My First Project Car -- '95 Eagle Talon TSI AWD

[smoked28]

smoked28 submitted a new DSM Profile :

My First Project Car -- '95 Eagle Talon TSI AWD


Read more about this vehicle here...

 

[smoked28]

May 13, 2018:

When I was 18, I bought a '95 Eclipse GST. Kept it for a few years. Loved the car, but after getting the news of having a baby on the way, I decided it was time to sell the project and focus on family for a while. Well, fast forward a few years, my son is now almost 4, and I have been looking to get into another project, an AWD DSM, specifically.

After a few months of searching, I found a guy with a '95 Talon TSI AWD up in GA. Took a cruise up there and ended up bringing it home. It was in rough shape, not running. Previous owner told me all it had made 438 WHP, but had since sat for a while and all it needed to get going was an ECU and a MAF. Well, I talked him into selling me a black box ECU while I was there.

My plans as of right now for the car is to just get it running with the setup from the previous owner (with the exception of tuning method, possibly).

List of known mods:

• HX35 turbo
• DW 1200 cc
• 340 Aeromotive fuel pump
• TIAL Wastegate
• Custom manifold
• Custom exhaust
• VRSF intercooler
• Battery relocation
• Full suspension

 

[smoked28]

May 14, 2018:

Attempt to get it to start so I can have a better idea of what I'm dealing with.

In order to run with the current mods, I'd need a tuning solution which I do not have at this point. So I decided to revert back to stock injectors to get the car started. Got the fuel rail pulled off and put on some stock injectors on so I could get it to start with a stock ECU. Put in the black box he gave me with the car, unplugged the MAF and couldn't get it to start. Tried a few things before looking at the ECU, ran the numbers on it and turns out it was a black box out of a non-turbo Spyder. Verified this by jump starting the fuel pump and it fired right up (pinout is different for fuel pump on non-turbo ECU). So now I am contemplating whether I want to buy the correct black box for my car and tune with CeddyMods, or go the traditional DSM route with EPROM and link.

First start video:

 

[smoked28]

May 23, 2018

Tuning Solution

Found a member on here selling an EPROM ECU and MAF on the classifieds for a very fair price. After much consideration, I decided I would take the plunge on ECMLink rather than black box tuning on behalf of the fact that I am not experienced with tuning and there happens to be much more support and information for link on here and ECMLink forums.

A little bit of background:

My car had a '97 engine and harness swap years back. It also runs with a 1G CAS, so the compatibility was a concern for me. I figured it would be a safer bet to go blackbox, since the '97 - '99 account for the CAS, however, I ended up still going with the EPROM and link.

 

[smoked28]

May 28, 2018

Tests and tuneup

Received my ECU in the mail and will ship it off to ECMTuning in the morning. In the meantime, today I decided to hunt down my old boost leak tester and perform a boost leak test on the Talon. Found a gaping hole in the turbo -> intercooler coupler. Wouldn't hold pressure for a second. Fixed that leak and many others. Tied up all the vacuum lines and closed up some holes. I plan to get a new hose kit of RRE, however for now it only drops a few PSI/min which I can live with.

Went ahead and changed all fluids with fresh and flushed the radiator. Plugs were fouled to hell, but I decided to hold off on replacing them until I got my tuning equipment. While I was swapping the injectors days prior, I noticed the seals on the DW's were brittle and falling apart, so I ordered a kit from DeatschWerks which came in the mail yesterday. I went ahead and resealed those today.

Also performed a compression test. Was pretty happy with the results:

• Cylinder 1: 180
• Cylinder 2: 176
• Cylinder 3: 178
• Cylinder 4: 179

Considering this engine apparently has 130k miles on it, I was happy as hell to find good compression across the board. Maybe this thing will be worth the headache after all...

 

[smoked28]

June 9, 2018

Oh glorious day! Got my package from ECMTuning!

ECMLink came in the mail. Went ahead and threw the big boy injectors back in. Hooked up link and tried to get her to start. No luck. Kept turning over and backfiring. I had asked the previous owner if he had swapped the plug order to account for the 1G CAS and he kept dodging the question. Told me "just hook up link and it'll fire up!" Well, it didn't, so I decided to swap the order. Gave it another try and she fired right up. How he got the car to turn on in his driveway with his link hooked up the day I bought it is beyond me. But anyways, it's running now.

It was running like sh**, but I decided to get the car out for a first drive. Took it down the road and it honestly felt like it wasn't building any boost. Hardly any power. Clutch also felt really weak to me. Then, I go to shift from 2nd to 3rd and it grinded going in....Did it every time I'd go to 3rd, sometimes 4th as well.

Got it home, bled the clutch twice and tried another test run. No luck. Still grinding.

Did a clutch drag test:


Going to be trouble shooting this issue in the days/weeks to come.


Also messed around in link a bit and took some videos/datalog captures of how it acts at idle with the base settings:

Video:

(See attached data log)

After warming up, it started acting funny at idle:

 

[smoked28]

June 12, 2018

Pictures of the car. She's ugly, but I want to monitor cosmetic progress as well as performance so

 

[jmattern1]

Good luck on the build sir! I dig the color combo, and the hood looks a lot less offensive against that color than mine.

 

[smoked28]

Good luck on the build sir! I dig the color combo, and the hood looks a lot less offensive against that color than mine.

Hate that damn hood Going to trade it to the first person with a green OEM willing. Thanks, buddy!

 

[teamevolution2]

Keep up the good work. Will be following your progress.