3UZFTE

Well, as you and everyone else who works on cars knows... there is no happy ending... j/k I'm really happy with what I have, just got other stuff on the plate.

That being said.... I was able to get a video of my car starting, however it was only after I had taken it to the crappy *** exhaust shop, (that is a drug front, fyi...) I have exhaust leaks pretty much everywhere he touched it. So needless to say, now that it has reached "drivable" exhaust levels I will be driving about 20 miles to let a real professional do the work. Anyways I was able to take the video yesterday after I convinced the old lady that I wouldn't get grease on it.
She is holding the camera while I start it, then I basically walk over and take the camera from her and the rest is history. At the 20 second mark, you can notably hear the exhaust leaks, some are due to old gasket, but every single weld this guy did is also leaking. Oh, I know people will say "don't rev it when it's cold", well I don't care what you think if that's what your going to say, so just save yourself the time. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu1wNNV5Oy4

Some comments on the video... No CEL, but it is hesitant and sluggish. When I snap the throttle, it seems to lag behind quite a bit almost misfiring. I am going to replace cap and rotors, check timing with a light, then do a compression test. Unfortunately I am finishing up the last few weeks of school, and I have pushed most of it off to work on this car. Now I have very little time for both, and what time I do have I find myself doing homework before class... But you know when I have the time, I will have this baby running in tip top shape. I plan on selling it once it's completed, probably to my friend in the video is he has the $$$.'

Thanks for taking the time and droppin' by, let me know what you guys think so far. I enjoy the comments and critiques.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

DON'T REV IT WHEN ITS COLD!

i'm done lol

hoonunya

I think you've done something amazing in a short period of time.

STUDY !!!!! the car will wait.

3UZFTE

Update, haven't done much... but I figured out my misfiring problem. Checked compression all are between 100-150, but not within the 20% which is optimal, but I'm more than happy. Checked the plug wire diagram, and it turns out I had plug wires #4 and #6 switched. Switched them, started it up, fired right away, revved like it should, and idled awesome, now I actually trust driving it more than 10 miles.

Tomorrow, I will be doing homework in the morning. After that, I will return to the exhaust shop that hacked up more than they fixed, and at first ask for some money back. If he doesn't want to give some money back, I am faced with a dilemma... He doesn't know how to weld what so ever, now that I have seen his work... So do I allow him to "fix" it, or just leave? I don't want him to make it any worse, as if he hasn't already..... Anyways, if worse comes to worse, I am will just walk out, and take my business elsewhere. I spent a total of $125, and he pretty much cut and rewelded the Y-pipe and connected the Y-pipe. I'm not like super angry, the car was pretty much wasn't driveable with just headers, now I can drive it atl east... Thoughts anyone?

hoonunya

It's great you figured out the misfiring.

Just my two cents worth, but I'd say give the original guy a shot to fix his work. It's a lot easier to identify leaks when the engine's running. He wants to stay in business, so he should recognize his mistake and correct it for no charge.

good luck.....and study

3UZFTE

Update.
Now that I have the car running well, I am going to proceed with the mechanical stuff like suspension, etc. Here is a shot at start up. I have no lights, except I am getting a tranny code #63, which is an open or short in shift solenoid #2. I have an idea where to look, and what I'm looking for, but I wont know until I get under there and have a look for myself.
Here are a few pictures of my process.

No CEL light, however I randomly get an Air Bag light, only code #41, which means it has a fault stored in the memory, I cleared the code, it reset. I start it up, and it is solid again. Sometimes it's there sometimes it's not. Stupid thing.
While i've been on idle time. I went ahead and replaced the rear bumper with the one from the salvage yard, def. worth my time and money, considering the next closest one was about 100 miles away for $125...


Tomorrow, I will bring my car to local shop where they let me use a lift and work on my car when their slow. I will be doing the tranny pan, replacing the filter, and using toyota's pan silicone. I am pretty sure the owner before is running dex/merc fluid by the smell and taste, needless to say it isn't fresh. I have connections at Toyota, so I have about 10 qts. of T-IV, it shuold only use 2 qts, however I am going to do several drain and fills throughout the next few weeks.

Things I noticed, it will need new shocks, upper ball joints, which is sold in the wishbone, and front wheel bearings. The car is almost there! I am getting too antsy to be able to wait. Once the car is in tip top shape, than the seats and wheels will come, until then, hope you all enjoy this thread. Check back later.

goku2

Why are you surprised by the Airbag code? Did you forget that the airbag was removed/deployed already?

