88 conquest in mighty max?

[Dcollins311]

Found a 88 conquest and the guy said he would take $500 for the engine and everything to make it run. Wiring harness and Ecu and intercooler and piping and it runs. Is that a good deal?

[geezer101]

Looks pretty good as long as the mechanicals are solid. Nothing worse than finding out it's got bad bearings or the turbo is roasted. I think you need the trans that goes with it as well.

[dash]

A decent running turbo 2.6 seems like a hella good deal, considering performance potential
probably the best bang for the buck swap imo... especially if your gearbox is wide pattern
Wiring simple. U can get starquest help. 30+ years later, folks run & mod 'em, so mitsu quality speaks.
With 'basic mods'(but still stock cam, TBI) gone hi 13s, in the heavier starquests = a totally transformed truck

[dash]

starquest 5spd will need to convert/use hydraulic clutch pedal, line & cylinders
Benefit is no more oem truck firewall tearing itself away, when cable starts to fray or stiff pressure plate
starquest pedal is soft. Folks run 300+ ft-lbs tq thru $100 ebay XTD clutch (240mm)
starquest shifter like 5 inches further back & gearbox a bit longer iirc... so driveshaft may need shorten + mount moded

[Dcollins311]

Thank you all and yes it has a different turbo and heard it run and I’ve got a Mazda rx7 transmission to go be hind it. Done got the Mazda b2600 bell housing with it and looking for a mm v6 peddle setup. I also cut and moved the Mazda rx7 shifter forward 6 inches.

[Dcollins311]

Thank you all and yes it has a different turbo and heard it run and I’ve got a Mazda rx7 transmission to go be hind it. Done got the Mazda b2600 bell housing with it and looking for a mm v6 peddle setup. I also cut and moved the Mazda rx7 shifter forward 6 inches.

rx7 be side mm transmission

[geezer101]

Just wondering why the Mazda 5 as opposed to the Mitsubishi KM? A reinforced sump plate on the KM trans and it'll swallow 500 HP without turning to jelly. Guys have modded the cable to hydraulic on them (although there is some tricky cutting and welding going on with the bellhousing)

[Dcollins311]

The rx7 will hold over 500 stock and I’ve got all the parts to bolt the rx7 tll transmission up the the wide block and just need to figure out away to go from cable to hydraulic. Was thinking the v6 4x4 mm and d50’s was hydraulic and if so. Would the pedal assembly bolt up. Knowing I’d have to drill and cut wholes and or weld for the hydraulic master cylinder. http://projectzerog.com/rx7transmissions.shtml

[geezer101]

I'd make a clutch master cylinder mounting plate with studs/bolts welded to it and pass it through from inside the cab. Use the master from a FWD car - tons of them around and you could adapt the stock pedal to the mounting box. Gives you the option of using a remote reservoir depending on the donor...

[Dcollins311]

That’s a great idea and thank you. I got me a pedel out of an Isuzu something today from pull a part for $24. Going to get the Starion engine tomorrow.

[Dcollins311]

Well I got the engine and wiring harness and ecu. But thinking about not using the wiring and ecu. I just found something out that I think will work to run a different ecu and the wiring harness off another engine and still used the distributor with a little modification. I’ll send picks when I’ve found out it’ll work. But going to be a while. Going to rebuild the engine first and put forged pistons in it and I’ll be able to run true efi with 4 injectors and not the throttle body. If this works this has never been done. That I can see looking on the inter web. Lol. But I’ll keep updating ASAP and this may change the way we look at our fuel injection trucks and bing able to tune them.

[dash]

starquest TBI/electronics aint that bad.... even 30+ years later. 2.6 ECU far more reliable than failure prone crappy DSMs(capacitors)
lotsa TBI starquests in the 13s with bolt-ons. One hit hi 12s still on stock cam(17C turbo). Low 11s on spray(t3/t4)
stock pistons gone past 400hp MPI, thats with a stock cam too. How fast u wanna take that truck ?

2.4 distributor fits the 2.6 with a spacer. Its essentially a DSM CAS. Some MPI 2.6 ran on DSM electronics
Another adapted the distributor from the turbo 2.2 ford probe/mazda mx6, onto the 2.6, as well as the 2.2 intake manifold... then ran it all on the ford/mazda electronics. A couple started down the honda ecu path, but no word
Hard to beat the tried & proven megasquirt starquest options tho (imo)

[Dcollins311]

That’s good to know and thank you for the info. Didn’t know a lot of this till I tried the CAS plate in the spot of the 2.4 distributor plate and it works just have to turn it over cause the distributor turns the the other way and I’ve got a 4g63t wiring and ecu and everything else and an E prom ecu. But thank you for the info.

