Joey's Budget Rallycar: RallyX #10 - Oakshade Raceway

[Cano]

The tire score is awesome. Sounds like a solid, productive day at the junkyard. Should have taken pics of the Escort.

 

[marchi]

Seriously though, please tell me you kept the power steering or replaced it. Otherwise, you'll enjoy having your arms feel like lead bricks after racing. There's a reason most race cars have power steering

 

[Eric.]

Yeah you're gonna wish it had power steering after some autocrosses. It at least frees up a hand to shift mid turn if necessary.

 

[Bottoz]

Seriously though, please tell me you kept the power steering or replaced it. Otherwise, you'll enjoy having your arms feel like lead bricks after racing. There's a reason most race cars have power steering

Meh... not really. Nearly all of the people I race with do NOT have Power Steering. Longest race I've done without power steering was a 1 hour sprint. My arms weren't tired, but my neck was. This was at a small 1.3 mile course. PS isn't really needed when you're at speed.

I guess I can see where it might be ok to keep it for AutoX. Low speed & lots of direction changes. But Road Course Racing... take it out.

*EDIT* Sooo... got any updates?!?!

 

[Joey D]

We can't find an engine anywhere, we've been to 6 different potential sellers and the engines were either running rough or had way to many miles on them. We found a pretty decent engine with 40,000 miles on it but the guy wanted $1,700 for it.

 

[Perfect Balance]

engines were either running rough or had way to many miles on them.

Neither of these are really a problem. Running rough can be fixed, usually with some spark plugs and wires and injector cleaner, and who cares about the miles, it's gonna be beat on anyway.

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Or you could find a 2.4-something with a bad trans, grab it for $500, yank motor, sell the other decent bits off it, scrap it, get free engine.

 

[Joey D]

We are trying to keep it under $2,000 for the total budget so it doesn't leave a ton of room on an engine. We have $400 budgeted for it, but honestly should a crappy engine from the mid 90's that's used really be much more then that?

If it would have been up to me I would have bought a running car from the start, but I'm in on the project with my buddies so they have say in it too. I think our biggest problem is that we are trying to find a 2.4L engine, there are a ton of cheap, running 2.0's floating around.

The engines were in rougher shape then I made them sound and I know one had 315,000 miles on it and the other had 280,000. Getting an engine with 150,000 miles is one thing but double that? I think that's just a failure waiting to happen....remember this is early 90's Chrysler technology we are working with here.

I'm actually kind of annoyed with the lack of progress since there are other things we could be doing on the car, mainly getting the interior is some sort of put together order and doing some minor body work that needs to be done. But I guess this is what happens when you get a car with other people.

 

[Rotary Junkie]

I think there'd be no harm in sticking a 2L in it now then prepping a 2.4 to swap in later once you find one worth using.

 

[Eric.]

Do you guys even have a goal for this thing? A $2000 car autocrossing in SMF is going to lose to a lot of everything. You should really build it to stock rules and see how it goes, then change things up, move into Street Prepared, whatever. For $2000 I don't see the car having enough work done to hold up to real track abuse either.

 

[Joey D]

I think there'd be no harm in sticking a 2L in it now then prepping a 2.4 to swap in later once you find one worth using.

Apparently there are a lot of little things that are different so it's sort of a PITA. Our one buddy who's helping us knows quite a bit about Neon's and has done all this stuff before. So it's sort of a pick one or the other. I has a hard time seeing the benefits of a 2.4L since it gives us 30lb.ft. or torque and that's it.

Do you guys even have a goal for this thing? A $2000 car autocrossing in SMF is going to lose to a lot of everything. You should really build it to stock rules and see how it goes, then change things up, move into Street Prepared, whatever. For $2000 I don't see the car having enough work done to hold up to real track abuse either.

Our goal:

Our goal was to build something fun for around $2,000 including the car and anything else we wanted to do with it.

And why wouldn't a $2,000 stand up to track abuse and worse then a $10,000 car? If something is going to fail, it's going to fail regardless of how much money you dumped into it. As long as you have the basics done I don't see a reason to worry. And if the motor goes or something else for that matter then we fix it.

As long as we are having fun, we will be happy. We figure we won't win our class, but our main goal with racing is our times and how much we can improve them. Most of us have never done any racing before, so it's a learning experience too.

 

[Motor City Hami]

I may have a Neon connection for you. A friend of mine auto crosses a Neon ACR here in the D. He lives near Waterford Hills. I think he owns 3 or 4 Neons just as parts cars. May have a reliable "junk yard" motor for cheap. Let me know if you are interested.

I also race SCCA in Spec Miata. Have $12,000 into the build of this car. Before this I raced a 1986 Honda Civic at Waterford Hills Raceway. The most affordable track time around here is Waterford Hills. I bought the Honda for $2,500 ready to race, but with some mid-pack issues. The engine was crap and the transmission wouldn't stay in 3rd gear. Kinda difficult to race with one hand needed to hold the car in gear. Found a junk yard replacement and rebuilt the motor and moved it to the front of the pack.

