LocostUSA.com

Ok so i'm in. I started my build today. Picked up the steel and made the first cut. Like many i had a subscription to 'car and driver' or 'road and track' when they had the Locost cars with tanner's and riveria's and couple others and was hooked since. Been looking around at pre built frames(which has turned into making my own) for a while and cruising the forum a little. finally have a garage and the right people to help and ended up with a free donor that would be to my liking(wanted something with lots of power potential stock) so i decided now or probably never

Building a +442e Mcsorley plans chassis. Here's the catch, I'm using a Mitsubishi 2.0L turbo motor out of an eagle talon/mitsu eclipse.
It's the Mitsubishi engine code 4g63 which is how its usually refered to. I'm going to mount the motor in the traditional spot upfront which i have yet to find anyone to build a locost with this engine upfront. There is a few middy style ones out there but thats all. Reason being its a fwd engine so there is some multi car hodge podge going on.

I need to put a big THANK YOU to SteyrTMP(nate). seen here: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2641 . his runs but isn't bodied yet as he's making all the bodywork by hand so in the mean time he's helping me. i'm quite inexperienced in the "fab it from scratch" stuff so He is my teacher more or less here for frame building. Without him i'd be buying a frame and not be nearly as happy as I want to be able to say i built this(with help ) from a pile of steel and my two hands(and nate's two).

i still have some minor details to work out. i have a kind of free donor car. i've owned and driven for a few years but hit a horse and did enough cosmetics that insure totaled it and paid me about 150 less than i paid years ago. Its a 90 eagle talon awd turbo. right now planning on using the rear end out of it but haven't stripped it out yet and figure will decide for sure then. not sure about some suspension bits either but leaning towards s10 spindles and inboard shocks. looking to probably by some stuff off Jack like control arms and fenders and such.

The main plan for the car is a Daily driver/grand tourer of sorts. i live near a decent dragstip, Nelson Ledges road course and about 2 hours from Mid-Ohio but have yet to make time to go racing in any other car so reality isn't likely to see much track Aiming for lb:hp of about 7:1 at wheels. Figureing on 1500lbs curb weight and motor is at about 220hp at crank now but set up to increase boost to hopefully put it into 300+. so numbers work out but we'll see when we get there.

Not sure what else to add here. I'm all ears and eyes for any ideas or comment or questions and such. Camera is busted so no pics yet but i'll get some up when i get a new cam. Thank you all ahead of time for any support and help you've thus far offered and will in the future

UPDATE EDIT - Dec, 2, 09
so far got the bottom and top frame rails done and ready to weld together. need to put together the front parrellogram thingie and frame is about done. i added some pics to the end of the post

UPDATE EDIT - Dec, 20, 09
finished frame with under a one millimeter tolerance over whole thing. Nate is a perfectionist here and it more than payed off. Thank You, Nate. so we started tearing into the donor. as for right now have the engine bay wire harness out. motor is half unbolted but ran into a problem of needed to remove transfer case to get to the rest of the mounting bolts. interior is torn apart and half the interior harness uncovered, just need to pull out the rear portion that goes to tank/fuel pumps and rear lights/windsheild wiper assembly. also was given free supra suspension front and rear but need to unbury the parts out of a barn. and if anyone knows how to set up a 5 link sspension with out knowing the orignal mounting points i'm listening???

_________________
90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0

Nice donor, it doest have two drive shafts by chance does it?


Your post has been sticked so it will be easier for you to find and post updates....Welcome aboard, now GET TO WORK!

_________________
I'll keep an eye out for you!

To err is human...
I am more human than most.

how do you gone adapt it to rwd .

it's not the perfect donor but a free one so i guess nice. i like free. and the drivetrain is setup with fwd halfshafts and a regular driveshaft to an IRS rear end. in some ways i guess its better than a 4x4 style system with foward and rearward driveshafts but not ideal to convert rwd.
as for that converting thing this gentleman: http://www.billsautofab.com/ he makes bellhousing to put the 4g63 to a supra 5 speed. hes got a couple housing made for a t56 6 speed too but for a locost its big and heavy and 6 speed isnt really needed with the right rear end gear i think. does other fab work too but the housings are the big one, especially for the dsm(talon and eclipse nickname) crowd.
once the word gets around more i think the 4g63 would be a widely used motor in rwd swaps. the factory turbo model is one of , if not the most, stout factory block/bottom end and a factory turbo motor is a great foundation to build a high hp turbo motor out.

_________________
90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0

I believe that motor will bolt right up to the tranny out of the little Mitsubishi trucks; I think they are called the MightyMax or something like that. Had a friend with the AWD Talon and when he crashed it, swapped the motor into a Mighty Max. Cool to see the rear end brake loose in third.

Tom

_________________
Sometimes, I'm as confused as a baby in a topless bar.

My short term memory is absolutely horrible and so is my short term memory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG16m2e4O6I

Now THIS throws a whole new angle into what I'll use for power. I've got the W58, but nothing to go in front of it, yet. Very cool.

_________________
Book frame, 84 Celica and 84 Toyota 2wd pickup donors....er, maybe.

yeah the mitsu mighty max and i think dodge twin d50, both trannies work but i worried about how much power they can take but also i can find supra trannies all over here and i've only ever seen a mighty max once in my life so it was easier with the supra.



i vote for the 4g63 if your looking for power in a small package. its the foundation for the fastest sport compacts in the world. the adapaters work on most 4g blocks through the 90's so thats most mitsu 4 cyl in a variety of displacement. unfortunately doesnt work with the U.S. evo's even though it was the same block

_________________
90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0

Sounds awesome, before I learned about locosts I had always planned to do a custom car around a 4G63, tons of potential. It doesn't fit my current requirements for a lightweight locost though. I'm suprised that not many have gone down the path of using front engine AWD donors reconfigured to RWD yet, but it may catch on. I still have that W58 sitting around and I'm sure I still will whenever you are ready for it. Keep us updated, I think this will be a really cool build.

yeah the 4g63 i think is one of my fav 4 cyl motors. i'm not a high revving honda kind of motor guy so a stout built 4 cyl serves my likes better. not lightweight by no means compared to the high revvers but turbos make torque to move that extra weight and a 1500lb locost is still a major diet from an AWD talon at 3300+ lbs.

as for AWD donors there isn't a lot other than subarus and DSMs and subies are scare people with the flat four thing and not many people know of the 4g63 rwd adapters.

and already got one w58 but i'll keep that in mind if i need a second. i'm not sure how it'll fair after i turn up the boost or upgrade the turbo from the stocker.

_________________
90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0

finally some pics. not real far yet but its something







had some more pics but they are too big and i dont know how to size them down, any help with that anyone...?

_________________
90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0

I have just resized my pics sending me an e-mail from a Hotmail address.
It has a resizing feature thats transparent.
You select the pictures an it automatically resizes them.
If you want to send full size, then you select that option.

Do you have microsoft office picture manager? Right click the picture, then open with....

There should be an "edit pictures" button with an option to resize. I usually go 70%.

_________________
MV8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om3C1Ep ... D3E18BB447

O i think the d50 tranny can handle it

wow nice truck. what exactly are you running. my 6 bolt 4g from a talon has the exhaust and intake on oposite sides of the head? running and evo motor or swapped heads from something? and how big of a turbo, doesnt exactly look like a stock 14b from the drifting pictures

_________________
90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0

I had a 1990 Talon TSi AWD. The exhaust is on the front which would be on the left in rwd config.

_________________
MV8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om3C1Ep ... D3E18BB447