1993 Mitsubishi GTO, Turbo/Manual/RWD Conversion...
Discussion
I had posted this build up in my other build thread for my BMW but thought i'd start a seperate thread for it now as it turned out to be more of a project car than i originally anticipated, Anyway....
This is her before i really started, a 1993 N/A Auto AWD Imported GTO, having been sat on my drive for 7 months while i was doing the bmw, figuring i really needed a daily for when i got my licence back i decided to get her sorted.
Wheels on...
I took the entire interior out, the car had clearly been in a flood at somepoint a long time ago, dried silt everywhere but no typical flood car symptons, condensation, damp smell etc.. I cleaned her up getting rid of all the silt and also checked all the wiring for corrosion but it all seemed good luckily. Got a new carpet for her and she started to look quite smart. Replaced any damaged trim pieces and fitted a nice Pioneer headunit too...
Next up were some buckets because I'm young and my back is in good shape atm so why not... Sparco' finest entry level Sprints, insanely comfortable and supportive for the price. Welded myself up some frames and got them in, perfect fit for me at 6ft2 but my 5ftnothing gf cant see over the dash
Next up i removed the struts to fit some Tein S-tech springs and well this is where it all started with this car... While i had it apart i though about how much i wanted a manual so thought why not and proceeded to remove the engine to get the gearbox replaced. This is when i also decided that the AWD had to go and that RWD was the way forward. So i needed lots of parts cue this thing being dumped on my mums drive, she was estatic...
A 1992 Twin turbo that had seen better days, got down to stripping it of its limbs, engine out gearbox and any other twin turbo bits off then the engine lobbed in the boot. All very 3.14Key... I would also learn later on that due to rear outer hub splines being smaller on the N/A that i would also need the entire rear subframe assembly that weighs approx. 3 million tons. Sadly once i had canniblised it i had no room to store it so it was scrapped :/
I took the box apart and welded the central diff, also removing the front shafts too. This locks the torque split to 50/50 and theres no resistance at the front so 100% of the power goes through the t-case to the rear
At this point i was slight over just fitting new springs which was the original job so thought that it'd be rude not to twin turbo her too...
So i started fitting the turbos i sourced off a club member (the doners ones were a bit buggerred, more shaft play than a bangkok brothel), quite a few mods are needed to get stuff to fit, engine mounts are different, turbo oil feeds need take off adapters, i planned to use the TT oil pan but that didnt fit the TT block so i had to weld some tabs to the N/a pan for the turbo drains. I also replaned the Stem seals, hydralic lifters, timing belt and some other stuff while it was all out...
Once that was all done i threw the engine back in and started connecting everything back up, i also replaced the engine wiring harness too as the TT is slightly different to the N/a, another thing salvaged from the doner...
I also ordered a flash ecu from America at this point, allowing me to directly edit the fuel/timing tables rather than faf around with fuel controllers and maf translators, the flash ecus are TT ones so would technically run the car straight out the box. It also has other features such as Launch control, Flat shifting etc..
Skipping aheadabout 3 months, im current waiting on parts to arrive. I've upgraded the fuel pump and hotwired it. New oil cooler and custom lines. Lots of interior work. Made myself a custom intercooler fogger. Straight 3 inch turboback exhaust ready to be welded up and fitted. I will be running a Methanol mix the quench knock so have some of that on order and lots more that i cant remember. The only downside to this are i have my uni exams next week and will be itching to get down to the garage when i should be revising... :/
I'm aiming for 380hp+ out of the stock 9b turbos which is quite a challenge considering stock they were 'supposed' to be 276hp but i do have the 10:1 n/a block on my side.
I've missed quite a bit out but starting to write this at 5am was bad idea. I'll fill in the blanks tomorrow if anyone is interested
Thanks Jonni
This is her before i really started, a 1993 N/A Auto AWD Imported GTO, having been sat on my drive for 7 months while i was doing the bmw, figuring i really needed a daily for when i got my licence back i decided to get her sorted.
Wheels on...
