Might as well knock out the 7 quick. Just picked that one up in October
With Pajero at the doctor, needed something to drive up north. Evo 3... probably would have been fine but I would have had to scramble to do the timing belt, it has also never driven in winter and is pretty uncomfortable to drive. Evo 6, just no, not driving that in winter. Starion... well, talk about a gamble lol. Might have been okay, rwd and 36 years old though... might not have been in a spectacular fashion. Also, starion lights suck. Oh, and all would need winter tires.
So, I called around to friends to see if anyone had any trucks for sale. Tried to buy a 2016 GMC Sierra 1500 from a relative which they mentioned selling.. but they cant find a replacement truck. There was an ecodeesul I thought I was going to get to buy then that person looked at the market and decided, probably smartly, to keep it. Went to dealerships and looked at used trucks, in a lot of cases after paying the increased interest rate on a used truck loan the used trucks would end up costing basically the same as a new one. In some cases (like Tacomas) they could even cost more. Anyways, the used / new truck market right now is super effed. A friend went and inspected a 97 land cruiser for me in Calgary, the guy was just asking too much for how rough the body was so I offered him 15, he said he would think about it.
I knew my friend was selling his evo 7, I actually have a history with this car as I did the pre-purchase inspection on it for him when he bought it. Put it on a lift and went over it in detail, test drove it, compression test blah blah. It was a healthy car I told him he should buy, which he did.
Fast forward, still haven't found anything to buy. Before my friend listed this evo 7 (home ownership, grown up stuff, you know the deal) he asked if I wanted to buy it, I said well I would gladly give you what you paid, but I really just don't need another car right now. He was actually semi tempted at that point, but I said throw it up for 24-25 and it will sell. You cannot get a decent evo 7 for less than that at auction currently. So, I was chatting with him and jokingly said well that offer still stands, and he countered with basically his break even price on the car + the parts he collected for the car (evo 7 acd / ayc transfer case and rear diff, stock wing, stock headlights, like 90% life winter tires and a bunch of oil.. a match made in heaven). I accepted that offer and two days later I drove the hurt pajero to Edmonton, dropped it off with my mechanic, and did the old swaparoo into this evo 7 GSR. Safety inspection, insurance and registration completed before I left town. Since my mechanic friend did the inspection I was able to go under the car and check it out, still pretty nice and overall we were both impressed.
The car is a 2001 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 7 GSR. It had 157,000 km when I picked it up, has had fresh brakes and timing belt.
Originally the car was imported to Calgary, the guy in Calgary winter drove it and also spent some cashola on parts. It has: ets intake, ralliart intercooler pipes, aluminum radiator, carbing rad plate, ams turbo back exhaust, fortune auto coilovers on swift springs, grimspeed electronic boost controller (being controlled by the ECU), AEM wideband, prosport boost guage, jvc bluetooth double din deck, work wheels, brand new indy 500's, ralliart pedals, razo shift knob, front and rear strut braces and a brand new battery, evo 8 wing and headlights (I think the headlights are JDM evo 8 but idk). It was also tuned by airboy at one point.
After getting it home I got to work, cleaned the air filter, the maf, changed the oil, trans was shifting kinda notchy so I changed the trans fluid (46$ / quart now for amsoil manual trans gl4 or did I get ripped off? shifts like normal again so that is good), raised the suspension (actually went as high as I could with the rear coilovers, ended up a little over 1" higher), polished and sealed the headlights, mounted and installed the winter tires it came with on some spare evo 6 wheels I had sitting around from Brian, washed and decontaminated the paint, sealed it with carpro reload (this car will be satisfying to do a paint correction on in the spring), installed an oil pan heater, washed the under body, sealed the wheel wells with some WURTH high build I have been using on everything, and fluid filmed underneath to try and help it from rusting as much as I can while still winter driving it. I also cleaned the whole interior. I feel like if my friend just dealt with the paint a little and cleaned the interior it probably would have gotten sold.
Also, had to drive it back to westlock to exchange the dead battery for the new one. The price on these batteries went up to 460$ or something crazy now, so I was pretty happy for that deal.
Raised, winter tires mounted on some stock evo 6 wheels I had
Bay when I got it home
Probably not destined for black car ownership as this was the 4th time I washed it within the first week
First duty trip up north
Flaps
Wash before another fluid film application
Consulted some old tuning mags to try and find out which wheels came on the car.
Of course I made them white again,
When I dropped them off, I also realized two were 8" wide and two were 9" wide lol... so I had to order 2 more to have a square set up. Finding 20 year old matching wheels... not that fun.
Test fit,
Then I remembered how that fender alignment always bothered me, it even bothered me when I inspected the car for my friend I bought it off however many years ago.
Fixed that
This was also broken into a bunch of peices and held in with hopes and dreams, fixed that. Of course this is specific to the 7, so finding a new one,
Not sure how that breaks without someone standing on it
Then the radiator started leaking, old aluminum radiator stuff
Boost leak test, small leak at boost controller. Fixed that and its holding 25 psi now.
Plans? Not many really. Have a clutch to put in it, I have a spare evo 9 turbo I was thinking about using in the 6 I will probably put in this car this summer and re-tune. I want to re-paint the front bumper and do a paint correction. Standard.