tperkins mitsubishi descent into madness (evo 3, 6, 7 starion and pajero)

automotiveflux said:

That's crazy, the car in extremely clean though so I can understand the pricing.

Here's one in Mississauga https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/mississauga-peel-region/mitsubishi-lancer-evolution-evo-iv-turbo-awd/1580241705 at $22,000 CAD

In 2012 my friend bought this evo 4 with 20,000 km on it for about 13k cad on the road in Edmonton, AB. 

Those were the days. Then he made it into a racecar, oil cooler failed on a hill climb and covered his front outter tire with oil, ended that. 

Then he put all the parts on this RS


bmw88rider, most of the sound deadening on the evo 3 is gone lol. 

In reply to tperkins :

Love that livery! Seems like I missed the boat on these, I didn't get my first car until 2014 haha

automotiveflux said:

That's crazy, the car in extremely clean though so I can understand the pricing.

Here's one in Mississauga https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/mississauga-peel-region/mitsubishi-lancer-evolution-evo-iv-turbo-awd/1580241705 at $22,000 CAD

I did not need to see that

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Evo 4's are pretty great, just a few things to look into before buying. Try and get a later vin, the second half seem to crank walk less often. Of the evo's the 4 crankwalks most often, so I would also measure end play if possible (obviously not if youre getting one from auction), and be cautious with all evos for corrosion. They can look great on the outside and be a rotten mess underneath. You specifically want to pay attention to the rear chassis legs. 

In reply to tperkins :

I personally would prefer a III for various reasons, but they all have their nice points.

Rot is my largest worry, my S40 rotted badly and it was made in the Netherlands, not Japan!  But it was also one of my favorite cars and I often thought that all it needed was double the power and all wheel drive 

Kinda interesting seeing the love the evo 3 gets on this site. Even in evo groups (unless they're early 1-3 evo groups) seems to kinda get overshadowed. 

I personally love that car, I think it turned out really nice from what I started with. 

New brakes for odyssey, also polished the headlights. 

Gf reported brakes grinding. I says probably something in them. She says no, I know how that sounds and this is not it. Anyways probably was something in the pads because there was lots of life left… oh well. 
 

New intercooler for the 7 arrived 

Buncha maintenance for Tundra. I had some weird harmonic wurring sound coming from the accessories system on cold starts that would go away once it was warm. I took the belt off to diagnose and foudn that the fan bracket / bearing had the slightest bit of play.. but everything felt tight. In my head I imagined that E36 M3ting the bed and leaving me stranded between work in NWT and 'Berta.. so I decided to replace it. If you are already that far in, its really like 11 extra bolts to replace the water pump and since the truck is at 203,000 km I just decided f it, may as well. 

Replaced the water pump, fan bracket / bearing, fan clutch, serpentine belt auto tensioner, serpentine belt idler pulley, the belt and the radiator hoses. Took me about 7 hours, was kind of a pain in the butt to get the fan bracket off because you need to move the ac compressor out of the way to access some bolts to move some lines to get to one of the bolts on the bracket arm. With this truck I am more of a drop it off and pick it up mentality, but saved about 800$ in labour doing this one so it was worth the time. 

This light works pretty well on truck. Also, amazon funnel for 32$ works great. 

Britney Spears - Oops!...I Did It Again (Official HD Video) - YouTube

With Pajero still dead, and having just had driven my brother's cherokee again I was kinda just creeping Jeeps on facebook market place for a while. 

Then, this one popped up.. it was red so I was digging it. Messaged the guy just to see if he wanted to trade for Pajero, some guys have been sorta interested in the trade because fixed up Pajero is worth 2x what these Jeeps are. Anyways, he ended up saying sorry, need the cash for school so I just moved along. A little while later he asked what it was worth to me cash, and I just said basically "I am not really looking right now so it would have to be a good price, so like 5000$ (CAD)". He said he would try to get more, and I said totally fair but my offer still stands. Fast forward about a month up to last friday and he messages me, "If its not sold by Sunday I will take 5000$ for it."

Welp, bing bang boom I bought a 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7L V8 HO - Overland Edition. 

