Battery Re-Location
One mod that can be done on the CP9a is to relocate the battery further back in the engine bay, and bring the air filter to the front of the engine bay, and so providing it with a cleaner, cooler supply of air, which in turn leads the way to more power and a more responsive drive. Its that effective Mitsubishi laid the engine bay out of the later CT9a in this fashion. There are two very well know Japanese tuning companies making these relocation kits at the present time, HKS and Cusco, so the choice is varied and each kit has different looks and merits.There is however one catch, the price, the Cusco kit retails at £360 which is an awful lot of money for a few pieces of alloy.
Because of this i decided to set upon making my own, and after a very good response on the MLR when i posted a thread asking for pictures/photos and general advice the task was under way. Below is a photographic story of the making of the Battery Relocation Kit.
In time i replaced the alloy inlet pipe from the HKS Mushroom filter to the turbo with a bespoke item. This was because as good as the HKS Racing Suction Kit alloy pipe was, i had to twist it out of alignment slightly, and as such the air flow path was straighter with the use of a purpose built pipe.
Because of this i decided to set upon making my own, and after a very good response on the MLR when i posted a thread asking for pictures/photos and general advice the task was under way. Below is a photographic story of the making of the Battery Relocation Kit.
In time i replaced the alloy inlet pipe from the HKS Mushroom filter to the turbo with a bespoke item. This was because as good as the HKS Racing Suction Kit alloy pipe was, i had to twist it out of alignment slightly, and as such the air flow path was straighter with the use of a purpose built pipe.
The bare engine bay..... battery, airfilter and black plastic cylinder removed. The battery box is made of fairly thin alloy sheet. I made a template from a cardboard box, took that into work and had the metal fabricators knock me a box up in their lunch break. After lining everything up, i drilled the holes in place and fixed the box to the side of the front strut, where the black plastic cylinder orginally mounted. You would be amazed at how much support this one little bracket gave, unbelievable! Battery drill just fitted in nicely enough to enable me to drill the mounting hole. The battery tray sits on the engine mount, as can be seen by this photo. Everything bolted down, it was time to try the battery for fit... splendid! Note this is actually an uprated battery too, the original one is about 2" shorter in dimension. The rear bar for the holding bracket sits nicely under one of the original airbox mountings. An additional earth was run to the engine too, while i was extending the original wiring. A good supply of clean air coes from these four pipes.The larger pipe can be seen in the the "Cold Air Feed" section, the three smaller pipes are slotted into the top of the air intake thats in the front splitter. I had to slightly twist every joint in the HKS Racing Suction Kit to get it to sit properly. The finished product! And from another angle! |