93 Eagle Talon TSi AWD Automatic

[92DSMErdrick]

I'm finally sitting down and starting my Build Journal. The car will be street driven along with being brought to the track to be raced. This is currently the 4th DSM I've owned
1st- 92 Eclipse GS 4G63 N/A
2nd - 93 Eclipse GS 4G63 N/A (Converted to Turbo back in 2005)
3rd - 1990 Eagle Talon TSi AWD Manual (Had a car fire back in 11/10)
4th - 1993 Eagle Talon TSi AWD Automatic (Current car in build process)

I'm going to start off with copying my original build thread on my local club board NYCCDSM. This is coming close to a 3 year build process currently. I have many many many pictures to upload so it will take time so bare with me

Date - 4/2/2011

Soooo, I've been having the itch for awhile and couldn't help myself. I picked up a 93 Eagle Talon TSi AWD automatic in the same town as me. I got it for a reasonable price along with the goodies on the car. It needs a bit of TLC and an overhaul. . . but than again I bring these cars back to life just like my last talon that sat for over 3 years.

The car was busted into through the passenger window and had all the gauges stolen and from what I was told the ECU was stolen but had it replaced later on. The thieves also took the cylinder head, turbo, intake manifold and some other random sensors and upper IC pipe.

The motor is unfortunately a 7 bolt(Production date July 1992) and he had it rebuilt with .040 pistons which look like valves already hit them. Previous owner claims it has a BS delete. The transmission is claimed to be rebuilt(stock assuming) and only had two pulls on it. Some goodies on the car currently

-Short Route FMIC core size(24x3.5x8) w/2 pieces of pipe for it
-Oil cooler with SS lines going to it
-Big Race oil filter relocation kit
-KYB AGX's all around with some sort of lowering springs(purple?)
- 3" Turbo back exhaust (not fully mandrel bent) :-/
- Aluminum pulleys + alternator aluminum pulley, no Crank pulley
- SS lines going to the Automatic transmission cooler
- Strut bar
- Grant steering wheel
- Aftermarket mustard colored rims 17"(yokohama 215/45Z/17 tires)
- Aftermarket front sway bar(passes under the exhaust)
- Rear sway bar I think is aftermarket, looks thicker than the one from my original talon
- Eprom ECU

There may be a few other small odds and ends but nothing really worth anything. I don't think the fuel pump was upgraded, it looks too untouched but who knows. The bad . . .

- Roof has a ton of scratches on it
- Passenger mirror is broken/cracked
- Passenger window needs to be replaced
- Driver's door molding is torn up
- Hood is dented in at the front tip
- Minor paint cracks here and there
- Nasty ass aluminum wing spoiler - It's getting taken off ASAP

Otherwise the body is mint. I can't say I've seen a 1g with almost no dings in it, in a long time. The things listed above sound bad but there not hard fixes. I'll end up picking up a hood, mirror, glass/door to fix those things.

The rims and Spoiler I'm going to rip off the car. I'm gonna sell my original 3" exhaust if anyone is interested. I also have a 1ga Brand new CF hood that I'm going to sell.

Here's some pics. . . I'm expecting criticizm :wink:

I sprayed the fuel line with PB blaster. I gave up quickly today trying to break it loose .

Tried to do a few things on the car today in between taking a ride out to the machine shop. I got good word that my head only needs new springs, valve seals, rockers and lifters and a mill. I'm getting a set of lifters most likely from him for a good price. . .

as far as the new car goes I got most stuff out of the engine bay but ran into a snag trying to get the passenger side axle out. I got the transfer case off and got everything completely disconnected from the motor and trans. I pulled the intercooler off along with the oil cooler so it can all be cleaned up and I can clean the engine bay when the time comes.

The car has the stock sway bar along with an aftermarket connected under the control arm. I disconnected the strut and its so stiff trying to move the control arm. I'm not certain yet but it looks like the bushings for the control arm were redone . . . maybe polyurethane? They look beefy and fresh, I'll know later on when I get them off. Car came with 3 out of 4 poly mounts. Just the tranny side doesn't have one.

