How to Finish Your Abandoned Project Car (Turbo Del Sol)

[00:01] abandoned project car and this is not how I wanted to start off this video but here's what happened to my project car first off this is my first real this car has seen better days just look at all this water now sometimes stuff

[00:16] motivated to restart that project that's been sitting and although this doesn't look good it kind of is so right here right now is the fresh new moist restart of the $300 turbo Delo project and for those of you who don't know here's how

[00:31] this all started so like any car guy I was looking for used cars online I use autot Tempest which allows you to search tons of car for sale websites all at bad head gasket so I can make a video on how to replace piston return Springs and

[00:44] it just so happened that one of my favorite cars as a kid popped up a Honda Del Soul and he was asking 1,000 bucks which was perfect so I went and checked seeing this car for the first time it got me super excited because this is the

[00:57] car I loved as a kid I really liked how you unique it was but as you could see this specific car was far from being in good shape the rattle can paint job the steel wheels dry roded tires and just tons of small broken parts everywhere

[01:09] luckily the owner was very friendly and looking back he was actually very honest about everything which is rare these days hey Chris hey how's it going my name's jinen man nice F to meet you yeah t all right so here I got you know my 93

[01:23] Delo uh to be completely honest with you it does have a blown head gasket at the moment control arm's a little squeaky here and there so it will need replacing the paint is good for now paint job in the future would be good and for you

[01:37] it next Jensen gave me a quick tour of the car he showed me how to easily trunk and then roll down the rear window which is how this car got its name Del Soul that means of the sun in Spanish after that I went for a quick mandatory

[01:51] leak and right away I learned that the shifter is really worn out I wasn't even sure if it was in first and as I drove I noticed the car felt very loose and the suspension was clunking and banging on every bump but the car did drive and I

[02:04] was able to shift it into multiple gears so I had a basic idea of what's wrong with this car so this car is far from being worth $1,000 and it's really rough and Jensen told me that a lot of people came to see the car but they weren't

[02:16] hands or they offered him a 100 bucks so here's the offer I made him what I'd like to offer you what I think the car is worth is $300 and uh you know I got the back of my truck I'll take it today 300 cash and for the $300 I'll take it

[02:33] man yeah awesome you got yourself a deal all right sounds good man and just like that I bought myself a piece of junk that needs a lot of work but it's the remember the whole ride home I was thinking about all the fixes and the

[02:45] mods I was going to do to this car and I was super excited to get started so set off to replace the head gasket because that was the most serious problem so I removed the bolts from the exhaust manifold then I unbolted the

[02:58] head then I carefully removed the timing belt from the sprocket and finally I unscrewed the head bolts working my way from the outside inwards so I don't removed now the head could be removed next I cleaned up the block and head

[03:13] surface so the new head gasket could go right on like that and then the head here's the old head gasket you can see where the gasket failed and it allowed with the new head gasket in I torque down all the head bolts from the center

[03:27] outwards that way the head seats evenly and won't warp then I put the timing belt back in place I tighten down the intake back into the head and torque down the exhaust manifold in a crisscross pattern and finally I

[03:39] now before we could start the car we had to drain the old oil and change the is it looks like a thick chocolate milk because that head gasket leak so with some fresh new oil in the engine another thing I needed to do is add some coolant

[03:53] of the coolant into smoke and so you guys know this was my first ever head gasket job so as a little nervous for the next part starting up the car and the next part starting up the car and here we go Moment of

[04:11] the head gasket was fixed but you always want to expect to uncover other problems that you didn't know about when you buy a project car for example this giant I've never done before but luckily it

[04:23] out all the rust then get a piece of sheet metal and cut it to shape to fill metal into to the car just be sure to spread to heat out by welding different spots that way you don't overheat the metal and warp it and finally I coated

[04:36] floorboard with a special paint to prevent rust and it came out looking fixed I needed to paint the valve cover cover with a paint stripper and worked it in with a metal wire brush and

