99 Spyder Ultimate Cruizer

[gst96spyderman]

I should have done this LONG ago. Here's the car's story and mine as well:

99 Eclipse GST Spyder
Goals- DD 350fwhp with everything functional including A/C and back seat. AWD swap... maybe, butmore than likely on another Spyder I'm currently hunting down.

There is rumor of a DSM mag being published fr the masses, and I see that if I ever want to get Style in the magazine, I really need to have a build log/journal. Plus this really will be enjoyable once I'm done with Style.

Got this car in December of 2011 from a guy in PA. Traded my 02 Camry for it since I had just totaled out my 96 GST Spyder. I drive her home and she is doing great. Had a tune on it and there were a lot of supporting mods, minus injectors, afpr, and a couple other things. The car history is that it hit a deer, and was purchased by PA owner. He did a auto - 5 speed swap. Also he did a 6 bolt swap with internal upgrades. 6 bolt head ported and light polish. 3g lifters, kiggly springs and retainers, bc 272's, arp hardware throughout. Pretty good start.

Engine has wiseco's and crower combo and stock crank. Not sure about bearings main/rod.

Fuel setup was just a wally 255 and the rest is stock

Turbo is a fp sleeper big 16g with stock wastegate. At time of purchase, the GReddy fmic was not installed. Greddy type something bov, with hard upper IC piping. K&N filter and I think the rest is stock

Cooling is Koyorad alum. radiator with slim fans. Tranny has slowboy LSD and B&E short throw. ACT2100 (I think), Suspention was simply a front sway bar

Boost and oil pressure gauges installed and an EGT gauge with no probe.
Body was in pretty decent shape. Missing passenger side skirt and "mud flap" from previous owner running over parking bump. iono what iits called

Paint 8/10 ,
interior 9/10. New black leather seats. Black dash and console. Bottom half is gray. Pretty good condition.

That is how she was when I bought her. Here's a few pics

I've had this car for a little over a month now. Shortly after this month of DSM bliss, I end up blowing the HG. Not too big of a deal. So I take it to a local guy to do the HG and help me out. Well, this is where my stupidity takes over and I'm taken for a damn fool.

I get all the parts ordered and basically tell the guy to do it and follow the DSMtuners.com procedures. Head was fine as well as the rest of car minus HG. I replace all the typical things, like the thermostat h20 pump and all that at the same time. Or should I say, I have them replaced.

Guess I lost those pictures. I go Gates for the timing belt and OEM for the rest. So I'm thinking I'm golden and ready to see some 15 psi of fun in the snow. I get to drive her (Style) for a couple of weeks at most and as I'm going down to Panama City Beach for New Years, Style just dies on me doing about 80 on the interstate about 40 miles from home. I get to the engine bay and start looking at is going on. Long story short, the timing jumped on me and caused the timing belt to snap and a few valves kissed the pistons. One vlave actually melted onto the wiseco's

Now, this is where I know what kind of internals I have because the engine is fuc'd. There goes the nice ported and lightly polished head. It was warped beyonf repair. so I send out for a new one and have it installed. During this time, I order some stuff off DSMgraveyard.com. About 2 months after the engine was finished, the NPR pistons and rings came in along with the turbo XS mbc, and Engine Pro main bearings. Sorry asses. The guy screened my call and never returned the 10-15 messages I left telling him to cancel the order and reimburse me my money.

Anyways, I contact Hung @ extremepsi.com and just go through him. Ordered a Fuel lab afpr, some engine bearings and some Wiseco's. Everything get here in about 2-3 days. Standard great shipping from extreme, and take parts to mechanic. Lets call him Dick. So I give Dick the parts and tell him to have at it while we wait for the head to get here.

Come to find out that the previous owner neglected to tell me that the block has been bored out .40 already. I would have never bought this car knowing that... Jackass. So I get the new ones back and get the build completed.

Here's some pics of the engine bay when I bought it along with the timing and HG issues pics

 

[gst96spyderman]

I have the Wiseco's and crower's installed after sending wrong bore sized Wiseco's back, and get afpr installed as well as a couple other little things.

So back to driving in Style. Few weeks later, I end up rear ending an old couple in a traffic jam, and damaged the Koyorad and start having cooling problems. There was a hole in the radiator, that I had resonated and that problem was fixed. But now I have this crack in the bumper as well as a gap between the hood and bumper... Solution- Car Bra. Thata the only reason I have it on there right now. As soon as the engine is finished, the body will be painted and straightned back out.


After a few months of driving, the clutch gives out on me right before the Auto X event at Turner Feild here in ATL. Just as I was going to buy some FIC's and start tuning via evoscan with ceddymods on my flash-able. As all this happens, I have to leave country for family, as well as work. So the car sat at my parents house in N. Georgia for 2+ years.

Oh, yeah. DDSMGraveyard finally shipped me the parts I told them to cancel the order to, about 100 days from date of purchase. Jackasses. That shit really pissed me off. But thats game for you. Sold not told, so I'll take that bullet.

