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This is guna be my Evo Journal thread. From the day i sold my Imported RHD Ver5 STi GC8 RA, to the day i found and bought my 2005 Evo 8 SSL.
It was a really hard decision switching from my STi to the Evo. The main reason was that i had about $35k+ into my GC8, and i knew that no matter how much i put into it, i was never going to see more than $20k-$25k back, so i made the hard decision to sell and start over... I would be lying tho if i didnt say that one day i just got a wild hair up my A$$ and just decided to sell it and buy an Evo...And thats pretty much exactly what i did! Do i regret it? Id be lying about that as well if i said no, bcuz a part of me hates myself for doing it.
It was Hands Down the Nicest GC8 Body STi in Portland. It had everything you could do to it done, with very few exceptions. With a Rotated GTX30R on E85 it Made 460/430 on a Mustang Dyno. My 1999 RHD Ver5 STi RA
Enough about the ST!? haha Lets talk Evo.
I was looking at Evos for about 5-6 months B4 i found mine. I still have a screenshot of the CL Ad for it. So i sold the GC8 for just under $20k and was looking for 8s & 9s with either all the basic Bolt-Ons and maybe a bigger turbo kit for $20k range, or a clean title stockish Evo in the $12k-$15k range. I ended up finding mine and it was priced with 2 prices. The tranny needed to be rebuilt so i could pay $16k as is, or $19k after the rebuild. I'll get into all the mods later. I ended up paying $15.5k as is, and when i took it to English Racing, Aaron called me the next day and said that the Tranny case(Not T-Case, but the Tranny Shell) wasnt salvageable so i would either have to buy a used tranny for around $1k and have it built for like $2k, or buy a new tranny from Mitsubishi for about the same.i wanted a stronger tranny so i opted to get a used one and have it rebuilt. Lucky for me the next day they came in possession of a customers Evo 8 that was totalled a week after they built it, and the tranny had about 1100 miles on it and i ended up getting it for $3300. Great deal for me, especially after i found out that the dumb *** previous owner of my Evo not only destroyed the tranny, but also messed up both clutch discs after only 1000-/+ miles...smh so i came out paying about $19k for the Evo.
It wasnt heavily Modded, but had everything i needed until i started building it.
107k miles
Stock Block/Heads
264 cams(I think. I still am not 100%)
Stock Evo 8.5 Turbo
1000cc injectors
Wally 255
Injen UICP
Forge BOV
ETS FMIC
Exedy Twin Disc HD
Stage 2 English Racing 5MT
It made 400/381 on English Racing Dyno, so prolly 380/355 on a Mustang. Big difference in the numbers between the Evo and my GC8, but the Evo drives a lot better and pulls pretty damn hard for basically being a stock set-up. First time i saw my Evo in person^^^
What it currently looks like. Although my favorite color, I got rid of all the cheap looking Red Plasti-Dip accents, Red MudFlaps,, all the Stickers, and Fixed/Reinstalled the broken front lip. Next is painting the Enkeis maybe Gunmetal or something in that shade. I would prefer they werent painted at all, but w/e... ima eventually put some CCW DL-110's or Classics on it. I like simple when it comes to the Body of Evos & STi's. I think they look Fresh As Is.
*So my current plans are as follows:
-stay with the stock block for a while
-GTX3576R Kit
-O2 Dump
-GSC S2 Cams
-upgraded Valvetrain
-Radium Fuel Pump Hanger
-Walbro 450
-ID1300x
Stay with that for a while,hopefully make a safe 550+,
*Future Plans:
-save & find another 4G63, have it machined, and slowly build it.
-Get a Bottom Mount DOC race or Sheepey Manifold
-jump up to ID1700cc if Necessary
-turn up the boost and hopefully make close to 700 and ill be happy.
If you wanna make 700, get the ID 1700x instead of 1300x right away. Saves money and do a rewire with the 450 while you're at it. Then you wouldn't have to mess with it later. You can also trim the bottom of the oem fuel pump hanger to fit a 450 in. There's a write up on it as well in the forums.
If you wanna make 700, get the ID 1700x instead of 1300x right away. Saves money and do a rewire with the 450 while you're at it. Then you wouldn't have to mess with it later. You can also trim the bottom of the oem fuel pump hanger to fit a 450 in. There's a write up on it as well in the forums.
Yeah i was thinking that as well, i just want to keep my MPG as long as possible haha but yeah, either the ID1700x or the FIC1650cc is also an option. The only reason besides MPG i want 1300x is bcuz i honestly have no idea how long itll take me to build my block and all that so.... But definitely good advice!
Congrats on the purchase and thank you for destickering that Evo! Sucks about the trans but it sounds like it worked out okay in the end. You never know what you're buying.
Congrats on the purchase and thank you for destickering that Evo! Sucks about the trans but it sounds like it worked out okay in the end. You never know what you're buying.
YESSS!!! The Stickers had to go! Dont get me wrong, i like putting decals on my cars, but for one they werent my stickers, and 2nd, they were all TERRIBLE haha not to mention the stupid tire stickers he had on there.. TOYO PROXY stickers and the worst part was the tires arent even TOYO's ...FACE PALM
Im also a fan of Red but he just made the car look tacky AF with all the Red plasti-dip...smh it had to go!
The tranny situation was pretty crappy especially since the kid lied to me about what was wrong. It was s'pose to be a simple rebuild, that turned into needing a whole new tranny, and THEN get rebuilt! Also, he said that he just installed the Exedy Twin, which i did verify, but he was such a shotty driver that he f*cked both disks up in 1100mi which i think is about the break-in period LoL what a douche! There were a few other problems that he tried to cover up, like the fr. driver coilover was busted... He didnt know how to properly adjust the rid height so instead of adjusting it like ur s'pose to, he increased the spring rate by compressing the spring which led to the lower pillowball bearing busting off..2nd FACE PALM
So ive been in contact with MEGAN to get a new bearing b4 its too late and the coilover needs to be rebuilt entirely.
