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The Life and Times of my '91 tsi awd

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pearl4gtsi

15+ Year Contributor
216
2
Jul 17, 2004
yonkers, New_York
Hey all,

Names Mike. Ive actually been a member here for a while and have had my recent talon for almost 7 years now, but im finally going to take the time to do a build journal.

lets take a step back about 7 years. was finally getting my license back after clearing up a mess of garbage i managed to get myself in with driving like an ass, and of course, after havind had a fwd before, i now needed to have awd. so the search began, and it was SLIM pickin's! i knew i wanted a 1ga, but finding one in good shape was tough.

i stumbled upon a BONE STOCK white 1ga.... so stock, it still had the air filter can! And it only had 97k on the clock!:hellyeah: But, it was in Illinois, and im in NY. so i dismissed it for a day or two, and after not having any luck finding anything better, i gave the guy a call.

when i called, i come to find out it had some tranny issues, mainly a very stiff shifter, but drivable. he wanted $1800 for it. so i said screw it. bought a plane ticket out to illinois. i forgot which airport, but the guy actually lived like 10 minutes away. he was kind enough to pick me up.

so i look the car over, and it wasnt amazing. some minor faded paint on the front fenders but other then that and the tranny, it was pretty clean. so i bargained a bit with the guy and was like" listen, i had to fly out, it was more then expected, yadda yadda", and i got him down to $1600.

so i threw on the dealer plate(worked at a chrysler dealer at the time) and took off! started drving back the second i left his driveway. stopped to fill up and grab some munchies and ROAD TRIP!:D

for the most part, a smooth ride home. at one point i had to stop and pay a toll, and when i went to take off, i couldnt get it into first! so im stuck and just searching for any gear, until i finally find third, and manage to get the car out of the toll plaza and off to the shoulder. pop the hood and i find the sifter cable for the side to side movment popped off the rubber gromet which was stuck on the tranny linkage. well i had no tools at all, but after about 20 minutes of brute force and cursing and a bruised knucle, i got it on and was on my way.

i tried to drive straight through because i had work the next morning, but found myself dosing off at around 1:30 am. so i find a motel for the night. woke up at around 5:30-6 to get back on the road, and what do i find.... a flat tire! and the i think"DAMMIT!" i never looked to see if the spare and tools were in the car:banghead:. But i lucked out, once again. so i swapped the spare on, and away i went.

surprisingly, i made it back without any further problems, other then i was late for work by an hour. but i got her home and named her Isabelle...
 

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So naturally, i started off with some small mods. stuff i had from my previous talon. so i threw in my evo 560's, walbro 255, SafcII, Apexi turbo timer, boost gauge, narrowband a/f gauge, homemade o2 dump, manual boost controller set to 18 psi... and i was happy.... for a while.

had to get it tinted too!
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but eventually, i got bored, and wanted to build a block i had laying around to drop in. so i started picking up some parts. i grabbed some Manley H-beam rods, Weisco 9:1 pistons .040 over, sent the block out to get hot tanked, bored and decked.
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got the block back from the machine shop and threw in arp mainstuds and the crank
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and of course right after, installed the piston/rod assemblies
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i had done some reading about these particular pistons in the 4g63 block and read that the pistons might make contact with the oil squirters. and of course, they did! sooo, i took a torch, added some heat, and slightly bent the oil squirters.
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now on to getting it in the car!

please do bear with me though... i do not have as many pictures of everything i did as this was soo long ago. thanks:thumb:

i continued to collect whatever i needed to hrow this block in in as short a time as possible. this included:

full engine gasket set
new lower timing cover
clear upper timing cover
afpr
intake
uicp
fluids
bolts
odds and ends

when i was finally ready, i took the hood off and pressure washed the bay as best i could to try and make this a bit cleaner to work on(yeah right!)
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so i pulled her in the garage, put her up on jackstands, and started pulling out the motor.
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after i got the engine out, i pulled as much as i dared out of the engine bay and let some stuff hang, and i scuffed down the engine bay to put it into some primer(rattlecan)
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i decided to go black on the engine bay. i figured it be hard either way to tell if it gets dirty. again, rattlecanned.
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while i was in the painting mood, i decided to do my lower timing cover, valve cover, and cam gears. i used a color matched orange off of a jeep liberty that i liked. i had gotten the paint in rattlecan form from the chrysler dealer i was working at at the time.
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i figured id give it all some time to cure, so the next day i got back to work on assembling the motor. i threw on the front case( oh, forgot to mention i did the balance shaft delete), and water pump.
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i also installed the water pipe and arp head studs.
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and everything was coming along so well, i kept going and got the head thrown on(btw stock head, was sent to machine shop to be deck and hot tanked)
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it was looking soo good, i could help but throw on the cams, valve cover, and clear belt cover. i had to see what it looked like!
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a few days later, i installed a HKS timing belt, and lower cover.
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again, because i was so close to being done, i had to put on the valve cover and clear timing cover again!
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got the engine bay put back together and got my come-along ready to hoist the motor in the car.
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while i had the engine in the air on the hoist, i threw on a fidanza 8lbs flywheel and ACT 2600 with street disc.
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and FINALLY! i lowered it in and bolted her up!
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looks good man. was gonna ask, did you happen to have the machine shop line bore and hone the main bores with the arp main studs installed? if you didnt, you might want to think twice about running that motor as it sits now.

the main studs distort the mains differently than bolts, so when switching over to them you have to have the main bores line bored and honed.

anyway, other than that, looks great, keep up the good work!
 
