97 eclipse gst build..

i know this is a truck foum but since i wanna try to get some traffic in here ill allow it... haha

anyway.. this is a buddy of mines car who ive been wrenching on for about 2 years now.. its been through hell and back. its started its new life as a bone stock poorly maintained 97 turbo eclipse. shortly after he bought it i talked him into an aftermarket blow off valve and its been game on since then. he wanted more power so we turned up the boost and about a week later the bottom end blew... heres where the pics. start.

i didnt take any pulling it out but here is the end result.





no thats not me.. freind of mine that stopped by to "help out"... lol

once the motor was out we took what should have been a 4 hour road trip to upstate new york but it turned into a 10 hour trip there because we only had a google maps printout with no map.. anyways he had a motor special ordered with top end internals, balance shafts removed, ported heads, oil system mods, etc... its built to handle 30+ psi on the track and 25 psi daily driving.. i dont have any pics of it installed though..

about a month or so after i scored him a killer deal on a big 50 trim turbo but the stock side mount intercooler had to go in order to run it..






we also did a little paint work and cleaning while we had it apart..



a few days later i resprayed the front bumper cause it was chipped up from a run in with a raccoon..

about 9 months ago the big 50 trim turbo took a crap so he bought an ebay special big 16g turbo. basically the cheap version of a stock turbo that comes on the evo 8.. not much has been done to the motor because he has been collecting parts and working on the exterior..

forward to present.. just had a bath after we put on mud guards.. you might laugh but they are really hard to find.. they only came on a 99 tenth anniversary eclipse gs oz rally edition..




the other day the big brown van stopped by and dropped off a new used valve cover.. another hard to find item because it was shaved of all the lettering.. it was ugly and dirty when i got it.. you can see in the first pic all the steps and polished i had to use.



after about 5 hours of sanding and polishing this is what i ended up with.,..




it could use a good buffing with a high speed wheel but i didnt have one so it will do until i get one.

as you can see in this pic the green parts took a beating from all the heat that turbo puts out and grease and coolant leaks cause its a dsm..



still pretty clean inside the motor..

today i got an intake manifold from a hyndai elantra. its got the same motor as this car but none turbo. the intake runners are shorter and the plenum chamber is also larger. once i pull the stock one ill have a comparison shot but here is what i spent a better part of the day atempting to shave and polish this as well.. if the polishing doesnt work its gonna get painted so here it is.








it was getting dark and the temp dropped so i called it a night.. notice how one side the ribs are gone and the casting marks are gone.. ill have better pics in the morning..

Jeez joe you didn't post enough pics lol. Nice build so far, good work on the polishing. I drive Chevys, didn't know engine parts could shine like that hahaha

you know me and pics.. lol.. that aint even half of them.. everytime we do something "unique" i take enough pics to do a writeup on the dsm forums.. right now were just doing some apperance things because its quick and somewhat easy.. the weather is starting to warm up so all the parts that have been gathering will be starting to go on... we have..

evo3 modded 20g turbo.. basically i took a stock evo 3 td05 center cartridge and ported the exhaust side to match the manifold and dump pipe and on the compressor side i ordered the bigger compressor wheel and housing.. it will allow it to have a decent low rpm spool without running out of topend boost at 30 psi.. im only tuning it for 25 psi daily driving but im sure it will see 30+ psi track days.. lol

poly motor mounts
larger streetable cams that have a decent loppy chop to them
adjustable timing gears
new timing belt, water pump, tensioner, etc..
850cc injectors to support the cam swap and larger turbo
some guages for inside the car.. ive already put in a boost gage and wideband o2 sensor but i still have 3 more pockets to fill...they will be trans temp, oil pressure and probably exhuast temp..

there is more but im tired and going to bed..

