my turbo mini truck. 4g63t build thread

[thefreack]

so I figured that I should create a build thread, since I have been building this thing. I bought it with my re-enlistment bonus that I got earlier this year. I was so excited. I have been driving and building my 89 Nissan 240sx for the past couple years and I wanted a parts hauler. I was searching craigslist in this area and found this gem of a truck. 89 mighty max that has been swapped with a 4g63t. I brought it home and drove it for 2 months before the 4th rod decided it was a good idea to break in half and poke holes in both sides of the block. Since then she has been stored in my garage. waiting to get the pieces together to get her back on the road.
pics of her the day I brought her home.
http://i72.servimg.com/u/f72/16/52/46/24/100_1110.jpg
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http://i72.servimg.com/u/f72/16/52/46/24/100_1116.jpg

[BradMph]

That engine is a beauty, nice work. The buikd threads are great..I just put on mine everything I do to the truck now. Never know when ya need to look back for that info you might need. It also gives other great knowledge of the steps and procedures others took in their builds.

[thefreack]

yeah build threads are great. I have one for my 240 on the wi240sx forum. those are pics of the motor before it threw the rod. here are some photos of the block with the rod poking out one side and another hole on the other side too.

this is the first hole I noticed (turbo side of the block)
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then after I started tearing the motor apart to get it out of the truck, I pulled the starter off and found this hole behind it
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sorry that these photos are so small

what surprised me was this is what it looked like underneath the valve cover when i took it off
http://i72.servimg.com/u/f72/16/52/46/24/100_1517.jpg
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it is the cleanest head I have ever seen on a used motor.
after I discovered that the head looked like it was salvageable and could be used for the next engine build. I took my time trying to find a good candidate for a bottom end to use for the next drop in. this is how I ended up with two blocks. My friend managed to pick up two spider eclipses that were converted to gst's. both were 2nd gen with 7 bolt blocks in the cars. one of which was seized. he donated the seized block for my cause. which I ended up using as an over sized paper weight. it is still sitting on the floor of the garage.
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while I was trying to figure out how to drop a 1g head onto a 2g block I was looking for parts on my 240 forum and came across a guy that was parting out a 90 gsx and was willing to sell me to block and rotating assembly for 200. I decide it was a good idea to head down there and take a look at it. long story short I bought the block and a bunch of other random parts for both me and my buddy for 140. even picked up a shaved valve cover for the motor. As it sits right now I am about 90% ready to drop it into the truck and give it a try and see how it runs.

[thefreack]

if you take a look at how everything is setup in the pics of the motor when it was running you can see how much of an idiot the previous owner was. see if you can spot what I am talking about. never mind those pictures don't show that the intercooler was doing absolutely nothing. but i did get a big box of random goodies when i bought the truck. It came with an ebay intercooler that if you look at the core support for an 89 mm has two holes on either side that line up almost perfect with the ends of the intercooler. all i need to do is open the wholes up just a little more. I also wound up finding a gm maf translator so once i know it runs i am going to set up a blow by maf, so i can get the sweet choo choo sounds. lol

[thefreack]

So I went out the the garage for a couple hours tinkering on the engine and truck. here are some pics of the progress for the motor.
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its getting close to getting put back into the truck. I did not paint any of the covers. that is the way that i bought them. I found the lower timing cover for a steal so i don't care about the crappy paint job. though it is starting to grow on me. maybe this weekend I will manage to get it back into the truck and start setting it back up to start her up. I am getting motivated for this again.

[thefreack]

I went out the garage to take a look at the truck and decided that since Royster was being so nice I should take some pics of the interior which is not in the best of shap7512751375147515751675177518751975207521752275 2375247525

[royster]

You have the "full instrumentation" cluster. I've never actually seen one before.

By the photos I can easily tell what you need and will be happy to send that along. The heater control panel is in good shape on my parts truck, and since there wasn't a radio in it, it will be easy to pull out. I can pull the heater controls and cables, though it doesn't have a/c. The duct work should collapse down.

