Looking for opinions

[PharmEcis]

Ok so I recently purchased a 95 Talon TSi AWD.

I thought everything was peachy with the motor but it's not. I haven't fully diagnosed the problems yet but this is what I do know.

Car has 147K miles and I assume the engine also has the same. Compression test reads from cams to passenger side as 150, 140, 150, 150. When engine warms up, it will spit white smoke out the exhaust. If I rev the engine hard, white smoke will also appear in the engine bay. The other day there was also a nasty ticking sound coming from the engine which has since disappeared.

I've purchased a new water pump, and a timing belt kit to change all of that.

Here is my dilema. I want to make some serious power with this DSM. I've already ordered some performance goodies for it but I will not install them until I know the engine is running good. For starters I'm going to start w/ just simple bolt ons, but I eventually will get into replacing turbo, more fuel, fmic etc.

Since I was going to replace the timing belt anyways, I figured I'd just do the head gasket at the same time. I really don't want to have the engine go kaboom on me down the road though so I'm wondering if it would be worth it to find a cheap engine to start rebuilding? I'm just kinda lost at this point in time on exactly what I should do. Should I try to just get by w/ a HG and Timingbelt replacement? Should I think about pulling the motor and having it rebuilt from the get go? The thing is I wouldn't have the cash to have the engine rebuilt the way I would like it.

Decisions decisions.. help me out.. heh

 

[Jafro]

1st... Your compression numbers aren't bad for those miles at all.

2nd... White smoke=coolant.

Pressure test the coolant system. That will help you find where you're leaking from. Most career mechanics have one of those gadgets in their toolbox. Most DSMers don't. They're not mechanics by choice... more like mechanics by necessity.

If you don't have the tools for radiator pressure testing, remove the radiator cap, top off your coolant, warm the car all the way up, put the cap back on, take the car for a drive, remove the cap again (don't burn yourself), top the coolant off again and start the car with the cap off. If you see exhaust bubbling out of the coolant filler neck, or you have milky-looking oil, then you probably have a bad head gasket.

The pressure test is better because it will show you WHERE you're leaking from.

Get ARP head studs before replacing that head gasket. You can't re-use those bolts, and they're only a few bucks more... they're also better insurance against things going BOOM when you turn up the boost (because they don't stretch like factory bolts). If you have a good head gasket, ARP head studs can be installed WHILE the head/timing belt/etc. is still bolted to the car if you replace them 1 at a time.

 

[TSIfreek]

Before you do any performance work to it replace the head gasket with the OEM along with ARP head studs. The cause of the white smoke out the exhaust is the head gasket is blown. None of us on here have enough money to do what we want to or cars but we find a way some how. In the end you will spend more on building the car than you spent on it orignally just a warning. DSMs are not cheep to build or maintain. It just depends on how far you want to go with it.