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1982 Starion Build


ZacMan
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G'day All. Finally hit 50 posts, so I can share my car on here outside of the Newbie Section, score :).

 

I had a few Starions about 10 years ago, when i was much younger and stupider... I wrecked them basically. They all still ran when I sold them, but I certainly didn't do them any favours. I attended a 'Japanese Nostalgic Car' meeting recently here in Christchurch, New Zealand, and there was a good lineup of Starions... I got the hankering once again, and just had to have one. A week later, after checking out everything in the country that was for sale I pulled the trigger on a Black 1982 GSRIII Jap import.

 

We got both New Zealand New (locally delivered) and Japanese Import Starions here, with the imports being far more common. The NZ New models were european export spec, typically having the larger TC06 turbo, leather interior, LSD's and an intercooler. After 85, they were all 5 stud too. We only ever got the narrowbody versions too, no widebody goodness for us, save a very very few private imports knocking around. Also important to note is that all starion sold here were 2.0l, we never got the g54b either, just a g63b for us.

 

So back to my car. The guy that optioned it originally in Japan has my utmost gratitude, as its fitted with a factory 3.909 small housing LSD. That's pretty damn rare for a jap import, and immediately made the car worth more than I paid for it (I didnt know at the time of purchase). Also, being GSRIII spec, it has the digital dash (I hated these 10 years ago when I had one, I love them now), and the Velnas trip computer system.

 

Soooo, It's time for pics, right?

 

First night in the garage was spent on axle stands, due to the need to aquire some wheels that didnt make me want to scratch my eyeballs out. A friend had some that came on an old 280z he bought for parts, cue swapsies.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P1270530.jpg

Someone, at some stage, has put a few later model goodies on it, like the later front bar, and non-intercooled air-dam. That air-dam is actually a bit of a mystery, I've never seen one outside of the US, so I'm assuming it must have come from over there. Its also been treated to conquest badging and conquest tail-lights.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P1280534.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P1280533.jpg

 

The interior was a big selling point, as its very tidy and quite original. The stereo and boost gauge were the first things removed. Unfortunately the boost gauge was glued to the dash, and has left a nasty mark behind... I'll find another dash one day (when i find a complete black interior also ;) ).

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P1280538.jpg

 

The next couple of weeks were spent doing a myriad of little clean-up jobs to get it nice and reliable. I fixed a whole heap of really dodgy wiring. Took out the aftermarket headlight relay system, put it all back to factory, and it all worked flawlessly, score :).

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P2150221.jpg

 

The conquest tails it came with were quite stuffed. I've aquired another set from MotoCam360, and am im the middle of refurbing and tinting them. In the meantime I bough and refurb'd a set of early jap starion tails. I understand they're hard to find over there, but over here they're actually the most common. I've got another couple of sets I'm going to fix up and have a go at selling I think.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P2160225.jpg

 

Once the car was up and running, I brimmed the tank for the first time (EXPENSIVE!) and was puzzled to see the fuel gauge not even quiver... Hmmmmm Most disappointing, cue investigation.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P2160212.jpg

 

this was the culprit. It hadn't had a full tank for such a long time the sender had corroded, hah. I gave it a good clean up and got it working again. For s**** and giggles, I actually priced up a whole new sender from Mitsubishi, and its was only $160NZ (around $120USD), ex japan. Not to bad I didn't think.

 

Now I had the beasty gassed up, I couldn't stop driving it. It had a wee miss though, around 2500-3000 rpm, only under cruise. I figured it was probably something to do with the emissions system, so I took the plunge and ripped the whole ECI unit to bits. A very very very long time ago I wrote this: http://prozac.orconh...de/rebuild.html , and it turned out to still be online, score! I decided to see how full of s*** I was, and went and got all the o-rings listed without double checking, and too my surprise, everything fit, hah!

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3080240.jpg

 

All rebuilt, with all the emmissions guff removed. This gets you down to two vacuum lines only, one for the vac-advance on the distributor, and one for the MAP sensor. Once this was done, the car ran a heap better, smoother all round, the miss was gone, and its was even better on gas! Return to idle was much faster, and the idle itself rock solid. This is when the car became my daily, any excuse and I'm off driving it :).

 

The suspension was now proving to be a bit tired and clunky. It is some 30 years old, so I cant really complain. I priced up OEM replacement stuff, and it was more expensive the after-market adjustable stuff... So I bet you can guess which way I went :)

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P2260231.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P2260232.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P2270233.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3060235.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3080244.jpg

 

Whilst I had the front end apart, it became apparent that every single ball-joint under there was knackered... This meant waiting a few days for parts to arrive, but I did both lower ball-joints, all the tie-rod ends, and had the drag link rebuilt. The steering setup on these cars really bothers me, and I'll be changing it down the line, but for now, I may as well at least make it safe (if still vague and unresponsive).

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3080242.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3080241.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3210543.jpg

 

Ever get feeling that you just shouldnt have picked that scab? Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Poking around under the front I also noticed that the radiator had seen much better days. A quick measure up showed and S13 radiator from and SR20 powered model to be a good replacement size. A couple of tabs welded on, and a new lower support made, and it fits like a glove. I've since learned that this is a pretty common swap, but when I did the measurements myself, I couldn't believe I'd found something that fit so well!

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3210545.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3210546.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3210544.jpg

Edited by ZacMan
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We all know the way to make any car look awesome, is to make it low and fat. I can't make it as fat as a wide-body, but I'm going to have a damn good go. This means new wheels and rubber.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3290548.jpg

 

They're copies, of copies, of ray's te37v's. TBH, the quality was much better than I expected, and I'm more than happy to drive around on them. 15x9", with a 0 offset.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3290549.jpg

 

I did ofcourse have to modify the guards slightly to clear them, and run 225/50/15 tyres, Toyo T1R's, that I'm super happy with so far. Didn't do any pulling, just rolled the inner lip.

