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Hello and welcome to my car project. First off I bought the car in Feb. of 03, in St. Louis, Missouri. It is a red 1992 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4, with 104,000 miles on it. I first saw the car on eBay listing for about $1,200. The car dealer left his phone # on the page so I called him up and asked about the car. The problems with the car is as follows, Fog Lights does not work, Power antenna does not work, rear wiper was missing, tires shot, and rod knock. Knowing all of this I thought the car was still a great deal. I mean they sell for over $9,000 Used so I told him I will be there the next day to look at it. (St. Louis is about 3 hours from West Plains) Me and my friend (The funny looking guy in the pictures) went to St. Louis in his Maroon 90 Chevy Cavalier Z24, any way's we get there with some tools to test the engine and as we expected the car had a rod knock "DUH!" We ran a compression test on the front 3 cylinders all running around 120psi. Which is really good (We could not get to the back 3 cylinders very easily so we ignored it) The car would not start, it would just crank but, we noticed fouled plugs so we thought this was the problem. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he told me $2,750. I took it :-) gave him a down payment and told him I will be back with the rest and to pick up the car. You have to tow the car on a trailer with all four wheels on the bed. Since it is all-wheel drive it can mess the drive train towing it other ways. Back to the story, I have no way of working on this car (Because, I lived in town at the time) So the car sat for about 1 month. (I was waiting for my dorky friend to get a friends truck out of his shop so I can push my car in there and work on it. I bought new spark plugs for it and proceeded to install them. (I was wanting to start my car and see what it sounded like.) As I was putting the last spark plug in Cylinder #6 I noticed that the old spark plug was beat in and the tip was missing. My heart dropped when I saw this knowing that it was because a piston or pieces of the piston slapped the head and caused the bad plug. Another 2 months went by and I was finally able to get my car in the garage to work on it. Me and my friend started stripping down the car only to find everything wrong with it. I took pictures along the way. |
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| Lots
of help thanks to
Brendan, It was his shop we disassembled
my car in (Eventually was moved) and now helping with the assembling. |
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Here Is my Current Bill List for my 3000GT TOTAL FOR PROJECT $8,856.41
There are a number of other things that I have not put down. But, this is everything to get my baby running again. |
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| * means that I traded website work for parts. Freebees!!!! :-) |
Here
are the pictures of us taking apart my car. DAY 1 (Back
To Top) |
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Brenden
aka (The dorkey friend) removing exhaust (first step) |
Exhaust
removed before we pulled it from the car |
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Exhaust
all removed from car (Had problems with AA cable) |
Throttle
body and vac tubes |
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Stock
boost controller and emissions control (Not going back in) |
Pic
before we really started into it |
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More
of the removed intake |
Here
is the output shaft (The teeth are a little warn) |
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The
teeth were grown to sharp edges, like this /\ |
Sadly
my name was Q-TIP (Nickname created from my hair) |
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removed
more intake tubing (Turbo #1) |
Angle
# 2 (Oil was dripping out of the pipes) |
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Everything
is ready to pull at this moment |
Engine
1/2 way out (Was a bitch with the Trans on it) |
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Engine
compartment after we removed the engine (Dirty) |
Picture
of me (when my hair was blond) Last pic of the day |
| On day 2 when we stripped the engine so we can take the heads and block to the local machine shop. At this point we knew something bad happened but didn't know what. The oil pan was the first thing to go, which would make my stomach drop when I saw the amount of metal shavings built up in the bottom. The hardest blow did not come until we removed the heads, the cylinder was shot and the head (#6 piston) was beat to hell with parts of the shuddered piston & rings still hanging out of it. **NOTE** Later I sent off my turbos to Majestic Turbo our of Dallas, Texas for free estimate to see if they were bad. Not really that much shaft play but, they said better check it out because metal shavings were in the oil. (They were bad!) |
| Here's us taking apart the engine and finding out the bearings were spun and the piston slapped the head! DAY 2 HELL DAY! (Back To Top) | |
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Picture
of my head and cam belts |
Here
is the coil pack and water outlet body |
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You
