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    GTX resurrection...

    I don't think I ever started a work log for my old GTX.. So well anyways here is one now... After being off the road for 2 and a half years I have finally gotta around to putting this pile of junk back together... This car has been a love/hate relationship since day one...

    I last left off with a half installed transmission that I had rebuilt for the 2nd time...

    First time I rebuilt the transmission because I blew up the planetary gear in the center diff..


    Second time around almost a year later I stripped the final drive gear...


    As I was installing the transmission I found a frost plug sitting on top of my starter... At this point laying on my back in my drive way my heart sank... It just happens to be the plug thats in behind the starter... I gave up at this point, packed my tools up and shut the hood on the car... I was pretty sure by now that when I blew the transmission up for the 2nd time and parked the car I left it with a block full of water...

    Fast forward 8 or so months a head to more recent times.. My gf's little car packed it in and a jeep that we picked up threw a rod bearing... I am pushed now to get a car on the road so I have something to drive back and forth to work in... I had the 323 hauled off to the shop I work at on friday and set out on a mission...

    Yay up on the hoist..


    first up in order to get the frost plug that fell out back in I needed to remove the center diff actuator... behind the speedo cable, beside the diff lock switch there is a bolt.. inorder to pull the actuator out you need to remove this bolt


    From there you remove the bottom plug bolt at the end of the actuator..

    In this pic mine is all ready removed..


    Once removed you can take a flat head screw driver and rotate the shaft 90 deg so that the flat side is facing up... Afterwards undo your 3 mounting bolts and the actuator slides off the shaft for the diff lock fork...

    with that out of the way I then removed the brace for the intake manafold... With that removed I was able to to get at the frost plug.. Thankfully the shop I work at has an install tool that made punching a new frost plug in easy as pie..

    new frost plug installed..


    I started buttoning a few things back up hoping that this was going to be the only disaster I was going to find.. once I had the things to where I could pressure test the cooling system I decide to check for any other leaks...

    I didn't get far when I heard water pissing on the ground.. a quick look and I found this trail from behind the turbo..


    Bugger! So now switching gears I get the transmission side of things buttoned up enough where I can take the jack stand out from under the motor head up top to remove the turbo... Once removed I found another frost plug blown out...


    Not a big deal, pound a new frost plug in and start to reinstall the turbo.. When I was cleaning things up though I got stopped in my tracks... I noticed my manafold was cracked. Upon removing the O2 senor I found the crack to be pretty bad...

    Its a little hard to tell from the pic but the crack runs from the O2 sensor all the way back to the bolt hole..


    Removing the O2 sensor was pretty interesting as well.. I am surprised it still worked fine..

    The outter casing around the center porcelain had broken off...


    A good look at the exhaust side of the turbo shows that some how when the O2 sensor broke it did no damage to the turbo...


    I did how ever find a nasty surprise when looking over the turbo...

    The exhaust housing is cracked almost 180 deg around the back side of the turbo.....


    So well thankfully I have a stock pile of parts sitting in my garage... I ran home and picked up my good stock manafold... While on the way home I decided it was time to upgrade, so I grabbed one of my VJ11 turbos...

    Turbo PORN!.. lol..From left to right.. VJ14, VJ11, VJ13(no I am not joking this is stamped on the turbo)


    I noticed when I was looking at all the turbo that the one from my GTX was actually stamped VJ13.. not VJ14 like my other B6T turbo... Not sure where its from or anything, but it looks the same as the VJ14..

    Off to the races I went swapping around turbos and manafolds...

    #2
    Here is a comparison shot of the VJ11 mounted to a stock B6T manafold with a VJ14 mounted to a stock B6T manafold... You can see the difference in the waste gate actuators in this pic.. the stock VJ11 actuator is set down more towards the pan, where as the VJ14 is tucked up closer to the manafold...


    The whole reason you have troubles with the stock VJ11 actuator is because it hits the block when you go to mount everything up... I ended up using my VJ14 actuator... I cut/bent and extended the rod in order to get it to fit... I don't have any pictures but while I was mocking everything up I put 2 washers between my waste gate bracket and turbo housing... I did this because there needs to a certain preload on the wastegate to keep it shut...If you pull the stock waste gate off either the VJ11 or VJ14 you'll notice the bracket doesn't sit flush with the turbo housing.. you have to actually suck it down with the bolts.... This pulls against a spring and helps hold the waste gate shut tight.. With my washers in place I was able to hold the waste gate shut by hand and get everything all set and welded in place.. Afterwards I pulled the washers out and bolted the waste gate actuator up properlly... This made for perfect feeling preload on the waste gate... I ended up flipping the coolant feed and return lines around on the VJ11 in order to get them to clear the VJ14 actuator... I had to do just a minnor bit of notching for the coolant line closest to the oil pan but it all worked out nicely..

    Turbo all bolted up and ready for install with a piece of coolant hose all ready installed to make life easier later on...


    VJ11's new home all settled in... ahh how nice...


    At this time I figured it would be a good idea to check for anymore water leaks... Once again it wasn't long before I had a lake under the car...

    This time it looked like it was coming from the timing belt water pump area... So off the timing belt comes.. I didn't see a whole lot untill I pulled both cam gears and the back covers.. Then I saw it...

    Stupid frost plug blow out of the cylinder head..


    At that point in time I called it quits for the night... I'll pick up a new frost plug in the morning when lordco opens and go back at it...

    Hopefully tomorrow will go a little smoother...

