So I've been a long time lurker, I've always been interested in the $2000 challenge and decided I'm finally at a point in my life to jump in and give it my all. I've had a long history with the Japanese imports with Mitsubishi being my favorite. I have built a few, flipped a few and parted out a metric E36 M3 ton. I aquired a 2001 mirage for $400 late last spring for the sole purpose to get a set of seats and carpet for my race car (93 mirage Evo 1 clone). While this car has set here for the better part of 6 months I received a little nudge from a few friends who participated in the past to toss a car together while challenging myself to get back to the sole root of hot rodding. Roughly two weeks ago I pulled the mirage in the garage to start stripping it to see what I am doing or propose to build. While running some thoughts through my head and the quick and simple 4g63 swap which I have more then enough parts laying around to build a decent car on a budget, I felt that was to easy and nessesary a challenge. I started looking into the v6 n/a swaps that seem to be a hit in PR. While researching the swap, looking over clist and fb market place for suitable donors and or parts I came across a poorly written ad old ad for a 1992 stealth rt TT. While I thought to myself this is too good to be true and an excellent parts donor at the list price of $1000 I decided to message the owner and inquire about availability. To my surprise he still had it but was firm on his price. I'm sitting here thinking to myself at a $1000 I can't hook my trailer up fast enough. I go to get the car it's on jack stands in a gravel driveway and I see a trans sitting in front of it. He explains to me the trans output stripped which Google quickly told me is a common problem. Back to the trans on the ground, "oh the trans is already out". He replied "no that's the old trans from when I did the clutch, the trans in the car has the stripped output but the old trans had problems with reverse, but you can have it if you want and I still have the transfer case". I start smiling ear to ear a little more walking closer to the car I see it's rougher then I was hoping (what do you want for $1k right?) Its pretty rusty, broken trans (maybe I can fix it with the spare that came with it). I start to walk around the car and looking through the poorly tinted windows I see some autometer gauge and an apexi safc. He pops the hood for me and first thing I noticed is a giant gm maf sitting next to it is an hks bov. Start poking around following the gm maf wires to a maf-t box. Got me thinking why this fairly stock car has a maf translator and safc, I jump over and start looking at the injectors to see what I can make of them, first one was hard to see but didn't look stock. After taking some hard to reach pics with my phone I see a rough looking precision injector label. I quickly paid the man and began to load the car up on the trailer to head home.
Fast forward to today and the the stealth is still on the trailer, the mirage is almost a bare she'll and the real shananigens can begin. So my current build and thought process is to use the stealth as a complete donor for the mirage, twin turbo, v6 AWD, wide track of pure badass. I'll try to keep this updated as well as I can although I suck at documenting E36 M3. Wish me luck, I hope it works and I look forward to meeting all of you guys.
It'll be interesting to see what that 3000 has on it.
In reply to Stampie :
I'm hoping there's more then what just jumped out at me, I'm really looking forward to digging into it. Unfortunately it will be a few more weeks before I get it off the trailer and into the garage.
Any chance the Coldwater part of your name places you in the lower center part of the mitten? Because this is awesome and I want to come see it.
This could be very cool. The stealth/3000 has intrigued me.
mazdeuce - Seth said:
Any chance the Coldwater part of your name places you in the lower center part of the mitten? Because this is awesome and I want to come see it.
He’s about 15 minutes from me, all the more reason for you to swing by here with the family on the way up or back.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
In my early 20's a buddy and I tried doing the performance auto thing, it didn't work out or really took off but he dubbed it ColdwaterMotorsports
All my local OG friends still call me Coldwater. But I am in North East Ohio.
In reply to AWSX1686 :
Ya it's definitely a learning curve for myself. I'm not to hip to them like I have the 4g63 stuff. I have always wanted an early 3000gt but the premium they pull always get me away, along with being a heavy slug. So I am hoping with this it'll be a great experience, nice light chassis and I am unfortunately setting some parts to the side for some changes to come after the challenge for what I envision the end result to be. Unless the budget allows some more of course.
In reply to coldwatermotorsports :
Cool. I may still try to bug you when I come bug Patrick. You guys have a pretty great area for wacky builds. The Stealth was a darn cool car for us Midwestern kids back in the day.
An evo with a big block swap! Chopped!
I want to come see this when it starts coming together
I spent my early car years into the Stealth/3000gt and DSMs. I’m in to follow along with your project. Good luck!
Wooo! A 3SX.
I've loved those cars since the early 90's. Another one is on my wish list eventually because it was a fantastic long range cruiser going from PA to FL a couple times a year.
