Neglected 95 Eclipse GSX nostalgia build

[jesse12345]

Now I'm a little worried, my timing is off and by a fair amount. The cams stayed in time with eachother but the crank is a bit off, so I guess I'm crossing my fingers at this point.

 

[miliman13]

Alright so I have the car wrapped up and I double checked every nut and bolt torqued to spec. The trans feels literally brand new, it shifts nice and firm and the spare torque converter I had laying around seems to work and it works better than the one that was in it. I'm super pumped everything finally turned out great. The trans used to flare if I gave it light throttle, now it just shifts firm right to the next gear. I'll drive the car a few miles and then change the fluid again with a brand new filter.

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I’m sure your covered this but what besides changing the converter helped your shift situation, I apologize for missing it I’m just hoping you could provide a brief summary, what was issue ? What did you do to fix it ?

I’m getting an auto and I’m just curious.

 

[pauleyman]

Now I'm a little worried, my timing is off and by a fair amount. The cams stayed in time with eachother but the crank is a bit off, so I guess I'm crossing my fingers at this point.

Cams turn half speed of crank. How many teeth are the cams off. I prefer to line cams relative to crank. So to me in time is crank on mark. Then look where cams are.

 

[dwb]

Now I'm a little worried, my timing is off and by a fair amount. The cams stayed in time with eachother but the crank is a bit off, so I guess I'm crossing my fingers at this point.

It's possible to slip a tooth on the crank and not damage valves. In my case it was still running (like hot garbage). Hopefully the same result for you.

 

[Justin DuBois]

It's possible to slip a tooth on the crank and not damage valves. In my case it was still running (like hot garbage). Hopefully the same result for you.

Yes - it is possible to be one tooth off and not bend valves - re-do the timing belt making sure the marks are all aligned, then test your compression. Maybe you got lucky

 

[jesse12345]

I’m sure your covered this but what besides changing the converter helped your shift situation, I apologize for missing it I’m just hoping you could provide a brief summary, what was issue ? What did you do to fix it ?

I’m getting an auto and I’m just curious.

The valve body that had a shift kit installed was adjusted how the directions say to put it, but I watched John from ipt say they are wrong. Sure enough mine was adjusted all the way soft instead of firm.

 

[jesse12345]

I dont know how it was off but it seemed like it was off more than a couple teeth. I put my new belt on and it's running fine. I have it all apart still and I'll show a picture of how it was.
I got a wisdom tooth pulled today so I may not work on it until tomorrow.

 

[Kevin Jewer]

Came here to say the same thing. I've had the crank slip ~90 degrees when a loose washer got into the works and suffered no damage. Compression tested good and it never had problems.

 

[jesse12345]

I'm going to be doing a compression test on all 4 right now, but that's how far off it was. The cams stayed in time of eachother which is weird. I didn't even try to fire the car after it died. Crossing my fingers.

 

[pauleyman]

I'm going to be doing a compression test on all 4 right now, but that's how far off it was. The cams stayed in time of eachother which is weird. I didn't even try to fire the car after it died. Crossing my fingers.

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I can't see the crank pointer. It's not weird for the cams to stay together. You jumped time at crank due to the balancer failure. Cams weren't involved, so they stay the same relative to each other.

 

[jesse12345]

The picture I took was a little dark.
Compression tested 175 on all cylinders so I think I got lucky.

 

[dwb]

So it jumped three teeth?

 

[jesse12345]

It must have. It was enough to kill it. I was in to much of a hurry to check at the cam gears. I just slapped another new belt on and it ran great so I was heavily relieved.

 

[jesse12345]

Today I cleaned up my spare timing cover from the motor that came with the car. It was kind of warped and needed some shaving and what not, but it wasn't cracked so I used it. It actually turned out alpt better than I imagined.

I've decided for science purposes and to see with my own eyes to use a lightweight crank pulley. That old school unorthodox one doesn't fit of course, so I purchased a vms racing one. My engine is 8 years old and a factory rebuild that I did personally, so if this pulley happens to shred the engine, I'm already stacking up parts for a new built engine. I'm going e85 next summer with a bigger turbo and all, and if this engine survives it'll go back into the talon I swapped front clips on. Maybe nothing will happen since I'm an auto, or maybe it'll crap but I want to know so then we all know for a fact. Right now the engine has about 4k miles on it. I'll document as the miles go up. I don't want to intentionally hurt the motor so if I see anything abnormal I'll report on that. I change my oil every 1k miles so I'll know if something doesn't seem right.

I'm currently running vms adjustable cam gears and they seem to be very good quality. I have Tomei cam gears but the vms ones just seemed to be better to me with a side by side comparison. I'm not saying Tomei is junk or anything, because I really did want to run them, but when I got them and they hand no lock washer or torque specs it kind of turned me away. The vms just felt better to me personally. I couldn't find many people running that brand on their car so I was the guinea pig. I'll continue to be the guinea pig.

On a side note I don't want anyone on here to think I dont want to take your advice or anything, none of you have ever steered me wrong. Just to clarify that, I just physically want to know first hand if anything does go wrong.

