1987 Plymouth Horizon GLH - Buildup

[TheCanadian007]

Hey Guys, I thought that with all the modifications I've been making to my Horizon, that I would join the crowd and make a buildup thread to keep track of all I have done.

This past weekend, I finally got around to installing the Shelby Charger springs that I acquired from Detobias months back. I had them powder coated fire engine red, as they were quite rusty and gross, but now they're all purty

They're mounted on 2 year old KYB GR2 struts, which I feel still have some life left in them, and they seem to manage these springs nicely. Although I would enjoy a set of Koni shocks, they're far far out of my price range.

The sway bar is off a Shelby Z Daytona that I found last summer in the local wrecking yard. Originally I had it Zinc plated because of a cheap deal I got, and installed it with some new rubber bushings. However, I was unaware of the modifications required and as such, it squeaked and make noise like hell.

I did it right this time, trimmed the ends down 3/4" and had it powder coated, along with the properly sized bushings from Johnny at PolyBushings.com. Now it's firm as hell, but doesn't make a sound when I go over bumps!

Installing the springs was relatively easy, as I changed out the original struts years ago. I was told the Shelby Charger springs are 1/2" shorter than the stockers, and although uncompressed, they are shorter, when installed, I could swear the front ride height is higher than it was with the stock springs, whereas the rear is the same as before, maybe a smidge lower. I'll post up some before and after pics once I get it back from the alignment shop.

Pics of the parts below!




New fronts installed


New rears installed



Also fabricated a rear strut brace out of a 1" tube of 304 stainless steel. Bent the ends down with a hydraulic press and drilled holes. Works very well and looks pretty spiffy! (I can make some more if anyone's interested. PM me for more info...)




Rear Brace installed





Let me know what you guys think, and stay posted!

[minigts]

I like that rear strut bar, very cool and clean!

[TheCanadian007]

Next update for the Horizon is my machined oil cap that I finally got installed last night. The metal cap itself was purchased from a board member and CNC machinist, fuzz84Daytona. He was selling a bunch of these a while back and I picked one up - matches my front DC license plate. Pic below..



My TBI valve cover uses screw-in threads as opposed to the ordinary carb and turbo valve cover, so the hard part was trying to attach a the plastic bottom half of a the screw in style cap to the metal cap. The plastic half can be seen below:



To accommodate this, I had a recess machined into the oil cap, along with a 1/4'' threaded hole. I then made an adapter which will screw into the metal half while giving the plastic portion something to "grab" onto when inserted.





Once the epoxy was cured, now for the moment of truth - how will it fit and how does she look? I was quite pleased with the results, it matches my valve cover quite nicely and the orientation is just a little off, but close enough for me. Underhood shots below:

[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3543/3769771894_d2c378fe97_b.jpg[/IMG

[TheCanadian007]

For now, I installed my cast thermostat housing, that I got from another board member, it has been powder coated to match my valve cover and I also added a braided stainless steel hose kit. (Finished the upper radiator hose anyway.)

Pics below of engine bay and thermostat housing:





In addition to that, I added some hood pins, which although not quite necessary, I liked how they looked and will probably become necessary in the future when I turbo the car and require space for an intercooler. They weren't particularly difficult to install, but I see they're beginning to rust from only minor use, which shouldn't surprise me really, as they were some cheap clear out 10 dollar special. In the future I shall upgrade to stainless hardware.







Next up, I bought some replacement motor mounts, as the old ones have long since worn out, causing some movement. I purchased some urethane window caulking and filled in the hollow portions with it creating my own semi-solid mounts. New passenger mount installed below.



Old passenger mount below, along with new filled front radiator mount.





With the new passenger mount, the entire barely moves and I imagine once I finish installing the front one, it will be even more solid. One unfortunate side effect though, because of the firmer mounts more vibrations are transferred to the body, which creates a noticeable rattle at idle. Suppose I'll have to secure the interior pieces better.

I'll be posting more updates once I'm done installing my front rad mount and any other chances I may do.

[TheCanadian007]

I went to the junkyard where the Turbo Caravan was and low and behold, the owner had taken a deposit for the Mitsu turbo that was on it. Apparently me telling him that I was gonna take it out in a week meant that he could still sell parts off it.

