1987 Shelby Dodge CSX Build Thread

I saw that first pic of the floor and said holy E36 M3!

Great fix!

The_Jed wrote: I saw that first pic of the floor and said holy E36 M3! Great fix!

Thanks! When I went to look at the car originally, I thought to myself "this isn't gonna be that bad..."

That was almost 3 years ago. It was worse than bad.

The toughest part has been the fact that almost all of these cars have returned to the Earth up here, so finding a rust free donor for stuff like the floors is next to impossible locally. It's just easier to get some sheet metal and make a floor or whatever else the car needs. I was lucky enough to find a set of NOS front fenders, but they still make aftermarket ones. I was able to find outer rocker replacement sheet metal on eBay of all places. The rest of the body, like the hood, quarters, etc. is shockingly rust free.

Some CSX-specific parts, like the grille, bumpers, and ground effects, are made of unobtanium though. My grille, for example, has a few issues, but I will be repairing it soon. Look for that write-up down the road. I haven't seen another CSX grille for sale since I bought my car.

These are very cool cars, and some of the first serious turbocharged sport compacts, so it deserves to be saved.

Still think mine is too far away? ;)

BTW, it is still available and would drive home if you'd be so inclined. poke hehe

Seriously though, good job! They are a labor of love for sure.

turboswede wrote: Still think mine is too far away? ;) BTW, it is still available and would drive home if you'd be so inclined. *poke* hehe Seriously though, good job! They are a labor of love for sure.

If you sell it for $100, sure! I forgot that yours was #109. Mine is #115. I also met the owner of #175 recently. He bought parts off of me. His is completely nuts and has a TIII conversion.

Trade you for the Trans-am? LOL

Yeah, a TIII would be pretty sweet, but at the same time its hard to think about altering a numbered car that much.

turboswede wrote: Trade you for the Trans-am? LOL Yeah, a TIII would be pretty sweet, but at the same time its hard to think about altering a numbered car that much.

He was telling me that he bought the car back in 1991. Back then it was just another used car, and he drove it as a daily driver for a while. He ended up grenading the stock motor in the late 90's driving to work on a cold day (it ran too lean), so the TIII was an upgrade. After he did that, he ended up going nuts and building a full-on track car out of it. He's currently reverting it back to street use but keeping the TIII stuff.

My car was modified when I got it. Someone had already gone in and upgraded the stock ECU, injectors, exhaust, etc, and then another, later owner went in and did a lot of awful mods, like replacing the radiator with a non-turbo car one, installing a ghetto blaster stereo, and installing some Super Street Magazine-branded "radioactive" grille insert. My engine tag and dash plaque are long gone unfortunately. My car has been VIN-verified as #115 though.

Plans for this weekend include finding and reattaching the grounds for the fuel rail (which is probably why the relays are freaking out), bolting on the throttle body, and attempting to fire up the car again. Should be interesting. If the motor sounds good, I'll be getting ready to pull it soon to tidy up the engine bay.

Spent some time with the wife in the garage yesterday.

We bolted on the throttle body, found some loose grounds and hooked those up, plugged the computers back in, and tried to fire it up. The relays were still chattering away, and it would crank but not fire up. I tried starting it on starting fluid and still nothing. I even tried swapping out power modules with a fresh re-manufactured on that I have kicking around. Nothing. CSX - 1, Us - 0.

I did find a number of broken wires, bad splices, and other hacks into the wiring harness from a former owner that installed a narrow band AFR gauge and a stereo in the car. I'm sure that is not helping. I'm going to have to get acquainted with a TII wiring diagram. Anyone have one handy?

Check your grounds. The relays clicking is a dead giveaway.

Grounds should be bat to inner fender (small) and side of head (large). Intake to firewall (strap) and pass side inner fender (small wire into harness. Also check the logic module (kick panel) and make sure no writes are pulling out of the connectors.

Once you get the relays to stop clicking you should be good to go.

BTW, do you have the ground connected to the intake manifold, fuel rail and firewall?

How about the ground that runs from the passenger motor mount bracket to the frame rail?

Missing either or both of those will cause odd issues, maybe not the ones you're seeing, but you'll need them anyway.

I used to live in Hawaii back in the 70s and 80s and anything Chrysler seemed to rust to the ground in about a year or so, but then again most everything 70s and 80s out there died from a combination of beating sun and salt air, but the k-cars were the worst of the lot (I realize this is not a k-car). I can see it being really tough to find any of these in good shape.

I still am amazed by that floor pan repair.

Buy a grounding kit from FWD Performance. Seriously, it will make a difference.

Ok, as far as the grounds go...

-I have the big one on the driver's side of the head hooked up.

-The fuel rail is grounded to the firewall now.

-The negative battery lead is grounded somewhere, but there is another smaller wire that is broken that someone had hacked in there. Not sure if this needs to go anywhere.

