Triple Blowthrough Turbo

[Dat73z]

This evening I had an hr so I packed and pressed the rear end together with new OE bearings and seals. 

 

Unfortunately, one of the stubs was extremely difficult to turn when pressed on. This is a new one on me, apparently the dust shield was binding with the strut assembly. 

 

Fortunately I have a couple spare dust shields but I'll try and lightly bend this one out first before pulling all the studs out and starting over. 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Dat73z

[Dat73z]

After disassembly it was apparent what had happened. The dust shield lip somehow caught on a couple of areas of the KW powdercoated strut assembly. After some beating with a hammer things looks better. I'll ensure there are no raised edges on the strut assembly or dust shield, throw a coat of paint on everything, and re-reassemble. 

 

Hopefully I can get it back together this next week or so, the general mechanical work is easy but time consuming. I'd like to get back into some welding and fab work. 

[Dat73z]

It has been a ridiculous month and I had to take a break from the project due to working insane hours and balancing family time, but I'm back at it again. 

 

Since the last update I wrapped up the bulk of the suspension and brakes upgrades and started tearing back into the turbo aspects. 

 

I need to fully mock up the new manifolds and turbo setups into the car before we continue with the new cnc intake manifold setup so I've started tearing everything back out again. 

 

This will also allow me to refabricate my midpipe to downpipe connection. 

[Dat73z]

Life got busy but I recently started working on the build again. 

 

Since the last post I've been cleaning out the garage and figuring out where things are at. 

 

All of the new suspension is on and I pulled the midpipe to begin refabrication around the new turbo setup. I also sent the vintage SK 50s out for restoration and started assembling my wheels with the 245s for more traction. 

[Dat73z]

I had a couple of hrs this morning so I stripped out the old turbo setup and started mocking up the new Vband G series and wastegate. 

 

There is a lot of fabrication work ahead and it starts with mocking up all the hard parts in the car. 

[Dat73z]

Had to take a break for a couple of months and go on a bunch of family trips. A few left to go but long lead-time parts are trickling back in. Had my vintage SK50s fully restored by Kyusha House as the older castings are better suited for the surge tank, they look fantastic. 

 

Once I get back in from traveling will see what it'll take to get the custom intake manifold cnc'd. 

[Dat73z]

It's been a busy year but I've been making progress on the build. Since the last update I've installed a CD00A transmission, had a AL driveshaft made up, performed some retrofit modifications on the SK50s for boost/fuel control + swapped venturis, and in the final stages of the cnc intake manifold. 

 

This winter I'd like to wrap up fabrication on some new stainless fuel lines and the exhaust. If I can swing a trip down to SoCal I'll drop off the new exhaust manifold, turbo, and downpipe for inconel shielding. 

[A to Z]

Man everything looks great!  I have a Yoes oil spray bar, the one you have is HUGE in comparison!  I do have a question though......running carburetors....why a fuel setup more in line with EFI??  Surely 3-4 psi / standard carb flow is sufficient, or are you overbuilding for the future?  I don't even know HOW you found the HKS surge tank and stuff.

[Dat73z]

On 11/3/2024 at 1:37 AM, A to Z said:

Man everything looks great!  I have a Yoes oil spray bar, the one you have is HUGE in comparison!  I do have a question though......running carburetors....why a fuel setup more in line with EFI??  Surely 3-4 psi / standard carb flow is sufficient, or are you overbuilding for the future?  I don't even know HOW you found the HKS surge tank and stuff.

 

Fuel system is set up for carbs, as recommended by Aeromotive for carb forced induction applications. The setup is for rock solid base pressure but also maximum volume which is very important in high fueling demand FI carb applications. 

 

I haven't been posting much as life has been crazy busy but the build goes on in the background. After the trans swap I determined I could no longer use my fuel line routing so I've upsized to SS hardline -8 feed and -10 return while also upsizing the regulator and fuel pump.

 

The fuel pump is a walbro 450LPH, which I'm planning to run single but could also go double mounted inside an in-tank surge tank with an integral Pierburg lift pump. The fittings are full flow so there is minimal restriction in the feed/return. 

 

New manifold, turbo, and other hot parts went out for shielding last month so hopefully those come back soon. 

