(Click on picture to see more pictures of the car)
This is my 1995 Eclipse RS. It has been through many changes ever since I got it. This is my first car which I learned to drive and race in. My parents bought it at Capitol Mitsubishi for me in 1999 at about 60,000 miles. We had to settle for this cheaper model because we didn't have that much money. So I made it my goal to make this car better than the other eclipses I've had with the extra money we saved from getting this car. I can tell the previous owner used the car for freeway commuting because it had lotsa miles for just a 4 year old car. I learned how to work on cars and race with this car so it has lots of sentimental value to me. I'm going to prove to everyone that me and my car can drift, autox, highway battle, touge, and drag race better than anyone else. This car represents my theories on driving and car tuning. Every bit of tuning I've done on this car has been emphasized on functionality. Currently I am rebuilding the engine to give it new life again and so I can get it ready for the arrival of newer sports cars like the Neon SRT4 and the Evolution VIII =). So when you see a RS badge on an Eclipse on the road don't underestimate it, I wear my RS badge on the hatch of my car like a badge of honor.
Getting my car to pass smog has been a challenge, because I live in California they don't want you to do crap to your car. In 2003 I was activated as a US Army Reservist and sent to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom. During this time my sister sez she "Lost CONTROL" of the car and slammed it onto a concrete barrier or something. My parents didn't even send me pictures of the damage. Shows how much people care about my car. It was totalled but my parents bought it back and had it fixed. I told them I wanted a carbonfiber hood and a 97 bumper but they didn't listen. The shop did a pretty bad job in my opinion, the hood had a small gap from the fender and the head light kinda sticks out. Most of all the sub-frame was tweaked. All they did was fix the body and not the alignment. I don't know what shop does that. That's what you get when you have your parents who know nothing about cars fix your car. I've never wrecked the car once and then my sisters goes and messes it all up. Anyway I got back in March of 2005 and the car is still NA but its burning lots of oil for some reason. I spent 500 dollars getting the sub frame straightened and the car still pulls to the left a little for some reason. I just think that the shop that did the wheel alignment were rushing because the specs were within the green but no or really close to zero, they say its torquesteer but torque steer only happens on acceleration O_o. I thought maybe the valve guides were worn. Nothing much I could do about that or so I thought after 5k miles I had to take the head off once again because I had burnt a valve, well it was more like cracked a chunk off of it. Apparently after 105k miles and turbo the valves weren't in such good condition. I spent nearly 1000 dollars rebuilding the head, eventually something else will break so I just replaced everything valves, springs, rockers, guides, seals, and lifters. I got quite the scare when I started up the car after a month of working on it and it threw up coolant from the block. I thought I had installed the headgasket wrong, it was burning hella water out of the exhuast too. But after resetting the ecu and driving it, seemed fine. Unfortunately it still burns lots of oil I've ruled out the head because I just rebuilt everything and i get rocksteady -19in/hg vacuum so the head is fine. After two years I took the car to Drift Day Norcal 2 and it performed well, even in its NA hicomp form it still had enough power to do long drifts and even choki-dori. It drifted great at the gravelly Golden Gate Fields and the LSD helps pull the car through the corners. If I didn't countersteer too much I could do really long drifts, I even cleared the whole big sweeper freakin awesome. I bet if I had that turbo it would have been able to drift all of the course. I also learned heavy left foot braking, I've always used gradual left foot braking but I found that if I stab the brake pedal really hard it shifts the weight really fast then get on the throttle right after it'll swing out a lot. I guess that could be a braking drift but having two feet on the pedal at the same time and being able to simultaneously balance gas and brake makes it different. The car wouldn't pass smog at all still and after much driving it became a gross polluter. The car ran fantastic with the exception of the oil being burn.
