Jesse's 945 Turbo

[thessejway]

Goals for the Next Year

Because I'm in a northern climate and I don't have a garage to work on my car, its come time to put work on the car on hold until spring. I'm going to be using the winter to plan and gather parts for the work I would like to accomplish on the car next year.

Current Performance Upgrade Goals +Necessary Maintenance

• Manual TransmissionComplete
  
  
  
  ​
  This is the #1 thing I want to do with the car right now. I can't stand the auto transmission. Also its starting to make unhealthy noises and the O/D does not appear to be working anymore.
  I also want to get a manual trans in before I start to decide how much more power I want to go for. I feel I'll be able to get better use and have more fun with my current power.
  
  I really want to go the CD009 route, but I'm hesitant on putting that much money into the car Yolo'd
  I have an M46 I could put in, but that will likely get grenaded quick Sold Minus Bellhousing
  So its likely going to be between a T5 and a CD009 CD009 Ready for Install
  
  
• SS brake lines (Current ones are probably original to the car and a little cracky)
• Shim Valves (Never did this after my turbo cam install )
• AFR Gauge (I've bought an AEM UEGO, just need to install. Hoping to do it with a down pipe upgrade) Complete
• Hunt down the source of an oil leak. (I feel it might just be a clogged oil separator)Complete
• Replace dried/crusty hosesComplete
• Bigger downpipe + maybe full exhaust (If I can pull it off myself with my crappy MIG)
• Bigger intercooler
• Adjustable Cam gear (I read somewhere that this may not be necessary on my car.. Anyone?)

Maintenance and things to fix

• Sunroof
• Fix rear wiper
• Power Antennae (Don't actually listen to the radio, but I like being able to put the antennae up and down)
• Replace passenger door pocket (Already have replacement)Grand Prix Turbo
• Wing (I've got an 850 and a 960 wing, Just need to choose which one)Complete
• Clean up headlights/Fog lights (Ecodes maybe?)
• Matching 960 drivers side Taillight Complete
• New front seats (I would like to find some more modern maybe lighter front seats that are in better shape than the current ones)Half Complete
• Sub woofer + improved speakers

I'll likely update these lists as I come up with more stuff

 

[thessejway]

Hurry up summer

Got dumped on this week...

 

[thessejway]

We had some beautiful weather this week to i got down to some clean up on the intake side of my engine.

My PCV system was desperately in need of a refresh. I also picked up some bigger injectors from Broke4speed (Chad) so I figured I would install those while I was at it.

Before

This was the first time I had dug this deep into the engine bay, so it was a great learning experience for seeing and understanding how this fit together and worked on a redblock

It was rather grimey and gross

Bit of a clean up

Old vs. new

I also bought a full set of do88 hoses

Gave the fuel rail a halfassed paint job to make it a little less unsightly

Replaced all the dried cracked vacuum hoses

the oil separator box got a good clean and soak over a couple days, also gave it a new seal on the bottom

Resistor bypass for the new injectors (0 280 155 831)

All back together

I now have do88 silicone on the PCV system, intercooler lines, idle valve hoses and brake vacuum hose. I've got a full set of coolant lines as well that I will swap out in the near future

Intake isn't back together yet because I've got a new turbo, also from Broke4speed that I need to get in.

 

[Broke4speed]

Looking good!

 

[thessejway]

Looking good!

Thanks
Making progress little by little

 

[thessejway]

Update

Here's some more of what I've been up to since the weather has gotten good enough to start working on my car again

Tore out the driver side of the interior to deal with some rust that was starting inside the floor pans from a leak.

There were a couple spots where it had rusted through.

My awful attempt at welding it up

Gave it a few coats of POR-15

I put some watertight sound deadener in.
Left a little channel to a drain into the frame rail for any future liquids to escape to. This may be a bad idea, but I thought it might help.

Interior reassembled

Also installed these gauges while I had everything apart.

Replaced all the coolant hoses with do88 Silicon ones

New thermostat

Spent an hour and a half trying to get this hose clamp off the oil cooler lines

New do88 lines in

Got the rear end up. Originally with the intention of installing SS brake lines. But after little success trying to get the old ones off. I ended up putting in Kaplhenke adjustable torque rods instead. finally solving some of the drive line geometry issues you get after lowering your car substantially.

Doing this install on a driveway was a much bigger pain in the arse than I anticipated.

Next on the list is to replace the u-joint at the center of the driveline as well as the center support + bearing and trans mount. I've been getting a bit of a rumble coming from there and noticed it was clicky when I was under the car doing the torque rods.

I also want to take it to a mechanic to have the AC fixed and SS brake lines I bought installed. I decided that I would prefer not to wrestle with 26 year old brake lines.

 

[smoothdurban]

jumping the gun a bit but any annual update?

 

[thessejway]

jumping the gun a bit but any annual update?

Got lazy about posting up what I did the rest of the year last year. but now that I'm basically locked up at home, I'll try to get this thread up to date this week.

Also excited to get back to working on the car this week for the first time since October.

