mobythevan

In my grand scheme to change my finances around and have more money ultimately to work on the z car I have to first sell my newer truck and fix up an older one for the wife. She wants a crew cab 1 ton dually and would just as soon have an older truck that I can work on so reapir bills stay low and she has lots of money for her horses. So in supporting that idea and sticking to my hybrid mentality I am picking up an 85 ford crew cab dually tomorrow morning. Then promptly pulling the blown up diesel engine and tranny and lowering a small block chevy and 4 speed in to see how it will fit. This is suppose to be a reliable and simple truck so it is getting a carb'd chevy engine, also in the interest of saving dollars because I have the engine and tranny already. I feel the diesel engine is too expensive, complicated and underpowered for its purpose. So I figure I will find out if there are any show stoppers this weekend and if not, the chevy engine goes in. Then when she has the money to buy her horse trailer and wants more power to tow it I will either swap a 454 in or drop a weiand 142 supercharger on the small block. I already checked all of the junkyards for a replacement diesel or a 460 engine, but no luck, so I'll stick to what I know and go sbc. Once this is finished I will then have more monthly cash to spend on the turbo z. The z is getting to the point where it requires more cash than fabrication at his point anyway.

heh heh .....

I am playing around with desktop dyno again looking at 350 engine builds and what interests me is the torque off idle up to 2000rpm, because the dyno only shows 2000rpm and up. In particular I was throwing together parts like vortec heads and smaller cams like the XE256H with dual plane manifold and carb. I realize the vortec heads are 64cc and may present dynamic compression ratios that are too high unless dished pistons are used, but I am more interested to know what the torque curve would look like all the way from idle or 1000rpm up. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the info, that gives me some ideas to think over.

I need to dig out my maximum boost book again but I had a couple questions about using turbos on an engine that gets worked a lot. I would like to turbo a chevy V8 for my pickup truck, but it gets used for towing a lot and I live in Colorado so we have some pretty good hills to climb. My concerns are the turbos overheating of course. It seemed like you would want to run pyrometers like a Semi truck and just keep an eye on the heat being built. I know a few guys that drive diesel Semi trucks and they say you cannot stay into the turbo on them going up hills, you have to back out some when the pyrometer climbs to around 1150 degrees. I was wondering if a guy only builds 7psi of boost in a pickup and the temp starts climbing will you have to back all the way out or only back to like 5psi boost. I guess a lot will depend on the turbo cooling options with the turbos being used. What if you used old technology turbos that are only oil cooled? Just looking for some thought from other people and maybe someone on here has used turbos on a gas engine in a truck like this before.

I was setting at a stop light in my camry and the GN pulled up next to me. I was checking and it and wondering what mods have been done. When we took off from the light I noticed there was a turbo eclipse behind him wanting to race so the eclipse jumped out beside real fast and the GN hit it. It was pretty cool to see the stock looking old GN get after it. They didn't have much room, but both cars could move. They turned down another street chasing each other and I didn't get to see anymore. It made a nice start to the day though.

Actually I just used one 4 pin module, but a person with a variable reluctor dizzy could use two. BTW, I have a 7 pin module that is good laying on my bench if someone needs to buy one.

Didn't see this thread the first time around, Turned 29 yesterday.

Looks like I am getting a 1985 Ford F-350 crew cab 1 ton dually with a blown up 6.9l diesel engine and 4 spd mnual tranny. This was cheap way for me to get into a truck like this, but I don't know anything about ford engines, so my initial thoughts were to throw a sbc 350 and my GM 4 spd manaul tranny into it built for mid range torque around 375 ft/lbs. Being all into the engine swapping thing now it doesn't seem to bad. I couldn't find conclusive info that a ford 460 truck engine will bolt right in, and they seem to be a little hard to find or I would just go that route. So I figure make new motor mounts, tranny mount, new exhaust, re-work driveshaft, maybe relocate shifter and go with a sbc. It doesn't look like the 6.9/ diesel made any more than about 300 torque anyway. I am not into diesel engines at all, so if any of you guys have some general info for a swap like this let me know. The biggest thing that worried me was the HEI distributor interferring with the firewall, but looks to me likes there is a lot of room under the hood. The diesel radiator is big, would I have to change that out to a smaller one? The diesel fuel tanks are different, would I have to swap that too? Oh boy, just what I need, another conversion project. This truck is for my wife, I don't think she is partial to diesel engines either. BTW, I don't have to emission it

I browsed the tech edge user group and no one seems to be having a problem with the cheap wideband sensor. I don't know if it has any problem, but some people insist on spending more money for a product, thinking it must be better if it cost more?

