1982 Starion Build

[ZacMan]

I dunno man, she said her name was crystal. Not as limber as I usually like but...... oh you mean on the car?

 

just the cheapest stuff i could find. by leaving it on for ages, and it not drying out, had alot longer than usual to work, so it was all good.

[ZacMan]

Majour part of the DOHC swap that will happen later down the track (once I've probably blown this engine up, hah) fell into my lap yesterday. Scored an EVO IV ecu, with a J-Speed chip installed. This makes it programmable, but being an EVO IV, has OBDII diagnostics, score!

 

No one usually bothers chipping an EVO IV ecu, and they're the hardest to do, and an EVO V ecu is a straight swap, and is programmable via the OBDII port, but not in real time. This ECU is now real-time programmable (via an eprom emulator) and ODBII compliant. Fun fun.

[Metric-man]

http://www.evoscan.com/

 

http://www.evoscan.com/evoscan-gps-obdii-cables/details/4/1/performance-vehicle-pc-diagnostic-interfaces/mitsubishi-evoscan-datalogger-software

 

I've got to see if this works but from what I've read It's all good.

[ZacMan]

Should work, as it's OBDII compliant. Any OBDII data logger will work for the generic addresses, but a mitsy specific one would be nice for added data. I've got a bluetooth one knocking around somewhere that has an app for android, should hunt it out, fire up the ECU on the bench and see what's what.

 

Can't do any editing of values over OBDII with this ecu though, as the data is now stored on an added in eprom chip. Need to have an eprom simulator plugged in for real time tuning, then take that file, burn to a chip, plug it in, and we'll be away.

 

In about a years time when I'm ready for the twincam, heh.

Edited September 14, 2012 by ZacMan

[Crazy Quest]

Hey man great looking flatty.

 

Makes me wana look for one.

[ZacMan]

Another day in the garage today. I went hard at uni this week and finished my solar car assignment super early, so I don't feel guilty for not going in today .

 

If you look at earlier posts, you'll see I've mounted the intercooler to the bumper. Its fairly solid when the pipes are on, but it means you have to un-do all the piping to take the bumper off... Not ideal. I decided to make up some decent beefy mounts, and weld them straight to the end-tanks. The towing eye bolt holes were in a convenient location for mounting.... Made up a cardboard template to get an idea of how it'll go together:

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P9210005_1024x768_zps05f6762c.jpg

 

Found some decent beefy alloy knocking around. I actually had to slice this bit from a right angle piece. Its about 5mm thick. Definately strong enough, that's for sure. After some measuring and marking, I popped it in my custom metal former, and beat the s*** out of it with a rubber hammer.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P9210008_1024x768_zps772efea5.jpg

 

More marking, measuring, beating with a hammer, then some cutting, and I ended up with this:

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P9210007_1024x768_zps8c646569.jpg

 

Rinse, wash, repeat:

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P9210009_1024x768_zpsca0bad97.jpg

 

After a bunch of test-fitting, I marked and tacked them onto the intercooler. I'm not to confident with welding thick alloy yet, so will ask a few questions from the experts before finish welding it. Seems super solid as it is though.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P9210010_1024x768_zpsf8aa95cd.jpg

 

And fitted:

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P9210011_1024x768_zps9f5ed1dd.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P9210012_1024x768_zpsbfc51dfc.jpg

 

Bumper still clears, and looks better than before, as I dropped the intercooler about an inch, so it fills the entire front opening. Better not smash it on anything!

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P9210013_1024x768_zpsee964890.jpg

 

Since I had the tig all set up, I finished welding my hot-side pipe, and then proceeded to do this:

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P9210014_1024x768_zps8aefd16d.jpg

 

Looks a bit weird, but pulling a solvent soaked rag back and forth through the pipes should ensure no nasties hiding in there ready to be eaten by my motor/turbo. Rag has to be a nice tight fit, should be pretty hard to pull through. Once it came through either end clean a few times I called it job done. If you're doing this, make sure you tie the wire super securely to the rag, and tie a piece to either end, that way if you break the wire, you can pull the rag out by the other end, and you dont have to re-feed the wire each time you pull the rag through.

 

Anyone want a couple of intercooler mounts that screw in with the bumper skin clamping rail?

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P9210015_1024x768_zpsf3911fbd.jpg

 

No? Didn't think so. New way is much better.

