Replace Your Old Cap

credit to: ECU repairer http://mrgears.50webs.com/ECU2.htm
ENGINE CONTROL UNIT (ECU) & DO-IT YOURSELF ECU REPAIRS

Throughout the past 15 years I’ve been a business associate and close mate of Chris, from Meek Automotive. In this time, I have been asked by numerous people in the industry including Chris to write an article about the repair and restoration of ECU’s (and other vehicle computer based control systems). The reasons for these requests are varied and numerous; yet all required something that would assist, show, demonstrate and one hopes, explain a number of things, in particular; -

1. If you own a Mitsubishi vehicle model between 1989 and 1994, why you should get the capacitors changed.
   
2. Why it’s probably not that wise to do it yourself and furthermore why your average TV repairman can’t do it.
   
3. And in addition what happens when you try to put a “Chip” in and things go wrong !*#!^

If you own a Mitsubishi vehicle model between 1989 and 1994, why you should get the capacitors changed.

Big Bang Theory

Figure 1. Mitsubishi TR Magna 1991 ECU after “Big Bang”
(Hybrids IC110 & 111 removed for clarity)

In Figure 1. is what remains of a Magna ECU that didn’t have it’s capacitors changed. Note the large diode that normally sits in the middle of the board and third capacitor have been completely disintegrated (Refer to Figure 4 below). This is what can happen to ALL Mitsibishi ECU’s & TCU’s manufactured between 1989 & 1994, local & import. Unfortunately for the customer they didn’t know about the problems until too late. The ECU was damaged beyond repair and the customer was charged over $2000 for a genuine replacement (in 2000)

Figure 2. Mitsubishi GSR Lancer 1992 Main Processor after “Big Bang”

Figure 2. shows what else can happen when “Big Bang” happens. In this case the owner of the vehicle had a funny ‘electrical and fishy’ smell in his car for weeks and didn’t get it attended to when finally “Big Bang” occurred. In this case the damage to the circuit board was not as bad as in Figure 1. but the Processor shown above had completely blown its top. These are some of the more extreme cases of what can happen, but don’t be fooled by ‘a little bit of damage’. Seven out of ten ECU’s that had blown processors only had minimal capacitor damage, yet the processor (which does all the work) had been destroyed completely, rendering the ECU unable to be repaired.

No, you just cant go down to your Dick Smith or Jaycar and buy replacements, these are custom made chips made for Mitsubishi Automotive by Mitsubishi Electronics and were never available as spare parts.

Why you shouldn’t try to do it yourself and why your average TV repairman can’t do it!
No disrespect to TV repairmen, oops sorry TV repair persons, they are experts in there field and are knowledgable about how to repair TV’s and other AV equipment. When it comes down to it, if your TV packs it in on you, you aren’t 150Km from the nearest point of call and your whole life isn’t thrown into turmoil because it won’t switch on. The same can’t be said for when your car stops. The inconvenience of a car that won’t run and having to put up with the public transport system (if it will get you to where you need to go, when you need to get there), or bumming a lift with family or friends, ain’t fun. Just shows the cost of a “cheap” repair to an ECU can be quite expensive.

A close up of the ECU shows some of the damage done by not properly repairing the ECU.
As you can see the transistor array has completely blown apart.

Figure above shows what can happen when short cuts are taken in the repair. In figure, it can be seen that the capacitors have been replaced and the job was done neatly but what happened after the ECU was put back into the car. Unfortunately for the owner there was still a fault that remained undiagnosed by the person who diligently replaced the capacitors.

*add-on
**credit to Bart, mivec.co.nz

Capacitors that need to be replaced are marked in red. This is a MIVEC 1G 7035 ECU, and location of the parts varies between models but most Mitsi ecu's look similar. You want to replace these parts with ones rated to 105degs, not the regular 85 deg ones that are originally fitted. Be VERY careful not to damage the tracks when removing the parts, they can be quite tricky to get out if you don't know what your doing. Just for interest, the memory that holds the ECU software is marked in green and whats replaced when an ECU is 'chipped'.

