| Author |
Project Log: Neon SS |
95ss
Moderator
Posts: 595
Location: Boonies
Joined: March 21,2006 |
| Posted on October 12 2008 10:54 |
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OK so heres a log of my Labor Day weekend.
Friday: was off of work, and since no one else was..... i waited around all day for help, i wasnt about to tackle a project like this by myself. so anyway, once the evening came justin got off work and headed my way, at the same time kevin got off and since i needed him to get the engine hoist for me, he was important. So justin got there, we got the hoist, kevin went home and we got to work.
I had already started tearing down the 2.4 so itd be almost ready to go. Once we got back we moved the car into the garage and finished teardown and managed to pull the first motor in about 3 hours. Great day. 1/4 of the way done
Oh yes, that is an exhaust clamp and yes we did hoist the motor with it.
Saturday: More help was anticipated since Shane was coming to help in the morning(he didnt get home till 5am). and Kevin ended up not having to work. So everything should have kicked off at 12. Not so much. Shane wasnt up and Kevin was waiting for Mark so he could fix his brakes. This is where things start going downhill. I go to Kevins and chill, was all about helping with the brakes to get Kevin done faster. No sooner do we get the car up on jack stands, i get mercilessly swarmed by red wasps. 2 stung me, one on the ear (the freakin ear!!!!) and one on the back. For those who dont know, i am not a fan of wasps, have had too many encounters and stings. And this has now happened BEFORE we started work on Saturday. So Shane finally comes along, its almost 1 now. Brakes are done, we head to the house, my ear is throbbing.
Kevin was gonna be right behind us, he ended up taking a nap for 2 hours, but thats ok.
Shane and I got the other car moved and almost totally torn down in that same amount of time. Kevin shows up just in time to hoist the engine. we get that done and hit the first snag. Needed to swap the shifter cables between the cars. Its been a couple years since ive removed these and dont really remember the exact way to do it. Long story short, there was a screw that was holding them in that was in a bad place, took a while for both cars. and thats where we stopped because all of my help had to leave.
STILL WORKS
the 2.0
the 2.4
Had to push the 2nd car back out of the garage so my mom could park(which she didnt anyway). While moving the car the loose axles got caught and broke of part of one. So in 4 hours we got just about as far as the previous day. 1/2 way done
Sunday: We really should just write this day off as a huge waste of time. I went to bed late cuz i was playing halo with Joe till past 3. Justin was gonna be ready at 11, he called at 10:15 woke me up, good thing. My ear and back are still throbbing btw. So we head out, everything looks like itll be good, just dropping in the new motor (2nd one we pulled for those keeping track) and hooking everything back up. Remember those shifter cables? Getting them back in was almost as big a hassle as removing them. We get back and drop the motor in, which went surprisingly fast and easy, or so we thought.
The next thing on the list was bolting up the troublesome exhaust. I knew thered be issuses, just didnt anticipate the header collector getting dented somewhere along the line. So after about 30 minutes of wrestling with the exhaust, and then doing to metal work to get out the dent we tried again.....for an hour. After all that time we got nowhere, we couldnt bolt up the exhaust and did nothing else. So we gave up and start on the next part, the intake, easy.
I really should have started thinking things at this point should be hard, previously everything i thought would be hard was easy, now it was the opposite. dear god
The intake gives us problems so we stop and started moving stuff around to fit and we decide to bolt up the heater lines. Justin takes out the little bolt from the head and drops it straight into the transmission.
I would like to point out that not minutes before, we were looking for the dust cover for the tranny and couldnt find it. (found it on monday fyi)
So now we spend the next hour and a half trying to find or remove the little bolt. we give up and say screw it if something breaks later ill live with it. We bolt up the intake, the struts, the exhaust, most of the wiring, and get the axles popped in. all in about 20 minutes. we lost almost 3 hours to stupid stuff.
only afew things left to do: 1 switch gas tanks and lines, the car had been sitting for almost 2 years without running and fuel had been the main reason the engine wasnt running. 2 finish the wiring harness, had to cut one wire to get it loose from the other car. and 3 swap the power steering system.
we got the gas tank out.
It was horrible.
not a single thing went right with that. And thats where we stopped. Left everything where it was and locked up and went home, tired and angry.
