1991 Talon TSi AWD - Project $400

[Jon91TSi]

Starting a new build thread for a car I picked up this past weekend.. I found this car on cragislist about an hour and a half away, it had no price so I went and investigated. It turns out it was an older guy that had severely overheated the car back in 05 and parked it outside and put a heavy PVC tarp over it and basically forgot about it. If you saw or met this person, the whole story would make a lot of sense, but I'll spare you, but there are plenty of funny memories attached to this car already. Anyhow, the car needs a complete interior due to this guy leaving the window cracked about 1" for 6 years. There is mold and mildew everywhere. I'm gutting the interior and running my commercial ozone generator for a day to take care of the problem, then I'll start with a fresh interior from a donor car. As for the engine, I'm not sure what all it needs yet, but I know it will need a head at the minimum. He ran it so hot it turned the spark plug cover to goo and blistered the paint on the hood! Anyhow, here she is. Only one very small spot of rust infront of the drivers side rear wheel, no rust underneath (unbelieveable for sitting in the dirt) and an otherwise very straight and complete body (Also has a facotry sunroof with the OEM wind deflector!). It also has a brand new Mitsu EPROM Ecu, score! Not a bad deal for $400 bucks.

 

[NWHTanK]

Dam i rember those cell phones

 

[Jon91TSi]

Haha.. That's part of what I was talking about with the memories... This guy was trying to sell me on the fact that the car had a mobile phone.. I was like, I'm sorry but that really doesn't concern me as I already have a cell phone.

 

[VidorDSMOwner]

Just curious to any more progress you have made with the car. Any new photos? I just bought a 1990 last monday and its in worse shape but still got it for a fare price running for 800 bucks. AWD limited slip turbo version that is.

 

[Alan11]

Just curious to any more progress you have made with the car. Any new photos? I just bought a 1990 last monday and its in worse shape but still got it for a fare price running for 800 bucks. AWD limited slip turbo version that is.

He bought it on the weekend and made the thread this morning. Relax bro.

Nice find for $400. I would have jumped on the deal in a heartbeat.

 

[buhay6]

Nice indeed!! You would not get a deal like that here in Canada and if you did no one would believe you! nice fund keep us updated as much as possible!

 

[Jon91TSi]

He bought it on the weekend and made the thread this morning. Relax bro.

Nice find for $400. I would have jumped on the deal in a heartbeat.

You win!! Haha.. I just bought the thing last Saturday and had about two hours this past Sunday to tear the rotting and mold ridden seats and carpet out. Next up is tearing out all the remaining plastic trim, the dash, door panels, etc. a throrough cleaning of the blower box, etc. as well as running my ozone machine to get rid of any residual odor, then a srub down with simple green. After that I have a nice new interior lined up already that i'll put in, i'll make a new headliner and my interior should be complete, then I'll get started on the engine. I plan on having the car running by summertime so I'm really in no rush. The whole drivetrain needs to be gone through as well, the brakes need to be bled, sensors replaced, etc. I will update this thread as I go with pictures and progress updates, but at times they may be few and far between as I am still working on my other 91 AWD and getting my girlfriends 90 AWD ready for paint. In addition to a busy work schedule....

Just curious to any more progress you have made with the car. Any new photos? I just bought a 1990 last monday and its in worse shape but still got it for a fare price running for 800 bucks. AWD limited slip turbo version that is.

Worse shape? Mine has a straight body, but no interior. The engine doesn't run either, it needs a head at the minumum. It may need honed and re-ringed or a complete re-build may be in order... Who knows..

 

[camfast]

Good find bud! I got my automatic 1g for 500 bucks and completely unmolested. Trans was slipping bad so i dropped a pretty penny on it but in all i have little money on the car itself. As far as parts that's another story as I've been trying to buy the best parts that i can at the best deal as possible. Keep up the good work and keep us posted on the mods.

