Aaron's 1997 GSX - Street/AutoX/Track Build

[GofaST4life]

I fricking love that oil cap, such a good idea

Haha.

Thanks man! Gets a lot of attention!

 

[GofaST4life]

UPDATE: 12/4/2014

Been a while since ive updated my build thread! Been busy trying to find a new job/career.

Not much has changed with Wendy. She is sitting happily in my garage. I picked up some 2g Talon swirlies for the off season, for a hell of a deal! This way the race rubber could stay in the basement nice and warm. In the next week or so I plan on doing some OFH porting and giving her some proper oil.





Also finished up my man cave engine table! I think it came out great! I used the flywheel as the remote holder.

 

[952g63t]

Nice table. You choose a coilover setup yet?

 

[GofaST4life]

Nice table. You choose a coilover setup yet?

Thanks! gets a lot of attention when the car guys are over.

Actually yes, I had bought some coilovers. And now, looking back through, I never actually posted about them! Doh! I ended up picking up some Megan Racing EZ Streets. I know, I know, they are not the best, by any means. But I was in a big time crunch with the wedding and the house, so I needed something to get by.

After removing the old setup, I found A LOT of issues with the struts and sleeves and ended up tossing most of it all. The Megans have been great! And they have not let me down on the track. My last 3 or 4 events went very well, as you can see.

 

[GofaST4life]

UPDATE: 12/28/14

Whats up!!!

Nice little update.

I had been slowely working on some things with the car, but its been a busy holiday season. I ended up getting my OFH ported to help with my high oil pressure. After bolting it back onto the car, it seems to be working really well. Cold idle stays at 75, warm idle at 15, neutral revs bump up to 35-45. Before they would shoot way up, so im very pleased at the moment. I ended up having to get a new alternator and belt. Just buttoned the car up this evening and will be going for a drive tomorrow.



I got a GoPro from the wife!!! I cannot wait to get videos of my races next season. Really looking forward to using it. I may even take a short video to test things out.

I also started making and selling custom oil caps for people. Been a big hit so far. Check out "4g63 DSM Caps" on FaceBook for more pictures and what not.

 

[GofaST4life]

UPDATE: 1/4/2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! Hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday season.


Been thinking a lot about my build and what direction I want to take in 2015. I've come to the conclusion that im very happy with her performance wise. The 20g spools great and is a lot of fun on the street. Last seasons AX events have shown me that the car can be competitive in my region. Although, since moving I am looking forward to some new competition on my new region.

I think i'm going to focus on the interior and driver support mods. Ill be looking at loosing some interior weight, installing a racing seat & harness to properly hold me in place, going with a smaller lighter steering wheel, and possible airbag removal.

I did some tuning today, as I was worried about my spool time and wanted to fine tune her a bit more. After a few quick runs i've come to a few conclusions which have me pretty happy/content.
1. I see positive pressure at 2600rpm.
2. I have 20psi at 3750rpms.
3. Peak timing sits at 11 degrees.
4. AFR through the revs stays at a steady 10.9-11.2.

These numbers should be a tad better, as I was only at 70% throttle. For some reason, I never seem to put my foot all the way down. I have no idea why, maybe i'm just scared of her. So ill have to grab another log soon.

Weather is supposed to be in the teens all week, so I plan on starting the interior weight stripping.

On a different note, I took my first GoPro video. Its nothing special really, just some small easy pulls. I have come to HATE my modded 1g BOV whistle on decel, so I will be sourcing a new BOV at some point. Very much looking forward to having the GoPro for AX events and cruises.

Let me know what you think.

 

[91AwdBigRed]

Great build, Just a little feedback on the Megan coilovers (ez street). I had them installed on my 99 turbo miata they held up decent for a year before I noticed them loose stiffness. But still not bad

 

[GofaST4life]

UPDATE: 1/12/2015

Now that I have the car running and driving GREAT. Ive decided to focus not only on the interior and changing a few things, but also finally giving the engine bay some time. As of right now its just a plethora of color. Red, Blue, Chrome, Black, etc.



So I pulled apart almost everything in the engine bay and prepped for a color change.

I've decided to do the piping Wrinkle Gunmetal as well as the Valve Cover and the intake pipe to the turbo. I'm going to leave the BOV top Cayenne Red Pearl (CPR). I think I will do the spark plug cover CRP as well. I had thought about painting my custom Oil Cap but I may leave that until the end, just to see how everything comes together. The red coupler will be getting replaced with a black one and I will be using nice new t-bolt clamps. The blue VC breather line will be black and I will be replacing the vacuum lines from the MBC with black ones as well.

 

[GofaST4life]

UPDATE: 1/19/15

Finished painting up my pipes, VC and spark Plug Cover. Its didn't exactly turn out the way I had hoped, but I do like the coloring. I'm waiting on a new black coupler, then everything will go back together.



Also got around to installing my new steering wheel. I really like how this feels and after removing the old stuff, I found about 15lbs in weight reduction, which was nice. Everything is nice and solid.

 

[99ECLIPSEGSXDSM]

Can't wait to see it up close man!

 

[GofaST4life]

UPDATE: 1/23/2015

In an effort to keep with my off season plans, I put in some good time yesterday with some things. I ended up installing my 4pt harness. After removing all of the old seat belts and hardware, the weight reduction alone was worth it. The new harness is mounted to the factory seat belt locations. I have yet to take the car out for a drive, but after sitting down and strapping in, i'm VERY excited about the upcoming race season. The harness does such a great job of holding me in place. This will easily give me a little more of an edge on race days as my mind wont be thinking about stabilizing my body during hard cornering.