I took the entire interior out, the car had clearly been in a flood at somepoint a long time ago, dried silt everywhere but no typical flood car symptons, condensation, damp smell etc.. I cleaned her up getting rid of all the silt and also checked all the wiring for corrosion but it all seemed good luckily. Got a new carpet for her and she started to look quite smart. Replaced any damaged trim pieces and fitted a nice Pioneer headunit too...
Next up were some buckets because I'm young and my back is in good shape atm so why not... Sparco' finest entry level Sprints, insanely comfortable and supportive for the price. Welded myself up some frames and got them in, perfect fit for me at 6ft2 but my 5ftnothing gf cant see over the dash
Next up i removed the struts to fit some Tein S-tech springs and well this is where it all started with this car... While i had it apart i though about how much i wanted a manual so thought why not and proceeded to remove the engine to get the gearbox replaced. This is when i also decided that the AWD had to go and that RWD was the way forward. So i needed lots of parts cue this thing being dumped on my mums drive, she was estatic...
A 1992 Twin turbo that had seen better days, got down to stripping it of its limbs, engine out gearbox and any other twin turbo bits off then the engine lobbed in the boot. All very 3.14Key... I would also learn later on that due to rear outer hub splines being smaller on the N/A that i would also need the entire rear subframe assembly that weighs approx. 3 million tons. Sadly once i had canniblised it i had no room to store it so it was scrapped :/
I took the box apart and welded the central diff, also removing the front shafts too. This locks the torque split to 50/50 and theres no resistance at the front so 100% of the power goes through the t-case to the rear
At this point i was slight over just fitting new springs which was the original job so thought that it'd be rude not to twin turbo her too...
So i started fitting the turbos i sourced off a club member (the doners ones were a bit buggerred, more shaft play than a bangkok brothel), quite a few mods are needed to get stuff to fit, engine mounts are different, turbo oil feeds need take off adapters, i planned to use the TT oil pan but that didnt fit the TT block so i had to weld some tabs to the N/a pan for the turbo drains. I also replaned the Stem seals, hydralic lifters, timing belt and some other stuff while it was all out...
Once that was all done i threw the engine back in and started connecting everything back up, i also replaced the engine wiring harness too as the TT is slightly different to the N/a, another thing salvaged from the doner...
I also ordered a flash ecu from America at this point, allowing me to directly edit the fuel/timing tables rather than faf around with fuel controllers and maf translators, the flash ecus are TT ones so would technically run the car straight out the box. It also has other features such as Launch control, Flat shifting etc..
Skipping aheadabout 3 months, im current waiting on parts to arrive. I've upgraded the fuel pump and hotwired it. New oil cooler and custom lines. Lots of interior work. Made myself a custom intercooler fogger. Straight 3 inch turboback exhaust ready to be welded up and fitted. I will be running a Methanol mix the quench knock so have some of that on order and lots more that i cant remember. The only downside to this are i have my uni exams next week and will be itching to get down to the garage when i should be revising... :/
I'm aiming for 380hp+ out of the stock 9b turbos which is quite a challenge considering stock they were 'supposed' to be 276hp but i do have the 10:1 n/a block on my side.
I've missed quite a bit out but starting to write this at 5am was bad idea. I'll fill in the blanks tomorrow if anyone is interested
Thanks Jonni
Edited by jmflare on Monday 2nd January 07:21
Edited by jmflare on Wednesday 4th January 15:21
A few modifications i forgot to mention:
- Welded up rear differential, heard the original viscous LSDs were a bit limp.
- 560cc Evo injectors, cleaned and flow matched.
- A set of Nankang NS2Rs semi slicks for the front and NS2s for the rear, have heard nothing but good things about these
- I removed the rear steer system while i was swapping subframes as i'm not a fan, lost quite a bit of weight, new custom rear toe arms.
- Braided fuel line inbetween fuel rail with pressure take off for fuel pressure gauge also one on the oil cooler to gauge oil pressure.
- AEM wideband kit with output hooked up to the ecu so i can log AFRs. Also seprate Map sensor hooked up to ecu to log boost even if the ecu isn't currently able to tune directly from it.
- GM Hotwire MAF and translator, this can be run in blow thru config allowing me to bin all the inlet tract and run the little 9b turbos without any vacuum resistance increasing their efficiency. I'm aiming more for top end power and really want to limit my low end torque, this way my drivetrain might survive longer...
