Popular Post 0R10N Posted September 26, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted September 26, 2016 The world's worst kept secret is out: After years of pining, I finally went full retard and bought a Starion. To be honest, it wasn't even supposed to be this way. Only last weekend I'd lined up a nice, modern, comfortable, and fiendishly fast 2008 Mazdaspeed Axela to purchase as my new daily driver, having owned one before and knowing exactly what to expect in terms of ownership, tractability and reliability. Sunday was supposed to be the day of the full and final transaction, and I wasn't looking back in any great hurry. THEN... over dinner with friends on Saturday night, while idly browsing Trademe, one of them came across a fresh listing for this here thing. They showed me the ad, I rolled my eyes and chuckled, and told them in no uncertain terms that I'd already decided on the Axela and I didn't really have space, nor the extra folding, to also buy a Starion, and a NZ new one at that (not even a lush Japanese imported one). "But the price!" they exclaimed. "You'd be stupid not to at least take a look!" As with most pressing matters, I slept on it. The next morning, because I wasn't realistically able to get hold of Phil, I called my other Mitsubishi foamer friend Ant (but not without first posting it on OS Trademe finds... ) as I'd decided that taking a look would be the wisest thing to do after watching the price of Starions climb and climb in Japan over the last 5 years. Secretly I hoped that by tagging along with a person who knew '80s Mitsis somewhat well, he could point out all of the bad stuff wrong with the car, and steer me away from buying it. Trouble is, there wasn't actually all that much bad stuff for Ant to point out. In fact the good stuff outweighed the bad by about 20 to 1... and it didn't even blow any blue smoke! So as you can tell by the mere fact you're reading this post, I let gut instinct take over, and purchased the Starion. It's a 1988 NZ new, Euro spec narrowbody EX model. From what I can tell that means it's got the 175ps intercooled 8-valve G63B and super tall 3.5:1 LSD diff, and has a full black leather interior (more on that below). Speedo is in miles and it's only done 52,000 of them, which was one thing that swayed me towards buying it. The key differences between this and the Jap model 8-valve GSRs are the interior (leather didn't seem to make an appearance except in the very early GSR-X models, and never in black, only in blue/tan/maroon), the large TC06 turbo, and the 3.5:1 rear diff, which is obviously geared - no pun intended - towards top-speed Autobahn cruising. Jap ones have a more usable 3.9:1 diff and smaller TC05 which I can only guess makes them more responsive down low. The previous owners have definitely taken great care of the car, and I hope to continue that tradition as well as they have. The last owner, Mike, replaced the clutch and cambelt, and rebuilt the turbo. What can I say about that interior? It's totally ribbed for her pleasure, smells like the 1980s, and wouldn't look out of place in the cockpit of a starfighter spaceship. It's a shame there's no digital dash to top it all off, though! Full photo album here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskEhDhXk Time will tell whether I eventually flick this Starion on to try and fund the importation of a proper Japanese DASH-powered GSR-V narrowbody, or just hang on to it and continue blocking out of my mind the fact it's NZ new, which wreaks havoc with my OCD something chronic. But to be honest, that's the irrational side of me talking... because in hindsight if I'd ignored this one locally, I don't think I would have another opportunity to buy one at a realistic price ever again. Especially when you consider that genuine GSR-Vs are now fetching upwards of $25k in Japan. The car yard wasn't fazed when I called them to cancel the deal on the Axela - luckily I hadn't decided to pay a deposit on it. On the flip side I'm still annoyed at myself because I said I wouldn't buy any more garbage '80s cars and I'm still left with the glaringly obvious conundrum of not actually owning a suitable daily driver! Guess I'm dailying the Starion then. Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/54171-ted-huangs-starorion-0r10ns-1988-mitsuhishi-starion/ 49 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted September 27, 2016 Author Share Posted September 27, 2016 When I originally checked the car out, Mike, the previous owner, warned me that the original Starion radiator had at some point been replaced with one out of a L200 (possibly with fewer cores). As a result the replacement may not have been 100% up to scratch and he'd noticed the temp gauge rise above halfway a handful of times, but it wasn't really an issue as he hardly ever drove in stop start traffic and the fans had been upgraded as well. Now luckily I generally drive against the flow of traffic every day, and didn't think it would be much of an issue for me either, but today I had to head to Penrose on an errand after starting and finishing work early. As soon as I hit gridlock at Market Road I noticed the temp gauge starting to climb... You could blame it on parallax error perhaps, but that needle definitely looks like it's sitting above halfway to me It got a bit higher than that, but I managed to get off the motorway at Greenlane with windows down and heater on max (OS car lyfe)... and continued on to my destination at 50km/h urban speeds with no further issues. Fortunately I've already thrown caution to the wind, and picked up a spare original Starion radiator with fan setup, so will drop that off to get inspected and possibly reconditioned as soon as I can. The guys at the shop are going to chortle heartily as they currently have my DR30 Skyline radiator which is in for a de-sludge and general clean. I'm not much of a cooling system guru so I have no idea if I'm heading down the right path - but surely two less cores wouldn't make that much of a difference unless the radiator's really gunked