Austarion

Hey all, I just bought a JA starion as what will eventually turn to a motorkarna/hill climb/drift car. For now we're just wacking three months rego on it so we can drive it around to get it ready(eg, paint, interior,etc)
for some track work. Now i'm a diesel mechanic by trade so i'm pretty handy with tools and fixing crap but i have no idea how to get around one of these starions. Any help on the following item/issues would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

1. The buttons around the cluster are all worn out and have know idea what they are, Could some one explain please.
2.The head lights are stuck up, they turn on and off but don't go down.
3.It started to steam a little out of the over flow like it was over heating, I noticed the thermo fans weren't working at all which is most likely the cause of the over heating, Is this a common problem, where do they switch from.
4. air box to turbo pipe broken, I should be able to fix this but is there any way to mount a working pod filter on these without bypassing or upsetting the afm.
5.What are some cheap good performance mods
6.What parts are interchangable with other mitsu's, eg diff g/box,etc

I'm pretty happy with it for the price we paid($800), It already has a bleed valve and the boost wound up quite a bit, it almost tops the standard boost gauge which i thought was wierd cause my mates old starion used to hit boost cut at 1 bar.
There are quite a few things that we are gonna take out such as the back seat, centre console, door trims etc which will all be put in the forsale thread when they do come out. I will put up pics and keep yas posted on progress with it

Thanks again in advance
Benny Mac

Welcome great to see a new member saving another staz
You will find everything you need by doing a search of the technical pages but if you don't you only need to ask :beer

Welcome aboard Benny Mac.

There's some great information which will cover pretty much all the answers you want, but to give you a flying start I'll briefly answer 1-6.
1. LHS top is popup up/down, LHS bottom are hazards. RHS top main beam, below it are parkers, bottom switch is off. You'll have to fix/replace these. Try to fix them if you can, replacement is typically expensive.
2. Busted LHS top switch
3. You'll need to check your wiring/connectors. Tech area has wiring diagrams. Little thermo only for A/C but it's a good idea to splice them so they come on together.
4. There is a fix recently posted by Alspos, do a search on his name you'll find it.
5. Brief answer is depends on what you want to do - cruise around the site and you'll pick things up.
6. The short answer, not much. Engine/gearbox swaps from different cars have been done. Limited slip diff is a good thing for your intended purpose (may answer #5) but rare as buggery.

Get it running well is the suggestion then start tweaking it...
All the best! :D

some more tips,

Don't break more than 10 psi without intercooler and about 12 - 13 without the safety of forged pistons if you want your engine to keep going.

No, pod filters are not viable as the AFM is necessary, to use a pod filter you need full aftermarket ecu, multipoint injection etc. Just run a KN air filter if you need more flow.

Thermofans are triggered off a thermoswitch mounted at base of radiator, if you earth it they should turn on. If earthed and they turn on but don't when radiators hot at half on the gauge you need a new thermoswitch.

Performance mods - Easiest
Intercooler, full 2.5" or 3" mandrel zorst from turbo back, KN filter, Boost controller to 10psi, BOV, Camshaft Stage 2 camtech.

More-
TD05 16G turbo, Forged Pistons, Balance shaft elimination, Full L300 or sonata MPI injection with aftermarket computer, Im sure theres more I can't think of off hand.

Starion_Turbo wrote:Thermofans are triggered off a thermoswitch mounted at base of radiator, if you earth it they should turn on.

Not quite - only the main one is triggered from the radiator thermoswitch. The secondary fan is triggered from the aircon.

Tru, the second fan is air-con only,
Unless u change them all to slimline brushless units with an adjustable thermoswitch and add a third to the intercooler with manual switching for second and third fans :D

Havin a look at it today, and i've got the head lights sussed. I reckon i'm just gonna wire the thermos up to ignition so there permenately on. And its laggy enough so i'm not gonna run a cooler and rather go for water/meth injection and put a nice big pipe between the turbo and throttle bodyand fit a bov. And i guess i better wind the boost down a bit. It already has a 2.5'' turbo back system so thats covered.
I need to pull the diff centre out and try and shim up the clutch pack. Just to confirm, every starion had an lsd right????

JA were never fitted with LSD. JB was an option (which most seem to have) and nearly all JD are LSD.

Some JAs over the years have been fitted with LSDs from later models (mainly JB).

yes benny if your car is doing 2 wheel burnouts then it doesnt necessarily mean it has an LSD, its just the way the IRS works..

JD_Stazza_Brendan wrote:JA were never fitted with LSD.

Not correct. But it's a moot point anyway, either you have one or you want one.

^^^ u have seen a JA with D60??? i'm intrigued

Oh ok, its just someone a few years ago told me they all came with lsd's and i assumed he was right.
I guess i'll have to jack it up and check it out properly.
I'm not to keen on welding the diff cause it would make for a crappy hill climb car, but then again it would be an awesome drift car.
So no other lsd's from another car fit a starion?

^^^ no. easiest way to get one is ex USA. shipping is a killer, but if u can get one out of an 86 or 87 US car with the torque tube included (u need to use that to fit it) cheap enough, then its a goer, maybe around $850ish landed. dont expect too much change from around $700 or so if u can find an aussie one. any less is a steal, simply because so many people are after them....

Benny_Mac wrote: I'm not to keen on welding the diff cause it would make for a crappy hill climb car, but then again it would be an awesome drift car.

a locked diff is fine for hillclimb ,what is the problem with locking ?

Actually i'm not sure, i didn't think about it much, once again listening to someone else. Thats the way we'll probably go. We're aiming for a low cost, reasonably fast car, hence water injection and so forth. Now i think about i have a toyota t-18 on a mates paddock which we welded the diff in, that car was great on dirt. We wont be welding the diff till we permantly take it of the road tho.

Today i made a new turbo to thottle body pipe and started gathering parts for water/meth injection. Its coming together fairly quickly which is good, and gets a quick coat of paint next weekend as well.