🔧 BUILD Luke's Blue Turbo Prix

[CHI2000GTP]

...24hrs later...

Checked vacuum hoses, sensor connections, removed MAF, pulled front plugs. It ran better with MAF removed. Front plugs looked good. When hunched over doings spark plus, I notice this big ass hole in the throttle body. It's the vacuum tube going to the BOV when it had an M90 still. It was capped with a rubber nipple. The head of that nipple must of dry rotted and blew off during a turbo pull. LOL. Capped the hole with new pointy nipple.

All is well now. She's back up and running good. MakeAme soo Happy. At the same time I'm thinking.... Man I hate this car. Blown of nipple.... F YOU!!

 

[bimmer4life]

...24hrs later...

Checked vacuum hoses, sensor connections, removed MAF, pulled front plugs. It ran better with MAF removed. Front plugs looked good. When hunched over doings spark plus, I notice this big ass hole in the throttle body. It's the vacuum tube going to the BOV when it had an M90 still. It was capped with a rubber nipple. The head of that nipple must of dry rotted and blew off during a turbo pull. LOL. Capped the hole with new pointy nipple.

All is well now. She's back up and running good. MakeAme soo Happy. At the same time I'm thinking.... Man I hate this car. Blown of nipple.... F YOU!!

What are those plugs gapped at?

 

[CHI2000GTP]

What are those plugs gapped at?

Had to ask previous owner. Was told "perhaps .035"

 

[ithurtz]

something like that .045 at the largest. Those are your plugs so whatever you gapped em at.

 

[SaturdaysGS]

I had to run .030 on Autolite 103’s to not have issues at high rpm.. but I believe I was running L26/L36 coils.

 

[CHI2000GTP]

something like that .045 at the largest. Those are your plugs so whatever you gapped em at.

I didn’t gap nothing yet. Those plugs have life. Those rears look like a bitch to do. Hope they last forevaa. Zero room to wrench back there with that wastegate.

I have high hopes that this car is finally going to be good to me. 1 year anniversary coming up now, Oct. 13th.

 

[bimmer4life]

Had to ask previous owner. Was told "perhaps .035"

They looked pretty big.

 

[CHI2000GTP]

I can't believe my luck. Landed a practically new Dell laptop, running XP!!

Doesn't sound impressive, but this is significant. I needed a dedicated XP machine for tuning. I have the DHP/AVT box, and all cables. I procured all the software last Friday, 10/18. All I needed was to get the software running. All three laptops at home run Windows 10. Despite available hacks and tricks to make DHP PowrTuner work on W10, I really just wanted an XP machine and zero headaches. Craigslist had slim pickings. So yesterday, one of the building managers swings by my desk, and hands me a Dell laptop. He tells me the construction crews found it behind furniture while renovating one of our floors. I work in I.T., so the laptop finds itself in my hands for wiping and disposal. Welp! It's a 2007 Dell D620 running XP. Hott Damnn. It has an Asset Tag, but it doesn't show on any of our systems. Talked to the Boss man, he said it's all mine. Haha. Awesome. Best part is, the laptop was used only as a way of accessing a virtual PC (cloud) through a remote connection. This thing never had a document saved locally in its life. Never had any questionable software installed or questionable websites visited. It is completely, 100%, unmolested! Last time this laptop was logged into was January, 2008.

Ready to start tuning this Beast.

 

[CHI2000GTP]

Been working on the GPO's. Finished product. They look OKAYY

Paint is less than decent :\ Blame it on my hill-billy paint box with side heater. Haha! The metal grills got baked for 20min and 320*.

Grills are firmly screwed in. Should hold real nice.

 

[TrboGT]

Nice work. I don't have any mesh or anything behind, just the trans cooler/intercooler there. I like your idea. Where did you get the material from?

My big boy turbo build was finished last year. Bored out, pistons the whole deal. New ST5 cam. Not a cheap endeavor. Then freak accident and it sucked in an aluminum plug. So its at Triple Edge again getting a new piston and having the heads worked on again. I hadn't even gone wide open throttle yet! Still have another GTP at home that i have been making look "new" again. Just got back from paint. Driving my Silverado around everywhere was just too expensive. So glad to have the car around as an option. Save the truck for lowes trips, haha.

 

[CHI2000GTP]

Freak accident, huh? That sucks! Glad there someone else out there building turbo Prix's.

I got the metal mesh material on eBay a couple of years ago. It's meant for Grand Prix's and comes formed to fit the existing holes in the front air dam. To work with my idea, it just needed to be flattened, trimmed to size, and repainted. Most people mount these GPO's inserts without anything behind them. I've seen that but just couldn't warm up to how it looked. Always thought these GPO's would look good with that particular mesh behind them. I've been wanting to get these done for a while now.

 

[TrboGT]

It has an fbody upper and lower intake, one of the holes I plugged, there wasn't enough thread/material for the plug to hold onto. It had been fine for a few years. I'm just irritated it didn't do it to one of the couple of junkyard engines I've been through. Instead it decided to do so to a motor I spent thousands on. Oh well, live and learn. Will be done here shortly. Pistons arrived a few days back. I love the turbo car, but I seemed to have more fun when it was slower and top swapped like 14 years ago. Lol. Thats why I still have the GTP as well.

