Aaron's Forsa Build Thread

[Aaronbrook37]

So here goes... project number two. I'll be picking it up at the end of the month, and have expressed my confirmed intent to buy the car. It is a 1987 Suzuki Forsa Turbo, an exclusively Canadian marque that is all but identical to the Sprint Turbo and Firefly Turbo that you may have seen in the States despite its rarity. They come with a 1.0L all aluminum forged-internal SOHC turbocharged motor and a relatively strong five speed manual gearbox exclusively. I've been wanting one of these cars for a long time - since before I had my Festiva to tell you the truth.

As I've said elsewhere and before, I'd have probably picked this over my Festiva had both been available at the same time in the same condition. But now work and school are in a good place... and I can afford to have both to tinker around with and play with. For now, I'll be keeping the Festiva insured as my daily driver and parts runner while I tart up the Forsa in my driveway. Especially if I need to have it rebuilt for high boost play - we'll see. After all, I have my Festiva for on-ramps and highway pulls. My local neighborhood frowns upon keeping cars uninsured in driveways open to the public eye, but I'm not too concerned about that given how busy I will be with it. Why not insure both? I'm an under-25 male, that's why. I couldn't be in a worse payment bracket. Perhaps I'll swap the insurance back and forth a bit given its free and I can use the same plates once it's ready to drive.

So what are the plans for this project? I want to keep it a bit more civilized. My girlfriend and parents don't mind the Festiva too much, but it's got very firm suspension, a relatively loud exhaust, and a heck of a lot of oomph under the gas pedal. Plus it's a pricey car to maintain at the moment. I've had a few too many intercooler hoses pop off and various minor breakdowns to want to take this car anywhere on a road-trip. Plus I think I can squeeze 40-45MPG out of this one. Initially I will start with a great deal of TLC. Anything and everything you can imagine replacing every 3/6/12/24/48 months is going to happen, and every single adjustment, cleaning, and calibration is going to happen as well. Both for the car's sake and for mine... I love learning and optimizing cars.

All the fluids, plugs, wires, belts, hoses, tires, and filters are getting done essentially... and then some. I've got an alternator that needs replacing and a severe need for a proper detailing. Regardless of how this car has been maintained in the past, I'm going to give it my all in restoring its mechanical performance to just shy of the factory output before modifying it. This time I'm keeping a ridiculously tight ship with 100% of my invested cash and labour going into a central budget with all receipts in case I decide to sell it in the future and a full maintenance log of what I do to it. I might make a little website with some how-to's as well, but we shall see... the community is relatively small and inactive compared to this board unfortunately. Either way, because of the friends and colleagues I have here, I'll keep you all updated if you're interested in knowing more about the car and what I do to it. If not, you probably wouldn't have read this far into the thread. I've loaded up on parts and tools at the local auto parts store and the clearance section at Rock Auto, and I'm primed and ready to start processing the car once I pick it up at the end of the month. I've got a relatively intense (traffic, mountains, speed) drive home that will require some pre-trip inspection and maintenance... so I'll make a day of it and go to town.

Cosmetically, I'm going to keep it 100% stock and factory. People do make reproductions of decals and emblems, so I may look into that. Steelies for sure on this car... not that I don't love rims or anything... I just don't need super-wide or super-grippy tires for my goals on this project. We'll see what I find at the junkyards (13-14", 4x114, large hub bore). No intention to street/strip/autocross this one at all. I'll do my best on the rust removal and paint refinishing, though I am struggling to find touch-up paint that isn't too expensive or elaborate to track down. I know that I'll probably have to repaint the fuel door I get from the junkyard, and I plan to convert to a non-turbo grill as well once I move to a FMIC and scrap the inefficient interheater that comes from the factory.

Electronic resources aren't too bad for this car... I've got my hands on a Haynes manual, which is mediocre at times given it doesn't mention anything about the turbo motors whatsoever. A turbo supplement from the factory service manual is helping a little bit as well... but most of that is common sense given how I've had my turbo Festiva for a while now. There's also a small aftermarket... cams, head studs, pulleys, ported heads, that sort of thing. There seems to be little difference between this turbo car and any other short of there being a pop-off valve on the intercooler to maintain OEM boost pressure. Gosh what a silly little turbo and intercooler though... I'm told both can handle 15psi with ease and enough juice though compared to the factory 6-8psi out of 993cc. I thought the VJ14 and 323GT intercooler were small!

