4B11 Timing Chain – Good, Bad and Ugly. (mostly ugly, not so much good)
The 4B11 motor that comes in the 2008+ EVO X and 2009+ Lancer RalliArt does not have a timing belt. It has a timing chain that turns the cams. The computer keeps track of how much the chain stretches over time. It will tell you when it is time when all the systems are working properly. If you get the triangle warning light and the car has a rough idle, it might have jumped a tooth or two. A couple more teeth jumping means that valves and pistons start crashing together. If your chain has been confirmed to be stretched and you have a rough idle, don’t drive the car at all.
A recent customer never did a full service and rarely changed his oil in 80k miles. The timing chain stretched enough to jump quite a bit. It bent the intake valves, when the piston came up it smashed the valve stems into the guides to where they broke off. One of the valves got bent into a perfect little taco. It was able to get knocked back into the intake manifold for an out of the park home run. Here is a new redesigned timing chain (with less links to rub against each other) that still will stretch prematurely if you don’t change the oil enough:
How much stretch it takes to make everything crash:
Head damage:
Seriously… dude! Change your oil more often! (more…)
Black Fuel Pump Relay Problem – EVO X/RalliArt
The following applies to the 2008 through 2013 EVO X and 2009 to 2013 RalliArt. It has been known for quite some time now that the fuel pump relays are complete crap in the EVO X and RalliArts. Swapping out to the better blue fuel pump relay is included with a dyno tune here @ RRE.
I had a 2010 X come in for a tune last week. The car had basic mods just installed so it should have been good for a “before” pull as-is on the dyno. After the before pull I’ll put in a 3 port solenoid and do the blue relay swap at the same time. Before the full pull I tipped into the throttle at 3500 rpm to check boost and AFR. It was super lean almost 12:1 afr. For a drop in filter and cat back exhaust it should have been high 10s or low 11s at least.
So I went straight for the fuel relay and swapped it with the blue one. AFR went right back to where it should. Bad black relay caught red-handed. So I figured cut it open to see what exactly is going on in there.
Cut open relay:
Lever assy that the coil pulls sideways and pushes down on the contacts:
I can only guess someone had the bright idea to make a low profile relay by laying the coil on its side. When energized it pulls a lever sideways that pushes down on the contacts. (more…)
RalliArt Lowering Springs – Installed Pics, Measurements
People always want to know, how does a car look with different lowering springs, I think I have some answers.
We’ll start off with a car with stock springs:
One car:
X-Melt :-P
Watch your underhood temps with the EVO X. Mitsubishi had to move the turbo to the back of the motor with the EVO X to make it easier to pass the newer emissions regulations. This puts the catalytic converter closer to the turbo. Already in some European markets Mitsubishi had put a pre-cat in the down pipe of the EVO 9. While solving their cold start emissions problems, this makes for headaches for guys running track days, guys running large turbos and also concerns for people running headers.
Here are some heat failures we have run across lately:
Tubular headers with a plastic valve cover. In 2010 plastic valve covers started showing up on the 4B11 motors. Probably cheaper, they seemed to do the job well enough. They just don’t deal well with heat from a tubular header. We have seen three of these failures. Even when using the factory heat shield wrapped around the headers, if the heat can concentrate up through a gap near the valve cover it will melt.
Lose bolts:
This customer installed stock frame upgrade turbo came loose. The heat shooting out through the small gap at the flange burned a hole through the factory heat shield. Then it proceeded to melt the wire harness and seriously toasted the AMS pump unit. Hopefully the fuses that all blew protected the really expensive bits.
RRE Project RalliArt – March 2012 DSport Track Shot
We picked up the March 2012 issue of DSport with Tim Smith’s EVO X on the cover over the weekend. The magazine also comes with a DSport 2012 Motorsports Guide in the package. Flipping through it and “Hey! I know that car!” They have a nice track action shot of the RRE Project RalliArt sliding around the Streets of Willow Springs. Nice article too about how to get started tracking your car from autocross to open track days and getting into Time Attack.
EVO X/RalliArt – Inside the Stock Muffler
We wanted to see what was inside a EVO/RalliArt muffler so we cut one open to see what made it work. As a kid I always got in trouble for opening things to see what made them work.
At low exhaust pressure the flow through the stock muffler follows these red lines. All the exhaust has to flow through _12_ little holes. Then into a chamber where the only escape is a bunch more holes. Then through a 2” pipe into the center chamber, then out through either of the interior tip pipes.
:-/
Modified Magazine – November 2011 – RRE RalliArt
The November issue of Modified Magazine just hit the news stands. It is a skinny little magazine this month but well worth checking out. Some sweet old school cars and my favorite, an article on our project RRE Ralliart and the BBX Lite turbo install from CBRD! You also get a little article on the 2011 Mitsubishi Owner’s Day with a little pic of the RRE Battle Bot.
The car is currently tuned at 411 whp on our AWD Dynapack dyno and runs 375 whp on GReddy’s Mustang Dyno. It ran 12.2 @109 mph in the 1.4 mile at that hp. A bit more on this car is also in the October DSport. The full Modified Mag article is here.
RalliArt Turbo Size?
We all know that the 2009+ Lancer RalliArt comes with a turbo that is smaller than the EVO X turbo. Exactly how small is it?
