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Ugly Spirit R/T

10K views 92 replies 10 participants last post by  INSATANSSEAT 
#1 · (Edited)
Got another addition to my turbo dodge family. My wife thinks I'm insane for being excited about having this "Ugly car" but she just doesn't understand! Here it is in all its beautiful red faded missing clear coat glory
the paint has such a beautiful patina it makes my heart warm. The car is a 91 spirit r/t, 113,000 miles on the clock but the clocks broke, all in all the car could use some work cosmetically but mechanically the car is spot on. Driving this car was the first time I had been in a TIII car and I am completely blown away at how much faster and more refined this car is compared to my 8 valve auto Daytona. The car has a few simple mods including a stage 1 FWDP SBEC, +20 injector's, K&N drop in filter, Magnecore 10mm Plug wires, Jackson idler pulley mod, 3 inch exhaust from the turbo back with 3 inch cat, B&M short throw shifter and a boost gauge as far as I know, still trying to find out more history on this car as it has changed owners a few times within the last 2 years. The car has 16 inch pumpers on it and I do have the c/s center caps for them but they are a darker gray. I plan on doing a few things to the car but nothing extreme, this car will be my daily driver when the weather is nice and there's no salt on the roads, the underside of this car is in fantastic shape and I want to keep it that way. This car came with a whole dodge caravan full of parts so I am stocked up with all the parts I should need for quite some time. When I get it cleaned up a bit more I'll post pictures of the interior and engine bay.
 

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#2 ·
Got another addition to my turbo dodge family. My wife thinks I'm insane for being excited about having this "Ugly car" but she just doesn't understand! Here it is in all its beautiful red faded missing clear coat glory
the paint has such a beautiful patina it makes my heart warm. The car is a 91 spirit r/t, 113,000 miles on the clock but the clocks broke, all in all the car could use some work cosmetically but mechanically the car is spot on. Driving this car was the first time I had been in a TIII car and I am completely blown away at how much faster and more refined this car is compared to my 8 valve auto Daytona. The car has a few simple mods including a stage 2 FWDP SBEC, K&N drop in filter, Magnecore Plug wires, Jackson idler pulley mod, 3 inch exhaust from the turbo back with 3 inch cat, short throw shifter and a boost gauge as far as I know, still trying to find out more history on this car as it has changed owners a few times within the last 2 years. The car has 16 inch pumpers on it and I do have the c/s center caps for them but they are a darker gray. I plan on doing a few things to the car but nothing extreme, this car will be my daily driver when the weather is nice and there's no salt on the roads, the underside of this car is in fantastic shape and I want to keep it that way. This car came with a whole dodge caravan full of parts so I am stocked up with all the parts I should need for quite some time. When I get it cleaned up a bit more I'll post pictures of the interior and engine bay.

Nice score Brandon! That red paint has almost as much patina as my Daytona....almost...
 
#4 ·
Yep, it's pretty close. I've always loved the Spirit styling. When I found my Daytona last Spring, I had a list of preferred body styles I was looking for:

1. Shelby Charger
2. Daytona
3. Shadow 2 door 87-88
4. Spirit

Actually 3 & 4 were pretty much tied. I came across my Daytona first, so that's what I bought. No regrets...:thumb: Especially in the summer. Even if it's 90 out, the T-tops are out and the wind is blowing through my hair. I've always got a grin from ear to ear. Makes all of it well worth while...:thumb:
 
#6 ·
Not a lot buddy.:eek: One downfall to a T-top car, seems like I always had a sun burnt scalp last summer...

I need to just keep a hat in the car as a precaution. I can't wear them during the week at work...
 
#7 ·
Upon further inspection I found the injectors are p4532176 which means the car also has +20 injectors. I also have tracked the car back a few owners and believe it has a stage 1 FWDP Cal and not a stage 2 like I was told. I'm going to pull the SBEC out and see if I can verify. It's been really cold around here but I did manage to get the old falling down headliner out today and swept out the interior of all the headliner droppings. Number one on my list though is checking the timing belt tension all possible ways to make sure it's right, seems to be the most crucial thing for these TIII engines.
 