- My favorite modification a KITT light at the front that turns me into Micheal Knight... Looks awesome (if a little cheesy). Weird i got more excited seeing that working than seeing the engine back in...
Lots more too
Any other GTO people on here? People seem to have this idea that they are really hard to work on and unreliable but that couldn't be further from the truth. In all honesty i'd say its an easier car to work on than my E36 and that is already a well laid out and logical car to work on.
The next real issue once it's tuned and running is the transfer case and rear output shaft in the gearbox... Standard torque split is 50/50 and standard torque is around 310ish so in a crude way that means the TC and output shaft are normally used to approx 152ft/lbs... So i've doubled the torque on the TC and output, no biggy it's been done before so hopefully should be okay. Now throw into the mix the increase to 500ish ft/lbs i plan, The welded rear diff effectively doubling the grip at the rear and the 255 rear tyres and i have the perfect storm in terms of exploding the tranfer case or stripping teeth in either the gearbox or outputshaft :/
I plan to remedy this with a hardened output shaft and also welding up an outer cage for the TC to give it more resistance to forcing itself apart... The rear diff and subframe etc. should hopefully be okay, it's a seriously beefy setup back there as standard.
One day i hope to rotate the engine 90* and use a gearbox from a shogun or something but for now this has to do.
Jonni
- Welded up rear differential, heard the original viscous LSDs were a bit limp.
- 560cc Evo injectors, cleaned and flow matched.
- A set of Nankang NS2Rs semi slicks for the front and NS2s for the rear, have heard nothing but good things about these
- I removed the rear steer system while i was swapping subframes as i'm not a fan, lost quite a bit of weight, new custom rear toe arms.
- Braided fuel line inbetween fuel rail with pressure take off for fuel pressure gauge also one on the oil cooler to gauge oil pressure.
- AEM wideband kit with output hooked up to the ecu so i can log AFRs. Also seprate Map sensor hooked up to ecu to log boost even if the ecu isn't currently able to tune directly from it.
- GM Hotwire MAF and translator, this can be run in blow thru config allowing me to bin all the inlet tract and run the little 9b turbos without any vacuum resistance increasing their efficiency. I'm aiming more for top end power and really want to limit my low end torque, this way my drivetrain might survive longer...
- My favorite modification a KITT light at the front that turns me into Micheal Knight... Looks awesome (if a little cheesy). Weird i got more excited seeing that working than seeing the engine back in...
Lots more too
Any other GTO people on here? People seem to have this idea that they are really hard to work on and unreliable but that couldn't be further from the truth. In all honesty i'd say its an easier car to work on than my E36 and that is already a well laid out and logical car to work on.
The next real issue once it's tuned and running is the transfer case and rear output shaft in the gearbox... Standard torque split is 50/50 and standard torque is around 310ish so in a crude way that means the TC and output shaft are normally used to approx 152ft/lbs... So i've doubled the torque on the TC and output, no biggy it's been done before so hopefully should be okay. Now throw into the mix the increase to 500ish ft/lbs i plan, The welded rear diff effectively doubling the grip at the rear and the 255 rear tyres and i have the perfect storm in terms of exploding the tranfer case or stripping teeth in either the gearbox or outputshaft :/
I plan to remedy this with a hardened output shaft and also welding up an outer cage for the TC to give it more resistance to forcing itself apart... The rear diff and subframe etc. should hopefully be okay, it's a seriously beefy setup back there as standard.
One day i hope to rotate the engine 90* and use a gearbox from a shogun or something but for now this has to do.
Jonni
Edited by jmflare on Monday 2nd January 03:39
Edited by jmflare on Monday 2nd January 03:42
How come you've gone with the NA block over the turbo block? I'm guessing you're planning on road mapping to adjust fuelling for the higher compression? I'd be wary of any other block differences, alot of other jap turbo engines of the era had oil squirters which the NA versions didn't; running a decent thermostatic oil cooler along with a good cold air feed & intercooler to keep intake charge temps down will be essential if you want to keep the NA block happy under boost.