 

Good day today

[nightwalkerancestery]

I'm actually immensely fond of your airdam. To me it looks so much cleaner. Maybe it's cause of the combo with the flatty platform but it makes me want an AU flatty just for that lol. Keep up the good work with the car. Looks awesome!

 

- Charles

Edited September 26, 2012 by nightwalkerancestery

[ZacMan]

Cheers, I really like it too, I'm going to have a go at reproducing them in fibreglass at some stage.

 

This is a Japanese Starion though, not an Aussie model, and to my knowledge these air-dams only ever came out in America on the Conquests, hah! I really have no idea how it ended up paired with this car, but I'm super happy it did .

[nightwalkerancestery]

I wasn't sure where it came from tbh. Your explanation of sale and production of he car was kind of all over the place. lol.

 

But if you do reproduce them and can get them here in the states without a murderous buying/shipping price then I'd LOVE one on my 87 Mitsu Fatty if it'd match up the same I'd go with the 88-89 style but since I already have an 88 and it's an 87 model i'd prefer to stick with the older model's image. Plus it'd be more damage resistant i would think.

 

- Charles

[ZacMan]

Holy crap, fitting an intercooler to this thing was like the job that wouldn't end... But finally, all the welding is done, all the mounts are made, the pipes are cleaned and beaded, and have had tabs welded on to avoid them knocking on the body. Job jobbed.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA030001_1024x768.jpg

 

They're hilariously long. Should have some pretty funny reversion going on before i get around to fitting a dump valve.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA030003_1024x768.jpg

 

Must gather some money to have the TC06 compressor cover machined for the 16g wheel, and purchase a pre-ported 7cm^2 exhaust housing, and a rebuild kit. That will sort the turbo side of things. Then just an exhaust and it should be drivable again .

[MotoCam360]

ZacMan your work is impecible... what an inspiring thread....keep up the good work!!

[ZacMan]

I was thinking the other day about what was stopping me just going with an MPI setup right now... and I couldnt come up with a good enough reason, so...

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA170005_1024x768.jpg

 

From my rather shakey memory, the SOHC Galants, out of which this manifold would have come, have a 4-2 pattern optical distributor. If I can find one of these, I can use pretty much any VR4/EVO1-3/EVO4-9 computer to run this setup, with the factory sequential injection and wasted spark system. If I can't find one of those distributors easily enough, I'll cut up and old SOHC distributor, do some machining, and attach a DOHC CAS to the end, which will give exactly the same result, but with a little more work... Might be cheaper though, coz I've already got all the bits .

 

Ive sized up fitting a 60mm throttlebody from an NA galant, will have a couple of inches of pipe, with a little bend, coming out of the manifold. I had the flange I cut off the other end of the SOHC manifold machined out to 60mm, so that'll get welded on, should be all good. The bolt pattern PCD is luckily the same . I want to use a factory mitsy throttlebody, as it has all the stepper-motor idle control stuff built in, which a factory computer can use to give a sweet idle.

[ZacMan]

Spent a good chunk of last evening figuring out how to wire in this chipped EVO IV ECU I've got, it's all looking pretty good so far. Next major hurdle will be figuring out where all the maps are stored in the EPROM chip that has been added to this ECU... No one has really bothered doing EVO IV's from what I can figure out, as it's way easier to swap to an EVO V ecu, which is re-flashable via the OBDII port. I want to use this one though, for a couple of reasons... 1) It was payment for a computer job i did a while back, so essentially free, 2) Kind of cool to run an weird frankenstein engine on a frankenstein ecu, 3) real time tunable with an EPROM emulator.

 

I've also got a set of .5mm over pistons at work, crappy un-known chinese spec. I need to CC them, and my head, and figure out if it would give a compression ratio anywhere near 8.5:1, which would be cool. They're slightly dished, but much less so than the 7.6:1 pistons in there at the moment. f*** i miss driving this thing, less exams, more cars.

[hachi_destroyer]

f*** i miss driving this thing, less exams, more cars.

 

Amen. Haven't seen my car in months =[ Sometimes this whole school thing just blows.

[ZacMan]

True, but the 1st years, in summer, with those short skirts... It has it's upsides

[hachi_destroyer]

True, but the 1st years, in summer, with those short skirts... It has it's upsides

 

i must admit. I love yoga pants season.

