1997 GST to GSX The AWD Swap Story

[98mitsubishigst]

Hey everyone! i haven't done one of these build/journals since 2009, and i have to say.. I am pretty dang excited!

My last build was on a Spyder very long ago when i was a frequent forum guy. Since then i finished the Spyder
then i sold it to buy my beautiful DSM that i own now. I have had 20 other DSMS in this time, built, fixed, parted, cut up, and sold. This DSM i have kept over 5 years now (MAY 2010) and i finally plan on doing what i always dreamed.. Swapping to AWD!

My goals for this build are to AWD swap and then clean up the engine bay. A wire tuck, the strut towers need sanded down and resprayed, and the engine and trans need a little love.

Alright guys! enjoy!

 

[boost97gst]

Beautiful paint. Good luck man. My awd swap is SO close to wrapping up. Can't wait.
You going to keep it that low after the awd swap?

 

[2geclipse565]

Awesome to see! It still looks amazing, great job caring for it while it was in storage. Im sort of going through something similar. Im on my third GSX right now but this one I bought 4 years ago with only 66k miles on it. Its been sitting forever but I got DSM fever again and Im finally blowing the dust off to start prepping for this new project.

 

[98mitsubishigst]

she will still be getting the same suspension, but i believe ill raise her up. I am going to go race mode on here and put slicks and do all that jazz.. She made 400hp on an HX40 set up, i ran out of pump on e85..

I am shooting for 650-700 now.

 

[mikEclipse99]

Awesome! (this is sirwagner from instagram haha) good luck with everything! if you have any questions on the swap i just completed mine so its all fresh in my mind!

 

[974g63t]

I'm about to do the swap as well. Good luck! Keep us updated!

 

[mitsubishikid]

would be awesome to see how this goes, I'm definitely watching this thread man.

 

[98mitsubishigst]

Sorry its been a while! The parts car is cut up and the last thing i need is a AWD trans, i work 9-9 every day so much of my time is taken..

Im going to be start working on the car again soon =) ill be updating this weekend.

 

[taylork057]

nice color

 

[98mitsubishigst]

Alright everyone, Sorry it took so long to update, I am a car salesman for a dodge dealership and i work almost 5-6 days a week 9am-9pm so my time is very limited especially on this build.. But i snapped a good 50 pictures so far in the process.

We will start on the next post! Here we go!

 

[98mitsubishigst]

It started about 5 years ago, when i bought this car, i only built one dsm motor since, and i picked up this car because i always loved this color. The Cayenne red pearl is hands down the best. But i also wanted a 5 speed, i didn't want the automatic that i use to have. FWD wasn't all that bad when I was younger because i didnt care about making powerOnce i got over 400 i realized that FWD is the absolute worst, and I needed to swap AWD.

I Bought many AWD dsms before and always wanted to swap but with me being in college, and with be working so much, there wasn't a lot of time to do so. After my 6th shootout I decided it was time. And of course after dealing with listening to a few of my buddies making fun of me and telling me to just man up and do the swap, i got up and did it.

If any of you went to the most recent shootout, There was a hideous pink riced out DSM on the side of the road with a "For Sale" Sign on it.. i drove past it the first couple days at the shootout and then the final day i decided to pull in and see what it was all about. Here is a picture of that ... terrible looking dsm.

It came with a terrible front bumper, i threw it back in his yard as we pulled off.

It was a GSX/TSI! Who knew that monstrosity would be the beginning of my AWD swap. The DSM only had a rear end, driveshaft, transfer case left, But that was plenty enough to start. The rear subframe was the most important part that i needed. Oh and the brake set up, front suspension, driveshaft carrier brackets.

I planned to AAA the car back home to pittsburgh but i decided against it.

A week went by and i couldn't figure out if i wanted to fully commit to buying this car and finally doing the swap i been so scared to attempt to do before. Well i manned up, and I had my buddies drive me out in there cummins after work one night to pick the car up.

 

[98mitsubishigst]

We are in October at this point, and the weather is still beautiful out. But i knew i had to hurry and get the parts i needed off this car, and cut the car up before the first snow fell. So i invited some friends over, grabbed a case of beer, and we started tearing this car apart. And just like the last dsms that we bought, we tore the car apart and cut it up within a day.

The first thing we did was lowered the suspension down. This wasn't as easy as i thought because i had to buy enough dremel bits to figure out the location of the bolts.

Here is a picture of the AWD rear subframe bolts. These 4 bolts are a must for the AWD swap. The Fwd doesn't have bolts long enough to directly swap the rear end. You can buy the bolts if you didnt buy a donor car, but these are great to have.

Finding the holes was a devil, but the donor car i really didn't care about messing anything up. All 4 holes must be drilled out, then you can put a socket down below and loosen up the bolts to lower the subframe after all the suspension pieces are taken care of.

 

[98mitsubishigst]

After i finished with the rear end i started noticing something was going on with this car.. Whole car was pieced together as two separate cars! The front half was out of a FWD dsm, and the rear half of the car was AWD. I am not joking. The car was welded together. TWO SEPARATE CARS, WELDED TOGETHER. OHIO is nuts.

Incredible right? I don't have any idea how this was able to be done, but it was. And it was hideous. Haha.

But anyway, we finished taking everything out of the car, and cut the car up and scrapped it.

Here is what was left.

