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My satin black portmatched swap build.

Simply put....I'm cheap. Gutted precast and that's as far as I'm goin. With mil eliminators of coarse. The extra 10-15hp isn't gonna do nothing for me. If headers were less than $150 I'd be all over them.
 
A few pics of the Upper intake manifold. Its VHT wrinkle plus paint. Was not easy being that its application process goes against every spray bomb rule ive learned. Have to coat super heavy in 3 shots 3-5 min apart. Turned out as good as i hoped but not sure how its gonna look on the car. Time will tell. Also not sure if im gonna put the svt badge back on it. Gonna try a configuration or two with it and see if i like it better with or without.

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i like the uim, i wouldve went with headers, theres a used set w/the ypipe for a good price in the classifieds.
any pics of the whole car?
 
very nice.

I'm considering a satin black or semi-gloss black myself.

I don't like the wheels but who cares.
 
Engine is completely assembled and just got the last coat of paint on the trans and a few other misc items. Tomorrow night I should be putting it all in. Pics will be up tomorrow of the trans and engine assembly and hopefully of the assembly in the car.
 
Some pics from this weekends progress. Engine is in and supported by motor and trans mounts. Got a few misc things hooked up while standing around drinking a few adult beverages after getting the motor in late last night. I have no idea how the 2.5l was ever even running when i was hooking up wires before installing the engine i found that both the cam and crank sensor wires were bare and twisted around each other so had to take both of them apart and heat shrink them and tape them up. Also found a o2 sensor wire that was bare and fixed that up. Dont know how i was never throwing codes. On to the pics.

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After last weekends progress had a long week with some back issues. So not much accomplished. But tomorrow I will have up pics of completed under the hood shots and fingers crossed a video of the first start up!! Will still need a passenger knuckle though till i can go for a ride. I had planed on putting the old knuckle with washers for the caliper mount but i threw away the old pads i found out today so not going to use the new pads for a crooked caliper.
 
Well its a little later than expected but here are a few pics of the finished engine and 1 video link of it running. I didnt get the first fire on video but my buddy has it on his phone. All went well and it fired right up first try.
Also went to the junk yard today and grabbed a new steering knuckle and new wiper cowls with hardware and intact tabs. Seen bumper supports and wanted to grab them but forgot but i have to go back for a pre98 console i saw in another car anyways.

And the pics.

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Ok video still loading so next post....in a few.
 
Not yet need to install knuckles, shocks, and brakes yet. Then bleed clutch and brakes. Wanted to do more today but had a bad ay with the baby so got nothing accomplished other than pressing the hub out of the new knuckle, and cleaned up the work bench a little. Should be driving it Saturday at the latest.
 
Yeah it is. Got allthe brakes and suspension on and wheels on. Just had no help to bleed the clutch and brakes and put the hood back on. Fired it up again and noticed the temp shoots pegged max as soonthe as ithe turn my key. So im guessing coolant temp sender or plug is bad. Will deff be driving saturday for sure.
 
Finished it up tonight! Took it for a ten min drive through town. She has a pretty bad buck at about a quarter throttle from 1500- 3000 rpm. Took it easy on the new clutch other than one easy pull through first and second and it pulls so much better than the 2.5. Coolant light is also on. So overall I'm pretty happy a few issues but it runs and drives. Clutch engages nicely also, although the pedal is a little soft yet. Gonna bleed it again and see if I can firm it up a little. Driving it to work tomorrow( 15 min country road drive) to see if it will throw a code then go from there with the bucking issue.
 
Thanks. Drove it to work today but first checked fluids and after some searching and researching last night found out that after i replaced the fuel filter i should have prime the fuel system. So before this mornings drive i turned the key on but not starting and back about 15 times as to get the pump to prime and get some air out. Drove 20min both ways and ran 99% better. Still have a little hesitation when putting the pedal down a little harder than normal driving. Gonna work on that.

Things to do that bother me...
1. Fix mild hesitation
2. Fix 3 exhaust leaks (1 in driver muffler, one at the rear cat connection, and 1 to be found possibly egr tube to maniold as it sounds up high and i left it a tad loose to connect to intake.)
3. Replace idler pulley on tensioner as i believe durring my cleaning of parts i may have washed out the grease in the bearings and theres a bad scraping noise. DUMB i know.
 
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