Vanessa and I emptied out most of the garage, and shoved everything else to the opposite side the night before installation was to begin.  Here’s what things looked like Saturday morning before we started.  I’m still using the hanging shelves back there, but they’ve been moved.  If you’re interested, they seem to retail for about $65 at Home Depot (although I got the grey one on Craigslist for $40).

The shelves I ended up getting can probably be found in the closet organization aisle of any Home Depot in the country.  I picked up 36 square feet of storage space for under $70 out the door.  This was (4) 8ft X 1ft shelves, (1) bag of support brackets (the diagonals under the shelves – a pack of 12), and a bag of anchors (something like 48 in there) to secure the rear of the shelves to the walls.  All the hardware was included – drill bit (though we used a different one, since going into cinder blocks), nails, screws, anchors, clips, etc..  I was fairly impressed.

All in all, I’m really happy with these.  We set them high enough up that I can park my “rollie” tool chest, “crash cart” and even an engine on a stand underneath them, while retaining the ability to park my kitty litter totes (which are mostly full of car parts, of course) on the top row without interfering with the garage door.

This project was a long time coming and I love how it turned out.  It’s so easy to get to stuff now.

Over the next couple weeks, Mike will be plating over the seams where the FWD radiator core support was grafted onto the existing AWD unibody.  I’ll post up pictures once the car is back together.  For now, there is a lot more room back at the fort, so I think it’s time to address some shelving issues.

When I finished straightening up the garage Saturday night, this is what the engine bay in 195/2000 looked like.  Dirty, but complete (for the most part).  Saturday morning, Michael Rodarte and Mike Foster came by to help me pull the engine and transmission out so I can get the front end repairs completed after the Kia incident that occurred almost two years ago.  Can you believe that?  February 4th 2010 will be the 2 year anniversary of the Kia Incident and 4 years that I’ve owned this car.  It’s spent half it’s time with me unregistered in my garage.

Michael and Mike were blazing fast helping out.  It’s been a while since I’ve had to pull an engine and I was expecting to be in the garage all day.  Granted, I’d already removed the transfer case and driveshaft, but they showed up just after 0900hrs, and by 1230hrs, the engine was out, on the stand, and we’d been bullshitting for an hour.  Impressive.

After Michael and Mike left, I tinkered a bit.  Pulled the jacked CV that I was on my way to replace when the Kia Incident occurred back in 2008, then started clearing wire harness and whatnot from the areas where more welding will be needed to fully repair the front end of 195.  Hope to have some more progress within a couple weeks’ time.

One nice thing about having TWO Galant VR4s is that I sort of have a spare of everything.  Since [195] can’t have any glass in the roof if it’s going to be a rally car, I had a spare moonroof to swap into [464].  I had previously removed the moonroof from the black Galant and today was a nice sunny day (that wasn’t a billion degrees) to complete the project.
I started with the easy stuff.  The visors came out, then the overhead light and mirror.  After that, I took down the courtesy handles over the non-driver’s doors.  Then things got a bit ridiculous.  As you can see in the picture above, you have to remove the back seat.  Why?  Because, in order to remove the plastic garnish above the doors that helps retain the headliner, you have to remove the trim at the very rear of the cabin on either side.  This is best done by removing the back rest of the back seat.  Of course, to get to the three bolts that hold that part of the seat in place, you have to remove the seat base as well.  Finally, you have to unbolt the lower anchor points for the rear, 3-point belts to get that rear trim out of the car.  Maybe you could do all this without taking out the back seat, but I don’t want to risk breaking 18 year old plastic that I’m not going to be able to easily replace.

I was surprised at how straight-forward this job was once I got past all the tricky trim removal.  When I went to clean up, I found I’d only used 10mm, 12mm and 17mm sockets, a long phillips screwdriver, and a pair of channel lock pliers.  Most of the bolts are 10mm (no surprise there, this IS a Mitsubishi, afterall).  There’s a single 12mm for the back seat upright in the middle, and the seatbelt anchors are 17mm.  I used the pliers to loosen the hose clamps at the drain tubes at all four corners of the assembly.  From there, I disconnected the electrical devices at the front of the moonroof and took down the lateral supports with their 18 or so 10mm bolts.  After that, it’s just four 10mm nuts holding the whole thing in place.  I removed the front two and then began loosening the one on each side.  Then the 70lb+ assembly just sort of falls in your lap.  PRO TIP: Use your head to balance things while you remove the last nut.  Literally.  Use your head.

