[LYH45]

Have you considered running the oil drain to the pan instead of the valve cover? I've never liked the idea of running hot oil directly into the head.

I have and I wish I'd done it while the engine was out. I just don't feel like removing the engine/oil pan to do it at this point.

^I did that on an EJ25D recently, and the only semi direct route requires the drain line to basically touch the exhaust manifold/flange. I used some metallic heat wrap
on the hose, but it still melted. Might've been the hose I used tho.

Any rate, I'm thinking of going into the valve cover in my RS, but I may end up just tapping straight into the oil passage of the head. I'll post pictures if I get to it before you do, but I doubt that'll happen.

Yeah the route I've gone to clear the up-pipe is round the back near the steering column. I'll look at making a bracket to keep the hose of the up-pipe as I'd prefer it not to melt. The up-pipe is already heat wrapped so hopefully that'll help keep temps down too.

IAs far as the turbo drain goes, so many people have done the rocker cover route and had no issues. I'm going that way, theres a giant drain passage on the lower-rear corner of the head which runs straight to the crankcase. No oil will squirt/splash up onto the rocker gear as the flow rate is so low. At worst the rocker cover gaskets might fail early due to the temp.

I'll take a pic of mine and post up asap for you.

Yeah that would be fantastic as I'd like to get it done sooner rather than later.

If you want to run Project Lambda you can install a different map sensor, change the settings and you wont need a voltage clamp or anything like that.

I used a Bosch 0281002437 - 3 bar sensor. Plugs straight in BUT the mounting is a little different (1 bolt vs 2). Changed the Slope to 65.1kPa offset to -6.3kPa. Runs like a dream! I know you might be a little way off that but just in case you need the info in future..

Good website for sensor specs:
MKS Autobusiness, special components for special needs - Products

That's great to know. They're pretty cheap too which is always an added bonus

Great progress, you're so close!

Thanks, it feel weird to be this close as I don't know I ever truly thought I'd get this far.

 

[crjohnson]

Hey mate this is mine so far. Half welded the elbow to the cover but it turned to shit so have to grind it out and start again really. Then I've got some speedflow hose and will cover it with a shield.

Theres the oil drain passage i was talking about too, there's 1 at the front and rear of the head. Oil will run down the inside of the rocker cover, very little chance of it flooding or doing anything else.

I also got a 5/8 oil return kit off ebay so i can rotate it around etc.
45Deg 5/8" Turbo Oil Return Drain Pipe Kit Mitsubishi TD02 TD03 TD04 TD05 TD06 | eBay

 

[LYH45]

So finally back at it after bit of a lull. I think trying to do a car on a budget makes it a bit hard to have motivation when you're seeing people doing $20,000 builds and you're working on a small percentage of that. Anyway I got back into it this weekend getting major progress done.

First I started by putting the car up on jack stands. This was done because I needed the wheels off it, it's impossible to work under otherwise, and I need fix the rear brakes/wheel underlay.

Next was to get the dump-pipe in. You couldn't pay me enough to do this job under the conditions I was in. The lack of height and the rocks made it a nightmare. I have a track on a BE5 STI midpipe and axleback so I will follow that up when I get the money from the guy picking up the wheels this week.

Next was to get the valve cover off. This job was way easier than expected taking like 5 minutes to do. I'd been putting it off for weeks. When I got it off I was amazed. This was so clean for having 425,000km (264,000 miles), mind you I haven't seen one before so I didn't know what to expect.

So I originally tried to tap the valve cover and that went badly. The fittings thread wasn't round so it wouldn't cut the thread. So I moved on to something else until I could come up with a solution.

Crjohnson your photos were invaluable for this so thanks for the location for the drilling.

Next was the coolant feed and return. I got these T fitting of eBay that are a 16-12-16. This meant I could just splice into the heater hose and go straight to the turbo with a single fitting.

Spliced heater hose.

Where I Tee'd in for one. I put clamps on after as I didn't have any on hand

And here's the other, just under the pitch stop mount. Same deal as before, I ran out of clamps at the time.

Next I went into town for coolant, hose clamps and whatever the Australian version of JB weld is called. My solution to the oil return was to just JB weld it in place. I'm not exactly proud but it will work well.

It was a pain to get the valve cover back on because of the fitting but we got there in the end. Foil below to stop oil leaking onto the headers. In the end pointless as you'll see later.

So next I fill up the car with coolant, tightened all the hose clamps more (apparently a screwdriver isn't enough) and started the car. It's ran really well and I was starting to burb the coolant when my brother noticed this.

Well my dumb ass didn't double check the AN fitting to the banjo bolt on the turbo and oil leaked all over the up-pipe. I originally thought it was from the oil drain but chased the problem back. So that's now fixed.

Now this wasn't the best way to end the day but it didn't dampen my spirits.

WE HAVE BOOST

I didn't have any of the intercooler piping connected but it works. This is a major win for me as until this point I hadn't really felt there was any progress despite the 5 months work and the $2395 spent so far.

Cheers for reading
Luke

 

[crjohnson]

So have you been for a drive yet?? The urge to boost must be bad now haha careful of that engine before you do any fuel mods!! or get another as a spare quickly haha

 

[LYH45]

So have you been for a drive yet?? The urge to boost must be bad now haha careful of that engine before you do any fuel mods!! or get another as a spare quickly haha

Not yet as non of the piping wasn't connected. It also didn't have wheels which wouldn't help.

Definitley being careful until I can do the appropriate fuel mods. Don't really want to pull the engine again.

 

[CO671]

Congrats on the progress. Please keep documenting the build!

 

[LYH45]

Congrats on the progress. Please keep documenting the build!

Thanks man will do.

Anyway quick update. I sold the 4/2 pot brakes today for near twice what I paid for them and immediatly put the money to good use.

I picked up this today for steal. Cheapest I've seen is $370 but I spotted this at the local pick and payless website and got it for $65.

Its got a very small crack on the top edge (less than 10mm) and a small crack but you can't see them unless you look. I wasn't planning on getting on of the JDM Legacy ones but I needed a new one and when they both cost the same why not. Weirdly enough this came of a H6 Liberty which never had these standard as they were never released in Japan.

There was also a GD 2.5RS with alloy front control arm and King springs on KYB AGX struts as well as a Gen 4 Liberty TBSTI but nothing I'm really after so I left them.

Anyway I'll be back working on the car this Sunday/Monday so I'll post progress any progress after that.

Thanks for reading,
Luke

 

[bue car]

bad ass stuff going on

 

[FryphaX]

King springs! Want!

 

[LYH45]

bad ass stuff going on

Cheers man

King springs! Want!

Haha they're everywhere over here. I have them on my GF8 and they were on the Outback for about 10 hours.

So I got back into it on Sunday. I ended up running the engine for about 20 minutes with no piping attached. No more oil leak. There is a really really slow drip coming from the seal of the thermostat housing but I'll fix that when I change it to a FB25 housing. It was a bit smokey at first due to burning the residue on the heatwrap off as well as an oil residue but it settled down and had no issues. It's also surprisingly quite even with no muffler so that's a bonus with the loudest noise being the air going into the manifold.

Next I removed the FMIC, crashbar and all external intercooler piping. I ended up painting the crashbar again as the paint just fell off if you touched it. I then added some thin foam on the inside to stop the pipe getting scratched. I also painted all external piping in wrinkle red as well making a few length adjustments. Monday I put all of it back together and this is result.

Passenger side piping.

Drivers side piping.

Front view.

I may raise the intercooler up slightly but it depends on where the bottom of the bumper sits as I don't want a gap between the two, hence why it's so low. Piping is still solid and not going anywhere even with it angled.

I then ran the engine for another 20 minutes this time with the piping attached. Still no issues. Even that leak from the thermostat housing has seem to disappeared. I'll still change the housing though. I revved it up to about 3k a few times and you can hear the turbo which is nice. I managed to pop off the intercooler pipe into the manifold as I didn't have a clamp on it so that means there pressure in the system.

All in all it feels a bit weird as I've been working towards this point for just over 5 months so it's a bit surreal when you get there.

Next I did a text fit of where the pod filter will go using a container of similar size. Looks like it'll fit under an airbox that I'll have to design so that's a relief.

Next I just made a simple bracket for the age alternator cover. Simple enough.

I then installed the alternator cover and gave the engine bay a quick wash and that's where I've left it for now.

Next step is really to start fabricating thinks like the bracket for the bottom of the intercooler & the airbox (which I picked up the metal for last week) & and intake (which I need to order piping for). There's still a few other small jobs which I'll as I go along when I need a break from that stuff. But overall it's getting there.

Then is looking at tuning. Still something I find pretty scary but I'll buy the licence after June with my tax return. I'll confirm it works with my ecu first. In the meanwhile I'll play around the software and try and get my head around fuel maps and timing.

The aim is to have the car back on the road legal by the 27th of December, as that marks the 1 year date from me started to work on the car (not including the interior) which I think is a reasonable goal.

Anyway thanks for reading,
Luke

 

[bue car]

Clean front design!

Why not clock the turbo and shorten the piping?

 

[LYH45]

Clean front design!

Cheers man

Why not clock the turbo and shorten the piping?

I guess I didn't think of that while I was doing the piping. With the hot side going to the passenger side (your driver side) I would have to switch the routing and for a td04 it's probably not worth it with it hitting boost so early anyway.

 

[silverton]

I see in my EM that I'm building 1-3psi as early as 1750-2000 rpm.

 

[LYH45]

I see in my EM that I'm building 1-3psi as early as 1750-2000 rpm.

Is that with a ej25 and a TD04?

Got a bit more done this weekend. Only really got to work on it for an afternoon because of the rain which sucked but what can you do. Started with modifying the fuel lines because they were hard up an intercooler pipe causing one of them to slightly kink. All I did was bend the bracket to allow for the lines to sit higher. Still using the stock bolting point.

I then trimmed the front bumper with an angle grinder again to get it to fit the intercooler better. After that I mad the two brackets that link the core support to the bottom of the intercooler. These probably weren't needed as there was barely any play in the intercooler but I figured it was worth doing plus it allowed me to extend them to hold the bumper in place.

Photo of newly trimmed bumper with brackets in place. I really need to get a new bonnet like yesterday.

The fitment is the best I've seen for a front mount on this chassis as they usually hang way low so I'm pretty happy with it. You can see a comparison in the next photo of the original fitment and how it looks as of now. Before (top) there was a shitty gap and I was thinking that I'd have to get a taller intercooler but that's all been fixed.

Earlier in the week I loaded up Project Lamdba and man this all goes over my head. I can see why people just use tuners. Now I know that I'll have to change the airflow scalar when I get the new MAP sensor but apart from that I'm lost.

I know that I'll have to increase fuel but which category do I change it in. Base, transition or power mode (I assume that warmup and deceleration aren't it). If anyone knows, or even has screenshots of what they've done to add fuel that would be great. On the topic of this program is there a good website or book I can use to learn how to understand and tune using it. Idk maybe there's a tuning for dummies or something. I'm just a bit lost and I have no background knowledge on this at all and it would be great to get a starting point.

Anyway thanks for reading
Luke

 

[silverton]

Yeah, it's a 2.5. my td04 had some port work done to it so I don't know if that helps.

 

[bue car]

Nice fitment on the FMIC

 

[LYH45]

Yeah, it's a 2.5. my td04 had some port work done to it so I don't know if that helps.

I'd guess it would make a slight difference, but it's good to know anyway.

Nice fitment on the FMIC

Thanks, I'm glad it looks so good after how much time I've spent worrying and working on it.

Been a little while since I've updated this. Not to much to document as a lot of its boring so here's the highlights. I went to the wreckers and bought - a passenger rear door outer kick panel as the old one was broken, front fender liners for both sides as the old ones were done, new passenger mirror and a few interior bits. I replaced the kick panel, and installed the fender liner. The passenger side will need some work as it clashes with an intercooler pipe.

I replaced both mirrors for reasons you'll see below. I already had this one hanging around from a previous parts run. This side had a canoe fall on it.

Dunno what happened to this side but it had a lot of silicone in it. Sadly the replacement has a small crack on the outer edge. I'll try and plastic weld it back together and if that doesn't work I'll try and swap the shell with the old one.

I also replaced a dash vent as it was broken but that was a bit of a slow weekend.

This weekend I focused on the intake. I bought Super Cheap Autos finest (cheapest) filter as it was the smallest. I wasted a lot of the day trying to figure out how to get the 3" filter on to the 2.25" pipe, only to come up with a solution, and then have it fail immediately. I think I have a clever solution that will be shown when parts arrive.

Here was the original mock-up with the filter. You can see that the top section of piping still needed to be worked out.

I then decided that I didn't like that and here is the result as of the end of the next day . This after about 4 hours of thinking in the cold and another 2 hours of drinking tea to warm back up. I stole a 90 degree piece from the hot side to see if it would work and it seems it will.

And here's the final result with the filter in place.

I still need a few bits to complete it but it fits, so yay. You can see where I stole the 90 degree piece from on the right.

I'm annoyed that it's taking so long at the moment, but its hard with it being 5 degrees outside and then having to wait for parts that you didn't even think you'd even need. So hopefully I'll have some more progress soon enough as more parts have been ordered.

Thanks for reading,
Luke

 

[bue car]

How bad is the pinch in front of the turbo though? I had to remove all of that and got a proper 90* turbo

 

[LYH45]

How bad is the pinch in front of the turbo though? I had to remove all of that and got a proper 90* turbo

It's actually not that bad to be honest. I'd don't think it'll do any harm but if I ever upgrade turbos I'd look at one with a 90 degree bend

So sad news is that my GF8 was rear ended on the weekend and is probably going to be totaled. So not much work happened on the car. I'm looking at the positives and that is that I can grab a few good parts off it. The list as it stands it the steering wheel and front end links. It also allows me to swap the lift kit over to the GF8 and de-lift this car in the front at least. So in an overall shitty situation but I'm trying hard to find the positives.

So all I really did is just work on the intake. I was going to complete the intercooler piping but I got sent the wrong part. So all it did to attached the silicone adapter to the filter was create a sleeve out of a bit of PVC pipe. I'll grab some more photos at a later point but this is all I have.

So that's all for now. Not much else will probably happen for a while because of the car situation and it being so damn cold but I'll keep trying.

Luke

 

[bue car]

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