shad0wsoda submitted a new DSM Profile :

1997 6-bolt swapped GST


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shad0wsoda updated 1997 6-bolt swapped GST


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shad0wsoda updated 1997 6-bolt swapped GST


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Moving forward I am going to attempt to log my progress on my 98 GST that I have owned for over 10 years at this point. This was the first car I ever owned, bought it when I was 17 and have a lot of memories with it. I may try and back log some of the build if I can find the photos, but I didn't do a great job of documenting in the past and I would like to change that from now on! I consider myself a highly incompetent mechanic and am very much looking forward to learning a lot in the future

Ok so the winter project for this year was to clean up the engine bay by fixing the horrific patch job of intercooler piping that caused everything else on the intake side of the motor. You can see that the overflow tank no longer fit in its correct spot and that the intake/MAF had to be tilted on its side to fit:



The main reason for this ill fitting mess was the car was originally tuned on a GM MAF which was removed when the car was going through some troubleshooting early in my ownership. I was 17, didn't know anything about these cars (or much about any cars), no one I knew had these cars and my dad comes from a muscle car/hot rod background and didn't much either. Long story short, the car ended up at a guys shop who was at least somewhat familiar and he decided the car should have an OEM mitsu MAF... and so it did! That meant removing the length of pipe which included the MAF from the upper intake piping and replacing it with the length of pipe circle in the above picture, and it has not all fit well together since.

This is how the engine bay looked when I bought the car in 2014..



One could argue that I've made the engine bay look worse over the years...

I decided on the CXRacing intercooler kit as it fit the budget and allows for use of stock fog lights, which I was excited to put back on the car as I haven't been able to run them due to the fitting of the old intercooler and piping.





Fog lights were sourced from this poor GS (and a few others) in a local junkyard



After removing the old piping and receiving my CXRacing kit, it was time to install. I also found a Image Performance cone filter that bolts directly to the OEM MAF rather than using a converter plate which made the whole intake quite long and tough to fit. The cap of the filter is blue which is currently driving me nuts and will need to be painted/powder coated sooner than later. Speaking of which, I had the TB elbow and two upper pieces powder coated in satin black for a more OEM look, seen below in some stage of assembly



After the junky BOV that comes with the kit was installed, OEM fog lights with yellow PIAA bulbs were installed and the front mount was put into place. I ended up being unable to use the metal spacers that came with the kit. I have seen other people (legitstreetcars on youtube) also struggle with the metal spacers and opted for these rubber spacers, which allowed me to add/subtract the amount of spacer I needed and still firmly holds the lower mounts of the intercooler


Front bumper cover back on! Alignment of the fog light bezels and the fog lights are a bit wonky due to how the bumper is cut and fitment of the intercooler but not wonky enough that I can't tolerate it... You also may be able to spy that the BOV sat WAY too high in the engine bay and needed some shifting around before the hood would close



Engine bay was all put back together and I even made a recirculation hose which this car has not had on it for years



Winter project complete! More to come soon

Ok so a few weeks back I started up the car and let it get to temperature for the first time in a couple months as the car sat over the winter. Re-sealing the valve cover was something on my to do list as its been apparent oil is seeping out in multiple places. After I shut the car off I noticed this:


Looks like a cracked valve cover to me! There was also oil in the spark plug valley, meaning likely another crack from one of the interior bolts. These bolts were installed by the machine shop that rebuilt the motor back in 2014ish and they must not have been aware how brittle these valve covers are (honestly, neither was I at the time). I took the valve cover off to find 4 different length bolts

I was able to find a good valve cover locally for fairly cheap and jumped on it. I also used this opportunity of having the valve cover off to add a part I should've a long time ago.. A Kiggly HLA!



Such a simple yet effective mod!

A hardware kit from STM and patience to not over-torque the bolts and it's all back together!



I've got to say, I'm a fan of the black valve cover...

It's been awhile, so time for an update on the car. Over the past couple of months, I've been doing something that I haven't been able to do much of before... driving it! This past year I've easily put the most miles on the car in about 5 or 6 years and its been a blast. I've had the opportunity to meet many of the DSM folks from the Rocky Mountain DSM group including a couple cruises through the mountains and a group photo shoot at the famous Red Rocks Park & Amphitheater


I now have that group photo hanging on my office wall

I moved down from Denver to Colorado Springs in the fall and that gave me the opportunity to finally register the car in Colorado as El Paso county does not have emissions testing. I did lose my favorite ever license plate but the replacement should do just fine


Where I live now is even closer to mountain roads as well as The Garden of The Gods Park where I was able to grab some great photos at sunrise



While it has been a great summer/fall of getting the car out, I do have some minor work for over the winter. Like many DSMs it has been marking its territory in my garage for sometime now with the leak seeming to get worse. I have identified two leaking areas: oil filter housing gasket and turbo drain line. I purchased a new drain line kit from Morrison Fabrication along with new gaskets to address that issue and will be getting the oil filter housing gasket to hopefully get everything sealed up. I additionally picked up some Motul 300 LS 75W90 Trans fluid in hopes that a fluid flush will slightly lessen a 3rd gear crunch that has developed of recent (we'll see about that one but worth a shot) as well as FINALLY getting a new engine bay VIN plate to replace the faded, no longer legible tag on the car now. Shoutout to Cody Kenyon on Facebook who communicated well and got the tag shipped out quickly.


