So some of you may have heard off-hand mention of the fact that myself and a local guy i recently met decided to go in on making my old Aries into a Grassroots Motorsports Magazine $2009 Challenge car. If you've never heard of that event, you have $2009 (this year) to buy, build, and race any car in the event. It's one of the most interesting competitions out there to me, since the rules are pretty wide open. There are also a few people on this forum who've entered turbo dodges in past years, but I havent talked to any of them about it yet. We're going in blind! lol.
The car is my 89 Dodge Aries. I bought the thing way back in the day for $100 as a 2.2 tbi auto with a thrown rod. It's an LE, no options other than front buckets. Its been through a lot of renditions with various parts i had laying around. It stayed tbi the whole time but ended up being a lightly modded 2.5 tbi with a 555 that ran 17.0 and got me 27-29mpg as a daily beater. Eventually i took the motor out to put into my current daily driver 2.5/523 caravan (27-33mpg!!!) and it sat for a good long while.
When i met Mason, he brought up the GRM challenge and i immediately offered that i had a car and a bunch of parts laying around, and we decided to use the Aries. When we started i had put it back together as a 2.5tbi/auto that was just complete enough to drive it around the yard (because i have to play musical cars with my collection whenever i have to move something).
Pretty much immediately we found an 89 turbo caravan on craigslist for fairly cheap. It had 250k miles and tranny issues but it ran and drove and included such niceties as a big Evo intercooler and piping, 1g dsm bov, TurboXS mbc, and some pretty huge tires that i put on my cousin's dynasty to make it look like a 4x4. I ended up paying $450 for the thing.
We did a compression test on the motor and got decent numbers (130 140 140 140) and decided to use it (250k!) so we tore down the van and the aries and got to work!!
So Mason (strax22 here) and I have put a few days into the car so far. Today, we finished adapting and tidying up the harness from the minivan and got the thing running! It moved out of the carport under its own power.
Here's some progress pics.
This is the Aries before we started.
Sorry, no before pics on the van. Its ugly.. who cares? Mason is enthusiastic.
I dont work ON cars, i work IN cars. But you can't pick me up off a streetcorner (except by appointment).
Minivan engine/tranny comes out. Messy...
Here i demonstrate the ONE AND ONLY use for a 7mm 6pt box-end wrench: Fixing a stuck governor.
How do you disconnect the bulkhead connector? With a PRYBAR, a 1/2" IMPACT, and a TWO FOOT EXTENSION. Thats how i roll!
Aries engine comes out.
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/k...Movie_0001.flv
Aries engine/tranny moves over.
In with the new. Stole the crabs for my neon!
Adapting turbo-van wiring harness.
R.I.Pieces, tbi harness.
New harness all tidied up.
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/k...rent=Movie.flv
It runs! Yay!
Moved out of the carport under its own power. Like a baby's first steps!
More info when im not burnt out on making posts...