Street Build 1997 & 1998 Eclipse GSX Build Journey

[PLDSM]

Awesome ,, this is great man.. Lots of similarities in your work and mines . Loving it.

Thanks man i appreciate it

@PLDSM I'm not too far from you so if you ever need a hand just message me

Sounds good buddy. Same goes to you, just let me know.

 

[PLDSM]

Moving Some Oil 04/07/2017

With the motor back in the car it was time to address pluming my turbo oil feed and return lines to the Holset. I ran my feed line from the stock 2g dsm oil filter housing. The turbo drain line consisted of the -12an line I created going into the -12 an bung I welded to the oil pan in the earlier sections of this build.

-12 an line created

Mocked up and clocked the center cartridge so it drains the oil at the right angle

Engine Bay coming along

Checking the clearance from the turbo setup to the radiator. Fits just as i thought...NOT. A little tight but it clears. I can only run a single fan on the drivers side. At this stage i was contemplating whether to run a fan setup in front of the radiator to keep temps down. I also went ahead a bolted up the massive intercooler.

 

[PLDSM]

Moving Some Air 04/10/2017

Now with the Turbo in and ready to go i went ahead and installed my intercooler setup.

Finally the vehicle was back on the ground after 4 months.

Got the fenders also bolted up. Now its finally looking like a 2g.

Now with the fenders on i went ahead and mocked up the front bumper. Man was there a lot of cutting and trimming to be able to clear that intercooler. But it was all worth it in the end. Also decided to buy brand new headlights instead of reconditioning the old ones. Cant wait to start driving the car to get rid of that horrible wheel well gap from being on jackstands for the longest time.

 

[PLDSM]

Making an Exhaust 04/14/2017

After finishing fitting the bumper to the car and trimming it to fit properly i went ahead and started my exhaust. Now the plan was to create a full 3'' stainless exhaust to the back. But plans change fairly quickly around my house and i decided to do a side exit exhaust and a waste gate dump. First i went ahead and bought some 3'' stainless steel donuts as well as some 1.75'' stainless for the dump tube. My good buddy Dan brought over some 3'' stainless straight pipe he was going to use for his exhaust but decided to let me use it instead. Besides its not like i need that much straight section.

First thing was to get the bumper cut so we can see where we were going to have the exhaust exit.

Next we just mocked up the pipe to see how much room we had and what bends to make. Sorry for not documenting this better.

Cut up the donut and made the bends where we needed them as well as dumped the waste gate under the oil pan.

Final Product. Cut out a bracket so that way i could use an exhaust hanger to keep the pipe from just hanging off the hotside. I also went ahead and wrapped the exhaust to semi keep the temps down. Sorry again for not having a picture of it wrapped.

My dad is the man when it come to doing me favors. He went ahead and cut out a bumper plate to give the car a fresh look and to keep my bumper from melting. God i love the look of the car so much better now.

 

[PLDSM]

PLDSM updated PLDSM's Eclipse GSX


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[PLDSM]

Finally Complete? 05/15/2017

After having to buy parts here and there the car was finally complete. Here is a picture of how the car sat moments before startup.

 

[Ludachris]

Nice job on the write-up so far. Great to see so many photos being taken along the way. Keep it up!

 

[PLDSM]

Nice job on the write-up so far. Great to see so many photos being taken along the way. Keep it up!

Thank you very much, i appreciate the kind words. Thats what it is all about. I love seeing start to finish what you can accomplish with a project.

 

[DetroitStroker]

I have got a chance to see both of these cars in person! Both are specimen's of attention to detail and someone who truly cares for his possessions!


Raf is a great guy to do business with too. I'm glad you took the time to share you journey with everyone else buddy. But until they have seen both of the 2g beauties in the same spot - it's hard to comprehend one person owning 2 of the nicest 2gs left.

 

[PLDSM]

I have got a chance to see both of these cars in person! Both are specimen's of attention to detail and someone who truly cares for his possessions!


Raf is a great guy to do business with too. I'm glad you took the time to share you journey with everyone else buddy. But until they have seen both of the 2g beauties in the same spot - it's hard to comprehend one person owning 2 of the nicest 2gs left.

Thanks a lot my friend. You couldn't have summed it up any better . Hope to see your car done soon. If you ever need anything you know who to call.

 

[PLDSM]

Finally Complete Continue.. 05/16/2017

While going to start the motor for the first time I pulled the fuel pump fuse as well as the spark plugs. I wanted to prime the motor before first fire up. I went to crank her over and long behold there was oil all over the ground. I couldn’t figure out what I possibly did wrong. I was 100% positive I did everything correctly and everything was tightened it. Upon further inspection I noticed that the oil was leaking from the trans cover plate. Well great what a setback. Had to pull the trans out as well as the clutch and flywheel setup and you will never guess what I found. The oil port plug on the trans side of the motor was completely opened. It looked like the plug was stripped out and then drilled through, looks like the machine shop forgot to extract it and put a new plug in. I guess this was also my fault, as I should have checked the engine better before mating the trans to it. But oh well at least the mistake was caught in the early stages. I then went ahead and pressure check the freeze plugs as well to make sure I did not have to pull the trans again. Guess what… Thank goodness I pressurized it because both the freeze plugs were leaking. Put new plugs in and all was good.

After basically pulling an all nighter I put the trans back into the car and it was hopefully done…. Sure enough it was done and fired right up on the first crank.

