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McGruffs 1997 GSX |
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I purchased my eclipse in October of 2002 with 74,000 miles on it. The eclipse was in pretty good shape when I picked it up. There where a couple minor things but nothing major. I had been trying to find a stock GSX for almost 3 months prior to the pickup. These cars 97+ were hard to find at the time. I had already had plans for the car. It was going to be my 11 sec daily driver beast...at least that was what I was hoping for, let the fun begin. The first mod done to the car was all of the basic maintenance. All new fluids, I cleaned the intercooler out with gas and did all the free mods. You could tell already that this car wanted more. I decided to get a couple base runs with the car to see how it was performing stock. First time launching a AWD car can be a very weird learning experience. This is when the first problem rose up and bit me. Needless to say I fried the stock clutch in about 4 drag passes. I should of taken that sign as a early warning that this car was going to be a bitch. Well, if anyone knows how hard it is to drive on a slipping clutch, then they can sympathize with me. I drove the car like that for about a month and then the 2nd problem decided to come out of the blue. I knew before I had purchased the car, that it had all ready had one head gasket replacement. Well evidently when the head gasket went it naturally overheated the car. Well I think the strain of that just took its toll on the water pump. The damn thing blew with me and my mom in the car going to Wal-mart. I come out and there is puddle of water under my car. I had to stop 3 times on the way home to get water to fill it up. I was pissed. Not only did I have to replace a clutch, but a water pump. I took it as a learning experience though and just sucked it up. Damn, I knew DSM's were a bitch, but all ready? Did I mention that this was all happening within the first 2 months of having the car? I guess the DSM gods were showing there might. Well after doing a water pump install, which basically you are doing a timing belt remove and install, and a new clutch install, which removing the transmission is still is my least favorite thing to do on the car, I was 2 steps smarter and ready to go. NOT! I got in to start the car and it seems to be running just fine. I get it out on the road and the damn thing starts to shake violently above 4k. Bewilder at why it is doing it, I make very good friends with v-faq and dsmtuners. I finally figure out that I had screwed up the timing belt install. I forgot to line up the oil pump gear and had the horrible misaligned balance shaft problem. So I had to redo the timing belt. Well 4 times later, I can do a T-Belt install with my eyes closed. Sigh, I then purchased all of the intake and exhaust side at once. New intake, UICP, BOV, and full RNR turbo back exhaust. I also purchased a manual boost controller at the time and turned the boost up to 15psi. Now you could really start to feel the ponies come into place, this thing was freaking fast to me at the time and I couldn't get enough of it. I took it to the track and that's when the 3rd problem rose up and said Hey. I had massive wheel hop. Every time I would let the clutch out at around 5000 rpms it would just shake the car to death. This is when I broke my first center diff, yes I said first. Doing a center diff install for the first time was fun as hell, you learn a hell of a lot about the tranny while you are in there. Some helpful advice for those who do a center diff, don't lose the little ball that goes on your output shaft. I swear the engineers at Mitsubishi should of been shot on that one. There is a little ball that goes on your output shaft that does nothing, well at least looks like it does nothing, yet you need the damn thing to reinstall. After that was all done I was praying that I would be okay for at least a month. The first 5 months of having my car 3 of them where spent in the garage fixing stuff. There were so many little things that went wrong it wasn't even funny. To this day the stupid things are still haunting me, broken sun roof, drivers side door wont close sometimes cause of window, passenger window wont sit right in the door frame. I guess the little things I can deal with, its the big things that beat the shit out of me. Well after all of this was said and done I figured I guess my car is just about done with all of its problems. NO! Yet again, the DSM gods were hating on me. Coming from Denny's in Anderson, my car just so happened to drop its lower control arm on the right side. I almost shit a brick on that one. There is nothing like the sound of grinding metal and plastic on your car. The whole wheel moved back about 3 inches. Thank god I was only going 35mph at the time, about 20mins prior to Denny's I had been on the interstate coming back from the track in Commerce, GA traveling at speeds above 80mph. I also thank god my friends where behind me. They helped me move my car off the road and down into a Cadillac and Chevy dealership. I called AAA to get a tow truck. I made sure I asked for a flat bed the first time and repeated myself a couple of times just to make sure they understood I needed a flat bed. Well as we waited for the tow truck we were entertained by the ricers that were street racing on the road in front of the dealership. The people in Anderson are funny as hell. The cops in Anderson are also freaking dumb, as we sit and wait, we are surrounded by 20 thousand dollar Z28's and 40 thousand dollar Escalades. All the time cops driving past us watching us just sitting in front, one even waved at me. Finally one stopped and asked what we were doing, we explained and without any thought he just said okay, and drove off. We sat outside from about 12 to 3 in the morning, to this day I still appreciate Tony, Dustin, and a couple others that sat with me that night. Thank god the flat bed arrived and took me home. I got back around 4:30am. The first and hopefully the last time my car will ever get a flat bed ride. Come to find out the plastic seal that is kind of like a cotter pin failed causing my nut to back out and just fall off, figures just my luck. Well a couple months had gone by and all is looking good. Gone through 1 slave cylinder and 1 master clutch cylinder, haha damn DSM's. Still looking good, Until I find out that my T25 is now on its last legs....All of the sudden it just started blowing smoke. I mean a lot of it, every time I got under boost it was like a fogger out the back. Well crap, this really isn't a bad thing, I guess I can get a bigger turbo now. Well I wasn't really expecting this problem so I didn't really have the money, I decided to just put a 1g 14b in there. I did some mild porting on it and put everything back together. The difference between the 2 turbo's is amazing. 