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December 30th, 2020 I purchased a dream car of mine. Now almost a year later (November 2021) and finally legal to import into the states, the dream has become very real. Welcome home my new to me 1996 Mitsubishi Evolution IV GSR!
A HUGE shoutout to @lockhart.m109r for hitting me up about the car being available and for being amazingly flexible throughout this whole process and holding onto the car for almost a year for me! Also a HUGE shoutout to JDMI Garage for helping get it to their shop and getting it running!
I was wanting to swap the wheels for a set of 17" which means I had to sell the Advans and I found a set of Volk TE37 on ebay. They are 17x7.5 with an unknown high offset. I ordered a set of custom adapters since they are 5x100 and they should help push the wheels flush. Just waiting on the adapters now, I picked up a set of Sumitomo HTR A/S P03 215/45/17 from tire rack for them.
I have been thinking of buying an older Evo too. Maybe later in the year when I get the others running. Hopefully the prices dont stay super insane like they are now.
Alright, so I'm running into an issue with getting this thing running correctly. I'm putting this here hoping someone may have some advice on what to check next but also just to document the issue.
Issue: With the vacuum line disconnected from the map sensor, the car runs and idles. When we attach the vacuum line onto the map sensor, the idle dies and the car shuts off.
Things I've tried:
-Replaced coolant temp sensor
-Replaced IAT sensor
-Replaced MAP sensor
-Replaced vacuum hoses
-Have had my tuner look at it and try a couple of things, does not seem to be a tuning issue
Comparing the readings to my Evo8s on evoscan, I've noticed the MAP reading stays around atmospheric pressure and the iat is reading only at 11. My next step is to dive into the wiring. This car had an Evo8 ECU already installed. Looking at it, it's slightly a mess. I've found the wires that needed to be swapped and all those are correct but there is an additional wire spliced into the MAP sensor wire on pin 73 within the conversion harness. I'm not sure what this additional wire is and am not sure how to find out. There are also a couple of other wiring nests under the dash I need to dive into and see what they're for.
Update: I had come across online that the Evo 5/6 ecus are plug and play into the Evo 4. Luckily I have a spare Evo 5 ECU sitting around that I've been trying to sell. I unplugged the Evo 8 ECU mess and plugged in the 5 and the car runs, no shutting off with the vacuum connected. I have a feeling it's due to this wire someone spliced into the map wire on the adapter harness but I haven't figured out what that wire is for yet. Anyways, now the check engine light is on and the code reader won't link up to the car so there's another wiring issue somewhere. Which no surprise it's still a mess under the dash. Here's a video showing this.
Ok so check the wiring for continuity using the Map sensor and a voltmeter. Also it might help to make an extension harness so you can see what voltage its reading under vacuum(ie idle).
I need to get a voltmeter haha since I already have the evo 5 ecu hooked up I think I may just try to get this one to work instead of the 8 ecu, which even off the car the wiring is still messy, there are so many other wires cut that dont need to be. Yesterday, I found a handful of wires under the dash, the yellow ones in the video, I found their other ends, not sure why they were cut but im going to see what those are and if they need plugged in. I have a suspicion that they do and that may be the cure to my obd not reading issue.
Smol update: I found out from some fellow Evo 4 owners on Instagram that the Mitsubishi early obdii are pretty old school and to read codes you have to jump pins 1&4 on the obd connector. With this done I am getting code 012 which reads "airflow sensor." The car is converted to speed density so I was confused about this until I came across this thread (https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/sp...nction.419287/). I assume this is something my tuner needs to take care of so I've contacted him to see if he can help. Hopefully, that's all it is!
Meanwhile, I'm still going to town with trying to clean up the wiring under the dash. There are so many wires that arent even connected to anything its ridiculous. And the way things are spliced together is very lazy to put it nicely.
Also, I finally got my wheel adapters to be able to install the TE37s, HOWEVER, I ran into some bad luck due to neglect of double-checking on my end. When I ordered the adapters I didn't have the wheels yet and did a semi thorough google search to see what the TE37 hub bore is, 99% came back with 73.1.... well evidently I ordered the 1% that has a different hub bore. The hub bore on these wheels is 64.6, odd because I can't find anything with that size bore. I know a handful of models are 56.1 but not sure why someone would choose a 64.6 hub bore. I'm still super curious so any ideas feel free to comment them!
