Hey guys/gals newbie here in need of support. Ive recently attained a very abused and poorly maintained 05 8 MR. The plan is to bring it back to life, and I think this is just the place that will help me do that. I have very poor knowledge of the 4G63 engine and also turbocharged engines in general.

Well the name is Finn, and I cant wait to become part of this community.

 

welcome finn, great info on this forum to help you get the evo viii going

 

Welcome! An abused Evo is a difficult purchase. Please describe why you think it is abused and your plans to bring it back to normal.

 

hey man welcome aboard. before you do anything, read read read and then read some more. lots of good info in here.

glad to see your willing to put in the effort to resurrect the car. she appreciates it im sure.

post up some pics if you can, and detail out specifics about the car like mods miles what you can feel see hear is wrong etc and people will jump in and help.

gl with the project, enjoy

 

Ive been surfing these forums for about two or three weeks now just soaking in all the information, it's alot to take in.

The evo (her name is Marlena) has 98500 miles, and she is showing it. The paint is in horrible condition, the roofs' clear coat is almost non-existent, carbon front lip has major curb bite.

Performance and driving wise is were its the worst. Starting off in first gear sends this horrible rattle/shake that starts in the front and travels to the back of the car. Sometimes itll just wont let me get into gear while driving. The gear changes themselves are rediculously stiff, feel like Im doing lat pulls and have a pump by the time I get out. The turbo pulls pretty hard from around 3200 rpm to 5000, then it starts to let out air before I lift off the throttle. When I press the the clutch in, sometimes it doesnt depress all the way.

It has a pretty new clutch and flywheel. The rotors and brake pads are shot. Sometimes it doesnt want to start up, pretty sure it just needs a new battery. Oh and pretty sure the motor mounts are shot to, which might be where the stiff shifting horrible rattle and gear change rejections might be coming from?

 

props to you for buying such an abused car^^^^

 

Wow, welcome to the community.

- I would first start off by finding out if your gear engagement issue is clutch related, hydraulic related, transmission related?

- I would do a boost leak test on the vehicle and check for any boost leaks

- How's the timing belt? Did the previous owner replace it, or will it need serviced?

- Maybe a good idea to put some new fluids in transfer case, rear diff, trans after everything is sorted out. Coolant flush even?

 

Dude welcome to the community and props for buying such a car with hopes to restore it.
Mine wasnt even modded completely and the complexity of the entire car is still a lot for me to take in.
Its an awesome piece of engineering.
Get the repair manual.
Its helps so much when you are tearing into the car.
Its free and you just Google it.

 

Welcome to the community. I recently bought an abused 9 MR...so I feel your pain. My suggestions are listen to the people on these boards, and try and meet up with someone in your area who also has an evo..that they have owned for a while. They will be able to help you diagnose some things too. Certain sounds, or the way things act, they can tell you what they think is wrong and give you goo suggestions.

Start with the most important issues of drivability and then go to the next problem

Example...my biggest concern is my struts as they are blown. So I have to fix that first. If you are having troubles shifting gears, then start with the clutch and transmission and try to diagnose and fix that problem.

Again, welcome to the community, and by the time you are done, you will be proud of your eveo cause you will have fixed it and made it yours by bringing her back to life.

 

So welcome to the wonderful world of Evolution Love and Hate!!!
The car is real easy to fix and to screw up so always do your homework. Wrong tune, fuel pump, injectors, cam, can really cause a problem. The car can put into great running condition, but do not go cheap and do not spend stupid money. A carbon fiber lip for example is not a need if the tranny is messed up. I am not saying that because you have one it is just an example of what some people do.

1. The EVO 8 tranny stock has issues for a lot of people when they start building good power. Shep or TRE build great trannies and a basic rebuild is at a great price. I prefer SHEP he is a great guy to deal with.

2. The TRansfer case on an EVO 8 sucks in the open diff version. The spider gears are weak so no launching ever while taking a turn. At least until you get the RS diff, Quaife diff, or the Wavetrac or whatever it is called. The ring and pinion will go out without the proper fluid. If you use anything besides Diaqueen it must have limited slip additive, but most of us suggest Diaqueen. Shep and TRE can rebuild and do not go cheap it pays off in the long run.

3. The clutch is a sore subject for high horsepower cars but for mid to high threes and low fours I Like the exedy twin. I have almost 500 and I have had the same twin since 2004 and countless launches. It is in the hundreds. If you are having engagement or disengagement issues you will need to check the clutch alignment and see if it is adjusted right. There is a good write up in the how tos. Do not keep driving with it messed up or it will cost you 5 times as much to fix when all hell breaks loose.

