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Sharkquest!

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Well it's winter! But progress is being made. Slowly.

I pulled the engine, and after fighting with it for a day, got the trans attached! Dang friction plate wasn't aligned...took a while to figure it out.

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Welded up some of the intercooler pipes, less couplings this way.

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Went ahead and made up some Radiator brackets, as well as overflow tank mounting brackets. So many brackets...

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See the catch can hanging there? There's two, and they're going to plumb into the intake going right above them.

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So the radiator block I built on the back of the head, hits the firewall. I pulled the motor back out, and cut out the cancerous lump on the firewall. It's going to get a little aluminum plate to cover it. Probably going to remove the heater core system as I don't have the computer functional to run it.

I made these brackets, because I don't have the factory lift hooks. I'm pretty proud of how these came out.

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Tomorrow I'm going to work on the patch for the firewall, and hopefully the whole thing will slide in. Finally!
 
Now that the engine and trans are in I had to do some firewall surgery, it's not the greatest, but it will work. I've only got 1/2 inch or so between the back of my water block and the firewall. Plan B will be to get some Montero Mounts that will me move the engine forward 2.5 inches. Of course this would require a new driveshaft.

I made a heat shield for the Alt. And here's what is looks like in place.

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But this is all getting moved. As you can see, there's almost no clearance between the Alt and the exhaust! So I got the Jayracing kit on order, and the alt will be moving to the other side. Which means relocating my remote oil filter too of course! The catch cans are now mounted int he nose area, not where you see them now. When more line shows up I'll put up some finished pics of those. Oh and the turbo precludes using the traditional Power steering locations, so it's going roughly where the alt is now.

Just a shot of the interior. there's stuff everywhere!
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So I totally forgot about this thread. Sorry guys. I still own the car, and for the first time today I had spark and fuel form the MS2 I finished.

Heard a strange noise, while cranking the engine. Put a wrench on the cranks and noticed a ton of resistance. Pulled the cam cover, found out 2 roller followers had left the camshaft and all the others were loose! I have good oil pressure (spun the pump with a drill to find all the awesome leaks, yay). But when the cam is on it's heel I can easily pull the followers off their lifters! I assume this is incorrect. I'll see if I can get some better info from a 'Help' type post.

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Thought you guys might find this cool, it's a 2-g power steering pump, 2.4 1g block and the Kiggly relocation kit with GM alternator. It took a while to figure out the correct belts! Also the water pump needed little spacers to set behind the pulley to line it up with the alt, but it all works now. May try to find a much larger pulley for the water pump though, and work from there. Early 4-rib stuff is really hard to find in the JY these days.

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Now that I've finally gotten spark, and fuel, and fixed all the leaks, this thing should be running soon! In the meanwhile I picked up a whole non-running Quest and got it running. Also grabbed a really nice shell, with all the interior bits that may get this motor and trans. Or it may get a special engine/trans idea I've been working on. Hint: 4g Eclipse and Kia Sorento.

This one is the shell

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This one is the runner! Clean title too! A little rusty, but built motor and suspension and brakes. Got it really cheap due to not running at purchase, but it ran by the end of the day! Sounds really cool too.

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Did I mention I have an addiction to cheap unloved import sports cars? Halp...
 
That timing belt looks awfully loose. Did it loosen up, or was that a "in progress" pic? I too love these cars, it was my first car over 20 years ago. I am currently on the fence as to which motor I want to put in, 4G63, 2JZ, LS..
 
That timing belt looks awfully loose. Did it loosen up, or was that a "in progress" pic? I too love these cars, it was my first car over 20 years ago. I am currently on the fence as to which motor I want to put in, 4G63, 2JZ, LS..

That was an in-progress! Didn't even notice that until you mentioned it. I removed the idler pulley so it was easier to mess with the components with the belt slack. Yeah these cars are awesome. I also happen to really like the 3rd gen Celicas, which have a similar shape. And FC's...

Oddly carbed American V8's fit in the Starion easily. But there's a lot of fab from what I read for the LS's.

