Newb, Intro '89 Probe GT Build

dansxr2 wrote: Looks great man! Keep up the great work! I gotta replace the clutch in mine this week. 2nd time I've had a spring retainer come apart. I ordered an XTD Stage 3 clutch and Flywheel for my MR2 Turbo that suffered the same. . Absolutely love these cars, after the shell on this car let's go enough to where its not safe, I plan on finding an '88-88 MX-6 GT and swap my drive line over.

Thanks! Clutch is on the to do list as well, I have a 6 puck southbend and a fidanza that came on another parts car I had but I think a pucked clutch might take away from the ease of driving and may be overkill for what I need with my power goals. Any suggestions? was looking at maybe grabbing an OFE disc from southbend.

I replaced the clutch in the Probe once (I'm assuming it was the OEM) with the same problem, with a OEM BorgWarner. I'm running 8v NonTurbo Pistons and 17psi and it held its own all things considered. This is my DD/beater so it's reliability is #1. I have had an XTD clutch and lightweight flywheel in my MR2 and no issues at all. Decided to toss a Stage 3 in the Probe as well (410hp/400ftlb) will provide plenty of grip. Southbend is pretty reputable, and I have an ACT Heavy Duty Clutch in the MX-3 with no problems.

Awesome car, keep the updates coming!

Up until now, my current suspension solution has been a cobble together 2nd generation Tein basic damper set using fc rx7 camber plates in the front and s13 camber plates for the rear. While it handled decent, it was quite heavy and jarring. In addition to that the Teins lacked damper adjustment.

I recently got a deal on a set of Ksport Kontrol pro coilovers that are actually designed for this platform. This weekend I had a chance to get them install and drove around a bit. Now mediocrity aside, these feel worlds better than the Teins. More forgiving over uneven road/bumps. Need to get the height dialed in and fool with the preload/damper settings but definitely improved drivability of the car on the street.

Started the day off with some overnight parts from china

Gotta say I'm more than impressed with eBay china couplers lately, looks pretty stout for 15 bucks.

Goal was to build a new charge pipe that eliminates the weird transition that whoever built these pipes created and move the pipe as far away from the heat as possible. Obviously routing the other direction with a same side cooler would have been more ideal, but given the pipes came off a parts car and I don't want to reinvent the wheel, I ran with it.

Here is what I came up with, made a few cuts to use the beaded ends and using the new couples things seem to fit up against the fan shroud nicely.

Next had to cut and rework the old pipe to meet with the new 90.

All ready to be welded up and powder coated. So question that i've had trouble finding an answer to is can I powder coat the whole pipe? or should I leave the ends where the couplers clamp bare? These will be coated in light texture black. Any insight would be great, I'd just assume have them be fully coated.

Also been amassing parts to repair E36 M3 and snagged a momo wheel locally for dirt cheap.

Little update, new pipes are all welded up and they fit much better.

Got the rear rotors and inner tie rods replaced.

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Also swapped the driver side cv axle for a spare I had, ended up with a bad axle seal, shame on me for not replacing when i had the axle out. Of course when I went to remove the axle to get at the seal, the reman cv I installed would not come out. One trip to harbor freight and $12 later, I had new weaponry. Couple taps and an extra set of hands and it popped right out. Upon removal, I noticed the inner cup had a bit more play in it than I wanted, I have a new one on order. Hope to have it all back together this weekend and get an alignment.

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[URL=http://s98.photobucket.com/user/1966pontiac/media/6211703A-FC63-4050-828A-467CD6C3FA9D_zpswuavefba.jpg.html][/URL] After sitting all winter the abs pump began cycling on start up and my abs light is now on so I will have to investigate that next. Running out of time, first autox date is April 2 so the pressure is on!

This is coming along great! Keep going! I love seeing F2T powered things here. I need to make my own build thread on mine.

JamesMcD wrote: This is coming along great! Keep going! I love seeing F2T powered things here. I need to make my own build thread on mine.

Thanks! Would love to see yours as well.

Chock another job off the list, replaced both a leaking clutch master and leaking clutch slave cylinder, added a stainless hose to complete the job. Leak inside the cabin was the dead giveaway for the bad clutch master.

After all this it went down to my buddy at goodyear for an alignment. Happens to also be a fellow probe enthusiast!

After an alignment, the car drives SO much better, the ksports really helped the overall handling dynamics and rides a lot smoother than before. Aside from the tiny amount of steering play and my mysterious squishy brake pedal (think my abs pump is on its way out) I am really pleased with the car right now. More work next weekend I will keep updated.

Looks like it's coming along nicely! Always love the turbo probes.