4. Until you have fixed all the problems do not get on the car it will cost you more in the long run.

5. Change all fluids and filters now! Fuel filter and I would even change the fuel pump( the walbro255 is a great choice to start at). Air filter is your choice. Oil is your choice, but check out FP's oil recommendations it is an eye opener. I prefer AMSOIL, but I have used Valvoline VR1 synthetic. Tranny fluid for now the stock mitsu fluid is best. Transfer case definitely Diaqueen for now. Rear diff is the same diaqueen if I remember correctly, but make sure to check.

6. Whoever tunes your car must know what they are doing!!!! The tune is the difference between a good running EVO and a Great running EVO!!!!! No kids tuning your car with some BS some guy gave them.

7. THe stiff shifting can be a number of things all rolled into it together. Motor mounts are a good idea. Shifter bushings another cheap great idea both inside and on the tranny. IT could also be the clutch and or the alignment I talked about earlier. Check these now before something expensive breaks.

8. Get a cd/dvd online manual, a Haynes or Chilton manual or something and just start reading the "How TO" section on here it is great. I printed a whole bunch and put them in a binder.

Have fun and enjoy!!!!!

 

Is the car modded?

It's a fun journey. I bought mine with a blown motor and plenty of surprises. Well worth it, though, even if I am still sorting things out.

 

Man if I was local I would love to lend you a hand with things. Welcome aboard buddy! Post pictures!

With your clutch issues bleed the air out of the clutch line and make sure it's properly adjusted. To make sure it's properly adjusted watch this video a few times to get it.


For your shifting problems, change the transmission fluid, unless the clutch install that they did was very recent. Also sometimes evos with higher mileage the shifter cables on the transmission can bind up. You can find where the cables connect to the transmission by pulling the batter and the battery tray and you'll see them they look like this. Use some sort of lubrication on them like antiseize.

http://www.evomoto.com/article_image.../step_364.jpeg

If none of those do you very good and the clutch is properly bled and adjusted you should look into swapping the evo 5 speed transmission into the car as it has been known to take power better than the 6 speed. But if you like the extra gear I'm sure you can find a transmission shop to rebuild it for you.

For the turbo letting out air after 5000rpm, do you have a boost gauge? It should taper down around there to about 19psi just because the turbo is too small to hold boost at that high of rpm. If it's lower than that you want to try a boost leak test. Here's a link below that will teach you how to make one and how to use it.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...er-5-02-a.html

Rotors and brake pads are pretty self explanatory. Here's links for those.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...rake-pads.html
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...nt-rotors.html

If it doesn't want to start it can be a few things. Get the battery tested somewhere. Also check to see if you have an loose connections at the battery or at the starter. On the starter there are 3 connections, a power, ground, and a signal wire. The signal wire is a little black wire with a connector on it at the top of the starter. An easy way to rule that out is to just clean all the connections and put some dielectric conductive grease on there. Also keep in mind that the signal wire likes to pop off on occasion. It's happened to me before and I was stumped for the longest time until I realized it was something so simple. It can also be your ignition cylinder which is pretty rare. There is a little trick that theses car play on us though. It's really easy so you might want to check it out too. This is only for when you hear the starter's solenoid engage but not turn the engine over. It will make an audio able "click" sound. If that's not the case then this is irrelevant.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...ied-fixed.html

The engine mounts are actually fairly easy to take out of this car. What I would do first it grab the exhaust manifold by runners 1 and 4 and try to shake the engine. If it moves a good bit or you hear the clunking sound I would investigate further.

Taking out the mount is as easy as using a 2x4 on top of your jack and jacking the motor up a little on the oil pan. Jack it up just a bit to take the load off of the mounts. Once you do that you will be able to remove them. If they are cracked or have unusual dust around them then it is more likely ripped or dry rotted.

Let us know how things go and if you need anymore help you can just pm me. Good luck man.

 

Thank you guys for all the support and welcomes. Yeah there is a lot I have to do, kinda overwhelming but just gotta take it one thing at a time.

The car has an HKS bov, 3"injen IC, and some aftermarket exaust. Just put the car up on jacks today and started fiddling around with stuff.

 

Welcome aboard man, nice you have a EVO 8 MR like me. Well where in CA are you located if you don't mind me asking.
MIKE

 

hey mike, Im north of sacremento by about 45 min