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My “Better Than Stock” Build Path

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Tina94

Proven Member
225
229
Dec 19, 2022
Wisconsin
I’ve been reading the forums obsessively, searching through 20 year old threads, and looking at all the products for sale on the sponsor sites. And I think I have a pretty clear plan for my ‘90 after all maintenance is done.

It’s so original and low mileage that I don’t want to go too far. But there are certain design elements that I dislike or consider outdated. So what I’m shooting for is a “better than stock” type thing. Quality of life upgrades, reliability upgrades, decluttering upgrades, etc that keep the original spirit of the car alive while improving it.

Here’s what I have planned, hope people will chime in on this list and mention anything I’ve forgotten or any oversights on my part. I’m just kind of thinking out loud here. Typing it out helps me get my thoughts in order. And happy New Years guys!!!!

- Wally 255. I’ve used this pump in other builds and love it. Can’t leave a weak 30 year old pump in the tank and the 255 isn’t much more than a stock replacement. I’d rather flow more fuel through the rail and keep it cooler. Do I need a rewire kit? I see conflicting info on this.

-Adjustable fpr. I think any/every car should have at least some means of monitoring fuel pressure. Especially on a turbo application. And being able to fine tune fuel pressure is just a no-brainer.

- Improved air intake. Accordion style intakes drive me nuts because I can’t imagine getting good laminar flow through those peaks and valleys. And that intake snorkel seems incredibly small and restrictive. Rather than butcher the stock unit, I’ll buy one or build one.

-fmic and metal turbo piping. If I can find a no-cut solution for the fmic. I hate hacking into stock sheetmetal/supports/body cladding/etc on something original and nice. If not, I’ll just redo the turbo piping in metal with silicone boots. I don’t believe plastic or rubber has any place being used as turbo piping after seeing all the plastic pipes cracking on bone stock Powerstrokes and seeing my dad get stranded in his 03 tdi because the hokey intercooler piping blew apart and got mangled in a belt in a bone stock car under stock boost. Rant over haha.

- 3” exhaust. Way bigger than needed on my stock engine and turbo. But egts seem awfully high on these cars and I’d like to do anything I can to minimize that. Plus there’s all the room in the world to build a 3” on my FWD. Plus I already have 20’ of 3” 316 sanitary tubing and some 316 sanitary 90s and 45s just begging to be used.

- Mechanical boost gauge. Not having an accurate means of seeing boost pressure/vac seems crazy. Or at least downright inconvenient for troubleshooting. I can’t believe even modern cars don’t have this figured out.

- Wideband. I know I’m on a stock turbo with stock injectors. But it just seems like cheap insurance to know if I ever start leaning out for some reason. My turbo camaro randomly went full lean while just cruising at 55 mph due to some unknown issue. Good thing I had a wideband to catch it.

-Catch can setup, check valve in the pcv line, anything I can do to promote crank ventilation and keep gunk out of my intake side.

-Some kind of exhaust manifold/o2 housing solution that is less prone to leaking and better for egts. Maybe a 2g manifold with an aftermarket o2 housing in which I could weld another bung for my wideband.

-Coilovers. The oem struts are (understandably) shot. I have a pair of Godspeeds on my Supra and love them. Not fancy or hardcore racing quality perhaps, but they keep the car a lot flatter while still providing a factory style comfortable ride on the softer settings. Will probably get the exact same model for the Laser. Plus they don’t cost a whole lot more than factory replacement struts from a reputable name.

-Tires. These are dry rotted badly. Luckily my wheels are 8” wide so the only width restriction will be what I can fit with the body. I’ll need to look more into what widths/profiles work. I like the look of wide tires so will probably just do the widest I can fit without rubbing or modification in a 35 or 45 or so profile.

- Stainless brake lines and braided hoses. Instead of flushing the 30 year old lines, I’d rather just order some 316 tube from work and redo the whole system in materials that will never fail. Single pot calipers seem anemic even on a stock power build too so the 3000gt/stealth upgrade sounds interesting.

- Maybe, maybe a different turbo. Not going for huge boost or cfm but I’m sure they’ve made big strides in efficiency and spool speed in the last 30 years. If I can make it work well on stock injectors. And most importantly on a stock or close to stock clutch/pressure plate setup. I love how easy and light this clutch is and how easy it is to feather. I have other super heavy on/off type clutch cars and my little legs need a break from that.

