My 1g DSM story: 1990 Tsi awd clean street machine

[Smilinjay]

When do you think you will be finished and driving?

Ahaha im terrible with questions like that.. Theres really not much work left, but the roads here are pretty crappy right now. Ideally i would like some dry roads to break it in but im not sure when thats going to happen.

 

[buddahboost]

I would of painted that shifter base....looks ugly

 

[tridgway]

I would of painted that shifter base....looks ugly

Lol, agreed ^

 

[ShockDSM]

Wow man! Just cruised through your thread and it is such an inspiration for a fellow 1990 dsm owner! These 90's can be a real pain in the ass when it comes to so many things that are different with our cars. I am struggling to make parts for 1g's fit and diagnosing issues on mine because of all these differences. Anyway, NICE build man, keep it updated for us to drool on!

 

[Smilinjay]

Lol, agreed ^

K Tyler, you can diagnose your car's plethora of issues all by yourself .

Wow man! Just cruised through your thread and it is such an inspiration for a fellow 1990 dsm owner! These 90's can be a real pain in the ass when it comes to so many things that are different with our cars. I am struggling to make parts for 1g's fit and diagnosing issues on mine because of all these differences. Anyway, NICE build man, keep it updated for us to drool on!

Thanks for the kind words man, im glad you got a kick out of it. I'll try my best to keep it up to date

 

[tridgway]

Hey now, let's not forget who showed you all the magic tricks when it comes to removing your transmission!

 

[Smilinjay]

So i got this 23 spline transfer case for free with my gvr4 trans. It did not spin freely so i decided to find out why.

... So this is what happens when you let your tcase run low on fluid.. I went to my parts car and grabbed the tcase out of it.

This one appears to be in perfect condition so I cleaned it up and ran a new bead of sealant.

 

[ShockDSM]

That one filled with poop is probably what mine looks like

 

[RipperXX]

I like that some people are smart enough to use thermal reflective products. I used some of what looks like the same exact thing to cover the underside of my CF hood.

 

[Smilinjay]

I like that some people are smart enough to use thermal reflective products. I used some of what looks like the same exact thing to cover the underside of my CF hood.

Yea i got that to cover my lower intercooler pipe. I dont like how close it runs to the dump tube and downpipe.

 

[tridgway]

Providing Jay some moral support over the weekend, forgot to put the downpipe on before we lowered the car

 

[Smilinjay]

Whats up guys, just wanted to give a quick update on my most recent project. Ive always preferred to keep my battery in the engine bay, but this left me with very few options for a clean and out of the way mounting solution. I considered an odyssey pc680 but i was worried about cold starts since it is frequently below freezing here. So i decided to make a tray out of some 1/8" aluminum that would sit my full size battery right on top of the sub frame.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Nice man really good work.

 

[Smilinjay]

So i got the car running this week. So far i have 35-40 min of run time on it and it seems healthy! Oil pressure is very good and after adjusting the cas and biss it ran very smooth. I did find some very small particles of metal dust in the oil. So i cut open the filter and found practically nothing. I was a little concerned but after talking to a buddy it sounds like this is not uncommon. Either way i will be keeping a close eye on it.

 

[Smilinjay]

I haven't been driving the car due to bad weather, but this gave me a chance to work through some minor issues and do some finishing touches.

Had some issues with my pusher fans, should be sorted now.
Also made a new gauge bezel to replace the crappy plastic one i made last year.

And lastly, i grabbed some dei "fire sleeve" to put over my oil feed. I've never liked how close it runs to the downpipe.

 

[eclipse_spyder]

I want to see full picture of the car with the white wheels!!!

 

[buhay6]

man this cars made some serious progress since I last popped in to read the thread. Superb work!!

 

[studs]

New to the thread, that was a fun read man, very inspiring keep em coming! Car looks awesome...

 

[Smilinjay]

I want to see full picture of the car with the white wheels!!!

First drive today! Started out well, the car was running great and pulls nicely through the power band, and the galant transmission feels fantastic. Unfortunately after just 2 miles i ran into an issue that has plagued me for a long time. The car misfired mid pull, dropped 2 cylinders, and threw the cel code 0044. I immediately limped the car into this parking lot and started trouble shooting. After finding nothing obvious i pulled the ecu to check for bad connections or leaky caps. Didn't find anything. So i plugged it back in and the car fired up with no issues?! Needless to say i cut the break in session short and drove straight home. I have replaced my power transistor 3 times, so this one has me baffled. Oh well, still good to finally get it out of the garage.

 

[Smilinjay]

Finally got a new coil pack. Made a world of difference. No more misfires or dropping 2 cylinders, even seems to run better at idle.

So far the car is running amazing! It is still in the early stages of being remote tuned, but i am very pleased after the first real drive. One thing to note is that it is still hitting over 20 psi with no boost controller. This is with a 1 bar spring (that's what i ordered at least) and a ported wastegate hole. There is no knock what so ever, but the ecu seems to be pulling timing. My logs read between -1 and 3 degrees of peak timing.

 

[RipperXX]

What will be 1990 guys do when there are no more coil packs!

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

We'll keep the tack interface and use '91 coils
I wired this up so I could run my Arc2 box in my '90 and retain the tach, easy stuff. Tach interface red wire goes with the body harness blue wire and the white (or off white) wire goes with the white/black stripe wire. After this mod I can run any coil, just change the plug on the body side to a 3 wire plug. I did this so if my Arc2 box takes a dump I can unplug it and plug directly into my coil pack and make it home!

VERY pretty car Smilinjay!!!

 

[Smilinjay]

We'll keep the tack interface and use '91 coils
I wired this up so I could run my Arc2 box in my '90 and retain the tach, easy stuff. Tach interface red wire goes with the body harness blue wire and the white (or off white) wire goes with the white/black stripe wire. After this mod I can run any coil, just change the plug on the body side to a 3 wire plug. I did this so if my Arc2 box takes a dump I can unplug it and plug directly into my coil pack and make it home!

VERY pretty car Smilinjay!!!

View attachment 298376

Thank you sir!
Very nice and practical solution to the 90's incredibly stupid coil pack setup. In my case im fairly certain the tach interface itself was the issue. Otherwise i probably would have just wired in some newer coils.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Thank you sir!
Very nice and practical solution to the 90's incredibly stupid coil pack setup. In my case im fairly certain the tach interface itself was the issue. Otherwise i probably would have just wired in some newer coils.

Edit-----The White wire on the tach interface will go to your Yellow/Black Stripe going to your Power Transistor and the Red wire on the tach interface will go to your Yellow/Green Stripe going to your Power Transistor all before the coils.
That is how mine is wired right now (with a plug and play Arc2 box also) so I wanted to clairify this since someone may want to do that mod. I had to because the Arc2 will catch it on FIRE.....not a good thing.

 

[92AWDHX40]

What tires you got you
on coil over or springs.