can see the back turbo and throttle body |
This
is the front turbo and waistgate |
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We
took allot of pics to use as reference to later assemble it |
My
heart sunk when I saw this |
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Preparing
to lower, so we can take the heads out |
We
just removed the head to find this!! |
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Here
you can see the damaged piston and cylinder wall |
Thinking
of what to do next |
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Here
is the head where the piston slapped it |
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Shot
#1 of damaged piston |
Shot
#2 of damaged piston |
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Pic
before we removed the crank |
Shot
#3 of damaged piston |
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Picture
of the heads |
Picture
of the block |
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Here
are some of the parts we removed when taking the engine out |
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Conclusion |
What we think happened was, The car was low on oil (Had not been changed in a while!) The other bearings were about to go anyway's, but #6 piston goes first because of low oil pressure. So #6 bearing spun, raised the rod & piston. Caused the piston to slap the head, pieced of the piston & rings shattered and was getting smashed into the head. The smaller pieces went into the intake and exhaust valves. Metal shavings then went into the oil system, circulated into the turbos shot the bearings. Other pieces got wedged in between the valves and valve seat, causing 1/2 the values to bend. So low oil pressure an high mileage engine (ridden very hard) inadequate oil pump and 1st GEN lifter design caused all of this. |
| Yes it is hard to think that more than a year ago I first laid my eyes on my baby, dreaming of the day I would drive it. Well that day is almost at hand, With my engine almost done over at Hood Performance I can taste the burning rubber. The great guys at Hood Performance have taken there time to make sure that the job was done right. Now that my engine is almost at hand I have the interior to worry about (But, that's another sore subject). |
Engine
on stand at Hood Performance **Almost Done!!** 4-6-04 (Back
To Top) |
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| This marks the first day of the extensive and excruciating work on the engine. I will take a couple of days to remove rust and oil from the brackets, trans, and misc parts. Funny how I mentioned that I did not have a service manual at disassemble, I found out while assembling it does not make a diffrence to have it or not. (Worthless peice of shit) |
Engine
on stand at My cousins show (Joey Smith) 5-6-04 Day 1 |
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First
picture of engine back from HOOD's |
Spent
4 hours and $6.00 in cleaning supply's (like new) |
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Picture
with out plastic, no work on it yet |
Exhaust
had cracks along the welds |
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Exhaust
after weld (Thanks Joey) |
I
am going to take the exhaust back off and bead blast it |
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Had
to break into my trunk to get parts out (Brenden) |
Removed
back seat and broke support bar |
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My
flywheel |
Parts
after wire brush and paint |
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I
am going to clean and repaint every part on engine |
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| Most of Day 1 was spent cleaning and painting parts (Ran out of black and silver) |
Cleaning
5-7-04 Day 2 (Back
To Top) |
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One
of the many brackets painted |
Covers
and brackets painted (All degreased and wire brushed) |
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Oil
filter assembly (Could not find gasket) |
All
the bolts I found sorted (Missing allot) |
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| Water
housing, starter, and another bracket being degreased
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Exhaust
and other parts being wire brushed |
| Day 2 was basically another clean and repaint day |
Assembly
5-8-04 Day 3 (Back
To Top) |
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Do
you see anything missing? (No shield, HOODS) |
Here
is the shield that was missing |
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Removing
rust from back Exhaust |
Attached
exhaust and other brackets |
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Shield
installed after betting it in |
Messed
up seal |
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Front
of engine ready for timing cover |
Oil
outlet seal installed and motor mount bracket installed |
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Another
bracket, front exhaust and shield |
I
was missing a bolt so I put a different one there |
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I
know a bolt goes here but there are no threads???? |
More
brackets |
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New
rebuilt 9b turbos (Had them for a year now) |
Front
