Evo engine destruction and build

Hello all.

I recently fell into an Evo 4 with an Evo 8 block, Airtrek head, GSC cams, evo 9 turbo, Haltech elite 1000 and many supporting mods such as wide band, various press sensors and the likes.

The car was remote tuned and not running particularly smooth. The previous owner urged me to get a retune before smacking the turbo in its behind, which was very good advice and I very much agreed to this.

I ended up driving it and had a long stretch of open road, buried my foot in it, boost came on hard, sounded awesome, made great power, and promptly lost all oil pressure! I nursed the car home ( about 1km ) on roughly 4psi of oil pressure. Changed oil to check for flakey bits and the mag drain plug had LOTS of metal flake on it. Hoped i just smoked a rod bearing, ordered some new ones ( It is a relatively new block, so i figured either its already broken or this will work ) and today I pulled the pan off to find all 4 rod bearings spun, and a plethure of metal in the pan. The engine actually runs GREAT as long as the oil is not up to temp yet.

So I am definitely in for a rebuild or new engine of sorts.

Here is my question to you fellow HP folks.

I live in Japan currenly, and machine work is so disgustingly expensive that its actually cheaper to buy a new shortblock from Mitsubishi. I have received a quote from a local shop that has an AWD dyno, and for a rebuild plus tune they quoted me 24k USD on the low end with room to grow. A new Evo 9 shortblock is 3100USD right now, as I just inquired at the dealer. Judging by the oil pan, I am not to sure if I would just swap the head over, or try and source a new one.

So what is my best option here? suck it up, get a new block, head, turbo and go from there, pay the 1500 USD for a dyno tune and let it roll, or is there a magical combo the HP forum crew knows that would be a bit more economical? I have time, and while I can afford to do the shop rebuilt for an unrealistic amount of money, I MUCH rather use that money for something better, like a upgraded trans or something.

I have some facilities available to do work, however I can't leve the vehicle there taken apart for a couple weeks at a time, so ultimately the best option would be to have either a short block or a long ready to go.

Alternatively I also checked for used engines, and honestly at the rate they are going I can go all new.

I tossed in some pics if the metal bits i picked up from the oil pickup, one of the crank on #3 rod and some sweet burnt up rod bearings.

I am looking forward to your suggestions.

Phil

Also, If anyone wants to peek at the tune and see if there is something detrimental in there that caused it I am more than willing to share that, seeing how something went terribly wrong of course. I am guessing I had a savage case of knock....

It depends a great deal on the loadings you expect to put on the engine - boost/torque, power, rpm, being the main ones.

For moderate increases the OEM supplied short block may be perfectly adequate - there are some very experienced chaps here who can tell you chapter and verse on potential issues - but with every engine there will be points where extra care will be required for clearances, mechanical parts will need to be upgraded, etc. I assume the machine shop you were quoted that price for are specialists - what you have to remember is you're paying for their experience, knowledge, at least a couple of dummy builds, etc.

Depending on your budget, and ability, an option may be to purchase two short blocks - use one to get the vehicle running in a MILD! tune while building the second to the level that's required for the much higher boost & power level I think you're looking at. Not forgetting any oiling upgrades that may be recommended and possibly overlooked by the previous owner.

Gord,

Great point! I honestly think something was screwy with the tune in the Haltech and i knocked whilst in boost.

The previous owner purchased a brand new Evo 8 shortblock, replaced the rod bearings with ACL's, put in ARP rod bolts and ARP head studs and then put a head on that had GSC cams, valve springs etc etc in it. The block also had new balance shaft, belts etc etc.

The machine work is excessively expensive here in Japan, as in prohibitively so! the quote for a brand new Mitsubishi short block is 420k yen, mean while rods, crank, pistons, machine work and assembly is 1.4 million yen. And that is NOT with crazy parts. This is the main reason why I am thinking on just going with a new block, and either finding another head or seeing if I can salvage the one currently on there.

Depending on the price that I could find a head for, I think will determine the outcome here. Further, I will have to get it tuned regardless. As much as I would love to do it myself, I am a super novice, and this thing was "remote tuned" from an "evo expert" according to the previous owner. I did some looking around in the tune, and it seems lacking to say the least.

Thanks for the comment!

Phil

I would suggest selling stand alone unit and convert it to evo 8 ECU with speed density - its very common thing.

I can build you new short block quite easy since I live very close to Japan. My labor is very cheap ( picture attached is the photo of the 2.4 l evo engine i just built for customer.

Meanwhile you couldn't run used Airtrek engine - I've seen quite a few on Yahoo auction withing 2-3 k range..

I am pretty interested in your services ! I have no issues assembling a long block here, but machine work is crazy crazy expensive in japan.

for example, i was quoted 160k yen just for machine work on the block. this included only decking the block, bore and hone, and cleaning.

When I still lived in the USA, machine work would sometimes be fairly costly, but this is pretty crazy to me, never mind the fact that there is also a 400k yen fee for dissaembly, measuring and reassembly of the engine. and that is not even touching the parts.

Shoot me an email at phil937 at gmail maybe we can come to an arrangement.

Well, it's even easier than. I can arrange all machine work for you at no additional cost... I'll send you a message to clarify...

OMFG, as the kids would say - just did the YEN to NZ$ conversion!

Shota, it isn't clear if you're suggesting the Airtrek engine is a viable option, at least in the short term, or not? I would expect there to be a "EVO" tax on many things just because it's used from that engine, and there are many other engines using exactly the same parts that are much cheaper to buy from/for them. I know of other instances where a "turbo'" short block used to command a substantial premium when the OEM block, crank', and rods were identical - just the pistons were different, and if re-boring the latter was irrelevant and rod's were replaced for anything more than a moderate increase, also, the crank was good for rather substantial power increases.

Gord, yes - you are absolutely right. Airtrek engine can be used as a short time replacement while the heavy duty engine is being built... It's as strong as stock evo 4-6 engine.

Message sent to phil937 at gmail