Beater Build (1995 Eagle Talon TSI)

[mnim15]

I found this 1995 Eagle Talon TSI AWD in need of help, so I decided to take it on as a year round beater.
The first thing I did was put my 18" Enkei RZ-5 Wheels on and DSMLink V3 Lite to get it running right.

Some of the things the car already had were rear LSD, vented rear disk brakes, 6-Bolt Engine Swap, 3G Lifters, Stainless Braided Full Clutch Line, 14B Turbo, Autometer 30lb Boost Gauge, After market headlights, Night Shaded Taillights, 35% Tinted Windows and 17" wheels with brand new tires which eventually made it on my wife's car.

 

[91stocker]

Little too clean for a winter beater, but I picked it up for a good deal and its AWD:

Completely agree man. I personally would never let that car see salty roads. Pick up a cheap n/t car for that.

 

[Boostinsideways]

A good undercoating and it should be fine for winter.

 

[FLASH1970]

Sheesh. You're like me having umpteen builds going on at once. Nice car though. I know these times may be a bit frustrating, but the way I see it is you know the car, know how to treat it, and a repair or two or three is still usually cheaper than a car payment.

 

[GSTdsm_97]

iv had the same probs with my gst, fix one thing then two go wrong but im gettin ther , nice build man like the tinted front end

 

[EagleTalon_97]

Are those the stock headlights, just painted? Or are they aftermarket?

 

[mike96]

Picked up a FMIC for the new turbo setup and some crower 272's:

Is that FMIC for a skyline? I had seen a few pics of the skyline IC and thought it would fit the front of an eclipse but never could find a pic on one actually installed and could never get my hands on one cheep enough (you know just in case it didn't fit) to try it.

 

[arodgst]

Nice car!! and this would make a great dsm journal.

 

[mike96]

This is an eBay knock-off of the Apexi Delta-V Core for a skyline. These can be had for in the ~$150 range if you look for them.

I had already taken a few steps back-wards on my project and seeing how I couldn't find any good pictures of one installed on an eclipse/talon i didn't want to risk it not fitting so i didn't want to risk it...

 

[Bloody Panda]

Great build. Keep it coming!

 

[mnim15]

I made the mistake of getting cutom plates that attract a little too much attention. Next I started bolting on the basics that I had laying around.
This included Non-Cruise Control Throttle Cable, B&M Style Short Throw Shifter, Hard Upper Intercooler Pipe, 1G Blow Off Valve, Hard Intake Pipe, 3" N1 Style Turbo Back Exhaust, AEM UEGO Controller Wideband Gauge, AEM Tru-Boost Electronic Boost Controller, Dual Gauge Bezel, Tokico Illumina Adjustable Shocks, Eibach Pro-Kit Lowering Springs, Energy Suspension Master Bushing Kit, SPC Front Camber Kit, Smoked, Projector Headlights, 6K HID 35W Low Beams - Relayed, 6K HID 55W High Beams - Relayed, Smoked Crystal Corner Lights and LED Corner Light Bulbs.

Not to long after that I found a 2GB Talon Front Bumper Cover to put on.

I also picked up a "Stainless Steel" Air Filter and Viper 5701 Security System.
When installing the Viper, I found it already had some other after market security system installed.

Once fall was about to end, I added some Flat Black 2GB Eclipse Wheels and Firestone Winterforce Tires to have some fun in the snow.

Of course, this came with a cost. Ended up junking the rear diff. From what I can tell it lost the retaining ring from the CV and ate it up.

 

[mnim15]

One of my coworkers gave me a sub and box he had laying around, this ended up turning into my getting a screen and amp to hook it all up.

Next I picked up some new Hankook RS3's to put on the 18's.

Next thing that came up was the clutch. The one that was in there popped a spring.
This led to upgrading to an ACT 2900 with a Fidanza flywheel.

The day after that I sprung a leak in the turbo coolant line, not sure if this was due to disruption of pulling the transmission.

 

[mnim15]

Instead of just doing maintenance I decided to do a little upgrading.
I picked up some new calipers, slotted rotors, stainless braided brake lines and ceramic pads.
If you notice I was lucky enough to get two of the same caliper, which set me back a couple days.

