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

after gathering a ton of parts for Vadar (you will see them all as i update this thread), we decided to start working on him & unthaw him from his carbonite.
keep in mind he is suffering hibernation sickness, but should be alive & well very soon. ( i hope )

we started with the suspension awhile back & began with the springs & struts.

here you can see the OEM front spring/strut all dirty & not much left of the poor little bump stop anymore.




we used this tool - borrowed from my Dad - to remove the collar on the housing & put in the new GAB insert. Thanks Dad!


here is the strut housing all cleaned up ready for the brand new GAB + some new Toyota red coolant for it to bathe in


here is a comparison of the OEM front springs vs. the Jspeed front lowering springs. Jspeed is on the left, OEM on the right.


here are the fronts all cleaned up & put together with Jspeed springs & new KYB dust boots & bump stops & new OEM perch insulators:


and here is a new front assembly on the car:


now, onto the rears --- same thing only this time, no inserts --- a whole new strut housing.

here were the old OEM rear units with dust boots all torn up & nothing left of the bump stops again, along with ratty old perch insulators



a quick comparison shot of the rear OEM springs vs. the new Jspeed lowering springs ... not much lower than OEM.


here are the pretty new GAB rear units with new Jspeed springs, KYB dust boots & bump stops & new OEM perch insulators:


the GAB's are 4 way adjustable from soft being 1 to hard being 4 obviously.


they are easy to adjust on the car from the top & the struts even came with this nifty little screwdriver.


the advertised drop on the Jspeed springs is approx 1" & the front is rather "raked" imo while the rear is still a bit high.

here is a shot in the car port ... it doesn't really show the drop too well, but it's the best i can do now since the car is in pieces now.


we haven't driven the car with them on so it hasn't had a chance to settle.
i'm going to put the spare back in the rear to help it settle out more (i hope).
this should be a perfect combo for mostly "spirited" street driving with some auto-x on occassion & a track day or 2 once in awhile.

i'll get better pics once we can drive the car again & everything has a chance to settle better.
i'm pretty tired from working on him along with joe this week so if something doesn't make sense please forgive me.

stay tuned for more pics & updates as we get more parts installed & removed leading up to an engine/tranny pull followed by everyone's fave past time of find the mystery oil leak(s)!!!111 :twisted:

I love those struts. I had totally forgotten you had those rims, and they still look great. But, yes, keep us readers updated once you get vader out and about!

Thanks Evan!

Continuing on with suspension work we finally got the A-arms off the front & began pounding out the old bushings.
We ended up having to torch out one of the bushings --- it was completely seized and covered in old gummy oil/dirt from the engine leaking on the pass side. what a pain that was! :shoots:


Here are the new Superpro Poly bushings for the front A-arms all installed & greased up:


We also replaced the old rubber front sway bar bushings as they were pretty much shot. Here is a comparison shot of old stock vs. poly:


After removing the rear portion of the exhaust & prop. shaft for other mods soon to come, we decided to remove the old stock rear sway bar & replace it with a nice Whiteline adjustable rear sway bar I had gotten a few months back.
Since it was used it didn't come with any poly bushings, so we just ordered some 20mm Superpro poly bushings that were for a MR-S Spyder sway bar -- they work great


Here is a comparison shot of the stock vs. Whiteline RSB:


Here it is installed on Vadar - yay!



The endlinks seem ok for now at least, so we left those stock all around.
If need be they can be replaced later on without too much of a hassle.

The only other bushings we are going to replace are the rear trailing arms, but after fighting those A-arms so bad, neither one of us are in the mood to screw with the trailing arms just yet.
We will worry about installing the trailing arm bushings after we get Vadar put back together up & running again.

I will update again w/pics in the next few days with our progress on the engine/tranny pull.

nice work, btw where did u get those gab inserts..

Lookin good...definitely one of the cleanest Trac's around.

So lucky to have a southern car!

From the picture you posted, the whiteline bar looks really really similar to the stocker. I was expecting it to be thicker, or something.

Where did you get the bar, and do you know the main differences between the two?

Vader's lookin good. =)

-Towels

Nice to see you two are starting out the New Year on the right foot..err tire. :wink: The work you do on Vadar continues to be an inspiration to me in regards to my own project. I like how everything done is tasteful and never "over-the-top". Looking forward to updates on your engine/tranny pull.

