IrishBeatdown
10+ Year Contributor
- 585
- 5
- Feb 3, 2012
-
Tucson,
Arizona
I guess I should start from the top. My automotive career, at least professionally, started with Honda. I find it particularly funny that I have become so fond of Mitsubishi 1G's and 2G's. I worked for Honda for 5 years, working in the parts department and as a service writer. However, I always preferred 4x's, and have never owned a Honda, nor had the desire to. My current 2G GSX 5 speed is the only car I have ever felt compelled to mod for performance. A friend in my hometown Chicago bought a 1G, and I liked his so much I wanted my own.
When I moved to Tucson, AZ I immediately started searching for a capable 1G. I didn't find it, but I found a listing for 1,000 for a barely-running boe stock 2G GSX. I went to check it out just out of curiosity, and took it home for 800$. I managed to limp it, it would die intermittently on start, but I got it going enough to get it back. The owner had no clue what was going on with it, but head and timing looked good, so I pulled the trigger. A little diagnosis and 2 days later it had a new crank sensor and was running again. Here is the car as it sat:
With the car running, I immediately wanted to clean it up a little bit and repaired the oem 17" rim (it was leaking when mated with a tire). I didn't want to have the bastard 16" rim (in pic) on there anymore. By repaired, I mean I took a hammer and 2x4 to it. This was the before pic:
I didn't get an after pic, but I couldn't pick that rim out from the other 3 now, it looks normal. Also, I got to work putting a new bumper on there, the PO rammed into shit frequently and with abandon. Thank God it looked like the only ramming they did looked like it was at the local walmart parking lot, and no serious damage. I also bought a grille set off of ebay from thegrilleguy to over the holes in the bumper, people on tuners love to hate this grille set, but I quite like the look and for now, its not inhibiting anything, I still get good airflow. New bumper:
With all the cosmetic repairs I had in mind done, I set to running through the car, rolled through all the normal maintenance, I won't go into detail, we've all done it. I figured id get right at the areas that needed upgrading to leave me a platform to build on, and after much debate, I decided to go with a full megan turboback. Unfortunately, I didn't do my research and went ahead and bought the Megan catback, and when I tried to find the Megan downpipe to match, I found that no supplier had them. I called at least 15 places and Megan, who told me they were on nationwide backorder indefinitely. I had to substitute a pipe, and Tim from Punishment racing contacted me and let me know he had a pipe that would fit. I asked around, and everyone who had a Punishment pipe was pleased, so I went with it, along with a Megan o2 housing to complete the turboback. I set about taking off the exhaust, but after strapping on the o2 and downpipe with no problems, found that despite every configuration possible, the catback didn't fit right, this is as close as I could get it,
.
I still don't know whether they sent me the correct exhaust or not, I had to cut off the supports on the muffler and re-weld to get it to hang, and also cut and re-weld the flanges. It still hangs low, but there is enough clearance to go over speed bumps and whatnot. I have after pictures, I'll have to post them up later.
Not knowing which intake to invest in, I opted to buy a cheap 55$ setup off of ebay I could easily discard later. Fittment on this piece, despite it being a grade A piece of ebay shit, was perfect, unlike the 450$+ catback.
The shifter on the car loved to wander, so I did some searching on tuners and turned up several causes and solutions, and ended up buying a Symborski SS bushing kit and SS bushings for the shifter cables. I would recommend these products to anyone, my shifter is very stiff now, with much better response.
At this point the car was still bogging at boost, and I did a boost leak test. There was a hole in my dried out, cracking upper IC pipe sleeve, and I decided the next upgrade would be a new FMIC. Having had so much luck with Punishment, I called up Tim and ordered a FMIC from him, I really liked the design and I loved that I could save my fog lights with the kit. I got the kit and everything looked fantastic. The piping was overall great design and quality work, and fitment on the car was perfect. My faith in DSM's was restored, I actually got a kit that worked perfectly on my car, ☺. The GSX was boosting great now, albeit with the stock t25 turbo. I set out to remedy that. Like most on this site, as a newbie to DSM, I was pointed in the direction of the evo III 16g.
I wanted to buy new, but prices were around $1,000, and I wasn't willing to spend that on a turbo I knew I would eventually upgrade anyhow. I bought a fresh rebuild from tron2119 for 250$ on the classifieds without a exhaust housing, and purchased a used housing off of the classifieds for 80$. I snagged the wastegate actuator off of ebay for 25$ and the turbine clamp for 20$, total investment $375. Tron2119 apparently did a pretty good job on the rebuild, because after a painless install, it ran like a champion. With the 190lph walbro I dropped in and the extremepsi install kit I bought, I was good to go. It is a great turbo, but I was thinking upgrade about 2 weeks after I got it (see below).
