TrboBLU - Project Ricecar to Racecar

Well, the car has about 19 miles on her. Drove around town looking for a place to do an alignment. The first place said they wouldn't touch it because of the lowering springs. Ended up at Belle Tire. However, they couldn't get to it; so she goes back Tuesday.

In the meantime, messed with the damaged CF hood a but, fixed some odds and ends on the car.. like a new lower radiator...

She LIVES!!!!

Out of the garage for the first time in over a year. It feels great!! There's still some bugs to work out and things to do... but the fact that she runs and drives down the road... omg.. SO EXCITED!

Pics!

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The other day decided that 3 spoilers would look awesome on the Talon. Here's a mock up:





Just kidding.

However, did get the new/used decklid installed after respraying...

For those who are curious about the 2gb Talon spoiler and what's involved to use this on; say.. a 2ga car.. here's a little "primer."


A few years ago, woke up one day and thought that a 2gb Talon conversion would be a super duper fantabulous idea. All went according to plan except for one piece: The spoiler.

Scene 1: The tale of a Thousand Decklids....

and....

Car runs again after the oil pan re-seal. Also got the Thermal exhaust modded to fit that 3" DP. So naturally, there's a leak at the DP to 02 housing now. ha..

Going to buy another gasket for that tomorrow. Also noticed that the WB gauge appears to be on the fritz. When datalogging with the laptop, the WB A/F reads a steady 14.7 to 15.0. However the gauge...

Ok, So not a whole lot going on with the car this week. Dropped the oil pan, since it was leaking. Also took the test pipe to get it expanded to fit over the Thermal exhaust. That exhaust had the wrong flange on it; so had to cut it off. It was made for a stock downpipe, not a 3" one.

Also worked some more on the interior and made sure the radio still works. It does! Yay!...

Did a few things to the illustrious car today. One included fitting the Recaros.

Here's some pics:


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TrboBLu decided that she really, really likes life up on jackstands. Either that or she has a thing against the Brad Penn green oil. Regardless, a leak developed from behind the timing cover. Fearing the worst, the cover was removed... but come to find out it's just the oil pan.

Still.. she decided to give the preverbal



Did some test-fit on...

She's alive and kicking! Yesterday rolled it over on the stock ECU (just incase something was haywire with the wiring...) Today swapped it to the DSMLink-chipped ECU. Loaded the last tune into the computer, which had the correction for the GM MAF; then let her run for a good half hour or so. Here's a short video of the car running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORyfqVUGO2Q...

Got the bumper on the car today; with the headlights. Also put on the coolant hoses for the turbo, spark plugs and wires. Now just got to modify the exhaust, continue to figure out what bolts go where, and just keep on truckin'.

Pics:

Is it time for an update? Perhaps.

....it still doesn't run...

Anyways, did get some more items "fixed." First we'll start with the windows. I have no idea why anyone would remove the window guide felts, stoppers and plastic guides on the bottom; but this a$$clown did. So the window would roll up too far and cause the door to not shut. For anyone...

Ok, so besides this car causing all those involved with it to loose their minds, I think it's finially starting to come together.

Regardless, the engine cranks over! *yAy* This was after replacing the main start cables that were corroded. It's not running yet because it needs some 3/8" heater hose for the turbo lines. And spark sticks. Yes, spark sticks.. I keep forgetting about...

: hmm:

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Needless to say... I'm thrilled to have the engine and trans back in the car. Things should start to move pretty quick now!

"As per tradition" here are some pictures!

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Well, sort-of.

Got to work on the Talon again today... and was able to get quite a few things back together. It's nice to finially start seeing this 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle starting to look like something.

The engine was assembled; and the transmission was bolted back up. Also installed the intake and a few accessories. Continued on the wiring nightmare. I REALLY...

Well the weather looks like it has finally broke for summer! That makes working on things so much easier...

Cometic sent out the correct gasket this week and I got it yesterday. So Just got to package up the old one and sent it back. They, did, indeed send me one for the EVO8 block. The coolant jackets are different. Who woulda thought? It's a thick gasket, that's fo-sho!...

Well, the newly painted sides and rear bumper are offically on the car and bolted on. Tails were put back in, as well.

Went to install the head on the block only to find that Cometic sent me the wrong headgasket. This one looks like it belongs to an EVO block. So got to call tomorrow and see if they can fix it.

