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

Hi all, 

Long time lurker, I have actually been following along mke's frankenferrari build and never really felt my "builds" were worthy of this forum. However, all my other forums are dead, slow, and nothing happens. Not really a fan of facebook or instagram for car builds, so here we are. I have better documented most of the work I have done on other forums, but I will just start from here forward on the cars. You will probably notice I just like things neat and tidy. 

Anywho, here they are:

In order of acquisition:

1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6 GSR, this car kind of started the whole Mitsubishi thing for me. It is just a great car to drive. 


(I actually want to tidy this bay up)



Picked it up in 2015, from auction in Japan and now lives with me in Canada. I have a hard time changing anything on this car, to be honest. Most of anything I have done have been addressing old serviceable items with something more robust. 

The car has 17x8.5 31 Advan RG's, 245/40/17 Bridgestone RE71R's, ported exhaust manifold, MAP front pipe, test pipe, custom cat-back, tomei diverter valve, turbosmart wastegate actuator that is about it in the engine bay. For the suspension, car has some old Tein control master flex, sway bar bushes and endlinks and that's it for handling. Interior, I just have an OMP velocita wheel and a beatrush short shifter, innovate wideband / boost pressure and coolant temperature and oil pressure guages, other than that the car is as standard.

Next, 1999 Mitsubishi Pajero 





Very standard, I just maintain this thing as it is my daily. I have re-done the frame with POR15, installed high load springs in the rear, and for summer put on the 285/75/16 bfg km3's. 

Next, 1995 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 3 GSR





This car was a real mess when I got it, roof rust, broken lip, botched fender pull, bolt on widebody... just a lot. I saw it pop up for sale locally, it needed saving (was rust free which is the biggest thing with all these cars IMO) and I like having a project so I bought it. 

Engine wise: cusco intake, ported exhaust manifold, jmf o2 housing, apexi front pipe, fujitsubo cat back. When I got it, it ran pretty poorly so I went over everything and just brought it back.
Exterior: I ordered a truth ms widebody, had that painted and installed and actually cut the rear arches to clearance them. There was no going back from what was done without doing rear quarters, so maybe some day I would like for the car to be stock body again. I have a carbon fibre roof to install, to rid the standard evo 1-3 rusty roof problems. I also found a factory rear spoiler for the car. Currently has Enkei rp01 with 225/45/16 Firehawk Indy 500's. 
Handling: JIC Magic coilovers, poly suspension bushes, ralliart rear 22mm sway bar with bushes and endlinks, has a bolt in cage that might actually make the car more dangerous in a crash but provides some rigidity, it has cusco front and rear strut bars, cusco underbody brace, as well as a brace that runs along the car north to south just inside the rocker panels. 
Interior: stock seats didn't come with the car, had a trashed recaro spg which I replaced with an OMP seat, has an OMP velocita wheel, custom short shifter, some of the sound deadening was removed by the PO, proper tin can of a car, not the most comfortable to drive. I also have innovate wideband, boost and oil pressure guages just because I like the old analogue feel of them and like to monitor those things. 
This car is a work in progress, I one day will 5 lug convert the car and install some brembos which I have to go on it... then I would like to take this one to the track. 

Next was the 1986 Mitsubishi Starion ESI-R




This one kind of just happened. A guy I knew had it, told him if he ever wanted to sell let me know, then one day boom. In Canada, I have never seen another for sale, and I have never seen another in person, so they are quite rare so I just went for it. 

I haven't done a lot to this car, but just still working out the kinks. It was an Arizona car, that came to Alberta like... 20 years ago. The original owner parked it in a garage 10 years ago and it just sat there. For what I have done, replaced some fuel lines, re-torqued head, nut and bolt checks, tidied up some things. 

The guy between the owner who had it in a garage and me did a pile of work to this car, and is a Nissan mechanic. He has more problems then me and has about 14 Nissans, so having 1 mitsubishi he let this one go. 
106,000 miles, paint isn't very good, very rust free for a 36 year old car. First year of the widebody, I think the 87/88 is the one you'd want because more flexibility on the standard ECU, but this is a single year only colour, which is olive gray.
Engine: freshly rebuilt, non-jet valve head, balance shaft deletes, freshly rebuilt turbo, freshly cleaned injectors, manual boost controller. 
Drivetrain / suspension: fresh tie rods, end links, steering box, all bushes new, new brakes and lines, new coilovers, bigger sway bars, refurbished standard wheels with re71r/s, new fuel pump, radiator was rodded, fuel tank was cleaned.. just a lot to get it back to fresh after sitting in a garage for so long. 


