Scoobywagon

I would probably go with something that will mount in the OEM location. Usually, you add fog lights for low-visibility situations and having the lights lower to the ground will help you with increased contrast. Also, consider using HID lighting in the 3000K range for color temp. 3000K will give you a bright yellow color that will also help give you higher contrast particularly at night in the snow. The bright yellow color also means that oncoming traffic is more likely to have a better chance at spotting you than with just white driving lights. Personally, I'd check the wrecking yards to see about scoring some OEM lights. Otherwise, there are some really EXCELLENT aftermarket options available. VisionX makes some good ones as does Hella. Both of those names will cost you some coin, though. Don't just go down to the local auto parts store and pick up the little cheap lights. They look snazzy, but don't stand up very well to ANY abuse. That includes low temps and occasional encounters with heavy snow. Somehow, I suspect you'll have both of those problems in AK and that means you'll not be happy with the cheapies.

My wife and I drove from Bremerton, WA to Denton, TX and, to this point, have spent lots of time with her dog-related friends. So here I sit in Lubbock, TX for the next couple of days. We're probably leaving here at Oh-My-God:30 on Wednesday morning and heading back to Bremerton via Denver. Anyone on the route care for a quick meet-up? Love to see some new faces on the way back.

The wiring harness you want will save you time and headache. Yes, you have to butt connect a bunch of wires. But all you have to do is go through and match them up color for color and it will work, assuming that the rest of the system is functional. This will also tend to get you a cleaner, tidier install. As for troubleshooting...The dash is NOT the place to try troubleshooting a no audio condition. Go to each speaker. Inspect it visually and then put a noise make to it and see if it makes noise. If it is not beat up and makes noise with a noise maker, then the speaker is good. From a troubleshooting standpoint, that leaves the factory speaker wiring and the stereo itself. Since you're replacing the stereo anyway, just put the new stereo in and see if you get music out of the suspect speakers. If you do, then you have your answer. If you don't, you STILL have your answer.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. DO NOT CUT THE HARNESS AND TRY TO HARDWIRE YOUR STEREO. Just makes the job harder down the line. Find the correct harness and the whole thing becomes plug & play. There are 3 good lookup tools available. bestkits.com American International Metra Go find the appropriate harness for your car and take the part number to your local stereo shop. They'll likely have it in stock. I have several of the Metra harnesses in stock.

Strange, isn't it, Nipper? Get that all the time in the shop, too.

I'm not sure what they meant by "simple audio signal". That's pretty much EXACTLY what it was designed for...sensing incoming audio. The question REALLY is whether or not your phone produces sufficient voltage to trigger it. As far as the triggering on and off...never noticed it do that before. Even when you have a silent part, like a long pause between songs, there is still noise. Also, if I recall correctly, the unit does some filtering for that. If it decides that there's no audio, it'll wait a little bit before it turns off. When you do the install, be sure to take note of the current requirements for the FM modulator as well as the current capacity of the trigger. You may need to add a relay to this. Let us know how it works out for you.

Year/model? When its humid and you turn on the defroster, what happens? Does the system move air at all? What happens when you change the temp setting? Does the compressor engage?

That's the part! Don't know about a phone, but we've managed to get it to work with things like portable CD players.

I have seen compressors fail in any number of ways, but I have NEVER seen one fail in such a way that it continued to run without any strange noises (which would be INSTANTLY noticable to the driver) but without producing a cooling effect. Not saying it CAN'T happen, but it would be a REALLY strange mode of failure. If the compressor engages and runs, then neither of the pressure switches is engaging. Which could indicate a proper charge. Or it could indicate that one or the other pressure switch is not functioning. In the end, an AC system is a rather simple system. If there is refrigerant in the system and the compressor engages, then you should have cold air. If that doesn't happen, then the only way to diagnose it is to put a set of gages on it.

Yes. As I recall, the most direct translation for "Mitsubishi" is "I prance around in girl's underwear most of the time and occasionally enjoy putting out engine and/or transmission fires".