turbo and water / oil lines installed |
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Overall
work area in shop |
All
timing cover installed (Nice) |
Assembly
5-9-04 Day 4 (Back
To Top) |
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Turbo
bracket I forgot |
Front
turbo no shields |
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Front
turbo oil return line |
Front
turbo with all shields |
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Alternator |
Alternator
again |
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Rear
turbo
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Finished
Assembling 5-10-04 Day 5 (Back
To Top) |
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Rear
turbo |
Down
pipe rear turbo (I Messed up the O2 Sensor) |
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Oil
return line |
More
brackets |
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Rear
turbo |
Front
turbo |
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Back
of engine (Assembled) |
Me
very tired and happy (1:00am) |
| Day 6 Delivery day (Taking the engine to my car to complete the transplant) |
Transmition
5-13-04 Day 6 (Back
To Top) |
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Front
shot of new rusted pressure plate |
Side
shot (Forgot to put shield in) |
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Inside
bell housing cleaned |
New
Lightweight Flywheel |
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Torque
wrench was broken so I over torqued the bolt
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Transmition
5-14-04 Day 7 (Back
To Top) |
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Finally
got transmition in (I had no alignment tool) |
Pic
of garage |
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Front
shot of engine
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Transmition
5-22-04 Day 8 (Back
To Top) |
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Knock
sensor and ported heads |
Closeup
shot |
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Side
shot |
Top
shot |
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Full
shot
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Dropping
Engine 5-27-04 Day 9 (Back
To Top) |
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My
brother surprised me |
Final
shots of engine |
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Final
shots of engine |
Final
shots of engine |
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Engine
compartment one last time |
Final
shots of engine |
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Final
shots of engine |
Engine
in car (Took 3 hours) |
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Engine
in car (Front) |
Engine
in car (Side) |
When I bought the car the dealer told me that the car was sitting for a year (and it looked like it to) he bought it from a dealer repo auction and that's all he knew. Yea, right! I found out later from information I gathered from inside the car. (Which was not washed or cleaned out for years :-( Poor Car) Any way's the car use to be owned by a car leasing company, which is why the car was suffering from drivers with no respect for the car. DAMN THEM!!! Condition of the car when I bought it, paint is very badly chipped, 2 door pings, wire showing on tires, 1 tire missing, rear wiper missing, power antenna broke, steering wheel leather worn white, shifter boot leather worn white, white paint all over interior, exhaust (muffler back) was rusted out, left front member rusted out, turbos bad, front Mitsu logo off, side and back window tint coming off, fog lights not working, front air vents on dash broke in 4 spots (nothing new for a 92), engine blown, break pads gone, that is all I can think of at the moment. (Back To Top) |
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| This is when I first saw my car for the first time at the car lot. | Here is another picture showing how bad of condition it was in. |
| Things To Come |  |
| I am going to be trading a website for a paint job on the car. I didn't want to go with graphics on the sides or change the whole color of the car. (although I do absolutely love the silver 3000gt's) I am going with the same red base coat with 2 colors of pearl, orange and yellow. The effect will make the car look like it is on fire!! (and it will be with bigger turbos) On the hood I need to cool off the rear turbo, what better way then to have vents on the hood channel fresh air into the engine compartment. I am cutting out my own design in the hood (Because, I don't like any aftermarket hoods for the 1st gen) The hood is going to look similar to the F&F Orange Supra Hood With the holes cut out and wire mesh inserted into it. I am going to do a euro front bumper conversion seen on the right (This will take some time acquiring the necessary parts I need. (Back To Top) | |
Pictures thanks to R-TEC |
Here
is my baby after some Luvin... 100% better then when I first bought it. |
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Removed
the old ass tint. Putting new tint in (Black 10%) |
Removed
the old ass tint. Putting new tint in (Sides 15%) |
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There
are allot of rock chips in the hood and lights |
Brand new
tires (MOHAWK 245/45 R17 95V, Predator VLS) |