TurboGSL-SE's widebody build
 

The goal - a very driveable widebody GSL-SE with a single turbo. Not a daily driver but a fair weather driver, so here in the Northwest that means the car gets a few more days under cover than on the road. I plan to get out to autocross it this summer, maybe hit a track day as well.

I'm starting with my '85 GSL-SE that's currently a full Mariah Mode 4 car with the OEM 3-piece rear spoiler and a Targa top.

I'm doing a full engine bay cleanup and to some degree, a wire tuck. I've got a lot of work ahead, but I'll give you some starting point photos in the next few posts.

Just a bit more about the overall goal. I have always liked the Pacific widebody setup. I also really like the Mariah Mode 1. But over time, as I've looked at the IMSA racecar images, I've settled on a wider-is-better look. I have a CP Racing widebody kit that'll go on the car, but it's taken from a donor vehicle, so it's rough and needs work. I plan to integrate it with my existing Mode 4 front air dam. I also plan to use the Mode 4 side skirts and rear valence, so there will be more fiberglass work to get them smoothly integrated.

As for paint, the car won't remain T9 Desert Brown Metallic (or New Trade Brown depending on what documentation you look at); it will get a new color. I haven't decided on the final color yet, but red and black are at the top of the list. If I end up doing the black, it's going to have a dark green flake in it. I've seen this on another show car, and it was fabulous. If I go red, it'll have to be a nice, bright Ferrari-ish red.

As for motor & drivetrain - I have a S4 TII motor & tranny with stock GSL-SE rear end. I have a Wolf 3D for engine management. Fuel is a Walbro 255lph pump, 680cc primary injectors and 1600cc secondaries. Motor has some pretty big ports on it, and it was putting out decent power before on a stock-ish Knight Sports turbo. Now, bigger turbo, more fuel, and more fun.

Suspension is currently the Racing Beat springs/sway bars with Tokico Illuminas. I may swap over to the Re-Speed coilovers and put in some camber plates. Not sure yet. Wheels are a set of Epsilons, 15x7 in the front, 15x10 in the rear.

The interior of the car is pretty clean still. I have a pair of TII seats in it which are a great improvement over the leather GSL-SE seats. Otherwise, the carpets are in good shape as is the rest of the interior. I plan to keep it as near to stock as I can inside - but a few necessities for the engine will be integrated.

Photos - Mode 4 trim, my previous engine installation with stock TII turbo, first "clean up" picture of an existing headlight motor and my cleaned up one.

Now, time to get back to the garage.

-TurboGSLSE

Good luck my friend,you have lots of work ahead of you...but very clean as she sits right now.....

Sounds like a great build! Please keep us updated with lots of pictures.

Thanks Datsun1200. Yes, tons of work ahead but i am excited to make it a very one if a kind car.

A few more photos of the engine bay after most of the big stuff has been removed.

Going to build up the engine tomorrow. Parts prepped and ready!

A few photos of the last incarnation of the car as it was in running condition. This was with the Wolf 3D setup plus a TII ported motor.

Started assembly today on the motor but really needed to port my exhaust before we started stacking. So, I ported them!

Assembled the motor today.

looks great dave! what porting templates are you using for the exhaust?

I just used the exhaust sleeve as the guideline. I only ported up and left the lower edge of the exhaust port stock. Pretty straightforward really. I didn't end up needing a template at all, although I thought I would. Recommendation from a reputable engine builder was just to look through the exhaust port from the outside of the engine and match the lines. I took my time with a dremel and it came out nice.

cool project. what's your power goal?

I will be keeping a close eye on this build as I'm considering some of the same things you are. :nod:

I'm pretty sure that my build will support 325 RWHP. That's my current goal. I was worried about snapping my GSL-SE transmission, but recently acquired the TII transmission, so I'm feeling pretty comfortable at 325. Depending on how the tuning goes, I may be able to swap in a higher PSI Map, but right now, 325 should be achievable with 12-18 PSI. I'm not sure how much more power the turbo will produce. I haven't done the math on everything, so I'm mostly going on other FC build information.

Craaaazzy, I have to ask whether you considered building up a full IMSA style wing, or if you planned the sheet metal version all along? I have the OEM IMSA 3-piece FRP spoiler, but it honestly seems too small for the CP Racing wide body. I usually like the looks of the whaletail, but as of late, I'm back to preferring the large IMSA spoiler.

