High HP Street/Strip 91 Eclipse GSX

[5150DSM]

Looked into evo suspension? I just got done modifying the fronts for my 1g but haven't messed with the rears yet. Here in Indy it's been single digit weather, sucks.

Nobody wants to weld up the rears for me and I don't trust my own skills, or lack thereof. Single digits... Fock that! It's actually plenty warm for me to start working, just gotta get off my my lazy, dead, winter-fat ass. Thanks for the reminder though, I'll take another look at the EVO stuff, those guys have a ton of aftermarket, maybe I can make something work.

 

[5150DSM]

So it's been a while... Work, life, blah, blah

Anyway, I finally started getting into the good shit, things should come together quick from here.

First, I got my suspension temporarily worked out. I had to compromise but I'm saving and budgeting for a proper set-up in the near future. For now, the ubiquitous AGX front and rear and just to change it up... Tein springs.

My empty, messy hole. It really sucks working out in the street in front of your house. I spend a fortune in enzymatic cleaners to catch all my nastiness.

Glad I picked up a new trans cooler, this nasty focker was doing nothing for me. Why is everything in my bay so filthy. Oh yeah, it's a 22 year old, oil shitting DSM. I wouldn't have it any other way. But, I'll be doing some serious scrubbing before the job is done.

I call this one, Garbage Out. No more dirty cooler, no more charcoal canister and no more MAFT. I'll leave the gas tank line open like a draft tube and run some looped vacuum lines for inspection.

This is the real catalyst. Finally got the motor out and on the ground (cart actually). She goes up on the stand tomorrow for cleaning, inspection and new rings and bearings. Trans will hit the bench for front clutch and Kiggly flex-plate install.

 

[5150DSM]

I yanked out the CXRacing intercooler and pipes (soon to be for sale) and checked out the bumper for the VRSF kit... More cutting will be required.

Found something cool when I took the piping off. Wonder if this was causing any spool issues?

Also got my FP intake prepped for powder coating. Added a 1/4" npt to 1/2" male fitting, which will match the breather on the valve cover.

 

[5150DSM]

I also decided to have my valve cover powder coated. I thought it would be a good idea to try and strip the old PC off and prep the VC myself. I used Permatex gasket remover and purple power, a stiff wire brush, steel wool, a razor blade and some serious elbow grease. What a stupid focking process; sure you can do it but media blasting the old PC off has to be a thousand times easier and the cost is minor compared to the labor of doing it yourself.

At least I did one smart thing in the process. Thanks Compworks, you guys got the good shit.

Gasket remover for 45 minutes and some scrubbing with the wire brush.

What the stipper does to PC.

Lots of scrubbing and stripping with the razor blade.

Under the stock baffle.

After some Purple Power and steel wool.

I'll be heading to my Uncle's fab shop next weekend to media blast the rest of this crap off. Then I can weld up the little puzzle pieces for the baffle and weld it into the VC along with the new breather fitting. Then she goes out for powder coating. At least I'll have a couple of shiny things in the engine bay, I'd like to do more but I gotta try to stay as stock looking as possible. No law against powder coating...Yet... Focking California.

That's it for now but these next few weeks will be very productive. The plan is to have the car on the road by April 1st.

 

[5150DSM]

Little bump in the road on my path to DSM glory... What's new. You can read about it here: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/cyl...59146-manleys-took-beating-piston-damage.html

On a better note, I got my VC prepped for powder and got the new CompWorks baffles in. I'm really happy with how the VC turned out with the baffles and the 1/2" fitting. Hopefully the powder sets off like I want it to.

 

[5150DSM]

Got the VC and intake back from powder today, very happy with the results. I plan to shave the powder off of the letters on both the intake and VC, try the silver/green look for a while.

Also, got my slugs in today. Wiseco 9.0:1/.020 over. I'll drop them at the machine shop tomorrow and hopefully have the block back by the end of the week. If everything goes well, I will start assembly this weekend.

On another note, I did get my center dif sent off to TRE to have it welded, I decided the reliable split and vastly reduced potential for failure was worth the reportedly annoying DD issues. Everything is coming together fairly quick now, I expect to be on the road and tuning in the next 3-4 weeks. 500+ here I come!

 

[5150DSM]

Things are really starting to come together. Updates will be coming fast and they will be more substantial.

