|
Tom's single slammer - the piglet
In the pursuit of true KDM sancity, the beta accent was sent off the road again, and I needed a daily. Well, here it is! I present to you this SOHC accent, built in January 95. Five speed manual, four speed interior fan, three valves per cylinder, two bald tyres and one working speaker.
https://i456.photobucket.com/albums/...l/IMG_4306.jpg This is the bare bones sprint model. However, when this car was in the lot, there was a ferocious price war as Hyundai tried to claw sales away from its korean competitors, the Daewoo Cielo and Ford Festiva. All accents were being sold with free air conditioning, which was a factory option initially. I think the new car buyer had optioned up the rear spoiler and gay window shade as well, because they are both genuine items and the spoiler has been wired correctly. https://i456.photobucket.com/albums/...l/IMG_4309.jpg 850 smackeroos later, it is now in my hands. This car has quite possibly got the worst stance/fitment in the country. https://i456.photobucket.com/albums/...l/IMG_4319.jpg Here's the engine, not much to see here. I need to replace the rocker cover gasket, and the top rad hose. https://i456.photobucket.com/albums/...l/IMG_4320.jpg I won't lie, there are some problems that need fixing, but thankfully they are very easy to take care of. Here is a m-m-montage of what's up. https://i456.photobucket.com/albums/...teel/Fixie.png Yes, that muffler is loud as hell. So. This is primarily going to be an unloved car, but I am definitely going to give it a thorough service, and probably wire up a GX/GT/GSi/whatever you yanks call it tach cluster. Another fun task will be to put some lights in the blanks below the indicator/brakes - I can't stand empty spots! I'll make sure to keep everyone updated with mundane details as the build/repair progresses. |
Got to love the paisley seats. Reminds me of the days traveling on 727s, if they were only orange and red.....
|
Paisley seats, and perforated vinyl headrests. All it needs is a roach clip and some bean bag chairs.
|
Spoiler +1, Aftermarket Stereo +1, and one futuristic looking steering wheel +1
not a bad lookin car for 850. one question tho, whats missing in the middle right clip in the montage, antenna? |
It is the missing rear window washer nozzle.
On an unrelated note, today I picked up a rear window washer nozzle, driver's window regulator + glass, rear fog light gasket and the head unit mounting bracket. I got a pleasant greeting when I got the door trim off: http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...IMG_4328-1.jpg Here's a better shot of the mega hectic SPL stereo: http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...IMG_4329-1.jpg I was halfway through installing the regulator when I had to go to work. Getting the window to fit correctly and stay on its tracks is a hell of a job! I'm so paranoid about winding the window up, only to have it shatter as it is forced out of place by a wonky guide... I ordered a rocker gasket and rad hose, fixed the seatbelt twist, and removed the hella gay window shade too. It has a fair miss at low revs/high load. It misses in an irregular pattern, rather than consistently missing on a certain cylinder. This makes me think it has weak spark. I ran injector cleaner through the tank but it didn't seem to make a difference over the past 100 miles or so. To be fair, the spark plugs are probably crusty as hell. I don't even want to know how dirty the fuel filter is. I'll be giving the car a good tune up/minor service over the next few days. |
First thought on seeing the inside of the door:
"somebody's been in there before." :thumbdown: |
I managed to finish fitting the window today. Man, that was a PITA. Somebody had actually bent the aft window track to fit around the central locking solenoid... just wow. No wonder the window fell off its tracks! Anyhoo, I made two new eco friendly plastic liners out of garbage bags, and installed the OEM front speakers out of my LC. They aren't very good, but they are a thousand times better than the shitty old items for sure. For some reason, the previous owner hadn't wired the (alpine) rear speakers into the head unit, nor had they put a mounting bracket on the head unit. That is all fixed and working now.
