gregs4g63 submitted a new DSM Profile :

1997 GST AWD SWAP Build


Read more about this vehicle here...

Okay I realized I never started from the beginning and the thread just starts off pretty much at the end of the build I’m going to thread jack this and start from the beginning, writing this old update on October 21st, 2026..

The Beginning:

2013: I sold my GS and picked up this non running but complete GST for $1400

And here’s a few photos of my first DSM, my 98 GS 5 Speed that I owned for about 3 months before selling and purchasing my non running GST..


when buying my GST, we were told the head just needed to be reassembled / swapped and it should be good to go. First time car guy here, how hard could that be. Upon first start up after getting a rebuilt head on there.. snapped a rod while cranking . Ended up sourcing another block in San Marcos for $40 with good crank pistons and rods. Picked that up, rebuilt another head and got the engine ready to go back in.

new engine went back in and actually fired up. No bad for a first time car guy to get thrown straight into an engine rebuild. thanks to my brother in law for showing me the ropes


First thing I had to do after it was running was through a big ol fart cannon on this thing



I really still didn’t know anything about DSMs at this point, but all my other car guy friends seemed to like it



It’s around 2014 ish, cars still FWD but I’m learning now I probably should have gotten a GSX. Al thought GST was still sufficient enough for me, going to meets and hearing “ah it’s not a GSX” was starting to eat at me.. Thus the idea for an AWD swap were born

Cruising up to the Paul Walker Memorial cruise after his passing (im sad my car doesnt look this good anymore)

AWD Swap
Spring / Summer of 2014 i finally decided with no mechanical knowledge to do the AWD conversion. Me and my dad picked up this AWD donor 1995 Eagle Talon TSI shell for $500, missing the Transmission & engine. I wish i would have taken more photos these years.

As you may have seen on my Talon build thread.. the day we brought our AWD Rolling shell home
Still dont know what i was doing but.. AWD Driveline is out

Drive shaft hangers and Driveshaft welded into the GST (all this was being swapped in the driveway )

Our donor did not come with a transmission, so we drove out to fontana to pick up this "shifts fine no grinds or pop outs" transmission. Spoiler alert. 2nd gear would never go in gear. So i guess there was no better time than the present than to learn how to rebuild a dsm manual transmission



while the car is apart i guess is a good time to upgrade..
which by the way, Huge shoutout to my dad for helping both physically and financially during this time. didnt realize at the time but looking back man i woudnt be where i am today without him.



and there it is, AWD completed and on the road! wish the story ended that simply but we did it







didnt take long untill the motor was back out for something else..



Dad & friends, early days always working on these cars, and where my passion for the DSM really materialized


Temecula Tuesdays (my dad actually was the one who took the car, he was enjoying the car while I moved out of state)

Moving to Edmond, Oklahoma
In 2015, the DSM made its way to Oklahoma. Moved there for work from 2015-2017. Had to have my DSM with me across the country (Even though this is when i bought my first evo and eventually pushed the DSM on the back burner for years to come )

It was always a dream to own both a DSM and an Evo! First thing i did when i bought was go straight to the garage and take a picture with the GST


Always had to find time to bring the DSM to work ( Car is covered in stickers here because i had a canopy one day fly up and scratch the side of the car. Young me thought stickers would be the answer to covering up the scratches)

Random OKC Parking Garage ( I think i was picking up a full set of evo 8 brembos for the car, which i sadly never installed)

Halfway through 2017 I decided I wanted to move back to California (don’t ask me why I regret it to this day)

2017 to 2019 was really focused on my 2003 Evo build, so my DSM didn’t see much love here. The evo 9 wheels my DSM came with got put on the evo. Ended up finding another set of evo 9 wheels for $400 which means the eclipse got some decent wheels again.


Meanwhile the evo got a Forced performance black upgrade, then sent those rods to the moon and I was left with a broken evo and a forgotten about eclipse. So what did I do? Instead of making it a drivable car, I decided to put an FP red on the car and ended up bending a rod In the motor about 2 months later. That was short lived, now I had 2 broken 4g63 machines






2020 Revival!!
my DSM was nearly forgotten about. But in 2020, after I sold my evo the year previously, I was itching for another 4g63 build. The Eclipse needed another motor rebuild, and I figured I would give the DSM another shot…

Parts hoarding began ..




Time for another motor 2.3 Stroker

2021 the build really began. I had failed to run a 10 second 1/4 pass in the evo (why I regretfully sold it) and I was taking it out on the DSM.. my OG, street car was starting to become not a street car

**2025 UPDATE**

2025 I had a change of heart. All of the sudden I didn’t want this car to be a full drag build. I wanted an OEM + build. I let this car go in terms of appearance, and focused so much on power. Before I even got to get this car to the Dyno or even the track, I hit the brakes and started reverting it back to “stock-ish”



I decided to change the setup on this car. it had become more Drag Strip Oriented, but I decided to make this car more of a OEM + style build.
I removed the the t3 setup and went with a 16G turbo on a FP Manifold

Switched over from E85 to Californias lovely 91 octane... Since E85 is not easily available to my new city and requires an hour + drive one way.. 2 potential E85 stations in town are supposedly being built, but seems there's no ETA of when they will be completed.. So 91 oct it is..

