1978 lancer coupe g54bt project

[city hunter]

I broke a chunk out of my g32b due to some fuel pump failure I believe a while back, so I was debating on what to do. I was going to 4g32 turbo, or 4g63 twin cam na swap it, but this seemed to be the cheapest route. I already had pulled out the freshly rebuilt g54bt because I thought I might have blown a ring. Ended up being a bad head as the bottom end was fine. I figure the scorp can wait for the other g5b4 i'm rebuilding since it needs a lot more work to be a decent daily. The only thing I'll have to do is be gentle witht he stock diff until I can afford to put something better in it. The engine is pretty stock, a bonme stock rebuild, with schneider valve springs, and a 14b off an eclipse.

Made some good progress today. The engine is bolted in, the trans should be bolted in tomorrow.

Engine bolted in with the g54b mounts, the trans mount looks like it will be pretty simple. I flipped the crossmember off the lancer and used the stock starion mount. it seems to sit perfect, well other than I need to cut out about 2 1/2 inches out of the shifter area to get the trans up. I should be able to just make a small plate for the bottom of the slit and bolt it in I'm almost willing to bet they make a 5 speed mount for the lancer that would be a direct bolt on for the km132 starion trans, but eh, I'll do it this way for now.

The drive shaft should work once I go get a g63b mighty max slide yoke to swap onto the lancer driveshaft.

[75wagon]

This is looking good. Anymore pics of the car?
Love the light set-up on the front....
Sounds like this will be awesome once you get it going, but yeah, take it easy on the diff.

Nice work
Dave...

[city hunter]

Here are some older pics. Unfortunately I havent been able to find any car parts like fenders n what not state side. They are quite rare these days. I figure I just need to buy them when i see them. The car needs some interior bits, and some body work. I need to repair a small rusted out area in the rear lower quarter, and find some good carpet and misc bits for the interior.

The lights are just some mid 80s bmw 5 series housings I put together and slapped on the car. Cheap as hell, but thats all i could afford back in the day. They really come in nice at night on the back twisties though.

This is what she looked like when i first bought it.


This is after a lot of scrubbing with rubbing compound and swirl remover, then a 75 dollar set of appliance mesh wheels



The old engine. It will be rebuilt with my eclipse 4g37 head and g32b turbo stuff.


rocking some O.S.C.A.M. italian wheels


Rocking my rs-8 wats Notice the missing lower rocker panel deal. The god damn thing kept flying off when i was driving hard up this hill climb like road, the clip had basically worn out. I got tired of it falling halfway off while I was cornering so i took it off. need to see if I can still buy the clips



I tossed these one for the hell of it.They were a new set of konig rewinds with some 45 series toyo t1r.




Had some fun in the snow after a 12 hour shift of working in ths crap rebuilding a gas turbine. Note the steel wheels, i ended up bending one of the oscam wheels after I got a little too greedy with my sliding and ran up a curb.


This was my, go as fast as you can to try and get to a parking spot. This was the onslaught of snow from the earlier picture. I just gunned it into the dead and and tried to get off the road. I didnt make it very far lol


I adapted a usdm firearrow tach, you guys had them has lc lancer with the 2.6?

[75wagon]

I really don't like the American big bumpers. But those Lights take the focus away from them, which is a massive improvement.
This is by far the bast photo of your car IMO. I love the Konig Rewinds, and I want a set for my wagon real bad. My wife says no to me spending anymore money on it though.
http://www.nwstarquest.com/coltlancer/c ... inds01.jpg

Dave...

[city hunter]

I dont think anyone likes american bumpers lmao. They REALLLLY ruin the 74-76 galants. Yeah I picked those rewinds up with new t1r tires for like 400 bucks. I bought the wats the same day for 325

Here is my newest pair of wheels. It goes with the toysport trd n2 starlet kit I have sitting in my closet. 13x11 some negative offset to suit a n2 starlet I may think about trying to fit them onthe lancer somehow down the road also though.

[TUFSIG]

looks great mate
nice work
those wheels are nice

[city hunter]

thanks. I had to take a break the last 2 days to buy a beater 81 corolla 5 spoeed coupe for the gf, and then do a clutch on it. It's freaken -8.8celsius right now. Bit to cold to work at night even with the heater.

I did make some progress though. Ironically, flipping the stock 4 speed crossmember upside down and then using the stock starionj trans mount will make a bolt in starion trans. I just uses some monster washers and some high grade stock bolts and bolted it in through the big slit on the lancer crossmember. The driveline angle looks good also.

