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JoshXT's VR4 build over time

29K views 335 replies 35 participants last post by  JoshXT 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello everyone. I'd like to start by listing what I am starting with here.

I bought a 92 VR4 back in January 2015 with 162k miles on it and had a decent amount of issues. When I bought the car, it had blue Corbeau racing seats in it, which I did not like and the factory seats the guy had looked pretty much new. So I took those seats out, sold them and put the factory ones back in. I gotta ride in comfort lol.

So for the issues that are now fixed:
- Big dent in the oil pan, because its apparently the best place to put a floor jack, or so the previous owner thought... Fixed 2 days after buying the car when I discovered it.
- Weird clunking when I hit a bump, found that the strut towers were not even finger tight, fixed that about a week after buying it.
- The guy said in his ad "New brakes", which I found to be very wrong. Never buy a car at night when you can't see to call someone on stuff like this. Replaced pads and rotors all the way around.
- For unknown reasons, the previous owner had put a FWD transmission in the car. Assuming he blew up his TC or transmission and decided FWD was cheaper so he could sell it. Everything converted back to AWD last weekend with a 25 spline transmission and tc (04/11/15.)
- While replacing the transmission, the clutch fell to pieces since it clearly could not handle the power of a VR4 and the Flywheel looked really rough. Replaced the Flywheel with an OEM VR4 flywheel and the clutch with an XTD Stage 3 clutch.
- A lot of the interior trim pieces were painted white for some reason. I bought ones that weren't painted from Aaron and replaced them.
- All the belts including the timing belt looked like they've never even been changed in the cars poor life. Replacing all of them and doing the 60k maintenance on 04/18/15.
- Chrome ECU installed on 06/05/15.

So the great news is about roughly $2000 later, my car is back to stock! Special thanks to Aaron (92VR4Widebody) for having just about everything to get my car back up to stock and giving me some good prices.

Now that I've got the issues taken care of, its time to build! I am not shooting for insane numbers in my opinion. I plan to go for right around 450-500AWHP and make the car a weekend warrior. I do plan to Autocross it in the SCCA during the summer time as well.

Modifications so far are in my forum signature, easier to keep it updated than this first post.

The planned build list so far: (Parts that I don't have yet)
- 13T, 15G or 19T turbos.
- E85 fuel pump.
- 700+cc injectors.
- Forged internals for my spare block (4 bolt.)
- 3SX Cam gears.

None of those are in any particular order.

Curious if the planned build items and a good tune will get me to the 450AWHP mark or if I need to go beefier. Anything that I should be considering that I missed?

Thanks!
 
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#2 ·
Sounds like you have your head on straight. Be aware that being a 92, you have a 2 bolt block. They are relatively weak, and being a little up there in mileage, you may run into some issues down the road when you make real power. So may want to plan a 4 bolt block in the future :)

And the 550's might be a hair small... especially if you run any e85.
 
#36 ·
#3 ·
Yeah I was going back and forth about the injector size. Might go for 650s.

As far as the block goes, when I get a built block set up down the road, it'll be a 4 bolt. Already had that planned. I'll drive it as I mod it and drop a built 4 bolt in right around the end of the build.

This build seems like a fairly inexpensive way to 450awhp from the research I've done so far.
 
#4 ·
see sig, good luck :)
 
#8 ·
I went with turbo tims billet 15gs. We all want 750s but I digress.
My build is done but I'm running billet 15s on stock pressure and fuel. I want to work out all the random 3s engine issues first.

Really cool build. But the reason I'm posting is to say.
Get a 4bolt With a good crank and build it up. It's never a bad idea to have a fall back motor. If u find a good deal and have the scratch, scoop it up.
 
#9 ·
JoshXT said:
For unknown reasons, the previous owner had put a FWD transmission in the car. Assuming he blew up his TC or transmission and decided FWD was cheaper so he could sell it. Everything converted back to AWD last weekend (04/11/15.)
I don't know why, but I found this really funny. Good on ya for saving this car.
 
#11 ·
Hello everyone. I'd like to start by listing what I am starting with here.

I bought a 92 VR4 back in January 2015 with 162k miles on it and had a decent amount of issues.

