Hey guys and gals!

So a few weeks ago I bought a 97 Eclipse GSX. The car with a lot. By a lot, I mean some good things, and some bad things the previous owner had done.

Overall, The car is a project car and it is coming along with more planned for the future. It came with some parts recently installed, and some that I have ordered or put in orver the past few weeks. I am trying to get it reliable and having more performance in terms or power and handling, as it will see some winter duty as well.

I have already had to replace both front axels, one wheel bearing, several coolant hoses, improperly intalled lowering springs, damaged suspension, and address cooling issues all thanks to the previous owner not taking care of it and/or not installing properly. But those have been fixed or replaced, and I have added a few fun performance parts as well.

That said and done, the car came with quite a few mods, and I have added some more and this thing is fun to drive.

A little about the car:

1997 Eclipse GSX (77,000 miles)

4G63
EVO III 16g turbo upgrade
INjen intake
GReddy FMIC and piping
Mishimoto large cooling fans and shroud
XSpower Exhaust
drilled and slotted front and rear rotors
projector headlights
PIAA fog lights
Greddy BOV
NGK plugs and wires
HKS turbo timer
SAFC II reader
Pillar gauges for boost and A/F reading
Tokico adjustable shocks.

Below are some pictures of the car:














The previous owner installed carbon fiber trim. It may be a little ricey but looks good






So there you have it!

What do you think? Open to suggestions, may not always be followed but would like to hear your comments

Forthcoming:
OEM dark housing headlights (so the projector ones might be for sale, pm me if interested)
Looking for some help in the handling: anyone know of front or rear (or lower) strut/sway bars that fit a GSX for a decent price?

Also thinking of possibly getting different wheels, and running the current tires strong until winter when I will get Continental Extreme Contact DWS (dry, wet snow,) as I have them on my wife's car and my other car, and I love them. Plus they have best in class rain handling and best in class light snow capability for an all season tire.

Also several weeks out I am looking to get a tune done, so recommendations on tuning?
I have heard DSMcable V3 lite or something like that? Any thoughts on what tuning hardware/software I should go with, or tuner in MA?

Thanks for checking out my GSX, and let me know what you think, or any recommendations for future goals/items/parts would be great!

wow, a real nice and clean car. very rare to find a nice white GSX with that low mileage, now we know who has one of the last clean ones! its good the axles were replaced, i would next do the timing belt if it wasnt done already. well considering it has a 16g and some supporting mods, i would put a 255 walbro fuel pump on there(im selling one), bigger injectors- maybe 750cc since thats the max size injectors that you can use with a SAFC. after that, i would do some exterior stuff. like repaint the front bumper, because the rest of the car seems real clean. i dont like the stock 2g rims but the paint is nice and works well with the white car. also, get some HID's for those projectors, it will make a world of a difference at night. Also, i highly reccomend and so will any other DSMer on here, to go with DSMlink to tune. you can do pretty much anything with it and is a good tuning software. Good luck with your GSX, looks nice!

I love the clean white look. Better get another guage to fill up that A-Pillar spot. Looks great though. Nice find! I would start by remounting whateveris on top of the steering column somewhere that doesn't require Velcro. Also I would degrease the engine bay and maybe powdercoat the intake and intercooler piping to clean it up a little. I'm now normally a carbon fiber fan but I have to admit, not that bad in moderation.

looks good man! you picked the best color 2g to date, i would know! i also recently just bought my 99 GSX(my "new car thread" floating around here to) good luck with it, and keep it clean.

also you posted in my thread, about that "gsx" decal. you happen to have a pic of it installed? id love to see how it looks, before i go ordering one. thanks

If you're looking for cheap and nice strut tower bars, look into theta Megan racing ones. They look really nice and they fit nice...you can get them from extremepsi.com for like $50 a piece.

those strut bars that have those "adjustable" end links are crap, mostly for show.

the only ones that are a full solid design that i know of is the DC Sports, and the now discontinued neuspeed.

you will see those ones actually cost some money.

it looks like the previous owner knew what he was doing with that car.

yungjon23 said:

wow, a real nice and clean car. very rare to find a nice white GSX with that low mileage, now we know who has one of the last clean ones! its good the axles were replaced, i would next do the timing belt if it wasnt done already. well considering it has a 16g and some supporting mods, i would put a 255 walbro fuel pump on there(im selling one), bigger injectors- maybe 750cc since thats the max size injectors that you can use with a SAFC. after that, i would do some exterior stuff. like repaint the front bumper, because the rest of the car seems real clean. i dont like the stock 2g rims but the paint is nice and works well with the white car. also, get some HID's for those projectors, it will make a world of a difference at night. Also, i highly reccomend and so will any other DSMer on here, to go with DSMlink to tune. you can do pretty much anything with it and is a good tuning software. Good luck with your GSX, looks nice!

Click to expand...

I have heard good things about DSM link. Have you run it? I previously know ECUtek and cobb having owned a WRX before, so I look forward to more input about dsmlink and v3.

usmc0651dns said:

I love the clean white look. Better get another guage to fill up that A-Pillar spot. Looks great though. Nice find! I would start by remounting whateveris on top of the steering column somewhere that doesn't require Velcro. Also I would degrease the engine bay and maybe powdercoat the intake and intercooler piping to clean it up a little. I'm now normally a carbon fiber fan but I have to admit, not that bad in moderation.

Click to expand...

Yeah I am cleanign up the bay a little tomorrow. Thanks, yeah the carbon fiber has grown on me, and I am thinking of getting a carbon fiber oem, style hood. Anyone have issues running one in the winter?

manny correa said:

looks good man! you picked the best color 2g to date, i would know! i also recently just bought my 99 GSX(my "new car thread" floating around here to) good luck with it, and keep it clean.

also you posted in my thread, about that "gsx" decal. you happen to have a pic of it installed? id love to see how it looks, before i go ordering one. thanks

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Yeah I got a GSX oem size sticker, and it is in carbon fiber trim. It should be going up soon.

ILLiCliPSE said:

If you're looking for cheap and nice strut tower bars, look into theta Megan racing ones. They look really nice and they fit nice...you can get them from extremepsi.com for like $50 a piece.

Click to expand...

I did, although they only have the top ones for that price.

RedTurboEclipse said:

those strut bars that have those "adjustable" end links are crap, mostly for show.

the only ones that are a full solid design that i know of is the DC Sports, and the now discontinued neuspeed.

you will see those ones actually cost some money.

it looks like the previous owner knew what he was doing with that car.

Click to expand...

I have heard that the placement of DC sports towers have caused fires like this one: YouTube - 98 eclipse GSX aftermath
So I need and want a strut tower, lower front bar, and rear sway bar as this GSX has got to get me to work and home in the snow.

The previous owner did some good upgrades, but bad things like wrong spring install, plugging in wires the wrong way, and he bought a new radiator because he had not realized the coolant hose that had a pin prick like hole that was peeing coolant on the old fan blades, which shorted and failed and cost him the radiator.

But he did do some very good parts, and I have added several that you see myself, and I am looking for some more.




Thanks guys, keep it coming!

Very clean

dsmdeliveryboy said:

Very clean

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Thanks!

Update:

So I just got the stock OEM lights with black housing. I will be putting them in next week.

Also, I got a DSM link and eprom and am getting the GSX professionally dyno tuned in a week! Hoping the car holds strong, and makes some respectable and reliable numbers.

Boston said:

Update:

So I just got the stock OEM lights with black housing. I will be putting them in next week.

Also, I got a DSM link and eprom and am getting the GSX professionally dyno tuned in a week! Hoping the car holds strong, and makes some respectable and reliable numbers.

Click to expand...

I say you do a "ram air" headlight. Either with your OEM or those "projectors"

Just a thought

Lavery said:

I say you do a "ram air" headlight. Either with your OEM or those "projectors"

Just a thought

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Yeah the projectors came with the car when I bought it. Not my taste, so they are coming off. They should be posted as 'for sale' in a week.

I was thinking of running some flex ducting from under the fogs to the radiator. The front mount intercoolers are great, but the radiator gets almost no fresh air! I already had to upgrade to the mishimoto fans to help, and I have read here of other people having the same overheating issues when running an upgraded turbo (td05 16G) and fmic combo.

Boston said:

Yeah the projectors came with the car when I bought it. Not my taste, so they are coming off. They should be posted as 'for sale' in a week.

Click to expand...

Besides, those projector lights don't light worth a crap....

Theres a few companies out there that do projector 'retro-fit' kits that are supposed to be decent. I don't have any experience, I've only seen pictures.


I'd recommend you do as much maintenance as you can find and/or think of. It may be a lot of money up front without much go-fast gain, but you won't regret it in the long run.

good choice on the white! looks clean. I'm all for the white. but don't like the 2g rims... first thing I did when I bought my car was rims. keep it clean bro!

Real clean for a 1997, and the low milage is always good, nice car bro, You should deffinity get some evo9 wheels with some 245 45 17 tires.

you still got stock springs ?

move the muffler in otherwise super sexy

Very nice. Did you think about changing the ceals and waterpump as well. I got a 96 GSX at 108k did the timing belt as well as the seals and pump.

Cheers

Croaker