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4332.jpg I took it on its first freeway run, I definitely need a wheel balance and alignment. There is about -1 degree of static camber on all four corners, I somehow don't think it was intentionally set that way. Anyway, there is some pretty chronic wheel shake once you exceed about 65 mph, and the car feels very... unstable? It just doesn't feel planted over speed humps and mid corner bumps. Maybe it is because of the small contact patch/abnormally sized tires? Turns out this heater hose is about to asplod. It leaks a fine spray throughout the engine bay, and very slowly leaks coolant at rest. I really really really don't look forward to changing this bad boy. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4340.jpg That makes for the second dodgy hose so far. I might just replace all of the engine bay rubber hoses for peace of mind, they are cheap and fairly easy to do. The inside of the rad overflow tank has a solid 1/8th inch of rust-silt in the bottom of it, YUCK. Anyways, I'll just keep working on this over the next few days. I think I'll end up spending around 300 in spare parts and consumables for this whole service, which isn't too bad I guess. The end result is going to be great! |
so... jealous... want... rhd...
|
-New tyres: check
-Wheel alignment: check -New spark plugs: check -Seafoam engine treatment: check 'Twas a very expensive day today. I've bought/ordered everything I need to finish with my little to-do list. Anyway, this is a Jan 95 model, and this first gen (94-96) model got a bad rep for cracking the weld between the subframe and chassis. So, I went to the service department today to see if it had been recalled for that, and found some interesting history! The car was built on the 17th of Jan, (my birthday is the 19th, how cute) and during the year of 95 the car was taken in for the subframe to be riveted as per the recall. There was an unknown 'paint claim' made under warranty in that same year. In 98, there was another recall to inspect the subframe rivet job and this car passed that O.K. In 2005, it had a voltage regulator replaced. That was all the info the dealer had for me. So, when I was getting my wheel alignment done, I had a look at the underbody while the car was up on the hoist. Do you guys reckon these are the legendary recall rivets? https://i456.photobucket.com/albums/...l/IMG_4343.jpg Speaking of a wheel alignment, it turns out the reason that the car feels so unstable/rides rough is because the rear shocks are SIEZED! Holy balls! It was super deceptive to figure out, because the car appears fine when you do a bounce test at each corner. However, if you lift the back of the car up by the wheel arch, it will stay there/slowly sink down over ~20 seconds. The shocks are so fuxxored that they are beyond being bouncy and floaty, but they are now siezing up and dying. Oh well, just one more thing to add onto the list of stuff to replace. If anybody wants to recommend me some nice shocks, I wouldn't hate. It looks like KYB GR-2s seem to be the usual aftermarket replacement, but honestly if they are much more expensive than stock I probably won't bother. Bombard me with ideas! I spent most of the day just buying stuff, but I did get a chance to do the seafoam treatment and to change the spark plugs. As per standard operating procedure at wheel_of_steel's home garage, a 10 minute spark plug job turned into a long saga of BS. https://i456.photobucket.com/albums/...l/IMG_4346.jpg Just because the car is painted green, doesn't mean the spark plug holes are fauna-friendly: https://i456.photobucket.com/albums/...l/IMG_4347.jpg Also, it turns out there are a few cracks in the intake pipe, both before and after the MAF. The car runs really smoothly with some bodged DOHC splug leads, but it is still on jack stands so my test data is not complete. My rad hoses, heater hose, and rocker gasket should be arriving tomorrow as well. Woo! |
Keep on truckin man that's good progress.
Speaking of green, do you realize how much energy and how many material resources you are saving by doing this vs. buying a new car? :thumbup: |
Nice clean car man love the rhd wish I could have one in the states!!,:(
|
Cheers stocker! Thanks to my 2 year old nephew coughing directly in my face, I've come down with a generic cold/flu, which has hampered progress. Anyways, today I changed the rocker cover gasket, and installed the new splug leads.
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4352.jpg Everything seemed to be okay under here, especially the timing belt which is nice. Unfortunately the rockers look a little burnt/dirty, which I think is because it was run low on oil for quite a long while. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4353.jpg It was pretty foul under here. In in the very centre of the panel, there is a hook-shaped oil pickup pipe, which has a very fine bore. You can't really see it in this photo. Due to the pretty horrendous levels of dirt, I decided to thouroughly clean the whole metal plate/oil pickup unit as well. Here is another shot of the dirt. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4354.jpg Aaand the backside of the plate. Yucky. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4355.jpg So I cleaned it all with WD-40 and my sister's toothbrush. Man, is there anything that combo can't do? I couldn't find a particular wear point/hole in the old rocker gasket, but the whole thing was pretty hard and old. After lightly sanding the mating surface of the head, I put everything back toghether and took it for a test drive. The car drives really well! I think that miss is completely cured! Even being silly and pulling out of corners at 15 kph in second gear couldn't get the engine to stumble at all. Plus it has lots more power everywhere, I'd say a solid 5-10 hp has easily been gained. I am well pleased with these results so early in the repair process. Other than that, I just started draining the gearbox oil before I had to go into work. It looks like some crazy fool has put ATF in there, because it is exactly the same colour and smell. Here are some of the dregs. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4358.jpg Plus I think my fuel level sender is cooked. Once I reach about 2/3rds of a tank remaining, the needle just drops to zero, then fluctuates all over the place. The problem seems to go away once I fill it to the brim again? Strange... I should get lots more done tomorrow. |
ATF is normal for Asian transmissions sometimes. My Festiva took ATF in the states, regular gear oil elsewhere. My Taurus SHO takes ATF in the gear box. You can even use it in the Genesis Coupe craptastic 6 speed manual.
