I was gonna say get an engine leveler, but noticed you were already using one. If its your first time that's normal. I can usually pull it out and put it back in without touching anything. It's an art!

I do however have the pneumatic engine hoist which lets you keep one hand on the leveler to guide the motor/tranny out and one hand on the button. Let's you keep a good visual on things when pulling it out.

2g's are easier than 1g imho to do it in one piece, I got mine in my bay with the power steering pump mounted on the rear of the motor without a scratch by myself.

Shorter chains on the leveler helps a lot. I think mine are 4 links long.

Yeah I'm sure I would do better with a proper leveler. I just lift by the engine and use a come-along attached to the transmission to adjust the angle

The last motor i pulled had no tranny plus radiator support removed which is un-comparable to what i did this time.



Shorter chains is defiantly a good idea and would've help with engine not leaning forward as upper lift arm extends upward.



i had quite a bit of battle even with the leveler haha. At some point I gave up and removed harmonic balancer pulley to help with clearance a bit.

Yesterday i managed to take more things apart. One of the annoying issues i had with this motor was overheating. I was hoping to find answers after removing head from the block & inspecting the headgasket.



Here are details shots of my headgasket. I don't see any damages/cracks that stand out to me but i am no expert on this. Anyone with more experience please have a look and let me know what you think. Original 1996 block with 260k





Getting busy around workplace

I'd rather see it in person to confirm, but as far as I can tell, there were no problems with that head gasket (assuming the discoloration in the top and bottom right corners to be fluid on top of the gasket).

Thanks for confirmation Jeremy,
I will have this block inspected by machine shop to see if anything else comes up. Also, my balance shaft belt was chewed beyond recognition. I will post pic shortly.

Your balance shaft belt let go? And didn't take the timing belt?

Lucky guy

okokok..... I'm going to be that guy before you bring the block in for an inspection.
What is the condition of:
Coolant cap?
Thermostat?
Is there proper ducting from the intercooler to the rad?
Have you flushed the coolant system?
When it was all put together, was the system bled properly?
And lastly, what was the condition of the coolant when you drained it?

Lets get to the bottom of this, because I doubt you're overheating because of something going wrong in the block.

Lets not bring this back again it's too late for that.
She's getting full rebuild soon







On my previous T-Belt job the B-Belt was ripped also.
There might be a problem that causing it

So it appears my balance shaft is ceased which now explains why it broke the belt. I was pretty much set on deleting balance shaft on this block but then i came across this article at jackstransmissions.

What are your opinions on balance shafts? delete it or keep it

I found that article quite interesting when I ran across it a while ago. I believe there is a lot of truth in there. At the same time, you have to consider the information as it is relative to your situation.

Realistically, how many kilometers do you expect to rack up on that engine after the rebuild? 50,000? 100,000? People have regularly gone further on engines without balance shafts without crankshaft or bearing failure.

So then, how about the vibration? Well, the range that generally gets worse (from what I hear) is the 2-3000RPM range, and possibly beyond that a bit. That's right around where you'll sit at on the highway (with your Evo3 fifth in). I know you're the type of person who enjoys a quiet, vibration-free cabin. It may be worth it for you in that sense.

My personal take is.. if you have balance shafts, with proper maintenance, you can keep them without too much worry unless your engine regularly sees very high RPM. If you don't have balance shafts, don't worry about it (though my lack of balance shafts was partial motivation for a Fluidampr). Unfortunately you seem to be stuck between those scenarios.

Probably not as direct an answer as you were looking for, but maybe some food for thought.

Most will tell you there isn't too much of a variation in vibration with or without it. Deleting it also avoids the possibility of that belt breaking the timing belt.

Personally, I like keeping stock components. In the grand scheme of things however, if your engine it out anyway and this already happened to it, I'd take it out and avoid more issues later. You'd also save a little weight

I read that and also saw someone post a good point, that it could just be something Jack's wanted to use to deny warranty claims.

Isn't the BS delete not an OEM part?

That thing is spinning insanely fast when you're at redline, I don't trust them personally.

One guy on the ecmlink board pointed something out, that most/all of the people who had oil pump failures were using Kevlar t belts. Which I thought was interesting.

The correct part is the stub shaft from the 1.6L, which is an oem part. There are however non-oem stub shafts available, whick lack the oil groove.

Jacks isn't the only one who changed his mind on balance shafts, AMS, while a little different suggests using their "race" balance shaft on the oil pump.

