Hi all,

I'm not entirely sure if you guys get the 9 GT in but essentially its like an Evo 9 GSR (JDM) but....

RS rear diff, but with ACD
5 speed gearbox
Slightly lighter
GT interior (black suede)

Its a bit of a strange model really, kind of the in between of an RS and a GSR. But anyway, onto my car I am a regular member of the UK based MLR (Mitsubishi Lancer Register) but would share my build with you guys

So here we go, i best start off with some pics after i picked her up







And some semi pro pics done by a good friend





The car was owned by a few enthusiasts before me, so a lot of modification had been done, but i wanted to neaten it up

The spec when i picked it up
ENGINE

Evo 8 4G63 block and head (non mivec engine)
Custom Billet 94mm Crank
Custom 85.50mm CP pistons
1000+ capable Crower Pro-Series I-Beam Rods
ACL Race Bearings (inc. Thrust washer)
ARP "L-19" heavy duty Head stud Kit
ARP Main Stud Kit
New Mitsubishi oil pump
New Mitsubishi water pump
Balancer shaft removed
1.3 mm HKS head gasket
Head port and polished
Titanium valve springs and retainers
JUN 272 cams
Piper alloy pulleys
JMF intake manifold (polished)
Alloy radiator
Grey powder coated rocker cover
Alloy oil cap
Ross sport spark plug cover
Cusco Oil catch tank
Zacklee clear cam cover

TURBO SYSTEM, INTERCOOLER & EXHAUST

AMS True Ball Bearing Turbo GT35
AMS turbo manifold
AMS custom downpipe
Tial 38mm wastegate silver with slip-fit recirc dump
All uprated oil and water lines
AMS intake pipe with K&N filter
AMS 1000 bhp intercooler kit with 3 inch intercooler pipes
Tail dump valve in silver
AMS Race Battery
Trust titanium 3.2 inch exhaust, customised by Primary Designs to remove De-cat

TRANSMISSION, & DRIVE TRAIN

5 speed gsr gearbox re-con (from an Evo 6)
Evo 9 rs transfer box with no acd
Evo 9 rs rear diff set up
Exedy twin plate clutch
Apr up rated wheel studs, group n rally wheel nuts

SUSPENSION, BRAKES & WHEELS

Ohlins coilover suspension, pro spec r springs
Swift springs and fully adjustable top mounts
Power flex front & rear lower wishbone bushes
Power flex rear upper wishbone bushes
Power flex rear control arm bushes
K-sport 356mm,8 POT brake kit, with ds 2500 pads
K-sport 330mm,6 POT brake kit with ds 2500 pads
Goodridge steel brake lines with kevlar coating front and back
Rays wheels volk racing TE37 time attack 18 inch alloys, 8.5 wide
Toyo t1r tyres 235/40/18

ELECTRONICS & FUELLING

Standard ecu
Additional Bosch 044 with Goodridge -6 lines from filter to pump and pump to rail
1000cc injectors
Aeromotive fuel rail
255 Walbro fuel pump
Apexi avcr boost controller
Electric window switches relocated to centre console

EXTERIOR & INTERIOR

3 pod sumo gauge holder on dash
With Spec R stepper Oil pressure, Oil temp and boost gauges
AMS carbon fibre roof
Ralliart carbon fibre front lip
Carbon fibre vortex generator
Ap gt carbon fibre door mirrors
Rexpeed carbon side skits
Rexpeed carbon rear extension
Rexpeed carbon rear window vents
Black mud flaps
Xenon head lights
Led side lights, ice blue
Black alcantara recaro seats
Cusco 6 point roll cage
Cusco slam panel
Carbon fibre front and rear door cards
Ralliart mats
Clifford alarm fitted

I've been loving this car since i picked her up The only thing that bugs me is the work needed on the idle, its a little irate and does often stall, but i put this down to the fact to the front right breather in the rocker cover and it flows straight into the inlet manifold (in theory) by passing the MAF. I proved this by blocking off the breather into the inlet manifold and it began to idle a little better :thumb:

I love the way it drives, the power is savage! The car sits flat through corners at any speed! Awesome fun!!

