Altered Mental Status (1G AWD 5spd)

[CrackedDSM]

Welcome Back! I think it says alot about the amount of people commenting on your build thread with you absent , I think we’re all excited to try and continue to help you with your car, and I agree, if the maf is working, don’t fix something that ain’t broke

That was admittedly surprising. I was expecting a bunch of roasting or trolling. It influenced my return a bit. Plus, in the day to day of sh*t we deal with, it's almost a human need for camaraderie. No one at work, even the really really nice ones, really gives a crap about anything to do with cars. If it's not college football, NFL, or some kind of sport...they ain't interested.


Although random/cool moment happened the other day, apparently our fleet director is an old DSMer. I got spotted in the wild.

So yeah. That'll be the last time I'll mention the bad calls or sh*t I deal with at work. Just felt like this time it was needed/warranted for explaining.


Currently I'm dealing with some rubbing issues on the front tires. I think the bolts that hold in the fender on the inside of the wheel well are hitting the sidewall/digging into the tires. So..I may have to throw the coilovers back on. I'm gonna have to scroll back and read whatever I posted last. Can't remember what I updated last or mentioned.

 

[DreamChaser7]

Facts. I just hope I get this much desire to help me when I stumble into assembly, start up, and everything to follow, .
You’ve got a good support group here Corey, f&ck the rest.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Facts. I just hope I get this much desire to help me when I stumble into assembly, start up, and everything to follow, .
You’ve got a good support group here Corey, f&ck the rest.

It's true. I'll at least help where and how I can. Even if it's moral support.



I'll probably start updating this thread something middle of the week or so. I've done some things I think future people may want to see. Like replacing the OEM Fan Motor in my cooling fan with an aftermarket replacement model. And installing the DSM 3D Creations 1GA Wing Mounting Kit(and fixing some gnarly surprises when I pulled the wing off). I also installed an LC2 wideband to replace the 13 year old AEM UEGO. It was starting to have a stroke, plus it was so slow responding.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

No one at work, even the really really nice ones, really gives a crap about anything to do with cars. If it's not college football, NFL, or some kind of sport...they ain't interested.

I'm in the same boat. Even working in the automotive industry... they're all just in for a paycheck but not passionate about anything particular relating to cars, much less a DSM. That's part of the reason I hang around here, nowhere else can I converse about shit that 1% of the world cares about. Except for possibly Facebook, but I ended that experience a while ago and won't go back.

 

[DSMPT]

But honestly, I'm enjoying the MAF. I'll go SD later when the car is 100%.

Yeah why bother with the SD if the car runs better with the MAF?
You really don't need to push yourself hard to go with the SD while the MAF covers your goal. I use the MAF in my 2g even I have had all necessary parts for the SD for many years. Because I have never felt the need of SD for my 2g. It's like the computer operating system, if you have no problem with the system you use now, then no need to upgrade by making the effort.

You may probably switch to the SD one day if you keep modifying the car. But it's better if you make your car running perfectly with the MAF first and enjoy driving the car more before switching to the SD. It won't be fun anymore if you start to be stressed out. Just take your time, no rush, you do when you want.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Alright so apparently the last update here was that I tried SD, and it made me rage quit. Lol. Been a few updates since then.

BIG LONG ASS POST INCOMING. "Chapters" separated by lines.


First up was what I feel is a big milestone, and that's getting the car tagged and legal. I never thought that this day would come, but here it is! As a bonus, it's now considered a "classic" so registering and tagging it was only like $130 instead of the $500 I was planning on/what it would've been not being a classic!

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I decided that honestly, SD wasn't worth it. So I switched it back to MAF and have been enjoying it since then. After some encouragement from a friend, I reached out to McKenzie Lange and got a few tips from him. From there I found a 100% stock SD VE table, and boy what a difference. It started, it idled, it didn't bog when I revved up/gave it throttle. It still has this issue though, where it tries to die after idling perfectly for like 30 seconds. McKenzie gave me a few more good tips since then, but honestly...I've been too lazy to bother and that car runs perfect on MAF. So I've shelved it and decided to just go from there.

