b00stAdict
10+ Year Contributor
- 101
- 1
- Jan 22, 2009
-
broomfield,
Colorado
OOh boy where to even start.... (not every single detail being mentioned) OKay from the beginning... In March of 2009 i was surfing craigslist looking for a project car, so happen to come across a 1992 Eagle Talon TSI. The car had a 2.5" catback exhaust with a greddy muffler, a MBC, and a system... Nothing fancy but a start.. The guy has posted that it is going to need a new tranny. He's asking $2900. I go to take a look at it, the body/paint isn't the best but it isn't horrible, interior is the leather which is all torn up and in need of replacement. Start the car up and it runs fine but won't go into gear, no pressure in the clutch. (i think to myself thats not a transmission that's a slave cylinder) so i go along with it talk to the guy for a pit, tell him the first thing im gonna need to do is get a new transmission, possibly a new clutch depending on how long he was driving it until it finally crapped out, so on, so forth. I finally talk him down to $1200! yes $1200 from $2900. He didn't know what he had and really wanted the cash.
So i paid $1200 for it, towed it to the auto parts store, purchased a slave cylinder and fluid, threw it on and drove the car home! Thinking i got one hell of a deal!! well fast-forward 3 months later, and the car starts smoking at idle, so first thing i do is do a compression check both wet and dry and come to find out that cyl #1 is leaking pretty bad only ~135psi the rest were ~150psi. drive on it for another 3 or so months and it get worse as you all can assume... in the mean time looking for a replacement motor, find one in october for 400 bucks, with ~120,000 miles on it. Looks good guy said it came from his old talon that he rebuilt another motor in and is just taking up space. So get that motor in, in a weekend. Starts up right away, runs strong. Not even 3 weeks later something must have gotten into the timing cover because snapped timing belt!! 3 bent valves and 1 broke off completely!!!! cracked the piston. So once again start over from scratch.
So some time goes by i end up purchasing another used motor with 100k miles on it, this one in real good condition as well. well i get the smart idea of rebuilding my old motor, so i strip the motor completely, purchased new pistons, rings, bearings, and full gasket set. Hone the block out, make sure everything is straight, measure all the gaps to make sure within specs. Get the motor put back together and ready to swap in from the used motor. (the 2nd used motor i purchased is running great! but i wanted a new motor, more power) so i get the new motor in, go to fire it up and wa-la! Its running great! Good oil pressure, no leaks, so i let it run for a little check all hoses, clamps, everything double checking for anything that could be wrong. Found nothing, so hit the road, do a few pulls from 40-60mph in 3rd gear about 50-75% throttle. Thinking i did a good job keep driving it for another couple days, i get about 215 miles on the new motor and i start hearing a knocking noise form the bottom end.. well my buddy had a rod bearing go out and i heard it and it sounds like the EXACT same thing.. so what do i do, pull the oil pan off and what do you know... I see chunks of what looks like gold in my old pan, i pop my main caps off and i find a bearing that looking like its been shredded with a grinder. I did use plasti-gauge and everything checked out in specs. so im not sure how this happened, the bearing didn't "spin" it seems like it was too tight and wore down like crazy, although i have no idea really how it happened. So my crank is now screwed because of this bearing mishap.
Well some time goes by i get some money save up, i purchased a used crank, Brand new pistons, rings, bearings, gaskets, have my head mild and re-built with revised lifters, just to stock specs, no porting, stock valves n springs, buy a new Big 16g turbo, new XTD stage 4 Pressure plate with 6 puck UN sprung disk, you know doing it big, making sure i have it all. So i send the block out for it to get hot tanked, honed and bored to .030 over, the crank had to be cut to .010 over on the rods and .020 over on the main, get a BS eliminator kit, new timing belt and components, new water pump, oil pump, basically everything you can get for this thing to run perfect. Well i think to my self, i went kinda hard on my last motor and a bearing gave out, so i just dropped $1200 i might as well take a easy on this motor. So i get it back from the machined shop, put it all together, get it in, start it up and it just purrs. hoping i got it right this time. Well everything seems to check out juust fine for now. So im driving it and it's smoking a little i do give it a few pulls here and there about half throttle, not letting it boost past 5psi. Well i now have about 350 miles on it all and its still smoking like crazy, i was thinking maybe it could be my valve stem seals, so i go to do a compression check, first thing first take the spark plugs out, first cyl, remove the spark plug and its just caked in oil, BAD. 2nd and 3rd look to be fine, just a brown/tan spark plugs, then 4th cyl is a little wet with oil as well... look down into each cylinder and see that the pistons are wet with oil.. Do a compression check and 3 out of 4 cylinders are at 120-135psi, the 1st cylinder is at 150psi. What in the hell!!!
