Talyn
10+ Year Contributor
- 443
- 19
- Jun 10, 2012
-
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
This is the build of my 1996 AWD Talon TSI 5spd.
Goal:initially it was going to be my daily driver, and kept mostly stock...
Pictured is shortly after I bought it, before I started working on it, alongside is my late '85 camaro project with a 3.4 swap, sadly I had to sacrifice one of the two when I was forced to move.
I chose to keep the talon because it has more potential, and a manual transmission, but I miss my Camaro and plan to eventually get another 3rd gen Camaro. Since I had to get rid of my Camaro(which I was building to race) and be down to 1 car, the whole keeping the talon stock thing went out the window, having to replace components shortly after buying it didn't help either...
I bought the car running, but with quite a few issues, but the upside, and reason I bought it and paid what I did, are that the body underneath is in very good shape(for a PA car) with only 2 small bad rust spots(rocker panels in the rear). And because I wanted a 2g, but was worried about crank walk-the solution, I bought a 6 bolt swapped car.
The 6 bolt swap was not done by the guy I bought it from, it was done by another owner, I was told it had forged pistons, and rods. The pistons I did later verify when I had the cylinder head off, are Ross racing pistons by the part # on them, I did not have the lower end apart, but I reckon the rods are forged, since the pistons turned out to be true. The crank from what I was told is stock.
So that was the good news.
Now for the bad, and early on problems. On the very first day I got it(on my way to work) right when I pulled in, after a hard pull on a long highway straightaway leading to my work, my tach started bouncing around, and it seemed down on power, upon pulling in it stalled on me and would not start again, and I pop the hood and there is just oil EVERYWHERE. I was pissed, and terrified, thinking something catastrophic failed, on account of the oil mess combined with it stalling and running like crap.
With some assistance from a coworker, we figured out that it was only firing two cylinders, turned out the clip on the coilpack resistance connector was missing and it came loose, which also explained why my tach was bouncing around. But I still had a huge oil leak, and a lot of smoke coming out the back. After getting it home I tore the whole top end apart, pulled the cylinder head, timing belt, turbocharger etc. To assess the state of things. I found that the turbocharger was a stock t2small, and had massive play(hence the smoke), the exhaust manifold was cracked, and the oil leak was almost impossible to pinpoint, so I replaced all the seals in the top end, and put a new timing belt on, as I didn't trust the old one after it got drenched in oil. I also found the exhaust manifold was cracked. I bought a used FP manifold, and a cxracing 20g turbocharger to replace those components.
More text(and pictures) to follow(taking a break from typing to work on the car) Currently installing a new PCV valve, along with a one way check valve, also wrapping up the install of my 74mm S90 throttle body+FIAV bypass plate, and replacing a heater hose that ruptured...
After replacing the manifold, turbocharger, timing belt+tensioner+pulley, I discovered that my tension on the timing belt wasn't set right(6 bolt in 2g=no tensioner tool), I thought I got it right, but discovered otherwise after driving it once or twice and it ripped because it the tip of an oil drain pan bolt, this happened when I was in the process of moving, and I had to get the car out, and frankly didn't feel like or have the time to do the timing belt again. I also for reasons I couldn't figure out, was hitting a brick wall at 3k rpms, and stumped, was also way down on power.
So I had it towed to a dealership to sort everything out, as well as my CEL and high idle. While the tech did a good job of the timing belt, I was otherwise disappointed, they blamed the power/brick wall issue on the lack of a true crank trigger
despite my insistence that when I bought the car it didn't run like that at all, and that the CAS was setup to provide both a cam and crank signal., and also told me they couldn't fix the idle till I figured out a way to put a crank trigger in it.
.
After getting it home to the new house and messing with it a bit, I discovered a boost leak(New to turbocharged cars, still learning them), actually found it by accident, despite having looked at all of my couplers I overlooked it, because the coupler was on the pipe, and the clamp was hanging in a position that it looked like it was on just fine, I actually found it by accident when I bumped it, and thought to myself that it felt like it moved more than it should of, grabbed it, and wiggled it, and sure enough I forgot to tighten it. I also at some point went to install my oil restrictor for my turbocharger since I have a lot of oil pressure, and accidentily contacted the alternator stud with the SS mesh oil feed line, and it literally melted the hose inside. So I put my old one back on that I still had lying around, and failed to notice or think anything of the fact that its shortness left only one path, which was right in the path of the atmo dump tube for the wastegate. Melted that line too...and unfortunately it took out the turbocharger as well.
Having learned my mistake, I since disconnect the alternator when messing with my oil feed line, and got rid of that stupid external dump housing, because it was annoying, drew too much attention, didn't sound good at anything other than full throttle, and would've dumped right onto my FMIC inlet pipe, along with a boost reference line had I kept it, I put the stocker back on(came with the car), and still have that external dump SS o2 housing if anyone wants to trade me a recirc SS housing.
Having finally sorted most of the major issues(still had that high idle, and a small leak or two) I was able to test drive it again, only to find my clutch slipping like hell in first gear. Upon pulling the transmission and clutch, I was baffled at the clutch being brand new, and nothing showing abnormal wear, or being broken. I decided it probably just wasn't up to the task of holding enough power, and replaced it with an ACT 6 puck clutch and pressure plate rated at ~400 ft lbs, and got an aluminum fidanza flywheel as well.
