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Road Race Build GSXbooster's Talon TSi AWD

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I acquired my 1995 Eagle Talon TSi AWD on December 6th (a birthday present to myself) as a project car with at first focusing on restoring it to daily driver status.

Maintenance was terribly lacking and of course it came with plenty of worn old parts that needed replacing.
The mileage was a bit on the high end with 145,000 miles on the odometer.
Horribly fading and peeling clear coat.

Broken tail light lens, cracked windshield, completely destroyed interior (I think the previous owner must have had some kind of animals living in it). And a bunch of other mechanical gremlins I'd soon run into.

However! What I could see right away was the potential. Zero accidents and a straight body/frame, NO rust anywhere (Southern California car).

The basic selling points to me were...
1. Hard top (no sunroof)
2. No ABS
3. Straight body

Plus I talked the seller down to $2500! In retrospect maybe I could've talked him down a little bit more.

All in all I never regretted the decision. It's currently at a state that has caused me to re-focus the purpose for me doing anything else to the car. Thanks to the influential and motivational efforts of our other DSM bretheren road racing and hot lapping, the new goal is obtaining my time trial license and compete in time trials with the NASA Rocky Mountain Region.

This journal will document all I have done to the car with some notes for reference along the way. This will also serve for documenting my progress with HPDE and further refining and development of the car.

Fixing the interior mess

Cleanup and interior swap!
The first things that needed addressing were the ruined carpet, front seats, rears seats and roof cloth/upholstery. They were trashed and it smelled absolutley awful in the car!
So out came everything! I disinfected and cleaned up the interior chassis very well. I got to see that the interior of the car had no rust anywhere and was in excellent shape all around.

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I swapped over as many things as I could from my old GSX including the dashboard, Momo Race steering wheel, door panels, rear seats, seat belts, and interior plastic panels. I redid the roof upholstery with some cloth material I found that was as close to the OEM color as I could find. Also I replaced the carpet with a new one from a company that makes aftermarket replacements...

StockInteriors.com
1995-1998 Eagle Talon Carpet, Coupe Passenger Area
Item# 8019 - Plush Cut Pile - Mist Grey

I ended up cutting it up alot to make it fit but it came out decent.

I have a passenger Corbeau A4 reclineable seat I also swapped over. Unfortunately the driver seat was broken at the metal base from the impact of the accident of my previous GSX.
So I replaced the driver seat with a much better and comfortable fitting Momo Start seat!

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The install of the Momo seat wasn't bad at all. I used the driver side Corbeau seat floor bracket along with some Sparco side mounts.

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I ended up with a nice and low seat position and I centered it as best as I could to the steering wheel. I'll need to do some more fab work to the tunnel area in the future to get it perfect though. I fit really nicely in the seat with plenty of head room with my helmet on. I still have some forward and tilt adjustability of the seat left too.
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(That's a "handy" way of measuring!)

While I was working on the interior I decided to add a few small things to the shifter area including the following...

Megan Racing short throw shifter
Prothane shifter base bushings
Solid shifter cable bushings
Stainless steel clutch line. (All from ExtremePSI if I remember correctly.)
 
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Maintenance & upgrades pt.1

The swap over of parts from my old 1998 Eclipse GSX continued! This time it was the brake system, front and rear knuckles (uprights), hub assemblies and of course wheels and tires.

The brake system:
JDM Galant front knuckles
2gb GSX rear knuckles (the previous car was a 1998 model)
3g brake master cylinder and 3g brake booster
Goodridge stainless steel brake lines
Front and Rear Lancer Evolution Brembo brake calipers and rotors.

To get the lines to fit into the master cylinder properly I needed to replace the fittings that go into the master cylinder with a different type. It's not very difficult as long as you pay attention to detail, take your time and use the right tools. I bought a small tube cutter and a tube flaring kit. I also had to source the fittings from an online shop (ebay maybe?) - as they were not readily available at any autoparts or hardware store.

2g line fittings are M10x1.0 inverted flare
3g line fittings are M10x1.0 bubble flare (must use these)

(I'll look for a pic of the fittings - I think I had a couple of spare ones that came in a bag)

This was something I hadn't done with the previous car and I figured I would do it right this time around. The OEM fittings will thread into the ports of the 3g master cylinder but they will not seat correctly all the way. I had just risked over tightening them until they didn't leak. Not the right way to do that!

As I worked on swapping over the rear knuckles, I noticed the bushings were worn out and needed replacing.
So I ordered and installed some Prothane bushings for the rear knuckles and also for the sway bar mounts. I replaced the bushings in the trailing arms and bought some new 3g upper control arms and replaced the rubber bushings on those with Prothanes as well. An SPC camber kit for the rear uppers also went on.

