Autocross Build 1996 TSi AWD - Restore/Autocross

[Dsmkauai]

Really nice work bro! Love seeing dsm's being taken care of so well keep up the great work bro car looks sick! Have you hit the track at all yet?

 

[llxkevinxll]

Really nice work bro! Love seeing dsm's being taken care of so well keep up the great work bro car looks sick! Have you hit the track at all yet?

I wish! That car has only seen about 150 miles in the 4ish years I have had it. I had it running last summer but was only in Cleveland for about a week to work on it/drive it. Now all four corners are torn apart and the turbo is still not back in so it continues to sit for now.

Thanks for the kind words! I appreciate it! I am hoping to continue my current pace so new updates should be more frequent.

-Kevin

 

[Dsmkauai]

Keep at it bro, the end will come soon haha. I know how you feel my gst and first DSM has been down for a few years too. I miss it so much . It's about ready to make its comeback tour

 

[llxkevinxll]

UPDATE #16 - 6/2/2016 - Gathering parts/Axle assembly/Turbo Install

Some parts I have rounded up ready to be put/used on the car:

VHT Black caliper paint.

Filtered vent tube for the BOV. Ugly but it works.

Timken front hubs and bearings.

APR front strut tower brace.

The axle inner CVs and cups got cleaned up and ready to be installed on the new Strictly Performance rear axles.

Also began plumbing the turbo and got the manifold installed in the car.

 

[llxkevinxll]

UPDATE #17 - 7/6/2016 - Rear hubs/suspension install. Front hub assembly. Rear Axle install.

Good progress has been made. The suspension and hubs have been almost entirely installed. Just need to finish the calipers to put the rest of the hub assembly back together. Steel brake lines have been installed at all four corners as well.

Cleaned and installed the parking brake assemblies.

Adjustable rear toe arms are on along with the new Strictly upgraded rear axles. Test fit the rear DBA rotors.

Front brake mounting brackets for the VR4 front brake conversion are cleaned and painted.

New front lower control arms are installed.

APR front strut tower brace is on. Finishing the water and oil lines for the new 20g and fluids can be added back to the motor.

 

[llxkevinxll]

UPDATE #18 - 7/17/2016 - Wheels cleaned/Tires mounted/Brake Progress/Boost controller

Car has been coming together quickly in the last few weeks.

Evo 8 Enkeis are cleaned and the new rubber is mounted. Also added some black anodized aluminum valve stems. I went with the Bridgestone RE-71r as many of the events I raced in this summer were dominated by this tire. And they were similarly priced to the Nittos and the G-Force Rival S's. The wheels came off my 1G Eclipse and were already bronze when I bought the car. I think the combo of bronze wheels on the green car looks pretty good. They are only spray painted it seems so in the future I will get them cleaned and power coated.

I also continued cleaning and organizing the brake hardware for the front VR4 brakes and rear evo 8 brembos. The front calipers are painted and drying while the rears still need a little more time cleaning and prepping.

I had recently a purchased a pretty rough fiberglass OE style hood. I just got it back from the painter. I had it cleaned up and painted the same black used on the roof and rear hatch. I also had the washer fluid squirter holes filled as I won't be using them on the car.

I picked up a Hallman Pro boost controller and found an unused bolt on the passenger strut tower.

I test fit the wheel/tire combo. I think they look great though the knuckle clearance in the rear has me a bit worried. If needed I will space them out a few millimeters.

I am hoping to continue this pace and get the car ready for the shootout this year.

 

[llxkevinxll]

UPDATE #19 - 8/1/2016 - Car is running and "complete".

The car is officially ready to be tuned and start competing in events. All the maintenance items and modification have been completed (for now).

Brakes were painted and assembled.

And then installed on the car.

The hardware for the rear brakes arrived and allowed the rear Evo 8 calipers to be assembled and pads installed.

I got a Tial Q bov to replace the crushed 1g. This will go on during the winter.