Maybe the diehard “all original” types will view this as blasphemy and the high hp monsters will see it as lame and boring but I think this would be a good jumping off point for a basically stock but very reliable and fun summer cruiser.

But then again I’m a noob so let me know if I overlooked anything or lack supporting mods for something or other!

Thanks!
 
Wooh that was alot of reading. Mostly agree with your assessment but I'm in more of a "stock sucks" type person. Anything you can do to improve the efficiency of your engine can only help in almost all regards.
 
IMHO, first upgrade Dual Piston Calipers and new brake lines. That made a huge improvement and I wish I had done it day one.
 
1) definitely need a rewire on the fuel pump, losing voltage at higher rpm’s is no bueno.
2) Wally 255 is plenty. It’s definitely not “little” better than stock, it’s significantly better/higher flow. A Wally 190 is a “little” better. AFPR is a must.
3) 2G exhaust manifold will be fine, and just go with a 2G o2 housing and then port the shit out of it. Put your wideband 12-18” from the head for longevity sake. Just add an extra bung on the downpipe like the rest of us do.
4) A 16G or 20G will meet all your needs. Especially in TD05H form. It’ll spool quick, hit hard enough to roast the front tires, and be fun as hell on the street.
5) if you go anything other than a 14B, ditch the stock injectors. I was hitting 80-85% duty cycle on a 14B above 20lbs of boost. They won’t get you very far or live very long on anything bigger.
6) Whether you stay stock turbo and injectors or not, add ECMLink to this list. Tuning a stock/barely modded MAF car on link is perhaps one of the easiest things you’ll ever do and it’ll teach you basic tuning skills. As you add stuff you can refine the tune and learn even more. So if you ever go big or moderate stuff, you won’t need to pay anyone else to do it for you. Plus it’s a point of pride imo.
7) I hear you on the stock clutch, but you gotta pay to play. Stock clutch will slip on a 14B if pushed hard enough. Look into the southbend clutch kits that @twicks69 offered at TMZ Performance. He is a wealth of knowledge and has lots of info posted out there. But basically it’s almost stock like pedal pressure and feel but holds all the power you’d want.

Everything else looks good or I don’t disagree with.
 
I
1) definitely need a rewire on the fuel pump, losing voltage at higher rpm’s is no bueno.
2) Wally 255 is plenty. It’s definitely not “little” better than stock, it’s significantly better/higher flow. A Wally 190 is a “little” better. AFPR is a must.
3) 2G exhaust manifold will be fine, and just go with a 2G o2 housing and then port the shit out of it. Put your wideband 12-18” from the head for longevity sake. Just add an extra bung on the downpipe like the rest of us do.
4) A 16G or 20G will meet all your needs. Especially in TD05H form. It’ll spool quick, hit hard enough to roast the front tires, and be fun as hell on the street.
5) if you go anything other than a 14B, ditch the stock injectors. I was hitting 80-85% duty cycle on a 14B above 20lbs of boost. They won’t get you very far or live very long on anything bigger.
6) Whether you stay stock turbo and injectors or not, add ECMLink to this list. Tuning a stock/barely modded MAF car on link is perhaps one of the easiest things you’ll ever do and it’ll teach you basic tuning skills. As you add stuff you can refine the tune and learn even more. So if you ever go big or moderate stuff, you won’t need to pay anyone else to do it for you. Plus it’s a point of pride imo.
7) I hear you on the stock clutch, but you gotta pay to play. Stock clutch will slip on a 14B if pushed hard enough. Look into the southbend clutch kits that @twicks69 offered at TMZ Performance. He is a wealth of knowledge and has lots of info posted out there. But basically it’s almost stock like pedal pressure and feel but holds all the power you’d want.

Everything else looks good or I don’t disagree with.
I meant little more than stock replacement cost on the 255, not fuel flow. Thanks for the turbo/injector tips. This year for sure they’ll stay stock, but I’m open to the possibility of upgrading at some point. But for now I’ve got enough to do on this car.

I think tmz is only about 40 minutes or an hour away from me, I could talk to him about a clutch upgrade that doesn’t get too heavy.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
I would add EGR delete and FIAV delete (there's a thread on doing it for $0 here on Tuners)- the former because it cleans up the intake a ton and the latter because the only function of the FIAV on these cars is to leak on the ISC motor and blow out the driver chips in the ECU (#neveragain).

