92 Galant VR4

[Imback]

This is the Build Thread for 92 Galant VR4. Reply below.

 

[Imback]

This is the current build of my 92 vr4. This is 76/1000. I've been messing with dsm's since 2000 and eventually got burnt out around 2015. I ended up taking a little break and got sucked back into them when my friend picked up a galant. I wasn't a fan of these in my younger days but the whole sleeper aspect of it and how comfortable they are to drive compared to a 1g/2g i was sold. I ended up getting a 91 a few years back 1316/2000. It wasn't the nicest exterior wise so i did what i could to get it looking decent and focused on performance. I work on these cars on the side and been tuning them for years so i already knew tried and true parts to get to make some decent power. That car was making low 600 on a stock block for awhile until it finally let go. The car sat for a few months and a few locals builds were coming to an end so i was tuning them and i got the itch to get my own car on the road again. I had a friend put out a wtb add for a stock shortblock just to get the car running and had a older guy reach out saying he has one but it came with the car . Long story short that car ended up being my current 92. I was ecstatic when he sent the info and photos but i knew it was going to be a big project to get it to be road worthy again. I grabbed my friends trailer and headed out of state to pick it up. It had been sitting for 12 years and typical of these cars the rear calipers were completely seized up and this guys yard was at a downward slope so just getting this thing on the trailer was a mission in itself. That semi trailer truck was his personal toy hauler and that's what we had to use to pull it out of his yard. Thats a saturday i will never forget .

 

[Imback]

So now i finally got the car home but it was middle of fall and a week before i got the car i got into an accident so i wasn't in the best shape to start tearing into a car so progress was slow. The car was mess in every aspect but i don't mind having something to work on when i have a free time so i was game. First was to see if i could even get the car to crank over and start. It had a older aem V1 which i haven't used in years and no laptop has a serial connector . I asked a few friends if they had a serial to usb adapter. I remember in my early 20's being able to buy a new keyspan adapter from the store but those days are long gone haha. I was fortunate that i had a friend that actually did have one laying around. I wired in my aem 5 bar and connected to the ecu did my changes and got the car to start. It ran decent until my neighbor told me to kill it. I didn't understand why but i quickly realized why. There was oil spewing from under the car. I quickly unplugged the cas just to kill the car. It ended up being a fitting going to the oil cooler was corroded and just gave up when it saw actual oil pressure. I ended up removing the oil cooler lines and looping it the outlets with a old drain line i had laying around. I knew there was a bunch of work that needed to be done to get this car going but i felt motivated after just hearing it fire up.

 

[Imback]

A few days later when it wasn't freezing i went back outside to look over the car. There was a bunch of electrical gremlins like the starter not turning over with the key i needed to jump start it. So i dived head first into my least favorite part of working on these cars WIRING . There was so much going on so i just figured it would be easier to just start from the cabin and work my way to the engine bay. I took out the steering Column and went to work. I removed so much ghetto wiring that was t'd into main relays and found cut wires it was a mess. Going through the wiring took me about 3 weeks on and off when i had the time. Finally had it looking normal and put the interior back together and threw my old wheel set up out of my old galant.

 

[Imback]

I'll get into the engine bay wiring a little later but while i had the steering column out i wanted to address the the clutch and hydraulic system. The PO told me he stopped driving the car cause the clutch was toast. So without even bothering testing the old system i replaced the master and slave and noticed that the clutch fork was sitting correct in the transmission window. I still wasn't able to get into gear while the car running. It felt like i wasn't getting enough throw. Unfortunately 1g's and galants suffer from a inferior design with shitty manufacturing so i figured i should take out the clutch pedal assembly and inspect it. Sure enough the keyway for the clutch rod was worn. I know exactly why this happens but that's for a different discussion. I took the assembly out of my old galant which was still good. I replaced all the bushings and did the brass bushing so i could weld it up after i was done. I threw everything back together and long and behold the car moves and the clutch is actually still good

 

[Imback]

So now that the car could move under it's own power i had to address the seized up rear calipers. I took my old rears from my old galant which were recently rebuilt and swapped everything over to my 92. I left the front untouched since i wanted to go with the outlander rotors and needed to source the caliper bracket. So now i needed to bleed the system i had my neighbor come over to pump for me and i heard a hiss followed by brake fluid all over the ground. Sure enough the brakes line were rotted and let go. So i put everything back together and decided to call it quits for the day and needed to figure out what my next course of action would be. I was talking to josh from jnz and he mentioned he had the same issue with his current galant as well and he had braided lines made to replace his rotted out lines. I said that's perfect and asked if he would be able to make me a set. He said yes and i also ordered the abs delete kit with a new non abs proportioning valve. It arrived a few days later and now i just had to wait for a semi warmish day since it was now winter. Finally got a break the following weekend and went to work removing all the old lines and abs system. I ran all the lines the kit was perfect. Earlier in the week i printed up some new brake line holders for the larger lines and they came out perfect.. I called it a night after installing the holders. Came back the following day and buttoned up a few things and bleed the system and now i have brakes

