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Street Build '97 Eclipse AWD GS-T (2006 to Present)

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Still the best build thread on this forum. Props, Corey.
 
I'm glad you bumped this, I just noticed that as close as I was to being caught up my life got in the way and I'm almost 3yrs behind again. I've got nothing planned Sunday so I'll probably binge post and try to get a years worth of updates in. To be honest, there was a lot less mod'ing going on these last 3 years - I was planning a wedding for nearly a year, then a honeymoon, then trying to recoup financially after the chaos and leaving the car on the very very very back burner.

I'd like to think that 2016 is a bit more exciting with some new PB times at the track though... :idontknow:
 
20DECEMBER2013 - DSM Dealer Brochure Collection
I do like modifying my DSM but I also enjoy the history of these cars when they were stock and the options they came with from the factory. I was 9yrs old when the first 2g rolled off the factory floor so to get the opportunity to have a few dealership brochures is awesome, its fun to take a step into the past and get to see what pulled the original owners of these cars into the platform before they started going fast.

DSC_0775.jpg
 
19JANUARY2014 - IR Solenoid and Load/Gear Based Boost Control
The goal of this build centers around the horsepower/torque restriction that the stock frame HTA68 brings with it and trying to free up as much of that as I can. So far I've done the obvious things that can squeeze the most I can out of this tiny td05 frame turbo, now it's time to get creative and do the little things. Enter the IR BCS and ECMLink...

DSC_0851.jpg


The Hallman MBC worked perfectly but because I'm pushing this turbo and trying to run it outside of its efficiency range I'm able to spike to 30psi but boost consistently drops to ~24psi by redline. The upgrade to the IR solenoid and the load/rpm based boost control that ECMLink v3 provides gives me the added option to play with wastegate duty cycle as boost wants to drop, which isn't possible with a MBC.

As far as wiring goes, I don't like the idea of hardwiring sensors and the IR solenoid has no plug on it, just exposed wiring, so I wanted to make the IR solenoid PnP. The installation requires the use of the existing BCS wiring but years ago when I did a half-ass wire tuck after my A/T wiring harness went into my axle (13MAY2010 - Engine Wiring Harness Went Into My Axle) I actually unpinned the existing OE BCS wiring because I wasn't using it and ECMLink hadn't released their gear based boost control yet. Because the OE BCS wiring was removed out of my harness a few years prior I had the advantage of routing it where I wanted (I got lucky) that way I didn't have 3 miles of vacuum lines or wiring going to/from the IR BCS where the stock BCS is mounted, directly under the intake on the frame rail. Long story short, it was a happy mistake that I pulled that wiring...

Onto creating a PnP connector rather than hardwiring. The stock BCS connector on the engine harness is a two prong female plug, one 12v (RED) and one signal wire (RED/YEL) that leads to pin 11 of the ECU.

DSC_0856.jpg


Going through the (4) 2g engine harnesses I've collected over the years I found one that still had the brake fluid reservoir reed switch still plugged into the harness and it used the same 2 prong connector as the OE BCS. :applause:

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Time to start cutting/soldering to make the IR BCS PnP.

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Now that's sorted it, I re-pinned the ECU connector (pin 11) with the old BCS wiring but routed it down the side of the car I was wanting to mount the new IR BCS. I found a good spot for the IR BCS next to the P/S reservoir, getting it away from the extreme heat of the exhaust which is known to kill them. With my extreme "fab" skills I created a simple mounting bracket for the solenoid.

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Then bolted it down using an existing 10mm bolt.

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Then I routed the stock BCS plug wiring from the ECU, up under the dash, then up into the fender above the driver side wheel well to hide the wiring and connector I made.

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After that I was home free, just routing the vacuum lines from the wastegate to the BCS/LICP for correct operation. The hard parts finished, time to start playing with the tune again and hold boost to redline. Hopefully I can hold that 6psi I was losing after peak torque and push this turbo into the 50lbs/m range.

DSC_0869.jpg


For a more "HOW TO" article I recommend that you reference ECMLink wiki for a more detailed explanation of things. ECMLink Wiki : BCS Install
 
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20FEBRUARY2014 - Weighing the Pig
I'll admit, I was a habitual "guesser" when someone asked how much my 2g weighed. Of course I used my best guess with the weight of the things I removed or replaced with lightweight goodies but, to be honest, even if I knew I dropped XXXlbs I never weighed my car so I never had a baseline weight.

That being said, I was tired of wondering what my car actually weighed so I asked a few locals and finally got a good source of info on a weigh station around here. Before I left my house to weigh the car I pulled the passenger seats,tool box, spare tire, and made sure I only had ~5ga of E85 in the tank to get it as close to a "race weight" reading as I could.