 

[jesse12345]

So I did some more research and I think I've finally come to my senses. I'm either going to purchase a new oem harmonic balancer or go with a fluidampr. I'm not running balance shafts so it just doesn't make sense to take away the last and only thing that dampens harmonics. I try to think things through and it seems like alot of things were put in place for a reason. I'm no engineer but sometimes a guy has to try and think like one.

For whoever reads or has read my last post I'll either edit it or leave it there, but try to look past the lightweight part. I'd love to guinea pig it like I said, but actually using my brain, I feel like it's going to do more harm than good for obvious reasons. Whether it's a decent brand or not, I need something to dampen whatever harmonics are going through the crank. It just makes sense.

 

[jesse12345]

I got the car all back together and it may just be me but this thing runs so much smoother. My steering wheel used to just vibrate like crazy at idle and now It's dang near gone completely.

My next step on the list of things to do is drop the transmission fluid and throw in new fluid with a new filter. After that and cleaning up the tune a little it should be ready to roll out for the summer.

While I'm enjoying the gsx ill start picking away at my rs, just in case one breaks again I'll have the other to still enjoy.

 

[jesse12345]

I made the switch to e85 today and what a difference from 91. I also was able to get my gas gauge working which was awesome.
I'm going to enjoy the car a little longer and then I may just let it go. As much as I love it, parts for the transmission are going to be the scary part for me if it breaks. Plus I have 3 of these cars and I'd like to finish the other 2 the same way. I'm just tossing ideas as time goes on.

 

[jw4free]

Selling sweet rides always haunts a guy. Always.

 

[jesse12345]

Honestly I feel like I'd sell one of my others before this one, it's just way to much fun. If I have to dig in and learn this transmission, I'll definitely give it a shot.

 

[CrackedDSM]

I would love and desperately need a 2G Auto AWD in my life...

 

[jesse12345]

To me the project is almost all the fun. I do enjoy ripping it, but I don't know how I feel.

I need to get a heavier wastegate spring in so the tune can be finished. The windshield still needs to be replaced, but thats something I won't do. Otherwise it's completed.

 

[CrackedDSM]

To me the project is almost all the fun. I do enjoy ripping it, but I don't know how I feel.

I need to get a heavier wastegate spring in so the tune can be finished. The windshield still needs to be replaced, but thats something I won't do. Otherwise it's completed.

100% know how that feels. I was at the same point with my Talon. Stick with it though, the key to me was then taking the car and chasing numbers. 0-60, 1/8th mile, etc. That awoke a new passion with the car.

I do really need another project soon though. Nothing entirely fills that void.

 

[jesse12345]

I will say this, so far the car absolutely hauls and I couldn't be happier with the power. I've never actually felt a dsm this crazy before so that makes me super happy. I've never really chased for more power with one of these cars before and I've had over 10. It really is a great feeling.

The transmission on the other hand is the only worrying part for me it seems like when it warms up to about 110 to 120 degrees it starts to act super weird. It's almost like it gets super confused and the rpms start to fluctuate, but once I'm on the highway at about 60 its completely fine. When it's cold it's totally normal so I'm thinking solenoids or maybe some other sensors on the trans. I'm no expert but it worries me to the point of not even wanting to drive the car. The transmission holds the power no problem and it never gets hot so I'm hoping it's nothing internal, but those rpm surges and it feeling like it doesn't know what gear it wants to be in is concerning.

 

[CrackedDSM]

I will say this, so far the car absolutely hauls and I couldn't be happier with the power. I've never actually felt a dsm this crazy before so that makes me super happy. I've never really chased for more power with one of these cars before and I've had over 10. It really is a great feeling.

The transmission on the other hand is the only worrying part for me it seems like when it warms up to about 110 to 120 degrees it starts to act super weird. It's almost like it gets super confused and the rpms start to fluctuate, but once I'm on the highway at about 60 its completely fine. When it's cold it's totally normal so I'm thinking solenoids or maybe some other sensors on the trans. I'm no expert but it worries me to the point of not even wanting to drive the car. The transmission holds the power no problem and it never gets hot so I'm hoping it's nothing internal, but those rpm surges and it feeling like it doesn't know what gear it wants to be in is concerning.

Honestly, a simple fix is just to wire in the kiggly manu-matic shifter/kiggly shifter mod. Delete the TCU entirely, and see how it acts then. It'll act like a manual valvebody trans. What gear you select, is the gear it's immediately going to be in. You can find the wire for the OD button on your shifter too, and use that as your "OD" button, so no extra switches or anything required.

It's one of my favorite mods to do on an Auto DSM. All the fun of a manual, without any of the clutch pedal BS. It's also a great diagnostic tool. If the problem goes away, you know it was the TCU. If it persists, then it's in the transmission itself.

 

[jesse12345]

If its not like the shift box which I'm assuming it's not I'd actually consider it. I found a deal online on how to check for stored codes through the transmission. I do have a spare tcu I could throw in but it's from a 97 turbo fwd and from my understanding shifts the trans at different times then the awd. I'll see what I can dig into tomorrow, but I may just swap all the sensors from my spare trans just to rule them out. I will say the end clutches I installed have been rock solid.