Here's a pic/rough idea what the car will look like once I put my original rims back on. Luckily I have extra rims for my set so I can still run all 4.

Here's a picture of the intercooler on the car compared to my old one which I'm going to pressure test and clean it up and maybe spray it and sell it. Old intercooler core is 24x13x3 Tube/Fin if anyone is interested. The one from the car is 24x8x3.5 Bar/Plate.

I pulled the seats out of the car quickly right before it got dark. The passenger seat is mint as far as the material but it's soo faded. Drivers seat has some burns in it and is also faded. Overall there still in decent shape and I'll use them for the time being. I took a picture of them along with a random seat that I kept. You can see the stitching is slightly different.
Both seats from the car:

Driver seats, the one on the right is the one I had already...

That's all for one day. I have to work on pulling the axles and than the motor next.

 

[92DSMErdrick]

It's been awhile. Just too busy with work and lacking motivation. I've felt motivated the past week and got a bunch more off the car. As it stands now it's a chassis on jack stands

I'm gonna clean up the underside and undercoat the whole car. I'm getting a hold of a sand blaster and I'm going to use it to hit the cross members, subframes and control arms. I'm trying to get this car looking as good as possible for someone doing it at home on there own. Here's some updated pics

Not such a nice job, but then again I doubt the previous owner took off as much as I did

Underneath shot

Lol, all the fuel lines and brake lines in one piece

More to come, keep posted :wink:

 

[92DSMErdrick]

I started to sand blast some stuff. I gotta pick up some better sand. It's really cool. I can't wait to see the whole underside after it's all said and done.

Some more little updates. I've been working on the car here and there after work and a little on my days off. The most boring part is cleaning and getting rust off of most of the parts. I'm waiting on buying some more tools and parts before I can move forward.

Here is one thing I'm glad I found out. The rear is an LSD. I had to sand down the paint from the original owner to read the label.

The other dash I picked up needed some work due to cracking and broken pieces.

Here was my remedy. . .

cracked, so I fiberglassed from behind for strength.

Some sputty after the fiberglass

Sanded down and ready for another coat

This pic is of the second coat I think...?

The tan dash as it sits sanded. It will be painted a grayish black to match the rest of the interior.

 

[92DSMErdrick]

That was just the dash stuff I've been working on. The other main thing I've been doing is cleaning the subframes and control arms and than painting them.

They didn't stay that glossy when they dried. . . even though some other coats stayed glossy if I went over it again in some spots.

Right rear spindle looks awesome

Here's some other random pics of how things sit currently.

Custom 3 tone paint

A great product!

Gorilla glue put to work

This is the next big challenge

 

[92DSMErdrick]

I don't even know where to begin since there's so many different areas that I've tackled. I guess I can post up with how the dash finished coming out.

Lots of masking/priming/painting

I can finally secure the instrument cluster now
:wink:

And this was a cool part of the instrument cluster. Putting in a Autometer oil pressure gauge with the ability to remove the cluster without having wire issues.

Little test to see how it looks. Replaced the regular 194 bulb with a 194A(amber)

Dash complete with speaker covers to match. And after it all I moved the correct VIN plate to this dash

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[92DSMErdrick]

This section I'm going to update on the Transmission and Drivetrain stuff.
Since the transmission was rebuilt already on this car I decided to freshen it up. I did the Translab shift kit to the valvebody. I opened up the drain back hole on the pump to 1/4" to help against blowing out the seal. I also picked up a high stall torque converter from IPT. All new axle seals, gaskets and everything you can think of was repainted 8)

Before pics of the tranmission:

Sand Blasted Diff Cover

Cleaned up rear end before paint

Opened up oil pump hole

Valve Body rebuild

New Valve Body plate due to rifiling in one spot

Kiggly Flexplate

Transmission Cooler(2 Row, fan and thermo switch)

Birthday gift to myself last year

I'll post more tomorrow.

