2003 Evo 8. The walk of shame!

2003 Evo 8. The walk of shame!

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Heaveho

Original Poster:

5,652 posts

181 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
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Been in the garage for 9 months. Looks like a fking barn find. If I'd have said that's what it was and put in to an auction looking like this I'd have probably got twice what it's actually worth...... [url]

Amazing how much you can get done in an hour! |https://thumbsnap.com/QUx6j8jM[/url][url]

Oh dear! |https://thumbsnap.com/PTJmE8Up[/url][url]

Well, not perfect, but the wonders of a dry, clean paint brush, a damp chamois and half an hour of effort have got it half way decent.|https://thumbsnap.com/dDcmJMgq[/url]

selym

9,557 posts

178 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
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Nice 'barn find'!

Heaveho

Original Poster:

5,652 posts

181 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
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I found it 17 years ago, but it does tend to have to sit for a while between excursions these days. Was meant to be going to the Spa classic in it next month....frown

selym

9,557 posts

178 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
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Heaveho said:
I found it 17 years ago, but it does tend to have to sit for a while between excursions these days. Was meant to be going to the Spa classic in it next month....frown
The next legitimate drive will be all the sweeter for the wait.

Heaveho

Original Poster:

5,652 posts

181 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
quotequote all
selym said:
The next legitimate drive will be all the sweeter for the wait.
Yeah, always worth the wait, I forget how mad it is after months away from it.

NotNormal

2,370 posts

221 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
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That first picture has more than a whiff of photoshop about it. Nice motor though smile

Evolved

3,765 posts

194 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
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Evo 8 but running a Mivec engine, who did the conversion?

TheAngryDog

12,517 posts

216 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
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Evolved said:
Evo 8 but running a Mivec engine, who did the conversion?
Could be an Evo 9 engine as they were mivec, or just have an even 9 cam cover. This isn't the engine from the Evo X.

Heaveho

Original Poster:

5,652 posts

181 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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Don't know how to do photoshop! confused Just dragged it out like that this afternoon. Surprised it started tbh, the trickle charger is giving all the signs that the battery's on the way out.

It's a Mivec top end.....I put the head, E9 turbo, inlet and ECU on it about 10 or 11 years ago. I had a local Mitsi specialist in Portsmouth ( I lived down in Southampton back then ) swap the head and turbo,

I had Pirtek make up a braided line and took the oil feed for the Mivec from the oil filter housing rather than pull the motor and do it the way Mitsi did from the back of the block.

The real headache for me was wiring the Mivec, I couldn't get an Evo 9 engine loom for love nor money and ended up having to dope out the voltages for everything over about 4 months, make a loom from scratch and figure out which pins to take the feeds from in the ECU for the oil control valve, map sensor etc. Not my thing at all, but at the time no-one in the UK had done any of this on an 8, and the people who had done it were in America on EvoM, and the pinouts are different on their models, so not a lot of help really. Between help on the MLR and an auto electrician mate, got there in the end.

It's got a few bolt-ons, 3 port boost solenoid, Walbro pump, decent intercooler, coil on plug kit, HKS Silentpower exhaust, panel filter with modified airbox and cold air feed, mapped on the safe side at about 390 brake, 380 ft/lbs on high boost, 1.8 bar max.

I've had the car 17 years, it's magic.

Just had another look at the first pic, I see what you mean about photoshopped! It isn't, I couldn't do that if my life depended on it! laugh

Edited by Heaveho on Thursday 9th April 00:40

Don Roque

18,064 posts

166 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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Awesome car. The electrical work you've done on it sounds like a nightmare, congratulations for making it work!

I will never forget the first time I drove an Evo VIII, back when the Japanese cars were the kings of the road.

Evolved

3,765 posts

194 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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TheAngryDog said:
Could be an Evo 9 engine as they were mivec, or just have an even 9 cam cover. This isn't the engine from the Evo X.
Yes I know that, owned 4 of them wink. It’s a 9 engine as the covers isn’t interchangeable due to the cam housing for the mivec.

