Looking at picking up this AWD

[Liz93EclipseT]

So I said I was happy with my FWD but I've been craving AWD more and more.

I'm just wondering if everything would transplant without issue into this car I'm looking at and if it sounds like a good deal in general without seeing the car.

I haven't seen the car either yet, I just want to know if others think it sounds like it's worth driving 2 hours to look at.

It's a 1990 Eagle Talon TSi AWD 5speed.
Says it's black, repainted professionally 5 years ago and still looks good with no fading or anything just a few chips/dings/scratches.
Claims there is no rust except on the left front fender where it meets the bumper.

Apparantly it snapped a timing belt 2 years ago and has been sitting since with the head off, says the block is all rusted and pretty much beyond saving.

Said all electronics still work when battery is charged. 281,300 miles on the body.
Said the transmission had 42,000 miles on the rebuild and will drive around town fine but wont go into 2nd at high rpms. Says it has a 4bolt LSD rear.
Interior is rough. Tires are rotted and cracked but has 2g GSX wheels with chipping paint.

I have no pictures or anything of it yet.
He's wanting $400 firm.

If I'd buy it I'd put my motor into it along with my leather interior and probably re-do the carpet and headliner in black.

Would I have any issue putting my stuff into a '90?

I'm assuming my built trans wouldnt work in the AWD car.

Then my second question, how easy would it be to put a 4g37 into my current car? Would my 4g63 FWD trans still work? I have a 92 talon dl with the 1.8L auto trans that I bought for $200 for some body parts after a fender bender in my car. Had a interior electrical fire and trans is messed up but motor has 102,000 miles on it and supposedly runs great. I know the 1.8's are super reliable and get great gas mileage, I'd love to keep my 1st car as a reliable daily driver even if it would be slow.

What do you all think about this?

 

[92AWDHX40]

IF its a turbo engine put it in a na car is backwards, check its not easy as it sounds just get a awd car with a engine and drivetrain. thats way easier, dont do i backwards get the car you want.

 

[Liz93EclipseT]

IF its a turbo engine put it in a na car is backwards, check its not easy as it sounds just get a awd car with a engine and drivetrain. thats way easier, dont do i backwards get the car you want.

what? The 1.8's sit just like the 4g63 though.

I thought it was just as simple as swapping the wiring harness / motor /transmission.

I just want to keep my 93 eclipse and am fine with going from my n/t->turbo conversion back to a lesser n/t if it means still getting to drive it. I really dont have any intention of selling it as it isnt worth as much as it is to me so I don't care what I do with it.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Getting it to run correctly or just start, which car are you keeping 1.8 2.0 youll need the tranny als well
here look at vfaq.com for non turbo to turbo swap. That will help you a lot. Try it again what exactly do you want to do, its not as simple as you may think. Clarify, i did the swap.

 

[914g63gsx]

take all the awd stuff out the 90 and put in your car the 93 ha problem solved .

 

[Liz93EclipseT]

Getting it to run correctly or just start, which car are you keeping 1.8 2.0 youll need the tranny als well
here look at vfaq.com for non turbo to turbo swap. That will help you a lot. Try it again what exactly do you want to do, its not as simple as you may think. Clarify, i did the swap.

my parts car has everything including ECU. Only thing i can't really use is the auto trans, it's bad anyway. My 93 eclipse was originally auto and I dont intend to swap back to auto.

I didn't see anything in vfaq about 1.8 swapping.

take all the awd stuff out the 90 and put in your car the 93 ha problem solved .

really wish I could but that'd be way to much work that me and my dad couldn't do

 

[SmoochDarling]

Wait for a better deal. All the AWD's i bought have been running and purchased for not too much over $500.

Tips:
Find a good chassis, no rust. Engines/trannies are the easy part.

Inspect the car thoroughly, don't just kick the tires and look aimlessly around the engine, make the seller feel like you know what your looking for (even if you really don't).

Tell the seller why its not worth what they are asking, list reasons why... eg, rust, poor compression, brakes, etc. Find comparable deals and tell them why their vehicle is overpriced. Anything that will cost you money to put it on the road should be listed addressed.

Lets say the seller is asking $1000 for a car.

" Well Jim, I know your asking $1000 but really since the seats have ketchup stains, the engine needs some new seals, the free mods you have completed have made the car run like shit, I and any other reasonable person will definitely not pay $1000, what is the lowest price you will go? Or what do you think is fair?"

He counters with $700, ponder...ponder.... "600 you have a deal." if he bites cool, if not go for $650.


Good luck out there, this approach to buying used cars has saved me thousands....

Dont buy it if you cant turn around and sell it for the same, or more.

 

[92AWDHX40]

He is doing something different but, again your going to have to figure out what you want to do at this point looking at your options.

 

[914g63gsx]

sure you could its only nuts and bolts, just park the cars right next to each other and do one thing at a time. anything is possible with some motivation trust me, been their plenty of times just look at it like your not gonna beat me next thing you know you got a sweet white awd.

 

[Liz93EclipseT]

sure you could its only nuts and bolts, just park the cars right next to each other and do one thing at a time. anything is possible with some motivation trust me, been their plenty of times just look at it like your not gonna beat me next thing you know you got a sweet white awd.

