1994 Talon TSi
 

Well I've had this thing for a while now and haven't made a project thread on it yet so I figured maybe now would be a good time.

While in Iraq in 2006, I had some money saved up and I wanted a fast car. I had searched around Ebay, Carsoup, you know the usual, and I narrowed down my search to either a DSM or a 240SX. While after much thinking, I decided AWD was better and went with the DSM. I bought the car on Ebay in September of 2006 with 101,000 miles on it.

I came home on leave in October ready to have fun with the car, drove it about 80 miles and it had a coolant leak, so we towed it about 10 miles to my parents house. What we discovered when we got it home was not what I wanted to see, not only had it blew a hole in the lower radiator hose, it also had a bad head gasket, and something caused the timing belt to jump a few teeth, destroying most of the timing belt cover, and bending all but one valve in the head. It was obviously not drivable, so after I left to go back to Iraq I talked to a few guys and heard about DB Performance. I had my Dad bring the car there and had everything rebuilt, had the head gone through, bottom end, 6 bolt swap, Mahle pistons, Eagle Rods, balance shaft delete, etc, etc.

When I came home from Iraq, I picked up the car from DB and slowly started breaking it in, after a few months I brought it in to get tuned, they were having issues with the tranny on the dyno, and after not being able to find a decent used one, I had them send it out to get rebuilt. When they got it back, they checked for play in the crank, and dicovered it had crankwalk after only 1,500 miles!!! Sooooo, here we go again, it was bad enough that the block could not be reused, new block, new crank, etc, etc. Got it all back a few months later, broke it in all over again and finally got it tuned in August of 2008. and it made a best of 247 WHP, 250 WTQ at 23psi on shitty 91 Octane pump gas.

I daily drove it from August until December and couldn't have been happier with the car. Until on night shortly before christmas while on my way home from my parents house I passed somebody in 3rd gear about half throttle and when I made the shift to 4th, all I got was a loud bang. I tried again for 4th...wasn't there, I tried for 3rd...wasn't there either. So I limped it home in 1st and 2nd, got it trailered back to parents house a few days later and started using my Avenger as my DD. I drove that for about a month before I decided I needed a nicer DD and got my WRX.

*Also huge thanks to Danny, Shane and the rest of the guys at DB, for all the labor, tuning, advice, and everything else!!


Anyways, the last few weeks Myself and 95tsi, swapped out the tranny from one I picked up from MAP, and the outlook is good now, just a few more things to straighten up with the tranny and it should be back on the road in a few short weeks. So now on the 3rd engine and 3rd transmission in 6,000 miles, here is my talon. I will post pics in a few minutes, just be patient. :biggrin:

Plans are for now to get it back on the road, and in the near future put some bigger injectors on and go E85, then crank up the boost.

Here are some pics of when I first got the car, sorry for the size, its all I got.

http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/51.jpg http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/8.jpg



http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/10.jpg

http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/6.jpg http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/7.jpg

http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/9.jpg http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/4.jpg



EDIT: Just found the old dyno sheets from the Hahn Super 16G, 23psi spike at about 4k on the street, tapering to 17psi. Not bad for 91 octane pump gas. (The Hahn Super 16g is a really weird combination of parts, it uses a small 16g compressor wheel, a TD06 compressor housing, and a 10cm^2 exhaust housing, it is a liquid cooled journal bearing turbo. Probably the laggiest 16g out there, but definitely the most top-end of any "small" 16g I have ever seen)

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...t/IMG_0001.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...odhart/IMG.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...t/IMG_0002.jpg

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Woot for my first DSM still on the road! It was sooo good to me I hope it keeps you happy for years to come!

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

It's weird how cars that you have owned personally turn up here and there, I have had that happen on occasion. Good deal.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Well I'm having issues uploading pictures at School, so here is the link to my Car Domain in the mean time.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2464258


As I forgot to mention in my previous post, scheides was one of the original owners of this car, or at least the first person to do any mods to it, then two douchbag hacks owned it, one of whom I bought it from and have slowly fixed their mistakes ever since. Everything Scheides did to it were good mods, and thats not kissing ass its just the dead honest truth.

Maybe Shane or Brian can chime in on this thread since they are quite familiar with the car too!!

I also forgot to mention that we installed the coil-on-plug, deleted the cruise control and tucked the throttle cable behind the manifold, and made a new little custom bracket for the FPR when we put the new tranny in as well.


Here's some more current pics after I re-did some of the interior:

http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/17.jpg http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/24.jpg

http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/16.jpg http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/14.jpg

Here's some more pics from last weekend, just some from my phone:

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/.../medium/38.jpg http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/.../medium/20.jpg

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/.../medium/32.jpg

Here's another, after the COP install, before the cruise delete.
http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/data/500/19.JPG

EDIT: I'll have to take some real camera pics soon to replace these.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

I think I'm also about the 3rd or 4th member of style to have owned this turbo as well, I know Shane and Scheides both owned it, I think Slowhite did as well.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Yup, the turbo went from Shane to Slowwhite to slowbubblecar to Scheides ....stayed on the car through 2 owners then you :D Still making good power it seems!

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Shaft play felt pretty damn good as of last weekend too!!

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Those Corbeaus look damn good! Nice car!

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

X2 those are sick looking. Nice car!

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Do you have Corbeau seat brackets or modded stock ones?

The valve cover looks nice :)

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Corbeau seat brackets.