Make sure if anyone does take after me and wants to swap AWD, to take the straps for the gas tank off the car, you will need these as well to swap to your new set up. They look like this

 

[98mitsubishigst]

Now the fun begins.

Pulled my car in the garage and i jacked the car up and put it on jack stands. (You never quite realize how much rust you really do have until you start doing this swap haha.

Bye Bye FWD Exhaust! You will be missed, you sounded amazing.

After demeling holes everywhere in my body of my FWD shell, i came to the conclusion i suck at lining everything up haha. It took a whole day and atleast 20 dremel blades to cut enough holes to get the subframe out, but she is out none the less.

And a little mock up just to see what it would look like. Lets just say i got pretty damn excited once i started seeing progress.

Oh and i picked up these evo 8 wheels, i traded my xxrs. Going to see how i like the wheels after i get everything done. Maybe ill end up selling them for something more flashy.. Who knows we will see though!

 

[98mitsubishigst]

Next was the FWD gas tank removal. This sucked due to me not getting rid of most of the e85 that was still left in the car, but i manned up and got it out anyway. Heres the picture of the gas tank area and the gas tank out of the car.

And of course, the install of the AWD gas tank. This picture is of the bolts that had to be dropped into the body of the car so you could then thread the gas tank straps in. Remember, the gas tank straps weren't on the fwd body, the fwd has mounts to hold it in. YOU ALSO HAVE TO CUT THESE MOUNTS OUT. I used a cut off wheel and then installed the gas tank accordingly. There is a great write up on how to do most of this, i followed that!

Heres a candid picture of me working on the rear end

 

[98mitsubishigst]

And the most beautiful thing.. THE REAREND IS UP AND IN!

I then decided to take the car out for a test drive to listen to see if anything in the rear end is making any funny noises. This felt great, no exhaust, and knowing I got a good bit done on the swap..

Here is the picture after a few weeks.. I didnt work on the car much but i realized that there was a bad noise coming from the rear end.. Later on i found out the rear end was locking up.. And the rear end was blown out... This was disappointing. And yes that is my evo x, she is my daily =)

 

[ThunderChild]

nice man, thats quite the undertaking!

im looking for another awd 1g shell right now to transplant, i dont have the nuts for a fwd-awd 1g conversion haha.

good luck keep up the good work!

 

[98mitsubishigst]

I pulled the car back into the garage tonight after i ordered a new rear end. The rear end came in and i swapped the old out, with the new. I pulled the axles out instead of dropping the whole subframe.

This was a PITA. But it is done. The old rear end you could barely spin the yoke. I guess thats what i get for hurrying up. haha Being impatient definitely set me back here. Anyway. Heres the inside of the old one.. i believe someone who didnt know what they were doing tried rebuilding it and failed and thats why the car was abandoned.. Besides the fact the old dsm was just two different cars and that looked sketchy as it was..

OLD REAR END

NEW REAR END INSTALLED

 

[98mitsubishigst]

nice man, thats quite the undertaking!

im looking for another awd 1g shell right now to transplant, i dont have the nuts for a fwd-awd 1g conversion haha.

good luck keep up the good work!

I am definitely learning a bit more about these cars every day. The biggest thing with this is the time.. And i don't have much of that.. And yes, i read the 1g AWD swap is much harder than the 2g. But i couldn't trash this shell. My FWD dsm was too beautiful to just sell or scrap for another..

So ill finish it by summer, i still need to find a clutch that'll hold 600hp and a transmission.

 

[98mitsubishigst]

And that is where i am at in this point of the swap. The rear end is in and ready to go along with the AWD gas tank and the AWD gas tank has been wired.

I am waiting for the morning to take a test drive to make sure the rear end isn't making any more noises so i can pull the engine out and get it ready for the transmission swap.

Also while I'm waiting for the transmission, i will be sanding the strut towers down and everything for a respray. The bay needs to look perfect for the shootout this year!

Till next time i post!

Any questions or comments or anything ill be on to reply too!

Goodnight all!

 

[ThunderChild]

I am definitely learning a bit more about these cars every day. The biggest thing with this is the time.. And i don't have much of that.. And yes, i read the 1g AWD swap is much harder than the 2g. But i couldn't trash this shell. My FWD dsm was too beautiful to just sell or scrap for another..

So ill finish it by summer, i still need to find a clutch that'll hold 600hp and a transmission.

yea i know how that goes. time is the ultimate premium. couldnt imagine having more social responsibilities that work, gym and car stuff (nor do i want any more, haha)
the 1g is definitely more involved from what i read, hence why i will wait for the perfect find. like i said keep plugging on it, itll get there, and i bet it will look awesome!

 

[deviousgst]

You ever finish the swap?

 

[ThunderChild]

And that is where i am at in this point of the swap. The rear end is in and ready to go along with the AWD gas tank and the AWD gas tank has been wired.

I am waiting for the morning to take a test drive to make sure the rear end isn't making any more noises so i can pull the engine out and get it ready for the transmission swap.

Also while I'm waiting for the transmission, i will be sanding the strut towers down and everything for a respray. The bay needs to look perfect for the shootout this year!

Till next time i post!

Any questions or comments or anything ill be on to reply too!

Goodnight all!

You ever finish the swap?

Also curious, as I have my 97 Spyder I'll be doing this same swap to, have been doing research again and ran across this thread again.

Thread necromancy!