[wildwheels]

Before I start I must confess that a DOHC head conversion for the 4G15 SOHC that’s been done on my Mitsubishi Lancer is nothing much to rave about. It’s not much of a mod besides the Turbo’s and the remapped ECU’s. Besides after I started off I realized that I am not the first one to do it on team bhp. Courtesy for that goes to Get hiyyer who is the first one probably to do the same. There may be others who have done so maybe even before him. To my knowledge it’s just the two of us. If there are others please do acknowledge.

Basically what the modification does is improve your power output from 87 bhp to 103 bhp. Also owing to the twin cam it delivers power in a more efficient aggressive manner. This is something that I have gotten used to loving since my Palio S10. The head conversion is not going to drastically transform your car with mind blowing results. But is a start or a base to achieving the same with satisfying results in the LONG RUN.

The first modification that your Lancer needs and which mine desperately needs at this point is better fuel flow which is a big negative for this car world over. It’s because of the factory pump settings to achieve mileage for this car plays foul. The best way to overcome this is to fix a fuel pressure regulator and set it to 3.3 bar and provided you can gauge your throttle well shouldn’t see your mileage drift south. My car at although perkier at this point is gasping for fuel and so unless I fix one I am not going to see much gain from my DOHC conversion. I should have one in two weeks. However for anyone with this car I recommend the best mod before intake, exhaust etc would be to go for a FPR.

The reason for choosing the Lancer was because this is one car that can be modified with satisfying results and the amount of after market modifications are probably the best. Brake, shock body upgrades this car has it all. So this is a long term project and will take some time. One thing I like is this project can well be within my budget. Till date I have spent just over 3 lakhs for my car including cost of car which was what I wanted. Future upgrades like Bilsteins will hike it a bit more but with all modifications I am looking at a sub 4 lakh car.

Now to start off I was initially planning on hooking a Mivec probably a 4G92. Its been done a lot in India. However while researching I stumbled upon the RPW website which recommended the DOHC upgrade. This was quite appealing as this would mean a legal car as I don’t have to change engines and get it endorsed (Something that’s not possible at least in Kerala). Moreover spares also post minimal problems if I continued the 4G15 route. So the plans were hatched. You can get a DOHC conversion from RPW for $1200 (AUD I think) minus shipping. But when I finally decided they were in short supply. I found out that these originated from Japan so I tracked a supplier in Japan who scraps cars. I then sent him the relevant pictorial sections like timing, head, exhaust etc from the 4G15 workshop manual and asked him to dismantle the same from an existing car. He would then send me pictures of dismantled sections so I could choose what I wanted and what I did not. It took almost 3 weeks to get all the parts organized. As I had myself not seen this engine it was more difficult as I had to compare my Lancer to the pictures on the manual. I also had to make sure I didn’t ship more than I wanted to bring down shipping costs. The pictures below are the parts that were procured. I have circled out some common parts in white which need not be shipped. Everything else needs to be shipped. The timing tensioner and springs are also the same but have not been circled out. The water pipe the lower timing covers in picture 1, the front engine mount bracket (looks similar to existing one but this is where the idler pulley is mounted) and lower timing covers in picture 2 are parts that should not be left out.






The cost for the same is approx $500(dismantling + cost of parts). The package weighs 50Kgs. Japan post will ship for Rs 22000/- however people warned me that there is no tracking once it entered India. So I had a close friend use his account with DHL to get it to me and cost me another 27K for shipping it would cost Rs40000 if you don’t have a DHL account.

Customs held up the package in Delhi saying it’s restricted/ value is wrong so I had to send them a proof of value, a Chartered engineers certificate etc. It took a week to clear. Let me tell you shipping and customs is a pain and I would not do this again so unless you have some way of handling this, it’s very risky.

The head and parts are a direct bolt on and I supervised the installation of the head and timing belts etc with my mechanic who is a good at what he does. But still I had to point out the timing and mounting procedures from the manual and everything went like clockwork. The only three modifications are

1)There is no air temperature sensor port in the intake manifold of the DOHC so this had to be shifted to the air intake hose. All other connections are direct fit.
2)The exhaust on the Indian Lancer is a 4-1 the DOHC comes with a 4-2-1. So I had to make a 2-1 converter between the primary and the secondary temporarily till I fix headers. But I feel the initial Lancer petrol had a 4-2-2 as get hiyyer bolted his direct and also I managed to find a packing for the same for a Lancer at a spare parts store.
3)Some of the water hoses need to be modified (read shortened or turned) to fit.


Well everything is fine except my Lancer is gasping for fuel as its not getting enough pressure. So will have to fix the FPR and let you know. Here are the pictures of the engine bay after the install.





Im running Shell Helix , Iridium’s ( came with the head probably the previous owner was like minded!). I have also installed a Green Cotton Storm (more on that later). Engine is much smoother than the SOHC. Hope this helps someone.


