Project - Weapon of Mass Destruction (FTO GR)

I bought my GR roughly November 2008 as standard car with an aftermarket back box and the factory option PIAA 15" lightweight alloys. The back box was heavily bodged and eventually started blowing. The alloys looked fantastic but were just too small.

Initial price was £3495 with 65k on the clock, a fresh import and was in fact the first FTO I looked at.. on the forecourt of my then garage of choice.

Now for the pics.... and a couple of subtle changes.



















Purple wheels on so I could refurb the enkeis... they make me feel like a dirty homo.





New exhaust time.

Blueflame off


Carbon N1 style universal back box on




With sound reducer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_giSaSj3c4I

Without sound reducer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1fIg2w9lfc

Both these were with a decat... but it was far too loud for everyday driving so the cat has been put back on.

I think I'm now a bit deaf as the decat pipe is back on making the exhaust note sound lovely.

After a week of sleeping for only a few hours every night I managed to finish off refurbing the enkeis before the FTO OC annual event at Shakespeare raceway back in 2010




FTO engines come pretty well tuned from the factory.. there aren't many gains to be had without spending £££££s

But.. for £120 second hand you can pick up an Apexi S-AFC
The one I snapped up is a limited edition black and silver (they're normally blue and silver)



Rising Sun 2011 was looming and the gf had done exceptionally well at uni so we decided to treat her to an FTO (she'd become hooked while attending midlands meets with me, as the mids bunch are super awesome). Another non mivec FTO in loving hands for a keen £650. It needed a fair bit of cosmetic work but its slowly taking on it's own identity.



I'd never really found a front bumper (excluding maybe the HKS) that I'd liked but loved the exclusivity of a Nakaya Tune Lip spoiler (Mitsi commissioned a small number of Nakaya tune FTO's with a few tweeks)




Old induction kit was mahoooooooosive and the battery was in the way for the new induction set up.


Eventually I'll have a cold air feed direct to the carbon box... as soon as the air con is ditched.

Nakaya tune got a bit of paint for JAE 2011


Booked a slot on the rollers to have the apexi s-afc set up and received a lovely 11 extra ponies taking the figure up to 163bhp. Not blistering by any means and still down on factory but its 16 years old and uses a bit of oil (worn piston rings?)

Finally got round to buying a delimiter chip so I fit some new dials

Before


After



Snapped up some 16" Enkei Rp-01's on ebay for £80


Only for the fresh powdercoat to crack after being stored in my living room for 4 weeks WTF!!!



New steering wheel


Managed to score a carbon bonnet for £100.. and save my self 10kgs over the standard.


Pretty much how it's sitting now... if you've read all the words and not just looked at the pictures then I commend you.



There are a few more things to be done, in no particular order.

- Coilovers
- Respray
- Wilwoods
- Bucket seats and harnesses
- Roll cage

But......... I'm a bargain hunter and in no rush.... I'm also making firm plans for some forced induction.... vvrrrrrrmmmmmmm tish.

Nice one, lovely car. Where are you based mate? I'll bring mine over and say hi if you're not far away.

Thanks.

I'm in Oxfordshire.

Oh not exactly local! How did you find this place?

Nope definitely not local.

I and a few others, gatecrashed Cable Tie Racing's stand at JAE last year and got chatting with a few of them. The were all really nice so I decided to drop by.

Nice car bud, people so often get fto's wrong, but once you've got coilovers that'll be a beaut (not mega low just sitting nicely). always thought fto's looked nice but you never see one thats been done right with the £££ it always goes on body kits and all sorts of other horrible things

Agreed.

Jack wrote:Nice car bud, people so often get fto's wrong, but once you've got coilovers that'll be a beaut (not mega low just sitting nicely). always thought fto's looked nice but you never see one thats been done right with the £££ it always goes on body kits and all sorts of other horrible things

Thanks mate.

The coilies have been on the shopping list for a while now.. but I'm tight so looking for a second hand set less than a year old.

I'm definitely not a fan of bodykits and massive wheels.

I'm not particularly a fan of the bonnet vent but just wanted the bonnet for the weight saving.

Where can I get one of those front lips?

howies5 wrote:Where can I get one of those front lips?

I actually have no idea now.

I bought mine from RB Performance... before he turned into a knob and started messing people around with poor customer service.

I'm sure he used to get his from a guy called Ifty, who had an account on ebay.

I was considering seeing if I could find someone who would overlay with carbon.. or even take a series of molds from mine.

Just did a quick google and no where came up as selling them.

I know someone who could wrap it in nice 3M carbon if you want.

Is this like the one you have? the grey car http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mitsubishi-FTO-Front-Lip-Top-Mix-Nakaya-Tune-Front-Bumper-Bodykit-Body-kit-/170784319974?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item27c389e9e6#ht_500wt_1202

I like this! Nice job you have done with it too

Bingo... second picture of the Silver FTO is the nakaya... and that modz4u name rings a bell. That add is for either a topmix or nakaya tune, I think you specify on check out. You have to wait a few weeks as they build to order.

I fitted mine with some quick release push fasteners.. glad I did as I got stuck in a multi storey once and had to pop it off and walk it down while the missus drove the car :-D

Thanks for the kind words John

Last sunday I decided it was time to lose the air con (needed regassing 3 years ago) so fitted a short power steering belt.

