2009 Lancer Ralliart

[Ken]

Okay, so for all of that may recall a little over a year ago i asked for help deciding what my next car would be from my '06 RSX.

I settled on the 09 Lancer Ralliart mostly because I love Evo's and can't yet afford one and they finally made the Ralliart what it should have been from its inception. AWD, turbo-ed and shares the 4b11-T with the EVO. I decided to lease it because that's what I had done for my RSX and it worked. However it turns out that I am blowing by mileage and a rate which i did not expect which is mostly due to the fact that i absolutely LOVE this ca (18k miles in a little over a year when i should have 10K hock: ). It's quick and an absolute blast to drive IMO. The only negative i that it is not manual, before i get flamed there was no other transmission option other than the TC-SST. That being said, i do enjoy it and appreciate it greatly when i encounter Long Island Expressway traffic (daily) and NYC traffic (once or twice a month).

Back to the blowing through mileage, this has caused me to come to the determination that I am going to purchase the car at the end of the lease. The residual value of the car is more than fair and the payments are definitely do-able upon graduation. Therefore i have decided to do some slight modding until the warranty is up at 30k and then go from there.

My mods so far, in order (pre- deciding i am going to buy it):
Tinted windows (15%)
Kicker components
MTX amp (45W RMS x4)
Pioneer Sub
Boss Amp (500W RMS)
JVC headunit with bluetooth.

- Already replaced one kicker door speaker due to manufacturer's defect. Boss amp blew out on me and i haven't yet had the money to replace it. It's from my old car so i got a solid 5 years out of it so i'm okay with that. JVC head unit is solid but the bluetooth doesn't work nearly as well as the stock one so i hardly use it, oh well.

Bridgestone Blizzacks
This one occurred when i decided to see just how well stock summer tires handle in the snow. I quickly learned that they aren't bullshitting you when they say Summer. Blizzacks combined with AWD and "snow" mode = AWESOME. Don't regret this at all.

Black 18in Enkei rims wrapped in Sumitomo HTR III
Once summer started i decided that, even with leasing, it made the most sense to get dedicated summer setup. The stock tires were so craptastic that not only did they handle poorly, they wore ridiculously fast and made no sense to mount them on stock rims. So i purchased a new setup which went from stock 215s to 235s . World of difference and not to mention shed about 4.5lbs of weight from each rim.



Recently, after making the decision that i will purchase the car i decided to go ahead and put in an intake. Rather than spend the 300 dollars on an injen CAI or what-not, which would have ran me another 300 re-locate the battery to the trunk, i decided to do a "home-made" short ram.

This was done by purchasing the stock EVO MAF housing and removing my airbox and air-snorkel thing. I "coerced" the stock EVO MAF housing into the inlet (WAY easier said then done. it fits, it just took me and a friend about 45 min to convince it to do so) and placed a 3in AEM cone filter onto the end of that. So instead of 600 dollars for an intake, my total cost was about 80 dollars.


Once it was done, i was very pleased with the difference. It sounds so much nicer and, dare i say, a very slight uptick in acceleration in the top end. Although, admittedly, that just may be more of me wanting to feel that. :lol:

Planned future:
Painting all silver on the car black
lowering
sway bars
Exhaust
FMIC
After both exhaust and FMIC are done, a tune.

After all that is done i will decide whether or not i would upgrade to a new turbo, probably just a stock Evo one but that decision is quite a ways away.

Looking for any suggestions, always open to new ideas...

[SlimKlim]

Don't give me that "probably just a stock EVO" one bullshit. I expect nothing less than intake manifold failing (It really is possible, I know a guy), cooling system blowing, head lifting, pants crapping, north of 550whp.

http://vimeo.com/7890988

I know its an STI but you get the idea.

My one biggest regret in life is never riding in my buddy's EVO 8.

EDIT: I know a guy running 100% methanol on a built motor pushing high 50's in boost, shifting around 11,500rpms. From what I hear the front wheels dont touch till second gear, and he runs in the 7's @170ish.

[WRXtranceformed]

Looking good so far!

I would seriously reconsider your short ram setup. That filter is sitting basically right next the engine block (from what I can tell in the picture) and it has to be pulling in the hottest air possible. I don't know what your intake silencer setup looked like, but usually those extend down into the fender wells. Why didn't you consider hacking that off just where it heads into the fender well and leaving the stock intake system in the engine bay? That way you get the benefit of pulling colder air from inside the fender well instead of from right inside your engine bay. I went to do this on my TL but the previous owner had apparently already done it.

Japanese engineers in general seem to be really good at designing intake system. WRX intakes were good for 300+whp. Just a thought, you'd still get a more aggressive tone since you removed the intake silencer and the benefit of pulling in colder air than you are now.

Edit: also is that a coolant line sitting basically right on top of the filter? If so that's going to make it even more ridiculously hot. Guys in the TL world actually run coolant bypass lines around the intake and intake manifold to reduce intake charge temps.

[SlimKlim]

IIRC, Ken's airbox sits more or less exactly where that filter is now. It doesn't have the box around it, and I don't know if the box was just plastic or what kind of heat protection it offered, but I don't think its *all* that different from a stock Ralliart. The stock box may have a duct that runs to the front.