Thanks for all the nice comments guys - it really helps keep me going when things get really frustrating with the car.

rio_cyber, I got the GAB's a few years back from someone in California who never used them. They are pretty hard to find now as they have been discontinued for quite awhile.

thanks d1 - I hope we can meet up someday

Towels, the Whiteline RSB is 20mm in diameter where the stocker is ~18mm in diameter. If it was any larger I don't think it would fit in especially given the way we had to thread through & around to get it installed.
The 3 holes that make it adjustable are supposed to cause the bar to behave as if it were a thicker bar.
The outside hole would be the softest setting which would be closest to stock (allowing the most flex)
the middle hole I have read is the setting the non-adjustable bar has which would be 20mm.
I remember reading somewhere that the inner most hole aka the stiffest setting is close to 24mm. :shrug:
Now I could be way off base on that one, but you get the general idea.
We put it to the innermost aka stiffest setting

I got the bar from another member here, it's an older model being blue instead of silver as they are now, but other than that there is no difference that i'm aware of.

Nubkins - Thanks so much!

We've been making great progress on the engine/tranny pull.

This is what Vadar's engine bay looked like after Day 1 & about 3-4 hours worth of work.



Day 1 consisted of:
draining fluids (oil, tranny & coolant)
removing radiator + fan
removing airbox
ARC TMIC was removed already .... & sold to a good new home
removing prop shaft
removing midpipe & stock catback w/ugly Magnaflow muffler welded on
installing Whiteline RSB + poly bushings

I will update with Day 2 & Day 3 photos tommorrow ... we got the engine/tranny out a few hours ago so I'm pretty tired & sore after all of that.

You sold your ARC top mount? What are your plans for the future intercooler setup? Sorry if you've already posted plans about the intercooler, but I can't seem to remember reading it (mind you a needy 3yr old daughter and 7month old son are currently ruining my ability to remember everything I read ). It must be nice to be able to work on your car in the middle of winter. I should move south, it's currently -31C/-24F where I am .

Nubkins, I sold the ARC a month or so back to wannabetomsracer, he had contacted me about wanting it if I ever decided to sell so I contacted him & he bought it which allowed me to buy a Ron Davis Rad

I was lucky enough to get an entire ST205 WTA setup including all the lines, heat exchanger & pump so we will be installing all of that once the motor & tranny go back in.

You didn't miss anything I just hadn't really said that yet & I haven't posted a pic of the 205 setup yet either.
On Page 11 of this thread I have the list of parts I have & what all has & hasn't been bought or installed yet ... been using that to keep everything together & close to budget.
I'll post pics of parts as they go on ... they are scattered all over the house ... the hood is in the dining room along with the front bumper cover, HKS exhaust & C/F driveshaft.
Midpipe & everything else is in the living room .. ron davis rad is on the fireplace mantel lol

You should move down here ... it's 65*F right now today w/an expected high of 75*F & 80* tommorrow.
Monday will be cold & rainy with it being in the 30s-40s yuk.
We're having a really weird winter this year, not very cold at all which is ok by me. Only a few cold days here & there.
Hopefully we can have the motor cleaned up enough while its warm outside & get it on the stand to bring it in the house to work on in it inside

^^ now tell him what summer is like and the humidity! Texas has some great winters but summers can be um....Well the humidity gets high enough you feel like you need gills to breathe, or that's how it was around Houston.

The project is really coming along though and you are doing it right, fixing all the things that need attention before you add a whole bunch of power. Keep up the good work!

Ah, that explains it. How on earth did you find the full W/A setup for the ST205?!?! Right place, right time I bet. In regards to the temperatures...right after I made my posting I got curious and looked up the current temperature for Dallas. My wife joked about moving there because of it. Perhaps a "winter-home" is in order. HAHA. Out of curiousity, what temperature range do you guys see in the summer? jonstew probably has a point about the summers...we would cook. HAHA. Anyhow, looking forward to seeing your project come together.

I was able to get a very good deal on the ST205 WTA setup - one of those once in a lifetime deals

the summers here are hot & while the humidity in Dallas is not as bad as Houston, it's stifling at times.
you can pretty much step outside & soak your shirt without doing anything lol.

i think you all would bake here in June, July, August & September.
we have 100+* days regularly & sometimes the coolest time of the day around midnite it can be in the 90s then ... not every summer but more often than not.
having lived here all my life, i'm used to the heat & have worked painting inside houses when it was 105F outside & who knows how hot inside.
i couldn't make it in that kind of cold like ya'll have up there .... i freeze bad enough when it's 20s-30s here lol

back on topic, i just sanded, primed & repainted bottom part of the bumper cover which was really torn up.
gonna eat dinner, then seperate the engine from the tranny & start some clean up work on everything.

i'll update with more photos later tonite.