I'm thinking the 3.8 Mivec motor, plus the Kia rwd trans and rwd water housings (Grabbed these at the JY this weekend) will fit in the Starion. Not 100% on the Mivec intake, but the preliminary measurements from the Kia say it'll be about 2 inches too high. Oil pan clearance and maybe front crossmember clearance will be needed. I won't be sure until I get a 3.8 in the junkyard to measure, as the Kia's use the 6g74 and a unique intake manifold. I plan to use the entire factory Mivec computer and immobilizer, and cluster. it'll be tricky, but damn awesome if I can make it work. Now thta I'm more familiar with MS, that's a backup plan.

Did some reading this afternoon, apparently my lifters are shot/the wrong ones. Ordered a new set of 3rd generation lifters. I tried to cheap out, and it bit me I think. I'll be inspecting the cams tomorrow to see if anything was damaged. The preliminary looked good, but with so many of the lifters practically falling out, I was afraid to turn the cams a full 360. I took the head to a reputable shop, familiar with the 4g63 even, and can't believe they didn't notice the followers falling off the lifters! Luckily I was just cranking the engine by hand, not actually running it, when I noticed the issue.
 
Inspected the exhaust camshaft today. No obvious damage. But every single rocker fell out! There's something like 3mm clearance between the rocker and the camshaft. I had the shop install the GSC Beehive Valvesprings Retainers Eclipse DSM Evo1-8 4G63T. So I assume that's correct for a 1g dsm head. But obviously this is messed up. Are the intake and exhaust maybe backwards? Wrong springs, right valves? I'm totally lost.
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The Intake side looks fine

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I posted a 'Help' type post elsewhere, but I tho0ught I should follow up here. the valves were all trashed on the exhaust side. head had sime very minor damage. sanded off the little burrs and put in new lifters, and valves. Bled the lifters before install. reassembled the motor and when turning by hand, it feels like the exhaust valves still want to hit the pistons!

Not sure where to go from here, anyone want to buy a project?

Edit: Ok I'm an idiot, I think I figured it out. Basically the exhaust cam has to be retarded around 3-4 degrees so that it is still oriented at 90 degrees to the head surface. this is due to the 64 block being about 6mm taller, before decking it of course. So if I get my intake and exhaust cams marks lined up with the deck, then adjust the exhaust cam wheel so that the inner mark lines up with the intake side, I should be good. of course double check everything turning it by hand 720+ degrees for full rotation.
 
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So I had some time to mess with the car this afternoon. I ended up with 3 degrees retarded on the exhaust and 2 degrees advanced on the intake. This seemed to be the only way to have the belt fit as well as the cam marks line up with eachother.

I did a compression test, cold, with both manifolds removed, and got ~160 psi on cylinders 1, 2, and 4. Cylinder 3 was only 60 psi!

I put my bore scope into the intake side of cylinder 3, and can see the valves moving. They looked good, and identical to the intake valves of cylinder 2. I ran out of time to check the exhausts for #3. But right now I really hope it's just stuck or empty lifters. I don't have any reason to suspect bent valves or something like that because the other 3 cylinders are working correctly. Unless of course #3's valves did something odd. Ugh.
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Cylinder 3

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Also, sorry if you mentioned it already but are you using a 63 or 64 belt? I think the 64 is slightly longer. I can't remember for sure, but I think my came gears lined up like stock since I used both a 64 intake and exhaust cams. Are you sure the gears need to be adjusted as far as you did? Searching a little bit it looks like the 63 gears need to be adjusted only half a tooth each to make them in the correct position for a 64. I'm sure you've seen this already but I figured I'd ask anyways. http://www.galantvr4.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Board=UBB11&Number=364876&page=6&fpart=1
 
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Also, sorry if you mentioned it already but are you using a 63 or 64 belt? I think the 64 is slightly longer. I can't remember for sure, but I think my came gears lined up like stock since I used both a 64 intake and exhaust cams. Are you sure the gears need to be adjusted as far as you did? Searching a little bit it looks like the 63 gears need to be adjusted only half a tooth each to make them in the correct position for a 64. I'm sure you've seen this already but I figured I'd ask anyways. http://www.galantvr4.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Board=UBB11&Number=364876&page=6&fpart=1

Yep, I have the 64 belt, for the 1994 Galant. I'm using adjustable AEM's, I thin they're for a 63, so that would explain them not working exactly, I think. Also it's possible the cam dowels were not exactly 90 degrees, which would throw things off. It's not easy to eyeball this stuff really.

they needed to be adjusted around a half tooth, yes. It ended up being retarded 3 degrees on exhaust and advanced 2 on intake. I could not get the belt to fit any other way. But I will double check the tdc mark and the cam alignment again later this week as it's now snowing here. That Kiggly trigger is NOT easy to line up correctly with the 6-bolt timing mark on the oil pump.