Doing the fuel pump rewire has the benefit of not having the pump change pitch when you're using your turn signal at a light, which is incredibly irritating after a while. 🤣 Good call on the AFPR, the fuel pressure with the stock regulator with a 255hp is a big negative.

Definitely do the braided brake lines, and as mentioned, go to the 2 piston calipers with a decent pad and you'll be much happier. I will never willingly drive a stock brake 1ga again.

As for the exhaust 3" is the right call- I'd get a non-straight through muffler- the performance penalty is offset by being able to run a stock-ish looking twin tip which I'm a fan of, plus it seems to invite less attention from police & boyracer types :thumb:
 
1) definitely need a rewire on the fuel pump, losing voltage at higher rpm’s is no bueno.
2) Wally 255 is plenty. It’s definitely not “little” better than stock, it’s significantly better/higher flow. A Wally 190 is a “little” better. AFPR is a must.
3) 2G exhaust manifold will be fine, and just go with a 2G o2 housing and then port the shit out of it. Put your wideband 12-18” from the head for longevity sake. Just add an extra bung on the downpipe like the rest of us do.
4) A 16G or 20G will meet all your needs. Especially in TD05H form. It’ll spool quick, hit hard enough to roast the front tires, and be fun as hell on the street.
5) if you go anything other than a 14B, ditch the stock injectors. I was hitting 80-85% duty cycle on a 14B above 20lbs of boost. They won’t get you very far or live very long on anything bigger.
6) Whether you stay stock turbo and injectors or not, add ECMLink to this list. Tuning a stock/barely modded MAF car on link is perhaps one of the easiest things you’ll ever do and it’ll teach you basic tuning skills. As you add stuff you can refine the tune and learn even more. So if you ever go big or moderate stuff, you won’t need to pay anyone else to do it for you. Plus it’s a point of pride imo.
7) I hear you on the stock clutch, but you gotta pay to play. Stock clutch will slip on a 14B if pushed hard enough. Look into the southbend clutch kits that @twicks69 offered at TMZ Performance. He is a wealth of knowledge and has lots of info posted out there. But basically it’s almost stock like pedal pressure and feel but holds all the power you’d want.

Everything else looks good or I don’t disagree with.
And frankly I’m terrified of tuning. Or tech in general for that matter. I don’t even know hp tuners, MS, or efi live or any of the big name programs, much less ECMLink.

I don’t have a Facebook, google, Snapchat, MySpace, etc and have a broken iPhone 5. I don’t even have a laptop, I use a desktop computer. Haha, this site is literally the most technologically-advanced thing in my life. ECMLink sounds great, but I really doubt my ability to understand it, much less use it safely and effectively.
 
I would add EGR delete and FIAV delete (there's a thread on doing it for $0 here on Tuners)- the former because it cleans up the intake a ton and the latter because the only function of the FIAV on these cars is to leak on the ISC motor and blow out the driver chips in the ECU (#neveragain).

Doing the fuel pump rewire has the benefit of not having the pump change pitch when you're using your turn signal at a light, which is incredibly irritating after a while. 🤣 Good call on the AFPR, the fuel pressure with the stock regulator with a 255hp is a big negative.

Definitely do the braided brake lines, and as mentioned, go to the 2 piston calipers with a decent pad and you'll be much happier. I will never willingly drive a stock brake 1ga again.

As for the exhaust 3" is the right call- I'd get a non-straight through muffler- the performance penalty is offset by being able to run a stock-ish looking twin tip which I'm a fan of, plus it seems to invite less attention from police & boyracer types :thumb:
Yeah, will definitely be doing an oem replica in 3”. I like the look of the big straight throughs, but on my stock internals, stock turbo, stock cam, and stock displacement car, that’s just not really the right fit. I’d feel like a little rice boy. I plan to make an exact replica of the stock system including hangers with the exception of no cat and 316 instead of shitty steel. I also like the oem 2 tip look that these boxy early 90s cars had. I believe the 240 sx had a similar 2 tip, as well as the mkiii Supra. The straight through looks “cooler” in my opinion, but there’s a certain period charm to the stocker that I also really like.

