Austarion

Hey guys thought I would post up a run-down of my Eterna (Jap import Scorpion) and it's slow transformation.

It's a 1980 'A164A' model, predecessor to the early A183A/JA Starions.

It features the same SOHC ECI-Turbo 4G63 with TC05 turbo and early round port type injection with large AFM (same as EX 2000GSR Lancers), 3.545 small crown diff and 4 bolt rear end and a large oil cooler. Inside it has electric pillarless windows, electric fender mirrors, working air con and even an alarm clock!

Here's how I got it, stock as a rock with 128k on the clock and only one previous owner since being in the country (imported in 1987).

it couldn't stay stock for long...

it was only running 6psi factory and was horribly slow - I took it down the 1/4 for laughs shortly after I got it and the best I could manage was a 16.7

So... I had to get some bits to make a start








Fitted the new suspension parts and cleaned things up a bit






It dropped it a little bit but more importantly it stiffened up the front ten-fold




Got some BR Watanabes in 15x6.5 +17mm






And did a trackday like that

At this point I decided it was just too slow and I had to do something about it. I knew I had to at least go multi-point as the primitive throttle-body injection just wouldn't be up to scratch. It seems to go multipoint and stay SOHC I would have to get an aftermaket ECU.. so I thought if I'm going to go through that hassle I may as well just go DOHC and use a chipped Lancer Evo3 ECU, seeing as I would be using Evo3 head, AFM and injectors etc.

So the parts collection got underway

evo3 RS inlet manifold, rail rail and AFM



evo3 head and cams with manifold



evo6.5 TME twin scroll TD05HRA turbo (to be mounted on a custom manifold)




And in the meantime I had done a quick and rough job of fitting an E39A Galant VR-4 intercooler for a quickly coming up trackday

hrmm.. where to put it?



jam it in there somewhere..



all plumbed up and hidden away behind the grille






cleaned the engine bay up some, fitted a TC06 and electric fans

I painted up the centres of my rims and later on fitted some 205/50 Toyo T1-Rs






So did the trackday.. and it was apparent my handling was shit



being towed back in after an intercooler hose popped off after boost spiking up to 20psi




So I've taken it off the road to do something about the suspension - bought some bits to do a coilover conversion on the struts



and I stripped the suspension out to clean everything up and replace bushes etc



rear subframe out



and apart



and back together looking all bling






Am now in the process of sorting out my LSD (has a leak) and the struts.

That's pretty much where I'm up to.

Any comments welcome!

Nice work mate!! :beer

Thanks mate :D

Are you going to upgrade the sway bars?? I did that in one of my old starions and it made way more difference than the King springs!! Ive still got them and will be putting them in my gold one :D

Yeah I've been considering it, not sure where I'm likely to find bigger ones from though as Starion wrecks aren't easy to find :P

It currently has 21mm front and 16mm rear which I understand is bigger in the front and smaller in the rear than early spec Starions.

What sizes are you running?

lookin good!

nah thats same as early spec starions. whiteline did sway bars for em but they've been bought out and i'm not sure if they're still in production.

thanks mate! Yeah I think I'll see if I can chase up some whiteline sway bars. I'm sure some Starions had 18mm front sway bars, perhaps the poverty spec N/A Starions? I also heard a rumour than some Sigmas of the same era had 24mm bars? I dunno - I guess I have to do some digging around.

yeah never seen an 18mm front on a starion, we never got the N/A ones though either

shit you have done a lot in one day :)

Haha cheeky bugger :P had to break it up into smaller posts. I got the car April last year so this has been over 18 months or so.

Found a short video of it at the last trackday -

redzone wrote:lookin good!

nah thats same as early spec starions. whiteline did sway bars for em but they've been bought out and i'm not sure if they're still in production.

Yes they are still avaliable, under the name selby's

24mm front 21mm rear If I recall correctly.