 

[u2slow]

Good to see the long time DSMers staying in the game....such dedication. I got the same problem. I`ll be watching this one.

Really interested in the dash fix. When was it done and how is it holding up? Do you keep it away from sunlight, heat, and cold?

Good luck and enjoy the journey.

 

[92DSMErdrick]

The dash was completed probably over a year and half ago. Currently it sits in my basement away from peoples hands haha. Oddly it was the first thing I tackled after I stripped the whole car down. I have to have 20+ hours into it, working on it here and there after work. The paints are all high temp so it "should" take heat OK. This car as of now is back to a rolling chassis with the motor and transmission back in it along with it in my garage where it will be kept

The issue with the dash that came with the car was it was in terrible shape plus the original owner cut a lot of the plastic out of it where the HVAC controls go so it would have been more trouble to fix that one. The dash I picked up I got for free but still needed work, hence all the repairs I made to it.

 

[sirbow2]

I love it when people take the time to do a complete tear down and rebuild on these cars. Absolutely awesome work here.

 

[92DSMErdrick]

Thanks guys. I'm still trying to piece all the pictures I have together. I wish I could post more than 20 in one post It's probably going to take me atleast a week of posting to catch up to where I'm at. Anyways here's some more updates

This should be the last of the pics for the subframes and control arms before they were installed on the car

Bushings burned out nicely

Front subframe

Front crossbar to subframe with poly bushings

Rear adjustable control arms

Front subframe assembled

Rear Subframe assembled

Some randoms

 

[92DSMErdrick]

Before paint

Manual Rack before paint

Sanding and compounding. Dash blinds you when you shine light on it

 

[6772owner]

Looking good man, I'd love to build an auto/awd car (or convert mine), I'm interested in the gorilla glue dash pad fix.... Mine is pulling apart also, can you give some info on the repair? Did you just glue/wet it and clamp? Any other prep...

 

[92AWDHX40]

Im with you on the rebuild Im in the process rebuilding a lot of mine still to my standards, replacing all worn out bushings paint, and well the list goes on. Nice find.

 

[92DSMErdrick]

The dash I cleaned up with a simply spray cleaner like 409. I cut away any loose pieces of the foam from the vinyl. Then I sprayed a little water on the area I wanted to glue down. Took the gorilla glue next and did my best to let it run down evenly behind the peeled up vinyl. Then I took a bagillion of those little clamps and c-clamps to hold down the vinyl to the metal backing. Words of advise is to be careful with strong clamps because after it cures sometimes your left with the indent of the clamp and it doesn't seem to want to go away over time . For the most part they're holding up. There were a few spots I had to add a dab of gorilla glue and just put 1 or 2 clamps back on to hold that spot down, almost like a wave was created. Either way it looked a million times better than it was. I used this trick on my last 2 DSM's and it held up on them.

In deed this car was a great find. Found it literally 1 and a half miles from my house and paid only $750 for it. Didn't have any keys to the car No worries though, I called up my friend who works for Chrysler and gave him the VIN. He messaged me back with the cars KeyID which I brought to a locksmith and had a key made up and luckily worked great for me

Another update:

Oil Pan, primed and painted. Had a -8AN bung welded to it

Bought a FP exhaust manifold. Had some castings taken off and light port to it. Drilled and tapped for EGT prope and then painted with a high temp silver paint(Por-20)

Exhaust was pulled out whole. Cut off the original downpipe. Cleaned up the new downpipe/02 housing and the remainder of the exhaust. Painted the whole thing and polished out the muffler

Oddly I don't have a picture of the complete exhaust painted :? Won't happen either because its up under the car now . It'll come out again once I get the v-band flange welded to it :wink:

 

[92DSMErdrick]

Process of the valve cover. Removed the baffles to have 2 -10AN bungs welded on. Then had a new baffle kit welded in. Epoxied/JB Welded around the welds to clean them up and then cleaned/primed/painted the cover.

