blog.bharper: the blog of brandon harper

Since people ask me about the Talon from time to time, I suppose I should give an update about it. During the summer of 2002, I started to install a 20G turbo and found that I had coolant leaking into my oil. From that evidence, I assumed that at a minimum, I was looking at having to install at least a head gasket as well as re-do all of the upper gaskets.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was tired of having to always fix things instead of planning them out and doing them right. Long story short, I decided that I should just build a decent engine over time, and let this become my cheap race/project car. Everyone in my dad’s generation have multiple cars, my dad has several muscle cars as well, so I suppose its natural to me to have multiple vehicles. I ended-up picking up a 1997 Accord SE for a daily driver.

Right now the Talon is essentially a rolling chassis. The transmission and head have been pulled, and the only thing left in the engine bay is the block. I haven’t touched it recently because of the holidays, house hunting, etc. I’ve also been trying to clean-up and organize the garage a bit since I’ll be moving soon.

Ultimately I want to have a street legal 12 second car which will have enough braking and cooling to take to Second Creek Raceway from time to time, but enough power to run low 12’s at Bandimere. I think it’s a pretty reasonable goal. It will take me awhile to get it all put together, but once its done it will be worth it.

Here are the list of parts I’ve purchased so far for the rebuild:

• 6 bolt block, crank, flywheel, and oil pan
• ARP Hardware
• 20G Turbo
• Fluidyne Radiator
• Powerslot Rotors
• Porterfield R4S F&R Pads
• RRE Stainless Steel Brake Lines
• Laptop for AEM EMS
• Upgraded Fuel Rail and Fuel Lines

Of course, here are the other things that are in the works:

• AEM EMS
• Eagle Rods
• Wiseco Pistons
• SCE Copper headgasket
• New Suspension of some sort
• Transmission Rebuild
• Crower Stage II Cams
• Upgraded intake manifold of some sort
• Crower SS Valves
• New Lifters
• Manual Brake Lines (removing ABS)

Those are the basics anyhow. One last note– thanks to John Erickson for the help and guidance thus far. I’m definately in over my head, but that always seems to be an optimal learning environment for me.