97 GSX AutoX/DD sleeper

[danielsl1999gsx]

MOD 2013 and Ksports

Ended messing with the ride height a bunch of times, and dropping it way too low on my last time. As you can see here:






This was the day before MOD 2013 as well, and the car was undrivable. Any imperfection on the road was cause them to immediately bottom out and make the loudest noise ever. I ended up meeting up with some of my pals and worked on each other's car before we headed to mod in the morning. Lets just say that none of us got any sleep that night, but we were at least ready for MOD! Here are some photos of the event:

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

Update 9: Performance parts install 1/2

After seeing all these badass cars making some serious numbers on RRE dyno, I told myself it was about time I did the same. So I put aside a whole weekend and installed everything that I had been colleting for about 4 months.
FP2's

Dual Fals

ARP Hardware

AME 320lp E85

Bride Bucket Seat

Turbo Blanket

RC 1200s

FP Manifold that I later had coated.

Evo 8 ECU

The easy part was done, now all I had to do was put aside some time to get all these parts installed. This actually took some time to get to, I believe this stuff sat for about 1-2 months before I called my buddy up and ask him to help me out. We set aside a weekend and began the prep for my Dyno day. Luckly, for one of the days I had an open spot at the shop I worked at so I started on as much as I could.

Start with the most important thing first, oil change!

Only the best

Next was a coolant flush but ended up breaking my coolant drain plug. This was a pretty big bummer.

And use this a temporary plug till I got a new one from a harware store. The struggle..

Next was removing the manifold, which was what I was afraid to do the most. Ive always had terrible luck with these, either stripping threads or breaking bolts. But the show must go on.

Thankfully I got all four out with no problem!

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

However, lost one to the head. :/

But on the up side I found out that my hotside was ported! SCORE!

Gave everything a good look over and clean before I moved on. Needless to say, beside the broken head stud this removal went fairly easy.

Also went ahead and added my AEM Oil pressure sensor so that my gauge actually read something .

Fans wired up and turbo blanket installed.

All finished up with day one of part install, now on for day two.

 

[LaserRS92]

Great progress! Are you planning to fix that head bolt?

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

Funny story is that im still driving around with that head stud missing. I didnt have time to get it fix during my build but this summer i got big plans for this car.

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

Update 10: New Wheels, Fail..

Sometime during this month I finally got tired of the poke that my RPF1 were giving me with the 20mm spacers I had up front. I ended up selling them for something a bit more aggressive...

Haha that's right, RPF1 again! But this time in SBC 18x9.5!! Geez these wheels were so freakin sexy it was unbelievable. They were mounted on 265/35/18 Hankooks that made them looked so mean. Just sitting down in my room made me want to leave them there as decoration, but I had to throw them on my car sooner or later. I bought these with the hope of having that poke in all four corners instead of just the fronts.

Well... the test fit was terrible in the air and on the ground. Ha, I mean what could you expect. This offset is way too aggressive for a 2g body without some fender flares. It could have been the fact that my car was on stock suspension but still, I did not like the look at all. Im in a love/hate relationship with these wheels because they look so damn good on a 2g but don't clear big brakes for shyt. I ended up selling these rims as well, and went back to my lame stock Evo 8 enkies. But here is how they looked just for fun.

 

[miguelmcv]

Nice rims looking rims,
What off set?.

I am running 9.5 and they don't look like that at all.
However, mines are 35 off set.

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

Oh, totally forgot to put the offset. I bought these because this offset is the only one that would clear any big brakes. 18x9.5 +15

 

[miguelmcv]

Oh, totally forgot to put the offset. I bought these because this offset is the only one that would clear any big brakes. 18x9.5 +15

No wonder, Well, is not because of the off set, but because of the rim shape.

I have no clearance issue with 35 off set from the caliper , I run into clearance on the outside diameter of the caliper.

I am using 14" rotors, so the calipers hit the inside wall of the rim, but it clears ok the spoke.

35 offset will clear any brembo caliper with evo rotors, but it's more about the shape and not the offset.

Anyways, good looking car you have there bro.

Keep up the good work.

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

Update 11: New Exhaust(s)
I got around to installing my HKS High power just for kicks, like I stated before I sold this exhaust because of the attention it caused. However, I missed the sound so I bolted it on for a couple of weeks before I had RoadRace make me a custom stealth exhaust.




Had my fun with the HKS but it was time to go get my other exhaust made. RRE does some top-notch work and exhaust looks great and stock.

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

Update 12: Final Parts Install 2/2

With some extra cash in my pockets now from selling my Rp's, I went ahead and finished putting on the last pieces to the puzzle before my tune. This weekend consisted of my and I rebuilding my whole head. We went ahead and threw in my FP2, Evo 9 springs and retainers, 3g lifters, valve steams, gaskets, cam seals, RC1200s, Bride seat and an AEM 320lp E85 pump.

