90 Talon Weekend Warrior. Tucked Everything, HTA68 + N20

[EclipseOwner95]

Here is my 1990 AWD TSi build. Enjoy!


So, any of you who saw my introduction post got to know a little about me. If you missed it, to sum it up. A DSM was my first car when I was 16 in 2003, and I think there has only been about a year or 2 since that I haven't owned at least one.

At the time I had a 91 GST with quite a few bolt ons, it was a fun car, and ran well, had a "straight" chassis(no body damage or dings and dents) but was rattle canned flat black, and peeling, so it was a pretty big eye sore.
A old DSM friend of mine gave me a call and was in a bind and had to get rid of his car and in a hurry. So we arranged the deal and I left at 5AM and headed from Jacksonville FL to Charleston SC loaded it onto the trailer and headed home. Made it back to the shop in good time and dropped it off.

The car is in great shape exterior wise, but had a few issues that needed to be addressed. The previous owner had upgraded to 2G GSX front calipers, but the brake line fittings are different between a 1G and a 2G so I had to get some new brake lines made, it also had some shift cable bracket issues that I'm still working through. I have big plans for this car, and A LOT of work is being done on it.

First, I started accumulating parts for the project. Extreme PSI, Forced Performance and STM Tuned are the main vendors I buy from.

FP Intake, FIC 850cc Injectors, Fuel Lab AFPR w/Gauge

The car had a non-eprom ECU and I sent it off to ECMLink to have them convert it and install V3.

Picked one of these guys up during the Pre-Release pre-order for $750, what a masterpiece

Ported HTA68 from Forced Performance <3

Theres a few parts that I don't have pictures of but my mod list is in my introduction thread, and my sig I believe.

So that was the funnest part of the project, now the real work starts.

First, I'll be using the cylinder head off of my GST, its been O-Ringed, has FP4R Cams and Kiggly Beehive springs. Yes, I love Hawaiian Rolls

So I pulled the engine out and set it aside, I haven't gotten to taking it apart yet.

 

[EclipseOwner95]

Next we pulled the engine out of the gold car and put it on a stand to be cleaned up, and parts swapped.

The first big thing on the list of work is to do a complete wire tuck, brake line tuck, and fuel line tuck. Much more work than I had imagined, its actually still in progress, going to be working on it tomorrow.

So I didn't want to just get some cheap bs wire loom from the auto parts store so I went a little classy and ordered some Nylon Expandable Mesh Sleeving from McMaster-Carr.

Me and my good buddy Victor stripped the front end down and pulled the Engine Harness and the Chassis Harness from the car, and began going to work. By the time everything is said and done, only the Injectors, Igniter, Coil Pack, TPS, CAS, O2 Sensor, and GM-MAF plug will remain on the Engine Harness, and Only the Headlights, Running Lights, Turn Signals, and Alternator plug will remain on the Chassis Harness. The fusebox under the hood will be relocated to underneath the dash. Here are some pictures of the nightmare that is a factory wiring harness!

Doesn't look much like a 1G anymore does it?

1 of the 2 Harness's with loom and electric tape removed, god what did I get myself into.

Vic Vs Rat Nest - FIGHT!

FML

Chassis Harness Stripped and Shortened

Engine Harness Stripped, needs Trimming I say!

Still got a little bit left to remove and get the lengths right, but so far here is all the wire and loom that have been removed from the factory harness. Because Race Car

We were having a hard time coming up with exactly how long each plug needed to be, and we wanted to be on the money so as little as possible could be seen, So we set one of my empty blocks in the engine bay with two motor mounts and a jack, set a spare head on top, and put my Magnus intake, fuel rail, injectors, and throttle body on to do an accurate mock up. Man this things gonna look sweet when its done.

So after spending 10 hours Christmas eve working on the car we had to call it quits for the day and will be back out tomorrow morning, got alot done, but wayyy more to go. Were re-making the front brake lines, I've ordered a -6AN line w/Fuel Lab high-flow inline fuel filter to run from the tank to the rail so I can eliminate the god awful stock fuel filter assembly as well. I plan on filling all of the factory bolt holes that are left over from all the parts weve removed and re-painting the engine bay too. I hope to get this car looking as much like an old school carb'd v8 motor bay as possible .

Here is a sneak peek at what the connectors look like finished w/sleeving and shrink tubing done. Pretty excited!

Much more work and pictures to come, hope you all enjoy following this build as much as I am living it.

Once its all said and done I plan to be running 100 Octane 24/7, on 26-28psi and a 50-75 shot on top of it, we'll see how well this bottom end holds up! If you aint breaking shit you aint fast enough!

