www.neons.org

Picked up a great collection of parts in my latest R/T. It ran but had a few gremlins. Wiring was a mess! Stock harness was a mess, even with standalone, many things did not work properly and it wil lbecome obvious why as we dig in. Tec2 was retired and AEM EMS 30-1900 EMS was acquired! Stock harness from neon and donor harness from a ford with same plug as AEM EMS will be used for harness building materials. Why pay for automotive grade wire when you already have lots of indivudually colored wires to choose from.

Here is starting point:

http://dope.dhs.org/car_stuff/98rt/2007 ... G_0204.JPG

Custom made vaccum plug:

http://dope.dhs.org/car_stuff/98rt/2007 ... G_0380.JPG

Stock + aftermarket = copper spaghetti

http://dope.dhs.org/car_stuff/98rt/2007 ... G_0384.JPG

And out of it all, one for sale item: 98r/t PCM

http://dope.dhs.org/car_stuff/98rt/2007 ... G_0394.JPG

See below for progress of the build.

V

bout time.

how did that PCM work in conjunction with the stock one?

Stock one really wasn't doing much.

V

Needs a roll or two of electrical tape!

A little wire loom will go a long way.

Wire loom won't fix this:



or this:



V

You gonna use that plug? If not can I have it with the 3 pins? My cam sensor is kinda just the pins on the ends of the wires semi-mashed so they stay on the sensor pins enough to make the car run. If not that's fine, I prolly won't need it for long anyways.

I may have some pin housing from my old r/t. I'll let you know.

V

Coming soon:

Tec 3R + custom harness.

And I may need to purchase some pigtails for some OE sensors.

V

Let me know which connectors you need. I have about 3 harnesses worth of cut off connectors sitting waiting for use.

I've had a couple of bad harnesses that came from wreck cars I've helped part out.

Just take pics of the ones you need V and send them over. If I have them they are yours. You've helped me out in the past it's about time I return the favour.

Riddler

Pulled to tranny and took few more pics:

My kirk header with odd location of O2 sensor



Rusty header to catback and cat pipe



Aluminum flywheel

that car is amazingly very ghetto considering some of the really fancy parts it has on it.

looks like you are having fun finding rigged stuff on it.

is that RTV as a header to head gasket?

Looks like composite gasket + orange rtv. I may add another O2 sensor bung just so that it is in a position that is o2 sensor friendly.

Here's a shot of custom radiator:



V

Wiring harness is work in progress as I try to replace a tec 3R deal that went sour, in mean time I made a prototype cam sync adapter for use with stock camshaft sensor:

This is made from nylon, my "production" part will be made from teflon - much higher temperature range.



The underside:



Know anyone selling a tec 3R or GT ?

V

Lol so having an 02 sensor in the runner right by the head isn't good? That's how mine currently is till I get a wideband. Wires weren't quite long enough to reach other 02 bung and I didn't feel like extending them. I got same stupid Kirk header.

Big problem with that bung is that its not "good" for any o2 sensor.

Condensate, soot and other garbage will fall into sensor and ruin it in short matter of time.

V

the o2 sensor should be mounted from 10-2 to prevent the afore-mentioned problems.

The one down in the collector is not in any better orientation!

V

Wiring harness has taken a back seat to engine and tranny prep.

The semi-fugly orange finish is flaking off beautifully and should make a few coats of hammer marble finish black that much easier to put down.

Here goes engine extraction:





Cleaned up engine bay:



Next time the engine and trans will be assembled, engine harness built either for a MSQ or continue to use the Tec 2 - ah options to be weighed!

Few more pics here:

http://dope.dhs.org/car_stuff/98rt/2007_09_07/

V

ohhhh... ahhhh...

Engine bay clean up.

Touched up a few areas with some paint:



Wrapped shifter cables with 2ng gen style heat sheild. If you want to do yours, you will need 1 1/4" diameter and about 24" long (I had 2 36's that I used).

