makes me glad i don't drive a Ralliart.

in that case, take what i say with a grain of salt.

 

you drive an Evo, which has almost the exact same engine...lol. 4G69, 4G64, and 4G63 engine blocks are all interchangeable...you are lucky cause you have the option of Kevlar belts we don't because the 4G69 is SOHC w/ MIVEC.


a genuine OEM timing belt is like $60...every 60k miles, and it's guaranteed to last at least that long, but many don't fail until closer to 100k miles which is nearly double it's service life. At least with a 4G94, there's no hydraulic tensioner, balance shafts, and all the extra pulleys we have with the 4G6x engines. I'd pay double for peace of mind any day...especially since it's so much cheaper for the 4G94 anyway...

 

ah. you are correct. i take back everything i said. i DO use OEM t-belts for my car and it is kevlar. for some reason, i was thinking of my other car. LOL. for most cars i do work on, i use Gates belts.
i use other Gates parts on all builds, other than my Evo's oil pump. that is also OEM.

 

So are the ralliart guys able to use a evo head for a dohc swap?

 

yes, with ECU and control harness

 

The roms are not the same as a evo? You can't just flash a evo rom?

 

our ECU and MAF is more similar to the next generation Lancer/Evo...but is different enough that we cannot simply use an Evo ROM. Tuning for us is really still in its infancy...I've been testing Fastworks (formerly UVtune) software since 2011...recently another party has cracked the secret, but it requires a different program each for reading, writing, and datalogging and a very specific process. Fastworks is all-in-one, is very simple to use, and has many years of R&D...you need to pay for a custom definition, and a base tune either way. no one to my knowledge offers open source tuning for our ECU. same goes for the 4g eclipse. I have no problem paying for tuning if it works well, and support is available.

 

At least there's a way the ralliart can tune. I guess the 4g94 got pretty lucky with the ecu it uses.

 

exactly why if I didn't need a more family friendly vehicle, I would have turbocharged my 2003 lancer as well...I even had plans to do a JDM lancer cedia ralliart body conversion, and paint it baby blue for the wife... but she'd rather have the mazda 5, so i'll be boosting that with MS3 parts...lol

 

I'm loving my lancer. It really pulls nice with 12psi Of course my wife doesn't like my car as well. Before I boosted she said she was embarrassed by it because it was so loud. The car has since gotten more quiet since I boosted and added a resonator. I'm running catless but the car is pretty quiet.

 

Turbo = best muffler, ever.