Austarion

So, here's the last Starion that I haven't posted a thread for yet.

About a year ago, I picked up this yellow Starion, with the EVO engine already installed in it. I know it says Beyond The Limit Motorsport on it, but this engine was not done by Chris, he actually did a previous engine it it, but then the EVO conversion was done by a later owner.

This is an interesting EVO conversion too... It's a bit of a hack job, but it works, so that's ok.

It's basically a complete EVO 1 or 2 engine, with an EVO 1 ECU, and it's had the back of the block modified and welded to fit up to the wideblock Starion gearbox points. Again, a bit messy, but works. And I have confirmed its EVO, not VR4 (I have two VR4 engines sitting nearby to compare side by side)

It has also had the water pump modified, and a water outlet out the front of the head, however when this was done, I don't know if the supporting water flow improvements inside the head were done as well. Also, the head water outlet is so close to the water pump pulley that you have to actually take the pulley off to fit the belt, and then put it back on with the belt already in the grooves. Also the exhaust manifold is actually a factory one that has just been cut near the flange and welded back together up the other way to make a top mount turbo instead of low mount. Not bad again, but there's some bolts missing, and I can't see any way to get the bolts in there easily at a glance so far because of the angle the manifold ends up being on.

When I bought this car, it wasn't running, but I have spent a bit of time here and there over the last year trying to find out what was not working.

Eventually found the injectors were just a bit clagged from sitting for about 3 years. A bit of fuel dropped in the inlet manifold, and away we went. There's some videos further down.

Now that it's running I'm happy, but not sure still if I will keep the engine. May be putting Troy's old single cam engine (300HP engine built by Chris Collier) into this car! So if someone's after an already done and running EVO conversion for their Starion, let me know.

Here's the car:


It's very low, so taking it off the truck was a very close call! Fortunately only the tow point scraped :D



Brought it into the shed to work on it


Ran some diagnostics on it with the scope, making sure the injector pulses looked ok, etc. They were fine, and fuel was in the rail, and spark was strong. So this was why I assumed either timing or clagged injectors.


The engine runs now!
Here's the good photos.







And some videos of it actually will be in my next post

Videos of it running.
You can hear a bit of an exhaust leak, due to the missing bolts for the turbo. Also haven't done the timing yet, but still not bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imxh75KeTLI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJx5wgmoJYc


So yeh, not totally sure on my plans with this engine now that it runs!

Very nice! Im in the middle of my conversion, but its very slow progress as Ive got a 5 month old son to keep content! That a nice collection of starions aswell! keep up the good work!

t-man.

Far to many nice Starions! :beer

Nice mate. does it have any worked internals?

love the collection, and the garage
can you get some photos of the gearbox mounts on the block? Currently trying to put an EVO in mine and cant decide what to do with the gearbox
cheers

love the collection, and the garage
can you get some photos of the gearbox mounts on the block? Currently trying to put an EVO in mine and cant decide what to do with the gearbox
cheers

Thanks guys :)

In regard to worked internals, nah I don't think it does unfortunately, but I dot actually know for sure. I'm just guessing by the "just make it fit, but don't make it pretty" approach, that would suggest it probably wasn't worked.

niss720, thanks! Yeh I'll try and put it up on the hoist tomorrow, and get some photos. Basically they welded extended ears onto the block so it would bolt up to the wider Starion gearbox, but not sure what they did with the other bolts.


Still not sure whether to keep this install or not. If I do, it needs:
- new exhaust manifold and turbo (I have spare turbos)
- new water pump, as it was very stiff, and leaks. Has also been custom welded to fit to the water hoses for the Starion, so would need a custom job done again on the new one if I replace it
- probably timing belt cos don't know when that was done, and would have to be done when I do the water pump anyway
- need a solution for the power steering belt. The main crank pulleys are ALL the multi micro V belts (4 grooves) but the power steerig unit is just the single large V. The guys just put a single V belt loosely over this so it kinda works for now but slips when you turn an won't last long!
- Fix the fact that I still have to squirt fuel into the manifold to first get it to start when cold. This could still be dirty injectors? Or possibly now sounding more like the temperature sensor may not be working, so the ECU might not be applying cold start parameters.

Hmm now that I write these points down, it doesn't sound TOO bad. No small effort tho. My thoughts are though that I'd probably rather remove it and sell it as a complete done conversion and put the money into other things and keep the shell for making a properly done track car. Cos if I keep this twin cam, I'll probably just thrash it on the track, end up blowing it, and then it won't be worth squat.

I suppose I could rebuild it all and do it properly as a race engine, but then if I was going to do that I would use the VR4 engines I have sitting in the shed, with the bigger ports etc. So that's again why I think I'd sell it as a complete setup.

I guess we'll see what happens!
My game plan is to probably fix the water pump, and manifold and get those things sorted and decide from there I think, but that may take a few years as it would only be a back burner project.

Anyway enough thinking out loud. Curious to hear people's thoughts tho

might just be that they didn't have the time to tune the cold start right?

It's got cold start enrichment on the throttle, is it working?

It should be possible to remove the V pulley and press on a multi V pulley onto the PS pump

Yeh I'll check out the cold start stuff. Kinda need to find an EVO 1/2 workshop manual ay.

And that sounds good about putting a V pulley on. I definitely have spare ones of those cos I have about 4 Starion engines sitting in the shed.