My 1998 Chrysler Conquest TSI build progress. 5mbps +
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My 1998 Chrysler Conquest TSI build progress. 5mbps +
My Conquest adventure started late 07 or so, me and my best friend where discussing buying a new car vs. and old car and he was showing me a bunch of "classic" cars, Alpha Romeo, Thunderbird SC, Merkurs and some Vettes. Then he showed me a Fiji Conquest. I was amazing, I never saw or heard of that car before and immediately fell inlove with its styling. Immediately I knew I had to have this car.
Cut to early 2009 I actively start looking for the car. I had a few leads, one as far as Vancouver, saw none locally near Joiliet to test drive and see what the car is like.
Another month went by and I found my car. It was in DC, a 12 hour drive, it was cheap, $1,200 and had a "rebuilt" engine.
Me and my friend jumped into my Civic and started driving East. Here is how it all unfolded from there
Updated 7.4.10
My DD, picking up my friend early in the morning
Hitting the road, Ohio I think
The awesome roads in Pennsylvania
Lots curves, good drive
Oh yeah
Tunnel!
Good reverb
Getting dark, we switched drivers
Great scenery
Almost there
12 hours later, this is how I started to see things
and feel
Whoa..
Thar she be!
:D
Pulled in the first plaza to get some food, a bit before midnight local time
My friend drove first, I never really driven a RWD car and I was too tired to try
Just over two hours later we pull over to switch drivers. Car wouldnt start again, starter came loose. It's 3am,
found a tow truck to come and take it back to the shop for a quick repair.
Me driving it after the repair just after sunrise, somewhere in Pennsylvania, nice wet descending mountain road.
Horrible, horrible hack job
What you cant see is the shifter lever banging against the bezel in 5th gear
After the steering hydraulic line failed, I had to fight to keep the wheel straight, for 10 hours...
Getting gas, coffee, rest
Some rust, but not too bad. Car was from the south
The fix
After fixing the busted accordion hose with electric tape I finally get proper boost
75 miles from home she dies. Turned out to be a faulty secondary injector and the accordion hose ripped more.
5 hours later I was able to get free towing
My baby is home
Further inspection in the morning
No battery tray
Cracked thermostat housing
Just came right off
Temp fix. Previous owner bored out a bigger hole, SAE instead of metric, big PITA
First car wash
Than the water pump fails
Radiator falls apart as I take it out
New pump
New belts and hoses
Replaced the PS line as well
New radiator
Sway Bar
Replacing rear plate brackets
Replaced radio and heater control also shift boot
New motor oil, tranny and LSD
Removed charcoal can and a few other things
Replacing throttle body, checked out the rocker as well.
Trilogy Injectors
New ignition cables, rotor, plugs
Than this happens...
Replaced both sides
New coolant/oil lines to turbo
New calipers getting primed
Painted
Driving to friends house who has more tools and a garage
Fun
<3 the Mau5
Notice the news paper holding the speaker in place, lol
Out goes the tank
Struts
Rusty :/
angle cutter to the stuck hand brake lever
Took us over 2 hours to separate that
burning bushings is fun
Took about 20 minutes for them to burn out enough to pop out
New struts, bushings, brake lines, brakes
Very dirty
One down
The other one took even longer
X-member
The beer adds 10hp
Rearend halfway done
Front now
Installing brakes
Notice the zip ties
almost...
All done
Drive back home
As she sits now
Some rubbing
New rims and tires
Shiny
Good looking tread!
New rocker cover
At a local meet
Quest Parade
Fellow questers
New KDM air intake with 1G MAS and a bigger intercooler
New ST swaybars
Back to work, new swaybars, IC, intake piping, alternator fix, a few other
Got the fool out
Broken Tension bolt
Nice macro shot
solderd back a broken wire
Old and new
Endlinks securing
Starting to take out the stock IC
Damn thing kicked my ***
New IC
Test fitting
Rear swaybar
Getting it installed
A better fit, cut out to make it fit
Done for the day
After replacing worn rear spring mounts
Everything but BOV and MAS hooked up
This awesome doohicky
New Fuel Filter and PSI gauge
New fuseable links
Just noticed that there were two missing bolts, securing that gap gained me 8mpg!