In Spring of 2006 I got fed up with the oil burning and
decided to rebuild again. I came very close to buying a GST but I wanted
to give the RS another try to pass smog and run flawlessly. If it doesn't
perform the way I want it to after the next rebuild then I'm just going to sell
the car. I took the engine apart again and this time I was going to do it
the right way and get brand new pistons and have the block overbored. Upon
taking the engine apart I noticed it was caked with sooty oil deposits in all
the engine parts. Took a long time to clean it all out, the sensors were
all grimey that can't be good for smog. All was well until the nightmare
called Victory Automotive Machine got a hold of my shortblock. They
charged me 900 dollars to disassemble the engine, clean it, and install the
pistons. But the price isn't the bad part 900 dollars is actually the
going price for that kinda work in my area at least. I mentioned to the
shop that when the bedplate was put back on it needed to have anaerobic sealant
to seal the block with the bedplate. But what happens when i get the
engine back they used RTV silicone. So guess what all that labor I paid
them to at the least put the bedplate and oil pump on out the door because I had
to go disassemble it again and put new sealant and reassemble it. Then
GASP when I took it out they did NOT put the oil filter ORING that goes between
the block and bedplate I would have had a major leak there. I hunted that
ORing down and plopped it in. Sealed it back up and put the oil pump on,
yay back on track. I proceed to put the engine back in, took me about a
month before I turned the key and the RS fired up again. But uh oh what's
this!!! There was a pool of oil on the passenger side of my car.
There probably would have been a pool of oil on the driver's side too if it ran
long enough. I turned the engine off immediately before it could do any
damage and found out the car just threw up its entire contents of oil onto my
garage. I rush over to a local shopping center and grab as many of those
free car ads as I can and start soakin that crap up. New oil what a waste.
After some research on 2GNT a similar fiasco had occured with another member and
he found out that the machine shop forgot to put an oil plug in the block that
they had taken out. Apparently machine shops take these out so they can
clean out all the passages in the engine and well Victory Automotive Machine
failed to mention that they had taken it out and had not put one back in!
So guess what I gotta pull the engine. The reason for this is that the oil
plug is kinda hiding behind the rear timing belt cover and there a buncha other
stuff in front of it like the suspension. Another reason is that there is
another plug on the rear of the block and guess what's covering that? The
bellhousing! So it'd be easier to just pull it again. Its a new
record for HadesOmega 3 days on an engine pull during school no less. Got
some plugs from Winchester auto and bashed them in with a socket. Dropped
the engine back in and guess what no more leaks yay! Thanx to Victory
Automotive I had just done double the work and lost money. But then terror
strikes thrice I go to take the car for a spin around the block and guess what I
can get the damn car in gear! The shifter refuses to go in gear, it does
in the air but on the ground it just won't. So I bleed the clutch, no
luck, adjust the Master Cylinder rod, no luck. Some joker from 2GNT sold
me this Spec Stage 3 clutch and he said he was just breaking it in so its
practically new and iti worked when he took it off. Shoulda known it was
too good to be true. It did look pretty new though you can thank Spec for
making the shittiest performance clutch in the world one that doesn't disengage!
You get what you pay for actually I didn't get anything just a large heavy
paperweight garage ornament. Anyway I tried to get that tranny out without
pulling the engine and its near impossible at least for me. I did get it
separated in the engine bay but the engine was half way out already so I just
pulled the engine for the THIRD time! Thanx Awesome98 for your not
so awesome clutch and for just tripling my labor. I put my trusty LuK
clutch back in, took about a week to do that and finally things are looking
brighter. The car shifts no problems now, Awesome98 said the clutch was
fine but I've installed a clutch on this car like 4 times now you can't say that
I made an error installing it because I didn't. The car runs great for now
will have to wait till it breaks in and I get to boost the RS once again!
Its not that I'm pissed I had to take it out again, well yes I am but the fact
that I lost 300 bux on a paperweight that no1 will probably want is what pisses
me off. I bought garbage for 300 bux...
Specs
EMAIL:
AIM: HadesOmega