[ZacMan]

Spent this morning pulling an engine loom from a mitsy at pick-a-part. Has the right plugs for the evo iv ecu, and new wiring isn't cheap, so I'll dismantle it and use it to make the loom for my MPI setup. Only left me with an hour to much abount in the garage with the manifold, got things measured, cut and tacked up though.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA190002_1024x768.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA190003_1024x768.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA190004_1024x768.jpg

 

Intercooler piping will look way nicer now, and be quite a bit shorter too. Its a shame the mitsy throttlebodies are so damn ugly... but I'll see what it's like after a good clean-up. I do like having all the idle control stuff in one easy to access place .

[ZacMan]

Had a good few hours in the garage this afternoon. Managed to get the cold side intercooler piping re-made to suit the new throttle location. Welded the bits needed on the manifold too. I learned from this to plan my welds better, as doing the last bit of the pipe to the throttle flange was really bloody awkward. Also, welding thick aluminium is awesome, you can just hammer the pedal and go really fast .

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA210007_1024x768.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA210008_1024x768.jpg

 

All sorted for rear-skidder action.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA210006_1024x768.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA210005_1024x768.jpg

 

Intercooler piping modded and welded. I need to get a 2.5" - 2.75" silicone joiner, and that'll be that job done. I scored a massive BOV from DJZ that's been sitting around for ages, it's quite hilarious. Made up a flange for it, and sat it approximately where it will go. Need to get some ~1.5" alloy pipe to make up the fitting for it and weld it on.

 

On the electrical side of things, I disassambled a late model mirage loom, and an older galant loom lastnight. Between them they have almost all the plugs and wire I need. I also won an auction for an evo II ECU on trademe, which will be fun to play with, and may get used instead of the evo iv one if finding the maps turns out to be too much trouble on the evo IV. People have already done it for the EVO 1-3's . My other concern is that EVO IV's run an internally amplified coil-on-plug setup, which sometimes don't have as much dwell as an external coil setup... So running this 8v motor, with an external ignitor and coils, with the EVO IV ecu might result in a weak spark.. You can probably set the dwell somewhere in the ECU though... but it's another parameter to find in the HEX file...

 

Fun fun .

 

Anyone want to buy the power cable i made up when i first got this thing? They're pretty beefy.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA210009_1024x768.jpg

Edited October 21, 2012 by ZacMan

[ZacMan]

The throttle I'm using is a NA 1.8L galant one, which measures 60mm ID, and from what I can tell, is identical to an EVO 1-3 item, which is cool . I want to stick with a factory throttle as I've seen all but the super-expensive aftermarket ones leak horrendously. The factory ones, however, look like tail . I'm not going to use any of the vacuum ports on the throttle, so I proceeded to do away with them:

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA220001_1024x768.jpg

 

I was anticipating being able to just weld in the ports (only one of them is actually drilled in this throttlebody), but the aluminium this is cast out of is so nasty, porus and flled with silicone that it's just not going to happen . I'll make a plate to go over here and seal it up.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA220002_1024x768.jpg

 

A shot after giving it a grind with the power file shows how bad it really is in this area:

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PA220004_1024x768.jpg

 

I wonder what the factory rejection rate was like on these?

Anyway, I'm also doing some mods to clean up the idle control mechanisims, as it appears mitsies have massive problems here all the time. The water temp controlled Fast Idle Air Valve (FIAV) on this one was shagged, so I'm going to cut it off and plate over it. I'll leave the computer controlled stepper motor in place though, which i should be able to sort to provide a faster idle at startup.

 

Off to do some cleaning and sandblasting shortly, hope to get the manifold all cleaned and ready to start some more fabrication.

[ZacMan]

Well shitballs... Hit a little bit of a brick wall this evening. I got hold of an optical dizzy (Cheers Mike), but it doesn't use the same pattern as the DOHC CAS's. Swapping in the trigger wheel from a DOHC CAS doesnt work either, as the distributor spins clockwise (relative to the sensor), and the CAS spins anti-clockwise (again, relative to the sensor).

 

I tried flipping the disc over, but this also doesn't work, as the location of the two optical sensors within the dizzy aren't in line, and would also have to be reversed, which isn't really possible. They're not even the same between the CAS sensor and the distributor sensor, which they would ideally need to be.

 

Even chopping up a dizzy and welding a whole DOHC CAS to the end of it wont solve the problem... Hmmmm Not too sure what to do here.

 

Should have gone twin-cam, hah .

 

I wonder if I might be able to sort out some sort of triggering system directly off the crank and cam, like the later model motors, that copies the mitsy pattern:

 

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

 

Hmmmmm, twin cam eh.... Or I could always throw an aftermarket ECU at it, but that's the easy way out!

