After a good year of procrastination.....I finally got around to this project. Long story short....been building Starions and Conquests since 93 and been wanting to do this for years. Finally found a great shell and then after a headgasket replacement realized the "bad" engine ran like a top. Daily drove it for a year before the immense power of the NA G54b was more than I could take <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> Sold the engine and parked the shell for a winter project....so I thought...ha ha ha.

Anyways, I had purchased an 85 Starion several years ago that needed ALOT of cosmetics and a previous owner had started a restoration. However, the car was a barn find with a factory Mitsu longblock bought in 1991 with less than 5000 miles on it!!! Buddy wanted the body so the engine became the heart of this project.

Since the engine had sat for so long I went through it and did a full gasket replacement, changed out the oil pump, and set it up for Gen1 oil pan. The swap was no big deal other than the normal aggravations. Keeping it TBI for the time being since I'm running non-IC but intercooler and MPI are on the shelf. Been using Megasquirt for years in other cars so it was the obvious choice for this project. Running dual 850cc injectors and a Walbro 255 pump. Still have to clean up the wiring now that everything is confirmed. By far the worst part of the project was building heat shields to protect my AC, wiring, and hood paint after the turbo install. Took me a while to find a downpipe I liked with good clearance at the firewall....G54b tucks ALOT tighter to the firewall in a Gen1 than a Starion. Engine bay pics not current but I want to clean up the wiring and mount my heat shields before taking another photo.

Have several hundred miles on it now without issue and have returned it to daily driver duties for the time being. Still have to tweak the fuel map a bit for better cruising MPG's and running it a little over-rich under boost since no intercooler but loving it. Amazing the difference between NA and 5 psi. Exhaust necks down from 2.5" to the stock 2" system for the time being so alot to gain probably once I have time to fab the rest of the exhaust in 2.5" piping. No crazy plans for this one....MPI and 12-15 psi with a 12a turbo should make it move with authority and HOPEFULLY not schrapnel the driveline <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

And DESPERATELY searching for a radiator shroud for the mechanical fan if anyone can hook me up!!!!

Standard gen 1 fan shroud? Son-of-a-#$%$$. I just scrapped one. Sorry. Where you at in GA?

Awesome! Congrats on the project. That thing will be a blast once you finish the little things and are boosting 10-12psi! Looks like you have plenty of fuel!

Yep...Gen1 standard shroud. Runs cool as a cucumber but I'm going to lose skin on this dang fan if I don't cover it. I'm about 30 miles north of downtown Atlanta.

LOVE IT. Keep us posted!

Have quite a bit of mileage on the swap now....maybe 800 or so, and I didn't pay much attention to gas mileage for the first couple tanks since there was still alot of fine tuning to do. Tracked my last tank very closely. It included a couple trips to the office, a few local runs, and one trip into the North GA mountains just to see how it pulled on long hills, etc. Ended up at 17.3 MPG with A/C on some of the time. Not awful, but I had it much better before N/A with fuel injection. Still pig rich (sub 11 AFR's) once I go above 3500 rpm but takes time to adjust up there slowly. I think I can probably get it to the 20 mpg cumulative range once I'm done. It's also turning pretty heavy wheels and tires so I guess 17.3 isn't too shabby. Had some stereo equipment sitting in the garage from a past vehicle that I wired in for giggles so a couple hundred extra lbs too. A Gen1 with competition quality sound is pretty funny...gets a chuckle from everyone.

On another note it's been a BLAST to drive even at 5 psi of boost. Whole different animal. Downshifts never required on the road anymore and it'll wrap the speedo. Only one hiccup since I got it running and it was for a split second when the tank was low....I think I just picked up some air.

Oh yea....the most important part. No leaks...knock wood!!!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

I routinely ran 10-12psi on a non-i/c 85 system in a raider with no problems for almost 100k miles. With your better fueling, you should be able to do the same. Are you using MS to control spark? or are you still using the oem knock box?

I wired in a Starion dizzy sans the knock box so no ignition control beyond the vacumn advance. Without the knock box I'm not reading the knock sensor either so I have to be a little careful especially when tuning. I have everything to run a full Ford EDIS ignition on this setup if I decide to go that route in the future. I've run EDIS and direct COP through Megasquirt in the past but this project doesn't warrant it....yet <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Everything is sitting here for an intercooler install and turbo upgrade but I have to modify my oil cooler mounting location first.

As I bet you know, you get spark retard and advance off the starion dizzy, as boost acts on the diaphragm. The oil cooler is a lot easier to relo if you ditch the steel part of the lines and go all flex, and the i/c plumbing then also has more room. I like the edis ign system. Doesn't your MS read the piezo det sensor?