pksystems 1997 Eagle Talon TSi AWD street build

[68GTOblues]

Hello! Wondering where you got the rocker patch panels please. Thanks

 

[pksystems]

I made them with 18 gauge mild steel. If you are putting skirts back on the car, they don't need to look perfect.

 

[68GTOblues]

I hadn't thought about that - thanks!

 

[68GTOblues]

I made them with 18 gauge mild steel. If you are putting skirts back on the car, they don't need to look perfect.

Forgot to ask, did you re-use the factory skirt clips or just screw it to the sheet metal?

 

[pksystems]

My car is a 2GB Talon which didn't come from the factory with any sideskirts. I took 2GA Talon skirts, put a dab of grease on the mount points, and pushed them up against the car. Then I drilled holes where the grease left an impression on the rockers, and used aftermarket oem-style clips off ebay.

 

[pksystems]

Front mount intercooler to radiator ducts complete.

Since this is a street car, I wanted to keep the crash bumper. I've modified it in such a way that most of the bar is still there, but I'm using the crash beam to duct air through the upper section of the punishment racing FMIC. The top of the intercooler, is flush with the inside top of the crash beam.





My FMIC is mounted as part of the cover/crash beam assembly. This means it has to come off, whenever I remove my front bumper. My carbon fog lights will also be part of this, since they mount in front of the intercooler to help duct air through the intercooler. That means any ducting to force air into the radiator, can't be attached to the intercooler.

Here is what I came up with.

Picture frame like shape that bumps up against the back of the intercooler with some closed cell foam between the two. 2 L brackets that seal against the a/c condenser with more closed cell foam, and bolt into the bottom a/c securing bracket. 2 sections that go around the hood latch section to try and enclose it somewhat. If this was a race car, the latch would be gone, and the upper duct section would work much better. Aluminum for all pieces, with the visible sections powdercoated black to help hide them. Since I can't weld aluminum, I attached all 5 pieces together with urethane/rivets.

 

[68GTOblues]

What's the diff between 2GA & 2GB? Clever idea for mounting the side skirts and good job on th FMIC bkt. Thanks.

 

[pksystems]

2GA = 1995-96 Twist skirts, lower spoiler
2GB = 1997-98 No skirts, but has door strakes, high spoiler, more agressive bumpers

 

[pksystems]

Test fitted FMIC over ducting. The foam compresses all the way around the intercooler. There is a couple areas that will allow air flow to leak out around the bottom, but it's nothing compared to the opening around the hood latch. I think it's good enough.

Tossed on the front bumper to check fitment around everything. I will need to trim a tiny bit of the bumper cover around the oil cooler duct.

Tossed the fog light housings in to see how tight they fit around the FMIC.

 

[pksystems]

Installed new fittings on oil filter housing.

Installed new fittings on Oil cooler.

Assembled An-8 oil cooler lines with Aeroquip Startlite hose. 3x 90's and a 120 (I think)



Pressure tested the lines, and installed them. I'll need to tweak the position of the lines when I do the final install of the intercooler piping. I made the lines extra long, so no biggie.



Noticed I was missing one of my side bumper washer bracket things. Made one. Powdercoated various brackets..etc.

 

[str95tsi]

Great job bringing this car back to life.
Keep up the good work!

 

[pksystems]

Finished wiring the fog lights.

Tinted the polycarbonate lens with Tamiya transparent orange paint. Unfortunately it is more of a matte orange, instead of full gloss like I was hoping for. Installed the fog lights.



Re-drilled the front mud flaps to move them in a bit. They only stick out ~1" now.

My plywood splitter idea, does not look right with this bumper, so I scrapped it. I still want a splash shield under the radiators/oil lines. I pulled a couple large pieces of carbon sheet from my reject pile from the other project, joined them together, and added a couple more layers to stiffen it up.

 

[pksystems]

Put the car on 4 jackstands and installed the rear fuel flex line.

Put An-6 plug on the fuel rail end of the flex line, and the Schrader valve An-6 fitting on the flex line above the tank. Pressurized the flex/hardlines with compressed air, and sprayed down all joints with soapy water. No bubbles. If the lines are still holding air tomorrow, I can finish installing everything else in the engine bay.

