The TALON, Running Project Report Options

[awd4kicks]

With it popping off, is this due to a misfire on that cyclinder, or is it a matter of the fitment of the boot, and the angle of the protruding conductor is defective?

I too have had the wire popping off problem... I often wondered if my threads for the sparkplugs were trashed, allowing gas to excape out the top to pop it off..

I've seen the number three wire on Talors set pop off on far too many DSM's for it to be a coincidence. I more or less dissected my #3 wire and it seems the plastic boot protrusion does not allow the electrode connector to seat. It just sinks into the boot when you try to push it on the plug. In my experience the wire goes partly on the plug but not far enough to lock. After some time of hot rodding the car around that plug wire will pop off the plug entirely. A lot of the time the spark still jumps and makes the cylinder fire, but I feel it becomes more erratic as the boost goes up.

[haunter]

good to see you are sorting it out marcus!

[awd4kicks]

Sorting it out... That pretty much sums it all up.
Luckily I find quite a bit of enjoyment out of tweaking, tuning and tracking down issues that may be causing power losses or upgrades that may increase performance on many levels.

In my pre-Race preparation I've replaced the Clutch master cylinder, replaced the Taylor plug wires with Accell wires. I noticed the coil was loose where I mounted it on my intake and found that nearly all the bolts in the upper portion of my FRH intake were loose and two wer missing on the bottom. (This would explain why Spy's TA was able to catch up to me the other day when I was running 16psi on 3.5 cylinders That's the second time this has happened and I know I had lock-tite on them. So now any boost leak that I had at the intake are now taken care of as well.

I need to do some repair and upgrading on the Tial Waste gate tonight. I will also boost leak test the entire system up to around 40psi to make sure she can hold it in. Then goes in the race gas and tuning will resume on Friday night.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the things I have found and taken care of prior to race day so far.

[black92_tsi_awd]

We're going to Cordova tommorrow night...want to hit the track and do some tuning???

[awd4kicks]

Haha...you ran out of steam before you could even pass me at my half boost setting!

[awd4kicks]

Ahh...Betting on the Talon breaking I see.

Well even though your bet is well founded on the Talon's past SCDC no-shows, I will take that wager on the condition that you have to beat my quickest Talon ET with your own Trans Am (With or without Nitrous).

[JBone]

Oh how I wish I could finally see your car put up numbers on the track when it's firing on all cylinders (last time was Midnight Mayhem about 4 years ago when I had the Fuckus).

Good luck, ODT...

Oh yeah, sorry we couldn't meet up over the past weekend

[haunter]

Ahh...Betting on the Talon breaking I see.

who in their right mind would ever best on a DSM breaking?

[awd4kicks]

We're going to Cordova tommorrow night...want to hit the track and do some tuning???

I won't be able to make it to the track tonight. I will be tuning though. We will see you there Sunday!

[turbohcar]

I won't be able to make it to the track tonight.  I will be tuning though.  We will see you there Sunday!

Good luck buddy!! I'll have my fingers crossed for you.... not crossing them for you to run a quick time, but for good luck so you don't break it!!!

[awd4kicks]

Well I now have good brakes even on boost thanks to Mitsu90. We know that I was losing boost into the original brake booster, but even with a fresh one I still can't get above 25psi. She is pulling hard, but I don't know if I'm going to see the numbers that I was hoping for.

I will be racing her what she's got at this time though!

[awd4kicks]

That's possible, I have no idea what it will run. I will hold my end of our wager regardless though. Bring it! Both bottles!

[awd4kicks]

Considering all the factors, I'm happy with the 12.0 1/4 mile passes that I got this past weekend. I have a good idea of where some of the problems were and I just need to decide how much more I'm willing to spend on the old girl to make it anything more than it already is.

Possible issues:
When I assembled my engine I ordered a standard set of Mitsu gaskets from JNZ. In the process I used a couple of stock metal intake gaskets. You know the kind with the raised bead around them? Well these gaskets are between the aluminum head and the phenalic spacer and the aluminum intake. We feel that these gaskets may not be sealing above 25 psi. This will not be the easiest install, but it will be cheap to try felpro paper gaskets with some sealant. So I will be doing this in hopes of getting the boost in the 30-35psi range.

We also suspect that the BOV may not be holding above 25 psi. with the possible intake gasket leak I can not get enough air volume to pressure test the engine to 25 psi or higher to find out. If this is an issue I will simply need to buy a higher pressure spring. Again cheap and easy.

With the boost leak taken into consideration I was still able to hit a best of 119mph which translates to roughly 430whp even with the boost spiking at 25psi and falling to 22-23. This is enough to theoretically put me in the mid 11's. That leads to the other major problem that will require a much more expensive upgrade.

