Project Mitsubishi GTO-TT

[Keithmac]

It came from Japan with aftermarket shocks and lowering springs, took all the that off to fit coilovers, then bought all the OEM ECS kit to replace the coilovers.

The Tein EDFC looks an interesting bit of kit, probably the way to go when my ECS struts fail (with road bias spring rates).

The stock ECS does rebound and compression iirc.

I've kept the Golf on it's Koni Coilovers, I like the compliance of the standard kit on the GTO.

Saying that it will be getting polyurethane bushes at some point.

 

[hotponyshoes]

Felt like a very sloppy car (only ever drive it on the track) so I fitted the tein edfc kit and it was far better.
I expect the standard kit is fine for road use but I was used to tracking a fully rose-jointed 7

Lot of slop in the drive train as well, I've got as far as solid diff and solid engine/box mounts. Arm bushes might have been fitted previously or that might have been on my list. Think I remember drawing up some rose joint linkages for the racks as well to increase the action of the rear wheel steering...

 

[hotponyshoes]

I fitted the tein so I might even still have the original ones somewhere..

 

[Keithmac]

I have all solid engine mounts and aluminium diff mount inserts as well.

The rear wheel steer is "in phase" for better lane chaging stability, plenty delete it by I've kept it.

I used mine for drag racing back in the day, then local track shut down (York Raceway at Melbourne).

It had an OS Geiken R3C (triple plate ceremetalic) clutch. Took that out before I laid the car up because it was horrific for road use!. Still got it in a box somewhere, beautiful bit of kit.

I asked a company a while back if they could re-line or make a set of plates for it (carbon or kevlar).

If you haven't already done it the rear diff can have it's backlash adjusted from the outside, you need a new pair of driveshaft seals though as these are removed to set the crown wheel. They were all sloppy / slack from the factory.

Could possibly be interested in your old ECS struts at some point when my bank balance has recovered.

 

[hotponyshoes]

We were looking at swapping the steering around to out of phase, mainly because the airfield track days were tight (gti size) corners and relatively low speeds. This is where the little cars would get us.
The long straights were just straight.
If I remember rear steering angle was limited to 4deg but I think we had drawn up a way to get it upto 10deg or more with only mechanical linkage mods.

I do have access to some very clever guys although I think they generally thought the time and effort would be better spent on a better vehicle. To be fair, she was always the biggest car on the track but they certainly look like they belong there unlike the novas and the gtis...

 

[bs2236]

I have all solid engine mounts and aluminium diff mount inserts as well.

The rear wheel steer is "in phase" for better lane chaging stability, plenty delete it by I've kept it.

I used mine for drag racing back in the day, then local track shut down (York Raceway at Melbourne).

It had an OS Geiken R3C (triple plate ceremetalic) clutch. Took that out before I laid the car up because it was horrific for road use!. Still got it in a box somewhere, beautiful bit of kit.

I asked a company a while back if they could re-line or make a set of plates for it (carbon or kevlar).

If you haven't already done it the rear diff can have it's backlash adjusted from the outside, you need a new pair of driveshaft seals though as these are removed to set the crown wheel. They were all sloppy / slack from the factory.

Could possibly be interested in your old ECS struts at some point when my bank balance has recovered.

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Melbourne is back open again and on the up as an 1/8 mile track. Very popular, some fantastic weekend racing there this year (in my case spectating!). Maybe give it a try again sometime when you get the mot sorted

 

[Keithmac]

Melbourne is back open again and on the up as an 1/8 mile track. Very popular, some fantastic weekend racing there this year (in my case spectating!). Maybe give it a try again sometime when you get the mot sorted

Yes I've been keeping an eye on it and would love to run again.

I believe Mintex took over the old dragstrip and they have laid another, trying to finish the braking zone or extend the pits to get it back up to a 1/4 mile again?.

I ran a few years with the same number back in the day (X111), had some great times there.

Cost me 6 clutches mind but worth the hassle!.

I know if I do go again it'll end up expensive lol.

The launch control will eat my current clutch for breakfast and as much as you try to keep calm and sympathetic as soon as you hit the staging line all that goes out of the window!.

I actually ran against a lovely chap in a Dogde Steath at York Raceway, he had come over from America (was working for US Air Force), brought his car with him (I knew of him through the forums).

 

[Keithmac]

Can remember one Easter weekend meet it got snowed off, they sent us (X Class) down to try and clear the track but it was a bit sketchy!.

 

[Keithmac]

Laid on the floor after work tonight, **** wet through fitting rack boots.

All back together and off for re-test tomorrow morning.

Will be worth it so we can go for a drive on Sunday hopefully!.

Gone with stainless hose clamps on rack ends sonst least next time I can remove them without cutting the clamps off..

Subfame braces were a pig to refit, need to do some alterations to make it easier next time..

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

My mate had one back in the 1990s....lovely cars...fully loaded as I recall. His was the NA so not that fast but looked the part...think he had issues with the 4ws and I remember he needed a bank loan to fix the steering on it!