[04:49] finally I rinsed it off and cleaned it with a paper towel and alcohol and I bit unique so I added my logo to the valve cover and I hit it with the first Foundation layer that's going to make the next layer really pop then I hit it

[05:03] a nice even coat around the whole valve cover and then once that dried I peeled away the vinyl stickers leaving behind the bare aluminum look then I showed you logo and the lettering silver Again by using a file and then the final step was

[05:17] to add some high temperature clear coat to protect all this hard work after the cover dried it was time to install and check out this before and after much better right after that I wanted to install a kill switch because my friend

[05:29] stolen right out of his driveway he found it gutted and abandoned on the heartbreaking so to prevent this I showed you guys a few sneaky spots to ended up putting it in my shifter bezel so I drilled a hole where I wanted to

[05:44] switch and tightened it down to hold it in place then I reinstalled the interior showed you how to find the wiring that goes to your fuel pump because without fuel the car won't start so once I showed you how to find the correct wire

[05:58] into the circuit that way you could turn the power off going to the fuel pump Moment of Truth we're in neutral I think the switch is deactivated so it should be ready to start up all right it starts right up now I'm

[06:12] going to shut the car I'm going to flip our kill switch and I'm going to start our kill switch and I'm going to start her back baby and a criminal is going to be like what the heck why won't it

[06:26] what the heck why won't it start flip that kill switch project to make the car more drivable was to rebuild and replace the entire

[06:39] really that safe to drive and just to give you an idea look at how worn these little bit of pressure the control arm bushings give way and this is why the clunking noise going over bumps I mean this is the original suspension from

[06:53] 1993 so to fix this the first thing I did was remove the axle nut so I hammered out the indented part that way I could loosen up the nut completely so it comes off all the way next I removed the brake caliper as well as the rotor

[07:05] it needed a little bit of persuasion to come off then I remov the upper control kept the nut on there as I hammered and that'll prevent the stud from mushrooming that way it comes right out with that removed we had to remove the

[07:18] had a rusty Cotter pin so I pulled it out with some pliers and then removed you guys another method of popping the stud out of the knuckle so I used a ball joint removal tool and you just tighten it until the stud pops loose and now you

[07:32] finally the last thing holding this knuckle in was a tie rod so I loosen that up and then hammered the stud upwards to break it

[07:45] could come off and now the knuckle could be removed then I removed the tie rod removing the worn out strut as well as the clunky axle and finally I unbolted removed so out with all the old suspension parts and in with the new

[08:00] knuckle and I started by hammering out the old Hub like so then hammering out bearing and finally hammering out the old ball joint like so next I painted the knuckle and strut Fork that way they look brand new and I also painted the

[08:15] does this look good but it's going to stay rust free for years to come after to the knuckles starting with the ball joint you just use the cup and ball Press until the ball joint bottoms out like so then you add your snap ring to

[08:30] I installed a new wheel bearing and this gets pressed in a similar fashion to the ball joint and once it bottoms out you put the snap ring the hold it in place into the bearing like so and now the knuckle is fully rebuilt so back at the

[08:44] the new upper control arm and torqued that to spec then the new strut went in and got torqued to Speck followed by the new axle which you need to make sure it gets pushed all the

[08:57] with the axle in the lower control arm could be installed and I torqu that to spec as well and finally the knuckle could be installed making sure the axle push and then you can put the ball joint into the lower control arm good now with

[09:11] the tie rod and get that installed so Slide the tie rod end into the knuckle hand tighten the nut and torque it to spec then we need to slide in our Cotter around the nut that way the nut can't

[09:24] ball joint I got that nut on there torqued it to Speck and added the Cotter thing to do was to tighten down the upper ball joint so I pushed the stud all right so all that was left to do was

[09:38] refreshed brake caliper torque it to spec and then install the brake pads now I could just reuse the old dry rotted tires and the steel wheels which look horrible so I got some new tires and I

