Hey guys! I've always enjoyed reading build and progress posts on here, and have always gotten great information and learned alot of things just by reading build threads on here. I have always been an evo fan since I first drove one at 16, and ever since then, I have been amused with evos and their capability to make power so easily (with the right tuner and mods ofcouse, ebay electronic supercharger does not count) In fact, my first ride in my friend ix MR which had a few bolt ons, manual boost controller and an unnecessary twin plate excedy clutch inspired me to follow my dreams and follow an automotive career, I am now 21 years old, and I work as a line technician for a Mercedes-Benz dealership in California. Anyway.. getting off topic lol, So as I was saying, last 4th of July I finally had the funds to buy an evo, I was so excited, I could not get a good night sleep for days before and after finally buying the car because of how excited I was to finally own an evo after years of waiting, I got a great deal on the car, given it was a clean title with 97k on it, with a healthy motor and a clean title, It did however look like complete poop (excuse my French) when I first got it. The car had a cracked ebay lip, the oem bumper was cut in the middle (for more downforce) and looked really stupid, also, the hood was off of a blue evo and was SPRAY PAITED, yes spray painted black to blend better with the apex silver. and it looked horrible lol. not to mention the yellowed headlights and crappy ebay conards on the bumper.



I got to work right away. pulled off the seats and cleaned everything from inside the car and proceeded to clean the outside aswell, the previous owner had cut the rear usdm bumper for "better airflow" I swear, those were his words... LOL to make it look like a JDM rear bumper, so that had to go, and the carbon fiber on the insides of the rear spoiler was also faiding, so that had to go aswell.



Over the next month or two I looked for oem evo 8 front and a jdm rear bumper, I finally managed to buy a clean USDM rear bumper for a very reasonable price, and given that I was on a budget after spending my life on the evo I could not afford to buy an authentic jdm bumper and paint to match it, And yes, when you own an evo, you use NO fake parts, because Christ is watching... I also managed to get a used Seibon Carbon fiber hood, Brand new VIS demon style carbon fiber trunk and VIS front carbon fiber lip, I did order a huge role of 3m Matte red wrap for the car, but wasted half of it trying to wrap the car and finally gave up and peeled it off, yes, I was VERY stupid with that decision, but oh well you live and learn. This is how the car looked after a month and half of me owning it.





ahhhhh, much better, something about ebay parts that I just cant have on my car lol, I feel like these cars are too rare and precious for cheap parts.



a view from the hind



So after i was somewhat happy with the exterior, I proceeded to get some minor bolt ons for the car. This included an endless search for buying a perrin foam filter, which is now discontinued and a pain to find, I purchased the following.

Samco silicone induction hose
Perrin foam filter with squily 4.5" MAF adaptor
JIC Magic full 3" downpipe with a 2.5" (i believe) inlet from the o2 housing
3" MAP stainless steel downpipe
Grimspeed 3 port boost controller
Walbro 255 drop in fuel pump

these mods were all done on the stock 03 turbo, which has the 9.8 hotside unlike the evo 9 that has the 10.5cm hotside, which in English means that makes less top end power and is a less efficient turbo thus.

I also purchased a torque solution short throw shifter and changed the underhood and shifter base bushings to poly bushings. which was a great mod by the way.

So with my mods I wanted to make sure I knew what my engine was up to so I purchased an AEM BOOST and WIDEBAND O2 gague, coupled it with a lokatek gague pod, Finished the install in 7 hours all by myself (which I was very proud of since it was my very first gauge install ) and proceeded to tune my car on 91 octane California gas, I am by no means a profressional tuner, but there is so much great information on the forums by people like (Merlin,tephra,mrfred,tscomptuned) and sooo many other respected members (sorry if I did not mention everyone, im very tired and there is simply way too many great people to name) that I felt like I had enough knowledge to somewhat tune my car, the process took about a week of making adjustments to the fuel and ignition and WGDC maps, and logging and relogging and repeating, and even when I was done with it, I still had some knock on top end and high loads, but I was still impressed by what I had done with a tactrix cable and a laptop and just spending endless days and hours reading on the forums.



