Sleeper MX83 build

[BoristheCat 0]

At risk of being lit up by the old wizards on this board, my intro was posted around a year or two ago. I heard about cressidas with JZ swaps, asked a dumb question or two, and then disappeared off this board entirely until now. I bought an MX73 a year or so ago, and it was a total disaster. It took a lot of time and research, lots of fucking up, and a decent amount of wasted money on the MX73. It had a gutted interior, no engine or trans, and I paid waaaay too much for it.

 

 

 

I was glad to see that turd gone.

 

A few months ago I bought an MX83. The guy selling it had bought lots of project cars for his son. A Miata, FD RX7, a 240sx and this Cressida. The kid crashed the cress into somebody at low speed, and knocked out a headlight and lightly mangled the hood and quarter panel. The dad had enough, and let this car go for cheap. He was selling it for $1600, I talked him down to about $1300 since it had a badly leaking radiator and the engine was not running well at all. The cheap Chinese rims also have massive cracks and there are tears in the tire sidewalls. When I asked him about the condition of the wheels, he said "eh, it's fine. My son's been driving on those things for a year and a half with no problems!" Glad to know dad cares about his son's safety haha. The frame is completely straight though, and the interior is fantastic. It came with all the OEM stuff that most people throw out... wheels and tires, mudflaps, shocks, etc. It also has been lowered on 240 springs, which works nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All these pics are directly from the craigslist ad.

[BoristheCat 0]

After bringing it home, I cleaned it out and got it plated. I tried turning it over the following day, and white smoke started pouring out of the exhaust. Fuck. Turned out to be a blown head gasket, big surprise. I couldn't leave the car alone, and had to start working on it. I have never rebuilt a motor before, so I decided it would be appropriate to practice tearing down and rebuilding the 7m on the cheap before I dropped in a better motor and trans. I also wanted to get the suspension and driveline built up first and enjoy it as a car with decent handling while I save up for the JZ.

 

Replaced the headlight and corner light. I sort of finger fukked the front quarter panel back into place for the most part, but it's still nowhere near perfect.

 

 

 

I bought a bunch of stuff from xcessive and got to work on replacing all the sloppy rubber in the suspension.

 

 

 

Replaced stuff in the front.

 

Serial nine sway bar endlinks and tension rod bushings. I am well aware that I am being lazy by not cleaning off all the gunk on the control arms and sway bar. Yes, I'll get to it.

 

[BoristheCat 0]

I also dropped the subframe and started to mock up some of the diff stuff.

 

 

 

I took a gamble and bought a used MKIII LSD off ebay. When it got to my place, it was covered in rust and diff fluid from the drain plug being loose. It wasn't pretty, and I didn't take pics of it when it first rolled in.I opened it up and it looked healthy. No chipped teeth and no metal chunks or really gritty sediment on the drain plug.

 

 

 

 

Aaaaand, painted. If I was smart, I would have put metal prep on it so the POR-15 would have actually stuck. Did I do that? Of course not. I went to pick at an edge after the paint was dry, and what do you know, the paint peeled off in one big patch. You live and you learn. I'll wire wheel the paint off and do it again.

[BoristheCat 0]

On to the engine. Ran a compression test. The readings:

 

1. 190

 

2. 195

 

3. 190

 

4. 90 (uh oh...)

 

5. 185

 

6. Annnddd... shit.

 

 

No wonder the motor was running rough and was super low on power. Between running non-platinum tipped spark plugs (champion) and the kid being cheap and probably running 87 octane, he wasn't doing the engine any favors. When I was cranking it, my gearhead buddy said he could hear air rushing out of the valves. Our first assumption was that they were not sealing all the way, causing the low compression.

 

Upon removing the intake manifold and exhaust manifold, it became apparent that everything was super crusty with carbon.

 

Intake and exhaust

 

 

 

 

 

Gross.

 

 

I pulled everything apart down to the block. When I looked at the top of the first piston, there was radiator fluid on it and the head gasket was warped between a cooling channel and the first piston. The first piston also had next to no carbon build up on it while the rest were absolutely filthy. What more evidence do you need?

