Looking at a 2013 Ralliart Lancer

[bumblebee]

I do like the steps you have outlined in what order to do it

The min thing is to make the motor breathe easier
Thats the thing most people don't do cos they just don't understand it
Do the small simple stuff first
Also if your going to go nuts and get the exhaust done, get the OEM catalytic converter and throw it over your shoulder and drop in a 200 cell unit
The OEM cat is a huge bottleneck
Can't remember if I already mentioned about the rear O2 sensor and the fix for it, it has has been mentioned on here before, it's the P0420 fix with a mini-cat
Before getting the biggest turbo money can buy, get the cams done
Beforr you do that , have a think about do you want the car to be a street blaster or a track monster.
If it's a street blaster your better off having the torque from low to mid rpm range and track monster from mid to high rpm.
Armed with that , then you can make the best decision for the cams.
With the Turbo cars by doing the basics there is at least an extra 30HP to be gained just by actually spending a bit of time on the car and it's not that expensive.
Remember you can do.all this in stages, nobody said you had to do all this in a weekend.
If your keen to learn there is a few author of books I can suggest, one is David Vizard, the other is Greg Banish, the other is Jeff Hartman.
All 3 have some excitement books related to exhaust, turbo , ECU , super charged, NOS, and everything else.
The extra 30HP doesn't sound like much, but it's the torque as well that you will gain and you will certainly notice it from the seat of your pants

Plus not only the extra Torque you gain plus the better fuel economy if you do it right

[schoolofmonkey]

I do like the steps you have outlined in what order to do it

All mod will be done over time, I honestly can't afford it all at once, so I'll time them with each service or second service that way the car will be in the shop anyway.

The main reason for the transmission first is it's not tried and trusted, it does have problems from OEM, a few little upgrades makes it a lot more reliable, I've already done the Billet bore plug on the mechatronic unit so that a least eliminates one major problem to a degree (low oil pressure when the aluminum plug warps).

Tuesday they will be fitting the upper intercooler pipe and a good BOV, I've seen how much ballooning the OEM intercooler pipe does, and that was just revving the car at a stand still.
Still keeping the stock OEM intercooler for now, it's not the most important thing at the moment.

AK currently have the XForce Stainless Steel 3″ Dump-Pipe Back Exhaust System for $999, that comes with a 100 cell high flow metallic cat though, from what I understand you need a ECU tune.
https://www.akracing.com.au/product/xfo ... -ralliart/

Like I'd like to learn more, and there are things I can do myself, I just don't have to tools or well help (for heavy lifting), so I've just found it easier to get a trusted place to help, AK seem to know a lot about these cars, they earned my trust with the first time taking the car into them, I was pushing to do things, but instead laid out the "do you need it now" or "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach, though at that stage I wasn't thinking about doing many mods.
But stock to me it feel like the car wants to give a lot more, but is chocked out/held back somewhere.
It's not the first Turbo I've driven, don't get me wrong it goes well, but it just feels like it has got a lot more to give even with it's smaller turbo.

Honestly the car is only going to be a daily driver, occasional street blasting, with some hill climbing up Springbrook Mountain, extra fuel economy would be awesome too, drive the kids to and from school everyday

[bumblebee]

Well if you want to get serious, a Wideband sensor will come in handy for tuning
I have an AEM 30-4110
It's a complete kit ready to roll, has the bung as well that gets welded to the exhaust to mount the sensor

Out of interest
What's the diameter of the OEM exhaust near the catalytic converter

Your correct on it feels restricted
The ECU is deliberately restricted from the factory.
However
On the bright side
The Mitsubishi ECU is quite hackable and there is plenty to be unlocked

As for cams , have a look at Tomei/Pro Cam to start with

While on the cams topic
Be careful what you get
Some cams need upgraded valve springs. This adds extra $ to it
Not all cams do though
My preference is to avoid bigger Springs and too big of a cam in 1st place
This takes the load off the cam sprockets in the first place.
Keep your eyes peeled on the cam specs

As for E85
The coast has it reasonable regular around the place

https://www.unitedpetroleum.com.au/fuel/e85/

I sat down one night last year with GPS and their web site and put in every location round the country.
I had a look and you can go from Townsville in North Qld to Adelaide via highway number one.on it

[schoolofmonkey]

Out of interest
What's the diameter of the OEM exhaust near the catalytic converter

Your correct on it feels restricted
The ECU is deliberately restricted from the factory.
However
On the bright side
The Mitsubishi ECU is quite hackable and there is plenty to be unlocked

As for cams , have a look at Tomei/Pro Cam to start with

While on the cams topic
Be careful what you get
Some cams need upgraded valve springs. This adds extra $ to it
Not all cams do though
My preference is to avoid bigger Springs and too big of a cam in 1st place
This takes the load off the cam sprockets in the first place.
Keep your eyes peeled on the cam specs

As for E85
The coast has it reasonable regular around the place

I'm not too sure the diameter of the OEM cat, I'll slide under tomorrow and have a look.

Cam's are well and truly above my knowledge, that's something I'd have to talk to AK or you guys about.

