Picked this diamond in the rough from a Jbody friend for $350.
What more can I say.

Its a automatic, great interior, body is physically great just needs some paint work.
Motor is strong for having 214k miles.

Plan is before the summer is up, grab a low mileage LD9 and do a mild rebuild.
*2.3 oil pump swap
*Secret Cams
*Replace every gasket, seal, have head cleaned, hydro tested and decked, replace valve seals, etc
And then drop it in.

Exterior - Have a few things planned.
*"Evil Eyes" welded on and hood painted(Not sure if body color or black)
*Trunk bar painted body color
*Tail lights blacked out
*A and C-Pillars, roof and spoiler painted black
*Wheels
*Lowered

Performance - Not gonna go crazy, not at least on this motor.
*Coilpack swap^
*Intake^
*EGR delete
*Evap delete
*2.3 LO intake manifold and throttle body
*Header
*Muffler with dual exits going to factory tips
*Upper motor mount insert, lower solid dogbone

Suspension - this is where I'm not sure exactly how far I want to go
*ENERGY end-link bushings
*ENERGY sway bar bushings
*Control arm bushings
*5mm rear wheel spacers^

I'll add more as I get things done.
Onto the pictures.

When I first got it.
Exterior:




Underhood:




Interior:




I'll update as I get work done on it.



Building it one piece at a time

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this thread !

Did a little tinkering.

Was able to adapt the intake from my eagle talon for the EvilFire(yeah I picked the corniest name I could think of lol).




After a few days of owning.. okay the next day. It started to idle really rough.
So I grabbed the coilpack off of my Talon, since the 420a motor it has is pretty much the same thing as in the neons.
Which means I can use the coilpack to replace the LD9's DIS.

So when I went to the junkyard to get the speakers, I grabbed a extra ICM pigtail that goes to the coilpack, and spliced it with the coilpack off the Talon...
And boom, no more rough idle.

Now mind you, this was a TEST only, I'm not running this coilpack like this.
I'm gonna grab some plug wires off of a 3800, or early 2.2(not the 2200) so I can mount the coilpack off the side of the motor.
This was a "proof of concept" test so to speak.


And the dirty old spark plugs.


Runs much better.
After doing this swap, what I thought(as well as previous owner) was a bad lifter(loud ticking sound) has disappeared.


Only plans for this week is to install the 5mm rear wheel spacers I have from the Talon, and do some cleaning under the hood(wire tucking, and cleaning up that oil mess).
And possibly relocating the cruise control to the firewall(I believe the throttle cable has JUST enough length to do it on a LD9, we'll see).






Building it one piece at a time

take that hood off. and burn it. hahahaha. ill be watching this thread for sure. nice start

For spark plugs get some NGK #3951. Usually a $1.49 a plug and work great!!

Get the IDI cover back on to make it look better.



FU Tuning

good start. ive got secret cams for sale. pm me for info if you wish.

nice pickup!

What is going on with the eclipse?

Glad to see you back man.



PRND321 Till I DIE
Old Motor: 160whp & 152ft/lbs, 1/4 Mile 15.4 @88.2
M45 + LD9 + 4T40-E, GO GO GO

I believe the ones I got were CR5 or something like that. they were NGK and only ones they had in stock, like $2 a pop. seems to run good.




Building it one piece at a time

Sorry for the single post above, guess I can't delete my own posts?


Anyhow to answer/reply to comments so far.
Hopefully the hood will have the "Evil Eyes" welded on before the end of the month and I can get it painted.
At the time it was "ugly hood" or go without any hood, I opted for Ugly Hood.

I plan on putting the IDI cover back on as soon as I acquire longer plug wires that will fit under the cover.
And I have time to scrub down and degrease the motor from the 214k worth of oil residue lol

The Talon is pretty much gone, block is cracked and I cannot source a motor, or lone block that I can afford. Sold several parts off of it, and now waiting for a friend to come pick up the shell.



I'll have pics up later tonight, but have a few small updates/upgrades being acquired.
Got a MSD coilpack to swap out the factory 420a coilpack with, just gotta get a different year pigtail at a junkyard.
Will also grab a few parts as well including a power mirror switch, sun visors and a few other odds and ends I need.

Got a 2.3 LO manifold coming here in a week or two - already shaved and ready to be painted(IE the 2.3 brackets cut off and ground smooth).

And acquired some "Secret Cams", they will be installed in a few months once I'm ready to replace the noisy lifter and do a timing chain/water pump/header install.
Figured be more reasonable to do it all at one time then to open the motor several times.

