95 Eclipse GST

[Al637]

Ok, now with the oil pump problem
The timing components were pretty dirty, this is a picture after cleaning it 4 times with degreaser

After removing the oil pump the situation was not that better, previous mechanic used a lot of silicone

Since the balance shafts were starting to freeze I decided to do a balance shaft delete, and also with the oil galleries exposed I decided to smooth some surfaces. I don't have pictures on how I masked everything, but I tried to make sure nothing entered in the oil galleries, that's why I didn't touch the surfaces near to it (they were covered)

At that moment is when I took the crankwalk video, and I decided to change the main bearings (I know it won't last long)

The new bearings:

 

[Al637]

I have to mention that all crank journals passed the fingernail test

Everything ready to being put back together

 

[Al637]

First start after the changes

 

[Al637]

Now with the car running I bought the wheel center caps and added a mitsubishi logo

During this time the alternator stopped working, and I had the luck on finding one used at a good price

I also bought new spark plug wires, since the old ones were in rough shape, and the timing belt cover

After that I decided to paint the valve cover

It had 3 different paint colors

And this is the end result

 

[Al637]

After that I bought a cheap triple pillar gauge that was supposedly for the eclipse

Let's say that at the moment I also bought color matching boost and oil pressure gauges. After a lot of trimming and test-fitting the part, it fit ok enough.

And now the interior is looking way better than before.

 

[Al637]

After that I bought a rear wiper motor because the old one was trash

I also bought the lower part of the direction column because it was missing when I bought the car.

 

[Al637]

I test fitted a new rear wing but I was not sure if I was going to use it. It seems it is from a fd rx7

Also the spark plugs cover plate arrived and now the engine bay looks great for me

 

[Al637]

After that the inevitable happened

 

[Al637]

Recently I changed the front lower control arms since the old ones were basically a hazard

 

[Al637]

The most recent upgrade was the FMIC
First I tried centering it

After that I routed the pipes

Test-fitting and trimming the front bumper

*I also took the opportunity to take a photo of the subaru style turbo that is installed trough a welded flange

Took the opportunity to install an adapter for a future cold air intake

In the process I removed all vacuum lines and reconnected all of the vacuum lines

After that I put back together everything, adjusted the BOV and now the car runs great

 

[Al637]

On the last post the car was on the nearest drag strip (2 hour drive from my house), that night was like an open track, so the track did not have trackbite. The car ended up running a 15.6 on cheap tires.
Not sure if that night the bearing hubs stopped working, but a couple of weeks later I ended up changing the front hubs.

A couple of months ago I bought a SAFC, I wanted to read the documentations and also to look at some tutorials before installing it, so after I did that I installed the SAFC2

This is where is located now, I just slide it into the vent slot

And now this is the POV

 

[Al637]

After I installed the SAFC I leaned a little bit the AFR to around 11.1 when the car is on boost and the car seems to like that point, I think I can lean it a little bit more, but better to be safe. I wanted to test the changes so I changed fluids and went to the track

And... the time did not improve, I think the best time that day was 15.7, the tires did not have traction in 1st gear and that was a big problem, the top speed felt better but I don't have the data to tell by how much.

 

[Al637]

I forgot to add to the last photo that I finally removed the roofscoop, and that the rear wing was looking better for my eyes, at first I wasn't that sure, but for me it started to look good, and then an opportunity to buy the original high rise spoiler came out and I took it, to this day I'm not sure if I made the best decision

And after saving up for a couple of months, finally it was time for a paint job

The person who did the job told me to wait a month in order to polish it, so I'm still waiting for that.

I'm showing the final result but I also completely removed the interior and cleaned it, removed the headliner and restored it with vinyl paint and also used the sylvania kit to restore the headlights lenses.
This is how the headliner was, it was moldish and it seemed dirty

I don't have a picture right now, but now it is a dark gray solid color.

Another thing is that I bought this toy

And it also had its little transformation

I made the spoiler with some PVC tube

And now this is how it looks

I stole the rims to another 1/32 car

 

[Al637]

The car has always boosted 10psi, and some time ago I bought a MBC, so I wanted to start playing with that.