So, onto the bits and pieces i've done! Well as some of you can see, i've added a sun strip! Another SJSDesign product of top quality, mainly added as the car doesn't have sun visors. Next was to get the car ready for after market management. At this point, i must thank all the traders i contact, especially Nick at NR Autosport for going the extra length to try and sort me out with supplying a board and mapping, but unfortunately due to the lack of them in the UK at the moment, its fallen outside of my time frame
A nice MLR member sorted me out with a brand new S90 70mm TB for a fantastic price :smthumbup



A very well engineered piece of kit! Massively impressed with it! Haven't fitted it, but it shouldn't be long!
Next, a quick phone call to Ross sport and i had myself a 4" ID K&N GREAT price and quick delivery :smthumbup



The last and somewhat controversial modification was the purchase of a genuine Mitsi number plate plinth from an MLR member and it will be trimmed down to have a 4" tall plate I'm not a fan of the sticky one on the bumper

And onto the modifying! :car:

I had a free afternoon today, and starting doing a few little jobs in the garage and the Evo started calling to me to work on it, so i couldn't exactly ignore it, could i?

Some of the wiring on the car i wanted to sort out, there was a lot of spurious wiring behind the dash that i'd pulled out before that went from random switches to nothing or bits of chopped loom that needed tidying up, so i wanted to do some bits in the engine bay The fans are controlled manually in the car, that doesn't bother me one bit! But the air conditioning has been totally removed yet the fan still remains. It doesn't operate off the switch in the cabin, so its time to remove it



Bumper off At this point i saw the state of the intercooler Well, i say state - i mean how dirty and covered in road grime it was. So that too was to come off and clean up behind it There was a bit of loom scotchlocked (shudder!) to the OE rad fan loom that served no purpose as it was just taped up at the end. The locks were removed and the wiring taped up



The plugs were then covered and cable tied to the Power steering rail.



The intercooler was bolted directly to the upper support, i wasn't a fan, so sourced a rubber washer and a fresh SS one and put a bit of copper grease behind it so it didn't stick.



Intercooler off and the clarity of how grubby it was is clear



So off into the garden for a bit of spring cleaning I sprayed a bit of TFR on it and it seemed to get rid of the initial dirt, but got busy with de-greaser, APC and some brushes and got a LOT of it off



Sprinkled a bit of water over it to wash it through then got the metal polish out



Extremely happy with the result now So - onto the next bit! The rad fan that is on the car has a direct earth to the body from the loom coming out the motor. Not an issue but it was not connected to a proper point and there was tons of wiring for it that had just no purpose, so for a temp measure, i cut it down a fair bit, added a connector to it and used the headlight mount (with some copper grease around it) to earth it, cable tied it all out the way and tucked it behind the plastic moulding that usually sits there. Nice and neat and out the way



At this point, i cleaned the radiator the same way i did the intercooler, and it came up nicely too So nice clean rad from the front of the car. Onto the next little modification (not a huge one i know) but i wanted to black out the :mitsi: diamond on the front of the car. First wet and dried it with 240, 500 then 1500, plastic primed then satin black I love the effect its made on the car



I also started to put the car back together. You can see its cleared up the front end massively!! I wanted to de-orange the headlights, but frankly i didn't have enough time today to sort it and i've got places to visit tomorrow in the car lol.



Whilst it was off, i neatened up the intercooler pipe cut outs on the bumper with the dremel. Dad gave me a bit of a hand as he's better with a hand file to finish it off. It still needs a tiny bit of work to it, but as i've got to do the headlights at some point, i'll leave it until then.
Bumper back on, doesn't quite fit on the O/S and i'm not sure why as it was perfect before i took it off. I've done something :s



So as the sun started to go down, i backed the car out and cleaned up the garage. I'm happy with today's work

 

The floor matts were rather filthy and had oil on them, i spent an hour or so with the APC, 1001, pressure washer and a horse brush got them all nice and clean and had them drying in the sun. They look MUCH better now (see pics below). The whole bumper not fitting entirely correctly also was still bugging me, so took it off again today to see what was causing it. Turns out the bumper contacts the intercooler side tanks about halfway down on some ironwork. Out comes the dremel Took the necessary bits off, neatened it up and hammerited it to protect the bare metal. Bumper went on perfectly after So after my minor work today i got to sorting the car out to travel to Scotland tomorrow! Covered in road grime already i thought i'd give her a bath and get some fresh photo's before i fill it with boxes and clothes lol. Enjoy (by the way, this is with NO polish or wax on her).































