So I figured I'd gotten enough help and info off this site that I would finally put up a project about my car(especially seeing that the motor build is moving along finally). Figure having this thread might help inspire me to finish up the build a bit quicker too.
I bought the car back in the winter of 2006 after my 1991 Volvo 740 wagon was rear ended and then had a transmission failure(this might have been caused by the stock NA auto trans and +T w/ 14 lbs of boost... ). Was looking for something unique and AWD for the winters out in Colorado so after looking around for a bit settled on a 1990 Coupe down in southern California. I bought it from one of the co-owners of Global Motorsports Group down in LA along with a trunk full of parts and a rebuilt head(I later found out the hard way that whoever they had rebuild it wasn't very skilled) since the timing belt had snapped.
First couple pics I got via email.
Trunk full of random stuff.
The first day I got her before pushing her onto the trailer.
I trailered it back up to the bay area(where I grew up) with the intention of doing a full top end refresh in just under a week before I had to drive it back to Colorado(going to school here). Probably was a bit ambitious especially since I was starting with already taken apart car that I was unfamiliar with. Everything that could go wrong pretty much did and I wasn't able to get the car back together in time. Had to wait until spring break to finish it up and drive it back to Colorado. Car came with some nice aftermarket bits like 034 injectors and short shift kit, weitec lower springs(on stock shocks
), and Depo headlights.
Since it's been out here I've redone the entire suspension(including upgrading the rear bits to 91 w/ sway) w/ Bilstein sports and H&Rs courtesy of a junkyard coupe
, added a B4 auto climate system, B4 hood, BBS RX wheels, 91 glass roof, and a few other minor bits(mainly bringing it back to good running order).
Cone filter and shield, 034 injectors, and phenolic spacer
Test fitting the BBS RX wheels(great deal on them from Darin aka Audilard)
Nice pic of it in its current state w/ new suspension and B4 hood. Looking back at the old b3 hood kinda makes me miss it.
B4CC swap, more info on that can be found in my post below.
In the last 2 years I went from trying to do a factory 7A+T to a full blown fully built motor swap. Originally I was going to do it on the cheap and +T the 7A. Then I got a killer deal on a used 3B motor and decided to go that route, unfortunately the motor had issues on 2 pistons and at that point I said screw and decided to do an all out build with the following.
7A block bored to 83mm
Scat rods
JE pistons 8.5:1 w/ copper coating
ARP main studs
ARP head studs
034 multilayer copper gasket
3B intake cam 7a exhaust cam
7A head machined to 3B specs
-034 light weight springs and hydraulic lifters
GT3076
VEMS
034 60-2 Flywheel
Spec Stage 3+ clutch/pp setup
Anything else not listed is still up in the air. I would like to use a 034 HO intake to save me some plumbing hassle and for better performance but am not sure I can afford it now. Exhaust manifold will be a tubular header of some sort as well.
The dirty 7A I got from a junkyard 90
It's new color after machine work. I'm a little worried I didn't have a torque plate used when boring it out.
Stock crank bolted in with swaintech coated bearings
Now with pistons and rods
Head studs and gasket ready to go
Bottom end mostly done with some accessories on now
windage tray modifications for main studs
Oil pan baffle welded in thanks to my friend Ken
Windage tray fitment
Oil pan all bolted up
7A trans bolt hole elongating
Whew.
That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have some more progress on it soon. Getting a header of some sort for it in the next month. Will also be making an adapter harness for VEMS so I can mess around with it on my 7A motor before I put in anything real nice like this.
I bought the car back in the winter of 2006 after my 1991 Volvo 740 wagon was rear ended and then had a transmission failure(this might have been caused by the stock NA auto trans and +T w/ 14 lbs of boost... ). Was looking for something unique and AWD for the winters out in Colorado so after looking around for a bit settled on a 1990 Coupe down in southern California. I bought it from one of the co-owners of Global Motorsports Group down in LA along with a trunk full of parts and a rebuilt head(I later found out the hard way that whoever they had rebuild it wasn't very skilled) since the timing belt had snapped.
First couple pics I got via email.
Trunk full of random stuff.
The first day I got her before pushing her onto the trailer.
I trailered it back up to the bay area(where I grew up) with the intention of doing a full top end refresh in just under a week before I had to drive it back to Colorado(going to school here). Probably was a bit ambitious especially since I was starting with already taken apart car that I was unfamiliar with. Everything that could go wrong pretty much did and I wasn't able to get the car back together in time. Had to wait until spring break to finish it up and drive it back to Colorado. Car came with some nice aftermarket bits like 034 injectors and short shift kit, weitec lower springs(on stock shocks
), and Depo headlights.Since it's been out here I've redone the entire suspension(including upgrading the rear bits to 91 w/ sway) w/ Bilstein sports and H&Rs courtesy of a junkyard coupe
, added a B4 auto climate system, B4 hood, BBS RX wheels, 91 glass roof, and a few other minor bits(mainly bringing it back to good running order).Cone filter and shield, 034 injectors, and phenolic spacer
Test fitting the BBS RX wheels(great deal on them from Darin aka Audilard)
Nice pic of it in its current state w/ new suspension and B4 hood. Looking back at the old b3 hood kinda makes me miss it.
B4CC swap, more info on that can be found in my post below.
In the last 2 years I went from trying to do a factory 7A+T to a full blown fully built motor swap. Originally I was going to do it on the cheap and +T the 7A. Then I got a killer deal on a used 3B motor and decided to go that route, unfortunately the motor had issues on 2 pistons and at that point I said screw and decided to do an all out build with the following.
7A block bored to 83mm
Scat rods
JE pistons 8.5:1 w/ copper coating
ARP main studs
ARP head studs
034 multilayer copper gasket
3B intake cam 7a exhaust cam
7A head machined to 3B specs
-034 light weight springs and hydraulic lifters
GT3076
VEMS
034 60-2 Flywheel
Spec Stage 3+ clutch/pp setup
Anything else not listed is still up in the air. I would like to use a 034 HO intake to save me some plumbing hassle and for better performance but am not sure I can afford it now. Exhaust manifold will be a tubular header of some sort as well.
The dirty 7A I got from a junkyard 90
It's new color after machine work. I'm a little worried I didn't have a torque plate used when boring it out.
Stock crank bolted in with swaintech coated bearings
Now with pistons and rods
Head studs and gasket ready to go
Bottom end mostly done with some accessories on now
windage tray modifications for main studs
Oil pan baffle welded in thanks to my friend Ken
Windage tray fitment
Oil pan all bolted up
7A trans bolt hole elongating
Whew.
That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have some more progress on it soon. Getting a header of some sort for it in the next month. Will also be making an adapter harness for VEMS so I can mess around with it on my 7A motor before I put in anything real nice like this.
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