And, what's with the missing bumper? I've seen that on some Japanese cars, but I don't get it... Curious minds are inquiring...

Intake Port photos... BIG intake ports..

lindahlish,

What things are you considering for your build?

nice

i was going to go wingless actually but it looked a bit plain w/o a wing. would have gone w/ the large IMSA wing but it would of been a good amount of work to fix it and install it the way i wanted to i decided to make a wing myself out of aluminum...plus i like being able to say i custom made it myself. =)

as for the bumper, i didn't like the look of the stock bumper w/ the widebody kit. i had my body guy make a cover out of fiberglass but once installed, i didn't like the look of it either...looked odd. so i left it out and it serves a purpose (to reduce weight but i know i'm sacrificing safety).

nice power goal. i'm hoping for high 200's w/ the REW myself...but the potential is there to go higher.

I'm considering a S4 13bt TII full engine swap, with the TII trans modified to fit the FB. I'll be rebuilding a GSL rear end with all new bearings and doing a TII big brake swap from RE-Speed on the rear, as well as a TII subframe swap on the front. 25mm (1in) 5x114.3 spacers on the front and rear to prevent rubbing with a set of FC BBS Convertible rims. Haltech E6k ECU with full harness, stock turbo, FMIC, gauges galore (6 total), 2 1/2" or 3" stainless catback exhaust system, and probably other things I'm forgetting about.

So far I have at least 48 hours total of research and planning - asking questions only after I'm well versed in the methods as to not look stupid - and I now know about as much about the swap as anyone can without actually having a TII at my disposal. I have 2 pages worth of links and pages and threads on the swap and I'll be sharing it all when I actually start making progress towards it. Speaking of, I should be going and getting my 87 TII for the swap sometime this week :nod:

Congrats Dave!

Whats the next step? body & paint?

@notveryhappyjack, found out that I need to buy more stuff. TII flywheel needed, TII starter needed, then I need to finish cleaning up the engine bay and paint it. Then, finish cleaning and painting the intake manifold, and start assembling the motor on the stand. Once that's done, and the motor is back in, time to start on the body - which will have to included a R&R on the body kit to start. Lots of work remains for sure. I'll probably cheat and drive it before the body work is done though.

@lindahlish, sounds like a nice build up. Will love to see the suspension build up when done!

Don't worry, I'll whore it around with pics myself :egrin:

Those extra parts you'll need is part of the reason I'll be buying a complete car instead of parting it together. Much easier in the end I think.

I have been considering buying either the Tokico Illuminas or the Yellow Koni's. How is the handling with those? I like a stiff ride for some reason.

@rxmiles - Not sure about the Koni's, but I love the Illuminas. Adjustability for ride stiffness is great, and when on 5 (stiffest) it's gutentight. :)

Picked up a nice Exedy lightweight flywheel yesterday.

So, I have a set of Epsilon wheels for my build. They're pretty dirty, and I found that the PO had spray painted white paint close enough to the car to get paint on the wheels. I spent a few hours today getting the centers clean(er). Attached is the effort so far on one of the centers.

Those are soooooo sexy!

One more photo of a center fully cleaned.

Nice! my Epsilons need a makeover but still look great on the car.

Cant wait to see yours on your car.

I am really excited for, and to some degree, dreading, polishing the barrels. They're pretty dull right now, and I really just want a full mirror finish on them. It's going to be a fair amount of work for sure. Not that cleaning the centers for 4 hours each isn't a lot of work, but its just different.

Stoked for the build! Posting so i'm subscribed.

Whens the engine dropping in?

I dont know if 15x7 is going to be wide enough to fill the front fenders unless you've got some insayne 0 or -8 offset (i dont know what the Eps are). 15x7 will just fill up stock fenders.

Personally I feel that most widebody FB's dont go wide enough on the wheels and it ends up looking like a skinny dood in huge football pads.

Are you sticking with the Wolf3D? Do you tune by yourself on the street or do you dyno or have someone do it?

Engine wont' go in until after the engine bay is stripped, and painted. Probably a month out for dropping in the motor. Going to wire tuck a bunch as well. I'm going to put some spacers in the front & rear. I'm not going for the football pads look, it's dumb.

