Goodgollyjosh
Active member
Looks like this forum site is slowing gaining traction and coming back to life, I am glad to see it. My first post is listed here in the new member area from 2018. A little back story and some pics to bring everything up to speed. In 2018 I began looking for my first Sy, I did a fair amount of research on the truck and having done many resto mods over the years I was looking forward to it. I had never seen one in person, just knew that I wanted one from my days of drooling over them in magazines back in the 90's. I planned on modding and racing the truck but wanted something clean that I could take to shows. I searched the interwebs and found 3 or so for sale across the country. I went with one that was advertised as restored, near perfect and needing nothing. I live in San Antonio, the truck was in Phoenix on a classic car lot and listed as the owner's personal vehicle. He also said he was the owner of Syborg (a twin turbo Sonoma SEMA truck).
I looked over his inventory on his website and he appeared to be a frequent dealer of Sy's and Ty's. His Sy had 36K miles, a clean Carfax, had been beautifully painted, including a flat black on the original cladding, the wheels had been refinished, and it had billet aluminum cnc reproduction center caps, new OE size tires, and a host of turbo and engine upgrades along with a built 700r4 with 10" high stall TCI torque converter. He said the engine work, tuning, and dyno'ing was done at Black Market Racing in Phoenix and made 300hp on 93 fuel. He sent me several receipts worth $15K in work from Black Market, the paint shop, and the trans shop. I could tell by the Carfax that he never put the vehicle in his name, it showed only one owner from Reno, NV and otherwise it appeared to have come from a dealer in Montana. I really wanted to fly up to see it and potentially drive it home but I couldn't get away from work at the time. Having bought other vehicles in the past as sight unseen and subsequently having them shipped to me has generally been a pleasant experience so I opted to go this route again. He touted that he could get me a better deal on shipping because of his dealer connections so I opted to use his guy for shipping and it was in fact cheaper by half (I should have known better).
The truck arrived after a few days and I noticed two things right away: First, it traveled across the country with the driver's window down because the window motor was going out. Luckily, it had not rained but I was pissed to see this. Secondly, the truck driver had smashed the Sy into the back of a Mercedes on the car hauler. It was traveling down the highway with the front bumper of the Sy rubbing against the rear bumper of the Merc. By now, steam was coming out of my ears. I told the driver I was deducting a few hundred dollars from the money I owed him so that I could get the front bumper resprayed in flat black. He haggled with me on the price and I was not in any mood to haggle. So, I told him to take the truck back to Phoenix, that I no longer wanted it, and I walked away without signing his delivery paperwork and I also had not given him any money. He chased me down the street with his hat in his and being very apologetic. He agreed to the price I offered him for shipping and I took delivery of the truck.
He unloaded it and I climbed inside only to have a sagging headliner rub my face...not a good start. I drove the truck the few blocks to my house and immediately put it in the garage so that I could go over everything. I was not in any mood to drive the truck with the bumper scratched, headliner hanging down, and the driver's window stuck down. I figured if this is any indication of the overall condition of this truck then I need to go over the motor with a fine tooth comb. I spent the next few weeks tuning up the engine, changing the fluids, checking vacuum lines, etc. I found it odd that the upper radiator hose had been changed but the lower appeared to be original so I replaced it (I found out later why he did this). I also took some time to replace the headliner and replace the window motor in the door (I did the passenger side as well since it felt weak too).
I took the front bumper to be resprayed which they neglected to match the paint the first time so I took the driver's fender flare off and gave it to them so that they could do a better job of paint matching. They wanted the entire truck but I refused to give it to them. The second time was a success and the bumper looked fantastic. While I was at it, I tried to finish what appeared to be a partial restoration. I reupholstered the center console arm rest and the fuzzy door panel bottoms. I put some floor mats in it (it also didn't come with any). I took out the awful flip screen radio and installed a factory unit in it's place. The glove box was literally falling out of it because of a broken radio support so I changed that. The dome light cover was melted so I replaced that as well. When digging through the center console I found a broken wheel stud...yeah no joke. I was like who sends someone a vehicle they just purchased with that in the center console??? Anyway, after removing the center caps, I found the broken stud on the driver's front side and replaced it.
Once I felt the interior was fully restored I moved on to other areas of the truck. I took all the cladding loose and pushed them all up against the body and re-tightened everything. The body shop did a piss poor job of this and half of the cladding screws were missing so I made sure they all were in place. I noticed that the truck looked half an inch lower than stock in the rear. Turns out someone had installed c channel for lowering blocks. That is crazy unsafe! So, I ordered and installed 2" drop blocks in the back...with the proper safety dowels. There was a CO2 tank mounted in the bed with a spray bar for the aftermarket intercooler. However, it was inoperable and appears to have never been hooked up. I removed it and just installed two small fans on the intercooler for the time being. There was also a battery mounted in the bed that was rattling around inside a battery box, no hold down at all. I also noticed they used AC dum dum for a make shift grommet for the battery cables that went through the bottom of the bed. Horrified at this sight, I fixed the battery box and installed proper grommets. While on the subject of grommets, I noticed that there was a gaping hole in the firewall behind the distributor where Black Market had run the wiring to the inside of the vehicle and they neglected to trim the factory plug to make room for the wires and reinstall it. I was pissed about this but found an expandable freeze plug that fit nicely in the hole.