|
Running low on cheap oil will get you that funky brown/red caked on residue. Run an oil flush, change the oil, and if you were local I'd say run a 1/2qt. of Marvel Mystery Oil and fill the crankcase the rest of the way with Pennzoil Platinum synthetic.
I put a cam that was used and orange into my engine . . . a couple weeks later, it was just as like-new as the other one: https://i349.photobucket.com/albums/...overoffbay.jpg |
The best stuff for cleaning out the oil gunk is Auto-RX. It takes a while but really does the job and safely. Also gets the carbon out from the rings making them seal a lot better.
|
niceee i like it.... good luck ur gonna end up swaping this one watch :)... its all about the x3
|
-Trans oil change: check
-Brake/clutch fluid bleed and flush: check -Coolant system and radiator flush and change: check -Battery cleanup/levels check: check -Coolant system flush: check -Heater hose and rad hoses replaced: check Thankfully, yesterday was only 105 degrees out, so I had a really nice time working in direct sunlight. Stocker, I see your fuel filter and raise you a rear heater hose. It literally took 45 minutes to simply remove the damned thing, let alone install the new one! My hands look five years older because of that BS hose. The cooling system was in a sorry state, just barely holding on for dear life. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4360.jpg As was the battery. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4365.jpg A little sodium bicarb fixed that right up though! At least it looks like it isn't about to die now. On a side note, sodium bicarb solution stings like buggery when you spill it on cuts in your hand... http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4366.jpg After doing all of this work, the car is driving really nicely. Interestingly enough, after replacing the gear oil with brand new Nulon 75W-90, 2nd gear crunches on fast shifts. I'll monitor that because it might just need a couple of heat cycles to break in the oil? I took the fuel economy over a 25 mile freeway trip, and I got 58 mpg... I think I will have to continue testing because I'm pretty sure that exceeds factory fuel economy estimates. Anyhoo, there are only two more stages of work left on the car. The first is just finishing off my existing list of 'things to do': -Wiper blade replacement -Immobiliser remote repair -Air cleaner replacement -Fuel filter replacement -Rear fog light gasket replacement -Roof rack removal -Parking light and number plate light blown They are all pretty mundane though. The final stage of work will have to wait for a couple of weeks until I have some spare savings again, but these are some more serious problems that need fixing: -Outer left CV boot is torn -Rear, and probably front, shock absorbers are destroyed -Front, and probably rear, wheel bearings are very noisy Pretty serious stuff. Depending on the cost of the shocks, the final stage should only cost around 400-500 dollars to repair. After that is done, the car will be literally faultless, and completely ready for some GT goodies :happyanim: |
-Wipers replaced
-Immobiliser repaired -Rear fog light replaced/modded -Redundant 3rd brake light removed -Fuel and air filter arrived this afternoon So, this rear fog light has been ticking me off. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4313.jpg I thought it was just going to be a case of prying off a gasket, but no. The cracked black part actually forms part of the casing itself. The light is screwed to a the bumper, but it is well up behind cobwebs and the bumper support. Here is my spare light disassembled. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4375.jpg Okay, that is all pretty straightforward. But I just can't keep my hands still. Here is a close up of the existing lamp: http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...el/Fogorig.png Notice how it doesn't illuminate the sections of housing around the lense screws? This is what inspired me to pull apart the spare lamp and look at the reflector: http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4378.jpg I guess it was designed this way for easy casting or something. Anyway, that reflector design has been annoying me ever since my brother bought an elantra wagon back when I was 14. Yes,I am anally retentive about my OCD. So, I busted out the dremel and experimented with a LOT of patterns and reflector colours until I could get it just right on my spare unit I had lying around... it sure took lots of false starts... http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4383.jpg Once I got it right though, I copied that design to the actual replacement. Basically, I just removed the high-gloss centre reflector, then painted over my dremel work with white paint. It is a white/silver hybrid super spaceship reflector now, money can't buy this sort of custom work. The aim was to fill the whole housing with even, red light no brighter than the regular tail lights. We get barely any fog in Australia, especially Perth, so I figured I may as well turn it into a functional marker/position light that I can use legally. Anyways, I put it all back together, and after a trip to Radioshack, I pieced together a little resistor pack to get the brightness just right. I was originally going to use a variable resistor to set it, but none of the available pots could handle the current that the fog demanded. They all just burnt out as soon as the light was barely lit. I mounted my resistor pack behind the trunk vent panel, for discretion + airflow to the resistor pack. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4395.jpg http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4396.jpg Nice and neat! So, after a solid morning's work, this here are the end results: BEFORE http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4370.jpg http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...el/Fogorig.png AFTER http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4389.jpg http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4419.jpg I'm quite content with that! Inbetween all those shenanigans, I removed the defunct centre brake light for +5 rear vision. Nothing revolutionary there. Oh, the last two fuel economies I've got have been 30.5, then 29.5 mpg. That's with a bit more A/C and peak hour driving than usual, but still... That is the same economy that the beta accent is getting. I will keep an eye on it. Also, I went to the dealer today to chase up some OEM AUDM 'Excel' and 'Sprint' bubble badges, but they want $75 for them. Pffft! Still to come is a foamectomy on both front seats, fuel and air filter replacements, and the famous slave cylinder mod. I should get some or all of that done this thursday if it all goes to plan. Stay tuned! Cheers for reading! |
More work than I'd have done for fog lights but it does look better.
I'd caution you about the resistors . . . run the lights for a while with the engine on and see that you still have a safe resistor temperature before forgetting about the modification. |
I agree Stocker, I shall be watching them with caution.
The reason I made a resistor pack was that the original 5 ohm, 10w resistor got too hot to touch after about thirty seconds of operation. The combined wattage rating of the pack is 25w, which combined with a bit of ventilation, should prevent any fires/melting. I can always wire up a computer fan or mount it on a heatsink somewhere if things get desperate. |
I love it. I really do. Nice job with all those small but pesky shenanigans! No way to wire that third brake light up?
|
Cheers dude! Sorry, I was a little ambiguous here. The row of LEDs in the spoiler is my third brake light, but somebody left the OEM interior light in place as well. I just removed the non-functioning light from the interior.
|
+5 for 3rd brake light delete ;D
is that really what that light in the bumper is for, rear fog light? always wondered. tip on the heater hoses that are 'stuck', get a pair of adjustable plumbers pliers, adjust to side of hose, with a little pressure (but not a ton) wrench/wiggle around the hose. that should break it free much easier. |
I just got some dirty great vice grips and reefed on it. The problem was mainly due to a lack of space... the intake manifold support bracket was in the way of everything! And yes, that is a rear fog light. Most european countries have em on the left, or even have two! Nobody ever uses them here, but about one in every three hundred X3s or J2s you see will have them on. Usually these are old people that don't even realise what it is/if it is on.
Anyways, just a quick update. I took the fuel economy this morning, over the last 150 miles I got 33 mpg, which is a great improvement! Today I fixed the tyre pressures (they were all around 27 psi ±5 psi) and replaced the fuel and air filters. I'm so excited to see what the fuel economy will be now! In regards to fuel economy, I (not very scientifically) tried to see how using A/C would affect my fuel economy. Obviously, it is hard/impossible to control all the variables here, as the car was being serviced between fill ups and my driving conditions weren't exactly the same each time. Anyways, mythbusters determined that using the A/C is more efficient at high speeds (50+ mph) and open windows are more efficient at low speeds. So, with my first tank of fuel, I used the A/C indiscriminately, and got 30.5 mpg. The second, I only operated the A/C at speeds over 80 km/h and got 29.5 mpg. The third tank, I didn't use it at all (windows down on the freeway, yeah buddy!), and got 33 mpg. So... I think that the A/C compressor is probably quite inefficient, and the 'drag crossover' point would perhaps be at a higher speed. I bet the computer injects extra fuel each time you toggle the A/C switch as well, in a sort of 'idle up' condition. However, it is hard to say for sure because of the sheer amount of changing variables here. Oh well, I'm anal about fuel economy (although my driving doesn't show it) so I'll keep an eye on it once the car is in more of a 'steady state' and I'm driving in more of a regular pattern. Stay tuned for mediocre results. Just for some musing thoughts, I quite like this colour scheme. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/27027409.jpg I'm thinking of going with that theme, except with 15" sonata/elantra steelies. Headlight tint film is cheap, as are 3000k HID kits. That combined with some good shocks + low springs would be a nice starting point and still quite livable. I'm open to suggestions though, I'm just thinking out loud at this point. Greenbacks like to play hard to get. |
the wheels on that veedub are flugly. the yellow lamin-x tint is so-so (i wouldn't put it on my car though) other than that i like it.
