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Since the car has been back on the road for a few days, I decided to take it over to the weekly Las Vegas Cars and Coffee show. “Cars and Coffee™ Las Vegas is a weekly Saturday morning gathering of auto enthusiasts from 8:00am – 11:00am where hundreds of proud drivers from the Las Vegas area and beyond will congregate to kick tires and have a cup of coffee.” A few people approached me and asked about the car, and the build. I was happy to start participating in events again, as it has been over a year since I’ve had a car in a show.

After Cars and Coffee, I returned home to try and troubleshoot the high idle problem I’ve been having. Basically whenever I put my foot on the clutch, the car drops its idle to 1500 RPMs and holds it until the car comes to a complete stop. There is a known problem with the TPS sensor wiring on the SRT-4 breaking over time, and causing high idle. I had some leftover wires from a repair kit I used in the past, so I decided to try and repair the sensor harness.

This also gave me an opportunity to try out my new head lamp that my Wife made fun of me for buying.

While the rewire didn’t fix the problem, it was a good idea to do it anyway. I did some more research and discovered that the harness for the IAC sensor had gone bad. I ordered the repair kit this morning.

After messing around with the sensors, I moved on to the RedLine Tuning QuickLift kit. This replaces the factory hood prop with two gas hood struts. The kit comes with very good directions, but drilling and riveting your car can always be nerve wracking.

So the original exhaust system I had on my first car looked a little bent when I tried to bolt it up to the new car. I originally didn’t want to run it like that, so I tried ordering a 3″ turn down tip for the center section of the system I already have.

I bolted it up and mocked up what I was going to use as a hanger, built from the hardware section at the Home Depot.

After spending some time under the car, I came to the conclusion that this would not work as easily as planned. The toggle bolts I bought were way too big, so I would need to drill approx 1″ holes in the frame rail of the car. I tried a couple other ideas, but ultimately I ended up bolting the side exit rear section to the car again. On second thought, it doesn’t fit too bad and it still looks pretty nice.

Drove the car to work this morning. It did pretty well on the side streets, I’ve put about 15 miles on the clock since the rebuild. I’m still getting a bit of a hanging idle, so that will need to be sorted out.

In between eating leftover turkey, I spent some more time in the garage working on the car. I installed the front strut tower bar, ran the vac lines, and tucked my boost controller up on the cowl.

A few front end shots

I also did a quick test fit of the door sill plates that I had powdercoated by Juan @ SnailMotorsports

Next, I need to extend the power wire for the starter so that I could tuck the harness the way I wanted to. I went with the most overkill butt connector, but I know that the connection will never come loose. The connector came complete with the biggest shrink tube I’ve ever seen.

Once the wire was made longer, I was able to complete the wiring and tie down the battery. The rubber tie down is only temporary until I can make something cleaner.

Then I tackled the task of building my intake. I decided to skip the $200+ aftermarket name brand intake and build one using a coupler and filter I already had, and a pipe from eBay that cost a totaly of $29 bucks.

More or less the engine bay is done now. I may change up some of the powdercoat, but that wont be for a while.

I started wrestling with the front bumper. With the AGP Race FMIC you have to trim some sections of the bumper a bit to clear the larger than stock core. I was able to get it to bolt on, but the bumper needs to eventually come back off for more trimming.

At this point, the car was roadworthy enough to take a test drive around the block. The only thing that absolutely needs to be done is the exhaust, right now it is running open downpipe. Parts of the interior need to be reinstalled as well, since I was planning on installing the stereo at this time too.

The car did great on the street. There were no major issues. I am getting a little bit of a hanging idle, which could be the tune learning the larger than stock throttle body, or the TPS sensor could need replacing. Either way, I’m not worried about it. For the first time in months, I was able to pull both cars into the garage.

So I haven’t been updating lately, mainly because I have been spending most my time buttoning up the car. I was able to successfully Helicoil that powdercoated intake manifold

I also decided to use a smaller, universal overflow tank instead of the AGP hard can. It tucked behind the windshield washer tank nicely.

The rear brakes were removed in preparation for my Rotor Pro brake rotors.

The fuel tank was finally dropped, and the factory canister removed. The fuel return line was ran and the regulator set in place under the hood.

Rear RotorPros installed

At this point we were basically ready to install the turbo. We installed the newly ceramic coated hot side and then called it a night.

Yesterday, while I worked on the fuel tank install, Gabe welded up the front intercooler mounting location. If you remember from the disassembly day, it was cracked.

I installed the walbro 255 and then reinstalled the tank. I chased a few of the bolts with a die to clean their threads. I also started securing the return line with -6AN hose clamps.

AGP Race FMIC installed.

Turbo, O2 housing, and other accessories installed.

Hardpipes, BOV, battery and CAI installed.

After that we flashed it, primed the fuel system a few times to check for leaks, and cranked the car with the coil pack disconnected to build some oil pressure. Then, we fired it up…

So far so good!! No fluid leaks, we did have some small issues with the fuel return line not being tightened enough so there were a couple drips of fuel, and the bolts for the turbine housing needed to be tightened. Otherwise, the motor sounds like its running strong.

So what’s left? Well, the side exit didn’t quite make it through the original car’s accident. It wasn’t super obvious, but the rear section of the exhaust was slightly bent, which put the oval tip too close to the rear wheel. I’m planning on buying a 3″ turn down and just dumping the exhaust in the center rear of the car. I’ll miss the look of the side exit, but this is the easiest and fastest solution. Otherwise, the car is just about done. I’ll keep updating as it gets closer to getting back on the road!