You can see above that the entire assembly is a fairly large piece of kit.  What makes it tricky is that it’s not evenly balanced.  Odds are good that, when they stop working, the glass and frame are going to be all the way to one end or the other, making it an awkward thing to handle when that last nut comes off.  The one on the left in the picture above is the one that came out of [464], while the one on the right came out of [195].  It might be possible to hulk the replacement unit into place solo, but I asked my wife Vanessa to start the two side nuts while I held it in place.

All said and done, this project took me less than four hours.  I warmed up by replacing the blown rear speakers and I know I started that after 1300hrs, but the car was 100% back together before 1800hrs, and I took many smoke breaks along the way (also checking Twitter because I’m something of a social media whore).

All’s well that ends well.  I still have a leak of some sort under the car that’s not the transmission, so I’m starting to wrap my head around new seals for the transfer case (don’t want a repeat of my Prescott adventures) and/or a new gasket for the oil pan.  Either way, there’s going to be some more maintenance in my future, I can tell.

I was worried I might have lost the viscous center differential in the Galant VR4, so I began removing bits to prepare for a transmission removal.  When the car was moving, particularly around corners, there was a whining, dry gear noise coming from the front end.  This is never a good sign.

One of the steps involved in pulling the transmission is to remove the transfer case.  A healthy transfer case looks like this one at the shop.

Notice that seal around the input shaft.  Compare that to the one on the transfer case out of [464]…

The tcase had been filled with Synchroshift, which was obviously what I was smelling when the car broke down on the way to Prescott Friday.  The tcase holds 0.6 quarts of fluid.  Here’s how much came out of this tcase when I drained it.

What’s more, after the fluid had a chance to sit in the drain pan for a few minutes, there was some sparkle motion going on in it.  Never a good sign to have metal bits floating in your gear oil.

At this point, I knew the transfer case was roached, but what about the transmission itself?  I had checked the fluid level on the side of the road while waiting for the flatbed to arrive and found it to be low, if not dry.  Would I have to pull the transmission as well?

The transmission holds 2.4 quarts of fluid.  I think I easily got 2 quarts out of it and it came out clean, if not a little tired.  This was a good sign.  I spent about $50 buying Hyundai 75W/85 GL-4 from the local Mitsubishi/Hyundai dealership and refilled the transmission.  Now it was time to source a replacement tcase for [464].

A while back, my friend Kris Marciniak and I were talking about my getting a cheap second car to drive while I prepped my other Galant VR4 [195] for rally.  His concern was that, if I got another VR4, I’d end up spending money on modifications and repairs to it instead of on my rally car.  He made a great point, but I’m feeling fortunate that I ended up with two VR4s, as I now have a spare everything.

I was horrified to discover that the tcase in [195] was bone dry too, but it had not been making any noise prior to being parked back in the spring of 07 and hadn’t seen more than a trip around the block since that time.  I filled it up with Royal Purple gear oil (couldn’t find Redline anywhere on a Monday afternoon, go figure) and installed it.

All’s well that ends well, although I noticed that [464] now has a transmission leak at the passenger side axle seal.  This won’t require pulling the transmission to repair, but I’m flat broke now and hope to keep it topped off with fluid until later this month, when I can pull the axles and install new seals.

I’ve been keeping regular tabs on the transmission and tcase since this repair.  The tcase is staying dry at all points and the transmission itself has not pushed any fluid out the breather vent on top of the bell housing.  I can live with a few drips here and there, as much as that irritates me.

It will be a few months before [195] needs a tcase, since I’m getting ready to pull the engine and all that to prepare for the roll cage.  In the meantime, I just hope that getting [464] back up to 100% doesn’t take too much time or money.  Transmission is shifting like butter this week and I’m enjoying an improvement in performance after what was a lengthy, draining repair job.