I also got around to installing my newly painted VC, Piping, and Spark Plug Cover. I REALLY like the hammered gun metal color. What i'm not happy with is the the spark plug cover color and the BOV color. I'm going to change those and steer away from trying to match the body color. I'm thinking of doing a flat black of some sort to help break up all the gun metal. And yes, I will be changing the red coupler. I have a black one on its way to me now.



In addition to these changes, I also flushed out all the tranny fluid and filled her up with Redline MT90. I haven't driven her yet, but I am excited to see if there is a good difference. I also flushed the coolant and refilled her with a nice 60/40 mix.

 

[dsmcrzy]

Do both the shoulder straps go to the stock location or do you have a harness bar installed?

Tough to tell by the angle of the pic.

 

[GofaST4life]

Do both the shoulder straps go to the stock location or do you have a harness bar installed?

Tough to tell by the angle of the pic.

They go to the stock locations in the rear, one is low, one is high. I have plans to do the harness bar in the future.

 

[BishNasty]

Cant believe you found one in Ohio without rust! great find, is it originally a southern car?

 

[GofaST4life]

Cant believe you found one in Ohio without rust! great find, is it originally a southern car?

Shes not completely free of rust. haha. Has her issues here and there but i've seen and owned WAY worse.

 

[BishNasty]

From the pictures you got one without strut tower rust Now that's a rare find, but clean looking 2g man!

 

[GofaST4life]

From the pictures you got one without strut tower rust Now that's a rare find, but clean looking 2g man!

Well...the driver side has been repaired. The passenger side has the beginnings of it. Shes not completely without the rust cancer but she keeps me happy.

 

[GofaST4life]

UPDATE: 1/30/2015

Well the under hood transformation is complete!! I ended up changing the color matching stuff to a darker metallic gun metal. I painted the spark plug cover, 1g BOV top and my Lower Shores MBC. Also finally got a black coupler!



The picture does not do it justice! Horrible garage lighting at them moment. But you get the idea.



Also picked up a used 255 pump. Traded an unused Turbo XS MBC for it.



Getting the car ready for some more maintenance before spring hits.

 

[GofaST4life]

UPDATE: 2/2/2015

I finally decided to pick up a used Key Fob for Wendy. Took me 5 minutes to program it. Works like a charm. Very happy having a key fob. Its truly the little things that matter.



I had the car running for a bit yesterday. Like to make sure she stays happy. Since the car is up on jack with no wheels, I opened the garage up maybe a 20 inches, put a fan right after the exhaust and angled the blades. Shot all the exhaust right out! Worked way to well for what it was. The nice thing, the motor ended up heating the garage up a bit.



Some of you may have been thinking, why is he going to a 255 when his current setup is stout and perfect. Well, i've made the choice to go E85. Its VERY easy to get in my new state and the 20g on E85 will be a lot of fun! However, my 750cc injectors probably wouldn't work to well. I ended up picking up some RC 1100cc injectors! Got them for a really good price too! Going to clean them up, get some new seals and get ready to make the switch.

 

[buddahboost]

Went through the whole build, and I'm impressed. Keep up the work and congrats on getting married and hope goes well in the new home( almost a year later right ).

 

[GofaST4life]

Went through the whole build, and I'm impressed. Keep up the work and congrats on getting married and hope goes well in the new home( almost a year later right ).

Thanks! Its been a hell of a journey so far.
I'm pretty pumped for this upcoming season.

 

[Aldo Orozco]

Nice color and the IC pipe look better. In the past update, you post a new head unit BOSS. Dou you have pictures once installed? How it fits?

 

[GofaST4life]

UPDATE: 2/6/2015

I decided to paint the front bumper support/hood latch piece. The black paint was crap, it was rusty, and looked bad. I threw some left over dark metallic gun metal on it. Looks great.

I cannot wait until spring. These crap garage pictures just aren't doing it for me.

Nice color and the IC pipe look better. In the past update, you post a new head unit BOSS. Do you have pictures once installed? How it fits?

Here are some pictures man. It fits very well and takes up all the space. I like it a lot. Its a nice cheap option for a double din unit. I only use AUX anyway.

 

[GofaST4life]

UPDATE: 2/20/2015

So the RC injectors I bought used where no good. Two of them worked great, the other 2, would not fire correctly. After some diagnosing I pulled them out, installed my FIC 750s and she is back to perfect.

The 255 pump is in!! Yay! Feels good to have enough pump for w/e ill be throwing at her.

While I search for another injector deal, I have made a small list of things to accomplish with whats left of the off season.

- Quick Release Steering Wheel Hub
- Hood Pins for the SCCA race Hood
- Some tasteful decals.
- Quick Release Bumper Kit (still on the fence)
- Relocate my Coolant overflow bottle.
- 3inch Exhaust Cutout (Spring Time)

 

[GofaST4life]

Great build, Just a little feedback on the Megan coilovers (ez street). I had them installed on my 99 turbo miata they held up decent for a year before I noticed them loose stiffness. But still not bad

Thanks! Once I am back on my feet with a career I will be swapping out the Megans for a better overall set for Wendy.

I was in a pinch when my last setup died/failed horribly and needed a coilover setup to make the car drive-able. I cant knock em to bad though, as they have yielded me some very nice AX wins.

I just hate the loud clunk from the drivers side rear hitting bumps in the road. Still need to diagnose that.