All in all, minor projects to take care of, along with a few others I have planned to allow me to keep driving this thing when Spring comes back around

Absolutely killer photos!

jesse12345 said:

Absolutely killer photos!

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Thanks man! Pretty hard to mess them up with that kind of scenery

Car looks great, it wouldn't be a dsm if it didn't leave its mark

Ineedboostman said:

Car looks great, it wouldn't be a dsm if it didn't leave its mark

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Thanks man! It used to burn the oil rather than leak it. IDK which I prefer

Small update as I've more or less neglected my winter to-do list for this car after buying a Fiesta ST to mess around with. Warm weather is here already so I'd like to get a few of the minor items knocked out while I'm motivated to do so.

A little back story. In 2022 I moved from MD to KS for work and did not have the ability to bring the car with me. The car lived in my parents driveway and my dad was nice enough to occasionally start it and even drove it around the block a few times. However, it unfortunately sat majority of the time and also has always lived outside during my ownership. One spring while visiting home, I went to check on the car and found evidence of rodents in the engine bay. Fast forward to 2024 and my move to CO and I was finally reunited with the car.

This car has had the AC components deleted but the heater system is still in the car and I do occasionally desire to use it for early morning drives. One morning I went to turn on the heater and heard rattling coming from the blower motor and a horrible smell. I knew exactly what that meant and was not looking forward to dealing with it so I put it off...

Until today!

The back screw on the blower motor is kind of a PITA to get to but after removing it, I was presented with this wonderful mess!



The smell coming off of this thing was horrid.

After dawning PPE, I used a small nylon brush and plenty of APC to get it cleaned up and had the blower motor looking good as new

Although I'm incredibly thankful to still own my first ever car, my treatment of it, lack of funds at the time and storage situation of it really has taken it's toll. The paint has seriously degraded from being stored outside for so long, including clear coat fading on the roof. This was another example of the effects outdoor storage and neglect can take on a car. I'm happy that part of it's life is over and it now can be slowly brought back to the condition it deserves!

More to come soon

Alright time for an update

I was hoping to just have an update of sick photos, videos of cruises and more shenanigans from driving the car all summer. Unfortunately the car had other plans.

Shift Magazine Colorado wanted to do a feature on DSMs for their upcoming issue and I was stoked to be able to be a part of the article which included a meet up in the mountains, interviews with each of the drivers and capturing rolling photos of the cars. That morning I headed out pretty early for the meet up. It was a beautiful drive northwest through the mountains.

As I pulled into the meeting spot for the photo shoot I heard a plastic clattering sound. After some searching, I wasn't really sure what was causing the noise but it did sound like it was coming from the timing belt area. One theory was the harmonic balancer falling apart, though the sound was oddly familiar to a few years back when I had a timing tensioner on the way out and it was allowing the timing belt to flop around and hit the inside of the timing cover. When the rest of the Rocky Mountain DSM guys arrived, we had a troubleshooting party, which produced this fantastic photo of me in troubleshooting mode...



Alas there wasn't much I could do at the moment and I figured if there was anytime to blow up a motor it was during a photoshoot. We ended up getting some great photos and it was a super cool experience. If you'd like to read the article and see the photos of the other 6 DSMs that made it that day, you can find the Shift Colorado issue here



Though the car was making a horrible plastic rattle, it made it through the shoot and even the ~1 hour drive home, which was probably pushing my luck a bit.

My hope was that the harmonic balancer was the culprit so I did not have to tear all the timing components apart. Thanks to @Dusty Landrum for the donation of a much-better-looking-than-mine OEM harmonic balancer as a fluidampr was likely out of the budget for the time being. Turns out my harmonic balancer was fine and therefore the timing components were coming apart which is a shame since most of the timing components have only 5k miles or so on them. I figured it may have been the rockauto timing tensioner I had put on the car during the last time the tensioner had failed.


I figured if I was replacing timing components, I might as well pay the extra money for OEM parts and have them last. That led to a hefty bill from extremePSI which included a OEM mitsu tensioner and pullies, Evo 9 kevlar belt, and a few more "while i'm in there" parts to fix a OFH leak and accessory belts.

After disassembly, I was shocked to find a new problem, a divot worn into the tensioner arm. Perhaps this was the entire issue or the tensioner had indeed failed as well, eitherway this was a problem as the 6 bolt tensioner arm is discontinued and though FIBA is working on a OEM+ version, it is not ready yet.



I cannot weld, but had some friends come to the rescue and fill the divot as a hopefully more-than-temporary fix. The rest was a simple timing job and after reassembly, it fired up with no rattling to be heard.

