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1986 Conquest in Chicago.


D-VO
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Greetings,

 

I recently purchased this car on eBay (pics from the auction): PHOTOS HERE

 

About 2.5 years ago I sold my 1986 Starion, and a 1985 motorcycle to make room for a nicer daily driver / road trip car. That was successful, and once it was paid off I swore I wasn't going to buy anything, and then this one popped up, and I bought it. At least I'm aware I have a problem.

 

I pulled the trigger for several reasons:

  1. Red on black, my favorite color combo, even if it is the most common.
  2. 1986. I despise the auto seat belts, and the seat leather is the nicest and most durable.
  3. California car. No rusty undercarriage bolts.
  4. Complete car. Besides a couple under the hood things, everything is there.
  5. Original owner car. (Actually original owner and his son, but same household).
  6. Low miles. Most of the chassis components should be serviceable for a while.
  7. Straight body. Everything about these cars is pretty simple, with the exception of body work, that's where the $$$ is. I aim to do as little as possible.
  8. Turbo door handles. Because come on... they're turbo door handles!

I'm shipping the car from California, as depressed fuel prices and a competitive marketplace have made it economical to do so. I should have it in my garage within 7-10 days.

 

My goals with this car are to refresh any of the mechanicals and interior that need work, and then use it as a summer / weekend driver while using some sweat equity to appreciate the value over the next few years. I have no specific timetable for this work, this car is going to be my hobby for a little while and I hope to take a moderately professional and thorough approach to any projects I do on this car, and share the progress in this thread. I can't guarantee that I won't be slightly modifying the car, but I will be looking to take a quality approach to any modifications made. The original owner's son said that many years ago the car had been worked on by TEP, and also *DM at one point. It did at one point have hard pipes on it, but they were removed a while ago. The IAT sensor on the OVCP is blocked off, and the injector clips look new. I'm not sure what happened to that. In any case, any damage done looks to be fairly reversible. Calling this a project car I think is selling it short, it does seem to be a nice example.

 

That said, based on what I know, here's my initial maintenance / project list:

 

Mechanical:

  • Replace oil / filter
  • Replace coolant, remove / inspect radiator.
  • Replace accessory belts
  • Replace radiator hoses
  • Replace fusible links
  • Replace fuel pump relays
  • Replace spark plugs / wires
  • Replace vacuum lines
  • Replace fuel filters
  • Replace fuel pressure regulator
  • Replace air filter
  • Inspect turbocharger for shaft play (also determine model, it may not be a 12a)
  • Gut pre-cat on downpipe
  • Inspect any additional modifications done to the car.
  • Replace silicone hose couplers with nicer units.
  • Service / lubricate any electrical motors (antenna, windows, mirrors, wipers, etc...
  • Bleed brakes, maybe do pads / rotors based on condition.
  • Fix idle circuit, maybe do a TB refresh.

Exterior:

  • Paint grill black
  • Paint foglight shrouds black
  • Paint / Plastidip wheels back to stock configuration
  • Refinish / restore tail-light center section and tail lights.
  • Yellow fogs (maybe)
  • Full detail, including removing spoiler trim and mirrors

Interior:

  • Fix driver's seat (I have a set of 1G DSM cloth buckets that I might install while I'm doing that work)
  • Replace Steering Wheel (had a nice Nardi on the old one, might go back to something like that)
  • Remove and clean carpet.
  • Upgrade the speakers / stereo system (no subs, don't worry)

 

This is just the list for what I know about the car now, obviously the mechanical stuff is going to come first, but I'm sure the list will get longer and branch out into new areas of the car as I discover things. But that's OK, we all need a hobby. I'm looking forward to taking care of this one and keeping it a nice example that the community can be proud of! If I'm missing anything on my lists, please let me know. I think I know a little bit about this platform now compared to when I bought my first one, but I am far from master-level. I just want to obtain a quality result.

 

Stay tuned!

Brendon

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  • 3 weeks later...

So the car arrived in Chicago after 3 long weeks of waiting... not going to get into the reasons why.