Valve cover is powdercoated "silver vein" color, it's hard to notice with the crappy pics

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Well, got the car back from MAP last night after fixing the shifting issue, and the car ran like shit.:( Well, I burned up the 5 month old gas on my drive back to St. Cloud, filled her up with fresh 92 oct, popped in some new plugs, and tada! Car runs like a champ :D even the Coil On Plug!!!

Only problem is now is that I can't seem to get any traction, even with a welded center diff. I didn't think these tires were this bad, I run Falken Ziex 912s, maybe one of you tire shop guys can chime in, do they really suck that bad?!?!?

I ran BFG G-Force t/a KDW n/t's before

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Good to hear man!

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

no traction on awd? lol! nicely done! anyways, for tires; dont get the Falken 912s because those are leaning towards more of the "all season" tire. If you want traction for summer/rain use, I'd suggest these for you:

- BFGoodrich G-Force Sports
- BFGoodrich G-Force T/A KDW 2
- Falken RT615 (great summer tire)
- Falken 452

whats your tire size?

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Well its too late for the Falkens, I've had them for about 6 months now. I got a good price on them at the time so there's really nothing I can do about it now.

I ran the original BFG G-Force T/A KDW before, which is now the G-Force T/A KDW 2 now, and those things were great, especially in the rain.

The tires I am running on right now are 235/45 17 I believe, don't quote me on it though.
I plan on letting it warm up and trying again today, cause I'm sure the cold last night was the main reason for the tires spinning.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Well I just took it for a drive. After the car wash however, I was getting a lot of backfiring under load. Pretty sure it was just the wiring harness to the COP that got wet.

After that though, it got kinda smoky on deceleration after boost, and only after boost. I think it might have just been some unburned fuel (cause the exhaust was popping pretty good) and a little bit of oil, which it has always done.

EDIT: I think I'm gonna do a compression test just to make sure.

Also took some pics, but they turned out like shit.

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...m/DSC01293.JPG http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...m/DSC01294.JPG

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...m/DSC01288.JPG http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...m/DSC01292.JPG
Boost and Water Temp Couldn't get the damn camera to focus
http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...m/DSC01295.JPG

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

If you want some good summer tires the Sumitomo HTRZ II and III's are both great tires for the money. I've run both, and really liked both. The II's are cheaper but the III's are stickier.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

I run the III's in 235/45, and I like them so far, although I'm running into issues with spinning them now too. I'm sure my crappy rear camber isn't helping the situation. Hopefully they work a little better once I get the camber worked out.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

OK, just drove it some more and my tires are 225/45 17's and they still suck even in the warm weather. :mad:

I really did not want to buy new tires.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Ditch that coil on plug and go back to a stock ignition system. I guarantee you'll be happier with the way the car runs.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

I'm almost starting to think that, I'll stick with it until I find a coil and a different spot to mount it. I think something just got wet, so we'll see.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Well took it out for another drive today, and everything worked fine as far as the C.O.P. goes, it was missing a little at part throttle but was just fine at WOT.


Did a compression test and checked out at 145,140,145,140. @ 8.5:1 compression.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Had a sneaky suspicion that something wasn't right after I thought I was doing "4 wheel drive burnouts", so I put the car on jackstands and put it through 1st gear and........I have a front-wheel drive talon. The tranny is supposed to have a welded center diff. So I am thinking the weld broke or its the transfer case, I am really at a loss here, any suggestions?

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

You can pull the xfer case and yank out the diff w/o having to yank the tranny off. I'd suggest starting with the xfer case, have it checked out and then go from there.

:(

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Also, stop breaking your car! :)

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Wel, the tranny is fucked, not sure what I'm going to do.

The tranny was junk when I bought it from MAP.

I'm kind of toying with the idea of letting it sit until I can save enough money for a Shep stage 3 w/ welded center diff...

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

You can run fwd for a little bit. I got a spare tranny. lol

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Picked up a GVR-4 tranny and t-case for this thing from Kevin_1G_Drummer the other day, probably going to be a couple weeks till it makes it in though, I'm going to be pretty busy.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

good luck on the tranny swap, looks like a good car man! I love those seats.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

I hope it works out for ya! I already miss that taller first gear.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Have to setup a day to work on it. I should have more free time in a week or so.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Awesome, next weekend might work for me after I get back from the BWCA. You know me, I'll keep in touch!!

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Well 95tsi and I got the tranny installed in just under 4 hours on friday night. All went well until we got about a mile down the road and an intercooler hose popped off and the car quit. We got it back on the best we could and went to start it....dead battery. Since we were about a mile from my parents house which is where we were working on it, we tried and tried to push start it, but to no avail. We finally ended up walking back and getting my dad and bro to give the car a jump to get the car back.

Was a busy weekend, went to back to the 50's saturday, then brought my dad to the twins game today for father's day, but still got to NAPA to get a new battery and some hose clamps, and she runs like a champ now!!

Thanks, again 95tsi for all the help and Kevin_1G_Drummer for the tranny.

Now I just need those injectors and some E85...

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Glad to hear the tranny is working for you. Does it grind at all?

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

ya, it still grinds in 2nd

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

That sucks, but at least it doesn't pop out of gear. At least it didn't for me.

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Woowoo!

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

^^^oh by the way I just paid for some 1200cc injectors...

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Nice. What are you going to use to tune it? Have shane do EPROM maybe? DSMLink? Prepare for mega torque :D

Re: 1994 Talon TSi
 

Eprom, He's gonna set me up with 2-step also.