There's a lot of custom fabrication to make a 1g fwd into an AWD :-/

I don't have those skills.
a 2g you can swap right into

 

[92AWDHX40]

Yep you got that right only a handfull have done the 1g awd swap, from what they said here if even that, getting me a awd shell and im going to build her from there.

 

[Clinical]

the 1.8 will drop right in. you'll just need ecu/harness.

I'm not sure about the trans working.
I've heard their similar but I'm not sure that it would bolt right up.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Yes you need the harness, more work but i can be dont i rewired my whole car this winter had some problems, transmission youll need and, i think the trans mount.

 

[Liz93EclipseT]

so i went today and looked at the car and bought it.

He had cleaned the exterior and interior up, you can tell it was repainted a few years ago, still looks awesome. The interior isnt as bad as he made it out to be. Headliner is dropping here and there, seats have a few rips but I have black leather out of my eclipse to go into it. Surprisingly even the underside of the car is very clean. The exhaust is still there and still in great shape, it looks to be an Apexi N1 catback. Downpipe is definitely a 3" and still in good shape. Has an AEM Wideband and VDO Oil Pressure / Boost gauges. I'm hoping they all work. The turbo/manifold are with the car too although they're in the backseat. The manifold looks to be just a 2g manifold, however a closer inspection of the turbo shows it to be a genuine 20g turbo. It doesn't have any shaft play. I'm going to test it and see if it works on my car. Has some type of coil-over suspension, think it may be ebay though.

If all this stuff works, I could sell it for way more than the $400 I bought the car for!
The owner didn't tell me all this stuff was still with the car. Then again he never sent me any pictures of it or anything. He said he bought it from a dealership and didn't know what all aftermarket stuff it has.

I'm really excited!
Overall the car is pretty clean, i can't wait to have AWD!

 

[92AWDHX40]

there you go, now get to work.

 

[Liz93EclipseT]

Booo This sucks!

I found the 3 bolt rear end is already blown, nice hole in the top of it!
And the guy said he forgot he sold the 4bolt rear that he thought he had still.
So now I gotta find a rear end, lame!

Oh well, still a good deal for $400!

 

[tEi Vp DsM]

not true...2g's dont just swap over,you also need to change the gas tank before you do anything else...just stay fwd!i was fwd went awd and wasnt satisfied...went back to fwd..there is nothing wrong with fwd,learn to dial in your car at the launch and you will do fine,where you lose on the low end you will greatly make up on the top end...on the highway,forget it,line up with a awd with similar power and its YOU who has the advantage...dont get me wrong i love the awd,but they do have their disadvantages too...if its going to be a street car,just stay fwd and put your money into other worth while mods and drive and have fun with it!!! have fun and good luck to all!!

 

[Clinical]

not true...2g's dont just swap over,you also need to change the gas tank before you do anything else...just stay fwd!i was fwd went awd and wasnt satisfied...went back to fwd..there is nothing wrong with fwd,learn to dial in your car at the launch and you will do fine,where you lose on the low end you will greatly make up on the top end...on the highway,forget it,line up with a awd with similar power and its YOU who has the advantage...dont get me wrong i love the awd,but they do have their disadvantages too...if its going to be a street car,just stay fwd and put your money into other worth while mods and drive and have fun with it!!! have fun and good luck to all!!

People really need to read the threads before they post...
She has a 1.8 1g she wants to switch the 1.8 into her fwd n/t 1g that is currently turbo'd and take the motor out of it for the AWD 1g. She wants to put the 1.8 in the n/t so she can daily drive it.

It WILL work. Just change wiring harness / trans / ecu

 

[V12 Killa]

Great pick up for $400. Go to u-pull-it and get it running

 

[tEi Vp DsM]

i was replying to the comment about the 2g's swapping over from fwd to awd.....so some people yes...need to read the entire thread before replying....

 

[Liz93EclipseT]

So I know this thread is pretty old now, however I JUST finally got the talon running.

The only problem is, the tach doesn't work? Everything wiring wise is great, I have triple-quadruple checkded everything.

Also when coasting down, no matter really what speed, above like 10mph, like if you let off the gas and just let it coast down theres like a grinding type sound as if I'm hearing the driveshaft spinning. It drives great and doesn't do it on acceleration or anything, just when coasting down.

I gave up on the idea of swapping the 1.8L from my parts car into my 93 Eclipse, I really didn't feel like changing the harness. I sold almost everything on my parts car and spent $80 and got a full 6 bolt block, from a non turbo car that has 122k on it and runs great. I sold my built FWD Trans too for 100 less than I paid for it and then just spent a lil extra and got a Shepherd Stage 2 AWD trans for the talon, then my dad and I fixed the issue with the transmission that came in the talon and sold it for $500.

So i've been pretty busy but successful.
The 6bolt N/T block, I pulled apart and cleaned everything and did all new gaskets and seals everywhere. Runs like brand new. It stinks seeing my N/T car that I converted to turbo, back to N/T again but it's a reliable DD that's pretty clean still. Having AWD though is worth it.

Anyway just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what else to check for the tach and the grinding sound?

I really hope my cluster isn't bad, I think it's kind of funny having a pretty clean 1g DSM that has 281,000 miles on the odometer