Craig's 97 GS-T

[Craig13]

Craig13 submitted a new DSM Profile :

My first Eclipse, and boy is it a project!


Read more about this vehicle here...

 

[Craig13]

I've been very suspicious of this turbo since the minute I saw it before I bought the car. I finally decided to dive into it today and discovered it is absolutely an ebay special, not to mention filthy as all get out. Needless to say my wife wasn't happy when I showed her the 16G that I'm gonna have to buy now...

 

[John Miller]

Hey man keep up the work! I bought my dsm for 600...no engine, tranny wiring, interior, and basically nothing. I just dropped a rebuilt 4g63t and tranny into it so hopefully should be running. I've wanted an eclipse ever since I saw Paul Walker's.......they are a blast to work on. Keep it up!

 

[Craig13]

That's awesome man! You make me feel like I got a smoking deal paying $800 for a running and driving (although very rough) DSM . I was 10 or 11 when I first saw that movie and I have absolutely loved the car ever since. Believe it or not, growing up around classic cars my whole life, namely 60's mustangs, it wasn't until I saw that Eclipse that I found a passion for cars. And I am super excited to have finally gotten my hands on one!

 

[Chris Nusbaum]

Way to bring one back!

 

[John Miller]

That's awesome man! You make me feel like I got a smoking deal paying $800 for a running and driving (although very rough) DSM . I was 10 or 11 when I first saw that movie and I have absolutely loved the car ever since. Believe it or not, growing up around classic cars my whole life, namely 60's mustangs, it wasn't until I saw that Eclipse that I found a passion for cars. And I am super excited to have finally gotten my hands on one!

Lol that is very relatable! My uncle is huge into American muscle and I help him with his 1938 buick sometimes. My family isn't huge into cars but I had a friend who was. He had an old riced civic and I rode with him one time and he did a pull in third gear. Scariest moment in my life, but ever since then I got hooked. I still want to get and build a civic, but I couldn't pass this dsm up. You got a hella deal for 800 bucks. The engine alone is worth like 500 in good working order. I hope you can get your dsm up and running! :0

 

[Craig13]

Well after a whole lot of research, a bunch of confusion, and a boat load of head scratching, I have decided it is best to pull the engine. SO much just doesn't make sense at this point and was definitely not done correctly that I want/ need to fix. I'm sure if many of you take a look at the photo below of the engine bay you will see a lot of what I mean . On a side note, check out my sweet AFPR and the massive fuel filter and pressure gauge on the return line to go with it..... She is coming out this afternoon and then I get to drain my bank account with parts haha

 

[John Miller]

Well after a whole lot of research, a bunch of confusion, and a boat load of head scratching, I have decided it is best to pull the engine. SO much just doesn't make sense at this point and was definitely not done correctly that I want/ need to fix. I'm sure if many of you take a look at the photo below of the engine bay you will see a lot of what I mean . On a side note, check out my sweet AFPR and the massive fuel filter and pressure gauge on the return line to go with it..... She is coming out this afternoon and then I get to drain my bank account with parts hahaView attachment 597204 View attachment 597205 View attachment 597206 View attachment 597207

Glad to see the progress being made! Honestly the right way to build a dsm is from the ground up, so pulling the motor is a good idea and it is fairly easy to do. Keep it up

 

[Craig13]

Thanks man! I have to agree. After going back and forth so much and finally taking the plunge and pulling it, I have already learned that it was definitely the right decision. And it wasn't hard at all to do. I am really enjoying this project and can't wait to finally be able to drive it

 

[John Miller]

Thanks man! I have to agree. After going back and forth so much and finally taking the plunge and pulling it, I have already learned that it was definitely the right decision. And it wasn't hard at all to do. I am really enjoying this project and can't wait to finally be able to drive it

Lol I know how that feeling is. I didn't want to pull all the wiring, fuel system, interior, and dash, but it ended up paying off in the log run. I just dropped a rebuilt engine in my dsm, but need a few more odds and ends thrown in. Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself. I enjoy every second of working on my dsm...well 9/10 times

 

[Craig13]

Well, I made a freshman mistake and waited until almost a month into my Eclipse resurrection before I dropped the oil pan on the engine. It's always a joy when the first thing you see is little its of metal in the bottom of the pan.... Well this just went from a moderate fix the issues and drive to a full on rebuild. Oh and check out the photo of the oil pickup. No clue as to who thought this might be a good idea.....

