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1997 GSX, the "Salvation Army/Good Will Racer"

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Some of you have been following the build thread of my 1999 GSX, but many do not know I have been work with a friend on his car at the same time. Nick named "the Salvation Army / Good Will racing GSX" I would like to post the updates and modifications made to his 1997 2G. This thread will take you all through the transformation from a dying scrapper to what it is today. (Owner: my97gsx)
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I'm going to start off with the story of the find, which was pretty cool. This 2g was listed on Craigslist in November of 2018 and my friend was looking to get into the DSM game. We drove an hour away to see it and it was in pretty rough shape especially for only 100k on the clock. It was at that time a second owner car, but the current guy lived in a lake community so it was stored outside on the grass, under huge trees. One could only imagine how dirty the car was. He did produce a huge book filled with dealer records from the original owner. The story was that it belonged to a woman who wanted a 3000gt but could not afford it. When she came into the dealership to haggle for one, she fell for this black 1997 GSX which was on the show room floor. Coolest part... the 2nd set of keys was never used! Given to us brand new in a bag. Although the exterior was in rough shape the interior was a time capsule, honestly a 8/10. The car was also bone stock with the exception of Konig wheels and an aftermarket clutch line (which replaced a blown stock rubber one). We picked up the car for I believe $3,800 bucks, and drove it home. Here's some pics of day one with us...View attachment 631462View attachment 631463
 
After some heavy cleaning, things were looking a bit better. The engine bay did not suffer from any bad rot other than the lower radiator support, which we eventually replaced. Exterior wise, the clear coat suffered some irreversible damage, which needed to be addressed. Lucky for us, a close friend had a black GS in high school which he put a carbon hood on. That vehicle was long gone, but the oem hood was not. Stored in his garage since 2003, the hood was a perfect swap and the price was right, free (this is the beginning of the Goodwill/Salvation army name...) The rear spoiler was eventually removed and repainted, since that had the worst sun damage.
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Right after this I began to get the DSM bug back. My 1998 GSX had been sitting for 10 years unused, and in need of a replacement due to body issues (a Virginia salvage vehicle). So I started looking for a replacement car for myself... I was able to find a very clean 1999 GSX which had a bunch of great mods done to it. Best part was, I didn't need any of them. My friend and I came up with a solution... We would purchase the 1999 together, I would get the body, and he would get whatever he needed to transform his stock gsx back to something road worthy.

Another cool story to this is project is that the 1999 we purchased was owned by Turbo Tony of Season 1's fastest car!
Yes, we bought the car from this guy:


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This car would later donate the following to the 1997: DSMlink v3, EvoIII 16G, Tokico suspension, VRSF front mount intercooler, Headlights, Catch Can, Short route Intercooler piping, HKS BOV, Speed density setup, 1g Throttlebody, 550cc injector, fuel pump, as well as other countless parts. Any other parts would come off of my 1998, and that is how the "Salvation Army/Good Will Racer" was born. Almost all parts going to the 1997 were re-used from other vehicles.
 
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Next on the list was to replace the front clip/radiator support, which was badly rotten on the bottom. We purchased a brand new one from rock auto, only to find that it was for a non-turbo model. We opted to modify it to fit with some drilling and it ended up fitting fine. We then moved onto the interior where we did a full clean up, new carpet kit, gauges, DSMlink v3 ECU install, walboro 255 pump with rewire, shifter and knob. Again, the interior is by far the best thing about this car.
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The non-turbo radiator support needed to be drilled to accept the turbo crossmember, which was its only difference from the stock unit. We used a long bolt and large washers to mount it into place. It did not take much work to make it fit properly, and I would recommend this solution for anyone in need of a new front clip. I also donated a candy-red coated valve cover off of my 1998 (only to find out months later it had a crack and leaked like crazy!)
 
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Once the new front end was put on, we finally started swapping parts over to the 1997. We removed the stock t25 turbo and manifold, replacing it with an FP cast manifold along with an EvoIII 16G. This paired with a VRSF front mount, 2.5 inch "short route" pipes and an HKS BOV with speed density. During this time we also installed Webb 264* cam shafts which we found on ebay, a cometic head gasket, arp head studs, new timing belt etc...

Transmission: ACT 2100 pressure plate with 6 puck disc, along with new slave and master were done as well.

Fuel system was also upgraded to a Fuel lab in line filter, 6an fuel feeds to the stock rail, Fuel Lab fuel pressure regulator and a set of RC550's. (These would later need to be swapped out...)

We also took this time to replace the transmission, transfer case and rear diff with Redline oil.
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We also swapped the cloudy headlights over to a set of newer ones off of my 1998.
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Next up was suspension and exhaust. We were able to find a used o2 housing for sale which had a tube screamer for a nice price on this forum. This bolted to an apexi downpipe and Apexi N1 exhaust (my personal favorite) which came off of my 1998. We installed a full tokico suspension kit (non-adjustable), with all new oem-style arms from rock auto. We also took this time to put on drilled / slotted rotors, and STM ABS deleted steel braided brake lines.
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Finishing up the drivetrain and suspension we installed GSXDude's solid rear diff bushings on both of our cars, along with Torque Solutions drive shaft carrier bushings.
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Now to add another vehicle to the donation mix... I hate to admit it, but I used to have a 1995 RS back in high school. Thankfully I sold this a long time ado, but it's Motegi MR7's were still being stored in my parents garage. We decided to throw these white 17's on the GSX, completing its time-appropriate exterior look. Back in the day (at least in NY) these wheels were the "me-too" choice for anyone with an eclipse, civic, etc...
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All cleaned, new painted spoiler installed and rear center taillight wrapped gloss black. IMO -Wheels definitely looked better on this build over my riced out RS.
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At this point we were finally ready to get this car dialed in. We got it started off of the 1999's ECMlink tune, but it ran terrible. This was in part due to some electrical cleaning up that needed to be done (poor grounding due to rust). An appointment was set at a local shop (DDA tuning in Newburgh NY) for a dyno tune on a Mustang AWD dyno. The car needed to be towed to the shop because it was not able to make the 45 minute drive. To recap this was the setup during this time:

Performance: Webb 264 cams, Evo3 16g turbo, FP race manifold, full Apexi N1 exhaust, tubular o2 with dump, FP 4" intake, 550cc injectors, Fuel Lab FPR, front mount intercooler, piping, speed density and BOV, DSMlink V3, ported 2g intake manifold wit h1g throttle body, and a hallman manual boost controller.
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During this tuning session we learned just how badly the E316G did not like our exhaust setup. Boost was uncontrollable, spiking almost instantly into ranges we could not support. We tried to adjust the internal wastegate actuator arm, but nothing worked... leaving us with only a baseline, non-WOT setup for the time being.
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HP came in around 320, Torque was 280 with unsafe AFR levels due to over boosting.
 
The proper solution to this problem required us to switch the turbo to an external wastegate. We went with a JM Fabrication o2 housing with a 38mm gate. The stock turbo exhaust housing was then modified by removing the internal gate & flapper. It was then heavily ported, and welded up. We also decided to ditch the unnecessarily huge fp intake - swapping it out with a 3" setup which had a much smoother inlet transition.
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We also swapped valve covers to one modified with 10an catch can/breather fittings.
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After the external wastegate install, we went back to get our WOT tune dialed in. This time the car was able to hold and control boost, unfortunately it ran out of fuel very quickly. The RC550's were not nearly enough for us, limiting power levels for the setup. Final numbers were 330whp 271ftlbs.


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The car was driven for roughly a month or so on that tune, but the fact that we ran out of fuel always sat in the back of our minds... how much was left? was it worth pushing more? Outlined in my build thread for my car (linked below) my 1999 GSX was featured by Evans Performance Academy for a video tuning class. My build was on the more "wild" side, and Jeff Evans was interested in doing a mild DSM video as well. Happily were able to come to an agreement regarding the 1997. Jeff wanted us to switch to high impedance ID1050x injectors, along with the DSMlink 3 port boost control for his class. So we scrapped the 550's, and the Hallman BC. The car was then transported to Pennsylvania for a week to be tuned, and filmed. Here is part 1 of the video series, which outlines the build:



Jeff was able to dial in the GSX so much better than it's previous tune. Driving normally you would never have known the car was modified, it ran like a stock vehicle. At WOT power came on so much smoother, with zero hiccups. Although this tune was night and day better, it wasn't without issue... Jeff was fighting knock, which kept the timing very conservative in order to prevent knock retard from activating. Evans Performance Academy's final numbers after the class were 320whp / 328ftlbs (57ftlbs of torque more than the previous tuner was able to dial in!). As you will see, the power curve was much nicer as well. This was done with boost levels in the 23-24 range.View attachment 632070
 
Once the car was dialed in we finally had our first track day of the year. This was also my97gsx's first track day ever. Prior to coming we got a wheel alignment and put a brand new set of Nitto NT05 tires on the car. He had to learn how to properly launch an awd car with sticky tires, which was a trial an error process. As the day went on times consistently got lower and lower with a best of 13.57 @ 105mph. Not the best time on this setup, but what we would soon find out is that our used clutch setup was at the end of its lifespan - especially with multiple launches done back-to-back.
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Unfortunately after a few track days the GSX started to develop several issues. The rear end started making noise, so that needed to be swapped out for one of our spares. The clutch was slipping horribly. Check engine lights became an issue regarding Injector Circuit Malfunctions (driving us crazy) and the vehicles electrical system was in dire need of an overhaul. This is one of my favorite video clips taken during this time, it shows the type of issues we were having - forcing us to just to scratch our heads and laugh about it at times.

 
This brings this thread to current times. In the spring of 2021 we decided to clean up several issues with the car. We focused on the electrical system, the clutch/trans, and engine bay clean up.

First to go was the old clutch and flywheel setup. It took some convincing but I was finally able to get my97gsx to go with an ACT streetlite flywheel. This paired up with an ACT extreme pressure plate and street disc, which is perfect for this power level. We also added a new slave cylinder and fresh transmission fluid. As you can see the stock clutch / flywheel were smoked from hard driving and repeated launches.
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After completing the clutch and putting the transmission back in place it was time to tackle the wiring disaster. We were having an issue throwing an injector malfunction code (P0202). Countless hours went into resolving this issue, so we decided to overhaul the wiring harness - especially the injector leads. This problem was eventually corrected by a dsmlink patch download which I never knew about. In addition to wiring clean up we installed a larger battery, replaced the oem alternator with a GM alt, and redid all grounding cables. This made a huge difference in idle, and overall driving. The engine bay looks so much cleaner now due to the semi-tucked harness.
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Rust spots were grinded and repainted, valve cover was freshly powdercoated to match the black and white theme along with a new spark plug cover (it was about time this was purchased!).

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Overall I am extremely happy how the engine bay turned out. Huge change from the cluttered mess it used to be.
 
This weekend marked our first track day of 2021. I was very impressed on how much better "my97gsx" drove on the new clutch and flywheel setup. He was able to run a 12.73 @ 109! (In 2020 his best was 13.57, so this was a huge improvement!) View attachment 633090



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