2008 Lancer CJ VRX - Build thread

[bumblebee]

hope this helps with the fuel filter swap
https://imgur.com/a/ie5G93n

[bumblebee]

https://i.imgur.com/VVFkncE.png

Cam shaft info

[bumblebee]

https://rallinspired.com/forums/topic/l ... stom-tune/

This is the USA guys with their tuning and the Evo X inlet cam

[bumblebee]

https://www.drive2.ru/l/529125953167687842/

This is the Russian guys doing their tuning

[awood]

Instead of drowning other peoples build threads with crap , how about starting your own threads to fill with crap?

[lancerdarryl]

Instead of drowning other peoples build threads with crap , how about starting your own threads to fill with crap?

[Avenir]

There's been a lot of posts here. Been busy chaps. I had a look and actually stumbled upon the Tomei 250 cams for Evo's on AK racing. But they are like 1000$.. 250 exhaust cam and 260 intake cam (I believe degrees). Not sure if you get both or just 1. Another thing to take is: 1. what extra parts you need, if it is JUST cams. Maybe you can confirm a checklist bumble and 2. How much these will eventually fuck your engine. Like obviously they are tuned I get that, but how much harder do they push the 4b12 compared to stock, and how much life you might take off the engine at the end of its life cycle. Is it 2000kms or is it like 50 or 60,000km on avg? Cos that's a big deal for the latter. At the end of the day these are meant for 4b11T's which have been better designed.

I would honestly consider doing it if those 2 questions were answered above and I had a tuner that was ready to do it with me. My brother changed his SOHC in his VE to a larger one, amongst 45 other things and he wasn't worried because he had a tuner right there ready to help him out with a stock tune with software etc. to drive it home and then he took the car for a week, dyno'd it and tuned the tranny too. That's a lot of service. I am doubtful there's that much service for stock lancers anymore? I actually rang up 2 performance shops a while back in Melbourne, (reputable enough) and asked if they tune VRX's and they said either what is that? and no we don't. Obviously I could try more but it wasn't a good start.

It WOULD be interesting to do. But with the difficulty to get a tuner, doing Cams is next to impossible if you daily. I still haven't heard back from Merlin and I emailed him again saying I was ready.

Oh btw. I already know what MIVEC is and does. Its very common. Ours includes variable lift. Its intake and exhaust, which is an extremely good combo for DOHC. and its actually continuously variable. Whereas the first iteration was based on engine load/rpm similar to VTEC. As there are also some VVT options from other manufacturers that don't offer lift like Toyotas VVT-i until they later added it. Just thought i'd add my 2 cents.

Avenir.

[bumblebee]

How are you going to screw the motor over with bigger cams ?
Maybe if the tuner you give it to had NFI WTF they are doing it may well happen
What you need to remember is, your still keeping it NA
Not shoving forced induction into it
Want to screw your block real quick?
Shove forced induction into a NA block.
Shove the NA blocks next to the 4b11T block and look at the difference in blocks.
The 4B11T has been well and truly designed to have forced induction down its neck, look at how strong it has been made
The NA block / girdle / head will absolutely take bigger cams , E85 etc , as your not increasing the internal pressure to extremes like forced induction

As for life cycle of the NA Motor, I know guys with over 350,000 kays on them and they are still going strong.
The NA blocks are as tough as nails, have a look thru Asia at the rally guys who go out and bounce them off the limiter weekend after weekend and they keep coming back for more with the bigger cams as shown in the Post above.
Stick to the OEM RA\Evo inlet cam
That's about the biggest you want to go on the NA
As for the exhaust cam , stick to the Tomei 250
Even a stock 4b12 can have the ECU tune done more then good enough to destroy a CVT if you so desire, tell the tuner that's what you want to do, no doubt they will try and talk you out of it, but if that's what you so desire then I'm sure they will help you out.

If you have a 4b11 and want to go cam route you have a few options, as has been listed already in the performance section, however , here it is again

4b11 to Goto 4b12 inlet cam
To do this you need the 4b12 inlet cam sprocket as well as the camshaft itself
Or
If you don't swap then at the same time, you will find your piston crown kiss the valves
Not a great idea
Or
4b11 to RA/Evo X inlet cam , keep the OEM 4b11 Inlet sprocket

4b11 to Tomei 250 exhaust camshaft, use the OEM 4b11 exhaust cam sprocket

4b12 to RA/Evo X inlet camshaft, you need the 4b11 inlet camshaft sprocket and the RA/Evo camshaft

4b12 to , Tomei 250 exhaust cam , it can go on the 4b12 exhaust cam sprocket

If you go hunting you can find a few spreadsheet round the place, put the cam info into it and see how it goes

As you can see from the above dyno charts you can get a truck load more power out of these engines and they will keep coming back for more year in and year out
Depending how hard you beat on it about the only thing you might want to consider is bringing the oil change back to 5000 kays
Having said that , I still beat up my 4b11 and do 10,000 Kay oil changes on it.

