tperkins mitsubishi descent into madness (evo 3, 6, 7 starion and pajero)

In reply to tperkins :

Weird indeed, being a mix up of Isuzu DMax front suspension and +-2010 Toyota Fortuner rear suspension and a Mitsibushi 4G69S4 engine and matching gearbox. But damn, it does drive well and the power of the 2.4i pulling that body is mesmerising.

In the 90's we had only 3 SUV brands in the marked, the Nissan Sani, Isuzu Frontier and the Mitsibushi Pajero, the last being a wide range of 2wds and 4wds, with the 4M40T diesel motors and the older 6G72 V6 3.0i.

Nissan and Isuzu weren't seeing high sales volumes, so dropped their SUVs, while retaining only the pickups. Mitsubishi kept the Pajero alongside the Colt and added the 3door iO.

Only in the late 2000's did Nissan the Pathfinder back with the D40 series chassis and Isuzu in 2019 with th MUX based on the Chevrolet Trailblazer.

Toyota added the Vigo based Fortuner in 2005 in their line up, and that was the Pajero's only direct competition till those other arrived.

The Pajero locally has over 8 different direct models, with up to 5 sub models each. 

In reply to StripesSA1 :

Its funny, in Canada nobody knows Pajero unless you are recently immigrated from basically anywhere else in the world.

Evo 3 body:
Started kinda ugly, sad 

But g-dangit, its still an authentic evo 3. 


Things to note: rear bumper hanging off with speed holes, many holes and dents in the trunk lid, taped on wing, bolted on fender flares, rusty roof, rough paint, 


First thing I found taking off the bumper, it was held on by 2 of potential 13 fasteners. The car had a rear splitter before (which you can see in the auction photos but was missing when I got it, and I am assuming that is what was actually holding the bumper up. 

I set to fixing up the fasteners in the rear bumper as well as adding a few more extra. 


Ugly welds on pop can thin metal where I put on 3 extra fasteners that weren't in the bumper support where there were tabs in the factory bumper. 


Painted

Attached

Better lines:



More evidence of the rear splitter:

Note the holes drilled in the trunk for those bolts, crudely cut off tow hook.. also note the pinhole of rust, remember when I said the trunk had all those holes? Well, there was actually a little puddle in the base of that trunk well. 

Meanwhile, widebody arrived:


I noticed the car rotated very well, and as you can see in pictures.. previous owner set it up so the rear was stiff stiff. That helps strain those rear tires and actually have the car rotate, as opposed to push through a corner. Thick springs on the rear, and that thick sway bar. Anyways, these coilovers I think are pretty old, but are still in working condition (would have been pricey little jaspers new). The car, similar to the starion, was slammed when I got it and just not appropriate for our roads. Set to adjust the ride height and raise the car, at least to see where it would need to be when I eventually 5 lug conversion and stick the Advan RG's that are currently on the 6 over on the 3.

ATF/Acetone is your friend

You can actually see it worked down through the threads overnight, coilovers which haven't been touched in probably 10+ years. 

Fronts adjusted here, I did need a 36" pipe wrench to crack the threads. In both these wheel well pictures, you can see how rust free the car is. 


On to the trunk, 
Yup, water sitting in there didn't help... but it could have been a lot worse. 

Grinded out any surface rust, drilled out any pin holes to good metal, then filled them with some little blanks. 

Rustbullet rust encapsulator is a good enough match. 




Now, the roof. RIP. This repair, pretty back yard, farmed, but again I just wanted it to be passable until I replace the roof skin with the carbon fiber one I now have in storage. You can see the PO fixed it with some spray cans that did nothing but make it look worse lol. 

Removed paint, removed rust flakes, rust converter

Some high build primer on top of an epoxy sealer, sanded... again, if you are a body guy I am sorry you have to see this temporary repair. 


Ehhh.. better than it was and took longer than I care to admit. 


Meanwhile, rear bumper repair. I looked for a replacement skin.. but I kind of wanted to keep the original one with the car (even though it is hideous and now frankenstein on the back), hard to find, shipping was crazy when I did. 

Wing blown apart for paint

Lip and wing painted

Fenders test fitting

Fenders painted and installed


Fenders painted and installed with the lip, you can see I didn't paint the front bumper and it still has a couple holes from the flares in it. Maybe in the future. You can also see in this picture just how aggressively the rear arches were pulled and why I said there was no going back. Looks like they did the old baseball bat trick to get them out that far and they distorted that rear shell underneath the fuel door in doing so.
Rear bumper repaired and installed. 

If you are a keen evo 1-3 observer, you can also notice that my car is missing the little door ding guards across the doors, which lead to fitment issues with the rear arches. 

You can see those little trim pieces here on the door midway down:

But, missing on the RS trim


Test fitting rear flares (you can see that gap for the door trim which mine didn't have, this is right when I realized I didn't have it):

Things fit pretty good for fiberglass, but you can see the distortion under that fuel door. 


Rears clearanced... 

Tacked 

Unfortunately, here you can see that I didn't go far enough back to make enough room. I will have to go back and re-do this section in the future as my rear tires rub over very harsh bumps. Not pictured, seam sealed this area from the inside and outside to prevent rust. 

Rear arches installed:


Onto trunk repair:
Stud gun dent repair

Trunk repaired


 wing installed


Out in the world, also following roof wrapped in black. 



