Old-School Tuning Part 1: Engine and Introduction

Old-School Tuning in the 21st Century Part 1

Part 1: Engine and Introduction

This is a short story of how I got into this whole tuning thing and pretty much an overview of where I'm at now.

One thing I have always wanted to do was create some kind of resource for tuning information for old-school cars. I was born in 1985 so if I was a car I'd still make that cut of 1987 and below to be considered old-school. However there is quite a bit of a generation gap between me and the guys who were lucky enough to live during that wonderful era. Even to this day the go to guys if you want to have your old-school ride tuned would be someone from back then. Some of the legends like Jo Maglonso who was considered a genius by his contemporaries in tuning Toyota's and Mitsu's is no longer with us. I fear that the knowledge these guys had could be lost forever as generations pass.

Knowing that, I began my journey in 2004 to try and learn as much as I can and compile the information somewhere. A shot in the dark really as I did not know where to start so despite having no real inclination for Motorsports or Racing (yes, I'm just a street punk who like to drive fast) I started to tune my car. Most of what I learned I posted as tech threads in our 1st Generation Lancer forum; www.1stgenlancer.co.nr and as we go along I'll post compilations of that stuff here. Initially parts and information were very hard to come by. The little parts that I could source were very expensive.

However I was lucky enough to have two good mentors who helped me along. A buddy from the 1stGenLancer gang, who had been tinkering with cars and owned the monster orange '76 Lancer as well as the guys from the legendary exhaust shop; SMT Competition Headers. Things really picked up in 2007 when I had a job that could fund this money consuming monster. As I said in a previous post, knowing is one thing, but experience and practice is something else. So with our collective knowledge together with some ingenious cross referencing to other resources we have actually managed to build a complete tuned car.

The first thing that I learned was that technology has moved on since the 70's and 80's. So, while it would have been easy to go with the tried and tested setup's of old, the deviant in me wanted something else. The classic tuned Mitsubishi would have a Chain Driven 4G32 bored out to the max- some 1800cc's or so. Huge Cam shaft (Mitsubishi works cam#5), big valves in a very much ported cylinder head, and of course the ubiquitous twin side carbs (Weber 45's or Solex 44's). While that setup would be powerful, I was also guaranteed that reliability would be pretty much none existent.

That was not something I would want. So, under the concept of developing a 'maximum street' setup we put together something else. I retained the original Belt driven 4G33 engine bored out to around 1500cc, Blue print specifications, Mitsubishi works rally cam#4, a high compression head with our version of high velocity porting, a single side Weber DCOE side draft carb- which provided a good amount of power without the tuning issues of running twins, and some 21st century touches: Iridium spark plugs, magnetic core high tension wires and a MSD Digital 6 Plus ignition controller with a timing step retard and launch control. The cherry on top of the whipped cream is a bespoke exhaust by SMT that sounds like the bastard child of a Muscle Car and a tuned Honda Type-R. What I ended up with may not be as powerful as a maxed out race setup engine, but it's even more reliable than a stock engine, is a civil and drivable as modern fuel injected engine, provides a more than enough power to easily move the lighted and reinforced chassis to close to twice the legal speed limit.

The engine and this journey is far from done though. Having just put in about 700KM on it after a recent engine rebuild (I blew the engine late last year) I have a few more parts waiting to go on before I can take off the limiter and unleash it's true potential. Everyday is still a learning experience which is why I find this to be so much fun. 

Tuning however is not just about building a powerful engine, it's about total balance and matching the rest of the car to that. Watch out for the next installment when I get into the details about everything else aside from the engine.