First Car tuning, would like help.

Already having a complete set of tools is half the battle when you're doing it yourself. My own requirements are V-8 (or greater) so I don't know anything about fixing up an I-4 car. Good luck though.

 

Add a shop manual. And remember, Google is your friend. Good luck.

 

It may be obvious but....
protective gloves are a good idea.
label everythng as you dismantle it (and photograph the process as well). Makes re-assembly MUCH easier when you know what goes where and can actually find it.
For some cheap extra power, a good free-flow exhaust/Manifold system is hard to beat. I had ine on my 1973 Triumph Dolomite (1850cc very compact car) and gained 10% power and an extra 6MPG _ 36, up from 30. Just from letting the engine breathe properly.

 

From a fellow tuner I would have to first ask what are your intentions with the car? My advice to new drivers is save on the mods, just make the car reliable and safe and spend your money on driver's education events. You'll get WAAAAAAY more for your money in the form of knowledge and experience. Start with some teen driving schools then upgrade to HPDE (high performance drivers education). Going this route will do a lot for you by imbibing in you better car control and a good look at what the car needs. Now don't get me wrong, modifying a car is fun but you get better bang for your buck once you find the weaknesses and address them first. Good luck!

 

Right on, chknhwk! HPDE should be the norm, not the exception IMO! Although HPDE wasn't really a concept when I took driver's ed., our instructors did allow the more advanced students do things like spin-outs and panic stops to get the feel for how cars behave at and beyond their limits. (This was long before electronic controls; not even ABS.) Although not a lot of my teenage peers could successfully use something like opposite lock steering, or resist the urge to panic and continue to drive the car when something exceptional happened, those of us who did had a real edge.

Good "bang for the buck" advice too! IME, mods that were the best bang for the buck in one model year can be a lot of wasted effort in other model years. That's one of the reasons why I only buy cars with plenty of aftermarket parts support, and a large enthusiast community for that exact make and model.

As an example, one model of car that was well known to respond well to swapping in full length tubular headers to replace the factory "shorty" headers was the biggest bang for the buck mod. But the same model with the new style motors went back to cast iron "log" manifolds. Thanks to the collective experience of the community, I didn't waste my time and money on headers (that were a tough install for a lot less gains than before) and spent my money on a 3.73 final drive (giving more grunt to the smaller displacement motors) and a computer tune. I never would have figured that out on my own!

If you have a speed shop with a chassis dyno nearby, that's the best way to do a computer tune (something you'll want to do on any EFI motor), and a great way to measure just how efficacious other mods really are.

 

Nice pics! It looks like you have 9/10ths of what could be a good-looking, reliable and decent performing road car that's within a reasonable budget.

Knowing what I know now, I'd find the cheapest way to get the motor running and the car on the road. If your motor's bottom end is seized, or if water in the cylinders caused hydro-lock, you might be better off dropping the entire engine/transaxle assembly and replacing the whole thing with one from a wrecked car in a junkyard. Just make sure that the yard guarantees the parts to be in working condition before you buy!

As far as the leak goes, I hope that you have a sunroof, bad side window seals or something other than the bodywork that's causing the leak. Something that a new set of seals will fix. A car of that age shouldn't have holes in the sheet metal. If it is rusted away that much, you could be better off selling the whole car for scrap, and looking for a better project car. Don't become too attached to the thing.

Don't know how to weld? Get some scrap steel and practice. Oxy-actelyne welding isn't very popular these days, now that electric arc welding (including MIG and TIG) have become affordable. But if gas welders are all you have, you might as well use them. A good first project is to build your own rear strut brace. Stuff like that can help handling, and the raw materials are cheap enough that you can toss them and start over if you make a major mistake.

Another thing you can do to get free horsepower is to do a little grinding and polishing of the intake manifold to improve air flow. You can also dress up the engine compartment with polished metal intake tubing and a K&N air filter to replace that ugly air box. You can buy intake kits with various pre-made elbow bends. All you need to do is mock it up, take measurements, cut the tubing as needed and use silicone rubber sleeves to join the plumbing. You can build your own sheet metal heat shield and brackets to separate the air inlet from the rest of the engine compartment (an ideal thing for oxy-actelyne cutting and welding). Since this costs next to nothing and makes use of the tools you have, it's good practice that doesn't keep the car out of commission for days or weeks.

 

I'd say save this money for your future car, in few years you are going to want something better. This one is pretty old and you are not going to pull too much out of it. I'd go for cold air intake and that's it. All the money you are going to invest in this car are going to go down the drain, people are not willing to pay much for extra modifications on the car, if you are planning to sell it in the future. Save some cash, build your credit history and get a better ride at the age of 18. Good luck.

 

Sounds like fun getting to work on the AJ motor regardless!

I saw on TV a Ford Focus that had been completely rebuilt with a small block (pushrod) Ford motor and RWD drivetrain. Needless to say, it was a lot of work not only buliding it, but getting it licensed for the road!

 

Don't waste your time. Get yourself a 2.4 from a Breeze or Stratus and beef that up. Or if you can find one cheap, get a wrecked, preferably rear end, SRT-4 and do a total swap. It's almost a complate swap, you will need a couple of fab'd parts from MPX though. Or you can do what I was gonna do to my Neon and supercharge that bitch!

 

Don't underestimate the Chrysler 420A engine. I have a 1996 Eagle Talon that has the same motor and I'll take it over the 2.4 any day since the 420A has DOHC and the 2.4 is just SOHC. Given the opportunity though, I'd say throw the 420 out and get the SRT4 motor although I'm not sure if they had those in 96. As for some performance upgrades, a good set of exhaust headers and a cold air intake will help it. Don't get a short ram intake because there is too much heat under the hood. Prothane motor mounts are a good upgrade from the stock rubber mounts and at a fairly cheap price. I picked mine up for $80 for all four mounts. If you're more for enjoying the ride than performance, go for Energy Suspension. Same thing just made with softer polyurethane.
Above all else, and without it everything else is irrelevant, invest in a factory service manual. I'm not talking a Haynes or Chilton. I mean the actual factory service manual.

 

2.4 is much, much better than the 2.0. SOHC or not. You'll get more high end torque out of the 2.4 and is a tougher motor. And they only had the SRT-4 2003-2005. It will work but everything from the SRT-4 is needed (trans. ALL wiring, axles, guage cluster) it all has to be swapped over.

 

Just noticed this looking back on this thread, please for the love of all that is holy, don't break those timing covers. I broke mine when I had to replace my head gaskets and it took me a full month to find a replacement.

A good information source for the engine is 2GNT.com

 

Pictures would be sweet. It'd be interesting to see how that looks stripped out. With the catalyst, I'd check local regs first concerning emissions. Here in Florida, they've stopped checking emissions so toy can get away with a catalyst delete pipe, but some other areas toy may not be able to do so.

 

By all means, post pictures of the work in progress. Should be interesting.

 

Yes pics please! It'dbe mildly amusing to see what's left of that cam