Does anyone know the ratio of the Ralliart stock rear diff? Curious if it's the same as the Evo 8/9. It looks like the same diff with a different cover on the back. Thinking about helping a friend convert a GTS to awd. If the diff is the same and just needs the RA rear cover it would be that much cheaper of a conversion. Also, if you guys wouldn't mind helping me out, I need pics of the rear end setup from your cars. Specifically how the rear diffs front hangers are mounted to the subframe, the inside of the trailing arms where the axles go in, and the driveshaft all the way up to the transmission with closeups of the hangers and where they are. Thanks!

 

I believe its a 4.06. If you check the Mitsu website, I believe it is listed in the specs section. If not, a simple google search should yield the proper results.

 

Hmm, maybe I'm just not seeing it, but I didn't find it on there. Well, the Evo 8 rear is 3.307 so if it really is 4.060 then it would be a no go, but I want to confirm that before moving on to research the next parts of the conversion.

 

Go here: http://www.mitsubishicars.com/MMNA/j...o?#engineering
Go to transmission & drivetrain
Look at Ralliart

See that it's 4.062

 

Oh, wow that's cool! I didn't see that before! Thanks! But that means that the Evo 8/9 diffs are a no go, too bad. Well all I need now are some pics of the RA rear end setup to verify, but I think an AWD conversion for regular Lancers is not only possible, it's easy!

 

Did you check that there is enough place for a driveshaft beside the exhaust? The path of the exhaust on the Lancer 08+ has probably been made to use as much as possible the space available, so it is probably passing exactly where the driveshaft would go.

You would also have to fit a transmission from an EVO or a Ralliart since the transmission from the Lancer 08+ probably does not have an output shaft for the rear wheels (neither that it have a center differential).

I think right now, the rear diff ratio is the least of your worries. Anyway, a 3.307 rear diff would definitely give you improved fuel economy (on the ralliart a 3.307 would allow us to rev below 2500 RPM on the highway) :P And those gears can probably be changed anyway

 

No, as I stated before, I don't own one of these cars; I'm mostly just researching as a hobby and to help a friend of mine possibly convert his GTS down the road. I'm working on converting my Mirage to AWD using Evo 4 bits. Anyway, that's why I said I need pictures. The thing is though, when Mitsu designed the exhaust and other parts, they wanted to spend as little as possible on R&D, so usually what happens is all trims (except the Evo of course) use the same parts. That's why the AWD Ralliart rear subframe is the same as the FWD Lancer rear subframe. It wouldn't be surprising if the Ralliart exhaust was the same as the Lancer exhaust either. (though as I stated, I don't know...that's why I need pictures) Another thing I don't know about yet is whether the fuel tank is the same or if the driveshaft hangers are there. I NEED PICTURES LOL.

 

I don't have any picture but if this can help you.

I've had both cars, exhaust is not the same. We share the same axle-back as the EVO, same catalytic converter, same downpipe.. The mid-pipe is slightly different.

As for the fuel tank.. I suspect it is a different setup since the trunk on the normal lancer avec 2-3 inches deeper than the Ralliart. Which leads me to think that the fuel tank had to be lifted a little to allow Mitsubishi to fit the rear-diff...

Also, I thought a SST would fit with a Lancer 08+ ECU, thus you have to go with the transmission from the GSR... And it's not garanteed that the output shaft from this trans is the same as the SST. So you might have to have a driveshaft custom built (which you seam familiar with, given you project).

And talking about ECU, your base lancer ECU would not have the necessary logic to control the ACD or communicate with the chip controlling the ACD (whatever case apply here).

I'm not trying to say it is impossible... But it might not be cost effective... As a lot of people already told to Base Lancer guys, and that those guys don't like to hear... It's easier, more reliable and more cost efficient to just trade the base lancer for a Ralliart or an Evo X.

The base lancer does not have enough power to really justify all this trouble... And the cost to turbo a base lancer than convert it to AWD... You end up spending more than the difference between the base lancer and the RA.