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After that, I woke up one day and decided that driving on these coilovers just isn't fun. The ride itself isn't bad, but there's a relatively mild "dip" in my road, and if I hit it above 30mph the rear of the car legitimately and literally gets airborne. So I took the coilovers off and went back to the stock struts and Tein S-Tech lowering springs. I adore how it looks like this.

However, this immediately gave me a new problem, that now something on the front is rubbing into the tires.

The passenger side is definitely worse than the driver's side. The drivers side is almost nonexistent. So far I've narrowed it down to one of the two top-most inner fender bolts is digging into the tire on hard bumps/turns. Aside from that, after some input from people on facebook, one guy who is pretty good/known for suspension reached out and mentioned that he was pretty sure the preload on the coilovers was set incorrectly, as it shouldn't be getting airborne like that. So I double checked them, and sure enough...one of the rear coilovers had a TON of preload, so I'm gonna put the coilovers back on. Mainly because they never rubbed or did this on the coilovers. And because I'm curious what, if any difference, proper preload will make.

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Switching gears a bit, I finally got sick of the leaks in the interior. Fixing the front was easy, I used window weld/polyurethane and sealed the channel entirely. Nice and dry now. But after that, I noticed a ton of water was getting into the hatch. After finally getting the motivation up to take the spoiler off and check, I immediately found out why it was leaking. Spot the leaks! Yes, multiple.

Nothing was taken off here, this is how it looked under the spoiler.

Ooooooof. Oof. *clutches chest*.

First things first, was scrubbing and cleaning all that dirt, grime, and stuff away so I could fix the issues. It was leaking through the completely open holes for the wiper motor, as well as the two holes open for the bolts that hold the spoiler in which were missing. Not to mention this gaping rust hole.

So much cleaner. From here, I knew I needed some parts...so I did this.

From our boys at DSM 3D Creations, their 1GA Spoiler kit. I opted against the plug for the hole since I was gonna have to do some fab work with that rust hole anyway. I won't show you how I fixed the rust, but trust my word. It's fixed now, and no danger of leaking. I will show pictures of the bolts actually holding the spoiler down now, and my little delete plate I made for the wiper hole.

That baby ain't finna leak like ever. Ever.

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From here, I let the car sit while I thought a little more. One day I went to start it and drive it to the store, and the 13+ year old AEM UEGO wideband starting having a stroke. It would rapidly switch from Lambda, to AFR, to other stuff. I took the gauge apart, cleaned the contacts on the chip that holds the face in, and that helped for awhile...but honestly, it gave me an excuse to upgrade and "fix" the problem at the same time. So out with the old and in with the slightly less old!

Innovate LC2 w/ Red DB gauge. Has the 4.9LSU sensor, and honestly...my God is it an upgrade. This thing responds SO fast compared to the old 4.2/AEM thing, and now I no longer have concerns as to how accurate the wideband in my log is. As the AEM really did seem like it'd change/have to be adjusted weekly. Very happy with it.

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And I've been searched for one of these for forever, as part of this kit is now discontinued...but score one I did!

Hallman Evo MBC w/ cockpit controller add on. I'm kind of really happy with how I routed it too, you'd never be able to tell. Warning...there's wires and vacuum hoses that need to be cleaned up. That comes later. Don't judge me.

It was a custom 10+ foot cable, so I routed it around the passenger fender, beside the battery, and into the grommet in the firewall. Way out of the way.

And here's the knob. Right now I've got it adjusted aaaaalll the way out. It has the upgraded "heavy" spring, so it upped the boost to like 14lbs, which I'm fine with. It was running like 11-12 before, so it's not a huge increase that'll hurt the still-breaking-in clutch.

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From here, I set out to fix some leaks that were bothering me since the car was on jackstands. I forget why I had it up, I think it was to swap the coilovers to the tein s-techs, but while it was there I figured hey, why not fix a few leaks. Boy that turned into a cluster. I don't think I have any pictures that are worth a crap, but a couple of the things screwed into the OFH were leaking tiny, tiny drops of oil that were enough to bug me.

