old man needs help

[curt-10]

I just bought a 96 GST [120,000 miles] for my 16 year old son. well it lasted for 1 week, before he came home with the dreaded, dad there is something wrong with my car! So I go to pick up the car about a mile down the road. It wont start, Its out of gas.{guage not working} Ha Ha I think dumb kid. Go get gas, car starts right up, great, Put it in 1st, let out clutch and nothing try 2nd nothing. oh sh--, he smoked the clutch. Ok call the tow truck and have it towed to the local perfromance shop. so far the plan is to drop the motor, new clutch kit {whitch one?}, clutch fork and ball, new timing belt kit, remove balance shafts, new water pump, new harmonic balancer, new lifters. The car will be a daily driver with some minor mods, we will do all the free mods i am sure. air kit, front intercooler, that will be about it. keep in mind that it will be driven by a 16 year old. you know what that means! So i need a good strong clutch that will last, i am thinking the center force or act 2100 from what i have read on here, advice? I want the new style lifers. so when i order them should i order them for a newer year car. All parts except clutch will be oem.

Questions.
1, does this sound like a good plan, should i check or replace anything else while engine is out? what other problem areas with this car? parts are cheap so i would rather do it all now while engine is out.
2. any ideas on gas guage , full tank only shows up as half on guage, show empty at about half tank.
3.how to order new style lifters?
4. clutch? for longgivity not power.

 

[nightspeed87]

I just bought a 96 GST [120,000 miles] for my 16 year old son. well it lasted for 1 week, before he came home with the dreaded, dad there is something wrong with my car! So I go to pick up the car about a mile down the road. It wont start, Its out of gas.{guage not working} Ha Ha I think dumb kid. Go get gas, car starts right up, great, Put it in 1st, let out clutch and nothing try 2nd nothing. oh sh--, he smoked the clutch. Ok call the tow truck and have it towed to the local perfromance shop. so far the plan is to drop the motor, new clutch kit {whitch one?}, clutch fork and ball, new timing belt kit, remove balance shafts, new water pump, new harmonic balancer, new lifters. The car will be a daily driver with some minor mods, we will do all the free mods i am sure. air kit, front intercooler, that will be about it. keep in mind that it will be driven by a 16 year old. you know what that means! So i need a good strong clutch that will last, i am thinking the center force or act 2100 from what i have read on here, advice? I want the new style lifers. so when i order them should i order them for a newer year car. All parts except clutch will be oem.

Questions.
1, does this sound like a good plan, should i check or replace anything else while engine is out? what other problem areas with this car? parts are cheap so i would rather do it all now while engine is out.
2. any ideas on gas guage , full tank only shows up as half on guage, show empty at about half tank.
3.how to order new style lifters?
4. clutch? for longgivity not power.

you mean 3g lifters when you say new lifters?(there better for revised oil flow right?) Ive never tried them.
Well as far as clutch i went with the centerforce dual friction clutch and havent had any problems, and if you want a really stock feeling clutch then I would go with that.

As far as motor build up, i just got done with doing that, but not completely finished, and yea i definitly recommend replacing the water pump because once it goes bad while the engines in the car, mechanics will charge you alot because they have to remove timing belts, the drive side motor mount, pulleys, and etc just to get to it and it will raise the labor cost quickly. Removing balance shafts, just make sure its done right because if not and something off then it will cause serious engine damage because my friend had that done by someone incompetent and he had to replace a lot of damaged engine internals afterwards, but once done right it ran ok despite they say it makes the car vibrate more, he barely has vibration only at idle...(but it didnt feel like it really gained him hp from doing it. At least I didnt feel any difference )
If the gaskets are old and leaky id gone and do that and upgrade to a mls gasket thats what I have. And if the engines getting serious work done , like bottom end stuff, might as well replace bearings if their worn because that can lower oil pressure.. I had replaced mines as well as my pistons, rings, and rods and had all my internals cryotreated for more durability. Really just try to do stuff you wouldnt have the money otherwise to do while it was in the car because it can be a hassle to redo.

And the gas gauge thing can be because maybe the needle came loose somehow or was sticken and now it off.
Mines did that as well and I opened the cluster and re adjusted it... OR it could be because the little float inside the gas tank that tells where your gas is at is somehow stuck or somethings wrong with it and if its that then you have to go into the tank and get a new one unfortunantly. Try opening the cluster first though.

 

[brodiedehass]

Q. 3 How to order new style lifters?
A. I bought a set from this seller on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/LASH...ryZ33614QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem There may cheaper sets available but this seller was good to work with. Revised 3g lifters= no ticky

 

[curt-10]

yes i mean the 3g lifters. my question is when ordering them what year car should I tell the dealer I need lifters for.