Paint correction:



Front door done, rear not

I am actually pretty happy how I was able to bring that paint back 


Original paint on the door brought back


Out in the world, after I had the wheels powder coated back to white. The wheels were spraybombed gray, two used to be white, two used to be silver... I just went with white because originally from Mitsubishi the cars came with the white oz racing 5 spokes as seen above, so made sense and I think it was a great choice. 



Did you notice the quality of worksmanship on the roof was not on par with the body work on the rear bumper skin, trunk, fender, arches? Well, that is because I had a friend help me with the paint. 

In the future, I think I will still brembo and 5 lug conversion the car. I love, love the look of these white wheels on the car, but the stock brakes need to be replaced. In the pictures you can see the dust coming off them since the calipers are sticky, the condition of the rotors... I also don't like the spacers on the car and would rather a properly offset wheel on there. 

I also have RE71R on the 6, and it is not well suited for what I use the car for. They fling too many pebbles and stones and it breaks my heart hearing the bottom of that car getting sand blasted. Welp, guess what. I bought some Advan RG3 and some Firehawk Indy500 for the 6.. which means I will have the Advans from there and the 245/40 re71r for the 3 (which currently has 225 wide tires)... which I hope to get on track (which is also why this hasn't been a Concourse restoration) so at that point potentially I could get better rotors and pads for the stock brakes and keep these wheels.. I don't know. That is all up in the air. I have every piece of the puzzle for brembo / 5 lug conversion in my parts pile waiting. I am also going to have the hood colour matched and that dent repaired (this was originally a black hood from a black car.. either it made it on to my car for styling choices or there was an incident at some point). I am just a normal guy, so I don't have money to do everything all at once and have to piecemeal things together. 

I also think the Advan RG on the evo 6 look great, and very period correct. In fact I have some magazine advertisements from Yokohama wheels advertising the original Advan RG's on an Evo 6 (which would have been brand new at the time). I do have a plan, but nothing is set in stone. That is up to date on the body. 

As stated earlier, car ran like crap when I got it. Sorted all of that out fixing vac leaks, boost leak test,  removing a bunch of unnecessary crap, going through the harness one wire at a time and re-pinning the ECU after repairing nonsense. 

Big old mess


Honestly, being around 2600 lbs, the power from the car seems adequate. It is a little rocket, with a little extra boost, free flowing exhaust (which ECU compensates) its probably around 300 hp mark. From factory they were advertised 270hp. The "big 16g" evo 3 turbo is kind of laggier than the twin scroll on the 6 and 7, so I just wanted to open that up a bit and have a bit more responsiveness. 

Accumulate parts:
JMF Fab o2 housing

Apexi front pipe:


Ordered shifter bushings since the shifting was a bit notchy (later identified as the sloppy cut up factory shifter)

 

Brake stay

Underbody brace


Once some parts arrived, plan made, COVID rocking so stuck at home and had time to work on it started taking things apart. 

Funny story, I had a friend with an evo 3, and I knew it stayed in canada when he sold it. I tried to track that car down for years until I finally found it, and the new owner, very cool guy but wasn't interested in selling it. We were talking about fuel filters and blah blah, he was asking where it was on the car so I took this picture:

Then I noticed that weird little silver thing, and went back out to the car to investigate.
Friggen steak knife. 


Valve cover gasket was leaking quite a bit so I started with that, I was also curious to see the condition of the engine, if there were aftermarket cams, etc. 

Very tidy, very clean, stock cams. 

Replaced, note how old the rad looks. 

Changed the plugs and of course it had HKS plugs in it:

Fuel filter was nasty


Went to change those ugly ignition leads... honestly I would have liked to have gone with black replacement ones but blue is fine. 


Dissassembly

Shocked to find the fasteners in such nice condition after sitting under a hole in the hood for 25 years. I think this car must have been garage kept its whole life. 


That explains the leak, and also was a fun bit of puzzle trying to make sure I found all the different pieces. 

Luckily I had this radiator ready as I had noticed the old radiator seeping. 


Apexi vs stock, actually decent size difference. 

But, the pipe flares down to meet the stock o2 housing (which is pretty good on the evo 3, nice upgrade for evo 1-2 and DSM guys)
Since I was worried about the JMF being larger, then hitting that wall on the smaller flange making some flowing properties I cut that off and welded in a straight bit of pipe with a vibrant flange. 


Stock outlet (which is to meed that apexi pipe)

JMF outlet


And of course, the apexi pipe is basically the same diameter to meet the stock catalytic converter, so I made this ugly bit of kit to get rid of that. The little secret about Japan made exhausts is that they are usually 70mm (as opposed to lots of US made being 3"). The fujitsubo cat back also had a smaller flange for the factory cat so I cut that bit out as well. Now, from the JMF to the cat back the exhaust is 2 3/4", then I bought that expansion from 2 3/4" to 3" and welded that in to meet the cat back. No more changes in pipe size, ugly corners for the exhaust to hit. 


Pulled the exhaust manifold off (to fill in that bit where the PO installed the exhaust gas temperature probe)
The old gasket and flame ring had seen better days

Ported the exhaust manifold, which again, this manifold flows very well. Another nice upgrade for evo 1-2 and DSM guys. 