 

[thessejway]

June-August 2019

To add to the sound deadening done by the new material under the carpet. I also "Dynamated" the front doors. not sure it did a whole lot, but the doors now sound even more like a bank vault when you shut them

Tree took a poop on my car.. So i washed it
At this point I'm using this car reliably as my daily driver

After a quick clean

I had been feeling a clunk on heavy exceleration. So after some quick searching, I discovered the the Transmission mount was nearly non existent

I found a couple real nice black leather Bimmer seats for sale locally at a price that was hard to turn down. I was planning on taking my car up to the cottage with some friends on the weekend. so I did my best to get the driver seat installed before the trip. Did in typical turbobrick style and welded 2 pieces of flat bar to the bottoms of the seat with relocated mounting holes.

Turned out alright. though I did singe my carpet a bit while haphazardly welding the seats in the car... This was back in august, and I have yet to install the passenger seat.

Successfully made the 2 hr trip up the cottage, with about 8 cases of red Gatorade in the back as well as a 100lb box of film equipment. My brilliant friend decided this was a wise online auction purchase. The warehouse just happened to be on the way so we stopped there to pick everything up.

More beauty shots at the cottage

On the way home we made it all the way back to the city, I dropped my buddy and his lifetime supply of red diabetus drink off. Then about a 2 minutes from my house while on the off ramp from the highway... the car died.

Quickly pulled over and found that the ignition fuse was blown. Replaced it and the car started right up, Sweet. then just as soon as i went to pull out, it died again. Skip through me spending about half an hour trying to diagnose the problem with no luck, I gave up and called CAA

I was glad that I was so close to home when it broke down, but frustrated that I only had so far left to go. But I guess i can't complain too much, I'd gotten to use the car as my daily through the whole summer with very few issues.

 

[thessejway]

Spent the entirety of September and October trying to chase down the issue causing my Ignition fuse to blow. So far here are the things I've done, not including the countless hours spent chasing wires for shorts and cleaning connectors/grounds.

New Fuel pump (under car)
New Fuel pump relay
New ignition coil
New O2 sensor
New spark plug wires

I thought I had it fixed, so I took the car out for a ride. made it about 5kms from my house when it happened again. From then on, the fuse would blow every time I made a left turn.

To give me something to other than chasing down this issue, I wired a front and rear dashcam into the car. Because I converted my electric sunroof to manual, I just used the sunroof wiring to bring power to the dash cam.

Bypassed the sunroof switch so that there was constant power

Nice and discreet

Don't have any images of it, but there is a camera in the back window as well

Film photography is one of my other hobbies, so here's a film photo of Putt putt

 

[thessejway]

Finally figured out what was causing the Ignition fuse to blow. The heated nipple on the intake hose must have been shorting out. As far as I've researched, it isn't important unless driving in freezing temperatures. So I've simply unplugged it and the car has been working fine since.

Very glad to have that solved.

Next major issue is the noisy trans. The AW71 trans does not sound happy, especially during shifts and in lower gears. Almost sounds like an old Corolla or Civic with a leak in the exhaust manifold. I'm sure that is a sound everyone knows.

Any ideas what could be causing the noisy trans? Didn't go away with a fluid change. My guess is its related to the clutches being old and worn.

Nothing that throwing in a CD009 wont fix

 

[thessejway]

Had a Eureka moment

The trans is likely fine

I think the issue must be the drivetrain making contact with the body somewhere around the trans

 

[thessejway]

Went for a couple drives today. Car is performing great!

Crazy to see Ikea with an empty parking lot at 5:30

 

[SquareD]

Sharp wagon. Love the silver with the black wheels.

 

[thessejway]

Thanks!

Sharp wagon. Love the silver with the black wheels.

 

[soclosenotnear]

What made installing the torque rods so difficult? I'm about to give it a go and the Chilton's manual makes it seem simple enough. Any tips?

 

[smoothdurban]

Went for a couple drives today. Car is performing great!

Crazy to see Ikea with an empty parking lot at 5:30

I have actually been riding my motorcycles more frequently because of this virus.
Wweather permitting of course, as we had flurries today

 

[thessejway]

What made installing the torque rods so difficult? I'm about to give it a go and the Chilton's manual makes it seem simple enough. Any tips?

It's just in a very tight inconvenient place. I remember there being barely enough room to get some of the bolts out. I also did it in my driveway with less than a a foot of clearance under the car. I'm sure its a pretty simple install on a lift that would be my only tip.

If you look at where all the bolts are in the image below you'll see what I mean. If you're able to move the exhaust out of the way (seen top right) it would make access easier. Definitely install the upper torque rod before the bottom one...

I have actually been riding my motorcycles more frequently because of this virus.
Wweather permitting of course, as we had flurries today

I've been loving it. Typically here in Toronto it's rush hour at all hours of the day. With the isolation rules in effect, the roads are essentially empty

 

[thessejway]

Shiny new water pump this past weekend

 

[smoothdurban]

Even a casual repair feels like a win nowadays.