Edit: this is what I will be using on the exhaust system

Amazon.com

Hopefully I can find one local, instead of having to wait for shipping.

Bolted a few more things on the car last night.

First, I blocked the top coolant port for the now deleted oil filter cooler due to the big filter kit. I’m not sure how well this will hold, but I’m willing to give it a try.

After that, I installed the radiator fans and the intake manifold, top coolant hose, fuel injectors, and rail.

I have a nice powder coated intake manifold, but one of the bolt holes for the TB is stripped. However, I have to pull the mani back off to run the fuel return so I might helicoil the stripped hole and install the PC’d manifold afterall.

I found my old digital camera over the weekend, and got the bright idea that I’d stop using my Canon SLR in the garage and just keep this one out there for taking build photos. That way if it gets dirty/broken I wouldn’t care. That being said, get ready for some crappy quality pics

Got the Koyo radiator ready for install. Teflon taped the drain plug, if you can even see what’s in that picture.

Koyo installed.

Started installing my coolant pipes using T-bolts when I realized I dont have an 11mm deep socket to tighten them with. Started with a normal wrench, but got bored and so I moved to other parts until I can buy a socket today. Catch can installed

pwerks crash bar installed

Rage clutch pedal pivot and shifter bushings installed

I’m going to pick up the socket tonight on the way home from work and maybe do some more work tonight. I’d like to get everything on the front side of the motor done so that all that’s left is the turbo, exhaust, and fuel pump/return line.

Okay, so not the most interesting update in the world, but last night I was able to install the lower engine mount, axles, brakes/suspension, and put the wheels back on. So now, after a couple months, all four wheels are touching the floor again. I realize there are a few things that will require me to lift the car up again, but I call this progress.

Sunday I spent some more time in the garage with my friends to make progress on the SRT.

After a few attempts, we were able to install the timing belt and line up all the timing marks correctly. We spun the crank a few full rotations to ensure that nothing was off, each time all the marks lined up exactly as expected. Once we were happy with the timing, we buttoned up all the belt covers and brackets.

Next came the AGP log style exhaust manifold. I purchased new studs for the manifold, and we used new grade 10.9 bolts instead of reusing the old factory manifold bolts. It was easiest to quickly remove the alternator to get to the bottom right bolt and torque it to the factory 250 inch-lbs spec. If the motor was in the car, I wouldn’t have taken the time to do that.

At this point the engine was ready to come off the stand to install the clutch and then the transmission.

ACT Xtreme 6-puck was installed using the non-modular bolts from the 95 neon.

I used the ACT supplied high-temp grease to lube the input shaft collar, splines, and other points in the bell housing. We later decided not to lube the splines so that was wiped off.

And then the fun began…

I got in a little bit over my head and used a bolt that was too long in an attempt to bolt the transmission to the block. Since the bolt bottomed out, it pulled all the threads out of the hole in the transmission case. That ended Sunday’s wrenching session.

After some research, I purchased a Helicoil kit and dril bit to repair the threads. Tuesday night I decided to skip the Las Vegas SRT Club weekly meet to continue work on the car. The thread repair was actually very easy and pretty much went without any problems. The way a helicoil works is by drilling and tapping a larger hole in the place to be repaired, then special inserts that look like springs are threaded into the hole to replace the threads for the original bolt. If you’re really interested in the process, this video from YouTube gives a quick overview.

My repair. The supplied tap had to be modified slightly to fit the tap handle we were using. Besides, sparks are cool.

After the threads were repaired, the transmission bolted right up. With the engine supported on the hoist it was pretty easy to line up all the holes and snug it down.

After that, we found sturdy places on the engine and transmission to attach the hoist chains and dropped the drivetrain back into the engine bay.

Hooray for progress!

My desktop computer has been down for a little while, so I haven’t been able to upload any updated pics from the SRT build. There has been a little more progress though.

DCR Oil pump, cam gears, water pump, tensioner, and idler pulley reinstalled.

Factory oil pickup modified for more flow

Installed

Eddie and I made our own cam tool for torquing the cam gears and dampener back down. I tried using a piece of 14GA angle stock and some regular bolts, but they bent really easily. This is made from part of a jack stand and some big grade 8 bolts.

Lastly, I blocked off the coolant lines for the now deleted oil cooler since I’ll be running a big filter kit.

All that’s left is putting on the timing belt and reinstalling the plastic covers, then the motor goes back in the car.

Spent some more time in the garage on Saturday.

Played around with my magnetic can coozy…

With some creative use of zip ties and the loaner Chrysler Harmonic Balancer Puller from AutoZone we were able to take the crank pulley off. That is the best pic I have of the pulley and the puller, we basically used the zip ties to keep the jaws of the puller tight against the pulley so it wouldn’t try and squat which would make it slip off.

Removed Cam Gears and removed all the plastic shielding also started taking apart the old tensioner

We also had to get creative with a steering wheel puller and the bolts from the coil pack to remove the sprocket from the crank

oil pump, water pump, tensioner, and idler pulley removed (that’s most everything)

I had to stop there, since the dealership was closed and I didn’t have the anaerobic sealant required for the oil pump install. I picked it up after work the other day and I’m going to start reassembly this week/weekend. Slowly getting there.

I used this oil pump how-to: HOW-TO: Remove & Install Oil Pump its extremely difficult to read, but it has all the info you need to get the job done.

I also polished the AGP logo on my turbo heat shield and played around with a fish-eye lens adapter I borrowed from a friend.