I would love to have bucket seats in mine. Maybe a Spring yard sale will bring them to me. Bucket seats would give me the perfect excuse to make a bitchen' console.

Do you need the plate (cover) for the area just above the hand brake? Let me know. Also, do you want to go back to a stock steering wheel? I can't give it to you now, but some time in the future, maybe. It ISN'T in great shape.

[thefreack]

I will take the plat and controls If you are offering. I have a grant steering wheel that I am going to use. I just need to get the right adapter. I am going to trying and build a console for it too. I plan on putting the stereo in the console.

[thefreack]

I have been working on the truck Quite a bit. I got the motor in place. I got the parts from Roy and started to install them. Roy I will be getting you that gift card on Monday. I wish that it would warm up so I can get it done and running. I will post up pictures later.

[thefreack]

So I installed the vent ducts into the dash. Im going to have to paint the dash and fix it.

[thefreack]

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[royster]

I got the parts from Roy and started to install them. Roy I will be getting you that gift card on Monday. I wish that it would warm up so I can get it done and running. I will post up pictures later.

Hope that's going well, Josh. Noahwins cleverly found a way to e-mail the gift card to me. As an alternative to cash or other currency, it will work great: I get stuff at Lowe's all the time.

I'll get some pictures of the parts truck with the dashboard off: it wasn't too difficult to get out, but I sure hope to never have to put one back in.

This cold winter weather IS sort of a cruelty, when we want to work on our pet projects. That's a nice lookin' truck, Josh, and I hope it all comes out good. Hope you figured out all the duct work (it took some engineering to pack it) and get it all installed in short order.

[noahwins]

http://www.cardways.com/CP001/Ecerts/Customize.asp?MallSupported=N&catid=2449&cardtype=EG&productid=14

[thefreack]

I finished the install on the duct last night. I think that I am going to get some black vinal paint and clean up the dash. I want a different color. And Lowe's will mail it to you free.

[BradMph]

I got some interior paint at O'rielly's that was the best paint I ever used on interior stuff. I painted an Ashtray cover black 2 years ago and I use the space a lot, also while driving my hand sits on the lid too. There is no wear at all, I paint the entire dash after that and it looks like it came that way.
Painted the sun visors and inside roof panel. Just great paint!

[thefreack]

Thats what i was thinking of doing.

[thefreack]

so I have been working on it little by little. I painted the dash with a $5 can of plastic spray paint from walmart. here are the pictures of the dash after it dried.
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I like the color and look that it came out as. I gave the doors and glove box their first coats. you can see the difference if you look at the other pics I posted earlier you can see the difference in the way it looks. If you like the black gloss vinyl look of newer car vehicles then I would recommend that you do this to yours.

[royster]

Wow, looks good! But you GOTTA..I mean GOTTA take those vents out and clean 'em good...they stick out like...I dunnoh...something that sticks out. Hit 'em with some ArmorAll or mineral oil. These pics sure inspire me to do the same...it's a nice look...but I got other stuff to do, first.

I tried a variety of plastic paints, including plastic primers, and haven't found one yet that doesn't scratch off, on the arm rests. Maybe BradMPH can offer up the name of that O'Reily paint he posted about.

That's gonna be one sweet little truck, freack~dude.

[pennyman1]

Its all about the prep - use TSP soap like you use on walls after removing wallpaper to get all remnants of armorall or other vinyl dressings off the plastic parts, then use adhesion promoter from clean strip

[thefreack]

I had the vents covered and I was more worried about the dash. I will clean those up later. I cleaned everything off before the paint went on. It started out as a test for the paint. Then I liked the look so much I just kept going. Till the can ran out. Thinking of spraying the entire interior with it.

[royster]

I think you're on to something: it's a really good look.

[DroppedMitsu]

Looks good, and those vinyl/interior paints do work really, really well. I painted a kick panel on my first truck with some and it never scratched off or even looked like I had painted it.