 

[wolf20043]

It actually sounds like a good plan you have laid out. As stated above, water pump while you are changing the t-belt, look for anywhere there may be oil leaking and change the seals/gaskets as needed and a quick compression test while the motor is still in the car to decide if you should need to hone and re-ring while the motor is out (Quick and easier that way). Any and all general maitenance, and it should be good to go. http://dsmtuners.com/sub.php?page=2gtupgrades. Good place to go when it is ready for the free mods and all. Any questions or issues you come across feel free to keep asking and I am sure most will be happy to help. Wish my dad did all that for Me when I was 16
Mike

 

[curt-10]

I can not beleive how fast you guys reply. thank you very much! I will tell the shop to do a compression test before pulling motor.

 

[The_EE]

Curt, dont go with the act clutch, they are hard on the car. I would suggest something from Clutchmasters myself, much easier on the car and less chance of walking the crank. Clutchmasters clutches have a close to oem feel. It might cost a little more the act but I think your son will like it a lot.

If you are going to drop the transmission for the clutch, you might as well replace the rear main seal while you are at it.

 

[nightspeed87]

my dad taught me how to drive a stick and the rest was up to me to learn.

( And wolf20043 good point on the compression check, that would be a good way to tell. Forgot about that. ) I would say since the engine going to be out and apart you might as well do some porting work on the manifolds and manifold ports like I did ( not to say how much power it would give, and your power goals arent very big obviously ) and also get the head shaved, i think it costed me only 75 dollars to have the head shaved when I brought it to them. And maybe consider putting some arp head studs while your putting everything back together. just to keep everything tight with good parts, but you say you want all oem, but that will work too. ( And check the turbo out for shaft play, and check the seals. )


I have heard act are pretty hard clutches, I was thinking about upgraded to like the best clutchmaster stage clutch next for my car because I plan on making serious power in the future and want a clutch that feels more fit for race and something that will be durable for high output hp.
And like I mentioned the centerforce dual friction clutch is good for our cars because of the dual pressure plate thing, I have one currently and its very stock feeling, not aggressive at all after its been broken in. but its rated as a stage 2 or something so it can hold a decent amount of power.
Might as well replace throwbearing too while you change that, that will be like 35 dollars extra though.

 

[nightspeed87]

Curt, dont go with the act clutch, they are hard on the car. I would suggest something from Clutchmasters myself, much easier on the car and less chance of walking the crank. Clutchmasters clutches have a close to oem feel. It might cost a little more the act but I think your son will like it a lot.

If you are going to drop the transmission for the clutch, you might as well replace the rear main seal while you are at it.

On a 6 bolt motor would it still be too harsh for the crank? 9( Imean since 6 bolts arent known to crank walk? )

Because Im changing my clutch in the future and want something more aggresive
that can handle a lot of power so I never have to upgrade clutches again.
( Despite my centerforce is just fine now, but its not rated to handle the type of power I plan on making in future)

 

[BeerBaron]

I'd say 2100 is perfect. It's not nearly as stiff as the 2600, offers more clamping force and durability than stock. I don't think you need to worry about crank walk from going with a 2100 as you dont really have a mods list that would make me worry about the crank walking. Another suggestion in place of the 2100 would be an exedy stage 2. Ofcourse, a 6bolt swap whie the motor is out will take crank walk out of the picture

 

[nightspeed87]

yea but he said he just wanted to do a rebuild...
But that was my question though, since I have a 6 bolt swap would the since 6 bolts dont generally deal with crankwalk would I be ok no matter what clutch I wiend up getting?

 

[BeerBaron]

yeah, 6bolt are genrally concidered immune to crank walk, i actually typed my response before i even saw your post. The clutch that you pick really wont effect the longevity of your car, provided its not some 6puck un-sprung clutch which will murder your drivetrain in no time after a couple launches. If i were you, I'd go 2600 w/ street disk.

 

[nightspeed87]

ok cool

 

[toecutter]

With that many miles on the bottom end, if theres not crankwalk, your should be fine.

Crankwalk is way overplayed only a handful of motors have that problem.

As for the clutch, I have a act 2100 with a street disc. Its a good all around clutch. 2600 is for someone looking for a good amount of preformance out of the car and would be hard on a fwd drivetrain.