Compressor wheel:
Standard tiny Dixie cup:
Tiny Dixie cup installed in the compressor inlet:
Turbine wheel:
Monster wide mouth cap:
Monster cap in the turbine housing.
The turbo is that small :-P Still… this little turbo can go from a stock 210 whp up to 270 whp with less than $1500 in mods and tuning.
AEM Drop-in panel filter $45
Used EVO X FMIC $200-$300 (depending on condition)
Used EVO 9/X BOV $100 (New $180)
Install EVO X FMIC $200
Modified Stock Muffler $140
-or-
RRE Stealthy Axle Back muffler $350 installed.
-or-
Full Magnaflow Cat Back $550 parts and labor.
Dyno Tune $400
Depending on what you pay for the used parts and their condition, depending on how cute you get with the muffler, what installs you do yourself… the price can drop quite a bit!
EVO of the DAY
<3 Ralliart Sportbacks!!
Thanks to Steven Steck for going BIG and Repping for RRE on the HOOD!!!!!
RRE Project RalliArt @ AAA Dragway
We took the RRE Project RalliArt to Fontana to do some further testing for DSport Magazine and their car buyer guide they publish every year. This year they wanted to include some lightly modified cars to test against stock cars.
Enter the RRE RalliArt. The suspension/chassis is a basic street setup. RRE Lowering springs, Whiteline rear sway bar and Stoptech front brake pads. For power it is a full stock longblock with stock cams. It has an RRE FMIC and pipes, BBX-Lite turbo from CBRD, Tomioka tubular exhaust manifold and widemouth down pipe and HKS cat back exhaust. It runs on E-85 fuel with Deatschwerks 800cc injectors and a Blaqops fuel pump kit.
Steph Papadakis did the 1/4 mile testing along with Michael Ferrara. It was fun hanging with two import drag legends from the 90’s for the day. Once Steph got the RalliArt launch sequence down he and Mike ran several low 12 second passes at over 100 mph. The car just rolled over to 29k miles and still got my clutch!
Super Street Magazine – Project Ralliart Sportback Upgrades
Flow And Low, That Is Our Tempo
In our last update for our Ralliart Sportback project, we did a simple upgrade of swapping out our engine valve cover with that of Modified’s Evo X project – not exactly hardcore tech. So to make up for this, we are going to give you a massive update, ranging from power-adders to the suspension and wheel package we’ve been dying to install. First up, it’s a relief to see that all the products that have been long under R&D have finally reached their final production units and we’re grabbing the first ones off the line. And probably like most of you, these are some of the first few mods that people do first to their cars, so we’re following right in line with the masses. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.
DC Sports Exhaust, Upper Intercooler Hard Pipe and K&N Drop-In Filter
In our quest to hit stock Evo X power figures, we had to start somewhere. We learned quickly from Mike Welch at RRE that intake systems don’t affect power on the Ralliart quite like it does on the Evo X (due to the variance in intake design and the way air hits the air flow sensor), but an exhaust does wonders. To keep a close-to-stock appearance, we chose DC Sports’ DTS (Dual Tip System) after-cat exhaust, which is a three-piece kit made from mandrel-bent, 3” T304 stainless steel. Compared to the stock exhaust, this shiny happy replacement eliminates all the restrictions and improves flow roughly 40%, according to DC Sports. With a couple of friends, installing this exhaust is a breeze with only a few hand tools; just give yourself 20 minutes and a willingness to work out your arms.
Next, we went back to RRE and put it up on their Dynapacks to see what kind of power improvements we’d see from the DC DTS exhaust. For those of you who are new to this project, in purely stock form, our initial runs resulted in 210hp (200.13hp corrected) and 192lb-ft (164.31lb-ft corrected). Not bad and lots of room for improvement. With just an exhaust modification alone, we saw a surprising total of 228hp (213.60hp corrected) and significant torque increases of 236lb-ft (175.37lb-ft), which gave all of us a reason to smile as it brings us that much closer to hitting our stock Evo X goal. For kicks, we also decided to install a K&N drop-in filter anyway, just to see what it would do. Even with Mike’s doubts as to whether a drop-in would perform based on previous experiences, we actually came out surprised once again as we picked up an additional 2hp and saw a more smoothing effect of the power curve in higher rpm. While a K&N drop-in filter may not work wonders on all Ralliart engines, we were sold and would recommend this as an affordable modification.
KW Variant 2 Coilovers/SSR Type F Wheels/Toyo T1R Tires
Though there are quite a few excellent choices when it comes to selecting a coilover manufacturer, it was actually more difficult to find a coilover kit for the Ralliart Sportback at all, simply because this isn’t an Evo X, due mostly to differences in subframe design. But there was one company who was willing to take on the Pepsi Challenge. KW Suspension, big in the European market and gaining big ground in the US, are huge car and motorsport enthusiasts, recognized the Ralliart’s tuning potential based off their Evo research on chassis stiffness, and decided to offer the Variant 2 kit solely for Ralliart buyers. Why only the Variant 2? The car isn’t cheap enough to warrant Variant 1s and isn’t quite the motorsport beast the Evo X is, so scratch the Variant 3. No doubt, the Variant 2 coilovers still provide superb handling without sacrificing ride quality, a crucial must-have for a street build like ours.