All of this over-the-top maintenance and restoration will culminate in a few deciding tests to see if the car is ready for modifications. Mk3/Mk2 Convertible brakes are upgrades to pad size, surface area, and stud size front and rear. I've seen people do full hammer stops from 70+MPH with those brakes without fade or warping. Sounds like an Aspire swap equivalent without the added sway-bar stuff. That will likely come first along with something better than 165/70-12 tires. Safety is important in the cars that I build because they don't have much in the way of crumple zones or airbags as you all know. I'll do some intake pressurization for boost leaks, a compression test to see how the rings are doing, throw a vacuum gauge on it at idle, and do some analysis under the valve cover and oil pan for sludge and gunk.

I plan to start slow and easy with a few cheap mods like polyurethane motor mounts, tightening up and shortening the throw of the shifter, rewiring and tucking the harness with a big three upgrade to the power feed and grounds, and gutting the factory pre-cat (it's basically a downpipe choker and boost killer). From there, I'll do some porting on both ends of the long-block, throw a 2.25" turbo-back exhaust on it, a larger intercooler with hard piping, a BOV, and an intake, and then a boost gauge and manual controller. Either way, thanks for reading and I hope you'll stay tuned for the exciting build to come!

Pre-purchase pictures:

[sketchman]

Watching.

[jesteratc]

Looks Pretty Cool. I just lost out on a low miles Subaru Justy 5 speed. Don't let a good deal slip away. Good luck with the build.

[zoom zoom]

Sounds like a plan! Interested in seeing how it turns out, definately keep us posted!

[Festevil3]

Neat little car, keep us informed on the build

[Aaronbrook37]

So time for more text and no pictures! I've got the sellers agreeing to hold the car for me til they can bring it over to Vancouver Island to their home. As such, I'm all but committed as a buyer: time to stock up on parts! Here's the big list coming from Rock Auto and Ebay:

Air Filter, Oil Filter, Fuel Filter, O2 Sensor, Spark Plugs, Spark Plug Wires, PCV Valve, Distributor Cap, Distributor Rotor, Wiper Blades, Radiator Flush, Windshield Washer Fluid, 5W30 Oil, Seafoam, Oil Drain Plug, Redline MTL Transmission Fluid

Still need radiator hoses and anything else I'm forgetting. Beyond that, I loaded up on engine fluids, cleaning products, and a new mini shop vac. The biggest task is going to be removing paint oxidation and bringing this red metallic paint job back to life... so I picked up a few bottles of tough rubbing compound. I'll start by doing half of the hood probably just to see how much of a difference it makes in the grand scheme of things.

For performance modifications, I'm still determining whether non-turbo and turbo parts are compatible at this stage. There seem to be plenty of 1985-1988 Sprint/Firefly/Swift cars in the yards locally, but they're all three cylinder non-turbo. Not sure about port sizing, camshafts, and the cylinder heads at this point.

I've found a port and polish wizard down in PA willing to build me a performance ported and polished head. So at this stage, I just need a good core for that and I'll be on my way. I may opt for a performance turbo camshaft from 3Tech, but I'm undecided at the moment. I still need to hammer out getting air into and out of the engine first before a ported head will do me any good. I also don't want to end up running ultra-lean.

Thus far, I've decided on tracking down a Mazda MX-6 intercooler, having my machinist do an intake manifold, and running hard piping with a blow off valve of some sort. The factory VAF can stay for now and I'll feed the OEM filter with a dryer hose if it doesn't have a good cold air supply. On the exhaust end, I need a spare turbo manifold and o2 housing so I can port those out... and I'll throw a turbo-back 2.25" exhaust on it with high flow cat, resonator, and a junkyard muffler. If I need a fast and furious turbo car, I have my Festiva... this one is going to be a bit more civilized.

Then there are the motor mounts and shifter housing that I mentioned in the first post. Stocked up on premium construction grade polyurethane for those. Some people seem to weld the shifter housing bushing, but that seems a little bit extreme so I will try polyurethane first and a short shifter to see where that takes me. I've read that the unbalanced nature of a three cylinder motor makes it tough on the rubber in the motor mounts, which can translate to a great degree of shifter rattling on high mileage cars. That's why the polyurethane is coming first... to avoid that from happening if it hasn't already. Stay tuned for more coming soon!