The AEM fuel pump was by no means a bolt on like your average Walbro 255. I felt that we spent as much time installing this fuel pump as we did rebuilding the head. The wires had to be solder, fuel hanger modified, and a hole needed to be drilled for it to breath. I only went with this pump because of the promising data on it with both 91 and E85.

Once everything was finally in, we fired it up! It was running like a champ with the notorious belt squeal . Off the bat, the car pulled so much more at top end with my crap 87 tune. I felt like I didn't even need a tune
[ame=http://youtu.be/0q35ghzuGDk]IMG 1154 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[ManticSHadow]

Did you have an extra small blck wire coming out of that 320lph my aem did. If so what did you do with that?

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

That was the ground wire i believe, i attached it to the screw where the hanger is held. Not sure if that is the one you're talking about.

 

[ManticSHadow]

That was the ground wire i believe, i attached it to the screw where the hanger is held. Not sure if that is the one you're talking about.

Ok yea I see in your pick next time I pull the pump I think ill relocate it to same place spot on build cant wait to start mine.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/dsm-build-journals/473737-manticshadow-95-gsx-2-4l-450whp-build.html

 

[hurricanecris24]

Should have put fender flares with those wide wheel setup you had. Good looking car I plan on running 18x9.5+15 with flares on a spyder

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

I was really debating fender flares on my car, but idk how they would look with silver. If my car was black i would have definitely kept the wheels and slapped some flares on it. Next update is Dyno/Tune!

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

Update 12: D-Day @ RRE

Three days after everything was installed, it was D day for the 2g. I had been putting this off for about two years and now it was finally time to dyno/tune my car. I let the car sit for 1 day before taking it to RoadRaceEngineering for its dual map tune.

Remember to eat your veggies:


Lame cheesin photo:


Bolted up to the Dynapack





Getting started with the actual tune was a bit of a challenge. When I switched to the Evo 8 Ecu the computer wouldn't boot up. I really thought that I had bought a dead Ecu but it turned out to be bad connection between the OBII plug and cable. Once that issue was solved we ran into a wastegate problem. I made the switch to a Election boost controller so we could keep the boost level up at higher RPM, but when we removed my manual boost controller we broke the nipple off my FP wastegate. Luckly, this happen at RRE and they had an extra one laying around. Then for the final issue, my knock sensor was picking up crazy readings at idle. At this point I really thought that I was never going to get tuned. Sam troubleshooted this for some time but he came to the realization that it was not going to be fixed. He then made the decision to tune my car as a standalone and turn the knock sensor off. I really didn't care at this point because it was getting late and we hadn't even started tuning. But once all these issue had been dealt with we finally had a clean pass.


Tuning was finally starting to go well, we began adding more timing and boost and the numbers kept going up. It was going so well that it made me think about my spark plugs. I remember that I had re-gap them because of we were running such low boost for my Ecotune. I asked Sam what should be the gap for an E85 tune and he said something around 20 thousandths. I told him I was pretty sure my gap was nowhere near that and he said that we would keep tuning until we start missing. Needless to say, this was the video right after our conversation

The final pull for the Arco 91 map ended up with 310hp/288tq

As the night started getting later and due to my lack of sleep I forgot to take photos and videos but I was able to get two videos of final touches of my E85 tune. Off the bat with no tuning and just switching gas the car made 345hp/312tq. I knew I was goting to break my goal of 350 with ease, now the question was when? Sam kept on tuning but we had finally maxed out this old 16g. It wouldn't make boost past 25lb and even with more timing we saw no power gains. It looked like it was time to finish up.


My last pull for e85 map yield these final numbers. 360hp/325tq!





My first impression on the test drive was nothing but amazement. This car was a complete monster compared to what I had been driving. I spun all four in first gear and made the tires chirp in 2nd, 3rd I was gone haha... I was in love with this car and impressed with what Sam pulled out of my setup. This is an absolute blast to drive as a DD. I would totally recommend Sam and RoadRace for anyone looking to make some power out of their Mitsubishi. Boost on my friends

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

Update: New Wheels again ::

For those of you who may not know, i made a thread about running RPF1's with a BBK installed up front and what was needed to be done to run them properly. Needless to say i got tired of the massive poke up front and ended up selling them. I then had the greatest idea of running those same wheels but in 18x9.5 with 265/35/18 to have the poke look all around. Yeah..... it looked terrible! I ended up selling those. But now i think I've finally found some proper wheels that clear BBK with ease and look like tits. I give you my newly acquired Volks CE28 18x9 +35 with Hankook EVO12 245/35/18.

