"Kurumi" ('94 Brilliant Black V6 5-Speed) Restoration

Some updates:

Made the unpleasant discovery that the car has been repainted. There's a run just behind the driver's door:

and the LS stickers were (poorly) masked instead of just removed and replaced afterwards.

Otherwise it's a decent job. Would I like a glossier/original finish? Sure. But at least the clearcoat is intact.

Lots of work to do in the engine bay:

I got her up on jackstands on Friday and started removing parts. Canadian winters have had their way with everything under there. Exhaust leak, check:

Managed to get most of it off, but the studs securing the downpipes to the exhaust manifolds snapped immediately, so I had to rip off the intake manifold and remove the exhaust manifolds also:

Fortunately, thanks to a combination of heat, penetrant, just the right socket extensions and a lot of patience, all 14 nuts/bolts came off with breaking any. So the engine will not have to be pulled (yet).

At the rear, 3 out of the 4 subframe mounting bolts snapped:

A nice neighbor came off and welded nuts onto the bolts so we could get them off with the air gun:

There's also a good bit of rust under the shock towers:

Wire brushed it and hit it with a couple of coats of POR-15.

And I finally got the fuel tank off earlier this evening:

Some rusty patches above the tank, which I'll also wire brush and treat:

I'd like to powerwash all the undercoating off, but I think that would take something stronger than Simple Green; probably some scrubbing action, which I don't have time for at the moment.

Very close to being able to start reassembly, which should (hopefully) go more smoothly.

Progress has gone pretty smoothly today. POR-15 on all the rusty parts:



2nd coat tomorrow. Love the stuff.

Decided it was easier to swap over the whole filler pipe + evap line assembly rather than try to twist off Kurumi's fuel hose ends (I cut them to remove the tank):

Needless to say, Megumi's is in MUCH better condition.

Made another unpleasant discovery also: Kurumi's rear brake hardlines have been replaced:

Yet another thing not disclosed by the seller.

Spaceship vibes from Kurumi:

Feeling pretty good about getting her back on the road this weekend if everything continues to go well.

Well, things did not go entirely as expected, but I fought through it, one issue at a time.

Front of the exhaust in, above a rust-treated front crossmember:

Megumi's EGR valve and solenoid assembly swapped over:

I deleted the EGR pipe and bypassed the coolant lines, just like with Megumi.

Got the new fuel pump in. Some differences between the new and old pumps:

The old one was working fine, so this was preventative.

The fuel tank went on without too much drama, although I did have to undo the right strap to attach the heat shield, since I forgot it goes under the strap.

Got the filler pipe assembly all cleaned up and installed. I used some handy-dandy 3M weatherstrips on the filler plate back:


Got the rest of the exhaust and the subframe on and hitched up:



Struts and brakes on:

A big victory on Saturday was the parking brake bracket nuts came off, all 3 of them. They were totally rounded and disintegrated, but my rounded nut socket, a wire brush on the threads and copious amounts of heat, and they all came off.

No pics, but the intake manifold went back on OK. I decided to swap over Megumi's fuel rail and injectors, and discovered that the '94 rear injector rail connector assembly has a different plug, so I had to swap that over.

The lower fuel filter hose put up a fight, but I got it off in the end. Swapped over the bracket also.

I finally got everything buttoned up, and went to start it, and it wouldn't turn over. Battery was good, so I figured it must be the starter. Fortunately, it's right on the front of the engine, so I was able to pull Megumi's off and get it on Kurumi in about 25 minutes.

And then...she started! Ran really well, actually. I drove her around the neighborhood a bit, and she felt 500% better than down in Florida. Tracked straight, smooth and good pickup.

Got a code 16 and 41. For the 41, I'll just swap over Megumi's VRIS solenoid. For 16, I may have hooked up the EGR solenoid assembly wrong. Will investigate.

The other issue is the brakes. She unfortunately has ABS, which just gets in the way and overcomplicates everything. After the test drive, the right front and left rear discs were warm to the touch, where the other 2 were cold. Will have to look into that also.

Still, I was encouraged after an exhausting week and a half.