Finally, 2001 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 7 GSR:




This one kind of just happened. Pajero was having issues (which I think I have dialed in to being an ECU issue) and I work up in the NWT, needed something to drive up there and the other cars don't drive in winter. My friend had this, although he had already driven it for a single winter, it was still very rust free and I didn't have to feel bad being the first person to drive it in winter. 

Pretty nice car, but higher kms than the rest. Currently around 165,000 km. Before I winter drove it I fluid filmed everything, I have a 360 degree sprayer and got it into everywhere and I have re-applied it a couple times now this winter. In the NWT it is just too cold for salt, so it doesn't really rust cars.. but they use gravel everywhere. The front bumper was already pretty chipped up from the previous winter, but I will be getting it re-sprayed in the spring and doing a paint correction. The swirls, ugh. 

Engine: ralliart intercooler pipes, ETS intake, AMS full turbo back exhaust, grimspeed boost controller and re-mapped on the standard ECU. Handling, fortune auto coilovers. Interior, AEM wideband, boost guage, some fancy shift knob, short shifter. It came with WORK RS-Z wheels, which turned out to be 17x8 and 17x9... which I don't like. I have since found another two from Japan and waiting for those to arrive. 

Anywho, at the risk of already making this too long I will end that there. I have a bunch more pictures, will have a lot of answers if you have any questions on anything about the cars, anything that has been done, future plans... whatever. 

Ooh, I am here for this. If you need any help with the Starion, or parts for it, let me know.

In reply to obsolete :

Thanks! Starion, I think I am just leaving it as is. Part of the charm is being slow and feeling like you've been transported back to the 80's. Even with the blown speakers and cassette player, just is fun to cruise. I have put around 2000 km on it and it has been pretty good! I put a front air dam on, found the front fog lights (used to have stupid black deletes).. 

For plans, I do have the mazda TPS sensor, I have HKS fuel cut defencer so I can up the boost a little and that is about it for plans! I did toy with the idea of a wideblock 4g63 swap / build... but I think it has its own charm as is. It handles great, you can really throw it into a corner which is fun and surprisingly capable in that sense. 

Thanks for the kind words! Happy to hear about any suggestions you may have. 

Here are some more starion pics:

Nice cars! I'm a sucker for older Mitsubishis. I had a '97 Eclipse GS-T back in the day that got me into a lot of trouble. I've been a fan ever since. 

In reply to JeremyJ :

Nice! Yeah, the older mitsubishis have a certain thing about them that I like. 

My brother has had a 1997 Eagle Talon TSI since like 2005, of course it crank walked, and got parked for a while but we are just in the process of putting a 6 bolt into it. 

Yeah, '86 is a great year, and that's a cool color. I can't blame you for wanting to keep it exactly as-is. Looks great at that ride height--what kind of coilovers are on it?

The next thing I'd recommend would be to ditch the stock exhaust. At a bare minimum, get rid of the stock cats. They are a ticking time bomb, especially the one in the downpipe, it sees so much heat and unburned fuel that it's just a matter of time for it to melt/clog.

Sidenote, I didn't know that Mitsubishi was already doing GDI on the Pajero all the way back in '99!

obsolete said:

Yeah, '86 is a great year, and that's a cool color. I can't blame you for wanting to keep it exactly as-is. Looks great at that ride height--what kind of coilovers are on it?

The next thing I'd recommend would be to ditch the stock exhaust. At a bare minimum, get rid of the stock cats. They are a ticking time bomb, especially the one in the downpipe, it sees so much heat and unburned fuel that it's just a matter of time for it to melt/clog.

Sidenote, I didn't know that Mitsubishi was already doing GDI on the Pajero all the way back in '99!

It is on legion motorsports coilovers. They get poo poo'd on facebook groups but they've been pretty good for me. I think if I were to do anything to the car, a free flowing exhaust, better exhaust manifold and a slightly bigger turbo would wake the car up a bunch. Really does feel like a 2.6L breathing through a drinking straw. 

And yeah, Mitsubishi was the first manufacturer to bring a GDI V6 into mass production, here is a neat little press release from 1997:
Press Release | Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (mitsubishi-motors.com)

tl;dr, I actually do get much better fuel economy than the MPI USDM guys report on their 6g7x engines in their Monteros, it has something like 40hp/tq more, so I also don't notice it is lethargic after going to 90 ish lbs / corner tires. HOWEVER, I do have an extra gear (as I have a 5 speed auto with tiptronic, where they are largely on 4 speed autos).. so hard to say. But, I have seen as good as 8.9L/100 km when I had stock tires, with these tires its more like 11L/100 ish on average. 