|
What wattage is the bulb? Can't you find a lower watt rated one?
|
RR, the rear fog uses a 21w bulb. To my knowledge, using a lower rated bulb would just burn it out. Plus resistors are cheaper and easier to work with than non-returnable bulbs.
ScoupeLS, I agree with you about the wheels. That was just the best image that google could produce in terms of the color scheme I'm chasing. Today I completed the foamectomy on the passenger's seat, then ran out of cable ties before I could do the drivers seat. :angry: I tried to do 'the slave cylinder mod'. For those that haven't heard of it, it is a free DIY mod for late 90s Hyundais with manual transmissions. You just remove this flow restrictor from the slave cylinder for more clutch feel/less slipping. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4438.jpg Anyway, it turns out that my slave cylinder didn't need modding anyway! (it only took dismantling the f*cker to realise this) There isn't a flow restrictor in the first place! The slaves from my 96, 98 and 01 alpha transmissions all had flow restrictors, but not this 95 unit. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4432.jpg On the left is the 95 banjo bolt, and on the right is the 98 item. So, if your banjo looks like the one on the right, you're all set for the DIY! If it looks like the one on the left... go home. -The wheel bearing is getting quite noisy, needs moar elantra knuckles and brakes -There is a(nother) coolant leak from the water pump gasket, but only when the left hand side of the car is jacked up? It doesn't leak any other time, so it can wait for now. -I think an oil pressure retaining valve in the head has gone. There is one HLA that is very noisy from cold startup, but it quietens down once the car is warm. I don't think it is a big deal. Also, I forgot to make a generic 1k post whore thingo. Wooo!!!!1!one!!1 |
As long as the bulb is rated for the voltage then the wattage only matters in the circuits current carrying capacities. I don't know what you supply voltage is for the fog lamp though.
|
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs49/i/20...agicswordz.jpg
WHY DIDN'T I DO THAT TO BEGIN WITH!? FFFFFFFFFFFF |
Just a quick update. Not much has changed on the car, but I've given hypermiling a good crack...
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4455.jpg I'm super proud of that. Anyhoo, I'm now on the prowl for my big brake conversion. The plan is to go for J3 knuckles/hubs, J3 rotors and santa fe/XG calipers. While I'm under there, I'm also going to install some lowering springs and sports shock absorbers. Can anyone recommend a decent shock absorber for the X3? I don't mind a stiffer ride, but price and ajustability are very important to me for this application. |
That's great. I haven't seen mileage like that since I got rid of my Festivas. The best I've ever got with my Accent is around 42 mpg. It's dropped down to around 40 at best now, 37 average..
|
Dude even a 37 mpg average is excellent. To be fair I had to use some pretty specialised driving techniques to get that figure.
Oh, I forgot to mention. I'm going down the 1/4 mile strip on wednesday night, so we'll see how it goes. Here's hoping for a sub-18 second time, but I'm not holding my breath :scratchhead: |
Originally Posted by wheel_of_steel
(Post 653545)
Dude even a 37 mpg average is excellent. To be fair I had to use some pretty specialised driving techniques to get that figure.
