3/29/15:
Spent yesterday with local dsmr Nick and his 1990 Talon Tsi AWD, we put revised lifters in, new gates water pump, crankshaft main seal and oil pump sprocket seal, as well as new Gates blue timing belt. We also found out some interesting blobs of red rtv everywhere from the previous owner, which wasn't good, as well as the long water pump bolt was sheared off a few millimeters into the head, and since that's such a long bolt, the length of the bolt itself was being used as torsion to keep the alternator tensioner arm tensioned. The location of that bolt won't allow a normal drill in there, unless we pull the motor, so we had to put that broken bolt back the way it was, with the new water pump, and just hope for the best.

Today I was tinkering with mounting brackets some more, and remade the one for the power transistor bigger, so I could remote mount the fuel pressure gauge. Reason being mounting the fuel pressure gauge right on the AFPR, as we all normally would, interfered with the Nissan Evap valve I'll be using for my ISC. So larger, painted bracket completed:



Gauge is remote mounted using a 1/8npt to -3an 90 at the afpr, 18" 3an braided ss line over to the bracket, and a 1/8npt to -3an brake line adapter. The brake line adapter is nice because it allowed me to drill the proper size hole in the mounting bracket, push it thru the bracket, and use a typical brake line clip to hold it in place, just like the ones I replaced on all the brake lines earlier in the thread.

Now that just about everything is mounted in the engine bay, electrically, I can get back to wire routing/looming the ECU harness next weekend.

nice man looking good mines coming along too, sd installed and fired her up.

Super sweet build man!! I wish I could have the ability, time and money for this.

iugrad92turbo said:

nice man looking good mines coming along too, sd installed and fired her up.

Click to expand...

Thanks bro, at least you have yours started now!

kris_stewart10 said:

Super sweet build man!! I wish I could have the ability, time and money for this.

Click to expand...

Kris, this part is painstaking. Bending over the engine bay right now is hard to do, makes my pulled back muscle stiff after a minute or two. And its really a ton of little crap that needs to just get worked out, one thing after another, and they usually affect each other so you can't move on till the current little thing is finished. So right now its not fun, its more like a chore.

tmoney20g said:

Thanks bro, at least you have yours started now!


Kris, this part is painstaking. Bending over the engine bay right now is hard to do, makes my pulled back muscle stiff after a minute or two. And its really a ton of little crap that needs to just get worked out, one thing after another, and they usually affect each other so you can't move on till the current little thing is finished. So right now its not fun, its more like a chore.

Click to expand...

Understandable I can say the same thing. I'm not as young as I once was. The love for my car is what keeps me going. This build has my full attention if you weren't so far away I would come lend a hand.

4/2/15:
So yea, I shipped my trans to Jack's back on MARCH 10th....



Oh cool, its just been sitting in a FedEx hub since March 13th. I guess if I didn't email Jack's and see how it was going, it would have just stayed there forever ?

Anyway, 3 day weekend coming up for me, and I'll be working on the wiring some more. To be continued...

Not going to lie, just going through the pictures alone... this looks great! Giving me that inspiration when I return to the US when I get back to working on mine. Continue the good work! Definitely subbed!

4/11/15:
Found the transmission in overgoods in Salt Lake City, I guess the conveyor belt ripped the label off when it was loading into Colorado Springs. They finally found it and right now its' at Jack's.

Worked some more on the ecu harness, trying to sort this mess out:





And my first iteration of wire loom:


I'm at a point where I need another set of hands to pull spare wire back thru into the cabin. I'm not gonna cut and solder anymore, I'll just pull it thru and tie it up somehow, under the carpet or whatever. I should be done tomorrow with some help. Kind of excited!

4/12/15: Wife came to help and so I had another pair of hands inside the car to pull back all the extra wire length into the cabin side of the harness. Then I cut a few more pieces of loom and installed. I still need to find some sort of mounting solution that I like, just to mount that main loom in a place or two.



At this point it was just about finished. I only taped a couple "joints" as one can be seen in the above photo. I don't think final assembly can really be done until the trans is in, motor running, etc. Just in case I have any kinks to work out.

