The road to 300whp

ASSISTANCE Forced Induction
81

Sorry, I’ve been so busy I had to neglect the boards for a little while.

Progress:
Motor just turned 2000 today (miles that is, lol). I was having trouble for the longest time getting a good street tune, but sure enough good ol’ Ben Ogle helped me get it straightened out.

I love driving this car, every day! It attracts attention like crazy! The LSD makes it handle AMAZINGLY (not that I don’t have room for improvement). She gets good gas mileage and even with the turbo, it holds its own on the highway. I was pullin on my buddies turbo Chevy Lumina (has a 80’s grand am turbo motor swapped in) and he’s ran 14.4 consistently at Great Lakes.

Unfortunately, I’m in bad shape financially, so the turbo will most likely have to wait till spring cuz I can’t afford any more of the parts yet. Good news is that I picked up another sweet ass winter car to get me through the snow. Nothin like sporting a 91 Geo Storm!!!

Plans for winter…
-Remove motor
-Complete wire tuck
-weld,bondo, and smooth over all unused holes in engine bay
-prime and re-paint engine bay
-energy suspension bushings throughout
-install polished coolant reservoir (left side frame rail)
-install polished PCV Oil catch can (next to ^^)
-Clutch and Turbo Install!!!

And I do plan on making some cool videos of my car now, including picture sequences of my cars progress and the motor build.

82

I decided to get a base run at ‘Da Grove’ before I packed away the Green Machine for winter. Here’s how it went down.

The night before race day, I decided it would be best to change my oil, passenger side axle (drivers side was less than 2 months old), and my radius arm bushings (with energy suspension bushings). The process went smooth as butter, including the removal of the pass. side axel which I had feared the OBX LSD wouldnt let go of.

As I pulled into the parking lot of Great Lakes Dragaway, my car started over heating for the first time since I installed the motor (figures it would happen now). Temp went up and came back down twice, but luckily didn’t climb again after that. I’m sure the thermostat was sticking, time for a new one. After I get checked in, they close the track to do some quick “track maintenence”? They poured some stuff out and burned it off the launch area of the track, making it REALLY sticky.

I lower my tire pressure in the Yokohama’s to 28lbs in the front and head to the staging lane. After only a few minutes, its my turn to go. I stage, put it in first holding down the clutch, and mash the gas to the floor, burying the rpm’s at 4500rpm. Light turns green, I dump the clutch. I then experienced the worst wheel hop I have ever felt in my life, violently shaking my car. When it hooked up, the r’s were as low as 4k. Despite the shitty launch, i managed a 15.08 et.

Without changing a thing I go through the stageing lanes and do another run in the other lane. There was no wait so I figured, why not? This time, same thing TERRIBLE wheel hop, too low when it hooked up, but I clocked a 14.9 et.

Then I pulled out the ol laptop, changed the launch to 5500 rpms and headed out for another run. I did a little burnout on the dry ground before staging this time. I noticed as I pulled up to the light, I could actually hear my tires sticking to the asphault like CRAZY. light turns green, I launch, then snap! Drivers-side outer CV gave out, keeping me from doing a good pass. Damn it!

Luckily I was able to limp the car home on the back roads (about 30 miles at about 20 mph) . Anything above 10% throttle and the cv skipped terribly. I limped it into the garage and thats where she will sit till spring.

83

that suxs man. The wheel hop could have came from alot of things but I think the track had alot to do with it. I noticed when I 1st turboed my lude the 1st race I had crazy wheel hop. Raising the lauch was a good idea.

hope to see you run one more time before the track closes.

84

that just a stock half rad correct? do you have cooling problems using such a small rad?

85

I’m not speaking for him, but I rock a del sol radiator and I still have a hard time even getting the fan to come on. You shouldn’t have to worry about cooling issues! :slight_smile:

BTW breaking axels suck… been there done that… its just apart of drag racing a honda…

86

yea, I dont think the single core radiator had anything to do with the overheating, because I have been driving the car for a while and it never did that before. Even after I spend a pretty good amount of time at WOT in the dead heat of summer, it still never crept up before. It had to have been the thermostat.

I wanted to get new axle quick and go back the next day, but I decided I would be better off saving the cash and putting it towards the turbo kit. I’m still pretty pleased that despite those two awful launches, i still laid down a respectable ET, considering my setup which wasnt really intended to be fast before I boost it.

I scored a nice '90 Carolla SR5 to get me through the snow now. I can’t wait to begin installing the turbo parts I already have! I’ll post pics when I do…which will be soon!

87

Vids!

Here are a couple little clips of my ride in action before I went to the track. Not too exciting, but I still like it just because that’s the engine that I built with my own two hands. (sigh) I make myself so proud! lol.

http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m106/turbolumina/?action=view&current=MOV00011.flv

http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m106/turbolumina/?action=view&current=MOV00005.flv

Can’t wait to post vids of my car under boost.

88

Update on turbo parts!

I recently purchased a used 8in JRC intercooler, which I will be painting a flat or satin black. When I install it, I am going to do my best to avoid removing the stock fins in the front bumper, so it still looks completly stock.

I’m negotiating purchase for a 38mm Turbosmart Ultra-Gate (anyone have any experience with one of these?) and for my B-day, I got a complete oil line kit, 2.5 bar motorola map sensor, and a boost gauge!

89

FYI…need to bring a 1/2inch breaker bar, jack, 32 or 34mm(i forget) and a extra passenger side axle.

90

Back from the dead!

UPDATE!!! Did you forget about me?

I brought the SSAC manifold in to have the flanges resurfaced (turns out the were pretty warped). Cost me $100 (dough!) I had to run a tap through all the threads and then I began installing my turbo parts in my cramped garage. Had to trim away a good amount of the block under the part where the B18a is stamped, which made me begin regretting purchasing that stupid manifold. I installed the oil drain line (pain in the ass) but when I installed the adapter for all my oil feed lines, things took a turn for the worst. Somehow I managed to completely BREAK OFF the boss on the block where the factory oil pressure sensor threads in. So, I pulled the motor, stripped it down and brought it in to have the hole welded shut. Now I’m going to do what I should have done in the beginning, use a sandwich plate!

Since I posted last, I purchased the last of the parts I need including the turbosmart wastegate, an HKS BOV, RC750cc injectors, a slim fan, intercooler piping kit, silicon couplers (the expensive ones!), ss t-bolt clamps, and my exedy stage 2 cerametallic clutch.

I’m to the point where I COMPLETELY regret buying that stupid manifold, because the time and effort I put into it, I could have just bought a used love fab one or something and everything would have worked THE WAY IT SHOULD! The mani and dp are the only cheap parts I bought, and they are the only parts that don’t fit properly. Ya live and learn I guess.

I took off of work for my spring break (beginning 4/9) and my goal is to have my car completed before my break is over. Tomorrow I might attempt to install my new fuel pump.

91

That sucks man… Just keep at it… take your time…

OR

Even better yet, but buy qualilty parts and only do it once… I’d hate to see you work so hard and then install crappy parts on your car and then have to start all over.

I have the HKS valves in stock… IM me for a good price :slight_smile:
NickAtTTiNC - AIM

Good luck!

-Nick

92

like I said, I bought all good stuff, except that manifold. And I already have the HKS blow off valve, thats what I just said ^

93

not bad for your run at the track. i hit a 14.9 with just intake 8.5 act flywheel exedy stg1, and stripped. weighed the car in at 2350 that night.

im goin turbo soon and lookin to run low 13s to high 12s. good luck and keep us informed.

94

Juuuuuust in case anyone was following this, I thought I’d post an update.

http://g2ic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172394

:rockon: