '89 (last year MKI) hardtop 5spd with manual windows, locks, mirrors, nothing is power, so it is the lightest weight MKI compared to the t-top & sunroof versions with power options.
this summer we will repair the rust on the rear quarters and do bodywork along with new paint.
then the biggest improvement will come with a 4AGZE s/c swap.

i will make a complete thread for the MR2 later on in off topic or another area, once the paint & body is complete.

etantshi, the bra was just put on for the 1600 mile drive home to protect the front end from bugs & rock chips. it's not on there now

Bryan, i know what you mean about the engine being treated like crap while the rest of the car is so great. unfortunately i can't begin to count the bolts etc that were missing or just broken off or were SAE b/c the "mechanic" lost them :roll:

but....that will all be fixed soon.

i almost forgot...

other modifications include a C's Short Shift Kit which is a huge difference maker in a 90-91 application. yes it leans to the right, since it was made for a RHD 185. this doesn't bother me as the throw was shortened & has much more precise feeling.

here is a comparison of the 2 shifter rods:



here is a comparison of the C's shifter with new Momo shift knob & leather Momo shift boot vs. the stock shifter in 2nd gear:



we also got JDM amber fog lights, JDM corners and JDM Koito clear H4 headlights. the headlights have been modified to point the correct direction for LHD driving.



other than the JDM rear vented tails, that's the only other exterior appearance modification that has been done to the alltrac.
i personally like the stock bumper & hood & have no plans for CS/RC front end conversion.

stay tuned for more pics & updates to come in the next few weeks

Gotta love a wife that is into cars as much as Ripley =) :smokes:

For those that wanna see some of the things that have been done on the MR2.. check out Off Topic where I posted info about the MR2 =)

Very nice AllTrac. I had the same problem with my GT-S. The body looked great but the engine was near death.

Hey joe and ripley, great job so far!

Joe, I was wondering how those Magnecor wires are working out? I've been looking at picking up a set, but I'd like some feedback from someone who has them first. Was there a noticeable difference in performance from the stock set? Whatever you can tell me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mario

BTW, you have Vash for your avatar Good pick. Also, would you part with that bra? That is if it isn't used anymore.

darthripley":3s9hvgah said:

thanks for all the compliments everyone.
etantshi, the bra was just put on for the 1600 mile drive home to protect the front end from bugs & rock chips. it's not on there now

Click to expand...

That's when you break out the painter's tape.

Thanks Shadow.

The magnecor wires were going to be cheaper than the OEM replacements (RED ones), and they are much thicker..
And they look cool to! =)

I cannot really speak soo much on the performance side, as that was done right before we decided to take off the old turbo, and put the broken one on. Of course we didnt' know that until it was that way until we installed it. :shoots:

As far as the Vash avatar, I actually have THE animation cel from the show. It is from the opening sequence. :smokes:

And The Bra will be kept.. for Road Trips

ahh how beautiful 8)

Thanks for the info. I'll let you know the difference on the butt-dyno when I get some Magnecor's of my own.

Keep up the good work you guys!

"Lord Vadar ... can you hear me?"
"Yes, Master."

ahh, yes that's all i could think of last weekend when our Vadar started up after a long hibernation with his newly rebuilt turbo & other goodies.

***FOR THOSE WHO THINK UPGRADING A CT26 IS A WASTE OF MONEY, KEEP YOUR COMMENTS TO YOURSELF PLEASE, THANKS.
THIS ROUTE FITS OUR GOALS & BUDGET AT THIS TIME ***

we had the stock ct-26 rebuilt & had it slightly upgraded with a T04E compressor wheel, 46 trim and slightly ported wastegate.
i know we could have gone to ATS & gotten a CT27, but they never returned any of my calls or emails after repeated attempts.
we chose Majestic Turbo & they did a great job & had top notch customer service.
the bearing housing was damaged on the turbo which was original to the motor & alltrac. they replaced it & rebuilt & upgraded the turbo just as we had specified.
here is a comparison pic between the "new" turbo & a stock ct26:



here it is partially taken apart - looks nice & clean inside



next, we decided to get the exhaust manifold ceramic coated by a nice old local guy.
his prices were reasonable & i didn't have to mess with any shipping which was nice.
the manifold was coated with a flat black finish to withstand temps of 2400 degrees F.