Friday I got the block back from the machine shop. I also got the remainder of my gaskets, timing belt and the rest of my "big brake" kit. So this weekend I'm concentrating on prepping the chassis and engine bay, hopefully everything will be ready to drop in by next weekend. At the moment I'm waiting on one final piece... My welded dif from TRE.

Yesterday I spent my time making room for the VRSF front mount.

I'm real happy with the way everything came out. I'll do some touch up with the grinder and the spray over everything when I paint the bay.

Got rid of the PS cooler lines and just ran a simple loop in the bay.

I've also decided not to run a crash bumper. I cut the corners off of the bumper brackets and I'll use the rest of the brackets as mounting points for some bracketry to hold up the bumper cover. I get to loose a bunch of weight off the front and I can use the brackets to mount my ducting as well. I'll get some pics up after I figure out the mounting and routing.

And finally, the Fed-Ex guy interrupted my work to drop this off. Thank you sir! Maybe it's cheesy but I'm just stoked to have a need for a gauge that reads this high.

That's it for now but more and more will be coming soon. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment/critique my build.

 

[5150DSM]

Got a bit more done today. As soon as my dikhead buddy brings back my engine stand, I'll put the bottom end together. In the meantime, I'm just trying to get all the other little shit done.

I switched over to a 2G intake manifold to match my Hyundai head but I'm using a 1G throttle body, guess I gotta get the grinder out.

First pass came out ok but it's kind of "bell-mouthed" so I need to get back in an square everything off. My grinder only has one speed and it's too fast for aluminum, I end up getting a ton of metal in the stone and then it stops cutting. I'll finish it of with my adjustable dremel and then have it tanked to get all the shit out of it.

I also got the head together in anticipation of the block coming online. New stock valvetrain, 3G lifters, BC 272 Intake and Exhaust, mild port and bowl work, Hyundai head casting.

Got interrupted again while working, this time by the mail-man. I've been trying to find one of these for so long, I forgot that I found it and bought it. Thanks JNZ! 1/8" BSPT to -4 AN.

I'm getting there, this should be a good week, so very close.

 

[GSXftw]

Good build, you seem real motivated and making great progress. Check my mod list and youll see some of your parts, youll love the VRSF it stays right around ambient. I actually ran that exact same CXRacing FMIC, and on SD to verify it was a pile of shit. making the switch to a VRSF was a good move. IATs started at 80 (about ambient) and at the end of a 1/4 pass it would be 160*... a simple 3rd gear pull would put you to 140ish. Back then I thought a core was a core, and size was what it was all about but theyre not. Not to hate but Ive been trying to grasp.... WHY GREEN on a red car?! Or is the red changing? Cant wait to see it come together tho. Also grinding stone is clogging because theyre not made for aluminum, has nothing to do with the speed, you need a carbide bit

 

[5150DSM]

Good build, you seem real motivated and making great progress. Check my mod list and youll see some of your parts, youll love the VRSF it stays right around ambient. I actually ran that exact same CXRacing FMIC, and on SD to verify it was a pile of shit. making the switch to a VRSF was a good move. IATs started at 80 (about ambient) and at the end of a 1/4 pass it would be 160*... a simple 3rd gear pull would put you to 140ish. Back then I thought a core was a core, and size was what it was all about but theyre not. Not to hate but Ive been trying to grasp.... WHY GREEN on a red car?! Or is the red changing? Cant wait to see it come together tho. Also grinding stone is clogging because theyre not made for aluminum, has nothing to do with the speed, you need a carbide bit

Appreciate the info. I knew the FMIC was garbage, didn't know it was that bad. I've heard nothing but good things about the VRSF so hopefully, it will work that well for me.
Come on, you love my Christmas theme.
No really, the car's getting painted flat black (not rattlecan) I think black with some silver and green accents will look good, we will see.
Yeah, stones and aluminum don't mix well but I figured for just a little hogging out it would be fine (done it before) the grinder spinning at 25k isn't helping any, but you're right I need a proper bit to finish it.

Got my engine stand back today so I'm going to start main assembly tomorrow. I'll get the block done, slap on the head and put the trans back together when my dif gets here... Then it's off to the races. Actually it's off to tune for a few weeks until I can dial in the SD on E85... but you get the idea. Running by my birthday (April 1st) that's the goal.