[Aaronbrook37]

While I wait for Rock Auto's parts to arrive tomorrow and Monday, I decided to do some much needed prep work for the voyage up to Nanaimo at the end of the month to buy the car. It's one thing when you're doing a full or partial tune up in your driveway and you have full access to your garage's shelving, floor space, and elbow room... but it's entirely over to do it 100+ miles away. I've finally got it down to a fine science with everything I need to do, clean, replace, repair, adjust, or maintain in the space of what looks like a full trunk and a backseat hopefully. With all of the parts arriving, there will be another box or two added to this pile. Essentially I've taken a disorganized and messy full garage and condensed it into a couple of boxes of necessary parts, equipment, and tools. I was lucky in that I could get all flammable sprays and automotive fluids either in the sealed old cooler or in the red metal bin. The visible jugs are extra empties for my spare transmission fluid and oil. You never really realize how many tools and parts you need until you have to take them somewhere else to work! Things like jacks, stands, wrench sets, and fluid containers take up a lot of room when you're on the go.

[Aaronbrook37]

So a few of my parts have arrived and thus far everything is going really well. A few text updates then on this build before I pick up the car next weekend or shortly after. My second Rock Auto shipment should be arriving on Tuesday, which will complete the laundry list I have listed up above. I’ve sourced a great source for parts just outside of Seattle who is going to be providing me with a lot of things: motor mounts, a spare cylinder head, an intake manifold with throttle body, an exhaust manifold, a downpipe, and an O2 housing. Should have those in the next couple weeks if shipping isn't delayed too much by the border.

As I said before, the motor mounts are going to be filled with polyurethane. The spare cylinder head is going down to my port and polish wizard. The rest is coming to me for spares and to play around with things a little bit. I can port the exhaust manifold and O2 housing myself with relative ease, and use the stock down-pipe as a jig for a larger mandrel bent unit without a pre-cat in it that I will have made. As for the intake manifold, I may send it to another friend for processing and customization, but I haven’t decided yet. I'm not very talented at porting aluminum unfortunately as it's very soft and fast work and my hands aren't the greatest.

I will be looking into making some high quality flat black metal heat shields for the exhaust and turbo parts, as I had great success using ceramic fiber insulation on my Festiva and also header wrap on top of it to keep it in place. Keeps the heat shields nice and warm. Not everyone's a fan of these sorts of mods, but I have had nothing but the best of luck with them so far. The product I use is 1/4" thick Kaowool RT - a product that is used for ceramic kilns and stuff. A friend and I tried to light this stuff on fire with a propane torch and it didn't even discolour it at all.

I’ve decided to do a full rebuild of the cooling system on the car complete with a high CFM slim fan, a new thermostat, and such to go along with the new hoses. I want this car to run as stable a temperature as possible – just hot enough but not too hot. That’ll keep the engine running really well and the high CFM fan is just a bonus mod really if the summer gets too hot here or I end up running a high boost application that possibly will raise my base coolant temperatures in performance scenarios. Might opt for an oil cooler in the future but we'll see... not really necessary if you ask me for a street car and city driving.

My MX-6 intercooler gets picked up today by a friend, and I’ll be working on figuring out the mounting, piping, and blow-off valve arrangement in due time. May opt for a sleeper factory look by using radiator hoses and flat black piping from large trucks in the junkyards. The more stock and OEM everything looks, the better. I’ve sourced and budgeted all of the parts I need for the turbo-back exhaust and the only remaining step in that process is finding a suitable OEM muffler. What are my needs? It has to be in a junkyard, have a 2.25” inlet, and tuck away nicely underneath the trunk of the car. That way, it can flow okay, be quiet enough, and be $10 to purchase.

I've also finished my research and development on the wiring projects I'm going to be doing to improve the efficiency of the charging system and the voltage traveling through the battery by spicing up the factory grounds. "The Big Three" as it's known. I just have to decide where to source my parts... the combination of heat-shrink tubing, high quality ring terminals, and high strand black cable is tough to find without paying through the roof for shipping regrettably. I'd like to keep this project cost down as much as possible, so we'll see where that takes me.

[Aaronbrook37]

Sorry for another text update… but I still don’t have my car yet! That said, we’re getting closer and closer to the date of purchase, which has got me really excited now that school’s out for summer and I have time on my hands for some quality and quantity wrenching. I’m still waiting to hear back from the sellers as to whether they’ve tackled the alternator issue as of yet, which will of course determine whether I am able to pick up the car this weekend or shortly after. All of my gear is nicely packed waiting for the trip. I plan to just license it for a day or a week and drive it around a little bit until it’ll end up in the back of the driveway where I get to work on everything. In the meantime, my Festiva will remain the parts runner and daily driver.

