2003 Chrysler Crossfire - Update 23/08

[westbay]

V8 uuuhhhmmm, yes please! 😎

[adam73bgt]

Thanks guys

Oct 22, 2022 19:47:18 GMT qwerty said:

That exhaust looks brilliant.

From my experience with TA Tecshits I would imagine that you'll end up with as good a stance on the Eibachs!

V8 would also be awesome! Do they bolt to the manual box, or is some fenegalling required?

Tom

Haha yeah after a couple more days thought on it, I'm certainly leaning towards just getting the Eibachs


As far as I can tell from my reading so far, the manual box bolts up to the V8, there are a couple different bolt patterns of flywheel, but if I get the right one, then my flywheel should work too. Though I would be tempted to see if there is a single mass flywheel conversion available as the shift times are longer than I would like, plus I'm still fairly sure my dmf isn't happy.

I think using V6 engine mounts, the V8 bolts into the standard position, there's a guy in the US who can remap the standard ECU to work with the V8 and then it's just ancillary stuff like hoses, radiator, fan etc.

Oh and exhaust would require a bit of custom work too, seems as though people cut and weld the V8 and V6 exhaust manifolds together so that the rest of the system can be left stock.

They certainly sound the part

[Woofwoof]

Yep, I'm almost certain the V6 M112 g/box pattern is identical to the V8 M113. TTV Engineering should be able to sort a suitable S/Mass F/Wheel, I think they actually do have one on the shelf for the V6.

Personally, I'd be looking into fitting a 3.7 M112 as well as the V8, while considering the pros and cons of both just from a cost and practical aspect.

Keep up the good work.

[adam73bgt]

I'd thought of TTV but I think I'd missed that one somehow, certainly seems like they do them, very interesting...

The bigger V6 does also make sense for a nice power boost with really not much outlay, it's certainly food for thought, I should probably fix the car up a bit first either way haha but it's nice to dream

[qwerty]

Oct 24, 2022 22:41:23 GMT adam73bgt said:

I'd thought of TTV but I think I'd missed that one somehow, certainly seems like they do them, very interesting...

The bigger V6 does also make sense for a nice power boost with really not much outlay, it's certainly food for thought, I should probably fix the car up a bit first either way haha but it's nice to dream

Sometimes having that dream or plan helps with the motivation to do the fixing up!

[shagracer]

have enjoyed the read so far, like the fast easy way you tell how you fixed/fitted bits, I bought a 07 coupe in black for myself in Aug, it was the 3rd one I looked at, I needed a fill in car, so it had to be resaleable within a few months, but its great and much better mpg than my then daily S197, so it stayed and the Mustang got sold. Also bashed/nipped my thumb on that short gearstick a few times, but soon learnt how "not" to hold it, whilst in down shift mode, L.O.L.

[adam73bgt]

Nov 10, 2022 18:59:11 GMT shagracer said:

have enjoyed the read so far, like the fast easy way you tell how you fixed/fitted bits, I bought a 07 coupe in black for myself in Aug, it was the 3rd one I looked at, I needed a fill in car, so it had to be resaleable within a few months, but its great and much better mpg than my then daily S197, so it stayed and the Mustang got sold. Also bashed/nipped my thumb on that short gearstick a few times, but soon learnt how "not" to hold it, whilst in down shift mode, L.O.L.

Thank you Nice to know I'm not the only one to have caught my thumb on the gearstick The other day I went and watched a couple of contemporary reviews of the Crossfire when they first came out, I felt that Clarkson was being a bit overly critical/exaggerating on Top Gear and Tiff Needell gave a bit more of a balanced review on Fifth Gear. They're not perfect cars but I think there is some potential in them, and it certainly helps when they can cost so much less than their "rivals" now vs when they were new!


Spent a couple of weeks with the mojo at a pretty low ebb to be honest, but I've managed to get back on it, although there is a sense of deja vu.



Decided to go for the Eibach pro-kit lowering springs in the end, they weren't actually that much more than the TA Technix I bought in the first place so the old adage of "buy cheap, buy twice" rings true! Hopefully they'll be better, curiously they also came with a pair of new spring rubber pads for the front springs I believe. Nothing in the documentation says they must be used but I assume that's the intent, will compare with what I have on the car anyway.

Finally after much dithering, it was back up in the air with the car



As you might expect, I've decided to start with the rear end. I need to get to the subframe bushes which means dropping the whole rear subframe, so it's been a case of working round the thing disconnecting anything that attaches the subframe to the main chassis. So far I've disconnected the ARB drop links, the dampers, and unbolted the propshaft from the diff flange.

