Austarion

Hi everyone!!

Finnnnnalllly I am getting around to posting my widey that I bought from Mal. I'll post this in a few parts as I get time to post the updates, but here's the start!

Freshly washed Widey, still with NSW plates, just after I drove it down to Melbourne


Another:


Back at home in the garage


Got myself the Vic number plates WIDEEY, pretty happy with that!


Freshly washed:


Back at home checking it out in the shed:


More


It's a HOVER starion!!



More photos coming shortly of some of the works I've done on it now too.

So, after a bit over a month of driving it, it blew the head gasket. I actually worked out only just more recently that this was partly because the main electric radiator cooling fan hasn't been working for some time, which I have now replaced. Also some exhaust studs were broken etc, so pulling the head off was a must.

Fairly dirty engine, started pulling apart:


Head off 1:


Securing cam gear - Mitsubishi very wisely put a little shelf I could cable tie it to, so it won't come off and I don't have to re-do the timing chain timing!


All off:



Once the head was off, I discovered it was fully cracked, and a bit dead, so I actually ordered a brand new, remade to newer better specs, head from the states, which was just over $600 all up inc postage. Very nice head actually.


Brand new head, taken over to Chris Collier's, for a full clean up, and port. Chris did the porting of course, and then I did a bit of the rest with Chris as well.

Dismantled head:


Throttle body after Chris cleaned all the parts up in the bead blaster!


Other angle:


After we had mostly re-assembled it:







And now for the masterpiece - the head going back on:











More to come with it fully re-assembled

Very very nice! :drool:
Loving the new head to! :)

Had to replace a number of hoses, so bought a kit from 101propose in the US.

All the parts going back on again:







Now taken down for a car wash and clean, all running beautifully!








Very happy that it's fully running, and it sounds so much nicer with no manifold leak or anything. Really is such a nice car to drive. Certainly feels like a totally different car to the narrowbody 4G63's.

FST4RD wrote:Very very nice! :drool:
Loving the new head to! :)

Thanks!! yeh I was drooling heaps as it was all going back together. Only problem was that the nice new head and new turbo etc all showed up how dirty the rest of the engine bay was. Kinda need to clean all the rest of it now. Although I use it as a daily driver, so I probably won't go too overboard.

A real extra big thankyou must also go out to Mal (JDSTAZ45) because he has been extremely helpful along the way, sourcing many parts for me, and giving much advice. He also sourced me new non SHP front struts, and I have now put them in with some new KYB GR2 gas struts as well.

Thanks Mal!

Oh and of course the other mod I did to it was to put King Springs in the front, instead of the very low and very stiff Eibach's that it had. I actually kept the Eibach rears, because I love how low and stiff they are, but the front was just a bit too low and uncomfortable on bumps, and tended to attract low driveways.

So here's the Kind Springs installed. The slotted and drilled rotors were already on, so was pretty happy with that!


That's now everything up to date on this car for now!

This coming weekend I'm working on my retro fit of an aftermarket main cooling fan to replace the dead factory one. Seems a 12" fan fits straight in to the existing shroud, and I've fitted it already and tested it. Just found that cos I have it behind, in a sucking installation, I forgot to take off and rotate the fan blade part to make it suck better!

But yeh a pretty easy install, and works fine with the factory radiator temp sensor and relays.

As i am not a starion no more,that is the nicest starion i have seen,but under the bonnet was a total disappointment,but you are tiding it up,how is your performance,now after Chris done the head etc,i just love his work.
regards David :)

Hugh,

Real nice bit of work there. Great to see the attention to detail with the things you've done. The blue cusco strut brace should look good when installed with the other blue bits.
At the standard ride height, the 16 inch mesh wheels actually looked ordinary. With the car being lowered, they look sensational! Black wheels seem to be a trend atm!
Some of my neighbours, still ask about the car commenting how good it looked! :P Your ex white GSR-V doesn't get much of a mention :?
Nevermind, I'll show 'em when it's finished!

Keep up the good work as I'm sure you'll agree, Starions are a piece of work in progress! Turbo exhaust housing next on the agenda...6cm2 to 8cm2?

Cheers, Mal

Thanks Mal!
Yeh I think I kind of love the fact that Starions are always a work in progress- I like a car that has personality haha.

I was actually looking at that strut brace and thinking that I will install that shortly. I had been holding off cos I have another brand strut brace somewhere, and the one I had only fits the widebodies (hits on engine parts on narrowbodies), whereas I was curious to see if that one fits narrowbodies too, cos if it does I want to put it on the drift one and the other one on the Widey. But I'll check it out and probly end up putting the blue one on the Widey anyway.

Yeh I am definitely in love with those wheels haha.
So as you say, my next plan is certainly doing the turbo housing. I'm keen to do that. May be after Christmas though cos I'm aiming to build the extension to the workshop over Christmas to give me more storage space.

I can imagine the Widey would've got significantly more good comments from neighbours :)

love the car, great job

Is that a uk version starion as I noticed the round indicators and the primative abs brake booster under the bonnet. Ive had a few 2.6 starions, dont get me wrong there were great cars but I feel the 2.0 were sharper cars as in 0-60.
The clean up looks fantastic once again keep up the good work.

T-man

Hi T-man,
Nah it's from Japan, but very interesting about those details, I hadn't known that about the UK ones. I learn something new all the time on here.

I would definitely have to agree with you, the 2.0 narrowbody Starions are definitely tighter handling and a snappier car. This is a totally different car to drive, feels like much more of a cruising car. It does go pretty hard too, plenty of torque with the 2.6 but yeh it's perfect as my daily car, feels more cruzey etc. quite an interesting difference. When I jump in one of my track narrowbodies, they really do feel like totally different cars.

Good writeup Hugh. You got the posting bug now...goes well with Starionitis! :D