I'm a dyed in the wool old time Pontiac nut. I'm also an old Gasser lover. I'm also a turbo lover. So I'm combining it all to build my car. A 1963 Pontiac full size Catalina, cut off front frame clip and replaced with a custom rail front frame clip and '57 Chevy pick up beam front axle, narrowed rear frame rails for 16.5X33.5X15 Micky Thompson ET Streets, the firewall cut and moved back 12 inches, motor moved back 11 inches, steering wheel and front seat moved back 11 inches. 1960 Pontiac 389 block bored .090 over for 406 inches, built to the hilt for boost. Splayed 3 center 4 bolt caps, steel rods driven down from the center decks into the water jackets to stop any flexing of the middle decks during boost, filled jackets, Ross turbo dished forged pistons and hellfire rings, GRP aluminum rods, forged 3.75 stroke Ohio crankshaft crank, and special balance. The bob weight comes out at just over 2000 grams. Stock 389 is around 2400. They had to cut down the counterweights to get it to balance. Roller cam, 251 int/241 exh @.050 solid roller with 116 LC and net .650 lift. KRE 325 CFM aluminum D-Port heads. Victor intake, 750 CSU blow thru, Turbonetics twin 76TC ball bearing turbos w/.81 A/R turbines. Widened (yes widened) ford 9 inch with backbrace, laddder bar braces and wheelei bar mounts. I had to widen the 9 inch as it was too narrow for my '63 even with the 15X15 rims and 7 inch BS. Tubbed rear wheel wells.

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This is the firewall and engine mocked up, but with an early single turbo header set. I am now installing twin 76mms so the single header set will either be modified or sold and I'll make a twin set.
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teering wheel and seat moved back 11 inches. New steering support built.
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The Turbonetics twins
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I'm thinking over my transmission options. The tubo head in me says a TH400 or 4L80E for the efficientcy of spooling etc. The motor/Gasser head in me says a manual to have fun on the street. Since the car will not be on the strip much but I also want to get the most out of the turbos for bragging rights, again it's the automatic. But for shear fun and popping off that BOV it's back to the stick. I have to decide soon so I can move on.
I've got alot of things to do and running out of the money I got for selling my previous car. So the going will be slow. Mark

 

Subscribing to a great vintage build
Always liked the old cats although I owned GTO and Venturas those GALY Great American Land Yachts rock.
Looking forward to the build progress 8)

 

Turbo Catalina? AWSOME! Subscribed.

 

Thanks for your enthusiasum. Long way to go and the build money from selling my previous car is now gone. So I will be stealing coins out of my wifes purse for money, heh. I'll remember to add things as I go. The motor should be done in a little while but it might be a while before starting it. Mark L

 

Subscribing

 

nice build and different.

 

Cant wait to see how this progresses, very nice.

 

Doing some yard work to clear some of the Honey Do list. I think I'm going to tackle the rearend next. I'm building my own ladder bars. This is the rear end.

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I'm going with old time 48 inch bars, using the original rear coil springs after I build the spring mounts on the narrowed frame rails and on the rear axle. I may make/use an old adjustable spring seat so I can vary the ride height of the car. Then I'll use standard drag shocks off of the rear shock mounts.

Thought I'd show you what I'm doing for a fuel supply system. A freind gave me an old Hilborn front cam driven fuel pump once used on Lopers Speed Shop (of Phoenix) Top Fuel Dragster.

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I mounted it on a MOON front cover. I didn't think I could use it for my car so I mounted it as a dummy pump and intended to run the regulator bypass fuel back thru it and back to the tank so it looked like it was a part of the fuel supply. BUT, I found that it could be used on the street so I found a custom machined adaptor to use a readily made Chevy spud drive, bought the correct mounting plate for the Moon cover and now I intend to use it to acually supply fuel to the motor.

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There are some operational issues with running this kind of pump though. It should be fine for a carburator since the fuel bowls will allow the car to start and run until the pump gets pressurized. I may go to EFI in the future and I'm trying to find out what kind of pressure this pump is capable of at lower RPMs like idle, if it can make enough pressure to supply the EFI enough?? I'm sure there will be no problem as the rpm comes up but just unsure at idle etc. Just an update on what I'm doing and what I've done. I'll add some more pics of work already done on the car to show whats been done to it.
Last spring I got it in a rolling condition and took it to an all Pontiac car show. This is it once on the trailer.

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At the show.

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And my first ever trophy plack for favorite Catalina in the show.

