1991 Dodge Stealth Twin Turbo AWD, Last week
This is what the car looks like today, the paint got a little bit out of control for a while, but this is what I decided looked the best to me. Inside the car is brand new. Engine wise, everything that was old has been replaced with shiny new parts. It recently underwent a 25000.00 revamp mechanically. It started out as a 1000 dollar preventative maintenance, then grew from there to complete overhaul. Body wise, the car is virgin, it has been slightly nudged in the nose a couple of times, and once the rear bumper got bumped but nothing hard, nor enough to bend metal. All body panels are stock except the back bumper which had dimples I couldn't figure out how to fix at the time. The whole car has been stripped to bare metal (twice) to keep excessive paint layers down, but now holds around 8 layers of primer/basecoat/intercoat clear/kandy/final clearcoats. All the flame patterns were hand drawn by myself, painstakenly cut out and painted, then pinstriped by hand (mediocre job). The interior has been completely replaced with a custom leather kit from Leatherseats.com, i.e. the Katzkin custom cover kits. It has custom stitching in teal thread on the seats and headrests, it has flames done in stitching on the vinyl door panels, and flame stitching to match the flames on the roof, on the headliner. All done professionally by one of the best hands in the area.
Performance wise, the car should make approximately 450-550 hp depending on the injectors, boost levels etc, the car ran mid 13s stock when i got it, if nursed correctly, and now the car has a stronger power band from idle to redline, a totally free flowing exhaust system, so can easily rev to the limiter restricted redline of 7300 rpm. Tested with one of those electronic measuring devices, the car ran a 12.4 quarter mile at approximately 118 mph. Top speed: car went 165 stock when i first got it, now it could seriously push the 200 barrier if someone has the balls to try. Although the 5spd tranny may not be geared for it. It is deceptively easy to exceed a 70mph speed limit in this car (in 3rd gear no less) so great care needs to be used in where you decide to test the power of the car. 99 percent of the driving I've done has been highway miles, its sweet spot to cruise is around 75-85mph but can easily break 120 without breathing hard. While i have driven at 100mph speeds fairly often in the car, I have hardly ever raced it, nor abused it. The tires have never been spun in this car, and i mostly try to keep rpms under mid 5k range. I've had the full fuel modifications to support the higher boost and bigger turbos, and to tell the truth it is brutally fast tuned that way, but for longevity, I plan to pull back a bit by lowering the boost levels and going back to smaller injectors. It is much easier to keep in tune that way. If I need more speed, it is there for the taking. Always good to have reserves.
A list of Modifications
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Brand new Mitsubishi Short Block motor (block/pistons/rings/bearings) Warranty was for a year or 12k miles, i've put on 1k since so it should be good a long time.
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New RPS Max Street clutch and pressure plate (Pedal is stiffer than stock, but not terribly stiff)
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New Clutch ball and fork, and linkages
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New throwout bearing, still squeaks when cold starting but quiets with use
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Brand new Mitsubishi 13G turbos, slightly larger than stock, hold boost longer, but can be run by factory tune.
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New 550cc fuel injectors to support higher boost fuel adjustments with bigger turbos, not necessary but help for more power
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Brand new complete stainless steel exhaust, Stillen offroad Downpipe, gutted rear precat, followed by a custom BORLA twin turbo exhaust system, It replaced the two mode exhaust with loud, and louder, but sounds plenty mean for a v6. Its legal in Florida, but probably wouldn't pass emissions unless the factory downpipe was reinstalled, which is why i keep it in the garage.
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New Water pump, Oil pump, Fuel pump (high performance replacements)
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New AC Compressor
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New front axle hubs
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New seals on steering rack
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New Brake pads, rotors, and calipers on all 4 wheels.
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New Power steering pump
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New timing chain
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Newly totally refurbished heads, including new valve stem seals, 99 Lifters (don't tap as much), and all new springs and valves.
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Chrome plated Ypipe (leads from intake to throttle body) factory one would occasionally blow off at high boost, this one doesn't.
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Detailed engine bay, Pipes done in silver metallic, Plenum in silver metallic, cam cover in chrome, and chromed fuse and ac fuse panel caps.
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New Spark Plug wires, new platinum plugs
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New custom Stealth R/T valve cover plate
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Custom fiberglass two pod instrument cluster on front A pillar, Boost gauge and fuel gauge installed and lighted.
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HKS EVC IV Electronic Boost controller - allows manual adjustment of boost curves from 11psi to 20psi, works great.
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HKS Super AFR (air fuel regulator) This is currently installed to support the bigger 550 injectors, but may be disconnected soon.
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New Custom Paint, done in House of Kolor ($$$) Polyurethane enamel two stage basecoat/clearcoat. Also have 3 colors and sizes of Metalflake mixed in the base coats and the clearcoats, Body in HOK Medium Teal Pearl (PBC-56) the silver stripes and accents are using Silver fine metallic basecoat, and some of the flames had a coat or three of Oriental Blue Kandy on top of the silver basecoats. All visible orange peel was hand sanded smooth and surface is being buffed out to a lustre as we speak here. The theme is flames, flames on nose, hood, roof and doors, and rear spoiler, silver stripes as background to the hood flames, roof flames and running down the back of the car, extra wide ones.
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As soon as the car is sanded shiny, the car will get a new set of tires, Nitto Extreme 555s, which is my favorite tire for the car over the years.
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Have receipts from repairs by Mitsubishi certified mechanics for over 22,000.00 in work done in last 500 miles of car life.
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113k miles on the body, 1k on motor, 1k on new heads, 4k on turbos and clutch. 4k on interior. Heads were rebuilt after the engine swap, and new bearings and pistons installed at same time as the heads getting rebuilt.
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Many many spare parts, original parts, some boxed some stored, all will go wherever the car goes.
A list of what it needs fixed still:
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ECS suspension system has to be fixed, as it is stuck in sport mode and hard on the back, I've replaced the caps, but still have to check the ECU for the suspension, may have to pay to get this fixed right, it just won't do to have car riding hard when it can be comfy to drive. This will be the first major repair job to be done after i get it on road again.
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SRS light is illuminated in the dash, this has to be reset by the factory, happens whenever a battery dies completely and is replaced.
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AC blower motor fuse needs to be checked and replaced. Its not blowing any air right now, it did before it was serviced last time so figure they should be able to fix it when i'm ready.
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I may still decide to buy a polished plenum and valve covers for the car, really depends on if i decide to keep it or sell it to someone else. The painted ones stand out ok, but not as impressive as the polished ones. And the cost is negligible when compared to what has already gone in to the car.
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If i were to decide to keep the car, I would put some custom wheels on it, but the factory wheels are in good shape with minor rash visible, they've been repainted to match the car, plus they look better than 90 percent of the 5 spoke wheels available today.