[09:50] put them on some new Wheels I got for a great price so finally with the wheels bolted on I set the car on the ground to finish the last step install the axle locker and hand tighten the nut onto the axle and then torqued it to spec then

[10:04] you need to stake the nut into place with a punch so it won't loosen and to was to take the car to the alignment shop because you could see it was all at everything was adjusted and the front suspension rebuild was complete so there

[10:18] was still a lot to do on this delou project but it was coming along nicely guys my idea of turboing the Delo with a budget friendly eBay turbo kit but then going on in my life at that time and I had to put the delou into storage for

[10:33] couple of weeks but little did I know life wasn't going to get much easier for me okay so now you know the project turbo Del Soul origin story and I'm tired of coming up with excuses of why this car isn't running and driving and

[10:48] car video yet so today we're going to get this car running and driving and take her to the track for a/4 mile time get a 0 to 60 time and put her on the torque she's making before we add the turbo okay so the first thing we need to

[11:02] do is get this car dry before the interior gets all moldy this is definitely not good so if you ever get into a small flood like this here's what you need to do first grab your wet dry shot vac and suck out all the water from

[11:14] the carpet you really should remove the carpets completely and set it out to dry but it's 90° out so once most of the water is removed I'm going to leave the doors open and let it sit in the Sun for a Day so a day later even though I

[11:27] removed all the water from the carpet it's pretty dry it still smells musty in bacteria or something that's making the back of my throat burn when I sit in the we'll clean everything out we'll take the carpets out I'll show you how to do

[11:40] all that we'll install new carpets new seats stuff like that but for now I just want to be able to drive the car so I have this odor eliminator and this kills the mold and the bacteria and the stuff that causes the odors and it's super

[11:52] need to close all the windows in the car so the gas gets trapped in the interior now inside of this we have two pieces the sponge and the packet first you need to saturate the sponge with some water like so then we can open up this packet

[12:05] outside wearing gloves and finally Slide the end of the packet into the slit in the sponge just like this and place this in with the vent holes up then you want to place this in the middle of the

[12:17] Interior on a flat surface and this doesn't mask smells it releases a chlorine gas that kills the odors completely so don't breathe this in and now I use these odor eliminators in every car I bu here's a great video that

[12:30] you an idea of how it works you can see the car so it fills the interior and destroys the odors as well as the next morning you want to open up all the doors in the car to vent the interior

[12:44] out and then after it vents out for a few minutes let's remove this and throw it out and then before you sit in here just let it vent for a few more minutes so with the interior of the car all aired out so it's safe to be in here I

[12:57] like it smells sterile I don't even know how to explain it it smells like nothing there are no odors it doesn't smell musty anymore and the back of my throat means we could go for a ride now before

[13:10] that we need to fix listen to this you're going to know what it hold a charge so I'm pretty sure it's bad so let me show you how to test it to

[13:25] know for sure cuz batteries aren't cheap so grab a battery reload tester put the alligator clips on the terminals and this battery is 410 cold cranking amps good now we can let it do its thing okay and there you go it's saying the battery

[13:38] is bad with just 262 cold cranking amps so we need to replace it so let's down in and remove that then unscrew the nut on the positive terminal and unscrew always want to remove negative first then the positive and now we can remove

[13:53] the battery and this thing is pretty heavy so out with the old and in with the new and the new battery is a lithium battery there's a couple of benefits one being weight savings check this out so let's get the lead acid battery on the

[14:05] let's get the lead acid battery on the scale and this weighs 25 lb and 9 oz okay so now let's weigh the new lithium battery and this weighs 10 lb 15 oz so that's just under 15 lbs of weight saved which for such a small battery is pretty

[14:18] impressive also for such a light car every pound counts now the main reason I feature right here this is my favorite thing about this and that is a jump completely down you leave your headlights on or something like that

