ZUKIWORLD Online | Suzuki 4x4 Editorial and Forum
ZUKIWORLD Discussion Forum => Build Diaries, How-To, DIY => Topic started by: Ridjobradi on July 30, 2015, 01:29:09 PM
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I am starting this log with work that has already been completed. I had done a lot of reading and was hesitant about building up a Sport. There wasn't a great deal of information on the Sports and most people said it couldn't be done with regular parts. When SewerZuk and Kreator did a Sport conversion, they confirmed that many of the items are the same.
This is what I started with. It had a 120k miles and wasn't running. It had a bad fuel pump, which I confirmed with a short blast of starter fluid and a temporary battery. I used my AAA account to haul it to a mechanic to do the fuel pump. I was only going to be around for a few days and I didn't want to spend my limited time dealing with a fuel tank and pump.
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A common issue with the J18 is a bracket that holds the fan mount and pulley. It isn't the pulley that you see under normal circumstances, it is behind it. The bracket breaks and lets the fan belt come loose or break off into the radiator. Mine was not broken completely, but was allowing the fan belt to slip. Time to switch to an electric fan. You can see the remains of the bracket below the idler pulled and the water pump.
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I was still having some high temperature problems. It was running about 200F in mild heat. I had read about parts house thermostats being a problem, so I bought a factory thermostat and replaced the water pump. The thermostat on the right is factory and is supposed to stick into the center of the flow better.
I later found a few small hoses on the back of the engine that had leaked. I also bypassed my heater. I don't have any heat issues now, but the heater is a question mark that I need to address.
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Next up was the fun stuff. I installed some spacers, so that I could move from the factory 215/65-16 tires to some 225/70-16, which I think were 29 inches. I bought a Harbor Freight spring compressor that worked well, after I rounded down the backs of the spring hooks with a grinder. Grinding was necessary, because the hooks were preventing the compressor from getting into the springs where I needed them. The install took a few hours with the right equipment on hand. The black rig is a random Sidekick I pulled up next to for a comparison shot.
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Later on, I decided I wanted to move to the next stage. I read though a build log on Pirate for lifting a 4 door Sidekick to be a good daily driver. I ordered the parts and bought new tires. The tires were installed first, but they rubbed on hard bumps and full turns. The tires are 255/70-16. The tires gave me another inch of lift and the new springs with spacers gave me a 4.5 inches, not including tires.
OME 962 and OME 955 springs
replaced 1.5 inch front spacer with 1 inch
rear 2" Jeff spacer left in place, new 1.75" spacer had too small ID
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/suzuki/444978-4-door-sidekick-buildup-cool-daily-driver-4.html (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/suzuki/444978-4-door-sidekick-buildup-cool-daily-driver-4.html)
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I am on a new laptop and don't have any editing software to reduce the file size. I can only post a couple pics at a time. Here are two more.
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This is my Sidekick now. I replaced the Thule roof rack with a factory one. I may switch back to the Thule, as this one is noisier than the Thule.
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Another Sport issue is the exhaust manifold cracks. Mine is cracked in several places. I found a new one for $360, but I can get a header for $300. The tri-wye may help the performance slightly, but it is mainly to replace the cracked manifold. I won't have time to install it for a few weeks. A friend is bringing it as checked baggage from Australia next week. Picture taken from online.
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This is my Sidekick now. I replaced the Thule roof rack with a factory one. I may switch back to the Thule, as this one is noisier than the Thule.
But... this one looks better on your truck! It's unique too! Is it more functional than the Thule rack? If so, I'd keep the new one. Just crank your stereo up a notch.
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I do like the looks of the factory rack, much more than the Thule. The factory rack is just as useful for the day to day items and I can get most of the same adapters to mount things to the crossbars. I have a large Thule basket with the extension that I will mount to the new rack this weekend to see how it fits and looks.
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I try to do something to Sidekick nearly every weekend. There isn't always a major project, but I will do small repairs or cosmetic repairs. It had pinstripes when I bought it, but after a while the pinstripe tape was starting to come off. I decided to remove all of it. I have also replace plastic rivets and repainted items to clean up the way it looks. The paint on the wipers has been blasted off after 232k miles of driving. I pulled them off, cleaned and scuffed them and then repainted them.
