Hey all. I am looking at picking up a 1992 1G Talon TSI. The frame has 160k but the motor was just rebuilt to factory specs 8K ago but with a 16G turbo and ARP studs. Currently at 12psi. No leaks. All fresh fluids and looks to be insanely clean. The paint is still great.

Mods are as follows:

Engine rebuilt last year
New timing belt and water pump
New Evo 16g turbo
New Buschur Racing Short route intercooler kit
New walbro 190 lph fuel pump
New intake gaskets and TB shaft seals
New exhaust gaskets and 3" exhaust
New Sway bar end links
New Spark plugs, wires, fuel filter, all hoses are new.

I need some advise from anyone who has owned a DSM. Did you like them? It will be a second car so reliability is important but not necessary. The owner said it has a 4 bolt diff? The interior is all stock and the mods look to be minimal.

What should I look for as far as problem areas?

Any input appreciated. Thanks guys.

Here are pics.

 

Well I have owned several dsms, and if your really looking for reliable cars thats not the car to get. I love my dsm, I have a 92 with 37k origional miles that I am putting my motor and stuff in and it should be fun. Now to answer some of your questions, It doesn't have a 4 bolt dif it has a 4 bolt rear end. Things to look for is rust behind the door panels at the bottom of the car, right in the rear fenderwells at the sideskirts. They are nitorious for rusting there and getting eaten away. From the pics it looks pretty clean, but pics hide a ton. Ask for all recepts for the motor build. It seems that every dsm I have ever looked at has "new motor, new tranny," but when it comes down to brass tax they are origional so recepts are important. Next thing I do not see is injectors. The walbro 190 is a little bigger then the stock fuel pump, but with a 16g even at 12 psi not a good idea on stock 450s. Another thing I would have to know is what is controlling fuel? I see nothing about aem, dsm or ecm link etc. Another thing is look on the turbo at the sereal #. You can check out online what model it actually is to confirm if it actually is a 16g or not. As for likeing them, I loved it when I first started driving them, but after you drive an evo its like wow really. But over all its is definately a fun car to drive if you can get past the fact its not an evo. Once you take it for a test drive you will see what I am talking about. Hope this helps some and good luck.

 

Thanks for the great input! Is it dangerous to run 12psi on a 16G with stock injectors if the factory ECU is controlling the fuel?

 

Prob not, but the thing with every car like this turbocharged is what is actually the wb reading. I mean you have to remember a stock 14b turbo flows about 450 cmf so with the fuel being 450cc/m in is about right. But with that being said adding a 550 to 650 cfm turbo and not offering more fuel it can get dangerious. 12psi I am sure is in the safe zone but you will find a lot of dsmers still do things wrong and do not do the correct things when tring to upgrade these cars. Its actually pretty sad. If you do and or buy the car, make sure you get a wideband, look into ecm link and or dsmlink and get yourself at least 650cc injectors to make sure the car will run correctly and not above 100% duty cycle for the injectors. Maybe all that is on there and just not noted, but rather be safe then sorry.

 

I really appreciate the recommendations. I am hopefully going to check the car out today. You have given me some great input.

 

Don't let him overcharge you on top of that. A nice running 1g 2500 tops. I know I paid 600 for mine with 37k on it but with no motor. What kills me is people think being they are in decent shape and have mods it adds value to the car when it actually doesn't. It devalues the car big time.

 

So I test drove the car. It actually felt fairly tight. The engine sounded good and it idled well. When cold the car ground going into second but shifted fine once warm.

As soon as it was warm I asked the owner if it was alright to get into the car a little. I stomped on the gas in second and the thing pulled hard until around 5k and the power tapered off quick. I immediately thought about the injectors. At the next stop sign, I rolled away and then gave it a quick punch. Once again the car took off and then actually completely cut fuel around 5k. The owner said that the car only cut fuel when punching it in first gear.

Cursedsm, I think you were right on the 16G being too much for the factory injectors and ECU. I think I will hold off on this one. I would rather find a dsm that has the stock turbo and ecu that pulls normally even if that means sacrificing some hp in the beginning to build it up the way I want. Plus I can't be sure that something else isn't causing the power taper and fuel cut. Again cursedsm thanks for the information.

 

Ok a few things there. Fuel cut will happen when there is not enough fuel as you know. That is to much boost and to big of turbo, and the ecu saying ok this isn't right. It isn't a bad thing its just saftey. If the car felt good and no problems with the car mechanically don't be afraid to pick it up unless the price is not there. A set of injectors for that car won't cost you much, but there are other things such as a way to tune it to look into. Even a set of evo injectors will work great with this turbo. If this car seems like it is a good deal go for it. If your worried about fuel cut then ok yeah there is an issue. The other thing is too you can always get a used 14b off ebay or whatever or even the dsm forums but there comming harder to come by. Whatever you decide good luck and there are always us dsmers around in the evo world to ask questions when in need

 

I actually ended up buying the car today and will be picking it up tomorrow. The problem with the fuel cut turned out to be spark plugs. They were not hot enough nor gapped properly. With a new set of plugs the problem is fixed and the car pulls hard and smooth. Plus the price was right too.

I think it is a really clean version. My plan is to drive the car for around six months without doing any mods until I can do enough research to formulate a good solid build plan. The nice thing is that it should be a great daily right now requiring no immediate maintenance for the time being.

I am looking forward to the DSM world (and all its headaches).

 

The dsm world isn't that great. A ton of cheap *** people who think they know it all when 90% of them don't know ****. I am glad you found the problem with the car, just be very careful of it with that turbo and stock injectors for now. A good wide band will do wonders to that car being you will actually know what the afr is on the car to know if your truely safe or not. Just do me a favor and stay away from the retard sites like dsmtuners, xceedspeed etc full of idiots. And most importantly the world of ebay isn't a parts source for the dsm.

 

If you don't mind I'll probably just pm you in the future with some questions. I don't want to go near a dsm forum for a while. I will probably do a wideband first. I am going to leave it at 11psi for now and hope it will be safe.

Mods will be a slow long process with lots of research. I don't typically shop ebay for parts either. Thanks for all your help.

 

Really all you need if you don't want to stick a ton of money into it (right now anyways) get some 550cc injectors, switch over to a 2g maf, definitely recirculate the BOV, and get DSMlink V3 lite. You'll be set for now and should even be able to turn up the boost to at least 16/17 psi with a good street tune.

Maybe more maybe less obviously depending how everything turns out. Hell you can pick up some 650-850cc injectors these days for pretty cheap. Should make a fun little DD but as already stated a DSM is not the most reliable car in the world.

They can be if take care of right and maintained of course.

 

I will add to this and he is absolutely correct. Link lite is ok but it leaves out way to many options for things like speed density etc. Although it would be fine for a dd, but for me I would want the full boat. You get tuners looking at it to get it to work properly your gonna want the extra. You also can go gm maf with this as well. If you do you can run in blow through mode and you could run a vent to atmosphere bov as well just like you could in speed density and it works pretty well, but you will have to scale the maf.

 

The BOV is already recirculated. Excuse my ignorance but I have read vaguely on EPROM conversion. Are all 1992 Talon TSI's not EPROM? Do I even need this conversion to run link lite?

 

1g Eproms are kinda hard to come buy. As I stated in the pm I sent you back, take it out and call ecm link and they will tell you whats best to do.