Thanks guys!

 

[EclipseOwner95]

Headed back out to the shop today for a half day session on the car made a lot more progress on the harness. One of my Christmas gifts was a GoPro HD Hero2 Motorsports and I wanted to play with it so I set it up to take a picture every 30 seconds for the whole afternoon. Put it into a slide show, and sped it up and added some catchy music . Its not too exciting but It was a good excuse to play with my new toy.

Wire Tuck Time Lapse 1 - YouTube

The two best spots are at 2:35 and 3:30 , that's where you actually see some of the progress we made today.

The engine harness is almost 100% complete, and I have all the measurements for extending and routing the chassis harness,

As most of you know the factory the chassis harness does a loop from one side of the car across the radiator support, and into the fender well to the #### pit. Since we relocated the fuse box to under the dash were running 2 separate sections of wire, one to the passenger side and one to the driver side, of which all the wires are in the fender well fastened with "P-clamps" , and only a small amount near the headlight is visible.

Here are two stills of what the finished engine harness looks like. The MAF and O2 plugs are not included on this section of the harness, they are being routed with the chassis harness in the fender well.

Ordered a GM MAF harness adapter from ECMLink so I could eliminate the need for a translator and control it directly through DSMLink as well, it will be here Thursday along with the manual rack.

I'm off work Thurs-Mon so I plan on spending alot of time on it starting then, check back for updates then!

Happy New Year everyone, hope it was a good one. Mine was spent working on the DSM .

Got alot done, the chassis and engine harness are completely done short of mounting it inside the car, but we hooked it all up, signals, headlights and running lights work, starter fires, fuel pump kicks on, injectors and coil fires when CAS is rotated by hand and the ECU syncs with my laptop so thats a big load off of our shoulders, I'd say combined we have at least 40-50 hours of labor in the wire tuck alone, so it working first try with no troubleshooting required is excellent!

The motor bay was painted black by the previous owner and I just don't like the way it contrasts with everything so I wanted to try to paint it the color of the car, or at least as close as I could get. But first, I wanted to eliminate the 30 or so bolt holes left over from all the factory wiring, as well as the large holes for the chassis harness, A/C lines, wiper motor, and heater hoses.

Started off by sanding down all the holes, and tack welding small pieces of steel over the larger holes.

After that I filled the holes and gaps with bondo and sanded them as smooth and flush as possible. The firewall is anything but smooth or flush so this was much more difficult that I had originally immagined, it took some time, but I was able to get it to a state that I felt was acceptable.

Next comes the sandable filler primer.

Once the primer had dried, I started off painting with a "Chrysler Champagne " color match paint from the auto parts store, It looked pretty horrible, didn't match, and had way too many metal flakes in it for my taste. So I took the other cans back, and tried to find something close to champagne, but a flat finish. They didn't have much to offer unfortunately. I saw some Krylon " Camo " paint in a "Khaki" finish that I figured I would give a shot. Got back to the shop, sprayed some next to the factory paint, and it matched pretty damn good!

Don't mind the pictures, for whatever reason they make the paint look much lighter than it actually is. It almost looks yellow in the photos, but its much closer to Khaki color in person.

Im very pleased with how clean the firewall now looks as a finished product. The only things that will be mounted on the firewall will be the Booster/BMC , the CMC, throttle cable and my AFPR.

 

[EclipseOwner95]

Now, onto the engine, aside from a few odds and ends its basically ready to run, We dropped the engine into the car but I haven't gotten the pictures off my friends camera yet. But here are some right before we dropped it in.

Unfortunately it's back to work this week, coupled with having to order some parts that won't be here for a few days the progress has come to a slow pace until this weekend or next depending on my parts situation. Still have quite a bit of small stuff to take care of, but the big stuff is out of the way. The goal is to be on the road by the end of January. Once I get the pictures with the engine in the car I'll be sure to post them as well!


I ordered all the misc AN and Banjo fittings I needed yesterday and they should be here by the weekend. Still need to get the flywheel stepped, and a bunch of other small stuff but at least all the road blocks are out of the way. Here are the pictures of the motor in the bay. I still can't get over how clean this is going to look.

Better shots of the engine outside.

Re-painted lower subframe, installed mounts, booster, bmc, and cmc.

Mmmmmmm, must......finish.....

Several reasons for setting the engine in w/o the transmission, 1. All the machine shops were closed this past weekend so I couldn't find anyone to step the flywheel, 2, wanted to ensure I didn't damage the paint we just spent so long on. 3. It's been a while since I bench pressed a tranny

The fittings should arrive tomorrow so I can run my -6AN fuel feed and return and keep on rolling.

