Car dies, feels bogged down, burning rubber smell, oil and metal shavings ... WHAT just happened?

[raptoranderson]

So I took my '98 2G Eclipse GST out to drop off a buddy at the Amtrak station before I headed 20 minutes south to pick up some salvage Eclipse parts from a wrecker's. It's a cold af Michigan morning and the car is a little slow to get started but it fires up after a few turns of the engine and we set off down the road.

I pull out of the side road onto the main road and get up to 5,500 rpms in first gear and drop the clutch to change into second and .... the car dies. I popped the clutch out and ... the car fires up for a second and then dies. I pop the clutch out again and .... it dies. I shift down into first and pop the clutch out and ... it doesn't feel like it's in first gear? And the car dies.

So I push it into a sideroad 25 yards down the road with my buddy steering (he had to take an Uber the rest of the way ) and I head back to my house to grab a battery charger and charge the battery. After a 10 minute walk there and back and 20 minutes of charging the battery the car fires up and I turn around to head back home.

I put the car into first gear, give it plenty of gas and ease out the clutch and the car feels bogged down? Like it's not in first gear. So I take it out of 'first', put it back into first and it feels the same way. I then try a third time and the car finally decides it likes first gear now and it drives fine so I can do a u-turn and head back.

BUT there is the unmistakably strong smell of what seemed to me like burning rubber. But that's ludicrous? I was going no more than 10mph the whole way home and I drove it more slowly and smoothly with baby-like delicacy than I have ever done in my life. When I get home I pull in and pop the hood to look for clues and find what the pictures show below: metal shavings and oil all around the cam gears and the driver's side of the engine.

What does any of this mean??

Prior issues and notes with the car:
-The car is never driven far enough for the battery to fully charge.
-The AF ratio is lean because of the bigger turbo, but there are supporting mods around the corner waiting to fix this.
-It has a stage-2 clutch and a short-shift kit: needless to say that driving is a struggle at best.

 

[chrysler kid]

You should be able to find a DSM face book group near you, there is also a DSM classifieds Facebook page. Down south here there are only a hand full of 2g turbos in the state of Texas, however the DSM classifieds regularly has cars in the north east readily available

Like I was saying though sell what you have and cut your losses, it doesn't make sense to drop $3k on an engine and have the car rusting apart on you as soon as you get it running again. That would be the definition of a money pit

 

[doubleclutch]

Why buy a shell when you can get a solid running car and just move over whatever you want? A GSX will be premium stock sound, leather, and the red car in my link already has mot of the mods you do minus the cams you can't tune anyways.

 

[raptoranderson]

Why buy a shell when you can get a solid running car and just move over whatever you want? A GSX will be premium stock sound, leather, and the red car in my link already has mot of the mods you do minus the cams you can't tune anyways.

I'm planning on buying a running GSX and then parting-out everything I don't need from it and also the car I currently have and then keeping the GSX to build. I think that'll be cheaper and also bring back in some of the money that I'm spending

 

[doubleclutch]

sounds like a good plan to me.