 

[Dat73z]

Still waiting for parts/materials and I've been doing a bunch of fabrication work in the background. I was chatting with my machinist the other day and it's amazing how supply chain for many parts and materials still hasn't caught up to pre-covid times. 

 

One of my objectives for the build was to run AC and Power Steering, so when putting together the first iteration of the build a few years back I measured and intentionally fabricated around future component locations. 

[Dat73z]

This winter I've been making good progress on various aspects the build, but most importantly getting back into the groove of one mini project per day. Tonight I diassembled the frontend of the car to revisit the cooler packaging. 

 

In the last iteration of the build I had intentionally left enough room to mount a half-size AC condenser, which are popular for other turbo cars such as evo's running large forward facing turbos. 

 

The packaging is extremely tight as I wanted to retain the hood springs while running a large oil cooler and condenser behind the fmic. I also left enough room for the option to run a 2" thicker core fmic in the future. I did have to mount some new PIAA horns as the OEM units would not fit. 

 

After some measuring, the plan this week is to SS hardline the oil cooler from the bulkhead fittings as although everything is functional I've never been quite happy with the SS braided hose. At the time I also didn't have the 10AN SS hardline bending tools and materials which I now have. Perhaps this will allow me to bring the oil cooler further to the pass side and give the condenser a bit more room as well. 

Edited December 10 by Dat73z

[Dat73z]

Last weekend my buddy came over and we pulled the motor as it made sense with all of the work going on. Everything only took about an hour and honestly I think we spent more time eating at a buffet and catching up afterwards 😂

 

Everything is easily accessible now so the plan is to finish up the hardline work on the chassis + setting up all of the new turbo and manifold(s) on the engine stand. 

 

This past couple of evenings I've been bouncing between projects, but for the turbo rebuild redoing the fuel system to -8AN feed and -10AN return SS hardlines. The physical dimensions of all the components are much larger, but through careful fabrication I'm able to mostly reuse the mounting locations from the prior setup limiting any new holes. 

 

Earlier on the fall I also had new -8AN and -10AN hardline clamps machined for the tunnel so later this week I'll start fabricating up the new lines into the previous mounting locations with the new clamps and around the new CD00A transmission which occupies a lot more tunnel space. 

 

SS hardlines, especially in large diameters are always challenging for me but I think the end result is worth it. This will also likely be the last fuel system I put into the car because I can't see a scenario where I'll need larger than -10AN and -8AN with 450 pump(s) on a L series. 

[Dat73z]

Last night I mostly re-laid out everything on the firewall, close enough to finish fabricating the rest of the lines at least. Sort of tempted to start welding up the unused holes in the engine bay and shave things a bit, but I know that will turn into a major project so saving it for when I repaint the entire car someday. It'll also be interesting to see how the bulkhead heater fittings I put in for the vintage air will look with the OE hoses, but won't get that full view until the engine is back in. 

Edited Thursday at 03:28 PM by Dat73z

[Dat73z]

I wrapped up the fuel system mounting in the engine bay and realized I was missing a couple of AN fittings so while those are on order, I moved back to the cooler packaging. 

 

While the AC drier can really be mounted anywhere, including the cabin I wanted to keep everything tight in front of the radiator support. After some further mockup and measurement I realize I'll need to hardline most of the condenser packaging, as the packing including the trinary switch is just too tight for soft lines. 

 

What I found interesting about AC hardlines is there are no handheld tools that I could find to produce AC oring flares. Everyone I called who produced hardlines mentions they have some large proprietary hydraulic machine. So this limits me to purchasing pre-flared lines in varying lengths, such as those from Vintage Air, to bend myself and/or section and tig weld back together as necessary. 

[Dat73z]

Now that the year is finally winding down I'm actually able to spend more than 30min blocks at a time working on the car. 

 

Tonight I measured things up for the condenser hardlines and bent up some tig wire as templates. I also ran the AC softlines into the DS fresh air duct as the intercooler takes that up on the rad support. Basically it'll be a tucked AC setup. I could probably have most of the AC system invisible in the engine bay actually, if I was willing to exit the softlines into the fenderwell. 

 

I'm also contemplating fabricating a AC line bulkhead using the OE rad support holes like I did for the oil cooler. It'll add complexity and parts cost to the project but like the oil cool I think it'll be a cleaner solution. With the holidays I probably won't get any materials I order until the new year anyways so I guess I'll sleep on it and decide next week.