But at this point, I pulled the cabin side back thru and taped up all the extra lengths for neatness:


Next up, put that back thru the firewall, run 4ga power and ground to the engine bay, wire up engine bay power/ground distribution.

Lookin' good, not many like doing the wiring bit (I do).

4/19/15:
So Jack's emailed me saying I needed a new output shaft and some work on the reverse idler gear, so I told them to go ahead. Which also led to me thinking, if the output shaft needs replaced, then how's the coupler look on my t-case? So grabbed the t-case and flipped it over, a huge pile of rust, which used to be splines, came out of the coupler. There are almost NO teeth left:



There's the huge pile rust that used to be splines ^^^

And here's the lack of splines up close:


So off to Jack's my T-case will go. The box is on its' way from Jack's already.

Back to wiring!

I loomed up the oil pressure and temp senders, using some asphalt loom at the pressure sender since it's right above the wastegate, then regular loom the rest of the way mounted to where the power steering lines used to go, and thru the firewall at the speedo cable boot:


I still think I'm gonna shield the pressure sender more, I'll hit pep boys or something and see what kind of DEI product would best cover the entire sender and loom, maybe a fat spark plug boot thing.

Then I went back to power/ground distribution. Made this nifty little plate for the dist. blocks I ordered:


Then I painted the bracket, ran the power/ground wires and o2 cable from the SCG-1 thru the mpi grommet, wired up the main power ground wires, wired a ground to frame, wired the power and ground from the arc-2.

Also clipped off the battery connector for the mpi/radfan/ignition, which is why I got the fused distribution block that uses M-ANL fuses, installed 2x30a and 1x20a (have 1 more spare slot), and pulled the wires/grommet back to the firewall for an almost finished product:



For the first time ever, since I've owned it, she got a bath



And yes the paint is original

Damn man super nice all washed up and out in the sun.

Looking really good. Love the wire tuck and wiring in the bay. Paint still looks really good to for being original. Only wish mine was this clean.

Looking great man. Hard to believe how clean that paint is. You're wiring looks great also

4/25/15:
Since the wiring in the engine bay is kinda done for now, I decided to move back into the cabin. During the week I redid the headliner with some dark grey foam backed headliner, came out satisfactory and I put that back up on the car on Thursday, that way the insulation glued to the roof wouldn't be in my face while I'm sitting in the seat.

Last night we got the heater core out, not too bad of a job since the dash is already removed, and so is the blower motor box and evaporator box. It did throw me for a little loop trying to get it out, as I had all 4 nuts off the firewall, but it still wouldn't come out. Turns out the rubber mat under the carpet actually melted to the heater core, so I had to get a razor blade and cut the heater core apart from that mat. Here's the core box out and core removed:


Here you can see where the rubber sound deadening mat melted to the core:


Core looks pretty nasty eh ? Oh yea, also stopped by Home Depot this morning and grabbed that weatherstripping to redo the parts that have rotted away over time.

Also new blower motor resistor, which goes in the heater core box. The new vs the old, where the new one comes with some foam insulation already installed:


Here's the duct that rests on top of the heater core box, which I guess directs air towards the defroster vents, with the new weatherstripping installed:


Cleaned up the box, applied the included foam wrap to the heater core, and re-installed core into box:


Also white lithium greased all the moving parts and linkages, so all the flapper doors operate smoothly.

Then on to the blower motor. The wheel wasn't all that horribly dirty, but I popped the motor cover off, and the motor housing was filled with all kinds of foam residue crap. I don't even think the pic does it justice, it was pretty disgusting:



So I cleaned up the wheel and box, installed the wheel onto the new blower motor, and re-assembled. This box also got a dose of new weatherstrip and lithium to the linkages:


And lastly, the evaporator core. Here's mine as it came out, filled with leaves and debris at the bottom:


New compared to old, kind of obvious which is which:


Above I had already transferred the pre- and post-temp sensors from the old core onto the new one. Also mounted a new thermal expansion valve, wrapped that with some poly foam plumbing insulation since it didn't come with foam tape, and installed back in its' box.