I also did the OEM front driver side compression arm bearing flip (with a new OEM compression arm) while I was swapping the compression arms.
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(The top one is the new arm with flipped bearing, bottom is the 1995 arm)

I got some Volk Metal Craft rear toe arms to replace the stock toe arms.
These offer a better range of adjustability on the alignment rack.
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I decided I would keep the stock suspension the car came with for a while. At least until I figured out what coilovers I wanted to go with.

Some neat info I found about the earlier 2g awd models was that they have a little bit stiffer spring rates...

95-96 OEM Stock 2G AWD

Front: 265
Rear: 162 (+/- 8)
97-99 OEM Stock 2G AWD
Front: 246
Rear: 151

The previous car had some old Tein Super Street coilovers I had bought and installed a long time ago. I didn't bother swapping those over because frankly, I didn't like them and had no interest in rebuilding/getting them refurbished.

After I finished swapping over these parts I started to look at adding some more performance little by little.
I had bought these originally to install on the previous car, CompWorks fender braces.

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fender-installed-jpg.jpg


Even with just these I could feel a huge improvement in chassis stiffness. Definitely a must do for better handling. Combine these with a hard top (non sunroof) car and you get a really solid feeling chassis! Really nice.

I replaced the bent and dented OEM SMIC - Realizing just how beaten up the stock unit was, I was lucky enough to find a really nice, bigger ADFX unit for sale on ebay. It could've been the fact that the OE SMIC was damaged pretty bad but the ADFX unit seemed to have increased turbo response!

smic-adfx-vs-oem-1-jpg.jpg

(side by side comparison)

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(old SMIC)

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(new SMIC)

Other things of note that I did was replaced a leaking tail shaft seal, changed the transmission fluid to Redline MT90, for the transfer case I used Redline Light Weight shock proof and for the rear diff some more MT90 since it was the non-LSD version.
 
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Mechanical maintenance & upgrades pt.2

I started to have problems with coolant leaking which I found was coming from the upper radiator inlet. It turned out the lip had broken off there and there was also some leaking from around the end tanks. So I replaced the leaking and broken stock radiator with a 1g Mishimoto aluminum radiator.
In order to make it fit properly, I took it to a welder and had the lower mounting pegs moved about 1" off to the side on each side.
The top pegs need to be moved ever slightly as well for a perfect fit. Less than the bottom pegs but I don't remember the exact measurement. I also installed Mishimoto's fan shroud with fans to compliment the radiator.

On my way home from work one day all of a sudden the car shut off! I managed to coast into a neighborhood so I wasn't blocking traffic. I called a tow truck and had the car towed home.

The problem turned out being a balance shaft belt mishap. The previous owner didn't do a thorough job replacing the timing belt. It had snapped and took out the crank position sensor (Always replace both belts!) I replaced the timing belt, balance shaft belt and timing components with all new quality parts from the auto parts store.

While I was in there I also installed my Fluidampr pulley from my previous engine build.
I swapped over my RVR intake manifold (with the inlet ported out to 60mm) and also my 1g turbo throttle body.

I had always wanted to relocate the battery to the trunk to clear some space and have a little better weight distribution. Plus the corner where the battery sat in OE form had alot of battery acid stains. This was a good reason to remove it from that location so I could remove all the surface corrosion and seal it with primer. I'll eventually repaint the entire engine bay when I swap over my built motor.

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Hidden in the trunk...

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I installed a set of DC Sports front and rear upper strut bars. Since I didn't have the battery in the engine bay any more I went with the front bar designed for the non-turbo models.

I then swapped out the stock motor mounts with Avid Racing Tuner Series 75A motor mount units. To finish up that little project I ordered a Bulfab front crossmember - then I had it powder coated black before installing it.

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I added a mechanical boost gauge from STACK and mounted it in an Ortiz center vent gauge pod. I replaced the instrument cluster lights with some dimmable LED bulbs from "superbrightleds.com", I chose red of course. :) The install of these was super easy and only required minor trimming in 2 small areas to get 2 of the bulbs to fit properly. Nothing to it with a handy dandy dremmel.

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Before moving ahead with any more upgrades to the car, I decided to address any and all leaks I could find.
I replaced the water lines on the T-25 turbo - the previous owner had installed some flexible stainless steel lines which were leaking a little. So I switched the lines back to the OEM hard lines with new OEM hoses and clamps. Nice and clean.

The oil filter housing was leaking oil. From a previous experience I new it was the oil ring gasket that sits inside housing. I ordered a new ring gasket and easily fixed that mess. I also replaced the rubber hoses and clamps from the oil cooler with new OEM ones.

