chew*'s 01 Neon Mtx Project

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 9:13 pm

occasional demons wrote:If the parts car is cleaner rust wise than your car, swap the inner dash panels (VIN) and use the parts car with your title. Or the shell with your body panels. There may be some VIN stickers in side the trunk area, but other than that, the rest would be more difficult to find. The body panels are easy enough to explain: "they came off another car".

Of course paint matching will be necessary, if you use your panels, but you were doing body work anyways. Just paint the shell to match.

Unless you use the car to murder someone, it won't ever get looked into to that extent. And if it does, it means you got caught, and have bigger issues.

I was going to do that with the SRT. Flame red with a sunroof. Just like my 2000 was. I should've done that

chew* · Post by chew* » Fri Jan 06, 2012 12:27 am

srimes wrote:Stock mounts are easier on the drivetrain? I thought that wheelhop was worse due to the shock loading.

Maybe I shouldn't fill my mounts then.

Depends on the type of shock and how much play there is.

A completely blown mount might cause issues. Also depends on power output. I would say in excess of 200hp/torque it would cause issues.

The entire point of filling mounts, stiffer mounts is to take out the slack in the driveline and put the power to wheels. Consequently the next weakest link blows easier. Axles or trans.

Caraudioholic24 · Post by **Caraudioholic24** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 12:55 am

Didn't realize you had that vengeful to Brian. Lol. Makes me miss mine. I have a ton of parts lying around in my basement if you're interested.

We gotta meet up some time and catch up.

chew* · Post by chew* » Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:00 am

Caraudioholic24 wrote:Didn't realize you had that vengeful to Brian. Lol. Makes me miss mine. I have a ton of parts lying around in my basement if you're interested.

We gotta meet up some time and catch up.

Definitely, I got my hands full atm, neon is getting no love but will be as soon as I get time. Right now I got a 02 nissan altima tying up my garage then as soon as that is done I have to drop an engine in a AWD eclipse. After that maybe some work on the neon.

The venge goes bye bye once the altima is running. It's sold already.

I am moving the neon parts car over to the "real" garage saturday though where the welder and shish kabob is so I guess that is progress.

Maybe I will post some pics from there. I bet you guys would love to see the 1KHP + vette engine or the 440 build.

Caraudioholic24 · Post by **Caraudioholic24** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:05 am

Sweet. Don't feel bad....remote start season is in full swing for me...non stop....hoping to have my rt head sent out soon and get that all finished up...then I have to pull the trans out and figure out what I'm gonna do... Noise is a little annoying..never mind the dam speeding gear issue.... And there's that snail I stare at in my shed that's screaming my name lol

chew* · Post by chew* » Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:14 am

Caraudioholic24 wrote:Sweet. Don't feel bad....remote start season is in full swing for me...non stop....hoping to have my rt head sent out soon and get that all finished up...then I have to pull the trans out and figure out what I'm gonna do... Noise is a little annoying..never mind the dam speeding gear issue.... And there's that snail I stare at in my shed that's screaming my name lol

I got a trans you can borrow so you have minimum downtime while you get that fixed.

It's a 3.94 out of an R/T. Should be a little more snotty with your current config.

The nylon gears are supposed to be heated to remove and install while pliable, chances are someone just pryed it off without heat.

I might have a spare gear.... The noise is likely forks or the springs worn bad on the syncs causing the sync ring to have play. Those springs actually wear wicked quick.

I have an entire 3.55 pulled apart ready for a rebuild here if you just want to start fresh. Just need a bearing kit and syncs and your lsd and it will be golden. Your probably going to want a 3.55 once turbo'd anyway.

Caraudioholic24 · Post by **Caraudioholic24** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:20 am

Just sux cause this trans has maybe 5000 miles on it. I know it must be the forks cause my shifter has some slight play in it. When i first installed my short throw booger bushings and solid cradles it barely wiggled. Now it has some slight play. Could be that It's all breaking in....

But the car is put away so down time isn't an issue. Once I send the head out ill rip the car apart.

chew* · Post by chew* » Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:26 am

Caraudioholic24 wrote:Just sux cause this trans has maybe 5000 miles on it. I know it must be the forks cause my shifter has some slight play in it. When i first installed my short throw booger bushings and solid cradles it barely wiggled. Now it has some slight play. Could be that It's all breaking in....

But the car is put away so down time isn't an issue. Once I send the head out ill rip the car apart.

Ehh without pulling apart it's hard to say.

Detent ball could be worn or spring could be cracked/ or tired, shift rod bushings could have wear, sync rings, syncs, sync springs, shift forks. There's quite a few parts in there that all can contribute to shifter slop.

chew* · Post by chew* » Sun Jan 29, 2012 8:22 pm

Cracked all the rear suspension bolts today, removed and antiseized. Suspension update coming soon.

