Well, here it is. I am attempting to log all my progress and figured I would post this ongoing build thread.

The story thus far: I purchased this '88 GXL about a year ago as the third owner. I was really impressed with the condition of the car; there was ZERO rust save for one spot in the engine bay.

The mods done at that time were also a factor in the purchase as a decent amount of work was done by the previous owner. Some cheapish wheels, emissions delete, Koyo, E-fan, short shifter and a full Racing Beat true-dual exhaust.

As received:

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Engine bay:

 

Not much was done to the car during the fall season as it was my DD. Once winter hit, it was stored in the garage for its hibernation.

During winter I bit the bullet and spent a decent chunk of change. This meant Stance coilovers, Russell stainless brake lines, Stoptech brake pads, and new oem rotors.

I apologize as I didn't take a lot of pictures for the installs. Not having a heated garage in Minnesota = a lot of huffing on hands just to keep them from F****** freezing, let alone taking pictures.

Coilovers disguised as Christmas presents:




Old springs out!



Front coilover install


Wheels were then powder coated white and Muteki lugs installed (the old ones were stripped and had to be broken off)

 

nice! super cleannnnn

 

As spring rolled around, I changed all the fluids, fixed the leaky oil pan and focused on little projects to improve the car aesthetically and somewhat performance wise. I am still unsure of the goals on this project but I will update as mods and ideas come.

I started off by removing all the sound deadening and then removing the front carpet as it was badly stained. Not wanting a bare metal floor, I proceeded to "rhino line" the front where the carpet was ( I can always put the carpet back in or find a better condition one).

I, being an a** , forgot to take pictures of this process.

After that was complete, I decided to revamp the interior. My old S4 center surround was broken in around 3 spots so I located an S5 surround and center vent. I also threw in a Tomei shift ****, broadway mirror and a few other minor things.



I also redid the upholstery on the door cards and headliner in suede.




Liner



I redid the rear bins as well in a canvas mesh material. This did not turn out as well as the doors and headliner an I WILL be fixing this.




I also installed a Mazdatrix rear camber bar to dial out the horrible negative camber from the height drop.


As she sits now!

 

looks very clean

 

Nice , you should drop a 20b engine in it and waaaoouu you got an bad badass car ! . but nice wheels , you should get som spacers to get an more stance fitment .

 

If I ever won the lottery, a 20b would be mandatory. As for the spacers, I have debated getting them, but they are cheap wheels. No sense dropping $200 on these wheels when my next major purchase will probably be some 17x9 +22 RPF1's.
(or some Shine Aero! )
Update:
I cracked the passenger side motor mount when replacing the oil pan in the spring. Finally got sick of floppy motor and installed some Himni Street mounts.


Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the purchase. They didn't break the bank, they don't rattle my teeth out, and the motor is planted. Only vibration issue occurs under 2k rpm.

 

Good job on getting the poly mounts. I have solid aluminum ones. While the car is definitely not shaking my teeth out, I think I'd be much happier with a little bit of cushion there rather than none at all.

 

The upside to the vibration is that now I can find every ******* loose bolt that is making noise at 2k rpm.

 

Update: After a drive to the gym determined that the FC was smelling like fuel even more than usual, I quickly drove home and discovered a leaky fuel damper. Conveniently, I had purchased a replacement banjo bolt when I first got the car enabling me to fix it in about a half an hour.




Instead of taking the manifolds apart bit by bit, I cheated and just unplugged everything, took off the alternator, and unbolted the manifold and took it all off in one chunk.

P.S. Anyone who does this, please relieve the fuel pressure before opening any fuel related lines.



Fixed!


I also cleaned all of my grounds, but the dreaded 3800 rpm hesitation still curses me. Going to have to figure that out before winter.

 

Maybe a flow test for the injectors wouldn't hurt? But wow what a clean shell!

 

I think when the snow falls and I park her for the year, I will send in all my injectors. There is a local shop that doesn't charge too much from what I hear.