Given your project you seam to be a very skilled mechanic and I'm sure you would manage to get all of this to work given enough time and money... But, since it's for a friend, I doubt you'll want to spend the time to get this thing done...

Am I right?

 

Yup. Hah my friend isn't much of a mechanic at all, so I've been looking into it for him, but yeah I really don't want to mess with it. Just curious mostly. I checked ASA about the floorpans; they all have the same part numbers. Are you positive the floor is deeper? I would love to find out for sure. All three sections of the rear floor have the same part numbers as well as the fuel tank, so it should all work in the back I would think. The transmission side will be the hard part unless I'm missing something about the back. I was wondering if the RA transmission would work with the CVT TCU in the GTS but I haven't gotten far enough yet to even know if it used a dedicated TCU or if it was integrated into the ECU. If it's all integrated into the ECU then it would probably be way too much trouble (at this point which is still too early in the vehicles lifespan) to bother with, but if it's a dedicated TCU then maybe you could just swap the Ralliart TCU when you swap transmissions. Still there are way too many variables too know if the transmission harness' are the same between the Ralliart and the cvt GTS, though it's not impossible. I suppose I could find out with some more playing around in ASA...maybe I'll mess with it more later haha.

 

The SST has an attached TCU that communicates with the ECU. I imagine it would be significantly easier to use the 5-speed instead of the SST.

 

There isn't a 5spd RA though is there? I thought it was only the Evos that are 5spd?

 

There is no 5speed Ralliart... You would have to use the 5 spd from the EVO X GSR.

As for the TCU, even if the TCU is a separate component, they all communicate together thru the CAN Bus... I'm pretty sure that just putting the transmission there, hooking up the TCU to the CAN Bus won't get it to work properly.

Car are getting very complicated from an electronic point of view... Some Ralliart owner are dreaming of swapping the SST for the transmission from the GSR but nobody actually succeeded from what I know... All just because of the ECU and TCU working together...

 

Yeah, that's what I thought, too bad. They really should've offered a 5spd, but I guess then everyone would buy the RA over the X haha. The ECU and TCU communication will probably take some hacking to get right, but if they plug in with the same harness' then that's half the battle. Has anyone actually tried the trans swap? Can I get a link to the thread maybe? Anyway, the Evo trans swap may work, but I dunno anything about the rear ends on X's yet. I'm trying to keep it strictly RA parts to swap. Being that they share the same chassis it SHOULD be somewhat easy parts wise. (note, I didn't say cheap...but easy ) The software end could be a little more difficult.

 

The only swap I did read about was Ralliart SST being replaced by an EVO SST... But even this one seamed pretty cheesy. The guy told us that this activated the Super-Sport mode and that the display would actually show the S-Sport...

And now that I think about the transmission, I think the 5spd and the SST both have the front AYC built-in, so there has to be some logic in the ECU to manage that... But I am not familiar at all with this part.

If I were you, I would stick with a 5spd from the EVO (if the AYC thing is not a problem) and the Ralliart rear-end... Since you probably have to get a custom drive-shaft anyway, you don't really car about the input shaft of the rear-diff... As a matter of fact you could take ANY rear-end that physically fit there...

 

Ah, I just realized that the X MR rear diff has the same ratio as the RA! I missed that before. I also saw that the 5spd has a different ratio that the RA and MR, so without running a X rear diff you'd lock up the drivetrain. Also, ASA shows the GSR (5spd) diff as being AYC, so without wiring all of that electronic jazz up, your car will handle worse than if it was FWD as the rear diff will just be open. I think RA owners best bet is still the X MR transmission as it will be the easiest swap. There is a wild card option though. Who knows if it will work, but there is a chance you can use an Evo 8 rear diff with the RA diff cover (for rear mounting points) and the Evo 8 transmission for a simple all mechanical diff setup. Again, I haven't researched this at all, but it very well could work. If you happen to find the thread where the guy was swapping to the Evo trans, please link it here. Also, to answer the custom driveshaft issue from a few posts back, it's nowhere near as expensive as most people think. Here in Indy we have shops all over that will do it and it's only a few hundred.