VR4 mechanical overhaul

[Piers1989]

As you may know from some other threads regarding my gearbox, I had some rattling and whining in gears.

It's off to Clive (Transmission Dynamics) on recommendation from the forum, who is a specialist in EVO gearboxes.
I'm also sending him my Transfer case to be inspected and upgraded to an LSD and rear diff for inspection.

Now that's all been removed and on a pallet to go to him, the garage has noted this would be an opportune time to have the engine removed and sent for refurb, and will look into undersealing the car.

The engine is leaking oil from various areas, and I may have an issue with the valve stems as I get the smoking on idle sometimes.
Can anyone recommend somewhere to send the engine for refurbishment?

Also my flywheel is about 29cm and has 7 bolts, is that the correct EVO fly or is that a VR4 one? I can't see the converter as it's behind the wheel and wasn't removed.
IMG_20170728_1149418.jpg

I'm also needing the low pressure hose for the aircon (comes out of the condenser I think)? Does anyone know where to source this or the part number?

[Nick Mann]

My gearbox is with Clive at the moment. He certainly knows his stuff. I hope there is less wrong with yours!

That looks like an evo flywheel or at least it is not a stock VR4 item.

The only garage I would consider for the engine would be Eurospec. I am sure there will be plenty of others but I know Ben a little and know that they started out with performance Mitsubishis.

[Piers1989]

My gearbox is with Clive at the moment. He certainly knows his stuff. I hope there is less wrong with yours!

That looks like an evo flywheel or at least it is not a stock VR4 item.

The only garage I would consider for the engine would be Eurospec. I am sure there will be plenty of others but I know Ben a little and know that they started out with performance Mitsubishis.

Thanks Nick,

What was up with yours when you sent it in?

I was thinking about contacting Eurospec - I'll give then a call on Monday or drop an email across.

My only concern is they are really really far away from me!

[Nick Mann]

I had a crunch into 3rd. Retrospectively there were other things in the background but I didn't think of them as a problem.
On mine 3rd gear synchro was dead, as was 1st and reverse although I don't ever change aggressively into them so I had modified the way I used the box.
5th gear had significant wear, 4th gear had significant wear, 2nd gear had significant wear and the taper bearings were close to failure. Clive sent me photos of all the issues and explained what the ongoing problems would be if I kept using those parts.
My box had done around 200,000 miles before I started using it and I have put around another 50,000 on it. I knew there would be some wear!

[Piers1989]

Yeah that doesn't sound too good!
Hopefully there won't be so much to do with mine, but at the same time in your case I guess you can rest easy knowing the box will be almost entirely new when it comes back!

[Nick Mann]

Yes. To all of that!

[Piers1989]

Does anyone know how much I should be expecting to spend to have the engine refurbished / rebuilt?

[Nick Mann]

No idea!

[Piers1989]

I haven't heard back from eurospec yet, but a ballpark figure of £3k - £4k from a company just outside Edinburgh that seems quite reputable.

I'm struggling to come to terms with spending that much on a rebuild - though as I understand it this would pretty much mean I ended up with a new engine, and give me a chance to consider forged internals.

[Piers1989]

To follow this up, things are likely to be a bit more serious now. I've pretty much decided that if I'm going to bother doing anything I might as well go the whole hog.

So - I'm looking at getting the turbos removed and refurbished / possibly hybridised with a TD04 billet compressor wheel. I've spoken to Turbo Dynamics about this briefly.

Engine wise I'm waiting for another company (Lancaster Engines) to get back to me next week, they have good reviews, sounded competent on the phone and in their replies to my questions on Facebook.
I'm looking at getting forged pistons and rods to handle more power, and as part of the rebuild/refurb basically everything will be replaced / re-machined from my understanding.

Overall will be costly but exciting times if everything is feasible and goes well, and I should have everything like-new or uprated in the drive-train. Clive has been sending me pics of the rebuild which is now complete on the Rear AYC diff and the Transfercase including fitting an LSD.

