Hi everyone, the names Caleb. I recently bought a '97 eclipse gs auto tranny and was really lookin forward to givin the car some life. Always loved imports as i've grown up, and now that I have one I'm kind of clueless about what to do. I have absolutely no experience with cars whatsoever, and as far as I know, my car is completely stock. i figure this dsm community would be nice enough to help me out =].

Hey man, Welcome. What's your plans for the car? Got any pics of it?

Welcome to you.

So just what are your intentions with my daugh...er with your car ;-) ?

Originally posted by fasterimage
Hey man, Welcome. What's your plans for the car? Got any pics of it?

All I have currently planned for my wifey... err DSM =] is doing some basic tuning and then eventually working my way up to tuning its performance completely.
As far as pictures go, i'll post some in a little bit.
thanks for a welcome =]

Eh, can't really call it an import as it was built in the US and is powered by a Chrysler engine. Anyway, welcome to the club! Keep it stock body imo.

Originally posted by daes_venge
Eh, can't really call it an import as it was built in the US and is powered by a Chrysler engine. Anyway, welcome to the club! Keep it stock body imo.

Yea you're right, but how many people actually know that? haha. For the most part i'll probably keep the body stock.

Anyone got any tips on what I should first do on my car?

^maintenance. Any slight problem can be increased exponentially upon adding more power

Originally posted by cs82685
^maintenance.

Bingo, we have a weiner :thumbsup

Gonna test you now; When was the last time your timing belt was done?

Originally posted by bullettdsm

Originally posted by cs82685 ^maintenance.

Bingo, we have a weiner :thumbsup Gonna test you now; When was the last time your timing belt was done?

Good question, I honestly don't know. Judging by how much love my car didn't recieve from the previous owner, I'd better get right on it hah.

Originally posted by cz-ajalander
I'd better get right on it hah.

We got another bingo :cheers

Yup, if you don't already know, we have interference motors. If that belt slips, 95% chance (alright I made that percentage up. but it's gotta be close to that) you will have bent valves and possibly broken pistons. The maintenance recomendation is every 60k.

Every 60,000 miles it's due for the death belt.
Welcome to the forum, this place will definitely help you in understanding your 2GNT, all you have to do is search through and read the old threads before you think about posting. We can guarantee 99%(another made up percentage, but close) all your questions and problems have already been asked.

Welcome to the site man. These guys here all hit it on the head...#1 priority is maintenance. By the way, I came to this site not knowing a bit about my car except how to do an oil change. Now, 6 months later through alot of my annoying newbish questions and countless hours searching, I know a little bit. Just not as much as even a fraction of the guys here. They are all very knowledgeable and know their shit. Listen to them, they'll steer you in the right direction. Just don't make the same mistake I did...(umm, badmouth a mod :nono :shrug :dark...still paying for it) and you will be good. But by the way you introduced yourself, I'm pretty sure that isn't gonna be a problem. Welcome again man, you'll like it here.

Haha, yea thanks for all the warm welcome guys. I'm still searchin through the forums and learnin my stuff, still can't say i know enough yet haha.
oh and as far as the timing belt goes, it all checks out =]

Originally posted by cz-ajalander
I'm still searchin through the forums and learnin my stuff, still can't say i know enough yet haha.

Neither can 90% of the members (alright I made that percentage up. but it's gotta be close to that)

Oh yeah, welcome! :cheers

So i just happened to go into my trunk earlier to move the spare tire and the jack thats there with it. What I came to find with the tire and jack was a small pool of water and a really big bowl of rust. anyone know how i can clean this mess up? oh and the lil cardboard covering is broken in half also.

And so after all this mess is cleaned up, what did you guys do to fill that space? Those of you that removed the spare tire that is.

