So I figured I’d do a build diary of my car. It’s not the fastest, nor the most prestigious, but honestly this car changed my life. It all started with a blown water pump, and now I’m preparing for my first engine swap. Not even a drop in the pond compared to some of you other dsmers, but this is my baby, and here’s our story. It‘s a long read, but I think you‘ll like it. =)
The Beginning…
I picked up my car on April 23rd 2006, about a month before I graduated from high school. Paid a whopping $1800 for a base model, 1.8l 4g37 equipped Eagle Talon DL. It’s funny, when I was a really little kid, like maybe 10, I thought that the humps in the hood these cars should be in the middle. Who would’ve known I would’ve fallen in love with it 7 years later.
I’m not sure where the desire to purchase a DSM came from, but when I’d had enough of painting the interior panels of my Mercury Tracer LTS (equipped with the 1.8 BP engine found in the Miata) as well as FEOA.net (That’s Ford Escort Owners Association) and a desire for some real speed, I just happened to see this car on the road beside a Neon. I’d secretly always wanted a Neon, for some unknown reason, so I was torn between the red little four door and the teal, girly looking 2 door. My parents said the Neon would be better for school and just a better all around car. More room, four doors, how could I go wrong?
How ever it happened, I was drawn to the Talon. I had to sit in the back seat while my dad test drove the car because I didn’t know how to drive stick. All I could see were those indiglo gauges calling my name. I had to have it. The seller told me the hump in the hood was for the turbo, but that this particular car had the turbo engine removed. Curses. Well I’d love it and make it my own.
Two days later, I came back and drove it away, although I looked like a fool. I stalled on hills, burnt the clutch, wasted gas, but I loved every minute of it. Here’s what my car looked like after it’s first wash.
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I was in love. Everything about the car made me feel alive, almost invincible. The sounds, the smells, the Walkman hooked up through the tape deck playing my favorite songs. It was perfect…
Until one morning on my way to school, after two weeks of a weird grinding, clunking sound, I heard a bang, and saw steam pour out from underneath my hood. I pulled over and saw coolant pouring out from underneath the car. I was blown away. My car, my precious baby girl, dying already?
I wouldn’t have it.
I immediately drove back home, which was less than two minutes away, thankfully, and popped the hood. What a mess. Coolant everywhere. I started messing with things, examining anything to find the culprit. No holes in the block, nothing from the head gasket or water pipe, but a very wobbly pulley. I would soon find out this was the water pump that had take a crap and dumped my coolant all over main street. So I decided to skip school and walk to O’Reillys which also happened to be a few minutes away. Who knew that I would get to know everyone in that store on a first name basis?
I picked up a water pump, gasket, and lots of RTV and coolant. I marched back home and started to tear the car apart. All with screwdrivers and adjustable wrenches. You heard me right. No sockets. Not even metric wrenches. Just continually adjusting this wrench until the engine was apart.
It took days. No sleep. Slacking at school. Barely eating. But I got it done. With a friends help. He drove a Le Mans and a GTP swapped Fiero. I only wished for such speed and power.
This was the first of many new experiences. First the water pump. Next would come the Indiglo gauges, which just stopped working. Then a blown suspension. And finally a slipping clutch. I thought that this was it. I was just going to get another car. I could never swap a clutch. But I bit the bullet and paid a mechanic to fix my problem. The suspension was a fiasco. I could never do a clutch.
Three months later, and less than a month before moving to college in Utah, (I’m originally from Missouri,) I noticed silvery puddles everywhere I went. They started small, but got larger and larger. It never dawned on me until my cousin said, “Hey, that puddle is under your car…”
Not again.
The Beginning…
I picked up my car on April 23rd 2006, about a month before I graduated from high school. Paid a whopping $1800 for a base model, 1.8l 4g37 equipped Eagle Talon DL. It’s funny, when I was a really little kid, like maybe 10, I thought that the humps in the hood these cars should be in the middle. Who would’ve known I would’ve fallen in love with it 7 years later.
I’m not sure where the desire to purchase a DSM came from, but when I’d had enough of painting the interior panels of my Mercury Tracer LTS (equipped with the 1.8 BP engine found in the Miata) as well as FEOA.net (That’s Ford Escort Owners Association) and a desire for some real speed, I just happened to see this car on the road beside a Neon. I’d secretly always wanted a Neon, for some unknown reason, so I was torn between the red little four door and the teal, girly looking 2 door. My parents said the Neon would be better for school and just a better all around car. More room, four doors, how could I go wrong?
How ever it happened, I was drawn to the Talon. I had to sit in the back seat while my dad test drove the car because I didn’t know how to drive stick. All I could see were those indiglo gauges calling my name. I had to have it. The seller told me the hump in the hood was for the turbo, but that this particular car had the turbo engine removed. Curses. Well I’d love it and make it my own.
Two days later, I came back and drove it away, although I looked like a fool. I stalled on hills, burnt the clutch, wasted gas, but I loved every minute of it. Here’s what my car looked like after it’s first wash.
I was in love. Everything about the car made me feel alive, almost invincible. The sounds, the smells, the Walkman hooked up through the tape deck playing my favorite songs. It was perfect…
Until one morning on my way to school, after two weeks of a weird grinding, clunking sound, I heard a bang, and saw steam pour out from underneath my hood. I pulled over and saw coolant pouring out from underneath the car. I was blown away. My car, my precious baby girl, dying already?
I wouldn’t have it.
I immediately drove back home, which was less than two minutes away, thankfully, and popped the hood. What a mess. Coolant everywhere. I started messing with things, examining anything to find the culprit. No holes in the block, nothing from the head gasket or water pipe, but a very wobbly pulley. I would soon find out this was the water pump that had take a crap and dumped my coolant all over main street. So I decided to skip school and walk to O’Reillys which also happened to be a few minutes away. Who knew that I would get to know everyone in that store on a first name basis?
I picked up a water pump, gasket, and lots of RTV and coolant. I marched back home and started to tear the car apart. All with screwdrivers and adjustable wrenches. You heard me right. No sockets. Not even metric wrenches. Just continually adjusting this wrench until the engine was apart.
It took days. No sleep. Slacking at school. Barely eating. But I got it done. With a friends help. He drove a Le Mans and a GTP swapped Fiero. I only wished for such speed and power.
This was the first of many new experiences. First the water pump. Next would come the Indiglo gauges, which just stopped working. Then a blown suspension. And finally a slipping clutch. I thought that this was it. I was just going to get another car. I could never swap a clutch. But I bit the bullet and paid a mechanic to fix my problem. The suspension was a fiasco. I could never do a clutch.
Three months later, and less than a month before moving to college in Utah, (I’m originally from Missouri,) I noticed silvery puddles everywhere I went. They started small, but got larger and larger. It never dawned on me until my cousin said, “Hey, that puddle is under your car…”
Not again.