Ken, just bring all your stock parts down to school, and we might be able to either build a heat shroud assembly and run a few ducts to that filter where it is, or we could find some 3in aluminum pipe and move your intake way forward and run some ducts to it there.

[ScottyB]

if you could maintain the stock duct at least directing air to the short ram that would likely be your best bet. the stock intake likely isn't a restriction problem, but it does kill alot of the intake sound if it's like most factory boosted cars.

i think with a nice spring/shock combo and a rear sway to start, you'll have a nice street car that you can have fun with at the track without too much tradeoff. looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

[Jake]

I wonder if you could do a little heat shield for the intake. Either way I'm sure it sounds great, can't wait to see/hear it in person!

Liking the rimzz still... now drop it down lowwww when you get some cash moneys.

Well, like, functional low. Not herra-frush.

[Ken]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Stock setup (not my car exactly)

I was debating keeping that snorkel but decision was kinda made for me when those plastic screws broke off. I wanted to avoid hacking at the stock airbox, plus it's just plastic don't think it would yield too much heat protection?

The setup as is sits just like an actual aftermarket maker's SRI, it's made by Ultimate Racing. It's certainly not ideal but like i said, that battery location leaves me almost no options; again open to all ideas though!

Joey, i'll probably bring it all down so if we can figure something out that'd be super.

Thanks for all the input guys!

[SlimKlim]

Bring the snorkel. If my motorcycle ever works again I'm going to make an aluminum undertail so I can remount my taillight and plate, so we can build a heat shroud at the same time.

[fiveoh2go]

The setup as is sits just like an actual aftermarket maker's SRI, it's made by Ultimate Racing. It's certainly not ideal but like i said, that battery location leaves me almost no options; again open to all ideas though!

Here is your fix :mrgreen:

[balactm]

The setup as is sits just like an actual aftermarket maker's SRI, it's made by Ultimate Racing. It's certainly not ideal but like i said, that battery location leaves me almost no options; again open to all ideas though!

Here is your fix :mrgreen:

+1
where the hell did you see battery relocation for 300 dollars ken??? all you really need is some long heavy gauge wire and i guess if you're really concerned that box thing...although i've heard buckets are good too.


I'm just kidding ken, I would never expect you to do this to your car. But, I believe advance does sell just the battery relocation boxes for fairly cheap. it wouldn't be too expensive.

[Mike]

i have a relocation kit that's just collecting dust. would let it go very cheap. bought it off a racer so it's likely decent quality.

[D_Eclipse9916]

+1 summit sells relocation kits for like 60 bucks, had one and it was actually fairly good, but I dont think its worth the money.

[Ken]

UPDATE

Brakes finally gave out at around 29k. Went ahead and purchased new pads and rotors:

Front:
Centric Rotors
Hawk HPS Pads

Back:
Centric Rotors
Akebono Premium Ceramic pads

This was my first time doing my own brakes so I had a friend help me. I had my girlfriend from jersey visiting this weekend so the idea was to do it in 2 hours on friday before she came so I wouldn't waste time on the weekend. Friday came and my friend bailed because "it was wet out". Remember this. This is important.

Anyway saturday rolls around I wake up and go to my friend's house to do this so called easy brake job; my gf came with of course. Lo and behold it starts to downpour and to make it all worse one of the caliper bolts just DID NOT WANT TO COME OFF. We tried everything, including but not limited to an impact wrench. We wound up stripping the damn thing and had to get one of those Bolt Out kits. Finally it all came off. After everything was said and done we were all drenched and 4 hours had passed by. God bless my gf, she stood outside with us the whole time and didn't complain once.

Anyway, there's no pics due to the rain but the car stops great now. i plan on taking it a shop to have the brakes bled and an alignment done since neither have ever been done. Is there anything else i should be taking care of at 30k??

Plans for the summer are to plasti dip my silver trim and add either RRM springs or Eibach springs.

[JustinG]

be sure to bed in the pads properly

[Ken]

Ahh yeah, the Hawk had some procedure on the back which i did and the Akebono said to just drive easy for 400 miles.

[Jake]

i plan on taking it a shop to have the brakes bled

Bah, save the cash and bleed 'em yourself. Takes like... 30 minutes if you're going slow.

Good on ya for doing the brakes, looking forward to hearing about your Plasti-dip adventures. I've thought about doing that on the E34...

[SlimKlim]

i plan on taking it a shop to have the brakes bled

Bah, save the cash and bleed 'em yourself. Takes like... 30 minutes if you're going slow.

Good on ya for doing the brakes, looking forward to hearing about your Plasti-dip adventures. I've thought about doing that on the E34...

+1 Make tony work the pedal for you, it's pretty easy with two people.

[Ken]

I just get 'iffy' about doing something for the first time by myself without someone who knows what they're doing. Last thing i feel like doing is getting air in the line, i know it's relatively simple but still; unfortunately no one around here has done it before.

Can you guys think of anything else i should probably take care of? I'm going to check the manual today but seeing if there's anything in general.

hope to get the plasti-dip done this week maybe, so hopefully pics soon.

[JustinG]

Check the air filter and spark plugs are the only things I can really think of at that mileage. All though im sure that car has some BS 100k mile Platinum plugs......

[V1GiLaNtE]

^ How about tire pressure, alignment, cooling system?