Project Scarlett: 94 GT4 WRC Options

[punkxrckprincess]

@Sixgentoyota and I finally got ourselves a real GT4

After he had severe envy over our friends getting one, Jacob spent night and day and night and day and work and free time looking for a GT4. When this one came up (shout out to @enderswift on the assist) the deal could not be passed. So we hopped on the car before our importer even paid the auction bill back in June. The car got on a boat in Japan on 7-4 and docked in Tacoma, Washington July 18th. The car cleared customs in an incredible only 24 hours, and we flew out to Seattle the night of the 24th to pick it up.
We put her on a lift thanks to, again, our amazing importer (Sodo Moto if you ever want a suggestion!) and did a quick oil change, replaced the rear differential bushing, and were off for leg one of our journey home.
Seattle - Denver. Over 1,700 miles between the pit stops and the fuel ups. 1PM local time Thursday the 25th, got to our destination just after 7PM local time the 26th. Lost about 4 hours to sleep and an extra hour and a half to brief friend visit along the way. Thanks to @richee3 we were able to do a few other small 'repairs' to the car - including replace the Japanese radio and toss the fouled spark plugs so we had boost. We did some mountain driving on the 26th with their GT4, as well as two Supras on Squaw Pass southwest of the Denver area.


We left a little after 3AM local time for the last leg of our journey home- 985 miles (plus stops!) back toward Chicagoland. Rolled into our driveway just before 7PM CST the 28th.
The car held up under all the stress of over 3K miles in the span of 80 hours flawlessly. We don't know how long it sat for before we got it, but it's in excellent shape. No rust at all, clean undercarriage, minor paint fade and front fender has a little ding/crease but nothing serious.

Since we got it home we've buffed it and already taken it out for it's first play date (with @enderswift)


There will be a lot of love going into this car.

[punkxrckprincess]

So since our last update...

Friday 8/16 we were 92 miles into our drive from Crystal Lake to the Tail of the Dragon when we pulled over as we had some oil residue on the windshield. Immediately upon pulling in you could see a decent bit of steam/smoke coming through the hood vent. Popped the hood, the dipstick was pushed up (which we had happen a couple times before) but more importantly Jacob said he could see a tiny fireball inside our turbo. Killed the power to the car and called a tow truck. The wiring alongside left side of the turbo was very brittle and compromised. We obviously missed the Tail trip as a result.

We brought the car home and tore into it that weekend with a little help as usual from Mr. @enderswift.

We already had a spare wiring harness and picked up some of the parts from the local dealership, including a new PCV valve as we snapped ours in half accidentally. These old cars and all..

We got a compressor tester and a leak down tester- Compression was great on all cylinders.

Fast forward to Labor Day- if you know us, you know I keep our schedule crammed at all times, so we were on the run for 2 weeks with no time to focus on the car after that weekend. Neither one of us had any prior experience running a leak down test before. We called a bunch of people and were surprised how many of our friends- whether hobbyist mechanics or full time technicians- had done one of them. I watched Eric the Car Guy on YouTube (another huge feat if you know me because I f**king HATE watching videos) and then we dove into it. I think the most difficult part was finding TDC in the right firing order but once we got that we were good to go.

*we ran the test the first time with the engine cold- which is a terrible idea don't do it, it will likely give you a meltdown*
Once we got the engine to operating temp after our little meltdown and another assist from Luke, all cylinders were in excellent spec less than 5 off the pressurization. Anything 0-10 is considered good.

So after consulting with many of you kind souls, we believe we narrowed the problem down to the turbo itself. So we're taking it off and sending it in for rebuild/upgrade and should have Scarlett back on the road just in time to leave for Hawaii and not drive it until October. (not kidding)



I'd include more photos but the site I used is no longer allowing it!