1998 GST restoration

[eclipse gsx]

This is a nice clean fixed man. I hope my gst looks this clean. I was thinking of painting it black but now it will go white for sure. Just because yours look beautiful.

 

[chrysler kid]

Thanks, it's been a fun baby build. I have had to fix a few minor issues but it's up and running a steady 14psi

I've had to redo the steering pump several times, the pressure hose, the o rings, and it ended up being the thread on the bolt was worn down enough to let the fluid come up the threads and seap out. Also had to straighten the bracket again. Hopefully no more squealing.

Had to strip my good valve cover off of my virgin 96gst . I found a crack in the inner baffle on the 1g one on the car, a spot weld that was causing my dipstick to pop up. It was sucking directly off of the first cam lobe into the pcv so consuming oil. Then crank pressure couldn't push its way back into the baffling and it would escape through the oil cap or dip stick

I've had to flush out the heater core 4 times now, it's finally working like it should.

Wet sanded the front bumper and used some touch up paint to get it looking better.

Finally got some ngk plug wires, AutoZone took them down to $44 shipped with a lifetime warranty

Also re routed the turbo oil feed line to correct my error of putting the steel line on the block side of the turbo. My oil temps were getting high on warm days.

Re did the speakers and I've flushed the sunroof drains several times now but still get small leaks on heavy rainy days. It's a trickle so not terrible

Also added led headlights and led plate lights

 

[ishnish]

Beautiful!! So cleannn

 

[eclipse gsx]

Nice ive been wanting to get leds too i heard is the way to go. 2g eclipse headlights suck balls when it comes to lighting at night

 

[chrysler kid]

The best way to go is 55watt hid headlight kit, I have them on my 96 and they are extremely bright down road. The led headlights do not focus the beam as well but have more light output. Better for less draw and I use them as daytime running lights. City folk don't respect older cars

I still can't fix the damn sunroof leak. Everything drains fine when I test it but hop in after a rain storm and its almost like the sliding tracks are filled with water

 

[eclipse gsx]

Have you tried seeing if the rubber around the sunroof closes tightly? Theres 4 bolts on the sunroof. 2 on each side that you can loosen up and adjust the sunroof maybe needs adjustment or new rubber seals.

 

[chrysler kid]

Have you tried seeing if the rubber around the sunroof closes tightly? Theres 4 bolts on the sunroof. 2 on each side that you can loosen up and adjust the sunroof maybe needs adjustment or new rubber seals.

You're right, I checked and the rubber seal around the glass is held on by what looks to be glue from a hot glue gun. I had the glass assembly out when I was cleaning out the drains, so it's possibly the seal leaking into the tracks retaining the water

 

[chrysler kid]

Got a turbo blanket, trimmed it up today to fit the housing. My God, I have microfragments of steel fiberglass in my skin that burn like hell. I'm going to have to remove the exhaust manifold to fit it on, like I said trying to install it has destroyed my skin on my fingers

And Ive gotten a replacement valve cover. I thoroughly cleaned the interior baffles and was prepping to paint it, one thing led to another and I'm going to go with the shaved look

 

[chrysler kid]

Wasn't terrible. I've disassembled this car so many times it was a 2 hour job even messing with the blanket and cleaning up the gaskets and threads

eBay t3 turbo blanket

Little more grinding on the cover

 

[eclipse gsx]

Yes sir thats a high possibility that thats your problem right there.

 

[chrysler kid]

Alright only issue left is the trans pump. Have it nailed down to a leaky input shaft seal

The old black valve cover was garbage. It had been tapped and re tapped several times

 

[chrysler kid]

 

[DSMCraze75070]

Did you get the trans pump and leaky input shaft seal fixed?

What a story about this car. Loking forward to seeing this in person!

Robert

 

[chrysler kid]

I put blue devil trans seal in and it has slowed the leak. It's been doing fine so haven't had time to do anything else. It just takes a minute to get going when the trans is cold

Stupid sunroof! I've never seen them rust before. Have to hit the junkyard, the frame under the glass is trashed

 

[chrysler kid]

Sweet, my buddy txbluebeast came through and went to a junkyard for me!

 

[chrysler kid]

The more I drive it the less I want to sell it.

The sunroof has been replaced, the trans seal doesn't leak anymore. Really getting down to knit picky issues, getting some ducting to the condenser fan so the AC blows colder at idle. Maybe some window tint.

 

[chrysler kid]

Gaaaah! I'm covered In fiberglass!