 

[Keithmac]

Took an hour off work this morning and took it in for re-test.

Pass with no advisories so all good for a few drives out this year.

One lad at the garage owns a lovely VW Corrado V6 Turbo, we were chatting about German vs Japanese engineering.

 

[Keithmac]

I was just commenting a few days back I was amazed the Wideband sensor (LSU 4.2) was still going nigh on 20 years, should have hlkepr my mouth shut!.

Anyway, garage next to us this morning manage to source me a new sensor (absolutely amazing for a Saturday!).

Though it would be a 10 min job to swap out after work tonight, took 1.5 hours and a load of swearing..

 

[Keithmac]

Never far away from a computer..

My GTO runs an Emanage Utimate Fuel Management Unit.

Trust/Greddy never made a 64 bit driver for the built in USB coms.

32 Bit computers are hard to come by in decent nick and I had already bought a decent Windows 11 laptop for the Golf.

So I've had a few late nights making a WindowsXP Virtual Machine and sending all the programs over.

To be fair once you've got the hang of it it's pretty straight forward.

Managed to connect to my EMU so can now do some Datalogging and Tuning adjustments.

 

[Keithmac]

Managed to get MegaLogViewer-HD to import a datalog from the Emanage which is a result.

Looked at the Histograms etc but went back to my old ways, Notepad and a cup of tea for retuning.

She's a tad lean on E5.

 

[Keithmac]

Been out with my daughter on a night and we have been driving / datalogging and tuning.

Got a little system going now where I can look at Injector Map2 (O2 corrected), find all the points in the datalog where it suggests a change is necessary and then update my main Injector Map1 when I've verified it is a proper alteration.

Need to do some 3rd / 4th gear higher boost tuning which is not road work really so might book in for a Top Speed run day somewhere and get some good data.

Think Elvington Airfield run a few.

I've calculated the maps so it should be close enough (within 10%).

 

[Keithmac]

Well, you are only ever 5 minutes away from a 5 hour job with the GTO!

Decided to fit my new Android head unit on Monday, half an hours job tops..

Spend far too long looking for a single headunit connector to match the same one as the ISO patch lead I bought. Turns out very early GTO's have a completely different pair of connectors..

Turfed the loft out to find my original head unit to confirm, them more turfing out and luckily found my old patch lead (lesson learnt again, never chuck anything away!).

Then onto finding a connector pinout, a correct connector pinout.. Then make my own connector pinout (luckily the speaker wiring was all in the right place, just power needed jiggling about).

Powered my stereo up to find right door speaker inop, took door to bits to sort that (wondered where my Focals had gone!.).

Then "while you're in there kicked in, took my laptop charger to bits and hard wired it in, tidied up some wiring.

To finish off I've modified a Bluetooth battery monitor with and SAE 30 connector (Optimate), so I can leave it plugged in and check keep an eye on battery voltage via my phone.

Can use it on the GTO and the Golf.

Just need a Bezel for the head unit now..

 

[Keithmac]

Been weighing up my propshaft mount options (one is slightly sloppy lol).

I'd love a set of billet ones but at over £500 a pair I can't justify it.

Ordered a set of OEM style which are on the soft side but have seen a few people have filled them with PU adhesive with good results so that's the route I'm taking.

If I can get mounts filled on Wednesday they should be cured for the weekend.

Hopefully get propshaft out re-bearinged and back in on Sunday.

 

[skotl]

I missed this thread, first time round - that's all very brave and I'll be following along with interest!

I had a bright red 1990 GTO manual import - got it around 1998 IIRC. It had the four wheel steer, too, plus active aero. I drove it during two winters to Tain and back in the snow, where it effectively became a snow plough!
Am I correct in remembering it does more than 60MPH in second?

Fantastic motor and super fast. I also had an FTO a few years later - an auto GPX which was also great fun.

 

[Keithmac]

@skotl.

Yes, 80mph 2nd gear, 120mph 3rd, 160mph 4th and 200mph 5th.

It is a problem as "spirited driving" could easily see you well over the speed limit unfortunately.

I only every used 1st to 3rd when 1/4 mileing and the were 118mph to 120mph traps.

Yours will probably be the same as mine, 1st Generation GTO-TT. They started taking bits off on later models to save money.

 

[Keithmac]

1st stage of my propshaft service.

My new mounts came in, very beefy and good quality BUT..

All the aftermarket mounts have the bearing in the wrong way round!, the seal should face the front of the car.

Managed to pop the bearings out at work easily enough and turn them round (luckily they are not bonded to the rubber!).

Next up at home was to pump them full of PU40 adhesive.

It's almost like they were designed to be filled up, lovely accessible hole on the top of the mount, channels through to the bottom.

Used approx 2/3rds of a 300ml tube for each mount, bonus side I didn't make a mess everywhere.

They've come out a lot better than expected and sat aside setting up ready for Sunday.