UPDATE: 2/24/2015

Well, tough times call for drastic measures. I sold my Daily Driver, Cavity the Cavalier. I was made a great offer and took the money and ran. It was needed as i'm still looking for a new job and need to pay bills.

Sooooo.....Wendy is now on the Daily Duty schedule until I get back on my feet with some income and a new DD. Which wont be much driving until I have some interviews and actually accept a position. Then finding a DD will be top priority.

She really only needed 2 things to be a safe DD in these cold snowy months.
1. Non-race wheels/tires (had some, sold them for profit)
2. Front bumper that wasn't low with a lip.

Now I had thought about removing my bumper lip as its only screwed in, but I figured id see if anyone in my local DSM community had a 2ga/2gb crap bumper laying around.

So I hit the FB groups and asked around.

Ended up finding some 1G Talon 16s with some really nice tires and a trashed 2GB bumper for a steal! GET THIS, the bumper is Cayenne Red Pearl!

UPDATE: 2/27/2015

Had the car out yesterday to make sure she was running all top notch. Here is what she looks like in full winter mode.



Added some mesh to keep any big things from hitting the intercooler.



Could help but have a little fun as well. :eclipse:

She is Clean!!!

UPDATE: 3/6/2015

Got around to some tinkering today. Over the past 2 months or so, since putting in my new (used) alternator, I noticed that my voltage drops horrible if I have my head lights on and come to a stop. The belt/alt will start squealing like a pig until I give it throttle to shut it up. When it does this, my volt gauge shows 11ish volts. Normally it stays in the 13.5 volt area.

After some searching, I figured id give a few things a try. A lot of people mensioned making sure you had proper grounds. I unplugged the battery, removed the ground point, re-sanded the connection to make sure it was good. I then added 2 more large wire ground cables from the motor to the body.

First one went from the IM to the body, here.



Second one went from the motor to the body, here.



Upon start up, the car was closer to 14 volts. I let her warm up and them added more load to see how she would handle it. Everything seemed to be working great, up until the fan kicked on for the coolant. Between that, the radio and lights on in full, she fell back down and started her usual squeal. Now this is at idle, so im assuming while cruising things will be better, but I have yet to try that out.


On a different note. My wifes uncle is moving out of his house. After he had everything gone, he said I had free reign to whatever was left. Got to take home A LOT of legit stuff for the house, garage, etc. My favorite find so far was this! These jack stands were made by my wifes grandpa way back in the day! He is a welder/metal worker/wood worker/etc.

I'm going to have them sand blasted, then ill repaint them and use them. They are super heavy duty and weight about 25lbs each. Pretty pumped about these staying in the family.

Where do you have the sense wire hooked up to? I'm thinking it's in the stock location, if so you may want move it. There is a good discussion on the Saturn alternator mod and someone found where that wire was reading voltage from made all the difference. I'll dig it up later.

mercaholik said:

Where do you have the sense wire hooked up to? I'm thinking it's in the stock location, if so you may want move it. There is a good discussion on the Saturn alternator mod and someone found where that wire was reading voltage from made all the difference. I'll dig it up later.

Click to expand...

The aftermarket gauge is hooked up to the ash try light at the moment.

I have been contemplating the Saturn Alt upgrade, or going to a 4th gen Galant alt. Once i'm back on my feet with work, ill be making the switch for sure. When my alt died, I was in a tough spot and picked up a used working 2g unit for cheap from Miller Import Parts.

4g galant! Looks stock and higher amps!

99ECLIPSEGSXDSM said:

4g galant! Looks stock and higher amps!

Click to expand...

Its on the list, as soon as im back on my feet. Really need something to come through soon. :/

UPDATE: 3/13/2015

Alright, so Spring is right around the corner and Wendy will be returning to full Spring/Summer Race mode, which means back to my AX wheel setup and the nice front bumper. In an effort to save some more weight this year, I removed my fog lights and covered the bezels in a carbon fiber. Should look really good when I get it back on the car.

You can also see the garden liner lip I made.





Was being a bit of a hoon in the driveway, ended up beaching her halfway in the yard and half way on the driveway. After a few hours and a quick tug from a truck, she was free. But REALLY muddy. Going for a second bath later today. All my fault.