This unit has obviously had a hard life, but that doesn't really bother me because when I am using it for its intended purpose, it will have a hard life with me as well. I looked at it like the PO worked out the kinks then took an L on his sale price. 

The Jeep has: Rough Country Long Arm, 6.5" lift, upgraded lower control arm joints, rebuilt front driveshaft, lengthened rear driveshaft (for more slip yolk engagement), 37x13.50 Toyo Open Country MTs, procomp d loop steelies, Bilstein shocks(front), BDS shocks (rear), Iron Rock gussets and axle sleeves for the front diff, upgraded stabilizer, upgraded johnny joints for the upper control arms, front and rear LSDs, and the fuel tank is tucked in the rear. Before selling the PO also did a bunch of maintenance, the whole front end is new (ball joints, wheel bearings, brakes, cv axles), rear wheel bearings, as well as all fresh fluids throughout. 

I am pretty excited for this thing, when I figure out whats going on with Pajero I will sell that unit and just have the Jeep for wheeling / hunting. The Tundra is just a little heavy, too long, too low, too expensive. 

That jeep has some super nice parts on it! Awesome buy! 

Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) said:

That jeep has some super nice parts on it! Awesome buy! 

I think it was a good buy, now me and my brother can go do jeep stuff. 

Odyssey and Jeep - dammit, I may need to unsubscribe now :D

Bales for scale 

PO had some pictures of it wheeling. I still am away for work and havent seen it IRL. 

Got a full sized spare, I said "one of your cheapest 37x12.50 please (13.50 on the truck but 12.50 will get me home)"

F150 for scale 

Picked up the Jeep, its actually better than I expected. Its a lot of unit for 5000$, the tires alone are like 600$ each. 

My one friend picked it up in Calgary for me, checked it over, gave me the go ahead. He dropped it off at a friends farm who was cruising it around, took it to work a couple times. 

It passed a safety inspection before I picked it up :) got the plate with a scanned bill of sale because the lady at registries really didn't give a heck. 

When I got to the Jeep, immediately put it in 4 low and started driving through the deepest snow I could find, friggen handled it no problem. Then, just to get it home I installed some rock tamer's that my brother found on the highway. Changed the rear right shock which was totally blown with one that was included with the sale, that took 5 minutes. Replaced the skid plate for the transfer case which was never put back in, and removed some frivolous wiring. 

"For 5k I am not including the sub" .... uh, yeah.. that's fine lol. ANYWAYS, while loading my tools into that unit I found the power cable for the amp, and thought I recall seeing that hooked to the battery with the fuse in it, lemme see. Arc'd it on the door latch and then promptly pulled the whole cable out from the battery haha. 

The other wires are for some fog lights which also weren't included for 5k. 

First fill up and bonus rock tamers

First car wash

Next morning 

Then I drove it home to Slave Lake, from Edmonton. Impressions: exhaust is loud, fuel and exhaust smell in the cab. I also stopped in at Stephens and we went for a rip, who said his clothes smelled of exhaust later lol. Drove home with the sunroof open and my airpods in. It seems to get around 18L/100 on the highway lol. Has plenty of beans. The cruise control is pretty aggressive, slight incline and it grabs two gears and blasts your ear drums haha. 

A cop turned around on the highway to follow me about 10' from my bumper for 15 minutes, that was a little worrying... I think the rock tamers saved me and luckily it didn't have to gear down that whole time haha. 

Other than that, lots of power, it actually rides better than I expected. No clunks, creaks, handles decent. Doesn't have that scary 6.5" lift and 37's thing going on in the highway. I was blasting through some snow around the yard and it did good, torquey. The tires rub pretty bad in the front and pretty minor in the rear. I think I need to shift the axle backwards (which is all adjustable) and just ensure the pinion angle stays the same. It also came with a lengthened rear axle to get some more slip yolk engagement in the cab (the front also has one that's installed). He said he didn''t have it installed because he didn't have a u joint at the time. 

