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Street Build 1g build - The Real Life Trials and Tribulations of building a DSM

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Took the car for a 24 mile round trip drive to my Sister in laws house. Everything went pretty well actually well, the car didn't lose power at all. While driving up a big hill I saw a small white puff of smoke out the exhaust, so I pulled over to check everything and it all all fine, no oil all over the engine bay, no oil in the turbo inlet, I didn't check the catch can but I will before I drive it again. I Noticed that when coming to a stop at around 10mph or so there was a grinding noise coming from the passenger side front wheel. I checked the wheel bearings awhile ago so I don't think it's that. I think that it's the brake dust shield rubbing on the rotor.

When I got to their house i smelled hot coolant and popped the hood and it looks like my thermostat housing is still leaking out the bottom, all over my bell housing.

On the way home it started to rain, and I had no clue how these tires were going to hold up in the rain but they did pretty well. I didn't do anything crazy but I didn't feel any hydroplaning or slipping at all.

My wideband gauge vs what it says in link is different by about .3 too, even though it's set on linear using the scaling factor that came with the wideband sensor.

All in all it was a nervous drive LOL but it went well.

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What were you temps at in terms of overheating ?
How did the car run temperature wise during the trip?
They were around 230-240 and going up according to link, when overheating

On the way there i stuck it in closed loop most of the time and you could definitely tell that effected the temps after some time.

On the way back it was a little cooler than the way there, but it was also in open loop and it has no issues whatsoever. I think temps were pretty steady right around 200-209ish
 
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Dang!
I’ve been trying to get mine to run a touch cooler as well, I made a diverter out of 22 ga metal w/ a couple bends and it bolts into two existing threads 22 3/4 or so apart under the front radiator support. Read it on one of the threads here, helped tremendously.
Painted it black after this.

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Dang!
I’ve been trying to get mine to run a touch cooler as well, I made a diverter out of 22 ga metal w/ a couple bends and it bolts into two existing threads 22 3/4 or so apart under the front radiator support. Read it on one of the threads here, helped tremendously.
Painted it black after this.

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I actually have a buddy that has metal brake, and a plasma table. Is this to help direct airflow through the radiator?
 
I actually have a buddy that has metal brake, and a plasma table. Is this to help direct airflow through the radiator?
Yes, w/the front mount and/or A/C condenser it gets a little cumbersome trying to get air through...
Ironically, Lowe’s/Home Depot sells 6” by 24” pieces of sheet metal in 22 ga... so I just used that .. no cutting required.
I’m going overboard and welding a 2” strip to the front to fill that gap, some gorilla/black duct tape would suffice though.

I just removed my ac condenser, car runs 10 degrees cooler..

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Decided to take the car to work yesterday. Drive went really well actually. No issues with losing ECU power.

The time definitely needs some work but that's expected. I really need to read up on ignition timing quite a bit as I feel this is my biggest learning opportunity in tuning. I understand TDC and BTDC etc, but I don't quite understand how adding or removing timing effects the engine and how it performs.

On the way home everything was going pretty well, about 5 min away from home the car started to get hot again (not locked in closed loop) and it was only about 67° out. It was up to almost 240° in link. I hurried home and parked it in the garage.

I checked this morning and coolant is still definitely leaking from the underside of the thermostat housing, and I noticed that there's an oil leak somewhere by the downpipe. Likely the oil drain for the turbo.

The car is supposed to go into the body shop to have the rear bumper and quarter panels fixed from being rear ended earlier this year.

I finally got my Galant vr4 valve cover back, unfinished. I can't really blame my buddy I gave it to as he's had some personal stuff going on. I'll likely take it to the same place I had weld the clutch pedal, which is working fantastically too by the way.

As for my cooling issues I think I'm going to pull the radiator, and replace the fans for Spal units and transfer the OEM harness from the current fans onto those. While it's drained I'll replace that thermostat housing gasket too.