 

[Jon91TSi]

I'll have some more updates tomorrow, I picked up my new interior this morning. I should have the rest gutted completely tomorrow along with some other stuff.

 

[Eclipse'd]

Good luck! That interior does look kinda..
I can see it now, an eldery sir.. "this here car is quipped with a cellular device. thats wireless! back in my day this was and still is the real deal"

Good find!!

 

[Jon91TSi]

Good luck! That interior does look kinda..
I can see it now, an eldery sir.. "this here car is quipped with a cellular device. thats wireless! back in my day this was and still is the real deal"

Good find!!

Lol, it wasn't quite like that.. This guy had mental issues, he even admitted he did. It was more like, " The car even has a phone along with it.." Me: Umm, I already have a cell phone. " Well, i'm pretty sure it works but I know I paid a good bit for it. " Me: I'll just stick with my phone. You had to meet this guy.. I'll leave it at that.

Update.. I thought I would get a lot more done this weekend, but I didn't know I was going to lunch with my girlfriend and her brother yesterday afternoon. Anyhow I still got a good bit done on Saturday/Sunday. Saturday I got the wheel locks off (no wheel key was supplied with the car) and got two good tires on the car that weren't so dry rotted they would actually hold air. After getting two decent tires on, I aired up the other two and hooked a chain around the crossmember and had my girlfriend pull me around my back yard to get the 6 years to rust off the brakes so I could actually roll this thing around my driveway and garage. So, sitting on a cooler I drove this shitbox around my back yard with my neighbors probably questioning my mental stability. After about 5 minutes of being towed all the rust was gone and the car rolled free. Yesterday I pushed the car in the garage and proceeded to rip the rest of the interior out the car. I had it all out by the evening. All thats left in the car is the sun visors and headliner which I will be taking out and re-upholderting in black suede. I also picked up my interior on Saturday morning thanks to Chris (11secDSM) at Good Vibrations.

 

[dsm nuff said]

Sounds like its coming around good. You bought the interior that I was gonna get some pieces from . I asked him about it tha other day I was down there tryin to fix my brothers 2G that got smashed on my previous trip down there. Glad I can atleast see its getting some good use though. looks like you needed it way more than I did. Good luck with the build. Cant wait to see more progress.

 

[Jon91TSi]

Sounds like its coming around good. You bought the interior that I was gonna get some pieces from . I asked him about it tha other day I was down there tryin to fix my brothers 2G that got smashed on my previous trip down there. Glad I can atleast see its getting some good use though. looks like you needed it way more than I did. Good luck with the build. Cant wait to see more progress.

Funny story, .. I actually have some of the old interior left over. I got rid of all of the carpet and everything that had mold growing on it, but I still have most of the plastics if you would be interested in them. I would let them go for next to nothing, shoot me a PM if you're interested. The car definitely needed a new interior though. I'm glad I didn't have to spend a day in the freezing cold in the junk yard tearing one out either.

 

[Jon91TSi]

Some updates.. I got all of the wiring swapped over from the old dash to the new one, since the wiring from the old dash was hacked up. I also got all the brackets bolted to the new dash as well as the VIN plate switched. I'm so good at it you can't even tell anyone ever touched it. haha. Anyhow after taking care of all that I got the dash in the car and bolted down, as well as some of the wiring hooked back up. I also got the headliner out. I will have some pictures up tomorrow. I'm going to try to figure out why the hatch doesn't seal right tonight so I can get the car back outside. I also got the engine pressure washed and de-greased laast weekend. My machinists straight edge came in today as well so when I start tearing into the engine I'll be ready to see how bad this thing was overheated. Hope everyone had a good Christmas!