 

[90_1geclipse]

Looks good

 

[GSXftw]

IV seen a fp green /vrsf combo first hand it was awesome... my buddy had it and it was a top end monster. Even at 17 psi it outpulled me at 21psi on a b16g with that shit fmic. I gained 3* of timing advance before knock from the vrsf, so lots of power gained. He ran 12.90@109 on 20 psi if that helps. (Only 2.0 60ft spun)

 

[5150DSM]

Had a good weekend got a few things done. Started by pressure washing my nasty ass engine bay and under the chassis. Went through a gallon or so of Superclean to get the years of accumulated crud off, took a bit of paint as well.

I didn't want to leave the engine bay the way it looked after I pressure washed but I'm not quite ready to get into any serious cosmetic work either. So as a temporary solution, I semi-carefully rattlecanned the engine bay and radiator support. All in all , it didn't turn out too bad considering and it should be easy to touch up when I finally do go for paint and such.

If you look in the second to last picture you'll see what years of oil and solvents dripping on asphalt does to it. I hit it with the pressure washer and it started tearing out chunks.

 

[5150DSM]

Finally some real progress on the motor, been waiting for this. Got the rings sized, decided to run .019 top and .022 second gaps. I used the little rotary file from Summit for the first time, gotta say, this thing works pretty good. After that, I measured the mains, liked my results and went ahead and slapped the crank in. Everything was moving right along so I went ahead ad got the rod bearings measured up, liked my results so I dropped in the slugs as well. Did some final cleaning on the block deck, run down the studs and went ahead and bolted on the head. (ARP standards with Felpro composite gasket (copper sprayed))

I'm really liking how everything is going together at this point so I just kept going. Got the manifolds on, swapped over the 1G power transistor to the 2G bracket and mounted up the coil pack. I hope 2G coil pack with 1G transistor works.

Now I'm getting exited so you know I have to go for the money shot.

Turbo mock up!

That's it for now. I've ten thousand small things to do but aside from re-assembling the trans most of the major shit is done. Next stage should be fuel system mock up and routing. Get the rail and injectors in with the -6 lines and fittings routed to the AFPR, get the lines cut and square it all away.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Looking great man what's cool is when you can meet the vendors face to face I met some at Norwalk.

 

[5150DSM]

All the details. All that little stuff that's necessary to complete a build package. I've a long list of details...

I've been trying to get weight out without stripping the car out of "street car status. Mostly small stuff like un-needed brackets, full A/C delete, lighter parts (not many). I wanted to loose the crash bumper, first because it's fairly heavy for such a useless part and second because I was sick of cutting on it every time I changed or upgraded my intercooler. Unfortunately, on a 1GA, when you ditch the crash bumper you need some sort of solution to hold up the bumper cover or it strts to look like an aging hooker. (saggy all over ). Lucky for my lack of fab skills JMFab offers such a solution...

This thing weighs like two pounds, fits perfect, was relatively inexpensive and has lots of bolt holes so I can mount the bumper cover and some shrouding to it. Very nice piece, thanks JMFab!

Gotta stop but I'm not ready for the EVO Brembos or a BrakeMan upgrade yet, so I just opted to go with the basic "big brake" upgrade. 94 2 piston calipers w/brackets, 94 11" rotors and some Hawk HPS pads. I'm happy, It was a direct bolt-up and came together for very cheap at wholesale costs.

That's it for now. Next update will be pouring the urethane cast molds for my new motor mounts. McMaster Carr is the shizzy.

 

[5150DSM]

Decided to tackle the motor mounts today, front and rear roll stops are first on the list and they sure needed it. The front wasn't ridiculously bad but the rear was just done in.

I had a theory about reinforcing the existing rubber by drilling voids and then filling them with the urethane... I guess we will see how it works.

The materials. I decided to start with a 60a, which is supposed to have the hardness of a tire in application. I hope to get the necessary stiffness for good power delivery without shaking my spine apart.

First I washed the mounts up real well with Purple power and a scrub brush, then it was on to the pour.

I started by taping off the back side of the mounts with good old gray duct tape, I wasn't very careful about it, I just kept laying cris-crossing strips until everything looked sealed.

I mixed the two part urethane for the requisite 2 minutes and then poured it into the mounts. I tapped the side of the mounts as I staged the pour so I could chase the air pockets out. Then I just left it alone for a couple of hours.