I rebuilt my leaking power steering pump using an OEM rebuild kit. That was a little tedious but not a hard job really.

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Man, if it's not one thing it's another! I suppose that comes with the territory of an older neglected car..
Shortly after the car developed a bit of smoking on start up and at idle. Ugh!
So I bought a valve compressor tool and I replaced valve seals - No more smoking! Yay!

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A little more handling upgrades & carbon fiber goodness

At this point the car is now caught up with maintenance and some nice little upgrades. So I wanted to further play with some custom alignment settings and stiffen it up some more.

To compliment the DC Sports upper strut tower bars, I added Road Race Engineering's front lower stress bar.

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This piece required some extra spacers to fit correctly but nothing major in terms of install problems. This is on my 1995 front subframe and there is a slight difference between the 2ga and 2gb front subframes in the support plates for the lower control arms.

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A very noticeable brace that works beautifully with the upper strut bar. The car stiffened up even more with this bar. Not bad for still being on stock sway bars and springs/shocks.

For more front camber adjustment, I installed a set of Megan Racing camber arms with Prothane bushings in the anchor bolts.

megan-control-arm-4-jpg.jpg


Then I decided to install some carbon fiber parts. Carbonetics v1 AB carbon fiber hood and CSL carbon fiber hatch.

I had ordered the hood a while back but never got the chance to install it on my old GSX, until recently on my Talon. The wait for one of Sergio's carbon fiber pieces is enough to test anyone's patience. But the wait is worth it! At least to me.

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Cutting into a brand new carbon fiber hood is incredibly nerve wrecking!

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Lot's and lot's of measuring before cutting. I think I spent 2 whole days installing the aerocatch latches. Not to mention it was my first time doing this kind of project.

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Done son!

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I also looked into some heat reflective tape and found a company in Canada called Goldilocks Automotive. I decided to buy a roll of their GA Elite Gold Thermal Tape (DGA00055EG) and put some on the underside of the hood where the most heat was concentrated. Expensive stuff! But after some researching I was confident I had some excellent quality tape.

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A little back track, right before I decided to install my hood, I had found someone in my home state that was selling a new CSL carbon fiber hatch. So I hopped on that immediately! No wait time - score!!

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I contacted Sergio and ordered one of the last FAL hatch glass pieces he had in stock. The wait for that was actually not long at all - since he didn't have to make it haha.

I had to do some minor trimming/shaving of the edges of the glass when I installed it.

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I used Metro Moulded Ribbon Sealer MW38115 (for auto glass replacement) and a new OEM weatherstripping/trim around the glass.

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After a little while I added some super low profile bolts on the sides to fully secure it in place.

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Hood and hatch installed!

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Mmm, I likes my carbon fiber, now I was ready to address some key areas to begin to turn it into a competition worthy car.

Stay tuned for more!
 
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Subframe bushings, Alternator relocation, RM Sway bars & Rear LSD upgrade

On my quest to further improve on the chassis rigidity, I looked at bushing options for the subframes.
The bushings on the front and rear subframes were in bad shape anyway and it was time to replace them with something better. So here we go!

I pulled out and worked on the front subframe first.

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The new bushings that were replacing the old ones. Split Motorsports aluminum front subframe bushings.

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I cleaned up the subframe and ground away all the surface rust it had accumulated due to a leaking battery in it's past. I used some wire wheels and a drill to get that job done.

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Then before installing the new bushings, I gave it a nice few coats of paint using VHT High Temperature Roll Bar and Chassis - Satin Black color. It turned out pretty nice.

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Before I put it back in I gave the undercarriage area a good cleaning and coated it with Eastwood Rubberized Rust Encapsulator Undercoating to protect the body.

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I've always thought the alternator was in a funky and cramped spot in the engine bay. Too close to the exhaust heat and right underneath a potential fluid leak zone (power steering pump). Relocating it to the rear makes so much sense to me. As well I am able to upgrade to a much better unit and balance out the weight a little.

With the front subframe out of the way, I had plenty of room to install my new alternator in its new location.

Alternator Relocation:
I Used Jay Racing's kit for the 2G with GM/Saturn alternator with the Alloy steel (Heavy Duty) main bracket.

I ordered the alternator from Motor City Reman:
Mitsubishi Eclipse 1 Wire Replacement Alternator
Item# 8215-Eclipse1W - H.D. MAXX 105 Amp
Delco Style CS-130 1 Wire alternator

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Now the front subframe was ready to go back in. I installed it using new OEM hardware.

For the rear subframe, I would have loved to have gone with one of Volk Metal Craft's tubular rear subframe's but perhaps in the future I will. Instead I went with the next best thing and replaced the bushings with stiffer polyurethane units and reinforced the rear differential mounting with one of Boston Hatcher's polyurethane mount kits.