The driver door rattled quite a bit, opened that up to find 5/10 clips broken and broken glass in the bottom of the door lol. Today, I am going to attempt a fix at the rear fuel tank raise. In the rear, PO cut the spare tire well out of it and replaced it with some sheet metal, but the end of the panel is about a 1" gap you can just look down and see the ground under. With the exhaust cut off underneath the driver side rear seat, it is just swirling up into the cab and making it really stink in there somehow today. I went and bought some angle iron and I am going to make a whole big thing, after that plan I wondered why I didnt just tape it closed and move on with my life, but it also needs some support in that section. 

Anywho, for 5000$ its a 9/10. 

I had the exact same symptom/problem on my 2004 sequoia 2 weeks ago. Fan pulley bracket died at 210k mi. Swapped bracket, idlers, belt, wp, and the timing belt, since it was close to due, and a crank pulley and cam cover away

MarshHoltRacing said:

I had the exact same symptom/problem on my 2004 sequoia 2 weeks ago. Fan pulley bracket died at 210k mi. Swapped bracket, idlers, belt, wp, and the timing belt, since it was close to due, and a crank pulley and cam cover away

Yeah, nice thing about this engine is that they are timing chain and seem pretty stout. I did go with the gates kit for the accessories belt tensioner, idler and belt and I don't know.. right out of the box the tensioner pulley had more play than the continental that was on there, so we will see how that goes. 

Trying my best to just do what's necessary on this thing, but the 'tism is strong. 

Did some Jeep fixin yesterday, took the driver door off again and replaced some insulation that keeps the lock mechanisms from rattling against the door, doesn't seem to be rattling anymore. 

Spare tire is massive, I really wasn't anticipating it to take up so much trunk space. 

Also I *think* I fixed the exhaust in the cab smell. As I do I cleaned the whole interior yesterday while I was waiting for paint and whatever to dry, and that involved idling the car with the the AC / fan on full to clean the ducting with the klimafresh. 

So, like I think I mentioned the spare tire well was cut out so that the fuel tank could be raised. When the PO put this metal sheet in the rear, it left a 1" gap at the very rear that was letting exhaust up into the cab and it would then swirl around from there. Like, it really stunk up your clothes, smelled like you were snowmobiling all day lol. 

Built this little bracket out of aluminun, angle iron just so there was something for weatherstripping to sit on. Also gave me a little more strength in the middle of the plate. 

I also spent about 45 minutes with a hose getting all the mud out from around the fuel tank, all the drain channels were plugged lol. Re-routed some of the evap delete lines. While I was there I just hosed off the rear carpet, sprinkled tide over the carpet, used my drill brush to work it in, then just hosed it off again and shop vac'd it up, worked pretty well. 

Can't see light through there anymore.


While it was out I replaced the tech screws with rivenuts and bolts as well. 

It idled for about 45 minutes total, part of the reason was the rear view mirror glue wants 10-25 c, 30 minute set time. The whole time for the klimafresh and the glue drying I left it idling with the windows closed and didn't get any exhaust smell in the cab. When the actual exhaust with the tailpipe comes in, that should also help and maybe just be a normal vehicle. 

I also did an oil change on the tundra, changed the summer tires, and tried to get the moisture out of my rough country light bar. The stupid thing started letting moisture in within 2 weeks. When I called rough country for warranty, they said I have to pull the light off, send it back, when they receive it they will send the new one... well, send the new one and i will send the old one back in that box lol. Not like I held on to the box. Dude said did you check the vent wasn't plugged? I did, removed the vent entirely and put some air in there and you can see the moisture coming out the seal along the whole front of the light bar. The rough country one I had on my tacoma lasted 6-7 years and never lost a bulb or got any moisture in it, I don't know if Rough Country quality went down or if I just got lucky last time or unlucky this time. 

Polished up the headlights yesterday, going to try and do a hammer alignment on them today and try and actually put some light down on the road lol. Also changed the oil, the stuff in there had about 5000 km on it and it still looked really good, so that's kind of surprising. 

Went for a hot dog roast with my brother and nephews. 

I need to do something different with that spare tire, it takes up the entire trunk lol. 

Then got stuck, pretty much immediately haha. 

