Restoring Side Swiped 97 Eagle Talon Tsi to 400 WHP

[tuby]

Hello everyone my name's Jake. I'm 18 and about a year ago I got into cars, before that I couldn't even tell you how to do an oil change. My first car was a 98 Chevy cavalier. It was a good car to get you from A to B, but after driving it for about 4 months I wanted something different. I made a deal with my parents to loan me some money to get a better car. I spent about 2 months looking for the right car. I always knew I wanted something unique; something that would turn heads. I first starting looking into Audi's but could not find any in my area for a good price. I then started looking in to BMW's and found myself a silver 2000 328ci with M3 rims. Living in a small town in Wisconsin, people haven't seen this car before and I got asked questions all the time like what it is. I loved the Beemer, but came to the realization that to make a BMW fast, you must spend thousands of dollars and it still wont be that fast. Shortly after i bought the BMW, my best friend bought a 95 GST (Araesk) that had a Evo3 16g. He took me for one ride and I felt that beloved pull from a turbo; I was hooked. After that i went on the quest for a faster car. I have always liked eclipses and the way they looked. My dad owned a 95 GSX for about 10 years so i grew up around it. I searched craigslist about everyday looking for the right car after about a month of searching i realized there's two ways to get a dsm: either great mechanically and a bad body; or great body but bad mechanically. About a week before new years, my buddy showed me a Craigslist ad for a 97 eagle talon tsi awd in IL about a hour away. The talon had 10k on a rebuilt motor and 107k on the body. Mechanically the car was great. But the body was another story. A few weeks before the ad was posted, the previous owner got sideswiped by another's car from the back of the car to the front; pushing in the quarter panel, door, and fender. My buddy and I drove drown that weekend to look at the car and I decided to buy it. I was looking for a project that would become something fast. We came and picked it up the following day and drove it home.

What the previous owner did:
Megan racing 3" exhaust
No name FMIC
Megan racing coilovers
1g BOV
No name MBC
Dump pipe
Boost gauge

What my goals for the car are:
400 WHP
12 sec 1/4 miles
Restoring it to its original beauty

Plans for 400 WHP:
MHI 20g
VRSF FMIC
Water Meth Injection
Walbro 225
FPR
1g BOV
DSM Link
Bigger Injectors
Wide Band

Finally some pictures
This is how the car was when i bought it.







I also started a Google Drive document about the talon and everything i want to do and what I've done already and paid for. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1la7u15vGnvb5TzdJaBfqNd1en0oCx4w_awPFzCWYlw4/edit?usp=sharing

I am still very new to the dsm scene and would love any advice you can give me and critique my build as much as you want so i can learn more. I also apologize for spelling errors I'm not the best at writing.

Thanks for reading I will be posting more soon!!

Update 1

 

[tuby]

After I got the car home, the project began on removing the door and fender to replace them.
Also, taking out the interior to completely clean it out and remove the Mexican funk from the previous owner (we found a little bag of crushed red pepper even).
Finally the hood came off to address the rust in the strut tower.

Door and fender are removed off the car and the seats are out for cleaning




Engine Shot with the hood off!


The previous owner installed a larger intake pipe that wasn't recirculating.
And to make the car a more functional daily driver, I went ahead and picked up the factory intake so I could reciruclate the 1G BOV.
I would like to thank DSMlover2011 for selling me an OEM intake pipe.
After i got the intake pipe came the task of running a pipe from the BOV to the intake.

After searching for a little bit i came across this thread
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...er/442537-hd-spa-hose-recirculation-tube.html

It turned out really good and looks very clean and it doesn't look out of place at all.

 

[jjw205]

Nice to see one brought back from the dead.

I would fix that strut tower ASAP. That is a structural part of the front end of our cars. Cut out the rusted metal and weld in 16 gauge sheet metal.

400WHP will be hard with the 20G. A good goal with that setup with meth would be ~350ish at the wheels. It will get you in the low 12sec range with all the supporting fuel mods and some good tuning. Get DSMLink as soon as you can.

VRSF intercooler is a good choice.
Look into some 750cc-ish injectors (if you're running 93 octane).
You're going to need an adjustable fuel pressure regulator with that 255 pump.

Get the rest of the car fixed up... suspension, plugs/wires, tires, brakes, etc first before you go trying to make huge power. Start simple. You seem to be off to a good start. It takes time.