Yes. You can do that, but you'll need another part. DEI makes an amplifier turn-on part that is supposed to be used when adding an amp to a factory stereo with no switched power out. It detects an incoming audio signal and turns on a relay that gives you +12v. It isn't rated for much current, though, so what I'd do is I'd use that DEI part and use it to drive a Bosch-style relay and have the relay actually supply power to the FM Modulator. It occurs to me also that many of the wired FM modulators have remote switches. Is that the case with yours? If so, you can simply replace the switch with the output from the DEI part and wire the modulator as normal.

Again...just to make sure we're clear...Nitro and Methanol are two COMPLETELY different things. And, yes, if you run Nitro, you'll DEFINITELY want to change things like rubber fuel lines and fuel line o-rings. You'd also want to go to stainless hard lines. These things are also advisable, though not strictly REQUIRED, for Methanol. Remember that many manufacturer's (including Subaru, I think) offer vehicles designed to run on Methanol/Ethanol-based fuels. Generally, the only difference between a "flex-fuel" vehicle and an otherwise equivalent NON "flex-fuel" vehicle is the type of rubber they use in the flex lines and the fact that most of those engines get stainless valves of some variety. But that only becomes a concern for high concentrations of Methanol/Ethanol (M/E85 or higher). Most of the gas you buy at the pump these days is actually E10. So you could cut pump gas with a LOT of alcohol before you start having problems with fuel lines and o-rings. My assumption here is that your're want to run Methanol rather than Nitro-Methane. That would definitely be the sane thing to do.

I'm a little fuzzy on the goal here. My understanding is that water injection is used on street driven vehicles so that they can have REALLY high boost under racing conditions but still be drivable. I think the idea is that the water does two things. First, its not compressible so it sort of artificially increases your compression ratio. The other thing it seems to do is slow down the flame front in the cylinder so as to provide a more complete burn of the available fuel, thus creating more power. Do I have that right? That seems useful to me only under REALLY high boost conditions. That implies an entirely not stock engine to me. If that's the case, then why not simply run a better fuel? Why play around with mixing pump gas and methanol and water? Why not a custom blended fuel of high-octane pump gas and methanol all the time? Or, if you're already going to the time, trouble and expense of a heavily worked over engine (and I assume everything else in the car), why not let it run pump gas on the street and nitro at the track? I'm not knocking your choices. I'm just a bit confuzzled with regards to the application. The high-powered engines I get to play with don't use water injection. But they only run a few minutes at a time. I just want to be sure I understand the intended application.

I'm using the alt-fuel terminology. M10 means 10% methanol. M85 means 85% methanol. M100 means 100% methanol. Generally, the balance of the fuel is gasoline. So M10 is 10% methanol, 90% gasoline. In your case, the fuel you're injecting is half water, half methanol (Strictly speaking, still M50). However, by the time it all gets mixed, I suspect that this mixture makes up no more than MAYBE 10% of the total air-fuel charge. So, in theory at least, the engine sees not more than 5% methanol fuel or M5. As I type this, a thought occurs. Methanol is a legal street fuel. Why not add it to the fuel directly and add water injection for high boost? Just asking. Never done this sort of thing on a street vehicle. I'm thinking that if I was going to build an engine to run on alcohol, I'd run a dual fuel system. High-octane premium gas in the large primary tank and nitro-methane in the smaller secondary tank. It'll run REALLY poorly when switching back and forth, but the ECM could be given one fuel/spark/boost map for nitro and one for high-octane gas. Thus...pull up to the track, throw the fuel selector switch, let it idle a minute to get the fuel rail charged with nitro and then go racing. When you're done, throw the switch again, let it idle to charge the fuel rail with gas then go home. Maybe run sistered up fuel lines and return lines all the way up to the fuel rail with appropriate check valves to prevent back flow.

With only a bit of experience with blown, alcohol-injected big blocks I would offer this.... Alcohol is a solvent for petroleum. Water isn't, but it really doesn't do much good either, unless you're under high boost. Amsoil and Redline both recommend more frequent oil changes when using M85/E85 or higher. This is because the alcohol will eventually cut down the oil in the crankcase. That is to say....they recommend that you change your high-end synthetic motor oil at roughly twice the interval of your dinosaur juice (i.e. 4500-6000 miles) when running high concentrations of ethanol or methanol. Your car is running FAR less methanol than this, so I just don't see it being a problem. Really, I doubt that you're running more than M25 even at full throttle and high boost. If I had to guess, its far less than that. M10 maybe? I just wouldn't worry about it so long as you're running a decent motor oil.

