Flips 91 Coupe Build--KS. Lots of Pics

[FlipCoupe]

More progress, im on a roll lol.

Pulled the motor, i couldnt get my drain plug on my transmission to come out so I just removed my speed sensor and drained from there....did not realize how much fluid was still in the transmission until I was pulling it out lol.

No pics of the pull, did it all on my own and grabbing any sort of camera was not on my mind.

transmission to be cleaned and painted aluminum or black, haven't decided.



Going to try to have it all torn apart by this weekend, my wifes contractions are about 6 mins apart ATM so i dont see that happening



Ready for a good scrubbin'

[FlipCoupe]

Sophia Anne born 5/11/11. Now that things have settled down a bit its time to get back to work.

Sanded, scrubbed, degreased, took apart.....pretty much went to town on the engine bay. Right now its sitting with its 2nd coat of clear, waiting 2 days then im going to wetsand with 1000 and take some McGuires compound to it.








Tore the engine apart, going to be stripping all the paint off of the timing covers and valve cover, decided the other night that im going to paint the car black...i really cant stand red.





Bought some more RIT dye for the seats/carpet..going to do a 2nd coat to try to get a darker color.

[FlipCoupe]

More black dye for the seats....sprayed more on the interior as well...higher concentration of dye to get a darker color.



Did not take any pictures of this process, but wrapped my dash in black suede. Going to go pick up more fabric tomorrow so I can complete the door inserts and center console.





And a bunch of stuff I painted black..stripped and cleaned to bare metal, primered, 2 coats of high gloss black and 3 coats clear.



Taking the block to the machine shop tomorrow, going to have them bore, hone, and hot tank. Also will be having him reassemble the entire bottom end...all for around $300. Really hoping to start it up in a couple weeks.

[FlipCoupe]

Anybody have a stock twincam rod? Lemme know what you want for it shipped to 67217, please and thank you.

[FlipCoupe]

Well, I bought some Arias pistons off nico and unfortunately they were not in a condition that I felt safe putting into my motor, so im going back to my oem quality new pistons. I guess i'd rather go with new OEM style pistons as opposed to used forged pistons.

Took my block off the stand and loaded it into my car, will be dropping it off at the machine shop in the next hour or so.

[FlipCoupe]

13 hrs to complete and still need to put the oil pan on, first time doing most of this.

Plastigauge measued out to .002in, npr rings, king bearing, arp hardware.

Wish I took more pictures but my phone was dead.

[240sxAli4Life]

Damn you didnt get the engine in yet?? All these months?

[FlipCoupe]

Damn you didnt get the engine in yet?? All these months?

nope, unfortunately my wife kept our checking account running low buying things for our new home, finally was able to order all the parts I needed last Friday. But I received them Tuesday around 6pm, started working on it around 9pm and didnt stop until 10am the next day. Its all ready to go though, getting the engine hoist this weekend to attach the transmission then its going in, been a long time coming.

If you look at my update on 5/31/11, thats how the motor has been sitting until a day ago, in a bunch of parts looking sad.

[FlipCoupe]

Working on the car now, expecting startup in the next few hours depending on if I go to the bar or not....who am I kidding, definitely going to the bar but pics and startup tonight ^^

[FlipCoupe]

And its done, i think. Going to take my battery back to wal-mart tomorrow to get it charged or replaced, i tried jumping it but couldnt get enough juice to turn the car over and I didnt feel like swapping the battery with my DD. Pretty sure the battery is dead though, its been sitting for lover 8 months I think. Heres pics:

[FlipCoupe]

Bit of a scare tonight, finally got everything done and was ready to start the motor and my starter just made a loud click but no cranking of the motor, upon further inspection I was missing 1 of my starter bolts so I re-attached and tried to start again, same thing...just a loud click; no cranking....at this point i was pretty deflated-

Tried to rotate the crank by hand but I didnt have a breaker bar and my longest socket wrench wasnt very long, none the less I tried anyways...still nothing. So in a bit of desperation and fury I rolled it out into the street and tried to push start it to break everything loose. First I removed all plugs, unplugged the dizzy, and sprayed a little wd-40 and a cap of oil down each cylinder to hopefully break it loose. Had the wife in teh car and tried to push start it 3 times, still nothing....pushed it back into the garage again.