I've been dealing with a really annoying "clunk" from the driver side rear wheel over a hard or quick bump. My initial thought was the coilover. I pulled it off, inspected it and found no issues. I then pulled off the other rear side. Adjusted both sides a little more, added some preload to the springs. I then SWITCHED them, to see if the sound stayed with that coilover or stayed on that side of the car. After a drive, I found out that the coilover switch didn't change the noise. Its still driver side rear. I HATE it. It sounds so "junky". My next course of action is going to be happening today. I'm going to check the entire rear out for anything that looks worn or bad.

On a different note, After I pulled my car out and left, I came home to find this in the driveway. It was not there when I left and was sitting right on top of the snow/ice. The spot on the driveway that I found it in, makes me thing it came off the passenger side, but im not going to rule anything out. Any idea what bolt this might be?



Last but not least, I reorganized my entire side of the garage again. Really cleaned some things up. Once spring is in full swing, ill be building a nice work bench and doing a lot more organization for the rest of it.

UPDATE: 3/19/2015

Had the car out yesterday. Had to take some nice photo's with my good camera.

Check em out!!







First AX of the year is a Test & Tune on April 26th. I threw the AX hood on and took some pictures as well.

What a beauty! I'll trade you my car in a heart beat.....in all it 7 bolt crankwalking glory haha

UPDATE: 3/23/2015

I HAD A GREAT WEEKEND!!

First off I was offered a position at one of the companies I interviewed with. Very excited to accept that today and get back to work!

Secondly, I did my first big car show. The Piston Power Autorama! I had never done a huge car show before. And by huge, I mean this thing was gigantic. Cars, trucks, planes, and bikes filled over one million square feet at Clevelands IX Center for the show. I was asked to join the Team Mitsubishi Great Lakes Region (GLR) group display. I had my Dad drive in from NY to attend the show with me, not telling him I was exhibiting. Was great to surprise him like this, as we had always done this when I was younger.

As your obviously thinking, my car is far from a show car. Especially compared to the many cars in the Team Mitsubishi GLR Group with custom paint, audio, video, body parts, etc. So I decided to represent the racing side of the equation and changed Wendy into full race trim. My SCCA Autocross magnets, stripped interior, my custom race hood, and I finished it off with my SCCA recognition on the dash from last season. I even put some cones around the car for that AX theme.

Anyway....the judges came around before the show started and classed all the vehicles. I was classes as a "Production Road Racer". Which I thought was perfect and very fitting.

Now I was already very happy about the judges understanding my theme and all of the positive feedback about the car from people attending the show, so when the awards ceremony came around on Sunday, I was DUMBFOUNDED when they called my name! I took 2nd place in Production Road Racer!!

Pics!

UPDATE: 4/8/2015

I LOVE MY NEW JOB/CAREER!

I HAVE A NEW DAILY!!! Say hello to Tammy!



Now that I have a new DD. Wendy will be getting taken apart for some much needed maintenance, upgrades and pre-race season prep!

Im very excited for this season. Having Tammy gives me the opportunity to push Wendy harder and further on course, knowing I have a tow vehicle at home if needed.

More to come!!

Love it. Been a fan for a while now, always good to see new updates.

miliman13 said:

Love it. Been a fan for a while now, always good to see new updates.

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Thanks man!

I should have some more updates soon.

UPDATE: 4/27/2015

Well…I’m not really sure what to do. I have so many thoughts at the moment. Let me get to it.

Yesterday was my new SCCA regions Test & Tune event at Lakeland Community College. 76 Cars showed up and one F-Mod racer, to brush the dust off and try out new settings for the season.

After 3 runs, I had the fastest time of the day! By the end of the event, each car got 5 runs total and I came in second for the day with a time of 46.900, which I ran twice. I was bested by a well built/modded BMW 1 series. Which I’m not upset about after seeing the car up close.

I had a lot of people asking me questions, no one could believe a Eclipse GSX was doing what it was doing. My buddy Justin came down from Erie to hangout and ride along since his car is still under construction, waiting on some back ordered parts.

Just to give you an idea…Here the “short” list of cars that attended and ran. Corvette C7s and C6s, Porsche’s, Miata’s, Focus ST’s, Subaru WRX’s, Supercharged Mustangs, new 5.0 Mustangs, new Camaro SS’s, etc…an some Lotus’s driven been very good drivers. I also bested the regions fastest driver in his prepped Civic Si.