 

[PLDSM]

Dyno Tuning 07/07/2017

I couldn’t wait to work on the car. But over the course of time I was super swamped with work. I was working over 70 hrs a week and the eclipse stood still. I decided that I wanted to enjoy the car and get it finished before my birthday. I figured I made great progress with the car and my goal of getting the car done and motor fired up within 6 months was complete. Now I just needed to drive and tune the car but had no time. I gave my buddy Allen @ Strictly Performance Motorsports a call and he took care of me. A couple of issue came up with the car such as a bad power transistor and that I needed to do speed density but other then buttoning a couple of loose ends Allen and his crew took care of me. The car put down 444 HP / 388 TQ on 93 octane @ 25 psi on their mustang dyno. Not too shabby on pump gas.

Cleaned up and ready to go

Loaded up and ready to get tuned

She will be missed for a few day.

Dyno Video and Final Product.

Dyno Link :

Future Plans:

The plans for next season are to switch over to E85 and get as much power as I can out of the motor and turbo setup. Also I am going to respray the hood and possibly the entire car. Stick around guys and i hope you have enjoyed the journey thus far.

 

[PLDSM]

Typical DSM Fashion 7/29/17

Since today turned out to be a great day i decided to go for a drive in the red 2g. I drove over to my parents house to finally show off the project i was working on. Took everyone for a quick drive around the block and they loved it. On my way home i was merging onto the highway a had no power. Every time i would push the gas the car would go then bog down. I quickly pulled over to asses the situation and i looked at my FPR and it read zero. Great... Finally get to enjoy the car and this happens. Im on 696 in the RHS shoulder around a curve and i am just waiting for some idiot to hit me. In the mean time I'm banging on the fuel pump cover since i had no tools with me hoping the fuel pump would activate. Finally the pump turns on and i have pressure at the regulator. I quickly try to get the car home, hoping this would not happen again. Im running a DW300 fuel pump in the car currently. Looks like my future E85 plans will be happing sooner than later . But all jokes aside i will probably just buy a replacement pump to enjoy it for the rest of the summer.

Let me know your guys thought on an E85 fuel system (Pump,injectors,......). Im planning to shoot for 600AWHP next season.

 

[FIBA M - EC17PSE]

DW pumps dont normally drop out, you should be able to tell them and they replace it for free, i spoke to DW at a show and they stand by their products and do help as much as possible as i asked all random questions and possibly bugged the guy to be honest, i really like their AFPR's such a small unit and rated so high aswel,

At least you got to use the car today, have you checked the wires to make sure they was not oart of the issue for the pump to stop working?

 

[19gsx91]

Dyno sheet to go with it? Very nice!

 

[PLDSM]

DW pumps dont normally drop out, you should be able to tell them and they replace it for free, i spoke to DW at a show and they stand by their products and do help as much as possible as i asked all random questions and possibly bugged the guy to be honest, i really like their AFPR's such a small unit and rated so high aswel,

At least you got to use the car today, have you checked the wires to make sure they was not oart of the issue for the pump to stop working?

Thanks for that information. I have not yet checked the wires to the pump but I did go ahead and try and turn the pump on manually by jumping the wire and it turns on no problem. It also turns on without an issue when I enable it in dsmlink. I had an issue with my old sending unit before when I installed the pump and jumped the wires it wouldn't work but on the new sending unit it works fine. I will look at the wiring later on and see if that has anything to do with it. Any suggestions on what to look for wiring wise other than the obvious things?

Dyno sheet to go with it? Very nice!

Thanks. Yes I have the dyno sheet as well. Will have to scan it and uploaded it to the build later on today.

 

[PLDSM]

DYNO Sheet

 

[pat white]

looking mean and pretty at the same time ...love it !!

 

[PLDSM]

Fuel Pump Issue 7/30/2017

After digging into the fuel pump issue i think it may be resolved. I was back checking all the wiring and for some reason the bolt that i my fuel pump ground going to was damn near all the way backed out of the hole. I guess this is what happens when you run poly mounts. I will drive the car around to see if the issue happens again. But hopefully it doesn't.

 

[PLDSM]

Hey guys. Its been a while since i last posted. Been super busy with work and barely any time to mess with the DSM's. I was able to get a few things done. Have been enjoying the red and white gsx as much as i could this summer. Completed oil changes on both cars. I finally received my cross drilled and slotted brake rotors for the red gsx. Took about a month to get here but not like i had any time to work on the cars. Still have to respray the hood on the red gsx and I'm thinking about possibly putting a cage in the car.

On a side note. I stopped by my parents house a couple of days ago to finally get the rest of my dsm parts out of there. I was surprised with what i found. A pair of 2g DSM EDM taillights and EDM mirrors. I thought i got rid of these years ago!!! Now the only problem I'm having is which dsm to put them on.

 

[copenhagen6123]

Super clean man love the attention to detail

 

[PLDSM]

Super clean man love the attention to detail

Thanks. I appreciate it.

 

[PLDSM]

More Painting...Great!
Been a while since i got to do anything on the cars as usual. But since i had a long weekend ahead i figured i would go ahead and respray the hood on the red 2g. It was a good junkyard find but i hated seeing the clear coat fade and the dings in the hood.Time to do some prep work and paint it up. Decided to stick with black as the base color. Really like how it offsets the red on the car.


Before/During:

Final Product:

View attachment 472954 View attachment 472955

Overall not too bad for having limited space and time. Paint job came out great. Unfortunately there is a little bit of dust particles in the paint since i wasn't in a dust free environment. Going to let the paint cure for a couple of days then going to wetland it and try to get the small particles out then polish the whole hood. But overall I'm happy with the final product.

 

[Nico_]

Very nice build man! What shocks and springs are you on?

 

[PLDSM]

Very nice build man! What shocks and springs are you on?

Thanks. I will try and update my mod list for this car just haven't had time. Currently on tokico illumina 5 way adjustable shocks and Eibach lowering springs. These came with the car originally. Looking into a good coil over setup as we speak.