Ok I don kno anything about imports, but DANG that sounds like its Gunna be a fast car

aiming for 400+ hp in a car that weights a little over 2500 pounds.. should run mid 10s once we get it all dialed in again.. i was almost done tuning it about a year or so ago with the big 50 trim turbo and suporting fuel and internal mods but we ending up not putting a small enough oil pressure restrictor for the turbo feed like so we blew out the seal and caused major shaft play and the compressor fins touched the compressor housing... luckely it was caught in time and i had put a screen filter inside the intercooler pipe where it comes out of the turbo so it caught all the bigger metal shavings.. would have been bye bye motor number 2... lol

also after we installed that nice shiney valve cover that took me 4-5 hours to polish by hand we relixed it had some hailine cracks that split even bigger when it went through a couple heat cycles... so now im starting from scratch on a new "unbreakable" hyndai 4g63 valve cover...

before....



started to shave the letters with a dremel and high speed cutter bit...


rotary sander with 160 grit paper to smooth out the last mm or so off the letters so i dont go to deep with the dremel...



and all the lettering gone.. keep in mind they stuck up ALOT.. probably a good 1/4 inch if not more..



also made progress on the intake.. its up in the air if we are gonna ingrave something on the block on the top on the intake... thinking maybe the mitsu logo and 4G63 in some nice graffiti font..


im not done yet... most of the numbs for the vacuum ports are gonna get shaved down and drilled out and tapped for some stainless barb fittings or AN fittings..

Just wondering, why go to all that trouble? Is it strictly cosmetic, or is there any kind of performance gain?

strickly cosmetic. the car is already fast. this weekend it got a muffler and cat delete 2.5 inch exhuast.

Done anymore since the beginning of last month?

little here and a little there.. new billet motor mounts.. they were upward of 400 bucks but by far the best part installed on the car to date.. lol.. you wouldnt think motor mounts would make that much of a difference but OMFG.. 25mph roll to full throttle and now the tires break loose and no more phantom engine knock that caused the ecu to pull timing cause it thought the motor was knocking.. really it was because of a BEAT motor mount..







also got a new front bumper off a 98 TALON tsi.. it bolts right on but we gotta cut the bumper up for the big front mount intercooler and get it painted.

and can anyone guess what i picked up?

its a 95 eclipse GST.. its got a newer jasper motor and trans in it but it need ALOT of work.. lol. turbo is beat in it and im having misfiring issues that im assumin is turbo or boost related..


finished smoothing out the valve cover..


dropped the battery and installed another catch can going from the pcv valve into the intake manifold..




whats missing in this pic... lol


had to take out the ebay 16g turbo and downgrade to a smaller 14b because the 16g started to smoke.. soon enough the precission 50 trim or 20g turbo will go back on the car with 1000cc injectors and a new tune..

How many hours do you have in that car? Any updates?

i have about 3 years worth of weekend warrior hours on this car. its amazing how far its come. right now the engine just got another dose of go fast but i think this is the last time for awhile. im still dialing it in but there was a dyno test and tune the other week and it put down 408hp at 18psi of boost. still shooting for 25psi daily driven but he wants to wait till spring to get that far. been working on cleaning the engine bay up alot. just got a set of brembo big brakes off an evo 9 but i need to get pads, rotors and an evo brake booster to make everything work together right.

during recent rebuild...




reason behind pulling it apart besides basic maintance.. wanted to figure out why it billowed white smoke after boost and we knew it wasnt turbo related. the valve guides on number 1 cylinder was destroyed beyond repair. sourced a new head that had some goodies in it already. we found a head that had recently been rebuilt with cams, oversized valves, better springs and retainers and a decent port job on it for 200 bucks.. kid didnt know what he had and i feel kinda bad for ripping him off but he should have done his research before parting out a car he didnt know anything about.. lol it was so fresh it still had assembly lube in it so i took it apart. inspected everything, replaced the valve seals and put it all back together.

all done and fired up.. she gave us a scare the first time we fired it up because i though when i had unplogged the cam angle sensor and cranked it over to build oil pressure the injectors werent firing but to my surprise it back fired like a mother fudger from all the raw fuel in the exhuast.