The fuel pump and filter assembly is hung off rubber mounts on the subframe so I took the plastic cover off and got my first look at these bits.



If I'd thought about it, I could have chucked a new fuel filter in while I was here, but the hoses look happy and I don't want to disturb them! It doesn't sound like I've made a huge amount of progress, but it's not much fun working on my back under the car, and there's a fair amount of surface rust bubbling which was distracting me. I think while I've got the car up in the air, I'll get the wire brush out and treat as many spots as I can see



The jacking points also don't look particularly great under the side skirts... but in the wise words of Vice Grip Garage's Derek Bieri, I'm gonna go ahead and pretend I didn't see that

I think the remaining bits I've got to remove/disonnect are, the rear exhaust section, the fuel pump bracket, rear wheel speed sensors, brake lines, the rear springs and the handbrake cables and then I should be OK to unbolt the 4 bolts holding the subframe to the car and it should lower away. That's the theory at least!

[grizz]

Small jobs never stay small do they.

Looking forward to this back on the ground.

I love these crazy engine conversions people do, but they can be expensive and complex, thus frustrating and I think often you lose interest just when it runs OK-ish and take a bath selling it for various reasons.

When I look at yours, I do wonder if I could live with one. If a “safe” one was out there. Safe = MOT etc safe.

[Woofwoof]

I wouldn't bother trying to remove the ABS sensors from the hubs, more than likely they're seized and if so, they'll break upon removal. Best option is leave as is and just disconnect the loom plug.

The fuel pump & filter bracket always go rusty, it's very mild steel but they do clean up well enough with a wire wheel and with some proper paint it should last for years to come. I apply plenty of grease on the central clamping bolt which makes life easy.  Is that the original fuel filter I see? 


 

[adam73bgt]

Nov 13, 2022 21:20:36 GMT Woofwoof said:

I wouldn't bother trying to remove the ABS sensors from the hubs, more than likely they're seized and if so, they'll break upon removal. Best option is leave as is and just disconnect the loom plug.

The fuel pump & filter bracket always go rusty, it's very mild steel but they do clean up well enough with a wire wheel and with some proper paint it should last for years to come. I apply plenty of grease on the central clamping bolt which makes life easy.  Is that the original fuel filter I see? 


 

I was also expecting the ABS sensors to be fully stuck in place, especially when the securing bolts had corroded so much that I could hardly tell whether they were a hex or torx head!, managed to hammer a hex in and get both undone which was the first surprise, then with some gentle prying and wiggling, managed to get both sensors out in one piece!

Yeah I'll have to give the bracket a clean up, it's pretty far gone but with some paint it'll prolong it's life a bit longer. It may well be the original fuel filter... At least I know how to access it now if I change it in the future rather than now.



So yesterday I continued with removing things, exhaust came off fairly easily, the bolts at the flange were fairly new looking (probably from when the previous owner had the straight through mod done, and a bit of a fiddle with hangers got the rear section off. Annoyingly one of the rear rubbers holding the new cans up had partially snapped already so I need to do a bit of thinking about improving that



Got a bit curious about the cats/silencers under the car, I thought they were cats and most of the silencing was done in the backbox, but upon shining a torch into the mid section of the exhaust it seemed as though the boxes were hollow?





Anyway, the other bits to remove weren't too bad, aside from the handbrake cables which took a bit of head scratching. By the end of play on Saturday, I had the big jack back in place under the diff and had cracked off the four mounting bolts ready for the off.



As it was dark, I was tired/hungry and there was still brake fluid dripping from the open lines, I left it till today to do the drop.

Coming back to the car, was a fairly simple job of taking out the 4 mounting bolts, and gently letting down the jack



Then transferred to a pair of dollies (once I'd removed an old Honda Legend gearbox from one) for ease of movement



This meant I could get a good look at the body above the subframe and in general it's in OK condition, there's just quite a few cracks in the underseal where moisture has got in and started rust, it'surface rust as far as I can see so far though.







You can also see some pretty impressive delaminating of the paint/powdercoat from the anti roll bar I've given it's mounting studs/nuts a wire brush and a soak with some WD40 (for whatever good it will do) and will attack those tomorrow. You can also see the new brake lines that the local garage ran after my trip to Germany. I'll give the routing a bit of a tidy up while I'm under the car. The fuel hard lines have a little bit of corrosion furr on them so I'll give the worst bits a light sand and some paint protection as well.