Also picked up a flowmaster series 30, I'm afraid it may be too loud but it was free so I'll try it.
Wanting to get it welded on before the factory split, and get the stock mufflers replaced with some straight pipe so it keeps the factory "dual" exhaust - because I actually do like the look.





And apparently I need to update my signature because after 3 years of absence, its broken lol





Building it one piece at a time

Here's the 2.3 manifold I'm getting, already shaved - just need a 2.3 throttle body.



Grabbed some plug wires off of a 3800(well technically two, as only 3 wires are of the long length).
And got the MSD coilpack hooked up.
Just gotta make a bracket to mount the coilpack onto.
And clean up the wiring when I start working on tucking the other wiring.


And gave the motor/bay a fast washing at the car wash, looks better.


Also got the heater core hooked back up, having heat is a great pleasure lol



Not shown is I've got the rear bumper marker lights working, both tag light lights work again...

On a side note - keyless module must be defective as when I tried to enter the program mode, it just constantly unlocks the drivers door and nothing else.

Also power mirrors, cig and dome lights still dont work.
Was told could possibly be some module under the dash, so those are my next projects.



Building it one piece at a time

Looking good!

Still interested in the control arms with Poly bushings I had listed on Facebook?

I didn't realize that was you - always forget whose who lol
I'll see what I have left after getting a few things.
Can you message me on Facebook?


Well had a incident on the highway, and had the hood fly up and rip itself apart, luckily didn't damaged the windshield or roof(that bad).
Had to take it off, luckily I had tools in my trunk.

But today I went down to the pic a part and grabbed a hood and latch cable - because apparently I misunderstand that you CAN replace the cable.
So got a unbroken cable and installed the factory latch again.

Sucks because the $60 I spent on the hood and latch.. I had put back to buy the 2.3 manifold and get my mufflers welded on.
Oh well - Safety > Modding


Safe again!



Also grabbed a new keyless module, so now it goes into 'program' mode.. then i realized I dont have a power trunk popper -_- so gotta find one of those now.

Not sure how this mod will work, but rewired the front 'fogs' so they are always on bright, and dim during the turn signal.
I'm not sure how it'll work at night, but hopefully it'll function as fog lights now.
If not(I'm worried the "turn" flash wont be visible) I'm gonna get complicated and wire in a relay to switch between the "fog" signal and a "turn" signal.. or something.

Factory(drivers) after(passenger)

And the new set up(running lights)





My birthday is on the 22nd, hoping to get a few "upgrades" from family, including some body colored paint so I can attempt to fix the front bumper, top of trunk(spoiler will be black) and the passenger side.
Not looking for a 'show' quality paint job, but better than how it looks now.



ON a side note, whats the best gauge of sheet metal for welding on "evil eyes"?



Building it one piece at a time

Well its been a while.
Not much has happened, did get a ENERGY upper motor mount insert for my Bday..


Not much has happened since then, and up till today.
The local junkyard had a bucket sale, where anything you can fit in a 5gallon bucket is one price.
So I loaded up

Sadly they did not have the main parts I wanted; 2.3 LO manifold, Cobalt battery cable(for trunk relocation of battery) and a 00+ starter/intake(LD9, intake was in case I couldnt find the 2.3 wanted to delete EGR).
But did score a few parts I wanted for the sunfire;
-Remote trunk popper
-Sunvisors
-Wiper control switch(mine will turn on.. then stay on until you wiggle and bang on the switch)
-Amber front markers(00-02 SE model)
-Replacement LD9 ICM(mine has well over 200l, the one I found had 101k)
-H3 headlight bulb harnesses(for a project)
I'm sure I;m forgetting something lol

Also picked up a few parts I'm gonna sell to get spending money for the GT.
But here are some pictures.


Sunvisors(Wish they had some graphite ones);

New vs Old
.

Remote trunk popper(FINALLY).

Also had the cable for a inside pop lever, I would like to rig something up to pop it from inside(cable was cut when I got it, or I would of grabbed the whole thing).

I gave up on re-qiring the front clear markers to work as fog lights, as they caused the turn signal relay to think the bulb was burned out and constantly flashed like it had a bulb butned out.
So I grabbed some amber markers from a 00-02 SE and I think I'm gonna run them.






And....
I cleaned the interior(the dash, console, doors, etc not carpet lol) got tired of the dull looking graphite panels.






Still gotta figure out why the power mirrors dont work, and the interior light/dome lights dont work.

Hopefully I can sell the parts I got today and get some spending funds for the GT, I really wanna get the Flowmaster 10 series muffler welded on.(going to straight pipe where the OEM mufflers are, and run a single 10 series before the GT exhaust splits into duals behind the rear frame).