-I have remnants of a grounding kit I had on my old 2002 WRX kicking around. I can find that and attach like 9 grounds to everything.

I'll go in the garage tonight if I can and take a look with fresh eyes. I worked on it yesterday after spending a good 10 hours in the yard busting my butt. I may have simply missed something.

When I'm done, this CSX will be more grounded to the ground than a new Camry.

SilverFleet wrote: Ok, as far as the grounds go... -I have the big one on the driver's side of the head hooked up. -The fuel rail is grounded to the firewall now. -The negative battery lead is grounded somewhere, but there is another smaller wire that is broken that someone had hacked in there. Not sure if this needs to go anywhere. -I have remnants of a grounding kit I had on my old 2002 WRX kicking around. I can find that and attach like 9 grounds to everything. I'll go in the garage tonight if I can and take a look with fresh eyes. I worked on it yesterday after spending a good 10 hours in the yard busting my butt. I may have simply missed something. When I'm done, this CSX will be more grounded to the ground than a new Camry.

How about the lead on the transaxle? I think it should be a brown or brown striped wire that is specifically for a bolt on the top of the transaxle. That one missing tends to cause issues with the starter.

And the grounded to the ground comment makes me raugh and cry at the same time. I think everytime that commercial is played, a hipster gets their ironic glasses.

In reply to turboswede:

I'll check that too. The car cranks over like a champ, so there's no starting issues, but you never know.

And I'm trying to turn that train wreck of a commercial into some comedy here. Every time I see that commercial, I feel like a beige Camry cut me off in traffic only to go 24mph. Oh, what a feeling!!!

Use 4- or 6-gauge car audio power wires and ring terminals to create grounds. The important ones to connect together are negative battery terminal, chassis, alternator bracket, firewall, and (very important) fuel rail. The fuel rail ground is the sensor ground ("Zero-Volt Reference") for these engines.

This is relevant to you:

http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles/id/1787/electrical-basics-and-automotive-grounding-systems.aspx

The car utilized in that example is, essentially, a '90 P-body turbo.

Sky_Render wrote: Use 4- or 6-gauge car audio power wires and ring terminals to create grounds. The important ones to connect together are negative battery terminal, chassis, alternator bracket, firewall, and (very important) fuel rail. The fuel rail ground is the sensor ground ("Zero-Volt Reference") for these engines. This is relevant to you: http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles/id/1787/electrical-basics-and-automotive-grounding-systems.aspx The car utilized in that example is, essentially, a '90 P-body turbo.

Thanks for the tip! The grounding kit from that WRX that I have is made from exactly those types of wires, so it should work well.

Great read. Thanks for posting and I'm following this.

I might have a line on some locally cheap 1986 Fiero GT wheels! They are 15x7 vs. my stock 15x6 Shelby Centurion II's and should clear any brake upgrades if I ever go that route. This will allow me to get a little more tire on the car, but not much. Plus, mesh wheels are awesome.

Well, those wheels got sold to someone that's probably going to stretch tires onto them and put them on a Subaru. I'll have to keep looking for another set.

Also, I took a quick peek under the hood again for grounds last night. There is no lead coming off the negative battery terminal to the fender. I'll be working on the car tomorrow night, so I'll hook one of those up and see what happens.

I worked on the car some more tonight. First, I took a fresh look at the grounds... again. I re-checked all of them and hooked up the fender ground I talked about in my last post. I hooked up the battery and it still chattered. Urgh...

Then I looked around the engine bay. There was a plug right around the fuel rail that was unplugged. Boom, plugged that in and no more chattering! I must have looked at that stupid plug a thousand times and didn't figure to plug it in.

So, back to trying to start it. It turned over fine, but wouldn't catch. I again switched power modules, still nothing. Then, I got back to basics. I pulled a plug, and it looked like this:

All of them were covered in black soot. I pulled them all and cleaned them up, and tried to start it again. This time, it farted a couple times but wouldn't start. The battery was getting low, and it was getting late, so I called it quits for tonight. But at least I made some progress.

The plan now is to get back to basics: fuel, air, and spark. I'll check those and see what's going on.

large black connector with 6-7 wires coming out of it? If so that was the injector harness plug.

moparman76_69 wrote: large black connector with 6-7 wires coming out of it? If so that was the injector harness plug.

Yup.

Yes, I am dumb.

Remember, I'm still a Turbo Mopar noob. I'm still learning stuff about this car every time I wrench on it.

SilverFleet wrote:

moparman76_69 wrote: large black connector with 6-7 wires coming out of it? If so that was the injector harness plug.

Yup. Yes, I am dumb. Remember, I'm still a Turbo Mopar noob. I'm still learning stuff about this car every time I wrench on it.

I don't judge. Just telling you what it was if you hadn't figured it out.

No worries! I'll get this thing going.