Figured I may aswell post the car up now that im on the forums fishing for info.
I bought this one mid 2008 after my previous Gemini dislodged its bonnet at 100kmh. This was 2weeks after id resprayed it, and 2days after I got the DOHC in it. To say i was ******* ****** off would be an understatement. So at the tender age of 21 i was now on Gemini number 8 [gee theres been a few].
Typical little old lady car, completely un-molested and came with a whole stack of reciepts and paperwork, including reciepts for all the engine machining, respray circa 1995 etc. I usually RUN away from Geminis that have been sprayed but it was so clean and solid [solid part yes, clean no - oooops
] that i had to grab it. So in all its angry G161z Auto glory it breezed through its RWC and i was off on the road. Had promised the previous owner it would remain standard....didnt realise just how bad/slow the SOHC auto combo was, especially after id just sold my previous daily [modd'd S15 200sx] which didnt help. So...I lasted all of 3months before i did this -
While the car in general was clean, the interior [with the exception of the seats] was pure filth. So that came out and abit of a clean up was done...
...and this was slotted into the bay.
1x G200w EFI ex-JR130 Piazza. Was previously running on a Haltech E6k with crappy 4-2-1 extractors and that rotted dual-butterfly 'thing' Isuzu calls a throttle body. Turfed that for a VS V6 65mm item, got it retuned and made 82rwkw. As for how it went - ******* well! Used to suprise the crap out of alot of people, especially as i was still rolling around on the 165/75 pizza cutters and hubbies.
Unfortunately it didnt last. Driving down the western ring road one day it started knocking. Knowing the engine was now stuffed I turned the music up and kept going, until the knocking was now persisting over the radio. And then the oil pressure light, which had been glowing for the last 15mins, flashed twice and it was all over, eerily silent as it rolled to a stop on the side of the freeway.
What ended up happening next was I had a slight brain snap and went crazy with the car. Rebuilt the head on the original motor, bolted a 5spd to the back of it....and got carried away bolting more stuff to it. Ended up like this:
Completely standard G161z save for a set of heavy duty valve springs, ran it on 17psi and spun it to 7500rpm. Took it like a champion although I had no end of stupid problems. Clutch went after the dyno [like, 35km after], tail shaft bolts rattled loose, a ball joint fell out [that scared the crap out of me], some oil seals went, wastegate got jammed on 30psi [that was fun
] it started rattling. But still it went, and for a good year and a half too. Until the rattling and oil leaks got unbareable, i parked it and got a 4X4 and promptly forgot about it. Tried selling it but the problem with Gemini people is they dont want to pay for anything. Couldnt sell it for 3k, and that was with the monster turbo [genuine garret 500 roller], EFI, mint interior, mint body except for one quarter panel etc. So i left it sit in the drive way.After what was possibly the 15th arguement with my dad about it sitting in the driveway [sat for 6months] we made a bet - if i could start it within 15mins, hed give up his side of the garage and the Mercedes would live outside. Jumper leads on for 15sec, started first crank.
After pulling it apart and stripping the engine down, ended up finding the cause of the rattle.
The old bloke that owned this was a retired mechanic, except he mustve had a brain snap because reciepts for the crank showed 20/20 os....and the big end bearing said STD 0.00. It shouldnt have even had oil pressure but testament to how tough these engines are, the oil light never went off [maybe it didnt work
], it went HARD and it only started rattling in the last 3months. Fair effort.Unfortunately, this was worrying me.
After abit of excavation...
Crap. The bad? Itd been rear ended HARD at some point, so hard it was actually 10mm short on the LHS. The good? Despite two little spots in the rear beaver panel, it was rust free. Sent it out to my panel beater to get it pulled on the jig, he sent it back....and i went crazy.
Almost ready to paint the old girl after a year of frustration. Colour is antelope [light metallic gold] as per my old mans first gemini, and our first family car.
Engine wise:
Nick-
