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WELCOME TO THE WEBSITE FOR DUSTY , MY 1993 PLYMOUTH DUSTER!
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Dusty was my very first car. I got him way back when I was still in high school. (Actually, my mom originally bought the car. She got it because she didn't want me learning to drive in her precious Monte Carlo.) I later purchased Dusty from her.
I have lots of memories with Dusty . I learned to drive in this car. I passed my driver's license exam in this car (and to this day I swear Dusty parallel-parked himself). I took this car to both of my high-school proms and to my high school graduation. I drove this car to my first job. I took my wife on our very first date in this car!
I credit three things with giving me a love of cars and modification. First of all, owning my own car was a huge step. Second, Gran Turismo 2 for the PlayStation was huge. It's one of my favorite games of all time. Finally, and I hate to admit it, was the movie The Fast and the Furious .
I started modifying Dusty when I was a freshman in college. The first thing I did was install a K&N filter and some platinum spark plugs. After saving up all summer, I bought the gold rims that are on him now.
It, as they say, was all down hill from there... :-D
Dusty originally had the 3.0L V6. That was a very good motor--it had loads of low-end torque. When I was in college, the motor started leaking a little oil. Turns out several of the gaskets were getting old and needed to be replaced. (At that point, the motor had over 100,000 miles on it. And the only major thing I ever had to replace was the coolant pump!) I decided that if I was going to have to rip apart the engine, I might as well do an engine swap to the venerable 2.2L Turbo instead. I found a donor car with the 2.2L Turbo on eBay. I "built" the motor before the swap, and finally managed to get the motor running well. (Let me tell you, it was a LOT more work than I originally thought!)
And that's where we are today. Dusty is no longer my daily driver (that's what Rudy is for), but I drive him every chance I get when the weather is nice, and I love going to car shows, cruising around, and embarrassing the local rice boys. That's right. I drive my show car . I don't understand how people can put so much time and money into a car, trailer it to shows, and then park it in their garage and never drive it. IT'S YOUR CAR! ENJOY IT!
Anyways, thanks for reading the history of me and Dusty . I plan to keep this car forever.
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RECENT UPDATES
10/28/09
Since I have a house with an attached garage, this will actually be the first winter I'll be able to drive Dusty! Sure he's not getting driven as much as during the summer, and all my projects are on hold until spring, but I'm quite stoked that I'll be able to go for drives on those rare, sunny, dry winter days!
8/14/09
I installed the plug for the Air Charge Temperature Sensor (see previous post) and wired it to the main computer plug. The plug has not been connected to the actual sensor yet to avoid a "Check Engine" light.
Now I'm ready to install a custom-tuned Turbo II Computer. :-D
8/8/09
I am now working on converting Dusty's computer from what is known as a "Turbo I" to a "Turbo II."
"Turbo I" engines did not have an intercooler, and ran about 6-8 psi of boost, stock, though they had air/fuel maps for up to 1 bar (~15 psi). "Turbo II" cars had an intercooler and ran about 8-12 psi of boost in stock trim. Because turbochargers heat the air they force into the engine, and because the Turbo I engines lacked an intercooler to reduce the temperature of the air charge, the Turbo I engines were not equipped with an Air Charge Temperature Sensor . (It was assumed that the turbocharger would add significant heat to the intake charge; therefore, the battery temperature sensor and the coolant temperature sensor could be used to determine intake temperature.) Turbo II engines were equipped with an intercooler, which used ambient, outside air to cool the temperature of the intake charge before it is forced into the engine. So, Turbo II engines had the ACT sensor, since the intake charge could be significantly cooler than the air coming directly out of the turbo. (SOURCE )
Because Dusty's engine did not originally have an intercooler, I need to install an ACT sensor before I can install the Turbo II computer. This will allow the computer to know how cool (and thus dense) the air is entering into the combustion chambers. Basically, I found out that installing an intercooler onto a Turbo I engine will prevent detonation because of the cooler air, but the computer has no way of taking advantage of this cooler air, because it assumes that it is still hot. So, I prevent detonation (goood thing), but I do not get any more power out of it (bad thing).
Fortunately, Dusty's intake manifold already had a port I could use for the ACT sensor. I had to reroute the vacuum line that was currently using that port. (That vacuum line was being used for the wastegate; the wastegate is now fed directly from the turbo itself, and the manual boost controller has been reset to 12 psi.)
Here is the sensor installed:
Next, I have to add a pin to the ECU plug to accept the signal from the new sensor. Then I can install the new ECU.
8/3/09
Today, I installed a grounding kit from FWD Performance . This grounding kit supplements the stock 16-gauge grounds with 4-gauge ones. After 20 years, the stock grounds (which were barely sufficient to begin with) deteriorate. By replacing them with these beefy 4-gauge wires, the electrical systems in the engine work better, since they have a lower impedence ground path. (I didn't take any pictures, because I did a pretty good job of hiding all those wires.)
The wires connect the following locations:
-Negative battery terminal to chassis
-Chassis to engine block
-Engine block to alternator
-Engine block to chassis
I am very impressed with the results. The engine starts quicker and idles smoother. Acceleration is also slightly improved. Overall, the engine just feels smoother.
