to4garret

Remember the “Ting” noise I heard when I did a launch earlier? Well it seems I smashed the two spider gears in the Centre diff and they had wedged themselves in such a way that they locked the diff up. This explains the car driving like it had a locked rear diff.

So why not do the job properly and weld the whole thing together with bird shit? Theory being it won’t break again right?

With the drive train sorted, I swapped the 4G61T engine mounts onto the 4G63T and it all dropped in like it was meant to be there.

I wish I had known at this point how much further I had to go.

With the 2.0 litre finally in the car I started on swapping some of the VR4 sensors into the 4G61 loom, mainly the Cam/Crank Angle Sensor, Throttle Position Sensor and Idle Stepper Motor. I also added a SARD FPR to the stock fuel rail and gave the rocker cover a lick of paint.

Electrically, the swap from the 4G61 to 4G63 is very easy as the wiring between the Cyborg & VR4 is almost identical. Only a few sensor plugs need updating and the VR4 ECU even plugs right in.

I then started to plan the fuel system, the standard pump is guessed to be around 120lph which would probably be ok for standard power levels but I wanted to build some future proof in.

My thoughts were to use the stock pump as a lift pump into a surge tank with a single Bosch 044 as the primary. That should give me a bit of head room. Now, where to put it?

Might as well relocate the battery to the boot at the same time, this will free up some engine bay space for cold air induction. I ran a length of 32mm2 double insulated power cable from the front to rear of the car.

Now around 2006, I started attending a few of the local car cruises and on one night I had done a few clutch dump launches in a row and then heard a little “ting”. The car still drove okay but something wasn’t right, it would almost drive like it had a locked rear diff. I wonder what it could be? Mmmm never mind it still drove.

One of the reasons I convinced myself to by the Borg was because of how easy it was to upgrade with VR4 parts and after keeping an eye out in the local trading paper I found a 1992 ADM Galant GSR that had a JDM Galant VR4 Evo Zero front cut installed, but it wasn’t running properly.

This made me start thinking of doing an engine swap, which from what I had read was easy enough as the 4G63T is the same family as the 4G61T except 2.0 litre vs 1.6 and the only real physical different is a 10mm taller block.

A good reason to hunt down a VR4 Evo Zero was because of the factory upgrades over a standard VR4. The Evo Zero makes 176kw and 304nm vs 150kw and 294nm for the standard VR4, this is mainly achieved with 510cc vs 450cc Injectors, TD05 Small 16G vs 14B, Larger Intercooler and piping, slightly more aggressive Cams and a better tune in the ECU, which is a single board and chippable.

When I looked at the swapped Galant GSR, the engine ran fine, compression was good but it wouldn’t shift into any gear and the clutch just didn’t feel like it was there at all, but the basis looked good enough and I really wanted that engine! $1800 later and it was mine.

No use wasting time then…

I sold the stock 4G61T complete minus wiring loom to someone in Adelaide for almost the cost of the Galant with the VR4 motor, probably the best deal I had with the car.

Gave the VR4 motor a birthday, new Cambelt, pulleys, water pump and balance shaft removal.

When removing the balance shafts in 4G63’s it tends to increase the oil pressure significantly, it’s not uncommon for it to go way above 100psi which can cause a few problems with turbo oil seals etc.

The common solution is to port the standard oil pressure relief valve, I may have gone just a little for far here, but it works!

I had a new engine, just needed to sort out a gearbox. The one that came with the new motor was cactus, it had a dodgy FWD conversion done, broken bellhousing from probably running into something and the clutch release bearing had collapsed. I stripped it down for some bits and binned the rest.

It wasn’t too much of an issue that the VR4 gearbox was unusable because with just a VR4 clutch and flywheel the stock 4G61 gearbox would bolt up fine. I just needed to find a clutch and flywheel…

Lucky for me I guess, I found a Direct Clutch Twin Plate for sale on eBay, total over kill!

I’ve had a few build threads around the net for this car, but over the year’s images and forums have gone offline, so I thought it was about time to document the story of this car again.

I look back at the 12 years I’ve owned the car and think the journey has been more fun than arriving at the final iteration. I have learnt a lot owning and modifying this car and I’ve tried a lot of things that didn’t work that’s for sure, as you’ll read later.

Taking a trip back, it all started in 2005 when I found this nugget at a Perth importer.

