Tunes67 - 92 MX-3 GS

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » June 26th, 2007, 1:50 pm

I was going through this log and discovered that I never posted up the pics of my header install on the engine.. so.. better late than never.. here are pics of the headers as I installed them on the engine. These pics are from the test fit and while the engine was out of the car. Enjoy

This was from a while back.. but just for the log and for those following this work.

Tunes67

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » July 2nd, 2007, 12:39 pm

Well I am 99% done in the engine bay. All that is left is to add power steering fluid and coolant and she is ready to fire up. Here are some updated pics of the engine bay and where I installed / relocated some components. If anyone is interested in something specific.. I can get you a closer pic. Cheers

Its nice to finally be moving onto another part of this project. I am moving onto minor interior work and then within the next 2 weeks.. one way or another.. the body work is getting done and she will be in for paint soon hopefully. Cheers

Tunes67

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » July 13th, 2007, 1:30 am

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Bumpysbro · Post by **Bumpysbro** » July 13th, 2007, 6:49 pm

awesome to hear man. how does the beast run?

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » July 13th, 2007, 7:27 pm

She actually runs far better than I thought considering that she has sat for over a year. After letting the fuel system prime and pressurize.. she fired immediately and was actually running on the 3rd turn of the key. Vacuum reading was perfect at 18 inches of mercury, oil pressure was excellent at 50 psi (after warming up a bit). Water temp started going up so I shut her down. I still need to clear the cooling system of air bubbles and it was dark last night when we got her running. No sign of any leaks though, and once the HLA's stopped complaining.. she was nice and smooth. Running much quieter than I would have thought given the size of my CAI piping and the headers. The power steering pump was still whining a bit.. need to crank the wheel a bit and get the steering rack refilled with fluid. But all in all.. for first fire up.. she ran far better than I expected off the bat. I mean.. you always want your engine to perform perfectly the first time.. but it rarely ever happens.. But with the exception of a dead battery at the onset last night.. she performed excellently

There are still a few things left to do before I can drive her.. but that should happen this weekend sometime at the latest. But this isnt the end of this work log.. noooooo.. next will be the paint job....

Tunes67

Bumpysbro · Post by **Bumpysbro** » July 13th, 2007, 7:37 pm

thats good to hear. i just finished putting basically the whole car back together i was in the middle of a bp project then i said the heck with it and put everything back together and now im gonna start building the engine. gotta have it ready in 28 days. thats amazing you have 3 mx3's. you do work on all of them?

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » July 13th, 2007, 7:54 pm

Nah.. The Green one is a 94 RS 1.6L ATX car.. its my daily driver. The one down on the road.. is a 92 GS ATX car I found for $250.. The ATX is toast.. no forward drive gears. But other than that the car is in VERY nice condition. I am going to keep the bumpers and the engine, wiring harness & ECU, then I am trading the rolling chassis for body work on my project GS. I wont say what the fate of that car will be.. but it should be interesting to watch

Its really kind of funny... I have paid a grand total of $1975 for all 3 of the MX-3's. The RS was $1600, my project GS was $225 and the parts car was $250

LOL Gotta love craigslist

Tunes67

Bumpysbro · Post by **Bumpysbro** » July 14th, 2007, 12:04 am

haha wow that is lucky, i live in a small town i think with 5 mx'3s here including mine. i needed a car that ran and couldnt find anything else at the time and bought mine for 2800 haha. so thats about 900 more dollars for mine then you payed for all 3 of yours

do you know alot about transmissions? well good luck with your projects hope they come out great
Jon

verzutiko · Post by **verzutiko** » July 14th, 2007, 5:21 am

Great to hear that the beauty (or was it the beast?) lives! Looking forward to check out this worklog for more progress.

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » July 14th, 2007, 1:03 pm

do you know alot about transmissions?

Yeah I know a lot about Tranny's.. first you unbolt them from the car.. you may need a friend to help depending on the car and the tranny. Then you load the tranny into a truck and take it to a transmission shop and have it fixed. Then you pay the nice man and take the transmission home and install it.

Honestly.. I rarely have dug into the innards of any given transmission.. there are lots of people that know more about them on this site than me.

Tunes67

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » July 14th, 2007, 1:05 pm

Great to hear that the beauty (or was it the beast?) lives! Looking forward to check out this worklog for more progress.

Right now its the Beast

Got a LOT of body work and paint to go before she will be a beauty

Tunes67

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » July 23rd, 2007, 8:12 pm

Just a quick update..

After a mild incident with a split fuel line (no fire sorry to disappoint

) I have replaced all the fuel hoses with braided ss hose. Not gonna have that problem again. Will post updated engine bay pics later this week.