After install I was having problems with the left side rotor burning up when test driving.
Turns out it was a combination of a seizing pin on my test caliper and the rubber end jambing in the bracket on the new caliper.

 

[mnim15]

I ended up finding a good deal on a junk yard motor that opened a whole can of worms.
It had Eagle rods and Wiseco pistons which meant I was going to have to rebuild this to make some power.

Stripped down to the block to do some cleanning and picked up some gasket sets.

Did some oil passage porting, decked, honed the block and polished the crank.

Assembled the bottom end with a turned rear shaft and new bearing as well as ACL race bearings and new Wiseco rings.

 

[mnim15]

Next I made a nice little porting mount and some custom Harbor Freight tools.

Did a little poring on the head and the oil port mod, the resurfaced it and did a valve job.
Picked up some engnbldr stainless valves and Crower springs with titanium retainers.

 

[mnim15]

Forced Performance had the package deal on the 20G, so I picked that up and did a little more porting.

I also picked up a used Magnus intake manifold and did some clean up on that.

 

[mnim15]

I had some Crower 272's and adjustable cam gears that went in. Also picked up a heat barrier for the intake manifold and new timing belt kit as well as ARP headstuds and Cometic MLS gasket. Ceramic coated the manifold and hot side before bolting everything up. Customized the coil bracket to bolt by the AC compressor as well.

Decided to do a transmission tear down, weld center diff, clean and reassemble on a spare I had to swap in.

 

[mnim15]

Next I pulled the motor and cleaned up the engine bay.

I though I was going to be able to reuse the clutch that was in the car.
However, the rivets were giving out on the center section so I had that rebuilt locally and had the pressure plate and flywheel cleaned up.

The swap was now pretty much ready to drop in.

Luckily I had a little helper come up with me to keep on going.

Next was getting the front mount intercooler on which required a little clearing to get it tucked in.

 

[mnim15]

Getting the engine in to start finishing things up.

Looks like the stock battery is not going to work.

Intercooler piping install.

Ended up using a battery from a Honda CRV.

Picked up an eBay catch can.

Mounted a power steering and oil cooler.

 

[mnim15]

Decided I might as well put an aluminium radiator in along with the silicon coolant hose kit.

Upgraded some other miscellaneous things, SX AFPR, 1000CC Delphi injectors, Walbro 255, K&N fuel filter and FIPK, Synapse BOV etc...

Trimmed the bumper and started getting the front end back together.

I also, got rid of the "Fart Can" that was causing me a bit of trouble with local authorities.

Finally get to start driving it again!

Some other things that still need to be done are upgrading the shaft seals in the NT Throttle body, install my RRE/RM sway bars and a couple other small things.
It is nice to have it back on the road again!

 

[Ejanes]

Wow awesome work man

 

[BurrowZ]

Wow, you've been busy! I'm jealous that your "beater build" is way nicer and more than likely faster than my "clean car" build. Haha.

I've got one Mil-spec shaft seal laying around if you happen to need it. I messed up the first install I ever did.. haha. Not sure if you're using the turbo TB seals in yours or not but let me know if you need it!

 

[mnim15]

Yeah the build kinda snowballed after I found that engine. My other build is based on a cleaner shell and I'm going to try and make a little more power and do some things differently. I fully intended to keep driving the car year round. Im debating if it would even be worth doing some body work on it.

The TB was brand new and it still leaked when I BLTd it. Luckily I had ordered two sets of turbo seals from MachV. I have another couple NTTBs I tried rebuilding one and junked the first set of seals. I had read that the groove is supposed to face inward, so I installed them that way with some right stuff. Didn't go so well, the rubber pealed back as I pressed them in. After further inspection it appears that the seals are tapered the other direction from which I had installed them. After my first run, and realizing how weak the OEM NT seals are, I don't think I'm going to even bother pulling the plate etc...

 

[BurrowZ]

You gonna throw those BBS's on it? I wanted to scoop them up but wasn't sure if they'd fit well with the +45 offset. The guy told me they "sold locally to a guy with grey talon, black wheels." AFAIK yours is the only one in town! Lol.

 

[miliman13]

Awesome pics. Cute kid, and cool radiator "i have the same one".
Is there a manual to tear-down/re-build our trannys? or you just jumped in ?