Check the ugly wart. 
I didn't go crazy, some people port all the way out to remove the flame ring.. but since I didn't want to then port the turbo housing I just made sure everything flowed well. I think my manifold had a casting issue. 



Then I thought, I am tired of paying people to ceramic coat my things. So I went down a rabbit hole there and got into that myself. Ended up with a miji finer things gun and used cerakote


Similarily, I did gasket match the turbo exhaust housing but there was very little to be removed. 


Assembly (fresh OE fasteners)



Also note, I removed a sandwich plate adaptor and utilized the oil pump housing to measure oil pressure. 


When I went to change the plug leads one was cold welded into the ignition coils

Replaced those and got to use my adorable open end / box wrench set


While I had everything apart, decided to restore the factory intercooler piping. From factory there is a huge surge box.. maybe it is for reducing lag following gear changes, but to me seemed like a lot of extra volume to fill. On parts websites they call it a silencer, and since I am a man of culture who likes boost noises, I just went ahead and removed it. Just seemed like a lot of extra spots for boost leaks. 

Capped

I considered removing this entirely, but to go back would be easier from here. Also, that was there from the factory so its interference on flow was already there, and it had a huge chamber to fill with boost.. in my head this doesn't make enough difference to warrant doing anything about. 
Fresh. New couplers everywhere (still available from Mitsubishi)

Oh, also check out my sweet oil cooler sprayer. From factory, these cars have an intercooler sprayer, the PO t'd into the pressure line and adopted it to also spray onto the oil cooler and made that neat shroud. It was all kinda janky so I just did it right, made the shroud fit better, made it less wiggly. 

Also figured out why I had a driveline vibration



Fresh shifter bushes

These cars, with a heavy clutch, can crack the firewall. To combat that, installed a clutch brace


Brake stay


Fixed these home made floor braces

 

New radiator, I was having issues with the intake hitting the stock fan... I thought about slim fans but I like a stock fan, less of a amperage draw on initial start up, blah blah. So, i just took the housing and stepped on it to make space, then dremmed a tiny bit out of the back of the fan motor  housing before sealing it with some JD weld to keep moisture out.


Fresh fluids

Score, UPWE = front LSD. Pretty rare, factory option (which comes up with my vin so I assume its still the original transmission)



Buttoned up the day before I had to drive it 300 km to my paint and body guy. Kind of nerve racking to have the harness apart, basically the whole car apart (since it was assembled so poorly in some places I went over absolutely every nut and bolt apart from internal to the engine).

Note the lack of catch can, I don't think it needed it. The lack of double BOV, new evo x diverter valve to replace the factory plastic leaky one, that leaky blitz flanged one off the charge pipe is gone. A whack of wiring and extra vac hoses removed.. After basically having the car apart for 4 months straight, changing everything, I was a little nervous for the first 50 km of that drive, but it made it like a champ. That first start up (after I had re-pinned the ECU) I was a little worried, but it didn't even turn over a full rotation and it fired up. Now, it runs beautifully and very strong, the whole car feels tight and the engine backs it up. 

For now, I am planning to be rid of the stock pistons in that engine. For those unaware, evo 3 engines are known for ringland failure. Not sure exactly if it is piston design and wrist pin placement to raise the compression (9:1 as opposed to 8.8:1 in every other evo), just E36 M3ty pistons, or what.. but that is on my mind. People say if you stay below 16psi boost you will be okay, but as maybe you can tell I am a guy who worries about these things. At that point, would be tempting to build the rotating assembly (rods, pistons).. and then I know I am going to want to throw more boost at it, at which point I will need an ECU (probably a link g4x) and then while I am there I might as well do some mild cams... its a slippery slope. Like I said earlier, I am just guessing at the car's power, but I think with 300-330 awhp and 300tq (which would also preserve my driveline) this car would be a little rocket. I have two spare blocks, I might just build one and wait for the day.. but I would also like to preserve this engine, which I believe to be original to the car. To combat the slippery slope, some guys will just swap to evo 8 standard pistons on the stock rods and call it a day, which is also kind of tempting. "While I am there" though.. 

Anyways, that is the evo 3 and that is a good summary of where the car is now and where it came from in my ownership. I love the car, can't really see myself ever getting rid of it. 

Evo III 

Evo 6 today?

Definitely not as much done on this car as on the 3, it just didn't need it as you can see in the auction photos.  



 

Fresh off the boat, when it was delivered to me in Canada. 

Bonus old tacoma shot


Got snowed on the next day


Cleaned the whole interior, fixed the sagging door carpets. 

Paint correction

Fresh brakes


xpel on bumper, 18" of front fenders and hood, rear flares, mirrors 


First meet


New hood insulation


Gang



Bought these evo 5 wheels, powder coated them white, got some nokian haka 7's... drove it in winter one time and decided the car was too nice for it. Drove it to the car wash and has never driven in winter ever since. 

Pulled the driveline out, front LSD confirmed:

Went over the transfer case, these fasteners are known to come loose. Either you can send it off to machine if for beef cake fasteners, or just torque some 10.9 grade fasteners to yeild with red lock tight (that's what I did)


Dropped the driveline out to preserve the rust-free shell




Removed resonator



Built a coil on plug set up




Removed exhaust manifold



Broke this exhaust manifold stud on extraction.. that sucked. 

Phases of extraction, eventually had to weld the stud up, then weld a washer on, then weld a nut to that. In an aluminum head, eventually it will work. 

