2002 Hyundai Elantra Auto-X/Chump/Lemons Build Log

First build on Grassroots Motorsports. I set out to get into cheap W2W racing and a few of my lunatic friends joined along. The team consisted at the time of myself and a friend, we will call him J. I talked J into looking into a few cars which turned out the be duds. We went through some Sentra's, Accents, Focuses(Foci) and the occasional Cobalt. I finally started searching for Elantra's as my last one(a champagne colored one) rusted to death after MANY years of faithful service. We finally found the perfect example as you will see below:

Car: 2002 Hyundai Elantra GLS
Engine: 2.0L Beta II
Transmission: Mitsubishi F5M22-2

Found the car on Craigslist from a gentlemen who stated his brother got into trouble and wrecked the car while inebriated. Pictures of the car in the ad.



He stated it ran and drove perfectly but needed body work, a clutch and some ignition parts. He was asking $750 for it in its shape but was up for negotiation. I threw $350 at him and he asked what i planned for it. Told him that we were building a race car and he agreed to the $350.

So here is me and our new teammate Mr. V picking the car up. Mr V is also hosting the build at his shop. He is also the best welder of the bunch so he will be welding anything and everything structural/safety wise. All little welding items will be done as needed by whoever.

Mr. V's asscrack is surprisingly not showing in this photo. I believe it came out 5-6 minutes later when he snugged the chain up.

Anyways, back at the shop we started to remove the front end parts that were broken and missing. Also start diagnosing the ignition issue.

Car was surprising straight, non-rusted to death and really only needed some basic parts to get back into shape. Ignition issue was just some fouled plugs and a bad wire. Replaced all the plugs and wires, slapped some new fenders on it along with a new bumper and grille.
 

New plugs and wires installed. Car fired right up and idled smoothly. All gauges read correctly, CEL was cleared and has not come back on.


In the process Mr. V welded on the tow strap up front to the bumper beam. We may go tubular later to lose some more weight but for now the stock bumper beam will work for what we need.

Along the way we picked up Mr. M, who worked previously with Mr. J. He is an avid motorcycle racer and was very interested in getting into autosports. We told him our plan and he agreed to come on board. Here are the 3 other mad geniuses re-fitting the bent out of shape hood back onto the car. We smashed and bent what we could to get it to fit back into place.

For now it fits and is held into place with hood pins, we intend to cut the structural support out of it to lighten it up. We also will be adding a GT500 hood vent into it to exhaust the radiator and keep under hood as cool as possible.

While they were doing that, i installed the short throw shifter into the stock shifter housing. Took a bit of work but everything went together smooth.

Installed.

Replaced the shifter bushings with polyurethane units meant for a Lancer Evolution. Stiffens the shifter up immensely.



Now that the front end was back together and the shifter was taken care of. We started to yank the interior out for the cage, seat, steering wheel and to remove all the parts we wouldnt need...


Lotta junk outta this thing.

 

What tracks/events are you planning on doing? Looking for drivers?  

The car after the front was back together.

And the car outside.


Once the interior was completely stripped we started to look into the clutch replacement. No real pictures of the clutch replacement but we did install a new flywheel, clutch and pressure plate from Exedy. All went in smoothly except for one lower transmission bolt which broke off. We used an easy out to get the fragment left in it. I will have to replace it later on with a bolt of the correct size. Other than that we got everything bolted back in.....ALONG with some suspension upgrades.

New Tiburon struts and H&R springs. The struts are no-name brand off Rockauto but the H&R's are genuine and we got them off Amazon for $58. Yes, you read that right, $58. They were on closeout and i assume Amazon needed to get rid of them.

We also installed a new 18mm Tiburon rear sway bar. The OEM rear Elantra bar is only 12mm which is terrible. The Tiburon rear bar with the struts and springs really firm the ride up. Here is the rear bar along with the new 18mm Energy Suspension poly bushings. Gotta have some Mtn Dew to keep the day rolling.


With that all handled and installed, i turned my focus to the stock OEM motor and transmission mounts. They were absolutely destroyed. Some 3M window weld and a bit of time gave us these....


Due one clicking front axle shaft we found other things wrong with the front end. It needed both front axles, wheel bearings, rotors and pads. So we replaced all that....

New wheel speed sensor also. Car does not have ABS and does have rear drums. The drums and shoes were fine but we will keep an eye on doing a replacement and eventually replace the rears with a disc brake upgrade from an Elantra GT model or a Tiburon.

Everything together ready for some wheels/tires.

So here is the car as it sits on the jack stands...

NEW WHEELS AND TIRES!

15x7" Drag DR33 in 4x114.3 +40mm were tasked from DTD to fill the job. I have been a big fan of Federal tires lately so we scooped up a set of 205/50R15 595 RS-RR's in 200tw for the first set of track/auto-x wheels. We arent going to be a top contender in any class or series so we set to buy things within budget and on the cheap. These will do just perfectly as a main setup along with another setup TBD with a 3rd on the stock 15x6 steel wheels.
So, tires mounted on wheels....

The width compared to some 205/40R17 Riken Raptor ZR tires on some Fiesta ST wheels. They measure out to be around a usual 225 sized tire. So the Federal's run extremely wide for their size.

Mounted on the car!

Yes, the car rides high, but overall is well short of a stock Elantra. The tire height is 1" shorter than the factory tire along with the H&R spring lowering of 1.4" makes this Elantra almost 2.5" shorter than OEM.

Now that the car is suspended and running in good shape we set forth to start the interior.

Rear

and the roof.


Now that all the comfort stuff is out of the way we fitted a new seat and steering wheel.




and how the car sits as of now...