 

She drove off the truck and into my garage Monday the 20th of April. I was happy to finally have it home. The car definitely suffered from a high and surging idle... I suspected vacuum leak and the TPS / ISC needed to be looked at.

 

Tuesday I went and visited questsale (Kirill) down the road from me, who is currently in the middle of tearing everything off the front of his car (dude's got parts for days guys...) in preparation for his 1JZ swap which seems to have caused so much controversy around here lately. :P. He was kind enough to give me a good price on a coil and a set of wires, and a white brake master cap for free as a carwarming present. Embarassingly enough when I was hooking up the coil, I missed a wire and chased a no-start for a couple of days until i figured it out. Good news,

 

Once I got the car started again, I decided just to let it sit and get up to temperature and see what happened (if anything).

 

Good news: nothing terrible happened. It got up to temp, I only ever saw one fan kick on, so no overheating at 1500 rpm constantly with no airflow other than the fans. Not bad. There was a fair bit of white smoke on startup. I'm not totally sure if that's a regular thing or if the result of maybe having a bit of gas in the cylinders from trying to turn over on the no-start (was getting fuel, not spark, probably spent a good chunk of time cranking that fool). More good news, the starting system works, found a service record from 5 years, 1000 miles ago saying they replaced it. Speaking of documentation....

 

OH MY GOD the car came with everything and more!

 

http://imgur.com/gallery/O5o98 <- pics here.

 

It's really quite the impressive stack of paper, I was floored.

 

So this brings me to tonight, I finally fix the no-start, and try to do a TPS / ISC reset procedure on the car. Long story short, the TPS is bad, I'm seeing a wide range of resistance values when the sensor comes back to the idle position, so it wasn't having a stable idle. This also probably explains why it was running rich after I fixed a vacuum leak on the intake, had a very gassy smell all night. TPS is off the car already, and I'm probably going to do the Mazda upgrade so I can count on it while I'm doing other tuning and debugging.

 

While I'm waiting for that I'm going to take the opportunity to put the car in the air, get under it and inspect the chassis, change the coil and wires and plugs, inspect all the vacuum lines, and generally get cracking on my list from the first post. Hopefully when I get the new TPS in, I'm close to done with that list and can start to drive the car a bit.

 

Things discovered not working:

 

Radio

Rear Wiper (the washer works, however)

Rear Antenna (due to Radio, this may actually work)

 

All lights work, the pop ups are quick and synchronous, and the A/C blows cold. Living the dream gentlemen...

 

The car is very dirty so I don't have many updates on that front, the ebay pictures do the car a fair bit of justice.

Edited by D-VO
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Well, i can tell you... all functions of the rear hatch are ran thru the hatch strut contacts.. light polishing of the contact tips and a little bend to assist in good mating pressure"

( did I just say that)

 

a light swab of dielectric grease.... and you " should" be golden unless there is a motor issue. rear defrost, wiper and third brake lamp all run thru the struts the only thing that does not is the squirter for the rear wiper.

Edited by wrngwae
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Tye, thanks for the tips on the hatch contacts, based on the condition of the rest of the car I would be surprised if I couldn't get it working. I'll definitely give that a shot when I make my way back into the garage. (Going to look at a couple wedding venues this weekend, so no play time for me).

 

Speedy, thanks for the well wishes! This one is pretty clean, not without its quirks, but that's what makes it fun, right?. ZERO rust on the car that I've seen so far. PO was a doctor, so all the major service was done by people who knew what they were doing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent some more time under the hood today and inside the car. Changed the steering wheel out to an 88-89 model, tightened up everything in the center console, and got all the extra parts and crap out of the trunk. The more time I spend in there, the more impressed I am with the overall condition of the interior.

 

Unfortunately, the radio wiring and alarm installation is a real hack job, that's going to be a fair bit of work to replace. Need to do some research and grab the relevant wiring diagrams.

