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Street Build '97 Eclipse AWD GS-T (2006 to Present)

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12AUG2018 - Removing Unused Wiring from Body Harness
I decided that I needed to take my own advice and go all in on cleaning up all the wiring in my 2g that was tucked under the dash and not being used. This included all the radio, speakers, factory disc changer, factory amp, factory alarm, factory HVAC, factory keyless entry, cruise control... you name it, if it wasn't being used I removed it. I also routed my gauge wiring using the factory routing to clean things up. I'm only posting this as a single entry but I'd guess I spent over 60hrs doing this very tedious work and the biggest tool was the electrical FSM so I wasn't removing any wires that I still needed. At one time I questioned my decision to do this when my wife walked by and smiled, asking if my car was ever going to run again. :coy:

This was the first photo I took after I pulled the dash, cut all the wire loom back to the steering column, and pulled the un-used wiring from the harness. I drew two red "x's" through the handful of wires that I was slowing chasing through the dash to de-pin from their connectors, where they came out. As you can tell it was a lot of wiring.

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Progress! It's difficult to tell from this photo comparing it to the previous but hopefully you get an idea of all the wiring that was removed and I still had a lot of work ahead. Tossed everything into the biggest box I had and it was overflowing, ended up getting 7lbs 1.3oz so far!

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16SEP2018 - Drained 2yr Old E85 & Removed More Wiring
I felt like I was in the home stretch of this 2yr hiatus and soon my car would be ready to start in a few weeks. There was no way it was going to fire up with the E85 that was in the tank considering it had been in there since June 2016. Thankfully my truck takes E85 and has a 27ga tank, so I just built a fuel tank drain off the fuel rail inlet hose that was 8ft long so I could reach the filler neck on my truck when I pulled it into the garage and I just kicked the fuel pump on through ECMLink. Here's a quick shot of the hose I built to drain the tank, it's a -6AN male to a barbed fitting.

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I also kept plugging away on the harness under the dash, removing any unused wiring from it and routing the new gauges, shift light, and start switch wiring to it and down the center console to the fuse block.

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24SEP2018 - Dash Installed and Fuse Block Wired!
I finished up the wiring and got the dash back in, removing anything that could save a few pounds and I was no longer using. It's probably a good thing I pulled out all that wiring since I was adding weight with the new gauges, fuse block, wiring & sensors. It looked good to finally see a dash back in the car and not just wiring everywhere but, the true test would be when I turned the key and nothing catches on fire and/or everything still works. I'd like to add some mesh wire loom to protect the wire from chaffing but to verify everything's functioning properly I'll leave it all exposed and go back in to loom it once Summer hits and I can't race it again.

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I was happy with how this fuse block turned out, made for a clean install to power all 4 of my gauges (boost, wideband, fuel psi, oil psi) as well as power to the shift light and starter button.

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25SEP2018 - Power On, Weighing Everything, and Carbon Fiber Vinyl Removal
I loosened the ground on the battery (so I could easily remove it in case of a electrical fire) and pulled out the water hose, it was finally time to turn the key to the ON position and test the function of all the new electronics and to see if I added any wiring problems pulling out all the wiring I did. As far as excitement was concerned, it wasn't that eventful but I was all smiles to see the gauges power on, the shift light start blinking, and didn't smell any smoke. SUCCESS!

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I was nearly ready to try turning the car over but wanted to clean up the mess that was my garage and tie up a few loose ends that were left, which included all the crap I pulled out to drop weight and simplify everything a bit.
Wiring removed : 9lbs 14oz
Dash brackets/speakers : 4lbs 11oz
Wire loom/tape/lower HVAC vent : 2lbs 3oz

Total dropped : 16lbs 12oz
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I also felt like there was no better time than the present than to remove the 6yr old carbon fiber vinyl wrap from the roof of the car. My employer was hosting a car show in a few weeks and if I could get the car ready for it I'd want to wax it so off with the old ass wrap.