Dying Coil Spring and the Rotten Lug Nuts

Starring VERY USANG CHEAP APM SPORTEC SPRING
and ROTTEN LUG NUT

Time DAMN EARLY IN THE MORNING
at DSP, Taman Bolton

Woke up early in Saturday morning just to get the coil spring replaced. I was the first customer.. well, normal people still asleep at this sort of time *sigh. I've already bought the new set of coil spring a day before so today was suppose to be just "Coil Swapping and Wheel Alignment" day.. but my feng shui turns it back on me.. *sigh again

There's a wise old sayin' "Shit happens".. and that exactly what this lug nut did to me. Took merely 15 min just to get this one piece of crap out of the wheel. To take out a loose nut isn't a pleasant thing to do. Too harsh, you might break the bolt at the wheel hub which the damn nut is stuck to. Too gentle, you might still doing it until midnight. I've checked my wallet to make sure there's enough $$$ to replace that rusty shitty piece of metal nut with the new one or else I have to walk about one mile to the nearest ATM teller. Lucky me, the new nuts does not cost too much. But still, grrrr..

The 'exhausted' old coil spring served me well for the past 5 years; on highways, 'ugly-surfaced' trunk roads, 'pekking' corners, potholes and occasionally some heavy big butt passengers at the back seat. For a cheap item, this coil serve me quite well with plenty of improvement in handling, except that the spring keep on sagging each year (clearly an indication of weak material being used)

After an hour and about 3 - 4 sticks of cigarettes worth of waiting time, all of the springs were already changed. A glimpse; I felt the car sits a lil bit lower than before. But I don't trust my eyes that much. Rabun ayam and buta kadang-kadang..

I wish I was wrong, but nooooooo. The newly fitted springs were too low at the front. My car height drop almost another inch at the front. This is a bad bad news to me as my extractor now hung even lower. My camber setting for the front wheel is -0.4 and -0.1 at the back. The test drive session later on shows that my car is TOO DAMN LOW and the extractor already have some new scratches on it. The so-called Rally Style a.k.a tonggek people always give their 'weird' look at me. Apparently I was sooo outdated to them. *still sighing..

The new lug nut..

Decorated by states speed hump

Mind Your Head'er Part 1

Most cars have used cast-iron exhaust manifolds to expel gasses from the engine's cylinder heads. The rationale: Cast iron has good thermal properties, so such items such as spark plug wires can be routed closer to it than to other materials which expel more heat. Also, cast-iron manifolds are cheap to produce in mass quantities. While a lot of peeps keep on saying that OEM Mivec manifold is the best so-called 'performance' part given from Mitsi right from factory, I didn't quite agree with it. This is because :

1. It is made from cast iron; it's heavy, rust-prone and hideous

2. Its' inner surface is no better than the late Planet Krypton's surface; no go for the flow

3. Although the manifold inner passage were bigger than any N/A 4G9X family motor, a good build tube-header is always much better.

So I met this fella in Setapak who which claimed that he's able to custom made me a header, spesifically; for a MIVEC. Using galvanized steel as the base material, he then measures the length and the angle of the pipe needed to bend according to his formula. I left my car as the header making process will take one whole day. I came back the day after. After a brief inspection (well, at least I thought so), I found that it is basically a 4-2-1 design but, the 2-1 pipe is in horizontal (the pipe sits up and down) instead of in vertical order (side-by-side). The fella claimed this design will yeild more top end power like a 4-1 header, but still maintain good low end torque of 4-2-1 header (?). Anyway, the primaries are long but they were badly length'ed. The exhaust note sounded boxer'ish at lower rpm. The weld quality is a joke. I didn't expect a world class weld quality, but please don't claim yourself a specialist if you can't weld like one. It is just wrong, very wrong. Nevertheless, the throttle respond was good, at least better than the stock factory manifold. The O2 sensor was located on the 2.3" collector (the 1-pipe) right before the flange. The big drawback is the header hung lower than the oil sump. Getting pass a speed hump is a big task. Too fast and I'm going to hit the hump, too slow and the driver in the car behind will keep on honking and cursing me. Is the performance gained justify the price I've paid? I have to admit, I didn't regret neither did satisfied that much. Maybe I should've top up a bit and get on with R3 stainless 4-1 header.

