New to DSM..

[311oneG]

Hey! New to dsm. Been in forums and building jeeps for a long time.. excited to build a car for a change!

Tomorrow I'm dragging home a 1G eclipse. I know it's a 4g63, 5 speed but not if its a gsx. It's going to need a ton of work... but neighbor is giving it to me for free..

I'll update tomorrow with what I find out!

 

[ThunderChild]

Welcome to the club! Make sure to fill out your profile once you get a chance to check out your new car.

I need to add the one I brought home today to my corral as well..

 

[311oneG]

I know it's red and it's got pop up headlights so it should be a 90 or 91 with a 6 bolt motor I think. Really excited to learn all the ins and outs of these. I've already watched a ton of youtube playlists of guys building cars.

 

[gdb1039]

And the addiction begins. Hopefully you don't have a drug habit cause once you start playing with a DSM you can't pay for drugs no more

 

[311oneG]

And the addiction begins. Hopefully you don't have a drug habit cause once you start playing with a DSM you can't pay for drugs no more

Ha ha! Well I work in law enforcement... so no drug habit! Wondering if I'll be able to pay for jeeps and a dsm we'll see!

 

[gdb1039]

Man jeeps and dsm's, your going to be living in a card board box, but you will have car parts for days

 

[311oneG]

I'm a hoarder of parts.. last week my wife bought me a new stereo for the cherokee she drives. I brought an extra dash panel into the house to see if I needed to cut it to put the radio in. She just rolled her eyes that I have spare parts of everything

 

[ThunderChild]

I'm a hoarder as well, currently could have 4 complete motors if I assembled everything, 5 complete AWD transmission/drivetrain setups, 8 or so complete turbo setups....this list goes on, and that's not even getting into the mod motor stuff

It's a fun addiction tho, and I'd rather do this than, idk, tweeze my eyebrows, or try to navigate most modern social situations... Haha. You're gonna love it

 

[311oneG]

So, say this car isn't a gsx. Is it worth trying to convert to awd? Are the parts available? Or for a mild and daily driven build is the fwd fine? I should add that I live where it snows but I have jeeps for that.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

I'm a hoarder as well, currently could have 4 complete motors if I assembled everything, 5 complete AWD transmission/drivetrain setups, 8 or so complete turbo setups....this list goes on, and that's not even getting into the mod motor stuff

It's a fun addiction tho, and I'd rather do this than, idk, tweeze my eyebrows, or try to navigate most modern social situations... Haha. You're gonna love it

Well I am not the only one.........I feel better!!
Welcome to the best DSM forum you could ever find. When you get the car home, post up a few pictures in your profile and tell us what you can, we will help fill in the blanks!
Marty

 

[ThunderChild]

So, say this car isn't a gsx. Is it worth trying to convert to awd? Are the parts available? Or for a mild and daily driven build is the fwd fine? I should add that I live where it snows but I have jeeps for that.

It is possible to do an AWD conversion, there's lots of good info on the site here about it you can search (*1g AWD conversion - for keywords), as long as you can find the parts to do so and have the knowledge/fortitude to tackle it (Since you have Jeeps, I'm sure fortitude is no problem).

Honestly a GST (fwd) is great driving car and maybe a little simpler to drive overall, but the AWD rewards are great!
For a DD, I think a fwd would be alot of fun and totally fine, and for winter months if you must hit that boost bug (cold temps are amazing for boosted rigs ), a decent set of snow tires will allow you to get around fairly well. Keep in mind, after about 250hp on a fwd all you do is spin in anything up to and including 3rd. I can't speak for auto fwd cars. Traction and torque steer are the biggest drawbacks to a fwd imho.

If not racing, I think a fwd is fine. my second 1g will be fwd (even tho it's an AWD car) and most recent 2g is a GST Spyder, and I had my current 1g fwd for a time. Less weight is nice, makes the car feel much more spry at lower power levels, and there's less parts to worry about upkeep on (there will be much upkeep...), But...if you want to really lay the hammer down, awd is King...or rwd, but that's a whole other mess.

 

[311oneG]

Awesome. Last fwd car I had was in high school about 15 years ago. 89 Honda prelude si. It's been jeeps ever since so rwd with 4wd.. I'd probably prefer awd but I think I'll have a lot more to worry about first whenbuilding this car..

