Resurrection

Objective: Bring the RS back to life

After getting this car back home I realized I had a lot of things to tackle. In my mind the objective became how do I get this car back to stock or better in regards to mechanical and how do I get this car to be bearable when it comes to the aesthetics department.

I knew I had a long road ahead of me but the first stages of most of this was tearing out anything that was old, broken, or useless.

This consisted of:

• Broken clock panel

• A-Pillar dual gauge pod cluster

• Broken Greddy turbo timer

• Broken Innovate wide band gauge

• Rusted "exhaust shop special" catback

• Broken trim pieces

• Poorly attached bumper

• Torn steering boot

• Burnt/Melted rear bumper

• Petrified window tint

• God-awful coilovers (Godspeeds)

But the worst was the compression...

After doing some wet compression tests I realized that the cylinder was not building pressure even with some oil poured into the chamber so the rings were fine and it had to be coming from the cylinder head.

Hammagren Suspension Werks & Grip

While the engine is undergoing refresh the next thing to focus on is the very tired and worn suspension. This area is my favorite when it comes to Evo's and often overlooked. For my setup there were a couple of key components I would be replacing and refreshing.

• Ohlins R&T coilovers (with 9k front and 10k rear springs)

• SSB Designs custom top hats for Ohlins for +5 degrees of extra castor

• Whiteline RCK

• Stainless brake lines

• Whiteline lower camber bolt

• H&R upper camber bolt

• Whiteline rear sway bar

• Whiteline rear end links

• Replacing the weird purple Brembo front caliper (IDK)

• ARP front studs

• STM 20mm Spacers

• Enkei RPF1's

• Carbotech XP10 front pads and XP8 rear pads

• and many other misc bushings, motor mounts, n stuff

Engine Re-assembly

With the cylinder head refreshed with new valve guides, titanium springs, retainers, zero tick lifters and new ARP studs in the block it was time to reassemble. One note on this is I highly suggest ordering the Mitsubishi Evo IX master engine gasket set for rebuilds. There are so many misc gaskets, o-rings, copper washers, and things you don't think about and the kit comes with all of it.

In addition to refreshing many of the gaskets, timing components, bolts, studs, etc I also had some components cerakoted to help with overall head management. I had the manifold, rear waterpipe, and heat shields all coated.

One additional note worth mentioning here is an OEM problem with 4G63's and that is oil starvation. One helpful part for this is the Kiggly HLA which replaces the OEM (which can allow too much oil into the head) and limits the flow rate to a constant 15 psi