Once I finish the corolla tomorrow, I'll eb tackling the clutch pedal. Unfortunately they ran the main wiring harness right in the area I need to drill out for the clutch master.

[city hunter]

Made some more progress today. Got the starion clutch pedal assembly fitted up. That was the only real big issue I had with the swap, and now it's done. I wouldnt say it was hard, but it was a real pain in the butt. I elongated most of the holes a little to make fitting it easier. I still have to cut off the old cluth pedal as it is one piece with the brake pedal. I'll cut it so if for some reason I go back to cable in the future I can revert by welding it back up.

Some pics of the starion trans bolted to a lancer crossmember. No mods needed.

The clutch pedal mounting as it progressed

[oldcolt75]

this car looks great smog ,youve done alot of clean work

[city hunter]

eh, it's better than it was, but i need to cut n weld up a small patch panel in the bottom of the back of the rear quarter where the outter shell and the inner shell meets. Needs a lot of small dents fixed and a paint job one of these days.

[city hunter]

Made some more progress today after taking a few days off.

I started out by mocking up the intercooler. This car fits a 31x12x3 ic very nicely inbetween the bumper and the frame.

I finished the oil cooler positioning and mounted it. Grill clears n all

Clutch line was installed

I also drilled out the hole for the wiring harness.


It's going to be real fun running intercooler pipes and also running the mas air sensor. I'm not looking forward to it. The plan was to non intercool it, but apparently I misplaced my non intercooled ovcp, so fuck it, I'm intercooling it with my big ass ebay intercooler I have had laying around.

My to do list is getting pretty slim

Run wiring harness
remove old alternator harness
mount ecu
mount fuel pump
install fuel filter and return lines.
mount the ignitor
fll trans and install shifter boot
install slave cylinder
get a new oil feed line made for the turbo
reinstall turbo after wiring is complete along with heat shields.
Install the 3inch exhaust off the challenger
Make hard pipes and mount the intercooler

Not so important stuff.
Polish my mitsu logo valve cover
paint my water pump pulley some f'n gold
install wats
install rally lights
install Marshal optilux with h1 and h3 hid
Find a fire arrow rear end




harness hole

[city hunter]

Made a little more progress tonight. Mounted the fuel filter and fuel lines up front, bolted the slave cylinder on, and ran the harness. It's about 3/4 the way hooked up. Did a bunch of other crap that isnt worth mentioning also.

List is slowly getting shorter

[city hunter]

Just a few more pics. Nothing special.

Mounted the fuel pump in the trunk as I didnt find any nice places to do it under the car. I need a surge tankbut this will have to due for now.


harness ran in the engine bay. I used the stock starion gromet with a little pie cut out of it.


The engine bay is definately getting tighter.

[city hunter]

I didnt get the intercooler piping figured out but I mounted up the intercooler today.

[DanTurboLancer]

well done mate, getting there.

Thats going to be low!

[city hunter]

Got my turbo to intercooler hardpipe finished. Not the best, but it works. The hard part will be doing the intercooler to intake. I still need to either bead roll the ends or add a few spot welds, along with powder coat them.

[shuggy]

lookin goodd

[city hunter]

Thanks man. I had it all planned out until I ran into hood hard pipe issues.

I got bored and went to mess with the other side. Unfortunately my original plan of running a 2.5inch 180 bend off the throttle body wouldnt work as it hits the hood. So right now, I am running the stock ovcp and then I grabbed one of the stock starion cloth braided soft lines and cut it down a little to fit. Now I just need a 2.5 to 2inch coupling a 90 in 2inch. I'll eventually run 2.5 back across and to the stock ovcp, then maybe I can fit the 2.5 all the way to the tb, but for now, this will have to do.






This guy has been keeping me away from the car lately. 12 week old australian cattle dog pup. Such a stubborn son of a bitch.

[city hunter]

Getting closer. All my piping is done and bolted in. If I keep up the work, I will probably have it running tomorrow.

[TUFSIG]

great work mate
you have done well with not having access to all the efi stuff we have here lol
great one

[75wagon]

At least there is one benefit to your car being left hand drive.. You don't have to worry about the heat from your turbo melting your brake reservoirs, or boiling your fluid.

[city hunter]

Thanks guys. Yeah. it's definately nice not having a rhd car, if the engine flowed the other way that would be another story hehe.

