Anyone here ever have any DSM's?

ide go check it out at least, if you be rollin in a 1st gen then your status as teh master of zing shall be completed and possibly your ban on ctautoscene will be revoked?

bentley429 said:

hmm clearly I dont know the dsm lingo, isnt a 16g a stock turbo? Doesnt matter much anyways dont think it would ever go that far. There is one for sale locally says it needs a radiator and it sometimes grinds in 1st gear which sounds like a syncro to me.

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A big 16g is different. IIRC, factory is a 14b. As far as the first grind, that sounds exactly like where I'd use syncro shift. And the big 16g / used 20g's are cheap.

If you want a reliable 4 banger to daily drive get a honda, you dont want a mitsu on the reliability merits. Not that they are bad cars but they for the most part have been beat on.

I had a 91 TSi AWD, I loved that car. As long as you keep up on the maint., as with any car, it will last a long time. I bought the car from the original owner with 126k. Two days after I bought it the timing belt snapped and bent all the valves and sent one of the valves through the piston. I replaced the head, honed the one cylinder, put in a used piston/rod and re-used the old bearings. It ran awesome afterwards. I bought the car completely stock, and after doing all the free mods, plus an ACT 2100 clutch, Walbro 255, test pipe, and MBC @ 18 psi, it lasted me until 215k. I sold the car at that point, but I still had the original turbo on it, x-fer case, trans, etc. The only thing I replaced was brakes, both front axles(clicking u-joints), and misc other maint. stuff. I would buy another one again in a heartbeat!

i have a few friends who have had DSM cars. one had a 1st gen N/A car, was a DD, was slow but he BEAT the living crap out of the car (literally flogged the car daily) it ran great for a long time then he had a problem and the rods started knocking.

another bud of mine has an 2nd gen AWD talon with a t3/t4 hybrid upgrade and all the usual DSM mods, it runs real fast (probably 12 sec in 1/4), can dead hook off the rev limiter but will smoke the stock clutch alot of times. he took his SAFC piggy back controller off so the car runs pig rich and lost all its power (has huge injectors) without any sort of tweaking, hes going to build another motor and up the boost to 25 psi and tune with DSM link

as a car they should be like any other and run great but you start putting power to them and driving them hard they will break just like any other car like a mustang or something. i am not DSM guy but AFAIK the older 6 bolt motors are the better motors for performance, but for DD duty it wont matter if you dont plan on beating on the car.

DSMs are pretty awesome cars i wouldnt mind having one for a DD, do a few small upgrades and make it a peppy ride that gets decent milage.

I had a 92 plymouth laser awd with the 6 bolt engine and 4 bolt rear.It was a good car,but if you launch it hard and try shifting it like a mustang your GONNA have tranny problems.Make sure you change the timing belt and water pump on time,when the belt breaks,your at least putting new valves in the head.Manual boost controller@15 lbs ,cone K&N FILTER,2.5 downpipe,test pipe(no cat)and 2.5 catback and i was beating bolt on stangs(sorry but i was) with it.Happliy now i have my 90 notch and wouldnt go back ever.And DO NOT run more than 15psi without a fuel pump and a apexi afc(fuel computer).Second gens are girly and like crankwalk.Another bad thing is that ricers will love you and try to befriend you.

bentley429 said:

Well it doesnt say how many miles are on it but if i got it for say $1k would I be doing good? Seems to be in good shape in the pictures paint is a little ruff which doesnt bother me. It is a TSI by the way.

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$1k for a tsi is good. I haven't found one that cheap down here even with a body in ****ty condition.

For a DD, i wouldn't touch a $1k dsm with a 10-foot pole, especially a turbo. One that's in reliable shape is going to sell for more, and you're not looking for a project car to dump money into.

Want a cheap DD? Then buy an "off" car and either spend a little more for one that's in good shape, or spend a lot less on a car that requires some work. What I mean by an "off" car is pick one that isn't a best seller, or a non-popular model. For example, as reliable as Accords and camry's may be, everyone likes them and looks to buy them used. That means resale is high. However, people aren't looking to buy an old Taurus, Dodge Stratus, Hyundai Elantra. These are the cars noone actively looks for, but they still get good gas mileage, are reliable, and for the domestic cars parts are plentiful and cheap at any parts store. Resale is low, so when you find one that's more than 7-8 y/o the price has bottomed out. I personally prefer to find cars that are around 9-10 y/o with low mileage on them. That means they've got a lot of life left, and someone else has taken the big depreciation hit for you without using up the life of the car.

Now, as a project I think it would be a really fun car to build. I've always said that I think the DSMs are the 5.0 of the import world. They can be quick and cheap to mod. They're light tossable and cheap, and there are cookie cutter combinations that go from mild to wild. The AWD ones are particularly useful in cold-weather/ snowy climates.

Just my 2 cents,

Chris

I had a 92 talon awd bunch of mods big 16g some fuel and exhaust upgrades went 12.60 @ 109 it was my daily driver. The tranny took a crap so i had it rebuilt with some better gears for about 750.00 about 4 years ago. They are decent cars the only problem is the tranny and sometimes axles. Go with a ACT clutch run castrol gxt 10-30 if it gets lifter tap (most do) try and find a 92 it had the 6 bolt motor and the 4 bolt rear, the earlier ones came with a 3 bolt rear and it wasent as strong. As far a gas mileage it wont be more tha 20-22 mpg. I had 3 talons and they were great cars but no mustang, but as a daily driver its great it goes through the snow like nothing if its AWD. Just dont get carried away with mods save the money for the real car.

buy it and smoke turbo tony's junk all day

see crank, see crank walk. walk crank walk.

i actually like driving my car... so bought a fox :-D

Doesn't sound like it's a very good idea anymore. One for $1k is gonna be a roach. Everyone that's replied with any real experience has mentioned some pretty major problems. "Oh, it was a great car, the motor and tranny and everything else in existence went after driving it 3 feet but other than that it was wonderful." And a 4cyl car that gets 20mpg?? Holy Christ. Oh, and just so you know ahead of time, you're gonna have to buy me a lot more than a grinder to get me to help you work on that ****in thing when it breaks.

Just for good measure.

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