Oh, I forgot to mention. I'm going down the 1/4 mile strip on wednesday night, so we'll see how it goes. Here's hoping for a sub-18 second time, but I'm not holding my breath :scratchhead: Sub 18s woot. :) I recently had the Accent out on the interstate driving 70-75 mph and with a 30 mph cross wind. It was a fight all the way down and back but still managed to get 34 mpg. |
More hypermiling BS :thumbup:
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4457.jpg It is only nig rigged in place for now, I don't have any tools/workspace at my new house. A vacuum gauge is a really cheap way to improve your fuel economy. It basically acts as a super sensitive TPS, so you can pick a 'load limit', and drive according to that. Basically, you decelerate going uphill, and accelerate going downhill - the engine sees a constant load and it allows the 02 sensor to keep doing its thang. When I get a little more instrumentation, I'm going to begin some fuel economy testing. The aim is to correspond real-world load values and acceleration times to theoretical MPG values, so I can just pick a desired MPG rating and drive to that. There are actually existing computers that can do that for you, but the only product available for OBD-1 cars requires some pretty crazy electronics skills to assemble and test. Google MPGuino if you are bored. So yeah, that's it for now! I'm heading down the 1320 tomorrow night, f*ck yeah! I've got a pretty worrying clunk from the front left on take off, I figure it is either the torn CV or the noisy wheel bearing, but fingers crossed nothing will explode while I'm there. :bowdown: |
Well, I made it to the drags and back without dying, nor frying anything.
The best time I got was on my first run of the night, an 18.2 @ 74.62 mph :bananadance: http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...4-GV2E9111.jpg And here's some quick footage of the night, I had some more skids recorded but the recording quality hurt my eyes: http://video.ak.fbcdn.net/cfs-ak-ash...d1c0327bffebd9 I holeshot the sh*t outta that RX-7... small victories... Cheers to aaron the trusty cameraman. However, the clutch has probably aged 30,000 km in one night. Thankfully I've got a spare oem LC1 clutch, flywheel and crank angle sensor sitting in my cupboard at home, so when the time comes it will be no biggie to swap everything over. I managed to get 36.8 mpg outta that tank of fuel, drag runs and much skid testing included :thumbup: *EDIT(s)* I had to keep messing around with the picture, sorry. |
LOL @ open diff. burnout
|
Repping the punctual build thread updates... Well, a lot has happened since I last posted in here, so I guess I'll post it up chronologically.
Well, Piglet was motoring along well. He was just being a great and nondescript daily, saving fuel and not giving a f*ck about petrol prices or passenger comfort. In the meantime, I picked up another Twin Cam excel from my housemate. It had been lightly rear rear ended and I intended to register it. However, the inspection fees and general fuggery of getting a written off vehicle back on the road made the project simply not viable. So... what to do with an unregisterable Twin Cam excel? A drawn out engine swap that runs overtime, of course. EASY MODE - PULLING IT ALL APART I started out by removing the dash of the Twinkie, which promptly exploded into a zillion shards when even mildly flexed. Incidentally, excels are SUPER easy to hotwire. Iirc they are the third-most stolen cars in the country, behind the VN commodore and EA falcon. The factory immobiliser in this 99 is simply an on/off switch, mounted inline with the earth and ON wires coming from the ignition barrel. You just cut and strip the three wires upstream of the immobiliser, and bam, you have a running excel. None of this SMARTRA bs that you find on the LC accent. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4606.jpg http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4607.jpg Anyhoo, I pulled the Twin Cam engine and transmission out of Twinkie, as well as some other bits which I shall get to later. Twinkie only had 140k on it, but I bet that the timing belt was never changed. Ian at Hyspares hooked me up with a new belt for the price of a slab of beer. In changing the belt, I was an idiot and stripped out the idler thread, which was not very promptly re-drilled and helicoiled. The moral of the story is to tension the belt with the TENSIONER, don't try and tighten the idler on an angle... I was tired so don't judge me. I also installed a brand new OEM LC accent clutch disc and pressure plate onto the excel flywheel, and replaced the throw out bearing... more on this later. At around this point, Hyper member 342four sold me his old suspension goodies. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4695.jpg http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4696.jpg Whiteline rear sway bar, probably whiteline front castor bushes, adjustable sway bar links and gmac lowering springs. I took the struts, control arms, front brakes, and power steering rack from Twinkie for a badly needed suspension overhaul. I was going to swap the rear brakes out, but to be honest, I couldn't remove the handbrake lines, nor could I get the drum brakes apart. Piglet's rears were strong enough for touge handbrakies, so that wasn't really an issue. ANYway, now that the twinkie hulk had basically been sodomised, it was time to run the single slam for the last time to warm up the oil. It was a solid, but ultimately tired and probably shagged engine. It even came with high RPM oil injection via the valve stem seals which was pretty cool. While removing the SOHC, it was interesting how much harder it was to access parts at the back of the engine than it was on the DOHC, despite looking simpler. The A/C compressor has different lines, and there are bulk coolant hard lines under the SOHC intake manifold. I guess they had more R&D time to optimise the DOHC engine. With Piglet's engine bay free of the engine, steering rack, struts, front sway bar and cooling system, I took the opportunity to flush the heater core and thoroughly clean out the engine bay. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4725.jpg http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4737.jpg http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4772.jpg The heater still doesn't work, turns out rusty sludge isn't a good conductor of heat. Oh well. I removed piglet's dashboard, and it suffered much the same fate as twinkie's dash. Australian UV light isn't kind to these camp korean plastics. Oh well. http://zarnochwf1.com/gallery2/d/4726-3/Photo0079.jpg http://zarnochwf1.com/gallery2/d/4723-3/Photo0080.jpg THE FUN PART - MODIFYING STUFF FOR THE SWAP Big cheers to Shake from Hyper. He's done this swap before and wrote a great DIY detailing some of the pitfalls of the swap. There are a few main differences to look out for, especially if you are dealing with a pre '96 single cam. -The A/C compressor is mounted in a different place, has different lines, bolts to the block differently, and the pulleys are of differing depths. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4749.jpg http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4748.jpg I swapped the DOHC pulley onto the SOHC compressor. This allows 3 out of 4 ribs of the DOHC A/C belt to bite. I just cut the extra rib off with a stanley knife. Two of the four compressor mounting bolts line up, so the compressor wouldn't be secure under belt tension. That's okay though, because my belt ended up being too short anyway. To solve this, I'm looking to make a small adaptor for one of the top mounting bolts, and get a longer 3 ribbed belt. For now the compressor is bolted in with two bolts and the belt is just zip tied out of the way. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4792.jpg I forgot to mention, you will need to hammer/cut the DOHC intake manifold brace to fit around the SOHC A/C lines. Only two out of four bolts ended up lining up, but oh well. It is now rather difficult to access the starter motor. -The power steering pump moves from the rear of the engine in a SOHC, to the front of the engine in a DOHC. I didn't have/want/need power steering, but if you swap over the DOHC pump, lines and rack, you can keep it without a hassle. -The roll stoppers are mounted to the engine block in the SOHC, but the DOHC excels mounted them to the gearbox instead. You just swap the SOHC engine mounts onto the DOHC block. I don't have a photo of the area, but the DOHC block has been drilled and tapped from the factory to accept the same mounts. The only pitfall is that the front roll stop only lines up with one bolt, but as it is not under much load, it does the job. -The DOHC wiring loom does not simply plug into the SOHC body loom. Admittedly, I had some trouble with the wiring. Initially, I followed shake's DIY steps with the looms on the garage floor. It involved swapping over six wires from the black SOHC interior plug, to the blue DOHC interior plug. To clarify, this wiring combination worked for shake. It resulted in a crank/no start situation for me. After much fuggery, it turns out that I only needed to run three wires to get everything working, apart from the OBD port. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...IMG_4804-1.jpg As per the photo, the two-into-one control relay wire needs to be run to the green/white wire on the SOHC plug. The other two wires are for the reverse lights. Apologies for being vague, but I did this a while ago and don't have the specific pin info in front of me. I'll go into more detail it if anyone needs help. -DOHC front control arms don't fit into SOHC control arm brackets The brackets stay with the control arms. The DOHC items are much beefier. -Clutch slave cylinders need to stay with whichever transmission you are using -Throttle cables need to be swapped over -You need to swap the pre-cat exhaust pipe from the DOHC into the SOHC. -DOHC hatch trim is different to allow easier access to the reverse lights. Also the DOHC hatch itself has more internal bracing. (not swap necessary, but it's a valid point) I installed the lowering springs onto the DOHC struts, and installed all of the suspension back into the car, followed by the fresh new powertrain... nek minnut... TROUBLESHOOTING - YUCK Well, after me touching a mechanical object, sh*t's always going to get messsy. Although I got the car running on jack stands fairly early in the piece, it was still a long way away from moving. I got the car back on the ground: http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/IMG_4880.jpg Awww yeah. So I went to go for a cutta hype test spin with no dashboard/bonnet. Upon