Bought a 90 n/t and need some help

[jshuman]

Hey guys,
I bought a 90 eagle talon n/t last week for $675. I just got it because I want to pull the motor out of my 2g this winter and start a new build. I plan on using the 90 as a daily driver, but it has a few issues that need to be taken care of. It has 140k on it and a few dents but its in good shape overall. Here are the problems that I could use some help with.

1. There is a fairly loud ticking noise that seems to be coming from the intake cam gear.

2. It has idle surge. I have done my share of hunting and fixing idle surge on my 2g tsi, but the 90 n/t is sort of new to me. Can I go about fixing this the same as I would with the 4g63t?

3. At part throttle, usually around 3-4k rpms, it starts to sputter pretty badly. I am going to pick up some new spark pugs tonight and hope that helps.

Any advice on these problems would really be appreciated.

Thanks,
Justin

 

[Trelisong]

Maybe a silly question to ask but have you done an oil change, that is usually where I start with any car that is having a ticking issue.

Idle surges are not fun and I dont have any experience with them myself (lucky so far)

The sputtering could be a number of things, I would possibly start with a new fuel filter, couldnt hurt even if it doesnt solve the issue, at 3,000+ rpm is when fuel demand get a lot higher so your problem is probably a fuel related issue but not necessarily.

on my 1990 it had the same issue and I replaced both the fuel filter and fuel pump and still had the problem but i am sure the injectors needed to be replaced, if you think about it.... they were 18 years old, EEK!

 

[97GSRyan]

1)Like jake said, start with an oil change for the ticking, more than likely valve-tick. Does it go away once the car is warmed up?

2)I'm almost positive this is a vacuum leak. I had the same issue on my '92 Celica and it was a cracked PCV hose. I just had to fix an EVAP leak, and found out if you don't own one you can rent a vacuum pump from Autozone to check for leaks.

3)I also had almost this exact problem, but on my '97 N/T DSM. For me it seemed to be replacing and properly gapping the spark plugs. And from my understanding, the N/T's actually like platinums I also changed the fuel filter, which definitely can't hurt with that many miles on the car, especially if you don't know what kind of maintenance ethics the previous owner had.

Let us know how it goes, and good luck!

 

[jshuman]

I just wanted to udate with what I have found out so far.

I found the ticking noise. One of my friends here locally had had the same problem and it was hydraulic tensioner for the timing belt. So we pulled the timing cover and sure enough, the tensioner arm was smacking against the plunger on the tensioner. Tonight we will be replacing the tensioner and t-belt along with swapping to a turbo intake cam.

I should have mentioned before that I already performed the general maintenance on the car. I also already checked for vac leaks and everything was good. I hope to start hunting the idle surge issue as soon as we get the car back together. I also did a compression check and had great results.

Thanks again

 

[97GSRyan]

Hmm... Well, good to hear you're making progress! I might have to check out my own timing belt in this case haha

Are you still having the sputter issue?

 

[jshuman]

I do not know about the sputtering yet because I have not put the car back together. I have been short on time this week. I hope to get the timing belt back on tonight though and I will keep you updated