 

[Craig13]

So this escalated quickly. I have the entire engine torn down short of the front cover and the pistons/ crank coming out. I discovered some weird gunk in the holes of my block that are marked with the orange paper. Since this is an Eco VIII block with a 2G head, I know that a few of these passages are not the same. But I have no idea what or why they put this weird stuff in the photo into the engine block. and Getting it out is a whole other story! On another note, the main bearings are in much better shape than the rod bearings. I wouldn't put them back into the car, but I am hoping I can at least salvage the crank out of all of this. I was also very afraid that this thing may have spun a bearing, leaving me with a trash block as well. Fortunately that didn't happen so I am at least happy there.

Although I have been working on cars basically my whole life, this will be my first full rebuild. I am planning to do everything myself sans machine work obviously. We will see how this goes! I am still working out the kinks of successfully and correctly mating this block to the head and trans. The way it was done before was atrocious and not correct.

 

[pat white]

We always hope for the best ...but hey ur gonna have a solid motor after this

 

[Craig13]

Well I decided to take everyones advice and ditch the Evo thing that came in my car. I picked up a complete and running 4G out of a 96 GST today. This is going to make things sooooo much easier.

 

[Craig13]

Been doing a lot of painting and clean up while I wait for my engine to get back from the machine shop. It's been almost a month (gotta love COVID). I'm pretty stoked with how the valve cover came out though!

 

[Craig13]

So while I am still waiting on my engine (the machine shop decided to shut down for the rest of the year after having it for 2 months), I decided to dive into the nightmare of wiring issues that my car has. Taillights did not turn on, headlights did not turn off, blower motor didn't work, horn didn't work, and there was a ridiculous amount of hacked wiring. Well I've managed to solve all of those issues and fix all of the cut, spliced, missing, and just plain wrong wiring.Just about every green/ white (lighting) wire in the car had been cut and messed with so fixing that fixed the lighting issues for the most part. The headlights not turning off and the blower motor not working was attributed to a fuse the was only allowing 3.5 volts to pass through instead of 12. Replacing that managed to fix that as well. SO excited for making so much progress on it!

 

[Craig13]

So after discovering how much wiring had been cut and was wrong, I decided to make my first junkyard trip for GS-T. I was able to get all but 4 of the pigtails I needed and a bunch of stuff I wasn't even planning to look for! This car needs so much but I am really making some good progress so far this summer. I think i am most excited about the factory OEM 2GB rear bumper though!

 

[John Miller]

Glad to see all the progress your making on your 2g. If you need any odds and ends hit me up. I have gutted out 3 2g gs-t cars so I have a decent amount of parts just lying around.

 

[Craig13]

I am STILL waiting on my engine build to be complete. I am actually going to be going to pick it up from the shop that has it and take it somewhere else. I feel like almost 4 months is more than enough time and patience to decide to go elsewhere. But in the meantime I have been able to get a lot of other stuff done. The headliner was removed and I relined it. Not the best job ever but it will do for now. I also made a few trips to the junkyard and found a bunch of goodies. The conversion from tan to grey interior has begun as well. On a side note, 3G sun visors will work in a 2G .

 

[Craig13]

Well after 4 months of wasting my time, I got the engine back from the builder with basically nothing at all done. I've decided to jump off the cliff and build it myself. Here we go!

 

[John Miller]

Well after 4 months of wasting my time, I got the engine back from the builder with basically nothing at all done. I've decided to jump off the cliff and build it myself. Here we go!View attachment 609856

Good luck!

 

[spyderdrifter]

Don't feel bad. I honestly think this reason is why a lot of us learn how to do it ourselves. It was the same way for me back in '07, and been doing it myself ever since, minus my current 6 bolt just because I haven't had the time to do it sadly. Just be slow building it so you can ensure you've done everything needed correctly. Slow is good, rushing is not. I learned that the hard way.