trying to reverse out of the driveway... KRRRRRCH. Couldn't engage reverse. I adjusted the pedal all the way out. Bled the hydraulics three times. Rebuilt the master and slave cylinders (and de-restricted the slave cylinder while I was there) but it still wouldn't move. I furiously googled the problem and some people seemed to have solved it by jolting the clutch, or slipping it badly, to counter rust or high spots on the flywheel. As the clutch was partially disengaging, I thought this to be plausible. After a few clutch burnouts and a lot of nasty flat shifting around the suburb, there was nothing left for me to do. I had to pull the transmission and swap the Excel clutch back into place. The LC accent clutch disc is wider than the X3 disc by like 15ish mm. It had only been wearing on that 15mm outside when installed on the Excel flywheel. I still don't know why this is the case, my best guess is that it's a leverage issue. I installed the original excel clutch back into place, and she drove off without a worry. Well, that wasn't the end of my troubles. I noticed that the back right tyre was scrubbing quite badly. Even coming off speed humps, the wheel would scrub for a few seconds. Turns out the back right shock was busted, and had almost siezed on rebound. I replaced it and the problem sort of went away. The replacement shock is not in the best condition but it was the best I could do on short notice. ...Some time passed... There were still scrubbing issues in the rear after fixing the shock absorber, hard cornering or bulking housemates would set both wheels off pretty badly. Aditionally, the car was baulking under throttle changes and the idle was getting rather rough. The TPS was giving really erratic readings, plus the coil pack resistances were really out of spec. A 99 GLX hatch donated some crisp coils and a TPS, but I totally forgot to nab the cluster. As for the scrubbing, I always preached that people should use the phonebook method for rolling guards. Well... http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...hoto0112-1.jpg I gave it a good blast from mum's hairdryer and lowered the car onto the papers. The problem is that the rear of the Excel is simply too light to squish the metal of the guards! So I ended up beating the lip with a hammer, it worked a treat and the paint didn't even crack. Total cost = free. I also had to get an alignment, as my front right tyre had worn down to the tread wear markers in about 1000k of driving. I'll let y'all have a read of the alignment sheet... http://zarnochwf1.com/gallery2/d/4769-2/SCAN0015.JPG Needless to say, the car handles much better now. It's an absolute blast to drive, and it's quite amazing how much grip you can get out of some high profile 185 tyres! With all the serious issues sorted out now, the car was driving really well. I could now turn my attention to some non-necessities. First step was to fix the nasty muffler. The tip was quite rusty, but the join between the tail pipe and the muffler had rusted clean apart! AND the internals of the muffler had rusted out and were rattling around. Definitely had to get rid of that sh*t. But what to replace it with? Well, I did miss having open headers... http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...hoto0115-1.jpg I had the cat converter sitting on the ground, and I accidentally dropped my screwdriver, and... err... my exhaust was a bit louder when I put it all back together. Just don't tell Al Gore. Getting onto the desperate rice now, I finally managed to get some USDM rear side marker lights. I was hunting for these for aaaages. http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q.../Photo0144.jpg http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q.../Photo0146.jpg Today I stuffed some cotton wool into the vacuum line, because the mechanical gauge was rattling like mad. I re-sprayed my wiper arms to get rid of the rust, and got rid of the twinkie hulk. Aaaaand that about brings us up to date! Sorry for the damned essay. I actually filmed the Twin Cam swap, but it's like 20 hours of footage and I don't have time to edit it all due to exams. That's why I don't have as many swap pics as I usually take. I'll have to get some overall photos soon, I guess. Cheers for reading along! |
This thread is a jury riggers best collection. Keep up the good work!!!
|
That is a load of work! I like how you're restoring everything piece by piece. Do you have a junkyard that you go to?
How is the weather by the way, isn't it winter down there right now? |
This thread is a jury riggers best collection. Thanks man, the whole car has cost less than two grand to date. My boss mainly pays me in love and interpretive dance. I like how you're restoring everything piece by piece. Cheers dude! It's not even intentional, I'm just fixing all the broken stuff for the most part. Junkyards are expensive as hell around here, so not any more. I managed to get this swap done using parts from a crashed 99 X3, and some vague leftovers that I had in my garage from previous bad Hyundaideas. And it's certainly getting towards winter nowadays. Australian winter is like your fall, I guess. It ranges from about 30-50 degrees and rains occasionally. |
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:06 AM. |
© 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands