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[matt92vr4]

Got a chance to mess with the engine tonight. All 8 exhaust valves hit. 3 are bent pretty good. I have all new EVO stuff going in. I'm not thrilled about the piston tops. I'm going to clean them and see how they work. What do you guys think about the pistons? This is my fist "budget build". Normally I would just buy new pistons lol but those are not in the budget until 2015. Thanks for looking!

 

[turbowop]

Pistons will be fine. Just smooth out the spots where the valves hit. I've seen waaaaay worse than that.

 

[iceman69510]

Second that. Just make sure no sharp edges or burrs are left to create ignition hot spots.

You can also check for any cracks in the pistons, but unless they have been smacked really hard, probably not too likely.

 

[matt92vr4]

Awesome news guys, thanks. The belt stripped at 800 rpm while sitting at a stop light so the smacking was "minimal". I have reused forged pistons in this condition before but never the stockers. I'll clean them down nice and smooth and call it a day!

 

[matt92vr4]

Well I spent all weekend cleaning. Got everything nice and clean. I had previously bought all new rod and main bearings. I went out tonight to disassemble the rotating assembly and managed to break one of the pistons. Then I broke my impact gun. Ugh! Now I have to make a decision on pistons. I really didn't want to do a full build until 2015. What are my options?

-throw in another gvr4 piston
-do a 2g/1g combo
-go forged
-?????????

Ack, need some feedback. What do you think? Thanks!

 

[mitsuturbo]

How the hell did you BREAK a piston?

 

[matt92vr4]

It's a rather embarrassing story. I had to remove the crank pulley bolt and gear to get the oil pump off. My impact gun trigger was rusted stuck so I decided to do it by hand. I put a piece of wood in the rotating assembly to keep it from turning. Gave it a little elbow grease and "snap" the wood jammed against one of the piston sides and broke the ear off. Then I decided to fix my impact gun. That went just about the same. Then I decided to go inside and watch Pickers...

The idea of new forged pistons and rods is growing on me. Looks like I can get a nice set for $800. Please give me some feedback on your personal experiences with forged pistons and rods. I do not plan on ever exceeding 450AWHP.

On a better note, I just caved and bought a 16g today. It was a little therapy shopping after the events of last night lol. Thanks for your time.

 

[matt92vr4]

OK, had a better night tonight. I fixed my impact gun so that was a morale boost. I was talking to my wife about the situation and she said to go ahead and buy new forged internals. Then she said "You might as well buy bigger injectors, intercooler, and a new clutch to take advantage of the new turbo you bought this morning!" Man I love her to death!

Here are a few pics:

Broken piston. I'm kinda glad I broke it because after I pulled it out I noticed that the ring gaps were lined up. No bueno.


oops~


Cleaned up head


Other clean parts


So now I have to decide on the brand of pistons and rods. Looks like I can get rods for $300ish and pistons for $500ish. What do you guys think?

 

[matt92vr4]

OK, I decided on a 2G/1G combo. I'm pretty excited about the increased c/r. I always thought that my car was a little laggy for the stock turbo. Tonight I got my new BS bearings installed and was messing around a little. I took a closer look at my stock turbo and found out another reason why my turbo was so laggy! These pics are with the flapper all the way closed.






Now I'm supper stoked to get my new pistons and 16g! I think this thing is going to run very nice in a few months! Thanks for looking.

 

[matt92vr4]

Ack, I had this entire weekend set aside to work on the car but instead I'm preparing for the hurricane. New turbo arrived today!

 

[matt92vr4]

I ordered my new pistons and rods this week. Going with a 2g/1g combo. I have to finish building our chicken coup before I can get back on the car so it might be a couple weeks. I also ordered all of the gaskets and misc I was missing to finish the job.

I was just thinking, since I'm putting in 8.5:1 pistons, 16g, ECMLink, etc, it would be silly to put the stock clutch back in. What is the best daily driver clutch setup? I'm looking for something that will hold the power, be reliable, and have the lightest pedal possible. I'd blame it on my wife driving the car but in reality I'm getting old and don't feel like building up my left leg muscle.

Can I do an upgraded PP with the stock disk? Please throw me your experiences. Thanks!

 

[matt92vr4]

Finished the chicken coup so now I should be able to spend a couple hours on the car every night after work. Last night I got all the Evo valve stuff back in.

I'm still waiting for my pistons to get here though so I guess I'll start cleaning some more stuff.

 

[transparentdsm]

sounds like a great build coming along. and as for the clutch id go with a act 2100 pp with an extreme street disc with springs in it.

 

[matt92vr4]

Wow it's been 6 weeks! I had surgery and am almost back to health! The good news about laying around is that you can buy more parts! I got an EVO9 intercooler and all new OEM engine hoses.

I did some more cleaning, fixed two broken exh studs in the head, painted the valve cover, and prepared the new oil pump case for the BS delete. I receive my new rods and pistons. Everything is ready to go! This cooler weather (70's) is really getting me excited to get the car back together. I hope to be good enough by this weekend to assemble the bottom end.

 

[matt92vr4]

Was able to turn some wrenches this weekend. I swapped out the mains, gapped the rings, installed the new pistons and rods. Got the ARP's in and the head. Started on the timing components. I think the next update with have the cams turning WITH the crank! Some pics!




Gunit is looking on, getting excited!

 

[matt92vr4]

Got a few more things done tonight. The pile of parts on the floor is getting small!


Best part is that the cams and crank are finally turning together again! I guess the thread title is now obsolete /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[matt92vr4]

Got some more things finished up last night. It should be going back in the car Saturday morning.

I finally found the bolt that caused my timing belt to have a big groove in it. For anyone who doesn't already know, its the oil pan bolt that threads into the middle hole on the front case. If you use a regular oil pan bolt it will be too long and cut the belt. You must use a little short stubby bolt. I'm a bit surprised Mitsu didn't engineer a fail-safe for this. It would be very easy for someone to screw this up and the consequence is quite great. (edit - two of these bolts should be short)

I also found out that my slight annoying "zing" sound is a bad a/c idler pulley. Going to leave the A/C off until I find a replacement pulley. fortunately it's only been about 85 here in the daytime so I won't need it for a few months /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[matt92vr4]

Got everything ready to drop in this weekend! She cleaned up nice /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[matt92vr4]

I was able to work on the Galant almost all weekend. Going in I thought for sure I'd be driving it by today, but no such luck. I wasted about 5 hours on two Galant Rookie mistakes. My first mistake was installing the rear motor mount bracket upside down. I sanded and repainted everything so I could not see any old marks. The bracket is able to bolt up in both directions and I picked the wrong one. After wrestling with the motor mounts for 3.5 hours I took it back out and noticed the error.

My second mistake was during the tranny install. I took the engine and tranny combo out of the top on the way out but putting it back in I decided to put the motor in first and then bolt the tranny back on later. I decided to do this because I'm using new aftermarket mounts and because I'm installing it by myself on a steep driveway.

Putting the tranny back in from the bottom I neglected to remove the small plate on the bottom held in by 5 14mm bolts. I wrestled with the tranny for 1.5 hours before I noticed this could be removed. I caulk both of these errors up to working on 3S's for so long. Their rear motor mount bracket can only go on one way and they do not have the removable plate. I actually cut slots in my 3S's in that area for easy tranny installation. It's nice that the Galant has a removable plate.

Anyways, after wrestling with the motor and tranny for most of the day on Saturday I feel like I've been hit by a Mack truck. I did make a lot of good progress though and I should have it running next weekend. Here are some pics:

 

[matt92vr4]

She's alive and purring /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've been waiting on a a/c idler pulley for the past week. I got it and it was the wrong part. My own fault as I ordered one for a 1G and the GVR4 is different. I'm going to make a new post for a DIY repair. I started her up without coolant to check for oil leaks. No leaks, everything sounded great. later this week I'll put the radiator back in and drive it around a little. Almost there!