89 Silver Conquest TSi

[HeroJr]

I am now the owner of intense98rt's Quest that was for sale on here. I bought it a few weeks ago, but have had some traveling that has kept me from starting the restoration thread. First, I can describe the car using some of his writeup and then talk about my plans for it.

 

The odometer reads 170,3xx.

 

intense98rt recently built the motor. It has less than 2000 miles on it. He used redline break-in additive and Lucas assembly lube. He cleaned the complete oil system prior to assembly. He installed a new oil pump. The oil pressure is extremely strong.

 

intense had all the machine work done. The crank was polished, the cylinders were bored and honed, surfaced, and the rotating assembly balanced. All clearances and measurements were double checked and recorded.

 

Mods to the motor include: reconditioned race prepped rods, Wiseco pistons, calico coated clevite bearings, arp rod bolts/ headstuds, new non-jet-valve head "race" ported and polished, hd springs, os valves, 294-h cam, 1.6 roller rockers, ported/gasket-matched intake manifold and a stressed relieved and ported exhaust manifold.

 

The car has a 19c hybrid turbo set to 21psi, a gm 3"maf w/ maf-translator, a MSD street fire 6al ignition controller and OVC hardpipe with bov. The car has an aem uego wideband AFR meter and a 2.5" turbo back exhaust. There is an Autometer boost gauge, oil pressure gauge and coolant temperature gauge.

 

The vacuum lines were replaced and intense installed new bur7ea-11 plugs.

 

The car has a Stage 4 Competition Clutch and lightened flywheel.

 

Intense put mk1 sway bars on the car. In the sale, he included mk1 front and rear struts and mk1 front and rear camber plates.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7039/6974517319_2b3f26f55b_b.jpg

[HeroJr]

Here are a few other pictures i took today. This was the first chance I've had to wash it.

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7188/6828394496_c06e4016fb_b.jpg

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7198/6974517799_b07ae8edb1_b.jpg

[HeroJr]

The interior is not necessarily the first area I will address, but it is one of the most noticeable issues about the car. Lots of the leather is torn at the seams and the sun really did a number on the interior in the hatch area. It does still have the privacy cover although someone along the way hacked into it to put in some 6x9 speakers.

 

I found out by luck that my Mom has an industrial sewing machine that she will loan to me. I am going to try to recover various bits of the interior myself. My mother-in-law also is a very experienced seamstress/fiber/fabric person, so between the two Moms I should be able to get it sorted.

 

In the interim, I will probably buy tehzack's seats out of his 87 partout.

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7193/6974517485_6ae778476d_b.jpg

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7200/6828395384_0c38259104_b.jpg

Edited March 12, 2012 by HeroJr

[HeroJr]

The second most obvious issue with the car is the driver's side front has some panel gap issues. I checked the car on Autocheck and there are no listed incidents. But looking at the radiator support and the poor fitment of the driver's fender, you can see that it bopped into something. Hopefully at fairly low speed. I have a parts car that I may take the fender off of, but until I take the fender off this one, I am not sure what needs to be addressed.

 

The front header panel and the little black grill are also wobbly. If you look closely at the first pic, you can see that the lines aren't right around the driver's side headlight. When I borrow the industrial sewing machine from Mom, I wonder if I should also get some panel hammers and learn all the arcane arts?

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7054/6974518129_316436fe4f_b.jpg

Edited March 12, 2012 by HeroJr

[HeroJr]

Today I went to see my neighbor, tehzack, about his car he is parting out. I am interested in the front seats to hold me over until I can reupholster the ones I have. He was nice enough to pop open the MAF translator with me and tinker a bit to smooth out the idle and richen up the cruising AFR. It was good just to see somebody do it (I am a visual learner).

 

So, lastly, is my list of things to address. I hope to get many things done this Spring and Summer. We'll see.

 

Go through Newbie checklist and be sure that things are working well.

Continue tinkering with MAF translator settings, as well as check TPS/ISC.

Install struts.

Inspect steering linkage, possibly replace/rebuild all steering components.

Plan for transmission somehow (it is likely the original trans, now with 170,xxx miles).

Reupholster front seats.

Reupholster other interior trim in back.

Restore/repaint plastic interior trim.

Buy other maroon interior trim (definitely want to keep the maroon to contrast with the silver).