up? I've already replaced the radiator cap as a precaution, there's still plenty of proper coolant in the system and overflow bottle, and none of it has escaped at all. Pretty sure the water pump was replaced not long ago as well, when the cambelt was done. Discuss... the imminent BHG? //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/54171-ted-huangs-starorion-0r10ns-1988-mitsuhishi-starion/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 Does anyone else think this logo looks uncomfortably similar to a certain famous movie franchise set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away"? Picked up the spare Starion radiator from the shop yesterday morning ready to go. It was 70% sludged up, and had a bunch of badly bent cooling fins, but cleaned up quite well and the guys even re-attached the mounting bracket running down the middle. Here it is all shiny with the OEM fans. This will help greatly when I get around to re-fitting the factory air conditioning - the smaller fan on the left is controlled by the HVAC system and engages with the A/C compressor. Trevor French Radiators - look them up, they do a good jerb. I failed to get a photo of the Skyline one but it was even more impressively clean. I should probably throw these fucked tyres in the garbage, and refurbish the standard 5-stud narrowbody wheels. As if I didn't already have a thousand other things to do Also, if people paid more attention to the caution label back in the day, we probably wouldn't have all the old barrys today still whinging "mayte, those turbo Jappas mayte, they're god damn unreliable pieces of junk, mayte. Get a FORD/HOLDEN mayte," before jumping into their Great Wall utes and peeling off in a plume of oil smoke. Finally, to round out this blabbering update of not much usefulness, here's a neat little time capsule of NZDM goodness that the previous owner generously included with the purchase of the car: the factory MMNZ first aid kit. I showed it to Ant and he reckons it's from 1989, as the logo on the top post-dates the Todd era. The kit comes complete with these glorious late '80s versions of Pamol and "Curity" brand bandage tape, along with a bunch of bandages, plasters and other triage-related items, all similarly decades-old and a bit dog-eared. One of the previous owners must have had the lurgy (or a hangover) at some point, because one of the capsules is gone The rest of the packet is still there, but given the expiry date on the side it's most likely all turned toxic by now, so I doubt anyone will want some to cure their headache in any great hurry! I'll inventorize the contents of the kit and pop down to St. John to have it all updated. If we assume a five-year expiry on all the items in the kit then the 1989 production date makes sense. Wow, this newfangled phone of mine actually takes a decent shot. Too used to shitty budget phones with potato quality output! (compare the photo in the second post above) Now that I've got the radiator back, and daylight savings has kicked in, the plan for this coming week is to spend time in the shed after work doing some investigation on the cooling system. Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/54171-ted-huangs-starorion-0r10ns-1988-mitsuhishi-starion/ 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted October 16, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 16, 2016 Opened the bonnet for the first time in close to a fortnight to begin the unenviable task of pulling the L200 radiator out in order to fit the legit Starion one. Then I noticed this... A small puddle of coolant, perfectly in line with the bottom radiator hose. Could the three hose clamps around the electric fan sensor housing be loose? "Nah, no bloody way could it be that simple," I found myself muttering. But then discovered that the pipe was indeed also covered in coolant. As it turns out, I ended up spending the next 20 minutes tightening every single hose clamp on the car. Intake piping, radiator, oil return feeds, vacuum lines... they were all loose. In light of this new finding, I'm going to fit all these fresh new service-related parts instead. I'll give the L200 radiator a short stay of execution until after I've taken the car for another drive to see where the temperature sits with all the hose clamps now tightened up. The engine bay is meticulously tidy, but a typical 1980s nightmare of piping, wiring, vacuum lines and other strange gubbins. At least the radiator is well isolated and easy to get to! Discuss: http://oldschool.co....uhishi-starion/ 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted November 20, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 20, 2016 Right, time to dirty up that nice clean engine bay by pulling out that poor excuse of a L200 radiator. But first, in lieu of having a proper engine flushing machine, let us chuck some snake oil into the cooling system and drive around for a bit. I'm expecting to cop a bit of flak for doing this, but to be fair I've heard nothing but good things about Philm-Off, and I guess every little bit helps when you're dealing with a 28 year old cooling system (and you're not entirely sure of its history). It's a bit unsettling that it has the consistency and appearance of iodine though. That's a brand new radiator cap, by the way. Fast forward a couple of weeks. ~800 miles of driving later the Philm-Off's done its thing, and the radiator is ready to be drained. Begone. With the L200 radiator out, the task of constructing the breakout loom for the standard radiator fan begins. What's happened here is that the standard loom's been chopped and unceremoniously crimped to fit an aftermarket plug. Fortunately the GSR-V radiator I bought came with the original plug and a bit of wire, so I'll be able to make it work and still maintain some semblance of "factory-ness". Apparently it's already been done, but I might as well replace the thermostat and coolant temp sender again, since it only takes 5 minutes to do on the RWD G63B. Now if only it was that simple on my other cars... I searched around Aliexpress