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Beeble's 1987 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z

70K views 303 replies 43 participants last post by  beeblebrox82 
#1 · (Edited)
Well I've been looking into a project car for a little bit now, and my wife and I settled on something out of the 80s turbo mopar collection. We both grew up on these little cars (I had a Reliant, she had an Omni) so getting one of these wa slike coming back to our roots. No sooner than I had started doing the research a member on the turbododge forum pointed out this shelby.

Had to get it.

Went down to Indy this weekend and picked it up!


1987 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z
174 HP Turbo II 2.2L
Getrag 5 speed transmission
Sun and shade package
Enthusiast seats



Look how long it is compared to the trep!! I was surprised!





Tonneau cover!

Enthusiast seats are in great shape, few very small cigarette burns. Recline mechanism is broke on both.




The paint is really really rough, but it's pretty mechanically sound. Good shocks and struts, not major body damage and very little under body rust. The rockers are solid and the only areas are concern is the drivers side floor board (easy fix) and the spare tire well (got a bead on a donor car.)



rest of the underbody looks like this. Wonderbar!



Previous owner said that on start up the car is not getting oil pressure. I suspect oil pump or pick up. Engine has the 2.4 lifters installed and was supposedly rebuild by the previous previous owner... who I don't trust at all based on the awful wiring hack and slash in the engine bay.


WTF?!? Inexcusable

somethings missing...




First yard run was highly succesful Got about 75% of what i was after, including a complete sunroof and two gorgeous recline mechanisms from a labaron coupe.




Oh - and I have louvers if I want. Totally on the fence on them... I really don't like it, but everyone else does.




First steps:
Find oil pressure problem
Completely redo vac system
Return engine wiring to factory spec.
replace seat recliners.

Should be able to driver her then. This winter I'lll continue to clean up the engine and interior, and fix the rust issues. then next summer she'll go to paint! There's an amazing amount of room in these little cars. I can stretch out completely inside. Should be an awesome little car!!! :highfive:



Notes to myself:
Fusable link to fuseblock mod.
 
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#168 ·
Also looked like fun to work with your Dad on the project. My dad's not a car guy, kinda despises car work, actually - but I miss working in the garage with my dad beside me, because he always likes hanging out in the garage and seeing something come to life like that. I envy you for that.
 
#170 ·
I had an 88 Shelby Z turbo 2 with the intercooler, twelve years ago. Parts are even harder to come by for the turbo 2. Of the small number of Shelby's made; only a small percentage of them were turbo 2 that came off the production line. I had some trouble 12 years ago getting parts. Unfortunately my $600 project car cost me well over $3000 and I had to part ways. Best of luck with it. I know you will love the car, like I did mine. Side note, my son's middle name is Shelby.
 
#171 ·
15K of this style Shelby Z were made across 87 and 88. The only years the "Shelby Z" was made I believe.

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well not as much done this weekend as I hoped. The wife got go out with friends on Saturday, which she doesn't get to do often, so I hung out with the kiddies instead of working on the car. Did accomplish the following today:

-Plumbed and mounted the vac block, hooked up most of the vac lines (all new.)
-I'm happy to report that I have figured out where every bloody connector on the engine harness goes, and re-wrapped about 80% of it. Still have to clean up the alternator harness and do some more work on the wires around the SMEC.


Few annoying changes from 87 to 88 that I still need to deal with:

-Air temp plug is different (hoping I can just pop one off of one of my three other intakes)
-Speedo senor plug is different. (that's just damn annoying. Gonna be a splice unless I can take a part the connectors. I hate splicing stuff!!)

I didn't realize it before but my 89 CB has a different oil pressure sender... Opps. so fortunately I have the right one on of my other blocks... I fear I may have sent flag terminal part of the sensor on the original one to the crusher.

This week I should have plenty of time to drop the column in and button up the dash wiring... and after the above stuff is done
it's time to see if this thing works.
 
#176 ·
Getting closer! You'll get them figured out.

About splicing, remember that dealers have had to splice the AC transducer connectors, and it works fine - dealers did it with adhesive lined shrink tubing in black, with soldered connections of course.
 
#179 ·
[rant]

And the inevitable is now a reality. Just can't get the fugger to run. Few coughs and sputters but nothing consistent. I refuse to believe it's anything other than out of time, Despite the fact that I'm 100% sure it's in time. Gonna pull off the valve cover and get the top talking to the bottom. Oh how much I love putting the same thing together multiple times. Yay.

[/rant]
 
#181 ·
Ok, so I couldn't get a ton done tonight but I was able to check timing, take a look. Found TDC in cylinder 1 (timing belt side) with a screw driver and tweaked it in as close as I could get it watching the end move:



looks dead nuts to me



Honestly hard to tweak in with the screw driver I landed about -1 to 4 degrees on several attempts. The last time it landed right there.



aimed at Cyl 1.



So we can rule out timing as the issue

Tomorrow I'll pick up a spark tester and rent a fuel pressure gauge, and maybe a compression tester. Seems like the cylinders are getting quite a bath in fuel, so I'm thinking at this point it's electrical.
 
#187 ·
good idea, I'm gonna change the oil too anyway.

Your rotor looks pretty crappy from here (...600miles away so thats probably BS)

good luck man!
That's been the prevailing opinion, new rotor and cap ready to go on.

Nate, if she starts giving you crap, just show her this video...

:glum: God that thing was rust free, even on the bottom... what a crime!!

not much left on it,






everything is butchered up, cut and yanked apart, turbo gone ecm gone,, sigh

Ug. what a shame. nothing worth grabbing eh?
 
#191 ·
Ok. changed the oil and dropped a strawfull of oil onto the rings through the plug holes to try save my rings. The oil was pretty bad already. I hope I didn't do any real damage. to new cap and rotor, with the help of my 4 year old (poor guy can hardly turn the key) I checked spark at the end of the coil cable, seemed consistent, but I could only pull it away from the ground about 3/8 of an inch. Put the ignition tester on the plug wires, 1st one good at 25KV, 2nd one nothing (the second time I got poked too, I think through the frame) 3rd it fired once, but again, nothing, 4th nothing, back to 1st nothing. Went back to the coil again and let it run longer and noticed it seemed to be skipping every now and then, still couldn't pull it further away from 2 different grounds.


so... bad coil?
 
#194 ·
So here's the synopsis of my current debacle:

Engine is flooding badly on cranking, really bad. I can get a few puffs but then the system is buried in fuel and won't start... plugs foul within 10 seconds.


coolant temp tested, good
new rotor and cap.
Plug wires tested good
new plugs, properly gaped.
All grounds seem good.
coil tested good, 12V with ignition, - side is alternating with crank as expected. Getting spark at the wires.
Nothing is 180 out of time, guaranteed, possible off by a tooth somewhere, but sure seems good.
pulled fuel rail, cleaned injectors. cranked car with rail out, pattern and sequence is good, but it's sending a ton of fuel through, like full WOT fuel.
pump is NOT priming fuel pump on key turn (not until crank)
Manual actuation of ASD relay is providing erratic results in the engine bay... fan kicking on and off, other solenoids opening and closing, erratic operation of the fuel pump.
fuel pressure at the rail is good, pressure dropping after the pump is off at a rat of about 10 psi every 15 seconds (unknown if that is bad)
Compression numbers on a stone cold washed down engine Ver y strange numbers)

Cyl. 1 - 150
Cyl. 2 - 110
Cyl. 3 - 150
Cyl. 4 - 110


So yea... no idea... iz broke.
 
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