 

Also unfortunately, the turbocharger has a fair amount of shaft play, which is a bummer. I grabbed a rebuild kit off of ebay, so that's pretty high up the to do list now. My plan is to get the TPS installation done, and make sure that was the real culprit for the weird idle conditions, then I will likely do the following items as part of a major service:

 

Engine Bay Fuel Filter + Washers

TB Rebuild

Intake Manifold Gasket

Injector Cleaning / Testing (I think I got lucky, these look to be in decent shape)

Turbocharger Rebuild

New plugs

Exhaust Manifold Gasket

Relieve Exhaust Manifold Stresses

 

Basically go through everything that's not the block or head, I think the warm weather should keep me motivated to get it all done quicker rather than later, only a couple more parts to order.

 

Would it be prudent to install a steering coupler at this point? What else would be blocking my access to the box if the intake and fuel filter is off the car?

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Drove the car around the block last night, it doesn't run very well, the turbo totally needs to be rebuilt, and the clutch is suspect. Oh well... I bought this because I wanted something to work on. Now that I've driven it, the teardown commences!!! More pics to come as I document everything. Time to order a bunch of baggies and bins, and time to open up a notebook exclusively for this build. Anyone have any good tips / tricks for staying organized?
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Made an extended trip to the garage today.

 

Photo album here: http://imgur.com/a/uTxOt

 

High level:

 

Drained Coolant, looked OK aside from rust (more on that later).

Removed all intake piping.

Removed Turbo

Removed Exhaust Manifold (no cracks!)

Removed Throttle Body

Attempted to remove intake manifold... what a PITA, one bolt left, need a longer extension for it.

Installed short shifter. (Thanks, questsale!)

 

I made sure to take a bunch of photos so I can re-route all the vacuum lines correctly. I have a strong feeling I'm going to wind up getting one large manifold for the vacuum lines and just run everything directly off of that where I can. The lines themselves look OK, but there's just too many connectors and tee fittings and many potential failure points there. The fuel hoses and the heater hoses are going to get re-done... bunch of crap in the heater hoses and the fuel hoses just fell apart. I need a 6" extension to get the last stupid bolt on the intake manifold. Will attempt that tomorrow.

 

I'm most troubled by what the coolant passages look like. A LOT of iron in there... need to do some research on how best to fix this. I have a feeling I'm going to pull the radiator out and start flushing it with something to clean out all the passages.

 

At this point, I'm wondering if it's worth it just to pull the head and change the headgasket... thoughts?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yo.

 

Do the basics, plugs, oil change, coolant flush, EGR delete, change all other fluids, trans, diff, power steering. Replace all vacuum lines, and couplers.

 

Buy a rebuild kit for the TB, or buy mine.

 

Send your injectors out to be flow tested

http://cruzinperformance.com/

That guy does good, fast work.

 

 

Any oil in the coolant? Any coolant in the oil?

Get an oil analysis kit from here http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

Its only $20, will tell you a lot about your engine.

 

Pull the radiator out, and clean it with some CLR. When the car is running use a coolant flush/cleaner to get the rest out.

 

Replace the fuel filter, and pull the pickup tube out. Inspect the tank. Drain the stale fuel.

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I guess I owe the thread an update.

 

The head is off the car, and good thing too... this motor was a ticking timebomb. Found coolant in the oil, along with the beginnings of the turbo bearings... lovely. From the size / amount I feel it was not far from turning the heavy wear corner and dumping a bunch more in. I had this happen on my Subaru and it was a lot worse and the shortblock survived, so for now I'm going to leave the shortblock alone, the rings still hold a good seal. Anyways right now I still have some disassembly work to do on the front of the motor, and a lot of cleaning. I need to find a place to resurface the head, and generally get it checked out before rebuilding. Then I look and see that a brand new casting is available Once that's away at the shop I'll be rebuilding the turbo and the throttle body and the whole timing assembly. Also cleaning, did I mention cleaning?

 

Good link on that injector vendor Kirill, I think I'll throw him some business once I get around to that part of the project.

 

The oil analysis I might still do, just to tell me if there's any micro particles in there that weren't brass. Reading more about it, I am less and less worried about the rust in the coolant passages, it'll get cleaned out chemically at the end, which is fine. I did flush the oil cooler though, lots of crap in there. Fuel filter is definitely going to get gone through, I am going to drop the tank later on in the project. I am also now planning on doing wheel bearings and tie rods on this car, I believe that to be the source of my remaining steering slop.