Game plan is upgrading suspension, upgrading brakes and after I feel comfortable with the safety stuff done HP mods.

chew* · Post by chew* » Thu Apr 05, 2012 10:52 pm

Sorry for lack of updates.

Me and the wife split up but the neon project is ongoing and thriving.

Some updates soon, been sand blasting like crazy and fabbing and have all my body parts.

Piecing together suspension as well struts are aquired springs are blasted and painted, manual rack is here although to do it right requires some fab work.

Tons of performance parts in boxes waiting to go on the interim engine while i build the real one.

Also going to work on a SAFC in the next week or so.

Might mention besides the 01 MTX I now have a 02 ATX and 03 R/T

chew* · Post by chew* » Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:40 pm

Crystal if your still reading

http://westernmass.craigslist.org/pts/2925747262.html

a23dranger · Post by **a23dranger** » Sun Apr 08, 2012 10:22 pm

yours chew or something you found?

chew* · Post by chew* » Mon Apr 09, 2012 6:37 pm

a23dranger wrote:yours chew or something you found?

Not mine just something found in searching. Crystal wanted solar yellow doors.

i'll get pics of my trio soon.

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chew* · Post by chew* » Thu Apr 12, 2012 9:42 pm

Leathers in, upgraded radiator to mishimoto with a stock dual fan setup, front and rear bumpers/lights are now 03-05 swapped.

As i said before all supporting mods and safety items are being done before HP mods so bear with me, building the entire suspsension/brake system new from the ground up is rather costly and time consuming + requires alot of blasting time.

chew* · Post by chew* » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:45 am

Well she's still running, I've taken the liberty to detune her sort of.

Preety much all stock again save a header and downpipe, catless R/T exhaust and custom airfilter box. She has since been modded to the 03 body style and i pulled the leather for another car. Demoted to daily driver since i found something that requires less clips, not that i couldn't do it but time versus money it just isn't worth it.

Here's the lates pic I have among a few other cars i picked up along the way.

chew* · Post by chew* » Wed Sep 12, 2012 1:03 am

Brought the daily in for some maintenance and stainless exhaust band clamps.

Installed clamps, changed engine oil ( Castrol GTX just my preference, been using it for years and have done internal inspections and have seen no issues ), changed MTX trans oil ( Mobil 1 HM 10-w40 conventional ), inspected belts which seems like alternator belt is due, changed 3rd brake light bulb. Took her for a spin afterwards and wouldn't you know 3rd gear decides to start scratching into gear with just normal driving, did it about 4 times till it was warmed up.....let it sit overnight and see how it acts when cold in morning.....
Might be doing a trans this weekend

FYI Mobil sells 2 variants of High Mileage.
Rumor has it that they no longer use zinc in High mileage variants......
Rumor = half true.

High mileage synthetic = no zinc
High mileage conventional = zinc

Source = MSDS

chew* · Post by chew* » Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:39 pm

Verdict is final, trans scratched again into third from a cold start.......

chew* · Post by chew* » Sun Sep 16, 2012 4:02 am

I decided to change some stuff in my DD this week performance related, just wasn't feeling the way the power band was so started from scratch.

First up I ripped off my blown out R/T muffler and installed a SRT4 rear section with my catless down pipe and header. That lasted all of about 30 minutes. Way to loud and sounded horrid. Removed header and downpipe and reinstalled factory exhaust manifold and a stock cat. So stock manifold to factorty cat to R/T midsection with the factory resonator to SRT4 rear section.

Tone wise this sounds good and feels good but volume is still a tad to much. I think I will play with resonators once I get another midsection. In a perfect world I'd like to take the cat out again and run my header.
Gas mileage has noticeably dropped as well however the powerband is more useable.

Next I reinstalled my CAI, reinstalled my catch can, pulled intake, removed harness, installed R/T engine harness, installed magnum intake. Took it for a spin and it was clear MTV wasn't working. I apparently had a brainfart and forgot it has a fuse and relay. I got a wiring diagram out, pulled a spare fuse box apart and built my own relay/fuse circuit for the MTV.

Took it for another test drive and was preety satisfied with how it runs although I might experiment with a few more things. I will take some pics tommorow.

I need to tackle trans soon as well however it's wearing in and no longer scratching cold. I think it's a false sense of security.

chew* · Post by chew* » Mon Oct 01, 2012 2:49 am

Crappy shot of engine bay. I've got a few more things to do and clean up but I'm going to keep it preety mellow.

chew* · Post by chew* » Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:28 pm

Now that I've finally settled on what I'm doing with the silver car, plans for that car can be transferred over to this one sort of......

