Gday all!

I recently purchased my nextdoor neighbours TW Magna VRX 04' Series 2 (3.5L Auto Triptonic). He was an older bloke and bought the car new and serviced through mitsubishi. all is well so far. It gets even better. It has 63000kms on the clock, and since June 2012 it has only done 3000kms. I purchased it off him, put her into repairs for RWC and got a few things done, and the mechanic said it was in beautiful knick under the bonnet (as i had hoped).

Since purchase (about a month) i have been driving her almost daily, and admittedly flooring her more than the previous owner who hardly drove it. However i havnt been driving crazy or anything as i want to look after the car long term, but still faster than he had been for 11 years!

Heres my problem: When i put my foot down or shift her into sports transmission and rev her out and try get a bit of power, from around 3500revs+ it sounds like she is struggling. Doesnt feel like it has as much grunt as it should given its sports performance, and it almost sounds like its squealing. Its really not that purr that you should be getting from a 6cyl sports.

Im a bit of a car rookie (know the basics), and i was just looking for a bit of help.

I would consider getting an engine tune or something like that, but dont really have the $$$ to splash. Could it potentially be a little problem like oil or something like that? is there anything i could do to fix her up?

with 63,000kms on the clock id be happy to put a bit of money into her, but not really up for paying $1500+ on an engine tune + ecu system (is this something to look into)

I really want to be able to use her to the full potential and take advantage of the sports system and setup

Hopefully i havnt rambled on too much
Appreciate the help in advance! Thanks guys
Matt

Look at the service history to see if it is due for oil & coolant changes, and other things.

Wouldn't hurt to change spark plugs, air filter, gearbox oil, if these aren't on the service records.
Any actual squeal would be one of the external belt idlers, a lose belt, or one of the two cam belt idlers.

I bet the cam belt is original!

A "tune up" isn't any more than an oil change these days, nothing to "tune" really!

Personally, I would never just drive a car like this without going over it thoroughly looking for neglect and age related deterioration.

How is the fuel consumption and reading on the temperature guage?

You would be surprised how much difference changing spark plugs can do, I've noticed a decent increase in performance since having all plugs replaced since owning my KJ.
The plugs were knackered as well.

Look at the service history to see if it is due for oil & coolant changes, and other things.

Wouldn't hurt to change spark plugs, air filter, gearbox oil, if these aren't on the service records.
Any actual squeal would be one of the external belt idlers, a lose belt, or one of the two cam belt idlers.

I bet the cam belt is original!

A "tune up" isn't any more than an oil change these days, nothing to "tune" really!

Personally, I would never just drive a car like this without going over it thoroughly looking for neglect and age related deterioration.

How is the fuel consumption and reading on the temperature gauge?

Thanks for the input MadMax! Ill look into changing those like you said. Was hoping that something like that could be a problem! How much is a new cam belt approx?
I probably exaggerated a little bit in my original post. Its nothing radical but i have put my foot down occasionally to see how it performs.
Thanks guys keep them coming! Appreciate it :D

+1 for changing timing belt and spark plugs.

After I changed my timing belt which was either stretched or out 1 tooth the engine had more grunt. A week later I replaced the rear platnum plugs which had over 100,000km on them and this improved it further. Other service items that could be effecting performance are the air filter and possibly fuel filter. You can check to see if the timing belt is streched by setting the crank to 0 degrees and removing the right hand cover to see if the marks line up.