 

[BoristheCat 0]

Cleaned out the intake and exhaust. Much less crusty.

 

 

 

 

I also took this opportunity to remove all the EGR crap. After some research, people were saying the EGR routes too much of the exhaust back into the sixth cylinder, and makes things too hot. Probably why the sixth cylinder was the worst when it came to the carbon build up. I also bought block-off plates off of driftmotion that will be installed once all the head work is done.

 

 

 

The head was in pretty lousy shape as well. Better clean it up and do some valve work. The intake valves were beyond gross. They had lots of stalactite looking crap built up on them. The exhaust valves weren't too bad though.

 

 

 

 

Before and after:

 

[Gordo 0]

I heard about cressidas ........ and I paid waaaay too much for it.

 

A few months ago I bought an MX83. I talked him down to about $1300

 

lots of fucking up, and a decent amount of wasted money to get to where my MX83 is today.

 

It also has been lowered on 240 springs, which works nicely.

 

 

Wow, are you ever on your way to Fail Town.......

Yes, you paid way too much.

$1300 ? You got screwed.....

You haven't even made it out of the starting gate yet.

And no, 240 springs do nothing but make your car look low, like a ghetto ride.

Adds absolutely nothing to handling.

 

Why even waist $$ on rebuilding a stock 7MGE ?

And I bet you are doing all wrong, so in 6 months you will have another pos, low power engine with a blown head gasket.

 

And a stock suckera LSD will almost hold the stock 7MGE power.

Total waste of time & effort.

[BoristheCat 0]

At this point, I was wondering if my bottom end was having difficulty. I tried and failed at cleaning the carbon off the tops of the pistons by using simple green. Some people online mentioned letting simple green would remove carbon if left overnight. It helped a little, but barely. This is where the serious first fuck-up in my rebuild occurred. I figured leaving simple green in the sump was no big deal, after all, it's a cleaning agent right? Wrong. Very wrong. It is water-based, and if left in contact with metal, will rust and pit it. So did I remove the simple green right away? Nope. I left it in the sump. For... an entire month. I tried turning the crank a month later and it wouldn't budge. Not to mention, there was now surface rust built up on the cylinder walls. Oh boy, how am I going to clean this crap up?

 

I came across something online that mentioned Berkebile 2+2 instant gum cutter was the best way to get rid of carbon build-up. The poverty stuff from Autozone did absolutely nothing, I might as well have poured water onto my piston heads. The 2+2 stuff is illegal in California, and the entire bottle is covered in warnings. It must be the good stuff. Sure enough...

 

 

 

 

Hell yeah! I also used a sponge to clean the carbon off of the cylinder walls. I used the green abrasive side. Keep in mind, steel wool or scotch-brite would score and possibly damage the cylinder walls and leave little bits behind that would scratch the walls up once the pistons travel up and down. However, the green side of the sponge is nylon. Worked pretty well in my opinion. Again, Cleaned the second and fifth piston walls first, and then did the rest. The crank turns super smoothly now, crisis averted.

 

 

[Gordo 0]

LoL, this just gets better all the time......

 

Simple green is acidic, dumb fuck.

 

By now your rings have rusted, and most likely the lower end bearings.

 

Please get it together quick, as we want to see your post on knocking bearings.

[BoristheCat 0]

Gordo, keep in mind the 7mge is my motor to practice on, learn from and fuk up on. It is strictly a learning experience, nothing else. I have spent less than $300 to rebuild this motor. Full gasket kit, a few bucks here and there for hoses and some basic cleaning stuff. Serial nine coilovers are next on the agenda anyway. If I turn it over and it runs for 20 minutes and then something goes wrong, I get to tear it apart and figure out where I went wrong. Plus I haven't been asking a ton of dumb questions like many new people with low post counts, so there's that.

 

Lapped the valves on the head and cleaned out the ports.

 

Dirty:

 

 

Clean(er)

 

 

 

After I lapped the valves and finished cleaning the head. The local machine shop charges less than $100 to skim the head. Once this is done, I can bolt stuff back together.

