some progress on the blue Spirit R/T

[TurboSedan]

well for the first time since i bought my Spirit R/T over two months ago, i finally did something to it! up until now the only things i have done is remove those riced out graphic stickers that were on it and put it on a trailer to haul it down to my new place.

the turbo was completely trashed; i've never felt so much shaft play. it was just flopping around inside. after i removed it i found oil all over inside. there is no way this thing can be rebuilt since it looks like the compressor wheel had obviously come into contact with the housing. i also removed a few other things in preparation for removing the cylinder head. the bottom of the intercooler is filled with oil, along with oil all over the throttle body and intercooler hoses. even the downpipe has oil all over in it. i pulled the cam covers off and it appears to be extremely clean inside. from what i can tell so far all of the cam lobes look perfectly smooth. only one lifter was missing that plastic retainer piece, other than that minor detail the valvetrain looked absolutely great. i haven't cleaned the valley area yet, but i looked very closely with a bright flashlight and i cannot see any signs of cracks. it still has the original steel core plugs, but so far it looks fine. the spark plugs looked really bad - looked like they had milkshake oil on the threads but fwiw i found them to be VERY loose....like just barely more than handtight so maybe that had something to do with it? the previous owner told me he thought the head gasket was blown because it was smoking so bad but i think it was obviously the turbo. the coolant in the radiator is bright green and does not appear to be contaminated, and the motor oil is clean and full as well. i do plan on having the head pressure checked, valve job with new guides, resurfaced (?) along with new FWDP lifters and titanium retainers and cometic HG. i'm probably just going to locate a stock turbo for now although i would love to get a .63 stg-II 50-trim later. i just need to get this thing running first and fix all of the issues leftover from the previous owner.

i also removed the front bumper and cover. the previous owner said he hit a pole while drunk. thankfully no damage at all besides the bumper cover and the bumper itself needs to be replaced. i have already located a replacement ES bumper cover in a local salvage yard.

it was dark out, snowing and 21*F, all inside of a tiny garage that has no electricity. i made due with my maglight i also don't have a jack so it was kind of ----- cramming myself under the car to unbolt the downpipe hah. feels good finally making some progress though! anyway, here are some progress pics:

yeah, the previous owner decided to paint the cam covers orange. yuk.


oil in the downpipe:












the lower lip appears to be good, so i guess i'll keep that:




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Joshua Mitchell
'91 Dodge Spirit R/T
'98 Buick Regal GS