Actually, I did not.

This is a quick rundown to my previous build on this car as its a pre-qual to the build I'm currently undergoing. I ran that motor without having done a line bore for more than 35k with no issues.

I did plasti-gauge it when I put it together though, and everything was in spec.

Not saying it doesn't/shouldn't be done... I guess I was lucky. Thank you for the heads up though. Appreciated
 
Subscribed!! I love hearing the history of dsm's way back to how you got it!
 
Actually, I did not.

This is a quick rundown to my previous build on this car as its a pre-qual to the build I'm currently undergoing. I ran that motor without having done a line bore for more than 35k with no issues.

I did plasti-gauge it when I put it together though, and everything was in spec.

Not saying it doesn't/shouldn't be done... I guess I was lucky. Thank you for the heads up though. Appreciated

no worries man! if it works then great! just wanted to double check. keep it up, gl!
 
thanks for the heads up tame!:thumb:

soooo... thats all i have for the moment because i cant find any pictures of the finished product as ive probably lost alot of them over the years. i know.... sorry.

the only other things ive really done to her was get some evo 8 wheels and evo 8 recaros installed. no piks of this either.:(

BUT, im doing another build on the car! so there is plenty more to come. the car has been off the road and sitting for a little over a year now. in the mean time i have collected quite a bit of parts and knowledge to work with. i recently went to a car meet that totally got me back in the mood to work the car. so i ripped into it recently and here is how it sits:
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and here is the list of parts ive picked up and some plans i have for her:

-full wire tuck
-bay shave
-battery relocate to trunk
-BC 272's
-fidanza cam gears
-evo 8 valve springs and retainers
-cyclone intake manifold
-fmic
-making my own short route pipes
-evo 8 front brembo calipers and rotors
-jays alt relocation kit
-saturn gm alt
-power steering taken out
-going to de-power the steering rack
-repainting engine bay graphite( to match wheels which will also be graphite)
-repainting valve cover to match calipers( which will be powdercoated a deep red, havent picked exact color yet)
-pte 1000cc injectors
- ecmlink v3 lite
-innovate wideband
- thermal catback(car had factory exhaust with the previous build, i know, choking the car)
- 3g lifters
- oil port mod on cylinder head
- want to build a 20g turbo, but i need a b16g center section first
- i have a no name brand tubular manifold with a mitsu flange i might try out. if not i have an evo 3 cast mani
- bottom end is staying untouched


im sure there is more that i am missing, but thats all i can think of at the moment. this will probably take some time to do, so ill be updating when i can over the next few months as im hoping to have it done by april/may... HOPEFULLY! LOL

oh yeah... i built a sandblasting cabinet at work that i made specifically for my garage and will be powdercoating just about any and every piece. will also be doing the powdercoating myself:hellyeah:
 
so for those following, sry. i havent had much time to get on the comp. but i have made some progress, although no leaps and bounds.

while going over my cylinder head and checking all specs, i came to find out that it was lopsided! the deck height was not only below min, but at a slant!
so i searched around for another head and picked up a bare one off the classifieds for like $70 shipped. can't beat that!

after doing alot or reading and research, i started some work on the head, checking this one out to make sure it was good and did the oil port mod.

before:


and after:
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after being satisfied with my work, i sent the head to my local machine shop. had the head tanked, blasted, pressure checked, decked, and the valve seats cut. came back looking like this:
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wanted to put fresh paint on the block, so i picked up some wire brushes and after alot of chemicals and elbow grease, got it to look like this:
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decided to use VHT fire proof paint as ive had friends use it and it held up well. so i put both the block and head into primer:
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decided on going with aluminum for the head and cast iron for the block:
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but i wasn't really happy with the cast iron color as it was way to light and didnt even match the cap. picked up another can of the same, and same thing! so just for the heck of it, i picked up the cast iron color in the VHT engine paint instead of the flame proof one..... and voila!
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while getting all of this done, i was also doing my research into the cyclone manifold. i know, i know.... its bad mouthed alot, but after reading what possibilities it could hold amidst its poor name, i picked one up:
imag0440m.jpg


in my reading, i have found that it can be actuated and tuned using the fps solenoid via dsmlink nitrous control. and someone has documented 500 whp on the dyno with a cyclone with a difference of 40 ft lbs before boost AND a quicker spool time.