Oh yeah, the ear still hurts and is very very swollen.
5/8 done, cant even call it 3/4 didnt make enough real progress, and the best part is...........i wont have any help tomorrow.
Monday: Labor day: (and it really really was) After everything else this weekend i still had to do 3 loads of laundry so i would have clothes and towels. So i get to my parents and my mom is doing laundry already, SCORE!!! I ask her if she can throw mine in too while i work and she says yes, (she never does my laundry anymore, she refuses to.) So anyway, my ear still hurts and is still swollen so she takes a look at it, turns out the damn wasp stung me 4 times. No wonder it hurt so bad. So i take a Zyrtek, figured itd help. Yeah it just put me to sleep. So its 11:00 and im crashed on the chair instead of working on my car. I wake up since my dad is being loud, and finally get to work around 1:00.
Started by finishing up the wiring, plugging in everything and re-soldering the ignition wire (the one i had to cut earlier). That was the easy part of the day. The only other thing on the agenda was putting the gas tank back in. Couldnt be that hard right?
So i figured the old gas was probably bad, after sitting for 2 years so went and dumped out most of it. Had to recruit my dad since no one else was available. Remember that, my 75 year old father had to help me guys.
If youve never put in a gas tank, know this: it should not be done on the ground, use a lift and get a couple guys to help or a tranny jack or something.
I dont remember it being this hard before (thats what she said), it took us about and hour and half, maybe two to get it in. Dont think ive ever been that tired or frustrated, oh wait, maybe when that bolt fell in the tranny. Anyway. after an enormous amount of effort by me and my dad we finally got it in there.
That being done i changed out the battery, its been sitting forever. So for kicks and giggles i decide to start it. After a little cranking, no gas in the lines, duh, it started. Ran a little rough but it settled. Tried it again it was better. Didnt sound right though. Called it a day right there. No it still isnt finished but damn if it isnt almost there.
A couple hours later i was talking to kevin when i realized why it was running so bad.....it had no oil in it, at all, not even a filter on it. Thank god i stopped when i did. I dont know yet if it hurt anything i havent been back yet because of work, but tomorrow its on.
IT DOESNT HAVE TO MAKE SENSE. IT JUST HAS TO BE LOUD.
Edited by 95ss on August 30 2009 20:32 |
  
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| Author |
RE: Update on engine swap |
95ss
Moderator
Posts: 595
Location: Boonies
Joined: March 21,2006 |
| Posted on October 12 2008 11:25 |
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OK its been afew weeks obviously since i did that and i never updated it.
I got everything bolted back up, except the power steering, figured i didnt really need it, and didnt want to make that big of a mess changing it. i put the radiator back in hooked all that back up, its good. also as a point of slightly reinventing the car i pulled off every neon light, under the car, hood, and interior.
Also last week i was just running the motor and reving it and i saw a fuse blow and the engine died immediately. Since i misplaced the fuse box cover i snagged the one off the plymouth along with a fuse.
Anyone wanna guess what fuse it was? Knowing the history of the car and what stopped progess on it in the first place?
Oh yes, it was the fuel pump fuse. Somewhere down the line the standard 20a fuse had been replaced with a 10a. Would have to imagine that maybe that would be a reason why the pump wasnt working at its best or not at all. Changed the fuse and viola it runs like a champ.
still havent driven the car or even taken it off the jackstands cuz i just got lazy and finally started working again, was off for a couple weeks and had no money.
needs just a few things, replace the broken turn signal housing, put the interior back together, bolt the fuel line all the way up and air up the tires. oh and inspection registration and insurance. |
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RE: Newish project |
95ss
Moderator
Posts: 595
Location: Boonies
Joined: March 21,2006 |
| Posted on October 29 2008 21:00 |
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ok so a couple new updates. last week i went to work on the car, finally aired up the tires after wrestling with my dads air nozzle which didnt like the shortie stems on my tires. then i tried to start it and nothing happened. well it cranked but never turned over. Was a little pissed. So immediately went over everything again with the fuel system. couldnt find anything. played with the relay and fuses, even wiring the pump up bypassing the relay and got it to work. but it wouldnt start.
Gave up and went home. Did all the same stuff again on sunday but once again came up empty handed. called matt he didnt know either.