Other things that ive had to fix/replace:
-Sunroof Motor came loose, so i had to take the headliner out and fix that
-Driver window regulator cable broke
-Ignition Switch came loose so i had to locktite that back in good, i also had to cut & hardwire those 2 green wires in the steering column that causes beeps when the door is open and keys are in the ignition.
-(this is prolly the worst one AND quite common i guess) The Harness wires/connectors in the junction box behind the drivers side kick panel under the dash shorted out and all the electrical functions went full on Exorcist on me! I had to cut out the connectors and hard wire about 20 wires! That was Fun lemme tell ya! If this hasnt happened to any of you, i'd suggest that you check it out NOW and try to avoid having to do it when/if it happens.
One of my first mods is the COP kit. There was no way in hell i was going to pay $400 from SpoolinUp or even $300 from STM or JDC, So... i put together my own kit!
Parts List & Cost
- Denso Coil Packs: I got these from Pick n Pull off of a 2008 Prius $$$: FREEEEEEEEE
- Harness: I had all the wire laying around, i got all the Denso connectors with the Coil Packs, and bought the 2 3-Pin Male connectors from Cycle Terminal <------- I found this website thanx to a fellow member! They have alot of DL90 connectors! $$$: $11 with shipping
-Mounting Plate: I also had some Metal sheets at the house $$$: $0 but if you were to buy a 16x3 sheet it prolly cost around $10-$12
TOTAL $$$: $11 smack-a-roos!!!
Heres some pics of some of my work...
This is a 20G 16" x 3" piece of SS. I made my own measurements because i wanted it longer. The placement measurements are specific to this plate, but if you want them just ask
Heres the plate with the Coil holes and plate mounting holes. Still needed the coil mounting holes drilled.
this^^^ is my harness after i finished,just waiting to be installed!
Heres somewhat of the finished product. I am still going to paint the plate and reposition the harness.
I messed up on some of the mounting hole placements, so i'll be making the plate again, but all in all i call it a success!!! $11>$400 anyday!
So i already ran into a problem with the COP kit i made. The 12v+ wires on the Drivers side Mitsubishi connector came out. I took it for a test drive as soon as i got it all installed and everything was 100%. I then went to leave an hour later and when i started the car, i could tell it wasnt firing on all 4, so i checked the harness and it started working again when i wiggled the connector/harness, so i thought the connector wasn't pushed in all the way . When i got down the street it happened again, and this time i found the culprit.
One thing you guys should know when making these harnesses is that it is hard AF to get 2 wires crimped into the pin and then get it to click into place. Especially since i used a gauge bigger than OEM wire for it. It was prolly the hardest part of making the harness. Those little rubber stoppers that plug into the back of the hole where the wire enters, it is hard to push that thing back far enough to get the wire pushed in enough. Just a Heads Up if any of you guys make a harness.
In the morning ima try to get it to click into place, maybe use some needle noses to pull it from the pin side instead of trying to push it in? IDK...we'll see. I just wanted to share my failure so that someone could learn from it.
Ok, so i ended up deleting the Male 3-pin plugs all together, which is funny bcuz they are the only part that i paid for LoL
anyways, the problem was basically what i thought it was. The pins just werent clicking into place,causing a bad to No connection at all. So to simplify everything, i cut the OEM female connectors out, and hardwired the Denso connectors straight to the OEM harness. Problem solved!!!
So I'm sure most ppl that have used Megan Coils, one time or another have had to fix the infamous "Clunk".
Well sometimes it is as simple as tightening the Nut ontop(17mm or 19mm I can't remember), but other times it's a little more difficult than that. I bought my Evo with the Coils, so I am blaming the previous owner for the problem. He didn't know the proper way to lower the car, so what he did on the front driver side was compress the spring, and although it does lower the car, but what it really does is increase the spring rate, at the same time releasing the spring tension on the upper perch causing coil bind. We all love that sound!
Now what this does is create space in between the perch and bearings, and eventually will break the lower pillow ball bearing completely off. This is very BAD! No matter what u do or how u adjust the coil, u cannot close that gap, and you will have a Nasty Clunk! *EDIT*
The CLUNK that I was experiencing was caused by the pillow ball mount being worn out. The only way to fix this is to replace the entire mount. The Mount is the part that bolts directly under the plate. I think Megan sells this part for $65.(As of 12-8-18 I have not been able to go to the website that had all this info{I think it was meganracingperformance. com} and have yet to hear back from them as of today the of Jan 2019)
The fix? Call Megan (626) 581-0988 or
email James Lee: James@meganracing.com
This is the Lower Pillow Ball Bearing *EDIT* (This is NOT the correct lower bearing. IDKY they sent me this one, but you could imagine that I was just a tad bit upset after finally getting around to fixing it only to find out that it wasn't the right bearing!)
That model and the two door STi is now worth big money for a low miledge one in AU, one guy had one in a bubble preserved and got 80k for it
but anyway nice evo
Theres a big difference between Australia and the U.S when it comes to cars. You guys have R34s like it ain't no thang, not to mention every other JDM import possible. We have a 25 year import law so the value is a bit different here.
At the same time, we can do w/e TF we please to our cars and drive them on the street. This allows the value of our cars to stay very consistent. No matter what, My GC8 was always going to be worth 20k-22k Max the way it sat. It had double that in parts. Evos on the other hand are a completely different story. They hold Value because of the rarity. This goes for every country bcuz of the distro #s. Only a few thousand of each model/year made so value will always be what u payed for it
Apr 11, 2018, 03:14 PM