The transmission. I could not get the transmission to shift from 1st to 2nd with any quickness at all this past weekend. In fact the only gear that went in fairly quick on a consistant basis was 3rd, and I crunched it nearly every time. This problem is exagerated by the fact that NCGalant and I turned up the rev limiter to 9000-9500RPM. Shifting up there seems to be impossible for me. I even tried short shifting 1st to 2nd one time at 7000rpm with little improvement. The clutch is engaging great so that's not the issue. And although it took a while to relearn, I got my launches down to where I could really rip it out of first. The 60 ft. times of 1.8 and 1.9 to 2.2 prove that the best launch made no difference without a good shift to second.

So I'm not sure what to do there. I don't want to pay for an all out race transmission. Even buying double synchros for all gears gets a bit pricey. Sadly this problem alone kept me out of the 11's yesterday.

On a good note I can still drive it in the regular RPM band at street boost levels with no problem. So I think... Do I put any more money into it just for the racing aspect?

[awd4kicks]

Oh and I found one other important factor which could have lead to Sunday's lack of 11's.

When I got the Talon back home and started looking it over to make sure everything was ok I found the External dump tube had rotated to a point partially over the lower intercooler pipe! No kidding... There are a few marks on the intercooler pipe that look like the dump tube even hit it like when the whole car was wheel hopping sideways on my second launch of the day. There is a spot on the intercooler pipe about 1/2-3/4" deep onto the pipe where I was blowing the hotest gases possible at it.

So this may also explain why I didn't gain anything when NC and I leaned out the fuel with a different chip. The good news is that I still never seen any knock meaning the 118 octane and big front mount were working well.

I must not have tightened the band clamp on the waste gate enough after I repaired it and replaced the spring.

[treydawgs4g63T]

glad to hear all your hard work and effort paid off sunday! cant wait till the day i can say the same. Sucks that you found the little imperfections you did but atleast , like said before , you got to drive her home!!!

Another thing i was curious of is: I was told that the higher RPM shifts are not as good as the normal RPM shifts because the turbo starts to loose spool after so long. Is this true?

I would also like to mention that www.extrememotorsports.com offers a stage II tranny rebuild for like $1200 , which is a heck of a lot cheaper then SHEP and offers almost the same combination of parts. Maybe you can check it out!

[natedogg]

I'd be surprised if it was your BOV that was leaking. I am running the same Tial BOV that you are and am having no leaks beyond 30 psi unless you put a lighter spring in it when you got it.

As far as the intake manifold gaskets I run the felpro's with no sealant and they also hold past 30 psi. Same manifold set up as you w/ phenalic spacer.

I have a feeling the transmission is going to be my limiter as well and I'm in the same boat as you not really wanting to throw any more money into the car. I guess I'll know for sure in a month or so when I'm finally healed up enough to take it to the strip.

Anyway, nice runs man. Good to see you hit a new personal best!

[awd4kicks]

I have not changed the spring in my BOV. So I should be good there.

I will get the new intake gaskets in sometime next week and see how she boost leak tests from there.

Looks like TRE no longer sells upgrade parts only transmission rebuilds. They are cheaper than Shep and Extreme, but makes you wonder about getting the quality that you pay for.

[natedogg]

Yeah makes you wonder. I was pleased with my old FWD transmission rebuild TRE did for me back in the day even though it cost an arm and a leg.

[awd4kicks]

Wow...Close call today!

I drove the Talon to work today as I do many days. I went to Josh's tonight after work to drop off his jump pack. As I closed in on my destination, I noticed the smell of burning oil and a thin cloud of smoke behind the car. After I pulled in the drive I got out, popped the hood to check it out. The whole front cross member was covered with oil as was most everything in the front of the engine compartment.

I knew it could be bad, but I knew I wasn't beating on it, so it could be minimal as well. After pouring more oil into it we started it to look for the leak. That was easy to see! One of my 'Push-Loc' hoses had split off of the barb going back into the engine from the oil cooler!!! My expensive 'Push-Loc' hose failed and very nearly could have destroyed my engine!

Luckily everything seemed to be very very recent and still ok. So I trimmed the hose back and re-installed the barb fitting. I reattached it to the oil filter remote mount and filled the engine with oil. When I started her up she purred like a kitten. I re-checked for leaks...All good. What a blessing! I drove home very thankful that problem didn't go un-noticed too long

If you have 'Push-Loc' hoses you may want to double check the fitting points!

[The Iron Goat]

Finally, a Jeebus Creebus story with a happy ending! I thought they only existed in legend....