I'm bored, so here's Jasmine

It's been out on two drives. Found a couple issues. Nothing large, just need to replace a sway bar bushing and adjust the coilovers to get a bit more height. I've already fixed the coolant leak I was having. Hoping this week to get it tagged & aligned at a shop.

Issue I can't fix for the foreseeable future is traction. I cant boost over 6psi if I get on it a bit.

 

The suspension is all stock except for the coilovers and the new sway bar links. I'm doing some testing with the car and it looks like my biggest issues are traction and torque steer. These should be resolved with an alignment & new tires.

 

Yeah I prolly could of. I ended up ditching the sway bar though. Sold it and put the stock back in for now.

The end links I have are like that 2nd picture there (actually identical to that style, Z shaped).

 

So it's been a while since I've updated. Last time I drove it I had failure in the bellhousing. I had to drop the transmission anyway due to not having 5th gear.


I must say, I'm pretty happy with how my weekened turned out. Friday after work I jumped on the task of dropping the transmission (I prepared the day prior by removing all the crap in the way). About an hour later I had the transmission on the jack and on a bench.


An hour later I had it stripped, gutted and the problem identified. On the e153 transmission there are detent springs & balls that help hold the shift rods in place. Each rod has a detent ball, spring, cup and plug. The shift rods have 3 notches in them. The #1 has one for 1st and 2nd, the #2 has 3rd and 4th, etc.


When I pulled the #3 shift rod detent cup & spring, I didn't have a ball come rolling out. This struck me as odd. I pulled out the shift rod and here is what I found.





The #3 shift rod detent setup was full of phailure. The ball was not there. The spring must of been in the hole when my 'mechanic' reasssembled it and sheared the spring in 2 pieces. The smaller piece was behind the shift rod so it couldn't move to engage the 5th gear position.


Really simple fix. $4 in parts (of course the dealer doesn't have them) and a few days wait for a friend to send me some from his spare transmission. I'm reassembling the rest of the transmission tonight and I'll be back on the road hopefully this weekend after I put the transmission on.


I'm just hoping my 5th gear isn't too damaged and I can use it (There's chips & knocks off of the gear teeth).

 

Long time since update. What's gone on since April? Well a lot. There's been a death in the family. Her dad came over to help out and get the transmission installed. Three days, case or two of beer and it was back on. Fired up right on the first try without skipping a beat. Took it on a quick drive around the block and was able to run it through all 5 gears without any problems.

Where does that leave me now? Well, I had a 30 day permit on it for general use. Filled it up with gas and drove it without any major issue for a full tank (well, just over 3/4 tank because at 1/4 tank of fuel the pump won't pickup fuel when accelerating hard). Still some other things to work out.

I have the typical 4th gen power steering leak. I think it's from the connection from the reservoir to the pump, not the more common high pressure hose.

I have a wicked clunking from the front end. It's most noticeable when making a right hand turn from a stop, but it happens when I turn left also and if I take off hard from a stop. I need to replace the sway bar bushings, they're rotted beyond belief.

Still need to adjust the overall height of the suspension. I want to raise the front 2" and the rear 1". This should level out the car and give me some ground clearance. Also I'm going to soften the suspension just a few more clicks. Took it on a long drive last night to dinner and a movie with the wife last night and sometimes the ride was just insanely bouncy.

I need to get the rear seats fixed, they're not locked back. Junkyard run will fix this.

Need to vent the hood to let heat escape.

Install new pipe & coupler that will arrive next week to stop my charge pipe from popping off the throttle body. I'm hoping this will also fix my overboosting/fuel cut issue but I don't think it will. I'll chase that down once I have the new coupler and pipe on.

Overall, it's running great. Pulls hard under boost (when the coupler doesn't blow off) and sounds freaking amazing.

 

Yet another 3 month update...


She's back on the road <AGAIN>. What happened? Well one day I was driving to the bus stop. Went to shift and there was a POP. I thought :damnit another coupler:.

I pull in and check under the hood. Everything is connected with no blowouts. Whatever. I get back and drive it home (FYI: 9:1 compression is SLOW without boost). Anyway I turn left and then I have a nasty grinding from the drivers wheel. So it's a good as time as any I guess. I spent the last month doing the following (it only took a month because I had my inlaw do the bearings and he took them to his work and the labor was gratis).

New front wheel bearings
New dust covers for bearings
New CV boots
New tie rod boots
New ball joints
New sway bar bushings
New front brakes
New power steering pressure hose
New power steering reservoir feed hose
New exhaust manifold and turbo


Wait..why did I install a new turbo? Well I was having some wicked overboosting problems before. That pop I heard turned out to be something internal in the turbo. It seized up on me. The compressor housing was scored from the impeller (came in contact with it). The turbine was fine, but the impeller was fucked. This morning when I was putting the finishing touches on I found what happened. The rubber hose going to the TVSV maze was rubbing. It rubbed itself thin and was leaking. Thus why I was overboosting. So that little 3" section of hose costed me $150 for a new turbo.

At the same time I addressed my mystery coolant leak. I'm not sure where it was, but I needed to add a thicker layer of thread tape both to the gauge probe and fan switch. While I was in there I yanked out my cruise control. No need for it.

Fired it up & drove it around the block. She's a tight lil' girl now. I'm going to keep it OFF the TVSV maze and run at actuator pressure only. Couple pulls and that seems to be around 7-9psi. I think that'll be just fine for now. Once I tip over 1000 miles I'll put in my Rotella, re-torque the head to spec and install a boost controller.

 

Well only a day later I blew the same hose. Upon closer inspection it was rubbing against the transmission case.

I've since bought a piece of diesel truck fuel line. Kevlar exterior, rubber interior. No way in hell this should rub through.

 

Another small update. Haven't done anything to her but fill up her gas tank twice. I have no clue what sort of mileage I'm getting, but the gallons seem vanish quicker the longer I'm in boost.

I'm researching options for sound deadening. All the creaks and moans of a ST162 are much more pronounced now that I have a 3" exhaust all the way back without a resonator.

I still need to finish the radio. First item to address is the antenna. After that I need new front & rear speakers. While I'm doing that I want to install a subwoofer as well. I have a Fosgate 200a4 amp I'll be using (providing it works and shit lol).

 

It's actually not that bad. It's loud, but not excessively annoying. It just gets a bit drone at times (namely cruising at sustained freeway speeds). A radio goes over it just a bit so it's not so blahhhhh.