Fix front bodywork (or at least improve it).

Strip paint off wheels and polish.

Clean contacts for driver's side window button.

Replace rear windshield wiper arm.

Replace front windshield wipers.

Look for shorts in radio wiring (aftermarket radio turns off intermittently).

Make red "Conquest" and "TSi" graphics (I'm a graphic designer by trade).

[boston]

nice toy

[taeisallin]

looks like a great buy!! good luck!

 

tae

[techboy]

Silver is my favorite color on these things and I'd do a lot to have a nice one, just hasn't worked out for me yet. Looks like a great start. Interiors pieces are relatively easy to come by, it's the motor work that's done that's the bonus here.

 

EDIT: Unless you're really bent on doing the graphics yourself, since that's what you do, Burton sells reproduction graphics for our cars at reasonable prices.

Edited March 12, 2012 by techboy

[HeroJr]

Thanks for the comments! techboy - yeah, since it's what I do, I want to try and make some graphics. I was gonna use some different typefaces, maybe some different notations (e.g. 2.6 liter, etc.). Generally make them custom to the car. I also teach design at the university here and I have a former student who worked for a local vinyl company doing race car graphics, so he will help me with the project.

[Frenchi934]

nice man. looks like you got a real solid car to start with

[HeroJr]

Well, I don't have any pics of what I did today, but I don't know that anyone would need them.

 

When I got the car it was idling somewhat high (probably around 1100 or 1150 rpm) and would occasionally cycle/surge at idle, as well.

 

tehzack showed me how to fiddle with the MAF translator last week and I downloaded the manual for it and read it over also. I also looked at the TPS/ISC reset instructions for 87-89.

 

Today, I set up new settings for the MAF-T first and then went through the TPS/ISC reset instructions. It took me awhile as it was my first time doing it.

 

In the end, I got the idle down lower and also seem to have better AFR numbers than what I had before. I now have a pretty steady 12.0-12.5 AFR at idle with a 13.8-15.5 at MID. I didn't test WOT as I wasn't finished with resetting everything. One thing I did do was to reset the ECU consistently after resetting the MAF-T settings.

 

I do have some unresolved stuff and will ask some questions in Virtual Mechanic and just keep fiddling with things to see if I can make it smoother. The MID AFR numbers still swing some, although less than before (previously my MID numbers were more like 13.8-16.9 with spikes below and above those number).

 

The biggest issue is now the idle is lower, but when I put in the clutch because I am coming to a stop, the idle wants to dive down and almost stall out the car. Sometimes it will surge around at 300-500 rpm before finally kicking back up to 950 rpm and settling down. I have other things on the car to check over but I am going to see what people think in Virtual Mechanic...

Edited March 18, 2012 by HeroJr

[pc85]

Nice solid start. I think those red/maroon interiors are too red/maroon. What about a two tone interior like some newer generation rides:

2013 MB 500 SL

http://i849.photobucket.com/albums/ab51/pc85dr/IMG_1084.jpg

2013 Dart

http://i849.photobucket.com/albums/ab51/pc85dr/IMG_1069-1.jpg

I think it would look awesome with black seats and door panels to break things up a bit. Just an idea, food for thought and welcome to the club. Looking forward to what ever you do.

[HeroJr]

pc85, I could probably do the black and maroon mix as I have black interior bits from my other 2 Conquests. It is interesting to see factory cars return to multi-colored interiors. I got started working on 60s era Mustangs with my Dad (in the late 80s, early 90s) and they had all kinds of different interior combos... I do think modern cars would be more interesting with a bit more expanded color options.

[techboy]

I swapped some black into my maroon interior to break things up a while back. I did a dash, upper door cards, rear upper bolsters, fabric painted upper part of rear seats, center console and stereo surround, and added black floor mats later. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it.

 

Here's the link: http://www.starquest...l=&fromsearch=1

Edited March 20, 2012 by techboy

[TexasQuest]

Wow that looks good techboy. Never thought of mixing the two together.....

[techboy]

I basically just copied what Mitsu did with the tan interior cars, I just applied it to the maroon.

[HeroJr]

techboy - Sorry I didn't see this before! Thanks for the link to what you did, it looks good. I imagine you've seen some of the Japanese brochures for the Starion - the earlier Starions frequently had two-tone interiors, and I'm pretty sure I've seen a black and maroon interior.