Goal:initially it was going to be my daily driver, and kept mostly stock...
Pictured is shortly after I bought it, before I started working on it, alongside is my late '85 camaro project with a 3.4 swap, sadly I had to sacrifice one of the two when I was forced to move.
I chose to keep the talon because it has more potential, and a manual transmission, but I miss my Camaro and plan to eventually get another 3rd gen Camaro. Since I had to get rid of my Camaro(which I was building to race) and be down to 1 car, the whole keeping the talon stock thing went out the window, having to replace components shortly after buying it didn't help either...I bought the car running, but with quite a few issues, but the upside, and reason I bought it and paid what I did, are that the body underneath is in very good shape(for a PA car) with only 2 small bad rust spots(rocker panels in the rear). And because I wanted a 2g, but was worried about crank walk-the solution, I bought a 6 bolt swapped car.
The 6 bolt swap was not done by the guy I bought it from, it was done by another owner, I was told it had forged pistons, and rods. The pistons I did later verify when I had the cylinder head off, are Ross racing pistons by the part # on them, I did not have the lower end apart, but I reckon the rods are forged, since the pistons turned out to be true. The crank from what I was told is stock.
So that was the good news.
Now for the bad, and early on problems. On the very first day I got it(on my way to work) right when I pulled in, after a hard pull on a long highway straightaway leading to my work, my tach started bouncing around, and it seemed down on power, upon pulling in it stalled on me and would not start again, and I pop the hood and there is just oil EVERYWHERE. I was pissed, and terrified, thinking something catastrophic failed, on account of the oil mess combined with it stalling and running like crap.
With some assistance from a coworker, we figured out that it was only firing two cylinders, turned out the clip on the coilpack resistance connector was missing and it came loose, which also explained why my tach was bouncing around. But I still had a huge oil leak, and a lot of smoke coming out the back. After getting it home I tore the whole top end apart, pulled the cylinder head, timing belt, turbocharger etc. To assess the state of things. I found that the turbocharger was a stock t2small, and had massive play(hence the smoke), the exhaust manifold was cracked, and the oil leak was almost impossible to pinpoint, so I replaced all the seals in the top end, and put a new timing belt on, as I didn't trust the old one after it got drenched in oil. I also found the exhaust manifold was cracked. I bought a used FP manifold, and a cxracing 20g turbocharger to replace those components.
More text(and pictures) to follow(taking a break from typing to work on the car) Currently installing a new PCV valve, along with a one way check valve, also wrapping up the install of my 74mm S90 throttle body+FIAV bypass plate, and replacing a heater hose that ruptured...
After replacing the manifold, turbocharger, timing belt+tensioner+pulley, I discovered that my tension on the timing belt wasn't set right(6 bolt in 2g=no tensioner tool), I thought I got it right, but discovered otherwise after driving it once or twice and it ripped because it the tip of an oil drain pan bolt, this happened when I was in the process of moving, and I had to get the car out, and frankly didn't feel like or have the time to do the timing belt again. I also for reasons I couldn't figure out, was hitting a brick wall at 3k rpms, and stumped, was also way down on power.
So I had it towed to a dealership to sort everything out, as well as my CEL and high idle. While the tech did a good job of the timing belt, I was otherwise disappointed, they blamed the power/brick wall issue on the lack of a true crank trigger
despite my insistence that when I bought the car it didn't run like that at all, and that the CAS was setup to provide both a cam and crank signal., and also told me they couldn't fix the idle till I figured out a way to put a crank trigger in it.. After getting it home to the new house and messing with it a bit, I discovered a boost leak(New to turbocharged cars, still learning them), actually found it by accident, despite having looked at all of my couplers I overlooked it, because the coupler was on the pipe, and the clamp was hanging in a position that it looked like it was on just fine, I actually found it by accident when I bumped it, and thought to myself that it felt like it moved more than it should of, grabbed it, and wiggled it, and sure enough I forgot to tighten it. I also at some point went to install my oil restrictor for my turbocharger since I have a lot of oil pressure, and accidentily contacted the alternator stud with the SS mesh oil feed line, and it literally melted the hose inside. So I put my old one back on that I still had lying around, and failed to notice or think anything of the fact that its shortness left only one path, which was right in the path of the atmo dump tube for the wastegate. Melted that line too...and unfortunately it took out the turbocharger as well.
Having learned my mistake, I since disconnect the alternator when messing with my oil feed line, and got rid of that stupid external dump housing, because it was annoying, drew too much attention, didn't sound good at anything other than full throttle, and would've dumped right onto my FMIC inlet pipe, along with a boost reference line had I kept it, I put the stocker back on(came with the car), and still have that external dump SS o2 housing if anyone wants to trade me a recirc SS housing.
Having finally sorted most of the major issues(still had that high idle, and a small leak or two) I was able to test drive it again, only to find my clutch slipping like hell in first gear. Upon pulling the transmission and clutch, I was baffled at the clutch being brand new, and nothing showing abnormal wear, or being broken. I decided it probably just wasn't up to the task of holding enough power, and replaced it with an ACT 6 puck clutch and pressure plate rated at ~400 ft lbs, and got an aluminum fidanza flywheel as well.
