well I'm bored and dont have anything to do.
So I figure I'll bring my project onto here since I got it going on other forums.

Note: excuse any typos or inconsistencies lol bottle of scotch already half done

Well from the start.. my escapades during my undergrad began with a 1998 Dodge Neon R/T. Flame red with factory silver stripes (only R/Ts came with these stripes)

Here she is:
Rocking my 16" enkei's RPO1


Older pic of it when I still had the factory wing and SRT4 17" wheels:


Well then this happened:
Was behind a 95 mustang when his hood flew off and made me swerve...




soo I completely gutted everything from it and called a redneck to come pick it up and carry it to the junk yard.


At the time of the accident I had:
Unorthodox Racing underdrive crank pulley
CAI (filter was in the front bumper lol)
Kirk Racing Long Tube Header
Magnaflow exhaust
Screaming Demon Coil Packs
Mopar Plug Wires
Mopar ECU
Alternator Over Drive pulley
Strut Bars (Upper and Lower, Front and Rear)
As well as the stereo set up and gauges and other stuff I'm forgetting

Plus I had other stuff packed up in my room that I never put on...
Anyway with this set up I was taking on Eclipses, Mustangs, civics (on par with the SI's), SERs, cavaliars, etc.

anyways I had too much sheit to change cars now and I couldnt afford RWD in mn winters
sooo... I got my another neon.
This time a 98 Black R/T 2 door for cheap...
It was basically a shell I picked up. The guy was parting it out so it didnt come with engine, trans, headlights, gauge cluster and some other interior pieces I forgot about. Anyways I had all that sheit from my wreck soo no biggie...
I cant find pics of when I got it though but anyways here are pics of the work in progress

Interior:
The car didnt come with ANY options. So i added them myself.
I added Map Lights, Vanity Mirror Lights, Tilt Steering, Ash tray light, Glove Box light, Key Ignition Light and did a full interior conversion to a 2004 Neon SRT4 (Seats, steering, center counsil).




Also added remote start and other junk lol



Suspension:
I added mopar X-high rate springs, KYB GR2 struts, full prothane suspension bushings as well as the point less upper strut bars lol The car came with the lower ones already
shots of the bushings and suspension stuff.. I didnt take much pics because I was super dirty and didnt wanna hold the camera while doing it:( PLus I was too busy cussing. That sheit is hard to do by yourself





Engine
Out from the wreck

Ugly on the stand


162,000 MILES... completely stock internals. Regular oil change intervals.. cheap walmart oil and filter lol and no I never babied the engine.. I just let it warm up before I abuse it
head

block

still got cross hatching


Painted the block


Picked up a gasket matched head (intake and exhaust)


Took out all the springs and replaced them with Crane Springs and Ti retainers



Added Crane 14s Cams


Put head back on

Added: AEM Adjustable Cam Gears, UR UDP, alternator overdrive, ARP headbolts and yes i'm keeping my PS and AC.


Cleaned up engine bay





ok i'm stopping for now. I'm getting bored lol
I'll add the trans work and engine drop in pics later. As well as the other stuff i left out

...werd

Nice work! Well documented project. Pity we can't legally do re-shells like that here without all that licensing office hassle.

We would have to use the reg # of the shell then fix the car, drive it to licensing office with the previous owner, bribe an officer, spen de whole dam day down there & then get it in your name.

^^^nope no reshell.

I bought the other shell and had the owner transfer title to me. Technically this car is insured and licensed. This is completely legit. All I'm really doing is installing/semi-rebuilding my old engine and doing some other body/suspension/electrical work.

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yeaa I need to update this...
but anyways here's a jump ahead..
I got it running.... here's a start up vid (cold start -19C deg outside)
The loopy idle is because I'm running crower 3/4 cams.

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so the car is running. The piston rings are worn though. I'm getting blow by in the upper rpms. I've already bought and scrapped another block to rebuild. While I drive this one. But I'm broke so it maybe a while
Anyways plans for this block is basically rebuilding it to oem spec. Only diff is that I'm going .020" over on the bore. I dont plan on using turbo or nos so hence the reason for the oem spec.
Anyways going with new: pistons n wrist pin, piston rings, rod bearings, main bearing, oil pump, rod bolts.


I also need to retime it because I'm a couple degrees off.
Why?
Because the head is shaved .040". I've got AEM adj cam gears though so its no trouble. I'm just lazy and well spending my free time working on a buddy's neon for the big meet in june

Also for those who knock phantom grip. My opinion thus far on them. They're by far not the greatest. But they're ALOT better than nothing I get some traction in 1st now and 1st to 2nd isnt so hopeless

Well onto the pics





here's an old pic of my Kirk long tube header I found. The header is thermal coated. I dont have the magnaflow cat anymore though. I'm running a smaller JEGs 2.5" in/out one.


another old pic I found. This time of my crane springs before i put em in.


