The Project Pad

I started this project with the intention of doing the standard AAN swap into a 4000. I did a thread over on the other guys page. I was told to start a thread over here. As I read through this forum I find I like the layout and information better.

So this is what I have done so far. Upgrades in the very near future. I'll make this short as too not have to completely redo the thread. Besides all the interesting stuff is going be happening from here on out. Nobody cares about a standard AAN conversion anyways.

I purchased this car from a guy in Spokane off of Bring A Trailer. He had told me the car was already sold and that he had received a down payment. I asked him if he got the offering price and he said, "no." So I told him I would give him the offering price and he reneged to the previous purchaser. Funny thing is, last week I called about a White 4K down in the Portland area and the guy who was selling it ended up being the guy that lost the deal. Anyways, this car was truly in remarkable condition with only 78K original miles. Not to mention the paint was in perfect condition and it has black leather. Black with black leather is something I have been looking for for a while.

First day home from Spokane:




Suspension needed replaced ASAP. I hit one of these Alaskan frost heaves and destroyed one of the front strut. Probably original from 86. I have been reading about MC1 swaps all the way back from 2000. I started talking to a buddy and we decided on the AAN or 3B. I also got rid of the hideous black BBS wheels at the same time. (Those came from the dealer, they are on the original sales receipt.)

So I found an AAN in California with 100K. Bought it and shipped it.




Once the motor got here I had to do a ton of research on what all I needed parts wise. So I ended up going 034 and went with the 11c ECU. I did have a major hick-up on the parts order. I was sent the wrong harness and coil setup among other things. 034 was really good about it and fixed me up.

$$$$$$

SO the car with the new wheels and suspension. Still JT'd



So then we did an inspection on the AAN and changed all the gaskets ect.

Painting and stuff



Then we pulled the JT. Nothing too exciting.

Then the battery relocation. Exciting

Then we got the motor put together; Clutch & Flywheel, Intake manifold, Exhaust manifold and Turbo ect...




That is a 016 Aluminum flywheel with a stage 3+ SPEC 016 clutch

Then we put it in (Notice we didn't cut the front brace, just can't have the Crank pulley on)




Then I ran all the wiring for the harness and made a mount for the ECU out of the shroud for the old AC evaporator.

The radiator situation was kind of a conundrum. No big deal. We first cut out a portion of the Uni-body support frame to allow the radiator to articulate about 45 deg from the normal setup. We simply inverted the square "C" we cut out and re welded it in place.


This cleared the throttle body. Next we cut the inlet and outlet of the radiator and re soldiered to more convenient locations. We used flat stock to cover up the old holes.



Some copper tubing which I later painted black. Of course

Then I tackled the intercooler. I ended up using the 2 snub mount bolts as the main anchoring point. After cutting some of the front metal out and some spacers, I got it to fit with the bumper and bumper grills. Not to bad.




Then installed the heavy duty NAPA oil cooler.

The most nerve wrenching part. Penetrating my perfect dash with a hole saw. Got lucky. I actually pulled a dash from a 4000 in a junk yard and practiced a couple hole prior to going for it. I screwed up 2 out of the 3 holes. Come to find they like it slow and steady as opposed to aggressive barraging. Those are boost and AFR gauges by the way.

So once everything was put together we started it up using the 034 tuning manual. The only AWD dyno in AK wouldn't help me tune it because the 034 ECU has no knock provisions. I don't blame them. It was a blessing in disguise. The 034 base tune was relatively good. After a lot of reading and internet scourging I became confident that I could tune conservatively on the street. Once I got it running good through as many street conditions I could on the stock boost levels I increased the boost.

From what I have read 17-20 PSI on a stock K24 is about it's max efficiency. So that's what I did. Man is the car insanely fun at 17 PSI. Thing has made long trips with out a single problem. This is how the 4000 should have been from the factory.

So that's the quick rundown of where I am at.

These are the upgrades I am rounding up at the moment. Should have everything within in 2 weeks.

GTX 3071 w/ 4" inlet
IROZ equal length exhaust manifold
IROZ down pipe
Tial 38mm wastegate
HKS filter
Compression lowering head gasket. (9.3 to 8.8)
Phenolic intake manifold gasket
Siemans 60lb injectors
Crank case ventilation catch can

Waiting on the IROZ stuff, I have everything else. Oh yeah, sent my ECU back to upgrade from a 2.5bar to 4bar MAP sensor.


More to come.........

Glad you're here! About time... Lol

I'm curious, why did you go with a KKK flange for the hotside instead of v-banding everything when you had the chance? Since you're getting the manifold and downpipe combo...

Because I had already bought the turbo thinking I was going to a Wagner RS2 EVO manifold. They were discontinued. Would have been better for sure though. I didn't feel like buying another hot side and doing the whole get rid of the other thing.

Awe man, definitely would have been worth it. I guess you can always cut and weld flanges but it woulda been nice having Hank do all that for you!

He knows what I have. He is doing it custom for my setup. I shouldn't have to cut and weld anything.

Very nice job. Good read too. Welcome, I look forward to seeing more. We better get some good ice racing videos or something

Oh, yeah I know. I just mean that now you're stuck with the stupid KKK flange. If you ever want to change turbos then you're stuck with options that only have the KKK. But I guess now with precision offering their KKK hotside for lots of their turbos your options are a little wider than they used to be.

Yeah, good points.

loxxrider wrote:Very nice job. Good read too. Welcome, I look forward to seeing more. We better get some good ice racing videos or something

Thanks man. My brother and I are doing an MC2 for ice racing. I probably won't with this badboy though. Too nice

Looks fantastic!

Hank wrote:Looks fantastic!

Will look a lot better with that Header and Down pipe

Did you make a name over here to cantact Taco?

Nice to see you over here. Your AAN powered 4kq will fit right in.

Great project, first time I've ever seen bbs ra's called hideous...to each there own....

Yes, I want to contact a taco. I am interested in his subframe bushings. That's something else I plan on doing this winter. In the parts rounding up stage for that.

I have been meaning to start a thread over here for a while. Sweet forum.