Joey's Budget Rallycar: RallyX #10 - Oakshade Raceway

[Cowboys965]

Cool color for a car And are you keeping it an Automatic?

 

[Joey D]

The 17's are going away, they weigh 20lbs a piece or something. I'm not sure what we are going to go with but my buddy works at Discount Tire and can get us a sizable discount. I'd really like RPF1's for it.

And no the trans is getting pulled along with the motor in favour of a 5 speed.

 

[NISM0_SKYLINE]

If you're going to get RFP1s, talk to Eric. He can get yous 'da hook up.

 

[Cano]

ooooooooh ultrahyperlimegreen two door Neon! Went better than expected!! I'll for sure be following this along, I learned to drive stick in a 5 speed Neon!

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

By request:

 

[Joey D]

Yesterday we felt like it was no time like the present to go ahead and remove the blown engine and the automatic trans. It went easier than expected and we ended up tearing apart the bottom end to figure out what was wrong with the engine and see if it was repairable at all.

We tore done the engine sort of part by part since we did not have a cherry picker or an engine start.

The bottom end looked pretty good at first.

And after some man handling and a floor jack we managed to pull the engine out from the bottom of the car. It was extremely easy to disconnect it since it was only riding on one really bad motor mount. I was actually impressed the car drove before with the engine flopping around too much.

Hmmm...why yes there is no engine in there.

Now on to the trans, which was probably even easier to drop and came out without a hitch.

And on one of our breaks we we joking around about engines so we first tried a JDM swap...

Then one to a USDM swap...

After messing around for a bit I worked on disconnect everything else from the engine bay like power steering, the A/C and tubing we didn't need. We didn't have anything to cut the lines with since my buddy hardly has any tools in his garage so I ended up improvising. Nothing says I'm a mechanic like cutting hoses with a saw!

Looked pretty good once everything was gone.

While I was cleaning up the engine bay the other two guys tore down the bottom end to see what was wrong. It was full of things that did not belong in that part of the engine. It was seriously awful.

So we pulled this out of the oil pan.

And we were pretty sure oil shouldn't be a milky, metallic, silver colour.

And the oil pick up shouldn't be clogged with metal flakes.

It turns out piston #1 was completely gone and was all kinds of a broken.

While the other guys were tearing into the bottom end I went ahead and power washed the car to get all the grease, grim, caked on oil and whatever else was on the car off. So much stuff came off the car the driveway was like the rainbow road from Mario Kart . I think it turned out pretty good though.

Tomorrow we are going to head to the junk yard to start buying parts. I'm also on the look out for a set of Koni's and a bushing kit for the car. We are going to go with the 2.4L swap so we are searching around for that too.

 

[Zenith]

Great progress 👍

Koni's are expensive, but so worth it.

 

[Joey D]

Ya a set of Koni's would run about $1,000 or more new for the car, but enough guys are parting out ACR Neon's I should be able to snag some off that for a good price.

 

[hemisport15]

Ya a set of Koni's would run about $1,000 or more new for the car, but enough guys are parting out ACR Neon's I should be able to snag some off that for a good price.

Are you getting Koni adjustable coilovers or just shocks? Because you can build a full coilover setup with the spring rates that you want and then get some Koni shocks for about $1,000.

$419 for the coils
http://www.ground-control-store.com/products/description.php/II=564/CA=26

and then you have another ~$600 to spend on shocks.

Then again, I don't know anything about what type of suspension you would need for track and autocross racing. I just saw the price you were looking at for a suspension system and thought that might be a little helpful.

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Quick note from what I know (albeit not much) about Neons: Keep the throttle body. The autos had a larger TB than the manuals.

 

[Joey D]

We are just looking for the shocks right now. I don't think we want to get coilovers since that will blown most of our budget. There are other things we need to focus on that are more important, like getting rims that aren't broken or heavy, getting tires and redoing the brake system with better pads.

Quick note from what I know (albeit not much) about Neons: Keep the throttle body. The autos had a larger TB than the manuals.

I should be different on the Stratus motor I would think, but we do still have all the parts in a big crate.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

I assume it will be kinda like this:

 

[DromeGT]

Car looks good bro.

I think I know what color I will re spray my Pug 106

 

[Joey D]

Yup that's about what the car will be like once we are finished. Probably not as nice looking though, but defiantly less stuff under the hood. We are going to be pulling the ABS, power steering and A/C. The battery is also being relocated to the back.

Today Jasper (the Asian guy) and I went down to inner city Detroit to a very hood junkyard, but it had everything under the sun. We've found some cars that would work to pull the engine and trans out of, we just didn't have a vehicle to get it home with today. We did however get some mirrors, shift linkage, dials, some interior panels and a laundry list of other odds and ends. We are pretty much ready to get the engine and trans since all the extra stuff is accounted for.

We also sanded the rust off the engine bay and started to paint it. I found a colour at Home Depot that is almost identical, unfortunately I only bought one can so we were short and couldn't finish everything. I think it's really going to clean up the engine bay nicely. And don't mind the over spray, it's not like that's going to be seen anyway.

And the reason the bumper is two different colours is because that's where we were testing the paint at. It'll get one shade once I get some more paint.

 

[SVX]

Very clean!

