a friend of mine has a 1998 eclipse GS automatic, has 129,000 miles and he noticed the engine check light and decided it was due for a small tuneup..so he himself changed the timing belt and water pump. Now the car is riding sluggish and he doesnt know what it could be or how serious. he told me hed sell me the car a a decent price. what you guys think??? need answers or advice ASAP!!! before its too late to buy the car...
---The guy also said that his friend thinks they might have put dodge neon cams in the motor when they did headwork to replace the head gasket and shyt...i've never heard of this ever is this even possible??

 

sounds like its off of timing.

 

well that what im hoping cause i heard it can be the pistons or valves, and im not sure how much or how bad that'd be in fixing..cause im really thinking about bbuying the car today...

 

the neon cams dont seem out of the ordinary due to the fact that the motor is a cousin of the dodge neon 420a...i think mitsu420aT had neon cams on his...

 

yes i didd but i had to change the cam sensor and re wire the harness. i doubt that he did that. my cams were crane grinds out of an rt neon.

i would go with the timing belt skipped a tooth and or a bent drive pulley. if he used the same belt it could be stretched. that would cause a lobe though.

 

well im going to test drive the car real soon is there anything that i should look out for that my tell me if theres a serious issue as in mechanical..dont know much bout eclipses...for example is there anything that could tell me if its a piston or major like that or somehting simple as the belt itself or timiing

 

look out for surging power and what may feel like a strong miss.
also check to see if there is smoke coming from the exhaust.
make sure the cam angle sensor wires are reconnected and not damaged.
i may be wrong,but doesnt the 420a motor have a knock sensor on the side of the block closest to the firewall?or is that JUST the 4g63?
when i built my eclipse motor,i was a dumbass and accidentally broke the knock sensor.i didnt realize it until i got the bitch running again either.

 

Yes they do have a knock sensor. If you are under the car looking up the sensor is on the driver side by the firewall.

+1 on the timing. Skipping even 1 tooth would screw everything up.

 

yea unless hes a professional on those motors im pretty sure he not knoin did the timming off.420a timming is a bit tricky if its off by 1 tooth u can easily fix that with a wrench and a screwdriver.

 

iight thanks everyone for the advice so far. Chekcing the car tomorrow evening now. BUT if his friend who thinks it might have neon cams is right, wouldnt that result in lost power compared to using stock GS cams? and he said it drives nice on highway just shaky when idling and sluggish when driving. let youse know tomorrow. Hoping its just a timing thing.