1990 Eagle Talon TSI

[@TDC]

SEPTEMBER 2012----

Well guys I've decided to finally commit to a build thread. It was gonna happen sooner or later. Basically I've always been attracted to the 2g DSM's. I did own a 2g for a while and i'll say that it was an experience as well as a lesson learned. I learned a lot from that car and now i'd say that it has better equipped me for the current car that I have now. I just could never seem to get anything right with the car. So I decided to start fresh. Sold the car and moved on towards finding a new DSM to start fresh with. I made it a point to find a totally stock as possible car this time around. One of the main reasons that I failed with the my last car was because I picked up someone else's project. I was originally looking for another 2g. Since I could not find one that I liked enough to buy I started to look around for some 1g's. I have not really been a fan of the 1gb's but I came close to buying one for around $2500. I was more of a 1ga fan and decided to not pull the trigger and wait for the right one. I then came across a fellow selling a 1990 Talon a couple hours away. I really wanted to see it in person but it was quite far. I couldn't make it out for like a month after I first contacted the owner. The original story with the car was he bought it ran great. He wanted to do the timing belt and attempted to do the job on his own. He then got the belt on and it just wasn't tensioned. He had a video of it running with the loose belt. So I made a choice and decided to go see it. I didn't want to lose out on the gas going out so I took a trailer just in case if I bought it. When I got there I asked if It was alright if I could perform a compression test and it came out 150-155 across the board. So I was pretty pleased. The interior was in excellent condition but the exterior needed some work. The owner was asking $2200 originally but agreed to drop it to $1800 for me. I then talked him down an additional $100, so the final price was $1700. I decided to take a chance and just purchase it. Here are some pictures of the day I got it.

What I loved most about this car was that it was 100% stock and has never been modified in any way. I was scared about the whole timing belt thing but I thought "what the heck" I can take a chance and hope for the best. So with that thought I quickly pulled the trigger on the car and got it all loaded up and ready for the long trip back to my garage. Here are some pics of before we left.

There's more to come that has already happened so stay tuned guys!

 

[@TDC]

SEPT 2012:

At this point I got the car in the garage and immediately started looking into the engine and started making a list of everything that needed to be done to the car. I started with the timing belt. I needed to see if the engine was even healthy enough to run. It was about a week after I bought the car and I was still in contact with the previous owner. I asked him how was it that he never could get the belt tensioned? He bought all new timing components. (tensioner, pulleys, belt, ect...) He said that he never had the special tool (tensioner tool) to tighten the pulley. He said that he was waiting on it to arrive in the mail before he sold it. I also took a second look at the timing belt and realized that the balance shaft belt was completely missing. So the car had the balance shafts but didn't have a belt. After getting a balance shaft belt (Special thanks to Shane90gsx for the Gates balance shaft belt and the help on the T-belt job) a friend (Shane90gsx) started on the T-belt job. Heres a pic of before the T-belt was finished.

So once we got the belt on I was on my own with getting the rest of the parts back on. I was determined to get the car started that night. So I started assembling the rest of the car. Once I got the parts all bolted back on and double checking everything I started it. Upon first start up I heard alot of ticking. I was worried so I took it for a quick spin. When I got back the ticking was gone. I figured that my car still had the 1st gen lifters that were notorious for lifter tick. After driving it around for about 30 minutes I could tell that the engine was healthy and the previous owner was right. I felt a sense of relief knowing that my money was well spent. I immediately started tending to the maintenance. Here are some pictures of the engine bay the night I got the car running. Sorry for the crappy pictures. This was after I took apart a couple things off after seeing the car run.

There is still more to come guys so stay tuned!

 

[dsmjedi]

Nice find! Now it's time to start with mods

 

[@TDC]

Nice find! Now it's time to start with mods

Thank you sir! I have some more updates to share. Just a little short on time.

SEPT 2012

Since I got the belt on and all parts back on the car it has been running great. The cars main purpose is gonna be set up to be a weekend warrior. I am looking to build a nice powerful street monster with the occasional trip to the drag strip. Since this car will only be driven on weekends I am looking to take out some of the things that I wont use such as AC, Cruise Control, ect..... I am shooting for a clean look all around. (interior, exterior, and engine bay) Here are some pics a couple after I got it running.