 

[turbomister2]

This thing right here!!!! …. Can’t wait to see when you’re done

 

[Imback]

So now that the could stop i had to address the engine bay. When i say it was a mess i was not kidding. From sitting for over a decade some little friends made there home in back of the motor . I cleaned out everything as best as i could. Now i had to tackle and wires that were chewed on as well as shitty wiring from either the previous owner or whoever he let touch the car. I had some new connectors laying around from a old wiring job a did a few months back and went to work. I was able to get most of the connectors replaced except for the connector that go to the coolant temp sensor and a 3 other misc ones. i took out the leaking stock radiator and threw in my afco radiator to help clean up the bay. After getting that sorted out i replaced the entire timing system and swapped in another valve cover i had laying around since i despise chrome. The exhaust was a hack job from the o2 housing they made to the downpipe that connected to the remaining exhaust via a sanitary clamp. But that wasn't stopping me from driving the car so it was put on my next todo list.

 

[Imback]

I threw on my old bbs wheels and finally was able to take the car on a test drive and my to do list grew bigger. Decided i should finally wash the car and it cleaned up nice. So my next thing to tackle were the lights. They had hard wired in an old school hid system with the ballast box the size of a brick and the corner lights didn't work. Thankfully my old galant hadn't gone to the scrap yard yet so i was able to salvage the stock connectors and and wire them into my 92. I threw in a set of led's then tackled the corner lights. I have jdm clears which is a single bulb light. The correct way to use these would be to get the correct pigtails and lights and wire them in. The po just shoved the huge usdm corner bulb into the housing and forced it in. The bulb literally melted the amber housing and on the other light it melted onto the bulb so needless to say it cracked the amber housing. So i took and pick and removed the remaining burnt plastic on both. I wanted to still have a amber corner light at night so i decided i would use a amber led. I spent some time taking measurements of the housing inlet and 2 hours later i found a pigtail that would fit the housing and excepted the led i was trying to use. It was perfect even had a 3rd wire whenever i'm ready to tie it into the signal harness so i could get the corner light to work with my signals. The leds blew my expectation away and look really nice at night. I redid all the lights for the brakes and turn signals in the rear to led to give it a nicer look. If you ever thrown leds into a older car you know your going to get hyper flash i found a relay that fixes the issue by changing the resistance.

 

[Imback]

Next on the list of things to fix were the windows and door Handles. The drivers side door was the only door that opened remotely close to how it should the passenger was frozen and both rears were hard to open. The rear windows didn't want to open and both fronts were struggling to open. I cleaned the tracks from outside then took the door panels off on all the doors and sprayed silicone spray on the tracks and door hinges. That was enough to get the rears windows to go down. I doused the tracks with silicone spray every night after work for about a week or so until the finally went down on there own without any assientence. The rear door handles also got easier to open as well. Unfortunately the front passenger side door handle was not budging . Upon closer inspection you could tell the lever was rusted shut and i even broke the handle trying to free it up. I ended up having to swap the handle which was a pain in the ass but now i have a door that opens

 

[chrisman287]

Love seeing these cars pop up. Like you I hated them when I was younger but they’ve grown so much on me.

Would you sell the old wheels? I like the look of them. I’m in NY too.

 

[Imback]

Love seeing these cars pop up. Like you I hated them when I was younger but they’ve grown so much on me.

Would you sell the old wheels? I like the look of them. I’m in NY too.

Hey sorry but the wheels sold a while back. What part of ny you from?

 

[Imback]

So now that i had some of the basics working. I wanted to address the blue smoke at idle. It was partly due to the cracked and leaking o2 housing but when i swapped the slave a few months back i seen some concocktion of a oil return line but it was too cold to look deeper into it. So now that it wasn't -10 outside i jacked the car up and took a closer look. Bruhh so after removing this abomination of a drain line a made a new return with -10 and called it a day. The car didn't smoke but you still smelled exhaust cause of the rotted out o2 housing and exhaust. I started to order material so hopefully by spring i could make a new o2 housing and complete exhaust out of 304ss. V bands were out of stock at the time so i was playing the waiting game but it didn't matter since my list of other things to do to the car was still huge so onto the next issue .

 

[DSSA]

Ugh.

This is such a mind-$^%&.

Makes me want to cry, and warms my heart at the same time. As I've said, I'm happy it's still alive and in the hands of someone who is bringing it back.

I can attest that NONE of that work pictured was done by me, with (maybe) exception of the battery grounding that I did back around 1996.

That car left my possession being a clean, 14B car that consistently ran 13.0s@103-104 @21-22psi, with just a used Centerforce clutch, 2.5 downpipe/testpipe, 190 Walbro, hand porting of the exhaust components, O2 dump and an original Hallman boost controller.

It was my first Mitsu and what got me into this mess.

 

[Imback]

Ugh.

This is such a mind-$^%&.