Soooo, back to my previous statement…I’m not sure what to do. The only things I had originally planned to do, was to go E85 and retune. A little more boost, some more timing mid range, and the over all power increase while being on a knock resistant safer fuel.

But, if Wendy is running this good and we are a force to be reckoned with, why change her?

Pictures below.

GoPro videos on the way!!

GofaST4life said:

Whats up guys.
After 8 years of DSM love, which included two 1g, GST's, a Celica GT4 and four 2g GST's, I finally found a beautiful GSX.

I picked her up for a steal.

1997 Eclipse GSX
5-Speed
Black / Tan Interior

This is my girl Wendy...

Many more pictures to come.

PLANS: Mild Bolt on build. Can will see normal DD use, AutoX once a month, and possibly 2 or 3 track sessions.

I now understand exactly why everyone says to get an AWD DSM.

PICS!!

Click to expand...

Hey man, I noticed you said you plan to Auto X this car? Do you have any plans for suspension upgrades or tires? Just curious! Sweet car.

ADarling_GSTX said:

Hey man, I noticed you said you plan to Auto X this car? Do you have any plans for suspension upgrades or tires? Just curious! Sweet car.

Click to expand...

Look through the whole build man!


Finally have a GoPro video up from the event! Check it out!!

Awesome video, man. I'd love to get into this Auto X stuff. Looks like it could be a lot of fun with our cars.

UPDATE: 5/3/2015

I've decided to put together a full race day video of the test and tune. See it below.



Also, i've decided to dip my race hood black. So I should be getting that done in the next few days.

Stay tuned!!

UPDATE: 5/21/2015



Well, I traveled to my old SCCA Region for their season opener this past weekend.
Check out my race rig!!





Got a couple pictures from the event.





Here's my 12+ hour race day, confined to an 8 minute video.



Quick video of my fast hands save.



All in all, we have 13 runs total. The course was set up to be very fast and very short, as were had been worried about weather for the day. This would allow us to get as many runs as possible before the rains came. FORTUNATELY, we had NO rain and it was a beautiful day. Which is why we were allowed so many runs.

At the end of the day, I placed 3rd in SM, behind an ASP EvoX and a fully built 550+hp STI built for road course.
Overall I had the 3rd fastest time of the day. My fastest run was at 25.873 seconds. Only 4 cars broke into the 25 second range. Myself, the built STi, a race prepped 89 Civic Si and a 350Z.

Overall im VERY happy with how this season has started out. Wendy and I seem to be meshing well together

I don't know what you did to her but don't change it. You're kicking ass lately

UPDATE: 6/8/2015

This past weekend I traveled back to my old region for their 2nd points event. I chaired this event and designed the course. Which was liked by all.

This season, the SM Street Tire class is becoming SUPER competative! We had 11 entires and the time difference between the 1st place car and the 7th place car was 0.70 of a second. & cars all fell in that range. Some were as close as 0.015 of a second!

I ended up taking 6th in SM with a best clean time of 49.5xx. My first run of the day was a 49.0xx but I had a single cone penalty.

Unfortunately I could not find the speed again and run that 49.0 or faster.

We were granted 6 runs for the day, on my 5th run, my clutch line ripped, it was dragging, and I couldn't give her hell on my last run.

Very happy overall.

Video to come!

UPDATE: 6/11/2015

Full day Re-Cap video:



Launch Video: Spinning off the line.

UPDATE: 7/7/2015

On the weekend of the 28th, I attended NEOhios first AX points event.

We had a lot of rain all morning/day. We were allotted 6 runs for the day total.

This video pretty puch sums up the day. I was spinning all over, the rear end was kicking out, lots of water pooled on the course.



More to COME!!!

UPDATE: 7/8/2015

I have an HX35 with .55 BEP housing up for sale in the classifieds. Let me know if interested.

Really enjoying my make shift work bench! I put this together out of an old solid door a few weeks back. INstalled an LED light bar I had laying around. Made an upper shelf, mounted a power strip and some small things. Bench works great. Also set up and old 13 inche TV with a DVD player. Whenever im in the garage, I have either a ShootOut video playing or one of the Fast N Furious movies. haha.



Also have some new favorite pictures. My IG is aa_wolo





I thought this was pretty good too.