So all 3 of those are done and awaiting re-installation into the car....


So I'll have a completely new Heat/AC system, the only exception being the refrigerant lines in the engine bay, which will have all new o-rings.

Then I was going to mount my new condenser to the car, but I remembered some of the lines were mounted to it first. Turns out I must have purchased an R134a core, so the stock line fittings won't mate up to it. (came home and ordered an R12 core, so that's on its' way).

Well I guess that's all for HVAC today then. What else could I do? Ah yes, clean up the interior a little. I mounted my new shifter cables/brackets to the floor and firewall:



Then routed the ecu harness over to where it belongs, and re-mounted the carpet to the firewall screws:



Next up, seeing how bad my engine wiring is in link, or how many sensors do/don't work *fingers crossed*

Looking good brotha!! Man I wish I had time on my hands

Nice man as usual ive been busy too with mine working on getting her to ohio hopefully all goes well.

4/28/15:
Before I go ahead and re-install the HVAC boxes and dash, I wanted to make sure all my gauges/ecu/etc were working. So here are some shots from last night showing some rough-in wiring for testing out electronics and link:



The dual a-pillar pod was already in the car when I bought it. First I tried the SCG-1 in the higher spot, but it has so many wire leads, and the o2 sensor one is so fat, that the wiring can't be run behind the a-pillar trim. So I moved the scg-1 to the low spot, with the mtx-d in the high spot, chopped up the gauge pod a little, and I'll have to channel a little spot in the dash to get it thru there and under the dash assembly:



All the wires are easily disconnected at both the gauges, and the ecu/power/ground, so that if any modifications have to be made, they can be done without cutting anything. Gauges get power from the ecu lead, so they turn on/off with the ecu, grounded at the ecu ground point, and fused:


Just have to run one more wire from the radio to the gauges, which is the lead for the headlights to dim the gauges.

And here's a shot of my hatch and temporary 12v power for testing. I got a 3'x6' sheet of black carpet to put down so the Taylor battery box doesn't rub against bare metal and start squeaking over time. Just something other than bare floor back there until I get the car running and tuned and start on amp/sub install.



The box still has the protective film on it, underneath is a very nice dark brushed aluminum color.

I like that new gauge you posted about its a interesting piece.

The SCG-1 ? How could anyone NOT want it ? It's your boost gauge, a/f gauge, wideband o2, and solenoid boost controller (same blue ingersoll-rand comes in the kit that everyone is using with link's boost control), and rpm shift-light; all in 1 nifty little package. Same voltage switch point as the LC-2, so it's easy to set up in link using the gauge's 0-5v analog output wired to the factory o2 pin on the ecu for logging, and simulate narrowband inside the ecu with link.

Add all the stuff up that it does separately and tell me its not worth the ~$330

A/f Gauge = 85
Boost Gauge = 65
oem o2 sensor = 136
wideband o2 sensor = 76
boost control solenoid = 50
shift light = 53

total = $465

4/29/15:
It was a nice night, so why not wrench a little ? When putting your HVAC boxes back in, remember to put the heater core box back in first, which was also most likely the last to come out, so that makes sense...

Then you might think you put the evap coil back in, since that's next. Well that's what I tried to do, but that's the wrong order. Next you put the blower motor back in, which is furthest to the passenger side. Then the evap coil slides in between the two....



I also lithium greased the gears for the knobs, and wd40'd down the cables to the boxes, they all operate very nicely now

I do have a concern with the blower motor to remember to check out, the oem blue/black wire lead from the chassis mates up to the aftermarket blower motor backwards. ie blue went to black, and black went to orange. So I just have to verify the motor is rotating in the proper direction before I go ahead and bolt up the dash.

Then I checked the engine bay to make sure the heater core tubes came out thru the firewall properly:


As well as the evap core:


Under the "pivot raizin" you can also see the evap box condensate drain outlet. I guess my car didn't come with the drain hose, the FSM shows there is one. So I guess I'll just find some hose that fits laying around and run a little hose down towards the ground later.

