Monthly Archives: February 2007

Driveshaft Fitment

The driveshaft was cake :-)

I called up Bob from KL Driveline again in Lansing, Michigan. Bob, for those of you who haven’t read other parts of the site, put together the Chevy 10-bolt that’s in the Talon. I asked him how to measure the driveshaft, and he told me to measure from the reasr diff yoke flange to the transmission output shaft. Cake.

6 days later, I had an aluminum driveshaft that bolted right in. See? cake!

Fuel System

The fuel system on the Talon consists of a custom 3.2 Gallon Aluminum fuel cell custom mounted into a fuel cell cage as required by the NHRA. This cell was built by Mark and I, and includes a sump area, and a quick fill cap, along with AN fittings to keep installation clean. Plus, it looks good ;-)

The Fuel tank connects through -8AN feed lines to an Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump, which is solidly mounted to the fuel cell cage. This setup should allow us to feed 850 horsepower worth of fuel through the aluminum hard lines up to the FIC 1600CC injectors in a stock Mitsubishi fuel rail. After the rail, an SX fuel pressure regulator keeps the fuel pressure to a desired pressure level. The system is then completed through -6AN hard line back to the fuel tank. Nice, and easy :-)

The Rear Frame

The rear frame was a weekend project, no doubt about that. Mark and I actually did a really good job of knocking out a bunch of work that weekend – we completely cut out the old rear frame, prepared the car to receive the new frame, and then welded the new frame into the car. It was nuts :-o We went through countless blades on all of the cutting tools we used – the Sawzall, an air powered body saw, an air powered die grinder with cutting discs, and a cheapie 4″ angle grinder. All that stuff was used to break through a lot of the stock factory sheetmetal. I had always had the impression that these cars were tough, and that was reinforced that weekend – the stock factory crossmember and subframe are up to six layers in some places! In order to grapht the new frame into the old body, we had to weld the new frame into existing factory steel – and we wanted it to be strong – that part was very important. So, we basically projected a plane onto the factory steel where we wanted to put the new frame, and then cut on that line. Lasers are awesome :-) We basically created a ledge to sit the new crossmember on, that existed on top of the factory framerails. It was a challenge cutting the ledge, but only because that part of the stock framerails ends up being every which way but straight. So, we managed a reasonable facsimile of an L on the stock factory steel, and then set the new crossmember on top of it. At the end of the day, after getting it all tacked up – it was all square, straight, and level – imagine that :-D After that, we spent a considerable amount of time reinfocing the stock steel so that the rear frame would be well supported. We made some 1/8″ steel plates that we welded to the stock framerails, that also welded to the new crossmember to give it a lot more rigidity, and to help the cute thin factory steel support the weight of the crossmember. When we were done, it all came out really well, and the crossmember was firmly planted in the car. What we did would have easily been sufficient to just weld into a street car, and go. Solid!

Fuel Cell

The parts of the fuel cell, all tacked together

The parts of the fuel cell, all tacked together

The fuel cell, welded

The fuel cell, welded

-8AN bungs on the fuel cell

Bungs on the fuel cell

Filler cap, return line

The filler cap and return line on the fuel cell.

The Fuel cell in the Talon was a relatively quick and easy item to get all squared away. While Mark and I were building the Intake manifold, I had some time to kill. I had ordered some random AN bungs, and a fuel cell sealed cap from Summit.

While Mark machined up the intake manifold flange over the fourth of July weekend, I spent time in the shop measuring and cutting a sheet of 6061 T6. Once I figured out the shape, and the size of the tank, and the sump, I went to work meauring and cutting up a bunch of aluminum. We ended up doing this out at Mark’s work.

It wasn’t until we got back to the shop that I welded up the aluminum cell. With the math, the cell was approximately just over 3 gallons. We confirmed that once we welded the cell up completely. The bungs went on the tank, along with the cap, and we started measuring. Using water, and a graduated container, we actually got more than three gallons out of the cell – it’s around 3.2 gallons.

The next step to the tank was mounting it in the car. This was a little more tricky than normal. Because of the way the cell was mounted between the framerails with nothing to protect it, NHRA required a 1-1/4″ by .063″ wall cage be mouted around the fuel cell. So, we built a cage that’d mount the cell, and the fuel pump (to be replaced later by twin pumps – more on that in the future) All in all, it turned out great :-)

Transmission Specifications

While starting the project for the Talon, one of the larger decisions would be which transmission to go with. There wasn’t much discussion of whether it was going to be an automatic or a manual – more of a discussion concerning which automatic we might go with.