- All the belts including the timing belt looked like they've never even been changed in the cars poor life. Replacing all of them and doing the 60k maintenance on 04/18/15.




i would say change your oil pump why your doing the 60k unless its been changed already , i believe most ppl change them when they hit 120k-180k
 
#12 · (Edited)
New oil pump will go in with the 4 bolt block once I get it and built. Most of what was done maintenance wise was to ensure that the car will be able to be on the road while I finish up buying all the stuff on my list and put it together.

Keep in mind, I am not "poor" but I certainly can not afford to buy everything at once. I have to probably buy one thing every couple of weeks and start a pile, or just toss it in the car.

I've also decided to not upgrade to 15g's until I have my 4 bolt block set up first. I think I have a plan, and please do correct me if I am wrong in my way of going about this.

Steps I plan on going in for upgrades:

1. Custom exhaust (Got it)
2. Chrome ECU (Got it)
3. AEM Tru Boost (Got it)
4. GM MAF + MAF-T (Got it)
5. E85 fuel pump + hot wire
6. 700cc+ fuel injectors (At this point, I'm going to go for E85 and turn up the 9bs up to 15psi)
7. Fabberge FMIC kit with hard pipes. (Got it)
8. Aftermarket BOV (Got it)
9. Build my 4 bolt block (Everything from this point and below will go in together)
10. Billet 15G Turbos
11. 3SX Cam Gears
12. Put it all together and tune!

That look like a good plan?
 
#13 ·
if you're going to add bits and pieces you might need a wideband to tune on.
 
#16 ·
Excellent work, saving one. You're a hero, man. Pretty car, love white 3Ss.
 
#20 ·
I have some updates, not really any progress made.

The car is on the road and has been for about a month now on and off. Things have been hit or miss this past month and I've dealt with a few issues.

1. Had a fun nightmare with locking lug nuts that resulted in me breaking one of the studs on my rear passenger side wheel hub. I have a replacement on its way.

2. Found out that my nice wheels that were on my NA won't fit on my VR4 because the front calipers are too big. Ordered some wheel spacers, they're on the way.

3. I was blowing clouds of white smoke every time I took off. I did some research and saw that some people were swearing by Royal Purple HPS 20w50, so I ordered some and changed my oil with it. No more big clouds of white smoke now, but it will blow a puff of blue smoke when I take off after the car warms up. Suspecting a PCV valve, going to order a replacement one on Friday.

4. Pretty sure one of my front wheel bearings is bad, not sure which one yet. I ordered wheel hub assemblies from NAPA as well as rear rotors that need replaced only to find that NAPA has no idea what our cars are and assumes that they're all FWD, so every single part was wrong. Took those all back and ordering the stuff online this weekend.

5. I got a DNP Y-Pipe installed, a little bit of bling for the engine bay lol. Not sure if it has any performance gains or not..

6. Cleaned out my incredibly dirty K&N cone filter that I had on my NA that I moved to my VR4. It is amazing what cleaning that thing can do because I think I gained 5MPG in gas mileage since doing it lol.

7. I pulled in to my drive way over the weekend then later found a big puddle in the drive way. My heart sank at first thinking it was oil until I realized it wasn't purple (lol royal purple oil is nice..) I couldn't figure out what it was at first, I found where it was coming from and thought it might be a brake line in the back, then jacked it up to find that it was one of my AWS lines... So I suppose one of the next mods to go on the list will be an AWS delete unfortunately unless I can find a way to repair the line.

Still a lot of maintenance to do before I start throwing any big upgrades at it. I don't regret bringing this thing from near death yet, but I sure have cussed at it a lot lol..
 
#21 ·
I've decided that I am getting the car painted in August because the paint needs some love. The bottom lip of my front bumper is pretty chewed up for more unknown reasons and I am thinking that I am going to convert the front end to 2G or 99 front end before the paint.

The car is basically a Frankenstein car at this point since it has taken parts from many different cars to keep it on the road. I always liked the 99 front end and I think the white 2G front ends look pretty good on 97 and 98 models. I'm still not completely decided on which I will go with but it is doubtful that it will keep the 1G front end at this point. If I'm going to spend money for a nice front bumper to replace the one on it right now, I'd rather just convert.

