1996 gst daily driver

[chrysler kid]

Let us start from the beginning.

In 2003-2004 I owned a white 1996 eclipse gst with cloth interior. I bought it with 65k miles for $6500. I don't recall being excited about the great deal, at that time used dsm's were still a dime a dozen and the 95-96 body style were the least loved. I owned the car for two years and after highschool I began modifying it. In the middle of my 16g swap the balance shaft belt broke and took the head and blew the end case off of the trans. Yep try to drop you car into gear after the belt snaps. So I got into ls1's and have always kept an eye out for another dsm



So on to my baby, I've owned her for 10 years and she has never given me any problems. I bought my z28 and abused her regularly in college. Friday night test and tunes, car meets and roll racing, donuts, burnouts, and all she ever needed was regular oil changes. My best time was an 11.67 @ 115 on et streets and drag wheels. I still have her, I've converted it to a 6 speed manual, changed the interior to all black, corbeau racing seats



So as time went on I graduated from college and found a low mileage gs show car from a former car toys executive. It's pretty ricey but for 4500 with 73k miles it was in mint condition. My wife used this car as her daily driver, she put close to 80 miles a day on it for two years and two timing belts. We sold it with 99k miles after the second timing belt, the sun was taking its toll on the pearl paint and it was time to move on for us. If it was turbo maybe she would have went back under the knife but nah



The next dsm I got off of a local dsmer who bought the car new off of the dealer lot. My expectations were simply too high for this car, on the drive home the skunk 2 springs nearly ejected me out of the sunroof, the car was smoking badly from oil leaks onto the down pipe, the transmission was messed up, anyways it was soon sold again as I found another fbody



So anyways I was still on the prowl, 4 years later I've found a match. A car with the exact same options, the exact same year, and identical to the car I grew up modifying. I bought it from the original owner and in the same town I grew up In. Car is spotless one owner. To be continued

 

[gforced20g]

Nice car! I too had a dsm in high school. It was a 95 talon tsi and now I have a 96 talon tsi as my project! Good luck with your build look forward to keeping up with it.

 

[Michael Damman]

thats awesome...I had a 97 ESi in high school as my first car...was a hand me down...my dad bought it new and then gave it to my older brother...when he was done with it, it became mine...drove it for a year or so and then convinced him to let me sell it and I bought a 98 tsi...timing belt snapped and then a month after i got it back the turbo went bad...2 engine repairs later i sold it right from the shop it that fixed it....and I am heading to pick up a 97 tsi in a week or 2 from my buddy who just blew the trans up...so this will be my 3rd Black Talon haha...going to hopefully keep it for a long long long time

 

[chrysler kid]

The dsm market especially for 2nd Gen is slim to none in my area so the car was hard to find

I would like some bolt on mods, this thing builds boost so damn slow for the t25

 

[chrysler kid]

Well, my plans were delayed. I have the car torn apart for timing belt and water pump and when the package showed up yesterday from extreme psi it was missing the timing belt tensioner.




I'm frustrated that my $440 order was overlooked and human error caused my tensioner not to be in the box. I asked for them to next day the part to me since I already have the car torn down and was told sorry they don't do that. I asked if I needed to call them after placing an order to verify everything was put in my box and the rep just said ok

I expected more from a vendor I spent $440 with, but they have my money so to them it wasn't an issue. I was told the $40 it would cost them to ship next day was not acceptable even though I had just spent 10 times that with them. Guess they have no issue losing a customer

 

[chrysler kid]

And a throw back picture of my original car. Can you believe this was 12 years ago. The picture is of me, the quote is not me



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[chrysler kid]

It's ebay day! who paid $285 for a new greddy whistle anyways





All waxed up

 

[chrysler kid]

I picked up an ebay IC piping kit, I highly reccomend it. My stock rubber piping was in poor condition, plus that leaky factory bov I wasn't hitting full boost until late in the throttle, on a t25 it should spool almost immediately, but those factory pipes were flexing


Stock speakers falling apart. These Pyle speakers were $11 each. I highly reccomend them.




That's nasty



Speakers fit perfect with no modifications




And the eBay piping kit

 

[chrysler kid]

Sold my little civic for double what I paid for her, she was extremely clean. Not going to lie here, I miss that little car. 305k miles and getting 42mpg city with an immaculate factory paint job

Picked up a 3 inch catback off of amazon for $110 shipped. Fitment was better than expected, I still need to re adjust the muffler bracket but it sounds good. Having had the exhaust for a month or two now I can't say I'm impressed, really should have just picked up a 2.5 inch cat back to mate to the stock muffler. Oh well I guess it does give more horse power but I do miss having the stock exhaust appearance.


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[chrysler kid]

I'll skip ahead a little bit, I've proceeded to tear down the covers and pull the oil pan to get rid of a leak. The oil pan was held on with a nasty cork rtv sandwich that dimpled the oil pan bolts
heard a tip about marking the old belt before you take it off, then mark the new one side by side with a little tension on them to get them exact. Shouldn't matter since I'm getting the holding tool but never hurts to have an extra point of reference





Just double checking things before I pull the belt. The more I read up on tooners, the more confidence I'm gaining. Seems like you have to be pretty dense to misalign the belt.

I'm going to pull the oil pump sprocket off to check the seal behind it, the inside of my belt looks like it may be damp.

Belt was put on at top dead center, tensioner has oem stamping, good sign that dealer did all previous maintenance, or possibly that the belt has never been changed

I can't get the stupid plastic cam alignment tool in between the car gears but I may not use it anyways. Seems like it caused more problems than anything when searching the tool usage on tooners



Tensioner bolts appear to be leaking, possibly the tensioner itself, thread sealant going on the bolts when the new one

Yes it's not quite aligned down here yet, just showing the leak, and where I marked the belt and pulleys so I can count teeth on the new belt





Got a lot accomplished for only about 2-3 hours worth of work. Put the oil pan back on and it seemed to go well. Just kind of un nerving

the car has been drained of coolant for a week now but good grief it still had nearly a half of a gallon come out when I removed the pump

The tool that goes through the engine mount to the tensioner has me a little confused. Seemed like I threaded the bolt to touch the arm and then I checked and the Allen key slid right in. OK that was easy

Anyways I got the belt off and the water pump, and the balance shaft belt. Decided to call it a night and let the engine dry out from all that coolant leaking down the side

I had to slightly rotate the crank to remove the balance shaft belt, there was no way to get it out even after taking out the crank sensor. That balance shaft belt was extremely cracked and weak.

 

[chrysler kid]

Almost ready after timing belt and water pump

 

[chrysler kid]

It's aliiiive