20 replies to this topic

[fuel]

Hello guys!

My name is Phil and I am from Hamilton, New Zealand. I actually came across here to try track down a set of widebody rims for sale.

I've very much been a Starion fan for a long time, but for me, I've gone with the older route and I have two 4th generation Galant coupes - the very chassis/platform the Starquest was heavily based on. Mechanically it's essentially the same as the early model Starions from Japan, featuring the same all independent suspension front and rear, four wheel ventilated disc brakes, turbocharged G63B 2.0L ECI-Turbo engine with 5 speed KM132B manual gearbox etc. The main key difference is the 4th gen Galant coupe platform is some 6 inches longer in wheelbase over the Starquest. For those of you familiar with these cars, you would know them as the Plymouth Sapporo and Dodge Challenger II in the States. They seem to be called many names depending which market they are sold in, for instance in Australia they were initially called the Chrysler Scorpion, then re-named to the Mitsubishi Scorpion.

My two are JDM models, both came in to the county in the late '80s as used imports. One is a 1980 model badged as an 'Eterna GSR' which is the upper most spec model available, and the other is a 1982 model badged as a 'Galant GT', which is the lowest spec turbo model available. The Eterna has electric windows front and rear, electric fender mounted mirrors, power steering, air conditioning and a much nicer interior while the Galant GT has manual steering, wind up windows but still retained the electric fender mirrors along with additional equipment like the VELNAS trip computer and rear windscreen wiper.

Anyway, enough with the wall of text, here are some pics:

The Eterna how I picked it up in 2007 with just 80,000 miles on the clock and one owner before me








Didn't take too long to start modifying it






Did a couple track days, handling was still quite appalling


So had these made up for it






Then got some 16x7.5 F and 16x8 SSR Star Formula rims

[fuel]

Then went a little crazy, and decided the G63B wasn't enough even though I was planning on doing a DOHC Evo III head swap. So I purchased two donor engines


And proceeded to take my perfectly functioning car off the road, to do this










Sadly I haven't got any further with it due to losing motivation and needing to build up a bit of funds to purchase a suitable gearbox to go behind it (Toyota R154).

[fuel]

In the meantime, this happened to pop up for sale - the Galant GT




I got it for a stupid cheap price, but the catch was that it was retro-fitted back to a carburettor engine, using the original (low comp) block and head, with just carb manifolds wacked on


But with the leftovers from the Eterna I converted it back to its former Turbo glory


also swapped over the coilovers and wheels


and then proceeded to kill the bottom end..


So with some of these


and one of these


I built up a DASH engine with circa 90s era HKS 0.50mm over-sized pistons, removed balance shafts and fully balanced rotating assembly. However as I was missing the DASH specific wiring loom and RWD specific inlet manifold (mine was a FWD item which the thermostat housing was incredibly close to the firewall), I couldn't get it to run right. Also at the time, I was going to be purchasing a widebody Starion so I put the Galant GT up for sale with the Eterna's original motor in it (as I would seriously lose out if I sold the GT with the freshly built DASH engine).

Fast forward to now, I ended up missing out on the widebody Starion (boo hoo), but I eventually sold the Galant GT coupe (yet to be picked up though), and through a strike of luck picked up one of these - an '87 JDM Starion GSR-V parts car, with the DASH engine


which has the wiring loom and RWD inlet I am after, along with other bonus items such as 5 lug hubs, spare engine (to use as parts if needed) and gearbox.


So in the next coming months, the DASH engine will be making its way back into the Eterna along with the missing bits, and I will make up a new exhaust system and intercooler setup to replace the items which were robbed for the Galant, and I will carry out the V6 swap at another time once I have all the parts for it ready.

I hope that all made sense and that you enjoyed the read.

Thanks!

[Goddard]

Great read while half dozed off from a hard days work.  I like your cars.  Engine bay sheetmetal looks very much like the 'quest.

[fuel]

Goddard, on 08 June 2011 - 07:30 PM, said:

Great read while half dozed off from a hard days work.  I like your cars.  Engine bay sheetmetal looks very much like the 'quest.

It should do! 99% of the platform is the same between the 4th gen A164A IRS Turbo and the A183A/A187A Starions. You can even get a Galant/Eterna turbo sedan - basically a four door Starion!

[hachi_destroyer]

i want those SSR's in a 5 lug pattern....now.

[fuel]

and I want some widebody rims haha. 16x8 0 offset and 16x8 -10 offset please!

[fuel]

almost forgot, I have one of these things also







E39A Galant VR-4, JDM 'Evolution' spec factory fitted with 16G turbo, 510cc injectors, larger FMIC + piping, 3.909 ratio diffs with 4 bolt rear axles and LSD.

[NudeLobster]

You, sir, are AWESOME!

I love all of it!

-Justin

[Komeuppance]

Haha, good to see you here.  I was wondering if you ever finished your 6g72 swap the other day.

We didn't get the 16x8 -0 wheels here, those are JDM only, yo.

So... you have two DASH heads now?!

-Robert

[StallionProject86]

Nice cars, Mitsu <3
Looking forward to videos and such in the future

[D_Venable]

Komeuppance, on 09 June 2011 - 04:35 PM, said:

We didn't get the 16x8 -0 wheels here, those are JDM only, yo.

yep we got the 16x8 +18 and the 16x8 -10

And I thought I recognized the yellow car from a 6g7X swap site, I've always been curious as to what tranny was gonna be used.