Fresh


Plasmaman hotside

Coated MAP o2 eliminator

Fresh wastegate actuator

Painted bumper mesh, fresh fasteners


Fender braces


Assembled, this summer if I have time I would like to re-do a bunch of things and tidy up this bay




Peering 

Wrecked evo 5 I bought around this time:

These came on that car



Fluidampr, old crank pulley is metal separated by rubber that deteriorates over time


Car friends

Scored this beatrush shifter


OMP Shifter






Bonus evo 5 I bought without an engine then got going, will post that sometime


Quick detail this last summer





Evo 6, great car. My favorite of the bunch that is the forever car of the group. That car why I have been accumulating all these other evos because of what this one started, I just love driving that car around the city, alone, in the middle of the night and listening to music. I have a hard time changing anything about it, if I miss a single day of being able to drive it because its taken apart, just feels bad. 

Next time it is under the knife I have a full ralliart rubber bushing set to go in the suspension,  timing set, as well as some powerflex rear diff bushes... part of the weakness with the rear AYC diff is the case flexing and cracking. I would like to drop the fuel tank, change the fuel pump, tidy up the engine bay and then tune the stock ECU to around 20 ish psi or whatever the tuner decides. I also have bought some advan RG3's for the car as I described earlier. 

tperkins said:

Evo 6 today?

Definitely not as much done on this car as on the 3, it just didn't need it as you can see in the auction photos.  



 

Fresh off the boat, when it was delivered to me in Canada. 

Bonus old tacoma shot


Got snowed on the next day


Cleaned the whole interior, fixed the sagging door carpets. 

Paint correction

Fresh brakes


xpel on bumper, 18" of front fenders and hood, rear flares, mirrors 


First meet


New hood insulation


Gang



Bought these evo 5 wheels, powder coated them white, got some nokian haka 7's... drove it in winter one time and decided the car was too nice for it. Drove it to the car wash and has never driven in winter ever since. 


Pulled the driveline out, front LSD confirmed:


Went over the transfer case, these fasteners are known to come loose. Either you can send it off to machine if for beef cake fasteners, or just torque some 10.9 grade fasteners to yeild with red lock tight (that's what I did)


Dropped the driveline out to preserve the rust-free shell




Removed resonator



Built a coil on plug set up




Removed exhaust manifold



Broke this exhaust manifold stud on extraction.. that sucked. 

Phases of extraction, eventually had to weld the stud up, then weld a washer on, then weld a nut to that. In an aluminum head, eventually it will work. 

Fresh


Plasmaman hotside

Coated MAP o2 eliminator

Fresh wastegate actuator

Painted bumper mesh, fresh fasteners


Fender braces


Assembled, this summer if I have time I would like to re-do a bunch of things and tidy up this bay




Peering 

Wrecked evo 5 I bought around this time:

These came on that car



Fluidampr, old crank pulley is metal separated by rubber that deteriorates over time


Car friends

Scored this beatrush shifter


OMP Shifter






Bonus evo 5 I bought without an engine then got going, will post that sometime


Quick detail this last summer





Evo 6, great car. My favorite of the bunch that is the forever car of the group. That car why I have been accumulating all these other evos because of what this one started, I just love driving that car around the city, alone, in the middle of the night and listening to music. I have a hard time changing anything about it, if I miss a single day of being able to drive it because its taken apart, just feels bad. 

Next time it is under the knife I have a full ralliart rubber bushing set to go in the suspension,  timing set, as well as some powerflex rear diff bushes... part of the weakness with the rear AYC diff is the case flexing and cracking. I would like to drop the fuel tank, change the fuel pump, tidy up the engine bay and then tune the stock ECU to around 20 ish psi or whatever the tuner decides. I also have bought some advan RG3's for the car as I described earlier. 

Ok, let me start you of: "Hallo, my name is tperkins, and I have a Mitsibushi addiction....."

But seriously, when ever this thread pops up, I know it will be an update on an Evo not mentioned yet, or an unfinished update from a previous post.

I am a die hard VW fan, but really, the Lancer Evo(pick a number up to 6) is my dream, car to have. 

In reply to StripesSA1 :

Good god, why would you quote a post with so many pictures? 

In reply to StripesSA1 :

Thanks! Yeah, evo 1-6 are special cars for sure, not to detract from the 7-9 which are also very much evo's, but the 1-6 are very raw. Evo 3, mechanical diffs, laggy turbo, lots of driver feedback light little tin can. The 6, a little more refined but you can tell the car will still let you kill yourself.

I know I only own Mitsubishis currently (and a couple Honda's) but I have also had a bunch of Toyotas, a couple Mazdas and Subarus before as well. In reality, I don't know if there is an enthusiasts car which I have met that I didn't like.. I just happen to have these. 

For a while I will have lots to post, then once I catch up it will be slower.. but seems like with a full stable I am always working on something. All these cars run, they all work, I can take any one of them on any day and I like that. 

In reply to JeremyJ :

Also this, lol. Maybe edit that out if you don't mind.  