Shouldn't the rings have seated by now??!! I feel like god wants me to give up with this car. I love these cars and know the potential they all have but i must have the worst luck ever. This car just doesn't want to run for me no matter how cautious i am about building these motors. Maybe im missing something im not sure.. I just don't know what to do anymore......
Yes i know i don't have the best punctuation, or grammer, please forgive me, i really dont care, this is just a forum.
For anyone reading this im sorry to be ventilating but my girl is sick of me bitching to her so i fall back on the forums.
Thanks in advance hopefully im not the only one out there with this kind of luck.
So i paid $1200 for it, towed it to the auto parts store, purchased a slave cylinder and fluid, threw it on and drove the car home! Thinking i got one hell of a deal!! well fast-forward 3 months later, and the car starts smoking at idle, so first thing i do is do a compression check both wet and dry and come to find out that cyl #1 is leaking pretty bad only ~135psi the rest were ~150psi. drive on it for another 3 or so months and it get worse as you all can assume... in the mean time looking for a replacement motor, find one in october for 400 bucks, with ~120,000 miles on it. Looks good guy said it came from his old talon that he rebuilt another motor in and is just taking up space. So get that motor in, in a weekend. Starts up right away, runs strong. Not even 3 weeks later something must have gotten into the timing cover because snapped timing belt!! 3 bent valves and 1 broke off completely!!!! cracked the piston. So once again start over from scratch.
So some time goes by i end up purchasing another used motor with 100k miles on it, this one in real good condition as well. well i get the smart idea of rebuilding my old motor, so i strip the motor completely, purchased new pistons, rings, bearings, and full gasket set. Hone the block out, make sure everything is straight, measure all the gaps to make sure within specs. Get the motor put back together and ready to swap in from the used motor. (the 2nd used motor i purchased is running great! but i wanted a new motor, more power) so i get the new motor in, go to fire it up and wa-la! Its running great! Good oil pressure, no leaks, so i let it run for a little check all hoses, clamps, everything double checking for anything that could be wrong. Found nothing, so hit the road, do a few pulls from 40-60mph in 3rd gear about 50-75% throttle. Thinking i did a good job keep driving it for another couple days, i get about 215 miles on the new motor and i start hearing a knocking noise form the bottom end.. well my buddy had a rod bearing go out and i heard it and it sounds like the EXACT same thing.. so what do i do, pull the oil pan off and what do you know... I see chunks of what looks like gold in my old pan, i pop my main caps off and i find a bearing that looking like its been shredded with a grinder. I did use plasti-gauge and everything checked out in specs. so im not sure how this happened, the bearing didn't "spin" it seems like it was too tight and wore down like crazy, although i have no idea really how it happened. So my crank is now screwed because of this bearing mishap.
Well some time goes by i get some money save up, i purchased a used crank, Brand new pistons, rings, bearings, gaskets, have my head mild and re-built with revised lifters, just to stock specs, no porting, stock valves n springs, buy a new Big 16g turbo, new XTD stage 4 Pressure plate with 6 puck UN sprung disk, you know doing it big, making sure i have it all. So i send the block out for it to get hot tanked, honed and bored to .030 over, the crank had to be cut to .010 over on the rods and .020 over on the main, get a BS eliminator kit, new timing belt and components, new water pump, oil pump, basically everything you can get for this thing to run perfect. Well i think to my self, i went kinda hard on my last motor and a bearing gave out, so i just dropped $1200 i might as well take a easy on this motor. So i get it back from the machined shop, put it all together, get it in, start it up and it just purrs. hoping i got it right this time. Well everything seems to check out juust fine for now. So im driving it and it's smoking a little i do give it a few pulls here and there about half throttle, not letting it boost past 5psi. Well i now have about 350 miles on it all and its still smoking like crazy, i was thinking maybe it could be my valve stem seals, so i go to do a compression check, first thing first take the spark plugs out, first cyl, remove the spark plug and its just caked in oil, BAD. 2nd and 3rd look to be fine, just a brown/tan spark plugs, then 4th cyl is a little wet with oil as well... look down into each cylinder and see that the pistons are wet with oil.. Do a compression check and 3 out of 4 cylinders are at 120-135psi, the 1st cylinder is at 150psi. What in the hell!!!
Shouldn't the rings have seated by now??!! I feel like god wants me to give up with this car. I love these cars and know the potential they all have but i must have the worst luck ever. This car just doesn't want to run for me no matter how cautious i am about building these motors. Maybe im missing something im not sure.. I just don't know what to do anymore......
Yes i know i don't have the best punctuation, or grammer, please forgive me, i really dont care, this is just a forum.
For anyone reading this im sorry to be ventilating but my girl is sick of me bitching to her so i fall back on the forums.
Thanks in advance hopefully im not the only one out there with this kind of luck.