So, the new head from Mitch did
wonderfully on the trip to Ohio and back. We actually got the car back
together literally the day before making the drive; the head was back on
the weekend before, and we buttoned up the car and did the first test
drive of it two days before heading to Norwalk. I actually did a lot of
last minute work, including wiring up the boost gauge (which subsequently
failed) and new radio, on Thursday before hitting the road Friday.
The work done during this downtime was pretty extensive, and mostly
engine-related. New timing belt, tensioner, tensioner pulley, mount and
idler pulley, water pump, front case (reusing the old gears), and all
related gaskets, along with eliminating the balance shafts, installing
the new head (mild porting, stainless steel valves, upgraded springs,
and new lifters, with the old cams and gears for now), rebuilding the
throttle body, and fixing up quite a few boost leaks in the upper
intercooler piping. We also swapped in a set of new Koni Sport (Koni
Yellows) shocks up front, replaced the factory bumpstops, replaced all
four motor mounts, installed the stainless steel clutch line, and got
the new radio and boost gauge installed (along with properly mounting
the S-AFC). I can't believe how well the car ran after all the work we
did to it; a little initial lifter clattering, which then died down to
a perfectly smooth purr. The biggest problem was that I initially
screwed up the orientation of the driver's side upper spring hat, which
caused some rather frightening squeaking up there, but once it was
rotated correctly, all was good again, and handling was dramatically
improved with the new shocks.
Now that we're back from Ohio, we have a transfer case to replace. we
suspect that the seals in the new transfer case blew because of the
dead carrier bearings on the driveshaft, so we're going to replace those
at the same time ($58 each from
Talahasee Mitsubishi,
so not too bad; we're still deciding if we want to replace the yoke or
not). So, once again, the car is out of commission, but it was fun
while it was running. :-)