Also check out the www.slowboyracing.com and check out the sbr clutch kits, ive heard good reveiws

 

[MyBeatGSX]

Curt,

Don't listen to what half these guys are saying about the ACT clutches. The 2100 is an excellent clutch and is exactly what you're looking for. Pedal feel is almost identical to stock and its not much harder to drive, but it was still able to handle the 270lb/ft I was making at the time for 10+ hard launches and months of driving after that before my clutch fork broke.

As for the gas gauge. You probably need a new sending unit. Might as well rewire or better yet, replace the fuel pump while you're in there (190lph). Sorry I'm drawing up blank for a link right now, but you should be able to find something with a search on here.

Anything else I could think of... Like previously mentioned, do all the gaskets you can while its out, including the head gasket if possible. I would also consider getting some poly motor mounts. This made an enormous difference in my car with 114,000 on it. At 120,000 I'm sure your mounts are shot. If he doesn't want the vibration of hard mounts, at least throw some new OEM ones in there. Don't wait until later to do this, it will need to be done soon enough anyway and 2 of the mounts are extremely difficult to get to with the transmission in the car.

Other than that, I'd get him a radar detector and some Skip Barber driving classes.

I wish my dad helped me with my first car like that. I hope your kid appreciates it.

 

[MrBoxx]

I don't believe that the generation of lifters most people talk about is referring to what generation of car they come on, but rather how many generations of revision they have gone through. I could be wrong about that, though.

For longevity, you could always try a Kevlar clutch. The Spec Stage 2 has garnered a lot of positive reviews from DSM'ers here, and their response to it has led me to want to get one as soon as I can afford it. Kevlar lasts longer and provides a smooth engagement, even though it's capable of handling more power. I plan on getting one because I can't afford to replace clutches all the time, and I do a lot of stop-and-go driving, so smooth engagement without a heavy pedal would be nice, but still fun to take to the track every once in a while.

I wish my dad helped me with my first car like that. I hope your kid appreciates it.

Agreed. What a cool dad you are. My Dad probably wishes I had never bought my car in the first place and gotten a Cavalier or Neon (or something more sensical) instead. Kudos to your support for your son.

 

[wret]

I second the Spec clutch recommendation although I cannot recommend against an ACT. The 2100 and 2600 are by far the most popular DSM clutch upgrades, and not by coincidence. I polled the wisemen group a while back to ask if they really thought the ACT clutches were that good. The answer was pretty much a resounding "yes." The thoery is that you hear of quite a few problems with them only because there are so many in use.

 

[oldman]

I don't believe that the generation of lifters most people talk about is referring to what generation of car they come on, but rather how many generations of revision they have gone through. I could be wrong about that, though.

Correct, 3G lifters = 3rd generation revised lifter and has none to do with 3rd generation Eclipses.

 

[Dream On]

I have a Spec clutch as well and it has treated me very well so far. Definately get the flywheel stepped to the correct height when you do the clutch as well. And I'll probably always suggest doing the fuel filter when you've got more room to do it. Some people have fits with it, though mine came out pretty easily with the engine still in the car.

 

[nightspeed87]

Correct, 3G lifters = 3rd generation revised lifter and has none to do with 3rd generation Eclipses.

what yr 4g63 did these lifters come on?

 

[MrBoxx]

They didn't come FROM any year 4g63... all the "3rd generation" part means is that the lifters themselves have been revised twice. As in: All the stock 4g63's have sucky 1st gen lifters, then Mitsubishi revised the lifters, but apparently they still weren't as good, so they revised them again, thus they are 3rd generation revised lifters.

 

[delta448]

I also recommend an ACT 2100 clutch. ACT is a proven brand and not some new fad. You can be pretty confident he'll like the feel of the 2100 and it will hold up to his abuse of it pretty well, especially if he needs some fine tuning of his skill with a stick.

And major props to you for taking an interest in your sons interests. It makes all the difference in the world when he has his father right there with him, showing him how to be a man.

 

[oldman]

Eric, if memory serves, 99's came with 3g lifters but don't quote me on it.

 

[oldman]

Eric, if memory serves, 99's came with 3g lifters but don't quote me on it.

Should have searched before posting. 3G lifters was not produced until 2004 apparently.

http://www.vfaq.com/mods/lifters.html

 

[Jordanbutter]

I'm going to start a fire with what I'm about to say but ok, here it goes. I hate the ACT 2100. I bought my car with that clutch in it and it went out in about two months. I looked at the receit for the service and found it was put in less than a year ago. I had to spend a ton of extra cash because I had a unusually bent clutch fork and the bearings were all sorts of messed up, all because of the clutch. Now I am having a ton of transmission troubles and will have to rebuild it because of the ACT. I have heard good things about the spec's and I would say go with those.