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In the Forums... |
Posted: February 18, 2001 Last Updated: March 23, 2002 Written by: Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy  Click to enlarge. Newest Stuff I haven't updated this page for a while, so I figured I'd share what's new on my little 4-banger. I was sick of having only the MPH in the quarter to run a mid 13, so I went and bought a few new mods. -Test-pipe Who needs a catalytic converter for racing? :) Turbo cars greatly benefit from less back pressure, so I removed my 3" cat for now in favor of a straight pipe. I kept the cat around anyway. It doesn't change the sound really, but definitely spools the turbo faster now. Also, I can now run leaded gas when I go back to the strip. -Greddy Profec B boost controller Boost comes on way harder than it did with my old bleeder valve, and stays constant through the whole range. It's very nice having a high-low button for boost, too. When I get bored of beating cars around town, I just flip it to low and let them give me a better race. :) -Greddy Turbo Timer Not a performance mod by any means, but definitely something that comes in handy... -MkIV Supra TT side-mount intercooler and 2.5" hard IC piping I put a Supra intercooler (from a 93+ Supra TT) in my fender well. It looks stock from the outside, so hopefully people won't catch onto it. It also flows ~500CFM vs. the ~180CFM of the stock IC. To help this out I also replaced all the IC piping with hard 2.5" aluminum, which reduces pressure drop from the compressor outlet to the throttle-body, which reduces temperatures even more. Why upgrade the IC though, if I keep the stock turbo? Good question... -Mitsubishi Big16G Turbo Although it's unported, I installed a Mitsubishi Big16G turbo into my car. I mixed the Big16G/TD05 compressor housing with the stock 6cm turbo housing. To reduce/eliminate boost creep, I had the wastegate enlarged. It was about the size of a nickel.. now it's about the size of a quarter. -Lancer Evolution III Exhaust Manifold This was more of a replacement part than an upgrade. When doing the turbo, I ran into problems and the exhaust manifold was severely cracked. The result was no boost until 6000 RPMs, so I bought this manifold to help it out. At the time I'm writing this, I haven't even driven the car with the new mods. Soon I'll post pictures of the upgrades along with some 12 second timeslips. :) 13.673 @ 97.82 MPH! I finally got the car out to the dragstrip! It was still somewhat warm, 73 degrees out, and I could only get 15 PSI boost (at nights I tend to get around 17-18). However, I ran the car hard and look, here's what she did:  Ignore the R/T.. I tried to get a good run, not R/T. 13.673@97.82 MPH with a killer 1.82 second 60 foot time on street tires! The car is basically stock still, with minor mods (exhaust, intake, fuel pump, and K&N). See the whole list of mods below. My Talon's Story Being a self-proclaimed 'car guy', I find myself constantly looking at ads on the Internet for cool cars and good prices. And well, a few weeks back (at the time I'm writing this), I saw a very nice looking 92 Talon TSi AWD. My first reaction was, "I already have a car... I had better pass it up", thinking my Mustang was enough. But the more I looked at this Talon, the more I wanted it. I figured, it'd be superior to my Mustang in weather, since my Mustang was a RWD/V8 convertible. Little did I know, it would be greatly superior to my Mustang in many aspects (as you'll read...) The Talon TSi was AWD (all-time all-wheel drive) -- snow, rain? Not a problem. Not only that, but it's a turbo 4-cylinder, so I figured I would see about double the gas mileage. My carbureted V8 Mustang only gets about 10 MPG around the city, mostly because I only drive it ~5 miles each time I start it up, and I romp on the gas all the time. It's *fun* to drive in the rain, but pretty dangerous. What I later learned about the Talon was astounding... it wouldn't just be superior to my Mustang in the rain. It would be superior throughout the book. If you're unsure of exactly what a Talon is, I'll explain briefly. Diamond Star Motors was a group consisting of Mitsubishi & Chrysler, which produced a few flagship cars: 3000GT / Stealth (same car); Eclipse / Laser / Talon (all the same car, also). The TSi/AWD model is just the same as the GSX Eclipse. It's got a 2.0l intercooled turbo engine and it's all-wheel drive.  The More I Learned, The More I Loved I talked to the owner selling the car over the phone. The car sounded pretty nice. He explained he had done some mods, namely 3" exhaust all the way back (very helpful on a turbo car), put a boost controller in, upper intercooler pipe, 17" rims, upgraded brakes, full suspension, and more. This got me VERY interested. So I told him I wanted the car. The only problem was that the car was located some-odd 300 miles away. Regardless, I set the day. I told him I would take a train up Friday (this call was made Monday). I greatly anticipated going to see the car. HOWEVER, to my dismay, on Thursday, I got a call and e-mail from the seller. Someone came and was very interested in the car, and he had just bought it. I was extremely upset, so I returned my train tickets and forgot about the whole thing. It Was Meant To Be! Like I said, I forgot about the car completely. But what happened soonafter shocked me. Two weeks later, I was sitting around looking for Eclipses/Lasers/Talons, actually, when I checked my e-mail. I had an e-mail from someone -- a 75 year old man, who basically said he bought the Talon I had been looking at (he's the guy that beat me to it!) and now he's selling it! As it turns out, the clutch was too hard on his arthritic knee. It sounded a bit odd so I contacted the original seller and got the whole story. Sounded good! So for a second time, I bought a train ticket and a few days later I was on my way! When I saw the car I was amazed. It was nearly PERFECT. Aside from a few very small dings, it was mint. The interior was flawless, the paint was great, and everything worked perfect. When I test drove the car I was amazed at the throttle response from the turbo. The car had PLENTY of power. Quickly I learned of other mods and features as I made the 300+ mile drive home with the car. The guy also had all the records since the car was new (pretty rare for a 9 year old car!), and you could tell it had been babied inside. Anyway... Stock Specs Although the car is far from stock now, here are the specs before mods: 2.0l I4, intercooled/turbocharged (11 PSI stock; currently @ 17+ PSI) Every feature except leather & ABS (which sucks on 1G DSMs anyway)... Horsepower: 195 Torque: 203 ft.lb Curb weight: 3108 lbs Drivetrain: All-Wheel-Drive, limited slip-differential 5-speed transmission Pics  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge. The Mods & Features So I was told it had a nice exhaust system and good brakes, but I wasn't told much else. This is why I was surprised to find out the car had so much done do it... about the only thing still stock that is usually changed out by this point is the turbo. It's still the stock Mitsubishi 14b, with upped boost, of course. Exhaust: 3" Thermal Research cat-back, custom high-flow catalytic converter, Archer Racing downpipe. The exhaust works great with this car. It's very quiet at idle, doesn't sound like a rice rocket by any means at WOT, and the turbo spools very quickly. Now with EVO manifold, and 3" straight pipe in place of cat. Intake: DSE 3" intake pipe, hacked air can, K&N, air-silencer removed, lower honeycomb removed, upper intercooler pipe, fog lights removed (to get more air to the intercooler. See pic...). The K&N and hacked air can ensure the car gets plenty of air, and the intake pipe ensures it gets there with no problem. The upper intercooler pipe seems pretty nice. The turbo isn't very loud, but can definitely be heard when spooling up and down. Now with: Supra TT SMIC, all hard 2.5" aluminum IC piping. Turbo stuff: Manual boost controller, VDO boost gauge (I installed this, it didn't have a gauge when I bought it), boost @ 17 PSI with 92 octane (more on race gas at the track). I'd like to put in a 16g some day. Now with: Big16G Turbo (with ported wastegate on 6cm housing), Greddy Profec B Boost Controller and Greddy Turbo Timer. Fuel: Walbro 255 LPH in-tank fuel pump. Soon: 550cc injectors, rewired fuel pump, and S-AFC. Suspension: KYB GR2s shocks with H&R springs (lowered about an inch). Greddy front strut bar. The car is very stable. It handles like an absolute beast at high speeds. Unfortunately, it understeers bad when you floor it through a turn in a low gear (characterstic of AWD/FWD). I am going to have a heavy rear-sway bar put in and have DSS tune my suspension eventually though, so it can hook turns a bit better. It's already very impressive IMO. Now with: Suspension Techniques Rear Sway Bar (1"). Brakes/Wheels: 3000GT calipers (dual piston), Stillen cross-drilled rotors in front, big disks in back. 17"x7.5" Konig Impact wheels with Dunlop Sport W-10 tires (215/45/17). These huge brakes on this small of a car help it stop in a great hurry. After driving the car, it's hard going back to other cars... my Mustang feels like the power-brakes are dead in comparison. Also, because the wheels are so large (and they look pretty darn good), the tires are quite beefy, and because of the all wheel drive, the car cannot lose traction very easily. I mean if you dump the clutch at 5000, yeah, it'll break the tires loose... but it regains traction almost instantly. :) Other Stuff: Although not as important, the car also has tinted windows all the way around and a custom short-shifter with a Momo carbon fiber knob. I'm learning more about the car all the time too, as I find other little things that were tweaked or changed. I found this pic of a similar Talon with stock wheels and no tint (he posts on DSMTalk):  Here's mine with wheels and tint:  Big difference, huh? The angle is kind of weird on my car and it looks ricey in that pic, but you get the idea. ;) Thanks for reading.
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