These wheels gave me no trouble whatsoever with fitment and even had a slight poke all around Everything went on like a glove and cleared my BBK like nothing. Being +35 offset i think the widest tire ill be able to run with is 255/35 without rubbing on the knuckle as im pretty close right now.

Well, thought I'd give you guys an idea of how these look on a 2g. Enjoy

 

[BoostedinSoFla]

Car looks beautiful man. What would you consider to be the perfect offset to run with the Enkei RPF1's in the 17X9.5 variant, with my Brembos?

 

[92AWDHX40]

Nice build man i like it.

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

BoostedinSoFla: Honestly, RPF1's dont match the 2g body w/brembos unless youre running fender flares. The only RPF1s that will work with brembos without any spacers are +18 and + 15. Ive never seen any +18 on a 2g but im guessing they're still gona poke out like a mother. But if youre into that stuff then +18 would be the way to go, or a +22 and use the smallest spacer possible to clear. Maybe you can end up around +20

iugrad92turbo: Thanks man, it going slow but its moving at least.

 

[BoostedinSoFla]

BoostedinSoFla: Honestly, RPF1's dont match the 2g body w/brembos unless youre running fender flares. The only RPF1s that will work with brembos without any spacers are +18 and + 15. Ive never seen any +18 on a 2g but im guessing they're still gona poke out like a mother. But if youre into that stuff then +18 would be the way to go, or a +22 and use the smallest spacer possible to clear. Maybe you can end up around +20

Lol yea I'm not into the poke life. Just want it to be flush with my fenders and clear my Brembos. So you think +20 or +22 will do the trick? I see the Evo guys run that offset mostly. I'm also trying to use no spacers of if I must the smallest possible.

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

BoostedinSoFla: Evo guys run that offset because it requires the smallest spacer and fits flush with their fenders. You WILL NEED SPACERS for any offset besides +18 and +15. Maybe someday into the future ill pick some of these wheels again but with fender flares.

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

Update: A bump in the road

Soo... Where to begin? The GSX has been fabulous since my dyno/tune, it has never let me down and i beat on this thing hard. I ran a best of 8.6 at the 1/8th but never got to take it to the 1/4, i would hope for 12's if i did. RRE does some killer work and i would recommend them to anyone again. Now for my problem, i got bored one day and decided to calculate how much i had really invested in the machine since i had bought it 3 years ago. Lets just say it was more than i had paid for the car and i didnt like that at all. Im a full time college student working two jobs. Working hard for the money i make, i felt as if the GSX really wasnt showing everything i had put into it. I also felt like i was outgrowing it, and it was becoming impractical for what i needed right now. Thus, i came to the conclusion that i will no longer be driving this car and moving on to bigger things. And by that i mean EVO!
I will be parting this car out (preformace parts only) and putting it back to stock. The shell, motor, and tranny are staying with me and going into hibernation until i get the motivation to work on it again. I couldn't bring myself to selling it because i know i wont find another clean 2g like this. I truly love this car but it just doesn't fit my lifestyle right now. So without further to do, i introduce to you my new money pit, WW Mitsubishi Evo VIII GSR.

And one last hurrah for the 2g. It will be back one day better than ever!

 

[danielsl1999gsx]

Update: Back from the dead!
Well summer came and went and along with that went my hopes of bringing my GSX back to life. After i finished parting it out, i knew that i would get this thing running again but couldn't seem to find the time to do it during my summer break. However, since time was no longer an issue and with me being back up north i could start piecing it back together the right way. I literally just needed my ecu to be flash with my old map to get it running but my tuner never had the time to do so. This left me with a complete car that wouldnt crank over, so i took everything a part again sold off everything one last time. My goal was to have the GSX as a daily and the evo as a track car but im switching that around now.
I've been trying to get into the 400whp with both of my cars for sometime now but have failed to do so. (Note, that i am trying to do this on a stock looking setup because of me living in cali and all) So here is my new setup for 2014-2015 for the GSX, which should get me into the 400s. (Knock on wood)

1. Same RRE Built 6bolt with 2g head and FP2 cams
2. Ported and polished Evo 3 manifold/ 2g o2 housing
3. RC 1200cc and AEM 320lp E85 fuel pump
4. FP Ported and polished 18g-6SL2
5. Megan Racing 3" DP mated to 3" HKS High power
6. Evo 8 ECU
7. RRE 3 port
8. Dejon 3" intake with K&N Filer
9. Cobalt SS Front Brembos
10. Some sort of aftermarket suspension (Koni yellows/Eibach pro kit is where im leaning towards)

I'm also started a youtube channel to keep track of my builds, so go subscribe please and leave feedback. Its been a while since i edit videos so dont be too harsh on me They should get better as i continue to record and make more videos. Boost on my friends!