92 GSX Street/Strip build

Some back ground information on the car:

Purchased Jan 2011 for $1800.00 with a blown 14b turbo.

What i started with:
Blown 14b
MAFT 2.02 w/ 3in GM Maf
Rewired Wally 190
Drop Zone Springs
AGX Adjustable Shocks
O2 Eliminator Down Pipe
Apexi N1 3in Catback
AutoLite Auto Meter Boost Guage ( 20PSI)
Xact Lite Light Weight Flywheel (11lbs)
ACT 2600
OEM Spec Clutch


I test drove the car and noticed the turbo sounded like an air raid horn when attempting to build boost. Sadly it did not succeed at building any PSI at all according to the gauge but did indeed idle fine with no surge and was still strong enough to drive. Or so i thought.

I proceeded to leave downtown Atlanta, GA and made it quite a ways without any issues. After being stuck in rush hour traffic for a few hours i was finally free to make the 4 hour cruise back home with my new toy. As i was nearing the GA / AL state line running about 75mph or so, the car bucked really hard and blew out black smoke, then proceeded to run fine again(i was thinking it some how was hitting fuel cut even without the boost being there). I continued on a ways and the bucks become more frequent and more powerful.

I then decided to pull off the interstate and check some things out at a gas station and possibly make a few calls. Upon opening the hood i realized the dip stick had shot out the tube and was barely hanging in the engine bay as well as the bay was covered in oil. The majority of the oil seemed to be originating from the BOV in large fan patterns ( not sure how i was even causing it to open @ 0PSI ) and the rest seemed to have been slung on the inside of the hood from the dip stick ejecting.

I made some calls to a couple of my turbo car educated friends ( this was my first turbo car as well as my first AWD car) asking for their advice as well as if they knew a way to trouble shoot it over the phone with me stuck a little over 2 hours from home with very little tools. After a bunch of routine checks of couplers and clamps etc. i decided to take the upper IC piping loose, it was at this point i found my issue. The seals in the turbo completely blew and started dumping tons of oil directly into my factory sidemount, which then sucked through the intake in large gulps.

I bought 10 quarts of oil at the gas station ( 4 more at another since the first only had 10), dumped the Side mount and refilled the car in preparation to limp home. The seals got progressively worse on the ride home to where i couldnt get the car about 20 MPH before it would buck and die. For the rest of the trip home i babied her at 15 or so MPH on the interstate shoulder getting pulled over numerous times while timing the traffic to cross bridges.

I finally made it home in a little under 10 hours and joyfully parked my money pit in the front yard. The following morning i started pricing and ordering parts just to get her back to going to use as a daily driver to begin with. I first ordered a knock off EvoIII 16g, followed by a knock off godspeed FMIC and universal piping kit, J-pipe with short pipe and NPT fitting, OBX manual boost controller, knock off Mishimotto radiator with 2 14in slim fans and aluminum fan shroud, ICW Racing wheels with 245/40/zr18 federals, 8k low beam HID's, Pilot 4in round fogs.

I drove this setup for 6 months on 12PSI of boost with extreme boost creep issues spiking over 20PSI at 3/4 throttle and blowing pipes loose at accidental full throttle situations. Not long after this i was in the middle of a street race running a half mile vs a 2009 mustang GT outside of town. My GPS registered my top speed at 159.6MPH, some where around this time and top speed the number 1 intake valve dropped and slung the keeper across the motor to come to a rest near the number 4 cylinder exhaust cam. Piston destroyed, cylinder wall destroyed, motor was toasted.

At the time i was working 12hours on 12 hours off 7 days a week for the next 6 months so i decided to purchase a rebuilt 4g63 from KarKing automotive in California and have it built to a graveyard Frankenstein. My car entered the shop October of 2011 and stayed there until Mid June 2012.

I received the car with a terrible idle, piss poor power, extreme AFR issues, poorly fabbed and welded custom intercooler piping, tweaked intercooler like a twizzler which was busted on the back from rubbing oil cooler lines, terrible short waste dump, bent corners on the hood (likely dropped), busted side marker light passenger side, the bumper zip tied on, and an $1800.00 bill for services( was labor and fluids only .

