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

[Smilinjay]

What tires you got you
on coil over or springs.

235/45/r17 though they need to be replaced soon. Probably gonna bump up to 245 or 255's. D2 rs coilovers

 

[Smilinjay]

Long time no update... It has certainly kept me busy with working through problems. Everything from lean conditions, to running hot, to boost creep. Anyway here's some progress. Its getting there.

Made some new brackets to mount my catch can next to the coolant overflow.

Took the bumper off to repair and reinforce it.

After a quick polish.

And my evo III manifold got really ugly really fast, so i decided to make a heat shield for it.

Despite all the problems, im really enjoying the car! It is hilariously fun to drive, especially in the twisties. The tune is getting there but progress is slow as we work through the issues. Much more to come soon.

 

[Smilinjay]

Aaaaand there's the boost leak...

 

[buhay6]

man thats one narly looking 1ga. Props again man, i hope i can make my 1gb look half as good.

 

[Smilinjay]

man thats one narly looking 1ga. Props again man, i hope i can make my 1gb look half as good.

Thanks for the kind words man!

 

[Smilinjay]

So i heard an unnerving scraping from my front brakes after about 500 miles on the new motor. In all fairness, a lot of those miles were "spirited' to say the least. I figured that was as good an excuse as any to upgrade to big brakes. These wilwood 6 pistons have probably been around for 10+ years, but they still get the job done.

Side note- ^these tires are trash.. Took me half a mile of driving to want to miss my worn out g force sports. It doesn't help that the tread pattern looks awful.
I also took the oil pan off to fix a leaky seal. The good news is i didn't find a single metal shaving! The rod caps didn't have any heat marks and i didn't find any foreign material whatsoever. The not so great news is IM STILL LEAKING OIL. It doesn't seem to be coming from the pan but still drives me crazy. Nothing is more infuriating to me than unsolvable oil leaks.

And lastly i finally got around to cutting and buffing my 2 year old paint job. Super happy with the results.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Nice always love 1gs had several over the years 1ga and a couple of 1gb.

 

[Smilinjay]

I had to roll the front fenders in order to make room for these 245's. Im still not sold on these wider tires though, they are a very tight fit for a gain of only 10mm in width.

 

[Smilinjay]

What's up guys, unfortunately this will probably be my last update to this thread. I made the decision to sell my car (along with the rest of my stuff) and leave the country to do some traveling.

The car went to a great home and I told the new owner he is welcome to continue to update this thread. I have no doubt he'll take great care of it and continue to improve on my work.
Til next time, happy dsm'ing!

 

[AKbag]

Well I guess this is as good of time as any to start. I'm the new owner of this beautiful 1ga and couldn't be happier to have it. My plan for the car is really pretty short it could use some nice tires and a proper Dyno tune. The runs well right now but we know there is a lot more power to be had. I'm working with our local tuner shop and have a plan to install a water meth kit and get it on the Dyno. I'm going to wait till this winter so I can enjoy the car for what's left of alaskas warmish season. Anyway when the car is 100% I plan to dive it all over and photography. And get it out to the drag strip and see what she can do. As for work on the car I plan to keep the thread alive and keep you all updated with the next chapter in this cars life.

 

[Dhan]

Been watching this build for a while now. Car has turned out incredible. Not sure if you'll log back on, but hope you have fun with your travels SmilinJay! Cars come and go, but traveling is something you'll never regret.

Glad the car is going to a good home. I'll be keeping up with the thread still. Good luck with the new ride AKbag!

 

[tridgway]

I will continue to provide you tech support, whenever you may need it, new owner (AKbag) of the cleanest 1GA in Alaska (probably). Good luck in your travels SmilinJay, when you get back I'm sure you'll want to dive right back into these things!!! Gonna miss you buddy!

 

[AKbag]

Only have a quick update. The car has been in storage at the shop it's being tuned at. I have a aquamist system ready for install and then the car will hit the Dyno. And today I picked up some new bf sport comp2s. Will update when the Dyno numbers come in.

