Hi everyone!

I'm new here - i've been a member of mitsubishi-forums for a while now, and recently found out about this site too (great site btw!) :)

I inherited a magna about a year back, which at first seemed to be in good condition, but then everything went piece by piece. It's taken many, many hours of work and frustration getting everything going right... especially since it's my first car and I've never done anything in the past! :P

Anyways, currently the whole car is completely stock. It's a 1990 EFI TP Magna, and runs really well considering. I'm looking at just doing a few small changes in particular to try and increase fuel economy as much as I can, while at the same time increase performance (if at all possible to do both at once!). I don't mind a small increase in the amount of noise, as since in it's stock form it always has a bit of a whining tone to the engine, which would be nicer without that. The only time it ever sounds decent is revving hard, which in this car seems to limit to about 5500rpm.

The only changes i've done under the hood recently is replaced the head gasket and a few others, along with the valve stem seals; the sparkplugs I have upgraded to Iridium IX plugs (which actually made a noticeable difference to performance!) and new bosch leads; the air filter is just a typical Valvoline one from SuperCheap; Oxy sensor was replaced.. and yeah that's about it.

I really like the car and how it runs, just the fuel economy at about 420km/tank is fairly abysmal, considering our heavy honda oddysey makes about 550km off a tank that's smaller size (newer tech i know tho lol)!


Nice to meet u all!

Dave

Welcome :D

Gday mate. Ive got the EXACT same car as you. 400km out of a tank is normal. I know it sucks. For a bit of a note, and some performance increase, go an exhaust. Ive got a 2' catback. Goes a little bit harder.

Hope you enjoy the forums. Plenty of good knowledged 1st Gen people on here.

Two final things: "picsorban" and use the Search button, it works wonders.

Cya round mate

Another first genner...welcome welcome welcome...you came to the right place for help and fun.

Hope ya enjoy the site. :D :cool:

Gday mate. Ive got the EXACT same car as you. 400km out of a tank is normal. I know it sucks. For a bit of a note, and some performance increase, go an exhaust. Ive got a 2' catback. Goes a little bit harder.

Hope you enjoy the forums. Plenty of good knowledged 1st Gen people on here.

Two final things: "picsorban" and use the Search button, it works wonders.

Cya round mate

TWO FooT EXHAUST.... WOW!


BTW Welcome to AMC bro. It's got me addicted. If you got any problems, do a search, then post a thread! This site can fix anything!

Thanks for the warm welcome all :)


400km out of a tank is normal. I know it sucks. For a bit of a note, and some performance increase, go an exhaust. Ive got a 2' catback. Goes a little bit harder.

Hope you enjoy the forums. Plenty of good knowledged 1st Gen people on here.

Two final things: "picsorban" and use the Search button, it works wonders.



Yeah I used to be able to get fairly close to 500km from a tank... I guess I just drive it a little hard these days hehe

Yeah I have been searching around the forums here for a while trying to work out where best to put work into the car, but being fairly new to the whole modding scene in general, and not having a great deal of money or time to spend I guess it will take a while.

I'm thinking for a start I might have a look at getting some work done on the exhaust, since I have noticed that it seems to have 2 inch all the way down until the catalytical converter, where after that it seems to shrink. I'm also trying to find a better air filter, probably from K&N, since the current one is getting pretty dirty again *sigh*.

I was given a suggestion by the local Mitsu dealer to maybe try slightly lighter oil in the engine too, which from what I've heard should be a bit friendlier to the engine on those cold mornings at startup. It's currently running 20W-50, but i might try some 15W-50 and see how it goes.


Dave

TWO FooT EXHAUST.... WOW!


BTW Welcome to AMC bro. It's got me addicted. If you got any problems, do a search, then post a thread! This site can fix anything!