464 was involved in some sort of accident long before I bought it.  The core support is champagne in color, as is the underside of the hood.  Someone did the repairs I did to 195 but they did them professionally and I’m thankful.  I just can’t figure why they painted just about the entire car save the passenger door, which is still factory Kensington Grey.  It’s orange peel all over and the front end has still got a lot of chips from rocks and whatnot.  Regardless, I like how it looks when it’s all clean.  Here’s some pictures from yesterday after the carwash.

195 wanted to get in on the action since we had Vanessa’s pocket Nikon instead of the Blackberry for pictures this time around…

195/2000 Update.

Last time anything really happened on 195, I was swapping the wagon wheels back onto it with a set of lightly used Hankooks.  The battery was dead and wouldn’t take a jump, so I had to push it back into its spot when I was done swapping tires around with my beloved ccordless impact gun.  This weekend, I took that battery to Autozone and let them charge it for me.  Dropped it in and, wouldn’t ya know it, 195 fired right up. Idle is a bit nasty since there’s no intake plumbing between the MAF, turbo and throttle body at the moment (also no intercooler), but it still runs well enough to sneak in a couple trips around the block when nobody’s looking.  I even shot a very poor quality video with the Blackberry (as the battery was dying) of 195 idling away in the garage and put it up on YouTube.

Remember Engine No. 2?

I bought 195/2000 with a siezed engine in it.  Upon pulling that engine out and running a Carfax on the VIN, I found that it had originally been installed in a 92 Eclipse GSX (about which Carfax was kind enough to try and warn me).  I called this “Engine No. 2” as I hoped that there hadn’t been another engine replacement prior to this one being driven into the ground.  Anyway, that engine has been in my way (and in the way of others kind enough to sort of store it for me from time to time) and it’s not responded well to any method I’ve tried to un-sieze it.  I’ve tried soaking the pistons in PB’laster, I’ve unbolted the rod caps and beat the shit out of the pistons from above with a 5lb sledge, I’ve slipped a pry bar under the pistons and beat on that with my 5lb sledge and nothing has worked.  Guess the engine really did sit with coolant in the cylinders for two years before I bought the car!

Are those the nastiest set of main bearings you’ve seen in a long time or what?

Let me start by saying, I have never had an engine block smell so foul in all my life. This engine cooked real good before it finally locked up on the dumb shit who drove it into the ground.  Then it sat for years on end before I yanked it out, then it sat a few more years before this weekend, when I finally decided to try and remove the crankshaft from it.  I figured, if the pistons are junk and the cylinders are too far gone to be bored out, maybe the crank will still be salvageable, leaving me with something I might be able to use one day as something more than an obstacle in the course that is often my garage.

With the girdle out, it was time to finally remove that crankshaft!

Well, almost.  I forgot there’s a piece that holds what might have been a rear main seal at some point on one end and that you also have to remove the crank sprocket from the other before you can lose the front case and lift out the crankshaft, but those shouldn’t be too hard, right?  After all, these bits are just bolted to the ends of the block and have nothing to do with the rotating assembly being locked up.  The marvelous cordless impact gun made short work of the two balance shaft sprockets on the front case, but that single bolt holding the crank sprocket in place held its ground and, despite much sweating, grunting, twenty minutes under a torch, and no small amount of swear words, stayed securely in place, leaving me fed up and moving the entire lump of likely worthless boat anchor candidacy to the bottom shelf of the TV cart I keep in the garage under the bench for working on the mower and other things of that size.

Even so, progress was made this weekend!

With the garage all cleaned up and organized, I was able to park 195 out on the street for most of Saturday afternoon while I finally got around to replacing some blown speakers in 464!  Between various parts cars I’ve had over the years, I’ve managed to amass a decent little collection of aftermarket speakers, so I thought this would be the perfect time to yank those blown wizzer cones in the daily driver.  Too bad I managed to lose two somewhere along the way, resulting in my actually installing two different speakers in the front doors of 464.  I know I’ll find the others eventually, so I’ll just match up the first set I can complete.  I still don’t know what I’m going to do with the two pairs of 6X9s I have left from Daisy.  Maybe I’ll have to modify the rear deck to accept that size.  Hmmm…  stock or better speakers. This will take some thought.