Will post more pics soon!

 

[EclipseOwner95]

Spent most of our weekend on the car again, making big strides. Finished running the engine and chassis harness, ran braided hose for the fuel feed and fuel return lines, put the clutch/flywheel and transmission on, and finished making the front brake lines and clutch line. HOPEFULLY will be running next weekend, but I'm not holding my breath.

Still have a few things to take care of like mounting the FMIC, all the fluids, installing STM oil cooler, install exhaust, drive shaft and tcase. And a laundry list of other small things, but certainly very close to being on the road!

First task, mounting the Fuel Lab inline filter, and -6AN feed and return lines. Using self tapping screws & adel clamps I ran the feed down the driver side and the return down the passenger side. We decided to run return on the passenger side because there really isn't a great place to mount the AFPR on the driver side, and to avoid having to run a return from the AFPR mounted on the passenger side, all the way back to the driver side.

The inline filter is mounted near the driver side rear wheel well.

Next was running the remainder of the chassis harness, MAS cable, and O2 sensor plug.

In order to hide as much as possible the wires are routed in each sides fender well.

We used the hole for the factory front brake line in the strut tower to run the ECMLink GM-MAF cable to the MAS, talk about a perfect fit!

The O2 sensor plug was extended to be run into the drive side fender well, out the hole for the factory wiper reservoir, and mounted with a large adel clamp.
The headlight harness's are about the only wires from the chassis harness even visible so they are loomed as well.

The sensors for the coolant temp gauge and ECU coolant temp were relocated to the rear of the thermostat housing to reduce clutter and visible wire as well.

Don't mind that random plug that's wrapped around the braided hose, its for the TPS and will not look like that when finished.

The injector harness's are run from under the intake manifold, we rotated the injectors in such a way that very little of the harness is exposed. The coil pack is mounted to the block using the bolt holes from the factory AC compressor bracket and the wires will be routed the same way they are from the factory.

Here are a few random pictures of the bay as a whole.

And thats what we accomplished this weekend. Won't be out to the shop until the coming weekend again so check back for updates then!

 

[DSM_PWR]

Looking good!

Any reason you didnt go with a speed density setup?

 

[EclipseOwner95]

Looking good!

Any reason you didnt go with a speed density setup?

Using the GM-MAF for now but I plan on going Speed Density in the near future. I wanted some time to do some research on the subject as I know little to nothing about Speed Density.

 

[4g63Powered]

Seeing your work on the harness is inspiring. I am attempting to do the same thing at the moment. If you have any idea how much loom you used, would you mind posting it for future reference?

 

[EclipseOwner95]

Seeing your work on the harness is inspiring. I am attempting to do the same thing at the moment. If you have any idea how much loom you used, would you mind posting it for future reference?

That is a pretty big variable, depending one a few things, how much of the stock harness you remove, the way you route it, how you group the wires.

We cut out EVERY SINGLE WIRE that wasnt a neccessity. Which drastically reduces the ammount of loom you will need.

The same goes with the routing, my " ECU to Sensors " harness is 1 single harness, that might be 3-4 feet long at most.

I purchased 10 feet of 3 different sized loom, and used about 15 feet total for the engine bay. For all of the other wires that are hidden under the dash or in the fender wells I used normal BS auto parts store loom, another 15-20 feet.

 

[turbotalon1g]

Nice work, thats some dedication right there.

 

[95eclipser]

Are you sure you can run the AFPR that way? I was under the impression the rail had to see fuel first then the regulator as the unit has passage ways in it that adjust the pressure. if you go the route you are going the rail will never see that full fuel pressure?

or am i wrong?

Drew

 

[EclipseOwner95]

Are you sure you can run the AFPR that way? I was under the impression the rail had to see fuel first then the regulator as the unit has passage ways in it that adjust the pressure. if you go the route you are going the rail will never see that full fuel pressure?

or am i wrong?

Drew

I just swapped locations of feed and return. So the feed comes into the driver side of the rail, then the return comes out the passenger side.

 

[1SLOW93TURBO]

Car is looking good, but I want to tell you before you go the the track on our application the fpr must be 12" away from the transmission and bellhousing, that said you'll need to put it closer to the brake booster to pass tech if the track is picky.

Otherwise, keep up the nice work!

 

[95eclipser]

I just swapped locations of feed and return. So the feed comes into the driver side of the rail, then the return comes out the passenger side.