Lastly, new spark plugs and some ISC adjustments through link, the car is running great and I'm glad to have it back on the road.

Till next time

I never gave it much thought but why don't we just grind the pad flat? All I can see this doing is changing the amount to turn the eccentric tensioner a little more. By the book it has a torque value. I do it by feel but even so i dont look at orientation until its done.

Man, I wish I could have been there! Looks like fun. Happy for you that you made the cruise & home without incident.
I was on the fence about meeting up, and ironically enough, MY harmonic balancer seperated just prior to the meet. I initially thought timing belt tensioner, you know, worst case scenario. I had the top side of everything disassembled before I pulled the harmonic balancer and found it. Dug a pretty good gouge into my prestine 6-bolt timing cover. I went ahead and finished pulling the cover just for an inspection, and all was good.
My DSM probably wouldn't have made the cut for the shoot, unless they like patina

pauleyman said:

I never gave it much thought but why don't we just grind the pad flat? All I can see this doing is changing the amount to turn the eccentric tensioner a little more. By the book it has a torque value. I do it by feel but even so i dont look at orientation until its done.

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I had the same divot and did exactly that years ago. So far so good. That's funny, I can weld and have a welder, but it never crossed my mind to weld it flat.

pauleyman said:

I never gave it much thought but why don't we just grind the pad flat? All I can see this doing is changing the amount to turn the eccentric tensioner a little more. By the book it has a torque value. I do it by feel but even so i dont look at orientation until its done.

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Yeah that is actually a good point, not sure I've seen anyone do that, but I have seen people weld up that divot when it happens. Better yet, a harder material that doesn't wear down! @FIBA M - EC17PSE looking to you!

dwb said:

Man, I wish I could have been there! Looks like fun. Happy for you that you made the cruise & home without incident.
I was on the fence about meeting up, and ironically enough, MY harmonic balancer seperated just prior to the meet. I initially thought timing belt tensioner, you know, worst case scenario. I had the top side of everything disassembled before I pulled the harmonic balancer and found it. Dug a pretty good gouge into my prestine 6-bolt timing cover. I went ahead and finished pulling the cover just for an inspection, and all was good.
My DSM probably wouldn't have made the cut for the shoot, unless they like patina


I had the same divot and did exactly that years ago. So far so good. That's funny, I can weld and have a welder, but it never crossed my mind to weld it flat.

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It was a great time! Pretty nerve-racking drive home though! You know that at least one DSM was bound to break when you are getting a couple together. I figured this all counted as mine being the one that broke but glad yours was just the balancer, did you go with an upgraded one or just a stock replacement?

I think patina is a good representation of the DSM game at this point, would've been great to have even more cars show up

Man I wish I had a group of dsm friends around me, that looks extremely fun!

I had an old oem balancer laying around that I temporarily installed, but it had seen better days. I found a good oem replacement from a member here that I swapped last week.
It's my daily driver so I like to try to keep the vibrations to a minimum, but that didn't deter me from removing balance shafts for more reliability.

shad0wsoda said:

Yeah that is actually a good point, not sure I've seen anyone do that, but I have seen people weld up that divot when it happens. Better yet, a harder material that doesn't wear down! @FIBA M - EC17PSE looking to you!

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I know i know .

I got started on some of the items later this yesr than I wanted so I will look into these as the very first thing to be done in Jan 27 or I can look to have them released sooner! Maybe Oct but I will need toget moved and re setup first to get back to this properly but it WILL BE DONE and this problem will be solved for you all!

jesse12345 said:

Man I wish I had a group of dsm friends around me, that looks extremely fun!

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Cool opportunity and good times for sure! Are you near the twin cities at all? Living near a major metro area definitely increases the chances of surviving DSMs around. Used to live in rural Maryland and kind of ran into the same thing. Helps that the rust isn't as big of an issue in this area so perhaps that keeps a few more on the road

FIBA M - EC17PSE said:

I know i know .

I got started on some of the items later this yesr than I wanted so I will look into these as the very first thing to be done in Jan 27 or I can look to have them released sooner! Maybe Oct but I will need toget moved and re setup first to get back to this properly but it WILL BE DONE and this problem will be solved for you all!

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All good! hope the move goes well and thanks for supporting the platform

shad0wsoda said:

All good! hope the move goes well and thanks for supporting the platform

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Always and most welcome! I love creating the products and working hard for us. Still a lpng ways to go but getting through it bit by bit for us all.

shad0wsoda said:

Cool opportunity and good times for sure! Are you near the twin cities at all? Living near a major metro area definitely increases the chances of surviving DSMs around. Used to live in rural Maryland and kind of ran into the same thing. Helps that the rust isn't as big of an issue in this area so perhaps that keeps a few more on the road

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The only big city I'm close to is fargo nd and that's still a 40 minute drive unfortunately. There were a few guys on here that were from nd but they aren't active on here anymore. I happened to get my brother into an eclipse again so at least I have him. I'll have to hit up something in fargo maybe there are people there that aren't on here? Who knows.