Got me a heatsink
after treating it with Aircraft Remover and a grinder
Eching primer
Black caliper paint
RFL!
Perty
New tools
All hooked up
It's all finaly done!
Taking off that nasty oxidation
Looking good!
It works
Stitching up the busted air dam for now
Sexy
Repaired the heat mat and painted the shield
Painted heatshield
Re-installing the bumper after stiching the whole air dam, about 80 zip ties
Much easier to install when jacked
Cheap, but effective.
Snow Quest
Storing my dead Civic battery
Selective Yellow in my Civic
Can't wait for Spring
Flooded plugs
No wonder she wont start
All four
Chicago winter destroyed them o-rings
Time to pull it apart
RTV is probably not the best gasket...
Unburned gas, car actually started with fouled plugs and no TB plugged in on that fuel alone!
Exposed wiring on TPS
More RTV...
new orings
Meh, better than before
Shiny
Soaking in the Simple Green
Mock up while I wait for rebuilt kit
moar snow
New Stage 3 Clutch
6-puck
New flywheel
Shiny new gasket
Changing the oil
Replacing throttle cable
Back from the car wash
I love how that red stitching stands out
Runs super smooth
So damn fine
LEG 1.5
So at this point I said, screw it, and decided to do an engine swap fro a known good, low mileage engine that wont let me down.
Driving out to Fond du Lac
Right to business, pulling hoses and pipes
Almost everything disconnected,time to pull
Getting her out, friend being awesome
Out it goes, leaving the tranny in place
So much dirt and grime. I wish I had more than a day to scrub and clean everything
Oil in the tunnel, I guess I finally fond my oil leak
New flywheel, clutch and pressure plate installed on the new engine
Yup
Front end. May not look clean but its proven
The old money pit
In she goes
Old transmission mount, its gone. I replaced both tranny and engine mounts with new poly ones, what an improvement!
Also pulled the AC and cruise control, so much cleaner
Where the condenser used to be
Old crappy exhaust
New one
Gurgle!
Moar exhaust
Indeed it does suck
More exhaust pics
All straight pipe
Slight curve
Yup
New injector clips
Later that night alternator siezed up, getting on a tow truck, barley clears
So replaced the alternator and decided to clean up the tires
Brake dust loves me
Good ole wheel buffing and waxing
All 4
New garage
So empty
Here is my insert problem right there
All set right
107ft.lb
Prepping wipers arm for paint
Primer
Results
Now time for short throw
For now.... (I could see the drive shaft spin when driving)
Repainted valve cover, came out orangish
time to restore headlight covers
Yummy
Clear foglight lenses and restore
Painting rear runners
Wrinkle Black on air deflector
Driveshaft and exhaust
Time to fix frame railes
Diamond Plate!
Results
New tranny
All clean
Primmed
Painted
Ready to install
Old tranny
And it's fluids
Installed
Got my exhaust tucked and secured
Time for more wrinkle black
:D
THE END!
...for now
Cut to early 2009 I actively start looking for the car. I had a few leads, one as far as Vancouver, saw none locally near Joiliet to test drive and see what the car is like.
Another month went by and I found my car. It was in DC, a 12 hour drive, it was cheap, $1,200 and had a "rebuilt" engine.
Me and my friend jumped into my Civic and started driving East. Here is how it all unfolded from there
Updated 7.4.10
My DD, picking up my friend early in the morning
Hitting the road, Ohio I think
The awesome roads in Pennsylvania
Lots curves, good drive
Oh yeah
Tunnel!
Good reverb
Getting dark, we switched drivers
Great scenery
Almost there
12 hours later, this is how I started to see things
and feel
Whoa..
Thar she be!
:D
Pulled in the first plaza to get some food, a bit before midnight local time
My friend drove first, I never really driven a RWD car and I was too tired to try
Just over two hours later we pull over to switch drivers. Car wouldnt start again, starter came loose. It's 3am,
found a tow truck to come and take it back to the shop for a quick repair.
