Fly like an eagle...I have a CSM problem

So in the tradition of posting the project car before picking it up, Meet the new addition to the fold. It's a 1995 Eagle Summit DL.

I picked it up for a dirt cheap price for the specific purpose of being a motorsports beater. I love my cyborg but at the end of the day, I didn't want to cut it up for a ton of mods and really have been enjoying driving it on the streets all summer just in pretty much stockish form. So this popped up on the mirage boards like 10 miles away I ran and not walked and went to pick it up last night.

This thing is really rust free for a Nebraska/Iowa car. I was shocked. I even did a title search to see if it was from California or the south or something and nope. This area all it's life. These are tin cans that rust if you look at them wrong. This picture just had me running and not walking to go get it:

It's a 1.5L with a whopping 92 HP but that doesn't matter. That engine is not long for this car. 

So what's the plans for the car? Turbo. All the Turbos. I have a high RPM screamer with the Mivec. This one is going to be more like the Baby Evo, Lancer GSR. I have all of the right stuff to build a forged 4g93 and the turbo manifold and a 14B so that'll be the way I'll probably go at least to start. Looking forward to it. Will post more pics as when I get the car this weekend. 

Few more pics:

I like the idea of a "motorsports beater." Nothing too fancy, but perfect for getting more seat time.

In reply to Colin Wood :

Yeah. It won't be fancy. Almost all factory parts from the Mitsubishi and associates parts bins. Luckily it was a pretty big parts bin in the 90's. The Eagle is just a Mirage with nicer badges. 

Brakes will be from a 2G Eclipse GSX calipers in the front and Acura RSX calipers in the rear on Mini Cooper S rotors. 276MM Front and 260MM Rear. Then I'll be digging up a 15/16" bore master cylinder from I think it's a 3000GT or Mivec for it all to match. 

Rear suspension will be borrowed from the 1st Gen Volvo S40 which was a Mitsubishi with a Volvo engine. I have the rear swaybar and mounts from there already in my parts bin. The front will be the Evo III swaybar setup as it matches the coilovers I already have. 

Transmission I'm going to try and find will be the Mitsubishi Expo 1.8L Manual. Those had the shorter ratio like the overseas Mivec models. They are rare. If not I know where there is a mirage one so I can get an LSD. The 1.5L transmission will not take a LSD. 

The engine stuff will be basically a mildly built. I have the rods and pistons to make it strong and withstand a beating. The 4g93 is an easy drop in. I'm not looking for crazy HP. Would like 220HP to the wheels which should be an easy goal with a 12PSI build on RC550s that I have already. 

Goal is about 2200LBS and low 200's HP with traction that I can prowl the streets for fun and take to the track/autox/rallycross when I want. I've got a budget of about $5K total for everything. I could make it a challenge car with some stretching. 

Looking forward to more :D

I really don't know much about these. You're basically building the Evo I coupe that never was? I love these obscure 90's coupe bodystyles. 

In reply to maschinenbau :

Kinda. It's more just a mix of all of the good parts from Mitsubishi of the era. They were parts bin cars in a lot of ways so it's just assembling the lego pieces that they should have from the factory or that they did in other markets. 

I will keep it FWD for a while at least because I want to keep it under 2200LB which is easy to do. My last one of this body style was under 2K with no turbo. There is a lot of evo cross over parts especially with the front brakes and suspension. I also want to turbo this one. I already have most of the parts for that on what was the factory motor in the next step up model. 

The side purpose is to wrench with my nephew. I got him into track days last year and he just loved it so he is very excited to build this with me. He will be doing all of the welding and fab work for me as he is a welder by trade. He is still learning the whys and this is a great way to teach him. Also, It'll be a car he can take to the track/autox/rallyx whenever he wants as well. 

I have it's younger cousin that has a high revving 1.6L already that I drive all summer and has been my track rat but I'm really enjoying driving everyday and don't want to compromise it to make it safe at 120+ MPH straights.  