At first I tried this configuration

And it kind of worked, the very first time I had an improper setup and the car boosted to 20 psi, It was in third gear and around 4000rpms so nothing bad happened. After talking to a friend he told me to use this other setup

But It doesn't matter how loose/tight is the screw I was getting 10 psi.
In the process of testing, this happened:

So I got a little bit worried, and for me I had the perfect excuse for swapping the turbo that I bought some time ago.

And as always, some bolts, nuts and studs were done.

As you see, that is a Subaru style turbo, and that is the case because the previous owner did a "MacGyver", for me at this point it was easier to just throw another subie turbo than sourcing the manifold, the turbo, the 02 housing and the downpipe.

This is how the MacGyver" looked

I tried porting it a little bit, this is not the final result, but I did not take a picture, but that was pretty much how it looked at the end.

The old downpipe had a sketchy situation going on on the wastegate, so I fixed that

 

[Al637]

This is side-by-side of the turbos

I searched a little bit and found that it is a goo idea to port the internal wastegate to prevent boost creep, so I did just that

I made sure the flap had more than 1.5mm of sealing surface

One of the metal water lines broke, so I replaced it with a fitting and a hose, I tried wrapping around thermal tape the hose so it doesn't get toasted.

And that is how it looks in the car, now the car has a little bit more lag but it pulls for more time. Right now it is still at 10psi, but I may change that once I go to the dyno.

 

[Al637]

Some time ago I bought to a member a manifold, an o2 housing and the time belt tensioner. It seems like all of this things are part of the future work pending for this year.

Later I found a cheap 16G turbo that was leaking oil. It had no shaft play and was practically brand new, so I bet for it being ok and now is waiting for a good moment to be bolt onto the car.

I ported the o2 housing so it matched the output of the turbo, and also so it has a better transition. I also gasket matched the compressor outlet and in general worked on the system transitions

And I also opened up a little the wastegate to avoid problems

Test fitting the components

Also took the opportunity to clock the turbo so the oil outlet is pointing downwards

 

[Al637]

I bought some cheap sequential strip lights, and this was the beginning of the process of mounting them to the car

I made some questionable mounts for the strip lights
And also mounted them in a questionable way

 

[Al637]

After modifying both tail lights this was the first result

 

[chrisman287]

Curious to know what strips you used? They look nice

 

[Al637]

Curious to know what strips you used? They look nice

Sorry for not putting the link, but they are this ones

In 60cm

 

[Al637]

I really liked the look of the car with the modified tail lights

But it had the annoying part that when you pressed the brake pedal it seemed like you had on the hazard lights.


The next complementary modification was adding the strip lights to the center trim, and implementing the changes so it behaves as the euro model. I saw a thread that helped me do just that.

 

[Al637]

After finishing the tail lights I kept enjoying the car and in december I bought one of the things that has made the biggest change, tires. I changed the old cheap tires for a set of maxxis victra maz1 235/45/17 and I loved how they fit the car. With the previous tires if you pushed -slightly- the car on curvy roads they would start squeaking and slipping very easy, so that was a no-go. Now this victra tires grip very good and I'm more confident with the car.

 

[chrisman287]

Sorry for not putting the link, but they are this ones In 60cm

And they have the start up animation by default?

 

[Al637]

And they have the start up animation by default?

Yeah they do. They have a yellow wire for turn signals, which is always sequential, meaning if you apply constant voltage they will have the sequential pattern, and they have a red wire that does the animation and then stay on until you remove power.

 

[Al637]

Back when I changed the turbo the clutch was not properly adjusted, and since the car has some serious crankwalk, the clutch is impossible to adjust properly.
Given that situation, I think the clutch was getting hot and loosing grip, so I bought this clutch kit in January.
I was plannig to change it along the crankshaft but after trying to adjust the clutch, the clutch kind of started to work better, still not ideal but good enough so I didn't have to change the clutch (and possibly the crankshaft) at the time.