My wife and I spent the past 9 days up in Minnesota enjoying some vacation time over my birthday and floating around the lake at my parents' cabin (see Facebook for vacation pictures if you care).

We drove straight through the night after work on Friday the 16th then left early morning yesterday and got back in the evening. Overall a very smooth trip minus some road construction traffic in ****-hole Oklahoma.

I took care of a few other things while up there too. This will be a consolidation of a week's worth of posts from my main project thread over on MitsuStyle:





Quite the busy day today! First of all, huge thanks to Scheides and Spaz for giving me a hand with the mod installs this morning, and second thanks to Shane @ DB Performance in Rogers, MN for sending me home with yet another great tune!

This morning we installed the AFE Stage 2 Dryflow intake kit, DB MBC, Nisei 1-piece UICP, and removed the clutch restrictor pill. Then it was off to DB to get a tune from Shane. Yes, Shane is the main reason Janelle and I drove the X up from TX rather than just flying. Out on the streets the car feels absolutely fantastic and I couldn't be happier with how it feels. Shane also made me a 91-octane alternate map for use when driving between Minneapolis and Dallas since most the country stations don't have good gas. The alt maps are ultra slick, I just hold down the cruise control button for 3 seconds to flip between the primary and alt maps.

As for the mods I chose, I couldn't be happier. The AFE intake fit perfectly as did the Nisei UICP which seriously looks more stockish than the stock UICP did since it's a single mandrel bent aluminum pipe coated in matte black. The DB MBC was coated by Primo in gloss black and also looks good in the engine bay. Although most guys with the X opt for electronic ECU-controlled boost, I chose to go the simple yet effective route. I've had nothing but great lucking using MBC's for the past 10 years so I figured there is no reason to not go with one; especially since I tried all the ECU methods on my IX and ended up going back to a MBC and being much happier. The stock clutch feels much more direct and responsive with that stupid pill removed too. It actually engages when I want it to and doesn't slip the clutch at all during a hard shift. Hopefully this will help my stock clutch live a long and healthy life.

I'll also add that the X is a fantastic roadtrip car, especially with the cruise control and satellite radio. So far I have ~1,700 miles since last Friday and by the time we get home on Sunday I expect to be nearing the 3k mile mark for the trip.

I do think the Magnaflow catback Scheides and I are running are eating up some power since they're baffled and not a straight-through design. I figured that when buying it though and I'm fine with it since it's so quiet for daily-driving which I really like.

I think my plan for the winter will be to add a nice FMIC (Perrin and AMS are at the top of my list right now, cast endtanks are a must for me), o2 housing and downpipe (Megan? Rexpeed? AMS?), and crank down the wastegate arm a turn then go see Shane again for a retune next summer.

2,752 miles later and GheyrodX is finally back in Texas! Only one broken part too which I suppose is good for a Mitsu... My rear swaybar started making a lot of clunking noises as we pulled into our alley last night and a quick peek under there and it looks like I either broke a rear end-link or the nut just came loose and the bar came off the end-link stud. I'll get under the car tonight after work and figure out what the actual problem is.

I honestly couldn't be happier with the car though! It ran so perfectly the entire trip, even in the stop n go construction traffic in Oklahoma with 102F temps...not a single hiccup from the intake (or tune) with the A/C on. Hot weather + A/C fan + intakes are a big problem for the X's, but AFE obviously did their homework and properly designed the heatshield and filter placement.

We left Minneapolis at 3:43 am Sunday morning and rolled into our garage at 6:05 pm Sunday evening for a total of 1,005 miles in 14 hours and 23 minutes which included 3 or 4 gas stops, some rest area stops, and stopping for breakfast and lunch.

I again have to give a big thanks to Scheides and Spaz for assisting with the parts installs before my tune and of course to Shane for tuning this thing so perfectly it can make it across the country with temps ranging from 60F to 102F on everything from BP 93 to ****ty *** & Go 91 without even a hesitation. After such a long trip my IX would always just feel sluggish and tired, but the X took it all in stride and felt 100% the entire time.

 

I think I might take the car to the detailing guy in my office parking garage later this morning...it's looking pretty nasty with all the bugs and road grime Seems like a good use of birthday $$$ since I have other things that need taking care of around the house this week.

 

Good to hear that you are enjoying the 10 and welcome back dude!

 

Gah you shoulda stayed! Was fun to wrench on this thing, get those dyno plots scanned and posted! Very nice car, too bad the driver is such a punk!

 

Newb fail!!! The nut holding the bar on the end-link stud backed itself off and the link was able to pull out of the bar. Luckily I had a spare nut/washer in my toolbox and all is well now. While I was under there, I moved the links to the middle adjustment setting.

 

Welcome back !!