There are a number of regional Spec Miata racers using 75,000 mile plus junk yard motors and competing. Reliability is the key to budget racing. Make sure the suspension moves without binding and replace front wheel bearings every season or two and drive it.

Let me know if you need any local connections for anything.

Keith

 

[Motor City Hami]

Seriously though, please tell me you kept the power steering or replaced it. Otherwise, you'll enjoy having your arms feel like lead bricks after racing. There's a reason most race cars have power steering

We all disable the power steering in our Spec Miatas. The pumps weight alot and use up engine power. On track with a light car like a Neon, you won't even notice the lack of power steering. Driving around the paddock or the garage is a different story.

 

[Joey D]

I may have a Neon connection for you. A friend of mine auto crosses a Neon ACR here in the D. He lives near Waterford Hills. I think he owns 3 or 4 Neons just as parts cars. May have a reliable "junk yard" motor for cheap. Let me know if you are interested.

I also race SCCA in Spec Miata. Have $12,000 into the build of this car. Before this I raced a 1986 Honda Civic at Waterford Hills Raceway. The most affordable track time around here is Waterford Hills. I bought the Honda for $2,500 ready to race, but with some mid-pack issues. The engine was crap and the transmission wouldn't stay in 3rd gear. Kinda difficult to race with one hand needed to hold the car in gear. Found a junk yard replacement and rebuilt the motor and moved it to the front of the pack.

There are a number of regional Spec Miata racers using 75,000 mile plus junk yard motors and competing. Reliability is the key to budget racing. Make sure the suspension moves without binding and replace front wheel bearings every season or two and drive it.

Let me know if you need any local connections for anything.

Keith

Thanks Keith, we actually picked up a motor last Friday from a guy in Flint and we should hopefully be installing here in the next couple of weekend. It's a 2.4L like we wanted too and supposedly only has 80,000 miles on it.

Hopefully I'll see you at some races too. Our goal is to have everything where we need it to be by the end of April so we can start racing with some of the season warmups.

Thanks again and I'll be sure in ask if we run into any issue with procuring parts.

 

[Motor City Hami]

Thanks Keith, we actually picked up a motor last Friday from a guy in Flint and we should hopefully be installing here in the next couple of weekend. It's a 2.4L like we wanted too and supposedly only has 80,000 miles on it.

Hopefully I'll see you at some races too. Our goal is to have everything where we need it to be by the end of April so we can start racing with some of the season warmups.

Thanks again and I'll be sure in ask if we run into any issue with procuring parts.

Are you planning to SCCA road race or autocross? Spec Neon was a big class at Waterford in the past. They also have a driving school each year in April. If you don't go the road race path this season you should at least consider doing one of their open track days. Like $125 or so to get on a real race track for the day. www.waterfordhills.com

 

[Joey D]

An Engine Appears

So we finally got our 2.4L bought and rebuilt, which turned out to be a bit of a hassle due to lack of space and time. But it's done now and today was the day we picked to mount it in the car...on one of the coldest days this winter. So the kerosene heater was out in full force.

Anyway we got the car all jacked up and the engine hooked up to the cherry picker.

And got everything in halfway decent order for what we needed to install.

Getting the transmission hooked up and the new clutch installed was relatively easy, although going from an automatic to a manual was going to prove to be a bit of a challenge later on. The clutch cables didn't go all that smoothly and we are still missing some parts to fully install them. Swapping the brake pedal of a clutch/brake pedal combo was a PITA too since Chrysler put bolts in places normal human hands couldn't reach.

We then installed the alternator brackets we got from Modern Performance for the 2.4 swap. Thankfully they know what they are doing so everything lined up perfectly. Finding a belt to fit was another story though. We also got an underdrive pulley from a buddy of ours and all it cost us was an alternator from the junk yard.

Once everything was ready to go we dropped the new motor in, it went surprisingly easier then expected. It took us maybe 15 minutes to drop it in a bolt it up. We had to pass on the front motor mount those since the one we had was toast. All we are going to do though is fab up a solid mount and call it a day.

The passenger side motor mount is already a solid piece too that we snagged from Modern Performance too. I have a feeling the Neon will have some pretty gnarly vibrations.

Finally! The engine appears.

And there we go, one NYG Neon with a 2.4L Stratus motor in it.

We still have quite a bit of stuff to do but between all the running around we and warm up breaks, it took us all day to get this far. We called it a night and left it for another day.

We still have quite a bit left to do too....

Hook up clutch pedals, shift linkage and install the short throw shifter.
Run the lines for coolant, fuel, etc.
Fab a front motor mount.
Find a 98 Stratus at the junkyard and rip the ECM out of it.
Find a wheel lock key so we can remove the front rims.
Fab an exhaust (long tube header, glass pack, dump...who needs it quite?).
Do all the fluids.