#8 ·
So after talking to Jackson quite a bit I've decided to dig into this car and make sure all the stuff that needs to be right is actually right. Today I pulled the old steel head plugs out and replaced them with some aluminum ones I got from FWDP, after that I pulled both valve covers and checked everything over good for wear and luckily everything is still in really good shape. All the valve train looks really clean so previous owners must had taken decent care of it. One thing I did find is that someone at sometime must have failed to install the rocker spacer on the far side of number 8 intake rocker, without this spacer the rocker moves quite a bit left to right, almost so much so that all the way to the right looks like the lifter is only half on the valve stem. Hopefully I have a spacer coming soon to install. I also removed the a/c system as I am not fan of air conditioning and also enjoy a bit less clutter under the hood. On a side note a 12 gauge bore brush works great to clean the threads on the head plug holes.
 

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#10 ·
Damn Lotashelbys when I seen you replied I hoped you were going to say that you had a intake rocker spacer for me. Anyways I think I'm going to buy some Ti retainers for the car since the retainers on the intake cam have me a little worried, the keepers stick up above the tops of the retainers and from all the pictures I've been able to find the stock retainers should have the keepers flush with the tops of them.
 
#12 ·
Good to hear about the spacer and I thought about the modified retainers but I prefer to not pull the head off the car therefore I wouldn't have a set of cores to send in, without cores they come up to about 235 dollars, so I figured for another 30 bucks or so I might as well go with the titanium's, now I just have to figure out how I'm going to change out the retainers without removing the head.
 
#13 ·
Update! upon further inspection after the valve covers were removed also realized that something is wacky with the intake valve spring retainers and keepers. the keepers on all the intake springs are actually sticking out the top of the retainers more than an 1/8 of an inch. after talking with Jackson and looking at pictures of stock retainers and keepers something just ism't right with these. So I have a set of modified retainers coming with new keepers and some new valve seals since I'm there. I'll post before and after pics but the way these retainers are now has to be increasing the spring pressure a ton compared to how they should be.
 
#14 ·
A null point since you already grabbed a new set of keepers but the old ones might be ok to reuse. I found the same on mine when I removed the valve covers. Pretty sketchy for sure. Probably due to an installation error or whomever worked on it before was careless. I reused the keepers when I installed the modified retainers and they all locked at the correct height and I haven't had a problem. The valve train got quieter too when I fixed it. I would keep them around as extras if they pass a visual inspection.

Glad you're going through the car before bigger problems ensue. Usually doesn't take much for a first time T3 owner to move back to an 8 valve car. lol
 
#15 ·
yeah, got the keepers just to be safe and since I'm borrowing the valve retainer tool from Jackson, I wanted to make sure I had all the parts I needed to get the job done in one swoop. out of curiosity what did you determine the issue was with your keepers/retainers? I think the valves only have one notch in them for the keepers so I don't understand how someone could mess them up but they surely don't look right. and yes I want to cover as many of the TIII issues as I can before I start putting miles on the car, I'm in no rush whatsoever, atleast not until the snow melts that is, lol. I'll be a TIII guy for life, no matter how painful it may be :thumb:
 
#16 ·
Like you I was just preemptively performing all the T3 fixes. The car wasn't really misbehaving other then a loud valvetrain. It was really easy for me to determine what the problem was. It was the "mechanics" that messed with the car prior to my ownership. My car was hacked together. Missing bolts, stripped threads, broken brackets, etc. They went as far as grinding down some hardware store bolts to replace the rocker shaft bolts which I guess were lost. It definately wasn't the keepers failing. I inspected them when I removed them and they looked fine and have held since reinstallation.

Sad part is that I bought the car because it came with a stack of receipts from the dealer. So it wasn't even an indy or the owner that messed up the car.
 
