A College Kid's Carbed Car (Updated Quarterly)
05-11-18, 10:01 PM
#1
A College Kid's Carbed Car (Updated Quarterly)
Hey all,
My name is Kellis, I'm a 21 year old full time grad student at the University of Alabama. This poses some issues since I am from Cincinnati, Ohio, which is where the car is kept... hence why I'll be updating the thread quarterly, when I'm on break and have time to visit the car (and my parents, who have graciously cleared out a spot in the garage for me to work).
I purchased the car, a bone stock red 1990 GXL with 190,863 miles, back in the summer of 2016. It appeared to be a clean shell, with no visible rust, a complete interior, and a ton of extra parts. The only apparent issues were that the previous-previous owner had blown the engine, it hadn't run in 14 years, and the guy I bought it from hadn't had time to tear it down after having kids. I got it home and gave it a good wash, and it looked pretty decent:
After tearing everything out of the engine bay and thoroughly scrubbing 26 years of **** off of the firewall, I disassembled the engine to find one of the rear apex seals had exploded, taking the rotor and housing with it. Fortunately the car had come with a ton of spares, so I was able to put together a good set of parts featuring:
Rebuild in progress shown above.
In a second questionable decision by the old me (the first being the half bridge), I decided to go with a carburetor instead of getting it working with the stock EFI... why take the easy way out? I ended up purchasing a 45 DCOE from a guy here on the forums, which I thought would work alright until I could afford to get a 48 IDA. I rebuilt that as soon as I got it:
It's mounted to the car with a Racing Beat upper manifold and the stock lower. I've wired the 5/6th ports closed to make for easier starting, and I don't think the little 45 could flow enough to handle them anyway. Ignition wise, I have a GSL electric dizzy and a set of MSD coils wired up for direct fire on the leading plugs. Currently working on a new coil mount so I can wire the trailing plugs in. Fuel wise, I added a Walbro 255 on a dedicated relay circuit to replace the dead stock pump. I'm using a Mallory regulator to get down to 4.5 psi, but if I need any lower I think I'll need a different pump or a bigger return line.
That's about where I left off last summer. In August, after much anticipation and anxiety, my dad and I got it to start up and run with a steady, high (~2000 rpm) idle. If my internet would cooperate I might upload the video. We didn't run it for too long since the clutch fan wasn't mounted but it started up fairly easily, which was encouraging. But I had to leave for school, so I put some oil in the spark holes, hand cranked it a few times, sealed up the holes and left.
Last winter break, I essentially redid the whole brake system. New rotors and Hawk pads, reman'd calipers, new master cylinder, and even new lines which I bent myself. Not a job I want to repeat, but at least now I know they won't rust in half the first time I need to brake hard. None of the connections leak, but the pedal is a little spongy, so it might need further bleeding. Hard to tell what it should feel like seeing as I've never driven it before, we'll see how it feels on the test drive. Oh, also got a new set of all-season tires for her since the old ones were... old. Nothing special, hoping to get some bigger wheels soon (ish) with some sticky rubber.
Front brakes post-update.
Engine bay after a year and a half of work.
That about brings me to the present day. The rough plan for the car long term is to repair/upgrade all of the smaller sub systems that can be tackled in increments of a few weeks. Notably, the cooling system, exhaust, and suspension still need attention.
For the cooling system, I've ordered a Koyo radiator, new water pump, fancy aluminum thermostat neck, new thermostat, etc. I'm keeping the stock clutch fan until it breaks since it pulls a ton of air and doesn't require wiring yet another circuit.
Exhaust wise, I'm planning to do a combination of Racing Beat parts and custom work. I have an RB header, dual presilencer and 2.5" muffler. I'm planning to have a shop fab something up to connect the presilencer to the single muffler, collected somewhere near the rear axle. I'm hoping this combination gives the benefits of a long primary system without being excessively loud. The dual 2" OD runners have a slightly smaller combined flow area than the single 2.5" ID muffler, so I don't think it should be too restrictive.
As for suspension, that is a long way out. Debating between the Fortune Auto coilovers for the FC, and the full Ground Control kit offered with the Koni struts. Apart from that, full bushing and mount replacements are in order for all suspension parts, as well as a set of RB sway bars and links.
The chassis itself turned out to have a few bad rust spots, which I'm not really in a position to fix at the moment. I'm hoping to give the whole car an acid bath and repaint it once I finish school and have my own place, as it's not something I can tackle with my limited working time and budget.
Sleeping beauty.
So there you have it, my life laid bare. I should be updating again sometime next week, hoping to have the cooling parts installed and perhaps a test drive with the headers and presilencer bolted on. Thanks for reading!