One thing to keep in mind, that's an above angle of a 37" tire. That snow barricade was probably 40" tall lol. I had my nephew in the car so I was trying to go gently over it and goofed, didn't have the momentum for the rear tires to make it up and right when I was crowning it my rear broke loose and polished up the snow into glare ice. Then I slide back down, backed up a bit and bumped it, expecting that it didn't need much and also trying to keep it smooth with my nephew in the car, and just didn't get over haha. 

Fissin 

So you may have noticed that the left headlight was pretty g dang crooked. 

Sorry oncoming traffic lol. It also has LEDs in projectors. 

Pulled it apart to find that the headlight just wasn't bolted in and was sitting in there, spherical locators that sit in those little pockets werent in the pockets, the one bolt they have to hold them in was missing.. hopes and dreams holding it in. 

Straightened it out. 

Winch showed up, got it for 360$ CAD from truck part superstore, never used them, wasn't sure if anything would even show up.. but it did. This is the second gen, there is now the third gen that's 800$. Saw this on their site just trying to look up reviews on this winch and it was cheap with free shipping.. ordered it, sent it to a couple friends who also ordered it, we all got our orders in then they pumped the price up to 560$/winch lol. So, IDK what happened there but I was happy to get it cheap. 

With that, I need to figure out what to do with the front bumper. Basically looking at the HK hidden winch mount:
https://www.hkoffroad.com/products/wj-winch-mount-w-d-ring-shackle-mounts-1999-to-2004

Full sized pre-cut DIY bumper: 
https://trailforged.com/product/wj-modular-front-bumper-complete/ 

Then mount that, mount the winch. Load the truck up with all the weight it will have, 

Then decide on springs, these rough country springs are 160 lbs / in so once I put a winch and bumpers.. if I had 35's probably no big deal but these meats are a little too big for the truck, to be honest. 

Either these dual rate metal cloaks https://metalcloak.com/tj-lj-wrangler-coils-true-dual-rate-coils-6-front.html ($$$)

or 

https://www.ironrockoffroad.com/product/wj-65-front-coil-spring-pair.html

Metalcloaks would ride nicer but are more money, would maybe get a touch more lift out of them. THE TJ 6" coils you need to cut some of the spring out at the top so it sits in the bigger WJ perches, but then it is more like 6.5-7" of front lift which would help. The Ironrock offroad would berkeley with the armor but be a little rougher ride. 

What I should really do for these 37's is get the 8" coils, but then that changes everything so much it would be a lot of extra money. Probably in for new driveshafts again, I would have to get all new steering.. just more money than I want to spend lol. I am all about the biggest tire with the smallest lift for all my offroading stuffs. 

Evo 7 AYC pump off for a rebuild, the company is finally working on it and it seems like it was a goodchoice so far. Sent it to MLR Engineering in Toronto who rebuild all sorts of whacky pumps and things. 

I also ordered those metal cloak springs for the jeep. 

Question, does anyone want to buy the broken Pajero? August 1999 build. PM me if interested, I would rather not post it but it would be nice to move on, I had someone lined up that then flaked. 

I was helping a friend try and get a jimny from auction, then this one popped up locally so I got him on it and he ended up buying it. 

GF brought the jeep to work and parked by this normie jeep 

First big rock auto order arrived, big day

I ended up ordering the HK hidden winch bumper and the metalcloak springs. When the flares come in I will install everything, then cycle the suspension and make or order some bump stops then it should be ready to rock. 

Pajero update, a few weeks ago we opened timing up, didn't see anything wrong. Changed the cam and crank sensor, no change. Also changed timing components while we were there. Tried two used throttle position ECU's, no change. I ordered a different used HPFI ECU, just in case and because it was cheap AS off eBay, but I have a couple people interested at yardsale prices. I still suspect the throttle body communication nonsense. 

Evo 7 AYC/ACD pump is done, they had to sand blast, paint, replace the pump guts, electro motor, accumulator, a bunch of seals and bolts and bench testing. All in, 950CAD, 6 month warranty... a new one is 3k plus shipping. 

Flares test fit ft. girlfriend. 

She loves the jeep, drives it around, gets thumbs ups.