Interested to see where you go with it and how much lighter you can make it.
So not much has happened with the project since my last update. Life through me some hurdles we've been dealing with which haven't left much time for the car. I also went and splurged a little and picked up my first ever new vehicle that I am really excited about. I grabbed a 2018 Ford lightning tribute f150 from my local roush dealer. This thing is pretty exciting to say the least.
But getting back on topic, I managed to find an hour or so last weekend and pulled the remaining body harness out of the mirage. Last night a friend came by after work and helped me get the stealth off the trailer and into the garage. We took some basic measurements and to our surprise I think most of this is going to be straight forward swap. The rear struts are in the same location and spacing between the two cars, the frame rail width in the engine bay is the same width. There seems to be enough room front to back in the engine bay barely but the major hurdle I see thus far is the front struts location and geometry is different. The mirage is 2" narrower overall. I'll have to wait and see how back it is all together to figure out how I plan to correct the problem or if I am just going to move the strut mounts. All in all it look pretty good and we spent about two hours in the garage looking through the car and removing extra factory B's that I won't need or use. We'll see what tonight brings as I continue to pick away at the stealth and move towards mock up in the mirage.
So, let me get this right:
Awd turbo stealth suspension and drivetrain in a mirage, right?
Im dsm stupid, so i ask to make sure i understand what im watching.
NOHOME
UltimaDork
12/22/18 5:12 p.m.
Dusterbd13-michael said:
So, let me get this right:
Awd turbo stealth suspension and drivetrain in a mirage, right?
Im dsm stupid, so i ask to make sure i understand what im watching.
Kinda in the same boat. I get what is being proposed, but don't have any DSM knowledge to give me context. Is this aclever nut and bolt project or an epic tale of transformational fabrication about to take place?
I have memories of people boosting the bejeezus out of these things and breaking anything within 50 ft of the engine.
Pete
From what I know of DSMs:
Mitsubishi was never a big 'car' company, and they applied the Chrysler Taco Bell approach to their cars- using a single, similar chassis with hordes of options for easier tooling. It means anything from an old, rare EVO to strange partnerships with Hyundai (*cough* Jafromobile) can use Mitsubishi parts up and down the line.
I’ve seen the DSM awd drivetrain into a Mirage before but the Stealth is significantly larger and is going to be an interesting task.
Hopefully the mirage ends up with sweet box flares.
Following for more Mitsubishi parts bin extravaganza.
Yes the stealth is being used as a complete donor for the mirage. This swap isn't a bolt in affair by any means. There is a deal of Fab work involved yes. The older mirages 89-92 and 93-96 were some what of a bolt in with dsm stuff. Using my 93 mirage as example it has motor and transmission out of 1g dsm with AWD stuff out of an early Evo(same lancer based chassis as the mirage). The mirage I am using as the challenge car is an 01 which is a flip motor car. Everything will have to be made and fabricated. I may transfer some sheet metal sections to save some time with the motor mounts but as far as the swap is considered nothing is bolt in. I originally went at this thinking I was going to use my hoard of dsm parts and do a typical no typically dsm swap. Then I started seeing some n/a v6 swaps taking off in the fwd platform. When I was cruising the net for a modern 3.8 I came across the add for this stealth. I am still unclear how much of it I'll be able to use but I would like to use it all. Everything on this rusty stealth seems to be fighting me so far but that's part of the fight right? Also had my first visitor pop out of the car.
I've seen the stealth stuff fitted in early dsm before, but never seen the projects take off. I wanted to step out of my comfort zone slightly, challenge myself and learn a new chassis and drivetrain I've always been interested in.
coldwatermotorsports said:
am in North East Ohio.
I'm late to this thread. I didn't realize that your in Ohio. I'm in the Sandusky area.
Sweet truck!
In reply to coldwatermotorsports :
I do not think furry considers himself a visitor!
Man the more and more I dig into this car the more excited I get. It's been a fight these things are definitely a pita to work on. I finally was able to to drop the trans In preparation to yank the Motor and boom!!! There's an aluminum flywheel and a pucked clutch. I have no idea what it is but it definitely makes me happy with this being the car that keeps on giving. Well I'm back at it keep on keeping on with disassembly.
Just wrapped up my stripper party for the evening. Motor, trans and engine harness is out, drive shaft and complete rear subframe. I started to drill 8 million spot welds on a few mounts to see what I can recycle. Mock up may start soon. Also took a closer look at that clutch with the engine on the ground, it's a competition clutch. Someone spent some good coin on that. I may play a little tomorrow if not it may not be till after the new year.