It’s a 1988 Mitsubishi Mirage Cyborg and It has a lot in common with the Australian assembled CB Lancer as far as body panels and standard trim components, but as with most imports the JDM version’s specification was much higher with more standard electric gizmos, better seats and interior trimming, plus a turbo engine and 4WD drivetrain.

You could consider this basically the little brother of the Galant VR4 of the same vintage, but with several differences.

Standard, the specs read like;
•    1600 Twin cam, Turbo and Intercooled / 4G61T / TD04 11g / 8psi
•    4WD with Viscous Center Coupling, Solid Rear Diff (Open Standard/Optional LSD)
•    5 Speed Manual, 2.844 diff ratio
•    A/C / Elec Windows & Mirrors
•    Grand Slam Sticker

And the standard performance is a spirited;
•    95.5KW / 144NM
•    0-100 kph in 10.3s
•    1/4m 17.2s
•    Kerb weight ~1200kg

I can’t say I was wowed when I first inspected it, it had horrid wheels and underwhelming performance and at the time I was really looking for a EVO 1-3. 

But after about 3 weeks I convinced myself to buy the car and parted with $7,000 of the good stuff, it was clean, only had 90,000kms on the clock and a very rare option of the sunroof.

This is where the journey began…

The very first mod I did was get rid of the 15” Racing Hart CP Competition wheels, they were very light and probably rare – but I wasn’t a fan. (fast forward a couple of years and the Harts were wrecked when I lent them out)

I really wanted a set of Enkei Tarmac Evo’s, but they were impossible to find at the time, especially in a 4x114.3 stud pattern. I settled on a similar design by Advanti called the SA15 which I ordered in 17” with some 215/40 tyres. This puts the rolling diameter about 10% higher than stock but it is the largest rim/tyre package that would fit comfortably in the guards.

Second mod was to lower the car but of course there were no off the shelf springs available in Australia for this car. The Fronts were easy as the MacPherson strut setup is the same as the ADM CB Lancer GSR, but the GSR springs wouldn’t work in the rear because the Rear diff made the lower mounting higher. With a lack of options, I ended up getting a set of CB Lancer GSR King Springs anyway and shortening the rear springs to fit. This made the rear very stiff and quite horrible to drive, but it looked better than being 4” too high in the rear.

Shortly after I installed an Auto Meter Phantom Series boost gauge that has since day one, never read accurate. It’s always hovered around 1psi when at normal air pressure and I’ve hunted for a calibration bung, but there isn’t one.

The momo steering wheel came with the car and I think it’s perfect, I intended the button as a scramble boost toggle, but it’s never been hooked up.

I drove the car around like that for a few months and then had a custom 3” Mandrel bent exhaust installed combined with a dodgy boost tap the car went pretty good.

I got into 3D Modeling earlier this year, coming from knowing nothing i've done quite well i think. The main software i've settled on is SketchUp with the STL Plugin, ThomThom CleanUp3 Plugin that produces good Models for Printing in which I primarily use Simplify3D though i have found a few bugs in that with overhangs and occasionally i will slice with OctoPrint.

I read as much as I could about printers for a few months and eventually settled onto a custom Printer design called a VORON, its a CoreXY design that has a very light print head for very fast travel/stability, it also has a 240v SSR heated bed which warms up super quick.

There is a ton to learn and what really didnt help me was i couldnt find a good guide that helped in the initial calibration of the printer & filament (i've since written one)

More pic's here if interdasted.

Well that's disappointing. Would you rebuild the bottom end or just pick up another engine? hypereutectic pistons and chinabay turbos are cheap.

E85 and advance the CAS forward 4 deg?

Last time I looked there wasn't any roll on roll off ships between Perth and NZ, this meant you really need to pay for a whole 20ft container. You can sub out the unused portion of space if you want but from memory the costs were around 4-8000 all up. Quite vague I know but it was a few years ago.

I just grabbed a UNIMIG 165A new for $650 (AUD) http://www.unimig.com.au/catalogue_product.asp?product=970&category=1&subcategory=2

They do a 205A in the same series but was substantially more.1K+

Bordering on too light at 12kgs, moves about abit but perfect for what i needed.

That looks like a heap of fun Mof!

more jeep pics and some woe.

I've owned the jeep for about 9months now, Its my first fourby and I actually didn't set out to by a jeep either.

A few weeks prior I rode shotgun in a mates Patrol and caught the bug. I decided that I wanted something SWB and started looking for a diesel Pajeroo. Everything I had seen was around the 30k bracket, far to rich for me but at this one yard they had a stock 65th anniversary jeep for 15k. It was a nope for sure but got me thinking.

When I was out with my mate, everywhere a lightly modified Pajeroo, patrol or landbruiser was having trouble this pack of stock jeeps were walking through.

So I found this jeep a few days later in the local trading paper, modified well and driving even better.

Picked it up a day later and drove home, that's where I found a monumental error on my part.

It was to tall to fit in the garage... Feck.

Garage opening was 2.05m and the jeep was 2.3m to the top of the light bar. Leaving it outside it not really an option in my area, things would start to go missing off it in a couple of days.

I quickly whipped the light bar off and dropped the tyre pressure down to 5psi, that let me crawl in to the garage.

And gave me an idea for the number plate...

So I set out exploring the local landscape...

After about 2 months I destroyed the front DANA 30 ring and pinion climbing up a ledge. Rookie mistake, I feed a bit too much power in, bounce up over the ledge and landed full tit on the gripping tyres *ping* all was over.

So it sat in the garage for the last 6-7 months while I amassed parts to fix the diff. I also did some other maintenance items, new rotors, pads, new light bar mount and U-joints through out.

As it sits now, drives a bit nicer. Only thing left todo is get the actuator for the front locker. I'm tossing up between an electric one or manual. Price is about the same and about the same difficulty to install, hopefully that's done soonish.

On my watch lost for when it comes up on sale. Looks like it will be fun for a bit.

Here is my highly efficient liquid fossil to carbon converter.

06 Wrangler Sport with a 6" long arm lift, 35"s and a 1" body lift, Detroit locker in the rear and a OX locker in the front, 4.11 gears and Rubicon "Rock Crawling" ratio transfer case.

Doesn't have much speed/power but plenty of torque, there isn't much that I haven't made it through.

But now that the kiddies are getting older I will probably look at moving it on after winter and getting something LWB so I can start sharing the fun with them.

have a look at the fuel and ignition 3D maps, that will give you a good idea of how smooth/tuned it is.

but having a quick look, doesnt look that nice on the high load/kpa of the tune. i mean, check to scaling jump between 100/140kpa in the fuel map, its up over 8p.

i guess at least it would run fat, but that ignition table looks quite aggressive too.

Usually, no.

But.... Always take a backup before a firmware upgrade. There is no reason not too, it only takes a few seconds.

one of these would work real good TD05H 20g.

Would come on around 3800rpm and hold 22~24psi at 8,000rpm.

Just run it at 14~15psi (just shy of stock fuel cut) until you can afford to put large pump, injectors, chip.

no point in spending money twice/three times aye?

i wouldnt worry, the steel ring gear will hold it together

and was given a near complete 6A12TT for free.

You are just lucky that's all

Name: Craig

Location: Perth, Western Australia, formally Tauranga

Cars you own: 1988 4WD Mirage Cyborg Sedan [PSIBORG]

Mods: 4G63T Monte Carlo, Sard 800's, Bosch 044, Surge Tank, Wrapped TRR Turbo Extractors, Tial 38mm, Greddy Type R Bov (VTA), GT35, 3" Dump w/wastegate delete, 3" Exhaust, PWR 650hp barrel cooler, Custom 25L dry-ice Reservoir, Link Plus G3, 7 Bar Map Sensor, Innovate LC-1 WideBand, Coil-On-Plug, Dual Twin Ignitors, Gizzmo MS-IBC, 4 Spider Centre Diff, Fidanza Alloy Flywheel, 2700lb Pressure Plate, 4 Puck Ceramic-Metallic Friction Plate, ThreeSpeed Polished Scatter Sheild, Brian Crower 280deg Cams, Fidanza Adjustible Cam Gears, ARP Headstuds/Rod Studs, Cometic MLS Headgasket, ZakleeCorp Clear Cam Cover, Rear Mechanical LSD, Deloomed Engine Bay, Custom G4 Coilovers, Polished Custom Camber Tops, Custom Front & Rear Strut Braces, Massive Brake Upgrade with Ferodo DS2500 Pads, Bride Velo III seats, Alpine PDX.1000 Mono block, Pioneer Competion Pro 12" Sub.

Link to pics

What the car looks like

Old Setup

New stuff under developement

Link to the build thread, in case anyones interested:

http://www.gsrcyborgclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=402

How you found out about oldschool: been lurking for years!

Anything else you want to add: Love this place!

i've been stalking your work for a while now tank,

good to see you finally in print! its a pitty EX's dont exist in AU, was one of my first cars when i was younger living in tokora...

love your style!