JeremyJ said:

In reply to StripesSA1 :

Good god, why would you quote a post with so many pictures? 

 because I can

This thread delivers. Makes me feel like I remembered a girl I used to be crazy about but moved on from lol

Might as well knock out the 7 quick. Just picked that one up in October
 

With Pajero at the doctor, needed something to drive up north. Evo 3... probably would have been fine but I would have had to scramble to do the timing belt, it has also never driven in winter and is pretty uncomfortable to drive. Evo 6, just no, not driving that in winter. Starion... well, talk about a gamble lol. Might have been okay, rwd and 36 years old though... might not have been in a spectacular fashion. Also, starion lights suck. Oh, and all would need winter tires. 

So, I called around to friends to see if anyone had any trucks for sale. Tried to buy a 2016 GMC Sierra 1500 from a relative which they mentioned selling.. but they cant find a replacement truck. There was an ecodeesul I thought I was going to get to buy then that person looked at the market and decided, probably smartly, to keep it. Went to dealerships and looked at used trucks, in a lot of cases after paying the increased interest rate on a used truck loan the used trucks would end up costing basically the same as a new one. In some cases (like Tacomas) they could even cost more. Anyways, the used / new truck market right now is super effed. A friend went and inspected a 97 land cruiser for me in Calgary, the guy was just asking too much for how rough the body was so I offered him 15, he said he would think about it.  

I knew my friend was selling his evo 7, I actually have a history with this car as I did the pre-purchase inspection on it for him when he bought it. Put it on a lift and went over it in detail, test drove it, compression test blah blah. It was a healthy car I told him he should buy, which he did. 

Fast forward, still haven't found anything to buy. Before my friend listed this evo 7 (home ownership, grown up stuff, you know the deal) he asked if I wanted to buy it, I said well I would gladly give you what you paid, but I really just don't need another car right now. He was actually semi tempted at that point, but I said throw it up for 24-25 and it will sell. You cannot get a decent evo 7 for less than that at auction currently. So, I was chatting with him and jokingly said well that offer still stands, and he countered with basically his break even price on the car + the parts he collected for the car (evo 7 acd / ayc transfer case and rear diff, stock wing, stock headlights, like 90% life winter tires and a bunch of oil.. a match made in heaven). I accepted that offer and two days later I drove the hurt pajero to Edmonton, dropped it off with my mechanic, and did the old swaparoo into this evo 7 GSR. Safety inspection, insurance and registration completed before I left town. Since my mechanic friend did the inspection I was able to go under the car and check it out, still pretty nice and overall we were both impressed. 

The car is a 2001 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 7 GSR. It had 157,000 km when I picked it up, has had fresh brakes and timing belt. 

Originally the car was imported to Calgary, the guy in Calgary winter drove it and also spent some cashola on parts. It has: ets intake, ralliart intercooler pipes, aluminum radiator, carbing rad plate, ams turbo back exhaust, fortune auto coilovers on swift springs, grimspeed electronic boost controller (being controlled by the ECU), AEM wideband, prosport boost guage, jvc bluetooth double din deck, work wheels, brand new indy 500's, ralliart pedals, razo shift knob, front and rear strut braces and a brand new battery, evo 8 wing and headlights (I think the headlights are JDM evo 8 but idk). It was also tuned by airboy at one point.

After getting it home I got to work, cleaned the air filter, the maf, changed the oil, trans was shifting kinda notchy so I changed the trans fluid (46$ / quart now for amsoil manual trans gl4 or did I get ripped off? shifts like normal again so that is good), raised the suspension (actually went as high as I could with the rear coilovers, ended up a little over 1" higher), polished and sealed the headlights, mounted and installed the winter tires it came with on some spare evo 6 wheels I had sitting around from Brian, washed and decontaminated the paint, sealed it with carpro reload (this car will be satisfying to do a paint correction on in the spring), installed an oil pan heater, washed the under body, sealed the wheel wells with some WURTH high build I have been using on everything, and fluid filmed underneath to try and help it from rusting as much as I can while still winter driving it. I also cleaned the whole interior. I feel like if my friend just dealt with the paint a little and cleaned the interior it probably would have gotten sold. 

Also, had to drive it back to westlock to exchange the dead battery for the new one. The price on these batteries went up to 460$ or something crazy now, so I was pretty happy for that deal.

Raised, winter tires mounted on some stock evo 6 wheels I had

Bay when I got it home




Probably not destined for black car ownership as this was the 4th time I washed it within the first week





First duty trip up north


Flaps

Wash before another fluid film application



Consulted some old tuning mags to try and find out which wheels came on the car. 


Of course I made them white again, 

When I dropped them off, I also realized two were 8" wide and two were 9" wide lol... so I had to order 2 more to have a square set up. Finding 20 year old matching wheels... not that fun. 

Test fit, 

Then I remembered how that fender alignment always bothered me, it even bothered me when I inspected the car for my friend I bought it off however many years ago. 

Fixed that


This was also broken into a bunch of peices and held in with hopes and dreams, fixed that. Of course this is specific to the 7, so finding a new one, 

Not sure how that breaks without someone standing on it


Then the radiator started leaking, old aluminum radiator stuff


Boost leak test, small leak at boost controller. Fixed that and its holding 25 psi now. 





Plans? Not many really. Have a clutch to put in it, I have a spare evo 9 turbo I was thinking about using in the 6 I will probably put in this car this summer and re-tune. I want to re-paint the front bumper and do a paint correction. Standard. 

What do you use to coat your vehicles..

loving the rare OEM+ parts usage

The Evo 7 tails are so much better than the chrome garbage that came on the 8. 