I highly recommend beefing up ground wires on any vehicle that is 10 or more years old. Heck, I'm probably going to do this to my '01 Ram next. :-P
7/16/09
I was bored this morning and ran to the junkyard to see what I could find. I found a Dodge Shadow that had been in a horrific front-end collsion, but the interior was still in great condition. So, I salvaged a few things to replace some worn-out parts in Dusty .
I also found a 3-speed shifter bezel to replace the old 4-speed one from before the engine/tranny swap:
The shifter bezel was pretty dirty, but I was able to clean it up without much effort and make it look as good as new.
So, after all these years with my 3-speed transmssion, I finally get a correct bezel. :-P
6/20/09
I really, really wanted to take Dusty for a drive today. But it's raining like mad outside, so I decided instead to install some LED driving lights in place of those ugly blue things I had on previously:
It's kind of hard to tell from the picture (I hate my camera), but the LED lights are a very piercing white. They're so white, they look a little blue.
I'm very surprised by how much light they put out. Since they're just LEDs, I figured they'd glow white a little bit but wouldn't actually light up the ground in front of them. But they actually put out quite a bit of light!
Overall, I'm very pleased with them. They look much better than the previous ones.
6/6/09
Dusty participated in the 26th Annual Mopar meet at Mason Dixon Dragway last Sunday and took first place in his class!
More pictures are on Page 6 .
5/30/09
Dusty's interior is coming along nicely. I'm finished for now, because I've run out of ideas (and money). I think it looks much better than the riceboy blue I had before.
As you can see, I removed the blue/black seat covers. (I also removed the rear one.) I'm thinking about putting some black/grey racing seats in instead of the stock ones. I could then get a matching black/grey rear seat cover, too.
If anybody has any ideas for some other things to do to my now rice-less interior, leave a comment in the guest book!
The rear seat cover is now for sale. It is in perfect condition and should fit any Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance with the fold-down rear bench seat. This seat cover was COMPLETELY CUSTOM and fits like a glove.
I'm asking for $80 or best offer
I will also throw in the matching front seat covers for free.
5/26/09
Now that it's warmer out, I've started working on Dusty again. I've decided that I'm getting too old for the riceboy-blue interior, so I've started to redo it in black and grey:
I apologize for the low quality of the picture; I snapped this on my cell phone. I'm hoping I'll have it finished before the weekend, since there's a huge car show on Sunday.
2/4/09
Sixteen years ago today, Dusty was born in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Happy Birthday, Dusty !
Now if the weather would just stop sucking, I could take him out of the garage for a drive. <_<
12/9/08
It's been quite a while since I updated Dusty's site. We went to a few car shows this year, but unfortunately, I really didn't get to do as much stuff with my car as I would like. I'm hoping that next year, I'll have more time to spend with my favorite hatchback.
8/20/08
I finally got the fuel pump problem fixed. I wasn't getting enough voltage at the pump because of a bad ground wire behind the dash. Fixed that, and now Dusty runs great again!
7/8/08
AAAAAAAAARGH! My fuel pump crapped out! I ordered a new one, and a new gas tank, as well. I figure I'll coat the new gas tank in spray-on bedliner to protect it and install the new tank along with the new 67 gallon/hour fuel pump. :-D
Unfortunately, Dusty will be down for a few weeks. :-(
5/23/08
Dusty wouldn't start the other day. The key did nothing, the lights didn't work. But the battery was fine. It turned out to be a corroded positive battery terminal:
You can see that it was quite corroded and dirty. I replaced it with a gold-plated model:
This fixed the problem, and it actually made a bit of a difference in performance. (Having a poor battery connection can hurt performance.) The motor also starts easier. I'm going to replace the negative cable with a gold one, too.
And, best of all, it matches my wheels!
4/26/08
Dusty has left the Ohio!
Here he is in his new home:
4/18/08
Well, it's official. I've accepted a new job back in Frederick, /Maryland, where Dusty and I grew up. :-P I will be towing Dusty back down there next weekend (the 26th).
Good riddance to Ohio and it's crappy roads and ridiculous winters.
3/26/08
It hasn't been 50*F out since last year. It still hasn't warmed up.
Screw it. I'm sick of this cold weather. It's barely above freezing today, but at least the roads are dry and the sun is sort of shining. Dusty hasn't seen the roads since November.
I live close to where I work, so I usually go home on my lunch break. I drove Dusty back to work. I even got a chance to make a riceboy evacuate his bowels.
3/14/08
Well, I think winter is almost over. It got up to 45*F yesterday, and the sun was shining. Unfortunately, there was still saltwater all over the roads due to melting snow. (We got 24" of snow last weekend.) But since it was (fairly) warm out, I decided to start Dusty and drive him around the parking lot. The poor thing has been sitting in his garage for almost 4 months now. Anyways, he started right up!
Now I really can't wait for spring. :-D
Go to Page 5 (Mods) for the complete specs on the motor...
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