- went from 2150FIC injectors down to 750CC injectors

- Swapped out the 3" Intercooler piping for some 2.5" piping

- Swapped out the 525 Fuel pump for an AEM 320 Pump

Still has the Built 2.3L 98/99 7 Bolt, but I have been thinking about swapping this out for a less built motor to cruise around in. California seems to be getting worse with restrictions and regulations. I think that's what caused all these changes, as a worry free OEM+ build would be better for where I live.

After ditching the hood exit exhaust and returning to a full 3" turbo back exhaust, I found this motor had a strange "Lifter Tick" type noise.

Shotgunned some parts at it. started with a known good set of revised lifters I had sitting around, but the noise remained. Ordered and installed a brand new set of revised lifters, and still, this new ticking noise was still there. Would like to add, this motor did not have this ticking type noise when I parked the car, and this built 2.3L I built back in 2021 only had 7 miles on it.

Really hoping this isn't rod knock, or worse, crank walk...

I’m going to miss that forward facing setup that’s for sure..



Carbonetics Drag lip looks so good on the 2G.. but unfortunately that had to come off too. It’ll be repurposed on another project


For the first time in a few years (due to sitting, and then e85 corroding my supposedly “e85 safe” fuel lines), my ol’ 2G moved under its own power


One last change.. OEM panels. Car needs paint badly though..


But as I mentioned in the beginning. The car has a developed a loud ticking noise. And while I’ve confirmed multiple times that the noise cannot be heard from the bottom end, and replacing the lifters twice.. we’ll have to figure out this noise sooner or later.

gregs4g63 said:

All of the sudden I didn’t want this car to be a full drag build. I wanted an OEM + build.

Click to expand...

Yeah I get that, same.

miliman13 said:

Yeah I get that, same.

Click to expand...

I still go back and forth on what I want to do with this car . I figured turning my other shell to the "dedicated drag car" would keep me from butchering this one any more. But still.. I find myself thinking about throwing all the go-fast parts back onto it

I swear Ive got ADHD or something.. Too many projects, I seem to find myself hopping from one thing to another. This is 100% reason nothing ever gets finished! Lol.

2026 Update:
I randomly got an urge to take another look at my Eclipse, to solve that mysterious Ticking noise that developed in my freshly built motor that had approximately 7 miles on. As mentioned previously, I checked my lifters and decided to throw in another set of the larger hole bore that i had laying around. Didn't fix anything, social media community had advised me that I needed to go with the specific topline lifters, so even though I didn't think the Toplines were going to resolve my issue, I ordered some anyways. After Bleeding and installing, no change. Continued diagnosing trying to isolate the noise. Checked and checked and checked, and verified noise was not coming from the bottom end. Isolated the noise to be in the area of the oil cap, in those 4 rollers / lifters / spring area.

while looking, I had rested my hand against the Intake Cam gear, and while doing so, i noticed the cam gear had slightly moved. Did a quick check on the bolt and gear, bolt was tight, but there was ever so little play as i could rock the gear. Probably should have properly torqued it next, but was having a hard time believing this was my noise, just stuck a ratchet on there and tightened the bolt a little more. The play was no longer present. Started the car back up and my Mysterious Lifter tick / Rod Knock was gone

To celebrate i decided to replace the broken Driver side door handle, as i had broken the passenger side a few months before "fixing" my engine and only could get into the car through the hatch.



I was feeling excited about this car again, so continued working on it some more. I dont remember if i mentioned this or updated this in the mods list: but i went away from the blackbox ECU and had swapped in an Evo 8 ECU. Decided it was time to mess with the tune and get the car driving better. Anytime i would change Injector scaling or latency either direction, the car would no longer start

Reverted back to my old tune (which is basically just my old evo tune on 1050cc injectors, and this car is on 750s) and thats how she sits. I need DSMlink


A Few months had passed since trying to adjust the tune, i needed to move the car. went to start and i hear liquid pissing out from the fuel tank area. seems like my car had busted another fuel line from just sitting. idk. my first set of "e85 safe" -6 lines busted from sitting for 5 years (im not mad about that, my fault for letting it sit with e85), so i reverted back to OEM line, and no longer on E85 but California 91 oct.. and after sitting again, i have a busted line again (i think) I havent actually looked to see whats busted / leaking. After finding that out, i just pushed the car around in the driveway, will need to come back and address this later

I just went through an updated this build thread from the beginning from when I first got this car. Bunch of pictures added and tried to tell its story. If anyone cares to read through it was a lot of work to find all those old pictures

(old picture thrown in just because)


Also.. kind of toying with the idea of putting the go fast parts back on here and doing an auto swap.. going back and forth with this