Quiet smart-**** lol

420k's to a tank somthing isnt rite look at all the mods in my sig i get way more kms than 420 per tank close to 550+ well i always fill every friday arpox 320ks on the trip meter the tank takes about 30lts to fill and its driven hard most of the time.

power mods + better fuel eccon i dont belive is possable unless you start raising the compression most people go for more fuel for power, best mods you can do for now is can of carbi cleaner & a bottle of injector cleaner in the tank, use the carbi cleaner to clean out the pcv valve and unbolt the intake hose from the throttle body start it up rev car to about 2500 rpm and spray the car will almost stall but it gets rid of alot of crap. i would probly change the fuel filter also.

im interesting in the plugs? how bad where your old ones mine are due for a change i may consider something other than standard that is getting good reports

Pete

400km out of a tank is normal. I know it sucks.
400 isnt normal :S, I used to get around 550km on my old motor and that’s driving heavy with a lot of hills driving as its where I live how ever the lame autos do chew more but not THAT much. I hate to think of what my average will be once my new motor goes in very soon :badgrin:

I remember a while back now that after I did a full service (spark plugs, oil, rotor, cap, leads etc plus got my injectors ultrasonically cleaned) I knocked my fuel from 13-14L/100km down to 11-12L, also check you ecu for error codes to make sure something isn’t faulty causing bad fuel usage

as for wanting more noise and power, get a K&N filter youll never look back, and remove thos useless balance shafts and up the timing a little!

Awesome, welcome to aussiemagna mate!

my carby auto with the new cam will yeild about 450-500km to a tank... and i haven't exactly been nice to the car since putting in that new cam (the motor is constantly seeing 6k+ rpm :D)

if i'm nice, i'd probably see about 550ish+...


Hi everyone!

I'm new here - i've been a member of mitsubishi-forums for a while now, and recently found out about this site too (great site btw!) :)

I inherited a magna about a year back, which at first seemed to be in good condition, but then everything went piece by piece. It's taken many, many hours of work and frustration getting everything going right... especially since it's my first car and I've never done anything in the past! :P

Anyways, currently the whole car is completely stock. It's a 1990 EFI TP Magna, and runs really well considering. I'm looking at just doing a few small changes in particular to try and increase fuel economy as much as I can, while at the same time increase performance (if at all possible to do both at once!). I don't mind a small increase in the amount of noise, as since in it's stock form it always has a bit of a whining tone to the engine, which would be nicer without that. The only time it ever sounds decent is revving hard, which in this car seems to limit to about 5500rpm.

The only changes i've done under the hood recently is replaced the head gasket and a few others, along with the valve stem seals; the sparkplugs I have upgraded to Iridium IX plugs (which actually made a noticeable difference to performance!) and new bosch leads; the air filter is just a typical Valvoline one from SuperCheap; Oxy sensor was replaced.. and yeah that's about it.

I really like the car and how it runs, just the fuel economy at about 420km/tank is fairly abysmal, considering our heavy honda oddysey makes about 550km off a tank that's smaller size (newer tech i know tho lol)!


Nice to meet u all!

Dave

as for fuel encomony, start with what peteW said, get some carby cleaner into your throttle, change some filters here and there (fuel filter + air filter)

if you replace the air filter with a K&N, you wont regret it.

timing plays an important part of responsiveness/power. if you tend to run premo fuel, then up the timing a bit to utilise the potential of the fuel. if i run 98 octane, i could up the timing way past mitsus intended spec... then again, i have a carby... which also plays a large factor about what you can and cant do. yet to try 98 octane + timing with my new cam. timing too far advances makes the motor ping/knock, and also makes it run a little hotter... i'm thinking about different spark plugs as my standard $3 bosch ones die pretty quick cos of the heat.

if you would like your motor to rev more freely, then remove the balanceshafts from the motor (re: http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27965) i recently took mine out of my motor. i was gonna do a little write up about it with photos... when i get around to it. also shuts up the one of the chains as you essentially eliminate it.

a mild cam will give you a bit better response/torque across the whole range. this wont upset your ecu either. i went something agreesive cos i'm planning on wacking on a falcon carby soon enough.

exhaust, well at least extractors will def help out with the performance side of things. but if you gonna do the exhaust, go all out and do it in one go.

theres some things to consider :)

Cheers,
Bill

Thanks for all the helpful replies :)

I pulled out that weird silencer thingy just after the AFM this morning, and since doing so the idle has smoothed out a bit more, and is now sitting almost perfectly still, even under load. I did notice though that the air filter is beginning to turn a bit brown, so I might start looking around for the part number for a newer K&N filter. I'm assuming this is just a stock replacement part right?

I might try out the carby cleaner too, since I had noticed that the throttle body all the way through has a slight oily film all along the bottom too. Injector cleaner I have been using for the past year or so on a regular basis.