3UZFTE

I guess I am suprised by the code because the only sign of the airbag going off is that there are marks around the steering wheel nut, and the factory seal has been broken. I mean, I am not in denial that the car could have been in an accident, but I don't think it was large enough to deploy the airbag. The front and rear bumper cover both have the same vin as the car, and there is no damage to the frame, core support, rear bumper support, no a,b, or c pillar damage, all doors have same vin, also there isn't anything about an accident in the carfax either. I'm sure the air bag was removed before as I can see some wear around the nut that holds the wheel on, clearly someone used a socket on it. But it should reset as I reset the airbag ecu, maybe the airbag is faulty, you'd think that if it were in a crash, it would store a hard code, such as a sensor or something. I think I could have not reset it correctly, as I didn't go from TC to Ab in a millisecond. I plan on replacing this entire wheel, including airbag as it has a crack in the leather and it slightly showing the airbag.

Updates.
Today I dealt with the transmission. I pulled the pan off, and was just going to leave it at that, however I couldn't just leave it at that being a member of so many forums. I recently was put on to a very good site that has some good info about the transmission. Anyways, with the help of those guys I was able to shim my accumulators to achieve a faster shift, but this required removing the valve body, which wasn't the funnest. Anyways, here is my pan when I pulled it. Some metal fuzz, nothing unusual, but man was this dex/merc dirrrrrty.... Looking at the T-IV, it looks like hot pink compared to the fluid that came out.

After a little parts washing and elbow grease, here is my pan and filter

Due to some paint chiping and a little bit of rust, I threw some black semi-gloss paint on there, good as new.

Looks new doesn't it, with all 4 magnets in there.

Sorry no pics of the gobs of silicone that I put on there just to make sure no leaks.

Haven't had a chance to drive around and experience the "new" transmission, but tomorrow, I shall let you guys know what happens. Until then, thanks for the comments.

JAndersson

Must say that you are doing an excellent work. Looking forward to see the result when you are finished.

And yes, the transmission fluid looked very dirty. I guess that you will feel a quite big of different in the way the car shifts now.

3UZFTE

Thank you very much for the comments and time you guys have spent looking at this thread.

Tranny - I do actually notice a real difference in the way the car drives. As I mentioned, I shimmed my 1-2 and 2-3 accumulators to shift into gear quicker, instead of the nice looooong slipping shift, it now just goes into 2nd and 3rd, like it should. http://www.supraforums.com/forum/sho...ight=make+a340 As part of this whole operation, I did actually take the shift solenoids out and soak them in PB Blaster for around 2-3 hours a peice. After I reassembled, I didn't have time to drive it around, so I came back the next day to try it out. After 2 qts of T-IV, I was worried because it doesn't move, at all.... After another qt, it started to move under a lot of throttle.... after another qt, it was starting to freak out, it is moving but again under a lot of load, and it hardly got out of the driveway. I was to scared and frsuterated that I just took out this transmission as I pretty much flushed all the nasty crap out of it by removing the pan, valve body, and letting it drain. Well I came back the next day, started it up, and checked the fluid at the cold mark, and it wasn't even on the dipstick! I added another qt, which is now about 4.5-5 quarts, and finally it drives how it should. It no longer has the long drawn out shift from 1st to 2nd and from 2nd to 3rd. As soon as it is put into gear, the load is felt both on the brakes and it is shown in the RPM as well. I can actually almost chirp the wheels, however I am affraid to really get after it so soon, as pretty much everything is breaking in. Here are some picture of the valve body. You can see the 2 solenoids that I took out to clean.


Exhaust - I am concerned that there is still some residue oil in the exhaust system as when I really get on it, I did see a very small amount of smoke, when I was driving it, but nothing that was consistant. I can sit and rev it all day long, but no visible smoke comes from the exhaust, but after that there is a little vapor from the exhaust, which I believe is the rich condition after reving it and trying to make it to smoke, as when I start it back up and have it idle at op temp there is no trace of it an vapor/oil/smoke. I think my friend and I are going to tackle this as I went to tech school with him, and he's master tech at mopar, and he has his own auto shop at his garage. When I mentioned what I had gone through with the exhaust guy, he looked at me pretty amusingly and said that we could go to fleet farm, buy the piping and do it ourselves for substantially less money. He would like to do 2.5" the whole way, he was pretty addiment on doing an X-pipe rather than leaving the stock Y-pipe the other exhaust guy has screwed up, royally.