I think once we get that much done we can at least fire the engine and see how it runs, but that probably won't be for awhile since we all have commitments over the next few weekend. But hey we made progress.

 

[disinfected]

Looks like a pretty interesting project. Here's to hoping I can have as much luck.

 

[Joey D]

Looks like a pretty interesting project. Here's to hoping I can have as much luck.

With enough time, money, beer and swearing you'll eventually end up with luck. We've lucked out a lot though since a buddy of ours has 7 Neons (3 of which are turbo and 1 supercharged), 2 turbo PT's and a smattering of other cars. He has a house fully of car parts he is trying to clean out, so he's more than willing to donate to our Save the NYG cause.

 

[disinfected]

Good, send me a water pump.

http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/cto/2811226364.html

 

[Joey D]

Good, send me a water pump.

http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/cto/2811226364.html

Oh no, you would not want that car. When the water pump goes and the timing belt breaks you have all sorts of bad in the engine. When it goes in a Neon the piston just slaps everything and tears apart the engine and can easily bend valves.

When we yanked the 2.0L that was in the car and tore it apart there was some seriously bend valves and the water pump was shot.

 

[disinfected]

A+ advice. I know who to talk to if I end up buying one of these things at the auction.

 

[Joey D]

For sure, let me know. If I don't have the answer the one guy working on the car with us has a Neon problem and the one guy we get stuff from has a serious problem, so I'll be more than happy to find out the answer for you.

 

[Slick Rick]

Good to see your making progress Joey. How are you going to get the front wheels off without the key? I thought they were all individual to each set? You could a reverse thread socket to get them out...

 

[Joey D]

Good to see your making progress Joey. How are you going to get the front wheels off without the key? I thought they were all individual to each set? You could a reverse thread socket to get them out...

Our one buddy works for a tire chain store (Discount Tire) and he was able to figure out what other store the key came from (Bell Tire). So I'm going to head over to Bell Tire and see if they have a replacement key, I assume all wheels sold at Bell Tire use the same wheel locks since that's what every other tire shop does.

If not we are just going to have to buy a bunch of cheap sockets and beat them on the lugs and hope they come off. It's a real PITA.

 

[TheBook]

Barring that, see if you can use a Dremel tool or the like to split the lugs and get them off that way. That might be more difficult though, as it looks like they're not out in the open.

 

[CMvan46]

Our one buddy works for a tire chain store (Discount Tire) and he was able to figure out what other store the key came from (Bell Tire). So I'm going to head over to Bell Tire and see if they have a replacement key, I assume all wheels sold at Bell Tire use the same wheel locks since that's what every other tire shop does.

If not we are just going to have to buy a bunch of cheap sockets and beat them on the lugs and hope they come off. It's a real PITA.

A buddy of mine owns a tire shop and had a woman come in with a flat and no key and he welded another lug nut on top of the locked one and took it off that way I believe.

Nice that the engine went in that easy though.

 

[Joey D]

Body Work & Paint with a Few Extras

We went back to the junkyard today to get a few more things we needed, mainly the rest of the stuff to hook up the clutch and a front bumper. We also found a new coolant overflow bottle and an aftermarket strut tower bar, which was pretty lucky.

First things first we were able to get the manifold on the engine, there's a bit of a clearance issue we need to work with but a few brackets and we should be good.

We got a manual steering rack from a buddy of ours which will make it nicer to drive without power steering.

The strut tower bar, wasn't a brand name or anything but really it's a chunk of metal that mounts to the strut toward, it can't be that complex. We snagged it for $5, which was worth it. I cleaned it up and painted it purple too just to add some color and get rid of some of the rust.

Pulled the rear bumper off and sanded it really good, then put a few coats of primer on it. Hopefully I can paint it later in the week.

And our new front bumper, it was blue when we pulled it off the donor car and we sanded and primed it, then put the first coat of green paint on it. There is spray paint made by like Krylon or someone that is almost a perfect match of the car. A few more coats with a light sanding and some clearcoat and it'll look pretty good.

We also found this hat in a car at the junkyard, it says Time is Money so we felt the need to take it. And yes we ran it through the dishwasher before wearing it.

 

[CodeRedR51]

That type of strut tower bar doesn't really work that well. The bolts on the end act as a nice pivot point.

 

[Joey D]

For $5 even if it just looks like something under the hood it's no big deal. I'm sure the suspension in the car is shot so it's not like that little chunk of metals going to do anything anyways

 

[Joey D]

Odds and Ends Plus the First Startup

We did quite a bit of work today and finally breathed some life into the engine. It sounds awesome running without exhaust or headers, it almost sounds like an old prop aircraft. See the video below.

Extenders, you're doing it right.

New manual steering rack installed.

Front and rear bumpers painted and clear coated, ready to be installed back on the car.

New wheels, they're off a 2nd gen Neon R/T.

Filling the oil.

Ready to fire up!

And here' the 2.4L finally firing up, it's still a little rough but the engine runs just fine. The car should be driveable very soon barring there isn't any major set backs.