Unfortunately, it was back to reality of the everyday DSM'er. Nothing runs well forever, especially when modding. I had removed o2 heath shield when installing the o2 housing (didn't fit), and the o2 ended up frying my alternator. I searched around and encountered the Saturn alternator swap for our cars. I thought that as long as I was replacing an alternator, the least I could do was upgrade. There was a great guide I used, here:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-electrical-wiring/272646-saturn-alternator-swap.html
It broke everything down nicely and made the swap a cinch. Today my power is much better with the Saturn alternator versus the DSM one. While I was at it, I decided to re-ground the engine bay, the stock grounds were looking haggard. I used another guide to make my own grounds, was great info, here:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...5889-homemade-4-gauge-grounding-wire-kit.html
Total cost was around 50$ for everything for the grounding wires and such. Cheap and easy.
I'm going to come back and revisit this later to add more information, just trying get through the basics of my build so far. I ended up wrapping my o2 housing with DEI titanium wrap, a really great product. I bought the hi-temp silicon spray as well. I got it wrapped, sprayed on the spray liberally, and went for a drive. My engine bay started smoking 5 mins down the road. People were looking at me like, "Are you sure you don't want to pull over?" Even after several days of driving, the damn thing was still smoking. I went to their website and it said they recommended to use the silicon spray on everything BUT the titanium wrap.
I took off the wrap, and re-wrapped without the spray, and has been working good ever since.
In the continuing spirit of maintenance, I decided to replace all my vaccum hoses. I found this cheap kit from RRE that took care of the cutting and material here:
RRE's Larson Silicone Hose Kit
The silicon hoses look good in my bay and replaced some really tattered looking OEM originals. RRE was really easy to deal with, the kit was on backorder when I called, was going to make my own but their communication and customer service was so great that I decided to wait until they were in, and they called me promptly.
I decided to go a little Hollywood and get my valve cover fancied up like so many people have. I got her powdercoated and bought a spark plug cover, it ended up coming out really good, here is it out of the box from the powdercoater:
I threw on the spark cover and got a new fel-pro valve cover gasket and new valve cover bolts. Ended up looking really nice.
I've really written enough for now, but I will be updating this regularly, will be back to modding my DSM in 3 weeks once I return to Tucson, I have a mountain of parts waiting for me, time is the only restraint now. I am shooting for HX35 on e85 to about 450-500 hp My current mods:
Current:
FP race manifold
Evo III 16g
Megan 2.5" o2 housing
Punishment 3" downpipe
Megan catback 3"
Punishment FMIC
Extreme PSI intake
Walbro 190 lph fuel pump
1G BOV
Saturn alternator swap
ECU flash
Innovate MTX-L wideband
Glowshift boost gauge
Crappy ebay MBC
This build is about to go into high gear, I thought this would be a good opportunity to chart my progress, and if anyone enjoys it along the way, so be it. This is a rough outline I did on a whim, there will be more pictures and info as time goes on, I plan to document all the work I do. Stay tuned.
Almost forgot, more pics as it is today, all I have on my cell phone, don't take a million pics of my car.
When I moved to Tucson, AZ I immediately started searching for a capable 1G. I didn't find it, but I found a listing for 1,000 for a barely-running boe stock 2G GSX. I went to check it out just out of curiosity, and took it home for 800$. I managed to limp it, it would die intermittently on start, but I got it going enough to get it back. The owner had no clue what was going on with it, but head and timing looked good, so I pulled the trigger. A little diagnosis and 2 days later it had a new crank sensor and was running again. Here is the car as it sat:
With the car running, I immediately wanted to clean it up a little bit and repaired the oem 17" rim (it was leaking when mated with a tire). I didn't want to have the bastard 16" rim (in pic) on there anymore. By repaired, I mean I took a hammer and 2x4 to it. This was the before pic:
I didn't get an after pic, but I couldn't pick that rim out from the other 3 now, it looks normal. Also, I got to work putting a new bumper on there, the PO rammed into shit frequently and with abandon. Thank God it looked like the only ramming they did looked like it was at the local walmart parking lot, and no serious damage. I also bought a grille set off of ebay from thegrilleguy to over the holes in the bumper, people on tuners love to hate this grille set, but I quite like the look and for now, its not inhibiting anything, I still get good airflow. New bumper:
With all the cosmetic repairs I had in mind done, I set to running through the car, rolled through all the normal maintenance, I won't go into detail, we've all done it. I figured id get right at the areas that needed upgrading to leave me a platform to build on, and after much debate, I decided to go with a full megan turboback. Unfortunately, I didn't do my research and went ahead and bought the Megan catback, and when I tried to find the Megan downpipe to match, I found that no supplier had them. I called at least 15 places and Megan, who told me they were on nationwide backorder indefinitely. I had to substitute a pipe, and Tim from Punishment racing contacted me and let me know he had a pipe that would fit. I asked around, and everyone who had a Punishment pipe was pleased, so I went with it, along with a Megan o2 housing to complete the turboback. I set about taking off the exhaust, but after strapping on the o2 and downpipe with no problems, found that despite every configuration possible, the catback didn't fit right, this is as close as I could get it,
.I still don't know whether they sent me the correct exhaust or not, I had to cut off the supports on the muffler and re-weld to get it to hang, and also cut and re-weld the flanges. It still hangs low, but there is enough clearance to go over speed bumps and whatnot. I have after pictures, I'll have to post them up later.