 

[Araesk]

Nice to see one brought back from the dead.

I would fix that strut tower ASAP. That is a structural part of the front end of our cars. Cut out the rusted metal and weld in 16 gauge sheet metal.

That's actually the first thing we did. We got the car back to his place. and stripped it down almost instantly. Since he was with me when I did mine, he was familiar with the whole process and wanted to weld his own. So I brought over my 16GA. sheet metal that I had left from when I did mine, and he went to town on his while I cleaned the interior of his car.

I'm trying to help him out with everything I can since I am a little bit more familiar with the scene (since I have about a 6month head start on him). He's being a lot more detailed when he does little things on his though than I did on mine. Like in an update he's got coming he just got the whole quarter panel off that was knocked in. If that had been me, I'd have done everything possible to not pull the whole quarter panel and get a new one. He's got some great plans coming up so stay tuned! Definitely will be a blast to help him reach his goal.

 

[tuby]

Update

I'm currently taking a Autos class while I'm in high school.
I have been talking to my teacher about letting me keep my car in the shop for a couple weeks and he agreed.
I know the first thing to do before making any power is maintenance.
I began with the easy stuff.
Spark plugs
Oil change
Transmission oil change
Coolant flush

After that stuff was out of the way.
I got my car onto the lift and check the suspension parts.
The front right needs a wheel bearing and a drive shaft.
Also when under the car I noticed the oil pressure sensor is leaking oil (I think that's what its called)

Car on the lift



When I replaced the spark plugs I saw oil under the spark plug cover.
Which means I need a valve cover gasket.
I removed the valve cover to look at the condition of the cams.
They look very clean and have barely any wear.



Knowing that the car wasn't going to move anytime some.
I removed the exhaust manifold and media blasted it in the media cabinet we have at the shop.
After they were all clean and the old chipping paint was off.
I brought the exhaust manifold home and painted them with high temperature gloss black paint.
The exhaust manifold that came with the car is a pace setter.
After doing some research the are cheap eBay headers.
At least they look cool

Exhaust manifold while painting



When I got the car home the of the first things me and my buddy did was welded the left strut tower.

Before

After

More updates coming soon! Stay Tuned!!

 

[Nvrloze1]

Damn, I wish my teacher was nice like that, he hated anything "rice" -_-

 

[tuby]

Update

Got some gear oil to change diff oil and transfer case and a new dipstick because a buddy broke mine

Had to finished cutting out the seized bolts on the control arm to replace the half shaft. Also the other side needed a half shaft too.

Passenger side

Driver side

Draining differential oil

Also picked up an oil pressure gauge

Did a compressor test and have 150 on all four. Bled the breaks and finished installing the driver side half shaft. I had to order the control arm bolt from the dealer because stores dont carry a bolt that big :what:

Will be updating more soon. Stay tuned!

 

[buhay6]

Damn, I wish my teacher was nice like that, he hated anything "rice" -_-

Theres far to much of that crap, ruins the car scene completely....hence why I hate muscle cars. Lol

 

[2g spyder eclipse]

Nice to see one brought back from the dead.

I would fix that strut tower ASAP. That is a structural part of the front end of our cars. Cut out the rusted metal and weld in 16 gauge sheet metal.

400WHP will be hard with the 20G. A good goal with that setup with meth would be ~350ish at the wheels. It will get you in the low 12sec range with all the supporting fuel mods and some good tuning. Get DSMLink as soon as you can.

VRSF intercooler is a good choice.
Look into some 750cc-ish injectors (if you're running 93 octane).
You're going to need an adjustable fuel pressure regulator with that 255 pump.

Get the rest of the car fixed up... suspension, plugs/wires, tires, brakes, etc first before you go trying to make huge power. Start simple. You seem to be off to a good start. It takes time.

Hey, I can almost gurentee he can reach 400whp with that 20g. Now I haven't dynoed my car yet.. But on a 16g at 20psi I have raped ls1's and 300whp subies. I am pretty sure with meth, a great tune and some bad ass bolt on's he could reach 400whp. Tuby, don't let people tell you it can't be done! I know it can, and you will!

Also, I'd revert back to a stock exhaust manifold. Those tubular ones create a ton of heat! Heat in the engine bay isn't very wanted!

 

[tuby]

Hey, I can almost gurentee he can reach 400whp with that 20g. Now I haven't dynoed my car yet.. But on a 16g at 20psi I have raped ls1's and 300whp subies. I am pretty sure with meth, a great tune and some bad ass bolt on's he could reach 400whp. Tuby, don't let people tell you it can't be done! I know it can, and you will!

Also, I'd revert back to a stock exhaust manifold. Those tubular ones create a ton of heat! Heat in the engine bay isn't very wanted!

Thanks man I fully believe that I can make 400whp with the 20g. Just look at the Dyno challenge. Also thanks for the advise I probably will be getting a stock manifold pretty soon.

Nice to see one brought back from the dead.

I would fix that strut tower ASAP. That is a structural part of the front end of our cars. Cut out the rusted metal and weld in 16 gauge sheet metal.

400WHP will be hard with the 20G. A good goal with that setup with meth would be ~350ish at the wheels. It will get you in the low 12sec range with all the supporting fuel mods and some good tuning. Get DSMLink as soon as you can.

VRSF intercooler is a good choice.
Look into some 750cc-ish injectors (if you're running 93 octane).
You're going to need an adjustable fuel pressure regulator with that 255 pump.

Get the rest of the car fixed up... suspension, plugs/wires, tires, brakes, etc first before you go trying to make huge power. Start simple. You seem to be off to a good start. It takes time.

Thanks for the advise man!
I'm looking at even getting bigger injectors then 750cc like 1200cc. Just because if there is anything I over do I want it to be the fuel.


Update


After getting a new door and a new fender. Came the big PITA quarter panel that was pushed in from being side swiped. I did a bunch of research and found out the panel was spot welded onto the car. I knew that the damage was to bad too bondo and was too expensive to have a shop do it. So I got to work removing it myself.

First thing I did Was remove the rear bumper to get at the back of the panel.


After that I started drilling out the spot welds that held the panel inside of the car. This went pretty fast it was thin metal too drill into.




After the spot welds were drilled out I started hand chiseling up the seam to separate the panel from the car.



Then I had to remove the quarter panel window. I started by taking the weather striping off and then tried prying the window off from the car and it ended up shattering
After I cleaned up the window, I started slowly hand chiseling the metal away from the car.






After the inside of the panel was separated and the window part separated. I went to the back and took a grinder with a cut wheel and started cutting around the panel. I was cutting farther away from where the panel sits to give the new panel more room and not to cut to much away. Also cutting under the panel where it meets under the car.





After those cuts were made. I made one last cut right in the middle of the panel to help pull in off. After all that it was time to start pulling and chiseling.









After the panel was removed.







It was a lot of hard work but I'm glad I went this route then paying a shop to do it. Also I have the new panel and will be making an update soon on me installing it. So Stay Tuned!

 

[tuby]

Hello everyone its been a while sense I last made an update and a lot of things have happened. First off I did get the new panel and put it on the car. I used body panel adhesive and welding in other places. After I got the panel on the car I started to drive it. After about a month of daily driving I was going to get the car painted. Before the car got painted i was cursing at a local car spot and my car spun a rod bearing. I instantly knew what happen because i was with my buddy 2 weeks before when he spun his bearing. I pulled the car of the side of the road and shut it down right away. At first i was so pissed. I wanted nothing to do with the car after everything i had done to it. After getting it home i made the decision to part out the car and try to get some money back from it. After a couple of days of hating the car i realized that this is a hobby that i love and that i should not give up on this car and see it to the end. After looking onto craigslist for a while. I found someone selling a 6 bolt block with a brand new crankshaft that was just polished. It also came with pistons and rods. It was a very good deal so i snatched it up right away.
Where i am right now.. i have the old motor out and am getting the last few parts i need to get the 6 bolt together. I'm going to have a machine shop put the engine together as long as it doesn't cost to much. I want to take my time and do this right and do the easy stuff while the motor is out.
Starting to pull the motor

This is the 6 bolt block I got. Also came with ARP Head studs

Took me a month between school but i got it out!

While the motor was out i got to painting the engine bay.

I got some goodies! I'm still going to shoot for my 400whp goal.
ACL bearings
Stage 5 clutch
Light weight flywheel.