Are you plannning on drifting this? Will be interesting to see someone develop a new platform like this
Are you plannning on drifting this? Will be interesting to see someone develop a new platform like this
Hungrymc said:
OP, You're a lunatic... In a good way :-)
Good luck with the rest of the build (And your exams).
Thank you Good luck with the rest of the build (And your exams).
gooly said:
How come you've gone with the NA block over the turbo block? I'm guessing you're planning on road mapping to adjust fuelling for the higher compression? I'd be wary of any other block differences, alot of other jap turbo engines of the era had oil squirters which the NA versions didn't; running a decent thermostatic oil cooler along with a good cold air feed & intercooler to keep intake charge temps down will be essential if you want to keep the NA block happy under boost.
Are you plannning on drifting this? Will be interesting to see someone develop a new platform like this
N/A block is a better choice for the smaller turbos running less flow, they dn't hav oil squirters but this isnt really an issue. There are quite a few TT conversions around the world. Stock dual intercoolers are fitted but i plan a more efficient FMIC soon Are you plannning on drifting this? Will be interesting to see someone develop a new platform like this
As for keeping the N/A block happy the Meth will take care of that! Thanks Jonni
j_s14a said:
DanielSan said:
It's an impressive amount of work but if you want a rear wheel drive GTO why not just buy a 300ZX, it's less complicated and slightly more reliable to start with.
A mk3 Supra turbo would be better than either. PunterCam said:
j_s14a said:
DanielSan said:
It's an impressive amount of work but if you want a rear wheel drive GTO why not just buy a 300ZX, it's less complicated and slightly more reliable to start with.
A mk3 Supra turbo would be better than either. Thanks guys, not sure how that guy read the thread but could only come up with that 
Anyway, she's coming on well. I've got some rear toe arms assembled out of some rose joints and threaded rod i found online, these delete the rear steer which should make the rear end more predictable now the car is Rwd.
Fitted my old 4 point harness from my bmw, but i've left the orginal belt in too so i can choose between the two. I welded some eyelet plates to the chassis in the rear which allowed me to keep the rear seats in place. Got a fire extinguisher mounted under the seat to, just in case. It's only a little 1kg powder job so not sure how much use it would be :/
Also got all my gauges wired in and the new Evo injectors and braided fuel rail connector fitted. Should be able to start her next week hopefully then i need to get the fuel trims in spec and send her off for her totally legit MOT...
Really need to start taking some more photos to show my progress. Here's a quick snap I got the other day...
Thanks Jonni
Anyway, she's coming on well. I've got some rear toe arms assembled out of some rose joints and threaded rod i found online, these delete the rear steer which should make the rear end more predictable now the car is Rwd.
Fitted my old 4 point harness from my bmw, but i've left the orginal belt in too so i can choose between the two. I welded some eyelet plates to the chassis in the rear which allowed me to keep the rear seats in place. Got a fire extinguisher mounted under the seat to, just in case. It's only a little 1kg powder job so not sure how much use it would be :/
Also got all my gauges wired in and the new Evo injectors and braided fuel rail connector fitted. Should be able to start her next week hopefully then i need to get the fuel trims in spec and send her off for her totally legit MOT...
Really need to start taking some more photos to show my progress. Here's a quick snap I got the other day...
Thanks Jonni
Edited by jmflare on Friday 27th January 00:59
Awesome that you're making progress, I love the way the car looks like it's about to either take flight, transform into a robot, or both in that pic !
And yeah, the important thing is that you like GTOs, and you've got the time, energy and skills to play with one and make it unique.
I'm really curious how the project works out and what it's like to drive at the end of it !
fastbikes76 said:
Getting there mate, not long now before its running
A fellow Ph'er too!Well it runs...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIV4Kb2NHNw&fe...
Had a few little niggles here and there but nothing too serious. I have a few things to get sorted before her MOT. Tested launch control today, scared myself to death... even that needed a bit of fettling but on a whole i'm very happy how she has turned out although i havent tested the drivetrain out yet except for on the axle stands so may have a few headaches still to come...
Just got to get my licence passed at the start of next month and ill be able to start tuning her and see where it goes from there
Currently looking at putting a rotary engine in my E36 though so will probably calm down on this project for a bit 
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