 

[pksystems]

Installed the rear helper springs.



I'm at the stage where I will be setting the ride height, so I can put the car on the ground and torque down all the suspension bolts. I noticed that this little guy is in backwards. All suspension was installed before the engine/tranny, and everything seemed great.



If this arm ever needs to be replaced, I will be cutting off the head of the bolt and getting a new one. It will be installed from the rear. Drivers side is installed the same way and has more clearance, but is partially blocked by the oil pan. Install them both from the rear, facing the front of the car.

Cleaned some surface rust off the rear rotors and reinstalled them.

Removed passenger side window tint.

 

[pksystems]

While adjusting the ride height, I noticed the rear helper spring was not being fully compressed.

Pulled the rear koni's off, removed the helper spring divider, and lower perches. The problem is even with these 4" helper springs, they still compress down to ~1/2" when the weight of car is on them. I couldn't remove enough material from just the spring divider, so I had to take a bit off of the perches aswell.

Couple minutes per side on the belt sander and they are good.



Blurry as hell picture, but it's compressed.



Rear ride height is set to 378mm.
Front is as high as I can go without a coilover spanner. 385 Driver/390Passenger.

The numbers I've seen on tuners for a GST is 400 front, 378 rear. I have yet to see anyone post OEM ride height for an AWD car, so I'm going with the GST numbers for now. I will adjust the car a bit more after it settles.

 

[pksystems]

Torqued down all suspension bolts with the weight of the car on the ground.

Ran the flanges of the exhaust across the belt sander to get them mostly flat. Installed the exhaust. New Vibrant exhaust gaskets, and I put a thin coat of grease on all the flanges. I read somewhere that this will burn, and create a carbon gasket to help fill any imperfections. Car currently has the 3" free flowing catalytic converter installed. The provincial governments carbon tax kicks in today. Straight pipe is ready to install after car gets inspected.

There was a small issue with the Apexi hitting the 3G rear sway bar. I cut a couple pieces of ~1/4" aluminum to match the vibrant gaskets, and stacked them with a coat of grease at the last exhaust joint. This pushes the bend in the piping that goes up far enough back so there is a small gap between it and the sway bar.



Took remnants of my positive cable from my fuse box rewire and made a ground wire for the exhaust pipe. I don't think it does anything, but it's in the manual.

Installed 1G intake manifold with Fel-pro MS94328 gasket. I had to use stubby wrenches to do up most of the bottom bolts from the passenger side. Probably would have been easier to do this before the exhaust was installed from the bottom of the car. My rear engine hoist bracket is off my 2g engine, so it doesn't fit this manifold. If I got a longer M10 stud I could make it fit with a spacer.

Swapped my 2G ISC/TPS to the 1G throttle body

Installed 1G throttle body with Fel-pro 60879 gasket

Installed punishment racing elbow with Fel-pro 61432 gasket

 

[Laxman]

Amazing work. Looking forward to the final product

 

[pksystems]

Installed new seals, pintle caps and filters on the Evo IX pink top injectors. The pintle caps were a little different, but I got them on.
MDL-560P 560CC

 

[pksystems]

Installed:

Fuel rail
Injectors
Sheridan Engineering 1Gina2G CAS harness
Fuel return line
Various coolant hoses (turbo,throttle body)





Hooked up brake booster vacuum line. While trying it to figure out line routing, I found a vacuum port that I'm not seeing in pictures of other 1G intake manifolds. It looks like one of the previous owners tapped the boss next to the brake booster.

 

[pksystems]

Missed the fact I needed a 2G knock sensor in my block. The Magnus guide has it listed in "Additional Notes" (1G Intake manifold with stock 2G knock sensor)
It probably should be in the "Parts list" ..... Anyway, pulled the intake/fuel rail/harness...etc...etc.. to get to it. I hope a JDM RVR Knock sensor works with the 2G ecu, since that's what I have.

While I had everything partially pulled apart, I pulled the catch cans and permanently attached the 2 fittings on the lids with JBWeld. When I was hooking up the AN-6 pushlok hose, it was obvious that the gaskets were not going to seal properly.