The results were surprisingly. I was hoping to be below 2900lbs (w/o driver) and I was actually 140lbs off, the car's sub 3000lbs even with me sitting in it which is great. Back to what it originally weighed with me in it before it was converted to AWD and it doesn't even have stretch marks. LOL

The drive axle, if you're wondering, is the rear half of the car. Of course its expected to be heavier in the front because of the engine bay but I wasn't expecting it to be over 60% of the overall weight of the car over the front axle, and that's without me in it. With me in the car then it weighs ~2,935lbs and 1,935lbs of that is all on the front axle, that's 66% of the car's weight. I'd like to distribute that or effectively reduce that as much as possible so once I start doing more weight savings mods I'll know where the weight needs to come from or move from as much as I can.

Time to start considering de-powering the power steering rack (-10lbs), getting a small battery (-20lbs), race seat (-20lbs), and then having the car corner balanced to see if I can get it below 60%.

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21FEBRUARY2014 - Tuning the IR Boost Control Solenoid
Here in Arizona our race season is October thru April and I'd been itching to get this thing down the track with the changes to see what happens to my times and trap speeds. So far my PB is an 11.65 @ 121.6 mph...


On to tuning the BCS to successfully hit 30psi without creeping/spiking, then trying to increase wastegate duty cycle throughout the RPM range to maintain 30psi. I just made some general adjustments in Link's (boost WGS) tab after doing some reading up in ECMLink's Wiki articles and a few threads throughout the forum, surprisingly I was almost done after the first quick pull. :thumb:

50% duty cycle across the board and lock to 100% duty cycle below 21psi resulted in 28psi @ 4.6k (slower spool-up than I expected) and boost was still 27psi @ 5.6k when I let off.
I made a few adjustments to the WGS table and 100% duty cycle setting, trying to tune a 30psi spike using the "100% below..." setting.

48.7% duty cycle across the board and lock to 100% duty cycle below 26psi resulted in a 32psi hit through both 2nd and 3rd gear.
There's a lot that still needs to be done to the tune but because the local PD frowns on making 3rd gear pulls to 100mph it's time to head to the track and do a few shake down passes and get the tune where it needs to be.
 

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26FEBRUARY2014 - Import Face-off (IFO) TnT Shakedown Passes
Not seeing a race track in awhile it was time to knock the dust off and see what the 2g could do even if it was at an IFO event. If anything hopefully this makes me feel better about wrenching on this car to serve a purpose rather than collect dust and take my money just sitting in the garage.

A little history on why I hadn't been to the track (skip to the logs if you DGAF)...
April 8, 2013 - Firebird International Raceway (FIR) closes after 30 years
August 23, 2013 - Former FIR set to open with new look, new name

Basically, they closed because the original owner was leasing it and their "official" re-opening fell on a day that they hosted IFO Phoenix. To be honest, I didn't want to make tuning shakedown passes during an IFO event in front of a crowd but the race bug bit and the car was ready for a tune. f*** IT!​


In the least amount of words without me going on a crazy rant, f*** THE NEW TRACK! They're hosting a huge event and only the "staged" light works, not the prestage, so getting up into the tree was B.S. Then, to make matters worse for everyone the time boards didn't work so nobody in the crowd knows what times the cars were running. I only made two passes, could have had four but because they don't have any parking lines in the pits I was parked in and couldn't get to the lanes, people are ignorant. :mad:

Anyway, I have no ideas what times I ran but BOY WERE THERE A FEW KINKS! My TPS sensor connector came off at the top of 4th gear, which made for an interesting log since I was still WOT even though my TPS dropped to zero. I did succeed with what I went there to do, make a few good passes that I could use for tuning and drive the car home. :thumb:

Onto the exciting stuff...
1st pass. Boost was doing EXACTLY what I had hoped, spiking to 30'ish psi and holding solid as it can for a td05 turbo, the IR solenoid was able to keep it to 29psi at redline which was phenomenal. AFR's were healthy (rich) and timing was retarded 2* because I forgot to adjust for my coolant temp offset. Car felt good and the log showed improvement over my last track visit, no idea about the time/trap though...
---> 1st pass 226
2nd pass. Same story as the 1st pass, just making changes to the WGS table to reduce the initial boost spike and it didn't react the way I thought as I lost a bit of boost but the car still felt great. Something that had never happened though, the TPS sensor lost connection at the top end of the track ~1000' mark which you can see in the log in 4th gear... WTF
IFO 2.jpg
IFO 1.jpg


Here's a video of both passes back to back, nothing special but something to watch.