The only thing we ever really even considered was a GM transmission. Dave Buschur at Buschur Racing sells motor plates, along with a flywheel, and converter in order to make bolting a GM Powerglide to a 4g63 a relatively painless proposition. The only pain is caused in the wallet ;-) But, this still gives us a lot of options.

TH350? TH400? 200R4? PG? WTF?

Originally, I started looking into whether we could get a TH350 that was stout enough to work with the 4G63. After all, this 4G63 was already putting out over 350ft/lbs of torque, and that’s what the TH350 was originally designed to handle. Our best Guesstimates would put the engine in the Talon at no more than 600 ft/lbs. Some research showed people having success with big iron running over 550 ft/lbs through a TH350. I also happen to run across one that was a good deal, but was stock. It would have to be modified. The price was right, though, so I grabbed the transmission, and we used it for some mock-up.

Mark wanted to go the 200R4 route. Not only did it have another gear, it also had provisions for locking up the converter during the run (or whenever we felt like it). While I wasn’t against the lockup converter, or the extra gear, I was against the cost difference. In addition to that, my step father owns a GN making a bunch of power, and the original transmission was swapped out for a TH400 in order to regain some strength to the drivetrain. Either that, or the original owner grenaded the stock transmission while making too much power (either one is a likely scenario.) In any case, this option was considered, but I didn’t really want to go this route.

So, we went with a TH350. At first. We cut up the floor, and then found that the converter that I had laying around wouldn’t fit between the transmission and the engine. It was too large. So, I called up Dave Buschur, and at the end of the day, walked away with a Powerglide. Why?

Well, here’s this powerglide that Dave had in his tube car. All parts total added up to about $6,800 worth of transmission. Vasco gearset (spendy), Dedenbear case (it would eliminate a shield and blanket on the car), Dedenbear tailshaft, Dedenbear pan, hardened input shaft, trans brake, and stuffed with goodies. It had just been gone through. It came complete, with a converter that should be just right. So, Dave sold me on it. The price was right, and it it the ultimate transmission. So, Dave sold it to me, and I picked it up the next day.

Parts Cost

If you have to ask, you probably shouldn’t attempt to afford it :-)

First, let me say that there are a lot of variables when building the car that you just can’t assign a cost to. Whether it’s a material you already have, or an extra hour or three that you work, you just can’t calculate some of the expense involved with this stuff. I’d also like to note that I have not kept a strict price list on this stuff. Yes, I did that for a reason – if you keep too much track of it, your head will hurt. The objective is not to account the hell out of the project, it’s to enjoy your hobby.

Buschur Racing RWD motor plate and flywheel kit
The Buschur Racing Motor plate and flywheel were purchased second hand from a NABR member. I think the original cost was ~$850. I think I purchased it for $525

Competition Engineering Four Link Kit
I purchased this kit through a local race shop that gave me deals on things, so I got it at cost. The frame rails are 24″ outside-to-outside, and I ordered the 150 pound coil-over option with the kit. $1,250.00

Chevy 10 Bolt rear differential
This was purchased through a local company, K&L Driveline in Lansing, Michigan. Bob and Jeff worked their magic for 6 weeks, after which, I had a rear end that just bolted into the car. Thanks guys :-) $1,650.00

Wheels

Weld Racing wheels for the front and back of the car. The wheels were actually purchased through Summit Racing, because my “cost” price was actually more expensive. Weird, huh?
$800-900

Tires
The rear tires are 29.5×10.5W Mickey Thompson Slicks. The fronts are Moroso DS2’s, 26″ tall, to fill the wheel wells. The fronts were ~$135 a piece, the rears were right around $200 a piece. I also purchased tubes for the tires. I think they were around $65 a piece.
$780-$880

Chromoly Tubing
All chromoly on the project was purchased through Chassis Shop here in Mears, Michigan. Another company here in Michigan with car parts – imagine that ;-) Purchasing this stuff made me take a trip up to Silver Lake (right down the road from Mears) to check out the sand dunes on the beaches of Lake Michigan. It was beautiful. I made a few orders with them, too, and had some other materials delivered as well

$850-1000

Roll Cage
The roll cage is made of 4130 Chromoly tubing, purchased at The Chassis Shop because it’s a business local to me, sort of. I spent ~$450 on the tubing for the cage itself. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less.