Yes, still doing the Wolf, but going to get dyno tuned this time around. I had a decent street tune, but it wasn't tuned for max power and my newer turbo. So, will dyno tune this time.

Excellent. Tuck is up next for me as well. I'm thinking of cutting through upper quarter panels and routing through fenders, fix some fender dents while I'm in there, and mounting everything up in front if the radiator.

Glad to hear on the spacers.

Rethanol has been doing work towards wire tuck. Actually it appears not nearly as hard as one might think. I think it gets hard when you want to see NO wires (minus something like plug wires and throttle cable). The fender based routing seems pretty straightforward for much of the wires, and actually routing through the frame rails may be another possibility for some of the engine sensor wires.

Spent some time - ok a couple hours - cleaning, stripping the clearcoat and polishing one of my rims. Lotta work! But, they're looking sweet.

looks sick =]

A few updates.

I pulled the power steering unit. Plan to de-power it. Unfortunately, the flyin' miata information isn't sufficient - the designs are different. I'll see how it goes. Nasty smelling goo in there though, that's for sure!

Spent better part of the day today cleaning out the remaining tidbits in the engine bay - to prep for paint. Photos below. Decided that it's going to be a black engine bay - painted with Por 15. That'll take care of both the rust as well as a nice hard temperature resistant paint.

My personal recommendation would be to either swap out the entire steer column with a manual setup, swap out for rack and pinion, or keep the ps hooked up. There is a lot of slop on a de-powered PS setup. I've had two now, and my next project will be hooking the PS back up!

Thanks iotTus. I haven't heard much on 1st Gen PS being depowered. Major goal is to clean up engine bay more - and doing a gilmer drive setup. So, a manual rack is probably the right option. R&P would work too.

Yup. Even with the de-powered steering, you've got a huge PS box sitting in there with a bunch of caps and loops. Not shui at all.

Re: gilmer drive - which kit you going with? I was totally sold on the gilmers until I saw videos of how loud they are. Holy shit you cant hear the engine OR exhaust over it - and rotary exhaust is loud! I've heard that you can greatly reduce the noise by "drilling out the channels" in the gear pulleys - now what that means is beyond me and I've heard many people say this with no video proof, evidence, or pictures of what this actually entails.

Basically whats going on is the air is trapped btwn the belt and the pulleys causing a "pop" each time the tooth engages. the hole would be to allow air out.

One thing I was thinking was shaping the teeth so that instead of coming down to a square channel:
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Slot the bottom so it comes down at a taper:
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\-/

Finished cleaning the engine bay and got a coat of black on it. Went with POR-15 sprayed on via HVLP. Came out great, minus a few grease spots that I must have missed. I'll get them with coat #2.

Painted up the front steering parts and control arms. Look new!

Good work man!

Love this build!

Hey man just wanted to update something i mentioned earlier - my buddy took a look at my steering box and turns out there's a slop adjustment on the PS box just as there is on the manual box. We were able to get rid of 97% of the play I was experiencing.

I will play around with hooking the PS box back up and taking it off, see what HP / drivability difference there is.

With a 15" steering wheel the PS box is do-able, though still very difficult to steer below 20 mph.

Suspension & steering back together after a full soda scrub and paint.

I'd be interested to know what the difference is if one hose is just routed around on the top of the box, or if they are just plugged with fluid inside the housing.

More engine bay work. Got the wiring harness back in, brake and steering hooked up.

Looking great! Did you clean the brake and clutch fluid reservoirs, or are those new?

I see a nice shiney manual steering column in there now :) I hooked up my PS pump last night, stoked to get that back up and running.

If ONLY re-speed still existed - we could just do the rack and pinion swap :( for years and years, when i was FB-less, I DREAMED of the R&P conversion! I finally get back into one and the dood turns into a bozo and destroys his business :(

Do you still have your A/C pump? I may take that off your hands for ya... ;)

No, still have the PS - but just don't have the power assembly in there. Still debating whether to leave PS connected or not.

Either way, I have at least 2 or 3 AC pumps. All yours. PM me for contact info.

I'll be plugging my PS back in tonight. I'll let you know what I think, having driven it the last 7 months without.

Do you have the stock 15" wheel or a 13" aftermarket?