Austarion

I went and got married in November - So I dragged my Starion out (and my uncles) to ship around the Bridesmaids/Groomsmen for the day. Heres a couple of pics


Starions arriving on the day - the ceremony being on a private airstrip. I flew the groomsmen in with the plane in the foreground.


Trying to look photogenic . . . .


The bridal party posing


My wifes grandfathers 1949 Chev. This was our main transport for the day and I think well worth sharing - this thing is immaculate inside and out, hard to imagine it was once a rusty heap.

Awesome, not one, but TWO Staz's.

Congrats!!

-Robert

Everything looks amazing, hope you went up for a post wedding flight :) Congratulations man

Congratulations and good luck :beer

Hell yes, I had a 51 chev for a few years, same shape. I want another one day ..

Great pics!!!

Grass 'motokana' - No traction, much hilarity

Fantastic good luck to both of you .Makes me want to renew my vows next March when we will rack up 50 years ( Golden Anniversary) so I can give my bride a motorkana ride in the silver JB LOL :beer

Cheers Old Fart - My Bride was out showing the boys how its done . . . . .

Well I've owned my good Starion now since 2007 and it's been great. All its really had done to it is general servicing, fuel and been driven. There has been the odd minor hiccup but nothing really worth mentioning.

So I feel its time to start tinkering - This was always the plan after all . . .

I'm starting with this:



I purchased it online believing it was an Evo 3 turbo. Now its actually arrived I can see its an early Evo exhaust housing with a VR4 big 16g compressor housing/wheel (According to the serial no.). Effectively the same thing? It'll be a step up on the TC06 anyway.

Im planning to follow the guide previously posted on here in several places (thanks to whoever did it):
http://starion.mrbdesign.com.au/EVOIII.html

My car being non intercooled I will initially modify the crossover pipe to suit until I can sort an intercooler and piping. The thing I'm most unsure about at this stage is the best place to plumb the water lines.

Progress will be slow. I've been watching too much youtube and really want to have a go at making the downpipe and intercooler piping myself. Minor problem - I don't have the gear yet or the experience . . . . Might be time to do a welding course

Mods time! Love it :-)

Depending on what sort of condition your turbo is in, you can get parts for them here:

http://shopping.kinugawaturbo.com/

It's Chinese stuff (even though they say it isn't), but the quality is actually pretty good. I bought a rebuild kit from there, did the rebuild myself, then paid to have the internals balanced. Worked out very economically. I also bought an EVO exhaust housing (as mine had a cracked VR4 one originally), and a larger compressor cover (purely for looks, it'll have no performance benefits) and I can't fault the quality of the castings. It was a bit of an experiment, but worked out really well.

A TD05 with the 7cm^2 exhaust housing (EVO ones), and the Big 16G compressor wheel is a really good match to a mildly worked SOHC motor.

What are you thinking for fuel and spark control?

I'll eventually go multipoint and make use of the intake manifold I have with some form of aftermarket ecu (Link seems the go here in chch). I'm still doing my homework and lack knowledge around engine management\ignition setup. This may be an area where I make the bits fit together and pay someone who knows what they are doing to contain the explosions inside the motor.

I'll just keep collecting the bits I need as they come up. I'm trying to break it down into small chunks and keep the car driveable in between steps. I now have a 6 week old daughter (man life changes quickly . . .) and the reality is if I try to do it all at once the car will be off the road somewhere between 10 years and forever.

Basic plan for motor:
1. TD05 mounted factory spec (modified cross over)
2. Intercool/BOV
3. Multipoint with all that entails
4. Bottom end refresh/higher compression pistons /tune
5. Head freshen/better cam /tune
6. Revisit turbo/fueling/exhaust for more watts /tune

How hard is it to get hold of the Galant/L300 electronic distributors these days?

I can help out with advice and installation of engine management gubbins and wiring, it's not super complicated, just time consuming/expensive.

There were three NZ new galants with the right multipoint manifolds and electronic dizzies at pick-a-part when I was there on Sunday, so not overly hard to come by :-).

good work man, that will be a great addition to the car. You can brush the dust off the mpi manifold I saw at your house many moons ago.

Kinugawa are actually Taiwanese, which is why the quality is still good.

Wouldn't it be less of a hassle to do an intercooler and piping when you fit the turbo rather than having to flip the compressor housing? Then change the cold side piping when you fit mpi?

If you do the cold side in two pieces, make the pipe from the cooler go to about where the mpi will sit, then a second piece to go to the tbi. When you fit the mpi, the pipe would be where it needs to be and you could join with with a 90 degree silicone hose.