Anyone know of a way to turn the a/c fan on with the A/c switch when the a/c isn't installed and using the factory harness? I plan on putting it back in the car at some point, but it would be nice to be able to manually turn that 2nd fan on if things get hot. I also don't want to hack up the OEM harness.

Only picture I have from the drive to work.

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So after driving it a few more times, even in open loop the car still seams to want to get hot. Around 230-240 °. I decided to finally pick up at least a single SPAL fan to replace the cooling fan. Hopefully this helps:


I took it out for a cruise last night for our towns Friday cruise night and did some logs and started tuning boost pulls. It feels pretty decent, but definitely still needs some refining.

I was surprised at how many people actually stopped and asked questions and asked to see under the hood. Made me feel pretty cool 😎

I picked up some 3" stainless mandrel bent exhaust, 2 sets of vbands clamps, and just an eBay muffler to have my buddy weld me up a new catback. Really excited for that. I'm tired of hearing this exhaust leak.

Muffler:

Vbands clamps:
amazon.com/gp/product/B0756NWH5C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Mandrel bent exhaust:
 
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I looked into wiring into the A/C switch and I think it can be done but I remember someone saying you need to have functioning A/C to be able to do it, regardless I never fact checked them.

I have an OEM passenger side and a Spal driver side wired to trigger with the thermo switch. So my fans come on at 210, they kick my temps down to 203-206 in less than a minute. Good combo.

PO owner said he fried a relay trying to do it, I think he botched something, I wired a relay into the circuit for a safe guard just because electrical fires in cars are real... but the wiseman on here said it’s not necessary.
 
I looked into wiring into the A/C switch and I think it can be done but I remember someone saying you need to have functioning A/C to be able to do it, regardless I never fact checked them.

I have an OEM passenger side and a Spal driver side wired to trigger with the thermo switch. So my fans come on at 210, they kick my temps down to 203-206 in less than a minute. Good combo.

PO owner said he fried a relay trying to do it, I think he botched something, I wired a relay into the circuit for a safe guard just because electrical fires in cars are real... but the wiseman on here said it’s not necessary.
I thought about doing that as well, but i didnt know how bad it would hit the electrical system. I might do the same thing as you though, in the future if this new fan doesnt work.
 
*** GRAPHIC WARNING ***
This post may contain some blood, just as a heads up. If it breaks rules, please delete or let me know and i will delete or edit it.

I proceeded to start pulling timing components. I chose to replace the timing belt with a Gates belt, pulley's, idlers, balance shaft belt, OEM Mitsubishi tensioner and gates water pump. I didnt plan on pulling the motor to do a balance shaft delete, so i kept the balance shaft. I might end up keeping it later on as well, im still undecided.
Taking off the pulleys i managed to slip the socket off the front balance shaft tensioner and right into the belt guide on the oil pump gear and cut my index finger pretty good. That pretty much halted any work on the car for a couple days due to it breaking open and bleeding profusely (i think i hit a small vein?)

A few days passed and i started on the car again. Finished CAREFULLY pulling the other pulley's/gears. Replaced the front crank seal, as well as both the oil pump and front balance shafts. Cleaned the front casing or oil pump housing or whatever the hell you wanna call it with about a gallon of brake cleaner. Looking gooooood. Threw all the pulley's/ gears back on and torqued them down to spec. Using the gravity trick for the oil pump, to make sure it was at TDC.
Cleaned off all the caked on old grease, dirt and mud off the subframe and called it a day.
In the downtime I picked up a brand new oem timing cover and a full timing cover bolt kit from STM Tuned, because when I pulled mine it only had 4 bolts holding it on.
My dad did a balance shaft delete and he said it was one of the best things you can do to your dsm highly recommend it! Only reason Mitsubishi put them on is because of how shakey 4 pots are but it doesnt make a huge difference other than being in the way.
 
My dad did a balance shaft delete and he said it was one of the best things you can do to your dsm highly recommend it! Only reason Mitsubishi put them on is because of how shakey 4 pots are but it doesnt make a huge difference other than being in the way.
Everyone swears by the Delete. I just havent because i didnt wan to pull the motor just yet as its much easier to do the delete with it out.
Maybe when I put these cams in, i might try and do it.
 