The car is "completed" at this point. Though there are a few things that will be done over the next few months and years:

-Engine tuning
-Suspension tuning
-Seats/harnesses
-Possible cage
-Oil cooler w/ electric fan
-New 02 housing with external wastegate

Thanks for taking a look,
Kevin

 

[99ECLIPSEGSXDSM]

Glad to see you made a lot of progress. If I see you at the shootout I'll stop in and BS but don't hesitate to do the same when you see Betty

 

[petegsx]

Awesome, looks good! Keep up the good work and keep up with updates

 

[Black95TSIawd]

Good job. Very nice car.

 

[BoostzillaTSX]

That is definitely a clean well rebuilt machine!! Looks awesome!!

 

[llxkevinxll]

UPDATE #20 - 9/11/2016 - New Radiator/First Autocross Event

While dialing the car in, the OE replacement radiator that had been sitting in the car for 5 years let go.

So it has been replaced with a Mishimoto X-Line radiator, fan shroud kit, and new radiator hoses.

I was also able to compete in my first autocross event in the car.

Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it.

-Kevin

 

[Operate]

Excellent progress from start to finish, Looks great! How did it feel auto-x suspension wise any adjustments

 

[99ECLIPSEGSXDSM]

How did you do at your first event? How much time was dropped between first pass and final?

 

[llxkevinxll]

Excellent progress from start to finish, Looks great! How did it feel auto-x suspension wise any adjustments

I left the shocks at their loosest setting the whole day. I thought the suspension was very balanced. There was no under or over steer like I expected. The car didn't plow coming into the tighter turns and on corner exit I was able to give it throttle much earlier than I anticipated with no pushing or bringing the back end around. I have yet to set the camber on the car after lowering it so hopefully it gets better after a full alignment. It was odd getting used to the car after coming from my FWD Eclipse GT 5 years ago and my 96 Camaro SS I had been running for the last few years. A completely different feel as you can imagine.

How did you do at your first event? How much time was dropped between first pass and final?

My first run was a 61.9 clean, ended the day with a 54.1 clean. Had a 53.5 but had a cone. Not sure how I placed overall yet. Results will be out in a day or two.

 

[99ECLIPSEGSXDSM]

That's a very good improvement. Doesn't matter if you were first or last. The important thing is the improvement and getting better each run and you're obviously doing that. Are you running with NEOHIO SCCA region? My buddy Aaron races with them but hasn't been out much and I might be moving to Cleveland so that would be awesome to see another dsm autoxer

 

[llxkevinxll]

That's a very good improvement. Doesn't matter if you were first or last. The important thing is the improvement and getting better each run and you're obviously doing that. Are you running with NEOHIO SCCA region? My buddy Aaron races with them but hasn't been out much and I might be moving to Cleveland so that would be awesome to see another dsm autoxer

This event was put on by the Porsche club. I am hoping to make it to the next NEOhio event in two weeks. I talked to Aaron earlier in the year (I bought my fiberglass hood from him). Last I heard they were still trying to find pavement. I saw steel city Scca also has a couple in October. So if I can squeeze some more practice in before parking the car for winter that would be great.

 

[99ECLIPSEGSXDSM]

Misery bay (Erie) has an event the 25th of September and I'll be there with mine for my first event of the year in the DSM. If also you want more seat time Erie might have another one in October. It's different than any other place I've autoxed at and it's a blast.

 

[hocka09]

You are basically following my plan to a tee; I've got a G37 Deep Green Metallic '95 Talon TSi AWD roller (hiding in the background) waiting to get a little attention. Running the same wheels in a BBS bronze pretty similar to yours. I do agree with you, that wheel color goes exceptionally well with these dark green cars.

Sub'd for build ideas...

 

[llxkevinxll]

Misery bay (Erie) has an event the 25th of September and I'll be there with mine for my first event of the year in the DSM. If also you want more seat time Erie might have another one in October. It's different than any other place I've autoxed at and it's a blast.

Awesome, I will have to try to make that. Hopefully the wet and cold holds off for another month or so.

You are basically following my plan to a tee; I've got a G37 Deep Green Metallic '95 Talon TSi AWD roller (hiding in the background) waiting to get a little attention. Running the same wheels in a BBS bronze pretty similar to yours. I do agree with you, that wheel color goes exceptionally well with these dark green cars.

Sub'd for build ideas...