I ended up doing a little more work. I raised the transmission about a inch so I have a good driveshaft angle. I also made some mounts for the radiator and trimmed down the hoses. Right now it looks like I have about 8 hours worth of work left assuming I can find everything in my garage.

[leoca]

Great!.Am enjoying reading the updates

[city hunter]

there is a upgraded 12a super 16g for sale locally right now.. I'm tempted to go get it, but I know I shouldnt.

[BAD-SIG]

Very nice Dodge Colt you have there! By the way, do you know of any Dodge Colt Wagons near you? The 1977-80 models were basically rebadged Sigma wagons that we have downunder! Here is a blog post I posted up just today: http://bad-sig.blogspot.com/2010/01/197 ... wagon.html

[city hunter]

Very nice Dodge Colt you have there! By the way, do you know of any Dodge Colt Wagons near you? The 1977-80 models were basically rebadged Sigma wagons that we have downunder! Here is a blog post I posted up just today: http://bad-sig.blogspot.com/2010/01/197 ... wagon.html

I've only seen one for sale and it was about 8 or 9 hours away. Unfortunately I didnt have room to park it at my palce, otherwise I would have went and bought it. The thing was only 450 bucks. I love the front headlight stying and they look good on some old turbines.


Anyhow, little update on the car, Did a comp test, seems like the quicky valve lapping job I did, didnt turn out that great. I'm going to pull the head off and slap on this other head I have laying around, and just rebuild this head down the road.

I also made some mounting brackets for the radiator, cut the hoses down, mounted the water pump pulley and put the belt back on. I did some battery testing witht he stock harness to make sure I didnt screw anything up, and my starter works, so it all seems good.

My to do list is very small right now, but im doing my 40 hour apprenticeship class over the next 4 days so I cant really get much done since the training center is a hour n a half away. one way.
Basically have to wire the b38 connector off the starion harness up, run my fuel pump power, install a pre filter on the fuel pump, buy an electric pusher fan, install the push rod on the clutch pedal, put oil in the trans and install shifter and boot, put securing bracket on the speedo gear thats on the trans. Ohh, and adjust the valves. Less than a days work

I gotta say I am pretty excited to drive the car. I remember my 74 galant gt hardtop with a non intercooled g54bt, and that thing was a freaken rocket. Axle wrapped like a son of a bitch though.

[city hunter]

After f'n with heads, I got pissed and ripped the engine back out, but still didnt see anything on number 2. I started pulling the rings off, I noticed a bit of a crack but I couldnt tell if it was cracked or scratched. I got down tot eh upper oil ring and popped it off, mind you all the rings are cherry. A friggan chunk of piston fell out. Looks lik the second ring land broke good. I guess those clevite pistons I bought were worth about as much as a chinese f'n hammer.

[city hunter]

been a long time since i updated. Too much drinkiing and being laid off of work.

Lancer is up n running. I threw a stock set of rods n pistons in it witht he old rings.

Finished a lot of small bits up, and Took her for a test drive. Seems nice but needs a surge tank bad,

Well, other than cleaning out half a years worth of crap in the car, I need to find the throttle cable. and wire up the pusher fan. Other than that, this car is ready to drive, well at last it's maiden drive.




Took it for a test drive today. Seems to drive fine, I hadnt wired up the fan so I didnt go far. It's gonna be pretty damn fast when I can start beating on it. It takes basically no gas to move the car or keep it going down the road which is nice.

I wired up the fan just a while ago, but im gonna let it cool down and retorque the head tomorrow.

I gave it a quick wash too.

[city hunter]

Well, drove it around quite a bit the other day with my friuends on their 510 one had a sr20det and one had a ka24e. I think im faster than the sr20det and the ka isnt even in the ball park. Stupid torque on this tiny little car. It was fun, but Ithikn it needs something smaller. You definately feel the difference in weight. I tihnk I am going to rebuild my 4g32 and put it back in. I kinda enjoyed the lancer as a slower car with a lot of heart. Right now its just too much for the weather. Gonna be in for about 9 months ofrain and im having a hard time keeping the rear end from breaking loose at stop signs lol.

Not quite sure what I will do with the car yet, but it might be a na carb build, or mayb a turbo 4g32. The scorpion has been sitting for too long, and that car will make a better winter driver. Fun as hell. I just dont thikn I want a lot of power in the lancer. It was so much fun stock, now it's just a beast.. I dont want it to be a beast, I want to build my 4g64 dohc up in a starion to be the beast. Much better suited to fast speeds.