Painted black

Wet Sanded

Final Product

Cylinder head the day I brought it home from the machine shop.
- BC Springs and retainers
- BC 272 Cams
- Bronze intake guides
- Steel exhaust guides
- Mild port and polish
- STD size stainless steel nitrided coated valves

 

[LaserRS92]

I'll be keeping an eye on this as well. I tackled the front subframe bushing project this past summer. Rears are up next.

 

[92DSMErdrick]

I did all of the following
- Poly bushings in the front and rear
- Driveshaft carrier bushings are CNC aluminum
- Jay Racing rear toe active elimination
- Rear Suspension Techniques sway bar
- Endlinks with poly bushings
- All new ball joints front and rear
- Front wheel bearings were replaced.
- Literally every bushing on the car is Polyurethane

Some more updates:
Took apart a few bad alternators I had laying around to master the technique of not damaging the internals. Once I got that down, I cleaned and painted the housing, then took apart the good alternator I had and put the cleaned up case on that one. Unorthodox lightweight pulley installed on the alternator. Also Here are pictures of the cleaned up and painted brake calipers. I went with RTM's bracket kit, 3000gt VR4 calipers and Mustang cobra rotors. As more pictures are uploaded everyone will see I re-did the entire brake line system with new copper-tin-nickel along with SS braided hose at the calipers.

Day 1 getting the calipers

Difference from stock

Right side cleaned/unpainted, Left Painted

I shouldn't post this yet, but sneak peak!

I had to pick up a new JMF intake manifold. My original was the old school JMF street, which is now considered the Race. Upgraded velocity stacks basically. I had nitrous bungs welded on in case I need the extra spool up :wink: Also had an extra port added on underneath for one of my sensors.

Rebuilt N/T throttle body bored out to 65mm, half shaft mod and ports cut off and closed off

Had the turbo from my last talon rebuilt from Justin on DSMTuners. Bullseye 47-trim (O-trim(stage V), TO4B s-trim compressor housing) This will be the break in turbo. Also a pic of the holset HX-40 Pro 6 Blade that'll upgrade to eventually

 

[92DSMErdrick]

Here's an update on the fuel system. This car is going to be running E85 so I did my best to piece together a system that will hold up to it. I picked up a 1g sumped fuel tank awhile back brought it to a local place that cleans/boils them out and seals the inside. The claim that the coat used will withstand E85, but time will tell. I cleaned up and painted the tank along with the fuel neck. Planning on running 2 external Bosch fuel pumps with stainless element filters before them. Both pumps will tee into each other and then feed to the engine bay to another Fuel lab filter with a stainless element. Typical Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator. Went on summit racing's website and picked up 1/2"(8AN) aluminum hard line to do the whole feed/return lines. This is one of the current steps I'm up to with running/bending all the line and finding out where to place all the systems components (Regulator, filters, pumps)

As far as the cooling system goes I picked up a 2 pass drag race radiator that had a perma cool fan, with upgraded blades and custom shroud made for it. Bought it locally from someone who was running it in their Galant VR4. I had 16AN fittings welded to it and will be doing the same to the thermostat housing and water pipe. Unfortunately the pre-made SS lines I picked up won't work because they're too long and they aren't typical rubber hose so I can't shorten them. I ended up picking up some black -16AN hose and fittings to do the radiator hoses with.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Nice my driveshaft is now done replaced everything I there, still yet to do my bushings all around on my car your making good progress.