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[Ricky_63]

It is nice to see someone has finally found a way to get better performance off the stock engine, albeit with a new head. Shall follow this & hope to see good results after the whole thing is sorted out.

Do keep us posted


Cheers

[speedzak]

Great!
Prompt, detailed and well worded. Spiced up and perfected with pictures.
Well done.

It's nice to know that you've seriously taken up this mod job yourself. Ordering, Shipping, customs hooplahs and finally, getting all these fixed and running! Man, you have gone thru a lot to get this done. Keep it up!

You can get a better fuel pump (like Walbro) and run it in combination with a good FPR to achieve a smooth result in the fuel supply department.

[rjstyles69]

Truly an eye opener for power hungry folks when on shoe string budget, minus the pain involved with the shipping and customs.

Pardon my ignorance here, lets say you fix up your fuel pump pressure issue. Does it make sense to get a FFE coupled with a aftermarket ECU ?

[razor4077]

Nice writeup wildwheels. Good to see someone extracting a bit more out of the 4G15 block. I had given the DOHC setup a lot of thought when I was getting my Lancer's engine overhauled and modified, but somehow never got it done.
Apart from the headers what do you plan to do in the future? Turbo?

I have a SARD FPR, but I don't know if I should fit it to see what kind of difference it makes, or just sell it off while it's new and I get the max price for it. What would you suggest? Will this make a difference to the normal SOHC engine?

[wildwheels]

Everybody has been recommending upgrading the fuel pump. I have done some reading on this and although I do not have enough experience to back it up I don't think my stock DOHC would need a upgraded Walbro due to the following.

1) According to AEM that manufactures fuel upgrades most fuel pumps are meant to perform 20% more than required in case the fuel filters get clogged. The 3.3 bar is standard for the engine and therefore the pump can deliver for that fuel pressure. I need a pump only if my pressure needs are unreasonably high maybe if I turbo. But I really dont know how turbo works and dont need to know right now unless I'm headed that way.

2) I don't know where but I remember reading that using more pressure than necessary can actually produce negative impact even .1 bar of added pressure than necessary is bound to foul up performance so I just need whats necessary.

So no Walbro or pump upgrade just a FPR to deliver 3.3 bar nothing more nothing less.

I am planning to add an FFE. I cant get a ready made FFE from Automech for the same and its going to be a pain getting my car to Bangalore and back to Raj. So figuring on doing it myself with the help if a good local tinker so right now learning a thing or two about the same. May or may not do it depends on whether I have the nerve to pull it off at the time. Does anybody know of mandrel benders in Kerala?

I'm really clueless on ECU's but think I can figure it out with time its probably time to make use of my hard earned but other wise useless Electronic degree lessons.

[wildwheels]

razor please go ahead and fit it. And let me tell you will not notice a power difference but your car is definitely going to respond better than anything else. You planning on selling PM me

Love this thread, and, the explanation that makes everything so clear.

[lancer_rit]

Great thread. I too have been pouring over RPW website and options for a while and also thought about the DOHC option... Haven't made any forward steps.
Will follow your thread with lot of interest :-) RPW says fitting a FIPR will boost very low-rpm torque by 1.38 kgm - they don't talk about this helping anywhere off the near idle range, though. The DOHC 4G15 was used on some Colts and does produce much higher bhp - so are you sure the fuel injection is the only issue ?

Have read elsewhere on this forum that automech are only good if you are in Mumbai - else mileage varies.

Good luck on further steps !

[16v100bhp]

Just perfect! the thread more than anything else.. A valuable addition to the forum in deed. and no less the actual work that went into the car.. I am sure you would have enjoyed every step of it..

Hope you get the fuel pressure thingy sorted out soon..

[madan80]

nice work! guess I can look at something like this as well.

[crazydiablo]

Very nice upgrade and VFM also. Lancer is a beautiful car, and I presume what was holding it back was the SOHC head.

What would have been amazing would have been to give it a porting job before you put it in, along with some nice road cams. This package along with matched headers and fuelling sorted out would have been wicked.

Slow and steady always. Congrats once again.

[wildwheels]

Well no point in making it go faster unless I get handling and brakes sorted out. No point in making it faster if it cant handle corners. So time being following is the route I plan to follow one by one. Probably might not end up till the 7th. Might change cars before then.

1) FPR
2) Tires badly need changing waiting for 15 inch NHC rims from someone who has put alloys as I cant go in for alloys now without deciding whether I will need a front brake upgrade from a Gallant or Eclipse which will mean change of PCD to 114.
3) FFE
4) Hawk brake pads / Front brake rotor upgrade
OR
5) Bilsteins
6) Anything else like Alloys etc...
7) Stand alone ECU.

[16v100bhp]

Originally Posted by madan80

nice work! guess I can look at something like this as well.

I was thinking the exact same thing.. are you thinking about this for the palio or for the lancer?

[wildwheels]

The Palio is already a DOHC