 

[AKbag]

Hello again everyone. Breakup finally hit up here in Alaska. We got the aqua mist kit installed and the car up on the dyno. But of course we hit a few snags. The oil pressure is a little high and we couldn't get any boost control so it was waste gate pressure only until it hit some boost creep. Turns out one of the wires for the solenoid didn't get crimped(all my fault). I'm Hoping that porting the ofh will solve my oil pressure issue. As for the boost creep I'm not sure where to start yet on that. But the car runs well. It made 310 so far. I'll update again when everything is nailed down and we get the full tune done.

 

[AKbag]

Well I have more updates. Two days ago I took a fairly spirited drive from anchorage to girdwood as far as I know the only decent driving roads around town. The goal was to see how she does and have a comparison of the old tires to the new ones.for some reason I only took one terrible picture.any way the car was a ton of fun everything went fine untill I pulled over to find that the return line was letting a little oil out under boost. So after the small smoke show I drove the car back home with no issue. I got home and the oil level was still ok so I just cleaned it up and found the return line bolts a little loose but not bad.

 

[AKbag]

So Wednesday morning came and I took the car to have the new tires put on. I was a little worried about leaving the car at a dealership but it's just a tire install whay could go wrong?

Well a few hours later I get a call telling me the car has no brakes and they can find out why for me if I'd like. I told them to leave it on the lift and I'll be right there. There was a lot of brake fluid all over when I got there. Now I drove the car a good 50 miles the day before and the bakes worked just fine when I dropped the car off. Just saying. So I had the car towed home and in 10 mins found a hole in the brake hose idk how the certified techs missed that one.

 

[AKbag]

And finally with the car having no brakes I felt this was a great time to replace some broken bleeders on the wilwood 120-5957/6 superlite 6s. More on that later. Well I got 3 of the 4 valves changed then I managed to destroy the driver side caliper when the 4th was stuck. I should have left it alone but I didn't anyway the machine shop doesn't want to touch it and I think I'm good with that.

So on to my story. This morning I called wilwood to see if maybe this caliper was still around. The answer was quickly a no . But wilwoods customer service was great they spent a good half hour with me finding a caliper that would use the same pads and rotors although they were radial mount and I would need a bracket kit. Then they gave me a few numbers to call.

The magic number was tce performance. I called them and told the guy my story and right away he says oh yeah that's my kit I made those way back for that car. He then very quickly rattled off a part number that would bolt right up to the kit I have and use the pads and rotors so for 150 a caliper I have new wilwood 4 pistons on the way. I highly recommend tce performance for brake needs.

So now that I have no brakes I think it's a great time to port my ofh. So that's my story.

 

[Todd TCE]

Thanks for the kind words.


Do I need to pull a four piece hose kit for you now also?

 

[AKbag]

Thanks for the kind words.


Do I need to pull a four piece hose kit for you now also?

How did you find this so fast? Haha. I sent you a pm.

 

[Todd TCE]

Connections...

, I have some software I helped design about five years ago that tracks key words and produces direct email reports. Not overly sophisticated by today's google perhaps but for the time it was pretty cagey stuff we came up with.

 

[Todd TCE]

He's done quite well with this and many businesses well beyond what I use of it.

http://www.pilotlight.io/

 

[AKbag]

Well if this doesn't fit someone's customer service needs idk what will again I highly recommend tce!

 

[ogAviJohnson]

4 years later.....After drooling over this build for the last couple years I have just become the new owner! Car only has 1250 miles on the build! Will be sitting for a bit while I am working on my 97 gsx. Couple things that the previous owner hasn't added is the addition of an fp exhaust manifold, electronic boost controller, 10an vented valve cover, ported ofh, and recently had the 4 bolt diff cleaned and inspected.

 

[Smilinjay]

4 years later.....After drooling over this build for the last couple years I have just become the new owner! Car only has 1250 miles on the build! Will be sitting for a bit while I am working on my 97 gsx. Couple things that the previous owner hasn't added is the addition of an fp exhaust manifold, electronic boost controller, 10an vented valve cover, ported ofh, and recently had the 4 bolt diff cleaned and inspected.

Man he only put 1250 miles on it!? Was really cool to see you driving it around. Would be great if you kept this build thread alive with whatever changes you make to the car!

 

[ogAviJohnson]

ROAD TRIP!!
Photos from Seattle, Oregon, and Middle of Nowhere Idaho