 

As far as updates go, I've not had lots of time with the car because of work and fatherhood, but I've chipped away at little things and will have a little "car-cation" soon where I can put some dedicated time on the car.

 

I was able to assemble a new rear windshield wiper from various sources. I was very happy as it made the back of the car look less junky, but when I flipped the switch, the wiper didn't move!

 

I put some dedicated time in the driver's seat recently to nail down a strange driveability issue I've had. Basically the car seems to balk a bit when it's warmed all the way up and I am giving it part throttle between 2500-3000 rpms. From what I've read on here that's common to GM MAFs and MAF translators, so I will be ordering a new MAF housing that is supposed to help.

 

I've been softening up the leather on the seats and have been gifted an industrial sewing machine, so this Fall I hope to spend my evenings redoing the seats and some other worn bits from the interior.

[pc85]

I swapped some black into my maroon interior to break things up a while back. I did a dash, upper door cards, rear upper bolsters, fabric painted upper part of rear seats, center console and stereo surround, and added black floor mats later. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it.

 

Here's the link: http://www.starquest...l=&fromsearch=1

This is exactly what I'm talking about ! Looks awesome techboy, finally a maroon interior that I like.

[HeroJr]

So, I ordered the MAF housing described in this thread http://www.starquest...howtopic=120918 I was definitely experiencing some driveability issues at part throttle and am focusing on getting everything running smoothly before making many upgrades. Really, the car has as much power as I need already so I am just trying to sort out the details. This MAF housing is supposed to reduce the heat around the MAF sensor itself, which is supposed to help its readings and therefore smooth out your throttle response.

 

So, I took of my MAF sensor and took it apart to prep for the new MAF housing. It turns out my MAF sensor was pretty dirty. Thankfully I had some electronics spray cleaner on hand was able to get it almost completely clean.

 

However, when I went to assemble everything I ran into some issues.

 

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/MAF_keys_smaller_zpsfef26bdd.jpg

 

On the air cleaner side, the MAF housing has a key, which I've circled which helps you to assemble everything correctly (pictured above).

 

When I went to put it together, it turned out that my MAF housing hadn't been cut in quite the same way... So I had to drill and cut away some of the plastic to assemble it (pictured below).

 

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/MAF_housing_keys_smaller_zpsb43d8c77.jpg

 

In the picture you can see how it was cut originally, and what I had to take away. Otherwise the thing fit together correctly, so I can only presume that there are some minor variations in GM housings.

 

However, I didn't get to install it because the new housing bumped up the total intake size to 3.5" from the previous housings 3.25" size. I tried mightily to get the silicone coupler on there, but it was no-go. Once I reassembled the MAF with the original housing, I also realized that the way my system was plumbed, the K&N filter is also set up as a 3.25" as well, so I will likely have to get a new filter. This is not so bad, as my old one is too big for the fender well and has gotten a bit beat up from being squished down in there.

 

So, I need to order a 3.5" to 2.5" reducer, as well as a 3.5" K&N. I will try to get pics of how the car is set up soon, but at the moment it looks like a storm system is moving in.

 

I took the car out for a test drive with the old MAF housing, but a cleaned up MAF and it did seem to drive a tiny bit better.

Edited March 6, 2013 by HeroJr

[HeroJr]

I had been getting a noise from my motor lately that made me think I was driving a tractor, so I started to trying to figure out where it was coming from. ESI-RType? encouraged me to just go ahead and pull the valve cover and take a peek. I was fearing carnage, but thankfully, things generally looked okay.

 

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/RockerArmCoverOff_edit_zps3a9323b4.jpg

 

I didn't see any wear on any parts and nothing looked like it had come undone or was way out of place. I put the valve cover back on, lightly tightened the bolts, and started the car up. Sure enough my tapping noise did a really fast accelerating crescendo and then went away altogether. I was really happy that the noise stopped and then realized that oil was coming out from under the valve cover in a few places! I tightened the cover some more and started the car again and the noise remained gone. I was still getting a tiny bit of oil out from under the cover and shut the car off. I want to put things together as correctly as I can, so I started in on taking up the old silicone to prep for a new silicone gasket support.

 

So, my theory is that I might have had a stuck lifter causing the noise. When I put the valve cover on a bit too loose, I caused an oil pressure drop that freed the lifter. I partly think this because I have noticed that the oil level is a bit too high in the car (it's above the full mark in the dipstick). I am going to change the oil later in the week to get a better level.