So today i decided come hell or high water the car would start. went over everything again, only this time i took off the fuel filter and tried running the pump to see if there were any blockages. Nothing came out. maybe a little dribble. Not good. That meant only one thing. Gotta replace the pump.
Hell or high water....so out came the tank..........again. this time my help was a lot younger and helpful and the tank wasnt nearly full. Thanks to Matt, who had given me a pump a while back everything went very quickly and easliy. All in all it only took about and hour. Oh and the gas that had been in there for so long was not a pretty color. kinda like when youve had to pee all day and you finally go.
so after a couple years of hard labor and stupidness. The car runs again.
IT DOESNT HAVE TO MAKE SENSE. IT JUST HAS TO BE LOUD.
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RE: Newish project |
neon915
Member
Posts: 1045
Location: Missouri City, Texas
Joined: March 20,2006 |
| Posted on October 30 2008 22:37 |
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now drive the thing lol
www.undergroundgrfx.com |
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RE: Newish project |
95ss
Moderator
Posts: 595
Location: Boonies
Joined: March 21,2006 |
| Posted on November 03 2008 17:47 |
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Ok heres pics from saturday. started it up and actually got it out of the garage and into the light of day for the first time in a very long time.
HERES EVERYTHING BACK TOGETHER MINUS THE HOOD
FINALLY ON ITS OWN 4 WHEELS AGAIN. AND WITH THE DIFFERENT STRUTS AND SPRINGS IT SITS HIGHER.
I ALMOST COULDNT LOOK AT IT IN THE SUN, FORGOT HOW BRIGHT WHITE IT WAS
I HATED THE OTHER VALVE COVER IT JUST GOT RUSTY AND UGLY, FORGOT THAT I HAD THIS STOCK ONE LAYING AROUND
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| Author |
RE: Newish project |
95ss
Moderator
Posts: 595
Location: Boonies
Joined: March 21,2006 |
| Posted on November 08 2008 20:43 |
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tiny update. Got the hood on, but of course not without problems. replaced the turn signal housing. and even put the hood prop back on. Also bought some new toys to be put on next week.
YEAH THATS TAPE HOLDING THE CORNER ON, IT KINDA GOT CAUGHT WHEN I WAS SETTING THE HOOD DOWN BEFORE I GOT BOTH HINGES ON. ILL HAVE THE BODY SHOP FIX IT WHEN I GET THE HOOD PAINTED TO MATCH.
Heres the new bits. some slotted rotors and braided brake lines courtesy of modern.
and an EGR blockoff kit. since my previous one went with my original engine to matt.
if you remember i bought the new stuff for the brakes. well i put it all on last weekend.
old stock crap. also had to replace the bleeder screw on this caliper. Its been years since i messed with it and forgot it was rounded off.
comparison. so much prettier
driver side done
and the other
and the rear lines as well.
as with everything i do, there were a couple complications. one was the bleeder, the other was the new lines. or rather just the passenger front. I FINALLY was taking the car out for a spin, got to the end of the driveway and lost all brake pedal. Got stopped and looked, nice little puddle under the passenger side front.
backed up the driveway and checked it out. was leaking at the line connection. tightened it, bled the brakes again and got back on the road.
At first everything felt kinda weird, havent driven the car in years and not with that motor in it. It had so little weight in the front now and without power steering it felt so strange taking corners. but after afew "brake in" stops the brakes were working really well. i was just driving round the neighborhood though since its not really street legal at this time.
Edited by 95ss on August 30 2009 20:59 |
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| Author |
RE: Project Log: Neon SS |
95ss
Moderator
Posts: 595
Location: Boonies
Joined: March 21,2006 |
| Posted on August 30 2009 20:34 |
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OK so heres the new
oh yes, srt seats. been waiting to get these for years now
damn they look good in there
put the interior all back together, minus the stereo, just so i could see it "done".
next on the list is srt exhaust, then sometime way later ill redo the interior. speaking of which, anyone need some stock seats? hey matt, the front seats are actually from the neon i just traded you.
IT DOESNT HAVE TO MAKE SENSE. IT JUST HAS TO BE LOUD.