The egr is deleted but I’m not sure about the FIAV. I basically looked at every emissions system in the car and gutted it all. I’ll have to check and see what the FIAV and Isc are but if it’s emissions related, it’s gone. Not sure what to do about the line going to the charcoal can though. Id like to just cap it and run a vented gas cap.

What 2 piston calipers are you guys running? 3000gt? Or other?
 
I don’t even have a laptop, I use a desktop computer.

Just so you know, you don't need much of a laptop to run ECMlink. I mean it can be an old one with low-end specs. It just has to work. And it has to have at least two good working USB ports that haven't been mangled.
For example, I still use my Dell Inspiron 1501 that I bought new in 2007 . It is Windows XP. I've never updated it. But I've never mangled it either. It works fine for ECMlink and that's all I ever use it for. Since it is WinXP and has never been updated, I can't let it touch the internet or any network that is on the internet. So I carry files (logs and stuff) back and forth between my old laptop and my current desktop with a USB thumbdrive.
 
FYI the 3000gt non turbo brakes and the 93 up awd twin piston brakes look identical but they are not. The 3000gt brakes are the same bracket and rotor but the pistons are larger diameter so the bias will change slightly. If you ever buy reman calipers check them carefully.
3000gt vr4 calipers are not a bolt on and require adapter brackets.
Outlander brakes are even larger rotors than 93 up twin Poiston and are another popular upgrade to get even bigger rotors.
 
FYI the 3000gt non turbo brakes and the 93 up awd twin piston brakes look identical but they are not. The 3000gt brakes are the same bracket and rotor but the pistons are larger diameter so the bias will change slightly. If you ever buy reman calipers check them carefully.
3000gt vr4 calipers are not a bolt on and require adapter brackets.
Outlander brakes are even larger rotors than 93 up twin Poiston and are another popular upgrade to get even bigger rotors.

What model year outlander?
 
The egr is deleted but I’m not sure about the FIAV. I basically looked at every emissions system in the car and gutted it all. I’ll have to check and see what the FIAV and Isc are but if it’s emissions related, it’s gone. Not sure what to do about the line going to the charcoal can though. Id like to just cap it and run a vented gas cap.

What 2 piston calipers are you guys running? 3000gt? Or other?

So FIAV = Fast Idle Air Valve, without it, if it's very cold, your might have a problem with the car idling on startup. The solution is to just barely rest your foot on the throttle for the first 10-30 seconds after startup to hold it at a fast idle ~1000-1200 RPM.

It's got coolant going through it (so it knows when to open or close), and when it leaks it causes the ISC (Idle Speed Controller, just a stepper motor that the ECU uses to adjust idle) to short out, when it does, it literally blows up the driver chips in the ECU, and you'll be sending it out for repair. I found this out many years ago when a buddy borrowed my ECU because his car wasn't running right, and then both ECUs ended up going to see Thomas at ECMLink for repair 🤣

As for exhaust, I wish I had a better pic of mine, but I'm with you- and mine are square tips no less :thumb: annoyingly un-resized high res pic that barely shows the exhaust
 
So FIAV = Fast Idle Air Valve, without it, if it's very cold, your might have a problem with the car idling on startup. The solution is to just barely rest your foot on the throttle for the first 10-30 seconds after startup to hold it at a fast idle ~1000-1200 RPM.

It's got coolant going through it (so it knows when to open or close), and when it leaks it causes the ISC (Idle Speed Controller, just a stepper motor that the ECU uses to adjust idle) to short out, when it does, it literally blows up the driver chips in the ECU, and you'll be sending it out for repair. I found this out many years ago when a buddy borrowed my ECU because his car wasn't running right, and then both ECUs ended up going to see Thomas at ECMLink for repair 🤣

As for exhaust, I wish I had a better pic of mine, but I'm with you- and mine are square tips no less :thumb: annoyingly un-resized high res pic that barely shows the exhaust
Right, right I was thinking of just looping the coolant lines that run to the FIAV and capping the fittings on the FIAV just for cleanup’s sake, just didn’t know that’s what it was called. This is a summer only car so that function would do me no good anyways.
 
Right, right I was thinking of just looping the coolant lines that run to the FIAV and capping the fittings on the FIAV just for cleanup’s sake, just didn’t know that’s what it was called. This is a summer only car so that function would do me no good anyways.

I think this is a cleaner/better way than looping the lines, but it's been 10+ years since I went down this road 🤣
 
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