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The lever that flips my rear view mirror between day and night driving broke and the mirror was hardly usable. I could buy another 17 year old factory mirror for $35 or a newer one from a Lincoln for $55 ($40 mirror, $15 cable). It has auto dim for night driving and has much better map lights than what is in the headliner. The cable has wires for battery hot, key hot, reverse lockout, and door switches. The reverse lockout prevents it from dimming when you are in reverse. This is nice when you are backing up to your garage at night.
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That mirror was a great upgrade idea.
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That mirror was a great upgrade idea.
I also liked that I could mount it higher and get it out of my direct line of sight. I had to look under or around it before.
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I had to remove some random photos the forum added to the last post. The forum may have some old links in the database that is causing to add photos to each new post in this thread.
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This is a mod that I thought I would never do to the Sidekick. I have had the Sony head unit for 3 yrs, but never hooked up a camera. My youngest thinks the rear view camera in daily driver is nice, so I spent the $16 on a camera and hooked it up. The wiring is mostly run through the driver's side of the headliner. Power to the camera comes from the soldered splice into the reverse light wiring. The trigger wire that signals the stereo to switch video inputs is also soldered into the reverse lights switch. I used adhesive shrink wrap over the video and power connectors.
The wires that come down from the headliner go out under the tail light. I slipped some heavy heat shrink over them to protect them against abrasions.
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More cosmetic stuff, this time it was paint. I did this the weekend before last when I added the camera. The plastic parts on the back of the Sidekick were fading. I pulled the parts and painted them with the Rustoleum version of Plastidip. It worked really well, especially on the roof rack parts. The Plastidip material has a slightly matted texture to it. It looks blacker in person than in the photos.
Apologies for the rotated photo. It pops up correctly when you click on it, but not in preview.
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This past weekend, I was able to mount the new header. My exhaust manifold was cracked in several places, making the Sidekick sound poorly and be louder than necessary. I soaked the exhaust manifold studs / nuts in penetrant several nights in a row. I also soaked the spring bolts that connected the down pipe to the catalytic converter. The bolts to the cat, broke when removing them, but the manifold nuts came off easily.
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The blue is the coating applied by Hurricane. It has a scratch on it from shipping. It was wrapped in cardboard, bubble wrap and several layers of shrink wrap.
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My engine has 230k miles on it and is due for another timing chain set. I want to install a freshly rebuilt cylinder head and head gasket at the same time. I have made arrangements for a head to rebuild. Now I need to figure out which head gasket to use.
Has anyone replaced a head gasket on a J18, J20, or J23? Whose gasket did you use and have you had any problems? I have found gaskets from FelPro, KP (Japanese), and Altrom (usually Japanese).
Whose head bolts has anyone used? I didn't see any from ARP, but I only looked them up by Make and Model and not by size / configuration.
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I've never had the head off of my engine to date, so I can't recommend a head gasket personally, but I'd go with and OEM gasket (Japanese).
FINALLY... someone has bought a Hurricane header to install on their engine!!! I am really interested in seeing how you like it. Buster will probably never get one at this point, but I have great faith that Hurricane Headers makes a wonderful header for these engines.
There is obviously plenty of clearance on the steering shaft too, which was an installation concern on a left hand drive vehicle.
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It was an easy install, other than the catalytic converter bolts breaking. There were no fitment issues with it being LHD and the 1.8 bolts lined up perfectly withe 2.0 header. The factory O2 sensor wires are just long enough, once the mating connector is removed from its mount on the engine block.
I would not have bought the header except I didn't have to pay freight. It was cheaper than buying a new factory exhaust manifold.
Editing:
There were a couple of things that needed to be addressed in the header install. The header outlet is closer to the driver's side frame rail than the original exhaust. I had to cut the hanger from the catalytic converter to make room for it. This isn't an issue for me, as I am going to add a flex pipe and rebuild the exhaust from the header outlet back.
EGR issue - There is no provision in the header for the EGR port. I can add this later, but I don't want to pull the header back off until I have a few other items taken care of. Mainly rewiring the new feeder cable to my garage, so that I can use my welding machines.
