24 replies to this topic

[Fugitiv]

Hey Boys and Girls, i have big, long boring story to go with this one, If your interested, read on, if not i'll add lots of pictures so you understand the gist of things...

I shall begin our story with a bit of history... 
It all began in 2008, with a quick trip from Tasmania to Ballarat, Victoria with my Mrs...  
Bought it (the VR4), happy as Larry, Great power and traction, had a blast tearing through Melbourne in a car with such awesome acceleration... coming from an old Commodore ute, and being 19 years old, i had no idea... so, i couldn't fault it... until we got it off the boat, we started to notice a bit of a vibration developing around 80kph
Thought it must be minor as it was infrequent so i continued to thrash the car... its new to me, so why not. (young and dumb)
A year or so into my ownership, i got used to the car, got over confident with it on a dirt road, in the middle of no where, i naturally thought i was colin mcrae and consequently failed miserably. 
Wound up putting the car into a tree, but the damage was fairly cosmetic so i decided to fix it.... new Rad support, Bonnet, front bar, radiator and front eyebrow/support bar thing and we were away... 
While it was off the road being repaired, a CC GSR lancer with evo 3 cosmetics came up for sale for a price i couldnt refuse, so i grabbed that (former MRBISI in tas, Regoli racing built it or something).  
Being i had a VR4 with some minor damage yet to be 100% complete and a GSR lancer i thought was the best thing since sliced bread, i made the call to use the VR4 as parts.  
So, we pulled the engine from the VR4, knowing it was reliable, got rid of the GSR's engine and started the ridiculous effort that was trying to get the Lancer on the road. 
2016 and that goal/idea has still not came to fruition. One issue after another, lack of funds and motivation has put the GSR into a corner of the shed i dare not re enter without freeing up some more time, money and space that is occupied by my current obsession of Sprintcars (one extreme to the other, 4cyl turbo to mechanical V8 methanol monster) but thats another story lol.

So, where did that leave our hero VR4??? Sitting in the corner, rotting away.

We decided after years of letting the big E39A sit, and very nearly having the earth swallow it whole, it was time to bring it home.  
A few weeks ago, we did just that.  Grabbed the family wagon, a trailer and some rigging gear and pulled her out of oblivion.  
The problems are a lot worse now than they were before it was parked as you would expect after such a long time.
Paint is a mess, with clear coat peeling off just about every panel.
Interior is a mess with parts being left stored in the car for 5+ years taking its toll.
Drive line was already faulty before it was left to disappear. 
Suspension was pilfered for the Lancer so that was missing and created logistic problems.

All in all,  there's not exactly a lot going for this e39a...  Its a total waste of time and money... Just sell it... I've been told quite a lot of times.  
However, I actually feel attached to this car.  For some reason or another, i cant bring myself to get rid of it.  

I figure i would be best to begin with the Transmission that's been sitting in the engine bay for a long time,  better service it it before i throw it in the car.  Lol
Pulled it all down and nothing seemed out of order, untill i got to the front diff...  
I purchased a few parts off here a few years ago that was labelled VR4 gearbox internals... figured they might be usefull seeing the big girl had such a bad vibration 8 years ago. lol, Thank god i did too,  turns out the spider gear was siezed.  She'd eating a shim bearing and in turn nearly destroyed the cog. but, we have the technology to fix such issues. 


So, not the most entertaining story you'll ever read, but it is the story of my VR4 for the last 8 or so years.  
I aim to have it back on the road in a few months, after making sure the mechanical side of things is up to scratch, once its registered, i'll work on the clear coat. 
Thanks for listening/Reading... Enjoy the pics.   

Cheers, Mike

Years of neglect...


There is actually a gearbox in there... 


well... yeah. 






It has re-surfaced!




The donor car i picked up for $500.  Galant GSR.  MUCH better condition than the VR4, but holds no emotional ties.




The Gearbox problem... 

This should be attached to the shaft, and circular lol


Bit like the one on this one... 


BAD:

GOOD:

Back in 2008... Runt that i was... ready to get on the Spirit.

[VR42LT]

So much like! Great read lol! So good seeing this old girl being brought back to life Mike. Well worth i reckon as there were only ever 315 Aus delivered vr4s.

Awesome colour too 😉

[Fugitiv]

Thanks bro. I had no idea there were so few Aus delivered VR4's.  
Guess it makes it rare' er than the Lancer. LOL...  that makes the Lancer the parts car... LOL

8 years of Mitsubishi Love has tought me a lot...
The biggest lesson i've learned,  if you're looking for more power, start with an expectation of power,  Then, calculate how much that will cost you... then double it...  once your done doubling it... double it again.  Maybe... just MAYBE...  then, you'll have what you set out to achieve...  Untill you see some bastard has put up some cheap performance parts which you know you don't need,  but you know you want.   Bloody cars will be the death of me.