 

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07MAR2014 - A Night At Wildhorse Pass Raceway

I still had a bad taste in my mouth after the B.S. I experienced trying to make a few passes at IFO - getting boxed in the pits, no time slips, no pre-stage lights, and no time boards - but at least the track was open... :f-u:

A local DSMer that I had met a few months back asking to get his car tuned actually became a good buddy and wanted to make a few passes too, why not!? I was still trying to tune my AFR's, boost, and driver mod would help but trying to best the pass I made in 2010 of an 11.65 @ 121mph was all I really wanted.

Of course the track was a shit show, again. I guess anyone with a brain could have projected that the first Friday night of Test and Tune would be crazy since the track had been closed for so long, everyone trying to get their fix. The line to get to the water box was hours long so we made the line "the pit" since the car was damn near cooled down to ambient before it was time for the next pass. Unfortunately, getting there at 7pm and leaving there at 12:30am was only enough time for 2 passes. :|

At least the time boards, time slips, and tree worked!

Prior to making a few passes I activated my NTLS feature in ECMLink, which I hadn't before, and made a few more corrections to the WGS and SD table's since my trip to the track for IFO.


1st pass. 14.87 @ 64.71mph
So a problem reared its ugly head on my 1st pass of the night that I hadn't experienced before, breaking up after hitting the rev limiter. You would think that sounds pretty normal since that's what the rev limiter does, this wasn't what you're thinking though. I bumped my 7.5k rev limit at the top of 2nd and the car literally shit itself even after the NLTS WOT into 3rd - the RPM signal in the log is the tell tale. Even though I was WOT the RPMs were just sputtering. I even lifted after I felt the car sputtering out, getting back into WOT and still the RPM's flat lined even with 29psi on the log. Your guess is as good as mine too, I have no idea.
There was a silver lining though, the car didn't break and stopped sputtering out once it reached idle RPM. WOOT!
---> 1st pass 307
2nd pass. 12.41 @ 123.02mph
Yep, 3 hours later and the entire time we were waiting in line. CRAZY! Anyway, finally a cleanish pass without a TPS connector falling off or me hitting the rev limiter and the car losing it. I moved the rev limiter to 8k (I wasn't trying to figure out what was causing it, just wanted to bandaid it) and thought I'd just short shift it, trying hard not to bounce the rev limiter. I dropped the clutch too fast and bogged, bad, and it took a bit for my car to recover. Even so, I ran a new PB and trapped 123mph, faster than my previous PB of 121mph a few years back.
---> 2nd pass 307

I wasn't too excited about the knock in the log but because it looked real, nothing I couldn't clean up though. I was excited about the airflow numbers showing in 3rd gear of that 2nd pass, 48lbs/m. Granted, the HTA68 is rated for 47lbs/m so ballpark it's right where it should be however, the logged 48lbs/m was a deflated number if you compare the logged Boost and BoostEst values.

Wanting to know a close to accurate airflow value considering the airflow upgrades I've done to help this turbo breath. Using this equation, with the help of the wise TDorris, this is the airflow estimate I came up with.

I like taking airflow @ 6k (assuming engine VE is 100%) and plugging in boost/boostest at the same RPM. The 14.2 is the psia at 1000' above sea level which is Phoenix AZ.
100 (28.7 - 14.2) / (25.2 - 14.2) - 100
= 31.8 or 31.8%​
Now that I figure the % I can just multiply what the airflow was reading (39.7lbs/m) and multiply it by the %.
39.7 x .318
= 12.6lbs/m​
So with the above equation I add that 12.6lb/m to my logged 39.7lbs/m @ 6k and I can "guesstimate" an airflow of ~ 52.3lbs/m.​
I'm definitely bench racing with that but there's definitely been an increase in airflow with the bigger BEP 8cm hotside and FP exhaust manifold that I installed prior to my last time out at the track. Now it's time to fix the rev limiter issue I'm seeing...


 

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Damn, Corey.

I can definitely attest to working out bugs at the track instead of making the much more desired clean/fast passes. I feel like it's hard to really enjoy racing on nights like those. But, you'll stick with it, and eventually set new personal best numbers and reach your goals:

You'll nail the launch...You'll hit every shift perfect, and you'll roll past the line knowing you got it in the bag...Or you think...

...You'll roll up to the ticket booth, and grab your slip, asshole puckered because you don't want the fine print on the shitty little receipt paper to let you down...

Then, you'll look down, and see a sub 11.6 ET and smile.

It's in that moment that all the crappy nights at the track are basically forgotten.
 
I literally woke up today and said its the weekend, time for me to bump this and demand an update. Beat me to it I guess.
 
28MAR2014 - Rev Limiter T/S & Friday Night Drags Against Mustangs
I was rusty on the launch and thirsty to get that PB. Loaded up the car with the slicks and tools and went to the track straight from work.