Summit Racing
Since February of 2005, I’ve spent $1892.64 with Summit Racing :-o That’s a huge surprise to me. Which really just goes to show you why you *don’t* want to add this stuff up sometimes.


Haltech E6S
This was purchased as part of where the car was going, but it’s really part of the list of things that’re going on the car currently. I got a deal on this item, too. I paid $650 for it.

Garrett GT42 Turbocharger
This turbo was a bit of a nightmare to obtain. Originally, I was going to purchase the turbo in late 2004, but one thing led to another, and before I knew it, it was already summer of 2005 before we got to a point where we’d need the turbo. So, I called up a supplier I was going to use, and found out that the price on the turbo jumped from $750, up to $1350. Holy shit. So, I looked around, and asked Ron Shearer when Jay, Mark and I went out to Dave’s shop to drop Jay’s car off. Shearer knew a guy in the area that had a GT42 for a project Corvette, but wasn’t going to finish it. He gave me the guy’s email address, and I emailed him. Brian (the guy I’m talking about) replied, but had unfortunately put the turbo up on eBay. So, I bid on it :-) Thankfully, I received the turbo for ~$850, which was a much better price than the $1350 price tag that the turbos now carry.


Intercooler

The Intercooler is a Bell Intercooler brand core, that Mark built tanks for, and I welded up. I’m damn proud of that liquid IC, because it’s something nobody has ever done on a DSM. Liquid core, no pumps. Fuck yes! I think it was $360 for the core, but I don’t have a clue off the top of my head.

Radiator
We’re using an aftermarket Fluidyne brand Aluminum Sirrocco radiator, purchased from Summit, for $199.

Transmission
The tranmission for the Talon is a GM Powerglide transmission that’s been heavily massaged. It’s got a Deadenbear case, tailshaft, and pan. All of these items together are ~$1500 new. The tranny sports a Vasco custom gearset, with uh, 1.84 first gear (? might be wrong on that) and a 1.0 second gear planetary. In addition, it’s also got a pro trans brake on it, so that’s just cool :-)


Other items yet to be priced:

Summit orders prior to 2005
engine parts
other raw materials
machine work
custom front suspension
brakes
transmission
convertor

Chromoly Rollcage Construction

Driving to Silver Lake, MI

Lake Michigan

Chromoly Steel Tubing

4130 Chromoly tubing, all loaded up and ready to go

Model3 Tubing Bender

The model 3 tubing bender in action

repositioning the tube

Repositioning the tube for another test bend.

Chopsaw Main Hoop

Chopping the main hoop.

The Drivers side door bard and a-pillar

The Drivers side door bard and a-pillar

Tacking the main hoop

Mark’s favorite pictures involve me welding something.

Mark and Rick hanging out inside the car

Mark and Rick hanging out inside the car

To tell you the truth, the roll cage in the Talon took a whole lot longer than expected. There were weeks of literally nothing happening because we spent a whole lot of time aquiring parts and tools. I wasn’t completely opposed to buying apre bent roll cage kit, I just didn’t end up finding one that I liked. So, the option of making my own roll cage cameabout as a neat idea, so I started looking into tubing benders. I made the mistake that a lot of other people make. I went out, and purchased a cheap ~$125 bow and arrow type pie bender. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it – I figured it would work just fine. Let me tell you a little bit about those types of benders: There’s a main die, with two other dies that work by cramming the main die through the smaller two die, making the schedule 40 pipe bend. This method does not work with what is considered thin-wall tubing. NHRA required .125″ mild steel, or .083″ chromoly tubing is way to thin for this type of bender. What does it do? It wrinkles the hell out of the tube, that’s what it does :-o Well, this wasn’t found out until I already obtained the tubing. Chassis Shop is down the road from my house. And, by down the road, I mean 120 miles away, in scenic Mears Michigan, right next to Silver Lake Michigan. Right next to lake Michigan. It’s a beautiful facility filled with all the chromoly and just about any other type of raw material needed to make a dragster, a dune buggy, an off-road vehicle, or just about anything else. While I didn’t exactly get the grand tour, I did just stop by a few days after placing an order for about 500 feet of chromoly total. I could be off by a few hundred feet – I can’t remember anymore. In any case, I did get to see the back room, and run around the aisles a little bit. *sigh* If I only had $100,000 to spend in that place ;-) So, anyway, back to the story, right? Getting back to the shop with a bunch of chromoly was fun. We got back, and chucked up some old mild steel that was once a roll cage for the Talon, and wrinkled the absolute piss out of it. This brand new chromoly was thinner wall, so it would have been even worse with wrinkling. Shit. What would we do? Well, looking into it some more, the type of bender we’d require would be more like a mandrel with a follow bar that helped the tube bend more as it bent. Also, something with a reasonably sized diameter for the die, so that the resulting radius would be larger so that the pipe wouldn’t bend. Well, shit, there’s no reason to go out and get all this chromoly, and half-ass this cage. So, I went out and bought the proper setup, a Model 3 tubing bender. This thing is bad ass :-) Now with the tubing bender, we were able to create whatever we wanted to. So, we started off with the main hoop. Cake, right? Okay, now onto the halo and A-pillar bars. These were tough. I wanted this stuff to look nice, tightly follow the stock factory body, and look fucking sweet. We accomplished all of this. The halo wasn’t any fun at all, but it turned out nicely. :-) Also, since I’m young and relatively agile, I opted for the 1.5″ X-bars instead of a single bar for the sidebars. Basically, all you need to do is check out the pictures. :-) They explain it all.