[bazeng]

Great story. Looking forward to seeing it back in action

[BYBY5L]

Hahaha, the good ol carefree days! Glad ya saved it before too much longer, looked like it couldnt hold off the grass for much longer

[White Knight]

Wish I kept my galant from 10yrs ago now.....
Good luck with it all buddy!

[Fugitiv]

Well the box is finally/hopefully sorted, grabs each gear and everything internally was done to spec. But im a bit useless so we'll see if it actually holds up.

Vr4 has made its way back into the shed and now we're just about ready to drop the motor and box back in. After i finish off the new engine mount install. (Prick of a job that is)

Oh yeah, thanks for the positive replies guys. Hopefully i can turn the clock back a bit and re make the car into something to be proud of.

Edited by Fugitiv, 26 February 2016 - 12:57 PM.

[Fugitiv]

Well, the engine is in.

If anyone is thinking of doing the neoprene/semi solid engine mounts, be aware the difficulties that come with them... Finding the tools that will allow you to press out the old mounts and install thd new ones proved challenging.
I struggled massivlely in this department as i had no workshop press., However with the right tools for the job it should be easy.
The only other problem is that the mounts make re-installing the engine and box quite diffficult. Being as theyre new and fairly solid, re-installing the engine and box can prove quite difficult. Or atleast it did in my case.
Thats my update. More tomorrow.

Edited by Fugitiv, 20 March 2016 - 01:19 AM.

[Miniman_alis]

Fire is your friend when it comes to removing the old rubber.

I know what you mean about it being a pain in the ass getting the engine back in with the solid mounts!!

[Cranked]

^^^ exactly what I did. Burn baby burn! Then a wire wheel to tidy it up

[!Jonzap!]

Thumbs up to restarting the project, I've had a car sit for a long time and it always bugged me until the day I decided to fix it. Once you finish, you'll look back and smile every time you see it.

[Fugitiv]

Fire is your friend when it comes to removing the old rubber.

I know what you mean about it being a pain in the ass getting the engine back in with the solid mounts!!

I did a little bit of burning for the rubber but getting the mounts shell out of the... ill call it the housing, was made a lot easier with a $100 workshop press from our friends at supercheap auto Lol.
Naturally i did things the hard way until being forced to spend money. 

When i dropped the donk back in, the front, and gearbox mounts lined up beautiful, but the north south mounts were not loving the idea of squeezing into the smaller radiator and firewall side locations.  
a lot of persuasion later, and they slotted in just not as easy as it was with the original, sloppy mounts as you'd expect. 
 

 

Thumbs up to restarting the project, I've had a car sit for a long time and it always bugged me until the day I decided to fix it. Once you finish, you'll look back and smile every time you see it.

Thanks mate, just cant have these things sitting around anymore.  It would be nice to drive it again aswell.

[VR42LT]

Remember you have 1 of 315 😉

[Fugitiv]

That makes me wish i didnt just break an ac line going to the condenser.
Fyi people that are interested, the gsr galant and vr4 galant air conditioning lines are different.
Looks like im running without climate control.

[!Jonzap!]

what broke? might be worth taking to an a/c or radiator repair shop to get welded up?

[Fugitiv]

This one...

Might just be easier to grab one from a wreck if any show up.

[ted]

Thats the line from the condensor to the receiver drier any half decent a/c specialist should be able to make one

[Fugitiv]

That sounds about right Ted, I'll get that done right after i fix the bigger issue.  

Said bigger issue...  Radiator support, far worse than i thought.  


So, obviously that cant stay that bent.  We replaced the Top radiator support a long time ago, but didn't bother with the whole thing because I didn't think it was that bad, cutting corners/making do with what i had.  That old saying keeps ringing in my head... do it once, do it right.
 
This weekend, i'll start the drilling/grinding. Lol  


Oh, and here is the reason it takes me so long to get anything done on any of my street cars...  The Monster.

Edited by Fugitiv, 18 March 2016 - 10:28 AM.

[Fugitiv]

Ladies and Gentlemen... i've hit a fairly large snag. 

Pulled the radiator support panel off of both the galants, and turns out the chassis rail is bent a fair bit more than i had thought.  So i looked a little deeper.  
Checked the Track, which was all good (1460) 
Then i checked the wheel base, i got a decent 2600 on the left hand side, and a 2590 on the right. 
Also noticed a few extra kinks in the wheel well side of the rail, drivers side. 

Right now, im not sure where to go.  Its either bin it, or let it sit for more time while i get the coin to get it straightened properly.  Being that these cars are worth sweet bugger all and i've got projects backing up, im swinging more towards the Bin idea... again.

 



 Not a great fit, and not a lot i can personally do without the right gear.  So, it could possibly be the end of the story.
Guess the deciding factor will be the price the body shops quote me.  See how it goes.

Edited by Fugitiv, 30 March 2016 - 09:04 AM.

[ted]

Is the monster a sprint engine?