I turned back to the house ready to just go to bed but decided to give it another go, i took my wrench to it, stood on my front bumper and used my foot to try turn the crank, still nothing. This time i looked down and noticed i was a little past TDC..not 20 before like it was set when I started, so i figured I was making progress. Grabbed my shovel and angled it well enough to use it as a breaker bar, was able to get a little movement. Hopped in the car and it turned over! Possibly the best sound I have ever heard.

Tried to start it, and it just turned over, but man it sounded good lol. No grinding, no odd noises, it sounded like a strong engine trying to start. Anyways, i restabbed my dizzy just to be sure and it still wouldnt start, turned the car off completely and let it sit for a few minutes, turned it back to accessory and the fuel pump wasnt priming, so im going to trouble shoot that tomorrow. I have 3 videos but nothing special yet, just a 240 trying to turn over. Hopefully a starting vid tomorrow.

[FlipCoupe]

Still no fuel...

ECU giving codes 13 and 34, i know 34 is the knock sensor which i know because i forgot to attach it and still havent, code 13...coolant temp sensor...figure that outnext, still trying to figure out where my fuel is!

[Hijacker]

Do you have fuel pressure? And double check your wiring. I can't remember how diff single slammers are from duals, but it could be something as simple as the injectors not getting their 12v power.

[FlipCoupe]

Do you have fuel pressure? And double check your wiring. I can't remember how diff single slammers are from duals, but it could be something as simple as the injectors not getting their 12v power.

yeh it was the plug, i had it plugged into the fuse box near the battery instead of plugged into the actualy orangish/red plug near the fender, I have fuel now and it wants to start but I think I need to adjust my dizzy.

Going to get back to it when i get home, it was midnight and I dont think my neighbors would appreciate my open headers lol.

[FlipCoupe]

Ridiculous leak at my intake manifold, its coming off tomorrow and im spraying my gaskets with copper spray which is fine because i need to attach my knock sensor anyways.

Other than that it sounds great, the idle surged and it all but whistled from the intake manifold but the motor sounds awesome.

Heres some pics of my 80% complete interior.





Shift knob from 2007 Mazda3





Heres why it says 80%, you cant hide anything from flash!


Notice the official Nico lanyard hanging from my key

[FlipCoupe]

Finally, it lives...kind of

Car is stalling with MAF plugged in, ECU throwing code 13 which is the coolant temps sensor, so im going to replace that tomorrow.

Car idles fine with MAF unplugged, stalls with maf plugged in.

Check list for tomorrow: New fuel filter, set TPS, adjust IACV, replace CTS...so close to the finish line!

[FlipCoupe]

damn you 240sx -.-

Set tps to .47, adjusted IACV....but the motor was shaking too much even for running an open down pipe + hockey puck mounts so I started pulling plug wires.....that son of a b**** cylinder 1 wasnt firing...again.

Checked my spark- Good
Swapped wires from cylinder 1 and 2, still no change
Let the car run for a min then pulled the spark plugs, didnt smell any fuel in cylinder 1 so i pulled the fuel rail, disconnected my dizzy, and had each injector sit in a spray paint can lid....all lids had fuel except #1.

Checked the pulse, its getting a 14v pulse when the engine is cranking. Ran out of sun light, too lazy to take car off jackstands to push into garage to use fully lit garage haha. Tomorrow im going to swap the injectors between cylinders 1 and 2 and see if theres any difference. Luckily i have a spare injector, just hoping thats the issue.

[FlipCoupe]

Finally firing on all 4 cylinders, turned out to be a bad injector....funny thing is that the bad one is the one i bought to replace my #1 injector last year before the rebuild...thats $20 wasted.

Finally felt comfortable with letting the car run so I bled the coolant system. Still getting a 2K idle surge when i plug in my tps or MAF so more TSing on that tomorrow. I am getting 5v with key in on position from the harness, and i have the 1.8ohm resistance on the TPS closed throttle, and 9.8ohm full throttle. Hopefully I can get it figured out tomorrow, will put it back in the garage so i can work on it for more than an hour

[fastma11]

Nice

[FlipCoupe]

Nice

Thanks.