 

[@TDC]

OCT 2012

Picking up where we left off. The tags on the talon were due by the end of october. So basically the only thing left to do was to smog the car. So seeing that I had already did the maintenance on the car. I decided to just take it and get it smoked. Surprisingly it passed. Once I got all of that out of the way I decided to start ripping it down. Let the modding begin! Here are some pictures of the rip down. I cannot believe it how many cracks were in the manifold and hotside of the 14b. I'd say it ran fairly well for having all these exhaust leaks.



Here is the exhaust housing. These are all 22 year old parts.

Here is the hot side of my 14b. This is the wastegate hole where the cracks are leading to.

Heres a closer picture of my turbo. One of the pics came out so cool that I figured I'd use it as my avatar.

Theres more to come guys so stay tuned!

 

[4G63_Attack]

Oh man that turbo had seen better days.

 

[@TDC]

Oh man that turbo had seen better days.

I agree sir!


Well guys since the turbo is pretty much fried I'm in search of the right turbo for a nice powerful street setup. I'm leaning towards a TD05H 20G. Still doing some more research on this turbo but I hear that turbo is great for a street setup.


So continuing on with the progress on the Talon. The teardown is still going on. I do have a small parts pile growing. Here are some pics of some of the things that I already have waiting to be installed into the Talon.


One thing I already added was an AutoMeter boost gauge. (Full sweep)

I still have a BNIB Innovate LC-1 that I was gonna install in my previous DSM. Just never got the chance to install it the way I wanted to. (with an exhaust and link)

I removed my 22 year old stock exhaust and got a full 3 inch exhaust with a Magnaflow dual tip mufflerready to be mated to whatever new turbo I get. I like it because it has somewhat of a stealth look to it.

I came across a sweet deal in the classified section of the site. DSMLink V3 Full never installed in an Eprom for $350 shipped. That was a deal I could not pass up. I had Link for my 2g and I have to say its one of the best tools to have when you own a DSM. It makes trouble shooting problems so much easier.

Since I knocked out DSMLink I was on the search for a 1g 90 Eprom. I could not find one for a decent price anywhere. After some extensive research I was reading a book based on 4g63 performance that I purchased a while back. Some of you might own the book. "How To Build MAx-Performance 4G63t Engines". I like this book for more of the history side of the 4G63. I love published books because there a great source for credible information. The book states that all 1990 DSM's and GVR4's came with an Eprom ECU. After reading this I immediately went out to my car and ripped into the console and found this.

On the front cover there is some writing that says NEW ONE. So im guessing that somwhere along the life of this car the ECU was repaclaced with a new one. It looks cleaner than alot of other DSM ECU's that I've seen before. The excitement I had after finding this Eprom ECU was indescribable. . In the end after I sent the ECU with the V3 chip to ECMTuning. I will have only spent $395 for Link V3 Full for my 1g Talon. I am now awaiting the shipment from ECMTuning.


One repair that I had done recently was put a set of new bushings into my shifter assembly. I dont know about any of you guys but if you have a 1g wobbly shifter assembly this really helped me. Heres my before and after video of the shifter assembly.

1990 DSM Shifter Bushing Before & After - YouTube

 

[hhuricane]

The book lies. I have a '90 and the stock ECU and a spare I have are both non-EPROM. It sucks.

 

[@TDC]

Dang! That's weird?? I wonder why it didn't have one?

One of the reasons I love my Talon is because the chassis is black! My plan is to have a blacked out Talon. I would love to get some Evo 8 Enkeis in the near future and gloss them black. I will be lowering the car and basically tinting all windows to the darkest tint available. I want the car to be extremely black.


Another add on that I have added to the talon is brass shift cable bushings.

I also decided to guy out the hatch. Not for so much weight loss but for the look. I plan on cleaning it up real nice. Maybe eliminate some wire clutter and add a nice strut bar. I like the look of the gutless hatch. My car will ever only seat 2 people max seeing that its a weekend car. So I am debating on deleting the rear seats. It will be the occasional track car so Im pretty sure that eliminating the rear seats along with a number of other smaller parts will definitely help.

Well guys with any car project I have I always seem to run into some kind of wall. Thankfully this is not too bad of a problem but it sure is testing my patients. While removing the exhaust mani I attempted to loosen the bolts and one of the studs snapped off in the head. So I attempted to drill a hole in the stud and use a screw extractor and while trying to take the stud out with the extractor it snapped off in the stud. So now I am stuck trying to drill through the extractor which is hardened steel. Here are some pics of the stupid stud.