Slippery yet Grippy, Enter Redline MTL

My shifting seems to be bad, and it's getting worsen day by day. I suspected the Arrow shit gear oil is the culprit (I might be bias towards my shifting capability :P) and I was even shocked because it was labeled as GL-5 gear oil (just google why GL-5 oil should never been use in a GL-4 application). Curses and blaming aside, I asked around which GL-4 gear oil is the best and always available on the shelf? Only these two brandnames were popped many-many times; Motul and Redline. After a long internet reading regarding these two products, finally i chose Redline MTL®. Being a Group V Synthetic (Ester - the thing that naturally able to cling to metal surface) and it was 7 bucks cheaper than the overpriced entry-level Motul mineral gear oil (bought at Eneos OU).

When it comes to gear oil, you don't want it to be too slippery. Sounds a bit odd but it is true though. The synchronization of shifting gears requires friction to transfer energy from the synchronizer, which is locked to the input shaft, to its mating surface attached to the gear to be locked in as the drive gear. Few modern transmissions use sliding gears to change gearing other than for reverse gearing. Synchromesh transmissions have the gear pairs constantly in mesh. The time this process takes depends on how easily the synchro ring moves and the rate of frictional energy transfer between the two synchronizer surfaces. Higher viscosity lubricants slow the sliding of the synchro ring on the input shaft and require a longer time for the oil to be squeezed out from between the mating synchronizer surfaces. After the lubricant is squeezed out, the coefficient of friction of the lubricant determines the rate of frictional energy transfer between the two surfaces. Slippery lubricants such as hypoid gear oils and ATFs can take too long to synchronize the gears, which promotes synchronizer wear.

Conclusion : My shifting in the morning just a tad more better (a bit less gear-grinding when it's cold) and perfect when the fluid is hot. I think my synchro has already near its' limit though. No fluid can ever fix that. It maybe able to reduce the notchiness to a certain extend but expect no more.

If It Is Broken, Go Fix It

From my poor analytical observation, I think the engine is not in it's prime condition anymore. Nobody is keen enough to have a serious fuel drinker and oil burner car; it is a signal for some refreshments need to be done; top overhaul. Textbook says, 'top overhaul is meant the lapping of valves and the making of necessary repairs of those parts on the crankcase which are accessible without disassembling the crankcase. It includes the removal of cylinders, pistons, piston rings and valve gear for replacement or service'. The cam belt was retained since it just being used for ard 8000 km. The old clucth slipped whenever I push the car hard so a new clutch set is needed then. The condition under the valve cover is quite ok. Some oil residue and varnish indicates the previous owner seems to neglected the service routine quite a bit; stretching his oil change interval a bit too long. But it wasn't that bad as there was no indication for sludge.

The main bearings were good but the rings showed it's age, so I went for a new set of stock sized piston ring replacing the old one. The cylinder head is key to the performance of the internal combustion engine, it determines a major portion of the volumetric effeciency and compression ratio of the engine. So a leaky valves are a big no-no as they do not act as a 'sealer' as it supposed to due to carbon build up. Valve need to 'seat' on the port passage without any crap in between them. So valve grinding and seating was done. Throttle body was cleaned, inlet manifold was flushed with chemical to get rid of the harden oily junk inside, pcv valve inspected, cam tray chemically washed, all seals were replaced and new gaskets (head, intake/exhaust manifold, throttle body & valve cover).

I'm not a fan of thick motor oil but in this case, I opted to use ENEOS conventional 20W-50 motor oil for the break in period. Gearbox was fill with some 80W-90 Arrow 'whatever..' gear oil and coolant is a mix of water and Totoya Long Life Coolant. Oh, yea.. I manage to paint my cover rocker to matte black just to match with the plug cover.

MIVEC, VTEC & VVT Comparison

A video which comparing MIVEC, VTEC and VVT in term of design and it's functionality. In Japanese language though.

Credit to mivec.co.nz

Shorter Gear Ratio Myth...

