That's a hell of a lucky find you made! I'll have to see if it's still sitting there as I could always use this-and-that parts.

curt-s said:

That's a hell of a lucky find you made! I'll have to see if it's still sitting there as I could always use this-and-that parts.

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It's still listed on the website, so it's worth a look. You'll find it at the end of one of the rows in the Chrysler section.

Out of curiousity, where does this Evo live? I thought I remembered you saying you were out in my neck of the woods? Be great to check it out one day.

You're right, and the car is indeed in Winnipeg. I'm trying to move back there ASAP, for a long list of reasons. I might finish the thing one day!

I've had a bunch of people who have seen my sell-off thread send me messages expressing their condolences about the end of the car, but that’s definitely not happening. I'm married to the car and can't just get rid of it after 15 years. My plan was well thought-out for anyone with a bigger budget than me, and I couldn't recover from any setbacks. So, on the advice of my local car friends ("GET IT GOING"), I’m going to keep it simple and do just that. I'll keep the restoration parts here for the day when I can do a whole respray and make the car look new, but the current issues are going to be fixed and I'm going to drive the car ASAP. If a part in this thread isn't listed on the for sale post, it's probably going on the car

To prove I'm back on my horse, I finally got the core Evo transmission that is key to putting it back on the road. I'll need to get the transmission, transfer case and rear diff down to a builder to get them all freshened up, but I'm committed to that.


I’m also finally turning wrenches again, doing Dodge Neon things in my garage to get back into the groove. This one needs more than anticipated.

Spring is here (ish), which let me move the Evo out from its out-of-town, climate-controlled storage, and into the shop on the other side of the building. The first priority for today was to get the transmission into the car, so that the car can be flat-bedded to my house when a spot opens up. Evo 123 engine mounts are like a 2G DSM - if the transmission is out, the engine is floppin', and this one was held in by the single mount bolt and some wood blocks. The car isn't drivable for a few reasons, but the Evo III transmission will need a rebuild before it drives the car; it looks a bit abused inside and has missing parts, plus it has a ratio mismatch (think 97-99 DSM transmission with 90-96 T-case). The transmission is a nightmare to install on a drive-on lift, not recommended. Priority two, if time allowed, was to finally see how bad it will be to fit the EFR 7670 kit. So with that, the radiator and MHI turbo kit got the boot, and on things went.




The chassis is still super tidy underneath. I'm torn on doing a full rotisserie paint job with it looking this nice. The floors don't need paint at all, but I want the roll cage holes patched, which will be its own issue. The rear of the chassis and radiator cradle could use a bit of attention, but nothing critical. Overall, it's just really dirty.




I bought a whole new brake kit recently to support the refresh/restoration of the car. No more 4x114.3 or 17" wheels, so the Wilwoods will go.

And the turbo kit. This is all one bad idea after another. It started with buying a heavily (and I mean HEAVILY) discounted IWG T4 EFR 7670 from Rossion Supercars many years ago. It's serial #00003 on the tag, one of the first ones made. This kicked off the modding spree and snowballed everything. I then bought another heavily discounted EFR 7670 in EWG, but thought the updated housing was ugly, so I sold it for what I paid for it. That was really dumb in hindsight. Many different iterations of ideas and parts followed, including the OnGreen cast T4 manifold, then I realized that a @MorrisonFab kit was the correct way to run the EFR, so I ponied up for a kit that maximized power at the expense of a seamless install. This was back in 2019-2020, when Evo 1s weren't worth anything and I didn't feel bad about hacking the car up to make it extremely capable. I grew up and want to keep it simple now, and I definitely don't want to do anything irreversible.

My buddy happened to have the exact radiator that is suited for the job, an aluminum VW Scirocco radiator that tucks neatly in the slam panel of Evo 1-3s that don't have A/C, so it was worth a try. For maximum real estate, many people cut out the hood latch bracket and run hood pins. Yuck. Will the EFR with a space-doesn't-matter fitment and massive IWG hanging off of it fit? Well...