Awesome work!

Man it would help ease my gauge issues i read about it and i like the setup possibly after my tune ill grab one that thing is nice.

5/1/15:
Remember back at the bottom of Page 3 when I had an idea to use the stock dash speakers for tweeter mounts ??? Well that happened. Last night I was working on the back plate that the little tweeter cups would screw into to sandwich stock speaker frame, and while I was drilling, the thing spun and, well:


But that doesn't stop me! One day to heal, some bandaids and neosporin, and I'm back at it. So here's what I came up with. Mount the tweeter cup to the top:


Screw thru the backplate I made:


Give it a couple coats of semi-flat black, obviously, and screw the tweeter into the cup:


Crimped on some insulated male spades, since the factory connector is female. I removed the connector so I just had the 2 factory female spades, and taped any bare metal from the spades that could possible short, and installed into dash:


Now they'll be stealthily behind that speaker cover that installs there, and not too obvious to passers-by.

Oh, also put the dash back in:




And so far, installed one 5.25 from the component set into the driver's door. I did this by taking the 6x9 to 5.25 mounting plate that the kit comes with, cutting it into a circle so there wasn't a big 6x9 overhang, strategically rotated the entire assembly to spots on the factory plastic speaker mount that i could drill/screw thru, and got some #10x3/4" screws that would be just long enough to go thru both pieces of plastic, but not interfere with the door metal:


I just hope they don't stick out too far and interfere with the door panel or i'll have to come up with something else.

5/5/15:
Took the week off of work because wife went on a trip. So yesterday was talon day, today will be work around the house day. Before I get started on bathroom demo, I'll post up the last couple days' progress...

1. Now that the dash is on, I could better tell if the blower motor wires were hooked up correctly or not, by getting proper air velocity out of the vents and knowing which way I had the knobs turned. Of course, I had it reverse polarity. Changed the 2 wires at the motor connector and she's blowin some air now!

2. Rear speakers. Highly confused as to why they don't work. Doesn't appear that the wires from the radio to the rear speaker locations were touched anywhere along the line. And the rear speakers bundle up with the rear wiper, rear defroster, driver's seat belt motor, tail lights, rear blinkers, etc, and EVERYTHING WORKS, except the rear speakers. So eff it, I ran new home runs up to the radio location, now they work. Pretty much wasted all of Sunday trying to figure that out.

Moving along, wrapped up the rear speaker wire install in the morning and started putting the center console back in. Gauge cluster and surround, as well as center hvac cluster and trim pieces:



Sidenote, also wired the fogs to work with parking lights, verified they work. And said eff it to running a relay for the Hella dual-tone horns and just crimped on spade connectors to the factory wires and hooked them up, verified they work.

I decided to mount the front speakers in a manner that would put the component crossovers under the radio. Since the dash and door speakers meet up at the radio and connect to the same circuit in parrallel from the factory already, this makes sense. So I clipped the wires from the oem connector and crimped on wire terminals, hooked them all up, and using the OEM radio mount screwed right to my new Pioneer AVH-X2600BT (which has a ton of mounting holes on the frame already, oddly enough, I chose the "M" holes. Must mean M for mitsubishi), it slid right in nicely with NO MODIFICATIONS whatsoever.



The only thing I might do in the future is pull it back out and paint the aluminum trim that does show back there, just so it's all black and doesn't look obviously aftermarket. You can see in the picture below, without flash, that the aluminum is not obvious...

I changed the theme on the head unit to yellow, and tried a shot with no flash and the car lights on, not a bad match...



I still have the passenger door speaker to do, then stereo is done. RCA's and power turn-on lead are already hooked up at the radio, and ran to the hatch for when its time for subwoofer/amp install, so that'll be easy.

Right now I'm working on those aftermarket mirrors, I guess my power mirror switch decided to stop working after i took it apart to clean it, so I'm gonna order a new one. In the meantime, I'll go back to cleaning up the interior, putting panels back in, and installing flywheel and clutch so it's ready for when the trans returns from Jack's.