In the last MONTH, a lot has been done on 1082/2000.  There hasn’t been much time to update this site as I had hoped (speding your days bent over a car in 100° weather sort of leaves you spent at the end of the day), but a LOT of work has gone into this particular GVR4 and now it’s for sale.  Here’s how I ended up getting this Galant to run right.

What was the problem?

It wasn’t the new fuel pump (although I did end up having to replace the strainer within a couple days as pictured above).  To shorten what stands to be an already long story, it turned out that two of the spark plug wires were switched around.

Before you jump my shit about “That’s the first thing you should check!”

The plug wires were the first thing I checked.  Of course, coming from the 420A crowd, I haven’t had to remove 4G63 plug wires that often, so I didn’t know which wire ran to which terminal on the coil pack and since it’s stuffed back up under the intake manifold where you can’t really see it, I had to go by the numbers on the wires themselves.  The car had NGK wires, which are numbered and I made sure that the numbers matched up with the cylinders.  Seemed good enough at the time.  For the record:

• 4G63 spark plug wires connect to the coil pack, front to back, 4-1-2-3.
• The Factory Service Manual (FSM) does not list this information anywhere.
• The Galant VR4 owner’s manual does not list this information anywhere.
• What’s really odd is, who switched them around in the first place?

While the switched plug wires were definitely the cause of the misfire and boxer sound effects, that’s not to say that it was the only problem.  The capacitors on the ECU, which had been replaced previously, failed a second time, the fuel pump was shot, the injectors were siezed, and there was some sort of whack-ass security system wiring still in the engine bay between the coil pack and cam angle sensor.  It was a real mess.

1082/2000 now purs like a kitten.

The 16G turbo that was on the car when I started was only kinda on the car.  Four bolts secure the turbocharger to the exhaust manifold, but two were loose under the heat shield, one actually backed out about an inch!  With the turbo off the car, I started removing the intercooler piping, the intercooler, downpipe and exhaust.  All of these parts were replaced with the original, stock equivalents.  I even used the factory air filter-to-compressor-inlet pipe off 195, since they don’t sell that part at the dealership anymore and I wanted this car to be back to stock before being sold.  You can see there’s an aftermarket pusher fan installed, but that’s because the OEM fan wasn’t working.  This part also came off 195.

Expensive, Compomotive rally wheels do not come with this Galant.

Once everything was running and back to stock, we put a 3-day paper tag on the car and tried driving it around.  In the picture above, I took the car to my house for lunch.  Even though 195 was in the garage covered in dust, I wonder if any of my neighbors thought I got new wheels on it and finally installed the front bumper.  Eventually, I spent an entire day swapping wheels around between four Galant VR4s.

• Took 464’s grey 5-spokes off 195 and installed four temporary spares.
• Took 195’s black “wagon wheels” off 464 and put them in the trunk.  (I was still running them after some dirt roads.)
• Took the white Compomotives off 1082 and mounted 195’s wagon wheels.
• Took the black wagon wheels off the “Flying Galant” at the shop and mounted Keith’s 17s.
• Had the Hankook RS2s taken off the Compomotives and installed on the wagon wheels.
• Put the wagon wheels and RS2s back on 195.
• I love my cordless impact gun.

Power steering fluid is messy, messy business.

Just when I thought 1082 was ready to be detailed and put up for sale, I spotted some oil leaking under the car.  It ended up being power steering fluid.  The power steering belt had been removed by the previous owner, but once I put it back on and topped off the reservoir, I knew why.  The power steering pump was making noise all the time.  It was a goner.  Keith bought a remanufactured pump from Checker but we realized that we still had that 92 Laser parts car with the exact same pump just hanging on the lines under the hood, so back it went.

Swapping the power steering pump in a Galant VR4.

One bolt on the left, two on the right and the pump slips up and out of its bracket.  I got the replacement pump installed, only to have the high pressure line on the top (larger nut and washer pictured above) start leaking.  Once I got that leak fixed, it started leaking at the low pressure line on the front of the pump (flat bit with two bolts in it just below the larger washer).  As I let the RTV set up a bit before cranking those two bolts down, I thought, no way it’s gonna leak now.  There’s nowhere else for it to leak from, but I was wrong.  If you follow the tube coming out of that low pressure line up and to the right, you’ll see that it goes into a hose, which has a simple clamp on it.  It leaked there too.  Fortunately, a new clamp took care of that and now everything’s clean as a whistle.

1082/2000 is officially for sale now.

Yes, the clearcoat is peeling off the upper surfaces, but would you rather have parts of the car re-done, or have a crappy Maaco paint job to un-do down the road if we got it resprayed?  Under the hood, it’s all back to stock – from a fresh MHI 14b turbocharger, to a stock GVR4 intercooler, to a new paper filter in the airbox.  All the belts and hoses are new, including the timing belt.  All the fluids have been replaced with premium synthetics from Redline and Mobil1.  It’s even got a new ACT 2100 clutch in there and it’s a great little care to drive.

Animals might have been living in this Galant at some point, but not anymore.

I spent over four hours just cleaning up the interior, and I didn’t even Armor All the trim in that time. The floor was vaccumed, the dash and vents were vacuumed.  I even vacuumed the headliner, which really turned out nice afterwards!  The plastic surfaces were sprayed down with an interior cleaning spray, then wiped clean with a rag twice. All the leather was dusted off, then cleaned with a quality leather cleaner before being generously sprayed down with leather conditioner and UV protectant.  It’s far from being a show car, but let me tell you, getting into 464 to drive home that night, I realized my own Galant is still filthy from a dirt road drive last month and I have been remiss in my maintenance duties.

Nicer GVR4s have been parted out.

But like I always say, One man’s parts car is another man’s project. I hate seeing such nice Galants getting scrapped because people see them as nothing more than a four door DSM.  The Galant VR4 is NOT a DSM.  Period. These are limited edition, specialty vehicles that only exist so that Mitsubishi could get away with racing them!  If it weren’t for the Galant VR4, there would be no Lancer Evolutions!  This is the all wheel drive saloon that started it all for Mitsubishi and, for as old as it is, still an absolute blast to own and drive.  This particular car is ready for your chosen modifications and there’s still just enough little stuff left to be addressed that you can actually enjoy working on your car.  If you’re interested, drop me a line.  We’re looking for $4000 for this mechanically solid, utterly reliable Galant VR4.

Thank you to all who have supported me during this process on Twitter.