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I sourced the bushings from Torque Solutions and Split Motorsports. After cleaning off the rear subframe I gave it a nice coat of the VHT High Temperature Roll Bar and Chassis - Satin Black too.

Cleaned up with the old bushings removed...

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Split Motorsports differential bushings installed...

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Torque Solutions bushings ready to go on...

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Boston Hatcher's mount welded on and painted...

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While I had the rear subframe out, I decided to send my NON-LSD rear differential over to Team Rip Engineering along with a JDM Evo mechanical type rear LSD.

I had purchased one of these to originally attempt to install myself. After reading many reviews in both the DSM and Evo communities, I quickly decided to let TRE perform their magic instead.

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They did their full rebuild service along with their 12-plate MAX LOCK 1.5 way LSD upgrade, heavy duty side cover and shot peening of the internals.

This is probably my favorite modification on the car. The reason for that is because of how much it changes the car's handling characteristics. Even just this LSD upgrade on a somewhat "stock" 2g is AMAZING. I'll elaborate a little bit more on this with some actual track day experience in a near future post.

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I also gave the rear end where the rear subframe bolts to, a nice cleaning and a good coating of the Eastwood Rubberized Rust Encapsulator Undercoating here as well.

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The rear subframe was now ready to go back on. I installed it using new OEM hardware.

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The RM Racing sway bars. I had always wanted a set of these sway bars. For years I looked for them in the classifieds after Mach V stopped making them. With the efforts of other members we were able to petition them to be remade! This was a pretty awesome accomplishment that I was proud to be a part of. I like to think my prodding and begging emails to Dave helped to some degree. :) These bars made another big difference in the handling and feel of the car. Very solid and planted feeling.

Front sway bar comparison...

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Rear sway bar comparison...

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Rear end back in place with the RM rear sway bar installed...

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A little more on the alternator setup:
Originally I tried the install per instructions but I had bad luck with the power steering belt being thrown off the pulley. No matter how tight I made it.

It's kinda scary when all of a sudden you lose power steering during a mid turn.

To make it work (in all situations including racing) I utilized the 2 belt system instead of the 3 belts that the kit is originally intended to be used with.

Using only 2 belts means I didn't have to move the power steering over with the little bracket that is included in Jay Racing's kit. (I think this was the source of the issue.)

I had to source the right size belt.
I ALSO had to take into account my Fluidampr pulley which is slightly larger in diameter than the OE pulley.
It took a few trips back and forth to the auto parts store but then I finally found the right one...

Master Pro Serpentine Belt K040325 (4K325)
9/16" x 33 1/4" OC
(14mm x 844mm OC)

The belt fits perfectly! No more slipping! It doesn't make any noise on cold startups or fully warmed up. And of course it doesn't get thrown off the pulley anymore.

Great success!

Finally:
I added some Whiteline rear sway bar lateral locks. A nice little touch to help keep the rear sway bar from shifting laterally on hard corners.

Left side...

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Right side...

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More to come!
 
I have front bushes but never installed them, how did you get your old ones out? Just air hammer them?
 
I used a hand drill to drill out circles on the inside and around the rubber parts of the bushings. After that I used a hand saw to cut the metal sleeves in half. Then a nice, big hammer and a punch/chisel to knock them out.

Come to think of it I think I used a sledgehammer (BFH).
 
I used a hand drill to drill out circles on the inside and around the rubber parts of the bushings. After that I used a hand saw to cut the metal sleeves in half. Then a nice, big hammer and a punch/chisel to knock them out.

Come to think of it I think I used a sledgehammer (BFH).
Cool i might take a shot at it i might as well use them for now if i got them LOL
 
Feal coilovers, adjustable front end links, tubular control arms & Carbing strut brace

The car was now ready for some good coilovers.

I waited for a while on getting some because I was unsure of what brand to go with. Originally I wanted something like JIC FLT-A2s. Then I looked at the DG spec Koni coilovers - a fine option. But after further researching and careful consideration, I ordered a brand new set of 441 coilovers from Feal.

Front top hats
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Rear top hats
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The ride comfort is fantastic and the car turns in so easily and sharp with the proper front top hats this suspension system was designed to have. They are the 441 "basic" kit with their white springs. 10k springs in the front and 6K springs in the rear.
I'll eventually upgrade to some stiffer Swift springs and get the shocks revalved as I develop the car more and move up to stickier tires. But they are a great starting point for me.

I installed them along with some other suspension arm upgrades I had been gathering specifically for this momentous occasion.