[thefreack]

I figured out something yesturday for my wiring. The previous owner of this vehicle must have been mentaly challenged. This is the first 4g63t that I have messed with. The owner had changed from the stock coils to a coil on the plug setup. Which is great. When he did this he left the stock coils in place bolted to the intake. This is how he was mentaly handycapped. He did not know why he did not get his tach to work. The reason was these have a tach translater box sits on the same bracket as the oem coils. It is because there is two lead wires one for each of the two coils. Any way he had that still wired to the oem tach that was connected to nothing but the tach wire. And the coil on plug set up wired into the harness. Meaning the tach wire was doing absolutly nothing because it was hooked up to the oem coils that were hooked up to nothing.

[thefreack]

Well this is a little update on my headache of a truck. I thought I had her all fixedup tried to crank it over and no love. I then pulled the plugs and did a compression test. Turns out the second cylinder had 0 compression. So long story short I am putting my backup head together and then trying again. I hope I have better luck this next time.

[DroppedMitsu]

Dang that sucks, I hate when stuf like that happens. Hope it works out for you.

[thefreack]

So I now have the motor running, but it is giving me minor issues. I need a coil so that I can actually time the motor correctly. I also have some random wiring to do on the truck. I am thinking about putting in a different tac again. I am thinking about taking pictures of my progress. I also need to wire in the gm maf translator. I need to get some intercooler piping so that I can get my intercooler in the truck (instead of having it hot piped). Another problem I have is that I am in WI and winter has officialy started. so working on the truck will be harder to do since I do not have a heated garage. Hope to take so pictures when I get home tonight.

[DroppedMitsu]

Sounds good, take some pics for us, we love to see progress.

[thefreack]

I finally got it running and boosting again. I have some mods that I have in mind still. I still have mods that are sitting in boxes waiting for me to get to them. I need to get a couple oil pressure gauges in so that I have a better sense of what the true oil pressure is. I plan on putting one in the filter housing and one on the head. I need to get my exhaust temp gauge wired up. I want to put a panel in where the radio would be installed so that I can install gauges there. I need a new boost gauge since the one I have the wires broke. I am planing on getting a 4 channel amp and wiring up a Bluetooth connector as my stereo. I also want to do a variety of other things. here are some pics to keep you guys interested. 12150121511215212153121541215512156121571215812159 12160121611216212163

[BradMph]

Turbos confuse me, lol. :scratchheadyellow: Probably because I just haven't read enough about them and how to install it. If our wrecking yard ever got one, there would be a mad dash of ebay sellers molesting it so fast the yard wouldn't have enough time to drop it from the forklift.
Though I probably could hook up our leaf blower, it puts out 250mph. Wonder what that is in psi.

Glad to see trucks getting fixed instead of breaking down. :thumbup:

[thefreack]

I bought the car with the turbo setup on it. and then if you look at the pictures you can see that motor decided it needed wholes on booth sides. It is interesting that these motors from the dsm cars drop very nicely into our trucks. It was interesting that when I bought my new throttle body I actually met the previous owner that had done a lot of the original mods to this truck. He also sold me a backup turbo for dirt cheap. I have enough parts to build a couple of these motors. I am in the process of trying to sell my extra parts.

[thefreack]

how do turbos confuse you?

[thefreack]

so it has been a while since I posted on this thread. a lot has happened in my life. 2015 was a crazy year. Anyway time for updates to the truck.

[thefreack]

I sanded and cleaned up the radiator. I realized that the top and bottom had a brass patina that was tarnished and painted over. so I decided it would be cool to clean it up and paint the core and lower part black. I then clear coated the whole thing so that the patina would not tarnish or rust.153471534815349153501535115352153531535415355 153561535715358153591536015361

[geezer101]

Nice . I did the same to my really early 80's Mitsubishi Colt. If you wet and dry the brass tank then polish it, it'll come up looking like 24k gold!

