Austarion

Hey Guys.

Thought it was about time i put up a thread about my newly acquired 1982/83 Mitsubishi Starion! Bought her on new years and it was a dream come true to see this vehicle come into my possession (i have not looked back!). Later on i found out the owner who i bought it of was on this forum, so thank you harty1065 for the sale (Y)! Anyway, this vehicle was then towed to my place up in bundaberg around mid January and every moment i went to work i just persisted to come home hoping it would be there.. was on edge! So it finally arrived, car started after a few goes due to what we think is the starter motor on it's way out.. but will be fixed soon no doubt. The body was straight and i was expecting something alot worse of, only a bit of highfill on the drivers guard which i've nearly finish prepping to repaint that one guard, other then that the car was pretty damn smicko, was a good pickup!

So that's the brief history of my new staz so far, it seems like a looked after car for a 30yo car thats for sure. Anyway so i've been doing a bit of research on what i can do.. after driving it around my estate to see what its capabilities were.. it certainly revved up awesome and didn't miss a beat.. now it just needs some more power! I will be getting a rwc inspection from my work in the next few weeks and hoping it passes allowing me to get it registered so the fun can begin!

Repairs over the years have included new rings, bearings, head valves, timing belts, gaskets, new clutch with thrust, clutch slave cylinder kit, new water/oil cooled turbo, power steering pump seals, plugs, radiator cap, fan belt, random hoses and vacuum lines etc.. so it leaves me in the blue whether this thing is running on leaded or if the unleaded head components that have been put in this are from a later model starion meaning i can just run straight unleaded.. bit hard to determine this huh? Suggestions?

So the near future plans for this starion are:

1. FMIC Setup
2. Haltech E6k & Bits
3. Modified L300 IM w/ 3000gt Throttle body + 3" Ally Intake Pipe w/ Apexi Pod.
4. 3" Turbo back with one resonator and drift/blast pipes.
5. Boost controller and gauges (wind up boost a tad)
6. 450cc or 550cc Injectors to suit MPFI upgrade.
7. Reupholster the drivers leather seat, (due to cracks)
8. Repaint rear bar, drivers guard, bonnet and hatch for meantime..
9. Starion factory LSD
10. Tune with new ecu and aiming for 200 - 300hp (Enough to get me sliding and sound good)

These will be the first things happening to her in the near future then later down the track when i have fully decided what i'm going to do.. will convert to a dohc head or dohc complete motor for more areas to increase power output. Intentions for this vehicle are to be used at some drift events down at QR.. but in saying that to be also used to drive around on weekends or when i don't want to drive my daily car.

Will get some pictures of her up soon.. Firstly on the cars is to respray the guard, considering respraying the bonnet and hatch a metallic or gloss black as they are matte black at the moment, then its onto the engine! So keep posted as i'll try to update as often as i can :D.

please for the love of god paint that hatch body colour again! :)

see if u can get a better ecu than a microtech too. the sonata manifold is easiest to get good power from once you swap the throttle body position and route the water hoses..

haha so you seen the hatch in person or pics of it redzone? its basically a matte black primer i think.. but yeah i could just paint it the body colour and paint the bonnet gloss black.. i simply love that black bonnet on base car colour look..

you mean look into haltech etc? i don't know of many ecu's suited to this motor or can be remapped later down the track to suit the next motor i want to put in.. but if you have some input let us know :). yeah im leaning towards the sonata manifold but need to sort out someone or the lend of a welder to do these modifications, also what you mean route the water hoses? is that for if i do the dohc head swap you mean?

you should probably add a disco potato turbo to that list if you want more power :P , and correct me if i am wrong but i believe the standard turbo has anti surge fins so a dose pipe would be a waste hahah should have got a VL :D

Yeah the problem with the black panel look is that the average person just thinks your car has dodgy wrecking yard panels on it!

Yeah the microtech is probably the least flexible as far as swapping motor to motor..

haha.. im actually looking into some ebay turbo's at the moment.. like kkr gt30's etc.. i would like a t28 - gt35 preferrably.. giving me a broader range of power output if i wanted more down the track. and does it really? im not sure if the aftermarket turbo on it is the same one they put on from factory.. can't read specs on the turbo etc..

haha i think its the jdm look i like :P. black bonnet and rest will be same colour i think.. keeping it clean.. i dont mind the maroon but.. will def get a full respray down the track i reckon. well regarding that lt-8 microtech.. i can use it for a dohc 4g63 and my sohc 4g63? as i said needs new maps etc but other then that can be used on both.. and for just a little over 1k it aint the cheapest ecu you can buy anyway..

Yeah i cant remember the last time i saw a Jap DVD with a local car with a black painted bootlid :P

steer clear of microtechs if u can, there are plenty of guys on this forum with EMS stinger and Wolf version 4 ecu's that you could use their maps as a base map if u have the same size injectors it'll be good enough to start the car and get u to the dyno. just dont cane it on that map! :beer

do you have maps to suit a ems stinger or wolf version 4? are these ecu's cheaper then microtechs or more? and can they be used on other 4 cyl motors and get a base mapping setup on them?

mate believes i could use the microtech and go down to his tuner in brissy and would give a decent tune.. he could give me a map so i could drive it down carefully without trailer.. looking into all options at the moment! will be buying gear as soon as i decide what i think is best and easiest!

+1 for the stinger, i have a v4 on my evo motor and its pretty good, can download heaps of maps from the website and can plug ur laptop in to get all the data as you go if you want to be fast and the furious, just be careful your passenger footwell doesn't fall out rofl

http://www.emsefi.com/emsefi/index.php/ ... nt-systems

Problem with older microtech's is that they are locked to am engine & they don't reprogramme them anymore. The stinger is under 1200, the v4x slightly more. You don't need to go all the way to bris, I use chapmans@ cooroy for dyno work, they have a few starions running stingers, get a basemap from them or one of the members on here like dr death.

I don't like microtech because 80% of my mates who have had them have replaced them with another brand due to reliability issues

80% of Daves mates. That's four people that Dave knows that dont like Microtech.

rofl

yeah well i guess besides yourself i've heard alot of good feedback from microtech.. so now im a bit mislead in what direction to head regarding the ecu.. comes down to.. reasonable price but still performs. considering i want to spend some leftover coin on exhaust etc.

GormzZ wrote:comes down to.. reasonable price but still performs. considering

Bingo!

I have always used EMS ecu's, but you know what I might end up using a Haltech in the car when we get to that point. They all have their positives and negs, just depends on what you want from an ECU.

Microtech cant be that bad, the fastest & quickest rotary in the world runs one.

Sargeant_Khan wrote:80% of Daves mates. That's four people that Dave knows that dont like Microtech.

rofl

Never had a Microtech, do have a haltech, have met Dave a few times and everything he has advised in person or on these forums has been right on, like you would expect a mate to do.

I may be bias, but I think the Haltech is great, with alittle electrical knowledge you can set all sorts of accessories like rev limiter, tach, staged shift light, a/c request, fan relay, turbo timer etc. Check it out the extra now will be worth it.

http://www.haltech.com/index.php/produc ... sport-1000

Down side is about $1800 + Loom
Must be programmed by someone who knows what they are doing.

You can not go wrong with this.

Arguments have been had before over choices of ECU...
http://forums.austarion.com/viewtopic.php?t=13849
http://forums.austarion.com/viewtopic.php?t=13413

Enjoy!