Makes me want to cry, and warms my heart at the same time. As I've said, I'm happy it's still alive and in the hands of someone who is bringing it back.

I can attest that NONE of that work pictured was done by me, with (maybe) exception of the battery grounding that I did back around 1996.

That car left my possession being a clean, 14B car that consistently ran 13.0s@103-104 @21-22psi, with just a used Centerforce clutch, 2.5 downpipe/testpipe, 190 Walbro, hand porting of the exhaust components, O2 dump and an original Hallman boost controller.

It was my first Mitsu and what got me into this mess.

Unfortunately most clean cars go to shit when they switch owner. I don't know how deep i'll go into restoring the car but the overall goal is to have a car i can drive cross country without having to think twice if it will make it. I wanted to have it done this summer but that was a far fetched idea

 

[Imback]

Upon my frist drive with the car i noticed the suspension was shot. So i installed a my evo suspension i had lying around. Stock struts with swift springs. My old galant had evo top hats so the strut towers were re drilled which i wasn't a fan of and the rears had the factory suspension bushing cut out and welded into the evo strut. I sourced out new galant top hats and a few years back i made adapters for my old galant which i never ended up using so this was a perfect time . I didn't take any pics of the front assembly's but this is not a new thing. It rode worlds better. I'll eventually switch to feals at a later time but right now i have other things i need to take care of. Next thing to address the fuel system. I took out the old pte 880's i think. I threw in my hi z 1600's removed the resistor pack. Replaced the factory fuel filter and the car was worlds smother. I switched the car over to e85 and then noticed the fuel hose is leaking. Well now i had something else to fix . I decided i was going to take a little break and just drive the car until this tank was empty and then address that and look inside the fuel tank.

 

[Imback]

A few weeks went by and finally drove the car around to get the tank semi empty to address the leaking fuel filler hose. It was cracked right where it met the neck on the tank. I was able to get away by cutting a little past the crack on the hose and slipping it back over the neck and re clamping it. This fall or winter i'll be make a SS filler neck to have to never address this again. Now onto the pump. I figured there would be some surface rust from sitting for so long and being empty and there was. The ethanol did a pretty good job of cleaning the tank but at the expense of clogging the fuel pump filter sock. Upon closer inspection the bullshit wiring continued even at the fuel pump. I swapped in a new 450 with new connectors and swapped in another fuel filter up front. I knew i was going to have to revisit this to keep an eye on the inside of the tanks condition and the fuel pump sock. I had some spare time a printed up a new bushing for the hood prop and made a mold out of the print and casted a new insert. This was just to see if it would be a nice fit and it was. I'll eventually switch to a different materiel with a more elasticity. Possibly over the winter i'll get the prop and a few other bolts and pieces re zinced but for now it will do.

 

[Imback]

A few weeks went by and i finally grew old of the exhaust leaks so i decided it was time to remove everything hotside back. Boy the car was not having it . It fought me on removal of everything including the manifold to turbo bolts which i have never had a issue with on all my cars i've owned up to this point. I broke the very first bolt i tried removing on the o2 housing i figured it would be easier to just remove the hotside and take it to work so i tried the exhaust to manifold bolts first one stripped on me as well. At that point i had enough and my milwaukee 1/2" came out and 3 out of 4 were stripped. I got the hotside off eventually and the o2 housing bolts got the same treatment from my impact. I removed what was left of the exhaust which actually broke at the flex section and fell off when i yanked on it a little. At this point i knew i was going to have to helicoil the stripped threads but on the o2 housing side they were in decent shape besides the broken bolt. I did have to remove the broken bolt though and even that fought me. I tried welding a nut onto the face side of the housing to get the broken bolt out with no avail. I ended up having enough thread protruding through on the other side that i was able to get a nut semi on there and welded it on. That did the trick but it was slow and even cherry red did not want to give up without a fight. Now that the bolt has been taking care of i was just waiting on on one last package to start making my new o2 housing. In the meantime i brought the hotside to a machine shop by my job to have them deal with drilling and and taping for the helicoils.

 

[Imback]

Well now was finally the day got my last package. I was ready to begin. Enjoy the pics. Just a heads up for the hobbyist and younger welders. Fusing your flex section ends makes welding them easier.

 

[Imback]

Weld

 

[Imback]

I feel like i have gotten a bit sloppy with my SS work since i've been doing mostly aluminum.... Anyway i got the o2 housing decent after a few tries . In hindsight i should drove my vr4 to work and left it there since it's not my daily. I don't have pics of the downpipe but as you can see i have a transition from 2.5 to 3". I had a turn down for a little bit until i could coordinate sometime with my friend to use his lift.

 

[chrisman287]

Nice work man!

 

[Imback]

Nice work man!

Thanks

 

[Vegas Smith]

That engine bay needs a good power wash.

 

[Imback]

That engine bay needs a good power wash.

That and a bunch of other things but i only have so much time. These are older photos the engine bay is a bit cleaner now.