Newb here. few questions.

Whatz good everyone. Im new to the site and have a few questions. I am currently looking at a 97 RS for sale. It has 164K+ on it and is in decent condition. It has a custom exhaust, CAI, front strut bar, neon underbody kit, and a recently replaced tranny. The guy only wants $800 for it only because he has seven other cars and he justs wants to get rid of it. My only problem with it is that it is an automatic. I have been doing a little research on eclipses and I heard that the ATX trannies are known for being really crappy. I guess I can trace this back to when I had a 93 Probe GT ATX. The tranny went out in 2 months after replacing it. I dont want to have a flashback with this car. Is there anything you can do for the tranny to prolong the life, like I guess, get a better oil cooler (same thing went out on my GT)?

i don't know a whole lot about ATX trani's but 800 seems very sketchy... that car even in "ok" condition is worth 2k...  i'd definatly do a lot of research on that car. carfacts, take it to a shop, check oil, coolant, test drive, keep eye on temp while driving, check for smoke etc etc... usually if a deal is too good to be true, it is.     i'm assuming you are looking for some kind of low powered good looking daily driver?   if you are looking for anything with any kind of potential for power, walk away from the deal, you won't get crap out of that engine.

Yea the 420a is... iffy.. at best

if you are loooking for power you'll have to invest about 4-5thousand just to get it running next to a stock EVO.  or you could buy a gs-t for the same price and have a motor that can take some boost.

you know i hear the stock gst's wont take over like 14 or 15 pounds of boost w/o doing some internal work or w/e...and thats the limit for the stock turbo anyway so i mean idk how true it is or not b/c i hear about ppl putting 16g turbos on gst's all the time and dont say a damn thing about internal work at all...

The internals can handle alot. Its the fuel system that needs to be upgraded. So the stock motor can handle up to about 15psi on the fuel system then you can boost it to about 18psi where the stock turbo really starts to be come inefficient. Then you can upgrade to a 16g where you can basically max that out on the stock internals around 350hp After that you really need to start the internal work 

gotcha lol see i got leaked a bit of bad info haha see i could have upgraded my fuel system on the gst and slapped a 16g turbo on it and been atleast a little bit more beasty...lol that sux

wel it's not exactly that easy lol to upgrade to a 16g youd need more than just fuel.   also need a tuning device, wideband, fmic, ic piping, and bov.   along w/ the fuel pump and injectors. 

i whould buy it, you can part it for more then that or just have a nice winter beater i dont know bout the miles i had a 96 gs an it just blew up outta no where at like 170k if you lookin to buy a 420a ill sell you my 95 esi auto for 2500 87k miles aem intake exhaust new coil pack