So I tore apart my car...

[Scott]

Originally Posted by MERMITE

It would be a much needed credit to the American Auto Industry if you ever get this piece of junk back together

Then i'll have to give credit where credit is due: Thanks Dodge for this well made American car. She is back together and running tip top. Still has the factor honing marks in the cylinder bores. Compression checks out to near factory spec and no leaks from a leak down test. Shes got another 150k miles easy if well maintained.

Originally Posted by .Simon.

Great thread buddy Really interesting to read. I wish I had the time, money and patience to do something like that. Im hoping to pick up a project car towards the end of the year so fingers crossed I can have a pop at it!

Keep us updated though.


PS- Get a bigger turbo

It mostly takes time and patients. Now that I know the engine is in excellent shape a bigger turbo (think 400whp) may be in my future. I have to fix some issues with the transmission first though.. and there is always that barrier called money.. I'm at around 300whp right now and i'm already having traction issues..

[atholon]

I sure hope that isn't your only car...

[Scott]

Originally Posted by atholon

I sure hope that isn't your only car...

Sure is...

[VooDoo-]

What you did was pretty dicey, but hey you did it and probably learned a **** ton.

My first car was a '92 jeep cherokee. It was a pretty cool little SUV, but had to do all that and then some in my years of driving it.

So doing this stuff first hand is the best way to learn it.

If you plan on messing with the transmission I would surly take a look at the manual first... stuff like that is easy to screw up with devastating effects

[atholon]

Originally Posted by Scott

Sure is...

You definitely have guts then. I'd attempt that on an old car that I had already replaced... but not on my only car.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by VooDoo-

What you did was pretty dicey, but hey you did it and probably learned a **** ton.

My first car was a '92 jeep cherokee. It was a pretty cool little SUV, but had to do all that and then some in my years of driving it.

So doing this stuff first hand is the best way to learn it.

If you plan on messing with the transmission I would surly take a look at the manual first... stuff like that is easy to screw up with devastating effects

I couldn't put a number on how much I learned, but I know it's going to save me mucho $$$ throughout my life knowing how to do this stuff, especially if I get the transmission and suspension figured out. There is no better way to learn then removing all the parts, seeing how it works and putting it back together.

It really was not that hard.. I was pretty tired after most nights (couldn't move my hands/arms some mornings) and it did take awhile but I just took my time and didn't cut any corners. If the manual called for something to be done, I did it. If I didn't understand I asked someone. The people that have issues are the people that are afraid to ask stupid questions when they don't understand something and cut corners to save time or frustration..

[ShArP]

well all i got to say is good luck because i am not really that good with cars

[VooDoo-]

you're going to have some fun with the suspension... coil overs all around, right? you're going to learn how fun and easy it is to use a spring compressor. (lawl)

my brother has a mazda 3 hatchback and we put an entire aftermarket suspension system on it... took two days straight but we got it done (it was hell) and the car handled way better ... ride height was 2" shorter i think and much MUCH tighter springs/shocks

of course my brother ****ed up his side that he was working on and almost killed himself while driving ...the left front wheel came completely out of alignment (like .. perpendicular to the car) and he almost lost control on the interstate ... of course ripping up the entire fender. so do be careful and check everything, especially stuff that is critical to the structural integrity. If you screw something up with the suspension you're going to find out when your driving ... and thats not cool. What he did was something amazingly stupid like not putting a lock nut back onto this pin that connected the wheel the the steering. kind of a fail on mazda's part for putting so much importance into one little pin ...but still.

when it comes to transmissions I honestly let my mechanic deal with it ... mostly because its 10x easier to work on it with a car lift. if you're car is an automatic and you do not know anything about it then i would REALLY go to the mechanic. manuals are way easier, but the main issue is getting to the damn thing without pulling the entire engine out, hence the car lift

[Scott]

lol... I learned from this project that when someone says it should only take a few hours they mean a couple days, and when they say days it really means weeks. Apparently the transmission is pretty easy to remove and install in this car.. It's a manual but I need to do alot of work to get the gears and syncros out and then back in so I might just buy a pre-build transmission assembly and mount it myself. That will probably save me days or weeks.

I just gotta keep telling myself that it's still cheaper then a new car. This is fun... i'm saving money... this is fun.. i'm saving money

[VooDoo-]

It's bad ass what you're doing ... it's going to feel like a new car when you're done lol

p.s. do you have a computer that messes with you're CPU? I don't know what it's called exactly ... but i'm sure you know what i mean. I got a '08 silverado that i wanna do all the basic upgrades like coldair intake and catback exhaust ... but i don't know much about messing with the CPU. anyways ... some tips on what to look for would be awesome lol

[Scott]

The cars computer is normally called the ECU (engine control unit) or PCM (powertrain control module). Alot of them can be chipped or tuned to make better performance by adjusting the timing, fuel and other aspects. I'd take great care in doing this though, a simple adjustment of timing without the correct Air/Fuel ratio will easily cause disaster. More then enough people that have the same car I have, up the boost to 20-22psi or advance timing without watching KNOCK (Spark detonates before it's supposed to, causing stress on the pistons and crankshaft) or AIR/FUEL RATIO and within a few weeks they are buying a new short block.