A sneaky little update as im still in the midst of moving houses and getting parts sent up. I've done loads in the engine bay with wiring etc and have a lot of pics to put up once I've got the Internet sorted rather than using my phone. But I've spent a weekend sorting out my headlights no more orange bits and some silver bulbs from the local car accessory shop

 

My main gripe with the engine bay is how tatty some of the bits are in it, and if it bugs me, I change/sort it Here are a few photos showing the previous condition of certain parts of the engine bay.



Next some bits of the wiring that confused me.



Then my biggest bug bare – The injector wiring, as you can tell it’s a bit of a mess and there seems to be other injector plugs for it too! This was from its past life when it had a dual rails and ran 8 injectors. I’ll get onto that later.



Crap plumbing of gauges and some split hoses.



So going back to that earth. Well, the sheathing was stripped back and taken all the way down to the trunk loom over the gearbox…well lets just say I was gob smacked at what I found.



The plastic surround for the wire had charred and gone completely brittle. It just fell apart in my hands, what I have there in my hand is after taking it out as gently as possible to get as much of the crappy plastic with it. No luck. So I took it even further back, and was even more stunned at what was done on this loom.



Yep, that’s copper oxide aKa wire rust. Water’s got in somewhere. I did think at this point I was playing above my game, but I was actually saddened to think that a car of this stature had a wiring loom put together by a chimp. The plastic covering was all over the place too and the loom started to show more of what it actually was. After spending an evening with the PDF wiring loom files, I checked colours against what I had and it looks like a mix of Evo 9, 6 and a random V8 loom to run dual rails.



And whilst doing it I decided to continually chase that earth down to where it lived. It went further and further into the loom, but further down the engine mount side!! It eventually turned out to be poorly soldered into the coil pack loom. I checked for continuity with and without it connected and it made only a MINOR difference so I took it all out, cleaned off all the scorched plastic and then cable tied it back together to the loom’s shape.





During what the missus described as ‘butchering’ the engine bay, I found that there was a **** loads (yes, it’s a proper measurement) of loom that wasn’t even connected to anything! It appeared at the capillary ends of the loom next to plugs etc and then stopped just after it joins the trunk, so they were ripped out to reduce clutter. At this point I was also creating a fair bit of mess on the garage floor, but there was a fair amount of wiring that I was pulling out.



I haven’t got any pics of the next bit, but going back to that V8 bit of loom. Basically the injector harness had 2 wires that each Y’d off to 2 separate injector plugs, they’re labelled ‘Cyl1 front bank’ and ‘Cyl1 rear bank’, so yeh, I put 2 and 2 together and got V8. I also removed one of the plugs off each of the pairs at the join and then heat shrink wrapped and tied it up. Looked much better!! I also decided whilst the loom was in bits to move it below the intake manifold. After a bit of measuring and some slight extending of some bits, I managed to get it looking a little neater



With the manifold off, I opened the inlet up of it to match the new S90 throttle body and started to transfer the bits across off my old one onto it, giving both a damn good polish. This then revealed another issue…the original throttle body is from a 6!!! Neither the throttle pot or idle control valve transferred across, but thanks to an MLR member I got a low mileage Evo 7 throttle body and transferred the new bits across, again this also showed an issue – the 6’s loom plug for the ICV doesn’t match the 7/8/9’s ☹ So a quick PM to John@evobreakers got another plug and a bit of loom as well as a boot adjustable stopper to sort the boot rattle out This was then all fitted and the loom tucked away. I finished off the inlet manifold by sorting out the vac/boost feeds underneath to make them actually work correctly. The fuel pressure reg and BOV were given their own clean feeds, the boost gauge and boost controller were given their own joint feed and the rest were blocked off properly



Relocated the boost sensor and neatened the hosing



Relocated the injector and fuel pump resistors, painting the one black and mounting it solidly above the pump relays.



