Dutch (!) 8G Galant V6 VR4 LHD FWD

[MarkSanne]

Hi Galant fans, I'm Mark from the Netherlands.

I am a huge Galant fan. My fathers car was a 1990 6G Galant Hatchback and when I got my drivers licence I bought the same car, also a 1990 Hatchback (with a stronger engine version though). I owned that car for many years and for just two months ago I owned it (it's now on a junkyard, I've stripped the car for usable parts).

Two years ago I've bought another 6G Galant hatchback. A GTI version (150BHP and more luxurious). I still own and drive that car. Last december 2006 I've bought an 8g Galant V6 (elegance). This is truly a one of kind car, since the previous owner switched the original V6 engine for a V6 VR4 engine (and changed a lot to suspension, exhaust, air intake, etc). I am currently restoring the bodywork to absolute perfection since it has an ugly dent in the roof (skibox accident) and some very small chips with minimal rust at the wheelarches, but in my quest to perfection I'll get it fixed (next week). Earlier on I put on new discbrakes, new calipers, an orginal VR4 strut bar, stainless steel braided brake-hoses, a new pioneer 2DIN touchscreen/radio/mp3/dvd/nav/bluetooth/etc device and a new set of front door speakers (hertz hsk165), a set of oil-pressure, oil-temp and turbo boost gauges stealthy in the digital clock compartment.

The twin-turbo engine produces over 300BHP but still has loads of potential. The unique thing about this Galant is that it is a left-hand drive with this very powerfull VR4 engine. When Mitsubishi produced the orginal VR-4's they were all right hand drive and 4-wheel drive. Mine is lefthand and front wheel drive. Although the power to just the front wheels is enormous, it's very easy to drive (to my own surprise).

Future things to do are the already purchased ACT 'custom' clutchkit (the original Mitsu clutch can hardly handle these engine powers) and an Apexi blowoff valve. I've thought about a slip-differential, but I don't think I'll gain that much, seeing how easy to drive this thing is.

One month ago I bought my third Galant. Again a 6G hatchback GTI version (1992). A black one, with the very best spoiler every made for the hatchback Galant (far better than my other GTI spoiler), a chrome front grille. Everything else is just the same. The bodywork is almost perfect (and the few things that are wrong will get fixed the next weeks) and in the future I'd like to see this black one turn into a 'fake' VR4 by swapping this 4G63 (Non Turbo) engine with an original VR4 (1988-1992) turbo engine (should be quite easy to get upto or over 250BHP and quite easy to swap).

Some pictures (and Dutch text) about my V6 (1999) 8G Galant:
http://www.markspages.nl/galant3.htm

Some pictures (and Dutch text) about my GTI (1990) 6G Galant:
http://www.markspages.nl/galant2.htm

Some pictures (and Dutch text) about my GLi (1990) 6G Galant:
http://www.markspages.nl/galant.htm

Some pictures (and Dutch text) about my GTI (1992) 6G Galant:
sorry, no page constructed yet

I'd like to find some folks who share the same passion (pretty much a guarantee on this site/forum!)

http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-v6-quickshoot-schuin.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-v6-quickshoot-schui1.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-v6-quickshoot-zij.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-v6-quickshoot-achter.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-v6-zijwind-scherm1.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-v6-zijwind-scherm2.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-v6-zijwind-scherm3.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-v6-zijwind-scherm5.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-v6-zijwind-scherm6.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-v6-zijwind-scherm7.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-vr4-motorruim.jpg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/raw/8g%20galant%20interior.jpeg
http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/galant-vr4-interior.jpg

[bradc]

Cool, another member here has a V6 manual converted to have a VR-4 engine in it, his is 2 wheel drive only, we've been calling it a VR-2 :)

Your speedo looks to be a bit different than normal, how far does it go up to? 240kmh?

[Nick Mann]

Yeah - The Vee has a VR-2 in the UK! They are getting less unique all the time!! Glad you are enjoying your cars.... It's good to see that those of you that drive on the wrong side of the road can still enjoy the 6A13TT! :P

Welcome to the club. Hope you enjoy your stay!

[MarkSanne]

Cool, another member here has a V6 manual converted to have a VR-4 engine in it, his is 2 wheel drive only, we've been calling it a VR-2 :)

Your speedo looks to be a bit different than normal, how far does it go up to? 240kmh?