[14:32] this stores up enough energy where when you press that it allows you to start your car so that is huge that way you won't get stranded plus all the extra electrical stuff I'm going to be running on this car between gauges the upgraded

[14:44] ECU all that stuff for the turbo I want to make sure I have a good power source so let's get it installed another benefit with the lightweight battery is it's super easy to install because it's so light so let's get the tie down in

[14:56] hold it in and that's not going anywhere now don't forget to remove the terminal positive terminal first and tighten it down so it's snug and then finish by connecting the negative terminal and snug that up as well all right let's go

[15:09] snug that up as well all right let's go test out this battery Moment of engine extra fast that is a very strong battery but I do not hear that fuel pump

[15:22] day I got the car and that's why I leave a hammer right next to the fuel pump let me show you so I use to hit the top of the fuel pump to shake it up then I cycle the key hear that the fuel pump's

[15:40] this is the original fuel pump and as you can see from all the surface debris seen better days I'm kind of afraid to see what it looks like inside there because of a leak or something so let's replace this fuel pump with a nice brand

[15:55] new fuel pump assembly and it has a brand new fuel pump and fuel sock which is like a pre-filter so let's go swap it out we don't want any of this rust vacuum around the opening here now let's disconnect this electrical connector and

[16:08] the fuel return hose so move the hose clamp down off the end here and out of the way and this is a hose Grip Pliers I'm using to help me remove this fuel the hose back and forth to break it free since this has probably never been

[16:22] removed since 1993 now we can remove the high pressure fuel line by unscrewing the banjo bolt and then set that off to the side and finally there's six nuts holding in the fuel pump assembly so let's unscrew all those and now the fuel

[16:34] pump is free and it could come right out so out with the old and in with the new ah you got to be kidding me actually hold up this is why you always compare something here these two are definitely not the same now since the goal here is

[16:50] to get this car back on the road we have hit a roadblock we do not want to delay this any further cuz that's just an excuse for oh well I'll let this car sit even longer we want to get it back on the road now so no more delays this

[17:03] unfortunately is a very specific pump for the Honda Del Soul I don't think they make new ones at all I did a quick search and I couldn't find any I reached they told me basically junkyard ones so I'm going to look for a good junkyard

[17:15] take a little while so I'm going to take this pump right here I'm going to assembly and I'm going to make sure it works that way we could get this car back on the road so first remove the pump from the assembly oh the fuel sock

[17:29] came off but that's okay now let's pull this off the hose good and finally disconnect the wiring harness and there we go and this fuel pump looks the same remove the original fuel pump the same exact way so disconnect the wiring

[17:42] and finally let's remove the fuel sock because this specifically fits the Dell sole so let's get that old fuel sock on the new pump and it's a press fit so perfect then we can push the electrical connector back in then we can push the

[17:57] fuel pump onto the hose and move that hose clamp to the end so it doesn't come the assembly and we're good to go and reinstall this into the tank now before old fuel that's been in here for 5 years because even though I added fuel

[18:11] stabilizer gasoline degrades after 5 years and we want good fuel for our drag strip and Dino runs there's only about a half a tank in here anyway and this tank let's install the rebuilt fuel pump assembly making sure this is clocked in

[18:25] the correct direction next tighten down all six nuts in a Cris cross pattern so fuel tank evenly that way there aren't any leaks next we need to tighten down the Bano bolt but it's important that you don't re use these old washers and

[18:38] instead make sure you use brand new ones one goes on the bottom then the fuel line goes on and then the other washer goes on top and you could hand tighten the bolt until it's snug now let's get the fuel return line in place then we

[18:50] can move the hose clamp to the end like so and then reconnect the wiring harness so it clicks good and finally this banjo bolt gets torqued to 22t pound so it fuel so we can make it to the gas station and I'm using the crisix funnel

[19:04] made in the USA and I'm only adding a gallon because the gas station's right do it so let's get the gas cap back on and the dirtiness of this fuel filler area is bothering me so grab some soapy water and spray it down then we're going