 

[92DSMErdrick]

Suspension time. Car came originally with KYB AGX's with lowering springs. Ended up selling those and found out the front struts were blown :shock: Ended up picking up a real nice set of Drummond Motor Sport coil overs originally for an early EVO. The rear coil overs had adapter CNC machined blocks to make it work on a DSM setup, previous owner had them on a galant VR4. Throughout the process of having them I broke one of the adjusters :? Brought them to a local place that specializes in them. Had them checked out, adjuster fixed and set all back to a neutral starting point. The set also came with adjustable Camber/Caster plates :wink: Overall a badass setup. Cleaned them all up and made them look puurty

Broken adjuster

CNC blocks for the Rear

Springs before cleaned up and painted

Ready to go on the car

Purchased the Automatic AWD AVID motor mounts. Of course like most others there were issues with the set which AVID isn't going to correct. The hardware kit was wrong, rear Motor mount is too tall and the bolt holes don't line up with the subframe. Even the transmission mount I'm going to have to slot the bracket that is attached to the tranny to make up for the hole on the avid mount being too low :? I Just ended up reusing the factory rear mount which had a poly bushing in it.

Picked up a set of EVO8 rims so it would clear the 3000GT Brake upgrade. Cleaned them and sprayed them black. Already need to touch up some spots since they were finished :? Gonna start with a set of BF Goodrich g-force Sport Comp2 235/45Z/r17 tires

Randoms

Headlight restoration 101

Starter on its way being cleaned up

 

[luisgil]

Looks like it's made a huge revival wow

 

[92AWDHX40]

Hey I like those mounts im getting the same strut set up new struts, and some of my friends springs kyb and agx, and the eibach springs. Like the wheels too.

 

[92DSMErdrick]

I wouldn't do the kyb agx's. The fronts are known to blow out on DSM's. I still
Have a lot of photos to upload to catch up to where I'm at currently. The pictures will get better once I start showing the body/engine bay again. The motor fully assembled is gorgeous I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to work on the car lately. I'm hopping this week I'll get around to finding where I want to mount the battery box and run the cables to the front engine bay. Would love to start running the fuel lines also.

 

[92DSMErdrick]

Here's some shots of the engine bay being taken apart. You can see the terrible job the previous owner did with trying to repaint it black. I power washed the engine bay, then sanded it down to get all the loose flakes off and smooth. Cleaned it and used Por-15 semi-gloss black for 2 coats. Then I moved onto por-15 Chassis coat Black and did 1 coat in that.

And the process Begins

Subframe installed along with starting to figure out the new brake lines

Brake Booster/Reservoir and New copper/tin/nickle brake lines

Hood Latch all cleaned up

 

[92DSMErdrick]

This section is to show how I fixed the trunk. I'm going to post the original picture of what it looked like. For some reason the previous owner bashed in where the spare tire would have went and there were holes in that area also. I'll try and find some pictures of the inside of the car also. I stripped the whole inside floor apart. I only left the side/ceiling panels on. This was done mainly to clean up the floor, check for rust or rotting out spots and more importantly to help prevent future damage. I'll break down the steps.

- Cleaned up and painted what was existing.
- Cut out a piece of cardboard to the shape of what was bashed in
- Cut a piece of woven cloth to cover up the damaged area
- Soaked the piece of cardboard in resin and hardener then placed in the galley
- Soaked the woven cloth in resin and hardener and placed over the area
- Let it dry and then filled spots with sputty
- Went from the underside and squeezed sputty into the holes to fill empty gaps
- Cleaned and sanded sputty down. This was done a few times
- Cleaned and painted the area

The issue

Trunk area cleaned and painted

The process

Finished product

Eventually I want to do a wooden cut out of the trunk and wrap it in fabric. Still need to figure out exactly where to put my battery box and a liking to running the wires, kill switch, and fuel pump wires. I Didn't take any pictures of the painted inside yet. I def will before I start putting it back together. Anyway here's a few other randoms

Hard to make out but this is the underside painted before I undercoated it with duplicolor.

Went a little nuts and cleaned the rails and brackets to the seats and painted them

Rear Subframe installed with coil overs

Front Wheel wells painted and suspension installed

More cool stuff to follow