 

Im enjoying this far to much. 

Our "to do" list in no particular order is:
1. Cage
2. Delete A/C system
3. Brake ducting
4. Replace lower radiator hose + flush
5. Rear brakes(shoes/drums/hardware)
6. Braided front brake lines
7. Braided clutch line
8. Hood vent install + lighten hood
9. Lighten trunk
10. Lighten doors
11. Alignment
12. Window net
13. Electrical cut off switch
14. Gauge cluster retention panel
15. Oil temp/ECT/Trans Temp gauges
16. Fire suppression system install
17. Front sway bar bushings
18. Front subframe bushings
19. Box radiator out
20. Lexan rear windows(two rear and one back glass)


Stock engine/drivetrain for now. Later we will look into a cold air kit, port the intake/throttle body and maybe install a header. For now though we are focusing on making the thing last.

Our first outing with be an autocross in mid-March.

On another note, on a whim, i searched Amazon for coilovers and found a insane deal for KSport Kontrol Pro coilovers for $172.67. I hit the buy button almost immediately. They should be delivered Friday. If they are the real deal its absolutely crazy. They will allow us to get the car lower along with adding more camber than just camber bolts would allow.
 

I'm surprised Bobzilla's Hyundai-sense hasn't gone off yet. I'm sure he'll be here shortly

In reply to NickD :

Oh, I've been watching. I found cheap ebay headers for under $100. 

NordicSaab said:

What tracks/events are you planning on doing? Looking for drivers?  

For now we have enough but will keep you in mind if anyone backs out.

For events we plan on autocrossing, HPDE, Chump and Lemons. We may even drag race the thing if we are bored.

bobzilla said:

In reply to NickD :

Oh, I've been watching. I found cheap ebay headers for under $100. 

Me too. Don’t know if we are going there just yet but definitely in the future. Porting the intake and throttle body along with a stand alone would help clear up some of the fuel issues these things have.

It’s quite funny to be able to buy a stainless steel header for $70. Just bought the KSport coilovers for $167. Amazon has some killer deals when they wanna get rid of inventory.

Here is my last car. It had the Tiburon GS calipers with Sonata rotors and it had incredible pedal feel. This was also lowered on Eibach springs with Sensen struts and the 18mm Tiburon rear sway bar. 

KSport's showed up and they are 100% real. Thank you Amazon for getting rid of stock. Check out how sweet these things are. And, yes, i did bring my coil overs to work with me to open them. I was too excited.

Dang this thing is cool! 

awesome thread! I enjoy the looks of these early 2000s hyundais

Been waiting for someone to grab an elantra or accent and hit the track....

I had some ksports on a Neon, they were nicer than racelands that came off, but not as nice as the ST that replaced them. 

Just cut a wide H where you want the vent. Lift the leading edge and drop the trailing edge.  Weld in the triangle gaps on the sides with scrap metal and you’ll have a free, effective and very Lemonsy hood vent. 

jfryjfry said:

Just cut a wide H where you want the vent. Lift the leading edge and drop the trailing edge.  Weld in the triangle gaps on the sides with scrap metal and you’ll have a free, effective and very Lemonsy hood vent. 

We already have the GT500 vent but that is a good idea for next time.

Just an update:

Got food poisoning on Friday evening and spent the whole weekend trying to get back to half of my former self. Nothing like crippling montezuma's revenge to stop work on a car.

On another note, we will be back in the garage this week and this weekend knocking out as much as we can.

So I'm curious what you're down to weight wise? And hows the axle hop? 

bobzilla said:

So I'm curious what you're down to weight wise? And hows the axle hop? 

No idea on weight in total. We will probably find a scale and trailer it out to see our final weight. It is noticeably lighter than the car was in factory form. On a good note, the car while driving down the road does not have the typical NVH associated with a gutted racer. You can hear the road, stones and stuff but alot of the usual buzzing/wind noise is cut down. Its almost pleasant.

No axle hop to speak of(yet). Only thing we have noticed is 4th gear is MUCH tougher to get into and out of than before. We are going to put some miles on it and see. The issue with us putting miles on the car is that it is not tagged and will never be in MD. So we are relegated to private road use which is only 1.5 miles.

I remember 4th was sticky with the hard poly bushings on the trans side. I lubed them with some white lithium and it helped. Did you do the shifter base too? 

bobzilla said:

I remember 4th was sticky with the hard poly bushings on the trans side. I lubed them with some white lithium and it helped. Did you do the shifter base too? 

No, i ordered a set but they came for a base Veloster and 100% dont fit. They are too short.

Unless i can get my buddy with a lathe to turn some down for me ill probably just stick with the rubber for now. TWM used to make bushings but i havent seen them around for a while. You have any leads before i go begging a friend with booze?

The shifter as it is now is very, very notchy. The cables seem to have some wear on them also where the cable slips through the sheeth. My last one had the same wear but wasnt as pronounced. Im going to pop the cables off and see if they are sticking at all.

 

A few parts came in and i bought a few more cheap things to start with a small amount of engine performance work...

Picked up a used throttle body and intake manifold to do some porting to. $63 with shipping isnt bad at all and if they come with the sensors we have backups if the ones on the car decide to crap out.

Since we plan on really pushing this car i wanted to make sure we have some sort of brake pedal, so i picked up a few things of ATE gold along with a few sets of cheap performance pads to see how long they last. EBC "Greenstuff" pads on Amazon were $24 on closeout so picked them up. They arent a race pad but if we can get this thing down to be as light as possible with a ton of ducting they may have some chance.