I might be late to the party , but are these still on the car ?

There has been known issues with these . Please think about changing these before it takes your turbo out .


Nice job on the build .

 

The GoPro is the Hero or something like that. I recorded in 720p at 30 frames/sec which is the lowest quality option. It will do 60/sec as well as 1080i and p too I believe.

Get on it! I want to see it. You got pics anywhere on here?


And about the flex joints, yeah they are still on my car. I became aware of the issues with the ones with the mesh on the inside a little after I had them welded up. Apparently some people have had them come only slightly loose before they noticed them. I'm planning on getting my hot side ceramic coated at some point in the near future so I will inspect them then. Maybe I can remove the inside mesh somehow with a dremel or something. Thanks for the concern and pointing that out had I not known.

 

Yesterday I finished mocking up my muffler and the rest of the exhaust which I dumped out in front of the rear tire. I have a 2x1" crossbar that I welded in to go from my trans tunnel area to the passenger side subframe connector which limited how high I could mount the muffler. I knew it would be low but proceeded to tack it all up before lowering the car back down. Well it ended up only about 2" off the ground at the back of the muffler. I drove it some to see how it sounded and I was very happy with how much it helped. Very smooth and made the car feel more modern. One weird thing is that it would only make 5psi instead of 7 which I had the MBC set at. Why would exhaust backpressure effect the wastegate/MBC? I don't get why it changed the peak boost but it did. I also noticed is took a little more throttle to spool it. I'm going to have to redo my exhaust/muffler routing because it is just too damn low. I'm planning on cutting out the bottom of the cross tube for the subframe connector to get the muffler higher. Maybe then it will be enough. Hopefully.....

 

Swapped Mufflers from a flowbastard to a magna flow and gained 3 psi backpressure will effect boost

 

I did notice a drop in boost pressure with the muffler in place. I didn't understand why though, until today. I couldn't figure out why it would change the net boost because the MBC should have regulated it to maintain the boost it was making before. It was at 7 and went to 5 with the muffler. What I found out today is I had the MBC turned in far enough that it was not actually what was regulating the boost. The 6 lb spring in the WG was being overcome by the exhaust pressure and it was pushing open the WG before it even saw a pressure signal getting through the MBC. So a swap to a stronger spring and bingo, I now have adjustability again with the MBC. I just can't go lower than about 7 psi now since that is what the spring runs it at with the MBC backed off all the way. It also comes up on boost a lot quicker, instead of gradually. The highest I've been so far is 8psi and holy shit it feels good! I drilled the secondary jets out to the equivalent of a size 91 jet and that got my WOT A/F in the 11.2-11.8 range. I'm going to limit my amount of mechanical timing advance so I can bump the base timing up from 8 to around 12-14 and still keep it maxing at 25.

 

Just a little update, it's only been 3 years

The 350 HO crate engine is still alive and running great. Absolutely zero oil consumption and no signs of anything wrong what so ever. I've been street driving, a little auto crossing and drag racing it and so far so good. The highest boost I've ran for longer than a few seconds at a time is 10 psi. Tried 12 psi once or twice but have always brought it back to 10. Ignition timing I'vealways kept around 20-22 degrees, no signs of detonation. Once it was accidentally running around 28 degrees at 7psi and it was detonating. Luckily I had my quiet exhaust setup and I heard it right away and figured out what was going on. Wore out the band in my 700r4, broke the pinion on the 10 bolt, but the motor is fine. Converted to EFI this last year. I'm running a Megasquirt now, MS3 setup with 80lb injectors and a RHS single plane intake. Still the same tiny cam and stock vortec heads. Just dyno'd the other day at 420 whp, 430 tq at 9 psi. Next tank of gas I will be running E85 and going to change my default boost level to 12 psi. Hoping to trap in the high 120's at the track in a couple weeks.

 

lovely car.

 

great job and thanks for the update, Love seeing the stock motor is still alive and happy and your having fun.

 

Subscribing. I didn't get to read through the whole thread, but the fab work looks great, obvious attention to detail.

 

nice set up, i have a very similar one in my El Camino, made 370/392@ 6.8 psi... using china gt 45 turbo.
do you have any e.t yet?

 

Glad to hear the progress. The motor is doing good by the sounds of the video. I have a vortec headed 355 with a mild 430/460 hyd cam and holset hx 40 and have been running 15 psi on e85 blowthru. Its just a blast to drive around, I even take the kids out for ice cream in it. so far its been 11.60 leaving on no boost on the tree. I keep the timing under boost conservative at 22 deg. Rolling burnouts are great, don't you agree?

 

very cool keep up the good work!!!

 

I like the fab work..very nice!

 

Haven't updated this in a while...

I switched over to a Megasquirt EFI setup. Running a single plane RHS intake with 80lb Siemens Deka injectors. 2 Aeromotive 340 pumps in the stock tank. Boost is now up to 14 psi. I'm running E85 now which I love. Timing is around 22 degrees under boost. Closed loop boost control, 2 step and other features are great. Did I mention datalogging?? Now I can geek out for hours and tweak settings for hours. Best track results at 12 psi are 11.5 @ 123. Was doing about the same the first year I had the turbo on at only 9 psi. I've added a lot of weight since then. Switched to a 9" rear, steel driveshaft, aftermarket torque arm, crossmember and a couple other things. Gearing went from 3.42 to 3.25.

Last weekend I went to an 1/8 mile track. Best run was 7.1 at 103 mph with a 1.61 60ft.
700r4 trans is holding up great, sometimes breaks the drag radials loose on the 1-2 shift which is pretty nuts given they don't spin off the line leaving at 3 psi. Fun fun!
Engine is doing great, still doesn't burn a drop of oil.

 

Good to hear about the updates. I guess that megasquirt is way easier to tune than pulling the hat , taking the bowls off on and on . Sounds like you are having a blast with the car. I bet it runs cooler now on E85. All around thats a nice combination, keep us posted.