84FSP wrote: Looks like it's coming along nicely! Always love the turbo probes.

Thanks!

I will admit, parts of my build have gone a bit too far and I am now going through the process of sorting some of these things out. For one, the roll bar/harnesses came out. Their intended purpose was to make using harnesses "safer" However, after using the car last summer and then again this coming season, the car sees much more street use than I had thought it would. That being said, while the car will see occasional autocross, I felt that the 3pt factory belts were a safer bet on the streets so the 5pt's and roll bar were removed.

Next order of business are the poly trans/engine mounts, they vibrate....ALOT. So much so that the car emulates a tupperware factory in a 8.0 magnitude earthquake. This in turn takes its toll on the driving pleasure, at least to me, and any poor soul that has gone for a ride. Short solution will be to reinstall the factory front and rear trans mount. While they will not perform as well as the awr's, I feel that it will help make the car a bit more enjoyable to drive.

Long term solution is cast some lower durometer bushings (60a compared to the 95a that are installed) and see if that reduces the vibration.

Final point that has been bugging me is an exhaust leak that somehow makes its way into the cabin. First action will be make sure the catback is properly sealed up. If this checks out, I'll be having a look at the window seals and potentially the tail lamp gaskets to make sure they are properly sealed up.

In other news, I have some interior components on the way to help rehab some of the more worn pieces, as well as a new carpet that should breath some freshness back into my interior.

I also found recently in the factory shop manual that 1-30mm of side to side slop at the wheel is "acceptable" in the steering, so I suppose my steering wild goose has met its end.

This past Saturday I attended my first autocross event, it was an absolute blast! While it was rainy and rather cold for the majority of the day, I was still able to learn quite a bit. Transitioning from nervousness at the gate during the beginning of the day, to being pretty confident/comfortable by my last run. I had an instructor ride with me for the first few runs which helped immensely. Needless to say I am hooked. Shooting to get as much seat time this summer as I can fit in and that the car will allow. I'll upload a few vids I took with the go pro tonight (runs 2 and 3), unfortunately neither of my faster/cleaner runs made it to the go pro since it died mid day.

Key takeaways were: smoother inputs on brakes and steering and I am no where near the limits of the car as it currently sits. I plan on attending an autox school day up in NH at the end of the month and I'm eager to continue learning and having fun!

Yeah, funny how a good instructor makes you realize how much more the car has in it. The novices I instructed yesterday all dropped between 2 and 4 seconds after I drove them through.

jstein77 wrote: Yeah, funny how a good instructor makes you realize how much more the car has in it. The novices I instructed yesterday all dropped between 2 and 4 seconds after I drove them through.

It was so much help, especially being a first timer. There's only so much you can take away from youtube. Hoping this autox school event will continue to help and looking forward to putting the car through its paces again!

Clean work!

I don't think I have ever seen one of these get done so tastefully. Outstanding work.

Thanks guys!

Few weeks ago, I purchased a new carpet from Rockauto, I was an ACC branded carpet and one of the cheaper "direct fit" (I'll get to that later) kits and they also had matching floor mats which was the selling point. Spent the morning disassembling the interior. Since the car had been siting so long in a barn it had been thoroughly infest with 4 legged critters, and i found quite a bit of evidence underneath the carpet....gross.

Spent several hours vacuuming and 409'ing the crap out of the floor pan an any spot I could find.

Once clean it was time to fit the carpet.

I started from the rear and worked forward, slowly trimming and fitting, hardest part was making the the commitment to cut a piece off. They leave about 8-10" of material in all directions. Also getting the new carpet to lay thin enough in locations like the seat bolt holes and the bracketry for the under seats controllers/computers.

I did manage to bugger up the threads on the passenger side seat bolt bracket (stud sticking up as opposed to the 3 other bolts that thread into the floor.) So if i can't source another bracket I will weld a grade 8 stud into this bracket and reinstall. Fortunately there is access to the bracket with the center console out. The car does smell quite a bit bette now and it definitely helped the interior look 10 fold.

You have a PM, sir.

Attended an autocross school as well as a regular event this past weekend. Saturday was a warm sunny day, split up with classroom lessons and obstacle practice in the morning and a basic autox course in the afternoon. Had a lot of fun and met a bunch of great people, also learned quite a bit and felt more confident behind the wheel.

Early Start

Found some ford friends

On the grid

Some other cool cars found in the paddock, e30 had an s52 swap

Sunday was a regular points event for this club, since I was about 2 hours from home, I decided to stay in the area and enter in the novice class to get some more wheel time.