Being GDI, still plagued with GDI problems. If its cold (like.. -36 celcius or colder) it really doesn't like to start. I have a block heater, oil pan heater and battery blanket and it has been pretty good. Some manufacturers have gone to a second row of injectors in intake manifold for valve cleaning and cold starts... mine has neither. If it does flood in the cold, look out because the only way you can get it started again is to pull the plugs and dry them off. It has a crowned piston to swirl the air fuel mixture, which just wets the plugs in that extreme cold when the fuel hits a block of metal that is a frozen chunk. 

I have done intake cleaning service, but just a chemical one as available at any hyundai dealership.. I really need to walnut blast / tywrap on a drill service the valves at some point. 

All and all, I have put around 110,000 km on it and until this ECU issue, which was very annoying, haven't had an issue. Currently sits around 170,000 km, but is old. 

Here are a few more pictures of the Pajero:

This thread is full of awesome. Serious envy over here. 

In reply to birdmayne :

Thanks! The trick is to like Mitsubishis because these were all pretty inexpensive and get in before the current price craziness (oh and live in Canada where we have a 15 year rule before the 25 year rule destroys the price lol)

In reply to tperkins :

I've spent a lot of time up in Canada, having grown up 10 minutes from the US / Canada border. I've always been jealous of the car scene and selections available up there. Very cool collection you have, now you just need a GTO (3000GT VR-4) to round it out. 

In reply to birdmayne :

1600 lancer GSR, galant, GTO, FTO, pajero evolution, evo x lol

In reality, I feel like I have too many cars now. 

This is the reason the legion coilovers get poo poo'd on Facebook groups (and StarquestClub, before it got restored from a 2015 backup). They are Maxpeedingrods coilovers for another car (Evo 8, I think?) that have been adapted to fit. The damper shafts are too thin. They can't take the load that the Starquest rear suspension puts on them, and they bend.

Those are the ones, and that is the picture you see often lol. Mine are green though, green collars and springs, and I have them set pretty soft. I did pull them off after seeing some posts and for now they are still straight. 


Look like that. 

It was also slammed when I got it:


Might not look like much but I raised it close to 2"

Interesting, thanks for the picture. He must have changed suppliers, I haven't seen those green anodized ones before. Hopefully the damper shafts are thicker--it's hard to tell, but it looks like they might be?

Anyway, I need to drop mine down closer to that height someday...it looks so good.

In reply to obsolete :

Could even be a different company, I am just going off what the PO told me as they came on the car. There is nothing written on them indicating who made them. 

Here is a better picture of how low it was. 


Oh, and check out this unit. 

Maybe today I will start with evo 3. 

Looked like this at auctions:




Not really sure how to do this, thought about copy / pasting every post from other forums, but I think I will just do before / after in one post then some highlights in the next. 

How I got it vs. now:















Bonus:

Very cool collection! In for updates.

Can we be best friends? The evo3 and 6 are on my grail list. And the starion. And just about everything else you own. 

Yum, love me some forbidden fruit. I had a 95 Montero SR that ingested an intake butterfly valve way before I was ready to move on. I'd like to pick up a gen 2.5 with the sweet fenders like yours at some point. 

Having bought the wife a 2012 GWM H5 2.4i a couple of months ago, I fell in love with the Mitsibushi 4G6X engine and am super jealous that we never got more of them here in South Africa. 

Only Mitsibushis we got was the Colt LDVs with these motors, so nobody sees them as performance motors

Ah I'm definitely interested in this thread. 

I used to be a mitsu-head. I had 3 or for Starion types, a E39 Galant VR4, some DSMs and an Evo X. 

If I could get my hands on an Evo 6 for a price I can afford, I'd jump back in lol. 

yupididit said:

Ah I'm definitely interested in this thread. 

I used to be a mitsu-head. I had 3 or for Starion types, a E39 Galant VR4, some DSMs and an Evo X. 

If I could get my hands on an Evo 6 for a price I can afford, I'd jump back in lol. 

Thanks for all the replies, too dumb to sort out how to get them all into one reply. 

Blister fenders look so good, that is how I ended up with this. I was actually bidding on Hilux Surfs at auction and just threw a low bid at this thing. With 76,000 km to get it on the road in Canada it was around 7k usd. 