After a couple of hours, I peeled the tape off and was pleased with the results. I'll spend some time trimming the excess since my duct tape mold leaked a bit, then I paint the mount brackets and call it good. Voila... Poly mounts for $40.00

Overall the stuff was really easy to work with, kind of sticky and messy but not anything you couldn't do in an average suburban garage. I guess we will see how it performs in keeping the power down and getting me my timeslips. Next installment will be the other mounts and getting the motor finished... Front cover and water pump on, oil pan sealed up, turbo mounted and plumbed, etc, etc...

God, I can focking taste the start-up.

 

[Michael@FP]

It's nice to see dedication like this thanks for supporting FP.

-Michael

 

[5150DSM]

Trans is done!
Originally, I was going to do a write-up on rebuilding/upgrading the 1G auto; however, I had a ton of problems (mostly of my own creation) and relatively speaking, did a crappy job. I actually don't know if the trans is going to hold up, let alone work but as they say " I got myself into this, I'll get myself out". If you want to know what not to do, I can help you, just PM me. In the end, I learned a lot and would probably do much better next time; but more than likely, if this trans fails, I will send it to a pro and just let them handle it.

Anyway, the trans is done and I finally got to install and clearance the Kiggly flex-plate. I shaved the rear main housing as per Kevin's instructions on the site and bolted up the flex-plate and outer space with the stock bolts. I used a good amount of red Loctite and torqued the bolts to 75 ft/lbs. Fitment is a great and I have a lot of confidence in the piece but you do have to make sure to shave the housing down level with the longest bolt-head height. As you can see from the second pic the clearance between the oil pan and flex-plate is also very tight, less than an 1/8".

I also spent a little time cleaning up the transmission, Superclean is the shit. I wasn't overly thorough but I did get the majority of the grime off.

Just as a random aside, the Hyundai head, 2G manifold combo puts the plenum about 1/2" farther from head in a 1Ga. I also have the Magnus heat barrier gasket, which probably contributes 1/8" or so.

At this point I'm basically done. I just need to clean up some wiring and replace a few plugs that have cracked over the years. (I have a spare 1G harness that I'm going to steal from) The plan is to drop in the motor on Saturday and start measuring/routing my SS fuel lines, button up the wiring and booting up link to load my base maps. Hopefully I can head out Sunday morning, break this motherfocker in and start tuning. I'm getting really exited about this turbo... I got a lucky break and ended up with the 84mm cover on my Green XL and can't wait to see what this "hybrid" Green/Red variant is capable of.

 

[5150DSM]

The motor is in!

It's funny how everything takes twice as long as you think it's going to. I have my finalization list... Route new fuel lines, plug in the harness, attach the intercooler pipes, etc, etc... But you never think of things like the wiring harness not quite fitting because you changed intake manifolds and coil pack/igniter positions or how you really don't have a good place for the AFPR to mount without interfering with something or how your tranny dipstick will be in the direct path of your UICP; or the myriad millions of tiny details that have to come together before you fire up your beast. Right now, I'm knocking out all the little stuff every day after work, I get a few hours in each day and am making progress. I plan to truly finish on Saturday afternoon, I'll fire up the car, verify that everything is Kosher and then spend all day Sunday tuning.

The transmission was typically uncooperative, requiring multiple attempts to get everything to match and mate but eventually I got it worked out and finally bolted the flexplate up to the torque converter. I used 1.3 gallons of red Loctite and then torqued my grade 10.9 bolts to 100 ft/lbs. One other really good thing, the trans rotated freely with a breaker bar on the crank, it seems that at least some of my fears regarding the trans are unfounded. Once everything was bolted up and dangling on the chain, I dropped in the assembly without any further adieu. The motor was very cooperative and landed flush in it's hole in about 20 minutes flat, I'm very happy with the way it sits on the new mounts, everything feels very solid and rigid.

Once she was mounted up, I started connecting all the induction pieces and mapped out the new component locations and routing.

Stay tuned boys and girls. The next few updates will be start-up and baseline tuning, then it's off to the track for some number crunching. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this project. The guys here on tuners have been great and our vendors are top notch. We should all fell very thankful that guys like FP, JNZ, extreme PSI, MAP, TRE, IPT, Kiggly and so many others have our backs and help us bring these bad ass builds together.

Next episode... Playing with an E85 fire.

 

[5150DSM]

The last little things finally got done. It took me forever to decide where to mount the AFPR, everywhere I mocked it up there was interference with something. Eventually, I figured out that if I removed the bracket/solenoid assembly off the firewall, I would have a reasonable place to mount it and route the lines. First pick shows the return side routing and where I mounted the regulator.