 

[Rue 0]

Just stop... you've already wasted too much time on that fucking boat anchor. My 1J was a whole $1100... just saying

 

And you got screwed...

[BoristheCat 0]

Also put in the xcessive steering rack bushings

 

 

Well, which is worse, dumping simple green into a 7M, or dumping simple green into a JZ? It is not wasted time if I'm learning. Keep in mind, this is the first motor I have taken apart. The interior is pretty much immaculate, and the paint is great, aside from the front being a little roughed up. In all seriousness, I have never seen a cress with a better interior than the one I bought. The long-term goal of this car is to have decent power and handling for the street. I do care about looks, so finding a car with a good interior and exterior was important to me. I have seen VERY few Cressidas that don't have a million dings or a jacked interior.

 

 

Anyway, back on topic. The rear hubs are almost done. Bought lots of rear-end components from xcessive. The LCA pillow balls and RUCA bushings have been installed. Unfortunately, the spacers that go into the traction rod pillow balls were machined slightly too small. Rich at xcessive told me to send them back in order to turn them out a little bit more. By the way, xcessive has great customer service. Really helpful guys over there. Once this is complete, the hubs will be done.

[Rue 0]

In all seriousness, I have never seen a cress with a better interior than the one I bought.

 

You can come by and look at my interior... I promise it's better than yours

[Gordo 0]

Bottom line, we don't care........

We don't care about your learning curve with the X8, your potty training, or the first time you jacked off.

We can tell that you haven't got laid yet......

[WhoreMouth_Jr 0]

That red interrior is vomit inducing. So glad the x7 red is much... uh.... redder?

[BoristheCat 0]

I am a big fan of the grey x7's with the red interior, definitely my favorite color combo.

[huckersideways 0]

No.

 

Come back in another few years. Or never.

[Kyle 0]

That red interrior is vomit inducing. So glad the x7 red is much... uh.... redder?

1: fuck you

2: fuck porno red

3: op=lolololol

[Gordo 0]

Come back in another few years. Or never.

 

 

op=lolololol

 

OP, if you think that rolling junk pile X8 was a good deal,

just how bad did you get ripped off on the X7 ?

The answer should be good for a laugh or two.

[Bill 0]

TC.net is back from the grave.

[Mal136jzx81 0]

good stuff man keep it up!!!!

[Kyle 0]

^! Kys dumb bitch

[ChriSOL 0]

TC.net is back from the grave.

how about we host a tc.net section to farm partouts and comedy gold?

[Jason 0]

comedy gold

 

 

My thoughts exactly as I've been scrolling through this thread. When did this guy think we cared about any of this?

 

Still hasn't read or followed 3/4 of the rules.

[ChriSOL 0]

i prob hit thise dude up for interior at some point? if not, i should.

[BoristheCat 0]

Aaaaannnd it's been roughly a year everybody. I've been busy grinding out overtime and dealing with other stuff and haven't been posting whatsoever.

 

Finally I have an update.

 

 

 

Installed some lights, corner lights and grill from a GX81.

 

 

 

 

 

The switch is from a Toyota Starlet. I wired it into a relay to control the fog lights.

 

 

 

Finished up the rears with Xcessive RUCA bushings, RLCA bushings, traction rod pillow balls and new arms.

 

 

 

 

Also replaced some small piddly shit here and there

 

 

 

 

Prepared the new Z32 front and rear calipers with some new paint and pads

 

 

 

 

Front arms

 

 

 

Coilovers

 

 

 

Techno Toy Tuning RCA's and tie rod extensions. All bolted up.

 

 

 

First try at squaring up the car. Was within a quarter inch on my first go, which I'm happy with.

 

 

 

I took a break and helped a buddy with his clutch. It seized up on him on the freeway. He drove it for another few minutes before he could get off the road.

 

 

 

Lots of cracks in the throwout bearing... ridiculous carnage.

 

 

 

 

Dropped the car back down just to check how ignorant the ride height was.

 

 

 

This just in.... it's ignorant.