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More info coming. Mark L

 

the enderle fuel pump...
keep it below 145 ish psi, and should last for ages
i have one on my engine, and also has done 500+ fuel test bench pressure test.

once over 150psi, it really starts to excessively wear the pump out

btw, nice car

 

wantabe, exactly the info I'm looking for. I'll be using a bypass regulator and with the carb I'll only need about7 psi consistently, not a problem with this pump. EFI would of course be more but still well below the 140-150 mark. Do you have any stats on what that pump makes at lower rpms? Like idle and midrange? I'm trying to determine if the pump makes enough psi at idle for EFI, 40 -70 psi depending on what the EFI needs? Would you describe your fuel/induction system for me? Thanks for your info, it is much appreciated. Mark L

 

if you supply the part number of your fuel pump, i can get you an approx fuel flow, when it was new.
the fuel output is linear of sorts, and pump speed is proportional to pressure/ flow
something to think about:
pumps creat flow , as they are a fixed displacement gear pump
restriction creats pressure.

there are pumps out there than 'could' be better for efi application, but since u got that pump, work with it. the place the other brands work better is low rpm, and prime up / start.

you dont wanta know my fuel system stuff....

 

what fuel ?

 

Either crap 91 pump premium or if I can swing the carb change or big enough injector size should I go EFI, I'll go E/85. If pump gas I'll probbly throw in some good race gas for the strip just for safety. Mark L

 

buy a carb off Brent Davis here... to suit e85

 

Very cool build. I look forward to seeing the rest of it.

 

This car wins so hard!!!!!!! I <3 it!!!

 

Hey guys have not been very active but I've got a seemingly small start on working on it again. Been redoing the yard, digging up all of the gravel yard that we built and preparing it for artificial grass. We graveled the yard first and then made the mistake of getting a dog. She knocks all the gravel into the pool so we are running artificial grass around it now. Anyway. I had four of the 3/4 inch heim joints for the rear of the bars and the steel tubing to build my ladder bars. I finally ordered and received the weld bungs for the ends. And I ordered spherical rod joints for the front of the bars. I'll take pics of them as soon as I have all the parts together. So I'm going to building the bars soon. I'm going to make a girder style but somewhere in the middle of the bar I'm going to add a flat steel plate support with a Pontiac V cut in it. Just for looks. They are going to be about 48 inch bars. Will know once I get started and do all the measuring.
Since I traded the single turbo for the twins, I've been building all kinds of induction systems in my head, and checking on prices, looking for deals etc. The engine will be capable of alot of HP, the twins will be capableof 2000 hp, but the single 750 will be the first restriction, followed by the intake and then the heads. So I've come up with possibly adding a Tunnel Ram with twin 750 blow thrus. I'v talked to the guys that built my 750 and they can duplicate it and also mod both carbs to work better as twins. Of course it just takes money. So I've been trying to sell a couple of things I've had sitting around to build money for that. With that system I will never be restricted before the heads. May never use the full potential of the intake system but it will never slow me down either. I also think the visual impact of the twin turbos, feeding twin intercoolers, feeding twin 750's, on a Tunnel ram will be just amazing. Let's just see if I can make it happen.
I also found a great deal on a 35 spline detroit locker and sent for it. I already have a 31 spline locker but I have always felt that the 31 might not be strong enough for the power and the heavy car. I just feel much more secure with 35 splined axles than the 31. If they never break I'll never know. If the 31 did then I would always kick myself.
So all that and when I find a good aftermarket speedometer I can start designing and building my final dash configuration. I did cut up and place my original dash in place but I'm still not sure I want that back in the car. It's a lot of weight for nothing. It was not going to do anything other than sit there for looks. I still want to the use the upper padded dash extension and make it bigger to reach farther back than stock. Maybe I can design and build a complete dash off of that. l think it will be better in the long run. So that is where I am right now. We'll see how it progresses. Mark L

 

Nah, skip the dual carbs unless you just want it for the cool factor. Airflow doesn't make nearly as much difference as in a N/A app, what you need is more fuel - as in dual N/S bowls. Air going through the venturis is compressed and more dense, so venturi size being smaller than 'optimal' is much less critical. Smaller venturi will have more booster signal which makes it easier to tune and also more consistent. Trading those benefits away in exchange for 5% gain in peak power ain't worth it.

 

Wasn't procharger able to make like 1600hp in the fastest single carb car.

 

Gordon put down 2200+ with his single carb dual needle seat bowls.