I had originally planned to run a 90* fitting off of the filter to feed the rail but I realized that one of the 90*'s I thought I bought was actually a 45*. It turns out that a 45* fitting was probably a better option anyway so I had a screw up that worked in my favor for once. I'm very happy with the way the lines and and fittings turned out; the route is optimal for me, no interference and easy to service if/when I need to. As you can see in this pic, the feed line tucks right under the UICP and gets to the rail with no sharp angles or undue stress on the lines or fittings.

Last thing to tick off the list was the trans cooler. I tried the stock sidemount location from a bunch of different angles and never found anything that worked for me. I looked at a couple of other places but the line length and routing just started getting ridiculous. In the end, I mounted the trans cooler to the right side of the radiator just above the front mount using the zip strips that came with the kit. It turned out to be a good choice in both exposure and line length as I was able to use just the hose that came in the package without extending anything. As you can see from the pics the lines are close to the stock routing and length and don't interfere with anything along the way and should again be easy to service if/when it becomes necessary. First pic is the cooler mounted, followed by the line routes.

I took a good look at everything, checking all the fittings, wire plugs, hoses, vacuum lines, etc, etc... I liked what I saw so I called it done. I proceeded to lower the car off the stands and fill the fluids. Joe Gibbs Racing BR30 break in oil, Valvoline ATF+4 with Lubeguard black, standard green coolant in a 50/50 mix with Redline Water Wetter and 10 gallons of E85. Time to bring this beast to life!!

I hooked up the battery, fired up the laptop, turned the key to the on position and...

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/electrical-tech/463401-how-bad-my-ecu-damage-why.html

So, now I'm on hold for another week while UPS traipses around the country with with freshly serviced ECU. I'm supposed to get the unit back on Friday so hopefully Saturday morning things will go on line. I'll do the initial fire up and check early on Saturday, break in the motor, change the oil and then start tuning at wastegate pressure. If everything is good, I'll head out to the street car drags on Wednesday and start doing the shake-down/T&T runs. I might just have my first slip for the new set-up. From there it's all gravy, dialing up more boost until I reach my goals. (Gotta love the optimism) Thanks for the support from the forums and all our vendors, the pay-off is finally here!

 

[an orange crayon]

so did you get it all done or what?

 

[ErikTande]

Little bump in the road on my path to DSM glory... What's new. You can read about it here: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/cyl...59146-manleys-took-beating-piston-damage.html

On a better note, I got my VC prepped for powder and got the new CompWorks baffles in. I'm really happy with how the VC turned out with the baffles and the 1/2" fitting. Hopefully the powder sets off like I want it to.

View attachment 153143

View attachment 153144

View attachment 153145

View attachment 153146

Looking awesome. That is A LOT of elbow grease, nice work.

 

[5150DSM]

When I last reported in, I had hit a wall to some degree and didn't know where I was going for sure... So much work, time and money... and so many problems.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/cylinder-head-short-block/463889-engine-seized-initial-start-up.html

After a $2000.00+ trans rebuild, I'm finally on the road. The car is very conservatively tuned at 15psi right now and everything seems to running great, I'm having a minor electrical issue with the CAS signal that's holding me back from pushing any further right now. I'll get the harness checked out and repaired as needed and then I plan to start tuning for some real power.

I'll get some pics of the transmission damage up later and then we can move past my stupidity and on to the tuning. Look for me here and in the link forums, I'll have lots of questions along the way I'm sure... But for now the beast lives and should be rampaging across the countryside in short order.

 

[5150DSM]

48.9 lb/min at 23 psi. Things are really coming together. Of course, for every success there is another failure... BOV is leaking like focking mad and the valve cover decided to lift, throw the gasket and shit oil all over the place. I just ordered a stud kit for the VC and I'll build a vacuum block this weekend to clean up all the T'd vacuum lines I've got going.

And just for the record... The DSMGreen XL from FP is a focking monster, unbelievable turbo. FP is God.

Oh and by the way... My LC1 controller decided that it was time to take a shit on me. So I switched to the LC2. Easy install and so far is working great. It wired up to the DB gauge just like the LC1 and only needed power, ground and output to the ECU, link reads it exactly right with no tweaking. For $150.00 it's a steal.