Ok I'm pretty sure i'm off a tooth but I want to check with anyone who cares to respond

I've reset myself to TDC about 10 times and have I cant get my dizzy to stab and point at 9:00, it always seems to point to either 11:00 or 7:00. I know my base timing is dead on, i made sure of that because I didnt want to be in a situation where i had to remove the oil pan/lower timing cover ever again. The only think I can figure is my upper timing is off a tooth. Anyone have any experience with this?


Edit: I always thought the dizzy should be facing 9:00, but in this image its more towards 10:00/11:00.

[FlipCoupe]

What a failed experiment, pretty sure I already spun a bearing, the noise is pretty distinct lol. Pulling the KA in the next few weeks, might part it out, might just hang onto it for a future rebuild. Coupe shell is up for sale, hate my 240 at this point. Going to give it 2 weeks to sell, if it doesnt then I'm ordering a CA18DET and just going from there, no more trying to build my own engine haha.

[s13_chris]

Bummer ! Get an SR. Reliable, powerful, simple.

[badbob2121]

hate my 240 at this point. Going to give it 2 weeks to sell

honestly anyone who built a car has said the same thing....many times

Nothing ever goes exactly as planned with building cars, there are just too many factors that change. honestly really think about selling it, will you regret it and buy another one in a few months when you get over the situation?

going with a basic swap sounds like a good idea. Think about the reason they are so popular...because of the simplicity (in most cases lol) and they pull a premium one week before race wars

[Morph]

What a failed experiment, pretty sure I already spun a bearing, the noise is pretty distinct lol. Pulling the KA in the next few weeks, might part it out, might just hang onto it for a future rebuild. Coupe shell is up for sale, hate my 240 at this point. Going to give it 2 weeks to sell, if it doesnt then I'm ordering a CA18DET and just going from there, no more trying to build my own engine haha.

Damn man that blows. I know the feeling of putting in A LOT of work just to have more issues popup and stall your progress completely.

Best thing to do is not look at the car for a few weeks and then come back with a clear head and then make a decision. As badbob said i've been to the line many time of F&*% this car and you always come back.

[FlipCoupe]

Bummer ! Get an SR. Reliable, powerful, simple.

Split between the SR and CA, the swaps cost about the same from JDMhookup so im just doing some research.

Nothing ever goes exactly as planned with building cars, there are just too many factors that change. honestly really think about selling it, will you regret it and buy another one in a few months when you get over the situation?

going with a basic swap sounds like a good idea. Think about the reason they are so popular...because of the simplicity (in most cases lol) and they pull a premium one week before race wars

You're right, had it on Craigslist for 2 days and after fielding 10+ usual craigslist calls of "i want to buy but i have no monies" I decided to take it off. Started parting out the KA, sold the distributor and ECU yesterday, going to pull it out next weekend so I can tear it down and try to get rid of what I can.

Damn man that blows. I know the feeling of putting in A LOT of work just to have more issues popup and stall your progress completely.

Best thing to do is not look at the car for a few weeks and then come back with a clear head and then make a decision. As badbob said i've been to the line many time of F&*% this car and you always come back.

yup, im back. After looking at all sorts of cars I decided doing a swap will be cheaper and leave me with a better looking car than if I just try to buy one outright.


On the fence about SR or CA, leaning towards CA only because it seems to be the less done swap locally. Not going to be ordering a motor until around February when I file my taxes so I have plenty of time to make a decision.

[badbob2121]

jdmhookup is legit, they are local here in STL and all my buddies have gotten their swaps through them and all have been successful

CA vs SR is more of a personal preference, but aftermarket support is one major factor to consider

[FlipCoupe]

jdmhookup is legit, they are local here in STL and all my buddies have gotten their swaps through them and all have been successful

CA vs SR is more of a personal preference, but aftermarket support is one major factor to consider

Everything i've read about jdmhookup is positive and the motor is priced about right at 1600 + 200 shipping.

Decided to go with the CA, going to start accumulating parts and will actually order the motor in Late January/Early February.