Building it one piece at a time

Finally got around to working on the cruise control relocation.
Its not final, still have to modify the firewall slightly(pretty much make a small groove/channel) to allow the cruise cable proper clearance.

And I only have... duct tape securing the module at the moment, I wanted to test fit everything and test drive it first.
So next I will be bolting down the module inside the firewall.


There is JUST enough room for the CC to reach the throttle body, I'd prefer to drill a hole into the side of the firewall over going over the top like I did, but IMO it looks just fine this way.


And the 'finished' product.



Also cleaned up the rat nest of wiring on the drivers side, still want to do more, but this is better than before(second photo is before)... actually its hard to see... but it is cleaner lol
Also wrapped the horrible dealership recall fix job on the starter relay... not visible here but theres not a bunch of random colored wires laying everywhere between battery and starter.




Also moved the injector harness below the manifold, FPR vac line and the CPS behind the fuel rail.(again second photo is before).




THats about it for now...
One day I'll have funds and can get some actual upgrades.



Building it one piece at a time

I put my cruise control in the cabin of the car. Pretty much under the dash near steering column and pedals.



FU Tuning

Addicted to meth wrote:I put my cruise control in the cabin of the car. Pretty much under the dash near steering column and pedals.

I'm guessing you had to extend the cable?

I'm fine with it where it is now, got it bolted down and it works like it should.

My son bought a bandaid from a book fair few weeks ago, and wanted to put it on the Sunfire's "booBoo" and I couldnt say no.

Hard to see, but I love the amber markers over the stock clear on the 95-99 GT's.



Today I've begun the work on making the motor "pretty" again.
It is far from perfect, or even close to being done but for about 30 minutes of sanding its already looking better.






Building it one piece at a time

GM charger kit came with a longer cable. I think it might be the same as a LN2, but not 100%.



FU Tuning

Love the bandaid lol. And engine coming along nicely. Never heard of sanding it to clean? Interesting. Not afraid of it rusting or am i missing something?


ReD RaiN

T!M8!T wrote:Love the bandaid lol. And engine coming along nicely. Never heard of sanding it to clean? Interesting. Not afraid of it rusting or am i missing something?

I'm polishing it, so sanding it is necessary lol

Did some more polishing;






Not shown(havent uploaded pics) I took off the Neon/DSM coilpack swap and went to the 2200 swap. Looks much cleaner.



Building it one piece at a time

Nothing huge to report or update with...

Blacked out the trunk bar, and tinted the tail lights.

Got a set of MOOG end-links and sway bar bushings I'm gonna install next week or so.
Not necessarily a "upgrade", but should stiffen the front end up a little bit over the worn out 217k stock bushings.



Building it one piece at a time

Opps...
Photos!

I need to adjust the right taillight over to the center more.



Gotta start prepping the top part of trunk for getting some body color on it here soon....



Building it one piece at a time

Why not some energy suspension sway bar end links? you can get them fro your local parts store, cheap.



FU Tuning

Pretty sure MOOG uses the same material Energy does.
I used ENERGY on the ol' Cavfire, and these MOOG feel exactly the same.
Only difference I can tell is the color.

Jumping ahead...
Passenger side done.

Dirvers side done.


Apparently someone replaced the drivers side at some point... but its still pretty darn warn out.

Either someone went nuts tightening the end-link, or they just wore out bad.
Also seems they just bought the bushings, cos they had the OEM bolt on it, which is a little thinner than the new one.

AND well the passenger side was still stock.. and broke into three pieces.


but.. there was an issue.
This sub-frame is full of cancer.

Luckily my local self serve junkyard has a half off sale, so I'll be grabbing a new sub-frame and hopefully a larger sway bar as well, as I've been told they have a 05 LSS in the yard.


Since the sub-frame will be replaced ASAP, I'm gonna grab some ENERGY control arm bushings, new balljoints and sway bar bushings while its all out of the car.
Might even grab a set of the solid steering rack bushings if I have enough funds left over.
I'll collect the parts throughout July and do the actual swap at the end of the month.

Even with the broken bracket, it still made a huge improvement over the old end-links.


Also switched from the Neon/DSM set up to the 2200 set up,




And it was a PITA to install because the new end-link bolts were much shorter, so I had to first get the nut on, tighten down the bushings, use a C-clamp to keep tension then I could take off the nut and install the top washer.




Building it one piece at a time

Looking good, should deff make for improvement. Those d bushings are a pain in the *ss


ReD RaiN