Today it was time to crack on and shed the air con compressor and pipes.
The rad will have to wait as it's tucked in front of the engine rad so it's a bumper off, engine rad off job.

That little lot weighs 13kg!!!

13kg loss, sweet! Free mods are the best

I think it's time to finally out my summer project plans.

So... the plan is born.

Take a turbo from an unsuspecting car



and mount it at the back between the fuel tank and rear bumper.

Sounds simple... maybe not?

Making a list helps... right?

1. Turbo [x]
2. Oil cooler and lines [ ]
3. Oil pump [ ]
4. Coolant lines [ ]
5. Induction pipework [ ]
6. Exhaust pipework [ ]
7. Air filter and splash shield [ ]
8. Wrap exhaust [ ]
9. Engine management [ ] (more on this later)

Onto a few finer details.

I'm wanting a low boost application to stay within the parameters of standard engine internals so I'd be chuffed if I can give it 40bhp and will be staying under 7psi. I've done A LOT of reading about remote mount turbos. There are universal kits out there but when I enquired about price the full kit was £1800. Which to be fair isn't a massive outlay considering that's everything you need. But I'm looking to do this build on a super low budget.

I'm sure there are a lot of people thinking this is a bad idea... it might be... it might not.
It seems big in America where the emissions laws prevent you from messing with anything boost related. With the turbo in the exhaust system at the back the engine runs through any emission related gubbins prior to the turbo (inc cat). There are a lot of opinions that this system will be laggy... most of those people run standard turbo builds and like to defend their way of doing things.

Traditional remote mount turbos do not run intercoolers, the long pipe back up to the engine runs under the car and acts very effectively as an intercooler. They also use a scavenger oil pump to lube the turbo, which involves taping the sump and returning into the rocker cover. I shall be running a standalone oil cooling system.

1. The turbo
I've decided to use a td04h-13c from a Volvo 940 which is actually a unit made by mitsubishi.
There are a few reasons for this. The turbo is a fast spooling small turbo which is good up to a max of 18psi (well above what I want.) I've made this slightly more complicated as the unit I picked up is a water and oil cooled unit, but it only cost me £10.

Please bare in mind this build will be done as cheaply as possible, with the intention of making a system that can be returned back to stock as easily as possible (in case it's a complete failure)

it sounds like you have done your home work on this , you cud prob get away with running that turbo with out the water .

i guess it would cost to much getting a manifold made to put the turbo next to your engine or even go twin turbo ,maybe using gto turbos or is it the same engine as a galant twin turbo

i don't know much about Mitsubishi's but you would not have as much lag if you turbo was near the inlet

just looked is yours a 6A12 DOHC engine ? if so the vr-4 v6 twin turbo is the same engine , this means you could get all the parts and make it OEM turbo no messing around just bolt on parts and they run 276bhp

Sounds pretty cool bud, is it a space issue (the reason for the rear mount)? Interested to see how this goes!

i no its not advised but my t28 is currently running without water aids

martyn wrote:just looked is yours a 6A12 DOHC engine ? if so the vr-4 v6 twin turbo is the same engine , this means you could get all the parts and make it OEM turbo no messing around just bolt on parts and they run 276bhp

The vr-4 engine isn't quite the same, it's a 6A13TT.
It's a 2.5ltr and has a different inlet manifold and throttle body.

It is starting to become a popular upgrade though... but has some big drawbacks.
The main one being heat, everything close to the turbos has to be heat wrapped or re-routed. The rear turbo almost touches the firewall and runs extremely close to the steering rack.

There are a couple of FTO's out there with modified inlets running vr4 twin turbos but the fabrication cost of parts prices the conversion at 3k which is almost the same as a whole vr4 engine conversion.

This whole idea was born from my brothers evo 6. He's building an evo 8 engine and offered me the 6 for my FTO. Having done a lot of research into what seemed like a relatively easy conversion it transpired that was not the case. The biggest headache would have been the gearbox and internals. The clutch alone would have to be a modified os giken at around £1400.

I'd also considered a supercharger as there are a couple of home brewed projects out there but wanted something a little different. Although this week alone I've come across 2 other owner club members who are planning a similar build to mine.... typical.

The cost was really the deciding factor in not slotting it in the engine bay. I have the space as I've moved the battery to the boot and will be losing the air con rad this weekend. I'm hoping to do as much fabrication myself as possible so by having it rear mounted I won't have to fork out for a custom manifold.

It's interesting to know I could run the turbo without the water pipes. I'd read this somewhere on the net too. That might well be a good way to speed up the build. Afterall, with the turbo only costing a tenner I wouldn't be too bothered if I end up with a nice paperweight :-D

I'd also read that if I do tap the coolant then I may not need a turbo timer as the water inside will boil as the turbo cools down and the convection will draw more coolant into the turbo. Seeing as I'm running a stand alone oil supply and cooler could I not just use the turbo's water tracts for oil?

On the water-cooling front, its not in the bay which will let it run cooler anyway, negating the effect of the water, also you're right, the water cooling is also there for people who just spank their car then turn it straight off, if you avoid doing this you'll probably be ok