[19:17] to agitate all the dirt with a brush and finally rinse all the dirt away much better okay moment of truth let's see if she'll start but first let's just see if she'll start but first let's just see if the fuel pump will Prime

[19:32] we go all right now the first thing we need to do real quick is check the fuel pump area to make sure there's no leaks and here we're nice and dry so we're good to go okay so she's been idling for a few

[19:46] minutes now and she's running great the only thing left to do is head out and get some fuel because we are on E then we can head to the track run our quarter much power she's making so let's go to the gas

[20:00] [Music] station all right so I'm beginning to reason the rear brakes are jammed up and not spinning even pulling it with my we're going to have to take the wheels off and

[20:13] under the car right under the crossmember and Jack her up so the wheels are off the ground can't forget about the jack stands good and then we stands now we can break all four lug nuts loose then remove them the rest of

[20:27] the way by hand and take the wheel off and I always like to slide the wheel under the car for Extra Protection and let's see here yeah just as I figured let's see here yeah just as I figured let's hit this with a

[20:44] it actually spins so let's remove the drum and take a look at the damage oh super Rusty I bet the flood water seized up the drums from all the rust but don't worry we're going to convert this to disc brakes anyway but sheesh look at

[20:57] this that's a lot of rust so now let's get the unseized drum back on along with wheel and then hand tighten the lug nuts for now and we'll torque that later now on the other side we want to get the drum unstuck as

[21:11] [Music] well there we go sheesh okay so both of these drums are really rusty so these are going to have to get replaced but that drum back on and get the wheel back on then hand tighten the lug nuts that

[21:25] need to Jack the car up just a little bit so we can remove the jack stands and lower the car to the ground so the tires just touch the ground now let's torque the lug nuts to spec in a crisscross pattern for both wheels and once both

[21:38] ground the rest of the way and let's go for a ride first up the gas station because we are running on fumes all right so let's go get some fresh fuel in the Dell Sole and I'm

[21:51] going to be using Shell's V power Nitro plus which has additives in it that cleans the fuel injectors up to 100% it's 93 octane which will be very helpful once we boost the Dell sole now so you have an actual idea of

[22:05] to clean injectors here's four fuel injectors from another one of my cars dirty and the spray pattern is not good same thing with the third injector although it's not as dirty but both of these would cause a loss in fuel economy

[22:18] are clean like these two outside ones which are working perfectly so hopefully that visual helped now let's go fill her up now if you ever wondered what it car from the inside of the gas tank Wonder no more here's something you

[22:32] don't get to see every day and just like that we are filled up with some fresh fuel I do want to thank shell very much for supporting the video and supporting the budget build I cannot wait to see what she does on the quarter

[22:44] mile and what kind of horsepower she puts down on the dyno so let's go head to the track oh man I've missed this so much if you have a project car it's on jack stands or in storage or not driving get it driving trust me this feels so

[22:58] doesn't have to be perfect don't make your car perfect just get it on the road got a cracked windshield I got a check engine light on I got a shifter that's Loosey Goosey I'm pretty sure the exhaust the muffler whatever fell off

[23:10] either that or has a hole in it because it's so loud listen to this but you get the idea the car is running and driving and it feels amazing and let's see what we can do for the quarter mile all right so we made it to

[23:24] the drag strip and I'm here with my buddy Cletus McFarland you ready to let the drag STP then we'll take it over to our Dyno okay so I've only done a/ quarter mile one other time before and that was years ago but Cletus gave me

[23:37] that was years ago but Cletus gave me some tips so let's see what I could do

[24:15] 76 mph and the 0 to 60 time was 11.22 seconds which just to give you an idea is slower than my Prius now before we head to the dyo Cletus wanted to give much faster he's going to be with all his Drag Racing Experience it's a tight

[24:29] his Drag Racing Experience it's a tight squeeze you

[25:00] on what is the pop of for ship that's it third anybody who's into drag racing here are the Time Slips you could see I am just

