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Thread: First USDM 8g AWD swap. Completed.

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  1. #1
    You are here entirely tooo much!! Stewi's Avatar
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    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


    click the pic



    The donor....



    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.



    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.





    rear floor pan cut open on the driver side to install the proper length studs,



    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.



    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.



    cover installed



    ballin ass FrontLine Fabrications diff cover w/bearing pre-load bolts. I had to have this...



    installed on my EVO IX rear diff



    test fitting the rear driveshaft and hanger bearing, about to weld the hanger bearing bracket to the floor pan



    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....



    lowered the steering rack mounts by 1.75"



    first subframe brace, el garbage. too thin of a wall, not strong enough, but it was good practice.



    second subframe brace, nothing else to say



    revised downpipe with the oval transitions tack welded up





    then after my boy tig'd it up. he's very good

    Last edited by Stewi; 10-02-2011 at 09:33 PM
    Quote Originally Posted by qnz
    well there are talkers and there are do'ers. talkers never do. and do'ers never talk
    99' Galant ES
    4G64/63T
    AEM EMS

  2. #2
    Yay great job so proud of you :)

  3. #3
    TGC Regular P'NOYcaL's Avatar
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    wow good job bro! i wish i have the gift to do that kind of stuff
    ________________________________________

    -RON

  4. #4
    Senior TGC Member Skyforger's Avatar
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    This, is just awesome.

    *brofist*

    -Chris-

    2003 Mitsubishi Galant ES 2.4L SOHC: "Octavia"
    2005 Honda Accord EX-L Coupe 2.4L DOHC

    Quote Originally Posted by XxGiRLaNT06xX View Post
    From the looks of the girl, her face isnt that great.. nothing a paper bag couldnt fix... amirite?

  5. #5
    Great job Stewi!

    And that is some great welding!

  6. #6
    TGC Regular foxbrand's Avatar
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    WOW
    Nice Job

  7. #7
    Experienced TGC Member njjfudge's Avatar
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    Wonderful!!!!!

    2001 w/Old Style VR-4 front conversion

  8. #8
    Hot Damn Brian! I am so stoked to see this! Congratulations, that's really awesome!
    Jigz-TGCIL Sosick Motorsports

    R.I.P. Christopher "CRAZY CHRIS" Beckmann
    "you dont appreciate friendship until you lose your bestfriend...."
    I'd rather have the knowledge and ability to do it than the money to buy it already done.

  9. #9
    One day my 7g shall follow suit
    Shout out to anyone that still uses hand tools for their work
    With elbow grease for power and determination for a battery

    Maybe your broke maybe your old school

    Me I'm a lil of both

  10. #10
    Rad. I want to see some numbers. (1/4 mile, dyno, ALL OF THEM)

  11. #11
    Senior Moderator DOHCstunr's Avatar
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    Damn. With a capital D.

    You going to have the undercarraige lineX'd now? I totally would. Who cares about a few extra lbs.
    ______________________________

    1994 Galant GS-Turbo

  12. #12
    Booty Luva wetamup2k3g's Avatar
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    Crazy good work bro, those welds are a thing a beauty too. Can't wait to see this!!

    -Greg

    "I smashed up the grey one, bought me a red;
    Every time we hit the parking lot we turn heads!"
    -Pimp C, "International Players Anthem"

  13. #13
    Experienced TGC Member 02redgalant's Avatar
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    *faints

    this is awesommeee congrats

  14. #14
    You are here entirely tooo much!! Stewi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DOHCstunr View Post
    Damn. With a capital D.

    You going to have the undercarraige lineX'd now? I totally would. Who cares about a few extra lbs.
    You have no idea how many times I have thought about that. If I do that, im doing EVERYTHING. I will literally take everything out of the engine bay, remove all the suspension, fuel tank, etc and put the car on a rotisserie and do it big. It wouldnt even be expensive, it would just be about 40 hours worth of work to remove and reinstall everything.
    Quote Originally Posted by qnz
    well there are talkers and there are do'ers. talkers never do. and do'ers never talk
    99' Galant ES
    4G64/63T
    AEM EMS

  15. #15
    Experienced TGC Member Dominicano's Avatar
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    wow that i sfreaking awesome!! congrats!!!



  16. #16
    Don't do LineX.

    Do POR15.

    POR15 > *

  17. #17
    I love you Brian. No homo...LOL

    You and Roman are the men!!!

    TURBO= in the making.......

  18. #18
    Experienced TGC Member Galantfan88's Avatar
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    OMG...You guys are simply awesome. I give you guys so much credit in doing all this work and making it work. You are the God of all Galants! Awesome job and keep up the good work.

    Evo 8 ECU / 5 Speed Swap / Fully Built Forged Motor
    Turbonetics Turbo T31 Stage 3 / RPW Stage 3 Camshaft

  19. #19
    You are here entirely tooo much!! Galanttuner10's Avatar
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    congrats man. glad to see it done.
    2014 Lancer Evo GSR
    1996 Galant S 5 Speed Turbo
    Need a Turbo rebuilt or upgraded--> http://www.thegalantcenter.org/showt...ebuild-Service

  20. #20
    Experienced TGC Member 99galantES's Avatar
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    Sick one of the best 8g's ever

    «Carlos»

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