[thefreack]

I also ran down the issue that I was having with the clutch not disengaging. it turns out it was the clutch cable. this made me so mad. I also found that the clips on the throw out bearing was needed to be tweaked.1536215363153641536515366153671536815369

[LSR Mike]

Firewall flex can also contribute to poor clutch disengagement.

[thefreack]

If you look at the cables you will notice the snapped tensioner that is not connected to the sheeth.

[thefreack]

so it has been a while since I did anything to my truck. it had kind of been sitting as a jack stand racer for quite some time. I have finally taken some time to start messing with it. I decided to pull the seats out and mask off the windows so that I can paint it all black. here are some pictures of that. it still needs a couple of coats before I am satisfied. I also decided to put a metal plate in where the radio would go because I need more gauges and want them to sit nicely. 16679166801668116682166831668416685166861668716688

[thefreack]

oh sorry for the lighting

[thillskier]

What did those bucket seats come out of? They look really comfortable? Also, if you did install them (not PO) did the mounts work, od did you need aftermarket ones?
Thanks, REally nice looking ride...interesting project as well.

[thefreack]

the seats were out of an eagle talon originally. that is where the sunroof and original motor swap came from. those were all done by the previous owner so I am not sure if there was any real modifications. they look like customer mounting points.

here is some more of my progress. I have laid down another coat of the high gloss black paint on the interior, cleaned up one of the seats, and then put a coat of rubberized paint on the bumper.

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[thefreack]

if the weather is nice I plan on putting a few more coats of black and maybe some clear on the interior. then probably this weekend I will put the seats back in move it back into the garage for re-assembly of the engine components. probably pulling the timing cover to paint it along with possibly putting the back plates in seeing as I forgot to do that last time I had it off. I am also getting a Bluetooth amplifier that I plan on setting up as the receiver for the truck. I get that tomorrow so I will be testing that out. my plan is that the two 6.5 in speakers I will be installing will run off of that board and a cell phone. this will make the space requirements for a stereo cut down drastically. If I am able to get this truck back on the road by next month I will take it to a drift event to have some fun with and show it off.

[thillskier]

Thanks for the info. Great progress my man:)!

[thefreack]

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well I got the intercooler I plan on using mounted. I got the radiator lines hooked up. I will be getting to some piping and installing the gm maf adapter this week. I have my annual training coming up so I will be gone for 2 weeks. I am trying to have most of the work do so that I can fire it up and drive it to a drift event the day I get back.

[geezer101]

The twin cam looks right at home in there. Make sure you take pics of how the seats are mounted up for us - guys are always asking how it's done. Looking great so far! :grin:

[EL.95MAX]

i had the same problem with my clutch cable [[[aftermarket]]] i brought a OEM SOLVE THE problem

[thefreack]

So since you asked about how the seat is mounted I took pictures of the plates that were welded in. the previous owner did all the work.

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[thefreack]

more pics of progress. if you notice I had to make a spacer for the intake because I could not get past the clip for the lower sensor.

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[thefreack]

I ordered the intercooler pipe that I need. should be here in the next couple of days. that will be sweet. one step closer to being back on the road. then sideways.

[thefreack]

Well it has been quite a while since I posted here. Life has been life so it seems. I still have the truck. Currently I still have the entire engine / front end wire harness out of the car because I have been going through it.

I have replaced most of the broken connectors and will be putting it back in the truck at some point.

My family and I are planing to move down to the Carolina's. I am still looking for a job.

I have also been collecting parts for the truck. I like the look of the Montero sport front bumper so I picked up one for the truck. I got a new 320l fuel pump that I will need to install. I purchased a DSM-link ECU for the motor. my plan is to install a PI 4 with ecmlink installed to manage the engine in real time from the dash.

I am looking forward to getting her back up and running but I have a feeling that is still a few months away especially with the move happening.

[geezer101]

Good to see you're still around. Life does that :rolleyes: When the COVID stuff finally blows over people will be looking to hire, just have to be ready and willing. It would've been handy to have the truck on the road for the move...

[KevinB90]

Do you have pics of the backside of the engine? How well does it clear the firewall?