 

The scope of this project is probably now on the heavier side of what I would have wanted to do all in one year, but summer season is motivating me to just suck it up and get it all done now.

 

Aside from the radio, I have nothing that needs immediate attention on the interior or the body, so that is my saving grace and ultimately the reason I bought the car. I am however still planning some exterior mods on the car, pulled the front bumper / bumper support off in one, completely unrusted piece on Saturday. :)

 

More to come soon.

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How did you find coolant in the oil? Did you drain it before pulling the head?

Turbo bearings are usually brass, and do not separate into strips like rod/crank bearings do.

 

Did you ever do a compression test before pulling the head?

How did you test the piston rings?

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After Ironically, but I was suspect on the dipstick pull.

 

Yeah it's journal bearings, I had that s*** 100x worse in my subaru pan lol.

 

Didn't do a compression test, with all the work I'm going to do now those numbers are mostly irrelevant.

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  • 2 weeks later...
D-VO, depending on when you finish your car you should go to the All-Mitsu Cookout in Minneapolis in August. Its a ton of fun, I'll be there and so will several other owners. Take a look in the Meet planner section of the forums for more info or feel free to hit me up.
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speedyquest,

 

I will look into that, I don't know if my work schedule will permit the trip, we'll see!

 

Short update: I'm pulling the shortblock out of the car, I will likely do rings and bearings while it's out and replace the clutch / clutch line / slave cylinder. Most of the reason to pull it was to rebuild it on the stand, leaning over the fenders has been hell on my back. I sent my head parts to Dad yesterday for him to build up a new casting for me, and I'm going to replace all of the timing components because "might as well". This will be a fully sorted motor after I'm done with it, it should last for a long time. Once the engine is done (or at least further along in the process, I'll get to some of the more fun things like rebuilding the turbo, freshening up the front end etc... Some stuff I am already pushing out until next summer.

 

More pics when the goods arrive!

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  • 3 months later...
So, the scope has crept a bit more on this project, and it will now be turning into an engine swap thread, I had to take a good hard look at what I would be able to get out of the car with a G54B in it, and all the work that would go into making it reliable, and decided it just wasn't going to be worth the hassle considering the expense. I'm going to go 1JZ like so many others here have. I'll be parting out quite a bit of the underhood stuff here in the near future.
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  • 2 weeks later...

So, the scope has crept a bit more on this project, and it will now be turning into an engine swap thread, I had to take a good hard look at what I would be able to get out of the car with a G54B in it, and all the work that would go into making it reliable, and decided it just wasn't going to be worth the hassle considering the expense. I'm going to go 1JZ like so many others here have. I'll be parting out quite a bit of the underhood stuff here in the near future.

 

This is what I bought from this seller

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toyota-1JZGTE-JDM-1JZ-GTE-VVTi-Front-Sump-Engine-Motor-Auto-Trans-Wire-ECU-VVT-i-/321877496685

 

Ask for the MAF to be included.

Talk to me before placing the order. The delivery company they use, Roadrunner, are s*** who hire convicts that break your s*** enroute.

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I'd just as soon broker my own freight for something like that, or drive down there and pick one out and put it in the wagon.

 

Work has been super crazy lately so I haven't had much time to go through and list parts for sale yet. Highlights include:

 

Brand new built NJV head from DAD, never removed from the box. Will sell as complete package with a Brand new head gasket (the good one) and the valve cover.

Complete intake setup with 86 injectors, + boostinmini Mazda TPS kit, I will include a brand new intake manifold gasket and TB rebuild kit with this.

Exhaust Manifold + Turbo + 2.5" Downpipe Combination. Will include brand new exhaust manifold gaskets, turbo gaskets, and turbo rebuild kit. No cracks, turbo is serviceable, but could stand a rebuild.

3" Downpipe

Complete brand new timing kit + balance shaft kit

Complete brand new gasket set.

Crank, polished, 030 rods 010 mains. I think if you buy this I'll throw in the rest of the shortblock components for free.

Transmission

86 MAF + hard intake pipe

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