If your serious about doing this, get a wideband installation done sooner the better, I use the AEM 30-4110 and get a tactrix open port. The sooner you do that so you can start doing things yourself and saving some $ in the process and seeing for yourself WTF the ECU etc is up to without the guess work the better off you will be.

[Avenir]

Because your changing an internal part of the engine it wasn't designed for? It's pretty understandable. I'm not saying it can't take it, swap it in and out etc. I am just saying how long will the engine reliably last with a bigger cam instead of the original. Bigger cams leads to more fuel and more air when tuned, therefore higher temps because of more boom, and more stress on intricate parts like bearings, springs etc unless they are changed too. Even spark plugs might need to be changed to a higher heat tolerance variant because of this... Anyway I am not going to say I know all the details because I don't, you clearly have more details on it all. But I wanted to know the change in lifespan, turbo's don't last that long on our cars. Probably why not many people do it. And yes you can change the head pistons etc to accommodate a turbo but its not even the same engine after that.

[Avenir]

LITTLE BUILD UPDATE:

SWAYBARS:
- Whiteline Sway bar kit is at my parents house, If covid would fuck off for even one weekend I could go up next weekend, hoist the car and get it all done.

RADIO:
- Radio install is also next week on Friday which would line up perfectly, but will most likely be pushed back I think unless we are all lucky. See how we go.

TUNE:
- I haven't heard back from Merlin at all regarding a tune, is it possible Bumble can reach out to him again for me? ))

Car is running like a dream at the moment not a single fault. Its genuinely hard to break traction, around corners etc. When it does, its for a split second shown on the dash then immediately back on, and when I "lose" traction now its not like I'm swerving/sliding and there is ridiculous understeer either like it use to.. I break traction and I am still 90-95% in control of the car and its going straight, don't have to brake. A very safe car to drive after all the suspension changes, I love driving it. Having ASC back is icing on the cake. Highly recommend you guys to put some of the stuff I have into your own cars if you feel unsafe when driving a bit zesty around town.

Also another delight - I've had NO error codes from anything. No error codes from my intake (which apparently do appear often enough), no codes from my catback (which it said it would in the docs), none from my high flow cat (which it also said it would in the documentation), no codes from my headers etc. No codes from coilovers changing height etc anything like that.

I don't know how but the car has accepted everything I have put on, even the exhaust guy previously said I'll get a code after a few start-ups. But nothing. So its defs ready for a tune, I am pretty much at the end of the road now, only a few cosmetic stuff I've got planned like headlights, tinting front windows to match the back, new rims etc and a few bushes in the back I left OEM from last time.

Update you all soon on the next installs. Been such a big journey with the car, I have loved it all. I do see a lot of supras, silvias and skylines around my area and I do get jealous maybe one day if I am on big money but for now the lancer is a lot of fun.

Avenir

[bumblebee]

Because your changing an internal part of the engine it wasn't designed for? It's pretty understandable. I'm not saying it can't take it, swap it in and out etc. I am just saying how long will the engine reliably last with a bigger cam instead of the original. Bigger cams leads to more fuel and more air when tuned, therefore higher temps because of more boom, and more stress on intricate parts like bearings, springs etc unless they are changed too. Even spark plugs might need to be changed to a higher heat tolerance variant because of this... Anyway I am not going to say I know all the details because I don't, you clearly have more details on it all. But I wanted to know the change in lifespan, turbo's don't last that long on our cars. Probably why not many people do it. And yes you can change the head pistons etc to accommodate a turbo but its not even the same engine after that.

im fully aware of all of this and more
dont worry your head over this on the na
these 4bxx motors are tough as nails.
shove the bigger cam in and go nuts
dont be surprised when you get over 400,000 kays out of the motor and then some
when you rally it you may need to change the tming chain around the 200,000 kay mark

this is not a piece of crap ford or holden where you need to be married to the parts manager to get parts super cheap and replace every time the sun comes up

[bumblebee]

happy to reach out to mr Merlin for you again, i will do that as soon as i log off here

[Mars1811]

Bloody good to hear it Avenir! Codes are absolutely dreaded.
Love to read your journey here.

[bumblebee]

Have messaged Merlin for you
Hopefully he reached out to you

[Avenir]

@bumble - thanks a lot man I appreciate it! I really am keen it's just covid and work make it really hard to get the timing right. Hope he understands

@mars - yeah it is good to hear! My lancer was starting to turn into a real piece of work a couple months back with several issues everywhere around the car. Now just the sway bars and I think I've covered them all!

Thanks man I love giving updates to you guys, it's a nice break away from the real world. Wish there was a bit more competition going on though