I put some fresh fuel in it and on my first drive I noticed that the truck ran good at a steady state but ran awful at full throttle. And then noticed smoke and coolant gushing out so I pulled over. Turns out the driver's motor mount is bad and the alternator sliced open the upper radiator hose when I punched it. Yes...that is why the upper radiator hose was fresh and the lower was untouched. This is the type of individual I bought this truck from. I took it back home and installed a chain from the frame to the engine block on the driver's side to keep that from happening again until I could get to that pesky motor mount (an old hot rodder's trick). I also started going over everything again. I discovered a twisted rubber fuel line by the gas tank on the feed side coming out of the fuel pump (he had mentioned the pump being replaced at some point). Whoever tightened the fuel connections had inadvertently twisted this line and was cutting off fuel at WOT. After straightening this out and replacing a fuel filter that poured rust out of the inlet side, the truck ran better but not perfect. I contacted Black Market Racing and asked that they send me the dyno sheet on this truck...they never did. After looking at the plasma cutting that they did to the wheel wells when installing all the aftermarket turbo equipment...I doubt there is a dyno sheet to be had for this vehicle.
Here is a list of aftermarket equipment that the truck came with: 63mm turbo on bronze bushings with external wastegate with inline boostsmart, 3" downpipe, no cat, straight through style muffler and mandrel bent exhaust. BBK dual blade throttle body, air to air intercooler mounted at 45 degree angle under front bumper, 3 bar MAP, all custom made turbo piping with decent tig welds, 50 lb/hr high impedance injectors, aluminum radiator, electric fan that was too small, comp steel 1.5 ratio rockers, AEM wide band O2 sensor mounted in a two gauge pod on the A pillar with a boost gauge, and two things that were in the receipts but were not on the truck when it showed up: MSD blaster coil and NGK UR6 plugs. I contacted the seller and he said he removed the coil to use on another vehicle and replaced it with a very rusty looking stock unit and neglected to tell me and took the UR6 plugs out and installed stock ones to try and make it run better. By this point, none of this surprised me. I was so frustrated with this guy that I couldn't even decide where to begin with chewing him out so I simply didn't say anything more. I honestly felt like if I could get this truck running good then I got my money's worth because he had invested a lot and I couldn't take that away from him. I took the high road and decided I was happy with the truck as a whole. More to come on my saga of getting this thing to run right.
Pics: Broken wheel stud, as advertised pic of truck, interior after my restoration work, shitty c channel lowering blocks, truck smashed into Mercedes.
I looked over his inventory on his website and he appeared to be a frequent dealer of Sy's and Ty's. His Sy had 36K miles, a clean Carfax, had been beautifully painted, including a flat black on the original cladding, the wheels had been refinished, and it had billet aluminum cnc reproduction center caps, new OE size tires, and a host of turbo and engine upgrades along with a built 700r4 with 10" high stall TCI torque converter. He said the engine work, tuning, and dyno'ing was done at Black Market Racing in Phoenix and made 300hp on 93 fuel. He sent me several receipts worth $15K in work from Black Market, the paint shop, and the trans shop. I could tell by the Carfax that he never put the vehicle in his name, it showed only one owner from Reno, NV and otherwise it appeared to have come from a dealer in Montana. I really wanted to fly up to see it and potentially drive it home but I couldn't get away from work at the time. Having bought other vehicles in the past as sight unseen and subsequently having them shipped to me has generally been a pleasant experience so I opted to go this route again. He touted that he could get me a better deal on shipping because of his dealer connections so I opted to use his guy for shipping and it was in fact cheaper by half (I should have known better).
The truck arrived after a few days and I noticed two things right away: First, it traveled across the country with the driver's window down because the window motor was going out. Luckily, it had not rained but I was pissed to see this. Secondly, the truck driver had smashed the Sy into the back of a Mercedes on the car hauler. It was traveling down the highway with the front bumper of the Sy rubbing against the rear bumper of the Merc. By now, steam was coming out of my ears. I told the driver I was deducting a few hundred dollars from the money I owed him so that I could get the front bumper resprayed in flat black. He haggled with me on the price and I was not in any mood to haggle. So, I told him to take the truck back to Phoenix, that I no longer wanted it, and I walked away without signing his delivery paperwork and I also had not given him any money. He chased me down the street with his hat in his and being very apologetic. He agreed to the price I offered him for shipping and I took delivery of the truck.