 

[Jon91TSi]

Updates... Went to the junk yard this weekend. I picked up a new hatch from a 93 to hopefully fix the problem with the alignment issue, and sure enough it did. I guess the previous owner closed the hatch with something between it and the body of the car and bent it. Anyhow, the new hatch solved it, but I need to drill new holes for the mounting pins for the 1ga wing, as well as weld a few holes shut from the 1gb wing. I also picked up the rest of the interior parts I needed for the swap that I didn't get when I purchased my interior, so now I'm good to go. I got the new hatch on and wired up as well. Hopefully tonight I can get the new holes welded shut and maybe a few of the new ones drilled. I will get some pictures tonight.

 

[Jon91TSi]

Pictures: Started the swap from the white plastic (light grey) interior to the black interior. I will be ordering the black suede for the headliner this week. I also have some work to do on the hatch as the holes for mouting the 92-94 wing is quite a bit different than the 90-91 wrap-around wing. I should have that welding and body work done soon. I also have to pressure wash the carpet as soon as it warms up a little bit.. This 20* weather isn't cutting it!

 

[Jon91TSi]

Update! I finally got around to working on this project again after getting all the bodywork done on my girlfriends '90 awful and fixing a Jeep that was in a collision. This thing should be running in two weeks or so. The head will be back from the machine shop wed. I will post pictured tomorrow when I'm not on my phone.

 

[lipablo]

nice man

 

[Jon91TSi]

Here's the latest update.. I was out in the garage late working on it last night so I didn't get to post the pictures up.

Both cars together:

Tearing it apart:

Pressure washed carpet in and console:

Head off, crosshatch in cylinder walls still. Rings held 1" of oil for 24 hrs. No deterioration of cylinder walls from sitting for 7 years. Valves all in good shape, just need cleaned up.

Looks like the pistons had a close encounter with valves from a previous head once before..

Taking the old head apart, since my miller tool was on loan I bought a euroexport one, works pretty good!

Some of the new parts to make this turd road worthy..

New service cart I picked up, love this thing!!

 

[Jon91TSi]

All the wiring repair from whatever was living in the engine bay.. It made a mess!!

Tore off the shreaded firewall fabric.

New Fuel Filter:

New viton o-rings in the ps pump:

Hey little guy

New brakes and passenger side axle:

100 mile Dunlop Direzza tires I got at a yard sale for $100.

Lots more pictures and updates forthcoming. This thing should be running by mid next week.

 

[BlackMount]

I love the color of the car. Subd

 

[mikesx4911]

Good find bro, you started working on it quick as hell to . Your thirsty ass . Naw jk good luck!

 

[Jon91TSi]

Got a bunch more done this week/weekend.

All of the new brakes are on, wheels came in on friday, had them mounted and balanced saturday. My new suspension also came in (GR-2's, and Tein S-Techs) I will put that on this coming weekend most likely. Lapped all the valves back into the head only to find out one of the exhaust valves was slightly tweaked and would only fit in the head one way. I had to wait until yesterday to get another valve from a friend, I'll finish the head tonight. Got the balance shaft belt on and timed, new water pump is on, new tensioner, idler and tensioner pulley are on, new tensioner arm is also on. Pistons are de-burred from the previous timing belt failure, ARP head studs are on. I also had to cut the ridge on the rear control arms down and re-weld them so they would clear my wheel & tire combo. New Denso o2 and Mitsu knock sensors are also in. I have another DSM to work on tonight, but I hope to have this thing fired up on Saturday! Enjoy the pictures. I also snapped a picture of how well this paint cleans up!

Edit: I also drained the 7yr old motor oil out of it and put a new filter on it, swapped out the nasty gear oil in the rear diff for some Heavyweight Shockproof, and re-filled the trans with Synchroshift. The car also never had the transfercase recall completed, so I'm hoping for a new transfercase (will re-fill the new one with Shockproof.)

 

[Jon91TSi]

Update:

Got most everything back together except the new heater core hoses and thermostat housing back on. Other than that it's ready for it's first start in nearly 8 years. I'll be firing it up on saturday!

 

[Coldsou]

Sweet! Get a video of it's first start up!