Needless to say i learned a strong lesson here. I learned that no matter what if i want a car to be held to top notch quality and be done the exact way i want it done without short cutting, then the only possible way was to do it myself.

I have now started rebuilding my GSX with full intent of no less than 650 AWHP while still being daily driven. I will Follow this post with my current progress

These are some pic i took along the way:

These are some more shots of the motor and the Plasti-Dip exterior as well as the new wheels.

Awesome build man. Car looks great!

Hit the track last night on 15 PSI Car felt good but the knock sensor is bad and pulling timing Sensor was ordered and i just got a call from the parts house that it is in, so likely installing it this weekend before the meet next saturday in Mobile, Al.


Side note until this race i had only run 3-4 dig runs on the street and a few roll runs. First time staging and first time on a tree. Never hit a track a day in my life til this.

That looked like a decent launch man. What did you run in the quarter?

That was my worst launch of the night but my best time. We dont have quarters anywhere around here though only 1/8ths. As far as times i am cutting a .400 tree with a 1.8 60ft. She falls flat on her face though cause of the tune needed and the knock sensor being bad. Running low 9's all night though.

Got the knock sensor in today and installed it. Most of my unstable idle has gone away and my ECU isnt pulling voltage to my injectors nearly as often as before. CEL is now off as well. Done some highway pulls on the way back from the track tonight and she pulled alot stronger through the gears ( track closed for the night cause another nearby track had a big money event tonight as well )

Going out tomorrow for a highdollar event at the track and depending on how the classes do they are allowing grudge racing as well. Might catch me that infinity again and make some cash to fund the rest of my build. If i run i will get some one to record it and will post a link here.

On a side note i do have the run with my best launch ( no tires chirp no bogging IMO perfect launch of the night) but in this run i missed 2nd gear cause RPM's were too high and locked me out. Run a high 9 that pass with amazing 60 ft and reaction times. Ill upload to youtube when i get service on my phone again.

Went out for a high dollar race make up today at the track. All in all a very good day to be out at the strip. Waited til the sun went down and the temp dropped a little and decided to make 2 more passes. First Video is my warm up as i baby shift into 2nd so i dont miss it again. Second video is a $400 Grudge race vs an F-250 King Rank Diesel. Negotiations were made after my first pass and blind to how the truck ran. Negotiated to give the bump on the tree. Ford Landed a really slow .717 and my hit was .879 with a win margin of .770 at just under 80 mph ( thats a 5MPH top end gain and peeled 3 tenths off my Friday night run ) As a side note there was no cool down prior to the 2nd race either which was also in the negotiations.

Made my first custom video of the GSX. lemme know what you think.

Not a bad video at all. Do you have any photoshop skills?

Also, have you considered any other tuning options? I made a helpful thread here - https://dsmtech.forumotion.com/t15-tuning-solutions-and-you

I think youd get a lot more out of your setup using a better tuning device.

thats number 1 priority right now. MAFT 2.02 is going away asap for SD and most likely ostrich and werewolf.

Havent run Photoshop nor owned it since i was in college. Started applying my skills to cars instead of computing like i did back then

Do you have any type of tuning skills? The reason i ask is ostrich doesnt have a vast community of users. It may be difficult to learn and get support. Im not bashing it in anyway just makin sure you know before hand.

tuning skills not really but i am pretty hadn with computers already and the werewolf and jackle applications are really easy to learn and are just as straight forward as link. Tuner pro ( the free one) on the other hand is hard as balls i hear

Complete mind change after doing some research. Looks like i will be undertaking an evo 8 ecu swap. The gains are equal to DSMlink V3 full with slightly less sampling rate and no live graph for a 400+ dollar savings.

Wont be updating this much for about a week going to be headed out of town to Mobile Alabama for Gulf Coast Autoworks Farewell to Summer 2012 meet. Gonna be a blast and i will run into a few DSM buddies of mine from the tri-state area

Decided i was gonna pull out my ecu and see if it was eprom so i could place my order through ECM today.. and then i find this....



Now i need to find a new ECU, Looking to find an eprom already running v3 dont matter if its full or lite cause i will just upgrade the firmware on it.

good choice going with ECMLink. good program with an awesome user community. If you need any help just let me know.