The car is already a head turner, thankfully you can't see the imperfections of the paint from about 15 feet away - but it bothers me enough that it is going to be fixed. It helps that my parents own a body shop and that I'll pretty much only need to pay for the materials and I can do all of the prep work myself.
 
#22 ·
Decided I'm going to go with the 99 front end, but I am going to try to put my own little twist on it.

Not sure whos car this is, but it is a good example picture.


But I want to do some black plastidip on the front bumpers bottom lip and around the big opening on the front bumper like the Evo X. Here is a good example of another persons car that I don't know (Evo X).



I like the Evo X look, that front end is super mean looking. I'm thinking that kind of look could be nice on a VR4. Not sure if anyone else has done this yet, if so I'd love to see pics.
 
#24 ·
Some updates!

I finally got my nicer wheels on that I had on my NA before I got rid of it. It took a lot of work because of the damn calipers being so big. Ended up having to put on some spacers. Probably going to either flare my fenders or try to find some widebody ones so it makes the wheels a little more tucked behind the fenders. I'm not thrilled about the changes in the feeling of the steering, is this safe even? Doesn't feel like it is going to break or anything but it isn't great.

Bought a new PCV valve to see if it was causing the smoke, it didn't fix the issue. Ordered Krank Vents and will be installing them today after work, should do the trick.

Found a bad wheel bearing on driver side rear, replaced it.
 
#27 ·
I won't be surprised if it is rings, I just hope that it will hold out and keep going until winter lol. I'm in the process of building a whole bottom end that will get tossed in to it this winter. It will go in for paint around the same time and by spring it should be everything I want it to be (or so I hope.)

Thanks for the compliment, I just can't let this car die. It has been so incredibly neglected by the previous owner(s) and I've fixed an enormous amount of their errors already. It has been a poor investment so far haha, but it is okay. It has been a fun project so far and unlike most projects on here, I am actually able to drive the car every day if I want to.
 
#28 ·
I think it's a good investment for someone such as yourself. Not very many people would buy a car in that condition to restore/rebuild it. That's a great thing you are doing. If you get a 4 bolt block, and rebuild the bottom end, the rings don't matter as much as long as the car still gives you a good time while you are waiting to do the swap. If you have emissions to do, that could be another challenge. My Prelude wouldn't pass with it's James Bond smokescreen. So I took a few steps to get it to pass (not sure which one worked or if it was a combination of these steps)

Step 1 - The car only smoked if it was warmed up, so I made sure the car was off for a while before asking them to test it.

Step 2 - Premium unleaded (you would have this anyway)

Step 3 - Piston ring restore (probably didn't do a thing)

Step 4 - Put thick oil in the car (this is what I think made the biggest impact)

Like I said, I am not 100% sure which one of these methods worked, I just know it passed. Then a cop pulled me over about 3 weeks later saying I had to fix the car regardless of it passing emissions... Bought the Prelude for $500 on craigslist, traded it in for $2000 :qgiggity:
 
#29 ·
Smoke could be turbo related
 
#30 ·
Thankfully I don't have to worry about emissions testing here in Ohio. The smoking just annoys me is all, I have this nice looking car and people are nearly breaking their necks turning their heads to look at it, then after idling I start going and there is this puff of smoke and instantly the car looks 100 times worse lol.

I did change to 20w50 HPS Royal Purple oil, that cleared up a TON of the smoke, before I did that it was incredibly bad. I suspect VSS, but don't care to replace until I'm doing the block since I'll have everything out of the car and MIGHT be getting the heads ported while I have everything out. I haven't really decided on that just yet but it would be the best time to do it all.

Currently I'm running 93 octane at all times, after I get the rebuild done, I'll be going with E85 at all times since there is a station about 5 miles from my house thankfully.
 
#32 ·
Maybe we could build our cars together. I am only 20 min from Columbus.
 
#34 ·
Ohio is the place to be! Only unable to drive the car like 4 months of the year which is perfect since it usually won't be running 4 months of the year anyway! Hahaha. We have a ton of Ohio members, I've met a few of them over the years.

My build progression might be kinda slow since I only work on it about every other weekend. I try to limit myself to not spend more than $200 a week on car parts so that is going to set me back a little bit. Would be cool to meet up with you some time, ggmel333! Always cool meeting another 3S owner.
 
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