Bunch of good look cars you've got though

Edited by D_Venable, 09 June 2011 - 05:49 PM.

[fuel]

yeah I figured the 0 offset 8in rims would have to come from Japan or possibly Europe if the Euro-spec models run with them as well. It's not too hard to get things in from Japan, it's mostly just checking the availability.

Yep have two DASH heads now, well two complete DASH long blocks, one engine would just be missing the wiring loom, DASH exhaust mani and turbo.

[fuel]

Oh hi again guys - long time no post! Since 2011 I have moved to Australia maaaaayte for the first time, then moved to the UK gov'nor and I am now back in Australia - the amazing city of Melbourne to be precise.

I still have the yellow Eterna GSR coupe which is stashed away in my Mom's garage and hasn't been on the road since 2008 I have decided to go for a T56 transmission as they were fitted to the Holden Commodore aka Pontiac G8/Chevrolet SS and common in Australia. I am also considering increasing the displacement and finding a Pajero Evolution 6G74 MIVEC engine as they come with four bolt mains and better power delivery due to longer stroke. This would be years off though as I don't think I'll be going back to New Zealand to live there in the next few years at the least! I also still have the Galant VR-4 which is still in the same great condition but I ended up selling my white Galant GT coupe as I could only store two cars while I'm away!

In the meantime, while in Australia I have an Audi A4 as the DD but also picked up a 1987 Magna TM Elite which has the familiar 2.6L 4G54 engine, though this time in basic (when new) 114hp/144ft-lbs 8.8:1 solid flat foot rocker hydraulic lifter carburettor form, though from the TN series onwards it was available with EFI bumping hp and tq numbers up by a small amount. I am currently in the process of converting to EFI using the M9 kidney shaped combustion chamber cylinder head from the last of the 2nd generation TS series Magna which has the roller rockers, and combined with my stock flat top pistons should yield a 9.5:1 CR or higher if I'm lucky. The TS with 9.2:1 CR had 137hp and 163ft-lbs so hoping with the slight bump in CR I should get a good increase of power and fuel economy compared to the original engine configuration.

Some pics when I first got it:









The reason I got it so cheap (almost free!!) was because the transmission stopped working, so fitted a replacement from a donor car I also acquired for cheap




mounted


back together



After cleaning it up a bit and swapping in the nicer condition maroon interior from my parts car:

Edited by fuel, 20 September 2016 - 08:34 PM.

[fuel]

One of our local pick a part style wrecking hards had a $50 all you can carry promotion so I pulled all the EFI and 5speed manual swap gear and did two runs ($100 total).

Managed to get:
- TS M9 cylinder head - has roller rockers and the smaller kidney shaped combustion chamber so combined with my stock flat top pistons should give me 9.5:1 CR
- Fuel pump and EFI filter, inlet manifold, ECU, wiring loom, dizzy, AFM, air box/piping, all sensors etc
- Air box/hose, overflow bottle, throttle cable and anything else that's different between TM carb and TN/TP EFI cars
- 5 speed F5M31 gearbox with driveshafts, shifter and linkages, gearbox mount etc (not pictured)




Set to work a couple weekends back by removing the original M2 'hemi' head and carb junk




Modified the later TR/TS Magna inlet manifold to fit in the earlier TM engine bay. You can see the comparison between the earlier and later manifold size below - I definitely wanted the longer/bigger runners and plenum as there is a 20hp difference between the two





Did this by slicing about 7mm off the rear edge of the flange and relocated the clamping bolts further inward along with adding another bolt. The breather barb will be relocated.






Pulled the donor loom apart and labelled everything that needs to be spliced into the original loom. I'm keeping the car's original loom in place and taking key connections (ignition power etc) off various places with plugs that plug into the existing loom to minimise butchering the car




Block prepped, fuel filter mounted and EFI loom laid down low of the firewall out of sight once all back together




New head gasket down ready for the M9 head





Head and manifold back on - starting to look more like an engine now




Though as expected not much room between the manifold and the firewall - about 10mm tops. Hopefully the engine doesn't rock too far back






As for the AFM - I got the idea from Tom's Turbo Galant VR-4 sleeper build - https://youtu.be/mvf...w_f0WAB77&t=810 where he jams a Lancer Evo AFM into the stock air can. Now the E39A Galant VR-4 air can is slightly longer and doesn't place the AFM deep right into the air filter like the Magna air can does, so I had to trim the AFM quite a bit in order for the filter to fit around it. I had no room to use the original socket so couldn't use a nice plug in adapter harness, instead opting to solder direct to the AFM itself.






My to do list is now fit the EFI fuel pump, finish wiring up the ECU on the inside of the car and get the exhaust back together

[TexasQuest]

Wow awesome work mate! So interesting to see the different Mitsubishi stuff yall got over there.

[importwarrior]

man amazing work!!! nice cars.

[creakyjoints]

Nice. Love those SSR's.

[fuel]

SSR's are long gone but I replaced them with some polished SHP's bought from none other than C J Franger haha. This was before things went down I believe. I just need to get ahold of some 6-bolt rear axles/stubs and a big LSD diff.

[fuel]

Back together and running! A bit smokey as the valve stem seals on the new head are leaking but I'll worry about that another day.