Speaking of 464/1000, we had a special occasion recently…

On May 26th, 464/1000 finally rolled over 150,000 miles.  Not bad for a 17 year old car, eh?  We celebrated by tripping the check engine light for an EGR malfunction.  I replaced the vacuum line that came loose on the EGR valve, but didn’t disconnect the battery to reset it yet.  Meh.  I’ll get around to it one of these days.  Maybe I’ll troubleshoot/bleed the ABS system while I’m at it.

A successful weekend, imo.

With the fort all cleaned up, it was nice to drive the cars in (under their own power, all of them, for once) and do a little tinkering with Pandora playing and the fan blowing the cool breeze where it was needed.  464 got some new speakers, which means I’ll no longer have to grit my teeth when old factory speakers crack and pop during my favorite tunes, and 195 got a freshly charged battery, a buddy to keep it company at night, and even a bath!

So what’s next?

I’m thinking I’d like to pull the engine and transmission back out of 195 so I can better reinforce the joints where the new radiator support was grafted on last summer.  I also need to graft in the lower crossmember mounting boxes that are missing on the support since it came off a FWD Galant.  With the engine out, it will be easier for me to re-do the wiring harness to be ready for the auxillary lighting I’ll be installing for rally duty, and I can see about fabbing up some proper intercooler piping for the SRT4 FMIC I’ve got while I’m getting creative in the engine bay.

This all has to wait a bit, though, as I’ve got some work to do on 464 (air conditioning, sunroof replacement), as well as Keith’s X/2000 (no badge) and rally car.  Those details in another post, though.

More content to come soon! Thanks for visiting!

Now, I’m cruising along with the AC on, having just fixed it a week or so prior. The coolant temperature gauge in the dash is reading normal and I’m a bit confused. Keeping the clutch pedal on the floor, I turn the key to start and the engine comes back online. It’s time to turn off the AC and the radio and make sure everything’s okay. In fourth gear, now, we move forward, traffic steadily slowing, everyone getting in closer together. The guy in front of me applies the brakes. I engage the clutch and the tach needle, again, drops like a brick. This isn’t good.

Since I was clutching to drop to third gear, I’m already there, so I turn the key again, but this time, the engine won’t start. Oh shit. I do NOT want to be the guy in the dead car in the fast lane in rush hour traffic when it’s over 105* outside. Since I’m still moving, I just pop the clutch in third gear and the engine comes back online. It’s not happy, but it’s running and I’m beginning to panic. I light my signal and begin crowding the middle lane to get over. Of course, nobody wants to let me in, but I switch to the hazard lights and use the hand signal. Fortunately, the people around me recognize they can let me get off the road or they can sit behind my dead Mitsubishi.

By the time I reach the shoulder, I’ve had to reach down for second gear and pop the clutch again to keep the car running. I’m now flooring the gas in second gear, watching the boost gauge report no boost, and listening to my Mitsubishi drop one cylinder after another. There’s only four of them to begin with. 195 sounds just like a modified Subaru WRX as I fight for every foot of travel I can get out of it. The hammer is down, but the tach is dropping. When it reaches 1000rpm, I get on the clutch pedal and let the engine deliver the death rattle.

Upon stopping well off the road on the shoulder, the temperature gauge now begins to climb steadily and steam begins to erupt from every gap on the front of the car. I pop the hood and see the upper tank on the radiator has split, the upper radiator hose has split, and it’s managed to spray oil all over everything under the hood. I just barely made it off the road. Engine No.3 had already been in a fire and, with over 200,000 miles on it before I installed it, I figured there are some engines that are just destined to burn.

I ended up pulling the head and having a good friend of mine clean it up for me. He had it machined for the new MLS head gasket, lapped the valves, installed the new valve seals and lifters for me. He also did some mild portwork on the exhaust manifold, wastegate flapper and O2 housing. Meanwhile, I ordered new rod bearings and piston rings. I spent a number of nights out in the tiny garage at the apartment popping pistons out of cylinders, cleaning them up, honing the cylinders and installing fresh bits. Same old pistons and rods, but new rings and bearings were installed.

It would be October before 195 finally returned to the road, powered by engine No.3.5.

Next in the series: Anniversary Kia Surprise!