Mivec Build Thread

So I finally got a chance to go get it today and she is here now here at the house. It was a no start car when I got it and I knew that so I spent the day doing a little diagnostic work. I am not keeping this motor but wanted to make sure it ran before I started to tear it down and have frustrations when the new motor is in. 

First, a picture. She isn't pretty at all. There is the typical rust on the roofs which so many have. It's also beat up but what do you expect for a cheap beater. 

You know you have the base model when there is a cigarette lighter block off. When is the last time you have seen that?

Yeah she is basic. Manual steering and everything. 

So on to the not running issue. It wanted to run so I grabbed the can of starter fluid. Yeah it's a fuel issue. It ran nice on the starting fluid so we know she isn't getting gas properly. 

So I pulled the rear seat to listen for the fuel pump. It was running. So it's either a clogged fuel filter which makes sense because the PO said it got worse over time. It's either that which I'll replace regardless or a slowly failing fuel pressure regulator. So we will get that figured out in the next couple days when I have a chance to get to my spare fuel pressure regulator, I'll toss is on and make sure we are good. The fuel line trickled and not sprayed when I cracked the line. 

So now that I have that figured out, time to make sure the rear suspension all will work like I thought. 

Everything went in just fine. So we are good. It all bolted right in as expected. 

I just doubled or tripled the value of the car. 

So I got to looking at everything today and this should go pretty quick overall. 

I have all of the brake items on the way. There was an odd ball order that I made on Japan Yahoo Auctions a couple years ago that is going to pay off. There was only a very rare few Mirage stateside with rear disc brakes. I found these caliper mounts and like the hoarder I am, I ordered them. Well now I'm in need and have them on the shelf. I got lucky off amazon and got a pair of brand new dual piston caliper off there for $82. So all said and done, I'll have a pretty much brand new front to rear brake system for less than $500. All 4 calipers, new brake hoses, and a new master cylinder. Got to love being able to shop the bargain shelf since all of these items have probably been on someones shelf for many years looking at the boxes coming in. 

The new motor and transmission came in today. It's a JDM import from the Space Wagon. (AKA the Expo/Summit Wagon stateside) 

So with that, It also came with the better geared transmission for the track to move it's heavier origin vehicle. 

The US mirages and summits with the 1.8L motor came with a 4.021 FD ratio and the wagons all came with a 4.592 FD ratio. 

In just looking inside the oil fill cap before I had to return to work, it looks like I got a good one. It's always a crap shoot with JDM engines but the valve train looked really good. I'll take some pictures later after work. The only real damage I saw was a small crack in the timing cover which will get plastic welded up when I do the timing belt. Other than that, it looked super clean and didn't look like it was leaking at all. There are a few handling scrapes on the valve cover and oil pan but those are available if I get the itch to replace them. 

This weekend has been dedicated to brake work and inspecting the new motor. 

So first off the brakes. From the factory, they were pretty pathetic for anything sporting. This car was made for cheap commuting and not top times on the road course. 

This was the original front brakes. 236MM solid front rotor. 

So need to do better than that. So I raided the Eclipse parts bin and installed the equivalent of the 95-99 GSX front brakes which is 276 vented fronts with 2 piston calipers. Nice part of it is that it is a pretty easy bolt up. 

Just a side side by side

On to the rear brakes now. From the factory, they are drums. Well, I wanted to change that. There are models overseas that have rear discs and it was an option on a very limited number of US cars. So I started to gather parts a while ago. The hardest part to get is the caliper mount. Most junk places don't keep them and they are not made anymore. I found a pair a couple years ago So I grabbed them. The calipers and parking brake cables are not too common state side either. So mine are actually coming from Mexico as they are the same as the Colt Ralliart that were in other markets. 

So I got all the parts and got most of that all together yesterday. Missing the banjo bolts so still have a little to do but it's 95% together. 

On to the engine. 