However, did get the cams degreed in. The intake...

Yes, they sure are. The part I dislike about a rebuild is when you get all these new parts in and freshly machined blocks and heads; they all look so good that I almost want to keep them out for decoration.

So.. just a few shots of the short block.

Anyone want some stock 2g pistons, let me know. They are good..

This week, in addition to picking up the engine... also picked up the bumpers and sideskirts that were resprayed blue. I was thrilled with the results! Of course, I'm sure they will make the rest of the car look bad now.

I was quite "impressed" with just how many bolts attach the rear fascia on. haha! Honestly, it seemed a bit overkill. Had a few of them break...

After a rather long day on the road; the engine is back! The shop did a beauitful job on it. Didn't have the camera with me, so I'll add pictures later one.

But in short, the block was decked .007, bored over .020, magnafluxed, degreased, aligned and honed.. the JE pistons were fitted to the rods; ARP rod bolts, the crank was polished and I also had everything balanced.
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Tomorrow is the big day! Picking up the engine from the machine shop! I will post a more detailed post about this once I get it home.

Meanwhile, was able to get a few more things done on the car this weekend. The ABS was deleted using a very nice "delete kit" from STM. The stainless brake lines are quite beautiful.

Also was able to finally repair...

in my last post, I think I mentioned something how the engine surprised me with needing machine work. One would think that by now I would've learned that nothing gets by "easy" with this car.

Still love it, though.

Anyways, the machine shop told me that I should see the engine mid-April. It is being bored over .020, line honed, maganfluxed, balanced, cleaned,...

Well over the weekend decided to take apart the engine from the white car, as well as look at the other blocks I have. I now understand why the white car had temperature issues. The deck was warped on the block. Oddly enough, the head seems to be ok. So I guess who ever rebuilt it last spent the time to get the head work done, but not the block. The Cylinders were found to be out of round as...

Here are some better pictures showing the spray paint on the strut towers and engine bay. I included one showing the fender to compare the original paint to the color of the duplicolor special.

Today I think it shall get a coat of clear... then perhaps the head shall come off the one block.

Tonight the engine/trans was pulled from the car. Decided that since the car is down this far minds will rebuild the other 7 bolt and use the cylinder head I have redone. I had BC springs and retainers installed and it will be getting a set of FP 272 cams.

The question is now... which block to use. Technically I have two. I am thinking of seeing if the block from the white car...

TrboBlu is still under the knife. There were some hairline cracks in the towers. I'm going to guess these were from the *awesome* high-performance suspension parts that consisted of ebay coilovers on stock, blown struts. The car could probably rattle my brain back into being sane.

Also grabbed the washer line from the white talon; which is looking kinda sad... all up on the trailer....

Looks like the suspension fell out.

Most of the dissembly on the car is complete. Now time for some welding repairs on the strut towers; rust treatment and re-assembly.

Got the Aeromotive FPR in, as well as the install kit. The much-needed u-joint arrived today thanks to Ghostcrafter!

This weekend will be a busy one...

You know... sometimes I wonder what kind of mind set one must be in to wake up one glorious beautiful morning and think: "You know what would be SWEET? Painting my already blue car, which of course has a blue engine bay; a lighter, nastier shade of.. BLUE! Any why stop there? Paint the hoses and lines the same aweful color!"

Oh yeah... and be sure to paint directly...

Turbo Blue was treated with a product called Rust Encapsulator while the rear suspension and tank were out of the car. I have used both POR-15 and Rust Bullet before. POR-15 proved to be ok; however did not work as well as the Rust Bullet. I found that an unprepped surface worked better for the POR-15.... so decided to try out Rust Bullet. That product is holding up better on the Dodge Shadow...

While waiting for the work computer to load and find a license for Nuke, figured I'd run through the plan for Turbo Blue.

Modifications:
EVO 16g
FMIC
3" GM MAF
650cc Injectors
255 pump
DSMLINK V3

These will be running on a stock engine until spring. Come spring time, it will get a fresh rebuilt engine. (The engine from...

Once upon a time; back on July 7, 2007, (that would be 7-7-07 for those who like numbers) I purchased my first dsm. It was a black Tsi AWD autotragic car. I say "autotragic" because on what was suppost to be the luckiest day EVER, the car goes into "limp" mode as soon as a drive away with the title.


Haha... Should've known then and there that this...