Car has been sitting for a couple years and I heard the hatch glass is busted..

I'm expecting it to be in pretty bad shape. We'll see in a few hours.

 

[311oneG]

Got the car! It's going to be quite the project..

I believe it's a 90 GST. I have the vin and it says it was built in July 89. I'm looking up vin info now..

It was parked since 2010. Looks like it had an oil change about 700 miles before it was parked for a "misfire"

Well good news first.
46g3T motor is unmolested..
Has all 4 hubcaps!
Rear wing and side skirts are damage free
Sunroof is in good shape
Seats are dirty but no tears or worn spots
Gauges and steering wheel are good
Most body panels are straight


The bad
Needs new dash
Needs almost all new turn signal lenses and tail lights
Needs back window
Needs headliner and carpet (unless carpet can be cleaned)
Drivers side fender is bent
Needs paint.

 

[1cleangsx]

Welcome to club 90! It’s a bit of a bastard year but still has great potential I would check your local junkyards and craigslist to replace those tail lights and headlamps

 

[311oneG]

Thanks! I'll have to find the non-jeep sections

Looks like it is a 90. Carfax says no wrecks. And it was registered in 2011 last.

 

[ThunderChild]

Not too bad, about the same starting point I had with my red 92, be a fun project! Could go for lexan/plexi rear window if you can and want to?

90s are a lil different, but nothing massively bad to overcome as far as getting things working. Good luck man, keep us all posted!

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

When you need parts, ask Miller Import Parts, one of our supporting vendors in the bottom section of this site. Great guy and has a lot of parts. Also @dacowgod has had some part lately so you might want to ask him also.

 

[311oneG]

Sweet. I'm thinking the hard one will be the dash and the headliner.. maybe carpet?

 

[311oneG]

Is one tooth enough to cause issues? Like the previous owner thinking there was a misfire?

 

[311oneG]

Xx

 

[ThunderChild]

They're just clocked slightly, you'll want to line the lower crank sprocket up as well as the upper two marks. using the damper mark isn't as reliable as the stock damper can separate and rotate, so you'll want to check the actual lower belt sprocket with it's Mark. As long as all 3 line up and the uppers are level with the line on the cylinder head then it's in time. If the marks are slightly off, the tensioner may have collapsed. Either way, I think a misfire is unlikely from that.

I'd suspect a spark plugs, injectors, wires or coil packs. If those all check out (gonna take some time to check all that) then you might start testing the harness or check the ECU for damage.

I'd recommend doing a full maintenance rundown on it, including a full timing setup, general tune-up, check the cooling system etc etc..

 

[1cleangsx]

That does look like it’s off 1 tooth, but I agree make sure you can get the top and bottom to line up. I would just replace the timing belt and components and also the crank pulley. I pulled my motor in 2016 with 132000 miles on it with what I thought was a spun bearing do to a knocking sound. Upon tear down I found that none of the bearings had spun but my crank pulley was separating, so I upgraded to a fluidamper I also had a few leaky valve stem seals according to the machine shop. If your not interested in a rebuild you could just do a compression test to check the health of the motor, but I would defenantly consider a timing belt job and replacing the old worn out crank pulley

 

[311oneG]

I was reading every thread last night on timing issues and I think I have a pretty good handle on what I'm supposed to look for on the lower sprockets. I'll post up when I get a peak at them and see where I'm at.


My question with the "misfire" is I dont think this is an obd2 car, correct? Is it obd0? So if the po isn't mechanically inclined, would one tooth off make it run bad enough that they wouldn't know what it was and just think misfire?


As far as current plans I'm going to,
Pump out gas, oil change, spark plugs, air filter, coolant, check compression and double check timing..

Anything else?

 

[1cleangsx]

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

A misfire can be caused by several different things like a boost leak, improper plug gap or an issue with the valve train. I would just at least check your plugs, and see if you can get all your timing marks to line up. And I believe the ecu is obd1.

 

[1cleangsx]

There’s a pic of my motor with everything lined up, I had the luxury of timing it up on a stand which I’m sure is easier, but if you zoom in on the pic you can see crank sprocket mark lines up with the mark on the trigger plate, this is with the #1 cylinder at top dead center, and the balance shafts in phase and lined up