Rebuilding My 95 gst, any suggestions??

I have a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T, automatic. I am wanting to up the hp to about 300-350, change out the auto to a manual, and any other specs that could help. I've own the car for about 3yrs. and have gone through two motors and needing another tranny. After this motor went out, I decided to park her and wait to save up some money and fix her right this time, but have no clue on anything about mechanics... so any help with this project would be very helpful. Thnx...

It would be cheaper to sell the car and buy a GSX and get it to 350ish hp. Take my word for it. Is there any reason you want to hold onto this exact car?
 
The 5spd conversion will run you at least 5k. The engine swap about 1k if your lucky... and another 3k for the mods... and with those mods you are likely to have ZERO traction so its all pointless.

Yeah I plan on keeping the car. Its gonna cost about 3-4k to have the engine that I have to be rebuilt. I had a timing belt slip and my third piston slammed into the head. The motorshop says that the quote includes new heads, aftermarket cams, oversized piston, bored, cleaned, and put together...

That seems like a pretty high price. But maybe thats me. The conversion to manual IMO is not worth the cost when you could sell it and buy one that is already manual. Its just not justified. Id say stick with the auto tranny. If your looking for 300-350whp, its gonna take a couple good mods to get you there. First you are gonna need a good turbo. An EvoIII big 16g will get you there just fine. And then you need all the supporting mods. Here is kinda a quick list. Im sure ill miss something.
 
- Evo III big 16g
- Turbo Manifold
- Front Mount Intercooler w/ piping
- 550cc injectors
- 255 fuel pump
- Fuel Pressure regulator
- SAFCII, or DSM Link (tuning device)
- Downpipe (or full turboback exhuast)
- intake
- Manual Boost Controller
- Boost guage and Wideband O2 guage
 
All this on top of what your spending to get the engine fixed will end up costing somewhere in the 5k+ range. I wouldnt go with oversized pistons since you wont really need it with 300hp. Just stick with the stock engine. With a timing belt going, generally you dont need new internals. You just need new valves. So that quote is pretty high. I only paid 2k when my timing belt went, and that was at a dealership

That sounds nice, thnx for the info. The mechanic didnt think it need to be bored but we both agreed that it wouldnt hurt it since it could have bent when it slamed into the head. And if I could get it all done for round about 5k then im a happy camper... I was looking at about 10-15k for all things under the hood to be fixed or replaced...

Why would you want to spend that much money on a GST when you could get a highly modded GSX for less?

Not really caring much for a GSX. I have had plans for this car way before I even got it. Now that I have it, why not spend some money on it...

I really dont understand your logic at all.
 
You rather have a high powered GST than a high hp GSX?

Well from the looks of things, this car is payed for, no more bills, and been told that it is lighter then a GSX. Not sure, but im not gonna get rid of this car. If anything, I could do a convert and make it all wheel, but then that would just wiegh me down some, im not positive if it will... but I plan on just working on this one...

If you think that the weight of a FWD car outweighs the traction of an AWD car you have made a serious error in your calculation.
 
Lets think about this logically. 10-15k just to get everything fixed or replaced. Plus another 5k for the manual swap .. not including another 10k for an AWD swap.
 
So right there thats 15-20.... i just dont understand you at all.
 
What is the reason you want to hold onto this car so bad?
 
300hp GSX vs 300hp GST...  the GSX wins on the 1/4 mile and the circuit.

This car was the last thing my grandfather and I did together before I went to school out of state and he passed away when I was gone. He was helping me fix it and now I want to continue with it. A gsx and gst type cars are not that common down here and I pretty contempt to stick with this one. Im not sure about anything about cars, I was listening to a friend and he told me to think about if a gsx and gst with the same type engine and everything else were to race, that the gsx would have it on the take off but then the gst being lighter would have a faster speed. Like I said I dont know nothing about cars, hp, torque, etc... My info comes straight from others and that is all I know... If there was something wrong about the things he said, plz tell, any info would help me out, but I plan to work on this one. And I was thinking that everything under the hood wouldnt cost no more then 10k...

Aight man that makes a whole lot more sence. Thats all you had to say.
 
Well theoretically your friend is correct. However its vague. The GSX will take the GST on the line and gain about a car... and the GST will be about even at 100mph. Then when you start adding on the mods... that gap just gets bigger and bigger and the advantage of having AWD is more and more.
 
The auto to manual is possible but it is by no means an easy job. No offence but admitidly you know little on the subject and i think you may bite off a little more than you can chew if you decide to go at it alone. If you plan to pay someone to do it for you then that would be easier i guess... but not easier on your wallet and not the best peace of mind either. Some random wrench turner might not care what your bolts are torqued to. Not to mention if someone does not know what they are doing they might end up doing damage they cant repair.
 
The same applies with the AWD swap too.
 
Maybe leave the car as it is?
 

Well here in town we have a place called Macon Motorsports, that has a long rep on great quality motors. The owners sons went to school with my dad, and the quote wasnt finalized yet. I still havent been able to figure out what all im wanting to get out of the car. These people that work on the motors have done some really great work. Ive seen my cousins motor that he has ancored to the floor that is nice. So I think im fine with the block part. Now with the tranny, ive been able to price some used ones for about $800 that are gutted so I can put in aftermarket stuff (again not knowing what all ill need to do so) so im hoping that to have the Engine and Tranny both rebuilt would cost around 5-6k. Now the guy that told me that story about the two cars, he has had a couple talons and he is a real good friend of the family, (i just never knew he knows about cars) so he is gonna be there helping me out. Both my dad and my uncle are somewhat machanics, so hopefully im not going in on this alone. But im thinking that for what little racing I do on the streets, that a GST all moded up would do just fine in this little town...

Ok cool.
 
Good luck to you

bc it's sentimental i can see having the engine rebuilt for it but i don't see the point in converting this to manual.  it's a minimum of about 5k to do it.  also you mentiond trying to swap this to AWD... negative.   that's about a 8-11k swap.     you can buy used motors on ebay for about 7-900 and newly rebuilt ones for about 11-1300.  you could buy a rebuilt one and be good up to about 400whp on those stock internals.  the stock engine is more than capable of pushing 300whp so you are good to go there.

Well I wasnt thinking about making it an AWD. No need for it. And the tranny isnt gonna cost 5k to do, I hope. From what I know that im wanting to do is for sure that the tranny is getting changed, power is getting increased, and it is gonna be better then stock. Now the kicker is that I dont know what all I can or should do to get the car to the peak of what im wanting. I know for starters, that the motor needs rebuilt, head replaced, cams need changed, and tranny swapped. An air intake, but not sure what is the best, and innercooler, again not sure what is best, dont know if it makes any difference to have duel exhaust or not, turbo upgrade, but to what kind, etc.... So if you have any helpful hints on what I should, and shouldn't do, plz let me know, thnx...