First USDM 8g AWD swap. Completed.
First and foremost I have to give special thanks to a few people who gave me alot of needed info and help over the phone while doing this swap. Cali, BostonHatcher (club3g), Balla4880 (club3g). Cali I actually took his back seat out and called me to walk me through the wiring of the awd fuel sending units. He literally stayed on the phone with me while I soldered the wires and checked everything. Also big props to Roman (Goosey2099) on completing the swap as well, we were going back and forth to see who would finish first. I just ended up getting luckier and finished it first. He did it in far less time though since he had access to a shop and lift and I was doing it on my back in the garage. He also did a complete engine/tranny/awd swap all at the same time which was way more involved in terms of wiring and fabricating is concerned.
Well I was gonna hold off until after MOD to post pics and what not, but since Angel started posting some teasers of Roman's swap, im gonna join in. The car has been swapped now for about 2 weeks. I will be honest, I was really trying to get the car done in time for the TGCNY meet back in July but when that didnt happen I kinda stepped away from it for a while mostly because I was sorta tired of working on it and I was working crazy hours and wanted to spend some more time with the wife and daughter. On top of that, I was buying a house and moving all at the same time.
With that being said, along the way I did some things that I thought were "right" or "correct" that ended up being not to my liking. For example, I made an adapter to bolt to the rack to extend the shaft to attach to the column. Good idea except it needed to have a u-joint on it and due to the factory column having a u-joint at the bottom, it would bind up all the time. So I had to re-do that.
Next, I made a bolt-on subframe brace to allow for easy removal of the t-case for service purposes. The first version of this was made of round steel tubing that ended up being too thin of a wall thickness and not strong enough. The latest version is .125" wall 1"x1" steel square tubing with .250" wall round tube mounting points. This version is plenty strong, kinda heavy at about 20lbs. With this I added another brace to the top of the subframe, nothing fancy, just a single square tube brace to prevent the two side of the top of the subframe from pushing toward each other in the center. For now, the subframe setup will stay like this, I might make a complete tubular subframe this winter, it will all depend if I can score a tig welder for a good enough price, because if I do this, I will want to use chomoly which needs to be tig'd and it will need to be mocked up on the car.
On to the exhaust, my original exhaust "mock up" if you will call it that, was normal 3" SS round tubing like any other performance exhaust. I say it was a mock-up because I did it all myself and mig welded it and the ground clearance was terrible under the subframe. So I cut it all back up and did it over, this time I used some round to oval transition pieces to convert the downpipe area to oval where it goes under the subframe brace, this gained me nearly an inch of clearance. Its still low to the ground but I dont drive the car that often, especially not conditions where I would bottom out like that. The "new" or should I say current exhaust, is all professionally tig welded by my friend Edgar, who just happens to be a welder by trade.
All the pics and vid's are taken on my phone. I will try to take some good pics after MOD when things calm down a bit. Im not doing a tutorial on this, I dont have that type of time available, but between the info here and on club3g, its more than adequate to get it done.
Enough of me yappin. Two brief vids a took. Sorry for the annoying whining sound, thats my external walbro pump on its last legs, begging to be put out of its misery. Gonna swap it out later this week.
click the pic
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...h_IMG_0912.jpg
click the pic
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...h_IMG_0913.jpg
The donor....
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...de/photo-8.jpg
rear subframe after sandblasting, epoxy primer, 2 coats of gloss black, 1 coat of clear and 2 coats of chip guard. new urethane/aluminum bushings installed.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-14.jpg
relocating the gas tank mounting studs. the holes are already in the body, just need to cut a window to drop a bolt thru. Once the bolts were in, I welded them to the body from the bottom and then welded the window I cut closed.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-19.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-18.jpg
rear floor pan cut open on the driver side to install the proper length studs,
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-15.jpg
since the front most stud (closer to the back seat) wasnt meant to be there, you need to be able to hold it from the top while tightening the nut under the subframe. This was the quickest and easiest solution to that. Some guys on dsm tuners had fancy retainers custom machined, I wasnt gonna mess with that.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-16.jpg
under the factory sound deadener in the backseat, there are two square shaped areas that are just waiting to be cut open for the AWD tank sending units. I used the covers from the 2g as a template and traced it onto the floorpan and then cut it out.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-13.jpg
cover installed
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-12.jpg
ballin ass FrontLine Fabrications diff cover w/bearing pre-load bolts. I had to have this...
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-21.jpg
installed on my EVO IX rear diff
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-22.jpg
test fitting the rear driveshaft and hanger bearing, about to weld the hanger bearing bracket to the floor pan
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-17.jpg
firewall cut for clearance. this is a tedious process. This was the 2nd day of cutting. I ended up removing even more of this a little further back and actually cut straight thru into the car and made a patch panel in order to raise the height of the tunnel. Image where the airbag computer mounts, I had to raise that up about 1.5" Needless to say the airbag computer wont fit after that....
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-20.jpg
lowered the steering rack mounts by 1.75"
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-11.jpg
first subframe brace, el garbage. too thin of a wall, not strong enough, but it was good practice.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...de/photo-9.jpg
second subframe brace, nothing else to say
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-10.jpg
revised downpipe with the oval transitions tack welded up
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-23.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...e/photo-24.jpg
then after my boy tig'd it up. he's very good
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83...de/photo-7.jpg