[25:14] about a half a second behind Cletus that's not bad for my second time drag our quarter mile times now let's head to the dyno so a dino is like a giant is front-wheel drive we need a to put the front wheels on the dyno all right

[25:31] so what do you think we're going to run 93 honadel Soul Powerhouse I'm going 93 horsepower you've had on this horsepower you've had on this dyo 93 honadel soul

[26:21] woo wow brother woo baby so here are the results the dotted line is the torque and the solid line is the horsepower so max torque happens around 4700 RPMs at 89 lb feet and then max power is made at

[26:35] around 6,000 RPMs at 92 horsepower and I'm very curious cuz look at how the I'm very curious cuz look at how the power falls off real hard at 6,500 RPMs made 100 horsepower it's up there with the record all right well I appreciate

[26:49] her back maybe double the power we're interested to see what you do all right thank you guys yes sir all right so the project Del Soul is back she's live able to drive her again she's not in storage she's not on jack stands if this

[27:04] your project car back on the road I don't know what is so now we have our don't know what is so now we have our pre-turbo 0 to 604 Mile and Dyno numbers and you guys know what that means it is time to install a turbo kit and not just

[27:19] any turbo kit this is the classic $600 eBay turbo kit it is very budget friendly and we're going to try to make some reliable power using this kit just couplers and tubing for the intercooler you obviously have your turbo you have

[27:33] all the oil lines that need to go to the oil pan to feed the turbo and also drain have your blowoff valve you have your exhaust components and your intercooler the kit but that's not all you need you're going to need more as usual so we

[27:49] have our cooler spark plugs and we're going to need to upgrade the fuel system your original fuel filter is important getting a higher flow fuel pump getting better injectors and of course upgrading the ECU so you could tune it and then

[28:02] stuff like add some gauges it's important to know boost air fuel ratios fuel pressure oil pressure stuff like that so there is a lot that goes into it need to know in a complete series on how to get your car ready to Turbo and then

[28:16] how to turbo your car but wait there's more remember how the exhaust is all hanging there underneath the car it sounds really loud well we're going to so I'm going to show you how to install this and Hondas don't really usually

[28:29] sound that great with a full exhaust it's just kind of how it is but this is a valved exhaust so when you want the extra power you want it to be loud you open up the valve it goes straight through and it's loud when you want to

[28:43] cruising around town or whatever it is you close the valve and it's nice and you need to install it so that is going to be awesome another very important fix I'm going to show you how to do is fix your wet noodle of a shifter so that's

[28:58] neutral look at how loose that is I think that's third no that's first that's third I can't even tell that's how bad this shifter is it's so vague it's not crisp and it's just not good

[29:11] and the reason why is this right here you could see how rusted everything is underneath all the bushings are bad and there's just so much play in this shifter that's not good so to fix that I got this rust free shifter linkage from

[29:24] better than what we have but it does have the rubber bushings on both ends installing polyurethane bushings which are stiffer that way we have a more crisp shift and they won't move as much as the rubber does plus we're going to

[29:39] install a short throw shifter again more direct more crisp shifts so it's going to feel amazing and finally you guys remember how bad those drum brakes were in the rear they were super Rusty and also They seized up on us but I'm not

[29:51] worried because we're going to be doing a drum to disc conversion using these adapter plates and then using Brake Hardware and brake parts from different and I think you get the idea as with any

[30:03] we got the front bumper to install here there's fenders that I need to put on workor done to this car when it's all said and done there's a bunch of parts I want to install we have a nice carbon fiber steering wheel going in brand new

[30:16] carpets and seats we got to rebuild the entire rear suspension just like we did the front suspension you got a rear bumper going on and a nice spoiler that'll go on and I mean there's much much more can't wait to show you guys

[30:29] this video if you did remember to give it a thumbs up if you're not a subscribe button for updates about this build and as always all the tools and down in the description so you can easily find them