From searching around a little on these forums, it seems that increasing the size of the exhaust would also decrease lower-end torque, while increasing higher end torque. The low end torque atm is acceptable, but there is a noticeable increase in power once it hits around 3000rpm. This difference in torque between the ranges would be expanded if I changed the exhaust wouldn't it, as the lower end would be weaker and the higher end higher? Also if I were to change the exhaust I would still have to consider things like the cat converter (which still works perfectly) and the oxy sensor obviously. I'm not after something really loud either, as the car is still a sedan and I like having a quiet car, especially on those really long trips :)


Dave

timing plays an important part of responsiveness/power. if you tend to run premo fuel, then up the timing a bit to utilise the potential of the fuel. if i run 98 octane, i could up the timing way past mitsus intended spec... then again, i have a carby... which also plays a large factor about what you can and cant do. yet to try 98 octane + timing with my new cam. timing too far advances makes the motor ping/knock, and also makes it run a little hotter... i'm thinking about different spark plugs as my standard $3 bosch ones die pretty quick cos of the heat.


I tend to normally run off the ethanol stuff from United, since the car used to run awful off normal fuel. I also found I get slightly better performance and the engine runs much smoother using it too. I can't remmeber the octane, but I think it's about 96 it runs off normally. The 98 is just too expensive, especially considering I have to fill up once a week.



if you would like your motor to rev more freely, then remove the balanceshafts from the motor (re: http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27965) i recently took mine out of my motor. i was gonna do a little write up about it with photos... when i get around to it. also shuts up the one of the chains as you essentially eliminate it.


I have thought about this, but since I don't exactly have the right equipment (or the right driveway, which is on a slope), but I imagine that there will be an even rougher idle than it is now. The front and back engine mounts were replaced a while ago, as the front one had completely disintegrated, and the rear one was nearly in the same condition. The back one took me a whole day to get out, since the damn bracket bolts were ceased in the engine block. All fixed now, but the idle I find is still makes the whole car shake quite a bit. The timing chain doesn't really rattle much, except for the first couple of seconds after the car starts, and if you suddenly put on the gas while you're moving. Other than that the engine runs virtually silent on the road. It would still be good to see how you did it though, and I might see what's involved and see if it's worth the effort. I had the head gasket and other various gaskets here and there replaced, so I don't really want to undo my few days of work just trying to pull out some balance shafts...



a mild cam will give you a bit better response/torque across the whole range. this wont upset your ecu either. i went something agreesive cos i'm planning on wacking on a falcon carby soon enough.

exhaust, well at least extractors will def help out with the performance side of things. but if you gonna do the exhaust, go all out and do it in one go.

theres some things to consider :)

Cheers,
Bill

I'll have to do some searching about the cam, and I do feel that the engine is a bit underpowered considering it's size. With more than two people in the car, there is a definite largely noticeable loss in power, especially when going up hills!

The exhaust is tempting to go all out, although I don't really want to go spending too much on anything, as I have already spent lots trying to get the car working as it should. I was more thinking to just make the whole lot the same size, since the end of the exhaust after the cat is smaller diameter than the rest of the system. Although I am still wondering about the loss of low-end torque if I change this (even though the high end advantage would be nice!).


Dave

i wouldnt be too worried about low end if you only do cat back its going to be average < 2500 rpm but people its a 4 cyl the bastards do tend to make better power at speed my setup is lukey extractors, 2.25" felxpipe 2.25" plubmbing with a cat converter from a VP commodore then more 2.25" into lukey turbo muffler.

If your getting chain rattle when you put the foot down its probly time to change them. most BAD ones only rattle on startup have you tryed adjusting it?

disconnect your battery for 15 min that will clear any ECU error code, if you changed your o2 sensor as this was stuffed without doing that the computer is probly rinning in a default safe mode

Thanks Pete,

I think for starters I might change the extractor, and probably get a mild cam. Are the Lukey extractors the way to go? I haven't had a chance to do some serious searching around exhaust places just yet, but I might go have a look around Ringwood sometime soon, since there are quite a few performance places around there. I just got the K&N filter today, and that did certainly change the engine responsiveness quite a bit hehe

When I had the oxy sensor changed I reset the ECU, and it's not returning any codes atm, so it seems that all is good in that way :)



Dave