14b is one hell of a turbo. With that out of the way I decided to go to the track and see what she can do. By this time I had got my launching down to a science and had no more wheel hop, after replacing all the motor mounts with inserts, I just had wheel spin. Turned some respectable times. Not long after the turbo install as the DSM gods have shown their fury before, they show it again. My clutch lets go. A CM 3500 blown in under 6 months. I couldn't believe it. That was my fault for not going ACT in the first place. I finally went out and got a 2600 and did yet another clutch install. fun fun. Well with the 2600 in, its track time!! Let go for a 12 with the 14b. First run of the night was okay but I knew I could do better, for some reason though this new clutch had brung back my wheel hop problem (O Shit). 13 flat for that run and a 12 was in sight. I go to stage at the tree and I hear it. The transmission binded and broke free. If anyone has ever had a center diff go they know what I am talking about. I knew that I had gone through 2 center diffs now. I decided to stage anyway and just launch like normal. Well the car was stuck in RWD mode, I smoked the tires about 1/4 the way down the track. Its pretty cool to see a GSX do a RWD burnout. O well time to do another center diff. Well while I was in RWD mode I decide to let some of my other DSM buddies witness some burnouts. It didn't work out to good and I think I caused a hell of a lot more bad then good. On the way home about 10 mins I hear a horrible Cluck and it was followed by a whine, it was definitely transmission related. I could still shift into my gears so I got it home as quickly as possible. Come to find out that one of the teeth had got out of the casing and punctured a small hole in the tranny. So not only do I have to do a center diff but patch the hole. Ahhh gota love JB weld...haha it freaking works, doesn't drop a drip. There have been other bizarre things happen with my car that don't directly relate to mechanical stuff. Like for instants. 4th of July rolls around and its firework time. Well the 5th I had planned to go up to Chattanooga, Tennessee to visit a good friend Paul, so I was taking it easy. As we sat around enjoying our fireworks the bottle that held our bottle rockets, tipped over with a lit one in it. It shot right at my car and set off the car alarm. I was freaking out. I took a flash light and was looking for a big dent or something. Nothing showed up an I just blew it off, the whole time thinking, thank god for some good luck. I wake up in the morning to a flat rear tire, the bottle rocket punctured my sidewall. I was in a hurry to leave to Tennessee so was thinking of quick fixes. I first tried fix a flat. That didn't work. I was running out of options so I tried JB weld, it worked on so many other things maybe it would work on my tire. Fill it up and its holding air. I start going down the road and it starts to feel like I have a flat. Sure enough the JB weld came off and I was stuck on a doughnut. I was so mad that I drove 4 hours up to Tenn. and 4 hours back with a doughnut. Well this is where I am at now. I finally ran that 12 just before the track season ended with the 14b. I am super happy. This was all done on a stock engine that has under service limit compressions, still running the stock side mount, stock injectors, and with full weight. I am a firm believer in tuning, its what it is all about. The car as it sits now still has its problems, but nothing keeping me from driving it everyday. Let me also say that a lot of my problems were my fault, learning through trial and error and some of the fixes may not be the best in the world. I in under no circumstance would try to Jigga Rig anything, but at the time frustration can get in the way. I have done a lot of stupid stuff with my car but have always had the right intentions for it. I will keep this updated as the story progress's UPDATE: 4/15/04 Well I just got back from Greer Drag way. Its been a very eventful night I just ran my best of 8.205 @ 84 with a 1.688 60fter. Very nice. Still the same stock 14b, stock injectors, and stock intercooler. The cars progress has gotten better, as in it doesn't break down as much anymore. It still has its problems though. I just got done removing and reinstalling my transmission again. This would be the 4th time in a year that's its been removed. This time I broke my clutch release fork in half. I think that was related to missing a couple 3rd to 4th shifts, because of clutch problems, and caused me to go over 10,000rpms a couple times. I replaced it with a stock Mitsubishi one and boy does the car shift now. It just falls into gear now. Overall the car has been having its ups and downs but is running pretty good. I still have a problem with my windows, and this new problem of it breaking up above 17psi. I think its ignition, but time will tell. I will keep you updated on the progress as the car gets put through its steps. Lets do a small (hahah) run down of the parts list that I have gone through with my car. 2 Clutch 2 Center Diffs 1 Water Pump 1 Master Clutch Cylinder 1 Slave Cylinder Lower A Arm Falling off I have punctured all 4 of my tires and actually had a bottle rocket go through one of them Punctured Transmission 2 Thermostats 1 Blown Turbo 1 motor mount ( Wheel Hop) 2 Exhaust Temp Probs Every Power window in my car still has a problem. 1 Clutch Release Fork 2 CV Boots 1 Turbo waste gate actuator The list will keep getting bigger as I am sure I am leaving some stuff out. Paul( Boost Junkie on SE board) and Tony ( Driven on SE Board) have seen and been with about 90% of my problems and can contest to the on going problems with my car. I still love it tho! Its just a plan old DSM!
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