I’ve got a good inventory of parts coming along courtesy of Ebay and Rock Auto. The latter has shipped me all of the essentials for a tune-up, and the former is providing the necessary parts for a coolant system overhaul along with the bare necessities of a larger custom exhaust system. Though my initial tune-up is quite involved, I’m saving the timing belt and water pump for such a time as when the fancy Dvorak head-gasket and ported/polished head go into the engine bay. No sense doing the same job twice when you can do it once, and do it right.

Said exhaust bits (all 2.25” in size) are currently a high flow cat, a long resonator, and a flex pipe for the future creation of a downpipe. I’m likely to get the exhaust done in two stages, because I will probably be switching turbochargers and thus potentially messing up any downpipe on the car prior to such a time. As such, stage one will be a mandrel-bent 2.25” cat-back exhaust system, and stage two will be the ported and polished O2 housing, downpipe, and high flow cat.
Switching turbochargers is a relatively involved job, and I’ve opted for a hybrid turbocharger using Mitsubishi TD04 components. The 9B comes from the 3000GT and Mirage Turbo, and is supplying the turbine housing and O2 elbow, whereas the 13G comprises the turbocharger’s remaining parts and hails from an automatic Eclipse turbo. This upgrade will permit me to compress more air without having a larger turbine housing.

The stock turbo, though being very adorable, compact, and quick-to-spool, has a pretty limited potential for high power output. Though they’re said to be able to handle high teens in boost pressure, my goals are a little higher. With a big intake, intercooler, and exhaust, I will be ready to turn up the fuel and turn up the boost. I plan to do this likely with a Megasquirt system to delete the finicky stock VAF and ensure that my future larger injectors are operating as they should be in all driving conditions. I’m also thinking a lot about MSD ignition upgrades to ensure complete combustion and that the spark plugs can deliver a maximum amount of spark.

On a lighter and perhaps simpler note, I’ve been making some drawings and plans for the air intake and intercooler piping from filter to throttle body as of late. Since you last read them, the plans are relatively unchanged. The intercooler core will either be from a Supra or an MX-6, as both will fit nicely between the passenger headlamp and the radiator. Old radiator hoses and flat black steel pipe will compose the majority of the piping, though I will likely splurge on a set of t-bolt clamps for security’s sake at high boost.

[Aaronbrook37]

The seller stabbed me in the back and sold the car despite clear confirmation that it was to be mine tomorrow morning. This is what I get for trusting people...

[leapin]

That sucks the big one.

[sketchman]

Guy did that to me once before a 6 hour drive to go get the car. Me and my buddy were pulling out of the gas station to leave and something told me to ask to use his phone and check my email.

"Car sold." was all he wrote.

I hope you too got out of it before you made a trip. Still sucks, though.

[bolokid]

That's happened twice to me. First time was about 20 years ago, I made the deal one evening about 9:00 pm. I took half day vacation from work the next day to go by the bank and pick it up. The next thing I know is "sorry, some guy came by with cash." Last summer I made a deal to pay full price for the car, the woman told me to pay her when I picked it up on Monday and that she would consider it sold to me. She called me Monday morning with "sorry, I sold it to someone else for less." Go figure!

[TominMO]

Man that does suck. Shows how much cash-in-hand talks (compared to giving your word) for some people. On the flip side, she doesn't know you and if you will keep your word. What would be inexcusable would be for the seller to not inform you it is sold, knowing you have a long drive to get there, if he/she knew your number. So it's best to call them, for sure.

Are you just gonna keep all the parts that you ordered for this car in hopes of scoring another one?

[TominMO]

That's happened twice to me. First time was about 20 years ago, I made the deal one evening about 9:00 pm. I took half day vacation from work the next day to go by the bank and pick it up. The next thing I know is "sorry, some guy came by with cash." Last summer I made a deal to pay full price for the car, the woman told me to pay her when I picked it up on Monday and that she would consider it sold to me. She called me Monday morning with "sorry, I sold it to someone else for less." Go figure!

Twice in 20 years is not bad. And the second person gave you a courtesy call. So I'd consider that 1.5 times.