Jake90GSX
15+ Year Contributor
- 49
- 1
- Sep 10, 2005
-
Shelton,
Washington
OK, I just got a 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. I got it for $1,250 at a local auto auction.
The car is a running vehicle, when I drove it home it ran awful, it wanted to die/stall as I accelerated in low gears and under any boost at all it would make the car kind of shake. As soon as I got home I started searching for the best DSM forum/site and of coarse found dsmtuners. The first thing I did was read the FAQ then I found the VFAQ and read what every last part does. Then I found the Tech section that has the maintenance tips and then the stage 0 free mods. Soon as I saw the description for the boost leak I figured ok, that sounds like my winning ticket. I found and fixed 2 boost leaks, one of them was on the throttle position sensor I just coated the gasket there in some permatex and re-tightened it. The next one I found was the aftermarket boost gauge hose inside the car, apparently the car already had one but they kept the hose wide open, it was sitting loose in the stereo din area, so I plugged it with a screw. The next type I put some pressure through the pressure would go up much faster and take less time to pressurize the system. I found it to be coming from around the underside of the exhaust manifold. I could not actually see or feal it because its in that tight spot between the manifold and the turbo. However I narrowed it down to that area from the sounds it made when I was spraying the liquid big blue (helps find leaks with bubbles) everywhere. Below I have a picture of where my boost leaks where. What I actually want to know is should air even be getting to my exhaust like it is to even leak out there. It seems to me that I might also have some bad exhaust valves or something, my compression test showed between 133 and 151, I think I read someplace during my last few days of reading this sight that stock PSI should be 178.
<br>
<img src="http://hood.hctc.com/~dandy/picture.gif"><br>
The red line I have painted onto this picture is the hose from the air compressor and my pressure test that i put together as the instructions show in the VFAQ. The yellow is a hose that unless i pinch it off leaks air out of the MAF as show in yellow on the picture. The green in this area is around where the last leek was that I could not quite seem to find, its just underneath the manifold where i put green. This worried me because I thought the only place it should leak would be the intercooler or intake, to be getting leaks where the yellow and green marks are does not seem right to me, can somebody more experienced tell me if this is normal and if not what my problem probably is.
<img src="http://hood.hctc.com/~dandy/picture2.gif"><br>
This picture is the throttle position sensor where it was leaking, the orange circle is where a gasket was that I coated in permatex to seal the leak.
So after not being able to fix the last boost leak figuring that I got some valve trouble I started to tear the car down. I pulled everything a part, the only thing left in the car is the block and transmission. So I figured I may as well do this right and just perform that extra maintenance on everything.
-recondition head, the guy at my local machine shop said he doesn't recommend doing the valves on the intake side on cars over 150,000 miles my car has 187,000 miles, he said that its probably the exhaust side that has the leak anyhow.. He said the higher compression that I might get from also doing the intake side may not be a good thing for the car. However I want this car to perform awesome, BUT the guy has done two other heads for me and I he probably knows a thing or two. What do you guys think?
-deep cleaning the intake & throttle body while it's off, I am going to get all the freaking tar out of it.
- I also read that you can take the turbo apart and clean all the thick chunks of black stuff of it, don't know how to go about this yet but I plan to do it as well.
- I already cleaned the intercooler out, amazingly enough it wasn't that bad to start.
- I am not sure about injectors, I would like to get them cleaned but it looks expensive. I think I won't clean them and just upgrade them later, seems like money better spent that way.
- Another thing I noticed is that the exhaust system had been upgraded to a 2g exhaust, I can tell because it has the beefier flange as show on VFAQ and the bolt pads are also machined into the manifold surface. The down pipe opening that bolts to the turbo housing opening has a 2.5" opening and the tailpipe at the back of the car measures 3". The bad thing I noticed is that several bolts on the exhaust were a bit to loose, others not even bolted down at all. The mounting bolt that holds the down pipe to the chassis was also missing and the turbo housing to down pipe (the place where the gasket goes) had only one bolt instead of both and the one it had was VERY loose.
- The top engine mount the one you remove to get to the timing belt was completely trashed, the bolt that goes through the middle of it can be completely removed from the mount along with some of the rubber that totally ripped apart from the mount. The mount did have inserts, weather or not they were from before or after the mount broke I do not know.
- After reading about timing belt horror stories I learned that you can get a kit to eliminate the balance shaft all together, this would also give me an excuse to replace some gaskets that probably need it since the car has 187,000 miles on it. I have read that it can cause some engine vibration, but this didn't bother me to much because since I had a broken engine mount I decided I may as well replace the engine mounts with polyurethane, I was actually wondering if somebody could tell me if these replace the entire center of the engine mount or only cup around it I need to replace the entire center of the mounts because that one is just completely trashed: http://www.slowboyracing.com/more.php?id=3796&
New stuff that I am getting
-spark plugs: NGK BPR6ES
-plug wires: MSD or Accel Thundersport
-oil: Mobil 1 synergy full synthetic or Amsoil motor oil
-oil filter: Puralator pure one or Amsoil
-air filter: K&N
-transaxle fluid: BG Syncro Shift or GM Synchromesh or Penzoil Synchromesh
-head gasket kit I found the Felpro kit with everything for $175
-timing belt kit - I seen Prostreet has the whole deal for $200
In conclusion I am pretty much doing maintenance to every last inch of the car which should make it a very nice car A lot of the hoarse power mods can be added on later, the one thing I was concerned with is should I be doing some more to the car with how much I am already doing, like the pistons, rings, cams? Also is the head work I am getting done the way to go? I figure I have about $800-$1000 that I can spend total so it's gone be close with what I am doing already. I just hate to not get some nice rods/pistons/cams while I have it so torn down.