Yeah I found 2 within 10 km's from me, plus I saw United are all the way up to Brisbane, but I also thought I could buy a 20 litre Jerry can and store some in the garage for those just in case scenarios.
What's the go with moving to E85, I'm guessing new injectors, fuel pump and tune?

[bumblebee]

And new wiring to the fuel pump.
And a new fuel filter.
The standard fuel your using now fills the filter with all kinds of crap as well as the inside of the tank.
And even though the fuel filter is supposed to be changed regularly don't be surprised if it still has the same filter in it as it left the factory.
When I went to swap to E85 last year we were running.out of fuel pretty bad.
When I removed the back seat I found a huge ring of dust over the OEM filter. Not a good start.
Once removed the filter itself was a horrific colour brown
http://imgur.com/a/Am7TIa1
Have a look at this filter. 7 years old. Lol
It is supposed to be white.
Anyhoo
All good
After changing to E85 after about a month or so replace the fuel filter again.
Why?
Cos E85 will clean all the garbage off the inside of the tank and fill the filter again with garbage.
They are not that expensive and can be bought from Repco.
So now I will be replacing the fuel filter myself every year regardless of E85 or not.
Very disappointed consideration ofntue fact I had the car services done by "professional" mechanic a few times and asked for it to be done.
Word of warning
Make sure you keep the fuel in the tank as low as possible if you want to change it out

[schoolofmonkey]

And new wiring to the fuel pump.
And a new fuel filter.
The standard fuel your using now fills the filter with all kinds of crap as well as the inside of the tank.
And even though the fuel filter is supposed to be changed regularly don't be surprised if it still has the same filter in it as it left the factory.
When I went to swap to E85 last year we were running.out of fuel pretty bad.
When I removed the back seat I found a huge ring of dust over the OEM filter. Not a good start.
Once removed the filter itself was a horrific colour brown
http://imgur.com/a/Am7TIa1
Have a look at this filter. 7 years old. Lol
It is supposed to be white.
Anyhoo
All good
After changing to E85 after about a month or so replace the fuel filter again.
Why?
Cos E85 will clean all the garbage off the inside of the tank and fill the filter again with garbage.
They are not that expensive and can be bought from Repco.
So now I will be replacing the fuel filter myself every year regardless of E85 or not.
Very disappointed consideration ofntue fact I had the car services done by "professional" mechanic a few times and asked for it to be done.
Word of warning
Make sure you keep the fuel in the tank as low as possible if you want to change it out

Thanks for that, I'll have a talk to AK on Tuesday, they offered to fit the upper intercooler pipe and BOV for free, so saves me postage cost, plus I get a day out in the car..
I may check the fuel filter soon, AK did say they changed it in the major service run down, I'm confidant they did, but doesn't hurt to check.
I got a feeling I should do the E85 change first before doing anything else.
I've still got about $3000 left over saved, I was keeping that for a shift fork just in case, I was hoping to get the OEM clutches replaced at the same time in April, July I'll have a lot more spare to play with.

With talking to you I've decided to go down the route of getting the most out of the stock turbo, at the end of the day it is a daily driver, so I wouldn't need a stupidly over done clutch kit replacement anyway, plus AK said the clutches seem fine, handled the Super-Sport flash fine.

I need to get in touch with the Mitsubishi service centre the car had been taken to since new, find out a proper service history, by the looks of it they just stuck to the letter of the log book services.

I saw this post on another forum about the SST, post was called:
SST Transmission - How It Works, Problems & Upgrades
https://www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?t=437796

They mentioned their opinion on why Mitsubishi my have introduced so much clutch slip to the Getrag designed SST.

"A show called 'Gop Tear' has its hosts always complaining about how harsh they shift in slow city traffic. I personally don't understand this. If you buy a race car, how can you expect it to shift perfectly in hot city traffic? Due to this, it's my guess that the engineers for this SST trans tried to design this unit to shift very smoothly, so as to not have owners complain about the harshness of the shifting in the city."

"The unfortunate side affect to smooth engagement of the clutches is it creates a lot of heat. When the clutches are in the 'friction zone' (the area where they are creating friction) they generate heat, and when you generate heat, you have wear and the unit is more prone to clutch and seal failure. It's like a driver in a manually shifted car riding the clutch everywhere they go. You will quickly burn up the clutch and kill it."

"I can't imagine that the Getrag engineers were so stupid as to design a trans which over-heats so quickly. What I believe happened was they designed a unit which was supposed to engage quicker, which is why the cooling system for the unit is so small. When Mitsubishi noticed the complaints people had with the harsher shifting units in the exotics, the unit was already done and the engineers responsible for the programming of the unit had to make changes for smoother engagement."

It was a interesting read, whether it's exactly accurate or not, a lot of what's outlined is all the problems the SST faces.

I pretty much drive around on S-Sport mode now, do about 15 minutes in Sport-Manual to let everything warm up, then switch to S-Sport for longer street driving seasons, other than highway where I cruise in Auto, most of the time it's in 6th anyway.
It's true the S-Sport is a lot more harsh in lower gear shifts than the clutch slipping Normal or Sport, but it's worth it to save clutches.