The Intercooler

The intercooler on the Talon was part of a larger project: The front end of the Talon. The cooling system, more specifically.

We pondered the cooling system. I wanted to do something on the DSM’s that nobody had done – ever. So, we came up with a plan. Instead of stacking everything like a cracker, and wedging it in the front of the car. I didn’t want to go as far as using a shifter cart radiator, and I also wanted to have a reasonbly decent sized IC core, filled with ice and water. So, how would be able to accomplish that? Well, we mounted the radiator and IC horizontally, instead of vertically. Alright, well, the radiator isn’t horizontal, it’s about 30 degrees from horizontal, but it makes more room for the air:water IC that we would up using.

The premise of the intercooler is reasonably simple. Instead of running lines, a high volume pump, and end up with the same effect at the end of the day, the concept is this: Use the mass of the aluminum intercooler along with the ice and water to take the heat of the charge from the turbo throughout the run. It’s complicated to explain, but quite simple when you see it. The core contains an integrated water tank.

Okay, so now that that’s explained – how did we make the IC? Well, Mark pulled up some specs, and through a thermal dissipation formula he used to come up with figures for his air:water intercooler, figured it’d take about 15 pounds of ice to cool the charge we wanted to chill, for one pass :-o So, we got to work. We called up Bell Intercoolers and ordered up a core. Then Mark hand bent up a bunch of 1/8″ 6061 for some end tanks, and some .090″ 6061 for the IC ice tank.

Through a friend, Tom Shwalm, we were able to gain access to a welder that is a little bigger than my little TIG to weld up the core. It was cake; we spent a day out at VT Competition Engine Development in Lansing, Michigan working on the Intercooler, and getting the new block honed. The honing was the easy part; we didn’t have to do that ;-) I didn’t actually use VT to complete the IC, but I did use VT’s Lincoln to weld up the end-tanks, and to weld the tanks to the core. There is a lot of thermal mass in the 30 pound core, so I wanted to make sure that we’d have enough amperage to get the job done. Plus, it was really a lot of fun to hang out with those guys. It’s sad to say that VT doesn’t exist quite in the form that it did back in early 2004, but VT Engines, Inc is still in business.

Here’s the scoop for those who don’t know: VT Competition Engine Development was purchased by a guy named Chris (I don’t remember Chris’s name off the top of my head) – anyway, Chris purchased VT, and changed it’s name to VT Engines, Inc. The old owners moved out, and the new owner took up shop. I’d still recommend going to those guys for Ford mod motor work – Their engine builders kick ass :-) Unfortunately for us, they now focus primarily on Ford 4.6 and 5.4 mod engines.