 

I took some other pics of things I noticed with the valve cover off. I am going to post one to see what other people think.

 

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/CamGear_Front_smaller_zpsf7f204ac.jpg

 

I noticed that the cam gear (? is that what you call the gear that meshes with the distributor gear?) has some wear on the back side. The previous owner told me that the car had a Jasper reman motor that blew up not long after he got the car. I am thinking that perhaps the timing chain came off and did a little damage. I am partly wondering if this gear is something that would need to be addressed in the future.

Edited March 6, 2013 by HeroJr

[HeroJr]

Yesterday, I got a huge helping hand from ESIR-Type? and was able to put the Mookeeh front and rear struts on, as well as the front and rear Mookeeh camber plates. Really, I should say that ESIR-Type? did the work and I tried to keep up and help him. I was constantly working on parts of the job, but his experience and ability to fabricate/problem solve on the fly really made the difference.

 

I haven't taken it to get aligned yet, but the ride quality was improved. My front struts were completely shot, while the rears had been replaced at some point.

 

I am not sure when I will get it aligned because we didn't realize that the Mookeeh camber plates were going to raise the car up so high. I've definitely got a bit of a 4x4 look going! Actually it reminds me of the AMC 4 wheel drive hatchbacks from the 80s. So, I guess I will look into what springs might get me back to a stock look.

[HeroJr]

Still plugging away and I think I have figured some things out...

 

I've been irritated by the fact that the car is pretty rough when you are at part throttle, so I started digging more into the electronics of the fuel system, thinking that I could straighten it out.

 

First I made a fancier TPS checker, based on a picture I saw on one of the other SQ boards.

 

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/TPS_tester.jpg

This might not be the best picture of it, but I found the two electrical connectors on a Mazda B2200 (connected to its TPS in fact) at the local PullAPart. I soldered them facing opposite ways and spliced in (also with soldering) some alligator clips. This way I can just put in regular test probes from both my analog and digital voltmeters and really see what the TPS is doing.

 

So, oddly enough, both of my TPSs (the one that came on this 89 and one from my smooth running 88) passed both the voltage and sweep tests! I might get a new analog voltmeter, though, because it would sometimes not turn on when I clicked its selector over. But once it came on, both TPSs sweeped smoothly. I've never had a problem accelerating in this car, so that makes sense.

 

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/ECU_check_codes.jpg

Next, I ended up making a cheap Radio Shack ECU checker to see what codes I had. BC99 had suggested that I look at the oxygen sensor to see if that might be causing a bad part throttle condition. I swapped the oxygen sensor with one from my 88 and it came up as a solid red light after the car warmed up. So the oxygen sensor is checking in fine.

 

So, next I wanted to see what would happen if I put a stock MAF on the car. Pictured below is my current setup, which is a pull-through GM 3" MAF, with a K&N cone filter hanging off of it, routed to the turbo via hard pipes.

 

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/GM_MAF_air_intake.jpg

 

I had a spare MAF that came with the car, but the previous owner, or someone even before him, tried to make it just a MAF hanging off a K&N chrome lid. I guess they had the air filter around that hanging in the open air off a hard pipe. I was able to get the air can from a parts car and then decided for testing purposes to transplant the MAF from my 88 since I know it works.

 

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/MAF_apart.jpg

 

I try to always clean up stuff when I take it off or transplant it. So, here I was cleaning up the silencer that sits at the end of the MAF before the accordion hose. It was pretty gunky.

 

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/Stock_MAF_on.jpg

 

So, here it is with a stock MAF installed.

 

When I started the car, though, it was NOT happy. My A/F meter consistently read at 15s and even idled up to 16 or 17 a few brief times. I tried to let it settle down, but after about 30 seconds, I turned the car off. I think the 294-h cam, combined with the roller rockers, means the car needs way more fuel than it can get with a stock MAF trying to make it 14.7. I know the MAF doesn't set the A/F ratio, but to put it on, I had to disconnect the MAF-translator, which does generally give the car an A/F idle of around 12.5. I could be wrong about this, and will ask in Advanced Virtual Mechanic when I get back around to it.