our kitty Ben is inspecting it:



the next upgrade was a KO Racing 2.5" DP.
by getting rid of the restrictive stock DP & primary cat, we also dropped quite a bit of weight.
30lbs to be exact, along with a little extra room and a prettier ceramic coated DP.
we also put a new Denso O2 Sensor in at the same time.

"since we were already there" (this is an ongoing statement with this car)
we replaced the stock Midpipe with a very pretty 3" Aussie Stainless Steel, w/o the Catalytic Convertor.
it was on a ST165 before, but it fit our ST185 just fine, other than having to bang on the crossmember support to get enough room for it to fit perfectly without touching anything.
to pass inspection here, we will have to go back to the stock midpipe with Cat, but for now since we don't drive the alltrac too often, it will be Cat-less.





oh look, we found where the "new" (after the valve cover gasket replacement) oil leak was coming from.
the oil cooler o-rings & gaskets are all old & need replacing.



might as well clean up the oil cooler since we're already there



that looks nicer & with new o-rings & gaskets



time to get the turbo & everything back on & together again



now, time for another goodie!
HKS SSQV BOV with the flange welded onto the intercooler (thanks Simba)
we bought the purple insert & really like the sound it makes.
not too loud, not too obnoxious & no high pitched chirp/whistle.



the old huge battery had died from not being run enough, which was ok by me.
we replaced it with a Odyssey PC680 battery & lost yet another 30lbs in the process.



this is just a temporary set-up with the battery in the engine bay.
the next mods will be:

an oil catch can (getting lots of blow-by)
straight intake
fix the battery with better tie-down once stock airbox is gone

and now for a little engine bling:
HKS Rad cap



we haven't put the intercooler cover or exhaust manifold heat shield back on yet, still checking for leaks & making sure everything is ok.

here is a pic of the engine bay as it stands right now:



the car pulls VERY hard and feels completely different than when we first brought it home.
it is currently boosting anywhere from 10-12 psi without a boost controller. (next set of mods)
i love driving the car & it's going to be hard to stay out of boost.

there are a couple of more maintenance issues that need to be addressed including replacing a torn steering boot & flushing & replacing tranny/rear diff fluids.
rear diff mount cushion is also shot. we will poly fill it very soon.

there are also more goodies that i have waiting to go onto the car and some that need to be bought.
Suspension components & a cat-back exhaust being near the top of the list.
hmmm looks like more star wars stuff will be hitting ebay soon to finance more parts ... :twisted:

this is definitely an ongoing project, but well worth it & a great learning experience as well

I love how you have been documenting this! Pretty new toys too

that is a good ct26 upgrade. its about time for a rc intercooler though or a fmic isnt it? i had a 60-1 ct26 that was crap. it was fine on the tmic but for my fmic it wouldnt stay spooled. how much was the ceramic coating for the manifold? why didnt you port it while it was off?

thanks shadowlife, i'm using this as a way to document everything we have done & how far things have come with the car since we brought it home.

donteatbugs - the coating on the manifold was $80.
we didn't have the manifold ported b/c the turbo hasn't been ported either & i don't want to have them unmatched.
not only that, didn't have the money to do it with all the other repairs.
i would like to upgrade the intercooler, either with a ARC or Bay Area or the RC WTA.
if i ever went the RC route, i would more than likely just get an entire clip to get a fresher motor with less mileage along with the hood & bumper.

i'm not experiencing any problems keeping the turbo spooled up...it comes on nice & strong even with the stock TMIC.