I really dig the collection and I'm glad to see these cars are in good hands. 

In reply to Gambit0117 :

I will just take a stab at all the coatings, 

For cutting / polishing / paint protection, usually I will try some different pads and different compounds to see what gives me the best results. I like chemical guys hex logic pads and use SONAX products, but sometimes regular old meguiars does the trick so you kind of just have to try some things and go from there. 

After I cut and polish a car, I have been having good luck with Sonax Profaline Ceramic Coat.. very nice glossy finish. 






Every 6 months I will touch up the ceramic coat with car pro reload, I have also heard good things about car pro ceramic. 


For undercoating, depends what I am doing. Rust encapsulators if its black I use POR15 (and topcoat it if its in the sun) if its silver I use rustbullet.

For high build rubberized coating like I used in the wheel wells, that is a Wurth product 


For rust prevention, like in cavities I will use a cavity wax, I have been using fluidfilm on the pajero and evo 7 throughout the winter, I have a 360 degree sprayer that I try and get into everywhere. 

Clear protectant film, I have tried a bunch and I think the xpel is the best. 
 

In reply to JeremyJ :

Thanks! I actually disliked the looks of the 7 of the 7-9 for the longest time, now I think it might have the nicest looking front end of the bunch. The wing is still whack though. 

And thanks, yes I just like to be a good steward to the cars. 

tperkins said:

In reply to StripesSA1 :

Thanks! Yeah, evo 1-6 are special cars for sure, not to detract from the 7-9 which are also very much evo's, but the 1-6 are very raw. Evo 3, mechanical diffs, laggy turbo, lots of driver feedback light little tin can. The 6, a little more refined but you can tell the car will still let you kill yourself.

I know I only own Mitsubishis currently (and a couple Honda's) but I have also had a bunch of Toyotas, a couple Mazdas and Subarus before as well. In reality, I don't know if there is an enthusiasts car which I have met that I didn't like.. I just happen to have these. 

For a while I will have lots to post, then once I catch up it will be slower.. but seems like with a full stable I am always working on something. All these cars run, they all work, I can take any one of them on any day and I like that. 

I know what you meen by a raw driving experience. 

In South Africa we didn't get much off these types of cars, but our domestic tuning scene can deliver. 

A friend of mine had a Citi Golf(local Mk1 VW Golf) with a build ABF motor running Jenvey ITB's.

That thing would rev to 8000 in 1st, with a cloud of smoke, and when grabbing 2nd, and even 3rd, would try to hunt down the nearest curbing to climb over with torque steer. But it handled like it was on rails with it's coilovered suspension.

If I didn't need a sense able daily, I would have bought it the day it whent up for sale. 

Suppose I will do the Pajero today. 

Starts with a Tacoma. I love me a Tacoma, in fact I have had 3 of them, but I put on a lot of miles. 

This was my last one, frame rotted in half, standard Tacoma stuff. 

After that, I just couldn't stomach the price people were asking for used Tacomas that are about to rot in half. For example, 300,000 km, 18 years old, people are asking crazy money. 15+ K

So, being no stranger to importing, I started looking at Toyota Hilux Surfs, 99-03 models, with the 5vzfe that I love so much.. and just kept losing bids. I was bidding on grade 3.5's with up to 160,000 km for as much as 14k customs cleared, and losing. Toyota hype price knows no bounds. 

I was continuing to bid on Hilux Surfs, but this Pajero popped up, knowing nothing about it other than it had cool fenders and a bird on it (I am a biologist) I threw a low bid at it and won. 



Arrived at Mark's 









Arrived in Canada some months later



Funny goodies
Casset holders

Full inspection and service records

Tool kit 

Ash trays for everyone

Flashlight 


First things first, fresh fluids, coolant looked like pond water, which wasn't that great. I think I flushed it 12 times before it looked alright. 


studded winter tires (bigger than original, 265/75/16)


Home


Fresh plugs, fuel filter, belts, thermostat


Fits 8 tires with ease


When I got the car, 4wd shifter bushing was totally pooched, pretty common issue. 

While removing the shifter mechanism, I goofed. Pictures taken seconds before disaster:

As I learned, those 3 studs are just dangling above the transfer case, and the other 4 are the ones you want to remove. When I removed the shifter, I noticed one of those studs dropped. I was able to get the nuts on 2 of 3, but of course when I touched the 3rd it fell right down, like a game of plinko. 

Guess which one fell lol. Also worth mentioning this was on christmas eve. 

Took some deep breaths, got my magnet and started fishing around. Nothing. Left the truck dissassembled before I lost my cool lol. 

Boxing day, I went and looked again and luckily the bolt was sitting at the bottom of this inspection plate, as well, everything in the transfer case was looking fresh. 


Shifter bushing



Pathetic cup holders that are always broke. I bought a new one that I then broke 3 weeks later. 

I also replaced the window regulator in this rear window

Replaced all the speakers


Installed this cell signal booster



Decided to break this into a couple parts just in case someone decides to quote the whole thing again lol. 

Meeting a new sibling


New wheels

Springs

Test fit


Will they fit?

Yes


Rear springs replaced, old vs new. 


