This page is intended to be a recipe for making your Talon/Eclipse/Laser go faster than its normal stock form in certain pre-determined steps. These steps have been created by other owners on the Mailing List who have done these and know the safest route to go with modifications to your car.

1. Get a Mechanical Boost Gauge. $20 - 70

   The stock boost gauge is not the most accurate one in the world. Later on when you start to make modifications that will increase boost you want to be sure that you are able to accurately know how much turbo boost you are creating.

   
   
2. Remove the air horn in the air box and remove the silencer behind the MAF. All that the silencer is doing is quieting down the airflow when you romp on the loud pedal and your car starts sucking in more air. It does this though by putting a restriction in your intake system to make it quieter. If your worried about noise though you probably shouldn't be reading this. :)

   This is going to allow your engine to get a better air flow and more air into your intake system. More air means more compression and a better combustion density.

   
   
3. Install a low restriction air cleaner. A K&N or HKS Powerflow is the most popular. $30 - 250

   With #2 accomplished you are going to be limited to the amount of air that can move through your air filter. A hi-flo air cleaner will allow more air to get into your system. Depending on how radical you want your DSM to look, you can get a stock replacement that will fit in the normal airbox, or some people use the cone filters that completely get rid of the airbox and hang out in free air.

   
   
4. Install a low restriction exhaust system. A Walker Dynomax or a Turbo Tuf. $50-600.

   Now that you have all this air flowing into the system, you have to get it out the rear of the car just as well. A low restriction exhaust system will allow the exhaust gasses to flow out quicker and with less restriction. This will help to reduce the amount of back pressure and allow a greater boost from your turbo too.

   A list member mentioned that if you are planning on getting the most horsepower that you can out of your DSM you might want to spend the money and go with a 3" cat-back system to begin with. This will help you to eliminate having the replace the system twice when you get so many mods on there that the normal low restriction system gets to restrictive.

   
   
5. Install a low restriction catalytic converter or a bypass. $40-150

   This will again help to reduce back pressure in the exhaust system. Lower amounts of back pressure allow the turbo to spool up quicker and better giving you more boost. If you install a bypass it should be used in off-road situations only. <wink> <wink> You will probably want to do something like this if you are planning on putting a bigger down pipe onto your car.

   
   
6. Since steps 1 through 5 are now down (especially #1), you can "safely" increase your turbo boost from its stock output of about 11 psi to about 15 psi of boost.

   The cheapest way is to simply reduce the "signal" to the wastegate to make it open a bit later. This can be accomplished by bleeding off a small amount of the boost that is going to the wastegate via removing the small, plastic flow restrictor that is in the boost solenoid. That should raise your max boost to 12.5 to 13 psi.

   If you are interested in that full 15 psi, you will need to do a bit more. You can install a small restriction in the hose that goes to the wastegate (e.g. with a small aquarium shut-off valve), or you can replace the boost solenoid with a valve that will flow more. *BE CAREFUL*... use that boost gauge that you installed in step 1. There is the potential of creating some VERY dangerous boost levels (like melting engine parts). You will have to calibrate your valve to generate the right signal to the wastegate. You'll want to start off on the low side and work your way up to a 15 psi reading. Cost $5 to $15.

   If you are planning on some serious horsepower in the future, you may want to invest in the VPC. The VPC, too, has to be calibrated, but only once. The VPC will compensate for changing weather conditions, and looks cool in the cockpit, but the dealer might not think so. Cost $750 to $900.

   
   
7. A New Clutch... $600-800 Installed

   With all the new amounts of horsepower that you are going to be producing your stock clutch is probably going to wear out quickly. Most of the list members suggest the Centerforce Dual Friction clutch. Best places to get the Centerforce DF from is Brake Warehouse or Jeg's.

   
   
8. An additional fuel pump. A Bosch in line or an in tank unit - $200 to $300.

   With the greater amounts of air that you are pushing through the system you are going to want to make sure that you get enough fuel to the injectors. You may still end up with Fuel Cut though.

   
   
9. Tube Headers. Up to $600.

   Tubular headers will take the exhaust gasses from the exhaust ports and direct them back out through the exhaust system with less restriction than the stock exhaust manifold. The tube headers keep the exhaust gasses from mixing together as soon as they leave the ports and help the flow. The best seems to be the Archer Bros. because of their lifetime warranty to cracking.

   
   
10. A larger Turbo and opening up the O2 sensor passage. $700 to 1500

    The Mitsu racing turbo (16g) seems to be a good choice. If you want more, go with one of the many hybrid turbos that you can get from one of the many aftermarket people. Dave B. can set you up with just about anything.

    
    
11. If you didn't put a 3" exhaust system on the car when you put the aftermarket exhaust system on, you'll probably need it now.
    
12. Start saving your money to fix broken parts. You car is going to be so fast that you'll start to probably break drivetrain parts. When you replace them if you 've got the money you might want to upgrade them to aftermarket racing parts. This can get expensive, but think of all the fun that you'll have beating Mustangs, Z-28's, Corvette's, Porsche's, etc.
    

Thanks go out to Ron Gregory, Frank Szymkowski, and two other people who's name I didn't save (if it's you email me), for giving the ingredients to the recipe. If you think something looks wrong, needs to be added, or just want to rant and rave email me .

Legalese

Chrysler, Mitsubishi, the Talon List Manager, myself or anyone else in no way suggest that you run right out and do all these suggestions to your car. Some of these modifications can be dangerous to the well being of your automobile if not done correctly and watched for proper performance. There are no guarantees or warranties by anyone having anything to do with this web page as to what might or might not happen if you use these suggestions to modify your car.

recipe.html (Make your DSM go fast) v1.1.2 3/13/96 - Steve Brunton