Anyway, back to the IC, right? So, we got the IC finished enough, and then mounted it to the car. We used 1-1/4″ chromoly tubing to mount the IC right in front of the engine. Unlike any other DSM :-)

Car History

My 1990 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD, when I started modifying it.

my 1990 Eagle – This image has not been modified – it’s out of focus and the sparkles in the picture are from the camera catching reflections from the flash on the rims – I think it’s a pretty cool pic :)

Car History

I bought my first Talon in May of 1997, it was a red 1990 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD. I bought it to replace a 1986 Camaro, and at first was reluctant. I quickly realized the potential of my car, though, and started slowly modifying the Talon. Being a turbo charged 2.0 liter 4 cylinder, it’s rather impressive that you can easily get 300 horsepower out of one of these cars. I first started modifying the Talon with the simple free modifications.

I replaced the clutch, and went through the 130,000 mile transmission, replacing the blocker rings, and a couple of bearings. The car ran stock times, and I continued with the modifications. By april of 1999, with a full 3″ exhaust, porting, the boost controller turned up, and some good luck led me to high 13 second time slips. Not too bad, considering the car had over 150,000 miles on the original motor.

1999

In June of 1999 The car had a new turbo, bigger intercooler pipes, and about 175,000 miles on it. I managed to squeeze a 12.857 @ 105.39mph out of it. I was more than pleased, but soon began to find drag racing more than just fun. A little obsessed, I made some plans for the car. I wanted to run high 11’s with it; and it looked almost promising; I might have been able to pull it off with a front mount intercooler, a set of injectors, and some cams… but I would never find out.

In September of 1999, on my way home from work, and with 185,000 miles on the motor, the car spun the #4 bearing. It was an awful realization; not only did money have to go into the car if it were to continue; but while I was at it; if I was going for quicker times, it would be a waste to put it back together all stock. I rebuilt the motor with ARP bolts and studs, higher compression pistons, and bored the block. I spent a bit of money on machine work, and got a valve job and a few other miscellaneous things done to the block as well. Now, I had a new motor, which should help me out quite a bit, right? right.

2000

In april of 2000, I bought a monstrous Griffin 24x6x2.75″ front mount intercooler, and spent way too much time making piping for it :p I drove the car around on a daily basis but the clutch started slipping because of the power – stock clutch with a 16G and a front mount don’t mix well, but I still drove the car anyway. I was going to replace the clutch, lighten a flywheel, and see what it would do.

On a visit to the racetrack, and with only a little prodding from Jason V, I was pumping leaded race gas into my gas tank, to see what I could muster with a stock clutch, and unsure feelings because of the 2 year old Magnecore wires on the car (which caused the car to run like crap with anything over 15 lbs of boost.) Getting decent 60 foot times, I managed to click off a 12.75 @ 108.8 mph. Not what I had in mind, but with the clutch and not even applying power in 4th gear on the drag strip, I was determined to fix those problems.

June 16th, 2000 – I decided to drive down to the track to watch some of my fiends. On the way there, I got into a situation, and ended up in a car accident. The newly installed front mount twisted, and me left not knowing what to do. With the frame bent, the insurance company totalled the car. I bought it back from them, and started removing the engine. While looking for a new car, I continued to think about what I wanted to do about having a “race car” – I decided since I didn’t have a daily driver anymore, I would not make my new Talon a daily driver. In August I purchased my red 1991 Eagle Talon TsiAWD, and immediately started tearing it down.

From June through December of 2000, I drove around a black ’91 Talon Tsi AWD that I purchased from a friend of mine, Don. Don bought the car back in 1998, and he had driven the beast since then. It had a few problems, needed a head, and head gasket, and so I put that car together and drove it around while looking for a new Talon to put all my goodies on. In November, I found it. a guy in Sterling Heights Michigan had a Talon he was selling. It didn’t run, had four flat tires, and had been in a garage for the last two years. I bought it; immediately put an alternator and the tires from my wrecked Talon on it, and drove it to Mark Hessler’s house. It’s a good thing, too – The remanufactured replacement alternator I purchased for it was dead on arrival! I actually had to swap batteries mid trip when the car died on Telegraph in Detroit. Thankfully I had brought along a spare battery, so after the quick swap-out, I was all set and ready to go. I made it to Mark Hessler’s house, and met Mark and Jon Stough (who was nice enough to go to a Murrays and pick me up another alternator so I could make it back to Lansing.) After that, the rest of the trip was uneventful.