[bumblebee]

Agreed
Keep the OEM turbo , there's nothing wrong it.
All you need to do is make the motor breathe easier and you can pick up extra ponies along the way and it won't cost you all that much.
Makes no difference if it is a NA lancer or Turbo RA/Evo X
Do the basics and you will be rewarded.

[schoolofmonkey]

Agreed
Keep the OEM turbo , there's nothing wrong it.
All you need to do is make the motor breathe easier and you can pick up extra ponies along the way and it won't cost you all that much.
Makes no difference if it is a NA lancer or Turbo RA/Evo X
Do the basics and you will be rewarded.

Will definitely do the transmission shift fork and clutch upgrade, I see that being the most expensive thing to do out of the whole project, but it will increase the SST's reliability/longevity, I've already had the mechatronic unit check, with the upgraded bore plug.

Tuesday is the stainless steel upper intercooler pipe and BOV.
So this is the revised plan:
Transmission Upgrade including new cooler.
EVO X intercooler and lower intercooler pipe
Exhaust with 200/100 cat and tune
E85 conversion

Then maybe look at cam's and stuff like that.
The reason for the transmission is mainly expense, don't want to do all the other mods and run out of money if something goes in the SST, if it's rebuild there less likely a change of it happening.
I was quoted around $3,000 for the shift fork due to having disassemble the whole transmission, so it shouldn't be much more to put a better clutch kit in there at the same time.
I was thinking the Kozmic HP8R Clutch Kit or Kozmic HP10R depending on the recommendations on the other mod I'm planing on doing.

Sounds like a more reasonable plan, is the order ok?

[bumblebee]

Good idea with revised plan
Attack the most expensive stuff first , the tranny is by far the most important
No tranny means zero movement from the car all together so good plan to attack that early on.
Don't ask me what clutch pack to put in it , I'm no expert on those, sorry.

[bunnishiwa]

Hi,

A lot of interesting advice for what you say is going to be a daily that just needs a bit of oomph

Upper intercooler pipe and evo intercooler
Evo 9 or X BOV
100 / 200 cel cat and cat back (ie Xforce)

Grimspeed 3 port and a tune - - THIS is where the real power unlock is. I went to 160kw at the wheels, less lag and better fuel consumption just through this, before the exhaust. Intercooler just means you can repeat the boost again and again.

As for the SST, I'm running at 320,000 kms on the clock, original SST no mods and a fair bit of spirited driving. Can (almost) hold my own against Golf R's and i30N's off the lights. Low down pick up is awesome on original turbo, it just loses it at the top end.

They are good cars that just need good oils for the engine, SST (ford fluids and new external filter every 50k have worked fine for me - highly recommend) and replace diff oils every 75k or so

Enjoy these cars are strong

[schoolofmonkey]

As for the SST, I'm running at 320,000 kms on the clock, original SST no mods and a fair bit of spirited driving. Can (almost) hold my own against Golf R's and i30N's off the lights. Low down pick up is awesome on original turbo, it just loses it at the top end.

They are good cars that just need good oils for the engine, SST (ford fluids and new external filter every 50k have worked fine for me - highly recommend) and replace diff oils every 75k or so

Enjoy these cars are strong

It's not so much the clutches, I was told they are perfect (as new) due to the regular services the car had prior to me, it's more of the looming shift fork problem the SST has.
I plan to get the SST done every 20,000km's right in between the recommended 15,000 - 30,000km's based on driving.

I do know what it would cost me just to repair the shift fork if it does fall off with the Dodson permanent fix.

Tuesday I'll be getting a GFB T9133 - MACH 2 BOV installed, from what I understand they are quiet good for what I'm aiming for, as well as the upper intercooler pipe.

[schoolofmonkey]

So here's my plans, which changed today a little due to a really good deal on the exhaust.
I went with the X-Force 3" dump back exhaust with the 100 cat, tune and 3 port boost controller all fitted/tuned $2450, so tomorrow they'll put the exhaust on cat back until I get the tune, (completely booked out for 4 weeks), upper intercooler pipe and bov. They'll fit the boost controller and cat the day of the tune.

Still have the money left over in case the shift fork falls off, yeah I've been working around that because it's a very common fault.

[bumblebee]

Nice work
The shift fork is a common fault
It's not a question of if, it's a question of when it happens.

[schoolofmonkey]

Nice work
The shift fork is a common fault
It's not a question of if, it's a question of when it happens.

Yeah well I wasn't digging into the $3000 I have put aside to have it done.
I took a little bit of extra from the "other" savings to do the exhaust, they have $400 off that system, so I thought I couldn't pass it up, even had the wife's blessing

It was AK that recommended the 3 port boost controller in the quote, the same as bunnishiwa, you don't need it, but it's HIGHLY recommended, for a extra $260 why not, it's not the Grimspeed, its the Cobb, which is a little more expensive.

Will book a Dyno/tune date tomorrow when I go up, that's when they'll fit the 100 cat and boost controller, can't really do that without the tune.

[bunnishiwa]

Sorry bumblebee, but it really is a question of if, not when