The observant will notice the extra earth cables I’ve put about the place. I’ve always been a firm believer of having an excellent earth feed to the engine, chassis and the battery, as the OE ones don’t look great. With the battery on for a test of the electrics, everything lit up properly on the dash and no smell of burning on ignition II, so good news!! I didn’t start the car as there is no coolant in it or boost pipes on it for that matter lol but left it for about 10 minutes checking to see if I could smell burning or feel any heat coming from anywhere. All was good!

Whilst this was going on, I refurbished the base plates for my wing mirrors as they were corroding and the paint was bubbling so I wire brushed it all off, nitromorsed them until they were bare metal, primed and sprayed with satin black. LOVE the finish ☺ I just need to match the J panels now lol!! Was thinking of carbon ones, but it wouldn’t match and would look odd and tacky.

 

I bought some USDM rear lights off an MLR member (ignore the sponge, its there to stop the garage door bonking the spoiler when I partially close it). I love the look of them (if you guys want JDM ones, there is an open market in the UK to get rid for the USDM ones!!) and after a quick purchase off ebay I got some W21W silver indicator bulbs for £5! Got 2 sets, one for the rear lights and one for the front



SO! Onto the turbo only recently I’ve noticed that I get exhaust fumes from the engine bay on start up, on closer inspection I found the turbo elbow is cracked ☹ The turbo had to come out! It was also blowing soot onto the radiator from the wastegate sleeve join and manifold/turbo join.





I also wanted to do something with that ghastly blue finish the cold side of it had on. So after some f’ing and blinding, it all came off as one ☺ Notice my experimental paintwork on the manifold – just some black/grey VHT paint I was testing out to see if it worked.



Here’s the crack in the elbow.



So off to Evolution Solutions to get fixed, also, here’s the blowing from the join. I’ve tried to get the bolts off and after a fair bit of head scratching and some clever socket arrangements, I got them off! They will be replaced with ARP ones



With bits and bobs out and about to other people getting sorted, I thought I’d spend a little time on that turbo cold side I really didn’t like the blue finish and had a good look at it to see what it was, paint or some sort of ceramic coating, either way I poured the nitromorse over it and hoped for the best. An hour later the plasticy coating was falling off as a rubbery goop. It took a few hours working with it to get the last bits off and out the tight spots but it finally went back to bare alloy. With some wire wool and metal polish it came up nicely Very pleased with the results!!!



Whilst having a paint, I thought about re-doing the gearbox as some of it was getting grubby and falling off. Rather than remove the gearbox completely, I removed all I could to reveal as much surface area of the box, all the ironwork and little mounts were removed, sanded down, zinc primed and sprayed satin black to match other little parts ☺ The rubber vents had been painted silver (god knows why) so I gave them a clean up with some hot water and soap, paint fell off and then I gave them some rubber treatment





Then onto the gearbox, this was easier than I first thought. I degreased it and got the wire brushes out as well as get the attachments for the drill and went nuts!! After giving it a full clean off, masked up the area and got the paint out! I LOVE the result, really impressed!! So much so, I did the thermostat housing too! Once I gave it 24 hours to dry so it went solid, I started to put it all back together. I also noticed I’m starting to collect random stuff too lol





On Saturday morning I was rudely awoken by the posty with a box I thought I recognised, yep.. it was my turbo elbow back from Evolution Solutions



Next job is to order a set of ARP bolts for the turbo->manifold join and I can start putting it all back together

One thing also I really wanted to investigate was the excessive play in the steering, its always bugged me but I’ve never had the chance to sit and diagnose it. For ages I thought it was just the rack, but I checked all the ball joints, tie rods for play and nothing, I took a glimpse at the steering column and saw it moved with the wheel, so it wasn’t that either. My head scratching I phoned the old man to see if he knew, he said he had something similar with one of his old mini’s and to try where the column attached to the rack. So went back to the car and pulled back the carpet to reveal the pinch assembly….with no bolt in it. Yep, that’s right, no bolt holding the clamp onto the steering rack. Shocked? I felt sick. I found it further under the carpet so put it back in and gave it a bit of threadlock and a good tighten.



In the midst of not having any electricity running through the car, I took a chance to have a look behind the clocks as the odometer LCD panel was awfully dim compared to any other evo I’d seen. So once I took it out I could see it had some random dash bulb in it with a blue rubber cap over it. I still chucked it and got a new one, also some LED rear number plate lights from Halfords (on sale for £5 a set ). The sensor wire from the PS pump was also re-attached and heat shrunk to keep it on there.