 

Well, the weather is getting colder. Ran some Seafoam through the gas tank and so far it seems to be helping. I will probably send my injectors in over the winter. Also, cleaned the tracks in my sunroof and added oil stabilizer as I didn't have any grease on hand haha. Opens and closes like a dream now.


Also got bored, so I had the lady friend take some better pictures.

 

Great looking 7!

You have a great starting point, i think that moving slowly and choosing the right mods for your situation is the way to go.

 

clean, car is super clean.

 

Some recent updates:

I finally decided that I want to make this car into a naturally aspirated 80's retro/ boso inspired theme.


I sold the white wheels for a decent amount and bought a set of Crown Vics. Unfortunately, the wheels came with some very small tires (195/40/16).



As it turns out, a friend of mine needed that exact size so I sold them and I purchased new tires at 205/45/16 and 205/50/16.



Going with the mild boso inspiration, I chopped off the expensive racing beat tips and had a friend help me fabb up some new stainless tips.

 

Along with the naturally aspirated side of things, I purchased a few goodies.



StarMazda racing intake manifold and twin 48mm ITB's with 55mm trumpets.

Based on some great advice from a few of our fellow NA experts, I think I am just going to run larger primary injectors, delete the secondaries, and run a mega squirt for the ECU. I am not aiming for huge power, but I think 200whp is attainable with proper tuning.

 

Damn that looks nice!
What other engine mods do you have planned to get to 200whp?

 

^Basically just the itb's, megasquirt, and ID1000 primaries. I will eventually port the motor when she gives up the ghost, but it's running strong so stock port for now. I think I can get her close to that mark until the port.

I've already lightened the car down substantially while maintaining full interior (removed all sound deadening, downsized my wheels to 16's, emissions and etc that were removed by previous owner). The car with a half tank of gas as well as me inside weighed in at 2550 on a truck scale.

Next focus will be on swapping in tII trans and lightweight flywheel.


Overall, going to be light, sexy after some new aero from SHINE, and most importantly.. NA!

 

I am proud of you my friend, it looks nice already goes and after this, will go like hell. Nice thing about na, no turbo lag.

 

Those exhaust tips look silly lol... but dam that's one clean S4!

 

That was kind of the point. Semi- bosozoku tips for a little flair and the rest will be all class

 

Sorry to be a skeptic, but removing some sound tar/carpet and the airpump doesn't account for a 400+ lb. weight loss.
Your 16" wheels are actually larger than stock, which were 15's.

What did I miss?

 

I'd think about the decision to go with only one set of injectors & that intake setup. That manifold doesn't look like you'll be able to retain the 6 port actuators, meaning you're only going to lose on the low-end. Sure, it looks very pretty, but at normal, around-town engine speeds you're going to miss the actuators.

I'd recommend keeping the primary/secondary injector setup if you can. Since there are only two injectors delivering the flow necessary for full load, they're going to be WAY oversized for idle & low-load, making those regions of the map more difficult to tune. Especially if you run them as batch injectors (meaning 2 squirts per revolution - 4X/cycle - from both injectors), you'll have such small amounts of fuel you're trying to deliver with huge injectors that the variability will be quite high, and you'll either be wasting a lot of fuel or getting a bit of bucking at low-load & poor idle fuel control. Being able to run each injector separately & timed to it's rotor, injecting once per cycle will help, but you're still faced with the same problem. Plus, 1000 cc injectors are a bit much for an NA, even if you're shooting for 200 hp. 850's should be more than enough.

Also, if you're planning on going with a megasquirt - a word of caution. If you aren't comfortable with building & modifying electronics (or don't want to learn how), or re-wiring the engine bay harness, or doing the tuning yourself, I'd think twice about a stand-alone ECU, let alone a megasquirt system. I love the adjustability it gives on my car, but you need to really try to understand what it's doing, what signals it needs, and what it needs to control if you're going to get the most out of it.

 

No need for pri + sec. My fc idles just as fine with injectors dynamic 1000cc as with the stock NA injectors, so as long as he gets 1000cc injectors that uses new tech, he should be good. + It's cheaper to get just two injectors.