Ya I actually got really lucky with the wheels. They happened to come on my 1G when I bought it. I had no intention of using them on the Talon until I started looking for a 17x8 with the right offset, and I had a set sitting there. The bronze was a happy accident.

 

[llxkevinxll]

UPDATE #21 - 12/2/2016 - Wiring Harness Rebuild/IAT Install/Winter Work

The car is garaged for the winter and will be taken apart and reassembled to address I few issues I had with it during the fall.

Work to be completed this winter:
-Install oil catch can and coolant overflow tank to firewall.
-Moving the overflow tank makes room for the Tial Q BOV to be installed.
-Install -6 AN bungs onto valve cover.
-Install Ingalls rear camber kit to remove rear negative camber and allow for adjustment.
-Align front camber using.
-Rewire engine harness.
-Relocate the battery to the trunk.
-Find the cause of a rattle at part throttle between 2000 and 4000 RPM.

First is the wiring harness. The connectors and wiring on the car currently is in bad shape. The TPS popped off at the end of a 1/4 mile run and the CAS connector came off on the freeway. I have an extra 2G harness that has good wiring but damaged connectors. I purchased the Sheridan Engineering connector kit and will be building a harness to my liking.

I have also removed the battery tray to make room for the oil catch can and coolant overflow tank that will be placed on the firewall.

The IAT sensor has been mounted on the throttle body elbow and is ready to be wired in. I will also be adding a MAP sensor this winter. Both for logging only as the GM Maf will be my tuning method.

 

[llxkevinxll]

UPDATE #22 - 2/16/2017 - Wiring Harness Rebuild

I have spent the last few weeks rebuilding the wiring harness with new connectors as many of the ones that have been on the car were broken and had broken shielding on the wiring. I believe this was causing some issues with some sensor readings so hopefully that clears up those issues to help tuning.

The knock sensor wiring was especially troubling. I had been fighting issues with the knock sensor all summer and eventually just turned it off. Both wires on the harness side ended up being broken and hanging on by a couple of strands. Hopefully those issues are resolved for this year.

This TPS connector was being used on the original harness for the CAS. This was made possible by breaking the left end of the connector open to fit the cam angle sensor keying.

The bottom connector is what a CAS connector is supposed to look like. Keying is completely different.

Destroyed power transistor connector has been replaced as well.

Four new injector plugs as well.

The harness is ready to be put into the car to check routing before being taped back up. Hoping to see better reliability from the various sensors and connections and be able to trust the car to get me home from events a bit more.

 

[llxkevinxll]

These didn't fit in any of the updates specifically so I will give them their own post. Just a few shots of the car I liked from the fall.

 

[llxkevinxll]

UPDATE #23 - 2/25/2017 - Wiring Harness Rebuild/Battery Relocation/Valve Cover

The harness is cleaned with new connectors, taped, and ready to go back into the car. I used a fabric-like tape called Tesa tape instead of the normal vinyl electrical tape and corrugated tubes.

I also have the parts ready to move the battery to the trunk. It will be mounted in the spare tire well.

The car came with a "Mitsubishi" valve cover that had a crack in it. So I never ended up using it. I pulled it back out of storage and had it fixed. I also added -6 bungs to run line to the catch can. Next step is to get it powder coated.

 

[llxkevinxll]

UPDATE #24 - 3/14/2017 - Battery Relocation/Engine Bay Wiring

The battery relocation is complete. 1 gauge welding wire to a 175 amp circuit breaker in the trunk. I mounted all of this in the spare tire well to keep the weight low and out of sight. Also, all of the engine bay power and ground lugs were replaced with new ones to ensure they hold up. The copper at the end of the wires was corroded and brittle.

I ran the battery positive cable into the engine bay through the factory wiring guides under the carpet.

The trunk had some water sitting in it at one point so I cleaned that up before installing the battery tray.

Then I mounted the circuit breaker and battery tray.

All of this is hidden by the factory trunk floor.

I wired the IAT and MAP sensors into the GM MAF harness adapter from ECMLink.

I had been having an issue with the fuel gauge not moving lower than half tank, so I removed the driver side sending unit and cleaned up the contacts.