And well a crappy cell phone vid I took over a month ago after a roadtrip


I'm warming up now so I'll try to get it washed n hopefully get my enkei's on soon
I'll try to get better pics/vids also.
Incase it wasnt obvious enough... cameras + me = fail

made it out to a state wide neon meet this sat. Waiting for the pics to go up but here's one with my car for the time being

guess which one is mine... or guess where i'm at



the red rt and the green neon (thats the original color) with the kit were part of my convoy down.
yes the green neon with the r34 kit looks ricey. But it packs a punch though. He's boosted on E85

moaaarrr pics

quick update
changed wheel color again
started playing with dialing out the cam gears. My powerband needs to come down.
As it sits right now... I have to baby it through 1st and part of second

gonna drive 8hrs to Illinois this friday after work for an international car meet. I'll be racing it on saturday so I'll have some time stamps for this thing and then drive back on sunday.

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ended up rebuilding the block. Went 40 thou over on the pistons, new crank and rod bearings, new oil pump. Had the crank rebalanced and grounded.
Also did new clutch and T/O bearing while I was there
Didnt get a time on new set up.... I'm having low compression that I need to figure out.

anyways
here's some pics from over the summer




friend of mine took these one day while we were bored.








new clutch jooo


fresh crank


block and crank


new pistons...


floating motor and trans...


no longer floating


I am.


back on my enkei's...

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guess whose back to "stock"... lol

long story short, someone really wanted my built head and cams... so I sold it and used the money to buy a stock engine to swap in. I'll build another when I get done with school. The goal then would be to touch 12's all motor.

But till then... I'm rolling around stock again

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^^^^ sounds good... still working hwell?

^^yes.


update?

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went to the strip about a week ago and I'm disappointed
Track wasnt really prepped and was a bit wet

I was spinning tires in third and had problems getting off the line
might go back wednesday again... but definetely going back next saturday

This engine staying stock till I get my low 15's/high 14's second pass.


...i miss having big cams

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Rock Falls Raceway, WI.



check out my jdm alignment and my even more jdm exhaust!! (Apexi N1 catback)



me against guy who bought my entire old top end set up.
I won guy misshifted 2nd n 3rd lol



guy kept soaking the waterbox soo much I couldnt get around it.
Falken Azenis + Water Box + Forced Burn out = greasy tires

I managed to knock out three 12s NA hondas out of bracket racing Those guys were not happy!! hahahaha

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MS3 came in today...

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looking good excluding the fart barrel and umm rice.

its a legit apexi n1 catback... I'm not gonna mess with it

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Started building MS.
Then I got sleepy in work and went home






Hmmm new wheels? maybe...



hmmm what is this?

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Old pics from about a week ago when I got the main power circuitry done.
Ignore the smears of thermal paste. I'll clean all that up when I'm done.





Been working on the Spark circuit. Waiting for a secondary ignition transistor to come in. Gonna run wasted spark setup initially and then switch to sequential when I get things up and running.

Also got the MS3 harness built. I'll work on integrating it into the engine harness last.

Radiator control, Tachometer, Nitrous Control and Launch Control circuit is next on my list... which wont happen for a while. End of semester is coming up, I dont have any free time anymore

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Got some time to work on the MS3 today!

Got my tacho, 2 step and fan control done finally !
Tacho I'm using JS10 at the uC and SPR2 on the harness
2 Step I'm using JS4 at the uC and SPR3 on the harness
Fan control I'm using FIdle.







I forgot to run the wire from the collector of the bjt to spr2. Whoops.
Next week I just need to build Nitrous and Table switching circuits, then its testing time!

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No updates really but plans changed.
In anticipation of me graduating soon... I'm gonna have to change plans, granted I never really said my plan lol
I'm just gonna do full standalone (MS3), Crane 18 camshafts (258/258), refinish my new wheels and put some decent rubber on them.
If I have more time I may do more but I'm not expecting to

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gonna get my car done for this event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/369169796443819/

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wheels done.
camshafts installed.
ported head done.

Next on my list is:
1. fix exhaust leak on header merge
2. wire in standalone ems.
3. tune.

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these pics are a couple weeks old.





sneak peak




Running on full standalone now.
Tuning idle with bigger cams isnt fun.

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They see me rolling...


MAP's Annual Boost for Boobies fund raiser:


Video from 2 months ago lol

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car is parked up for a while.
Clutch does not like life. Launch control and flatfoot shifting is hard on the clutch I guess.

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Nice Project oh and the white rims really Looks nice on the car

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^thanks.

New clutch went in 2 weeks ago. Still breaking it in. Hopefully be able to make it to next street legal drags.

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