1996 gst #2

[chrysler kid]

Alright hopefully this will give me more motivation to finish this car.

It's my dream car, my highschool car except nicer

Growing up in the early 2000's was a time where mustangs and Camaros were slow and generic, and I was able to find a clean 96gst from a kid named aj on the local dsm site. It was a 96 with 76k miles and we bought it for $6500. A used 1995 mustang GT was comparatively $6500 with 145k miles and no ac

It was a good car, for a year. A local dsm shop botched the timing belt job, and skipped replacing the balance shaft belt. Apparently you can make money when your customers car breaks. The shop was CTC racing, the owner was named Wayne. He had 2 other failed shops after CTC.

Anyways it became clear after I sold that car I would master a dsm eventually

 

[chrysler kid]

I won't go into tons of details, but I owned 4-5 other dsm's over the years. I had a few good ones, a few bad ones, but I could never find just a "Mitsubishi eclipse gst". I was buying other people's projects and relying too heavily on mechanics here and there, and never had a house or place to break down a project

With good timing I was able to find a one owner 96gst, the exact same year and model and every option as my first dsm. I would have paid double for it, but the car just so happened to come up for sale just down the street from where I grew up. I saw it in person and it was even cleaner than I could imagine

My own photos the day after

 

[chrysler kid]

So I drove it occasionally but I really had zero signs of maintenance on this car. It's possible that the previous owner had the original timing belt and water pump replaced, but it was also alot more possible I would be screwed by the car

I planned and planned and planned. I printed off the vfaq, I studied the Chilton's manual, I made a parts list, and I bought all OEM parts and the upgraded gates racing belts. All new cam seals, crank seals, oil pump pulley seal, oil pan seal, valve cover gasket. I wanted this car to last forever

 

[chrysler kid]

 

[chrysler kid]

 

[chrysler kid]

 

[chrysler kid]

 

[chrysler kid]

Alright some context. I bought the car and it had a slight rattle at low rpm when accelerating. It would also occasionally pop out of fourth gear. I was putting up with it and sourced another transmission from a guy who was moving out of state so he just donated his parts pile. I got a "yeah that trans should be good I think I pulled it from a car wrecked in the rear" trans for free.

Well I pulled it out of the garage one day and the rattle was much worse. It also had a small axle leak. I cam back from work that day and found transmission fluid running down my driveway from the rack and pinion that randomly just decided to leak everything out

So I go to pull the rack and the axle seal is leaking because the axle no longer lines up into the trans. I pull the axle out and it's obvious the output shaft bearing is jacked.

The rack and pinion was a gigantic pain in the ass, I have big hands and it's just a terrible job

So I get the trans and rack and pinion back in, everything bolted back up, painted the new trans, everything. Go to remove the fill plug and it's stripped. I try everything, welding a socket to the bolt, tapping it and then using an easy out (had to drill through that too) .Nothing worked

So here's a day worth of drilling into the old plug

So I tap it decent enough, get a rubber grommet and seal it. Aaand of course the slave now catches below the floor. I go back under it and of course the trans I slapped in has a bent shift fork

Out it goes again

I'm pretty sure at this point the trans fell off the jack when I lowered it and it nearly took off my index finger on my left hand. I said f***it, the car then sat another 6 months while I finished my other gst that was going to be the donor. I was going to part the 98gst into the 96 but the 98 didn't have a bad motor in it as I was lead to believe

 

[motomattx]

Such clean cars! You were cute when you were younger, what happened??

 

[chrysler kid]

Dsm's will do that to you

This past weekend I literally brushed off the spider webs and put in the billet shift fork and pivot ball. I bought an engine hoist but because of its size, and weight, assembly and lack of room I never used it

The best technique I could think of to get the trans not teetering on the jack was to remove a rubber vent plug and use a ratchet strap and go back and forth between the floor jack and ratchet strap.

It worked perfectly. The ratchet strap lined it up perfectly and the input shaft slid in and the dowels instantly lined up

Even after sitting for close to 8 months it fired right up.

The new used trans works great except for leaking some gear oil out of my botched fill plug. I'll be using some thread sealer on the bolt, of that doesn't work I'll use a rubber expansion grommet coated in rtv

 

[chrysler kid]

Ahah. Had some grommet seals from my civics valve cover gasket that fit perfectly into the m10x1.25 tapped hole. No leaks so far

 

[Vegas Smith]

I thought you sold this car or was that another one?