The definition of scope creep. When I removed the old springs, didn't like the surface rust on the spring perches.. before I knew it I was 48 hours into refinishing the frame with POR15




Edit for the curious, the process:
Steps: 1.) Wash the frame big time. Wash everything, I ran water through each hole in the frame until it came out perfectly clear through the drain holes. I even scrubbed with brush.
2.) Lightly hit entire frame with angle grinder + wire wheel to remove any flakey bits of paint or anything. Use wire brush for hard to reach places. Just to knock off flakes, POR15 and the metal prep needs some rust to adhere perfectly. 
3.) POR15 cleaner / degreaser. Self explanatory, I also worked it in with a sponge and rinsed it off big time.
4.) POR15 Metal Prep. They explain this as a rust neutralizer / etching compound. What you do is spray it on the bits to be painted and keep it wet for a duration of time, keep it MOIST, then rinse it off and let it dry. This leaves the surface with better adhesion and a zinc phosphate coating to improve bonding.
5.) dry, big time dry everything. They say POR15 actually hardens when introduced to water, but I went over the whole thing with an air compressor and gave it heaps of time to sit.
6.) two light coats of por15 classic. Satisfying, but each coat was taking me approximately 2.5 hours to brush on.
7.) two light coats of top coat (chassis black) (this is a more durable finish and won't fade in the sun). 

At this point, the staining on the paint starts pissing me off. 

So then I did a full paint correction


Midway through, after clay bar






For the curious:
Wash
Clay bar (this removed the stains off the white, all the white took longer than all the silver)
cut (meguiars cutting compound with a medium pad did the trick)
polish (meguiars polishing compound with a polish pad)
seal (sonax profaline ceramic coat)

Three stages of ownership


Slight lift in the rear, after they settled it ended up like 1/2" over stockers. The fronts I re-indexed the torsion bars, but still have a solid 1.5" of down travel at the bump stop, so that probably translates to closer to 3" by the wheel.


You may notice I removed the monsoon guards, I hated them. Being a taller person, I couldn't see through them a lot of the time. I also removed the side steps to look like more lift. After that, left the rocker panels vulnerable so I brought it to get clear filmed. Did the bottom of the rockers up to the graphic on the side. 


Built some mudflaps





Maybe could have made them a touch longer, but I was worried about reversing into something and pulling them off so it was a balancing act. 

Fresh timing belt and water pump



Then I took a job in the NWT

Wired up trailer lights and added a receiver

 

Not long after bringing the 3 home 


Back to boring winter tires


Ice fishing 




Stuck


Headlights are glass, so after taking a few big rocks I found some USDM headlights


Fresh brakes

Classic "should only take an hour" moment



Also replaced the fog light lenses


With a heavy heart, at this point around 150,000 km the factory shocks were toast. I kept them as long as I could because I found them very comfortable, and they also had electronic adjustable dampening that I used a lot, that made a very perceivable difference. 

WURTH all the things


I also installed some manual hub lockers, to try and preserve the CV boots (which I replaced) and try to gain a little fuel economy


Washed




Then, my rear swing door hinge broke


One man replacement (I did the top and bottom)

Fresh (bigger group size) batter getting ready for this winter


And a few days later, disaster struck. I slowed down for construction, then when I went to speed up engine studdered, then died. Coasted to a stop on the side of the road and thought huh, did I just throw a rod? what the heck happened? Then I noticed I still had oil pressure.. so I put it in park and started it, it died, started, died, started... kept running. But, now the CEL was on and I didn't have over 3000 RPM. 

Limped it home, grounded a pin in the ECU to read the code, code comes back as "PCM program invalid" very ambiguous. Could mean ECU fried, could be that it isn't seeing what it needs to see. 

The truck starts like E36 M3, have to start it a few times then it will finally catch and run, but at idle you would literally never know anything was wrong. Idles smooth as silk, sounds very nice, revs fast.. right up to 3000 RPM and then is limped. ECU limited to 3000 RPM. 

In my investigations, doesn't feel like a fuel issue. I went over every single connector, unplugged, cleaned, re-plugged. I had a used MAF that I knew to be working I tried, nothing. Traced all the wires, one by one, looking for evidence of damage to the loom, something pinched... anything. I pulled the ECU, and inspected the wiring harness in the cab.. nothing. Fresh. I used my meter and swept the throttle position sensor, no dead spots, sweeps normally. Opened the ECU, nothing smells, nothing looks out of place.. things just looked normal.Did a compression test on a dead cold engine, 190 across the board. Very very healthy. All the plugs looked the same, so doubt it is fuel issue. 

At this point, I need to go to work so I start calling around to see if anyone has a truck for sale who have mentioned thinking about selling in the past, I went to truck lots around town, nothing used, nothing new... thats when I messaged my friend selling the 7 and said okay, well, before you said you may take what you had paid and blah blah, we come to an agreement and I drive the pajero to my mechanic in Edmonton (about 250 km from me), meet with the 7 and leave the pajero at his work. 

Then, I drove the 7 home, got to work getting it ready for winter (fresh fluids, oil pan heater, fresh battery, fluidfilm, winter tires blah blah) and head to work. Of course, my mechanic gets super busy, gets covid, literally can't look at it until last week. 