I knew from the get go that I would be getting a different motor in the Summit. The 1.5L that the car came with has a very small performance window to build off of. 

So it was off to find a new motor for the project. 

I was browsing ebay and the local yards and I found a JDM import motor in a shop in Dallas. It was the motor and the transmission I was looking for out of one of the wagons. It came from the JDM version of the Expo. I figured it would be babied vs any of the performance motors. 

They had it mislabeled as the wrong generation and I believe it had been sitting for a long time. So I lowballed an offer and it was accepted so the motor came last week. I got to opening it up and it looked beautiful: 

I'm very happy with the motor as it came. 

The plan is to drop in a set of rods that I have into the motor with a set of pistons I got from shopping Yahoo Japan auctions. 

The idea will be to run a lower boost (12-14 PSI) for heat management and still be in the high 200 WHP range. It will be in the 10.7 to 1 compression range with the pistons and the head gasket combo I'm going to run. 

In the same shopping run, I found the intake manifold I wanted to run as well. It breaths a lot better than the stock 1.8L that came with the motor. 

It needs a clean up but will work great for the project. I also raided the Eclipse parts bin again and grabbed a 60MM throttle body. 

For the transmission, It's the exact one I wanted. For the wagons, they put a more aggressive final drive ratio to help move the car. 4.592 vs 4.021 for the coupes and sedans. So I'll have the better gearing and more performance. I've got a LSD to stuff in it as well so that will be fun. 

It's coming together nicely. 

Dug into the motor today to figure out what I needed for the refresh. 

So good news is the motor looked really good internally.  Strong cross hatching on all of the cylinders and no damage/scratches/etc. 

So I measured the pistons that came out. I was surprised to see that they were 81.5MM pistons. That means it was a factory overbore as the factory was 81MM or it was rebuilt with factory pistons. I would have been surprised if anyone would rebuilt it with Mitsubishi pistons. 

So I have set of new pistons that I have tucked away in a 81.5MM Bore that I got on a steal incase I decided to rebuild my Mivec but I'll be using it for this. 

Just read this and the mivec build,  awesome work!

In reply to johndej :

Thanks! I have a weird thing for these little cars and this is a project I wanted to do for a bit. It'll be a fun winter of wrenching. 

So last night I started to think through the turbo setup on this car. 

To give you a visual as most people like pictures, here is a picture of the factory turbo motor that I'm stealing parts off of. I have the exhaust manifold for my build and it's in great shape. 

I'm going to copying this as much as I can from a routing POV. 

So I mounted the manifold on the engine last night to just see how all of the things will fit together. The manifold is for the TD05 bolt pattern. I had a couple of GT25XX frame turbos in the parts bin and test fit both and to be honest with the manifold adapter and the positioning of everything, I hated how it all fit together even after playing with the clocking. I need a MHI turbo for the setup. So I looked around and actually found a good price on an authentic Evo III 16G that was new. Those are not common anymore especially new so I snapped it up. It is from a reputable dealer so I'm confident it's real. There are many fakes out there. The other bonus is if down the line I decide to go to a 4g6X series motor, it's an easy transition.

To get the fuel system up to snuff, I got a DW200 fuel pump so I won't run out of fuel pump for the car. Can't complain for under $100 on a black friday special and give me the headroom needed for my target HP. Now I just want to look at if I do 450 or 550CC injectors. I have both sitting around. 

So with that figured out, Now it's time to map out the rest of the build. The other problem is the oil filter location. You can't see it in the picture but it's between the power steering pump and the turbo on my car. For the factory turbo, it was in a different spot. So I laid out the plan for that. I wanted to run an oil cooler since this will be a track car as it's primary purpose in life. So I'm planning on doing a remote oil filter mounting with an oil cooler plumbed in there too. 

The last thing to play with is cooling. There are not a lot of options available for the mirage to get additional cooling. I did a core measurement last night and with a Miata radiator I have in the house and that may be an option. Otherwise, I'll hit up Koyorad and get one of their Evo III radiators. 