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Volk Metal Craft's front lower control arms
Volk Metal Craft's rear trailing arms
Bobby's rear lower control arms

I adjusted the ride height to be as even on all four corners as I could get it using a basic measuring tape. The fronts are actually almost maxed out for as low they can go.
However Paul's front lower control arms actually lower the front of the car an additional 1/2" without losing shock travel due to their design. Very nice!

The rears are a different story and they can go SUPER low. Like tucked into the wheel wells low. I of course adjusted them to match the front ride height.

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After the install I knew the rear tires would rub, so I made an appointment with one of my local race shops to get the rear fenders rolled.

I went to a shop called Mofab and they did a fantastic job! They used the proper fender rolling tool (the one that attaches to the wheel hub with the wheel off) and applied heat to the lips as they carefully and slowly rolled them. You can't tell at all that the rears are rolled, unless you actually look up into the wheel wells. Super clean job!

Since the car was sitting much lower they also did an alignment afterwards.

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The only issue I ran into with my new coilovers was that the DC Sports front bar I had on there no longer fit! The adjustment knobs on the tops interfered with the bars and I couldn't even get the sides of the bar to seat, much less bolt them down.

I looked for some designs that would work but I could only find the ones from eBay and Megan Racing. I wanted a solid one piece that would fit perfectly.

I finally found a solid aluminum one piece bar.

Okuyama Carbing Type 1 front strut bar. I didn't even know they made one for the 2g chassis! Made to order, straight from Japan with a 3 month wait time! Totally worth it.

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It's very pretty and very nicely constructed. It's a solid single piece and it fits perfectly around the shock towers without interfering with my coilover adjustment knobs.

On install I had to (very carefully) cut off the brake master cylinder stopper in order for the bar to fit. Besides the fact I'm using a 3g master cylinder, I figured maybe they have different ones in the Eclipse's in Japan?

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I'll get it welded back on at a later time with the correct positioning. It's actually not too far off at all, but for now it's all good.

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Since the car is now sitting low and pretty that means there was now preload on the sway bars. Bobby's rear lower control arm's have adjustable end links but I still had to find a solution for the fronts.

So to remedy that I installed some front adjustable end links.
I sourced the parts and put them together using a tutorial turbosax2 had written up:
https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/adjustable-front-sway-bar-end-links.244625/

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These items are a must have to achieve proper corner weight balancing and remove the preload the sway bars get when lowering the car.

Left side end link
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Right side end link
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The car still needs a corner balance adjustment as I haven't gotten around to that yet. I also need to install Bobby's bumpsteer steer kit and get that adjusted as well.

These things are on the top of my list of things to do.


More to come!
 
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They had the same DSM's in japan so i assume thats for the stock master but its cool it had that attached.

Its all coming together nicely and interested to see how well the corner balancing comes out
 
My goal is for a corner balance and bump steer adjust be done before my next open lapping day.

But as it is currently, the suspension setup is not optimized without those adjustments.
 
Installing gauges and turbo-back exhaust

I installed a couple of gauges that I deem the most important.
An AEM oil pressure gauge (from my previous car) and a new Innovate LC-2 wideband sensor gauge.

To install the oil pressure gauge I decided to do it as clean as possible of an install. I routed the wiring along the top of the wheel well, underneath the driver side fender. I zip tied it to the chassis wiring harness that also runs through there. If you look closely you can see it.

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I think it came out nice and stealthy, and kept the wiring away from any danger of damage.

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I used one of the ports on the stock oil filter housing for the pressure reading.

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For the wideband wiring I used the same spot through the fire wall as the boost gauge and also where I'm running the positive wire through to the battery in the back of the car.

Gauges installed - from left to right: oil pressure, wideband and boost
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Since my wideband gauge was ready in place, it was time for me to upgrade the stock exhaust system to something bigger and higher flowing. A few reasons for this...

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1. Dulls down the torque hit from the T-25 turbo - good for the transmission.
2. Makes me more noticeable in traffic - both on the street and on the race track.
3. I will eventually swap out the T-25 turbo with an Evo III 16g turbo that I have stored away.

I've owned the Greddy Power Extreme catback at one point and I really liked the sound and look of it. Unfortunately I sold it a long time ago (it's rare now and no longer available). I also previously had the Megan Racing catback and I liked that one too though it was a bit louder (it had less resonators in the piping).

So I looked for a bit and came up with a few of options... do I get an STM catback (a bit pricey), a Megan Racing exhaust? (I had one before and it was nice) or try out something new and a little different?

I ordered an SRS cat-back exhaust and was pleasantly surprised and satisfied with the fit and quality of construction. 3 inches all the way through and full stainless steel. Really an awesome exhaust. Especially for the price!

