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1998 Gst restoration

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chrysler kid

20+ Year Contributor
3,100
893
Dec 20, 2002
Mckinney, Texas
chrysler kid submitted a new DSM Profile :

1998 gst project


Read more about this vehicle here...




Preface:
I found the original owners thread on here. If you are considering upgrading your car, you have to consider yourself the best mechanic.

Previous owner was screwed from the start, he had two separate shops screw him over on a head gasket job, a Facebook hookup messed up his fuel pump install causing all sorts of fuel cut issues, and a boost leak killed his dreams of a fast car.

You should be your own mechanic

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/new-dsm-owner.511767/
 
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So I bought the car for $1300. I got it running in the previous owners apartment complex. It was literally covered in rice stickers, and towing notice stickers. I offered to walk away, the car was running and driving he could get more. He needed the money and wanted the car gone. So it was a deal LOL

The car is very complete, and did not deserve a junk yards death

It had died from multiple boost leaks. The main boost pipe to the intake was popped off. After reconnecting it the car idled and drove fine. Smoked severely at idle.

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So the first thing I noticed after inspecting the engine bay was that the intake manifold was missing every intake manifold bolt and was being held on by the two studs at the end, and tons of RTv

The previous owner claimed no knowledge, that another shop had installed the head and the head studs and ever since the car has never been right

I'm not sure why anyone would want purple under the hood, but this guy went all out with it.

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Checking my marks on timing. Got the belt lined up with the timing marks too on the first try. Good omen. Belt was good but the hydraulic tensioner was not set correctly. The timing pulley was not adjusted at all
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Oh and look at this "genuine 16g" he got from eBay LOL

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All the wires by the battery reminded me of the severe battery drain and how every item was hooked into the cigarette lighter fuse

Car came with a lot of decent parts too, wideband, 850 injectors, evo scan with cable.

In the spot

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This broken stud was the first sign I saw when I popped the hood that the previous owners mechanic, was a complete idiot. Who removes a cylinder head and leaves a broken stud in it. Blows my mind. Have some pride in your work
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This head gasket sealer shit was all in the head coolant passages, and little did I know, all clogged in the heater core, and clogged in the turbo. Never use this stuff!

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So after installing the new head gasket, new intake manifold, fixing all of the boost leaks it ran great. But once the oil temp got fully warm at idle she would smoke like crazy. So back in the garage she went.

Upon further inspection I found a coolant leak from the turbo. Lead me to believe the turbo could be installed incorrectly or bad

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So this picture shows why it's smoking worse than before. My guess is that when I cleaned the head my brake cleaner un seated the valve seals.


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New 14b turbo

Under the wise premise that the old eBay 16g was bad I found a 14b and re resealed the internals. Good shape with minimal shaft play

I also had to install a new braided oil feed line because the old one was so hacked up

I also had to re bend the cooling lines. Not pictured I had to re do the heater core and flush the system

All of the build up on the turbo was from head gasket repair additive. Nasty stuff

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The wiring was a mess in this car.

There was a battery drain and a starting issue. The car would flicker hard with the headlights on, and the alarm was going nuts at random

So the first thing to do was remove the aem wideband, the boost gauge, and remove the radio. It was a rats best

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So it's off to the junk yard for spares. Need to find some parts and found a copy of my car

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I think my total haul cost me $140. Could have gotten more but it was storming pretty hard by the time I got everything back to the office

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So after installing the ecu and having the same effect I went to tracing. Finally half way though the ecu wire harness I find the culprit, the main ecu ground harness

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Almost up to speed on the car. Re wired the entire radio harness using oem connectors from the junk yard. Also put on the battery hold down, fuse box cover, re wired the dash and put in all new light bulbs in the dash and in the exterior brake lights and turn signals. Installed the exhaust heat shield and painted it satin black
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Also went ahead and did a paint correction using m205 and my red sponge pad, followed by a nice glaze
 
It's been a while. Had a build thread on my 96gst going for about 3 years but photobucket crashed so I completely abandoned that website
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Hard to find them anymore. Have to know some one who knows some one to even find a galant. What was your screen name on Dfwdsm?

Wife made me clean up the garage so she could park inside. Shot of my car setup. My 2ga is my daily driver stock grandpa car.

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Hey look somebody else has a TV in the garage ... my wife thinks its dumb.
Gotta have background noise. Also I completely lose track of time outside in the garage, tv helps me figure out what time it is. :p nothing worse than realizing your back is blown out and you forgot to eat and it's somehow 3am and you're so filthy you can't just fall asleep. Car binge I call it.