I've heard a lot of people saying, "Mivec gearbox is short ratio one, but if you want even shorter, use 4G13/5 gearbox. Your pick up later ahh, walauwehhh...". This is a crappy statement. Just because 4G13/5 engine displacement is small, not necessarily the gear ratio has to be short. Hell, even the non-MIVEC version of 4G92 gear ratio was even longer than the MIVEC version. Using longer-than-stock gear ratio on MIVEC motor tend to deliver slightly better fuel consumption on highway cruising, less engine noise, but at the expense of engine sluggishness and lower acceleration capability. The graph is a comparison between 4G13/5 gear ratio vs 4G92 MIVEC gear ratio (both test used the same tyre size and the same rpm limit factor). Keep in mind for top speed lovers, most of 1.6L N/A motor can't never reach 140mph because of wind drag. You do the aftermath..

(Green bar = 4G13/5, Red bar = 4G92 MIVEC)

Get Exhaust'ed

I prefer a 'box' a.k.a 'hatchback style' muffler. They preserve the 'factory look' yet they do give some bling factory (provided if it was made from stainless metal) . After browsing a few autoparts forums for quite sometime; and occasionally went to junkyard, I saw one advertisement in zth regarding this FGK muffler. Being a JASMA cert-ed muffler, this is my insurance for me to keep enjoy listening to my radio or having a peaceful conversation inside the car rather than hearing nothing else but a deep and low howling exhaust tone all the time; commonly known for a canon type muffler. Met the seller at Puchong and that friendly chaps willing to part with this muffler for a very reasonable price. I was told the muffler was taken from an Integra DC2. He was using it on his 30 years old drift-becoming 2-door Toyota KE70; until the car was transplanted with 3T-GTE (turbocharged 1.8L DOHC 8-valve, twin spark plug). This muffler was paired with a 2.3" galvanized steel pipe with no resonator/midbox. To my suprise, it wasn't loud at all. Power delivery and throttle respond increased significantly (since I still on the factory 1.3L exhaust before this), and for the first time I can feel the 'pull' mainly after the cam switchover. Yey..

Wheel of Four'tune

I bought an used 8-spoke 15x7 CE28 Rays Engineering wheel through zth. The wheel came with Japan's 205/50/15 Bridgestone rubber which already cracked everywhere on the sidewall. Interesting that the wheels were painted red by the previous owner and the paint job was horrible. It's funny how the previous owner practice his awful painting skill on the wheel; seems like it has no value where it came from, but I have to pay RM1300 to get it (after negotiating like there's no tomorrow) . According to the seller, the car which these wheels were attached to back in Japan was an EG6, and that poor bastard (pardon me) crashed his car. This claim was quite making sense as I've found dried grass inside of the old tyre.

After few days consulting ideas from some forumers in zth, I decide to give the wheel a make over. Gold spokes with chromish-lip. I went to an engineering shop which also provide painting job somewhere in Sg Besi (oppossite the army airport). All the chirps on the wheels were repaired and lucky me, there was no serious dent on them.

The shop did a marvelous job. Strip the old paint, weld the chirped part, undercoat, paint, clear-coat, milling the lips.. and how much is costed me?? RM200. Big bang for buck.. every dime of it. Check out the pics below. They even do repair services for serious damaged wheels (broken spoke, dented into D-shape (?), bla bla bla. It's your call whether to use it back or, sell and let the new buyer bare the risk or, be a good boy throw it away at the scrap yard.

Time sWarp

Bought this front-cut of Mirage Cyborg back in 2006. The dashboard wasn't good in conditon (a lot of cracks and tears) so i opted a 'new' dashboard along with A/C climate control (mine came with the manual control unit) and rear disc brake. Plus, the usual item in the 'package' were gearbox, wiring, ecu, whole aircond unit, clusters and fuel tank. It costed me RM6400. I managed to trade my 4G13 engine with gearbox for RM700.

I bet everybody knew (especially Proton's kaki) the technical spec for this infamous 'vtec-version' of Mitsubishi engine. For you who 1) drives hi-tech European cars which not only freaking fast but also came with super safety features, and 2) don't give a crap about cheap Japanese cars, here's the spec.