Left it empty to compensate for the heavy-ass sub box on top of it.

oh yea? i got a sub box sittin on top of all that nasty ass junk haha. i juss wanna remove some of that rusted dead weight i got in my trunk

I'm looking to either buy a short ram intake system or a cai. what i want to know is which is better for our cars and what brand would be ideal.
From what i've read and learned, a short ram intake system can prevent hydrolocking whereas a a cai without a air bypass valve cannot. I live in washington, so rain comes pretty often, and half the time alot of it.

Although this info be mentioned somewhere in the forums, almost every post has at least someone with a cai or ram intake system mentioned in their sig at least. Thats alot of posts to flip through =]

The general consensus here (I think) is that your best option is to buy a generic short ram off of e-bay, and put a K&N on it. This is what I did, and quite a few other members too.

yea i looked those up yesterday and they're pretty damn cheap as opposed to the 200$ AEM ones haha. thanx for the info

I have an ebay cai and have never had a problem in any rain conditions. You just have to be easy on the throttle. I like the response from my cai vs when I had a short ram. Just my 2 cents.

Originally posted by cz-ajalander
yea i looked those up yesterday and they're pretty damn cheap as opposed to the 200$ AEM ones haha. thanx for the info

Yeah, IIRC, I spent a total of $18 shipped on the short ram. Might want to pick up a new TB to intake pipe coupler, too; The one that came with mine was thin rubber, i.e. a big POS.

Originally posted by Fallen4ng31

Originally posted by cz-ajalander yea i looked those up yesterday and they're pretty damn cheap as opposed to the 200$ AEM ones haha. thanx for the info

Yeah, IIRC, I spent a total of $18 shipped on the short ram. Might want to pick up a new TB to intake pipe coupler, too; The one that came with mine was thin rubber, i.e. a big POS.

he is right i picked a new one up from autozone for like 7$. i got my headers off ebay to 120$ for stainless compared to almost 400 for name brand stainless and a test pipe for 30 lol

Originally posted by cz-ajalander
Hi everyone, the names Caleb. I recently bought a '97 eclipse gs auto tranny and was really lookin forward to givin the car some life. Always loved imports as i've grown up, and now that I have one I'm kind of clueless about what to do. I have absolutely no experience with cars whatsoever, and as far as I know, my car is completely stock. i figure this dsm community would be nice enough to help me out =].

Welcome, there's tons for info. on here to put a ton of fun inot your car.

I own a 1997 Eclipse Gs atx also, pic of mine is my avatar :7

Advice when add an intake short or CAI. Make sure you cut your AIR box hose, near the throttle body Measure about 2 inches from the Throttle body. Don't worry it gives a tight fit, I've done this mine. I have a INJEN Rd CAI system w/ AEM bypass. Its really worth the price, mine polished later this I'm painting it in HIGH TEMP. paint.

I heard a funny qoute from this forum " You can't Polish turd " this must hint Not add chrome under the Hood. haha

Checkout the writeups and make of the search

l8tr

question: do you wanna be a terror on the road or just add a WOW to your engine?

Lets see some pictures of it! I recomend Wheels ( hold out for the nice ones) and some window tint, other than that start doing maintenance like everyone else says, have your trans inspected and serviced. Your an auto so it needs more TLC than a manual.

sorry i haven't been around the boards, been pretty occupied with school and etc. lately.

ill throw up some pix of my baby when the sun decides to come up, lol. washington isnt a nice place for cars to keep clean for longer than a week =/

So I finally got my ebay short ram intake for my 2gnt.
I just have a few questions though about the installation.

I removed the intake hose and the airbox first of course. I tried to put the pipe on the tb with a autozone coupler but it didnt fit, so i had to use that rubber PoS. To get it to fit inside the engine bay i had to put the pipe inside the coupler which stretched the coupler kinda in a ugly angle. Also, i had to remove one of the things to the battery barrier to get the pipe to fit. Any tips or suggestions or revisions? I'm almost afraid that the intake isnt gonna last long lol.

Can anyone tell me how they installed their short ram?

And also, do i need a coupler for the K&N? If so im thinkin a 3"-3" coupler maybe?