I should note that I run a 90A alternator, when the fans turn on I do not see any voltage drop on the log.
What alternator setup are you running? while running im seeing 14.2v, i havent paid enough attention to my voltage when my fans come on to know if they make a difference.
 
Back at it again yesterday!
Decided to finally swap the fan out with the new Spal fan and swap out the new thermostat housing gasket.

Have I told you guys how much I HATE coolant? Especially draining it. The drain on the bottom of the radiator is stuck closed, so I have to drain it with the lower radiator hose which takes forever and is kind of difficult to control. Oh well, it worked I suppose

Here's the new fan mocked up vs the driver side A/C fan, which is the same as the one I'm replacing. Quite a bit bigger.

I pulled the thermostat housing off too, either the gasket was already ripped and that's the reason it was leaking, or I ripped it while pulling it off the head. Either way, that gasket was pretty hard, and it sucked scraping it off the head around the 3 studs on it. I eventually got it done.

Onto wiring up the new fan. I just cut the factory wiring right behind the solder point on the previous solder job and soldered the power wires from the factory harness to the fan harness. Black to Black, Blue to ... Red? Hopefully thats right. I Guess we'll find out soon. Double Shrink wrapped the Solder areas, once right over the solder joints themselves, and then a bigger single over both of them.

I Used those Radiator push pins to secure the fan to the radiator. The fan Shroud itself is actually too big to sit in between the end tanks unfortunately. So if you're looking for a replacement fan, this one might not be the one for you. I did take a picture of the back of the box that shows all of Spals fans, their model numbers, and their dimensions too. I was really unable to find a solid info on all their fans. Seems like their site has some info on some of their fans and none on others.

While I had the radiator out, I took the chance to re-bushing the radiator stays/brackets. I used some bushings I got from amazon () that were recommended from another post (cant seem to find, to link here) and well, they fit. Loosely. I tried sticking some RTV in between the bracket and the bushing but it didn't seem to help.
If anyone has a link to some aftermarket ones, hit me up or post a link.

Car goes into the body shop this week to fix the damage from a few months ago when a guy rear ended me. Not sure how long that will take but ill be sure to update when it comes back!

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I am running a Mitsubishi 90A from an early Galant, it’s a stock replacement. The part number for the Denso style one was out of stock on Summitt, I think it may be back now. Napa makes one too.
 
I am running a Mitsubishi 90A from an early Galant, it’s a stock replacement. The part number for the Denso style one was out of stock on Summitt, I think it may be back now. Napa makes one too.
I might have to look into this. My alternator definitely feels it with the fan
 
Took the car for a spin yesterday to Walmart and back and well the fan worked. It got up to a MAX of 219 and never went over and that was with medium load going up a hill so that's neat. It was about 80° yesterday too so it wasn't cool really at all.

Up until the fan kicks in my alternator was putting out 13.8-14.2v and when the fan kicked in, it dropped it to low 12v and almost into the 11v.. I might have to look into a bigger alternator. Maybe that has part to do with my ECU losing power?

While at Walmart I picked up some new battery connectors too threw those in. I had to enlarge the holes for the starter wire, my fuel pump main power and the power wire to the + terminal fuses too. Was pretty easy using a step bit.

My eBay muffler came in last night. the box says "HKS" but I'm a bit skeptical for being like $30 LOL

Drove the car to the gym this morning and it's still leaning out on starts in 1st and sometimes in 2nd. I tried adding +1 to the tip in for tps delta 1 and that didn't do anything.. I'll attach a link for anyone to look at since I can't seem to find a spot to actually attach a log anymore..

Log here:


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Looks good im running a single spal 12 fan no ac here, and a saturn gm altenator still have yet to get car on the road but charges arone 14 but its been years since ive had a running dsm. Your car is coming along nicely.
 