Yah I have some cousins in Houston, alil warmer than Wisconsin...I dont even wana hear it!!! This topic should be rated XXX because yah...oh my god.... :smokes:

Im so jellous!

Thats alot of time in your car! Just wanted to say good job, Im very impressed!

Thanks!

Day 2 consisted mainly of disconnecting plugs & lines, nothing too exciting.
since there wasn't much change, i skipped on pics.

Day 3:
removed hood
removed bumper cover
unplugged ECU, fed harness through to engine bay
removed north/south crossmember + motor mounts
removed axles - left inner stubs in tranny
removed motor & tranny onto dolly
cleaned hood underside in the house

Right before we were ready to get the hoist rolled out for action:


Trusty mover's dolly to support the engine & tranny, bumper cover removed:


New Load leveler in place to let the motor down as evenly as possible:


Hoisting Vadar to let the motor/tranny roll out:


The rear wheels are on ramps you can't see in the pic:


Dirty engine bay ... lots of cleaning to do here:


Engine/Tranny out .. this shows 1 side of the oil leaks - what a mess <sigh>


Dirty hood underside getting cleaned up for heat protective stuff (waiting for the shipment to get here)


I'll try to update tommorrow, but 1 bolt is holding us back from removing the tranny.
We were both too tired to continue fighting it so we'll tackle it tommorrow & hopefully get the engine on the stand.

the love the attention to detail that you guys put into your cars

How did you repaint your bumper? You did it yourself at home?

Project sounds very good!

Thanks Omar

MixMaster, we just repainted it here at home.
I got automotive primer + Super Red paint in rattle cans at a paint store & for small touch-ups etc it turns out pretty good.
Of course not 100% perfect but I just don't have the $$$ to pay a shop to repaint a bumper that I might be changing to a RC/CS on down the road.

Day 4:
finally got tranny separated from motor thanks to lots of PB Blaster + torch
removed pressure plate, clutch, flywheel
got motor on engine stand
inspected motor for oil leaks
cleaned the "new" ST205 tranny
swapped speedo sensors - ST185 mechanical is on ST205 now

The flywheel bolts were severly overtorqued & required a torch + PB Blaster to remove them. It took everything I had to break them loose while Joe held onto the crank bolt with a ratchet.

Suprisingly enough the Previous Owner had an OEM clutch put in when it was done at 80K miles according to the records we were given.
The clutch was worn more than we both thought ... probably would begin to slip in a few thousand miles, so even better reason to replace it.

We removed the timing belt cover to discover the main oil leak on the pass side of the motor was coming from the camshaft seals .. both of them.
The timing belt shows wear also. Records indicate that was done at 65k miles - the car now has approx. 120K miles so it's time to do that as well.
I'm sure the oil leaking from the camshaft seals has helped break down the rubber of the timing belt.
We also saw more clearly where the water pump had been leaking as well.
Unsure at this point if the oil pump or oil pan are leaking, we'll look into that as soon as we clean up the motor itself.

On the driver's side of the motor, the distributor is leaking like an absolute sive. It's caused a mess everywhere on that side.
When we removed the flywheel the rear main seal appeared to be dry, but again we will investigate that further as well.

The final oil leak we can see at this time appears to be a gasket that we didn't replace when we fixed the oil cooler.
It's on an oil feed line at the bottom right near the HFH :shoots:

HFH #3 on the backside of the motor is toast & is leaking some sort of gummy oil/coolant combo yuk.

The motor is covered in oil from all of these leaks & the older leaks of the valve cover gasket before we repaired it.

Although I didn't want to pull the motor/tranny I have to say I am glad we are doing this as the motor is really in need of the maintenance & repairs.

It's getting cold outside & we are due to have freezing rain tommorrow after having 70* & 80* days Friday & Saturday.
The good thing is the cold doesn't look like it will last with 60s coming back around Wednesday.

I took lots of pics & will update with photos of everything discussed above very soon.
We're working on cleaning the engine harness right now in the house & other clean up stuff we can do inside.

Very nice! I'm going to look into doing that also. That sounds like a good "affordable" way to touch up the bumper. I didn't realize that was possible. I plan on going RC for the bumper when I get the FMIC done. I could use a little touch up for the front while I'm getting everything else finished up. I've got some serious scrapes under there.

You guys seem to have got that motor and tranny out pretty easily.
I've been absolutely terrified to even attempt it...haha

Keep up the good work!