About Philip Giasson Expertise I can answer pretty much any technical or mechanical question about any model of Mitsubishi Car, Truck, or SUV. Anything to do with repair of their engines, adjustments, how to's, etc. You name it.
Even electrical, body, upgrades... aftermarket goodies. Turbo charging for naturally aspirated cars... Pulling more horsepower... Whatever you need!
I'm the Mitsu Guy.
Around this area PPL come to me 'cause I'm a mitsu fanatic and because I've personally had 7 different types mitsu's and still own 3. They are my favorite vehicles... and my favorite of them all is also the most complicated vehicle of its day. I have spent massive amounts of time and energy learning the "in's" and "out's" of it's (D.O.H.C., Twin Turbo, Twin Intercooled, Variable Timing, Dual Intake Runners, Multi-port fuel-injected, Fully Computer Controlled) Engine, Getrag Transmission / Electronic Adjustable - KYB Suspension/ Full-time All Wheel Drive w/ Vicious Coupling LSD Differential / All Wheel Steering... all of their individual components design, structure, and flaws. Its is the 3000GT VR-4, my baby!
Mostly all of the other Mitsu's are a piece of cake comparatively with a few exceptions. I don't claim to know everything about cars. If I don't know it of the top of my head... I'll give one of my knowledgeable friends a call, and we'll come up with the right answer! Cars are one of my passions, like many other guys. I'm here to assist others with whatever they need help with on their Mitsu's! Go Mitsu Fans!
Experience My experience, consists of 7 years active full time employment in the automotive field. Although mainly mechanical, I have extensive parts knowledge on all types of vehicles, and have also supervised a shop with 4 bays. I have since moved on to work on my own. I mainly work on heavily modded: drag cars, show cars, and or full rebuild from stock w/ blown motor to brand new fully custom interiors, computer systems, engine, suspension, rims+tyres - full race ready.
Education/Credentials Although I have some College as well as Certifications in computers and nursing... I am not in Automotive. Mostly self learned in high school and college. After I started working at the first shop that I worked at... I learned immense amounts in a relatively short periods of time. Some of it was forced too after blowing an engine or two in my first gen. Eclipse awd Turbo. I had to learn and learn quickly how to get it done and be back on the road to work the next day! Literally. Since then I've been through several other sweet Talon's, 3000GT's, Stealth's, Galant's, and more.
Mitsubishi - Intake modifications for automatic transmissions
Expert: Philip Giasson - 10/4/2009
Question I have a 2003 Mitsu Lancer ES. I want to do an upgrade to the intake starting from the stock "cold air" intake all the back to the manifold. My question is would it be better to go with an after market cold air or to go for a short ram for better results. I am not used to working with automatic transmissions so I don't know if there is going to be a difference at all.
Answer Don't worry about the fact that you have the auto transmission. It's not going to affect any of the intake setups. As far as intakes go either Cold Air or Ram Air... you want to go with a setup that gets the most air from outside the engine bay and the least air from around the engine. Some kits such as the ones on ebay have a short intake pipe and a circular open air filter. Although their cheap and may look nice/sound nice - they actually reduce horsepower. This is because they are sucking in all the superheated air from the engine compartment. The hotter air makes the combustion less efficient... The factory intake does a pretty good job with keeping hot air from the engine and thus it performs better than the cheap Pipe+cone filter jobbies they are selling online.
You really want to stick with a bolt on kit specifically designed for the car. An excellent example is the Injen Kit. It uses factory mounts and clips so its not just flopping around. It eliminates the stock air-box, and pulls in cool air from below the engine... If it is really low, like within 18" from the ground low, you want to make sure it comes with a splash guard.
Ram air setups are not as common because they require a vent for the forced induction... such as a hood scoop. The price of such a setup for an intake + hood for about 10-15hp is probably not worth the trouble. Ram air doesn't produce any HP gain until you're moving 20mph plus...