 

So, I put the GM MAF and translator back on and it idled much smoother. I found a link, also on another SQ board (http://*DMperformance.com/showthread.php?4177-A-little-help-please-if-you-don-t-mind-Maf-t), that gave a few more details about tuning with the MAF-T that I hadn't used before. In particular, someone suggests tuning with the 02 sensor off. Also, I didn't know that it was best to set the MID selection by checking the A/F at 3000 rpm in 3rd gear.

 

I set out to do that and was making pretty good progress and starting to think I might smooth the thing out, when my valvetrain ticking came back! The valvetrain ticking also corresponded with the car running rougher and so I took it back home (thankfully I was only about 2 miles from the house).

 

Now my next step it seems is to take out the lash adjusters and clean and reprime them. I am starting to wonder if sticky adjusters have been giving me the partial lean results at part throttle. Even if they are not the culprit, I want to fix them next.

 

Lastly, I took the Mookeeh camber plates off. The car looked silly riding up so high. Right now it's at stock ride height. Probably next spring I will do coilovers.

[HeroJr]

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/AtCampC_edit_zps274e157d.jpg

 

So, here we are at last weekend's Cars & Coffee here in Charlotte. I met up with ESI-RType? as usual. I guess I got there late, as there were not that many cars left at 10:30. I figured since it would be fairly cold in the morning, people would go later, but I was wrong! In January, I'll go at 8:30 or something.

 

Anyway, with ESI-RType?'s help, it's back on the road. Now, I'm running the stock cam, mechanical rocker arms and the stock MAF. I could probably test out the GM MAF again, but I like how the car drives with the stock MAF, so I feel fine sticking with that for now. With this new setup the car drives SO much better - I think the old setup might have been hanging valves open, too, without my knowing it.

 

I had a bad electrical gremlin right after we fixed the rocker/cam combo, but I think I've solved that. A previous owner had wired in a MSD ignition and left one of the wires that lead from that into the stock harness kinda bare. That bare wire was able to make contact with the air conditioning compressor, so that might have been what was causing my problem - the car would go totally dead while driving! I cleaned that up with some heat shrink tubing. I also found that there was a new negative battery cable that was just added on top of the body ground screw that sits right by the battery. The old negative battery ground cable was just hanging out underneath the battery tray. I don't know how bad that would be if it was flopping around and occasionally hitting body metal, so I wrapped it up completely with electrical tape so it can't make any contact. Later, when I have a bit more time, I will figure out how to take that wire off completely, or just rewire the battery ground setup.

 

Next I need to clean more electrical grounds and check out the situation with my turn signals. When I cleaned up the negative battery ground area thoroughly it caused my headlights to come on much more quickly and smoothly, so perhaps my turn signals need the same thing. The left turn signal blinks slowly and draws LOTS of current off the battery, while the right turn signal just blinks on and stops at "on."

 

Then it's on to new front engine seals, caliper rebuilds, power steering pump rebuild, clutch adjustment (or swap), new suspension bushings, coilovers, etc. etc. etc.!

 

I'll try to take some more pics as I work in the future, too!

Edited March 6, 2013 by HeroJr

[HeroJr]

Time for a short update -

 

I discovered that my electrical gremlin was the very most SQ electrical gremlin you can have - fusible links. I had neglected to really dig into those because the previous owner had put new ones on, but that turned out to be my problem. The fusible link itself for the ignition was fine, but the contacts inside the box were a bit corroded. I fashioned a little sanding tool out of a ground down plastic fork and glued on sandpaper and that let me sand down in the fusible link box to clean the contacts up. I was able to pull the wires out on the front side of the fusible link box, but the double connectors on the back were a pain in the butt. If anyone has any tips for how to pull the double connectors out of the back of the box, I'd be glad to hear it.

 

I replaced some of my bulbs and my turn signals were much happier, too.

 

Now that it doesn't turn off randomly I have been able to drive it around more. The car drives so much better now with all of the changes and adjustments we've made (with lots and lots of help from ESI-RType?).

 

Still more to go though!

 

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/ghostdog11/89%20Conquest/AtWork_022713_edit_zps2a0c15e5.jpg

[importwarrior]

looking good. i took out the relay box between the battery and the fender.

the one that has only 3 green fusible links and relays. I took all the wires

out one by one and took the green off of them and die electrical greese

them up. man what a differnce.

keep at it.