With it all sorted, I got the battery back on to test it all only to be deafened by the alarm at first. Again, I left it on ignition to see if I was getting any faults through, ABS and engine light went out Nice. Tested all the lights and I finally have an odometer I can read!

Also got started on the J panels to match the wing mirror base plates. Usual wet and dry process, plastic primer and satin paint. Very impressed with the finish on these They’re now drying in the sunshine



And whilst in the painting mood, I got rid of that sky blue colour on the engine block. Never liked it. So painted it hammered black Picture doesn’t do it justice unfortunately.

 

Parts started to arrive!

First of all my carbon fuse box cover and bonnet dampers. I decided rather than paying the UK prices for these, i went straight to Rexspeed and Derek did a GREAT price on them, so much so that i will be placing future related orders for bits from him







I'm starting to work through more wiring after finding some random ones behind the dash as i was installing some sound proofing. Some were linked together but their other ends weren't connected to anything So out they came

Weekend with nothing else to do, i decided to have a go at cleaning/polishing my exhaust manifold. Well i got as far as degreasing it and rubbing it wire wool to get to bare metal, autosol to get a shine and it was taking forever, so decided to spray it I first ground off with the dremel the little bits of weld left over from when the AMS badge fell off. I've got loads of VHT paint lying around, so gave it a go. I think this is the marmite part of my car, you either like the silver or not.







I like it And there IS method to madness, so standby to see what i do with this

After a quick go at stencilling and some experimenting, i came up with this



After looking at it, I wasn't completely satisfied with the outcome of the AMS logo on the manifold, so rubbed it back and sprayed over it, will do it once i've got the heat through the paint and set it.
I got it mated up with the head to see what it looks like, i'm chuffed with the result





And a quick pic of the carbon fusebox covers



These took a tiny bit of work to make fit correctly, but they're on now

And pics of the struts fitted

 

Got my Spec-R radiator mounts and carbon cooling panel



With the rocker cover, catch tank and clear cover sold, i waited for the new bits to start arriving

Firstly my hose sections from an MLR member, Now fitted to the pipe though the flex joint has been replaced by the solid joiner piece



Then my bits arrived from co-ordsport I've still got the other half of the order to arrive But my samco, rear strut brace and ARP bolts.



I started putting my turbo back together with the new pipe work and jubilee's, unfortunately this rubbed off some of the silver VHT paint But i sorted that later





Got the paint out to sort the little bits i rubbed, fitted the piping and samco





Problem has now occurred when i started to tighten the centre nut on the exhaust manifold, it didn't tighten, just stayed relatively stiff and i realised it was pulling the stud out Or so i thought... I removed the stud to find the shaft had stripped, so just need to get another one

The splitter on the car wasn't in the best of condition, over years of use and track days i think its been clipped a few times



Well i managed to wet sand the whole splitter down, build up the crack up with clear lacquer then flatten it off. Went over it all with rubbing compound then finally over with Meg's ultimate compound and it came up better than i thought I even got the new Ralliart decal on the front







Got the earths sorted on the battery after ordering 2 new Odyssey battery posts I know the positive clamp is on the -ve, but in the end, it doesn't matter. I've ordered a replacement clamp for the +ve terminal as with the new layout of the main cables under the boost piping, i haven't got as much reach as i'd hoped.

 

Great thread

 

Excellent attention to detail. Too bad the previous owners didn't do the same.

Keep the build updates coming!

 

Nice Evo!!!

 

wow great write up!! cannot wait to see more!! you're doing a great bit of justice to that GT. it was good to begin with, now? its phenomenal and getting better! keep up that good work mate!

 

Thanks all

Had a bash at fitting the rear strut brace! First Evo i've owned with one and i thought i'd get a cusco one. If anyone's ever fitted one of these you'll hopefully agree at how straight forward it is, even with japanese instructions :crackup:

I just didn't feel right about drilling the boot floor, but oh well



So, all the stuff where i can see it



Our puppy Ralph popped along to see what i was doing and to tear up my useless instructions



Test fit



Floor drilled



All in place and bolted right up



An MLR member has offered me the entire boot interior trim for £50, so going over this weekend, HOPEFULLY, to go and get it

This week i got the delivery from Evolution Solutions





Also Fitted the brass shifter bushes and all i can say is WOW! These replace the rubbish rubber ones that are on the end of the gear cables and make the gear change more positive.