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| Author |
RE: Project Log: Neon SS |
95ss
Moderator
Posts: 595
Location: Boonies
Joined: March 21,2006 |
| Posted on August 30 2009 20:47 |
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New update, had this idea in my head for a while for a custom shifter, something more old school styley. So i purchased this...
Its a Hurst shifter, not sure for what car in particular but it doesnt matter.
So yesterday I recruited Matt and the shop to help with the build.
Not wanting to ruin my now rare short throw shifter i snagged my old stock one, and started by cutting its head off.
Now it had to be slotted to make room for the new stick.
well this is just the first trial cut...
and heres Matt getting after it.
After a while of grinding the crap out of the shifter and cutting the bottom off the new stick heres a rough fit.
Now this was after notching and grinding alot more.
Ok so today i went to my parents house to finish and install the shifter.
Heres the short thow in place, just to show the difference.
I forgot to take pics but i had to do a lot more grinding and hammering to get it just right, it ended up being about half and inch too tall, so I knocked it down a peg.
So after all that i busted out the old welder, heres the second side.
Heres the first side, as you can see my welding skills arent up to par.
Not wanting ugly welds jutting out i took the grinder to it.
not wanting any rust to build up on the bare metal i painted it, black of course.
and here it is being installed.
with the console and boot.
DONE.
I was used to the short throw so it took afew to get used to the long throw, but with the angle and height it feels absolutely perfect, i dont even know what to compare it to. Now that I know that it works i plan on making more, any takers? Also wanna try a short throw version but dont think itll feel right.
IT DOESNT HAVE TO MAKE SENSE. IT JUST HAS TO BE LOUD.
Edited by 95ss on August 30 2009 20:55 |
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RE: Project Log: Neon SS |
Pete
Administrator
Posts: 396
Location: Conroe
Joined: March 25,2006 |
| Posted on September 10 2009 10:58 |
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I like the look of the flat-stem shifter! I've been toying with the idea of using one of the spare assemblies I have and making an ape-hanger...I think it'd be funny to have the shifter handle the same height as the A/C vents in a Neon.
http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=45427&d=1248923489
THEY laugh at me because I'm "different"...I laugh at them because they're NOT
Edited by Pete on September 10 2009 11:04 |
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| Author |
RE: Project Log: Neon SS |
95ss
Moderator
Posts: 595
Location: Boonies
Joined: March 21,2006 |
| Posted on September 11 2009 19:06 |
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i did look at some of those for the fun of it. wanna try it?
IT DOESNT HAVE TO MAKE SENSE. IT JUST HAS TO BE LOUD.
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| Author |
RE: Project Log: Neon SS |
Pete
Administrator
Posts: 396
Location: Conroe
Joined: March 25,2006 |
| Posted on September 13 2009 10:13 |
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years ago, I saw a 4x4 show truck that had the cab on a tilt to the rear. He had made his shifter handles out of 1/2 socket extensions so he could remove them to tilt the cab.
Today, I'm feeling like a "short throw" look....tomorrow, I'm going with the "Rat Fink Ape Hanger" look... you could build a different shifter for each day of the week!
THEY laugh at me because I'm "different"...I laugh at them because they're NOT |
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| Author |
RE: Project Log: Neon SS |
95ss
Moderator
Posts: 595
Location: Boonies
Joined: March 21,2006 |
| Posted on January 13 2010 14:22 |
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New project update, installing some "new" interior door handles. Not really new, theyre off of a 70-74 challenger.
heres the whole assembly, only $60 off ebay. have the passenger as well just havent done it yet.
Heres the modified door release rod, we cut it short and rebent it.
and heres my lovely assistant and his opinion of neons
heres the hole that i stuck it through and drilled to mount it.
and heres the finished product.
IT DOESNT HAVE TO MAKE SENSE. IT JUST HAS TO BE LOUD.
Edited by 95ss on January 13 2010 14:25 |
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| Author |
RE: Project Log: Neon SS |
95ss
Moderator
Posts: 595
Location: Boonies
Joined: March 21,2006 |
| Posted on January 13 2010 14:27 |
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Still need to modify the door panel to work of course but ill do that another day, with another panel. Now that we know how to do it, the other side with be easy.
IT DOESNT HAVE TO MAKE SENSE. IT JUST HAS TO BE LOUD.
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