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Street Build 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX

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CrackedDSM

10+ Year Contributor
3,353
2,451
Dec 17, 2009
Pensacola, Florida
So I'm back, and I've gone full hypocrite. Since my induction into DSM'ing, I've sworn it's automatic or nothing, and that I'd never use ECMlink.

Well, here I am. :D 5-speed GSX with no plans to ever auto swap it, and first mod for the car will be ECMLink V3 Full. :p This will not be a crazy build or anything more than 300-350awtq ever, but that'll be plenty for what it is. A fun weekend cruiser that will retain A/C, power steering, creature comforts, and all the benefits of a comfortable, fast with class DSM. :)


First things first will be to make sure all the maintenance is up to snuff and that it's mechanically ready to be modified. I've got an oil leak to take care of, and this clutch pedal is like..whoa. I have maybe 1/8th of an inch of clutch. LOL. So there's a few things, but overall..I'm excited.

Stay tuned! :p
 
You have the exact same goals as me. However, mine are more so short term goals and I will be aiming for higher power much later on. That'll be the only difference. Can't wait to see what you do. Maybe we can help each other out. You're in northern Cali just like me!
 
Cracked!!! you made the switch from Talk! I can't even login on Talk anymore, it just won't let me.

Haha, yeah, I've been here for awhile. I was away from both sites for a long time focusing on family, career, bills..boring stuff. But now I'm back! And yeah the password requirements are straight up retarded, man. You need a lower case letter, upper case letter, capitalized ancient hebrew text that's blessed by a rabbi, and a virgin first born with blonde hair in order to log in...

You have the exact same goals as me. However, mine are more so short term goals and I will be aiming for higher power much later on. That'll be the only difference. Can't wait to see what you do. Maybe we can help each other out. You're in northern Cali just like me!

Haha awesome. Only difference is I'm definitely not in California, haha. I'm in North Carolina. I couldn't deal with that SMOG you guys have to deal with, man!



Also, just as a minor update, I did this today. I took it for a drive and just shot a quick photo on my iPhone. God this car looks good.

edited_2gGSX.jpg
 
Painted the BOV today. :) I think it turned out amazing. The red is super deep in the sunlight. I didn't spend hardly any elbow grease on it at all so I think it's amazing for the work I put into it. I'm also going to paint my valvecover in the same color as the red on top of the BOV. ;)

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Whoa I’ve been gone for a little while. Some updates.


1) Got these things installed. :)


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Glowshift 10-color series water temp and boost gauge. Also, I found those gauge overlays in the junkyard for $20 and actually really like them. Idgaf if you hate them or not. :p. Now I just need a wideband.

2) and I did this!

FFD30605-9C96-427B-8839-6604EA2BBA62.jpeg

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Apparently it was like the last vrsf style intercooler left in the country. I way overpaid but meh. I wanted and needed a fmic. Boy was this thing a pita to install. LOL. Cliff notes though: if you buy the eBay version and not vrsf brand like I did, go ahead and order another 2.5” coupler and two t-bolt clamps. It is missing them right off the bat.

The rest is easily searchable.

After effects? Man this thing made a huge difference. My stock smic looked like a bird hit it and it was full of oil. Immediately noticed an increase in throttle response, and power. Power doesn’t stop even until redline now, and it made a WAAAY bigger difference than I thought it would. I’ve installed fmic’s on my 1Gs before but this one made a world of difference. This thing rips now man.

Drivability issues? None really. I have no ducting and both stock fans(I got creative with the LICP) and cruising/highway/rolling is no trouble. Never goes above 190’s. Stoplights will creep up to 210-213 but soon as you get rolling again, it cools down. I have another 12” slim fan I’m going to install soon on the a/c condenser and last resort is duct work. But A/C doesn’t have any ill affects at all. :).


More will come as I get more cash. When I install the fan on the condenser I’ll update the driveability aspect. :) stay tuned!
 
I’m just keeping this up for posterity sake as I’m pretty sure no ones following this. But hey! To all my imaginary fans, here’s a small lulz update.


I was doing some odds and ends with the gsx today(mostly the door handle, ugh) and decided to finally remove this thing. It would explain a lot once I did.

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Looks like a bird hit it man. Also there are some pinhole leaks. Nothing MAJOR, but would definitely account for some power loss, and start up issues that went away with the fmic install.

I just want to reiterate one thing though.

My God this car rips with the FMIC installed man.



Also, I totally dodged a huge bullet. On my way to work the radiator’s upper neck broke the hell off on me. I drove it about a mile or so down the road and shut it off. Was totally worried the motor was ruined but there was enough left to reattach the upper radiator hose, and refill about a gallon or two of coolant mix, and it was good to go. No power loss, no coolant usage, no smoke. Phew! ARP headstuds and shutting it down quick saves lives. Lol.


Stay tuned all you imaginary legions of fans. More will come later when I don’t have tickets to pay. Lol.
 
So I finally found a part I’ve been searching for, for awhile. It’s the passenger side block off plate for the hole that leads to the smic. Since I have a front mount now, I don’t need it. So I found one from a 420a and popped it on. Cleans it up so much.

The plan is to make my own Air-dam/lip to block the bottom of the bumper clear to the engine, and I’m gonna block the fogs off too. So I’ll have OEM bumper shutters basically. :D get as much air as possible going through the fmic and radiator. Now, on to the pics!

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:) looks so much better. Stay tuned folks!
 
Clean up those headlights, please. Thank you


No. :p unless you wanna come do it for me and/or buy the stuff for me.

I’m usually so beat up on the weekends when I’m actually free that I delegate my time to really important stuff. Like duct work, installing spare pusher fan, or driving it. Lol.



As a random update, I got my first thumbs up today from a random motorist. That was a pretty awesome experience for me.


Thanks for all the kind words guys. :) it’s not anything world breaking but I love it to death.
 
Super minor and lame update.

Had these come in.

Silicone hoses 1.jpg

Silicone hoses 2.jpg


Full silicone heater hose/vacuum line/radiator hose kit. I'm not gonna bother installing anything but the vacuum lines though, because it's mainly a two-part order. Gotta pay someone I owe back first, and then the next part will be an aluminum radiator. :) The upper radiator hose neck broke off a month ago and I've been babying it around with the hose still attached to the short amount of neck left, but I really do not feel comfortable driving it long term or too spirited. So, it'll be a bonus. Aluminum radiator to keep those temps in check, it'll make the engine bay look much better, and it'll make worrying about pinhole leaks in 20+ year old hoses, a non-issue. :)

Updates will come when I have money, and parts, in hand. Stay tuned, folks. :)
 
Whoa I’ve been gone for a little while. Some updates.


1) Got these things installed. :)


View attachment 551352

Glowshift 10-color series water temp and boost gauge. Also, I found those gauge overlays in the junkyard for $20 and actually really like them. Idgaf if you hate them or not. :p. Now I just need a wideband.

2) and I did this!

View attachment 551353
View attachment 551349
View attachment 551350
View attachment 551351

Apparently it was like the last vrsf style intercooler left in the country. I way overpaid but meh. I wanted and needed a fmic. Boy was this thing a pita to install. LOL. Cliff notes though: if you buy the eBay version and not vrsf brand like I did, go ahead and order another 2.5” coupler and two t-bolt clamps. It is missing them right off the bat.

The rest is easily searchable.

After effects? Man this thing made a huge difference. My stock smic looked like a bird hit it and it was full of oil. Immediately noticed an increase in throttle response, and power. Power doesn’t stop even until redline now, and it made a WAAAY bigger difference than I thought it would. I’ve installed fmic’s on my 1Gs before but this one made a world of difference. This thing rips now man.

Drivability issues? None really. I have no ducting and both stock fans(I got creative with the LICP) and cruising/highway/rolling is no trouble. Never goes above 190’s. Stoplights will creep up to 210-213 but soon as you get rolling again, it cools down. I have another 12” slim fan I’m going to install soon on the a/c condenser and last resort is duct work. But A/C doesn’t have any ill affects at all. :).


More will come as I get more cash. When I install the fan on the condenser I’ll update the driveability aspect. :) stay tuned!
Them overlays are nice AC Autotech stop making them years ago. I’m looking for a set. Nice ride GOOLUCK with the build
 
After all the cryptic stuff, here’s the cat out of the bag! My stuffs!

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:D a decent bounty.

Apex’i N1 downpipe, HKS Carbon-Ti catback, innovate lc-2 wideband w/ red DB gauge, 2-row aluminum radiator and a full silicone coolant/heater hose kit.

It’s all stuff the car desperately needs. Especially that radiator. However I’ve run into a bit of a snag. I got talked into the downpipe and only after did I realize the downpipe and catback need to be modified to fit together. So that’s a little bit of a bummer. But, I’m looking into making an adapter or trying to find a slip fit 2.5”-3” reducer coupler for the exhaust but that’s harder to find than you might realize.

The rest though I’m super excited about. Worst case scenario I’ll install the catback first and just get the downpipe modified. But, lookin forward to install! Temps should be great with the radiator and should be a nice bump in performance with the exhaust!

As always, stay tuned. :)
 

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So, did some work today. I didn’t install everything, just the cat back but man. Was it a breeze. You gotta love the ease and simplicity of just taking your stock exhaust off, bolting up the new catback on to the existing hardware, and done. Super easy. Love HKS!

Pictures and sound clip below. :)

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Had an awesome day today. I got off work early today so I decided to spare my wife and let her work in peace and install my aluminum radiator. It’s an “eBay special” dual core aluminum radiator. Got it for $88 shipped and reviews on it said it works great.

First thoughts are, it’s painted and not really “chrome” but honestly the quality looks great. The threads were not painted, or galled. They didn’t strip at all when I tightened the fans on, and it dropped in there with some finessing. The j-pipe touches the main cooling fan and everything is just a wee bit tighter but overall, not bad. But I discovered two things.

1) apparently when installing the fmic I was tired as shit, because I didn’t plug the main passenger side cooling fan back in. Doh!

2) the bolt holes for the stock fans will take some wiggling to bolt them on the radiator. It’s not exactly dead on, but I got all the bolts on by threading them all in and then tightening them afterwords. Didn’t have to modify the radiator at all. :) it dropped in, in about 15-20 minutes.

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I think this thing looks so good. Excuse my dirty ass engine bay though, as I was still working on it.


Now the important part. Driving.

Driving with this thing is amazing! Temps are steady around 176-185 when cruising and even under wot and spirited driving it’s just cool like a champ. At a stoplight after around 10-12 minutes it creeps up slowly from 188 to 196ish. But turning the fans on for like two seconds cooled it back down instantly to 180’s. Seriously made an awesome and huge difference.

Conclusion: every 2G dsm should have an aluminum radiator. Seriously. It should be the first mod, I would argue. Along with some silicone radiator and heater hoses. Could not be happier with it! :D

I have an adapter coming so this weekend(hopefully!) I’ll be installing the downpipe and eliminating the cat. Soon as that happens I’ll be posting another WOT video and sound clip.

Stay tuned folks. :)
 
Minor update:

I installed the downpipe and adapter, and immediately had boost control issues. LOL. The creep struggle is real. So I couldn’t really drive the car without fuel cut coming down like a hammer. So I did this.

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:D Tactrix Open Port 2.0. I have a flashable ecu in my eclipse already and just needed this. It’s a friend of mines and he’s letting me borrow it. So I’ve been tinkering with ECUFlash.

At first glance it’s easy, but on second shot this shit is complicated and random. I flashed a good tune in yesterday, and left it alone. Started the car today and it was randomly just lean all over the map. 16/17:1 at idle, 13/14:1 under boost. I had to scale the injectors way down to get it normal, but man it rips with a good tune.

When I get more time I’ll disconnect the battery and clear the charge in the capacitors and reflash the ecu again and hope that fixes it. Because it just seems like the definition is off from the bin/the addresses are off, and my check engine light is steadily on. Lol. So, gonna take some tinkering.


But, as of now I’m not really impressed. Evoscan sucks BALLS, and is a total pita to mess with. So I’m pretty set on going with ecmlink soon as I can. In the meantime though, I’ll learn as much as I can and see if I can get this damn thing to work right. Lol.
 
So after more tinkering with ECUFlash and evoscan, I’m more impressed with it now. It’s a source of pride that I’m teaching myself to do this with no walkthroughs, and no expert to help me and so far it’s going pretty well.


Got the tune issue ironed out by clearing the capacitors, and reflashing the ecu. I richened it up on the top end and bam. Perfect. 10.8-11.2 afrs up top, 19-21lbs of boost.


So I’m leaving it alone. In the future I may mess with the timing next. But it works.

I will leave you with this. A 5500rpm stutterbox launch feels AMAZING. Especially followed by a full 1-3 pass with no knock. I love this car! But next step after I pay bills and all that good stuff is a 16G, more fuel, and an E85 conversion! ;)

Stay tuned!
 
Been doing more tuning on this thing. We had a snowstorm recently that dropped two feet of snow so I couldn’t resist driving the dsm in it a little. It handled it like a champ until I got froggy in my backyard and it pulled the LICP off. Lol. So it sat for a little while.

But I popped it back on after the snow melted and adjusted the timing maps next. Started with the evo 8 stock high octane map and modified it in the areas I thought could use more. The result is a notable increase in power and torque all over the band. Off boost especially is noticeable. Gave the wife her first full power awd launch and she adored it.

But no videos for now. For now I’ll leave you with this picture my wife took before I started hooning.

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Stay tuned!
 
Your car looks like it's coming along great. Did you buy the vacuum hose as a kit? Or did you just figure out what hose you needed and buy that?


Thank you. :)

But I bought the G-plus hose + vacuum line kit. Came with all the heater and radiator hoses and three different diameters of vacuum hose. Pretty awesome and cheap too. Like $65 I think with shipping. I still have a bunch more. Eventually I’m gonna replace every single hose with the red stuff but I’m lazy. Lol.
 
Hey man, nice car! I know its been a while since you posted, but I was wondering if you got around to installing that G Plus coolant hose kit? I wanted to get your opinion if its worth it as a kit?
 
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