In December of 2000, we had to move shops, because the owner of the shop we were in sold it to someone who needed it for their business. The Talon wasn’t quite done yet, so I had to get my ass in gear. In two weeks, I completely stripped the engine bay, removed the ABS from the car, replaced all the wearable suspension components, installed a set of Eibach springs, Koni shocks, and cleaned up the car – a lot. After that, I replaced the motor with the relatively fresh engine out of the wrecked ’90. This While I did this, I thought it would be a good idea to replace the ’91 sandwich-style oil cooler with an air-to-oil cooler that I purchased from Summit Racing (funny looking back, I thought
the -6AN line I used on that was expensive at the time.)

2001

I started driving the car in January of 2001. It was still considered it my daily driver, the other Talon needed to be put out of commission. it had an exhaust leak, and needed some other general maintenance that I didn’t want to do, and didn’t feel like paying someone else to do. So, I just drove around the new red car. Minus the interior. Daily :-)

The early part of 2001, I started going to the track again. The car ran great the first time out. 12.8@106mph. I had to shift it at 5300rpm, because it had run out of fuel. I was running stock everything, except the 2G pistons, a 16G, and a 3″ exhaust. I mean, I was on the stock factory IC pipes, stock injectors, stock fuel pump. I was only cutting 1.80 60 foots, too. I was the fastest DSM at the track the first day out, and met some other guys from Michigan. A guy names Tim who lives in Grand Rapids, and a bunch of his friend (Patrick, who drives a nice Galant GVR-4 & a few other people.) Unfortunately, I didn’t race much the rest of the year. I went out here and there, and ended up at the end of the season running a 12.34@117.84mph or something like that. Fast, but not quite quick. I also bought a new vehicle – a Jeep Cherokee which was able to serve tow-duty for the Talon, and also allowed me to stop driving the Talon on the street.

2002

In early 2002, I dusted off the Talon, and made some changes. The 16G had to go, and I also needed to put a new FMIC on the beast. So, I did all that. I purchased a FP red used from some asshat in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Guys name was Joe somethingorother, with DarkSideRacing. If you ever get the chance, don’t do business with those assclowns. I received a beat up used to death Red that was in no shape to even put on the car. Lesson learned; don’t buy off any of those fucked up parts traders online.

Before the whole turbo ordeal, I decided that the Talon needed a cage since I was already running on the edge of 11.99’s with it. So, I spent the summer getting a mild steel cage made up for the car, and in mid-summer we welded it in (right before the shootout.) and painted it up. Red, of course. through lack of better judgement, I also put the FP Red on the car to see if I could at least make some power with it. It was also the first year I towed the Talon down to the Shootout. That friday night, I T&T’d the Talon, and could not get a clean pass in. The car wanted to make power, but something was definately up – looking back I know it was the turbo; at the time I knew, but I still wanted to do something with the car. After a few passes, though, I put it back on the trailer. Sunday, the day of the shootout, I decided that I was going to race the car anyway, because I rarely race at the shootout, and the car was down in Norwalk so I may as well live it up, right? Nope. Right when I pulled the car off the trailer, I saw a big puddle of gear oil. I immediately put the car back on the trailer. It was done for the season.

2003

I was determined to make 2003 the year for the Talon, and I did. While it was still snowing, I sent the FP Red off to Robert at Forced Performance. In addition to that, I started revamping a lot of things – I got my 5 gallon aluminum fuel tank installed, installed some 720cc injectors, revamped the wiring harness, installed a bunch of autometer gauges, and gutted the rest of the car as much as I could. Now it was war :) Dyno time came early in 2003. First round I popped out 360-some whp. Then, I borrowed a set of Web cams from my brother, which netted around 390whp. Okay, not bad, but I knew I could do better. I ordered some HKS cams, and put a Karmen-Vortex translator on the car from a company in Oak Park Michigan called Pro-M. I wouldn’t recommend doing business with them, either. Nick Walgamott works there, and he’s nice and shady – he also doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground – But, that’s another story. You ever know someone who calls themselves an engine builder, but has actually put a crankshaft in a block backwards, and torqued it down without realizing what they had done wrong? Just curious.

okay, back to the story: The HKS cams and more tuning bumped me up to like 436whp, but that wasn’t enough. I bought a Magnus Intake manifold, and kicked out another assload of power – 491hp to the wheels. On a stock bottom end (okay, it had ARP hardware, but I was using stock rods and pistons.) Sweeet.