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what Lincoln did you get the mirror from?
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My mirror was from a 2002 Lincoln Continental. It is easier to search for the manufacturer or part number. Gently is the manufacturer and their part numbers start with GNTX.
I wanted map lights with mine, so that I can remove the original map lights and install an overhead console to hold a CB or Ham radio.
GNTX-221
http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?nav=item.view&id=111399413253&alt=web
Wiring harness
http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?nav=item.view&id=291054428151&alt=web
Mirror window wedge and adhesive
http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?nav=item.view&id=231648989518&alt=web
It can be difficult to determine which wedge to use, so I bought a kit with 10 different wedges.
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I had some time, this morning, to finish up the exhaust behind the header. I had to drill the bolts out of the cat inlet flange. I thought about ordering a replacement cat with the resonator piping installed, but if I am buying new I want to go 2.25" all the way back. The factory setup is 2.25" to the cat and 2.0" from the cat back.
It is noticeably quieter without the cracked exhaust manifold.
Sent from my SM-T330NU using Tapatalk
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Since my last update, I have pulled and rebuilt the 5 speed transmission. The pilot and throw out bearings failed. I replaced the input shaft during the rebuild and the trans is all good now.
Unfortunately, the AC clutch bearing failed and I still can't drive it. The new bearing will arrive this week, while I am working in Portland.
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This weekend, I was only home for a little over 24 hours. I tried to work some time in for the Sidekick, when my youngest was occupied with other kids.
I pulled the bad ac clutch bearing out and verified the dimensions, before ordering a replacement.
The bearing is 32x47x18. Autozone is the only local vendor to supply it. The Santech part number for the SS10V6 compressor is MT2233.
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/11/88b2b9b2b03c621a2ee8c8484e0222a9.jpg)
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I have been collecting parts to rebuild the front end. I have 230k miles on the rig. I wanted to do it all at one time, but one of the sway bar links was bad. Changing the links only took a few minutes.
The rust under the front of the rig has really popped up in the last year. I moved to our place on Galveston Island and the constant humidity and salt spray is really showing.
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/11/becf4d272887f2a89442714d5b184e8d.jpg)
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/11/fd8ee764a394a86205ecbb3e3deb56cf.jpg)
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I read a post a while back about the 5 speed's pilot bearing failing before the clutch. The pilot bearing results in damage to the input shaft.
I knew to look for it when I had problems with my 5 speed. Here are pics from when I pulled the transmission. The pilot bearing and the throw out bearings failed.
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/12/89f46257c7b2525fe4fabdfd6821827e.jpg)
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This picture shows the damaged shaft on the left and new shaft on the right. The slop between the shaft and bearing causes the pilot bearing to fail more rapidly and causes damage to other bearings.
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/12/ecceb2cb2c7c243703e5b966e392085e.jpg)
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I didn't realize that it had been a year since I reworked the 5 speed. I moved to a different project and have been working a lot more. The good thing is that I have been home more often too. I also moved from a our place way out in the countryside to an hour southeast of Houston.
I have several recent updates to add, mostly just maintenance related.
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The compressor clutch power wire broke when I partially threw the serpentine belt. I was home for a few weeks between traveling and took advantage of the time available
I replaced the inner and outer tie rods, idler arm, and front struts, since I had the Sidekick sidelined. The idler arm came with several parts I bought from Boxcar. It was reinforced with some flat stock, welded underneath. I also added an idler arm brace I bought from Low Range last year.
The biggest issue was receiving the right parts. The tie rod was shipped wrong and everyone thinks a standard center link will work on a Sport. It will not work on a Sport and I have a new standard center link for sale for $50. I am having a problem getting an alignment now, because they want me to replace the center link before they will do the alignment.
I will try posting a few pics from my phone. If they are too big, I will adjust later and repost.
Pic 1 is the reinforced idler arm I bought from Boxcar. It also has the Low Range brace behind it.
Pic 2 is where I lowered my ABS sensor, by dropping the bracket into the splash guard hole and using a plastic rivet, instead of a bolt.