Street Build Project 9s: Street Driven 98 Eclipse Auto

[diambo4life]

How about photos not taken in my driveway? Me and the kids decided to make a short trip to the neighborhood park. Mid 70s day in late December? Merry Christmas!

 

[diambo4life]

Maintenance on the 2G:

I fixed the rear axle issue early this month. Looks like the axle bar just slipped off the CV joint. So, I removed the boot and then smacked the CV piece with a BFH to completely seat the circlip. Seems to be okay now.

The car started misfiring and finally would not start. I suspect it's the coilpack after some troubleshooting so that is being replaced. I ordered a new one from RockAuto.

As all this was happening, I noticed that when the car sat for a few days, it was leaking ATF. Further investigation revealed that the leak was coming from the front passenger side axle seal area. I removed the axle, inspected the seal and it looked okay but I ordered a new one from ExtremePSI. I will install RTV on the outside lip when I install and seat it in the trans. I am suspecting it may have unseated itself just enough to cause a leak. The axle seemed to have been seated all the way so hopefully, this fixes the leak. As I was doing the above, I noticed the wheel hub bearing felt kinda rough spinning so, I am replacing both front hubs.

Gotta love how 1 small thing snowballs into finding other issues. Damn cars.

 

[Ineedboostman]

Its funny how these cars like to break will they're not even being used

 

[diambo4life]

Absolutely and I will find more stuff when i actually drive this car on the street legit and put miles on it. I usually just drive it around the block because it's not legal yet. But, it's good to catch these things now. While this is technically a race car, it will see plenty of street driven miles and I intend to make sure it's reliable doing so.

 

[diambo4life]

Hubs came in. Thanks Rockauto. Knocked out the studs and will install the ARPs this weekend after I replace that axle seal.

 

[diambo4life]

...and the mess I am dealing with.

 

[Ineedboostman]

That doesn't look fun

 

[diambo4life]

The hubs are pretty easy to do as long as the axles are not stuck in there. So, I ran into a small problem over the weekend. So, my hubs as pictured above, notice how they both came with different studs, one black and the other brass colored? I didn't think much of it until I tried to press in my ARP wheel studs. I noticed (after mounting the hub to the car ) that one hub had bigger studs on the knurl end....and I didn't have the correct drill bit to drill to size. Soooooo....had to remove it and place an order to Amazon to get the drill bit size since even my local ACE didn't have the size I needed ie. 39/64". However, good news is after installing the new seal, I don't seem to have any leaks after adding the ATF back into the trans but this will be determined after getting the car running and driving it again. I also bought a new muffler for this car but I am afraid it might be too big, width wise? Really, just avoid 4" exhausts on any lowered 2G. I am not even sure why people feel this is needed on any car making less than 1000whp.

 

[JetMac]

Beautiful car, I’ve got a 97 GSX in the green color. Did you happen to buy that roller with all the carbon already installed? One popped up about 1.5 years ago on my feed and I was tempted but never committed to it, kinda regret it honestly. It was priced very well for a clean rust free roller, and had about $8k worth of carbon on it too - Hood, front bumper, doors, dash, console, wiper valance, and hatch. Think it may of had a cage in it too, but wasn’t certified. Anyway, I gotta stop talking about something I should have bought, my gsx has rot in the wheel wells. When I comes to it, eventually I’ll have to strip her down and cut out all the rot and weld in new metal, or find another clean roller - but I feel like that’s getting harder and harder to find. I might have to tackle hub/wheel bearing things soon on mine too - my last drive on the way home I hit a crappy spot on the road and heard a loud bang and all the sudden grinding from up front. It only makes noise while the car is in motion, and I’m thinking I destroyed a wheel bearing. I need to get the car on jack stands and spin the wheels and troubleshoot and find out where the issue is. I must say my car has up to this point been pretty reliable.

 

[diambo4life]

Def wasn't me. I got this car from a buddy who had owned it for almost 10 years....and thanks.

