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.