Back to your topic. I like them without the mesh behind them, I will have to find a picture to post. But it does kind of give off the GTO vibe. Not that that is a problem either. It's probably just because the ridges in my bumper are smoothed and the hood that I have that contributes to that. I am ready for winter to be over already!

 

[CHI2000GTP]

Got the old girl up the air today. Got a code for the front oxygen sensor so a got new Delco replacement. Rock auto also got me to spend the extra coin on a nice wrench. Put in new sway bar links and washed the air filter. Diode Dynamics had a 20% off sale so I bought some rear corner marker LED's and some powerful reverse LED's.

 

[Dave M]

I'm no GTP expert, but those end inks don't look to be installed correctly...

 

[CHI2000GTP]

Hmm... I think they’re installed correctly now, the pic on the right, with the top and bottom washers.
I do consider myself somewhat of a GTP expert, lol.
Does anyone else know? Is that the correct way?

 

[Ron Vogel]

I’m late to the party, but if you are changing out a narrow band o2 sensor, just use ones for a 98 Viper and butt splice them. Did it on my last three cars, just keep lead length the same

 

[Dave M]

Hmm... I think they’re installed correctly now, the pic on the right, with the top and bottom washers.
I do consider myself somewhat of a GTP expert, lol.
Does anyone else know? Is that the correct way?

You should have a bushing on the top and bottom of the sway bar like a sandwich.

 

[CHI2000GTP]

Damn. You’re right man. That looks like it would work a lot better too. I need to fix that pronto. Thanks for chiming in!

 

[Dave M]

Damn. You’re right man. That looks like it would work a lot better too. I need to fix that pronto. Thanks for chiming in!

No worries, sorry for trolling earlier, I should've just told you they weren't right

 

[CHI2000GTP]

Fixed the sway bar links! Ordered new MOOG ones from RockAuto with the improved design. The new design is so much better. No pics of this though.


Both front wheels were humming and super sqeaky. Replaced both front bearings with new AC Delco's. The car rides so smooth now!
When putting everything back together the caliper guide pins just would not cooperate. They were not sitting well in the bracket for some reason.
Was getting super Pissed and confused. Pulled the brackets off the red car. Those worked great. Guide pins went in and behaved like they should. Car comes to a stop so much better now. Shitty part is the brakes are 2 different colors now. Got a Captain America look going on.

 

[CHI2000GTP]

Here's some pics of how the bad the oil leak was. It was dripping all the way down the subframe. The motor mount bracket hole was a pool of oil. I pulled the balancer, took me like 3 days. Yes, 3. Problem being that 1 of the bolts kept popping out of the threaded holes in the balancer. Threads were Fuk'd! Ended up putting globs of JB weld on that bolt and going full ape when torqueing the bolt into the busted threads. I let the JB weld cure... And finally got it off. It was awful. I was starting to panick that it wouldn’t come off…. Anyway, deep groove on that balancer shaft.

Also included a pic of the correct way to install subframe links. To add to my woes, I somehow lost the lower trim from the passenger door. Arghhh

And the gasket that ZZP sent me is a little janky I think....

 

[CHI2000GTP]

Made a dumb mistake. Broke a bolt off, in the block :| Started bolting down the front cover, but didn't remember about the crank sensor and the 1/2" of distance the bolts would need in order to hold it on. Well, wasn't thinking really, bolt wasn't getting close to the timing cover (cuz crank sensor was missing) and I kept tightening, and snap. Didn't take much force either. Very disappointing. Pics below. My plan is to just forget about that bolt. Have about 3/4" of threaded bolt welded to the front cover itself, to at least hold the sensor in place. And hope the other timing cover bolts hold the cover in place well enough to have no leaks. RTV the shyt out of it too. Sucks though.

Now that I have the front cover off again, I decided to mill down the oil pump cover since it's for sure being nicked by the chain. Which explains the metallic "TINK-TINK-TINK" sound that I've been hearing. You can see the circular scratch in the pic. It's a ZZP cover, supposedly milled down .020 already, but you know how ZZP quality goes. It will be milled down another .015. But anyway, when trying to take the cover off, one of the bolts holding it in rounded on me. Dammmn it. Tried J/B welding the torx socket directly to the bolt, and tried it 24hrs later. Snapped right off. WTF.

This timing cover has been a nightmare. First the harmonic balance would not come off, then the bolt I snapped, and now the oil cover bolt that rounded. Jeeze.

 

[CHI2000GTP]

Got everything back. Got the threaded stud welded in, to hold the crank sensor. Has a little bit of a cavity on the back side to allow room for the broken off piece.
Oil pump cover was removed and milled another .015 , for a total of .035

 

[TrboGT]

CHI2000GTP You're getting a lot done this season sir. Well done! What all do you have left on the to-do list?

 

[Nate]

This build is awesome! Miss my days working for Pontiac