Me driving it after the repair just after sunrise, somewhere in Pennsylvania, nice wet descending mountain road.
Horrible, horrible hack job
What you cant see is the shifter lever banging against the bezel in 5th gear
After the steering hydraulic line failed, I had to fight to keep the wheel straight, for 10 hours...
Getting gas, coffee, rest
Some rust, but not too bad. Car was from the south
The fix
After fixing the busted accordion hose with electric tape I finally get proper boost
75 miles from home she dies. Turned out to be a faulty secondary injector and the accordion hose ripped more.
5 hours later I was able to get free towing
My baby is home
Further inspection in the morning
No battery tray
Cracked thermostat housing
Just came right off
Temp fix. Previous owner bored out a bigger hole, SAE instead of metric, big PITA
First car wash
Than the water pump fails
Radiator falls apart as I take it out
New pump
New belts and hoses
Replaced the PS line as well
New radiator
Sway Bar
Replacing rear plate brackets
Replaced radio and heater control also shift boot
New motor oil, tranny and LSD
Removed charcoal can and a few other things
Replacing throttle body, checked out the rocker as well.
Trilogy Injectors
New ignition cables, rotor, plugs
Than this happens...
Replaced both sides
New coolant/oil lines to turbo
New calipers getting primed
Painted
Driving to friends house who has more tools and a garage
Fun
<3 the Mau5
Notice the news paper holding the speaker in place, lol
Out goes the tank
Struts
Rusty :/
angle cutter to the stuck hand brake lever
Took us over 2 hours to separate that
burning bushings is fun
Took about 20 minutes for them to burn out enough to pop out
New struts, bushings, brake lines, brakes
Very dirty
One down
The other one took even longer
X-member
The beer adds 10hp
Rearend halfway done
Front now
Installing brakes
Notice the zip ties
almost...
All done
Drive back home
As she sits now
Some rubbing
New rims and tires
Shiny
Good looking tread!
New rocker cover
At a local meet
Quest Parade
Fellow questers
New KDM air intake with 1G MAS and a bigger intercooler
New ST swaybars
Back to work, new swaybars, IC, intake piping, alternator fix, a few other
Got the fool out
Broken Tension bolt
Nice macro shot
solderd back a broken wire
Old and new
Endlinks securing
Starting to take out the stock IC
Damn thing kicked my ***
New IC
Test fitting
Rear swaybar
Getting it installed
A better fit, cut out to make it fit
Done for the day
After replacing worn rear spring mounts
Everything but BOV and MAS hooked up
This awesome doohicky
New Fuel Filter and PSI gauge
New fuseable links
Just noticed that there were two missing bolts, securing that gap gained me 8mpg!
Got me a heatsink
after treating it with Aircraft Remover and a grinder
Eching primer
Black caliper paint
RFL!
Perty
New tools
All hooked up
It's all finaly done!
Taking off that nasty oxidation
Looking good!
It works
Stitching up the busted air dam for now
Sexy
Repaired the heat mat and painted the shield
Painted heatshield
Re-installing the bumper after stiching the whole air dam, about 80 zip ties
Much easier to install when jacked
Cheap, but effective.
Snow Quest
Storing my dead Civic battery
Selective Yellow in my Civic
Can't wait for Spring
Flooded plugs
No wonder she wont start
All four
Chicago winter destroyed them o-rings
Time to pull it apart
RTV is probably not the best gasket...
Unburned gas, car actually started with fouled plugs and no TB plugged in on that fuel alone!
Exposed wiring on TPS
More RTV...
new orings
Meh, better than before
Shiny
Soaking in the Simple Green
Mock up while I wait for rebuilt kit
moar snow
New Stage 3 Clutch
6-puck
New flywheel
Shiny new gasket
Changing the oil
Replacing throttle cable
Back from the car wash
I love how that red stitching stands out
Runs super smooth
So damn fine
LEG 1.5
So at this point I said, screw it, and decided to do an engine swap fro a known good, low mileage engine that wont let me down.