ALSO, a big thank you to anyone that spent the time to read this, I tend to be overly thorough when I write something.
The car is a running vehicle, when I drove it home it ran awful, it wanted to die/stall as I accelerated in low gears and under any boost at all it would make the car kind of shake. As soon as I got home I started searching for the best DSM forum/site and of coarse found dsmtuners. The first thing I did was read the FAQ then I found the VFAQ and read what every last part does. Then I found the Tech section that has the maintenance tips and then the stage 0 free mods. Soon as I saw the description for the boost leak I figured ok, that sounds like my winning ticket. I found and fixed 2 boost leaks, one of them was on the throttle position sensor I just coated the gasket there in some permatex and re-tightened it. The next one I found was the aftermarket boost gauge hose inside the car, apparently the car already had one but they kept the hose wide open, it was sitting loose in the stereo din area, so I plugged it with a screw. The next type I put some pressure through the pressure would go up much faster and take less time to pressurize the system. I found it to be coming from around the underside of the exhaust manifold. I could not actually see or feal it because its in that tight spot between the manifold and the turbo. However I narrowed it down to that area from the sounds it made when I was spraying the liquid big blue (helps find leaks with bubbles) everywhere. Below I have a picture of where my boost leaks where. What I actually want to know is should air even be getting to my exhaust like it is to even leak out there. It seems to me that I might also have some bad exhaust valves or something, my compression test showed between 133 and 151, I think I read someplace during my last few days of reading this sight that stock PSI should be 178.
<br>
<img src="http://hood.hctc.com/~dandy/picture.gif"><br>
The red line I have painted onto this picture is the hose from the air compressor and my pressure test that i put together as the instructions show in the VFAQ. The yellow is a hose that unless i pinch it off leaks air out of the MAF as show in yellow on the picture. The green in this area is around where the last leek was that I could not quite seem to find, its just underneath the manifold where i put green. This worried me because I thought the only place it should leak would be the intercooler or intake, to be getting leaks where the yellow and green marks are does not seem right to me, can somebody more experienced tell me if this is normal and if not what my problem probably is.
<img src="http://hood.hctc.com/~dandy/picture2.gif"><br>
This picture is the throttle position sensor where it was leaking, the orange circle is where a gasket was that I coated in permatex to seal the leak.
So after not being able to fix the last boost leak figuring that I got some valve trouble I started to tear the car down. I pulled everything a part, the only thing left in the car is the block and transmission. So I figured I may as well do this right and just perform that extra maintenance on everything.
-recondition head, the guy at my local machine shop said he doesn't recommend doing the valves on the intake side on cars over 150,000 miles my car has 187,000 miles, he said that its probably the exhaust side that has the leak anyhow.. He said the higher compression that I might get from also doing the intake side may not be a good thing for the car. However I want this car to perform awesome, BUT the guy has done two other heads for me and I he probably knows a thing or two. What do you guys think?
-deep cleaning the intake & throttle body while it's off, I am going to get all the freaking tar out of it.
- I also read that you can take the turbo apart and clean all the thick chunks of black stuff of it, don't know how to go about this yet but I plan to do it as well.
- I already cleaned the intercooler out, amazingly enough it wasn't that bad to start.
- I am not sure about injectors, I would like to get them cleaned but it looks expensive. I think I won't clean them and just upgrade them later, seems like money better spent that way.
- Another thing I noticed is that the exhaust system had been upgraded to a 2g exhaust, I can tell because it has the beefier flange as show on VFAQ and the bolt pads are also machined into the manifold surface. The down pipe opening that bolts to the turbo housing opening has a 2.5" opening and the tailpipe at the back of the car measures 3". The bad thing I noticed is that several bolts on the exhaust were a bit to loose, others not even bolted down at all. The mounting bolt that holds the down pipe to the chassis was also missing and the turbo housing to down pipe (the place where the gasket goes) had only one bolt instead of both and the one it had was VERY loose.
- The top engine mount the one you remove to get to the timing belt was completely trashed, the bolt that goes through the middle of it can be completely removed from the mount along with some of the rubber that totally ripped apart from the mount. The mount did have inserts, weather or not they were from before or after the mount broke I do not know.
- After reading about timing belt horror stories I learned that you can get a kit to eliminate the balance shaft all together, this would also give me an excuse to replace some gaskets that probably need it since the car has 187,000 miles on it. I have read that it can cause some engine vibration, but this didn't bother me to much because since I had a broken engine mount I decided I may as well replace the engine mounts with polyurethane, I was actually wondering if somebody could tell me if these replace the entire center of the engine mount or only cup around it I need to replace the entire center of the mounts because that one is just completely trashed: http://www.slowboyracing.com/more.php?id=3796&
New stuff that I am getting
-spark plugs: NGK BPR6ES
-plug wires: MSD or Accel Thundersport
-oil: Mobil 1 synergy full synthetic or Amsoil motor oil
-oil filter: Puralator pure one or Amsoil
-air filter: K&N
-transaxle fluid: BG Syncro Shift or GM Synchromesh or Penzoil Synchromesh
-head gasket kit I found the Felpro kit with everything for $175
-timing belt kit - I seen Prostreet has the whole deal for $200
In conclusion I am pretty much doing maintenance to every last inch of the car which should make it a very nice car A lot of the hoarse power mods can be added on later, the one thing I was concerned with is should I be doing some more to the car with how much I am already doing, like the pistons, rings, cams? Also is the head work I am getting done the way to go? I figure I have about $800-$1000 that I can spend total so it's gone be close with what I am doing already. I just hate to not get some nice rods/pistons/cams while I have it so torn down.
ALSO, a big thank you to anyone that spent the time to read this, I tend to be overly thorough when I write something.
