Yokai
Probationary Member
- 14
- 11
- May 9, 2020
-
Denver,
Colorado
Wassup DSM fam. Introducing my white '98 GSX
Ayyo! I have a background in Honda's, I've done a lot of work to my EG hatch but in order to do bigger projects I needed a support vehicle. I thought about getting another Civic but I knew I would just be doing all the same stuff to it, and wanted something with a better reputation.
Turbo.. AWD.. white.. manual.. mmmmm. Took me a long time to find one.
It had some issues, previous owner put some work into it but it'd just been sitting. He was considering parting it out, so I'm glad he didn't. It struggled to stay running but it was enough to load it on the trailer. I was happy enough to simply find the features I wanted, so I took the chance on mechanical condition with the intention to rebuild either way.
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PHASE ONE
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Bathtime
Now the fun begins. Spark test was good, compression test read low on middle two (110 | 60 | 70 | 130) I also followed with a 'cap of oil' test and leakdown test, and the rings seemed good to me.
However the wheels had this old dirty plastidip and were bent in multiple spots. One tire was ripped(I think from loading it with a flat). As much as new wheels and tires would be nice I wanted to keep the budget in getting the car running. I still needed something to roll around on and drive the car when it was repaired so I grabbed some used tires.
I found a pretty cool shop that repaired my wheels pretty cheap. I think it cost me about $120, dude just used a lead hammer and heat and got them really close! The plastidip was a $*#$Q(*!$ to remove, using goo-gone automotive, letting it soak, and then it would basically turn into chewing gum that had to be brushed off..
I was tempted to leave them silver, but they did have quite a bit of corrosion and weren't in the best shape. I made the decision to paint them black to chase my panda theme. However, now I also needed to use chemical stripper to clean the clear coat off and discovered the silver is actually paint as well..
I didn't want to spend the money on powdercoat since I wasn't sure if I'd be upgrading to 18's or not, and I went satin black to help the tire blend in to the wheel. (Later on I used Adam's tire cleaner and they blend much better) But you didn't come here to read about stock wheels and used tires..
A cold winter + unheated garage = building a little lab to do the engine work /w propane heater
Cozy boi. Time to get to it.
Magic!
I had read about porting the oil inlet on the head, this is usually done in case the head is milled too much apparently, but I thought it couldn't hurt while I had it off. This is done under the cylinder head where it meets the oil feed on the bottom-left of the block in the pic above.
As for the block surface, I've done a lot of research. There's a shit load of bad advice out there. I think the best method by far without pulling the block to be machined, is using a thick sheet of glass with 400-600-800 sandpaper. I've done this on my Civic with good success. The Eclipse iron block is MUCH harder to cut through. I wasn't concerned at all about taking off too much material. I couldn't even get the old headgasket stains out. It does clean the surface very well and gives the new MLS a good, consistent RA smoothness to seal.
Parts! Parts! Parts!
Cylinder head is back from the shop, the middle exhaust seals were burnt out. I asked if we should replace all of them, and they said they probably burned out from too much boost or fuel issues. I'm guessing it had to do with exhaust holes affecting the downstream o2 sensor and another thing below. PS: I also had the EGR port plugged.
Previous owners had a FuelLabs fuel pressure regulator, but I was concerned about what pressure it was set at. So I went to my local shop and grabbed a Radium gauge and a fitting. They did already install a braided line from the tank. However these couple pictures don't do the job justice, it was a royal pain in the ass to get fitment around my cam angle sensor, and to top things off, the AN fitting on the braided hose seized!!! so while tightening it, it snapped at the elbow. So I got a vibrant elbow and it worked out luckily
Because I didn't know what other issues this car might have, I picked up an OBD logger that I could use on my laptop. I am a little disappointed with the lack of data it gives me, but it's better than nothing. At least I can check/clear codes, see the o2 sensor output and a few other things
Almost nothing was holding the drivers side mount together.. and a broken brake cleaner cap.. the struggle.
I bought the wrong oil filter for my Civic about 6 months before I got this car, forgot to return it, and it just happened to be the exact size for the Eclipse also made a quick gatorade overflow and coolant funnel.
Finally a break!
yeah right. I started it up a few times, it was still running very rough and smoking a lot.
I thought maybe it was just startup smoke, and maybe these 2.0's just run rougher than my Honda?!
Eventually I realized the smoke was only getting worse. So back under the knife it went..
The culprits? A paper towel drain plug I left in and got sucked down to the oil pan and a broken injector clip wire that took me 6+ hours to diagnose, I even opened my ECU.. switched injectors twice, thinking I put them in the same order the first time.. busted out the multimeter in the end.
New turbo drain gasket made, and a fresh metal one on the pan side.
Also had an injector puking fuel after re-assembly, old o-rings were dry and cracking.
New seal kit from Injector Clinic!
AYY WE MADE IT!
you're a real champ if you've made it this far. MVPs
Gotta keep pushing though. Time to focus a little more on the goodies.
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