dohc

Well I drove the N/A Crvtec for ~6 months with no problems, it was lots of fun but in the never ending quest for more and more power I started thinking of other options. I had lots of things I wanted to change/accomplish with a new setup, some were:

- Not a b16 tranny, while good at 1/4 mile it just plain sucks to drive on the freeway/any long road. I like to have fun with cars, but if you bump into an evo on the freeway you get to hit the gas for about 10 secconds and your at top speed, then they just keep going...

- Cheaper motor to blow up, b20z blocks arent cheap

So the oppertunity presented itself when a friend of mine got an auto 93 ls from his sister, she drove with no oil and blew the motor. He doesnt know ---- about cars but wanted to get it running and was quoted 3k+ from shops to put in a replacement. I told him I'd sell him my setup and install it for 3 grand. So I converted his car from auto-manual, non-vtec to vtec, made the new mount and long story short hes driving a very quick ls and knows abosolutely nothing about cars :P .

Now at the same time I bought a DA locally for $400 (running) and sold everything but the longblock. I actually made ~$500 for my new motor

I also picked up a freshly rebuilt 93 LS tranny with a new Quaife LSD for $650, So all in all the motor/tranny cost me only $150! I got my "special" clutch from Clutch specialties and all ARP hardware. Sorry for the long intro but here's where the fun started

Here is a quick picture of the car/old motor before taking it all out, it was obd1 crvtec/skunk2 im/cams bla bla bla


Motor I got paid $500 for:

New timing belt, water pump, tensioner pulley, HG, oil pan gasket, ARP hardware, VC gaskets all installed

Tuner Toys block fittings installed


My new 93 LS tranny with Quaife LSD, which I have to say is probably the single best upgrade other than turboing your car, its nice to actually USE the power you make:


My obd1 p28 from the old setup, and nice datalogging cable (thanks Xenocron)


My new LC-1 Wideband (again thanks Xenocron)

I ran my datalogging cable and in/output's for the wideband right under the glovebox for easy access

One of the analog outputs from the LC-1 goes directly into the ecu, replacing the narrow band o2 and allowing me to datalog straight through the ecu. The other output goes into my narrow band o2 gauge so I still have a way to monitor the a/f, although its not quite as precise as a wideband gauge, it is still much better than narrowband.


Then I put the motor in and started to cut/fit my new FMIC, which I got really lucky and picked up from a local DSM guy for $80.


Next was to start my charge piping, luckly we have one of the two Summit Racing warehouses in the country here, so it was just a quick drive for all my mandrel bends:

All of the welds that cant be seen when the car is put back together I covered in jb weld, just some insurrance (they are welded with a HF mig)


Then it got painted flat black



FMIC fitted into the bumper:


I just did a quick fit with the turbo/manifold to check and see if I could possibly use a full size radiator, didnt work at all so I went to Autozone and got a dual core Del Sol radiator with a lifetime warranty for $119. One thing I REALLY didnt want to do was have it tilted back, the whole car is pretty much perfect so I didnt want the engine bay looking like ----. So reluctantly I cut part of the hood out (which will be cleaned up a whole lot) and modified the crap out of the front crossmember, now my EG radiator/slim fan fits great, no clearance issues at all.

Hole in hood, needs some cleaning up/paint

Cut and dented to ---- front crossmember for the radiator and lower hose to fit:

Then I thought I should weld the pieces back together to I can at least retain some of its original strength.

Then I cleaned it up real quick and threw some black spray paint over it

And last, Radiator installed, just held in by wire right now, but tomorrow it will all continue.....


Sorry for the long *** post, I really could have taken a lot more pictures and wrote a lot more, but hopefully it can help someone, I'm only waiting for my BOV flange and then I'll start the tuning

BoosTedZSix

good stuff any updates??

solfly

great write up

question
does the full rad mostly just get in the way of an external wastegate?

daubleaaron

Looks good man, but did you really need to cut the hole in your hood?

dohc

Ok I will be posting quite a few more updates soon, but to answer questions yes I really needed to cut my hood, its still a tight fit even with the hood cut and the denting/cutting the crossmember. I used the half rad not just for a wastegate, but the entire turbo would hit it. I've since finished the piping and a few other misc things. I'm waiting for my turbo to get here this wed. and then I can make my downpipe and start driving