It looks like it, as long as the fans are pushing instead of pulling. There is a lot of room with the radiator to come up with a mounting solution that doesn't require cutting or welding. I didn't have time to fully bolt up the wastegate bracket, but the canister seems to fit in the general area. Additionally, I ordered up a bracket that allows the use of a tucked, super-short wastegate canister like John Freund uses (thanks for the tip, John). My bracket is a bit different than his and I have concerns it will work like his does, but the new Gen V Turbosmart wastegate has some allowance on actuator arm angle, and comes with different rods, so I think the canister will clear easily.

I also didn't have time to size up the downpipe, but there's actually a chance that it will clear the alternator, and a relocation kit might not be necessary. I'm fine with a zero-clearance fitment since the heat shielding will protect it. The OFH looks like a casualty though, but the Evo 4 & Evo 5 used an OFH that points the filter away, all while keeping the same M16 oil cooler ports that the Evo 123 uses.

Properly downfiring, there is ample clearance for the charge piping, but that's at the expense of the ability to run a turbo speed sensor. This will likely never be an issue as long as the car is on pump gas and sees sane boost levels.



Overall, the EFR 7670 is still an exceptional turbo, and @MorrisonFab did a phenomenal job of making a good product out of my silly instructions. I still think the outcome here is positive; the twin scroll EFR 7670 out-performs basically anything else for street turbos on 91 octane, which is likely all we'll ever have at our pumps. It'll crank out another 100+ hp on top with race gas, and the kit will fit the BW EFR 8370 (bigger compressor) on the same turbine housing if the need arises. I'm glad that the kit didn't find a buyer when I tried to sell it. Sometimes you get things right by accident, and I think that's what happened here.

Would I do it again or recommend this to another Evo 123 owner? Not like this, but hindsight is 20/20. The EWG EFR 7670 would probably work with stock radiator location and alt/OFH, but the dual wastegate packaging would be complicated on such a cramped engine bay, and installation/removal of the setup would be awful. I'd likely suggest the smaller EFR 7163 on a .85 EWG v-band housing, which packages nicely and would keep the stock radiator and alternator/OFH positions with ease. I really got lost in the minutia of maximizing power and response, until I realized that it's a 2500 pound car, and an extra 25-50 horsepower won't necessarily make it much faster or better.

I'll be spending the next few months finishing up the Neon ACR, and fingers crossed that the Evo will occupy the workspace area of my garage late in the summer.

Back at it today! Had some time to kill with the holiday so I drove out and did some more wrenching. The transfer case is back in and the driveshaft no longer drags on the ground, which is a win for transport.



Then came some further testing with the turbo kit. The setup is a pain to install with the heat shielding blocking all the hardware, but the downpipe turned out to be friendlier than I expected. It contacts the alternator - I would've run it this way with my trust in the heat shields to do their job, but the connections don't want to clear (lining up the alternator didn't give enough space either). So close. To the back of the engine it will go.




Surprisingly, there is a good amount of room between the IWG canister and the radiator. I'll still try to use the cheater bracket to gain back even more and hopefully run a puller fan. The radiator can somehow be installed and removed with the turbo kit in place, that's a big plus since the turbo kit is a major pain to install.



But the bigger surprise - the stock Evo 1 oil filter housing looks like it's going to stay. From my eye, it just fouled the XL oil filter at the tip. I think the shortie filter will clear. This is a massive win since I didn't want to mess with oil cooler lines or fork out the huge money an Evo 4/5 OFH goes for.




The new Rock Auto Motorsports setup is Frankie approved, so it must be good. The second caliper arrived today, just a basic old AC Delco big brake system for me! I'm excited to have an attractive, quiet and driver-friendly braking system again. No more squealing race pads, no more spaced out, two-piece Wilwood rotors that were always a thorn in my side. Less to go wrong. I got R1 to custom make me some rotors and they'll ship shortly - 2013 Nissan Juke 296mm front rotors with the bore hogged out, and 2004 Volvo S40 rear rotors re-drilled to 5x114.3. What an odd car this is.



My shopping list for the car is getting close to the end. I know it's counter-intuitive to buy all of the components and detail things before doing bodywork, but parts for these cars are drying up. A good chunk of the items I bought over COVID now show up as discontinued - especially the trim that is really noticeable when it's old and manky - and there's nothing worse than having to live with that.