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DONE!
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01OCT2018 - Carbon Fiber Sunroof
I don't like promoting Carbonetics because I think their customer service is trash but I found someone selling a used Carbonetics CF sunroof plug on eBay for a really reasonable price and it already had the gasket around it to boot. I'd always wanted a CF sunroof plug for the weight savings since the glass comes in at 25lbs and the plug is just under 3lbs and it's at the highest point on the car. The install was simple and fit perfectly, I'd find out if it seals up when I wash the two year old dust off of it. Easiest 20lbs I've ever removed from the car. LOL

In the future I may pull the motor and save even more weight however, I love having the ability to open it up when I'm driving down the street.

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03OCT2018 - Enkei RPF1's Mounted & Installed
I took my Evo IX 17x8 wheels that had the Bridgestone RE760's mounted on them down to Pro Discount Tire along with my new set of Enkei 17x9 RPF1's and had them mount the RE760's on them. As soon as I got home I installed them on the car with the new open ended black acorn lug nuts and dropped it to take a few photos. Love the new look and the rotational mass weight the car lost too!
Evo IX Enkei's - 20lbs 3oz x 4 = 80lbs 12oz
17x9 +38 RPF1's - 15lbs 6oz x 4 = 61lbs 8oz

So, for anyone that wants to know the wheel/tire setup below is...
Enkei RPF1 (silver) 17x9 +35
Bridgestone RE760 245/40/R17​

Car's still dusty but I'm already liking the new look...

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06OCT2018 - Filled/Bled Coolant and Drove It To Get Emissions Tested
The cooling system hadn't had any coolant in it since I drained it to install the new water pump back in 2016 so, in a way, this was the moment of truth to find if there were any leaks. So, I crossed my fingers and started flushing it with the garden hose and leaving the radiator drain open to get any crap out of there and check for leaks. As you can imagine I was happy to find none so I closed the radiator drain and filled it up with 80/20 mix of RO water and coolant with a bottle of Royal Purple : Purple Ice. Then I started the car up for the first time in over 2yrs to burp the system and check everything else for gremlins.

First time out in the sun since June 2016. :rocks: ---> Link to video : Idle after 2yrs of hibernation
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Once I burped the system I pulled out the laptop and got all my idle FT's tuned since it was already warmed up then dropped the hood and installed the bumper. Did one last check of everything and decided I'd take it for a cruise around the block to see how she drove.

The depowered steering rack took some getting used to and it did take some muscle driving through the neighborhood (low speeds) but the steering felt more responsive. My battery voltage looked great after the alternator relo and no belt squeals (which is rare on a DSM) so the belt setup was working well too. I guess I didn't cut any of the wires I needed. LOL

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After grabbing a bite and looking the car over one last time I decided, f*** it, lets try to get it smogged today too so I can get it registered again. The car had 3 miles on it, after being down for over 2yrs, and the drive to the emissions testing facility was 10miles out so I thought it might be a good idea to have a tow truck on speed dial. I made it all the way to the emissions facility, PASSED, and drove it back home with no problems at all with the way it ran. One thing I did notice on my first turn out into traffic was the my blinkers weren't working, neither were my hazard lights, so I'm hoping I didn't remove an important wire but that's a small detail that should be easy to fix.

BOOM! Emissions passed and the car can be registered for another 2yrs. :sneaky:

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Looking good man whats next for the car? Or just some general maintenance stuff ready for summer fun.
 
Enjoying it! I'm having Kyle @Archer Fabrications build a side exit for it but other than that, not a lot. My summers out here are too hot to drive the car so right now is our race season, I'm going to attempt a track visit next Friday to knock the dust off. I'm rustier that the car and still need a few reps launching with the staging brake.
 
Enjoying it! I'm having Kyle @Archer Fabrications build a side exit for it but other than that, not a lot. My summers out here are too hot to drive the car so right now is our race season, I'm going to attempt a track visit next Friday to knock the dust off. I'm rustier that the car and still need a few reps launching with the staging brake.
knock the rust off haha, Im sure you will both be great and be back to normal in no time. once the exhaust is made make sure to video it as i do like a side exit even though i would never run one myself
 
knock the rust off haha, Im sure you will both be great and be back to normal in no time. once the exhaust is made make sure to video it as i do like a side exit even though i would never run one myself
Yea, me either. I had @Archer Fabrications v-band my o2 housing outlet so I can easily swap from the side exit to the full exhaust. I track my car a few times a year, no sense listening to a side exit and deal with the fumes when I'm just driving it around.