So I removed the broken oil pressure sender for the AEM gauge that isn't even installed, and sealed that with a new sensor(plan is to run an aftermarket oil pressure gauge too eventually) with good quality high temp/high oil resistant thread tape. Also added thread tape to the 90* adapter for the oil feed line, and both of those things were nice and dry now. I noticed however one of the little allen-head plugs for the now-useless oil cooler ports was leaking, so I backed it out. Put some thread tape on it, went to reinstall it...and promptly pulled the first "coil" of threads completely out of the OFH.

I was...pissed...to say the least. I really didn't want to have to remove the OFH and fix an idiot mistake, and it still had plenty of threads, but this allen plug would NOT go back in that hole. Even the other one I noticed was difficult to install, even without thread tape. So I ordered a tap in the proper size(I think it's M16 X 1.50), and waited. After a few days, I kept thinking that the threads on the allen plugs didn't seem right. So on an intuitive whim, I went to autozone and bought an oil drain plug for a Subaru BRZ(or any car that has an M16 x 1.5 drain plug) and my thought was it'd be easier to start into the hole AND it has a gasket to seal the oil, no need for thread tape.


This ended up being the miracle fix. I didn't even need a tap. It threaded right in, tightened down nice and tight, and I'm pleased to report nothing on the OFH leaks even a single weeping drop. Boy that was an idiotic struggle, but yeah. For you guys running 90 OFHs, if you want to delete the oil cooler for whatever reason, just grab a couple drain plugs for a Subaru BRZ. They're like $5 and work amazing.


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Now that the car was sealed up again and everything was good, I took my daughter out for a drive. She loves riding in the thing and wanted specifically to do it, so my wife, my daughter, and me all piled in the Talon and went for a drive. Drive went great, but I've noticed over the past few times that water temps were staying at like 196-198. Which before, it would only usually touch those numbers once then cool itself down to high 180's.

It came to a head this time because after I did a few pulls and pulled in the driveway, as I sat there rolling the windows up I noticed the check engine light came on. Which made me look at my water temp gauge, which was reading 210-213. Not hot enough to cause damage, but WAY hotter than I ever want it to get. So I shut the car off, and started to look and poke around. I turned the key "on" and noticed the main cooling fan wasn't coming on. The car was hot enough it should be on, so I flipped the fan with my finger, and the fan kicked on. Well. Looks like that motor is going out.

So I ordered a replacement after trying to do research(and not succeeding. Apparently people rarely, if ever, replace the fan motors in these cooling fans?) I found a replacement unit and ordered it from amazon.


So I ordered it, it came in and I set to replacing the fan. It was SUPER easy, as the OEM motor is only held in by three screws. The fan blade itself is a single 8mm nut.

Here's the stock/OEM motor. Notice the little shield on top, that stops the fan from going too far down and contacting the housing.

I thought the little exhaust port was cool too. Mitsubishi really can make some awesome stuff.

Here's the aftermarket replacement. Screen shot from Amazon, but they are almost identical dimensionally, with a couple important exceptions that you need to know if you're gonna do this.

I didn't pay near this much when I ordered it, btw. I only paid like $25 including shipping. No idea why it's suddenly almost $10 more. Anyway.

On the aftermarket unit the shield is replaced by the raised portion of the motor that holds the fan. It also doesn't have threads in the little mounting tabs like the OEM motor, instead it comes with bolts and nuts. This is important, because when you install them, the BOLT HEAD needs to be FAN SIDE UP! So put the bolts in from the fan side of the shroud, and put the nut on the outside. If you don't do this, the fan will make contact with the stud/nut and cause all sorts of issues. At minimum, fan damage. The instructions for the motor were hilariously simple and mentioned NOTHING about this, but thankfully I'm meticulous and noticed the problem. Once flipped though, there's absolutely no issue.

So, I soldered the wires, wired it up, and tested her out. While I'm here, let's rewind a tiny bit to the excitement of earlier...


THE FIRE

Yeah. You read that right.

While I was waiting for the motor to arrive, I figured I'd fix something I've always been meaning to, and set about to get the interior fans/blower motor to work. My motivation for this, was reading that if you turn the a/c on with the switch and by pressing the button, both fans will kick on at high speed. I figured in case I needed to drive the car, this would cool it better than a semi-maybe-not-working single fan.