 

[diambo4life]

Got the car situated over the weekend; Things I did:
1. Removed the mechanical fuel pump.
2. Replaced the trans (axle) seal passenger side. No leaks so far but I drove it around the block this weekend, will go and recheck.
3. Replaced the passenger side hub. I was going to replace the driver side hub as well but Rockauto sent me a hub with studs that were of a different size (smaller) and I didn't have the proper drill bit size to drill the holes out and install my ARPs. So the old hub which was not too terrible, went back in.
4. Replaced the coil pack (I assumed this was the reason for the misfire, no start issues but replacing the coil pack resulted in the same issue.) I did more testing and concluded it was the spark plugs. They were just fouled. So I got a new set of stock heat range Champions and it fired right up after updating my NSP software. Actually seems to idle better than it did before.
5. Muffler was removed. I was going to install a longer muffler that I bought but the exhaust sits way too low already (almost an inch on inch and a half ground clearance) and I didn't think it would have fit. Just stay aware from 4" exhaust if your car is lowered on a 2G......
6. After I set the car down, I noticed the rear passenger side seemed to sit a little low so I raised it about 1/2" so it's even with the driver side. The car sits just a touch higher in the front but I don't want to lower it anymore because it will scrape the shit out of the front lip pulling into my inclined driveway. So, I might raise the rear another 1/2" so the car is completely level.
7. Bled all the brakes although my passenger side (rear) I couldn't get any brake fluid to come out. Not sure what is up with that? So, I need to investigate this .

I plan to get the car registered so it can get some street miles...and maybe hit the Cars and Coffee. I bet you some of these damn kids have not seen a 2G DSM in person . I also need to transfer the windows (manual) from stock doors onto this car as it currently has no glass in either doors.

 

[diambo4life]

Switched the car to RX7 FD wheels and street radials. I made the longest drive to the DMV and everything almost everything went ok. I had a coolant leak when one of my plugs/caps at the thermostat housing failed...but I easily fixed it since I wasn't too far from O'Reillys when it happened. Should be legal very soon then there will be more driving. Car is super loud but didn't draw any cop attention today. It has 225/50/16 tires currently but I will most likely get 245/50/16s. I also can confirm 0 leaks!!!!! I hate leaks!!!!! Should I do black on these wheels?

 

[19Eclipse90]

I’d vote black on the wheels. Looks good!

 

[MindBlowin03]

Personally, I would keep the wheels as is.

 

[diambo4life]

I have a couple of other friends who have suggested I go bronze on the wheels. I may have to put a poll up.....

 

[19Eclipse90]

I mean, given the third option of bronze, yes.

 

[diambo4life]

This weekend, I tackled the task of installing manual windows onto the carbon doors for my car. I picked up the doors with the manual stuff from Tony, previous owner. I didn't really know what I was doing on the first one and it took so long simply because I didn't know a good way to remove the the manual regulator, track and glass from the donor door. I was not too happy with my work here, but the second one took me less than half the time it took the first one and I did an excellent job on it. I intentionally did the passenger side first... Then, I spent hours trying to scrape off the old tint that would not budge. I would scrape off maybe 1/2 a square inch of area at a time. I am not even done but got maybe 80% of it off, on one window.

 

[diambo4life]

Then I cleaned the car after all my hard work to feel better about myself.... Next, is to do something about my loud exhaust. I also have a duck bill spoiler in my garage for this car. What do you guys feel about this? Keep the wingless look or add the spoiler? I am torn.

 

[Ludachris]

Then I cleaned the car after all my hard work to feel better about myself.... Next, is to do something about my loud exhaust. I also have a duck bill spoiler in my garage for this car. What do you guys feel about this? Keep the wingless look or add the spoiler? I am torn.

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Looks great. Blacked out tail lights?

 

[CrackedDSM]

My vote is for the duckbill. A spoiler-less 2G just looks...weird. But man those CF parts are trick.

 

[MindBlowin03]

I vote for duckbill as well.

 

[19Eclipse90]

Thirded for duck bill.

 

[diambo4life]

Looks great. Blacked out tail lights?

Hmm...maybe, but a very very light tint to it if I do.

Seems like everyone says yes to the duck bill spoiler. Looks like I will add that to my weekend 'to do' list.

 

[diambo4life]

My vote is for the duckbill. A spoiler-less 2G just looks...weird. But man those CF parts are trick.

I thought the CF was overrated until I picked up one of these stock 2G doors. My. God. Easily >50lb each....and these are manual track doors. Extremely heavy. I will weigh this car in April. I am very curious what it will weigh in its current shape.

 

[DreamChaser7]

I thought the CF was overrated until I picked up one of these stock 2G doors. My. God. Easily >50lb each....and these are manual track doors. Extremely heavy. I will weigh this car in April. I am very curious what it will weigh in its current shape.

I almost died carrying my 1G doors upstairs by myself. I carry drywall for a living, well not as much anymore, and those things gave me hell!