Fluidampr crank pulley maybe a good alternative when not using BS plus without BS the timing belt job seems to be a lot easier to do. Once i determine the exact cause of my ceased BS i will go from there.



I usually don't believe when i read stuff like that. If you were the company owner would you approve this lie to go out in public? may save a few buck in short term but will kill your business in long term haha



Do you use balance shafts in your 6 bolt?

Hopefully not as often because projects like this take way too much of time. I do enjoy working on it but the older i get the less DSM time i have. It also needs access to garage which may not always be available. You are correct about my DSM liking. I hate rattling interior and filthy engine bays! I do have Evo 5th in stock which will be going in shortly.

I will keep you posted

Agreed, and with a bit of additional research, you can find supporting evidence for the majority of that article. I find most people who think they're just trying to dodge warranty claims are people for whom the article's content is a bit out of reach.

With a mildly modified engine and a 7500RPM redline, I think you're going to be fine either way. Mitsubishi trusted their balance shafts to do 7500RPM all day; I'm tempted to agree with them.

Finding the cause of the existing problem is an excellent first step.

Jacks claim is correct, I have personally experienced a smoother shifting transmission in cars with balance shafts. However with the clutch setups that are available now and being able to dial in that extra little bit of throw makes this negligible IMO.

Personally I would just remove it. I like the way the motor sounds and revs more freely without them. It is one less thing to worry about as yours has already seized. I would at least pull it out to see why it has seized. If the bearing has spun out, it could be losing oil pressure. If your gonna remove it make sure you block off the oil passage, or simply leave the shaft in there, but make sure you address the seized shaft first.

When I did my build I went back & forth between ditching the BS's or running the race BS. I ended up ditching them, just one less potential failure point. But I did swap to the straight cut oil pump gears, to prevent the loading issue with the helical gears.

If I was to build a Street DSM, personally I would want it to be as smooth as possible. I cant stand the vibrations, rattly interiors, poly mounts on the streets. Track that's all cool.

Today i managed to find the last items i needed to complete my black interior swap project. For a few years I've been looking for mint rear black leather seats off 2g or even better 3g.

Today i found what i was looking at my local junk yard. Here are some pics:

3G Eclipse GT




My rear seats setup before










Finally, direct swap:

Nice touch, definitely looks better. I prefer the way the seatbelts are now compared to the old massive hole

Looks awesome bud, well done!

I got very lucky when I found my car with an all black interior and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Good job Alex!

Thanks Bryan, good eye on that. Looks like i still need my belts to go black too.



Thanks Jeremy!



Thanks Mike, you defiantly lucky to have all black interior

I had no idea 3G rears were the same. Would you look at that...

Terry S is our 3G->2G guru master

3G steering wheel fits directly without mods too I've read...on here methinks.

Been there and done that. It needs to be modded if you want to keep you cruise control switch.

AH ha, I was right, right in this thread, haha

I know it's been a while but... the biggest update is coming to my DSM in 2015. Here is a list so far:

- EDM Tail Lights with carbon fiber center piece
- Rally Armor mud flaps
- Carbonetics front skirt
- EVO 8 Enkei wheels powder coated satin black with Decals (thanks Jason Drew )
- ABS delete
- Evo III Intake and 5th gear
- Brembo front rotors and calipers
- Fresh 4G63 engine rebuild using mostly OEM components
- E85 kit from ECM link

Here just a few pics that show some progress

EVO 8 Enkei Wheels and rotors with Brembo calipers and hankook RS3 rubber


EMD tails


2GA block. Not yet ready! ETA 2 weeks. Balance shaft delete, OEM pistons 0.020





ABS delete plus engine bay cleanup



and today, 3G booster:

Wow that black with those stickers looks beautiful!

No forged for you Alex?

Thanks Bryan, for now i just want to max-out stock components.
Looking towards 11's

Cool! Look forward to the updates!

That rim and brake setup is going to look SO badass! Looks like a fun list to work through; I'm excited to follow the progress

Which brakes are you running on the rear?

Thanks Jeremy!
Rear brakes has been Brembo EVO 8 since 2013...
Now is the time to use EVO 8 on the front ))

I will be postings progress once i have new pics... so excited

I was pretty sure I remembered you using those but wasn't sure. Nice to pair them up with the fronts Definitely a good idea to go to the 3G master and booster with that setup.

Very nice progress I know there's a few more nice updates coming soon

oh yeah! Saving desert for the end