But, I've tried to turn the interior fan on before, and the switch never worked, and after pulling it out I immediately saw why. It was completely destroyed and therefore not plugged in. So after ordering a replacement HVAC switch from Performance Partout, threw it in, plugged it in, and tested it out. Immediate success. Both A/C and (old/bad)Cooling Fan turned on high speed, and the blower motor for the inside worked. Air is moving through the interior vents! Yay! From what I've read everything electrically needs to be working and responding for this switch to enable both fans operation. So that's exciting. A/C will be the very next step now that I know it'll blow and operate and that all the relays function.


I was so excited, I went and got my wife and did the obligatory "look what I did!" and turned the fans on. They worked great, so I got out and stood with her to look over my work...when we both noticed a small puff of smoke wisp out from the a/c fan side. Uh. Where is that coming from? I legitimately had just enough time to say "what the hell is that smoke?" and peer down, to see the alternator wire sparking on the metal a/c fan's shroud! Oh. Shit. That's a problem. I had just enough time to process what was happening, when sparks turned to open flame. A flame that began to increase in size. The wire's sheathing was starting to ignite at this point. However, I'm cool under pressure, and Thank GOD that I had been previously messing with wiring(installing the Wideband), so the positive battery terminal was loose. Pulled it off, and the flame went out immediately. This was a miracle and a big save, because all down there(including the wires themselves) everything is covered with 10+ year old oil, grease, and all other kinds of combustible liquids. Had I not stopped in my excitement and decided to show my wife, this would've happened in the car. While I was driving completely oblivious. I'd have lost everything, man. The whole car would've burned down before I realized what was happening.

This taught me two valuable lessons. 1) Always...always...always double check every single wire and where things are in the engine bay when you inherit someone elses unfinished project. 2) Keep a GOD DAMN FIRE EXTINGUISHER IN THE CAR. Because if I was driving and this happened, I would NOT have had one. Total loss. Had I had one, some wires would've been crispy and definitely some damage, but nothing unfixable.

So yeah. I'll spare the details, but needless to say...I fixed it. I degreased and power washed everything down there, ran new wires, and made sure they're routed way away from ANY pinch point or ANYthing that could catch them/cut them/etc.


So yeah. All in all, it's been exciting. There's more small stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting, but that's the bulk of what's been done.

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So what's on the agenda for the future?

1) Flush the cooling system. The pure 100% water is now dark brown with rust and whatever else has been in this system for 10+ years as it sat. Already bought some strong radiator flush, just gotta do it.

2) Tell ECMLink that the wideband is now an LC2/innovate model, and make sure it logs accurately.

3) swap back to coilovers, maybe remove those inner fender bolts just in case.

4) Put new tie-rod ends on for the front. Already got the tie rod ends, just need motivation to do it. And time.

5) log it, tweak the tune, and keep breaking the clutch in. After that...however much boost these 1050cc injectors will allow me to run to make as much power as possible. Which leads me to #6...

6) AWD launches and Dragy runs.


If you read all of this, definite shoutout to you. I didn't mean for this post to be so long...but had to update things to where they are now. There's been other minor fixes like obtaining and installing both the braces that run under the engine and the trans, vacuuming/cleaning things, etc. But yeah. Onwards and upwards!

 

[Dericsh]

Now that’s what I call a build update. Welcome back, Cory!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Now that’s what I call a build update. Welcome back, Cory!

Haha yeah. It's been a lot of little stuff but that was, believe it or not, the shortened version.

Thanks fren.

 

[Stapl3]

After some encouragement from a friend, I reached out to McKenzie Lange and got a few tips from him. From there I found a 100% stock SD VE table, and boy what a difference. It started, it idled, it didn't bog when I revved up/gave it throttle.

 

[CrackedDSM]

View attachment 742173

 

[CrackedDSM]

For anyone who wants a log to look at, here you go. I drained and flushed the coolant today(need to use actual flush, but wanted to clean it out at least a little) and while I waited for it to come up to temp and the thermostat to open, I did an idle log with a little revving.


Honestly probably nothing has changed now, but the wideband at least is accurate to the log.


I do have one question though...can someone record their ECMLink Log and Wideband at the same time for me? Should the values be identical at the same time, or is there acceptable delay in the gauge vs the log? Because I took a video, and the gauge and log are out of sync...however the numbers match perfectly within like .3 seconds or so. The gauge reads faster than the log. Normal or nah?