#17 ·
Finally got all the parts to finish my modified retainer install along with new valve seals. Also installing a new timing belt, spark plugs and 180 thermostat and new coolant. And since I'm there I'm going to regrease my tensioner and idler pulley's, thanks to Jackson for letting me borrow the valve spring compressor.:thumb:
 

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#18 · (Edited)
Dug in and replaced my valve stem seals and installed a set of Jackson's modified valve spring retainers along with a rocker shim that was previously missing on my motor. All and all the job wasn't to bad, some of the retainers on the intake side gave me a little trouble but I think that had something to do with how the previous person that messed with the retainers and keepers had them installed. You can see in some of the pictures how the intake side retainers actually had the keepers sticking out the top of them about an 1/8 of an inch. The exhaust side looked normal and stock but the intake side was definitely not right. You can see from the pictures what a difference these modified retainers do for spring pressure, the modified retainers sit about an 1/8 inch higher on the exhaust side and almost 3/16's higher on the intake side. I have a few other things I want to do before running this car to much like a new timing belt and greasing the idler and tensioner, but should be putting some miles on it her in the next week or so.
 

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#19 ·
Got the spirit all back together and on the road today, cleaned her up a bit and took her out for a nice cruise, now that I got the modified retainers and idler relocation mod I think its time to start putting some miles on the car.
 

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#20 ·
Been putting some miles on the car and got some vacuum leaks squared away, car is driving amazing, pulls hard about 18 lbs. at first and then levels off between 15-16 lbs. of boost. Finally convinced the wife to take a cruise with me and apparently the cars fast enough to make her heart flutter (her words). Been collecting some parts and saving some money for more, picked up a wideband and a nice front mount, also planning on going 3 bar with a stage 4 computer and +40's before spring hopefully, then maybe summer time to fall I plan on upgrading the turbo if everything goes smooth.
 

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#22 ·
haha, no its not, I admit I have been putting it off due to how much fun this spirit is but I've slowly been working on it and gathering go fast parts. I've been welding in new floorboard metal, got the drivers side done and working on the passenger side now. Unfortunately it's going to take a lot of work to keep up with the spirit.:thumb:
 
#23 ·
weathers been really nice around here the last few days, got me motivated to knock out a few more mods to the car, installed my new wideband, boost gauge and a pillar gauge holder, put a dsm bov on and shortened my exhaust some.
 

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#24 ·
Awesome. I can't wait to see some more progress on the weight reduction. That's been something I've been interested in since I was a teenager. My 68 Impala lost about 450 pounds. LOL. Then gained back about 200 when I put a 292 L6 in place of the 250 L6. That was before I became a Mopar maniac.

Glad to see that with the right preventative measures the TIII cars can actually be a choice for a daily driver!

:thumb:
 
#25 ·
They absolutely can be daily drivers, you just have to be on top of the important things, mostly timing belt tension and supporting mods. I believe they just caught a bad rap from people not knowing enough about them and getting one and just driving it until it breaks, I believe the key is supporting the weak areas and knowledge of these cars, once you get that down your good to go, also making friends Jackson will take you a long way!.:thumb:

And as far as the weight reduction on the daytona, I think having this spirit as my DD will allow me to take that a bit farther since the daytona will see little to no street time.
 
#26 ·
"I believe they just caught a bad rap from people not knowing enough about them and getting one and just driving it until it breaks"

LOLOL Pretty much the same as the 8 valve!

Since the Daytona is to be track driven have you considered removing the bumper and bumper shocks from underneath the bumper cover in the rear? If they are anything like a K-car it's probably 50-60 pounds front and rear. I may do this with my street driven GLHS but I have a deathwish. Also this summer, hatch and sunroof...in the garage, not on the car. Thinking about doing a soft top of some sort.
 
#27 ·
Yeah I have both the front and rear bumpers and struts out right now, I think they were almost 75 lbs. together, I'll update the Daytona post when I get back at pulling weight, the cars in pieces right now due to floorboard repairs, I've also been thinking since it will be mostly a drag car that I might run a little 5 gallon fuel cell instead of the big gas tank and lexan hatch and side windows are planned as well.:thumb:
 
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