He unloaded it and I climbed inside only to have a sagging headliner rub my face...not a good start. I drove the truck the few blocks to my house and immediately put it in the garage so that I could go over everything. I was not in any mood to drive the truck with the bumper scratched, headliner hanging down, and the driver's window stuck down. I figured if this is any indication of the overall condition of this truck then I need to go over the motor with a fine tooth comb. I spent the next few weeks tuning up the engine, changing the fluids, checking vacuum lines, etc. I found it odd that the upper radiator hose had been changed but the lower appeared to be original so I replaced it (I found out later why he did this). I also took some time to replace the headliner and replace the window motor in the door (I did the passenger side as well since it felt weak too).
I took the front bumper to be resprayed which they neglected to match the paint the first time so I took the driver's fender flare off and gave it to them so that they could do a better job of paint matching. They wanted the entire truck but I refused to give it to them. The second time was a success and the bumper looked fantastic. While I was at it, I tried to finish what appeared to be a partial restoration. I reupholstered the center console arm rest and the fuzzy door panel bottoms. I put some floor mats in it (it also didn't come with any). I took out the awful flip screen radio and installed a factory unit in it's place. The glove box was literally falling out of it because of a broken radio support so I changed that. The dome light cover was melted so I replaced that as well. When digging through the center console I found a broken wheel stud...yeah no joke. I was like who sends someone a vehicle they just purchased with that in the center console??? Anyway, after removing the center caps, I found the broken stud on the driver's front side and replaced it.
Once I felt the interior was fully restored I moved on to other areas of the truck. I took all the cladding loose and pushed them all up against the body and re-tightened everything. The body shop did a piss poor job of this and half of the cladding screws were missing so I made sure they all were in place. I noticed that the truck looked half an inch lower than stock in the rear. Turns out someone had installed c channel for lowering blocks. That is crazy unsafe! So, I ordered and installed 2" drop blocks in the back...with the proper safety dowels. There was a CO2 tank mounted in the bed with a spray bar for the aftermarket intercooler. However, it was inoperable and appears to have never been hooked up. I removed it and just installed two small fans on the intercooler for the time being. There was also a battery mounted in the bed that was rattling around inside a battery box, no hold down at all. I also noticed they used AC dum dum for a make shift grommet for the battery cables that went through the bottom of the bed. Horrified at this sight, I fixed the battery box and installed proper grommets. While on the subject of grommets, I noticed that there was a gaping hole in the firewall behind the distributor where Black Market had run the wiring to the inside of the vehicle and they neglected to trim the factory plug to make room for the wires and reinstall it. I was pissed about this but found an expandable freeze plug that fit nicely in the hole.
I put some fresh fuel in it and on my first drive I noticed that the truck ran good at a steady state but ran awful at full throttle. And then noticed smoke and coolant gushing out so I pulled over. Turns out the driver's motor mount is bad and the alternator sliced open the upper radiator hose when I punched it. Yes...that is why the upper radiator hose was fresh and the lower was untouched. This is the type of individual I bought this truck from. I took it back home and installed a chain from the frame to the engine block on the driver's side to keep that from happening again until I could get to that pesky motor mount (an old hot rodder's trick). I also started going over everything again. I discovered a twisted rubber fuel line by the gas tank on the feed side coming out of the fuel pump (he had mentioned the pump being replaced at some point). Whoever tightened the fuel connections had inadvertently twisted this line and was cutting off fuel at WOT. After straightening this out and replacing a fuel filter that poured rust out of the inlet side, the truck ran better but not perfect. I contacted Black Market Racing and asked that they send me the dyno sheet on this truck...they never did. After looking at the plasma cutting that they did to the wheel wells when installing all the aftermarket turbo equipment...I doubt there is a dyno sheet to be had for this vehicle.
Here is a list of aftermarket equipment that the truck came with: 63mm turbo on bronze bushings with external wastegate with inline boostsmart, 3" downpipe, no cat, straight through style muffler and mandrel bent exhaust. BBK dual blade throttle body, air to air intercooler mounted at 45 degree angle under front bumper, 3 bar MAP, all custom made turbo piping with decent tig welds, 50 lb/hr high impedance injectors, aluminum radiator, electric fan that was too small, comp steel 1.5 ratio rockers, AEM wide band O2 sensor mounted in a two gauge pod on the A pillar with a boost gauge, and two things that were in the receipts but were not on the truck when it showed up: MSD blaster coil and NGK UR6 plugs. I contacted the seller and he said he removed the coil to use on another vehicle and replaced it with a very rusty looking stock unit and neglected to tell me and took the UR6 plugs out and installed stock ones to try and make it run better. By this point, none of this surprised me. I was so frustrated with this guy that I couldn't even decide where to begin with chewing him out so I simply didn't say anything more. I honestly felt like if I could get this truck running good then I got my money's worth because he had invested a lot and I couldn't take that away from him. I took the high road and decided I was happy with the truck as a whole. More to come on my saga of getting this thing to run right.
Pics: Broken wheel stud, as advertised pic of truck, interior after my restoration work, shitty c channel lowering blocks, truck smashed into Mercedes.