I'm really excited to fix all of my failures and everything else that went wrong with the car.

Beauty. And really nice to see a MB plate will still be on it
What's your target timeline looking like now?

Happy to see it all worked out!

Surprised to see the factory components sort of clear despite that not being the initial plan
Isn't that stud that it's contacting a ground anyway? Or I suppose the alternator will be angled up a lot more when fully in place and maybe the harness connector then gets close.
Last edit I swear- Agreed that the short, fatter oil filter often gives more room than the longer style you have on there. Won't allow removal without loosening some clamps, but maybe give an air gap and allow more freedom of the downpipe angle.

If you are able to find a turbo speed sensor to try out, it may be worth a shot. We got one to clear in a compact early Evo setup without too many changes, and the non-compact placement should give a tad more room.
Also worth trying to rotate the compressor outlet closer to the engine, which will give more TSS room and also allow the WG canister to tuck in closer from the radiator as well.

It was fun getting caught up on this build! I have an Evo V in the garage but it's really neat seeing an Evo I being built!

curt-s said:

Beauty. And really nice to see a MB plate will still be on it
What's your target timeline looking like now?

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Bare shell resto would be at least two more years. I could have it on the road next summer, but it's a bit silly to install a whole car's worth of brand new hardware and refreshed parts, just to put them on a chassis that needs work, and eventually pull it all down again in the future to do the bodywork. I genuinely don't know. Garage space is a problem and I lose the whole winter because my garage is uninsulated, so I'd have to schedule body work for wintertime to make the most of it.

MorrisonFab said:

Happy to see it all worked out!

Surprised to see the factory components sort of clear despite that not being the initial plan
Isn't that stud that it's contacting a ground anyway? Or I suppose the alternator will be angled up a lot more when fully in place and maybe the harness connector then gets close.
Last edit I swear- Agreed that the short, fatter oil filter often gives more room than the longer style you have on there. Won't allow removal without loosening some clamps, but maybe give an air gap and allow more freedom of the downpipe angle.

If you are able to find a turbo speed sensor to try out, it may be worth a shot. We got one to clear in a compact early Evo setup without too many changes, and the non-compact placement should give a tad more room.
Also worth trying to rotate the compressor outlet closer to the engine, which will give more TSS room and also allow the WG canister to tuck in closer from the radiator as well.

Click to expand...

The stud could be ground down, but the non-metal parts of the connection would likely melt eventually. The limiting issue is the plug-type connector into the alternator that won't clear, and would definitely melt. I'm sure a stock fitment answer could be found with enough trial & error on alternate alternators, but the back of the block is free real estate and relocations are readily available. Easy peasy.

Edit: on second thought, my brother has a Saturn in my garage that is destined for the scrapper, and it has a new alternator. The connections look more friendly on the back...down the rabbit hole we go.

Edit: on third thought, a 2G DSM or Galant alternator with the 4-pin plug off to the side may work too, as long as that ground stud is chopped down. It might be worth a try.



Edit: on 4th thought, I may just try the stock alternator with the ground stud removed and a low profile bolt used through a long ground plate; no risk of that melting. Then tuck the 2-pin connector as far away from the shields as possible. Worst case I keep an eye out for damage and move it, but worth a try first.

I had a stubby filter in the trunk of the car that I should've tried out, the thought crossed my mind after I had left the shop. As long as it doesn't rub, I'll live with having to drop the downpipe once a year for an oil change, but I still think it will spin off, too.

Clocking the compressor a bit more would yield the space needed for a speed sensor, then just 90* the compressor outlet towards the frame rail, but realistically the turbo will be relaxed at the ~24-25 psi I expect to get out of it on 91 octane and speeds will never be an issue. If we get E85 back, I'll re-evaluate, but that's super unlikely. The setup is really good now and I'm going to try not to dwell on tiny details and mess it up.

9!'clipseDOHC said:

It was fun getting caught up on this build! I have an Evo V in the garage but it's really neat seeing an Evo I being built!

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Thank you. If I were to do this over again, I'd pick the Evo V out of all of them. The recipe has all the right ingredients and parts choices with the best looks, it's truly special. You made a great choice.