I apologize for the comment. I just went back and read the entire thread and saw where you said that.

keep the pics coming.

 

[EclipseOwner95]

Car is looking good, but I want to tell you before you go the the track on our application the fpr must be 12" away from the transmission and bellhousing, that said you'll need to put it closer to the brake booster to pass tech if the track is picky.

Otherwise, keep up the nice work!

Thanks for the heads up! Now my question is, is it JUST the FPR?

I find it hard to see the difference between a factory fuel filter sitting in roughly the same position as my FPR. I suppose there are more chances to leak on an FPR than a factory fuel filter, but certainly still a chance.

I've never had a problem teching my car before, but I haven't been in a few years so maybe some things have changed.

 

[DsMWookie]

Thanks for the heads up! Now my question is, is it JUST the FPR?

I find it hard to see the difference between a factory fuel filter sitting in roughly the same position as my FPR. I suppose there are more chances to leak on an FPR than a factory fuel filter, but certainly still a chance.

I've never had a problem teching my car before, but I haven't been in a few years so maybe some things have changed.

The rule is made with RWD cars in mind. It still applies to us even though the OEM location was by the transmission.

 

[9!'clipseDOHC]

Your wiring is phenomenal!

I currently doing the same thing to my bay (filling holes and painting), http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/dsm-build-journals/418713-9-eclipse-n-t-turbo-fwd-street-drag-autox.html#post152836724, except I'm getting the original color mixed and spraying it. Subscribed!

 

[greddy_1700]

Where did you get the factory wiring connectors? That is my biggest problem with redoing my engine wiring harness.

 

[EclipseOwner95]

Where did you get the factory wiring connectors? That is my biggest problem with redoing my engine wiring harness.

Junkyards, Parts Cars, Spare wiring harness's. None of the connectors are new. Just found the best ones I could and soldered them together.

 

[crash89]

Incredible work man!! I was actually looking at getting that same wire loom for my harness when I do my tuck/delete! Keep it up!

 

[turboglenn]

Junkyards, Parts Cars, Spare wiring harness's. None of the connectors are new. Just found the best ones I could and soldered them together.

Your loom is down right a work of art.. I'm working on my own new cleaner harness for the haltech running my car, and this time eliminating ALL stock wires due to cracking/heat damage (2nd time for this car in it's life) And man, finding good connectors/harness ends/plugs whatever is a major pain in the ass.

I really like that loom though and i think i'm going to get some of that before i go any further with the current work because that's just way nicers than what i'm working with in every aspect.

not to mention de-pinning, soldering and assembling an entire engine harness alone is no small task and can get really frustrating at times (at least when you mess up and find you have to unsolder 5 plugs to get harness over one other part or that you routed the AC plug up top and teh coil plug down low and have to back track and un-do your hard work to fix it (made that mistake on harness number one a decade ago )

Love the build though, didn't mean to get all into wiring details

How much was that looming and what was it's "name" so i get the right stuff?

 

[EclipseOwner95]

How much was that looming and what was it's "name" so i get the right stuff?

If you want the EXACT kind I got, go to McMaster-Carr , search Nylon Sleeving. The first or second result will be " Expandable Mesh Sleeving " and thats what I bought.

They have 3ft sections and 10ft sections. I spent about $50-60 on the sleeving, and another $20-30 on the various sized heat shrink. But I also bought wayyy more heat shrink than I needed so I have a ton left over of various sizes. It's kinda pricey, but its well worth it IMO.

They have cheaper mesh sleeving that looks about the same, but its made of polyester instead of nylon. I just know that Nylon is much more abbrasion resistant than polyester, and I'll be damned if I spent all this time on the harness for the sleeving to start to break apart from rubbing/removal/general wear and tear, so I went ahead and bought the Nylon even tho its about 2x as expensive.

Good Luck!

 

[1SLOW93TURBO]

I have not seen a problem with the feed or return line running down the same area as OEM location, however I know the FPR has to been mounted by the booster to pass a serious NHRA inspector. If the fule line must run in the OEM location I'd run it low across the k-member but for sure move the FPR.

 

[4g63thermal]

Can you explain where'd you run the brake lines. some pics would be appreciated also.

 

[1SLOW93TURBO]

4g63thermal are you talking to me? If so, you do not need to move anything on the braking system. I simply meant the FPR needed to be moved closer to the brake booster away from the bellhousing/clutch area. The purpose for the rule is to prevent the fuel lines/fpr from being destroyed and causing a fire due to a clutch or torque converter should it break through the bellhousing.