89 Dodge Spirit project

[Dave]

Looks good! Did not know we could make those struts work.

[Vigo]

Ive used both 1g and 2g neon struts on k-cars. The pt cruiser is basically a 2g neon/srt4 strut. I THINK (almost sure) that the only physical difference between a 2g neon and a pt/srt4 strut is the lower spring perch is higher to make room for larger tire diameters. I THINK that the pt cruiser and srt-4 struts are the same physical design with the raised lower perch(probably not same internal valving).

On this car with short tires i think 2g neon struts would work fine, but they would probably give you the same tire diameter limitations that exist on non-srt 2g neons (i have no exact figures, but its discussed on their forums). I used the pt because it is what i had. IIRC the SRT4 ACR used the normal 2g strut design with the lower spring perch while using the same srt4 spring to achieve a factory drop, and those cars had shorter tires than the stock srt-4s. So anyone considering using 2g or pt/srt4 struts could probably research those tire size issues on the SRT forums.

[StraX22]

I'm really glad your idea proved right. Nice precision pattern BTW

[Vigo]

I bought another strut for it. Standard 2g neon this time, so its slightly different from the other one. I guess ill have to cut the springs by different amounts, but whatever.

[RoadWarrior222]

If it rides lopsided or pulls left, say you built it for NASCAR.

[Aries_Turbo]

so an easy performance swap could be 2g neon or stock cut struts with SRT Koni inserts and 2g neon strut mounts?

i wonder if a SRT rear strut insert could be used in the rear as a shock mounted like you mounted the DSM KYB AGX in the rear. bolt an adapter onto the bottom to go into the rear axle, and the drill into the body and use some bushings for the top.

Brian

[Vigo]

so an easy performance swap could be 2g neon or stock cut struts with SRT Koni inserts and 2g neon strut mounts?

Yes. On L-bodies it's practically a drop in, but on k-cars you need to drill the strut tower.

[Aries_Turbo]

drilling the strut tower doesnt scare me any.

that said, my k car has old school konis and eibachs. im thinking future.

[Vigo]

Got the other strut on it.. rides great. Also handles surprisingly well! It's more neutral than i would have guessed at from the parts that are on it.

Because its actually fun to turn now, i was going to autoX it this weekend.. but i needed to fix up a pcv system first because it would dump smoke like crazy under boost. So.. i built one, but it cant keep up. It just blew the dipstick and cam seal out instead.

I intend to redesign the pcv system with larger lines, but i think this motor just has too much blowby to ever NOT smoke from SOMEWHERE. Im not making the Autox this weekend in the spirit, but i am attempting to drag the aries out of hibernation and take that instead.

If this motor turns out to be too far gone to keep oil in it, i will have to make a decision between re-ringing it, or just swapping in the 2.5 thats coming out of my van. I think i would re-ring it but the temptation of a one-day swap to a torquier, known-good motor is highly tempting. I just dont want to do it because i havent really DD'd the 2.2 for more than 1 month and i want more time with it.

[burnt_toast]

needs moar updates!

just went thru whole thread, sweet find on that original pic when I bought her, good stuff

[Vigo]

Well the only news is that im reringing it for sure as opposed to going back to 2.5.. the motor thats in my van has a cracked block and im going to try and blow it up at the track (and by blow it up i mean just run some 14s and if it blows up, i dont care) since im going to swap to 3.0 on that one anyway.


So i need about.. $120 of parts and a day or two of working on it before it can be DD'd again.. but im looking forward to it because of the suspension. Im having fun with my 3.0/5spd dynasty as a DD right now, but the suspension on that thing is total dog ---- so the spirit would be a major improvement..

[Vigo]

So about that $120 of parts.. I bought them..

At some point i did a compression check and i think i got a 90 and a 30. Im assuming i broke a piston but i havent pulled it apart yet. I was debating putting another stock 85 piston in it and re-ringing the whole thing, but 86SeeS posted up some old-school high compression flat top pistons that mopar performance sold for carb motors, and it got me thinking.. Mostly thinking about how if i blow up stock pistons ill DEFINITELY blow up high CR pistons.. So i bought them. lol.

I DO want to build a high-cr motor for the spirit. The pistons i got from Wes are +1mm so i'll need to bore the block. It wont take me long to pull the motor but it'll take me way too long to put it back together so im swapping in the 2.2 motor i was putting together for my vnt instead. It's an 86 t1 motor. Good enough.

I also got a freebie starion intercooler, which is good because this thing definitely needed a better IC (has a VNT cooler on it now) and i was thinking of going to a front mount anyway. I'm going to cut the elbows off the tanks and put some 2.25" (i think) elbows on it and run the piping similar to how i did in my aries.

So it just needs a motor r&r. As soon as i finish the 360 swap on my dad's truck, the spirit is next. Maybe THEN i will drive it for more than a month for the first time. : /

[Aries_Turbo]

e85 will be your friend. better do a proper cal too rather than the cobble job 2 bar i did last time.

[Vigo]

A 2bar cal is proper for a 2bar map sensor..

And it worked great before i exceeded 2 bar. Heheheh

But yeah my plan for next go round is to move my lc1 from the aries to the spirit (go with mtx there) and run an auber display, and get an auber EGT setup. Strax22 has the egt setup and 2 of the displays and i really like those things.

[Aries_Turbo]

i tried to jack the last few points up before the system went "blind" so you had a little more fuel and a little less advance as you went into the 2+ bar realm. i guess you exceeded the effectiveness of those values lol.

Brian

[Vigo]

Well i did get a little stupid. Did some runs to 100mph at 18psi.. Didnt seem to have any negative effect at the time. I turned it down and then at some point later the blowby got worse quickly, to the point of not being able to drive it (popping out the cam seal). Im just guessing i broke the piston. I will know sometime RELATIVELY soon.

I need to finish the 360 swap, and i want to take the minivan to the track (im taking prudent precautions on that one, 16psi on a tbi motor so far and no breakage). Motor replacement in spirit is right after that.

[RoadWarrior222]

Meh, excuses, run with the oil cap off

[Vigo]

So i guess december is relatively close to february in my world.

I put another 85 bottom end from my parted 85 new yorker in the spirit (it had 55k on it) so the setup is exactly the same. Put 20 miles on it tonight with NO issues (!!) and im driving it to work tomorrow. Turbo DD again! hooray!

Still planning to do the lc1 and egt with auber displays. I drilled the exhaust manifold for the egt bung and plugged it before i installed the motor. I put a WB02 bung in the downpipe a long time ago.

Interesting note: I hate front motor mounts on these cars and the one on this car was useless anyway due to a crack in the bellhousing near the bottom bolt. So, im finally trying something ive wanted to try for a while: solid bobble strut and NO front mount. My 20 miles of driving on wastegate boost tonight suggest it is A-OK but the real test will be when im making some torque!

[StraX22]

Good to hear!
Did you at least put the hood back on?

[Vigo]

Yes, i put the hood back on by myself at about 1030 last night. That was fun. It would have been easier if i could have used my head as a third arm but the hood blanket was still soaked in oil from when the last motor shot out the dipstick so i couldnt use my skull for hood-propping purposes.