Fitzi722
10+ Year Contributor
- 81
- 0
- Jan 9, 2011
-
Pittsfield,
Massachusetts
I am very late in starting this build at this point. There's a fair amount of background, but the story is important to the car. I am finally getting to the point where this car will be ready to be driven regularly and I am thrilled by that. In the 1 year and 3 months I've owned the car, it has only run for about 2 months for various reasons. I have come to love this GSX and have a goal of ~350 HP in mind. But let's get to the story.
It's December of 2010. I am sitting at Applebee's in Pittsfield, MA with my fiance and a group of our friends for Karaoke Night. My phone dings and lights up. Its a text from my friend Evan (SavageS13 here on DSMtuners). He tells me about an AWD Mitsubishi he noticed behind a local shop for sale that day. He wasn't sure what kind of car it was but wanted me to look at it. I was mildly interested, but I didn't want a Mistu, I wanted (at that time) an RX7. I had no idea what I was about to get myself into.
I spent a few days digging around on the net. I found dsmtuners.com and saw a dedicated group of diehard DSM fans building a community of car enthusiasts. I found out what kind of potential one of these cars could have. I found out that I needed that car.
I was a little concerned after going to see the car, but not deterred from wanting to buy it. It is one of the few GSX/TSi's in the area, and one of the even fewer 1G's around here. The previous owner was, to say the least, incompetent. He didn't understand what this car really was, and beat the piss out of it. Even worse, the owner before that didn't perform proper maintenance either, and he dragged it at a local track.
Here's the car when we brought it home:
After I bought it we decided to go through the car and do some maintenance and try to get it running better. We did the timing (belt, pulleys, etc), plugs, fixed brake lines, and actually hooked up the wastegate line (the previous owner decided it was a good idea to leave the wastegate line unplugged completely). We got it all back together, after nearly killing ourselves trying to do the timing, and it was a mild failure. The car wouldn't stay running well and just didn't feel right. We did a compression test and got some disappointing results. 145-125-125-150. Here's a link to the thread I started then: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/389622-dropped-compression-middle-2-cylinders.html After much frustration trying to get it set I decided to rebuild the top end.
This is the old head:
Some of the valves were smoked. Some of the valve seals were smoked. The whole head had serious carbon buildup and looked very worn. The cams and cam journals had significant scoring. This was not what I was hoping for, but doing a top-end rebuild gave me an excuse to buy some fun stuff for the car.
I bought a re-manufactured cylinder head from a shop I found on Ebay. I read a lot of reviews of the shop and they seemed very reputable. I am pleased with the head I got from them. I also ordered Crower 272/272 Cams, Manley Springs and Titanium Retainers, Topline lifters, and a new Punishment Racing FMIC (not related to the rebuild, but definitely needed it). After we got this stuff in and started the rebuild I decided on DSMLink V3 Lite and new FIC 750cc injectors as well.
Some Comparison pics between the 2 heads:
The new head being built with the fun parts
It's December of 2010. I am sitting at Applebee's in Pittsfield, MA with my fiance and a group of our friends for Karaoke Night. My phone dings and lights up. Its a text from my friend Evan (SavageS13 here on DSMtuners). He tells me about an AWD Mitsubishi he noticed behind a local shop for sale that day. He wasn't sure what kind of car it was but wanted me to look at it. I was mildly interested, but I didn't want a Mistu, I wanted (at that time) an RX7. I had no idea what I was about to get myself into.
I spent a few days digging around on the net. I found dsmtuners.com and saw a dedicated group of diehard DSM fans building a community of car enthusiasts. I found out what kind of potential one of these cars could have. I found out that I needed that car.
I was a little concerned after going to see the car, but not deterred from wanting to buy it. It is one of the few GSX/TSi's in the area, and one of the even fewer 1G's around here. The previous owner was, to say the least, incompetent. He didn't understand what this car really was, and beat the piss out of it. Even worse, the owner before that didn't perform proper maintenance either, and he dragged it at a local track.
Here's the car when we brought it home:
After I bought it we decided to go through the car and do some maintenance and try to get it running better. We did the timing (belt, pulleys, etc), plugs, fixed brake lines, and actually hooked up the wastegate line (the previous owner decided it was a good idea to leave the wastegate line unplugged completely). We got it all back together, after nearly killing ourselves trying to do the timing, and it was a mild failure. The car wouldn't stay running well and just didn't feel right. We did a compression test and got some disappointing results. 145-125-125-150. Here's a link to the thread I started then: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/389622-dropped-compression-middle-2-cylinders.html After much frustration trying to get it set I decided to rebuild the top end.
This is the old head:
Some of the valves were smoked. Some of the valve seals were smoked. The whole head had serious carbon buildup and looked very worn. The cams and cam journals had significant scoring. This was not what I was hoping for, but doing a top-end rebuild gave me an excuse to buy some fun stuff for the car.
I bought a re-manufactured cylinder head from a shop I found on Ebay. I read a lot of reviews of the shop and they seemed very reputable. I am pleased with the head I got from them. I also ordered Crower 272/272 Cams, Manley Springs and Titanium Retainers, Topline lifters, and a new Punishment Racing FMIC (not related to the rebuild, but definitely needed it). After we got this stuff in and started the rebuild I decided on DSMLink V3 Lite and new FIC 750cc injectors as well.
Some Comparison pics between the 2 heads:
The new head being built with the fun parts
.
