Hey guys.

I would like to bounce some problems off you, and see if you know any possible solutions.

First off, i dont have the car with me, I am out to sea and its well, a long way away. It will be a couple months before i can try out anything you suggest.

The car:
98 Eclipse GS
I bought it for 300 from a shipmate, it had a blown timing belt, 150k on the entire car. I opted to make a project out of it, so i replaced the engine with a remanufactured engine from advance autoparts.

A friend and myself did it in his backyard, so some problems might come from that.

Along with the install of the engine, i replaced the entire exhaust system, straight through, test pipe. Cold air intake, new clutch, new drive shafts, egr is blocked off.

The problems:
1. i am losing gear oil out of the tranny. We attribute that to not replacing the axle seals, I have some on order, I imagine that will fix this issue (I tell you this because it might deal with some of the other problems)

2. The idle is good after it is good and warm, but for the first 20 minutes atleast, it wants to die, it chokes pretty good, but it has never actually died. I have tested this theroy extensively.

3. 3rd and 5th are popping out some time, i think 1st might have been to. this happens when the gas is engaged spiratically. strangely it is really common to doing this with the cruise control on. The car didnt pop out before the install. (when it was running)

4. engine is rocking alot. I have ordered stiffer inserts for the rear mount as i was told by a mechanic that could be the root cause of the gears popping out.

5. This is an odd one. The car is hard to start, but not randomly hard to start. It takes like 7 cranks EVERY time.

6. It is getting a cam shaft position sensor error. I have replaced the sensor twice, and it didnt fix it. i think it was signal not present. All the wiring is hooked up, and i do not believe it was doing this before the install.

7. clutch is losing pressure over the period of a few days.

8. Rattling coming from the tranny. We believe it is the throwout bearing. It diminishes greatly with the clutch in, but its hard to keep any real pressure on the clutch system. The clutch didnt losing pressure before the install.

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I think thats it. I know it seems like alot, but i think alot of the problems are related to eachother. If you have any ideas on what coudl be causing some of the problems, please post them, in a couple of months i will take a look, i just wanted to get some ideas incase i need to order some parts.

After these issues are corrected, I am going to turbo it at low boost.

thanks for the help guys.

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!

thank you, i will definetely check those points. anxious to get back stateside so i can get to work on this, get these relatively minor issues straight so i can boost it!

All the rocking of the motor could be due to your timing beingoff. Mine did the same thing when i was off a tooth or two. This could also be why your getting the code
As far as loosing clutch preasure check and make sure all your conections are tight.
The noise is most likely your tob, mine does the same damb thing and ive had 3 differant ones and two differant trans's. Hell they all probably make noise at some point. Mine actually goes away after warm up and doesnt do it at all in the warmer spring and fall and summer
If your leaking gear oil from where the axle goes in then you are correct about needing new seals

Hope some of this helps

Boosted 420a - Bring on the 4g63's

the timing was set at the factory when they remanufactured the engine, its brand new from advance auto. so I don't think its that, but i will keep it in mind if it if all else fails.

I didnt know that they came with the timming belt on from the factory, but like you said, dont rule it out cause anything is possible

Boosted 420a - Bring on the 4g63's

8. Rattling coming from the tranny. We believe it is the throwout bearing. It diminishes greatly with the clutch in, but its hard to keep any real pressure on the clutch system.

Pull the trans or engine, i will bet flywheel is loose and if that is the case change out the TB and use lock tight on flywheel bolts, just had this same issue on a motor swap as well

hope this helps

________________________________________________________________________________
2002 Audi A4 Quattro (thats my daily)

2003 Honda Element (thats the wifes)

1996 Eclipse GS - AEM Cam Gears, Crane Cams #10,Ported & Polished Head bore .20, Greddy Header 4-1, HKS Exhaust 2.5,Random free flow cat,
B&M Short Shifter, AEM CAI, Bored TB .55 Mil, MSD coil pack, compression on new motor Cyl#1=215,Cyl#2=210,Cyl#3=210,Cyl#4=215

Alright, just about home now bros.

It dawned on me what is wrong with my not cranking quickly, and the cam shaft position sensor problem. i never changed over my cam shaft magnet. I have one waiting for me on shore right now.


A few things i have bought while deployed that i will be replacing when i get back. Any suggestions based on what problems i have (above) that i could also possibly need?

I have bought...
Transmission seals
Throw out bearing (this is for a GST, i am hoping interchangable?)
Clutch master cyl
Clutch slave valve
clutch line
shifter bushings
clutch tube
Rear motor mount prothane insert
cam shaft magnet
Going to window weld the other mounts later on


also looking at the under hood shift cable bushings, but i cant find them on ebay for a GS, only for the 4g63. any idea where i can get some good stiff ones?

front mount insert looks right. the others would require "gutting" out the rubber portion of the mounts. hard to tell.