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I originally ordered the non burnt tip version but they sent me the burnt tip one anyway.
Oh well no big deal.

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I used my 3 inch downpipe from my previous car as it had a nice Vibrant high flow cat I had gotten welded in. I also added a tubular O2 housing to complete the system.

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All in all everything bolted up pretty well. Except for a section where the downpipe/cat connects to the catback.

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I took the car to Mofab and they fixed that for me in no time. The car sounded like a dump truck as I drove through the neighborhood at 6am.

They removed that neckdown portion and expanded the downpipe out a little bit. They welded in a straight section, keeping the flanges.

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They also added the bung I needed to the downpipe for the wideband O2 sensor. (Note: Not the bung in the picture above, but one I had welded on up stream closer to the O2 housing, before the high flow cat.)

Everything came out very well! I've got a nice rumbly sound at idle that's close to stock sounding. It's a little louder at cruise but without the drone. It sounds nice and bearable. At WOT is where I can hear the exhaust a bit more but not too loud or obnoxious.

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Next up, an update from my first HPDE event!
 

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HPDE 1

My first HPDE event was on Sunday, October 13th 2019. The race track, which is my home track since it's the closest to me, is called High Plains Raceway.

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To prepare the car:

I changed the Engine oil and used Valvoline VR1 20w50 Racing Oil. I accidentally over filled it a tiny bit but I don't think that caused any issues. It worked great and brought my oil pressure up a bit when it was fully warmed up at idle. Idle went up to around 5-7 psi from previously 2-3 psi using 10w30. This is on the stock motor with high mileage.

I replaced the Front wheel hub bearings with new OEM units.
The ones on there before were also OEM units that I had replaced a long time ago and were off of my previous GSX. They now had some play in them though and needed to be replaced. I'm holding on to them so that I can get ceramic bearings installed in them.

I'll do the same with the rears in the near future.

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I also installed a set of Bobby's upper control arms.
I had found someone who was selling their unused new set of upper control arms. I had really wished I had signed up for this group buy for them a while back but I had to miss out on that.

These beauties replaced the Megan Racing upper control arms I had on there. The Megan arms are not terrible but perhaps just not very reliable in terms of keeping the camber settings in some street driving with occassionaly driving over a minor bump/dip on the road. That made me feel that they would certainly lack in racing conditions with high load cornering. They use slots with bolts to tighten them down.

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Bobby's arms are very nice design. More adjustments are possible including caster and once you set the heim joints to the desired length, they will stay at that adjustment! Also the use of heim joints on the inner rod ends gives a nice solid feeling to the steering.

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Installing them and setting them to the desired camber/caster was not difficult at all. I was aiming for a very modest -1.5 degrees of camber with 5 or 6 degrees of caster. I did a little math and figured out how much to adjust out the rod ends. I didn't get a chance to give the car an alignment check before the event but I said screw it! Just send it!

Stuff I took with me:

For the car:
Wrenches w/ wheel lock key
Qt. of oil
Coolant
Shop towels
Gloves
Glass cleaner
Blue painter's tape (for putting my number on the doors)

For myself:
Lounging folding chair
Change of clothes (didn't need them)
Water bottles (should've taken some food too!)
Sunblock (I forgot this)

So now for the actual track experience:
Full-Course.jpg

Full course: 2.55 miles
The track has some really fun elevation changes with challenging turns and transitions as well as a really awesome high speed straight section.

The first thing I did when I got to the track was head to the tech inspection station. I was thinking it was going to be a very detailed and strict ordeal but it wasn't bad at all instead it was a welcomed brief inspection. They pretty much just check the seat belts and tail lights are working and that the wheels aren't going to fall off. Also no fluids leaking onto the pavement.

After that I parked my car and made my way to the driver's meeting for a briefing of the day and what to expect, where to go, etc.

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1st session - All about memorizing the turns and learning the driving line.

Power oversteer: There were few times I had messed up and understeered into turns, but laying down the throttle would bring the back around very nicely and correct it! This LSD really made the car rotate when I needed it too despite my mess ups. The rear end is catchable though and I could also make it step out on trail braking as well, which I learned to be careful coming into a corner at high speed. I did do a nice controlled drift through one of the longer corners and surprised myself and my instructor who was riding along!

Straight speed: A little confidence uninspiring due to the messed up toe alignments and the caster being uneven. My Top speed was only around 100 mph. But I was getting the braking points down pretty well.

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2nd session - I went a little faster, but I had to pit in early.

I was into the third or fourth lap when coming out of a turn, accelerating full throttle, when heard a pop sound. The car suddenly jolted a little and would not accelerate. I right away had a feeling it was an intercooler coupling that popped off. I limped it to the pit and back to my parking spot. Sure enough after opening the hood and looking around for a minute, I found the culprit was the intercooler hose/coupler that connects to the throttle body elbow. Easy fix. I tighten it down again with the clamp and all was good again.

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3rd session - My best session, much faster and could really smell the heated brake pads.

This was my most fun session. At this point I had the turns & driving line memorized. Driving in a much more confident way, also started to reveal how much the rear LSD is working. I love this mod. The car didn't feel dangerous at all instead it was fun. The most fun I've ever had in a DSM in fact. Because of my wonky alignment settings I knew I couldn't realistically achieve the best grip so I just went for getting the feel of how the car wanted to behave without over speeding into turns.

4th session - Called it early and left satisfied.

I chose to forego this one and took off home! I didn't want to push my luck with the bad alignment. Also the previous session was not that long ago - like 20 minutes in between. There were only 3 or 4 cars on track though and it would've been cool but eh whatevs. Time to hit up some open lapping days until HPDE starts again.

Summary of the day:

No spin outs and I didn't go off track once! But I do need more seat time to really get the driving line down. I didn't pass anyone as my goals for the day were to just get a feel for the car and learn the track and the rules for my class - passing rules and the meaning of flag colors.

After looking at the tire wear on the front tires, my instructor pointed out that the tire pressure were pretty good and the camber was good. I was making use of the full tire thread.

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Filled up with some pump gas at the track before heading home.

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After my HPDE event, I took the car for an alignment check and I wasn't too far off on the front. In fact, only the left side needed some slight tweaking to match the right side settings.
The caster was uneven by 1.3 degrees or so and the camber about .5 degrees. The toe was a bit off and uneven though.

The rear camber and toe were off significantly (in particular the rear left).

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Some goals on preparation for the next track day:
A fine tuned alignment!
I'll be trying a little more camber...

Front
Camber: -2
Caster: 6°
Toe: 0.00”

Rear
Camber: -1°
Toe: 0.00”

The car also still needs a corner balance adjustment as I haven't gotten around to that yet. Doing so will maximize the handling potential of the coilovers' weight transfer and balance.

Also I need to install and adjust Bobby's bump steer kit as well. I've had his kit for a while now but I can't just put them on without getting some accurate readings and adjusting them accordingly.

And finally, some friends to drive with and take some sweet on track action photos!


Also super stoked about this...

Track wheels acquired!
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Advan Racing RG-D 18x8.5 with +33 offset

I picked up a brand new set of some wheels I've wanted for a long time, Advan Racing RG-Ds in gold. I found them for a crazy good deal that was too good to pass up! I also got some Kyo-Ei Project Kics R26 lug nuts (Neo Chrome oohs) and Kyo-Ei hub centric rings.

Now I just need some tires.
 
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Nice work! When you set camber and caster up did you set it with a digital gauge and jacked up in the air or on the ground and keep raising to adjust etc?

Im asking as i may done some tip videos on how to setup stuff and the best way to do certain things to help others do it and checking correctly their settings. (Only thing that cannot be checked it bumpsteer withiut that gauge kit)

Did you get a chance to monitor your tire temps to see if you need more camber or keep it as it is front and back

And whens the next outing or did i miss that and not read it LOL
 
Nice work! When you set camber and caster up did you set it with a digital gauge and jacked up in the air or on the ground and keep raising to adjust etc?

Im asking as i may done some tip videos on how to setup stuff and the best way to do certain things to help others do it and checking correctly their settings. (Only thing that cannot be checked it bumpsteer withiut that gauge kit)

Did you get a chance to monitor your tire temps to see if you need more camber or keep it as it is front and back

And whens the next outing or did i miss that and not read it LOL

Thanks dude!
For setting up the camber/caster I followed your install instructions & notes as best as I could:

1.
The length of the OEM arms is roughly 16mm from fully threaded-in to threaded-out on all 3 rod ends.
2. 10mm of rod end thread = roughly 1° of camber
3. With all 3 of the rod ends fully threaded-in you will get -4° of camber and 6° of caster. (Thanks to @gsxitement for that info from his build journal.)

So with the above info I think I arrived at somewhere around 10mm of thread length on each rod end. I didn't use any tools for measuring.
I now have a camber/caster level gauge I can use for better 'approximate' readings. Of course using an alignment rack afterwards to finely dial them in. Currently I'm at -1.5° camber and caster is around 5.5°.
The rear is -.5° camber. Zero toe front & rear.

I did not monitor tire temps. I just roughly measured the arms, installed then and then drove to the track and raced.

My next HPDE event isn't until June! (so far away) but Open Lapping days have started up again at High Plains Raceway. I'd like to try to get a corner balance soon before attending - I'm thinking maybe next month or sooner if I can make it happen easily.
 
Thanks dude!
For setting up the camber/caster I followed your install instructions & notes as best as I could:

1.
The length of the OEM arms is roughly 16mm from fully threaded-in to threaded-out on all 3 rod ends.
2. 10mm of rod end thread = roughly 1° of camber
3. With all 3 of the rod ends fully threaded-in you will get -4° of camber and 6° of caster. (Thanks to @gsxitement for that info from his build journal.)

So with the above info I think I arrived at somewhere around 10mm of thread length on each rod end. I didn't use any tools for measuring.
I now have a camber/caster level gauge I can use for better 'approximate' readings. Of course using an alignment rack afterwards to finely dial them in. Currently I'm at -1.5° camber and caster is around 5.5°.
The rear is -.5° camber. Zero toe front & rear.

I did not monitor tire temps. I just roughly measured the arms, installed then and then drove to the track and raced.

My next HPDE event isn't until June! (so far away) but Open Lapping days have started up again at High Plains Raceway. I'd like to try to get a corner balance soon before attending - I'm thinking maybe next month or sooner if I can make it happen easily.

I wil do a video at some point of how to measure chassis camber on any surface as i plan to do some videos throughout the year to help everyone do tasks and how to take them on and what can be done eith basics and cannot be done without proper tools.

I think it might help the group out lots with home diy setting up just like i am and started off.

How did you find turning in and reaction of the front with the arms? Did you notice steering getting lighter or heavier after install? Im trying to log details so i know if i need to do any development work in the future and its always good for me know and get feedback. So any info or details i welcome them. Can reply here or pm me if you choose.

A good spot on setup will be much better and offer you alot more condidence for sure. Why have you opted for zero toe? You may want to add some toe in on the rear to keep the tire temps up a bit and if you work that with the rear toe arms and calculate bump toe you can work this to your advantage and also remember awd rear end toes out under acceleration.

Tire temp monitoring is not needed right away but its something to keep an eye on as it can help you out loads getting it right
 
How did you find turning in and reaction of the front with the arms? Did you notice steering getting lighter or heavier after install? Im trying to log details so i know if i need to do any development work in the future and its always good for me know and get feedback. So any info or details i welcome them. Can reply here or pm me if you choose.

My official review: These arms are absolutely great in all aspects. I can't find any thing negative about them. Their design is fantastic and the adjustability is perfect.
On track: The Turn-in is quick, light feeling and solid. I can feel the tarmac and the bank angle very well.
On the semi daily drive to work: (15 minutes from my home) The ride is smooth but direct. Not harsh at all as you'd expect. I drive the car 2 or 3 times a week (not very long distances) to and from work. I pick up my daughter from daycare on the way home. Toddler approved. : )

A good spot on setup will be much better and offer you alot more condidence for sure. Why have you opted for zero toe? You may want to add some toe in on the rear to keep the tire temps up a bit and if you work that with the rear toe arms and calculate bump toe you can work this to your advantage and also remember awd rear end toes out under acceleration.

Honestly, I was going for a somewhat neutral but improved setting. I didn't think to get into toe changes but I will try that rear toe setting as you suggest. I've only started to chase that 'perfect lap' but all advice is greatly welcomed!
I can't thank you enough Bobby for all the awesome engineering and work you do for this platform.

Now I need to catch up on your parts and get those rear uppers ; )
 
Thanks dude!
For setting up the camber/caster I followed your install instructions & notes as best as I could:

1.
The length of the OEM arms is roughly 16mm from fully threaded-in to threaded-out on all 3 rod ends.
2. 10mm of rod end thread = roughly 1° of camber
3. With all 3 of the rod ends fully threaded-in you will get -4° of camber and 6° of caster. (Thanks to @gsxitement for that info from his build journal.)

So with the above info I think I arrived at somewhere around 10mm of thread length on each rod end. I didn't use any tools for measuring.
I now have a camber/caster level gauge I can use for better 'approximate' readings. Of course using an alignment rack afterwards to finely dial them in. Currently I'm at -1.5° camber and caster is around 5.5°.
The rear is -.5° camber. Zero toe front & rear.

I did not monitor tire temps. I just roughly measured the arms, installed then and then drove to the track and raced.

My next HPDE event isn't until June! (so far away) but Open Lapping days have started up again at High Plains Raceway. I'd like to try to get a corner balance soon before attending - I'm thinking maybe next month or sooner if I can make it happen easily.


Any time! I think I'm settled now at -3° camber up front and -2° camber out back. Zero toe all around.
 
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