[ZacMan]

Interestingly, the original trigger wheel from the distributor provides what look like the correct cyl 1 cam reference pulse, but just doesnt have the second cam pulse. With some careful measuring, and using a DOHC cas to get the angle and width the secon pulse needs to be, I reckon I could cad something up and have a trigger wheel laser cut... Wonder how much that would cost?

[Metric-man]

Did the 2.0 have a left over block off plate for a mechanical fuel pump?

 

All the cams I have seen (54B) still have the bump, could you mount a magnet to the bump,

and place a pickup mounted to a fabricated plate?

Edited November 1, 2012 by Metric-man

[Metric-man]

The throttle I'm using is a NA 1.8L galant one, which measures 60mm ID, and from what I can tell, is identical to an EVO 1-3 item, which is cool . I want to stick with a factory throttle as I've seen all but the super-expensive aftermarket ones leak horrendously. The factory ones, however, look like tail . I'm not going to use any of the vacuum ports on the throttle, so I proceeded to do away with them:

 

I was anticipating being able to just weld in the ports (only one of them is actually drilled in this throttlebody), but the aluminium this is cast out of is so nasty, porus and flled with silicone that it's just not going to happen . I'll make a plate to go over here and seal it up.....

 

...I wonder what the factory rejection rate was like on these?

Anyway, I'm also doing some mods to clean up the idle control mechanisims, as it appears mitsies have massive problems here all the time. The water temp controlled Fast Idle Air Valve (FIAV) on this one was shagged, so I'm going to cut it off and plate over it. I'll leave the computer controlled stepper motor in place though, which i should be able to sort to provide a faster idle at startup.

 

Off to do some cleaning and sandblasting shortly, hope to get the manifold all cleaned and ready to start some more fabrication.

 

I had the opportunity to work on a couple of early 3.0 6g72 24 valve heads.

I was surprised on the quality of the casting, copious amounts of flashing it was unbelievable.

 

[ZacMan]

I ended up getting another complete throttlebody from a 6g72 24 valve motor, looks heaps better, but I'll just leave this one and not cut it up.

 

Yeah, the 2.0 has the lobe and a block off plate for the distributor.. Interesting idea.

[ZacMan]

Have found some time to work on the car this week, has been awesome. Warning though, this update is pure geekery.

 

ECU antics continue, with an EVO V ecu falling into my lap pretty much. This is awesome, as they're re-flashable in situation, you dont have to (or are even able to) open the case. To get my motor correctly signalling this ecu, I need the right pattern coming out of the optical dizzy.

 

Spend some time with Dad figuring out the best way to go about things, and then left all the machining work to him, as he's knowledgeable about such things, whereas I am most certainly not. The factory SOHC optical dizzies would work once I had the right chopper disc made, but I was silly and didnt leave enough room to actually slip one into the head past the throttlebody! We decided to machine up some bits and pieces, and fit a DOHC CAS onto the end of a SOHC dizzy. This gives a shorter unit overall, which can *just* be slipped into place with the intake manifold in place.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PB170005_1024x768.jpg

 

And in place:

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PB170002_1024x768.jpg

 

Now i just have to do some figuring and get an optical chopper disc made with will output the correct pattern for the ECU.

 

I fired up the ECU on the bench, and got the logger/flashing cable talking to it. I used a JimStim (Usually used for testing mega-squirts), to simulate the mitsy triggering pattern, and hooked it all up, and it all worked smoothly first time, score! The logger was showing the correct RPM values on the laptop, and blinky lights were going as expected. Colour me very pleased.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PB170003_1024x768.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PB170008_1024x768.jpg

 

Yeah... I work tidy.

 

The engine bay is looking better and better. I'm trying to keep it nice and clean, but when I get the alternator, Psteer pump, and air flow meter back in, with all the associated plumbing, it's bound to get a bit cluttered again. Also needs less blue.

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/PB170010_1024x768.jpg

 

Hoping to get it running again in the very near future. I've also scored some EVO VIII 560cc injectors which I'll see if i can clean/flow test at work to make sure they're all good. I'd also like to see the spray pattern to make sure they'll be okay in a SOHC head.... Not too sure on that yet, but chances are I'll just use them anyway. Will be ordering the rebuild kit for my turbo, and next exhaust housing in the next day or so, so that'll be another item ticked off the (still very large) list.