The two available powertrains:



160whp on mopar race header vs 189whp on itb kirk header.

My debate now is how to integrate the ITB motor. Continue using tec 2 or upgrade to something more current technology.

V

ITB

In The...

I dont see anything wrong with that... I love that look, then when the guy with the mustang you just owned looks at your engine you can rub it in.

I think I need a upper gasket kit. Cam seals are leaking a tiny little bit, probably as side effect of being installed crooked. Clutch bolts are all mismatched!

Always fun digging into someone else's wrenching.

Engine was redone in hammer black rust-cap - much better than orange puke.



Somehow I think they are all supposed to match - just call it a wild hunch.



I'll be removing valvecover soon and seeing what cam look like. I may end up selling them and going with crane 22's.

V

Webcams w/ lash shims:



Why you don't use RTV!!!! Consider this engine very lucky. Had that piece of silicone come loose blocked a oil port somewhere, there could have been some expensive, probably destructive damage.



I'll need to order a upper gasket kit and put this back together. Previous owner decided to omit installation of alignment dowel pins - I'll be replacing those too!

A few minutes on cordless drill and roloc disc cleaned it up real nice... in it's dirty state.



V

shims ftw?


Progress is always a good thing.

chain and load leveler what?

I'm suprised that I am the 1st to comment on your nylon rope to pull the engine

Put the ITB's and some 22's or a 26/22 combo in there

Engine weighs 250 lbs, nylon rope is rated at 900lbs. Close to 4x safety factor. It's not 1st time I've done it, not 2nd time either. Chains break sensor and damage soft aluminum parts. Rope gets job done w/o any of those detriments. I also have 1800lb rated kevlar mule tape if yellow high horsepower ropes scares ya

V

Good thoughts. I might have to steal that idea from you then.

Awesome project BTW. I say big cams and ITB's. then ditch that Kirk for a better header, or put a real collector on that one.

I've been slowly cleaning off the mounds of rtv silicon from various parts and reassembling.

Replaced sh!tload of rusty bolts with button head stainless steel equivalents. I cut the throttle shaft for more airflow, replaced pan head screws with appropriate button head cap screws.

Latest project involved fixing a problematic vaccum leaks. Current solution was to sandwich a set of double seal o-rings between vaccum rail and port. It never worked right since there was no clamping force holding the two together.

I figure why not make a connection similar to fuel injector and this was born:



Made from 1/2" 6061 aluminum with slots cut of MIL-spec 3/32" diameter O-rings. Figures that machined parts would arrive before the o-rings.

V

Awesome. I hope that that works out better for you.

Any idea on waht Cams you'll be running yet?

Webcams it came with. They are equivalent to crane 18's but with more duration. Nothing left in the budget for anything larger unless I can sell some more neon parts from the green car... especially that engine!

V

Sounds good.

I promise that If I had money I would Buy that engine, and some other goodies to fund your project

Have you decided to keep the Kirk, or Find a larger header?

Kirk is fine for now engine is not "that" big, kirk should be plenty. At least more than mopar race header I had on the other motor.

O-rings came in for vaccum rail, it fit after a bit of chamfering on the vaccum rail. Alignment is *a#S!d^f* POOR! Crappy machining on part of electromotive. #1 is off by almost 1/16" so that the connector sits at an angle. I'm glad I specced 3/32" o-rings otherwise it would have not fit.

I cleaned off what felt like 10 lbs of silicon sealant and started putting it back together:









My next project is to decide which way controls is going to go: continue with tec 2, go bigger or go hybrid.

I need to hack apart a stock throttle body cam and make it fit this arrangement.

V

Updates are looking sweet as usual@!

Yeayuh!

I wish I could find another Mopar race header though. I still kick myself for letting mine go with the old ACR.

I'd also give for a real set of E-motive ITB's...but who's counting anyway right?

Mike

WOW, looks killer. Make me want to do a N/A build again. Keep us update.