I found out that the lifters on the #3 exhaust aren't pumping up. Also one of the rockers on #1 exhaust decided to flip itself around...also due to rocker not pumping up enough.

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And this managed to score the cam, lightly, but I hope the cam isn't trash now.

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Thanks for all the useful comments guys. It's a very slow build due to me working on too many cars, and the weather not cooperating at all recently. Got the timing corrected, and everything looks good. Busy putting all the stuff attached to the head back onto it. I ran into a problem, yes I know, another one. The lower timing cover doesn't seem to want to fit over the damper uh knob thing. Is this due to the damper being for a 2g and the timing cover for a 1g? It's really close, but not close enough.
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Just another picture of the stuff going back together. Working on the wastegate and it's hoses today. If the TB gasket shows up, that will pretty much wrap up the intake side of things.

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IT RUNS! Yep had the first startup today. Super excited. It sounds like a big block with a cam, which in Mitsubishi terms it is LOL.

I only ran it for a few seconds, because I don't have coolant in it (pinhole leak in rad welds and in water block in back of head) and I didn't want to damage the cams without following break in procedure.
I put it all together and the starter didn't want to crank! Turns out the damper was presing against the cover. I had to clearance the lower timing cover for the damper, maybe because the damper is from a 2g?

Still need to rework the wastegate flex pipe, and reassemble the catch can, as well as the new coil location.

Is there some way to insert videos? I can't quite figure that out.
 
Found a bunch of water leaks from pinholes in Rad and the Water diverter I mad e for the back of the head. Took both out and welded the holes up. Tested them this time with some compressed air. Looking good. Man is it hard to get your hands into that space between firewall and motor!

Also welded up a new power steering reservoir as the previous one had the AN fitting damaged, and would leak.

For now I've got an undersized idler pulley turning the water pump. I hear some guys are able to adjust (how?) the mighty max snout/mount so that the dsm pulley will line up but I can't quite figure that now.

Fixed the wastegate/downpipe misalignment with some cutting and rewelding. Now it fits pretty smoothly. Put the 10 pound spring into the wastegate. Will need to tap and thread the turbo elbow for boost reference. But for now 10 pounds is enough for testing.

Going to break in cams tomorrow, following GSC instructions on time and RPM. No load requirements, which is great because the car has no seats...or throttle cable.

Went ahead and painted up the fenders for the second Red Starion, that will be up for sale by the end of next week, if all goes well. It needs to get out of here.

The plan then is to remove all the goodies from this shell and transfer them to the cleaner/titled one. Then sell off black testbed shell.
 
So I was kinda dumb and found out I had a huge vacuum leak and that's why the idle was around 1k rpm and the engine died if I touched the throttle. I left out the PCV nipple (1/8" BSPT right?) on the manifold as well as the little one near the rear of the manifold, which is plugged now with a metric bolt.

But now the car won't start. I'm thinking I'm way too rich fuel wise, despite the O2 sensor reading lean. My reasoning is that if the Car ran with a huge vacuum leak, it would be getting a much leaner AFR, but with it stopped up now I'm pig rich. I think the O2 won't read correctly unless it's at operating temperature. So the trick now will be to balance fuel atomization with injector pulse width and fuel pressure so that it won't flood out at idle.

I think tuner Studio has some tools built into it, but they're greyed out in mine. Likely have to pay for them.
 
I thought cams only had to be broken in if they're flat tappets....
 
I thought cams only had to be broken in if they're flat tappets....
Hmm, pretty sure any metal moving parts in an engine require a break in period. In my case per the cam card, it's required.

