1997 Eclipse GS-T V8 Build

[choppedANDscrewed]

Hey there guys. I guess I'll start off by saying this isn't going to be your typical "just throw a V8 in there" build. Me and my father are very meticulous and explore multiple options before deciding on the final product. Sometimes we go wild and to the extreme and sometimes it's the simple option that's the best suits our needs. Either way this will be no half assed build that we throw together. It's gonna take time and patience and once you see the progress I hope you're as interested in it as I was of the idea. (I have had this account for a while now with the intentions of starting this thread but just never did. But I've gotten a lot of support from a lot of other DSMers who want to keep updated on the build so I told them I'd start so here it goes)

A little back story. My first car was a 1995 Talon ESI. Now this was back in the FatF days so yes the body kit was gawky and very uhhh....ricey I guess you could say . But it had a fare amount of money in the engine and I still haven't seen a 420a setup as clean under the hood or as fast as that car. Long story short I finally moved on from that style and sold the car to a friend who just so happened to have a 1997 GST with no engine chilling in his back yard. Me and my dad had talked about this project for quite some time so we talked my friend into throwing the car in with the deal and then it started.

Goals
1000+RWHP
5.99 1/8th (closest track)
Keep the car as light as possible

First set of pictures. The day we got her home.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Well you guys obviously have a long road ahead of you. Still waiting to see someone finish a V8 2G. Good luck


Which V8 are you intending to go with?

 

[choppedANDscrewed]

Set of pictures stripping the car and chopping the floor pan out.

 

[boost97gst]

Damn! You arent playing around. Im keepin an eye on thsi thread.

 

[choppedANDscrewed]

Oh I have a few more of these little quick updates since we're about 6 months actual working time into this build already. Actual elapsed time is probably about a year and a half but it's slowed down a little bit due to me buying my first house. And at first we had decided to go with and LT1 because I bought the whole front end from a C4 corvette to run as the front suspension and cross member in the car but the more we thought about the more we wanted more modern. So we sold the LT1 and bought an LM7(basically a 5.3l LS1)

Won't seem to let me upload anymore pictures though. Says I'm over my quota and I have a good bit of progress to show from chopping the floor pan out. Any advice for me or is it because I'm still a probationary member?

 

[Pipnorcali]

Upload them to photobucket and link them here..congrats on the house

 

[choppedANDscrewed]

Alright cool. I appreciate it! So next up for photos I have a little bit of everything a few of the roll cage as we got more and more of it in.

And some pictures that show the corvette front end were repurposing

This is one of my favorites just because at this point people had 0 clue that this fits in an eclipse.

And finally pictures from pretty recent. Finally have the body sat down on the frame and the cage welded up good. Oh and also a big note here. We don't want the car getting crazy when we're at the track so we decided to do a little stretching. In these pictures it's only about 4 inches(102 inches total) but to keep the engine from sitting damn near in the car our wheelbase will be about 108 inches when complete. To get a good idea of what that is a 2000 Camaro only has a 102 inch wheelbase.

And finally this beauty I picked up last wednesday

 

[Jesse2012]

Very surprising to see you actually doing this.. Most people are all talk when it comes to these swaps. Good luck and hope to see you complete it

 

[spyderdrifter]

Kinda wish you were going for a V8 street car build Haven't seen anyone pull that off yet, but still looks awesome.

 

[choppedANDscrewed]

This car will be titled insured and driven on nice weekends. Its gonna be set up for drag racing but will spend more time on the streets than at the track.We just want to be able to drive it to the track and pop off a decent pass and drive it back home whenever we want to.

 

[spyderdrifter]

You just became my hero for the day

 

[RallyEclipse98]

Very impressive!

 

[Blurred Talon]

Damn, love seeing stuff like this actually happen.

 

[95DsManiac]

Very nice. Love the dedication and perseverance. I have no doubt you will finish and when you do I know it will be one bad mamagama. Can't wait for more updates to come and see more progress on your build. Good luck with your build and I hope all your plans fall into place for your car.

I might have missed it, but what trans are you using? Going NA or turbocharging? What are you doing for engine management?

Anthony B.

 

[motomattx]

Why do people cut up rare turbo Dsm's for this stuff? there are a ton more n/t cars that can be cut up for these types of things, you just took another already rare car off of the road for good. No offense but there is nothing Dsm about what your doing. It is interesting anytime a person documents a drag car build though, so on that end I'm interested but I just cant see the point at the same time.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Why do people cut up rare turbo Dsm's for this stuff? there are a ton more n/t cars that can be cut up for these types of things, you just took another already rare car off of the road for good. No offense but there is nothing Dsm about what your doing. It is interesting anytime a person documents a drag car build though, so on that end I'm interested but I just cant see the point at the same time.

Glad I'm not the only one to think this. By all means cut up an ESI but don't chop up a turbo DSM. This is nothing but a body on a full out race frame...

 

[choppedANDscrewed]

Very nice. Love the dedication and perseverance. I have no doubt you will finish and when you do I know it will be one bad mamagama. Can't wait for more updates to come and see more progress on your build. Good luck with your build and I hope all your plans fall into place for your car.

I might have missed it, but what trans are you using? Going NA or turbocharging? What are you doing for engine management?

Anthony B.

Well be using a T400 trans it will be twin turbo and probably have to use the fast EFI system.

And guys I got this car in a trade it was sitting in a yard with the windows down and an empty engine bay. Sure cutting up an ESI would be ideal but it didn't happen that way. Believe me when I say if it were a GSX I'd have found something else. What I'm doing isn't supposed to be DSM it's supposed to be me. I have a love for anything fast no matter what it is. Me and my dad fell in love with 2g body lines and after me owning 2 corvettes I fell in love with V8's. This build is just supposed to be me putting 2 awesome things that I love together into something I really love.

 

[RadDsm]

There is nothing rare about a GS-T.

This build is really cool so far, I hope it get's finished.

 

[bastarddsm]

No shit cut em up. It's not like it was a pristine one with like 40k miles on it. That car should have been scrapped.

 

[motomattx]

There is nothing rare about a GS-T. This build is really cool so far, I hope it get's finished.

Sure there is! only a few percent of all Eclipses were turbo period. By the way the GST and GSX are the same body, neither is any rarer than the other for that matter, they are both rare.

 

[leathaleagle21]

Nice build and can't wait to see some action from this. Don't forget to add some boost for some real power!

 

[TsiTuner]

Looking good! Love to see people think outside the box on a build

 

[RadDsm]

Sure there is! only a few percent of all Eclipses were turbo period. By the way the GST and GSX are the same body, neither is any rarer than the other for that matter, they are both rare.

You guys keep using this word, but I don't think you know what it means.

If I can go on eBay or CL and own one within a couple minutes with no effort, it isn't rare.

This guy saved a 2G from the crusher, let him put whatever motor he wants in it.

 

[RamenPride]

You guys keep using this word, but I don't think you know what it means.

If I can go on eBay or CL and own one within a couple minutes with no effort, it isn't rare.

This guy saved a 2G from the crusher, let him put whatever motor he wants in it.

If that car was completely stock and looked like it just rolled off the showroom floor, then yes, it could be considered rare. However, the thing had sat outside exposed to the elements for how many years with rainwater getting inside and no engine. People have posted before about scoring one of these "rare" cars for less than $2000, sometimes even for a couple hundred.

 

[Turbogsxr1100]

Very cool man and good job on the fabrication, looks nice!!