The weeks prior I was messing around with the tune trying to resolve or at least pin point this rev limiter issue I was having. I like bouncing off of the rev limiter once or twice coming off the line before shifting into 2nd gear, it seems that doing so I get my best track times, so having this problem isn't going to help set any new ET records until it was fixed. First I lowered the rev limiter to 7k to see if I could duplicate the problem, sure enough it did it first time. I wanted to lower the rev limiter even more but Link's lowest setting is 7k (stock) redline which makes sense, I was just trying to test different RPM rev limiter limits to see if it would do it at a lower RPM. Oh well... Brainstorming, I thought maybe the new found boost increase after the IR BCS install might have a say in this. I made a few quick changes to my BCS settings, setting boost pressure to 25psi (which is where boost was falling to with the Hallman MBC by redline) and the car didn't GAF about the rev limiter. Found the culprit, boost. But why? :idontknow:

With some help from DSMer's that have forgotten more about these cars than I'll ever know they brought up that my valve springs probably need an upgrade to something with more seat pressure. After doing some research on my own I found this little gem that Kevin K. had wrote...
The limiting factor in the 4G63 valvetrain is typically boost levels, not RPM. To protect against this, we recommend targeting seat pressure at about 1.7x your absolute manifold pressure (boost + 14.7psi). This tends to be the worst case scenario and varies widely with the engine’s parts combo.
The current setup I have stock Evo beehive springs with a estimated seat pressure of 60lbs, so lets use Kevin's psia equation to see where my setup falls with the 28psi I was seeing hitting the rev limiter. I'll use 14.2psi because I'm 1000' above sea level...
(28psi + 14.2psia) = 42.2
So seat pressure needs to be 1.7 times greater than 42.2.
1.7 x 42.2 = 71.74

WHOOPS! Not even close to what current seat pressure is, so theoretically it could be my valve springs causing the problem. Might be time to get a set of Kiggly springs in there with a higher seat pressure...


1st pass. 11.87 @ 126.33 (PB trap)
Keeping the rev limiter at 8k and making sure I didn't kiss it before shifting into 2nd coming off the line ensured a clean pass, just a little sluggish launching since I couldn't be aggressive going into 2nd. The car felt good and once I saw the time slip I knew it, I set another personal best trap speed of 126.33mph. The power's there, just need to get the first 330' of the track sorted out and I "should" be able to see a low 11.
---> 1st pass 328
2nd pass. 11.81 @ 121.59
Someday maybe the stars will align, it didn't happen tonight though.
---> 2nd pass 328

I do like beating up on those Mustangs though! I guess an 11.8 pass looks fast when you're making passes at a Mustang sponsored event? LOL





 

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I was boost limited on an fp red by stock valve springs. The exhaust valves would float from backpressure and the car misfired sounding like a Subaru until the lifters could bleed back down. I threw in a set of bc springs, and the problem went away.
 
That's great to hear Donnie! Makes me feel better about the idea that it's the valve springs and not something else. I have a set of Kiggly HP springs sitting in a box out in the garage, just dreading installing them so I haven't. I've got a good friend with that Eurosport spring compressor that lets you do it with the head on the car, just trying to build up the motivation to do it.
 
I use the blue point tool. It takes about 1 hour longer than a standard timing belt job to swap the springs out.
I'll have to look into that tool. What do you use to keep the valves from dropping into the CC? I have a leak down testing kit, I was thinking I could just pressurize it with air or saw a method using a rope.
 
I'll have to look into that tool. What do you use to keep the valves from dropping into the CC? I have a leak down testing kit, I was thinking I could just pressurize it with air or saw a method using a rope.
I use a compression tester adapter with the shrader valve removed. It has the same fitting as an air tool, and my compressor hose snaps right onto it. 100psi of pressure works fine. I've only dropped a valve 1 time, and it was because the piston was cracked.

The Honda garage guys use the rope method a lot, I've never done it that way.

The blue point tool, and a small 5lb hammer get it done for me.
 
I use a compression tester adapter with the shrader valve removed. It has the same fitting as an air tool, and my compressor hose snaps right onto it. 100psi of pressure works fine. I've only dropped a valve 1 time, and it was because the piston was cracked.

The Honda garage guys use the rope method a lot, I've never done it that way.

The blue point tool, and a small 5lb hammer get it done for me.


Of course piston at TDC, after removing spring you can also hold valve up with a WOODEN clothesline pin, while you get everything
organize to mount new spring.
 
First off, LOVE seeing you beat up on some mustangs! I haven't gotten to read through your whole build yet but from what I've read you've done some awesome things! Keep it up.

For the springs, it's not bad. I use a compression tester fitting and 100psi without any issues. Just make sure your compressor is a decent size or else you'll be listening to it all day! The Eurosport tool is pretty good too.
 
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