Went to my local hydraulics place in town and i got these for £10 I also chatted to them about possibly making up my hoses as well as crimping and they would do it for less than £15 As they've been very competitive with price and quality, i'm tempted to get them to make up my new fuel lines too when i move the fuel pump into the boot.



Fitted my cam position sensor head shield



With everything pretty much back to how it was, i decided to try and start the car. Took all the plugs out, the fuel pump relays under the dash out and turned the car over to get the oil pressure back to normal, after about 6 seconds of turning it over the light went out Put the plugs back in, relays back in, coil packs on and kept my fingers crossed. Well, this is where it got interesting... The car wouldn't start. Just turned over. Bugger. So, had a look at the throttle body, and as its a new S90, i didn't have an idea of where to set things, so screwed the idle speed valve out about 5 turns and gave it another go, it fired a few times and really wanted to start but alas. Coming to the end of my fuse i tried to start it with a tiny bit of pressure on the throttle pedal and finally she started!! A bit lumpy at first but that's a positive outcome Wound the idle speed valve out a little and gave it a few turns on the butterfly adjuster and she started and ran at 2000rpm, hunting a little but eventually smoothed out to 1200rpm The biggest thing i've got out of this is that the car will hold its idle now!! It ran at idle for AGES and i could get out the car, walk about and check for leaks which there weren't

 

Next step!! Thanks to an MLR member for the boot trim, even though i did miss a bit (you can see what its missing at the bottom of the picture). I did a little trimming and some dremel work



The car has little fuel left, so took her for a blast to the nearest Shell garage (20 miles away!!!!) The car was still filthy so gave her a full detail Engine bay is still waiting for some bits to finish it off. The number plate plinth is still to be fitted, its been cut down waiting for the new plate.

 

definitely interested in seeing more.

 

Dam you doing a lot of work there man. Enjoy it good attention to detail

 

Thanks for the comments

Here's a few pics from a local car meet and outside a local air force base













I've added the Ross sport tanks and managed to bugger up my PS pump trying to bleed it it constantly noisy if you even SLIGHTLY turn the wheel, so i think i'll need a replacement. Apart from that, engine bay is NEARLY completed



Well i've had a bit of a stand down from the evo for a while to concentrate more on work But now i've had a bit more free time, i've managed to get a few more bits done

One thing that always bugged me since i owned the car was the noise of that bloody 044 pump in the engine bay, it sounds like a ****ed off wasp so have decided to move it into the boot as well as the battery. A fair bit of wiring to sort out, but i've finally sorted it



First off was to de-pressurise all the fuel system and pull it all away. I bought an Aeromotive FPR as well as a load of -6 fittings and aeroquip hose. Running the hose under the car was pretty straight forward as i cut out the metal feed hose, knocked out the plastic seats and ran the aeroquip hose in the gap







After it was all connected up and the wiring completed, i started the car up - no leaks but i couldn't get the fuel pressure below 3.5 bar Having researched my options, i decided to take it out on the venturi thingy in the fuel tank as it has a TINY hole in it to create the effect. Having a look at it, there isn't really much to it and i bit the bullet and drilled the hole out from 2mm to 2.5mm. I then decided to get the buckets and the hose to test to see if it still works







Well, the good news is it does! And at a low pressure too! So put it back in the car and got a 2.5 bar minimum on the fuel pressure regulator So i can get my 3 bar base fuel pressure and its now ready for mapping! Decided to pull the car out the garage as it was covered in dust and oily hand prints and give it a blast with the pressure washer



Next step is the custom battery tray to be ordered from Evo Solutions

though i know there seems to be an ongoing battle as to whether or not you need a fuse/circuit breaker in the boot for the battery or not, but i always stay on the side of caution and have invested too much time and money into this car to see it end for a failure in the cable's sheath etc. Just not worth it. So my mega fuse holder arrived today 200amp should sort it



I also fitted the switchable earth for the anti-lag on the Autronics Just need the battery tray and a PS pump to finish her.