1991 TSi AWD

[dwb]

2k clear it and it will really shine.

I'll have to take your word for it. It's already too shiny for my bay.

Looks phenomenal! Also, if one day you decide the 2G brakes aren't enough by themselves, just order the outlander bracket and rotor. The calipers are identical, and the rotors are larger than 2G rotors. I skipped the 2G brakes and went right to the outlanders. Curious how well they perform!


But man that VC looks great.

Thanks, it was one of those projects I got discouraged with and set it aside for a few months. I couldn't decide what color, considered leaving it raw, etc. Then I saw your fresh red one that looked awesome and really popped, but red with red body just wasn't in the cards for me. I saw a gunmetal painted one and it clicked for me. I went with this cast iron color and couldn't be happier.

Speaking of discouraged on a project, those damn centric calipers are driving me nuts. I'll get it sorted eventually. Good to know it's only mounts and rotors different for outlander brakes. Although I think my wheels are too small.

He's trying to make his car look "Heavy" with that big ole cast iron valve cover......
The "sleeper effect"
Looks nice!!!

Omg that's funny. Almost spit out my beer...almost.

 

[CrackedDSM]

I'll have to take your word for it. It's already too shiny for my bay.

Thanks, it was one of those projects I got discouraged with and set it aside for a few months. I couldn't decide what color, considered leaving it raw, etc. Then I saw your fresh red one that looked awesome and really popped, but red with red body just wasn't in the cards for me. I saw a gunmetal painted one and it clicked for me. I went with this cast iron color and couldn't be happier.

Speaking of discouraged on a project, those damn centric calipers are driving me nuts. I'll get it sorted eventually. Good to know it's only mounts and rotors different for outlander brakes. Although I think my wheels are too small.

View attachment 750853

View attachment 750854


Omg that's funny. Almost spit out my beer...almost.

Was it you that had issues with the quality of centric calipers too? One of mine came with the bleeder screw stripped and the slider bolts were like 1/2” impacted on.

 

[dwb]

Was it you that had issues with the quality of centric calipers too? One of mine came with the bleeder screw stripped and the slider bolts were like 1/2” impacted on.

Yup, I've had four so far with number five on backorder. I purchased a single pair.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Yup, I've had four so far with number five on backorder. I purchased a single pair.

Yeah, centric can GFTs man. I've had two raybestos calipers and they both have been great. We'll see how these do, but they look good so far. If these two are good, that's four for four.

 

[dwb]

Yeah, centric can GFTs man. I've had two raybestos calipers and they both have been great. We'll see how these do, but they look good so far. If these two are good, that's four for four.

I completely agree about centric. You get what you pay for. I paid about $40 a caliper...then $15 per core. I've plenty of cores to return now.

 

[dwb]

Been a while since my last update. So here's what I can remember from the last 6 months...

Brakes are squared away. If anyone followed my spongy brakes thread, I was feeling a spongy pedal after a hard corner after I upgraded to 2-piston calipers. I ended up replacing the front wheel bearings and over-torqued (sitting on the cheater) the front left axle nut. I guess the bearing didn't press quite right and that did the trick.

Alternator started charging at 15v, so I swapped over to a spare. A few months later I took it to Autozone and they replaced it for another reman no questions asked. They barely even looked at the old one.

All four tires were wore out after maybe only 10k miles, some down to the cords. They were wearing really quickly and uneven. I'm sure my driving style doesn't help, but this isn't normal.

It needed an alignment, but before an alignment I decided to pull the rear control arms and freshen everything up back there:
New poly bushings for upper/lower control arms and trailing arms
New ball joints
New wheel bearings
New axle boots
New sway bar end links
New struts
One new eccentric bolt (old one seized in the bushing and had to be cut)
New tires. I put some cheaper Kumho Sports on it, replacing the old Michelin Pilots

Here's the old pile of parts I removed and replaced:

TBH, this work was probably the 3rd or 4th hardest thing I've had to do to the Talon, behind engine rebuild, trans rebuild, and steering rack.

Within the last year I already replaced the front ball joints and rubber control arm bushings with poly bushings. All set for a fresh alignment.

It drives soooo much better. I actually think my gas mileage was suffering too, I was only getting about 200 miles a tank, city driving.

 

[DiamonDSM98]

I don't know what you are running for a computer but if you are on ECMLink, you can set the injector battery offset for different voltages. See my own settings for my FIC 2150's in the picture. It is under Direct Access, InjBatteryAdj and adds pulse widths to the injectors on top of their settings to give more fuel under certain lower voltage conditions. I can reach in my window any day, hit the key, and she will fire up and I can walk away.

View attachment 680710

Is this with e85?? What do you have global fuel set as?

 

[dwb]

Is this with e85?? What do you have global fuel set as?

91 octane and this was before I had ECMLink. It was all stock at that point.

 

[dwb]

It's that time of year for emissions testing...ugh I always dread these tests and here's why. Just barely failed the NOx limit.

So I did some maintenance - new spark plugs/wires, oil change, fixed some minor boost leaks, wired open the wastegate so they couldn't boost on the rollers, and took it back a few days later for it to come back worse. I firmly believe the operator was responsible for these inflated numbers from the first test...but I digress

At this point, no amount of maintenance would get me over the hump. I knew it was the catalytic converter. 285k miles will do that. I'm honestly surprised it lasted this long. Here's a pretty good visual why it failed (the honeycomb inside my original cat):

Living in Colorado, AKA California Jr., I couldn't just go buy any cat. I had to buy a "CARB" compliant cat, which is over double the cost of a regular cat. I ebay'd a compliant cat and some exhaust flanges. Whipped out the good ol' Millermatic 135 with some flux core wire and welded up a new cat. I debated about welding with stainless wire, but opted not to learn a new technique on the fly. I'm severely out of practice, but this will have to due:

Overall I think this turned out pretty well. Not the prettiest but whatever.

Fixed up some rattles on the muffler while I had it out. Bugger tacks ftw.

Once I got it all buttoned up and heat cycled a few times, I was off to emission test again. I opted to not deal with the asshattery at the local testing facility and went to a bigger one 20mins away. This place had no line, and besides trying to put me down the 2wd lane, they had their stuff together.
That new cat worked wonders. This was the only change between the two tests.

On top of successfully passing emissions, I can tell it breaths better with a few more HP.

 

[dwb]

My 14b is making some horrendous noises, not boosting well, and somehow has a large exhaust leak before the downpipe. That makes it time to upgrade to a better street/daily driver turbo! This arrived yesterday and has been on my wish list for a VERY long time. It has to be one of the last remaining brand new genuine MHI EVO III 16g:

 

[1cleangsx]

Man have I got some fantastic evo 3 16g memories , congrats