Engine 1.6L 4 cyclinder DOHC 16-valve MIVEC
Model 4G92 (Gen. 1)
Capacity 1597cc
Bore 81mm
Stroke 77.5 mm
Compression Ratio 11:1
Valve Timing Intake : Open (BTDC) 17' (primary cam) / 47.5' (secondary cam) Close (ABDC) 31' (primary cam) / 72.5' (secondary cam)
Exhaust : Open (BBDC) 41' (primary cam) / 70' (secondary cam) Close (ATDC) 11' (primary cam) / 35' (secondary cam)
Cam Spec Intake : duration : 228' / lift : 7.58mm (primary cam) 285' / 10.41mm (secondary cam)
Exhaust : duration : 232' / 8.24mm (primary cam) 300' / 9.83mm (secondary cam)
Maximum Power 175ps @ 7500rpm
Maximum Torque 17.0kg/m @ 7000rpm

TRANSMISSION
Manual 5-speed

Gear Ratio:

1..........3.083
2..........1.947
3..........1.285
4..........0.939
5..........0.756
R..........3.083

FDR......4.592

Yea, it's no brainer to compare with the latest M3 or Porsche's 911T with VTG engines, but pair it with a light chassis, this is quite a pocket rocket. The happy-revving engine came with short-ratio gearbox. The individual gear ratio is actually the same like 1.6L or 1.8L Mitsu 4G9X ratios, only the final drive on the MIVEC version is bigger hence the shorter ratio. In my opinion, that's what makes this engine not up the par with Honda's B-series which came with "more-revised" gear ratios. Nevertheless, this is the only atmo-fed 8200rpm screamer from Mitsu. Came also with the front cut was a set of front SR damper complete with coils. Since money was a big big concern for me at that time, I use the ugly looking absorber which turn out to perform like charm. It was stiff enough to handle the car with no funny 'aging-symptom' noise. The at rear, me being so poor opted to re-use back my factory APM damper. Kinda scary when the car travel above 120km/h. You will feel like you're no longer on a car, more like on a boat. Alas, cheap cars + poor owner..

*sighing.. yet again

Once Upon A Time..

It started in 2003 when i possessed this Proton Satria brand spanking new. I was so attracted for an used Civic EG's but the price back that time (up until now; 2009!!) really turned me off. I got this car in Tengku Mahaleel's era (the time which caused the downfall of Proton's brandname; QC issues and bad aftersale services), rattling panel, squeaking boot, INTOLERABLE NVH (mind you when i say intolerable, i really mean it). It seems like the car came without sound insulator from the factory. Great for road runner but annoying enough for an everage joe, say like myself. Imagine you can hear the road noise really bad at 50km/h and the sound of the engine which barely rev around 2500rpm. When i filed my complaint to the dealer while attending my 1st service, the usual and common Proton SC dealer (now even spread'ed to Toyota's SC too) answer, "Ini biasa la.." *sigh

I went for a so-called Taiwanese K-Speed 15X6.5 wheels (but I was told the factory is at Sg Buloh) combo'ed with 195/50 Goodyear Eagle GSD tyres (which already obselete back in 2005 if I'm not mistaken). Use with stock damper, a set of super cheap APM Sportec lowered coil springs were combined. Handling wise; ok-lah. Grip-wise; so-so. The tyre tend to be noisy after 6 months. It was expected then since it wasn't a comfort nor a performer tyre.

The trend back that time was a 5" tachometer, and I ashamedly have to admit, did owned one courtesy of my rich-family friend (pinjam je). It was the entry level of Autogage series from Autometer. The tach utilize vacuum mechanism to operate the needle unlike most tachometers which had spring mechanism in them. This provide accurate and steady rpm reading and the amber coloured shift light was very very bright. You can't miss it when it emits. Unfortunately, powered by 1.3L SOHC 12-valve engine, to see the shift light emits (I set at 6300rpm) was quite pain-in-the-ass to wait though.

Nothing much inside the engine bay except for the some extra goodies which do more on show than go. A cheap Brother's strut bar was installed together with 8-gauge 5-point earth wire kit and drop-in panel filter.