The issue is I have a crap load of performance single cam parts and still have a good engine to toss them on and like 6 transmissions, 7 if we include spare I half rebuilt already...

.....and my DD is a neon....

That said I'm going to toss together a R/T clone ( exterior and under hood only without badging ) with some bolt ons for my daily. I already have another set of skirts that no one wants and a black mopar lip kit brandy new.....and 03-05 front and rear black bumpers plus the lights to acompany them.

Currently looking for a black rust/rot free 00-02 shell to replace this shell but for the meantime I'm just going to keep adding parts then I will just swap them all over....

Might also be time to get rid of some stuff that really won't work out for a factory tuned pcm like my Indy intake superchargers etc etc.....I guess the walbro 255 in the new canister can be kept as a spare for the other car.....

a23dranger · Post by **a23dranger** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:34 pm

how bout selling me the lower half of that 2gn indy intake?? or i can give you my 1gn lower half and cash for it?? so you can still sell a complete indy intake..

chew* · Post by chew* » Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:35 pm

a23dranger wrote:how bout selling me the lower half of that 2gn indy intake?? or i can give you my 1gn lower half and cash for it?? so you can still sell a complete indy intake..

Was going to mention that to you since you asked before.....

I really will have no use for it on a stock ECM I'm assuming.

a23dranger · Post by **a23dranger** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:44 pm

yeah let me know for sure..

chew* · Post by chew* » Thu Oct 18, 2012 11:02 pm

a23dranger wrote:yeah let me know for sure..

Yep I will, talking with mike now to remember what I paid.

We think it was $250

I'd like to get original cost back and just sell the whole thing.

It needs gaskets, I split it and sand blasted the entire thing.

chew* · Post by chew* » Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:01 am

Small Update, parts gathering again.

Current shot of engine bay which is the only good thing about car.

Only changed a couple of things.

Sorry its a little dirty right now.

Picked this up for $175 brand new in box. To good of a deal to pass up.

Now I need to decide how far I want to go with head.....don't really see any benefit from stainless valves or oversized valves unless using nitrous or boosting......so maybe a mild port/polish of one of my R/T heads and some crane springs and a quick lap job and brandy new rockers to break in the cam "properly" not "cheaply"

Going to work on this over winter and go through my 32K engine, inspect and replace all seals, waterpump, tensioner etc etc and hope to have it ready to drop in by spring.....

Maybe by then I will have found a decent black shell so I can toss this one.

chew* · Post by chew* » Fri Dec 14, 2012 5:47 pm

Still parts collecting, be done soon.

Got brand new mopar rockers for the comp 400.

Got brandy new crane springs.

Picked up a nib phantom grip.

Picked up a complete R/T block that barely hydralocked at 3K, apparently it still runs, rod bent ever so slightly.

After some clearance checks on both the new block and my 32K block I will decide which one to use.

As far as heads go I have a stripped R/T head from the above engine and an 01 R/T head in really good shape......depending on which way I go valve wise I will keep 1 and sell the other.

Not looking to go fast just want a reliable engine that doesn't consume oil that If i decide to take long distance I don't have to worry about engine getting me stuck......not that it ever has but an ounce of prevention never hurts.

chew* · Post by chew* » Sat Dec 15, 2012 11:58 pm

So thats what OEM mopar lash adjusters look like brandy new

No deburring required and at $50 for an entire set of intake/exhaust brandy new it meets the cheap/slow/reliable requirements

chew* · Post by chew* » Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:52 am

Small update.

Parts car tear down.

A new neon guy I have abducted and converted to dark side.

And my DD gets lowered.

2K neon getting a face lift ( working on hood replacement ).
R/T powerplant swap is next.

No more 4x4 Tokico blues/Tokico springs courtesy of parts car

Also got leather and updated 03 leather wheel.

chew* · Post by chew* » Thu May 02, 2013 4:15 pm

Not much progress on the silver car.....

Need to get this car out of the way first so lets get to business.

Cleaned up a 3.94 trans before I tore it down, modded, replaced a few parts, added lsd. Currently waiting on clutchmasters stage 3 to install.

Tired of power steering and tensioner issues, recently blew apart the tension assembly even after replacing new pump and tensioner pulley.

Manual rack modifications started. Put simply remove after marking the rack mount. Adjust driver side holes to match rack ( which is why it needs removing )...Cut small section off of another K member and add to this to make up the length issue.

Is this only way to do it? Nope. Its a safe way, and my way so save the comments.

And a current engine bay shot after a winter cleaning.

akirony · Post by **akirony** » Thu May 02, 2013 7:49 pm

Im gonna go through this build thread. I need to see how those vac lines are ran to the intake. Loving the coolant pipe and catch can setup.