I swapped out the 14b back to the really new eBay 16g because I was getting a gurgling back up the turbo that wasn't escaping the dip stick hole during a boost leak test. Fixed a blown off EGR hose but then I couldn't boost over 10psi so had to do some digging

Pulled the 14b as normal and lay under the car to grab it and my God the fiberglass turbo cover I put on fell apart and I was rolling in it all night. It feels like I have glass in the skin on my arms

Turned out it was was just the j-pipe flange to the turbo was bent

Re did my intercooler piping, no more rubber stock flex hose

Anyways also re adjusted the fan on the condenser to be a stock slim fan. Repainted the front bumper. Duplicolor gm Arctic white I think, same as the door handles. Matched really well

 

[napkins]

It's amazing what just a little care, love, and work can do for a car. This thing looks worlds better than it did from the start! Can't wait to see more of this one!

 

[chrysler kid]

I tell my wife it's a good hobby, if she doesn't like me spending time in the garage all the time I will buy an Xbox and spend more time inside cussing. She didn't think that was funny

I forgot to take pictures, but I removed the driver's side lower side skirts and installed new Mitsubishi oem side skirt rivets, and new adhesive. Now the driver's side skirt looks completely flush and factory and doesn't have a little dip where the door and the fender skirt meet

I also replaced the front lower motor mount today

So this is engine bay version number 4? Shaved the letters and painted the heat shield

The 16g seems to hit harder at 10psi and rolls into boost faster. The rebuild kits would have cost me close to $50 plus a rebalance, so the basically new 16g that was on there popped right back on. my old 14b was leaking boost back into the crank case popping out the dip stick and pushing oil out of the cap.

It's nice to hit boost now and not smell the stink of a boost leak

 

[chrysler kid]

Summer mode engaged. Dug out the external trans cooler off of the Camaro when it use to be automatic, it's about 3x the size of the factory one (the trans cooler is to the right of the passengers side headlight, the black rectangle that looks like a tiny radiator)

Also added a secondary pusher fan to the front of the condenser, the temps seem to have gotten higher and the front mount is hindering the air flow through the condenser.

 

[tunernewb92]

Your running two stock pullers and a pusher on the Condenser side? That is very interesting. Not running and ducting?

 

[FIBA M - EC17PSE]

So where are you going to be logging your trans temp from? Inline or at the pan?

 

[chrysler kid]

So where are you going to be logging your trans temp from? Inline or at the pan?

Not planning to run a temp sensor at all. You mentioned it in another thread but basically the torque converter is the primary heat source. Honestly in my Camaro with a high performance torque converter I never saw temps over 200f even in the hottest stop and go conditions with a trans cooler. 210f was basically when I knew that I had to be careful not to be hard on the trans. Remember though I only use my dsm's as daily drivers

Your running two stock pullers and a pusher on the Condenser side? That is very interesting. Not running and ducting?

I tried to create ducting to help the pullers suck through the condenser, I even made the condenser fan have zero gap to maximize the suction, however it had little effect. Also the stock transmission cooler was located infront of the condenser infront of the radiator, really hurting everything behind it. So on the drivers side the flow was, ->fmic->transcooler->condensor->radiator->condenser fan, with the fan having a 1inch air gap on corners (very little suction force). I was getting a cycling compressor at stop lights due to high pressure readings at the drier from high condenser temps, or reduced effectiveness of the condensor

When I had the red fan on by itself you couldn't feel the air flow through the radiator, now with the condenser fan and the pusher you can tell it has more air volume coming out.

I've heard that doing a push and pull can often cancel one or both fans out, however the ducting between the radiator and condenser is so poor that the red fan seems to help the factory condenser fan pull more air out. So they are indeed working together. It's also a $12 eBay fan so it's probably not the most effective thing ever made, with it pointing at my face I could barely feel an extra breeze, so it's just making the puller condenser fan more effective at removing air before the radiator between the condensor

It's run by a relay tapped on the feed wire for the condenser fan. So the relay triggers when the condenser receives 12volts

 

[chrysler kid]

After sitting in my car through lunch break the a.c. works better, and the coolant temp is lower because the condenser fan is more effective. So my 160degree tstat is able to sustain 160degrees at idle with the condenser fan on and a.c. running at idle with 96f ambient temps.

So the temp needle stays 2 ticks below half temp on the stock gauge readout. But that's just idling with no boost or heat being generated by anything but idling

 

[chrysler kid]

So I swapped around relays and got my radiator and condenser fan working,and then the battery died. Measured out amp draw on everything, and it was the alternator. Shorted out inside was drawing 3amps from the battery, for reference the interior lights being on was a 1 amp draw. 3rd autozone alternator now, when the replacement arrived it had a cracked case, so I had to swap the faces. Sigh

So it was working great, ac was ok, I decided to go all out and just replace the drier and vacuum down the system. So after that the AC blows snow balls