Driving out to Fond du Lac
Right to business, pulling hoses and pipes
Almost everything disconnected,time to pull
Getting her out, friend being awesome
Out it goes, leaving the tranny in place
So much dirt and grime. I wish I had more than a day to scrub and clean everything
Oil in the tunnel, I guess I finally fond my oil leak
New flywheel, clutch and pressure plate installed on the new engine
Yup
Front end. May not look clean but its proven
The old money pit
In she goes
Old transmission mount, its gone. I replaced both tranny and engine mounts with new poly ones, what an improvement!
Also pulled the AC and cruise control, so much cleaner
Where the condenser used to be
Old crappy exhaust
New one
Gurgle!
Moar exhaust
Indeed it does suck
More exhaust pics
All straight pipe
Slight curve
Yup
New injector clips
Later that night alternator siezed up, getting on a tow truck, barley clears
So replaced the alternator and decided to clean up the tires
Brake dust loves me
Good ole wheel buffing and waxing
All 4
New garage
So empty
Here is my insert problem right there
All set right
107ft.lb
Prepping wipers arm for paint
Primer
Results
Now time for short throw
For now.... (I could see the drive shaft spin when driving)
Repainted valve cover, came out orangish
time to restore headlight covers
Yummy
Clear foglight lenses and restore
Painting rear runners
Wrinkle Black on air deflector
Driveshaft and exhaust
Time to fix frame railes
Diamond Plate!
Results
New tranny
All clean
Primmed
Painted
Ready to install
Old tranny
And it's fluids
Installed
Got my exhaust tucked and secured
Time for more wrinkle black
:D
THE END!
...for now
Last edited by Whatislove; 11-07-2010 at 07:15 PM.
#3
318 Curves, 11 miles
Re: My 1998 Chrysler Conquest TSI build progress. 5mbps +
That's bitchin. I've always loved those cars and been afraid to buy one... looks like my fears were justified lol.
Good luck. They're fun when everything's working right.
Good luck. They're fun when everything's working right.
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#11
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Re: My 1998 Chrysler Conquest TSI build progress. 5mbps +
looks like that car found the perfect owner. nice work.
i really want one of those engines for my '87 SWB montero. it's a 12 wire swap that just drops in; i can't imagine this little rolling 2 door box with boost, but it's surely fun.
i really want one of those engines for my '87 SWB montero. it's a 12 wire swap that just drops in; i can't imagine this little rolling 2 door box with boost, but it's surely fun.
#14
Re: My 1998 Chrysler Conquest TSI build progress. 5mbps +
Awesome ride my only complaint is it looks lke money pit, but hey isnt that what all cars are at end of the day.
#15
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Re: My 1998 Chrysler Conquest TSI build progress. 5mbps +
I think I spend just under $7k total. on new parts, tools, the car itself, gas, oil.
Then only major work left is paint and a new exhaust, about $1,200 all together.
It was either pay $5-9k for a built quest or do it yourself.
Then only major work left is paint and a new exhaust, about $1,200 all together.
It was either pay $5-9k for a built quest or do it yourself.
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Re: My 1998 Chrysler Conquest TSI build progress. 5mbps +
My cousins and uncles had tons of those cars when I was growing up. Conquests and Starions were my 1st love!!
#19
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Re: My 1998 Chrysler Conquest TSI build progress. 5mbps +
I love the look of these cars, especially the blue tsi's. I heard you need to swap heads with one from a dodge caravan. the conquest head has a coolant passage that tends to crack.
good luck with that thing!
good luck with that thing!
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Re: My 1998 Chrysler Conquest TSI build progress. 5mbps +
Never heard of the head swap but a built head is always nice, they go cheap like $500. After its back on track and all in working order I will drop like $2k for an MPI
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Re: My 1998 Chrysler Conquest TSI build progress. 5mbps +
Success! I was able to resolve its revving issue. Must have been my stock intake, after fully installing my new intake (and getting water out of the IC) the car runs great! Revs to 8k rpm without issue!
It now only stalls when idling, I'm using my stock MAS, need to play around with that some more.
It now only stalls when idling, I'm using my stock MAS, need to play around with that some more.