[Chargerx3]

The rx7 will hold over 500 stock and I’ve got all the parts to bolt the rx7 tll transmission up the the wide block and just need to figure out away to go from cable to hydraulic. Was thinking the v6 4x4 mm and d50’s was hydraulic and if so. Would the pedal assembly bolt up. Knowing I’d have to drill and cut wholes and or weld for the hydraulic master cylinder. http://projectzerog.com/rx7transmissions.shtml

The V6 MM and Ram 50 are hydraulic. They also used the same 5 speed manual transmissions in Monteros from the late 80's up to 99 i believe.

[dash]

if going DSMlink, that money better spent going straight to megasquirt for the starquest/stock distributor
u can keep a 2.6 simple, run good & haul az.... without over-engineering or over-spending. What is your goal ?

[dash]

and I personally would never dive in & disturb a 'good running' healthy 2.6. G54s 'wear' very well
fresh timing chain/guides and make sure cam/crank on time/in sync
Once tuned with bolt-ons, to the point it seems 'eager to rev & pull' to 6000rpm, I'd look to mechanical valetrain & fresh springs

[Dcollins311]

Yes looking at dsm link and got an eprom ecu. And I’ve done changed all the distributor parts out to run the 4g63t wiring harness and got 550cc injectors. Just going to stud everything and run forged pistons. Never built a high hp engine and been wanting to. And with the 4g63t wiring I can run a map sensor. Just playing around with it and having fun doing it and hopefully try to make it a sleeper. Got a question about the silent shafts (balance shafts). Would it be a good idea to delete them and balance the bottom end. All of it not just the crank. I’ve did the 2.4 mm and d50’s and they do great with out them. Just never talked to anyone about the 2.6 delete kits and how the engine does with out them.

[dash]

https://www.jackstransmissions.com/blogs/pages/keep-your-balance-shafts


what sucked me into mitsu 4s, was riding in a 2.0 sohc starion many years back. Silky smooth motor
Later learned it was the balance shafts at work. I've never eliminated em and hope not too
Once shafts and bearing look good, they stay, but...... If u liked your 2.4 results
2.6 testimonials range from: "i feel more hp > no difference > buzziness felt thru shifter > bolts loosening themselves"


Bshafts are for 2nd order natural harmonics. Engine balancing won't address that
Forged pistons won't make the g54 a "performance build" either. Still the same old 6000rpm forklift motor

[geezer101]

The problem with the shafts are:

#1 - shaft bearing failure (when they go it's a catastrophic oil pressure drop and bye bye engine)
#2 - balance shaft belt failure (you may dodge a bullet if it blows but more than likely, it'll take out the main timing belt when it pops but not so much an issue with Astron engines)
#3 - rotational mass (these are heavy chunks of metal - removing them reduces parasitic loss of throttle response)

There are a lot of NA 4 cylinder engines that not only do not have balance shafts, but don't vibrate like an out of balance laundry dryer. Every one I have driven has a real throttle response edge over balance shaft engines. If you are chasing performance, it's worth doing the shaft delete. The 4G54's weak link to horses is the top end. A better flowing head, better fuel delivery, a wider duration cam and headers are the go to for NA tuning. For pulling big numbers, you can't go past forced induction.

*thing to note: a healthy stock 4g54 bottom end will take 600 hp - not bad for a forklift engine ;)

[Dcollins311]

Well I think I’ll keep them. But I am studding the bottom end and top end. I’d like the see that kind of hp but doubt I will. Would be fun.

[dash]

studs, connecting rods, pistons, aluminium flywheel, etc all seem like a waste for a fast street ride imo
'Dad" on SQC at enginemachineservices.com says he's seen more than a few 2.6 blocks with uneven deck surface
Probably responsible for many blown head gasket issues. Bottom end is robust already
some fast starquests ran ?9116 felpro + oe head bolts
another GT35 @ 35+ psi with the cheap ?8770 felpro BUT.... had the head o-ring for wire seal

[Dcollins311]

I’m going to true the block and head up. And this is for fun.

[pennyman1]

no one here has mentioned the obvious - the Australian Magna intake to convert the 2.6 to MPFI. They are used on HP starquest motors all over the starquest forums, and with a end for end throttle body and thermostat housing swap, it bolts right on. Then used the ecm of your choice...

[Dcollins311]

Thank you pennyman1. I’ve read about them and man they are proud of them. Lol

[dash]

Magna MPI is good stuff for the SQ world. I'd like to have one just for the novelty
In the early days folks were landing UNmoded magna intake manifolds in the u.s. for ~$150
Austarion members say they littered the wrecking yards. Some shipped em over. One or two even offered the rwd mods, for a bit more $
Going rate these days ~$500 moded. One on ebay currently I believe. Not worth all that to me (my 2.0 sonata was $50. Truck 2.4 alreay MPI)
'Deals' pop up on SQC classifieds occasionally. TBI can certainly entertain u until... while u learn to tune.
Megasquirt can 'switch' from 2(TBI) to 4(MPI) injector