    Comment


      #3
      at least it was only frost plugs and not cracked block or anything.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by bighed323 View Post
        at least it was only frost plugs and not cracked block or anything.
        So far... I wont know for sure untill I can get it up and running... I am keeping positive and hoping for the best... If the block is cracked I do have a spare motor...

        Comment


          #5
          so why are all the frost plugs blown out? do you have a bad head gasket pressurizing the coolant system?

          Comment


            #6
            No anitfreeze just straight water and the block froze im guessing.
            12 cbr250r: daily ride
            01 saab 9-3: daily
            98 gsxr 1100: for sale
            93L: money pit/ space waster
            92GL: low and slow beater
            90?: the rust free shell
            89LX: swapping to rust free shell
            89L: for sale
            89L: parts
            87 conquest: dohc 4g64 swap underway
            76+80 vw dashers: for sale

            Comment


              #7
              SHE'S ALIVE!!! finally got all the leaks fixed in the cooling system put it all back together.. while I have been at it I redid some of my intercooler piping.. I cranked her over and she fired with out much hesitation.. I still have a lot of work to do though... I need to rebuild the front half of the exhaust system.. My car origonally had a corksport down pipe on it.. With the VJ11 that wont bolt up anymore.. I'll have some more pics tonight right now I am just eating some dinner before I go back at it...

              Originally posted by shorestiva View Post
              No anitfreeze just straight water and the block froze im guessing.
              Yep thats what happened... Up here during race season I run water with a rust inhibitor during the summer times.. We aren't allowed to run coolant at the drag strip... The transmission blew up and I parked the car just shortly after race season and forgot to drain all the water out of the block.. The car has sat like this for 2 years now...

              Comment


                #8
                Well I shut her down for the night... Still a long list of things to do but the GTX drove under its own power for the first time in 2 and a half years... I drove it around my work complex a few times... Its been so long since I have driven the car my ass dyno doesn't know if there is a difference with the VJ11 turbo or not...

                This is how I left her for the night after cleaning up..


                The old intercooler piping..


                The new set up.. .



                The new down pipe and cat getting mocked up in place..


                On the to do list..
                Galant brake upgrade (brakes are worn out anyways)
                Find a new Idle air control valve...
                New clutch slave and possibly master cylinder..
                Get the car to pass air care...
                Fix the now broken drivers side window switch.. (was working when I parked the car)
                Have a new tire shipped in...

                Comment


                  #9
                  good to see you getting it back on the road man.


                  '88 323 sedan, K-swapped..

                  '03.5 Mazdaspeed Protege - miss it so much..

                  '01 Dodge Ram 3500 Cummins - 323 hauler

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Way to go!!! Whenever I get my GTX going it would have sat for about the same length of time

                    1988 323 Station Wagon - KLG4 swapped
                    1988 323 GT - B6T Powered
                    2008 Ford Escape - Rollover Survivor

                    1990 Festiva - First Ever Completed KLZE swap (SOLD)

                    If no one from the future stops you from doing it, how bad of a decision can it really be?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Nice! Good to hear about your progress! Hope you are doing well. I'll need to come up and visit!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by LN323 View Post
                        Nice! Good to hear about your progress! Hope you are doing well. I'll need to come up and visit!
                        Definatly Larry.. how are you enjoying your hybrid VJ11/14 set up?? I gotta work on getting my pass port so I can come down and visit...

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Might as well update... I did a little bit of work to it yesterday afterwork... I played with the idle air control valve to see if I could get the idle to come down.. no such luck.. I smoked the intake with no signs of vacuum leaks.. I adjusted tps to make sure the idle switch was set right... I made sure my base idle was set right.. made sure timing was set right... I am down to either bad coolant temp sensor (I know 1 for the fan control is bad) or bad by pass air control valve... the by pass air control valve is a little over $700 new my cost so I wont be buying that anytime soon... For now I simply plugged the vavle and adjusted my base idle screw to bring the idle up a little, readjusted the tps and things are good enough... hopefully next week I'll get it to pass emissions and I'll be able to insure the car when my new tire comes in... I have my doubts about it passing emissions though... Since sitting the motor has decided likes to burn oil on start up... :S never was like that before...

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by crazycanadian View Post
                            Might as well update... I did a little bit of work to it yesterday afterwork... I played with the idle air control valve to see if I could get the idle to come down.. no such luck.. I smoked the intake with no signs of vacuum leaks.. I adjusted tps to make sure the idle switch was set right... I made sure my base idle was set right.. made sure timing was set right... I am down to either bad coolant temp sensor (I know 1 for the fan control is bad) or bad by pass air control valve... the by pass air control valve is a little over $700 new my cost so I wont be buying that anytime soon... For now I simply plugged the vavle and adjusted my base idle screw to bring the idle up a little, readjusted the tps and things are good enough... hopefully next week I'll get it to pass emissions and I'll be able to insure the car when my new tire comes in... I have my doubts about it passing emissions though... Since sitting the motor has decided likes to burn oil on start up... :S never was like that before...
                            Let me know if you figure out the bypass valve issue. I have the same problem. Fully warmed up it sits around 1500rpm. I've adjusted the screw all the way and made it to 1200, but it shouldn't require that much. I was thinking maybe just some carbon buildup??? I have other issues to worry about with the GTX.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              thats awesome, love hearin about these things gettin fixed up, i just got mine on the road again in january after sitting for FIVE YEARS. i have so much fun in my car that i wish i would have gotten around to finishing it up sooner, oh well

                              Comment

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