The reason I'm doing it for the track is to help with back pressure on the turbine and weight. I'm logging back pressure pre turbine now so I'm interested to see what my logs look like with the full exhaust system and with the side exit on there and how it effects pre-turbine back pressure.
Always nice to see updated from your build corey.
Thanks man. I have a few updates to post, just waiting for photos from a car show I was in back in Oct. Maybe I could post something as a place holder and then continue the updates after it. :)
 
Hey, I had to read back through your build to find the Frontline Fab trunk floor you installed. I'm considering doing the same to my gsx due to some damage, but had a question since I've never seen anyone with the floor mod mention it. What did you do with the washer fluid tank? If I do the mod, I want to keep it or something like it.
 
Hey, I had to read back through your build to find the Frontline Fab trunk floor you installed. I'm considering doing the same to my gsx due to some damage, but had a question since I've never seen anyone with the floor mod mention it. What did you do with the washer fluid tank? If I do the mod, I want to keep it or something like it.
I can help here, this is what i did to mine, i bought a different setup and installed it to 1 side, https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/2...ttack-race-build.494941/page-2#post-153552344
 
Hey, I had to read back through your build to find the Frontline Fab trunk floor you installed. I'm considering doing the same to my gsx due to some damage, but had a question since I've never seen anyone with the floor mod mention it. What did you do with the washer fluid tank? If I do the mod, I want to keep it or something like it.
I removed it and deep sixed it, I don't have windshield wipers or a windshield wiper motor so I had no use for the tank. Hopefully the link Bobby sent helps you.
 

Evo IX Enkei's - 20lbs 3oz x 4 = 80lbs 12oz
17x9 +38 RPF1's - 15lbs 6oz x 4 = 61lbs 8oz

So, for anyone that wants to know the wheel/tire setup below is...
Enkei RPF1 (silver) 17x9 +35
Bridgestone RE760 245/40/R17​

Hey Gofer, did you have to run spacers with this setup? It's the exact wheel and offset I want to run but I've read they don't clear big brakes. So I'm just wondering. I don't want to have to run spacers
 
Hey Gofer, did you have to run spacers with this setup? It's the exact wheel and offset I want to run but I've read they don't clear big brakes. So I'm just wondering. I don't want to have to run spacers
You can run RPF1 17x8 +35 without a spacer and use the Evo Brembos but the 9" wide wheel has different back spacing on the spokes. I still run the rear Evo Brembos and they clear a 17x9 +35 RPF1 with no spacer.
Thank you. I went through his build thread before and could have swore he was using brembos in the front. I wonder why he doesn't.
I did run Brembos for about a year and realized I had no use for them but for looks. I only drag raced my car and didn't need the extra stopping power so I pulled them and reinstalled the stock 2g setup.

Front brake assy weight, ie, caliper, rotor, pads, bolts, etc.
  • 2g AWD fronts are 53.3lbs
  • Evo VIII/IX front is 63.2lbs + the weight of the adapter brackets and hardware. Probably close to 65lbs total.
 
You can run RPF1 17x8 +35 without a spacer and use the Evo Brembos but the 9" wide wheel has different back spacing on the spokes. I still run the rear Evo Brembos and they clear a 17x9 +35 RPF1 with no spacer.

I did run Brembos for about a year and realized I had no use for them but for looks. I only drag raced my car and didn't need the extra stopping power so I pulled them and reinstalled the stock 2g setup.

Front brake assy weight, ie, caliper, rotor, pads, bolts, etc.
  • 2g AWD fronts are 53.3lbs
  • Evo VIII/IX front is 63.2lbs + the weight of the adapter brackets and hardware. Probably close to 65lbs total.
It's almost as if you know every follow up question I'd ask LOL
 
Any updates? Your ECMTuning post brought me here LOL
 
I probably have a few but not as many as I'd have hoped for the last couple of years. The older I get the more money I put into retirement/savings and the less I put into my DSM. I'll see if I cant post the upgrades/changes I've done since my last post to get the build current. Maybe it will motivate me to install a few things that are still sitting on the shelf too.
 
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