Anyway, undeterred, I figured I would still do a compression test on it to verify the engine was still strong with over 300,000km on it. (That equals over 185,000 miles for those of you down South.) Anyways, I arrive with tools and battery in hand, and the owner kinda raised an eyebrow and insisted that the engine was still good, only the fuel pump was toast.

I went out and pulled the plugs, all of them were brown, except number 3, which had heavy ash and oil deposits on it. Compression test was as follows, left to right: 160 - 150 - 0 - 140. So, the piston in the number 3 cylinder is melted, or shot, either way the idiot lied, and I showed him the fouled piston and told him to crush the car. This was at the wrecking yard known as Midnight Auto and Truck Parts, at 1150 Redonda Street
Winnipeg, MB R2C 2Z2 Their number is (204) 222-2626. I would advise anyone in the Winnipeg area to stay away from the yard. He still wanted $300 CND for a Turbo-less T1 engine. Ridiculous!

Either way, I'm back to square one, looking for a turbo engine, trans and wiring harness. Preferably something cheap, an old T1 engine, with an auto would do nicely. Anyone have any leads, or know of one in the Winnipeg area, give me a shout!

Thus concludes my rant, Thanks for listening, TheCanadian

[CDNTurboZ]

Car looks good!

I have one I can sell you cheap as in $50, it needs to be put back together tho. Its an 86 TI, comes with good working turbo, freshly turned crank, all brackets accessories, etc. Just needs new pistons, heck for a little bit more I'll throw in TII rods.

I think I still have a daytona rad/intercooler assembly that is converted to bolt into an l-body as well.

edit: and yes midnight auto sucks they don't have much for TI parts anymore

Let me know if you need any other lbody specific parts I have a bunch left over still.

[TheCanadian007]

That engine offer sounds very tempting! Does the engine have all the sensors and other misc stuff intact? Also I don't suppose you have the wiring harness and ECU to go along with it, do you? A turbo-spec A413 tranny would also be much appreciated. The intercooler and rad assembly is also very intriguing. Very much interested! Did the old pistons burn up or blow a ring land?

Let me know what you all have.

Thanks, TheCanadian

[CDNTurboZ]

The wiring harness and a413 are gone I threw them out I actually had two turbo A413's. The engine was actually running fine when pulled I was planning to restore the car at the time and started tearing the engine apart.

Send me a pm and we'll talk

[TheCanadian007]

Update once again, I found another Turbo engine, a T1 from an 88 Lebaron. It has the same 1 piece intake and all the pieces are there and correct. It's dirty and gross looking, but it's complete and it starts up and runs well. The compression test was as follows, left to right; 90 - 135 - 140 - 140

The numbers seem good enough, maybe just change the head gasket and the valve cover gaskets and go from there. Anyone have any input on it? Pic below:

[minigts]

Update once again, I found another Turbo engine, a T1 from an 88 Lebaron. It has the same 1 piece intake and all the pieces are there and correct. It's dirty and gross looking, but it's complete and it starts up and runs well. The compression test was as follows, left to right; 90 - 135 - 140 - 140

The numbers seem good enough, maybe just change the head gasket and the valve cover gaskets and go from there. Anyone have any input on it? Pic below:

Gross engine pic here

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of going T1....

Regardless, good luck with that and hopefully the head gasket will solve the low compression issue. Glad you found something to work with as well!

[TheCanadian007]

T1 engines are a rarity around here, T2 even more so. I doubt I would be able to find a T2 motor in the Winnipeg area in my price range and also, for ease of transplanting, I am keeping it auto, as my Horizon is an automatic. I shall upgrade the Turbo and add an intercooler later!

Any luck on the Lebaron pin out? Any other advice?

Regards, TheCanadian

[jamesmonty]

I was told that the caravan harness swaps over to the omni fairly easy. Not 100% sure about that but its worth a try since you know where one is. +1 on swapinh head/exhaust gaskets before you put that motor in. That would have saved me a few headaches.

[135sohc]

That valve cover and oil cap look really good.

[.:FoRuM56:.]

I was told that the caravan harness swaps over to the omni fairly easy. Not 100% sure about that but its worth a try since you know where one is. +1 on swapinh head/exhaust gaskets before you put that motor in. That would have saved me a few headaches.

he's running a 40 pin connector so sadly it doesn't swap lol

[TheCanadian007]

Yeahhh, '87; last year of the carbs and the 40 pin bulkhead connector. Lots of soldering and repinning ahead of me! Thanks for the compliments on the oil cap and valve cover, I'll probably end up cleaning the valve cover that is on the turbo engine now and have it powder coated in a similar fashion, if anyone is interested.