The only thing I have left to figure out is engine management. I see myself doing an ODBII conversion to the car and potentially an Evo 8 ECU image just to leave it open for more tuners to be comfortable working on it. I've got a few phone calls planned for these next few weeks to figure that out. 

Just wanted to say I dig all the minutiae that makes this come together and look like it all belongs.

​​​​​​In reply to captainawesome :

Thanks. Yeah, there is a bit of research to get it just right. I like that part of the build a lot though. 

So after a bit of review last night, I see a ODBII conversion in my future. You are probably thinking why the heck would you want to do that?? Well the biggest thing is tuning. For almost all of the ECU's after 98 in the mirage line, you can flash them. This opens the tuning world right on up. I'm not going to get crazy and go after the 10/10th of performance in the car so this is the perfect solution to allow me to tune the fuel and spark maps to the new injectors that are 2X the original size and about 2.5X more air flow. 

So I was doing a lot of mapping of the terminals last night and I was like wait, the 3 of the 4 connectors are exactly the same. They just added a 12 pin connector in there that except for the ODB2 pins I don't even need. 

The metal case is a 1995 ODB1 ECU and the black plastic is a 2000 ODB2 ECU. 

There will still be some wiring to do but I won't have to repin the entire harness. That will save me so much time. Off to "shop" for some cheap harness plugs at the JY this weekend. 

I got everything tossed together just to make sure it all fits before I took the head to the machine shop. Everything is looking good. No big issues which doesn't surprise me given most everything was Mitsubishi outside the coil setup. From the factory it had a distributor hanging off the side and I'm just waiting to find the factory camshaft angle sensor setup from the later model cars. Time to blow it apart and get the headwork done. 

I really like this build, it seems like a great and super fun idea.   Just imagining an HDPE blasting around hanging with the big dogs in an unsuspecting shape.

In reply to akylekoz :

Thanks! It'll surprise a few people I'm sure. It'll be a very fast little car overall I think once I get it shaken down. There are a lot of pony cars here I have to keep up with :) 

So I did the worse thing possible, kept a spreadsheet of the expenses. With everything I have on the car and items ordered/services I already have a quote on and expected expenses I haven't ordered just yet, I'm just under $4700 with the car included. Some of it is because I had items already on had like the pistons and some of the suspension items and I splurged on a new turbo vs gambling with a used 16G. I also sided on the while I'm in there on some things. There are some items that I could have not done but given the use case of the car, I decided it's for the best to replace it than having to go back in there later. 

I still have to plan the safety part of it but I still think I'll be under $7K all said and done with everything in the car touched in on way or another. Not bad at all. 

I had a great day at the junk yard today. Lately the yards around here have been awful about keeping the inventory up to date. I've been there more than once and no sign at all of the cars that I'm looking for. Shoot, the last time I went to the pick and pull that a few miles away, The whole row was gone. Such a pain. 

So I went to the one about an hour a way with little hope of them actually having anything for me. I left a happy man. 

So one of the big things with this build that has been a bit of a pain is the cam position sensor. The factory one was part of the distributor. That unfortunately is not a signal that the later ECUs can read. So I've been looking for a later mirage or lancer cam position sensor trigger and housing because I was 90% certain that it would bolt right in. Success. I didn't bolt it in tight because it's kind of hard to remove but everything lined up and fit like a glove. I got the trigger wheel as well so problem solved. That shiny piece is the newly found housing. 

I was also able to find a MAF that matches the flow of the EVO one. The 482 MAF for Mitsubishi nerds out there. So I'll have plenty of headroom as they have been tuned to 500+ HP. 

Finally, the last obstacle was the later ECUs run PWM fans. I needed to get a PWM controller and wiring. Got all of it from a donor lancer ralliart. 

So a good day at the Junkyard with a lot of things checked off the to get list. Not bad for $70.