i also know that it flows a tad bit less than a stock 1g IM, so im porting it out!
i was worried about taking it apart and not finding gaskets for it, but i found the gasket set from jnztuning.com. they also had the hard to find white vacuum canister needed for proper actuation!
imag0459d.jpg



heres a bit of the porting/gasket matching i've done so far:
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no where near done though... its been way to cold to work in a non heated garage. but i gasket matched the flange as i will gasket match the intake ports on the head, but i also found that each opening between the gasket(as its a three piece manifold) have a bottle neck! all in all, by the time im done, it will flow better than the stock 1g IM.

more to come soon!
 
wow, so its been a VERY long time since my last update. i got a decent amount of work done, but there is still a ton to do. on top of that i have to hold on grabbing any more parts.... put myself in the hole a little and the girlfriend is not happy

so i started throwing the head together. i got the valve seals installed
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installed a set of evo 8 valve springs and retainers in using a nifty little spring compressor i picked up off of ebay. made things real easy
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Uploaded with ImageShack.com
Uploaded with ImageShack.com

i installed the head onto the block using a felpro head gasket sprayed with copper spray. i also threw on the front case and an evo3 OFH i picked up from jnztuning. cant find any of my piks on this step.

i took the oil pan i had and cleaned it up real nice, even threw it in the sand blaster. put some fresh primer and flat black flame proof paint on it and installed on the block. so far its looking good.



i did pick up a few parts that have changed the direction of my build. i found a Holset wh1c with the t3 bep turbine housing and a tubular t3 flanged exhaust manifold that is very stout! nice, strong built manifold. also looks to have a type of heat coat on it. got them for a steal in the classifieds. when i recieved them, i found out why :notgood::mad: the turbine blade was lighty scraping the inside of the housing. its all good though... took it apart and it wasnt bad at all. so im rebuilding it with oem holset rebuild kit and new turbine and compressor blades. the rebuild is still in process... center section has been hot tanked, turbine housing sandblasted and hit with a wire wheel to keep the natural cast look with a light coat of flame proof clear to keep it from rusting.
the compressor cover is going to be sandblasted down as well, and the powder coated super chrome. the blades still have to be sent out to Gpop shop to be balanced.

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Uploaded with ImageShack.com
Uploaded with ImageShack.com
Uploaded with ImageShack.com

in the mean time, i decided to bolt up the exhaust manifold and turbine housing with center section so i could make a drain.... well, i dont know what brand manifold i have, but it sets the turbo a decent amount over towards the passenger side, making drain routing a slight issue. so i tried to remedy this by hacking away at the front mount bracket, but took too much off and now need to replaced it.... if anyone knows what brand manifold i have, id love to know. i can see where there used to be a plate on it, but its not there...
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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

what i think im going to have to do is pick up a 60 degree fitting and route my line around the front of the bracket. its worth a shot...

so, to keep things moving, i decided to get the side of the motor put together. bought a new water pump and installed that. powder coated the drivers side engine mount bracket gloss black...
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i also powder coated the timing cover tins satin black and my Fidanza adjustable cam gears in a two stage orange. even went as far as to powder coat the cam gear bolts gloss black!!

cam gear in first stage
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cam gear in second stage and put together
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This is a continuation of the last post.. had to cut it in two because I had too many photos for one post...

i grabbed some brand new 3g lifters, emptied them out, light coat of oil on outside and installed. took my rollers/rockers, cleaned and inspected them as they are not new, all checked out good, light coat of oil and in they went. grabbed my BC 272, sprayed them down to clean off packaging lube, and again, coated with a light coat of oil, installed, and torqued to spec.
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Uploaded with ImageShack.com
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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

couldn't wait to see what they looked like installed, so i threw on the cams gears, cleaned up the timing crank pulley real nice, installed the timing belt.... man, its looking good!!
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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

as far as the car itself goes, i havent gotten much done. i did strip out all of the sound deadening(took forever!!!) and installed, front to back, FatMat.
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i dont have any piks of the fatmat in the car yet, have to snap a few. and im sure some of you are thinking why remove factory and then add the weight back?? honestly, im not too worried about the weight. its going to primarily be a street car. i would still like it to be somewhat comfort-enjoyable. it will help cut down on exhaust drone, outside road noise, and make my music sound a lot better. and no, no huge system or anything. just some components in the front and an Infinity Basslink in the back. it sounds pretty amazing in there.

so thats what ive got so far... still have a long way to go. the motor has to be installed along with everything else so i can finish the wiring harness, add SD sensors, and mark off what will not be used so it can be removed and shaved.

im also looking for a used electric oven... need something bigger to powder coat valve cover, calipers.... pretty much all the bigger pieces. then i gotta run a 220v outlet and whatnot.... just a few headaches in the process. oh well.

i will do my best to keep this updated more frequently, been trying to get alot more done. cant wait to be done!!!

comments, questions are all welcome!!!:thumb:
 
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