My DSM's past, present and future builds!!

Early 2005: Well it all started when I was 16. I got my very fist almost DSM . It was a N/A 95 grey Eagle Talon 5 speed with manual windows, no moon roof, cloth seats and missing the headliner. I paid $2000 for it and I didn't even know how to drive a stick. I didn't have the car long so I have no pictures of it.

Late 2005: Me still being very young and not even apart of this site yet, I traded my grey Talon to a friend of mine for his 97 Eclipse GS. I was stoked about this car. It was white, had power everything, moon roof, alarm installed, lowered on some cheap coilovers, headers, exhaust, AEM V2 intake and an immobilizer chip. This car had the clearest headlights I have ever seen even to date on a DSM. I drove this car for a while until it would constantly pop out of third gear and eventually wouldn't stay in at all.

Late 2006: After some research and reading online I decided I wanted a turbo model. So I sell my 97 Eclipse GS to a friend of mine. After tons of searching I find a car lot that has a 1998 Eclipse GS-T on Craigslist. I get on the phone and after some negotiation I'm getting the car for $2k. Now you may be thinking this was a good deal? Wrong! The car was very clean and had less than 100k miles on it but the motor was blown. My cousin takes me to Cincinnati and we trailer the car back. Over the next several months my friend (the guy I got the white car from) and I proceed to try and rebuild the motor. The following pictures are during the process.

The day I got it:


A buddy who had no clue what he was doing convinced me we could remove the motor ourselves so we started taking stuff off.



After giving up on being able to do it myself, we take it out to Nicks house and I buy parts over a long period of time. Here is the culmination of them all. REMEMBER, this was when I really didn't know much about cars in general. Yes I bought most of my stuff off of EBay. The parts I bought were:
-ITM Timing componets & water pump.
-Topline oil pump.
-NPR pistons and rings
-ACL duraglide bearings
-ITM Headgasket.
-XTD Stage 3 pucked clutch kit.
-Some kind of gasket kit also.












Yeah, that motor lasted about 700 miles. I'm sure with the cheap parts it was destined to fail but not so prematurely. I actually bought a Big16g and started upgrading the car. I drove it around on 20lbs hitting fuel cut everytime not realizing what I was doing. I ended up spinning a bearing and blamed it on crankwalk. Ahhh to be young and dumb..........

Anyway here are some pictures of the things we did.
-Real big16g.
-SSAC FMIC
-1G Crushed BOV.
-Injen intake.
-Poly motor mounts.
-Skunk2 Cam gears.
Had a massive oil leak so the timing belt needed changed. I grabbed a GReddy kevlar. Hey I did some stuff right as I gained knowledge.










Here is a video that I am not so proud of. Driving around hitting fuel cut at 20lbs. I may as well just get it out there.


2008:
Anyway after I was knocking, by now I had gained enough knowledge to pull the motor on my own. So in my driveway, by myself that is exactly what I did.






Late 2008:
Since I read one or two pages online about crankwalk , oh I just knew I had it. I opted for a 6 bolt swap. I eventually found a full 1g donor car for about $300. Had a rebuilt motor in it the guy told me. The car actually ran and was in the process of a Talon conversion. The guy said it only needed brakes which it had none lol. So my cousin and I are off to Michigan. The car checks out, we drive it up on a trailer and are on our way.


By this time I have a decent grasp on the whole car thing. Honestly it was just from hanging out with my cousin, a few friends and a lot of reading on these forums. Thanks Dsmtalk.com!! Anyway, aside from cutting the axles on the donor car with a torch to get the motor out, I did the whole 6 bolt swap by myself with a print off of the Magnus write up. Here are the progress pictures.




Dropped it in alone with the poly mounts .




I got the car running and even added a B&M external oil cooler. I drove the car like this for a while and loved it aside from the pucked clutch and Fidanza 8lb flywheel. Now I was on a 14b and was careful not to over boost.

Early 2009:

I had forgot to mention above that I had actually introduced my uncle in California to the DSM scene. He calls me one day and says he bought one, a GSX at that. Yeah I was jealous but happy for him.

Anyway, fast forward, he put a lot of money into the car from blowing the head gasket to small upgrades and he wanted to sell it to me. Figured I would take care of her. Only catch is it was not running at the moment. Of coarse I jumped on this opportunity! He sold the car to me cheap and on payments! So I grab a plane ticket and fly out to California for a small vactation and to get the car running (turned out the car would not start because the starter ground was disconnected). I'm living it up here and have the car trailered back to Ohio where it is winter time and snowy. It goes into the garage until I get home.







I now own 2 perfectly running DSM's?! WOOT the tables have turned for the better!


First thing I did was get rid of the halo headlights.

Late 2009:
Ok so it started getting cold, I had moved to a place with a garage and I had decided to never ever ever ever drive my GSX which is a California car, in the salty, rust forming snow of Ohio. I had the GS-T and my DD car. I found a guy at work who wanted back into the DSM scene and I ended up selling him my GS-T. Here is the car the day I sold it, like 10 minutes before he came and drove her away. It was kind of a different feeling selling it. I had so much work and time into her.








If I get approved I will add more tomorrow. Later folks.