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!

any idea about if the throwout bearing is the same on the 4g63 and the 420a trannys? I am 90% sure they are as they look identical if memory serves me.

about the motor mounts, i have bought the rear one, and i think the for the front ones i am going to just use window weld. my target hp is around 200 til i buy another block and rebuild, so i am not overly concerned with stiffness so long as i can keep the engine more still.

nope, completely different. will not work

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!

hmm, actually i just double checked that, and you are absolutely right, the throw out bearing doesnt fit the my tranny. if anyone is in need of a centerforce throw out bearing, let me know.

either way, i will just pick up another one from a parts store i guess.

4G63 is completely round. 420a is square with stupid tabs that break.

420A


4G63

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!

thanks yeah, i saw that. how stupid.

Alright, I FINALLY returned from the gulf, arrived at a shipmates house to find a huge pile of parts and a whole other eclipse waiting for me. Such is the makings for many hours of beer and tools.

Here is the fixes for the problems that I gave you guys. Your input was Very much appreciated and the items you said to check were checked.

1. Loosing gear oil out of the manual tranny (420a)...
The seals around the new drive shafts were never replaced. It took a couple hours to get the car up, get the shafts off, and then holy shit are those damn seals a pain to get off. We almost pulled the tranny. We tapped the new ones back in using an old timing pulley.

2. Tries to die out randomly at idle.
The issue may still be there, but appears to be corrected at this point following the cam shaft magnet (below) (issue will definietely be gone with megasquirt anyways)

3. Forward gears (1,3,5) are popping out.
When we pulled the old seals, the car has 0 tranny fluid in it. I mean none. we didnt drain anything out of it. Also stiffened up the shifter with some poly bushings to help me feel the transmission a little better. I examined the shift linkages, they looked great, very secure. I saw no obstructions or abnormalities in the shifting system anywhere. However, with the replacement of gear oil in the tranny, I was unable to make it pop out of gear for a good 30 minutes of trying on the way back to the ship.

4. Engine is rocking alot.
I have not yet replaced the motor mount inserts with window weld/poly in the rear yet. I assume this will take the play out of the engine.

5. Car is hard to start, but not randomly, it takes like exactly seven "turn-overs"
We installed the cam shaft position MAGNET and the issue went away. So if anyone asks "I get the code for no signal from the cam shaft position sensor" make sure they have the magnet in there, no magnet=no signal

6. Clutch losing pressure.
I didnt want to mess with this part of the list of crap, so i bought every part i could find to replace on the clutch system. I installed a new master cyl, slave cyl, and a stainless steel line that is rediculously long, and runs all the way down to the slave cyl without any need for any other tubes/brackets/lines. I actually like it this way, but the damn ss line is about 3 feet too long. I ended up running it all the way across the top of the engine, then straight down, and up the middle support brace thingy. (Yes, thats its technical name ) Clutch is holding good pressure now, time will tell, but there isnt anywhere left it can leak. It actually was a pretty damn nice mod to your clutch system. You have like 3 totally unneeded connections that can cause leaks there for no reason at all.

7. Rattling coming from tranny.
Not fixed yet, but much much quiter with clutch pressure, and trannly fluid. It goes away now after about five minutes. I in the next year or so will be putting a built block into my car so i can push 300whp, when i do, i will have to upgrade clutches anyways so i will handle it then. (Everything about the problem points to the tob. and its harmless)

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Well thats it, thanks again for all your help, the major problems resolved, I am going to finish installing my cf hood/cf front bumper, and prepare to install the fuel system/megasquirt. After thats 100% up and running (Hopefully a weekend install with some careful planning) I will drive on that for a week or so, get the kinks worked out, and then boost it. I am going for probably 6-7 psi at the throttle body, maybe if i am feeling cocky push it to 10psi on the occasion. I need this engine to last me for a year or so before I put in the built engine, then i want to tune it to put down 300. After that, I will be happy with the car i think.

thanks again, 2gnt is by far the most complete site for eclipse fanatics there is. What i would LOVE is if the admins would make available a cd with the entire forum history browsable. I would easily pay 20 bucks or whatever to have such a great reference available on my laptop out at the car.

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!

There is no doubt in my mind the rattling is coming from the throw out bearing. i think i might have broke a tab on the install.

I doubt it, I ran for ~10k miles with a known broken tab and it didn't rattle. It did have a funny clicky feeling at low speeds through the clutch pedal but it never rattled.

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!

Yes, but this rattle only happens when the clutch is out, once its pushed in it stops. I have read elsewhere on the site that others have had the exact same issue with a defective tob.