Anyway, the log. Here you go. Roast away, but I haven't touched hardly anything. Or ignore it, whichever you prefer. I'm easy now that work isn't sticking its kawk down my throat.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Hey fellas, in a day or so I’m gonna post up a SD log, I’d like some advice on to why the car idles for like 30 seconds perfectly then just dies. Mainly if the sensor is suspect or not.


But yeah. Figured I’d give a heads up. I’m wanting to see if the sensor I have now is good or bad before I try to replace it. It’s honestly the only thing I can really think that’s the culprit. The map is better, the afr is good, but yeah. Stay tuned for the log.

 

[CrackedDSM]

It was less than 80* outside today and kind of overcast, so I decided to take the Talon to the store.


Honestly, I'm starting to remember why I love these cars. Rowing gears, turbo noises, not dying of heat stroke because it's somewhat comfortable outside with the windows down. Just downright enjoyable. It still has little niggles here and there tune wise so it's still not perfect...but this MAF works so well. Only thing I'm missing is the BOV chirp but honestly...SD ain't worth the hassle just to get the BOV chirp.


But yeah. Literally nothing else done to it today, just almost surprised me how much I enjoyed driving the car today.

 

[1cleangsx]

That’s what it’s all about, sometimes I don’t even get her into boost , I just enjoy driving the car around as you described

 

[CrackedDSM]

That’s what it’s all about, sometimes I don’t even get her into boost , I just enjoy driving the car around as you described

I got into boost a little but it’s still on wastegate pressure so it’s nothing to write home about. But most of it was just rowing gears and enjoying the drive.


But yeah. Gotta buckle down and do work tomorrow. Swap to coilovers and do the radiator flush fluid.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Buckling down failed miserably. . I spent both of my days off sleeping and relaxing. Alas, night shift life I guess.


I've also decided I'm gonna go with a little Microsoft Surface Tablet for logging purposes, gonna order a "renewed" older model, because my gaming laptop is just not a good logger. It weighs 25lbs and the battery lasts like an hour or maybe two max on battery saving mode. Just a hassle. Gonna build or buy a little mount for it so I can just plug in and go. I think that'll help tuning this thing a bunch.


Other than that, yeah. Nothing changed. Got a super slow leak in the driver's side tires which is annoying, but not a hassle yet. It takes like a week or a week and a half to leak down visibly. The tire shop didn't change the valve stems when they changed my tires, so that's honestly probably the problem. IDK, maybe these old wheels are the problem.

But yeah. Rambling over. I regret nothing. Gonna work for the next two days, and it's supposed to rain all weekend but maybe/hopefully I'll find some energy to squeeze in some work on the Talon. I sincerely need to swap back to coilovers, and do the full radiator flush. The 100% water that comes out of this system is atrocious. It still cools fantastically, but I'll feel a whole lot better with it cleaned and flushed, and filled with actual coolant. Like a milestone almost.

No SD log because I'm a filthy, lazy liar.



Randomly, don't suppose anyone has a diagram, picture, or hand-drawn cartoon of the workings of the 1G HVAC system do you? Specifically, what the knobs pull. It only blows air out of the two center vents, and the knob that adjusts it from feet, to face, to defroster only has one little "cable" attached to it, and seems to be stuck on something. Before I go digging blindly trying to fix it, figured I'd ask first. I'm also kind of scared to test out the "heater" function, because I really don't want to discover a bad heater core or a leak. Lol.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Alright so to addend my post above, I wanted to say I feel like an insane asylum escapee.

Why?

Because I found a good video from our man @ErikTande where he replaced his heater core, and I'm gonna be honest...I'm tempted to WILLINGLY do this to the Talon. The harness under there is screwed, and this would be a great way to kill like six birds with one(admittedly heavy) stone. I could trace and fix the harness, I could clean and reseal all the ducting, I could check the heater core(and replace if necessary), check and replace the A/C evaporator and expansion valve, and fix all the stuck arms/doors.

Someone please...please talk me out of this. It looks like a total pain, and a massive project...but God I cannot express how appealing it sounds to have all those problems fixed, and brand new(where applicable).

