Project: AWD Turbo Wagon
COMPLETED!!!
(Click pictures to enlarge)
Step One: Put Impulse RS up on jack stands
and took wheels off
This proved to be a challenge due to the fact that tire kingdom put the
bolts on WAY too tight...
After breaking two sockets, and the seeing that the wheel nuts had no
more edges, we resorted to the torch.
Guess we need some new bolts?
Step Two: Removal of battery and intercooler
shield
No more Battery
Step Three: Drained coolant, and removed the
Intercooler
Intercooler
Engine W/O the intercooler
Step Four: Removed radiator/Fan
I thought I could remove the fan first, but intake tract was blocking.
So, I removed the radiator first.
Step Five: Removal of headlight assemblies
and the front bumper
Not really too hard, just should have read the shop manual first could
have saved some steps in between.
I felt sorry for the car seeing it this way
Step Six: Removal of oil cooler
A lot of oil was still left in the cooler after the oil had been drained.
Then, if you think about it, the oil can never be fully changed....
something to keep in mind.
Step Seven: Removal of interior/trim panels,
seats, headliner, dash, etc.
Long job, but it was nessessary for many reasons, not the least being
the wiring harness.
Wiring's
Everywhere!!
A future problem...
Step Eight: Engine/Transmission removed
Not at all easy.... you have to remove the axles/drive shafts, many many
hoses, a lot of wires, belts, the A/C compressor, etc.
Hooray the engine is out, but look at all those hoses!
Step Nine: Wiring harness in the process of being
removed
Lots removed, lot still to be removed....
This is just the front wiring harness, there are more (back, doors,
dash)
Step Ten: Engine stripped
The block was stripped, and it is all ready to be sent off to the
machine shop...
Step Eleven: Rear transaxle/suspension removed
Drive shaft/exhaust removed first, but this was not easy at
all........... very, very heavy.
Step Twelve: Stripping the Wagon down
Took most of the interior out and took the front fascia and hood off.
No interior
And I thought the RS looked bad W/O Front fascia
Step Thirteen: Making the Rear Cross member/Drivetrain of an RS
fit a Storm
One of the three major problems with converting a Storm to AWD is that
the Storm's mount their rear drive train in different locations. Isuzu
assumed (wrongly, according to this project) that no one would ever
attempt to put AWD in a FWD manufactured car and so they cut costs by
not including the in-frame mounting bolts for the AWD drive
train... No problem..... we'll make our own then!!
:) As you can see from picture 1 & 2, we made it
happen and it is in now!
Another major problem is that the spare tire wheel
well is too deep on the Storm to accommodate the RS's rear drive train.
We remedied this by cutting out the spare tire well completely and will
put a piece of sheet metal there. We also bolted a steel beam in there
to add some rigidity back to the chassis.
Picture
1
Picture
2
Oh no! Where's my spare? It's not here!!
Step Fourteen: Changing the Drive shaft tunnels
The third major problem (hopefully the last) is that the drive shaft
tunnels are different between the two cars. Besides providing the drive shaft
with additional clearance, it also has necessary AWD drive train
mounts.... So out came the saws. Now it just needs a little welding to
be complete.
Wagon -
Before RS -
Before RS
tunnel in Wagon
Step Fifteen: Yanking the SOHC Engine out of the
Wagon
This was so much easier than doing the same in the RS. The engine
is for sale if you want it, new CVs and all.
SOHC Power BABY!!
Looking kinda empty?
Step Sixteen: Reassembly of RS Engine back from
machine shop
Put the head back on, Put new water pump on, etc. and also painted the
engine blue to go with the theme of the car.
Engine, just back from the
shop
It's really looking like a motor now!!!!!
Step Seventeen: Welding, Cleaning, Painting
Drive shaft tunnel welded in place (Thanks Eddie!!), used High temp
bake-on paint for the turbo manifold, Block painted Blue to match car's
theme, Valve cover polished (More Thanks!!).
The welding was extremely hard with an undercoating that seems mighty
flammable.
Painting, Painting, More
Painting
Looks like a real
car SHINY!
Step Eighteen: More Painting, Some porting
Drive shaft tunnel is all painted white to match the car better. I did
some free (for once) horsepower "mods" to the exhaust while it
was off. First I removed the pre-cat, then I ported some to try to
enhance airflow. We noticed the pre-cat container had a crack in it, so
we went and got it all welded up. Then we added some more High temp
bake-on paint on the various exhaust pieces. Also, we got the Blow off
valve flange welded to the stock pipe from the turbo to the intercooler,
and I painted the 'TURBO' lettering blue with some engine paint.
P.S. sorry about the smaller click-able pictures, AOL is running out of
room for my web page.
Painted
Tunnel
Check Out That B.O.V.!!!
Step Nineteen: Engine being put together (AKA:
Where does this thing go??)
Struggling through trying to figure out where the various pieces attach
to the various different places on the engine. Fun, Fun, Fun!!
UM?! Where do THOSE hoses go?!
Step Twenty: Finish putting Engine together
Put on the turbo manifold, turbo, O2 sensor hosing, pre -cat housing,
chromed heat shields, alternator, power steering, and various associated
hoses/lines
Step Twenty-One: Attach transmission and Transfer
case to Engine
Well let me say this, the tranny weighs at least as much as I do, so
installation was a "challenging" ordeal. Of course, there are
bolts that are next to impossible to install in this part to just to
make life more fun. At least installing the clutch was easy.
Step Twenty-Two: Attach Engine/Tranny to K-frame and
use a motorcycle jack to install bottom-up
My Dad and I came to the conclusion it would be much easier to put the
engine in from the bottom as opposed to the top, so we attached the
K-frame to the engine and used a rolling motorcycle jack (courtesy of
Eddie) and put it in there. Yea, this was hard, and yea, once you get it
in you will undoubtedly cut your arm many times reaching behind the
engine. :)
Step Twenty-Three: Drive shaft Installation and
filling of fluids
Lubed up the drive shaft put it in, filled up the tranny and front/rear
differentials with Redline lubes, filled up the engine with Quaker state
(non-synthetic) to break the engine in. Also filled up the coolent with
my secret blend of distilled water, Redline water wetter, and Prestone
antifreeze.
Step Twenty-Four: Running wires, dash, and more
wiring
Ran wires for the pillar gauges, wires for the turbo timer, and wires
for the intercooler sprayer. Made sure they worked. :) And then
put the dash together slowly.
Step Twenty-Five: IT'S ALIVE
This was a VERY good day, the engine started up, but what's this? a fuel
leak? a few days later we fixed that (fuel rail had a bad o-ring). Next
problem, sounds like its running on only three cylinders.... or is it
because I just eyeballed the spark timing?
Step Twenty-Six: Tweaking, final touches
Set the spark timing to a factory 10 deg. BTDC. But it's still running
on three cylinders and I can only get 5 PSI of boost.... something's
wrong. Turns out it isn't a plugged injector as we thought, the fuel
injector wiring harness connectors were CORRODED!!!! I guess a year of
setting didn't do them well. We cleaned them using a mild acid and put
some dielectric grease on them... VROOM fires right up, and after a
break in period it produced the factory 10 PSI of boost.
Finally Done!!
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