He does the same troubleshooting, eventually gets to the ECU, and is more successful plugging the truck in to EVOSCAN (which I had attempted). He finds the following hard codes, "air flow sensor (12), air intake temperature sensor (13), throttle position sensor (14), ISC motor position sensor (15)" if you clear them, they are there again immediately. He then digs into the wiring diagrams and the only place they share in common is in the ECU. Sure enough, he pulls the ECU and there is a little burnt eprom. Cooked. Brown. I looked at the pictures I took when I had the ECU out, and that one looks slightly more gray, but not as brown as it currently does. 

Needless to say, I found a used ECU on eBay which is on the way, but leads to the question of why did that happen? Old japanese solder in the ECU? A deeper issue which could fry the replacement?

Mechanic (who is hyundai / mitsubishi mechanic of 26 years and the reason I take him things I don't have time for, or just don't want to do) says "the older 4g72's used to have a seal issue with the IAC housing and coolant would get on the solenoid and short out the ECU".. so he is looking into this while we wait for the replacement ECU.

If the ECU doesn't work, then they are still available new.. but are 1300$. Not the end of the world, but ideally I am going to try and repair that msfet on the stock ECU to have a backup. 

Anyways, that is where we are at. Until this, the truck has been great to me over the 100,000 ish kms I have had it, it gets more compliments than any of the evos.. maybe just short of the starion and I really have grown to like it. 

In reply to tperkins :

All I can say to the trucks ECU problems is, that sucks

In reply to StripesSA1 :

Yeah, its a little annoying but that's how it goes. Old car things.

Ice fishing

Starion? Starion. 

Funny story. I first saw this car for sale on facebook, then it went to a waffle page. I bought a sticker, didn't win, but messaged the guy who won and said "hey, if you ever want to sell let me know." Welp, 5-6 months later, he messages me and we work out a deal. 

This car lived in Arizona for the first 20 years of its life, then the first Canadian owner imported it to Canada, they drove it around a while, then it sat parked in a garage for 10 years. The owner posts on facebook he is thinking about getting the car going, doesn't know where to start, and the person who ended up waffling it messaged him saying that he would buy it if he ever wanted to sell. 

That bro calls the guy who did most of the work, says yeah I will let it go, so he saves it. He is Nissan mechanic, has a real problem.. like 14 cars. So he does a pile of work on the car: new fuel pump, cleaned the fuel tank, new fluids, new fuel lines, filter, rebuilt the engine to OE spec with non-jet valve head (bad) and balance shaft delete (engine can starve of oil, so that is intended to bump oil pressure), he does new brake lines, pads, rotors, new steering components, suspension bushings, end links, ball joints, tie-rods blah blah.

Hard to find any of them now, the Mitsubishi is even harder to find (as opposed to Chrysler Conquest). Even harder to find them in Canada, and rust free, in fact this is the only one I have ever seen in person. Last RWD turbo car Mitsubishi made, mine has the 2.6L 4G54, Japan and Europe they came with a 4G63. Both engines came with computer controlled fuel injection (throttle body injection), which was pretty high tech at the time. Mine has a manual trans, the few I have seen available in Japan have been autos. Mine is first year of widebody, so gets the bigger turbo and inter cooler. Comes with a spare block, spare trans, and a handful of other parts. 

Mitsubishi developed 4wd in the Starion and was set to use it in group B rally, then, of course group B got shut down. It competed in Group A an Group N races, Dakar in 4wd trim, in the 80's, the car was pretty competitive in its era, winning Dakar, several rallies, as well as endurance races etc. The car being developed for Group B, as most manufacturers did at the time, was referred to as an evolution. 

Jackie Chan drove one in Cannonball Run 2, and Mitsubishi built him a car as a gift:
https://www.turbocreations.com/cordiaturbo/jackychan.html

Of course Jackie Chan had a long history with Mitsubishi:

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/9-kick-assay-cars-driven-by-jackie-chan/
^if that link is dead, google Jackie Chan Starion 

Pictures from the PO







First things first, refinish wheels




Difference between an evo 9 turbo and a starion turbo lol

Tidy engine bay


These wheels are just so perfect

Spares (as well as an engine and trans)


Raised the suspension


Re-torqued the head studs, checked valve lash, re-sealed the valve cover gasket. 


The trunk? rear panel? whatever didn't close very well so I took some things apart, got carried away, did some cleaning, painting, restoration.
Found these old goodies in the rear quarters
[
Would be cool to find who this used to belong to so they can have it back

That trunk carpet was nasty, worst car I have ever cleaned






Replaced this coolant line

Painted some rusty things, tried to re-install the OE turbo heat sheild.. found it doesn't fit due to an aftermarket power steering line which was fitted, so I used this old turbo blanket I had laying around. 


Love these taillights


Accumulate parts

Re-pop.. if you can find used OEM ones, they're usually busted, brittle, just bad. 


Crusing around, let my friend drive it to a meet while his car was out of commission





Installed the front air dam, put the factory fog light / signal surrounds back in. I also discovered theres a button that you can hit to have the headlights up and not on. 







My favorite picture of the car


Well, thats where it is. So far I have put around 3000 miles (4800km) on it and it has been awesome. Fun car to cruise around, pretty comfortable compared to the evos, I am just not sure what I will do with it. I have too many cars, stresses me out, and I think this would be the first one I would sell. The car deserves someone who will respray it, as the paint is pretty rough, but for now I am holding on to it. 
 

In reply to tperkins :

Whats the story on the wheel refinishment.. how does that work with the rebarrel?

Man that Starion is just perfect. Love those.