At the time I dropped it off, the car was fine minus the clutch issue. My parent's own a restaurant in Helen, GA and this is about 50-60 mountain miles from their restaurant , so no one is really watching over the car when this hail storm comes through and popps 4-5 holes in the top and makes a bunch of dents in the hood, fenders, and trunk lid. As well as a shit load of water buildup inside the car.

I am a big car audio guy, so I have a lot of toys in the car that I just left there not really thinking anything about it along with a set of BBS 18's I bought used locally sitting next to car. After I get back to her, the wheels are gone, and my valentine1, JL 12' and custom made box (myself), rockford mono block and 4 channel amps are gone as well as my TomTom. But at least they did a good job, and didn't rip the top open or anything. They used something to jimmy the door open and got the stuff out and actually locked the oors back from me. Of course during this time I have no insurance on her, so there gies 3k easy. But its all good.

Now I tow her on a dolly to where I am staying now and send the car to a shop to have the clutch replaced. This brings us to about current date minus a couple weeks. Install went okay guess. Had them insert some new motor mounts, pivot ball, clutch fork, and some other stuff I can't remember. Basically everything that is a component on the clutch assembly and can go wrong, was replaced. Also had transmission fluid replaced, and had my FMIC pipped and reinstalled.

About right here is when I make the decision to do the rest of the work left on the car myself, and not go through mechanic's or shops anymore, because there is too much stuf I don't know about the car. This and DSM's that I should know by doing the work on my own. So I've been pretty hands on since that day and just diving in there with the help of tuners and everyone on here. I'm like a 5 year old newbie on a lot of stuff on this car, but I'm trying to learn. Even though there isn't much left to do engine wise, there is plenty of body, cosmetic interior, custom fabrication, suspention, brakes, and replacing top along with a few other things I'm overlooking right now, to do and learn from.

I go to pick car up and after doing some damn clutch adjustments, I start having cooling issues again. Turns out the slim fan on the passenger side was rubbing into the core where the radiator was resonated before, cracked and started leaking again. I used some VatoZone radiator leak stopper, and it actually worked fine. Then I remounted the fans onto a mounted radiator. (Fluids were already in there to check if leaks were fixed. I didn't plan this very well)

At this time, I can't figure out why the fans don't come on. So I guess I'll research a little more, and hopefully figure it out so I don't have to do a manual override.

Next day, while driving the car, I try to make a 3 point turn, and find out have no reverse, and 2nd is very hard to find. Long story short on that one is the shift linkage cable had an exposed wire and this will not allow the cable to function properly. In my attemp to fix this, I popped off the bushing from the cable o-ring. So now I'm doing a skateboard, well scooter bearing mod in my case. Actually, not too hard and the gains were a lot better that anticipated. Should have some shifter base plate bushings in from Hung Monday. Just make sure you use some old oil to help get the bushing in there.

While doing all this, I decided to gut the interior minus dash and look for any rust and attack that as well as clean and restore my once beautiful black leather interior and run some wiring for my rearview camera, amp and a/v plugs WB wiring and some other cosmetic stuff. Got ALOT of stains out of the carpet and got the mildewy smell out of car as well. Not too much rust on the inside. Wire brush and dremel worked wonders on it.

When I was doing this, somewhere in this process or the last, I some how disconnected the turbo timer, and stock temperature gauge stopped working.

That is where she stand today. We had some really nice weather today, so I put everything aside until tomorrow and dropped the top and cruised with radio off. Very nice ride today.

For some reason, I can't get any of my pics to upload, but I have a crp ton of em on all mentioned. I'll get em up here.

All pictures can be seen here on photobucket.
Screen name is DSMspyder99
dsmspyder99's Library | Photobucket

 

[gst96spyderman]

Shifter linkage bushing

After reading a lot on the skateboard bearings mod, I hear that there is an issue with them rusting and basically locking up. But why the hell does that even matter? Still haven't found out other than its a b to get off. I decide that I don't want to wait 2 days to get these bearings from extremepsi.com, and buy a $20 scooter from Wally world, because they don't sell skateboards or skates here. I get the bearings out and start install. Beginning to completion- 30 minutes. I sanded down the edges of the ring a little, and used some old oil to help slip the bearings in. Well, I got to about 70% insertion on the one bearing, and used a couple washers to help fill the gap. I didn't have C-Clamps, so I used 2 vice grips. At about 70% in, I felt that they were secure enough to stay and I didn't want to put any more pressure on the o-ring for the linkage cable that I can't seem to find a replacement on. TBS, this mod worked pretty well. I bought some brass bushings from ebay and decided to do this right. They should be here... iono. Still waiting on my shifter base bushings. I thought those should have been here a week ago, but thats typical I guess.

Pics can be found here
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/drivetrain-tech/457049-clutch-engages-into-1-3-4-5-a.html

Next, radiator fan and temp gauge fix.