Not knowing which intake to invest in, I opted to buy a cheap 55$ setup off of ebay I could easily discard later. Fittment on this piece, despite it being a grade A piece of ebay shit, was perfect, unlike the 450$+ catback.
The shifter on the car loved to wander, so I did some searching on tuners and turned up several causes and solutions, and ended up buying a Symborski SS bushing kit and SS bushings for the shifter cables. I would recommend these products to anyone, my shifter is very stiff now, with much better response.
At this point the car was still bogging at boost, and I did a boost leak test. There was a hole in my dried out, cracking upper IC pipe sleeve, and I decided the next upgrade would be a new FMIC. Having had so much luck with Punishment, I called up Tim and ordered a FMIC from him, I really liked the design and I loved that I could save my fog lights with the kit. I got the kit and everything looked fantastic. The piping was overall great design and quality work, and fitment on the car was perfect. My faith in DSM's was restored, I actually got a kit that worked perfectly on my car, ☺. The GSX was boosting great now, albeit with the stock t25 turbo. I set out to remedy that. Like most on this site, as a newbie to DSM, I was pointed in the direction of the evo III 16g.
I wanted to buy new, but prices were around $1,000, and I wasn't willing to spend that on a turbo I knew I would eventually upgrade anyhow. I bought a fresh rebuild from tron2119 for 250$ on the classifieds without a exhaust housing, and purchased a used housing off of the classifieds for 80$. I snagged the wastegate actuator off of ebay for 25$ and the turbine clamp for 20$, total investment $375. Tron2119 apparently did a pretty good job on the rebuild, because after a painless install, it ran like a champion. With the 190lph walbro I dropped in and the extremepsi install kit I bought, I was good to go. It is a great turbo, but I was thinking upgrade about 2 weeks after I got it (see below).
Unfortunately, it was back to reality of the everyday DSM'er. Nothing runs well forever, especially when modding. I had removed o2 heath shield when installing the o2 housing (didn't fit), and the o2 ended up frying my alternator. I searched around and encountered the Saturn alternator swap for our cars. I thought that as long as I was replacing an alternator, the least I could do was upgrade. There was a great guide I used, here:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-electrical-wiring/272646-saturn-alternator-swap.html
It broke everything down nicely and made the swap a cinch. Today my power is much better with the Saturn alternator versus the DSM one. While I was at it, I decided to re-ground the engine bay, the stock grounds were looking haggard. I used another guide to make my own grounds, was great info, here:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...5889-homemade-4-gauge-grounding-wire-kit.html
Total cost was around 50$ for everything for the grounding wires and such. Cheap and easy.
I'm going to come back and revisit this later to add more information, just trying get through the basics of my build so far. I ended up wrapping my o2 housing with DEI titanium wrap, a really great product. I bought the hi-temp silicon spray as well. I got it wrapped, sprayed on the spray liberally, and went for a drive. My engine bay started smoking 5 mins down the road. People were looking at me like, "Are you sure you don't want to pull over?" Even after several days of driving, the damn thing was still smoking. I went to their website and it said they recommended to use the silicon spray on everything BUT the titanium wrap.
I took off the wrap, and re-wrapped without the spray, and has been working good ever since.In the continuing spirit of maintenance, I decided to replace all my vaccum hoses. I found this cheap kit from RRE that took care of the cutting and material here:
RRE's Larson Silicone Hose Kit
The silicon hoses look good in my bay and replaced some really tattered looking OEM originals. RRE was really easy to deal with, the kit was on backorder when I called, was going to make my own but their communication and customer service was so great that I decided to wait until they were in, and they called me promptly.
I decided to go a little Hollywood and get my valve cover fancied up like so many people have. I got her powdercoated and bought a spark plug cover, it ended up coming out really good, here is it out of the box from the powdercoater:
I threw on the spark cover and got a new fel-pro valve cover gasket and new valve cover bolts. Ended up looking really nice.
I've really written enough for now, but I will be updating this regularly, will be back to modding my DSM in 3 weeks once I return to Tucson, I have a mountain of parts waiting for me, time is the only restraint now. I am shooting for HX35 on e85 to about 450-500 hp My current mods:
Current:
FP race manifold
Evo III 16g
Megan 2.5" o2 housing
Punishment 3" downpipe
Megan catback 3"
Punishment FMIC
Extreme PSI intake
Walbro 190 lph fuel pump
1G BOV
Saturn alternator swap
ECU flash
Innovate MTX-L wideband
Glowshift boost gauge
Crappy ebay MBC
This build is about to go into high gear, I thought this would be a good opportunity to chart my progress, and if anyone enjoys it along the way, so be it. This is a rough outline I did on a whim, there will be more pictures and info as time goes on, I plan to document all the work I do. Stay tuned.
Almost forgot, more pics as it is today, all I have on my cell phone, don't take a million pics of my car.
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm generally a bargain shopper, so these are the cheapest prices I could find online, and I hunted around. The fuel system will be a full -8 AN from tank to rail to FPR, haven't decided if I will run a SS return or if I will utilize the stock return. I am replacing the stock fuel filter with a higher flowing filter as well. Here are my buys:
