Southerner

thought i better make one of these, let me know what you think or suggestions on the car

i have a owners manual out of my lancer and all the ex's apart from the 1800grs's have a rear ratio of 3.909. the 1600 gearboxes 5th gear has a 0.853 ratio, but the book has nothing on sigma gearboxs. hope this helps

I dont think there would be any thing if it is out of a carberated sigma, should be bolt in(apart from engine and gearbox crossmember/mounts). But if it is fuel injection then there will be wiring to do.

my setup is 1200 crossmember. starion lower arms and struts. all standard lancer steering. Starion sway bar. have not had any problems. possibly over thinking a reasonably simple task.

only thing i had to fabricate for 1200 xmember in my whole conversion was the passenger side engine mount for that starion engine. all pretty much bolts together like lego

i tried to use the starion crossmember so that i didnt have to make custom mounts on the crossmember. So i can either use a 1600 crossmember or make custom mounts on the 1200 one. thnks

when i done my 1600 conversion i 1st used a sigma engine x member but when trying to turn it would catch,

so got hold off a 1600 ex x member and its sweet az.

trial and error

ok sweet as thanks.

now i need to find one of these

Got the starion struts made up using lancer top hats, all bolts together. Will be gettinglowering springs and maybe inserts once the engine in so that i can set up the ride hieght with the cars full wieght.

Car as it is at the moment. No springs in the back to sort out bumpstops, and it up on jackstands. Proberly wont be coming off those in awhile

ok so i bolted in my 1200 crossmember today and the main drag link doesnt hit it .

so this distance is to big on the starion crossmember causing it to hit. Does anybody know if the distance on the sigma/1600 crossmember is the same or is it small like the lancer 1200?

Thanks

ok sweet as, i still havent sorted it out but am trying to source a sigma crossmember. when ive got it all sorted i will do a writeup on how Ive done it so it can be easily followed.

I can remember in my old lancer when i lowered it that i had to put in a shorter shock so that the diff wouldnt drop as low,making the spring captive.

Hope this helps, this is how i did it but someone probaly gonna have a better idea

believe the sigma mounts the engine slightly more rearward

i think if u use sigma xmember you can use sigma sway bar which is a plus but requires more firewall bashing for the stuff on the rear of the motor

Is this for the SOHC 4g63? Or just the DOHC 4g63?

I'm pretty sure that while starion and sigma crossmembers look very similar, they are slightly different.

I've heard of people using sigma crossmembers instead of starion ones (in both starions and EX Lancers) when doing twin-cam conversions, because you gain a little bit of clearance between the cam angle sensor and bulkhead... I'e the sigma crossmember sits the motor slightly further forward. (its only mm's though).

I used the the EX draglink, starion tie-rods and a 1600 ex lancer crossmember, all went together fine.

Good think about the lancer draglinks? No balljoints built into them like the starion ones. Yay. Those starion ones are all fucked by now, the NOS supply has all been sold, and re-building them is expensive!

I might have to look out for a sigma crossmember to try then. I am using the lancer main drag link and starion tie rods because of the reason you just described, much simpler and cheaper in the long run I hope.

Is there any difference between the 1600cc Lancer crossmember and the sigma?

yea i would do it but i am 17 and going to polytec next year so i want to get this thing up and driving round. im only wanting this car to scare a few boyracers, not to drag race competively. Maybe in a few years when ive got a bit more cash i will do a full rebuild of the car and get a bigger diff etc, but for the moment i hope i will be happy with SOHC.

If i go dohc i have to do rwd water set up, exhaust and intake. I might look into putting a dohc head with 16valve pistons on the starion block later on, but at the moment i think it will simpler and cheaper to get the car moving with the 8valve spi motor. It is still a 2litre turboed motor so for the extra money and hassle would it be that much more quicker to go dohc over sohc?

yea it looks rather complicated to use the factory wiring loom, but i will try figure it all out. I will prob end up going mpi and a megasquirt or simalar once i get it all sorted out and certed. Steering is still my biggest worry and then this.

I started getting frustrated with the struts not going my way so thought id start the next big thing in my project, the wireing . I got the complete loom out of the starion, unplugged it all, didnt cut a thing, just incase i need it.

This is what it all looks like outside of a starion and all laid out in roughly the same layout on a board

This looks slightly more frustrating than the struts though, as its more electrical and not simple nuts and bolts as such.

Now only being 17 and having no proper auto electritian skills(ive got a cousin who knows quite abit about this stuff though, and my dad knows abit about motors and carbed cars as he used to race competively, both of which who are willing to help me ) ive got a few questions to ask.

Hopefully if i keep it simple enough so that i can follow it, it will help people in the future who are doing the same conversion.

Now if i am using the motor and gbox in my lancer with the standard loom do i just cut out and de-wire the parts that i dont need in my car, eg the head lights,stereo etc. Then i will be left with only a engine only ecu? That runs the engine, sensors,afm, cat?

There are 3 main boxes that are part of the loom

1.This is next to the coil

2.In the passengers foot well inside the car

3.On the firewall, it has a pipe coming out of it and has Turbo written on the back(i think its been replaced)

Do i need all these?

Does anyone have a wireing diagram for these cars that could be of some help?The car is a 1983.

Sorry if these are dumb questions

ok so iv realised that it is hitting on both sides now that iv bolded it all up tight, which means that it is either the idler arms or the crossmember.

I would think that the crossmembers are all the same but this is making me wonder. I will bolt the 1200 one back in tomorow to see if it hits on that.

If i shorten the idler arm and steering arm will i have to get it tested for certification? this would also give me tighter steering which would be in my advantage, i just dont want any problems for certification thats all

So if you assemble it all minus the tie rods (the relay arm, the pitman arm and the idler) does it clear the crossmember and turn fully lock to lock?

From memory (i'm old so it's not very good anymore) i used sigma crossmember (same as starion) sigma bottom arms (similar to starion) starion struts, lancer steering box, pitman arm, idler and relay rod, i also made a new adjuster sleeve for the passenger side tie rod length adjustment, this was due to running 50mm wider track (extended bottom arms) and need the extra length in the steering shaft, but it may also have been to get around the issue you describe. I used sigma tie rod ends, which i think are the same as starion.

This is probably not much help, but might give you some other ideas of things to look at.

i assembled it without the tierods and it is still hitting it, so im beginning to think it is the crossmember. this means that there is only one way around it which is change the crossmember(my car is a 1200 which means custom mounts, i dont realy wont to do this), what i dont get is how people have done this exactly like i have using the lancer idler arm and steering box with a starion/sigma crossmember and not had issues. thnks

ok sweet as, its not hitting the stops on the crossmember, its stopping just after straight ahead, it all lines up and bolts in together, apart from it hitting the crossmember. With the standard lancer tierod ends it wont reach the steering knuckles but it will with starion tie rods.

The inner bits(the solid longest part) is exactly the same, the only difference is that at the ends the starion has bolts and the lancer has holes. The bushes in the idler arm are tight(low km vehicle) and i just tried slackening the bracket but it can only move 1-2mm so probally wont make a difference.The starion idler arm is shorter by around 4mm as is the control arm(bolts onto steering box), i would use these but the splines are differant sizes. So im still no better off.

On a side note it is realy quite amazing how all these mitsis bolt together with each other, almost like the Japanese thought in 30years people will be wanting to do these types of conversions

At the moment i am trying to put starion struts into my project lancer, i have put the starion crossmember in with the lower control arms and lower knuckles.

I have swapped the top hats over and that all works fine, now its at the tricky part, trying to sort out the steering arms.

I have read the tech article on how to do it and put together the complete unit at the top of the picture.

All parts numbered 1 are starion and the parts labelled 2 are EX lancer. The bottom parts are the bits left over.

It all bolts together fine and bolts into the car and onto the knuckles.

But when you turn the steering wheel it can turn all the way to the left but when you try to turn right from straight ahead it hits the crossmember here

You can still force past this with a bit of force but obviously this isnt going to be suitable on the road.

There must be something simple that i have not swapped or done.

Hope someone can make sense of this and help me so i can finish my car with one less hassle

Thanks

purchased this in the weekend.

brought it mainly for this

if anybody would like any of the starion parts just pm me to sort something out

The bronze lancer in the first pic is up for sale to fund my conversion

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =304679985

got a tc-05 turbo off a 90,000km starion, it has no play in the shaft compared to the turbo on the motor which has play

done abit of digging the other day and found this

also was wandering around a wrecking yard and spied this