First run group was able to get in a few semi dry runs by the time the 3rd run group got a start it was raining and pretty saturated. Still had a blast and continued to improve throughout the day! Took home 3rd place in the novice class so I was pretty satisfied and my raw time was faster than the two cars ahead of me (Lotus elise and a 16' WRX). Still have a lot to learn but the car performed well. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to make a dry event and see how it stacks up. These are were my two fastest runs, still working on smoother steering inputs and judging braking distance. Biggest thing I was working on for the day was looking ahead and braking before turning

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mzbQbCTk_ZA

https://www.youtube.com/embed/jRcTwF6onKI

God Autocross courses can look so confusing to me. You did a great job. A FWD turbo car with the wick turned up in the rain is not that easy to chuck around quickly.

Reminds me of a white Probe SE that used to park near my freshman dorm in Oxford OH in 1989, sitting on what looked like Ronal R9s and about a 2" dropped suspension. It was sweet. Cool blast from the past. I like it.

I can't remember the last time I saw a Probe from this era. I'd literally forgotten about the first-gens, as they've been extinct around here for so long.

Nice work getting one healthy again. I love it.

Thanks guys! It is a lot of fun! Realizing last night that my ic setup is bumping me out of DSP (I think) since I modified the radiator support to fit the piping. So if I want to actually compete with it next year I'll have to revise the setup to fit where the factory pipes passed through, which should be interesting since I already hammered the crap out of the support haha.

Cool pic of the car in action from a few weeks ago:

Few updates this past weekend.

Managed to find a set of original HKS intercooler pipes for the probe that were discontinued years ago. They need little bit of work to rehab ( new bracket to replace old bent up piece) and a hole welded up in a cast elbow. I'll be tackling this sometime in the next few months. Some new couplers and clamps and a modded factory intercooler (larger inlet/outlet pipe) That should compliment these pipes nicely, and ultimately solve my class modification issue with the current intercooler setup.

Pics of the damage that needs to be resolved:

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Also, after the last event, I learned a few things about the car, big thing was the steering wheel I had was too small for me, (320mm). The diameter and shape made manipulating the wheel more of a chore than it should have been.

So I sold the monte carlo locally and purchased a 350mm Momo Mod08 wheel.

Other issue I was having was the shifter position, 2nd gear is extremely short and some areas of the course could have been faster if I shifted down into 1st or up into 3rd. The pacesetter shifter and the Mazdaspeed protege knob combo had the shifter lever in a very low position. The pacesetter also required a bit of effort to make gear changes.

A lot of people have retrofit an early model honda single bend shifter to use as a cheap short throw shifter solution on the 1st generation ford probe/mazda mx6. After searching around for a while I noticed K-tuned made a nice adjustable shifter that had a generous extention, that made the shift knob position quite tall. This was exactly what I was after, however $150 bucks was a bit more than I was planning to spend. After some more searching, I found a company called VMS made a pretty close "replica" for almost half the price, claiming it as made from 7075 aluminum. I was sold.

To compliment the new shifter, I also picked up a nice ergonomic buddyclub knob since the honda levers have a different thread pitch than the mazda shifter I was currently using. Quick comparison pic of the new adjustable shifer next to the old pacesetter:

Only modification needed was to trim the retainer spring for the shifter assembly and a coupler washers on the linkage coupling and I was back in business.

The difference was night and day. The position was better, the shifts were short and extremely smooth, the new wheel is also the perfect size. Really excited to try these out in a couple weeks at my next autocross!

Did another 2 autox events this past weekend. Didn't do quite as well as I hoped but did make some progress.Tires are definitely a hinderance at this point. The sport comp2 's really don't have much grip unless they are good and warm (I know they are not an autocross tire), which usually won't happen until the car has been hot lapped 3 times or so. Managed to place 11/17 in class on Saturday in raw times.

Sunday I ran with another club at a different venue in nh. Did much better, finishing 4th in class pax times with the second fastest raw time, behind a boxter. It was raining most the day but managed to get a few semi dry runs in. Had a blast. Car has been running well. I think it could benefit from some more camber front and rear. Did find something less than ideal after I returned back to the garage.

Also leaking in several spots from my valve cover gasket.

It could be 1 of two things, the short fix, my crankcase ventilation system is just too restrictive right now.

Fingers crossed

Looking into tapping the valve cover for a pair of 10 or 8 an bungs so I can run some nice beefy hoses to the catch can.

The other culprit could be excessive blow by due to a cracked ring land. Hoping this is not the case. I'll do a compressions test and pending results figure out what my next move is. Car runs and pulls great, so hoping the simple solution clears this up. I have a feeling that pulling the motor is going to turn into a: "Well if the motors out I might as well do this and that" senerio, and my wallet is already trembling.