So driving home Friday evening, the car took about 20-30 seconds to start as I left the bank (ran errands on the way home). Then, it cut out randomly, and took even longer to start once I coasted into a nearby parking lot. After waiting a minute, I got it started again, and it took me the remaining 15 minutes home without incident. Still---not cool.

The fuel pump and filter are brand new, and the injectors have less than 3000 miles on them, so I suspected something ignition-related. The distributor connector was very suspect (NO idea how it ended up in that state):

Swapped over Megumi's pigtail (lineman's splices FTW):


I also put a protective sheath on the wires.

Cleaned the distributor up just a bit also. The bottom screw broke b/c of course it did:

Drill & tap, drill & tap... Sigh.

I also swapped over the crank angle sensor, and got the plug wires organized also thanks to swapping over a whole load of clips that were missing:

Getting there...

Updates! Kurumi has driven me to work every day this week so far. She's doing fine, although she still has two codes (16 and 41) and shudders a bit under acceleration, especially at certain gear + rpm combos like 2nd gear around 2500-3000 rpm. Working that one out.

She also runs warmer than I'd like (a bit to the right of center on the gauge; Megumi ran a bit to the left), and started creeping toward the red—though eventually stabilized short of it—when idling for a few minutes with the A/C on in mid-80° temps. Temp came back down once on the highway. So the cooling system will need some attention.

In the meantime, since I have a baseline, I've been trying to take things a bit slower after spending hours and hours over the past 3 weekends. Just trying to do one small/medium thing a day.

Monday, I pulled the seats and vacuumed the carpet. Megumi's passenger seat was in slightly better shape, so I swapped that over, along with the rear seat cushion. Kurumi's driver's seat bolsters are intact, so it stays, though I might see if I can swap over Megumi's seat bottom. Rear seatbacks have to come over also.

Gave the dash its first wipe down w/303. More to come.

and I swapped over Megumi's sun visors that were in better condition:

Yesterday, I addressed the trunk area. Before:

and after:

Trunk liner in better shape, intact weatherstripping, all the correct fasteners, etc. I still need to de-rust the hinges, but it's looking a lot better back there.

I think some critter took up residence in the trunk for a while prior to my ownership:

Everything got vacuumed out and wiped down.

Next up: Intake manifold swap. Code 41 is VRIS1, and I decided rather than just swap over Megumi's known-good solenoids, I'd just pull the whole intake and swap it over with its cleaner throttle body, silicone hoses, etc. Getting pretty good at pulling it these days. Megumi's engine is looking pretty picked over...

Couple updates:

Swapped over Megumi's rebuilt power antenna. Of course, they didn't take the 3 minutes to remove the antenna before the respray:

That's like not removing switch plates before you repaint a room. Makes my skin crawl.

In any case, the antenna was a quick swap over and works well.

I also swapped the glove box door, since Kurumi's was missing a screw and the latch rattled (and it was just dirty).

Finally removed the giant "Group B" mudguards and installed Megumi's subtle "fender protectors" on the front. Comparison:

On Kurumi:

And before:

And after:

It's a subtle difference, but I think she looks 1000X better. So much sleeker and more cohesive. The mudguards just stopped the front-to-rear visual flow in its tracks. Now she looks all-of-a-piece.

Bunch of interior work this afternoon. First, I did a deep clean of the carpet so it had time to air-dry. Before:


(apparently, the previous owner was a real sunflower seed enthusiast; they were embedded everywhere)

Cleaning supplies:

And after:

Doesn't look a whole lot cleaner, but it is, and more importantly, it just SMELLS better.

Got the door sills all nice and clean from the Canadian/Floridian environments. Before:

After:

I swapped over a bunch of Megumi's interior plastics like the center console trim & armrest storage BUT I kept Kurumi's lid, since it has a soft-close hinge (Megumi's always slammed and felt cheap).

And finally, I cleaned up the door jambs and swapped over known good door stays. Before:

And after:

It's really nice to have a door that stays open properly now.

I was on the fence about swapping over the shift knob I bought right before the accident. I kind of wanted to wait until I swapped Megumi's engine and trans in, but...in the end I just did it. I never did drive Megumi with the new knob, so it'll be a fun commute tomorrow morning.