Very true, 2nd gear is not optimized for autox when 3rd/4th gear are used for dyno numbers. I modified my 2nd gear for autox, otherwise when tuned for 3rd, you will traverse the maps so rapidly you can see up to high 13's/low 14's during peak boost in 2nd...

 

Hi Justin,
I also had plug troubles in my Evo8 at the event and had to change a set before I could run (probably just fouled from too much taxi-ing around). Fortunately Calvin from COBB was around and quickly diagnosed the missing. Then I hit a cone that jammed the radiator fan into the radiator that shortened my day. I've bought three sets of plugs this week so I'm prepared going forward.

You're on the right path by thinking through all the forms of racing & classing that you may want to compete in. Here's some information to consider in making your engine decision. At the National Championship, EvoX's are not competing for the win in any class. Nationals Evos are all lighter Evo 8/9s.

STU, BSP, and SM all offer a good balance of the EvoX's performance with the cost of competition. I drive an EvoX daily and autocrossed it once locally. Terry Fair had local success in an EvoX MR in STU and I believe you can be competitive locally and possibly at the Division level in STU, but more-so in SM. STU is quite restricted in what you can do to the motor and I'm sure you want to increase boost over stock. You can have fun in Street Prepared, but will compete with a top national Evo9 & drivers in Jeremy/Jon at most events. As you know, the sleeved 2.2L moves you up to SM, but certainly would be fun for autocross and occasional track days. I think if you ran SM, you could take your time improving your driving and car and be in the hunt at most local/divisional events. SM interiors are still very streetable, unlike my Prepared car.

I can recommend Watt Bigham (972-849-7771) at Watts Shop Race Engines for your engine build. He has extensive experience with 4-cyl turbo race motors, builds sleeved EvoX motors, has an extreme attention to detail, and does all the work himself. I used him for my race motor.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

Mark

 

a misfire means there is no fire in the cylinder, therefor its not going to get hot enough to melt the piston. its something we see all the time actually... plugs gapped incorrectly, broken electrodes, cracked or broken ceramic, people go WOT and it sounds like a machine gun, but the result is just lack of power. also, its not uncommon to have knock counts when you have a misfire, but knock counts and detonation are not the same. lots of thing can cause knock counts on the ecu including detonation, but not all knock counts are detonation.

 

although you are exactly right that you will "see" high 13's AFR once you hit peak boost in a lower gear, but that is really an effect of sensor and system latency on the wideband, not the car actually running 13ish AFR at full boost. your better off logging the injector duty cycle with the load then trying to log AFR in a low gear. the duty cycle will trace perfectly with load indicating the "true" AFR (you can compare the IDC's for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at those load/rpm cells, and they will be identical).

another way to double check that on the dyno is to do a second gear pull on a mustang dyno, but do a time controlled sweep. the mustang dyno will add load to slow the engine acceleration so that it takes, say 9 seconds, to run from the start rpm point to the end rpm point. try the same sweep in 4th gear and it will reduce the dyno load so it still takes the same amount of time.

 

Very cool, that's some good info as always!

 

Yea it didn't sound like the same issue, interested to see what did happen

 

Quick update. I still don't think we know why it did what it did. Either way we have a plan to get the car back up and running better than ever and back out to autocross events. I'm really starting to miss the car and miss racing. We've decided to make the car as bulletproof as possible.

Tentative Build List:
Sleeved 2.2ltr
Stock Turbo
Pistons & Rods (not sure on what brand due to wait time)
APR Head studs
Kelford 214b Cams
Supertech Valve Springs (raise the revs)
FIC 1100 Injectors (thanks to Mr. Blackmon)
Walbro 255 (i think)
ETS Intake
ETS o2 Downpipe
93 For Street
E85 For Autox

The guys at EvoD can chime in if I forgot anything. Should be a fun car and spool fast for autox.

 

instead of the walbro you can go with Bosch, I am going with Bosch after Tom and Cobb gave me the thumbs up for it.

 

If you are even considering tracking the car, don't waste your time doing a bosch044 inline. For a few hundred dollars more we have a surge tank that will eliminate fuel starvation, plus you can run whatever pump you want (044, 255, dual255, weldon, etc...).

 

Sounds awesome man. Fast and fun for sure.

 

Good luck with your build, Justin. I think you might tie me for # of mitsus owned.

 

I wouldn't use the Bosch, go with the Walbro.

Yes, do this for sure, Kevin's surge tank is on par with the higher priced units. If you don't think fuel starvation affects even bolt-on Evo's, you haven't driven your car or logged it while doing so.

 

If kevin is building the car, this is a good idea. But if you don't want to deal with it, it is possible to track the car w/ an in-tank, you just have to fill up EVERY run.

 

If you have sticky tires and push it hard, you cant even do one full session without getting starvation. And by sticky tires it was happening to josh on star specs at 3/4 full tank

 

I won't have money to track the car this year or next. I'll run the Don Herring track day and the toy run, but nothing serious. AutoX will be the main focus for the rest of this season and next. Later down the road I still want to run NASA TT, but it's a few years out for sure unless I run into some money somehow. That is part of the reson I am covering all bases with this build. When I finally have the money to start running NASA I will probably want to up the power with a larger turbo. The build we are doing now will be a great base to do up the power on later down the road.