Thanks, TheCanadian

[CDNTurboZ]

Is that corey's engine? It looks like a better starting point than mine, while you are doing the head gasket, I would maybe do the other gaskets as well (oil pan, main seals) As it will be all out anyway.

[TheCanadian007]

Indeed it is Corey's engine. I was surprised when I stopped by and it started right up and had decent compression. I plan on changing most of the seals when it's yanked out - much better than trying to do them while it's in the car! I might be interested in grabbing the Garret turbo off you and modifying it to work on this 88 T1, as the Garret is better than the POS Mitsu turbo. I'll probably also end up taking the intercooler/rad combo off you in the future too.

Tristan said he wouldn't mind helping me do the splicing, so once I have the wiring harnesses from both cars, I'll head out to Steinbach, meet up with him and modify the harness to work.

Stay tuned!

Regards, TheCanadian

[blk86trbo]

Nice car, I enjoy reading about your project. What's the story behind your hood and scoop? A friend of mine and I did one exactly like that 5+ years ago, and last time I heard, the Omni it was on was in Iowa being parted out.

[WickedShelby88]

The mitsu isn't really a pos so much as little potential. You ever think of making more of those rear strut bars? Very good idea! Whenever I get an L body which is what I want to get next I would definitely want something like that. It seems to fit well with little modification to anything interior wise from what I could see. Sweet little car. I like the mods you've done all around! Nothing wrong with a T1. I can vouch they run for a while especially if you leave the boost alone which I think is plenty in a little old L for the most part. Even a log engine with a stick in 87 in an SC could run with an 87 Shelby Z due to the weight advantage stock to stock.

[TheCanadian007]

I'll comment on the questions above, first an update;

At the moment, I have my work cut out for me dealing with my floor pans. I had gotten some water in the passenger compartment and the carpet was soaking wet. Not wanting mold to develop, I pulled the carpet and guess what I found....



RUST!!!!@#$%^&*()_









On a lighter note, I did pickup the engine today and it looks to be in good shape and I'll begin stripping it and sending things off to be powdercoated soon, but for the time being or for the upcoming week anyway, I shall be focusing on repairing my floor. I've ground most of the surface rust off already and will begin cutting it out either tonight or tomorrow then I'll have to shear some galvanized steel to fit and weld in patch panels, followed up by liberal amounts of Tremclad and undercoating!

More on the floor repairs and engine to follow! In regards to strut braces, I'll focus on fabricating a few extras once I have my floor sealed up.

The T1 engine I got is out of an '88 Lebaron as I probably stated previously, so it has the Mitsu, which, according to the previous owner, never smoked or leaked any oil so I shall probably just upgrade the coolant/oil feed lines on it and call it good.

I'll go over the A413 tranny and make sure it's all up to spec; I might install a shift kit in it, but bearing in mind that this is going to be a daily driver and not a drag car, it has to be rock-solid reliable and attain decent fuel economy too. A fluid change / band adjustment with an added auxiliary cooler are planned.

The intake, differential cover, transmission pan, oil pan are all set to be power coated; intake will probably be in the silver vein color to match the valve cover, which shall be carried over to the turbo engine. Rest of the parts will either be silver or black.

Regarding the scoop and hood; that was all done back in February of this year after the car suffered a front collision due to an old lady who decided to slam into my car. Before pics of the accident:





As you can see, the whole front end was pretty much screwed, so I bought a parts car, grabbed a new hood, fenders, grille, bumpers, etc. Blacked out the grille and bumpers, and I found a hood scoop off eBay which originally was equipped on a Rampage 2.2. I planned on creating a taller air filter from a Pinto, and then cut a hole in the hood and create a functional cowl induction setup. As of now, those plans are on hold, due to the turbo swap, but I'll probably still cutout an opening to suck in cool air to help cool the engine and turbo.

After the damage from the accident was fixed, before GLH body kit was added:



Before engine modifications were done:



I'll dig around and find some pictures of the car when I first got it, some 3 years ago when I was in grade 10, lol. As you can see it has evolved during the years into what it is today.

Cheers, TheCanadian