Im hoping to have this car on the road by March which is feasible but its at my work so staying late is tricky and im gone two of the weekends so we will see!
Thanks! The SD was set up on the car before I got it. I just got an issue with the ECU fixed so now we're going to start the tuning process and hopefully the check engine light for mass air flow will get taken care of!
Update: Alright, pretty sure my tuner went out of town because I haven't been able to reach him for about a week and a half, so I'm still waiting to tune the car. However I finished going through the wiring mess underneath the dash, except for the gauges because I want to move those at some point, and I discovered something...
ALSO! I got my wheels and tires dropped off at a local powder coat company! It'll probably be late next week until I get them back but I probably won't have my new adapters until then anyways.
Just a smol update: Removed the yellow fog tint, and found out I need to replace the fog light bulbs lol. Finished removing the excess wiring, which was a ton. All of the wiring pictured was completely unused.. cut on one side or leading to nowhere. The only thing left electrical-wise is getting two of the gauges working but I want to move them so I haven't messed with them yet and probably won't until after it's tuned. I also removed the front seats and center console to do a thorough vacuum which was much needed. Lastly, I finally started the tuning process with my tuner from out east. I finally was able to load a base map but were still working out some kinks to get evoscan to connect so I can log. Yes, it is being street logged because there isn't a tuner out here in SLC, UT that I trust that tunes open source.
Next: I'm heading into the shop tomorrow to work on something for the Evo Ive been waiting 2 months for and am very excited! I'll post updates as long as all goes smoothly.
Update: I finallllllllly got the correct wheel adapters!! Hooray! (Smol back story: I ordered a set of custom adapters before I received the wheels, I looked up the TE37 bore online and everyone said 73.1mm so that's what I ordered. Well, when I received the adapters 4 weeks later they didn't fit. I apparently ordered one of the only TE37 sets that have an uber random bore of 64.6mm, I tried searching and couldn't find any car that runs that hub bore. Anyways, I had to custom order a new set and after another 4 weeks, they're finally here!)
I also got my wheels back from the local powder coater and they turned out amazing! I went in last weekend to install them but unfortunately ran into more issues.
The front studs on the car barely cleared the adapters but oddly enough the rear studs are slightly longer by about 2 threads. I had to shave the rear studs and retap the threads. At this point, I test fit the wheels and they fit better than I imagined! (I really wasn't sure how it would come together with the offset and adapters) however another issue, my current lug nuts have rust at the tops and only 4 of them would thread on far enough for the wheel to tighten, and my buddy had a set of 12x1.5 but his weren't long enough. I ordered a set of open-ended lug nuts because no one locally had a set and they should arrive Thursday.
Update: Just realized I never posted a photo with the wheels on, so here is that
Also, last Saturday I came in to swap the coilovers. The car came with a set of Cusco coilovers installed but one of them was blown and leaking fluid pretty bad. The old owner had purchased a set of new ISC Street Sport coilovers that he included with the car so I got those installed. I have an alignment setup for next Monday so I wont be driving it until then.
Also, Im still working on trying to get the car tuned. I was having an issue where the fuel would cut randomly, which felt like a dead spot in the pedal. My tuner thinks this is part of the tune. I sent him a datalog of what the car is doing but unfortunately he is saying the MAP sensor STILL isnt reading right.
For those that don't know, the car had a modified Evo 8 ECU installed, and I was having an issue where the car would lose idle and die when vacuum was hooked up to the MAP sensor (so its not reading right) I have tried replacing the sensor, replacing the vacuum lines, and checking the ECU connections. Everything looked to be correct. I swapped to the Evo 5 ECU I had and now the car runs with the MAP sensor connected but it apparently still isnt reading right. Im at the point where I dont know what else to look at with the MAP and may just swap it back to a MAF setup since I dont plan on doing a big build or having lots of boost.
Jan 19, 2022, 10:56 AM
haha since I already have the evo 5 ecu hooked up I think I may just try to get this one to work instead of the 8 ecu, which even off the car the wiring is still messy, there are so many other wires cut that dont need to be. Yesterday, I found a handful of wires under the dash, the yellow ones in the video, I found their other ends, not sure why they were cut but im going to see what those are and if they need plugged in. I have a suspicion that they do and that may be the cure to my obd not reading issue.