It’s quite a big job fitting that engine though.

Edit: just read the reply from the OP, so it is the head that’s swapped along with the associated wiring etc. Hats off for doing that job, the wiring is where the work is. Brave soul undertaking that one.




Edited by Evolved on Thursday 9th April 07:17

anonymous-user

61 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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I used to have this issue with a car getting dust in the garage getting all over the car. A £70 car cover late and its clean everytime i roll it out.

cerb4.5lee

33,631 posts

187 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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Love these. thumbup

I had an Evo 8 for 24hrs(loaned to me by a mate who wanted me to buy it) years ago and it was running 330bhp, I thought that it was an awesome thing to drive. Great cars. cool

Frimley111R

15,989 posts

241 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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9 months?! Looks like you'd have better parking it in a barn. Why is it so bad after such a short time? Parking it anywhere would better than that garage surely?

TimmyMallett

2,975 posts

119 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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You Sir, need a dust sheet. It will certainly limit the paint swirls when you wash all that off.

Heaveho

Original Poster:

5,652 posts

181 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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Thanks for the replies. I don't like car covers, I'd rather have the dust just lie on the car and blast it off. There's enough room in the garage to not have to touch the car when I'm in there, and with covers the car always has to be clean before you use them, otherwise they can scratch,

The garage is on the ground floor ( obviously laugh ) of a town house I've been refurbishing, the Evo lives in front of the space that used to be the utility room. I knocked that down to have a bigger garage ( as well as lifting the kitchen and dining room floors to make headroom for a ramp, there are three cars living in what is essentially a two car garage ), and I do a lot of work like cutting tiles and timber behind the Evo if the weather's bad, hence the clip of it. That's been going on for 4 years now, as bad as it looks sometimes, the paintwork on the Evo hasn't noticeably suffered.

Back to the car. It was indeed a bit of a mare to wire it, probably a lot more info out there about it now, but at the time, for me anyway, it was hard work. There are only 10 additional wires to control the Mivec, and the 9 ECU will run an 8 engine with the Mivec disconnected, so I wasn't entirely without the car during the final stages, but it dragged on for a while. Then, when I did get it connected, we had problems mapping it, and it was suggested that the Mivec inlet pulley wasn't functioning correctly, so another headache.

I tried another pulley without any difference and worked my way back through all the stuff that had been modified without getting anywhere. Out of desperation, I changed the ( aftermarket ) boost solenoid, and the first time I drove it afterwards, when it came on boost it nearly threw me out of the rear screen. Because the map wasn't right for a faulty solenoid I briefly saw 2.2 bar on the gauge!

Other than the 2nd hand Evo 9 turbo stting itself 3 years ago on a blast around Scotland, it's been dead reliable. I can't blame the turbo, it was of unknown provenance and mileage, and had been subjected to 7 or 8 years of 1.8 bar, about the max that turbo will run at. That's including a couple of track days and several quarter mile efforts at Santa Pod and Thorney Island.





Edited by Heaveho on Thursday 9th April 10:49

Frimley111R

15,989 posts

241 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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Heaveho said:
The garage is on the ground floor of a town house I've been refurbishing, the Evo lives in front of the space that used to be the utility room. I knocked that down to have a bigger garage ( as well as lifting the kitchen and dining room floors to make headroom for a ramp, there are three cars living in what is essentially a two car garage ).

Edited by Heaveho on Thursday 9th April 10:49
Give yourself a PH Gold Star hehe

Heaveho

Original Poster:

5,652 posts

181 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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Frimley111R said:
Give yourself a PH Gold Star hehe
Lol, try telling that to my other half! laugh

Heaveho

Original Poster:

5,652 posts

181 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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Well, it's not like I've anything better to do.....


TheAngryDog

12,517 posts

216 months

Thursday 9th April 2020
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I'd like an Evo, but I don't have the money for one lol. Or the parking for one. I'd not want to leave it on my driveway.