4g63 - Best bang for buck 4cylinder?

This will be the start of a small series of posts of tributes towards some of the greatest motors we've seen in recent decades when it comes to making power for cheap and without too much complexity (everyone's already thinking LS1 at this point I'm sure!). We will be covering our top pick for each size (ie: 4/6/8 cylinders).

To start us off with the top dog 4cylinder, the 4g63 wins our vote!

The fact is - you simply won't make gobs of horsepower with any other 4 cylinder for less money than you will with a 4g63. Even with stock internals this powerhouse has made over 700whp and taken cars well into the single digits in the 1/4 mile.

The 4g63 is a Mitsubishi motor, introduced in the form we're familiar with in the late 1980's. It has truly become a legendary motor to the point it was still being put in the Mitsubishi Evolution up until 2008 with relatively minor internal revisions.

You might be asking - what makes this motor so great? Well we'll tell you!

These motors that are predominantly come factory turbo - absolutely love boost. Many of the stock parts can be used even after doubling the cars horsepower! Things such as the stock motor internals, the manifolds, and more. This cuts costs by a ton and really allows for some serious budget minded builds!

You can buy cars with the factory turbo 4g63 for next to nothing! The most common of these come from the Chrysler/Mitsubishi joint venture in the 90's - Diamond Star Motors, also known as DSM.
DSM's were the product of Chrysler and Mitsubishi coming together which resulted in a several different vehicles - the most notable being the Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, and Plymouth laser. 

Besides some styling differences these cars are essentially the same. Stock, these cars made just under 200hp from the factory which was fairly decent for a stock 4cylinder at the time. They're also fairly heavy - weighing around 3000lbs or more depending on the model/options. Better yet the top models came in All-Wheel-Drive.

The going price these days for a decent one of these cars seems to be around the $2500-$5000 range depending on how modified and how clean the car is. Anything less and you start running into cars that might be more of a project - which there's nothing wrong with. You can find a decent 90-94 DSM for $1000 or less not running and get it on the road yourself for cheap and also put the car together the way you want.

You can start out with a stock 4g63 - and by taking advantage of the massive amount of used parts constantly being sold by enthusiasts - you can have a 300-400whp car for very little. I have my own DSM experience - and with just a 16g (stock turbo from a 4g63 mitsubishi evolution III, unported stock housings) I ran fairly consistent mid 11's. This all still using stock parts such as a the block with stock internals, intake manifold, a 95-99 dsm exhaust manifold,  95-99 mass air flow sensor, o2 housing, transmission, etc. The only costly parts of that setup was the tuning software and fuel system which still ended up totaling less than $1000.

That said though - you shouldn't just go buy a beat up old 4g63 DSM and start throwing parts on it and raising the boost. These cars have a stigma for being unreliable and tempermental.  In my own opinion - this is far from the truth!
 The engineers who designed the motor were probably not sitting there thinking "We need to design this motor so that after decades of neglect and lack of maintenance some kid can throw parts at it and raise the boost and it'll still be reliable."

Often times people will get one of these cars, and immediately start throwing parts at it such as bolting on a bigger turbo with a boost controller and raising the boost. Then they wonder why it breaks on them right away and start blaming the car for being unreliable.

The fact is, and this goes for any car, these cars are 20 years old now give or take a few. Hoses, bearings, belts, wires, nuts, bolts, etc are all very worn out by now if they have not been serviced regularly - and many of these cars haven't as they're cheap enough to be "throw-away" cars to a lot of the younger people that have been buying them in the last 10 years or so. It's very important to make sure maintenance is up to date and that you follow a proper mod path!

I personally have never had any major issues with my car that weren't there when I bought it. I did a LOT of maintenance and fixes after buying it. I've since put over 15k miles on it last year and 20+ mid 11 second track passes and lots of street abuse and she takes it like a champ. Now she'll hopefully be making lots of 10 second passes this year with the new setup!

It just boils down to taking care of your car!

With all that said though - there are other 4g63 platforms as we've mentioned. The DSM is not the only way to go, although it is pretty much the cheapest. The 4g63 can be found in other vehicles such as mitsubishi evolutions, mitsubishi galant vr4s, and there are even hyundais running around with them!

There is such a massive aftermarket for the 4g63 as well as a massive following of enthusiasts. There's very few thing you can't find used for around half the price if you don't mind dealing with the riskier buying/selling with private parties and used parts.

People will often say that you can't build a fast 4cylinder for the price of a fast 8cylinder. This is true in most cases, however there are many times where the 4g63 will still end up being cheaper than a v8 making similar power. Granted if you're wanting to run deep into the single digits you are starting to get to the point where maintaining a reliable 4g63 will become difficult and more costly than a v8.

There are other 4cylinders out there with great potential - however you just won't get the bang for your buck with them that you will the 4g63! The 4g63 is truly the small block chevy 350 to the 4 cylinder world!

What do you think?!