I'm gonna preface this by saying that I don't have kids. Also, I'm unlikely to EVER have kids. It seems to me that the way to do this might be to buy the Brat. Put it in the garage. Go out there with your son and work on it. Just the basics. Get it running/driving reliably. And when you go out to work on it, don't refer to it as your brat or his brat. Just refer to it as "the brat". Given your description I believe that he will get excited about it. That excitement gives you the opportunity to have the discussion with him. "So you like that Brat, huh? Well I tell you what. If you can <list of goals> by <time frame>, I'll sell you that car along with whatever parts or upgrades we manage to put in it between now and then." Then, if he meets his goal(s), you give him the car and let him put his savings into gas/insurance/upgrades. This also means that you get to control the pace of the work based on his grades through the year. If his grades slow down, so does the work. And if he puts on a real show and gives you straight A's, then maybe a little extra might be in order...like a new set of wheels or something. This sets you up for some good bonding time with your son out in the garage. It gives him some motivation for better grades. Win/Win, right?

Hasn't been a problem. Can't really come up with a way for it to be much of a problem either. Its essentially just a single-bolt closure on a flange that grabs the bar. The first one I built had a bolt that went directly THROUGH the mustache bar. Didn't have a problem there, either.

I just bought a piece of steel that would sleeve up over a piece of receiver stock (3" square stock, I think), a piece of receiver stock, some 1" square stock and some 3" x 3/16" (?) angle stock. I used the angle stock as end caps and bored holes through one side of them so that they would bolt to the factory recovery hook locations. Cut a hole all the way through the middle of the 3" square stock. Sleeve the receiver stock through that hole and seam weld both sides. Weld the angle stock to the ends of the 3" square stock. Then I used the 1" square stock to build a runner that went up to the mustache bar. Build a little flange to grab the mustache bar and bolt the whole thing up. I think it took about 4 hours to do including paint (POR15).

Welcome to the board! You'll find lots of good people and good advice here. As for your questions... A boxer engine can sound very "dieselish". That's especially true if there is an aggressive exhaust system on the car. That's why the old Porsche's sounded that way. Humming intake. Hmmm.... Not sure what to make of that other than it sounds like something isn't tightened properly. Check the 4 retainer clips that hold the airbox closed. Also check the hose clamps that secure the intake hose. As for your "tap/click" on downshift...does that sound electronic or mechanical?

I suspect there is just NOT going to be a vehicle specific hitch for those cars. At least, when I went looking a couple years back I couldn't find one. I did find that I was able to buy the steel and weld one up myself for about the same money as the kits I was able to find.

you might see MARGINAL mpg increases from a larger tire, but not one that is larger in the dimension you specified. You'd go from 205/70R15 to 205/75R15 or 205/80R15. This leaves your contact patch the same size but gives you an overall taller tire. Handling will suffer for it as will acceleration. If you are trying to maximize fuel economy, try keeping the tires the factory size, but go to a harder rubber compound. That reduces rolling resistance. Again, you will lose a small percentage in handling and braking performance.

Parts store probably won't have it in stock, but should be able to order one. Depending on where they source it, you're probably looking at 3-4 days to get it. The best supplier, aside from the dealer, is probably Ranshu out of Reno, NV. They don't do retail sales, but if your parts store doesn't know where to get one, refer them to Ranshu.

ok. Looked up your car. It calls for 1.3 lbs R134a. Most vehicles call for a specific amount +/- ~4 oz. This one does NOT. Having said that, I'll bet that the same +/- thing applies, so 1.5lbs is a bit high, but probably just fine. 2lbs is WAY high. But I don't think that's your problem. Rapid compressor cycles indicate low refrigerant, especially when combined with low system pressures. So one of 2 things has happened here. Either someone DIDN'T put in the amount of refrigerant they said, or you've got a leak somewhere. Since the system hasn't gone flat over the last couple of days, I'd guess the first thing is your problem. Not trying to throw anyone under a bus, but its the only explanation I can come up with.

Again...low refrigerant.

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