 

Couldn't resist a set of these either:

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3080237.jpg

 

This gets me to how the car is at the moment, I'm putting that adjustable suspension to good use.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/IMG_20120329_161014.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/IMG_20120329_161054.jpg

 

I'm quite stoked with how its come out so far, and that's pretty much the look I was going for first-off. There are many many (too many) mods in the works however, including the DOHC 4g63 sitting on the engine stand in my garage awaiting pistons and rods... Hmmmm, 300BHP, here I come ;-)

 

Cheers for reading all my dribble, I look forward to being a part of this forum in its entirety!

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VERY Nice work! Looks Great! I run Toyo's on my Quests. For the all season driver, the Proxes 4, then as you the T1R's on my summer car. I believe them to be the best tires available, just wish there were a better size range available? I run Nitto NT05's on another car, also a super summer traction tire. Very Nice Flatty, thanx for sharing. :)
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Cheers for all the comments guys, really helps keep the motivation level up for the continuing mods :)

 

D_Venable - Your dthstar project was also a majour inspiration for me towards owning one again, it was just so freaking cool :)

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Cheers for all the comments guys, really helps keep the motivation level up for the continuing mods :)

 

D_Venable - Your dthstar project was also a majour inspiration for me towards owning one again, it was just so freaking cool :)

 

Thanks man, that really does mean a lot to me. Right now that car is dead again, but I'll bring it back in a couple years :D

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That was an awesome find, love the interiors and the condition its in. Love those deep dish rims.

Much flatty love to the old Black Beauty!

Edited by pc85
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So I've been given this:

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Galant%20Wrecking/P5300223.jpg

 

which has this:

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Galant%20Wrecking/P5300225.jpg

 

Let the games begin.

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I'm going to have a go at getting a bit more out of my Starion as it is, just for s**** and giggles.

 

First step will be an intercooler and a wideband o2 sensor/controller/gauge, to keep an eye on things.

 

I had a play with MAF's today, just for fun. The Galant I've been given has a 7 pin MAF on it, which is apparently swappable into Starions, so I gave it a quick go.

 

First step was trying to start the car without a MAF. It starts, and seems to idle okay, but has a big dead spot right off idle. Flooring the throttle from idle causes it to have a big stumble, and then pickup. Good, there is some noticable difference between having the MAF plugged in and not.

 

Second step was a scope the output of the factory starion MAF at idle (approx 800rpm)

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/StarionMAFidle.png

 

After that, I made up a huckery loom and popped the MAF from that galant on, and it had a remarkably similar output:

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/1gMAFidle.png

 

Interesting.

 

Also, with either MAF plugged in, the big dead spot just off idle was gone. I'll wait till I've made up a proper adaptor loom before I go driving it with the galant MAF onboard, but it looks promising so far. The proof will be in seeing if they're even marginally similar in frequency vs airflow calibration... One data point does not a graph make, hah.

 

Also, I have to wait till all the snow clears... I dont like the chances of getting my car out of the driveway, hah! Then i can do some rpm/airflow signal logging and see whats what.

 

I should be studying for exams.

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Mitsy told me its a september 1982 car, around the 6000th made.

 

Havent had a chance to make up a proper adaptor loom to see how the Galant MAF works, but I did get an intercooler and innovate MTX for it, going to do some mods, need to keep an eye on the fueling. Now... Some time to install them!

 

Oh and that Galant is a 1990. Its actually an 1800, with a 4g67 motor, but almost everything is the same, just a marginally smaller combustion chamber in the heads. Ive got a twin-cam 2l head coming from a guy down south though :).

Edited by ZacMan
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Wow.

 

I wish we had half of the models with the setups that you guys get.

 

In the parts microfitch that is distributed in NA the start of the next years model begins in June

so here a 6/82 would be a 83 model year.

But that's what was shipped from JP, you guys had your own schedule with AU Mitsubishi.

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All we wish for over here is a widebody, any widebody will do :).

 

Yeah, all the japanese imports I've dealt with, like this one, from 82/83, have been basically the same, just the different trim levels and original purchaser options.

 

Makes finding info on them a little tricky sometimes, as they're a bit different to the Aus models. Still, I'm working my way through it.

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Presents from England arrived!

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P6110001.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P6110002.jpg

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More boost? Need intercooler. Snagged a 550x230mm one, which is a pretty standard size, and should be able to support my goal of 300HP. Got it positioned in the best place available without cutting anything up, which I'm not really willing to do.

 

The way the top mounts are, its completely attached to the bumper alone, not the actual chassis. I can't see any real problems with this though.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P6120001.jpg

 

Started making some mounting tabs

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P6120002.jpg

 

Welded the mounts together, would have liked to make them one piece, but didn't have any alloy knocking around in a big enough sheet.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P6130004.jpg

 

Clears everything nicely, and leaves room for the pipes to come up into the engine bay on either side. I'm going to make new windscreen and headlight washer bottles, and relocate them to under the guards. The battery will be in the boot, and I'll move the MAF slightly. This will leave room for the pipes to come up where the washer bottle sat originally.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P6130008.jpg

 

Looks better without a gaping hole and messy suspension components in the way.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P6130010.jpg

 

Mean.

 

The bottom mounts obviously still have to be made, but I think for these I'm going to mount the pipework to the body on rubber grommets, so the lower intercooler mounts can actually be welded to the pipes themselves... I'm trying to have a component do more than one job at a time if at all possible, should be pretty cool :)

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