2012 GWM is a weird little thing, I have never seen those before. In South Africa, I hear the Pajero is very popular?

I think unfortunately evo 5/6 prices have already exploded and will only get worse as they come on 25 years of age. My car would sell for about 4x the amount I originally paid 7 years ago if it were to go through Japanese auctions again today. 

When I went to pick up the car the previous owner, and my friend who looked at it for me mentioned that it ran like E36 M3. My friend also said the death shroom looked like actual death so I brought a new death shroom with me. 

Looked at the car, was even worse than it looked in pictures... but when am I ever going to find another one. Come up with a price, agree, exchange money and the bill of sale. 

Before pulling away from his house I go to change the filter and find a big old chunk of filter element on the MAF. Pulled that off, cleaned the MAF with a can of MAF cleaner I brought with me, and sure enough the car runs like 80% better. 

Before I could even make it to a gas station the signal light fell out. Very common on evo 1-3 lol. 


Then drove it 280 km home, maybe a little reckless in hindsight. 


First impressions on that drive was that the old turbo was lethargic and that full exhaust would probably help that a lot, other than that I liked how the car felt and drove so I started accumulating some parts to get it more to my liking and also kind of keep with the same theme the previous owner (single owner) in Japan was going for, big fan of CUSCO etc. Also, my hips were almost bleeding by the time I got home due to how narrow the Recaro SPG was.



Pro tip: store parts in the car



I actually have a friend re-creating those stickers on the back of the seat so I can put them back on the new one. 


Covid happened, suddenly I was working from home and could pick away at it each night in the garage. So, I just started pulling things apart to replace, repair, or clean them. 

Test fitting the wheel and seat

Honestly, this seat is great. I am about 205 lbs, 6' and it fits snug as a bug. It was also pretty dang affordable. Should mention the car also came with low bride sliders. 


The car also came with this totally rad HKS Bride, happy to hear more about it if anyone has some info but from my digging seems like these were used in HKS demo cars. How it ended up in this car, who knows.


Slime

Little green machine blitz
Amazingly, the car didn't smell that bad. 




The rear seat was pretty gross. This car came with a 2 sided taped on duck bill, but at some point in life had a GT wing. The PO just butchered the trunk lid, drilled 12 holes in it for the old wing, and when they removed it just covered it in tape. This, of course, let moisture into the boot, which then travelled under that seat and rotted the stitching... how it didn't rust like crazy is some sort of miracle because Mitsubishi did these cars no favours. 

Had to re-learn my sewing from home-economics.. I also wish I bought some hog-ring pliers




Refurbished the old HKS Bride



First look at the roof, for those unaware, evo 1-3 mitsubishi used a bonding agent that actually held moisture and rusted. Pretty great plan, so a ton of these cars have this rusty roof issue. Knowing eventually I would like to carbon fibre roof (I have that in the pile waiting to be installed)  I just knocked out as much rust as I could, used a rust converter, then covered it with some POR15... not a pretty job, but it is also not intended to be permanent. 




Then I started tackling that mess of a dash, where I found miles of wire, a whole bunch of vampire splices, and about 4 vaccume leaks for various things. 


Removed the old narrowband sensor, exhaust gas temperature sensor, oil pressure, coolant temperature, oil temperature and boost guage, most of which werent working. I also removed an old turbo timer and the apexi rev/speed meter just in my restoring the factory harness back to original and removing a bunch of junk. 


The 90's Japan and piggy back stuff with vampire connectors, name a better duo


I also could tell the car had some sloppy short shifter in it, but wasn't prepared to find this:



Cut it apart, shortened some of extensions to elongate the throw a little more (it was like... 1" from 1st to 2nd, didn't inspire confidence) welded it back together and replaced all the bushings and it is tight once again. 




New innovate boost, oil pressure (and water temp) and wideband:


Buttoned back up



Car didn't come with original floor matts, so I found someone parting an evo 3... in the process of buying the floor matts bought every spare part he had left. 




Still a little cluttered, left the stickers on the glove box as they are part of the car's history and for now I am just restoring it to respect its prior history and the previous owner, not a full factory restoration. That pretty much wraps up the interior to date. 

The keen observers will have noticed I also moved the climate control back to the original position from inside the glove box. That was beautiful, every wire lengthened with the same colour blue wire lol. 

Really love all the work you've done on the Evo 3. Great choices and great execution.

That shifter, wow. That was something special. Your version looks much better :)

In reply to obsolete :

More to come, will probably split out exterior and engine / drivetrain for some posts tomorrow. There was no shortage of work to do.