Broken Extractor

Here are some pictures of the engine bay before I started the disassembly

 

[@TDC]

Here are some pics of how the car is sitting right now. It will be back up soon!!!

Took off my oil filter housing because it was nasty and just figured id clean it up since the car is on jackstands. The power steering pump leaked PS fluid all over the alternator and OFH.

Heres after a nice cleaning.

 

[@TDC]

Well guys I finally got my ECU back from ECMTuning. Only thing is I tried to connect with my laptop and I get no response back from the ECU. I uninstalled all my ECMTuning software and reinstalled it countless times along with the drivers. It used to work fine with my 2g I used to have. So I began trouble shooting. Right now I am absolutely confused on what the source of this problem could be. It is seriously driving me crazy. Here is a list of everything I have done thus far to try to get it to work.

-Checked voltage of pin #10 on the diagnostic connector. I got 3.34v ECM says it should be 3.5v for 90 DSM's.

-Checked continuity of pin #12 to see if its properly grounded. I got a reading so I have a solid ground.

-I checked continuity of diagnostic connector pin #1 to ECU pin #1 and got a reading. So I have a good connection between the 2 pins.

-I checked for continuity between diagnostic connector pin #10 and ECU pin #2 I got a reading so there is a good connection between those 2 pins.

-I checked the voltage of pin #1 of the diagnostic connector and I just get 0.03v-0.04v. I know that there is supposed to be some sort of pulse for the CEL Diagnosis.

-I tried running the codes for the ECU using a 12v buzzer. I connected the red wire off the buzzer to pin #1 of the diagnostic connector and the black went to pin #12 of the diagnostic connector. when I turned the ignition to the on switch I got no buzzing at all. I connected the buzzer to a nearby fuse to assure it worked and I got a buzz every time it touched. So the buzzer was working fine. I even put the red probe of the multimeter on ECU pin #1 and put the black probe on pin #12 of the diagnostic connector and still got the 0.03v-0.004v readings.


-I ran a straight wire from pin #1 of the diagnostic connector straight to pin #1 of the ecu and see if that will work and nothing happened! I got the same results! 0.03v-0.04v on the multimeter.


If anyone has any help please let me know. I just am really confused at this point.

 

[@TDC]

Well guys I am happy to announce that my ECMTuning cable was the source of my problem! I am so happy to be done with this!!!!

 

[@TDC]

I finally got all of the broken exhaust manifold studs out of my head. After countless drill bits purchased, a broken easy out, many hours of drilling, and 2 helicoils I am finally done with this nightmare!! So now I am just awaiting a couple parts. I decided to go with the TD05-H 20G for my current setup. Ported 2g manifold, 2G MAF, recirculated 1G BOV, 650CC injectors, Evo VIII fuel pump, and a VRSF FMIC kit. As of right now I am just going to tend to the minor problems until I have all the parts needed for the big upgrade. I need a new valve cover gasket. I have a spare set of 3G lifters that I am currently cleaning out. So what I might do is paint the valve cover black with polished letters, put a new VC gasket and install my 3G lifters to get away from those old 1G lifters full of ticking. I also decided to get an oil pressure gauge. I decided to go with the Innovate G3 oil pressure gauge. I will be installing that also when it arrives. I will most likely do a majority of this work after christmas. Here are some pictures!


Carbide bit worked great on that stud with the broken easy out. (hardened steel)

Helicoiled

New stud along with the 2g mani test fit.

All new FP manifold hardware

I do still have some cleaning to do.


Here are random pics of the bay.....This is how it will sit until I acquire the rest of my parts.

Gonna go for black with polished letters.

 

[@TDC]

Been working on the talon quite a bit lately! I'm mainly inspecting the whole car and cleaning a lot of things. I just finished deleting the A/C. I figured this car is going to be a weekend warrior/ occasional track car. I can live without the A/C. Main purpose was to clean up the bay a bit. I had a hard time figuring out how to remove the compressor. I ended up taking off the intake manifold brace and I managed to squeeze it out. Here's of a picture of everything that was deleted.