At the track, I had a lot of problems with shifting, so over the summer, I installed some new components in the transmission from John Ripple at TRE. After that, I built a stroker for the Talon with Pauter rods and JE pistons. Back at the dyno, hoping to make more power, I ended up ruining the CenterForce Dual Friction clutch that I had put on the car a few years earlier. Okay, time for a new clutch. I installed a sintered iron mystery clutch, and used that for the rest of the season. Amazingly enough, it worked really well. Back on the dyno, I ran a hand ful of 480whp passes, but just couldn’t get past 491whp again. I decided to drop the dyno time, and go to the track. First time out, I mustered up a 11.61@128mph, and was kicked off the track because I didn’t have a fire jacket. Oops :) I also popped something in the motor, so it’d have to come back apart. Well, I ended up popping the rings through my own stupidity. I wasn’t even paying attention, and I ended up putting synthetic in the engine before it was properly broken in. So, I put some regular Dino oil in the car, and beat on it a bit to see if I could get the rings to reseat. I also installed a vacuum pump so see if that’d help the problem out at all. I went back to the track, and clicked off a few more passes. 11.19@132.84mph and 11.18@131.??mph. So, it’s a solid 11 second car.

2004

2004 started with an ambitious new project.

Engine Specifications

I’ve received a bunch of questions about the engine in the Talon, so I thought I’d do a quick write-up about what, exactly, is in the Talon. I’ve mentioned in the past that the goal was to create an 850 horsepower 4G63. While many people’s responses are somewhere along the lines of “@@#!%%@ holy shit!”, the real fact of the matter is that the DSM community, in general, knows how to make power. In addition to that, my Talon’s engine was not underpowered before I ripped the whole car apart.

Every month or so, I hear about yet another 4g63 putting out an insane amount of power – There are now too many to mention putting out well over 500whp. But, I can focus on a few: Dave Buschur of Buschur Racing, Marco Passante of Magnus Mortosports, AMS Motorsports, Brent Rau of OSOFAST Racing, John Shepherd of Shepracing are all people that’ve put out gobs of power using the 4g63 as a platform, without a doubt. At the 2006 Shootout, they all put down respectable passes in their DSM’s. Dan Buschur, Dave’s brother ran the first 8 second pass in a 4g63 powered EVO. Marco not only busted into the 8’s, he layed down some mid 8 second passes. Shep? Yeah, he was running high 7’s. Brent Rau? He topped them all off. I saw him run a 7 flat at 199mph. These guys make mad fucking power. And we’re only talking about a handful of guys here.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – These guys are all shops or professional racers – yes, that’s true. What’s also true, however, is that privateers are following in their footsteps, making assinine amounts of power as well, albiet not quite as much as these guys who either run shops or race the professional circuit. So, we’ll just keep that in mind, and come to my 4g63.

My Talon had a stock-ish 4g63 engine in it back in 2003. This was it’s best year out. The internals were stock parts and pieces, with the exception of some ARP hardware to help keep everything together. I was using stock 2G pistons, stock 1G rods, stock crank, stock rings, and bearings. The engine put 491whp down on a dynojet. Yes, there were extensive modifications to the rest of the setup, but the block, the head, and the internals were stock parts. These engines are strong.

That summer, I put together a stroker motor. This engine was a 2.3 liter, using Pauter rods and JE pistons. This engine put 480+whp down, but I never really ran it that hard. One of the biggest advantages of this engine, even though the power was similar, was the immense gain in torque. This engine put 40 more ft/lbs of torque down to the wheels. Insane :-) It also propelled the car to an 11.19 at 131.94mph. This is the engine sitting in the Talon right now. There is a lot more potential in it. I haven’t even started pushing the components to their edge.

How would I extract the potential that this engine has? I’d use a larger turbo, of course! The 491whp was laid down with a Forced Performance Red turbo. A few other people have blown their way to 525whp or more with this turbo, but it’s not quite large enough to be able to force 850 horsepower out of this engine. What would I have to step up to in order to get to 850 horsepower? A GT42. Garrett’s newest line of turbochargers includes the GT42. While they state that the GT42 is good for 6.0 liters and above, there are quite a few people using the GT42 or some varation of it (the GT42R is another popular option) on their 2.0 liter engines. What’s the downside? Turbo Lag. The upside? Massive power. So, just spin the hell out of the engine to pump the air you need through the turbo, right? ;-)

So, that’s what’s topping it all off. This engine, 2.3 liters, will make 850 horsepower. Even if I have to add nitrous.