for another male plug to make the breakout loom with, and mjrstar managed to point me in the right direction, but I really couldn't be bothered waiting six weeks for the part to turn up (not to mention there was still the chance it wouldn't have the correct keying). So I did the slightly ghetto thing, and chopped the plug off the existing wiring for the aftermarket fans. Breakout loom, done. Made easier by the fact the GSR-V plug wire colours matched the factory loom. With the old radiator gone, time to roll the car out and run the hose through the engine to get rid of all the old excess coolant and other gross things the Philm-Off may have reacted with, like bits of headgasket. Haha, only kidding. This was also the perfect opportunity to refit the original A/C condenser in its spot just in front of the radiator, because I'll eventually have the air conditioning overhauled and re-gassed. All of the factory bits were supplied with the purchase of the car, which was nice. But I can sense you all thinking, "you've already got cooling issues, you silly sausage... why the fuck would you block the passage of airflow to the radiator even more?" Because I'm a grumpy old bugger who appreciates crisp, cool air on a humid summer's day, that's why. Right, everything's back in place, there's fresh coolant in the system, and all the hose clamps are tightened back up... let's see if the factory cooling fan engages. This is where I hope my calculations were correct in that the Japanese GSR-V has the same wiring as the NZ-new EX. Bravo. Went for a drive, the system seems to have bled up alright, the needle sits at a sensible point on the gauge, and the amount of fan hysteresis is much smaller, meaning that temperature is being regulated a lot better now (and dropping out of the "hot" zone quickly once it gets there). Whereas the aftermarket fans would previously flick on, then remain on indefinitely while the temperature continued to climb. The real test will be driving it to work tomorrow in rush hour traffic. If everything comes up Milhouse, then I can proceed to the next challenge of getting the secondary A/C fan to work. Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/54171-ted-huangs-starorion-0r10ns-1988-mitsuhishi-starion/ 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted November 23, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2016 Temperature sit-rep: I can report that after a few days of daily driving - including one stint of horrific evening gridlock from Albany to Parnell (followed by a bunch of low-speed manoeuvring trying to find a park on one of the side streets) - I haven't noticed the temperature needle go over halfway, nor any BHG/steam escaping/coolant loss issues with the replacement radiator and cooling fans fitted. I'll give it until the end of the week before making a call but things are looking pretty good so far. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....uhishi-starion/ 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 The past few months of Starion ownership have been fairly uneventful but definitely enjoyable. Being a 1980s Mitsubishi I was expecting to be topping up the oil every few weeks, but I can safely say that after 3000 miles I've only needed to put about 500ml in. Did my first service on it the other week and my fears that shitty burnt treacle would come out proved to be unfounded as well - the oil was still clean as a whistle! Even managed to set a respectable time at Oldschool Drag Day. I honestly thought the car wouldn't have a shit show of breaking into the 15s, but boy was I wrong. Not bad for a stock 8-valve with lazy diff and even lazier turbo. Goes hard for what it is. But as luck would have it all good things must come to an end, and whilst sat in the usual mess of rush hour traffic last Thursday evening I noticed the temperature gauge creeping towards the top end of the scale again. Immediately chucked the heater on full hot and the blower on max which brought the temperature back down below 4/5, but it was still reading too hot for my liking. By the time I'd cleared the traffic and started moving at pace the gauge settled to just above halfway, and I made it home with no further dramas. Eventually turned the car off, inspected the engine bay for leaks and listened for signs of gurgling, boiling, or hissing, of which there were none - which I thought was a bit weird. Checked the coolant levels the next morning, and it hadn't lost any - which again seemed a bit weird - but throwing caution to the wind I took a different car to work that day. This morning after finding no coolant loss at all I was convinced that Thursday's scenario had been caused by a random airlock in the system and assumed over the weekend it had bled itself out, so hopped confidently back into the Starion to drive to work; lo and behold the journey was uneventful with no temperature dramas. Unfortunately this afternoon after leaving work I got caught in another traffic snarl-up and the needle started pegging at 4/5 once again. Again the jam quickly thinned and I was once again able to get home with the gauge sitting at a more or less "comfortable" level, but this time I was able to observe it rising when queuing or stopped. Rolled into the shed, and once again inspected the engine bay and radiator... hello, what is this? TL;DR: Two pinhole leaks in the top tank have now made themselves known, which weren't immediately obvious last week. Not bad enough to cause firehose-spec coolant loss, but still bad enough to flake off the paint and wreak havoc with the system pressure So now comes the fun task of draining and pulling it all back out, and organizing the radiator to be sent back to the reconditioners under warranty. I hope they'll be able to do something with it, because I don't fancy my chances of finding another good radiator, and I'm certainly not going back to the L200 one. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....uhishi-starion/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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