Street Build '97 Eclipse AWD GS-T (2006 to Present)

[lewishamilton]

I'm very new to DSM's and cars in general (as you can probably tell from my join date and post count), but I just want to say this build thread has been really inspirational.
I'm a poor college student () with little hands-on knowledge but you've inspired me to work towards the AWD swap I've been dreaming about and maybe an 11-second DD.

 

[gofer]

I'm glad to hear it, that's why these journals are here is to give others ideas and inspiration. When you do start working on that DSM of yours take lots of pictures and start your own journal, you won't regret it.

 

[compression]

His car had no second gear as in, he shifted from 1st to 3rd? or it was just almost impossible to get into 2nd at high rpms?

 

[gofer]

Straight to 3rd after banging it off the rev limiter in 1st, stock suspension and street tires too. You can shoot him a PM if you've got any questions about his setup, I posted a link to his Tuners profile in the post about the track day.

 

[gofer]

03MAR2010 - Evo IX Rally Armor Mudflaps​

I picked up a set of Rally Armor mudflaps off a buddy of mine who owned an Evo IX, I figured I could make them work and lucky for me, THEY DID! Enjoy...

 

[gofer]

08MAR2010 - Shredded My Alternator Belt​

I know I never mentioned it in my build thread but for the longest time I was fighting the worst alternator squeal on cold starts. My car would howl in the morning and I know, coupled with my loud exhaust, pissed the neighbors off like crazy. I got so pissed I just tightened the belt down TIGHT and then went for a drive to run some errands. The entire drive it was squealing and about a block from my house it broke, my car started to overheat almost instantly but I made it back in time and found this!

Worth it, that belt pissed me off SOOOOOOO much.

 

[gofer]

11MAR2010 - FIC 950's ​

I was running 660's but that definitely wasn't enough injector to make the switch to E85, which I found out after doing some research. Here's a few of the good reads I found when I was thinking about making the switch to Ethanol.
- ECMLink Wiki: E85 Fuel
- ECMLink Wiki: Base Injector Data
The below links didn't exist when I was researching this back in 2010 but, good news, they do now! Tom and Dave over at ECMLink created a injector flow test bench, which is how the following data in these links was created and provided by them.
- ECMLink Wiki: Injector Data Overview
- ECMLink Wiki: Injector Data Fuel Type

After reading around the forums I realized that I already had the fuel pump, AFPR, and ECMLink so the only thing keeping me from making the switch were my injectors. I had decided to go with the HTA68 that FP claims to flow 47lbs/min. I then used the above injector info and decided the FIC 950's would be enough injector for me, boy was I wrong, but at the time I didn't know.

Anyway, the 950's looked great so in the fuel rail they went so I could eventually make the switch to E85.

 

[compression]

Blah alternator belts and mudflaps! Your holding out of us!

 

[gofer]

15MAR2010 - HID Retrofit​

I got a set of eBay projector housings for $25 and wanted to see if I couldn't retrofit them and make my HID's look good. Well, as far as light output went it was a huge FAIL since I could barely see at night but it did work I suppose. I only took pictures of the actual housing on the car, none of the work I did to get them to work in the housing.

After a few days of driving with them I pulled them and put the stock 2g housings back in, I was tired of barely being able to see the road at night. Conclusion, eBay projectors SUCK!

 

[gofer]

17MAR2010 - Forced Performance HTA68​

It finally arrived and I was excited, the new HTA68 was finally mine. I ordered it new from Aniel at Forced Performance, I also had FP port the turbine housing and leave off the flapper so I could run it externally gated on the o2 housing. I also had RRE send me OE 1g waterlines/banjo bolts/crush washers for the new turbo, might as well make sure everything's in order while I'm in there.

Time to go fast!

 

[gofer]

08APR2010 - Matte Black Vinyl Wrap & Photoshoot​

The 950's were in, HTA68 was bolted up, and I had already made the switch to E85 and the car was idling/cruising well. I scheduled some dyno time once again at RRE but I had to do something to the DSM while I was waiting, so I vinyl wrapped the top with matte black vinyl. I really liked it but I probably would have liked it a lot more had I gotten it done professionally, there were small bubbles under it that I couldn't get rid of. The best part of it being wrapped with vinyl, vice painted, is that it wasn't permanent. So if I didn't like the way it looked I could pull it back off and the car would look just like it did.