On my car, I plug in this tuner device called the Diablosport Predator. It allows me to adjust fuel, timing, rev limiter, boost and also the speed limit (currently, fuel cutoff starts at 158mph in my car). It also has the ability to datalog and display live data related to the engine. I use that to monitor knock and I also have a wideband to monitor the A/F Ratio.

[.Simon.]

A lot of that ECU tuning is done by the pros here in UK ;P I wouldn't trust myself to mess with any of that. Not sure what it's called with you, but here and i think in most of Europe its known as Remapping.

I was going to do a University course in Motorsport Engineering, which would have taught me how to adjust the ECU and all that stuff about engines and performance parts. Kinda gutted I didn't do it now ;P Oh well, plenty of time to learn all that.

[.Simon.]

Btw, if anyone is interested, Im playing a racing sim at the moment called Live For Speed. I've learnt a lot so far because everyone has the parts on whatever car you decide to pick, but you can modify the setups. So the tyres (pressure, camber, compound), suspension (ride height, stiffness, rebound, bump etc), downforce, brakes... tonnes of stuff.

Might post up a few photos/videos soon. My and my mate have set up a 'fun' team that we will use when competing at the end of the year in the leagues, so i've designed an car skin based on Aston Martin ;P its really fun tbh

[Xx_jet_xX]

I rebuilt a 68 Chevy II (nova) when I was 18, it had a 307 in it when I bought it that was original and worn out, so I picked up a 350 4 bolt main and rebuilt it. spent all my money at Tognottis in sacramento on that motor so i couldnt afford a better tranny. Kept the 2 speed powerglide since it was rebuilt the year i bought the car.

I did a little street racing with it back then, my most memorable race was against this guy with an 89 5.0 mustang who thought he had the fastest car on the road... what he had was a loud exhaust and 200 dollars less in his pocket because he couldnt get the power to the ground at the start... smoking the tires is an easy way to lose a race.

[Widowmaker OSS]

Hey Scott that was a cool post thanks for bringing back old memories of my younger days with this post.
I congratulate you on your accomplishment my friend its no easy task what you did and you ought to be proud of yourself for doing what you did im a dodge fan myself and with any other product their is always a bad apple in all that gives that product a bad name.
I been lucky with my Dodge vehicles so far my truck has 235,000 miles on it and my 300M car has 175,000 miles and still running lol knock on wood lol.
I built my first car when I was 16 years old with help from my uncle was a 1969 Chevy Chevelle had a 307 engine went back with a engine out of grain truck 350 4 bolt main and put in new 11 to 1 TRW pistons and one hideous cam made a mistake using solid lift lifters so every time i got on it hard enough had to readjust the rocker arms but solved that problem by replacing them with hydrolics ones.
I just notice by reading my post am I going threw a mid life crises lmao im joking very good post Scott.

[Scott]

Wow, this thread has been pretty productive lol.. maybe I should start a car forum

Thanks everyone for the reply's, especially on your own experiences. Even though they may not relay specifically to ones car they often come in handy because a gas engine is a gas engine, a transmission is a transmission and suspension is suspension. Tips on removing anything is always appreciated...

I did have, and still have access to a spare vehicle and I would never do something like this without one, especially this being my first time. It can take a few hours just trying to figure out how to remove one single bolt. And if your car's like mine, with almost 150k, some of them are REALLY on there and rusted so add a few hours to that. My engine takes up almost my entire bay so room is premium and they must have midget elves to install/remove some of these bolts. I'm confident now that with the spare parts and tools i've made along the way, I could do this again in a weekend.

Soaking with wd40 helped a TON on most bolts. The big problem I had was breaking bolts. Rusted or worn bolts and nuts break and strip very easily.. And usually automotive bolts are hard to find at home stores and are only available at the dealer. I like genuine OEM parts so I had to sometimes wait a few days for a bolt or nut to come in.. Only OEM goes in my car except for performance parts not made by Mopar.. I figure if i've gone this long with no issues, the OEM parts are working to spec and they should be replaced with the same parts, if available. I'm now in the process of collecting some spare parts since I plan to have this car as my toy forever. There were only 30k of my specific car (Neon Turbo SRT-4, produced from 2003 to 2005) made and only an estimated 20k remain on the road so parts are getting expensive to find. For example: The cylinder head cover bolts where $0.50 a few years ago.. now they are $4 a pop.

[Xx_jet_xX]

OEM parts are not always the best for performance. check out Hahn Racecraft: http://www.turbosystem.com/auto/neon/neon.htm

some parts that will blow away the OEM crap.

some other good stuff here: http://www.turbo-kits.com/srt4_turbo_kits.html or http://www.docstoc.com/docs/1947522/...dge-Neon-SRT4/

[Scott]

You can bet that when I finally get a bigger turbo it won't be an OEM .... But for some things I wouldn't trust anything other then OEM..

[.Simon.]

Well yeah when it comes to a reputable company like Dodge im sure their OEM parts are pretty good quality. It's not like you're buying a low budget jap car with plastic tacks for bolts ;P

[MERMITE]

Almost a month now, has Scott completed his automotive task??????