My name is Kellis, I'm a 21 year old full time grad student at the University of Alabama. This poses some issues since I am from Cincinnati, Ohio, which is where the car is kept... hence why I'll be updating the thread quarterly, when I'm on break and have time to visit the car (and my parents, who have graciously cleared out a spot in the garage for me to work).
I purchased the car, a bone stock red 1990 GXL with 190,863 miles, back in the summer of 2016. It appeared to be a clean shell, with no visible rust, a complete interior, and a ton of extra parts. The only apparent issues were that the previous-previous owner had blown the engine, it hadn't run in 14 years, and the guy I bought it from hadn't had time to tear it down after having kids. I got it home and gave it a good wash, and it looked pretty decent:
After tearing everything out of the engine bay and thoroughly scrubbing 26 years of **** off of the firewall, I disassembled the engine to find one of the rear apex seals had exploded, taking the rotor and housing with it. Fortunately the car had come with a ton of spares, so I was able to put together a good set of parts featuring:
- 6 port front/rear irons, secondaries and aux ports bridged (questionable decision by the old me)
- TII center iron, street ported
- S4, 9.4:1, D weight rotors
- Atkins? apex seals
- Reused side and corner seals, tolerances checked and new springs and plugs
- 90 PSI oil pressure regulator
- RB 13 lb. steel flywheel
- Exedy OEM clutch
- Himni motor and trans mounts
Rebuild in progress shown above.
In a second questionable decision by the old me (the first being the half bridge), I decided to go with a carburetor instead of getting it working with the stock EFI... why take the easy way out? I ended up purchasing a 45 DCOE from a guy here on the forums, which I thought would work alright until I could afford to get a 48 IDA. I rebuilt that as soon as I got it:
It's mounted to the car with a Racing Beat upper manifold and the stock lower. I've wired the 5/6th ports closed to make for easier starting, and I don't think the little 45 could flow enough to handle them anyway. Ignition wise, I have a GSL electric dizzy and a set of MSD coils wired up for direct fire on the leading plugs. Currently working on a new coil mount so I can wire the trailing plugs in. Fuel wise, I added a Walbro 255 on a dedicated relay circuit to replace the dead stock pump. I'm using a Mallory regulator to get down to 4.5 psi, but if I need any lower I think I'll need a different pump or a bigger return line.
That's about where I left off last summer. In August, after much anticipation and anxiety, my dad and I got it to start up and run with a steady, high (~2000 rpm) idle. If my internet would cooperate I might upload the video. We didn't run it for too long since the clutch fan wasn't mounted but it started up fairly easily, which was encouraging. But I had to leave for school, so I put some oil in the spark holes, hand cranked it a few times, sealed up the holes and left.
Last winter break, I essentially redid the whole brake system. New rotors and Hawk pads, reman'd calipers, new master cylinder, and even new lines which I bent myself. Not a job I want to repeat, but at least now I know they won't rust in half the first time I need to brake hard. None of the connections leak, but the pedal is a little spongy, so it might need further bleeding. Hard to tell what it should feel like seeing as I've never driven it before, we'll see how it feels on the test drive. Oh, also got a new set of all-season tires for her since the old ones were... old. Nothing special, hoping to get some bigger wheels soon (ish) with some sticky rubber.
Front brakes post-update.
Engine bay after a year and a half of work.
That about brings me to the present day. The rough plan for the car long term is to repair/upgrade all of the smaller sub systems that can be tackled in increments of a few weeks. Notably, the cooling system, exhaust, and suspension still need attention.
For the cooling system, I've ordered a Koyo radiator, new water pump, fancy aluminum thermostat neck, new thermostat, etc. I'm keeping the stock clutch fan until it breaks since it pulls a ton of air and doesn't require wiring yet another circuit.
Exhaust wise, I'm planning to do a combination of Racing Beat parts and custom work. I have an RB header, dual presilencer and 2.5" muffler. I'm planning to have a shop fab something up to connect the presilencer to the single muffler, collected somewhere near the rear axle. I'm hoping this combination gives the benefits of a long primary system without being excessively loud. The dual 2" OD runners have a slightly smaller combined flow area than the single 2.5" ID muffler, so I don't think it should be too restrictive.
As for suspension, that is a long way out. Debating between the Fortune Auto coilovers for the FC, and the full Ground Control kit offered with the Koni struts. Apart from that, full bushing and mount replacements are in order for all suspension parts, as well as a set of RB sway bars and links.
The chassis itself turned out to have a few bad rust spots, which I'm not really in a position to fix at the moment. I'm hoping to give the whole car an acid bath and repaint it once I finish school and have my own place, as it's not something I can tackle with my limited working time and budget.
Sleeping beauty.
So there you have it, my life laid bare. I should be updating again sometime next week, hoping to have the cooling parts installed and perhaps a test drive with the headers and presilencer bolted on. Thanks for reading!
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