So did more reading, and more tuning, and it's almost running again, but I'm getting lost in Dead time and VE tables in Tuner Studio. It's still flooding out the plugs, with the lower end of the VE table dropped to 4! Also tried dropping fuel pressure to 30, but that may work against me due to lack of vaporization. I may try 0 or 1 and see if that works, but ran out of time today. Anyone on here have experience with FIC 2000cc injectors?
 
Now it actually runs!

I found out that there's a seperate VE table for cranking in Tuner Studio. I cut the values to a 1/4 and the flooding went away. It would catch, but not start, but sounded better with opened throttle. My dad mentioned that it needs air, so I unplugged the capped IAC hose and it sorta ran! then I remembered I hadn't removed the tape between the Intercooler and the turbo! Of course it won't run with a totally blocked intake tract!

Put it all back together and it sounds mean! Almost will idle, but I realized I had a flange mismatch between the turbo and the Downpipe. I need to cut and adjust the downpipe a bit to match the turbo...again. Ah well, time to order up some Mufflers, cats and resonators. Going all stainless. I bought a bunch of 3" scrap for $2.50 a pound a while back, and I'm pretty sure it will work fine with some pre-fabbed elbows.

Any recommendations for mufflers? I want quiet, the less attention the better.

I also sold the red Starion; the guy showed up early and had 0 quibbles on price and paid in cash. I guess I should have asked for more $?

Now I can bring the shell to the house and move all the goodies from car A to B.
 
Hmm, pretty sure any metal moving parts in an engine require a break in period. In my case per the cam card, it's required.

So did more reading, and more tuning, and it's almost running again, but I'm getting lost in Dead time and VE tables in Tuner Studio. It's still flooding out the plugs, with the lower end of the VE table dropped to 4! Also tried dropping fuel pressure to 30, but that may work against me due to lack of vaporization. I may try 0 or 1 and see if that works, but ran out of time today. Anyone on here have experience with FIC 2000cc injectors?
Can you post a pic of the card? The factory rockers have needle bearing rollers specifically to avoid this so I'd be interested in seeing why they're calling it out. It's metal on metal but the two surfaces won't really wear into each other as there isn't enough friction and they're both rotating so they don't see the same surface often enough.

I wasn't able to find any information for my kelford cams regarding break in procedure on roller rocker cam applications, nor can I find any other manufacturer who specifies a break in procedure.
 
Ok, so it's been a year...wow. Sorry. Life has been busy, between working on a new chassis, the supra, a 47 IH and now 13 hour days at work it's been hard to do anything in the Starion. Yep, I've got a true Starion now. I sold off the old black chassis to get one with a clean interior and title.

Anyway...I'm about to fire it up, but the engine won't turn. I checked the starter, battery, and made sure the diff and trans were free. Turns out the timing cover is being crushed by the crank damper.

So I have a 1g Mighty Max block, with a 1g DSM timing cover and a 2g crank damper. I think this might be causing the issue? Engine could be turned by hand before I put the damper on. Now the starter won't turn it. Any ideas? Space the damper out a little maybe?
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Just some pics of the fab work I did. You can just about see the throttle cable bracket I made that bolts to the stock coil pack location.
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It runs! It actually runs! Poorly, but it's firing and making loud noises.

OK here's where I could use a bit of help. I've got a brand new CS120 alt (Saturn alt), and it's not charging my battery. I've got the (L)wire hooked to a switched 12v+ and the sense wire (S) hooked to my distribution block. The block is fed by my battery, and then feeds the starter, fusible links, and the alt B+. I don't know what I've got wrong here, as it should be charging, but I can see the voltage gradually drop while the car is running.

The other problem I'm running into is the IACV, I think I've got it set to Home Open position, and something like 300 steps. The car won't idle and I have to give it gas to prevent stalling. It screams past 3k rpm, but tries to die under 2000. Transition is a bit difficult between RPM ranges too.

Need some exhaust as you can hear it at the end of the block LOL.
 
A little progress today. I got a NOCO 20, i.e. a lithium battery that's about 2x as big as my old one and now the car idles much better. I'm seeing 12.6 volts at the battery when running and 13.8 when off. This seems wrong. I should be seeing 13-14 volts at the battery when the engine is running, right?
 
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