While cleaning up the garage I came across this! This is the easy out that broke off inside the exhaust manifold stud! I never knew $2.99 could cause so much headache!

At this point I basically am finished working on the car until after Christmas. I have a clean set of 3G lifters that I am going to install. I also will be painting the valve cover and giving it a new gasket. I will be ordering my turbo and intercooler on New Years Eve. So the car should be back on the road sometime between the middle and end of january if everything goes as planned, but we all know how that goes!

 

[fonzi90Tsi]

Yeah the book lies. Lol
My 1990 doeant have a eprom. I also tore into two 90s at the local salvage yard thinki ng I would get lucky... nope :-/

 

[@TDC]

Well guys I know I said I was done working on the car until christmas but I spent the day at home today and sat in the garage figuring out things to do with the talon. I ended up taking off the bumper and SMIC with all the piping. Here are some pictures of the process!

I am so glad to be getting rid of all of this undersized piping! Just look at the throttle body elbow.

 

[@TDC]

The work on the Talon has continued. I ended up taking out the rear seats and basically gutting the whole back side. Its gonna stay like this until I feel like putting the seats back in. I actually think it looks pretty good. I also started to install some parts back on the car. I will be purchasing my turbo and intercooler this weekend. Once they get here I will be installing them then be taking my car for a spin! I cant wait to drive it again! I also installed my Innovate G3 Oil pressure gauge. I used a homemade T fitting so that I could keep the OEM sender. I used a steel braided line to mount the Innovate sender onto the chassis. I also wired up my LC-1.... I am having a little trouble finding put how to set it up in DSMLink. So if someone could help I'd really appreciate it. Well here are some pics of the progress.

 

[turbolover10]

Everything looks very clean so far, great job! I have a very similar build going on only its a 2g, I'm a lot further from driving it then you are but I feel the same way

That 20g should pull very nice for you in that street sweeper!!

 

[@TDC]

Everything looks very clean so far, great job! I have a very similar build going on only its a 2g, I'm a lot further from driving it then you are but I feel the same way

That 20g should pull very nice for you in that street sweeper!!

Thanks alot for the interest! Good luck with your 2G and hang in there its all worth it in the end! I cant wait to see how this 20G compares to my old 14B.

 

[turbolover10]

Thanks alot for the interest! Good luck with your 2G and hang in there its all worth it in the end! I cant wait to see how this 20G compares to my old 14B.

Thanks! Come by the build and check it out if you want.
Yea that 20g will be a huge improvement from your 14b!!

My last awd had an evo3 16g and it was a blast! This time around I'm going a little bigger @52trim garrett. I'm shooting for a little over 400hp to start, I'm sure that 20g is very close to the 52trim I plan on running.

 

[Thatvteckid]

Clean af

 

[serviceguy]

Congrats on the nice and clean build! Speaking of clean, how did you manage to clean the OFH that well, I can't get anything to really work on the one I scored a while ago at the junkyard. Keep up the good work and post lots of pictures!

 

[DSM1G90]

I'd least get a cover (clear cover Wholesale Transparant Clear Twin Cam Cover Mitsubishi Lancer EVO Turbo GSR 4G61 4G61T 4G63 VR4, Free shipping, $20.9-39.9/Set | DHgate if you like to show off the belt drive train) for the belt sprockets. Hate to see a rock get kicked up from the road, go in there and bust up that motor.

 

[@TDC]

Congrats on the nice and clean build! Speaking of clean, how did you manage to clean the OFH that well, I can't get anything to really work on the one I scored a while ago at the junkyard. Keep up the good work and post lots of pictures!

Thanks for the kind words! Luckily it wasn't that kind of grime that just stays on. I soaked it with purple power the used a pressure washer to spray it clean. Then just wiped it clean and let it dry! I've also came across an OFH that was just full of permanent grime. I never managed to get it clean! Good luck to your build!

 

[@TDC]

I'd least get a cover (clear cover Wholesale Transparant Clear Twin Cam Cover Mitsubishi Lancer EVO Turbo GSR 4G61 4G61T 4G63 VR4, Free shipping, $20.9-39.9/Set | DHgate if you like to show off the belt drive train) for the belt sprockets. Hate to see a rock get kicked up from the road, go in there and bust up that motor.

Thanks a lot for the link! That cover is something that I really need! Once I get the car on the road again I will definitely be purchasing one!