hey guys my names mike. i just registered to the forum today cuz i figured it would be nice to share some car info and mayb get a little help here and there. im turned 16 in january but i just got my car about 2 weeks ago. i bought a 98 mitsu mirage ls coupe with the 1.8 liter engine. it IS manual and i LOVE it. it turns out i just wanted something along the lines of an evo and i knew the mirage was close to that. i went to a dealer in chicago and saw the car and was a bit hazy about buyin it. long story short i had no idea what i was getting except that i wanted a mitsu evo and a stick car. some problems to fix here n there but i guess i lucked out gettin a faster model, the 1.8 liter! best part is its only 78.5k mi. ill post some pics soon.

questions: 1. what is the first and best thing to do to get the car flowing a little better and gettin some power? i was thinkin of gettin a cold air intake
2. what are the engine models that are compatible with the 98 ls coupe that i can swap and how much are they?

once again just sayin hi and im glad to be part of the mitsu crew!

 

Welcome to the forum, good to see another mirage guy on board. I personally wouldn't go with a swap in a 5g Mirage, simply because of the availability of engines. Most have to be either imported or pulled out of a wrecked Evo [:@]. Have an ultimate goal in mind when you're building your car, if you're dead set on a swap, don't bother modding your current engine. Just keep in mind that your engine is capable of making well over 500hp at the wheels and running 11 and 12 second 1/4 miles . If it were me, here's the routes I would take;

If you're wanting to stay NA (naturally aspirated), here's what I'd do;
(1.) CAI - either get one for a Lancer ES and mod it slightly or build your own
(2.) Header - since you're a 1.8, there are several companies that make a decent header. RPW is the best, but also the most pricey. Others include HP, OBX and Aerospeed
(3.) Test Pipe - otherwise known as a high flow cat converter
(4.) Cat back exhaust, 2.25" is generally what's done for NA applications
(5.) Get your intake manifold ported and get a 1g turbo Eclipse throttle body
(6.) New injectors, 270-310cc is usually good
(7.) Fuel Pressure Regulator
(8.) SAFC or other tuning electronics
(9.) RPW cam shaft and gear
(10.) '97 FED Spec ECU

That should have your car running pretty quick, easily into the low 14's if you've done it right. Then you can always add a little n2o to that to give you a little extra kick lol. And then there's the route of forced induction. The hardest part for this will be getting a turbo manifold, you'll probably end up having to get one custom made. Other than that, everything is pretty much available. There are kits sold by RPW and a few other brands, but none are complete. There's a lot more that goes into a good set up, but you'll spend about as much building a turbo kit as you will on all those NA mods, and the potential for power is much greater with a turbo. I've got a 1.5 with a T3 super 60 puttin down 9 pounds and she'll move pretty good. You'll make even more power with a 1.8 because there's more displacement. The engine internals won't handle much more than 10-12psi (I recomend no more than 7-9 just to be safe) for a daily driver, but forged internals are available if your need for speed should exceed what a low boost application should supply.

 

welcome

 

lol yea go with lil evo, he will hook ya up

 

ok sweet, but can you help me out a little more? ive been looking all over the internet and its hard to find a CAI for the car along w/ other stuff. i found one from weapon-r that goes right into the car, but are there any better? can u probably show me some links of places where i can get some of these mods? thankx a lot for the help once again.

 

also, can i do most of the above mods by myself? like no labor by mechanic?

 

You can do the basics yourself. The intake, header, exhaust and test pipe all pretty much bolt right up and can be done with very little mechanical know-how. Injectors, FRP can be done, but do require a little more know how just cuz you're messing around with electronics and everything. Porting your intake manifold at home......you can pretty much forget about that. Go to www.mirageforums.net and read up in the "how to" section. That'll help you out.

also, for parts you can check out www.visionimports.com, they've got some quality stuff there, takes a while to get it, but it's well made. The Weapon R intake you saw was a Short Ram Intake (SRI). Weapon R is good, but over priced. You'll spend almost as much on a AEM or Injen CAI for a Lancer ES, so my suggestion is to build your own. Just remember that when you build it, make sure to incorporate your factory MAS (the black box between your air filter box and the throttle body), otherwise your car will hate you.

Aerospeed 4-2-1 header:
http://www.andysautosport.com/produc...ed?_v=vmd00305

Megan Racing High Flow Cat:
http://www.andysautosport.com/produc...racing?_v=vmd0

pre-made Catback exhausts are a little hard to come by, I know HP and Aerospeed make them, I just can't find details on them. If you can't find a good catback, get a muffler shop to make you one, it'll cost about the same.

NOS wet system w/ 40-100hp jets & 10lb bottle (just for kicks )
***IMPORTANT***DO NOT PUT ANYTHING OVER A 50 SHOT OF NITROUS THROUGH YOUR ENGINE UNLESS YOU BUILD UP YOUR INTERNALS, YOU WILL SEND SOMETHING THROUGH YOUR HOOD!!!