I also purchased an Omni 4 bar map sensor to log boost (and maybe one day go speed density)

After this, I just drove the car for another 2-3 months until I finally finished my special training for Mercedes and got a job, and at the same time, my friend blew his turbo (which he just happened to have gotten back from fp from a rebuild) and was parting out his car, so I figured, It was my chance to start what I have always wanted to do, and put some kicka** go fast parts on my car and be able to spank v8's and pretty much any other car on the road, This being my weekend car, I was obviously not worried about the downtime, so I purchased his turbo, and started to part my car and get supporting mods for the build.

Well, this is pretty much where I'm at now, I Recieved the turbo from FP, rebuilt one again

Parts that I have already purchased and are waiting to go on the car:

Fp red journal bearing MHI turbo

Ported stock exhaust manifold

26psi turbosmart wastegate

map o2 dump

mishimoto radiator

spoolinup cop (non cdi)

supertech Black nitride standard sized exhaust and intake valves (just to freshen up the head)

supetech dual valve springs with reduced od valve guide seals ( I believe they are out of a 1.8 acura LS motor (they are used instead of oem seals because the inner spring of the dual valvespring rubs agains the seal and causes a massive oil leak into the combustion chamber which in turn makes you burn oil and be more prone to knock and overall its not a good way to finish a build lol)

ARP headstuds

FIC 1450 LZ injectors i just ordered today.

STM HP TB shaft seals (oem's leak and its just better to put new ones in when you are going to up the boost)

STM egr block off plate

This is all going to be on the stock block which now has 100k on it, but holds great compression and showed no sign on pre ignition when I pulled the head last week. I will be getting the car professionally tuned because I want a dual map tune for 91 and e85 and I do not want to risk anything after spending every paycheck I had on the car lol.

Parts that are going to be ordered:

GSC S2's-, still debating between s2's and kelford 272's, but I think I am going with s2's.

Kiggly HLA- (4G63's tend to dump alot of oil in the head when you go pedal to the metal instead of keeping a good amount in the crank case where it belongs)

FP gen 2 installation kit- (which feeds the turbo from the oil filter housing and supplies it with a constant 45+ psi so the turbo is always being fed a fresh and constant supply of oil)

OEM mitsubishi gasket set

OEM timing belt, tensioner, tensioner pulley and idler pully

OEM waterpump

ETS 3.5" intercooler with short route piping ( thinking of relocating battery to the trunk instead of using a mini battery)

I am sure there are a bunch of things that I am forgetting, but will update when I recieve more parts and put stuff together, which might take a month or two

I just wanted to make this post to show you guys how far the car has come, this is just a fun street setup still on the stock motor and drivetrain. I am a firm believe that if you do not launch these cars and always follow maintenance intervals, the stock drivetrain will handle 500 horsepower easy.

once I finish the power mods and get the car tuned, I will start doing more exterior and interior mods and start on suspension upgrades, and maybe wrap the car sometimes next year or by the end of this year. I do not have the cleanest and the best looking car, I know, but whatever I have, I have worked very hard for and have done everything with my own hard working money myself in my own garage, along with the help of the forums and research online, and reading books and asking endless amounts of questions, I am a professional technician, but I still learn new things from other people everyday, and I think that is a beautiful thing.

Anyway. I will update on the car more when I make more progress, untill then, thank you for reading my post, and thank you for being a part of this awesome evo communty. Keep on boosting

 

Can't wait to see more, I'm still in the stock piling parts phase.

 

I initially was going to leave everything on the bottom end stock, however, after giving it some thought, I am most likely going to be building the bottom end, its halfway apart, I need to pull trans out for a beefy clutch anyway, might aswell bite the bullet and build the bottom end and be sure its repiable for thousands of miles to comes. I am debating between a semi high compression or long rod 2 liter and a 2.3 liter torque monster. still need to do some more research, but will be pulling them motor within the next few weeks hopefully. will keep you guys posted. As far as the turbo goes, my goals changed a bit, I want an absolute torque monster, i got eid of the fp, will be going with a 71hta and just make its an insane street/weekend car.

 

looks good

 

Awesome start! Cant wait to see more updates. Interesting "airflow mod" on the rear bumper by the previous owner

 

Bump to follow build! I am currently getting parts together for the FP red I just bought. I am going to install it with a stock head and block. I ran out of money when I bought the turbo and realized I needed a different downpipe so I went with the stm with an open dump. Plan on sometime in the future installing the gsc beehive valve springs I have and buying so S2 cams. But this is my daily so I can't just pull it apart and work on it. Is it pretty difficult installing cams and springs? I've never pulled the head off a motor before. But willing to try and learn.