I was under the impression it did data logging, but I will have to find out.

Wow, I'm surprised nobody replied to this. Interesting. A search shows that jt240z was using the earlier version with the NTK sensor and found it to be a great tuning tool. I am sure I will go this route and see how far in over my head I can get.

I have been putting this off forever. Who likes to lay under the car and tack weld stuff together, maybe Jesse James but not me. Anyway, I made the downpipe out of 2.5 inch steel pipe as usual with a 3/8 mild steel flange that I ported to match the stock turbo. Right after the tranny cossmember the pipe couples to 3 inch and then through the dynomax bullet. Keeping the pipe at 2.5" until after the crossmember keeps it tucked up real nice into the tranny tunnel. When I upgrade to a big turbo down the road I can do a 3" downpipe to the coupler and not have to remake the back part of the system. You'll notice a few extra bends in their to keep the pipe tucked up as much as possible. I could have made it easier by using straight sections, but I thought it was worth the time to gain the extra clearance. Now that the exhaust and roll cage are finished, I think the hardest fabrication efforts are behind me with the turbo L6 car. Luckily you can't see any of my welding in the picture. That is just the old 240 exhaust in the picture, used it for a template on some things.

I'm in the same boat as baddriver, I have no experience tuning engines. I figure I will buy a wideband oxygen sensor to help with tuning. Maybe an EGT sensor as well, but both sensors adds up to some bucks. But using a dyno a couple times also adds up. Buying the sensors I can use them to tune other cars so I think it is worth the money. I will begin tuning my megasquirt next month so we'll see. Since my engine is turbo it is more important to get the fuel setting s correct to avoid pre-detonation and ruining the engine.

http://wbo2.com/ Looks like you can get the unit with display and the cheaper VW bosch wideband sensor all for under $200. Just wondering if anyone on here is using this.

Yo's graph is weird because the HP and TQ scales are different.

great to see all of these dyno runs so we have an idea what to shoot for

Nice numbers 525. It is good to see people dyno this stage of the turbo swap because it seems like the first stop on the quest to turn up boost. Since the fuel is 10:1 it makes me wonder how much if any a person gains with a programmble fuel computer on this same setup. Would adjusting it to 12:1 gain more across that area of the curve? Hmm.... maybe you won't be turning up boost soon, but now you're going to wonder if some power can be gained by just getting a programmable computer installed.

I went ahead and ordered a fuel rail from JSK so I can get set up with bigger injectors, but I had at least one question. Do the DSM 450cc injectors fit into the L28 intake manifold with no mods to the manifold? I know other people are running with these, but I have never seen anyone mention if they had to re-drill or modify their intake manifold.

That is a fair question because we see a lot of discussion about where to place the air temp sensor. The placment in the j-pipe is temporary until I install my intercooler. I just wanted to get back on the road for a couple weeks until I put the intercooler in(I am having withdrawals from the car being stuck in the garage), then several things in my setup have to change. I have to take the intake manifold off to port it for the 60mm TB, so then I will look at putting the air sensor after the TB.

Hey we are close enough to race each other, maybe this could turn into a friendly rivalry. I should be ready by springtime to head up to Denver and see what you are up to.

I am using the nissan head temp sensor instead of the GM coolant sensor, but I am using the GM air temp sensor. Yeah, it is 3/8 npt. I welded the bung into the j-pipe today for the first round of tuning on the car. I went to a bearing shop and bought some mild steel 3/8 npt couplers and cut them in half to make my own weld in bungs. Worked really well and at $5 for 4 bungs as compared to $30 for 4 of the ARP types. I am making a real sump on the bottom of the gas tank, just like the kits that summit sells. I'll weld in two of the 3/8 npt bungs like their kit. I have the sheet metal so I can do the sump for under $10 instead of buying the kit. Things are moving along good with the MS computer. I am paced by dollars right now because I have to upgrade injectors, fuel rail, clutch, and fuel pump. But I'll start messing around with the stock injectors, stock fuel pump and slipping clutch until funds become available.

Finally found some, ARP actually makes them. Kind of pricey for me at $8 each for the 3/8 steel bung. I'm cheap. http://www.tognottisautoworld.com/Products/arp/bulk_fas/WeldBung.asp

That will be my last resort. Marine shops have them in stainless steel, I was just looking for the best mix of price and finish.

Thanks anyway Tim, I have a few O2 bungs laying around, but they are too big for the other sensors. I'll go looking around today at lunch.