VR-2... hmmm, don't really know if I truly like the sound of that ;-)

About the speedometer: this is the standard 'stealth' setup in the V6 Elegance Galant. The speedo goes upto 260 (the car however above that).

Next to that, in the place where the digital clock was housed, I've placed oil pressure and oil tempreature gauges (also same color & style as the speedo, also stealth, so when the iginition is off there's nothing to see). A similar turbo boost gauge is on it's way (the one used was faulty). Also the Pioneer touchscreen radio/dvd/nav/harddisk/mp3/bluetooth thing has the neat feature of showing several virtual gauges that you can manage yourself (the GPS controlled exact speed, the amount of Volts, the amount of G accelleration, etc,etc).

[bradc]

We have the same high vis dash setup in the VR-4 but it goes up to 180kmh only :( a 260kmh dash would be much better :D

Your car looks great, how much trouble did you have with the 3000GT calipers and what is their bolt spacing?

[MPBVr4]

Welcome to the club mate. Great looking car, in the right colour as well:thumbsup: .
We are all big fans of the Galant here as you will find if you stick around on the forums.

[ANTHONY]

looks great you should try and get over here some time as you not that far away really

[Lillywotsername]

/Welcome mark.....

Very nice looking car Mate. And as Malc said above... the right colour as well.

[MarkSanne]

We have the same high vis dash setup in the VR-4 but it goes up to 180kmh only :( a 260kmh dash would be much better :D

Your car looks great, how much trouble did you have with the 3000GT calipers and what is their bolt spacing?


Thanks for the compliment. The 3000GT calipers bolt right on (same spacing as the regular V6 Galant Calipers (the 4 cylinder 8G Galants have calipers with a different bolt spacing however, just for other 8G owners). Only problem is getting the right disc brakes, because the current 'regular' brembo straight bolt-on discs don't center (although it's 'just' by 1 mm). So we're still looking for the correct discs to fit, and I'm currently using the 2-piston V6 calipers again. This issue will be resolved within a month hopefully (I'll post every detail as soon as I can).

[MarkSanne]

(copy pasted from another topic, might come in handy for others looking for this info)

It's a big, big job swapping the 6A13TT into a V6 n/a and I'm glad I didn't do it myself (the previous owner had it done for him). From what I've been told by him and moreover from what I've learned and seen myself during the last year (I have it for 1 - 1.5 years now) is that the only thing easy is that the engine mounting points are the same, from that point onwards you run into all kinds of problems:

- firewall
the turbo that is closest to the firewall does not have enough space, so a bit of hitting/cutting/welding into the firewall to create room for that turbo is needed.

- subframe
if you should plan to use the V6 n/a subframe than it needs a bit of nip/tuck which is not something you should actually would like, nor is it legal, well at least in NL (it's not that much, and actually not a safety issue, but at an official government test-facility if would fail. so if possible: don't do this and get your hands on an official VR4 subframe

- downpipe
if you have a vr4 engine with it's orginal downpipe, you'll need quite a bit of cutting done to it as the tunnel that leads the exhaust to the back is quite a bit different compared to the vr4. if you have an aftermarket downpipe you might be in even more trouble (the PS-Iida & upcoming RPW -very similar in design- wont make the bend around the edge of the firewall from the first turbo)

And then there is of course the 'normal' challenges with these kind of engine swaps like the cabling, ECU and getting 'orginal' electrical things working again. For example my cruise control doesn't work anymore with the engine ECU coming from an automatic gearbox VR4 I have been unable to get the cruise control working as of yet...

And there are probably more things you'll run into, but as I said before, I didn't do the swap so I don't know every single detail (both unfortunately & gladly). However, there are quite a few (4 or even more) Polish guys that have done the same thing. I'd love to see a detailed 'how-to' on one of those projects as it gives me a better understanding of how mine is built (and maybe, just very very maybe help me someday should I want to change the upcoming Legnum from RHD to LHD).

Anyway, keep us informed whether or not you go for it!

Oh and one last thing that pops into my head, you can also go the compressor-way. A friend of me has put a mercedes compressor, forged internals and a piggyback ECU onto his Galant V6 n/a and that thing is incredible! It goes so f*cking smootly and fast and the sound and feel are so different compared to a turbocharger. It doesn't give you you the turbo-kick, but it sure goes just as fast and you'd end up with something unique (I've searched and I have seen no other 8G Galant with a compressor), probably a bit easier and that sound... ever seen/noticed the sound of the car in the Mad Max movie? it'll get that kind of sound... bizar!