Pics of my white Spirit R/T

[iTurbo]

I finally got my white Spirit R/T running yesterday. This is the car I bought on ebay last January for $1000 buy-it-now. Owner claimed it ran OK, but needed a new turbo. So far I've replaced the turbo with a smaller TII unit, TU oil/coolant lines, new Mopar battery, and a couple other small things. Unfortunately now that it has a good turbo, I can hear a bad rod bearing under load, so it will be going under the knife again soon. I finally took it to the car wash today for it's first bath! I think it lost another couple grams of paint though!!

http://www.turbosedan.com/spirit/DSC03848.JPG

http://www.turbosedan.com/spirit/DSC03849.JPG

http://www.turbosedan.com/spirit/DSC03850.JPG

[86Shelby]

Doesn't look too bad. Especially for a grand.

[omni_840]

Nice Car, Especially for the Price

[shellboy]

very nice!!

[iTurbo]

Thanks guys. It has a little rust, but mostly just the surface rust on the roof. It doesn't feel soft so hopefully it can be sanded and reprimered. The trunk/spare tire well are like brand new! I have all the 'broken teeth' for the grille...should I just use super glue to put them back in, or is there a better way?

The car is fairly optioned out. It has Infinity II stereo, power driver seat, power locks/windows, ABS, trip navigator (standard or optional?). My red one has the power locks/windows and the trip navigator but not much else.

[86Shelby]

Before you try the superglue on your grill I would take a trip to a salvage yard and find another broken Spirit grill, take off a couple broken peices and try gluing those together. Superglue can make some plastics soft and not adhere. Take the chance of that on some other worthless plastic. :thumb:

[Turbo224]

Use some 3M plastic epoxy available at any parts store. That stuff dries rock solid and you can actually shape it a little to your liking. Then when it dries you will be able to sand down and paint if needed.

[lotharamc]

Use some of that molding type stuff people put on the trailing edge of their car doors to protect them from dings in a parking lot. Use the epoxy, put it where you would otherwise, then put some more in a piece of the molding stuff, and press it into the back side. You can even do more than one section if you cut slits for the vertical bars.

[iTurbo]

I'll have to try the molding and epoxy thing, thanks for the ideas guys. I would hate to fix it only to have them blown off going down the highway. Nice white ES/RT grilles are really hard to find these days.

Also, the driver side skirt is starting to come off...Is the hardware for these still available? It looks like it was riveted in (?), but I couldn't see any holes along the body for them.

I'm going to replace the short block in the car with the 2.5L TIII I've already got. I was going to put it in my SL, but the SL is running/driving just fine anyway so....at least then I'll know if I really like the 2.5L TIII thing or not. I just hope the crankshaft in the car now is still OK!

[TurboSedan]

I can hear a bad rod bearing under load, so it will be going under the knife again soon.

i don't know, after driving in the car today i really don't think that noise is a rod bearing :confused2: it sounded more like an accessory pulley rattling. the engine actually sounded pretty healthy to me. i think we should go ahead and try driving it up here to Gillette as is.

the car looks sooooooo much better now that it's clean!

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Joshua Mitchell
'91 Dodge SPiRiT R/T
'87 Shelby CSX #667
'98 Buick Regal GS

[iTurbo]

Yeah, hard to say what the noise is. It definitely doesn't sound like other rod bearing failures I've had, and it's strange that it came about after letting the car sit for a few weeks while I worked on it. The tensioner and idler pullies for the timing belt and accessory belt are all new. So I don't think that they are the culprits. Car still makes great oil pressure too. It sounded to me like it was coming from the front side of the engine....balance shaft chain/tensioner perhaps?

[Pat]

A loose crank pulley can sound a lot like a rod bearing.

[iTurbo]

Thanks Pat I will have to check that out. It's very possible since I didn't have any help with the car this time around. It's a bugger trying to tighten those bolts without help. The noise sure looked like it was coming from the crank pulley area.