Misc. Parts - I have recently had a few hours of downtime, and as everyone knows downtime leads to bordem, mischeif, etc., so I kept myself busy and scowered the internet to find local LS400s in the breaker(salvage) yards. Here is what I am come up with. I purchased.... Steering wheel and air bag (black), for the time being so I can verify if the airbag itself was bad, and the wheel is just in much better condition than mine so I had to. I also happened to take an airbag from an SC, which looked awfully similar in the yard, but it isn't a direct fit, havent had much time to tinker, but I know it doesn't just sit in the wheel like the LS does. I bought 2 pressurized radiator overflows as mine is cracked, in 2 places, so I grabbed 2 just incase one has a crack in it that I over looked in the yard, plus replacement parts... you never know when you'll need them. Which was the main reason why I purchased the 2 cam position sensors and housings. The passanger side window regulator as actually free, as mine was bad, however this only turned out to be an ok deal and someone stole my 1/4 snap-on rachet whilst I was there... fuc*ing bastards.... I am watching you.... I purchased this tranny cooler from a acura legend needs a little TLC, but no leaks, should done fine for my use as I will plan on either running it as a tranny cooler, or a power steering cooler for my GS430, havent decided..


The MAF sensor is for our 64' Falcon as it is running an 92' Mustang 5.0 HO which uses a MAF instead of speed density or carburation... yuugghhhk. Window switch is for the LS4 as the lock botton was never there since I bought it, will repalce the switch, but use my current wood overlay as it looks better then the one in the picture. All the switch and relays, I just pocketed, I think they would charge me for them, but I didn't even want to have that discussion, and also what you cannot see are the 15-20 Lex/Toyota/Honda/volvo badges (volvo was for my friend) that I jacked as they are of no value to them, and they will look nice scattered through out my apartment. The coil-on-plug is from the legend I pulled the tranny cooler from, just wanted to test it out against a 3uz COP. On another sad note, I happened to break my beloved 3/8 bent, fine tooth snap-on ratchet, good thing it's lifetime warentee, so it's pretty much the price of doing businss, it just sucked as this broke early on, and had to do everything with a mini 3/8s and a hammer, oh to improvise...

3UZFTE

And lastly... I picked up one of these for $40. Not sure if it's an M62 or M90 as I didn't happen to look at the year of the bonneville I pulled it from, in 1997 they went to an M90, previous years had a M62, I don't care which one it is, I am just happy I have one, regardless if it's connected to anything.




I know it is used, so it will need a rebuild, something that I can manage. 2 bearings, 1 seal, some grease, oil, a press and my time... I will take a stab at making a custom intake mani before I find the likes to spend the money through i-charger (richwood), I havent recieved a quote yet regarding the price of it. However I feel that with a little hard work, I can manage it as my friend owns a sheetmetal company and my friend who is helping with the exhaust really knows how to weld...

All said and done, I spent $160 on everything you see pictured, except the valve body as that cost me nothing, including the T-IV and washers.
So what's next...
I will be completing the exhaust now that it is driveable, and will make a commuter trip. However my friend that offered to help, he and I are both in the same classes, and it is becoming kaotic as there is 1 week and 1 day left of school.....
Sorry but I am excited to be done, if you can't tell.. Once i'm finish, I will have copious amounts of time to work on what ever car I so choose to. It might have to sit a little while, as we have a large hot rod show called "back to the 50's", where anything 1964 and older, hahaha "sorry, not mustangs" is there slogan... Should be a good time, we arleady registered a month ago, and have another month left, out cars were something like #10140 and #10141, however if my dad doesn't get his a$$ in gear and start working on the falcon, I can tell you there will be one less car there under their count.... It'll be there, for sure if it were up to me, I just have to walk away sometime because I feel as it is a one man band stand at my garage, and I need a break.

I will keep you guys updated to my progess, as I love CL, and feel as if this is my fourth home, after my apartment, work, and school....

Och

iTrader: (3)

Holy crap, you got a super charger for $40...

3UZFTE

Finally solved my airbag light, I wasn't switch from Ab to Tc fast enough. It took me about 10 times to get it, once I did, I was super happy. More to come soon.

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

hey dont take down ur pictures lol. ur building it up fast!

BLKonBLK98

quite a saga. i'm kinda jealous of your mechanical ability, as it's something i'm just becoming interested in (coming from a customizing background i always told ppl "i don't fix cars, i fix them up"). should be building my first engine soon. seems like everything is second nature to you though. well done sir.