 

Motor is out and stripped! Will be collecting some dust (not really, its covered) in the garage untill I collect the funds, there is currently a huge hole in my pocket so it will take a month or two till I can get all the parts for it, but here is the build plan:

Decided to stick with the stock displacement, will be using stock crank (WPC treated and micropolished)

Manely I beam TT rods

Wiesco 1400HD 9:1 (or maybe 8.5:1 stock compression) also WPC treated, along with all the rings

All bearings (rods & mains) will be WPC treated.

This treatment is not cheap, but do some research on it, and you will know why people spend the money on it, it's a really important step IMHO if you are trying to do a reliable build.

ACL bearings will be utilized in this build (mains,rods,thrust)

Possibly will also be deleting the balance shaft.

The trans and Tcase may also pay Shep a visit for a stage 1 rebuild (since everything is out and I like how the soda baking cleans them up )

Got rid of the FP red honestly, I feel like the new green or possibly a 71hta will be used in my build for now, should be a fun street car.

I will also have to buy a clutch (will use oem flywheel) still deciding on brand.

Also, a fluid damper, a no brainer when you have thousands of dollars in the engine build, its a hefty cost for a "pulley" but a well worth investment in my opinion (arp bolts utilized) oem bolts are known to shear off with these dampers. This is it for now gentlemen, bottom end was pretty much flawless, and motor had 100k when I pulled it, goes to show how far good maintenance goes.

 

No it's pretty straight forward as far as installing cams go on an evo 8, there is a good video on youtube demonstrating how to do this, quality sucks but you will get the idea, after watching that, look up the cam install writeup on evomoto, Just order the timing belt tensioner tool and make sure you have all the tools needed in the writeup.

 

Do you need to take the motor out or can you do it all with the block still in? I remember pulling pistons out of my datsun with dad many years ago and left the block in and unbolted them from the crank from the bottom and slid them out through the top

 

Hey guys, Been a cool minute since I've posted on this thread, car is still not back together, but that's not without good reasons.

When I had the head off I was worried about the gasket residue on the block, and was very hesitant of using scotch brite and stuff in that nature because of how the oxides can ruin bearings, long story short, I found an excuse to build my motor lol. This meant many many months of my car being down, but since this is not my daily, I had no problems with that.

I pulled the motor and trans together, which was honestly easier than pulling the trans for a clutch job lol. bolted the motor up to a harbor freight $60 stand and tore it apart. bearings looked pretty much new for a motor with 100k miles on the clock. also no damage on any internals, crank was mint, I actually sold it to a guy in NY who is planning on using it on his 1000+ whp drag car for a 2.1

I finally ordered my internals last week.

Manely billet 100mm crank

Manely LW I beams (about 30 grams lighter compared to regular I beams)

Wiesco 1400 hd's 9:1 (So I can still have a fun and safe pump tune)

Kings XP series bearings with extra oil clearance, will be running bp 20w-50.

also got the arp main studs. Still have a crap ton of stuff to order, my excedy twin, ati dampner, gsc bs delete kit, and possibly an ams pan/pickup combo, along with a bunch of stuff I'm forgetting. needless to say, car will be down for another few months to come.

I will try my best to keep you guys posted as I progress in the build, I will also post some pics of my transmission disassembly, and how the trans looked after I sprinkled some magic dust on it ( really just cleaned it ALOT and painted it with some cast vht)

 

Did you go through the elite program? I graduated from the program a year ago, and had 3 buddies in my class go work in cali. I'm a benz tech in NC.

 

Yes sir, elite advanced graduated out of LB

 

Nice man. The guys I went with said they were going to open the cali class in January of last year. But apparently it got pushed back so they all came down to Jacksonville FL, just for the cali class to open three months later I believe lol.

 

Thank you bro! yeah I started in May and graduated last october, going on the line in 2 weeks! Pretty awesome how you went to the same program lol, how long you been wrenching?

 

I've been at the dealer for almost a year now, but I starting tearing up cars as soon as I got my first one lol. I'm 20 now so roughly 5 years. I work on sprinters for the most part though, only cars when we get slow. If you're ever wondering if you're missing out, I can assure you that you are not. Cars are much better.