To support the above, I'm looking at what else I should do to help keep everything in good order.

• I'd like to fit an oil cooler - I did some searching and couldn't find anything obvious on the best way to do this or any recommendations, but I did see people talking about doing it a fair few times.
• I'll also be replacing the intercooler as I meant to do this some time ago!
• I need to look into replacing the injectors with something larger. Does anyone have any recommendations and how does this work with the ECU? I assume I just change the injector scaling?
• To go with these (as I should have already done too), uprated fuel pump.
• I read what I could about replacing the Fuel Pressure Regulator, but I saw something about it not fitting the rail correctly or similar? Does anyone have any experience with this and how it works?
• Is there anything else I should look at doing as part of this process?
• For reference I have already uprated front brakes, front and rear ARBs and Tein Street Flex coilovers.

[TAR]

Have a look at this thread for info on uprated fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator. If you contact Glencoe they will know what adapter you need to fit the FPR. The fuel rail on a VR4 has offset mounting holes.

https://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showth...ghlight=walbro
Should get you started.

[Piers1989]

Thanks Tar (and foxdie!),

I knew I'd seen some info on this somewhere in the past - lots of useful links there.

[swinks]

Piers @Piers1989, any chance you can pop in to Cadwell Park whilst Mitsi Festival? It's easier to answer your all questions in person that doing massive long elaborate essay here

1. Oil cooler. Location - directly beneath battery try, behind passenger fog light, slightly angled, oil filter sandwich plate with thermostat. Connections AN-10. Don't remember exact cooler size.
2. Intercooler, any generic 76mm thickness. Quite few threads here, search thread by Glenn (Wodjno), 2 long leg 63/76mm silicone 90 degree elbow reducers.
3. Bigger injectors. Fitting one you will need to map the ecu. You can try cheap Evo 560cc injectors, but you will need resistor pack because those are low impedance. Also you will need fuel rail spacers due to injectors being taller (I have set if needed) and Bosch harness fittings (different plug).
Some use to have expensive ID injectors (high impedance). Don't know if they need fuel rail spacers tho.
4. Fuel regulator and pump. Tomei adjustable fpr is my choice. IMO best product on the market. Regarding fuel pump. You should be fine with Walbro 255lph, but you can try 340 lph if you going for silly power. Tomei fpr will deal with bigger pump, no worries.
5. Brakes. You have to fit also Brembo at rear axle to get proper balance, talking about bigger power it's a must have.

And you will need consider what actual power you aiming for. Forged internals are for really big power. Let's say, up to 500 bhp you may need only forged conrods and will get away with just machining pistons to accept floating pins. This can be done by Clive (he is doing one in special reqests) or other to places: CPP or Norris Designs. In other words, maybe it's worth to consider so called "rod job" instead fully forgeing engine.

Another point worth to consider is fittin better profile cams. I'm sure Adam Findlay may provide you with one of custom gring set.

Well it's a long story as I said...

[Piers1989]

Thanks for all the input swinks.
I'll discuss the options in regards to forging with the engine guys when they call next week.
I'd love to get 500bhp+, but would be happy aiming for 450 for the foreseeable future.

I was thinking about the cams too.

I need to have a real hard think about budget, as I was about to get an Ariel Atom, and spending several thousand on the vr4 will delay that significantly...

[adaxo]

I did price up parts needed for overhaul, oversized pistons, rings, all bearings on bottom head gaskets and it was close to £800 IIRC, detailed list with prices laying on my desk at home but im on hols atm, all genuine mitsi parts. then its machine shop/assembly cost on top of that. just my 2pc

[Piers1989]

I did price up parts needed for overhaul, oversized pistons, rings, all bearings on bottom head gaskets and it was close to £800 IIRC, detailed list with prices laying on my desk at home but im on hols atm, all genuine mitsi parts. then its machine shop/assembly cost on top of that. just my 2pc

Thanks Adam,

That sounds about right for what I was expecting - I think the labour is the killer.
Whenever your back I'd be interested to see the list if you don't mind!