fuel's Lancer Evo IX GT-A wagon

[LostInTransit]

Excellent 

[LostInTransit]

Like several things you're doing here.

[mjrstar]

I decided a gentle massage of the j pipe for starter clearance was the way to go when I put the IX turbo ony Evo. Plus a minor trim of the fan shroud.

It must be close to 20 years ago when I did the conversion but from memory the turbo coolant lines are kind of interchangeable but also required some persuasion. 

And of course the compressor intake pipe goes up a size too.

[fuel]

I think with the stock stamped/pressed steel j pipe you can get away with doing that but the meek pipes are cast aluminium. original oil and coolant lines were retained and do work with a little tweaking but I am adding IX specific coolant and oil feed lines to my next amayama order to have on hand for when the turbo is ever off again. They seem to start corroding fairly quick so want to swap them out at some stage. Didn't think about the compressor inlet pipe, the current one is specific to the auto trans cars as it has a little indent to clear the inhibitor switch, hopefully I can get away with continuing to use it until I go 6 speed when I will swap it out for the IX M/T specific pipe.

[mjrstar]

You might get the intake to fit if it has a bit of stretch, I think it's about 57mm vs 63mm OD.

[fuel]

22 hours ago, LostInTransit said:

Any chance you'll be able to upgrade the front sway bar?

At this point probably not, I think replacing the front sway bar necessitates dropping the front subframe/steering rack and I wanted a stiffer rear to somewhat counteract the AWD tendency to understeer - having said that the Evo VII-IX chassis is supposedly well balanced already, though not sure of the effects of adding an extra 50kg/100lbs to the rear end would do to it. This guy doesn't seem to have any issues throwing it around the track though:

 

[fuel]

@mjrstar because I was worried my original pipe wouldn't fit the IX turbo I went and checked, and phew thank god it fits as if it's factory with no stretching. Maybe the inlet size difference is between Evo 4-6 & Evo 7-9 turbos? @ThePog if you ended up fitting the turbo to the DynaFari yet was there an inlet size difference between your old turbo and mine?

The inlet pipe is definitely auto specific, it has more of a 60-75deg bend to clear the transmission and a little dimple right by the AFM to clear the inhibitor switch. As the M/T box pipe is more 45deg I was worried I would be left without a pipe that wouldn't work with both the IX M/T turbo and A/T box.

Another thing that is auto specific is the air filter box bracket as it mounts the filter box at a slightly different angle (no idea why) and this necessitated a different air filter box lid and snorkel specific to the A/T models. The different air box angle prevented me from using the Ralliart one piece CF airbox lid and snorkel, so swapped on a M/T bracket I had picked up while in NZ. M/T on the left A/T on the right. In hindsight I may have got away with just bending the original bracket a little.

[fuel]

In its new home

 

And test fit confirms with the M/T bracket the CF lid now works

[mjrstar]

Good news about the intake, the turbos I have definitely are 2 1/4 and 2 1/2 neck. Did you happen to measure the old turbo inlet.. I'm interested, as this could be a suitable intermediate upgrade for my old airtrek turbo..

I vaguely recall an internal rubber sleeve/ ring thing which fits inside the intake to adapt the 2 different sizes, you fit it for the smaller turbo, or put it in the bin for the larger..

That carbon intake thingee looks suitably bling!

 

[ThePog]

I have not installed the turbo yet, i can measure it. I think i still have a spare housing from the currently installed turbo, i can measure.

[fuel]

Small update - pulled the bumper off again (can get it down to a couple mins now provided the under tray isn't attached) to swap out the stock lower hot side intercooler pipe and was easier with the bumper off. 

bit of a difference here - the 40mm/1.8" section of the stock pipe is responsible for an easy 10-20hp bump in power when going to an aftermarket 2.5" pipe.

Also wanted to check out more closely the small ding in the lower passenger side of the intercooler - it looks like perhaps someone has accidentally jacked it up from the edge of the intercooler as I couldn't find any corresponding damage to the bumper/lower lip or under tray which both look to be factory original. I have found a lead on a mint replacement low mile intercooler that I can pick up when I'll be in the states next, along with factory M/T cold side piping (the auto GT-A piping is heavier steel for supposed "noise reduction") and M/T turbo inlet pipe for when I do the M/T swap.

 

[fuel]

So in order to get this sorted I ended up buying a Meek Evo 9 J-pipe from Australia and also a stock Evo 9 J-pipe from across the border in Ohio and they were both shipped out on pretty much the same day. The Meek J-pipe arrived within 5 days whereas it took 12 days for the one to arrive from the US, and they both cost approx the same to send too - go figure.

Turbo out once again - can compare the two J-pipes which are similar but different enough

No longer hits starter solenoid!

And lines up great with the Mishimoto lower intercooler hose

[fuel]

So once I threw it all together I drove it an almost 4000km round trip down to the Tennessee and North Carolina border for the Tail of the Dragon and had an absolute blast

[fuel]

[fuel]

Last Tail of the Dragon spam I swear

[Toucan]

God damn streetracers

[fuel]

As mentioned above, I was able to pick up a mint intercooler & the M/T aluminium piping while in the US a couple weeks back. That means bumper off again:

Replacement intercooler & piping on:

These pics show the Ralliart CF air box lid/snorkel however I can't quite run this just yet as it actually fouls with the vents of the Varis CF bonnet - so either I run stock snorkel & air box or I remove the vents from the underside of the bonnet leaving just the mesh there. Not quite sure what to do just yet - I am wondering if I can get creative and cut away just a portion of the vents for the one third or so of the area that it does foul.

Next up is swapping on a 3" downpipe I also picked up on the same trip.

[fuel]

So turns out the downpipe I had picked up is trash, it seems like it's about 10-20mm too short in the middle, the rubber mounts don't fit on like factory and it pulls the rear section of the exhaust forward to the point that one of the exhaust mounts rubs on a rear suspension arm... so either I modify this downpipe (turning a cheap item into an expensive cheap item) or find another downpipe (also probably not cheap). I am also thinking of running a 3" high flow cat converter as the rest of the exhaust system is 3" apart from the stock cat converter which is 2.5".

Anyway, until I figure out what to do with the exhaust I've turned my attention to trimming the Varis CF hood so the Ralliart carbon intake can fit, thankfully it's just a separate fibreglass plate that comes undone with 6 10mm bolts. I also repainted the mesh black because it had bits of chipped paint originally:

Hopefully that looks nice and subtle and not overly obvious I've taken a dremel cut-off wheel to the vent plate haha.

Now... cause I can't leave things be I decided to paint the vent plate silver to mimic the OEM vent colour as they have an aluminium vent plate, but I think the black mesh really hides a lot of the colour

[fuel]

Some more angles of the silver vent plate

 

[Rhyscar]

Top job on the fitment. I can appreciate a cut-check-cut-check-cut-check-ahfuck-cut process as much as the next man. 

CF hood and this whole car looks great! 100% would own (even if it's a mitsi).