Repaired a minor kink in the oil pressure line.. I must have done that when attempting to put the gauge back into the pod.. will have to be more careful on that.

She runs excellent though the idle is a bit on the high side.. Gonna take care of that this week and check the timing as well.

Josh came by and managed to pull the dent on the drivers side rear quarter almost back out to meet the original body line.. nice job on that.

After discussing my plans for the car with Josh and my buddy Mike.. I have decided to put the paint & body work on hold for a bit. I really want to drive the car and work out any mechanical kinks the car might have before I invest the time, cash & labor into the body. The car has been repainted once before and has an entire clear coat on the whole thing. So its going to really need to be stripped down and built back up to have a good paint job again.. unfortunately.. its not going to be quick or easy.

So now I am working on the interior and getting it back together.. putting in the manual seat belts.. new ceiling liner (watch for pics soon) found a silver microsuede that just looks awesome.. if it works out as well as I hope it will.. I will take pics and post a write up on how I did it in case others want to do something similar. I think I might be able to get it to work on the door inserts as well.

Thats enough for now.. watch for new pics in a day or two

Tunes67

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » September 18th, 2007, 12:36 pm

Well I guess I should update this.. its been a while now LOL So here is a list of stuff that has been accomplished since last I posted.

Replaced & bled the slave cylinder (good to have a functioning clutch)
Bought replacement rear seat panels from a local junk yard.
Finished the auto to manual seat belt conversion.
Removed the dash, inspected the entire wiring harness.. tested every freaking Relay I could find. Reinstalled the dash.
Removed the gauge cluster and checked and replaced all blown lights.
Finished wiring in the lights for the Autometer Gauges
Finished wiring in the reverse lights. (Figured out which wires with my BETM)
Installed all rear paneling and replaced all the Push Clips that hold the panels in place.
Installed my Lighted shifter knob.
Recovered my ceiling liner and sunroof insert panel. (Pics of this below)
Installed a battery cut off switch so I can disconnect the battery on the fly without having to remove the rear seats or interior panel to get to the battery.
Modified the drivers seat so that it sits back 3 inches further than stock (ahhhh leg room!)

Here is a pic of what my GS looks like without a dashboard.. kinda sad.. anyone like spaghetti?

Things left to do before she reaches drivability

Need to adjust the sunroof panel so it opens and closes normally.
Need to reinstall the ceiling liner, and upper trim & panels.
Wire in the clutch safety interlock switch at the clutch pedal
Reinstall center column box
Reinstall front & rear seats
Check tire pressure

Anyway.. you guys get the gist.. I havent kept up on this log as well as I probably should have.. but she is almost back on the road.

Tunes67

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » September 18th, 2007, 12:50 pm

Ok.. now for the Ceiling liner stuff

I will add one more pic to this tomorrow and edit this since I meant to take a pic of the spray adhesive that I used but forgot to. I will do so tonight and add it to this mini write up.

Ok.. first.. here is a pic of my stock sunroof insert.. as you can see.. it was pretty gross. I used simple green and a sponge to clean it.. but it was pretty badly stained so I just recovered it as you will see.

Here is a pic of the stock ceiling liner.. its pretty much gross too.

Here is the panel after I have sprayed the adhesive onto it.. need to do a fairly decent amount.. but not so much that it will soak through your material.

You need to let the adhesive set up for a few minutes (there are instructions for its use on the can) then just smooth your fabric over the panel.

Now just tuck the material under the panel (easier to flip the panel over) use a bit of glue on the edges of the back side as well to keep the material from being pulled back over the panel. You will of course need to trim it down to size.. but thats simple to do. I also used a bit of packing tape as well. Its hidden from view and cheap insurance to hold the material in place. Anyway.. here is what it looks like finished.

And here is what the ceiling liner looks like finished. You will probably note that none of the holes for the Visors, Sunroof switch (dome lights) or rear view mirror are cut.. thats cause I will use a razor blade to make the cut once the liner is up in place. Those pieces will hide any incisions I make for them to be bolted up with.

As promised.. here is the pic of the spray adhesive I used. Pretty good stuff. It has 3 different nozzle settings.. Low, Medium & High. I used Medium for my job.

Here is a pic of a mini paint roller I used to help smooth out the wrinkles in the material as we layed it down onto the adhesive covered panel.

Tunes67

Volones · Post by **Volones** » September 18th, 2007, 3:47 pm

Nice work!!!

I don't suppose you have any pics or drawings for your seat mod? I could sure use 3" more legroom.