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

Don't do it.

I have no reasons why, but you said to talk you out of it.

If you have problems that need to be fixed, well, fix them. Yea it's a pain in the ass, but so is life.

Or just skip them, complain about them later, and blame me for telling you not to do it. Yea, that sounds nice.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Or just skip them, complain about them later, and blame me for telling you not to do it. Yea, that sounds nice.

Tempting, but one thing I’m proud of is I’m more than willing to admit it’s my fault and not to blame anyone else. Even if you were the linchpin to convince me and it blew up in my face in the end I made the call.


I know you were joking, but yeah. I said it anyway.


But: I’m pretty committed. I don’t know how soon I want to do it but I want to have a new heater core and expansion valve. I sadly found out there are no new evaporator cores being made even from aftermarket vendors so I’ll just hope mine is okay.


So yeah. I’m gonna add it to the list. It really wouldn’t hurt.

 

[DreamChaser7]

Gotta say, your posts are always entertaining bro.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Gotta say, your posts are always entertaining bro.

Thank you, I try! I'll never have a youtube channel or anything, so I try to make it entertaining at least to read.




To update the thread, I now have 7 days off because I took a little stay-cation from work. Sooooo, hopefully I can get some work done on the old girl. I did install new windshield wipers today, so it's officially ready for some rain!

Hopefully tomorrow I can pop on the coilovers and change the inner tie-rod ends. If I still have time, maybe do a flush.

 

[DogWhistle]

Someone please...please talk me out of this. It looks like a total pain, and a massive project...but God I cannot express how appealing it sounds to have all those problems fixed, and brand new(where applicable).

Just in time. It almost felt like the Build Thread was reaching a conclusion.

 

[CrackedDSM]

So, I woke up today jazzed. I got some good sleep, today is payday, and I wanted to test out the new wipers. It wasn't really raining anymore, but there was enough water to test out. I want to see if the car is gonna leak at all. So I aired the tires up, let her warm up, grabbed my laptop, and took a nice long logged drive to Publix to grab some stuff for breakfast. Gonna chef it up in the kitchen(and I did. Made a hash with some scrambled eggs and thick sliced centercut bacon, hash had fireroasted red peppers and onions in it too) so two birds, one stone.


Drive went great. Traffic is not fun with a manual transmission, but honestly the more little stuff I fix the more confident I am in this car. The next milestone I think I'm gonna do, is take the 45 minute trip from my house to Buccees. I've never been, and it's a good test I think. The car still has some kind of idle issue after it gets hot/driven for 15+ minutes, but honestly it's probably a boost leak somewhere. I need to make another tester and retest. Add it to the list. I did buy a timing light, so I may double check timing today.


But anyway, here's the log for your viewing pleasure. I haven't touched anything yet. I'm going over the log now, but feel free to view it and offer advice, however don't feel obligated. Now that I have time and drive, I'm gonna really buckle down and start actually tuning the car. I'm fairly happy with WOT performance, but very low RPM(like 1k-2k range) has an occasional like...buck or ALMOST stumble. Excited to sort it out though. It's got 125 miles on the clutch and build, and I'm counting down the seconds until it hits 500 and I can turn the boost up to 30lbs or whatever the comfortable max of these 1050's are on pump 93.


Edit: I will ask one favor from the tuning gurus here. It's calling for me to add like 20-24% more fuel in the 150-400hz range. That seems like a lot. I feel like I remember I added a decent amount of fuel there before and it just ran pig rich. I will ask for tips in that one spot.

 

[Christo]

Hit me up when you think you are going to cruise to Buccees, I can try to meet up with you.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

It might just be my experience, but Buccees gas is terrible. Once I filled up my WRX on their 93 and shortly after it started pinging/spark knocking. Nothing with the tune was changed. After limping around for a while I filled back up with Exxon 93 and the issues disappeared. Someone local told me their gas is "watered down". Whatever that means, but I've never fueled with them since. I'm curious to know who/where they source fuel from, which other stations sell the same product, and if that is a common issue or if I just got a bad batch.

The beef jerky though, I get a bag of it everytime there's a race at Barber.