Now onto the subframe itself, I've not really taken a close look as I started late today and was already losing the light, but confusingly, the mounting bush that was showing all the play on the car, looks quite similar to it's counterpart on the other side. Unless that means the other one was worn as well but I didn't look closely enough...

What is apparent however, is how the alloy part of the rear mounting bush on the passenger side, has corroded and started to disintegrate compared to the other side





Anyway, lots of wire brushing ahead for the car and the subframe. I think the lower arms will need brushing and painting as well but all the other arms will be replaced so I'll just work my way through them.

I should work fairly quickly as I've been demoted to commuting by bicycle and rain is forecast so that should give me a reasonable incentive to get it done

[ballbagbagins]

I admire you willingness to do this job.

I really should do this on mine, not a crossfire though. My thinking is to buy a used axle, refresh that, fit new Brushes etc, so I can get my car back on the road as quick as possible.

[Woofwoof]

Nov 14, 2022 9:19:22 GMT ballbagbagins said:

I admire you willingness to do this job.

I really should do this on mine, not a crossfire though. My thinking is to buy a used axle, refresh that, fit new Brushes etc, so I can get my car back on the road as quick as possible.

A good idea and I sort of wished I'd done that just to make like easier. Now, I wasn't using my car when I rebuilt the rear but it took me two weeks to do everything including totally stripping down the subframe, treating and painting it. Then there was time lost getting parts I forgot to order in particular new bolts and nuts and other odds & sods.
Oh yeah, two of the subframe bushes were rightly seized in and no way could I get them out so had to get the local garage to remove and refit.

[adam73bgt]

Well I've had most of the parts kicking around for about a month so it's taken me a while to build up the courage 😂 living within walking/cycling distance from work helps me these days, picked up a new(to me) bike the other day which gave me a bit of a kick to start on the Crossfire.

Building up a second axle would be a good idea, I started doing a similar thing on my old E34 5 series as I was swapping from a 520i to a 525i subframe so was able to build it up while still using the car. I did break and sell the car before I fitted it but that's by the by 😂

A small part of me wanted to buy a cheap runaround car so I could take my time and get things blasted on the crossfire, rebuild the diff etc. But really the cost equation didn't add up for me, so I'll just have to chip away at it in the evenings and get my gf to drive me about in the meantime!

[Woofwoof]

I know I'm speaking too late but it would have been an ideal time to fit larger anti roll bars, especially the rear as it can't be changed without lowering the subframe.
I only mention it as they do transform the handling.

[adam73bgt]

Nov 14, 2022 13:14:22 GMT Woofwoof said:

I know I'm speaking too late but it would have been an ideal time to fit larger anti roll bars, especially the rear as it can't be changed without lowering the subframe.
I only mention it as they do transform the handling.

That's very true, you did mention them. I think I've only been hesitant because I've not really driven the car properly in anger to find the limits of the stock setup, but given the position of the rear bar and I don't plan on dropping the subframe again in future to change it, doing the upgrade now certainly sounds appealing...

[adam73bgt]

ARB dropped



Managed to not round off the nuts or snap any of the studs which is nice. Mounting bushes are almost certainly original and knackered. I thought about it a bit more and I've got a H&R rear bar on order and some poly bushes, if I'm going to do anything properly on this build, it's something like this that has zero access when it's all back together

The mounts for the ARB looked like one of the crustier bits of the chassis, but after a quick poke and an initial explore with the wire brush, they look worse than they are and appear solid.



Just got to decide which evening this week I want to spend picking bits of wire brush out of my hair..

[Woofwoof]

Nov 15, 2022 21:11:51 GMT adam73bgt said:

  I've got a H&R rear bar on order and some poly bushes...

See what happens when you take notice of what random people say. 


Joking side, I think that's a really good move especially since you have the s/frame removed. All you need now is a matching front bar. 

[adam73bgt]

Haha yes, I would have got the front bar as well but remembered another reason why I didn't go and buy both ahead of time, they're a little spendy.. so I'll add the front at a later date

In theory it will be a bit more oversteer-y with just the rear thicker bar but I'm sure it will be fine for now 😁

[grizz]

Picking bits out of your hair, knuckles, thighs, neck and many other places.

Still the best thing to doin preventative maintenance.

Good luck, been wet here for 5 days and more expected.

[Woofwoof]

Nov 16, 2022 7:55:19 GMT adam73bgt said:

I didn't go and buy both ahead of time, they're a little spendy..

Tell me about it. It sure adds up alright. I just fool myself and just spend a few dollars here and there.

Still, with the new bushes, shocks, springs and bars the car will be transformed.