I would advise anyone looking at forced induction for the Magna/Verada 6G74 to consider a piston upgrade.

I recently had a sprintex installed on a 2005 awd Verada GTVi, with the piggyback ECU and seventh injector, running nominal 6psi boost. The ECU failed to activate the extra injector (I had the car back for only three hours) and the resulting detonation (even on such a mildly modified engine) destroyed the pistons. The risk of catastrophic detonation seems to be significantly greater in a forced induction engine and power freaks who talk of 10 psi boost need to take extra care with set up and as insurance, better pistoins than the lumps of butter that mitsubishi supply.


I must commend the team at Sprintex/AAC for their service. The fault in the ECU was not forseeable (very rare failure from what I am told) and when the engine died, they dropped everything to remedy the fault. These guys are professionals and I feel much more comfortable with their work than say a backyard power maniac offering me 400 hp with a pair of bolt on snails.

In the brief time my car was operating, the supercharger did everything it was designed to do, and the linear power delivery from idle was impressive and made for a very driveable and well balanced vehicle.

These kits when fitted to a tiptronic awd will not set any quarter mile records, but you will be able to keep the power piled on in the wet, on gravel and can enjoy fairly strong in-gear acceleration (real world driving). If you want a quarter mile car, the tiptronic semi auto is not ideal - it takes way too long to shift. In fact, left alone in auto mode , the auto seems quicker to 100 kmhr. With the right transmission, I am sure there would be up to a second to be shaved off the qtr mile times. I stopwatch timed a standing 100 kmhr run (not terribly accurate) with two people on board at about 30 degrees C, standing on the brake and launching at about 1500 rpm. The result?

Better than published, by about 0.3 seconds.

hey dude welcome to the forums and sorry bout the bad luck.

a few peole here have SC'd their magnas and so far no problems yet with pistons or anything that we know of. but good thing the guys that installed will be fixing that for ya so all will be well. so while they are changing the pistons are you going to make anymore changes while shes open?

The morel of the story is to run a decient ECU.

I am supprised a reputable workshop would waste their(and their customers) time with a piggy back item.

i was pretty sure it was very hard to run a complete aftermarket ECU in a magna, so piggyback is the way to go?

bad luck on the pistons! i was pretty sure the magnas had reasonably strong internals

I think I will keep the mods mild as they are for 12 months and keep my warranty.

I also want to get used to the car and driving an all wheel drive at 8/10ths with this level of power.

My past bogan drives have been rear wheel drives and very toey (including a 500 hp pushrod V8), requiring a bit more concentration.

I'm a bit older now and like to enjoy the driving experience without worrying about opposite lock every time a corner comes. I can do that offroad in my beat up old HZJ75 traytop (believe me after a couple of decades you get over it).

The cops will look at my verada, notice the cardigan draped over the seat and pretty much leave me alone to enjoy myself, while they book the bloke with the milo tin exhaust and audio system advertisments.

I was under the impression that the ECU supplied with the Sprintex SC was just a re-mapped stock ECU. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

cheers,
.wook

i was pretty sure it was very hard to run a complete aftermarket ECU in a magna, so piggyback is the way to go?

bad luck on the pistons! i was pretty sure the magnas had reasonably strong internals


Easy to do.. i got one and so do a few other forum memebers..:)

Im very suprised to hear that the pistons are soft. Standard pistons are ACL and can handle PSI of the standard blower..:confused:

Hardly the pistons' fault that they couldn't stand up to a massive lean condition under boost, I'd think. I'd expect damage to anything but forged pistons. Maybe not complete melt-down but they'd certainly get unhappy.

Hardly the pistons' fault that they couldn't stand up to a massive lean condition under boost, I'd think.
Yeah user error..:)

Fricken ouch... Scarey. What are they doing to remedy this? New/rebuild engine?

Cheers
Heath Young

So Sprintex will fix the engine (or a drop a new one in...?) under waranty I'm taking it?

I guess with so many kits having being sold and fitted now, something had to go wrong somewhere.

Sending a piston flying through your bonnet is about as 'wrong' as you can get, though.

:bowrofl:

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with your modified car - but I fully agree with others who have commented that it is hardly an indication of "soft" pistons. To have an injector fail under boost would cause a massive lean out - and I'm not the slightest bit surprised by the results.

All the research I did into the topic led me to the conclusion that 6psi is more than a safe level of boost for a standard 3.5L engine with the right tune.

Despite the error being caused by an ECU supplied by a third party, the AAC people are fixing everything. You don't often find warranty service this good, especially with performance workshops.

That's why I chose AAC, their reputation is excellent and their workmanship is first class (the installation looks like it belongs there).

It will be fixed in the next day or so and I don't think any amount of spirited driving will be able to kill it, provided the engine gets enough fuel.

The 380 supercharger kit sounds like a winner, although mitsubishi made a blunder by not offering an all wheel drive version (plus the questionable front end styling).

So just out of curiosity it is possible to run an after market full replacement ecu in an AWD auto VRX Magna?? How much, what brand????

So just out of curiosity it is possible to run an after market full replacement ecu in an AWD auto VRX Magna?? How much, what brand????

Let me answer that with an authoritative: probably!!

There's no limitation to running the engine (although you will need to replace the MAF sensor with a MAP sensor.. I'm not aware of any replacement ECUs that can read the load signal from a Karman-Vortex MAF sensor). The trick comes with the auto box and how much it cares about proper functioning of the main ECU.