 

[High-Test]

Sweet build, Joey. Keep up the good work.

 

[turboash78]

Keep them updates coming!

 

[homeforsummer]

We are going to be pulling ... power steering

Wise? Lots of muscling around in a FWD car with a large lump of engine in the front around an autocross course. I'd want to be keeping power assistance.

 

[Perfect Balance]

I also say keep the power steering but ONLY because you're going to be autocrossing.

On the other hand, it might keep you from inducing plowing understeer. I see a lot of people at autocross turn in and the car understeers, and they just keep cranking on the wheel like it's going to turn better eventually or something.

Then they proceed to fumble the steering wheel when they exit the corner and realize the wheels are still turning at full lock.

 

[CodeRedR51]

I see a lot of people at autocross turn in and the car understeers, and they just keep cranking on the wheel like it's going to turn better eventually or something.

Local drifters do this A LOT...

 

[Perfect Balance]

Local drifters do this A LOT...

Most drifters and autocrossers alike suck at driving in general. There's always a far higher percentage of people that suck compared to people who are actually good.

 

[homeforsummer]

On the other hand, it might keep you from inducing plowing understeer. I see a lot of people at autocross turn in and the car understeers, and they just keep cranking on the wheel like it's going to turn better eventually or something.

I agree with this sentiment. I spent my first six years of driving without power steering and it's undoubtedly made me a much smoother driver since I moved to cars with power assistance. You're forced into making smoother inputs and get a much better feeling for what the front tyres are doing at the limit of grip. It's a feeling I've transferred to cars with PAS, where you don't feel as much through the rim but you still know the limits when you reach them.

There are some cars I wouldn't swap a manual rack for the world in, but something like that Neon wouldn't be one of them. I doubt the gains outweigh the benefits of being able to quickly wind on a lot of lock when required and I'd rather ensure that as a driver I drove smoothly than being forced to drive smoothly by a manual rack.

 

[Bottoz]

... We are going to be pulling the ABS, power steering and A/C.

Good move. I prefer a race car without ABS, PS and AC. You don't need it, so take it out (Loop the Power Steering rack) and save the weight!

 

[Joey D]

Why no power steering? Because race car.

Honestly though we thinking the power steering is either on it's last legs or completely gone. If we wanted to keep it we would have to replace the whole system and that doesn't seem like a good use of time or money. Plus the car should be lighter when we are through with it and have a decent steering wheel, so it shouldn't be that bad. It's also going to deter one of our team mates from joyriding with the car since he can't understand why we aren't making the car easy to drive and comfortable .

I think we are going to end up keeping the ABS but just have the ability to yank the fuse to turn it off. I have a feeling we are going to be driving the car to the events since we have no place to store a trailer. I don't want to be caught in a situation where I lock up the brakes. None of us are used to driving a car without ABS so it might cause problems not having it. Once we are to the track though it's being turned off.

 

[homeforsummer]

Might have missed this but what kind of track stuff will you actually be doing? Circuit racing or exclusively autocross? Cos again, if the latter I think I'd much prefer power steering, and conversely I wouldn't be too bothered with ABS on an autocross track.

 

[Joey D]

Autocross, track days and eventual road course racing.

 

[homeforsummer]

Yeah, personally then I'd take power assistance over ABS. If you're going to lock a wheel anywhere it's better to do it on the track than on a public road! And power steering will just help reduce fatigue a little. I know a Neon isn't quite a go-kart but the non-assisted cars I've driven on track are much closer to the arms-hanging-off feeling you get after going karting than the assisted cars are!

 

[Yrkshrpudding]

You probably already know this but last couple of times I was at Waterford Hills there were 2 or 3 spec Neons running behind the Miata's. You know you want to join in....

 

[Cano]

haha I hadn't seen the piston carnage pictures. Ouch.

Be sure to look around the yunkyard when you go for the drivetrian, to see if there are any cool old cars, and snap pics! lol

 

[Joey D]

We finally got a chance to head down to the junkyard today to try and get an engine and trans.The engine wasn't so successful as everything we found was either blown or had too many miles on it. But we did manage to snag a transmission along with some other goodies.

Here's the 5-speed out of another donor Neon, it was seriously way more difficult to get then then it should have been but everything was being temperamental.

We also managed to score the clutch pedal assembly and the e-brake, which is oddly missing on our Neon.

The stock gauge cluster didn't have tach on it so we pulled that off the donor car for the trans too. We are going to need to figure out how to adjust the odometer though since the original one has about 40,000 less miles on it.

Since the car is going to be a hopped up Neon with a bigger engine we figured it earned R/T badges. Also we have no clue if it's a Dodge or a Plymouth Neon, all the parts have Dodge on them but the title says Plymouth. I grabbed both badges and we are just going to put on whatever one looks the best.

Then on the way out we came across a Ford Escort that had participate in a Chump Car race recently and had been junked. It was painted like the General Lee and it caught out attention so we went over to see if any race goodies were in it. Turns out we really lucked out and ended up scoring 4 Falken Azenis on steelies for $60. We were quite happy with the score and they about 60% of their tread left on them which is good for a few races.

Tomorrow we are planning on starting to put some of the car together, but it all depends on how ambitious we feel.