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So..a little over 3 years ago I purchased my first TurboII from an old forum member. After having an SE and then a beautiful low mileage GXL
it was time to step up into Turbo territory. Saw a rough S4 Turbo posted with blown oil seals and jumped on it. Maybe one of the worst impulse buys I’ve ever done.
Convinced my friend to borrow his mom’s FJ cruiser and drove an hour away to take that white stallion home haha. After 1.5 hours of traffic we were finally back home and the day after I was officially an owner of an actual TurboII. (I now realize it really isn’t that big of a deal. I was 19 at the time so..anyways.) With the help of Jesus (ArmyofOne) over the years ive learned a but load with all the motors ive watched be put together and all the hours ive gotten to put in helping him. This thread is probably more of a log than a “Build Thread” so ive got to play catch up for a bit.
Since buying it 3 years ago its gone through a lot. Seen a lot of street time and its fair share of the track, but not without costs. Motors, tires, walls, etc. It sure as hell aint pretty.
June 2011. This was it. As stock as can be. R32 Wheels…bad paint…missing interior and dented quarter panel. First thing I did was wash it then immediately got to work pulling the motor. Started accumulating all the parts I was going to need for the rebuild and when I was ready brought it over to Jesus’s. Did just a stock rebuild, no porting and dropped it back in. Ran really rough at first trying to get things in order..made my turbo glow while trying to get it to idle lol. Eventually got everything sorted out and started DD it to break it in.
Eventually I traded the wheels for some 17x9 wheels I thought were cool. Bought a full exhaust setup aswell. Was a mix of RacingBeat and some old school HKS. Realized my car looked like a pile, replaced the missing trim and repainted it black. At some point after I got some worn out coils. Cusco Zero 1 and Tein rears.
Several months later in February 2012, Sold the wheels, bought crown vics and pretty much drove the car like this for a while. Wired in an SAFC and swapped in an FD fuel pump.
Put Stance Coilovers and new Calipers and brakes on in April 2012 and the day after went to my first open drift school/open drift and had a blast. Did A LOT better than I thought I would. Met a lot of cool people there too.
First day at the track was an experience. It was half drift school and half open drift. I have decent experience drifting away from the track...but I learned quickly this was a very different environment.
The speed, technique needed, even the pavement was different. Much more course than asphalt on the street. All in all it was an awesome learning experience. Downshifting mid-slide, "Crab Walking" the car when you start shallowing out on the 3/8ths bank.
Fast forward 3 months and finally blew my motor..
At an open drift we ran the track reverse and the 1st corner is a long bank. Got the sign to go and pulled away to the top of 1st,
slammed into 2nd and initiated like I had been the whole day. Foot to the floor....No lift....Midway through the bank the
motor leaned out and I lost power for a split second and lost momentum. I tried to make it the rest of the way off track but it was done.
Bucked and sputtered to the pits. The track was close to 2 hours away from home and I managed to limp it half way home thanks to some friends.
I was shooting fireballs and the car just had enough so I left it off the freeway and trailered it home the next day.
As much as ive always wanted to do a build thread..I have a bad habit of forgetting to follow through on updates..
After blowing the motor, I went in on a complete JDM 13BREW with a friend. Motor had 42,000KM. I used the Rotating assembly
and Housings from that and needless to say the housings were in **MINT** condition. ArmyofOne blessed the motor with a very large streetport and ported wastegate back in August 2013 and we assembled it a week
later with some Atkins Treated Apex seals. I put about 8500mi-10000mi on it in between daily driving and 2 or 3 drift events. Consistently got
19MPG...not bad considering its a Turbo Rotary, but also not the friendliest on your wallet lol
I daily drove the car for a awhile, went to a couple more Open Drifts,
tapped a few walls..Bent a new *Old* Apexi exhaust..
Come 2014 I moved into a much bigger shop and thats where we start catching up on my current status.
With the added space the real build was able to unfold. It was decided I was going to go through the entire car starting with suspension.
I dropped the Rear Subframe, Diff, Transmission, Front LCA's and struts. Started pressing out all of the old bushings.
Now the big order..
Suspension/Body
New OEM Transmission Crossmember w/ mounts
PBM Spherical Trailing Arm Bushings
PBM Toe Links
PBM Solid Diff Mounts
PBM Subframe Pivot Risers
Fortune Auto 500 5th Gen Coilovers valved for 8k/6k
So Just to hurry up and catch up since there are way more interesting things
I've been doing lately here's the short version..
After replacing all the suspension I pulled the motor out once more because within
those 10k mi I started having hard starts issues. Regardless if it was hot or cold.
I did a compression test and they were all even bounces..but like 75PSI.
I wasn't too happy to find my perfect housings destroyed. Looks like something
was trying to claw its way out of the motor. The housingsalso began to crack
right at the sparkplug galleys. From what I've researched its more common on FD housings
like this because there is less casting around this area, so something
to do with it expanding?
After tearing it down I took some decent spare housings I had and shipped them
out to a shop in Cali I cannot remember the name of for them to be resurfaced.
Got them back a week later and they looked brand new. Lapped My irons and
Reassembled the motor and dropped it back in.
New Motor Specs
RA Super Seals
Atkins Side Seals
Solid Corner Seals & FD Seal Springs
Atkins O-ring Kit
OEM Oil Control Ring Springs
FD Oil Regulator
OEM Rotor Bearings
OEM Stationary Bearings (drilled out for multi window)
crush washer on the front cover oil landing to prevent any Oring failure
01-01-15, 11:18 PM
Matt's FC Build
It was half drift school and half open drift. I have decent experience drifting away from the track...but I learned quickly this was a very different environment. 