 

[gofer]

10APR2010 - HTA68, FP2's, & E85 Dyno Tune​

We noticed that after the first two pulls coolant was all over the ground, and on the 3rd one we came to the conclusion that my head was lifting and pushing coolant. Sam got it at 352 awhp and the motor only seeing 22psi falling off to 19psi because of a boost leak I found at a weld in my FMIC a week prior.
I needed the car to drive back to San Diego so we pulled it off the dyno and I left RRE happy and disappointed. Happy because now I've got a good excuse to pull the head and was getting a new VRSF FMIC setup dropped off on my doorstep that next morning to fix the FMIC boost leak. Disappointed, more worried actually, that my car was actually broken and would be down for awhile but luckly the head only lifts under boost so I'm crossing my fingers it lets me DD it until the end of the month when the built head will be ready to drop on.

 

[Eeeeky]

This is like crack man! AWESOME BUILD!!! MUST....HAVE....MORE!! more piccys please? Pull an all nighter, and give us some goodies.

 

[gofer]

I've got to space it out because, once I catch up to present day, its going to be weeks at a time before I update with new stuff.

 

[banishedmunk]

oh snaps its head gasket season.

 

[98mitsubishigst]

i love your threads/pictures/photoshoots/build/your damn car.

God. <33 hahah

 

[Apeximprt2nr]

Your car is gorgeous dude.. God damn. Lolz. <3

This makes me want to paint my gold RX7 wheels black...

 

[gofer]

Thanks!

 

[gofer]

29APR2010 - Fresh Cylinder Head & Intercooler Setup​

Since this was uncharted territory for me I had no idea what, if anything, I should get done to the head since I was pulling it. After doing some research of my own and talking with Kris I came up with a list of parts.

• 2g head
• Evo IX springs & retainers
• Engnbldr SS valves, bronze valve guides, & revised lifters
• ARP headstuds
• Supertech valve seals
• Mitsu composite head gasket
• ExtremePSI HG replacement kit

I found a local DSMer on Craigslist selling a 2g head for $80 so I jumped on it, no sense downing my car if it was still driveable even with the head lifting. As soon as I picked the head up I removed the valve train (DSMTuners Tech Articles: Removing Head Components 1g & 2g) and took it to a local machine shop to have it decked, hot tanked, and assembled.

I got the head back April 29th, which was when I took all these photos, and I couldn't have been happier with my decision to build it a bit.

The VR- Speed Factory short route FMIC kit had come in April 10th, I opened the box and sent all the IC pipes straight out the door to get powdercoated. Including a FP 4" intake that I had ordered from FP, a bit bigger than the Dejon one I had!

On April 29th I had finally gotten together all the parts I needed to pull the head, and then some. There are a few odds and ends you may notice in the picture of parts below that I didn't mention, like the freshly powder coated VC and AEM 3.5 BAR MAP sensor, those will be mentioned in the next few journal entry's before the actual head install.

 

[CrawlinZX14]

I love the build. Looks awesome. Especially all the time and money into it and your bed is on the ground. Reminds me of my very first build on a car. Tiny apartment and a parking space. Had a buddy with a barn I stored my 83 Pontiac Grand Prix LJ in while i built the crap out of it. Now, its a town house with a kid and a wife, so not as much to spare, but mine is coming along. Obviously I need more pix, cause yours are killin me. Great build, love the car. Cant say im really a fan of the CF wing, but to each their own. Im personally not a fan of anything thats only for looks like the 2g whale tail wings. Reminds me of an MK4 supra tail in that respect. Cant wait to see your build progress. Sadly my 1g wont ever look as awesome as the 2g's do, but my wedge will fly one of these days.

Keep up the great work.

 

[95eclipser]

just looked up and saw it was 11:30pm. I Lost track of time reading this entire thread. I haven't enjoyed a build thread like this in a long time.

Great car, great perseverance, overall great dsm owner!! I wish there were more members on this forum like you.

Night Drew.

 

[Coldsou]

Every single time something goes wrong on my car and I lose hope on my ultimate goal. I come to this thread and after twenty minutes I'm back out there with tools in hand. Love this build so much!

 

[rowdygst]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, you must keep goin..i red everysingle post so far..its truly mazing the time,money and effort you have put on this car. i want you to get to the current state of the car right meow!!!..

keep it up boss, car is beautiful

 

[gofer]

30APR2010 - AEM 3.5 bar MAP sensor​

I had removed my MDP sensor when I installed my Evo III IM and ECMLink allows you to log a sensor across the MDP input, so to make things bit easier to tune, I decided to install a MAP sensor to log boost.

I did a write up on the install, too. ---> 2g Wiring & logging an AEM 3.5 bar MAP sensor

Here are a few pictures doing the install, basically pulled from the write-up.

 

[95eclipser]

boo that was a weak update on this thread!!!!!