I used the extra vacuum port on my intake for my Profec-B EBC, which meant rerouting some of my wiring loom. Hooked up my boost gauge to intake.

Installed windshield cowl, wiper arms/blades

Swapped some barb fittings back and forth until I had matching sizes on my Profec boost control solenoid/wastegate/intercooler piping. GReddy uses 1/8 BSPT fittings, so I have an adapter on one side to convert to NPT. Mounted the solenoid on an unused bracket on the oem BCS bracket. Bit blurry, but you can make it out



Put the hood on the car so I could check for clearance with the BOV. The adjustment screw made a small dent on the hood shield, but the hood closes all the way. The adjustment screw isn't tightened at all right now. The placement of the BOV to clear the hood, put it at an impossible angle in relation to the recirculate port on my knockoff Injen intake tube. My solution was to toss that aside and use the real Injen intake that came with my car. Pulled some scrap aluminum tubing, flared it with a ball peen hammer, and proceeded to drill/file a hole in the intake that matches the placement/angle of the BOV. Had a friend tig weld in the tube, and seal up the evap vacuum port. Powdercoated the modified Injen intake. It outgassed alot less then the knockoff.





Picked up some parts from HomeDepot Racing Supplies, and made a boost leak tester. Intake tube is loosely attached. I'll need to pull it to do a boost leak test.

 

[Kryndon]

Amazing build man! In fact, these cars are getting old enough for this to be called a restoration. Really digging the color scheme with the little orange accents. Not too flashy, not too average. Just perfect!

This is more or less how I want to approach my Talon; beginning with a moderate restoration and paint, followed by some power mods. I'll be saving this build as you've put a lot of helpful info and good ideas in it. 5/5 from me !

 

[tunernewb92]

Where did you get that Carbon Fiber air filter cover ... i need that in my life

 

[pksystems]

I made the cold air box on page 4.

Installed my front bumper assembly. Unfortunately the gaps around the headlights look like crap, so I'll be pulling it all to redo. I seem to recall there were exactly zero bolts holding the headlights into the car when I bought it. They are fully bolted in right now. I'll have to shim them forward a bit.

 

[pksystems]

Adjusted the clutch pedal and bled the system.

Ordered some parts from China (ebay)
Aluminum spark plug cover. The ad said it would have sickspeed laser etched in the surface, but the picture was blurred out. I was hoping it would just be plain, but it came with Ralli-art CNC machined into it. It looks pretty good, except for a couple flaws on the edges. I will do a bit of filler work with some JBweld to fix the flaws, and powdercoat the part flat black.



I used an old rubber upper hose to mock up my lower radiator hose for the 6-bolt swap. It looks pretty dried out, so I got a set of silicone 2G hoses to replace the rubber hose. Cut and installed.



Pulled the front bumper assembly/reinstalled/repeated like 10 times. My fog lights were rubbing on the intercooler, and not letting the bumper cover push in far enough to fix the gap around the headlights/hood. I finally got the thing installed good enough. It's not perfect on where the bumper meets the fender on the drivers side, but it's close. The bumper is pretty chewed up from one of the previous owners. The foam insert has been tossed, since it was interfering with the bumper cover. I made 5 spacers out of 1/4" scrap aluminum diamond plate to lift the center section of the bumper closer to the hood.

Trimmed the corner by the fuel return fitting off my Zaklee clear timing cover, and installed it.

Test fitted my carbon lower splash shield. I will need to do some more trimming. As it sits now, it goes straight across the car from the back edges of the bumper. I will probably trim it to give the exhaust some more clearance, and I'll probably bond a piece of aluminum angle to the rear edge to stiffen it up.



Installed LED bulbs (ebay from China) in foot wells,dome light, front side markers, and license plate. My camera does not take low light pictures well, they are pretty bright.



While I had a battery hooked up I checked the front LED fog lights. The battery is not full power, and this is the lower brightness setting on the LED's.

 

[Murdertalon]

Can I ask about your rear tow hook did it thread into the rear bumper or did you drill a hole and bolt it? I got some fabric strap ones that bolt on. I'm thinking about just cutting a slot for them to come out through the bumpers.