Saw your build, not sure why your having issues with oil leaks but my cars gaskets are all cured with a good finger smoothed layer of rtv ultra black, and I give them 24 hours to cure before exposing them to any oils or fluids. My 96 hasnt had a leak in years, and I was afraid I was going to need a new oil pan

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Saw your build, not sure why your having issues with oil leaks but my cars gaskets are all cured with a good finger smoothed layer of rtv ultra black, and I give them 24 hours to cure before exposing them to any oils or fluids. My 96 hasnt had a leak in years, and I was afraid I was going to need a new oil pan

Man I forgot about that, I really should update that thread been so busy doing work on both my cars now. Anyway, So it was a combination of things. The oil coolant kit I got from ExtremePSI was utter crap. The fittings all leaked right out of the box, the o rings leaked, etc. ALSO the oil filter housing they sent me the thermostat was installed wrong with no gasket/thread sealer. On top of that I didn't seat the oil pump crank seal when I installed it tearing it. THEN I made a really dumb mistake and was cleaning everything with Brake Clean to try and find the leak. Break clean just ate through everything.

Pulled the entire oil pump off. New gasket with copper spray. Did the oil port mod. New fittings from a local company. High pressure thread sealer on everything. No longer leaking.

Except my rear main seal which decided to go after all of that. So thats next on the list of things to fix when I pull the trans to have it rebuilt. But I'm focused on the interior right now anyway.
 
So about blowing oil everywhere out the valve cover, the pcv valve was bad, it would seal when I blow in it, but it would leak pressure. Car was missing the dip stick, looked like it broke or popped out and got lost, and had a cap, fixed the valve cover and blew the cap off.

So anyways new pcv valve, and ordered new dipstick and pipe. Blech, add another $50 to the parts list. And before you ask why I had to buy a new one, because a used one shipped would have probably cost me $30 anyways. Dsm parts are rare down here, the white junk yard car has had the motor removed and they only want to sell it whole now with turbo
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I'm going to call this car the emperor. Every time I fix something, another issue pops up. It wants you to hate it, feel the hate flow through you...... Went to move it to drive the camaro, and the trans doesn't want to build any pressure or act like it has any gears until it idles for over a minute to get warm. Car had royal purple motor oil in it, I'm going to assume it has the wrong specialty trans fluid in it that's too thin causing no pressure when cold. I'll look at it later, I assume it's just been built by the devil in 98. It doesn't have a power antenna, I assumed all gst models had one. The emperor is a cruel bastard

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Piece of sht. So after the pcv valve was the first time this car has built boost in a long time and felt great, half way through the first gear. Felt a little pop, then the car wants to misfire hard under boost, fuel cut.

Pop the hood and the pressure regulator is shaking all over the place. So leave it for a day or two and I come back one night and the passengers side window has fallen down.

So add window regulator and fuel pump to the list

On to the valve seals. Old ones are pretty hard and brittle. Hopefully this solves my smoking when warm, or extremely cold problem.

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And the old discolored seal vs the new seal.



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nothing worse than realizing your back is blown out and you forgot to eat and it's somehow 3am and you're so filthy you can't just fall asleep.

I've done this more times than I care to admit. It's good to know I'm not the only one.
 
Piece of sht. So after the pcv valve was the first time this car has built boost in a long time and felt great, half way through the first gear. Felt a little pop, then the car wants to misfire hard under boost, fuel cut.

Pop the hood and the pressure regulator is shaking all over the place. So leave it for a day or two and I come back one night and the passengers side window has fallen down.

So add window regulator and fuel pump to the list

On to the valve seals. Old ones are pretty hard and brittle. Hopefully this solves my smoking when warm, or extremely cold problem.

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And the old discolored seal vs the new seal.



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Any updates on the misfire at high boost/fuel cut... I’m having the same problem with mine and can’t seem to find the solution.
I have a 95 GST 4g63t
When I bought the car I drove it home with no clutch but other than that it drove just fine and had awesome power with the 15lbs of boost it put out(that drive)! I ended up blowing off a boost line when I put 15lbs through it but got it home reattached the line and apparently had to replace the coil packs. Luckily I had bought a parts car that came with t so I pulled the coil packs from it and haven’t done much to it other than bigger intercooler and lines and an eBay blow off valve... also, the turbo lines are a universal speed daddy kit from eBay as well... the intercooler is also from eBay but it’s sport JDM! The lines came with a blow off valve so I replaced it because it is blue and went with my color scheme, I also added a manual boost controller and ever since then, this fuel cut problem has started and Idk what else to look into! I’ve replaved the fuel pump from the parts car(not to say that one wasn’t bad also) but it starts LOL... oh, and i haven’t been able to get 15lbs back out of it unless I turn the boost controller up but that just makes the fuel cut even worse
 
Ive only done garage idle time since doing the valve stem seals. It is now having severe charging system issues, that I seemed to have amplified by removing the old alternator and getting a new one. So I need to chase wires.


My fuel issue is when warm the fuel pressure regulator needle is shaking all over and the car cant build boost because it hits a fuel cut.

So add to the problems list
Altnerator wiring/Not charging
Fuel pressure issues when warm
Power steering bracket is extremely small factory belt doesn't fit

I
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believe some of the issues I'm having are because the car has a 7bolt motor from a late model jdm market galant. That would explain some irregularities I've had with the power steering bracket, and the lower coolant to water pump pipe
 
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