With my Haltech E6X installation the factory ECU is still there and functioning, but it's crippled because it no longer gets a load or CAS signal.. if this 'malfunction' were enough to trip the auto box into limp-home mode you'd be in trouble. I have a manual so this doesn't affect me.

The morel of the story is to run a decient ECU.

I am supprised a reputable workshop would waste their(and their customers) time with a piggy back item.

A lot of development time and dollars goes into the factory ECU, and third-party ECUs will take a similar amount of development effort too!
Rather than put a third-party ECU into a modified car, you're generally much better off trying to remap the factory ECU.

Have a read of this Autospeed article (http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_3099/article.html) for more info.

Cheers,
Martin.

Rather than put a third-party ECU into a modified car, you're generally much better off trying to remap the factory ECU.

Which is currently not possible on the Magnas. Theres only one person on here who has had one remapped and he had it done while working at Mitsubishi. If it was as easy as remapping the stock ecu, none of us would go for aftermarket jobbies.

AAC completed the repair job without hassle, and I now have a practically new engine with functioning supercharger and control system. I doubt any other performance shop would offer the same warranty service.

Good to hear, any pics?

AAC completed the repair job without hassle, and I now have a practically new engine with functioning supercharger and control system. I doubt any other performance shop would offer the same warranty service.

Dude, you could get a job in sales...

the sprintec ecu/piggy back is a "power pro" unit made in sth africa... and from a power pro dealer i was talking to can be tuned just the same as a unichip can...

and the posted problem!! well thats the reason why i couldnt have my car at first, sprintex wouldnt let me have it, and promply sent a remapped ecu which is a verrrry safe tune

and the posted problem!! well thats the reason why i couldnt have my car at first, sprintex wouldnt let me have it, and promply sent a remapped ecu which is a verrrry safe tune

Unfortunately verrrrry safe tunes tend to be verrrry low performance tunes too :(

Unfortunately verrrrry safe tunes tend to be verrrry low performance tunes too :(


hahaha yes as mentioned in my supercharged thread.... i'll fix that though...



sorry to hear about you engine problems though orig poster, glad its been loked after and your on the road again...

in regards to performance
one member here ran a 14.45 @ 100mph in an auto vrx as the kit is supplied... thats better than what could be expected and he's got a gay tune too.

Which is currently not possible on the Magnas. Theres only one person on here who has had one remapped and he had it done while working at Mitsubishi. If it was as easy as remapping the stock ecu, none of us would go for aftermarket jobbies.

That would be me :D .
I can remap my factory ECU whenever i want, all that was done whist i was working for Mitsubishi by a R&D workmate who unlocked the security codes on the ECU for me so i could then access all the maps and then alter them with my version of there remapping software.

I have a new set of rods,rings and pistons and a new crank in the garage for such an emergency if I ever get to go forced induction.

hahaha yes as mentioned in my supercharged thread.... i'll fix that though...


sorry to hear about you engine problems though orig poster, glad its been loked after and your on the road again...

in regards to performance
one member here ran a 14.45 @ 100mph in an auto vrx as the kit is supplied... thats better than what could be expected and he's got a gay tune too.

That is an impressive time for an auto magna. Conceptually, low-mid14's should be easily attainable with the normal tuning and std diff ratio. Just need to find a way of making the tippy shift with a bit more urgency.

It all depends on whether you want a drivable everyday car, or one that gets you beat over the head with an umbrella everytime you take mum for a ride.

That would be me :D .
I can remap my factory ECU whenever i want, all that was done whist i was working for Mitsubishi by a R&D workmate who unlocked the security codes on the ECU for me so i could then access all the maps and then alter them with my version of there remapping software.

I have been talking to shall we we say "MR K" as well and he is trying to find out the Base Rom ID code so that he can unlock mine. So far no success :cry:

But isn't yours a TH ecu as I have been told that they came from the manufacturer unlocked to aid in the Ralliart Magna developtment???

the sprintec ecu/piggy back is a "power pro" unit made in sth africa... and from a power pro dealer i was talking to can be tuned just the same as a unichip can...

and the posted problem!! well thats the reason why i couldnt have my car at first, sprintex wouldnt let me have it, and promply sent a remapped ecu which is a verrrry safe tune

Is it "Power Pro" or should that be "Perfect Power", as I can't find anything on the former.

Perfect Power website mentions Sprintex as a dealer amongst others here in Aus.

http://www.perfectpower.com/default.asp

I have been talking to shall we we say "MR K" as well and he is trying to find out the Base Rom ID code so that he can unlock mine. So far no success :cry:

But isn't yours a TH ecu as I have been told that they came from the manufacturer unlocked to aid in the Ralliart Magna developtment???

My car is a TH manual sports so yes my ECU is a TH unit and yes they used TH ECU's in the prototype/P1 pilot ralliarts so they could get the performance/drivability/economy tuning spot on before getting the production ECU's made.

Is it "Power Pro" or should that be "Perfect Power", as I can't find anything on the former.

Perfect Power website mentions Sprintex as a dealer amongst others here in Aus.

http://www.perfectpower.com/default.asp


that sounds better... i couldnt rember

Ive heard really bad things about those 7th injectors, engine rebuilds after 10,000km etc. A local sc installer says he wont recommend them, but will recommend upgrading the injectors instead.