Looks good im running a single spal 12 fan no ac here, and a saturn gm altenator still have yet to get car on the road but charges arone 14 but its been years since ive had a running dsm. Your car is coming along nicely.
Thanks! I just read through your build and its coming along great too! You've got a lot of really nice parts.
I kind of wish i would have just pulled the motor and built it. I wish i could paint too haha
 
Thanks it took time and wasnt alwasy cheap kidna a headache, but im trying to get this thing on the road as we speak. Should be running by now but i have to keep focused.
 
Back with another update.
I got the rest of my Exhaust pipe, its purdy. I now have everything to get the exhaust fabbed up. Ill have to wait for my buddy to get back into town next week though.
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I dropped the car off at the body shop last Wednesday so i haven't had a chance to really do anything with it.

I've been hung up on this radiator heating issue and was thinking of ways to get more air through the radiator. This front bumper is really a bad design.
So anyways i was thinking about airflow up front. I was thinking of just doing some "speed holes" cut in the front bumper but I didnt really like the idea of just those holes by themselves.
I happened to come across a video from That Racing Channel with the panda 1gb and saw the oblong holes in the front bumper right above his intercooler.
I really hated the unfinished, freshly drilled holes look.. but i like the idea of the oblonged holes. I started looking online and actually found some 4x12" Soffit vents for houses.
These would basically cover up the unfinished cut holes, probably add a little bit of stability, and act as some sort of a "mesh" to prevent bit items going through the front bumper. I would probably pick up some black Plastic pain and paint them black. It looks like they are just supposed to snap into the hole that is cut for them.

TRC 1gb Video:


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Soffit Vents:
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On top of this, im going to likely pick up an 90amp alternator as well.
 
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Car not back from shop yet. Having a hard time matching the paint code since it was some sort of a custom color that one of the previous owners did.

I got my little "vents" today. They're huge. Bigger than I expected Honestly but we'll see.
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Decided to get the valve cover ready for my AN fittings.. this really kind of hurt my soul because I know that these Mitsu logo valve covers are getting harder to find. I use my die grinder to grind off the tabs that held the stock baffle in, and basically just pryed it out of there destroying the stock baffle though. I used the die grinder to remove the rest of the tabs and make it smooth so the other baffle would sit flush in there where the old one was. I'll have this welded to the inside of the valve cover.
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After that it was time to mock up the holes for the AN fittings location. I know the fittings need to be sunk into the cover a ways so that the hood will close so I found a washer the same size as the smallest part of the fitting and traced it out on the cover where I wanted them ( making sure to get one fitting on each side of the cover) and traced it with the sharpie.
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Next I used a step bit to drill out the hole, and made sure that the small part of the fitting was going to fit, and it did..

As of right now I'm debating on whether to stick with these straight up and down fitting like this: (I would have the machine shop cut off the shoulder, basically right under the threads)
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and run 90° fitting on the line ( I know this is a 45° in the picture)
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or if I should just buy a 90° fitting to weld on the valve cover like this: (I would cut off the swivel bottom and just weld it on)

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A buddy of mine brought his JDM z32TT over today to grab the title for the z31T he bought from meView attachment 631693View attachment 631694

Went for another Friday night cruise with my other buddy in his Paxton '14 mustang, and saw my first supra up close today. Borg Warner turbo, pretty clean!View attachment 631695View attachment 631696

Let me know what you guys think about the fittings.. do you think the current fittings (straight up) are going to clear the hood?

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That's a good idea about the bcs mount to the radiator. I might think about doing that myself.

As for your cooling, if you look through my build thread I made a kind of a windshield for the bumper cover. It works great and my car never even thinks about getting hotter than 206 or so, and I live in Texas. You can make one out of ABS plastic and call it a day. You shouldn't need those vents.

As for the vc outlets, I can't tell you which one to sue but only to use the one that will be shortest. There's very little room. I would even consider sawing the bottoms of the fittings off and leaving only enough room to screw the female fittings on. Very little room for error there or it will hit the hood.
 
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