 

[chrysler kid]

I sold the 98gst. The guy I sold it to is very local, I've done some work on it a few times since I sold it. He literally bought the same sticker bomb kit I peeled off of that car when I first got it, back on the car. Pro-tip if you're running the turbo blanket you need to run the arp turbo mounting bolts. The 98 gst had the cheap eBay bolts stretch under all that heat and blow out the gasket. I thought they came loose but I put a new gasket in and went to torque them and we'll suprise now they're too long

The 98 was the full restoration, well except no rust. I had to rewire everything 3 times and replace every seal on the engine

The 96 is the car I've had for about 4 years now. It's the car that made me memorize the factory service manual because I knew I'd never find my first car again, and id never trust another mechanic to work on it

She's nearly stock besides hard intercooler piping and a catback I'm debating on taking off to go back to stock

 

[Vegas Smith]

I'd be impressed if it had the original oil but otherwise...

 

[chrysler kid]

It'saily driver as it should be. Ive played the mod the dsm game and it's a lose lose proposition. Too much work, I sold out to the dark side over a decade ago. I built the Camaro in 2007 with spare parts, it's made 410whp for 12 years now with ice cold ac

So back into the daily driver again. I wanted the stock air box with the aftermarket pipe. Made it happen. I also ordered a black silicon hose kit, again I'm going for the stock sheek look. The T25 really makes this car fun to daily drive, the boost and torque is instant. There is no need to down shift to pass, it instantly pulls torque from nowhere and has been getting 24mpg. I've had 14b/16g/20g cars and they really don't feel as "satisfying" as the stock instant acceleration at low rpms. My bastard theory is nitrous would probably be a more effective power adder for my gst, a 100 wet shot would be more cost effective for my goals should I encounter a random mustang or something

The hoses

Any suggestions where I can find a 60 mm triple gauge pod. I have a greddy electronic boost gauge, and an aem wideband gauge with controller, it's kinda looking like I may sell the greddy gauge and get an aem boost gauge to match the wideband

 

[chrysler kid]

Yaaay tint. Not the cheap stuff either

 

[chrysler kid]

Tinted and looking great.

Ive got a wheel bearing going out so I should replace that tomorrow along with a 5w40 rotella oil change.

 

[chrysler kid]

Just daily driver things. Had to replace the plug wires because of a misfire. Also covered my intake and intercooler piping in heat wrap and painted them black.

Replacement trans is "ok". Sometimes it's not as crisp as I like other times it acts fine. Still daily driven

 

[chrysler kid]

❤❤❤❤❤

 

[chrysler kid]

ok so after about 7 years of doing nothing I sold my custom blue car and kept a few parts. having had a few 97-99 cars I now had a new goal for my virgin car. was a tough decision to sell this one or my blue car, but i like building cars more than driving finished cars

this car has mostly sat for 2 years while I play with building other dsm's

so the blue car got an offer, I accepted but on the condition i keep the wheels and tires and steering wheel. so 18in motegei wheels went on, and the nrg wheel with quick release went on as well. one of the deciding factors to keep the white car was the random breaking of the blue cars shifter cables, and finding a 99 spyder intact in the junkyard. seemed the blue car was telling me to build the white car

 

[chrysler kid]

started to modify it, 3 inch catless down pipe really saw a jump in horsepower, I do feel like the stock cat and down pipe had alot more torque for daily driving

painted side skirts and door caps with duplicolor chrysler bright white. matched better than my faded stockers surprisingly

got some EDm lights but I didn't want the fog look of the blank piece, so modified them by removing the plastic slot for the fog light. they are now jdm tail lights

re.did the headlights as well

 

[chrysler kid]

more.pitcure.

got a 2gb rear bumper and upgraded the turbo to a small 16g

also had to paint the rear bumper, it was originally red and I used the same duplicolor rattle can and about 3 cans of clear coat. it took alot of wet sanding, 1000 grit 1500 then 2000 and m105 compound but I think it really came out looking professional

 

[chrysler kid]

im very happy with where it is now. this small 16g boosts a lot like the worn out t25 but pulls strong up top

 

[chrysler kid]

more of the setup