My name is Scot, I am making a new Stainless tubular manifold
for my Starion.
If you would like info and pics on how to make it yourself let
me know. There are specific things you need to do for a Starion when
making a tubular manifold.
The goals of the
ATCR are to create an International Database of Owners with access to turbo knowledge and
products that can be utilised to make turbo ownership easier and more enjoyable for all.
We NEED YOUR INPUT!!
This includes getting
together for different activities and also information in servicing and modifying
different turbo vehicles. I would like to ask that anyone with any hints or specialist
knowledge to submit via Email or Post, for the benefit of us all. This information
includes general articles and service and mechanical data.
Related Models
|
Mitsubishi JA
Starion Modifications
Scot - South Australia
Hi Greg, thanks for the quick
response. I have attached some before and after pics of the manifold and
Garret T3 (straight off a VL Turbo) which are on my car now. I haven't
got pics of the new manifold yet, but I hope to get it done this week as I
am waiting for a new exhaust housing to come from England.
The manifold in the pics is made from
mandrel bent 316 grade stainless 1.6mm thick. There are 4 180deg bends
and 4 90deg bends, and they are 2" ID. There is nothing wrong with this
manifold but it created tooooooo much heat and it cooked 4 alternators,
2 in Jan this year. Turbo's and extremely hot weather do not go well
together. These alts. cost about $150 to rebuild each time they melt. The
new manifold will be much smaller and will allow me to make a special heat
shield for the alt. I will tell you more about this later.
New TO3 on custom manifold in Scot's Starion.
The turbo I chose is a Garret T3 straight
off a (General Motors Holden Commodore )
VL Turbo. These are cheap at around $350-$450. They are also readily
available and very upgradeable. They will have a 0.63 exhaust housing,
on a Starion engine it wont come on boost until 3000rpm. More on this
prob later. They come complete with wastegate actuator and extension
housing, which has the wastegate flat in it and this is all you need.
Dont be tempted to go for a T3 off any Nissan
motor, although a better design, they all have ceramic exhaust
wheels which have a tenancy to come off, even at low boost. If that
happens you could be up for $1000+ to rebuild it. The VL T3 has a steel exhaust
wheel which is friction welded to the shaft, this is much safer when
running boost up to around 18psi boost.
The reason my new exhaust housing has to
come from England is because its off a Sierra Cosworth engine and I
wanted (a) a straight bolt up and (b) I wanted the wastegate flap in the
exhaust housing rather than in the extension, plus I wanted to get it in
a 0.48 ratio, for faster spool-up. The cost of the new housing will be
about $420. There is a bigger one (0.72) available at $530. This one is
made of a composite Stainless alloy and is almost guaranteed not to
crack.
If you would like me to continue let me
know, I've done a massive amount of research into modifying Starions so
whatever you wish to know I've probably looked into it.
All JA Starions had this throttle body,
they only changed it on the JB & JD for emission regs,
as they both ran on normal unleaded when they were released. The JA
ran on Super, but they run like shit with the new lead free super. I
had many problems when this happened. I now run my engine on PULP
(Premium Unleaded Petrol ) all the time. This has been a good move
because I now have 2-3Kw at the wheels (Tested) and I can now drive
from my house (Mt Barker SA Adelaide hills) to Ferntree Gully the
other side of Melbourne on one tank of fuel.
Something
you should know is that the engine in the pics took me a while to do
but it was finished and the first start-up was on a mon., run in and
tuned on the dyno on the thurs 4pm the I drove the car to Melbourne
at 5am Fri morning. The car went really well and I was happy, the only
thing to go wrong was that the fuel pump (VL Commodore) died for no
reason at Keith in a driver reviver stop on my way home. Fortunately I
had experienced this a few weeks before in my mums Starion, so I had a
spare on board, 25mins later I was away again. This is a very common
prob with the starions, so it would pay to buy two, they are only $50
from any wrecker that has VL's and VN's (they use the same pump). They
also go straight in to the factory location in the boot floor on the
left under the little panel.
What you didn't see in the pics was the
cold air induction set up which wrapped around the filter box and ran
though two holes you'll find right next to the radiator. This was
tested on the dyno and gave me 5kw extra. At the end of the day though
I put a series 5 RX7 intercooler in to stop the detonation. I have
pics soon that I will send you. I also moved the oil cooler down to
where the windscreen washer bottle was which was easy, however I now
have no windscreen washer. I overcame this prob easily. More
on this later
An update on my exhaust housing. The
Cosworth 0.48 housing I was going to get to bolt straight up to my T3
is way too expensive @ $700 landed its not worth it. So I am going to
find a 0.48 from a Nissan FJ20, as far as I know they will bolt up to
the VL T3 without mods. I will confirm this later. One thing you must
know is that if you choose the 0.48 you must get the waste gate
extesion as these are a five bolt rear whereas the VL T3 has a seven
bolt rear. Also dont worry about the shape of the extensions on both
VL and FJ20 these are easily cut off with a normal hacksaw, Then just
weld a 3" stainless 90deg bend down to the NEW Exhaust.
(If you plan to
do a T3 conversion it is essential that you make a new full length exhaust
system. My car has a 3" stainless dump pipe straight off the
turbo which stops just before the diff where it runs into a 2.5" mild
steel straight though (20" long) resonator and stays 2.5" mild
steel to the back of the car. It's not too loud but if you think it is
run a 3" res. where my 2.5' is then put a 2.5" res at
the back. It should make it a bit quieter. I am going to do this
myself, so if you dont mind waiting a week or so I'll let you know how
it goes. If you can use a mig welder and have free access to one this
can be cheap easy job. Heres all you need: 2 3" 90deg stainless
bends, grade is not important, @ $25ea, 2.5metres of
3"straight pipe (stainless) I don't remember how much this is but
it shouldn't cost more than $45, a 2.5"ID 20"long straight
through resonator $40-60, and for the back section, go to any exhaust
shop and ask for a 2.5" mandrel bent HQ tail pipe section they
are about $60-80. These tail pipes have a lot of bends and you could
pay double that if you bought them all separately. You will also need
2_ 2.5" flange plates and gaskets($5ea) and two 3" flange
plates and gasket($10 for 2 plates and $10 for the gaskets. You will
also need a piece of 2.5" pipe flared to 3" for the 3"-2.5"
reduction, an exhaust shop will only charge $5 for this including the
pipe. You will save $250+ if you can do it yourself, which go towards
a big intercooler. This system is very effective with the standard turbo
too.
Thats all I have time for at the moment,
sorry, it's hard to condense three years of research into such a small
space.
Bye Scot.
I am a spray painter by trade, I worked
in the restoration and crash scene for 7yrs. I was also unofficially
trained as a panel beater and body builder for two years. I last
worked (and sometimes still do) in a auto performance work shop
specialising in drag racing and other hi-po cars and boats. I now own
my own Car Audio Installation Business and have plans to incorporate
turbo and efi products and modifications into it as well. I've doing
car audio for 10yrs. I will also have my own site in the next month or
so. If you are in Melbourne I am coming over at easter, so if you wish
to catch up and my car I will have it over there with the new turbo set-up
and may be a new intercooler too.
|
