Hey guys, Although it's not up to the standard of most on here, I thought I'd share my project

It's a 1973 Fairmont (up-spec falcon) coupe. (or hardtop, depending who you ask..)
Currently has a stroked 351c, now at 383ci. 4V heads, solid cam, funnelweb manifold. Backed by a C4 with 4700 stall, and a 9" with 4.11 gears. Only been to the track twice, 11.77@115 waqs the best i managed. had never been properly tuned, probably has another tenth or two in it N/A.
couple of pics of the car..
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So anyway, I've always wanted boost.. Being into the oldschool stuff, I really wanted a GM 6/71 style supercharger poking through the hood.. unfortunately the law doesn't take kindly to that around here
I thought about going the ProCharger route, but they're very expensive over here, and if i wanted a kit i'd have to modify a windsor one.
After looking at a few cars locally and in magazines, the turbo option looked better and better..
A thread came up on a forum where i spend 90-% of my internet time - www.fordforums.com.au - with questions about boosting clevelands. It all went very quickly from 'hey, that sounds cool', to placing an order at turbodaves.com

That's where ttf.com came in. I've been reading up (which is hard for me, with a relatively short attention span) as much as i can, and trying to learn all the basics.. yeah the green button has been used considerably in the early hours of most mornings over the last few months..

so back to the car.. the S400 arrived (damn they're big), i grabbed some standard exhaust manifolds, and started playing..
This was about the only place i could fit the turbo, due to its size;
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I worked out its final location, and make a bracket to support it that bolts to the head. then I modified the exhaust manifolds to suit.. (using a spare head to hold it)
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once they were sorted, i bolted them and the bracket to a spare cleveland and knocked up a crosspipe/merge
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I was fairly happy with my first go at making a merge
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next was routing of the DP. Obviously it had to go through the inner guard, but it also had to come back in as there wasn't enough room under the guard for it to exit under the car there.. so I got to cutting some holes, and welding some pipe The DP is 5" reduced to 3.5", had to go that small due to space issues.
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I picked up a new Ebay intercooler (a bit small, but room is very limited), Spectre carb hat/bonnet (EV would be preferred, but $$$), and got to work on the coldside
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doesn't quite fit under a stock hood..
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due to lack of room and the design of the merge, the WG (Ebay 50mm) comes off the exhaust housing
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I looked in to FPR's, and the 13202 was clearly the way to go.. quick order to Summit (woohoo, something I can afford for a change ) and the reg and some fittings were on their way
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I looked in to ways to control the timing, my first thought was MSD BTM's, but some mates that have had success with MegaSquirt ECUs on N/A efi cars suggested we try using one on mine for spark only.. So another order online and a MS1 V3 was on its way. A friend soldered up the kit, and i fitted it in the car. Unfortunately a step in the build was missed, but that will be sorted tomorrow. We're getting the MS running in the car with the N/A setup, so we don't have to iron out any bugs with the turbo on there..

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Hopefully this weekend my carb will also be built by another friend. It's an 800dp holley thats being modded according to the hangar18 page, and a couple of holley books. I'm leaving that entirely up to him, as he's a lot more knowledgeable than me

That's about where i'm up to at this minute.. I took the coldside pipe in to work this evening, and made the holes for the BOV pipes. I'm using two Bosch units.
Tomorrow will be sorting the Megasquirt, Sunday we have a big car event on that i have to take the car to (i'm one of the organisers of the event haha), then monday morning the car is going up on stands and the headers come out, and the manifolds go in...

I'm hoping to have the car running with low boost in the next couple of weeks, as we have two events coming up that include 'powerskids' (search it on youtube )
and i'm dying to have a play in the car (our nearest 1/4m track is 10hrs drive away )

cheers
Phil.

 

Forgot to add, the car has only ever done one power run on the dyno, and it only pulled 351rwhp. that was the same day it ran 11.77. Alsothe cars weighs 3410Ibs. Thats with all the stereo gear fitted, and in full street trim (it's mainly a cruiser/street car after all )

 

Nice job.....Very creative......

 

Cool car. Nice fabrication on the hot and cold side.

10 hours to a 1\4 mile track. That would suck. How far is the nearest 1\8 mile track?

 

could you give me a bit more info on that ms1 v3 option instead of the msd. cheers

 

thanks guys. I couldn't find the rings/bands locally for the v'band clamps, so i had to machine those myself. The clamps i got from work, they fir the holsett turbo's we have on a lot of our trucks.
Nearest 1/8m track is 4hrs away It's kinda depressing, I live ten mins from a 1/4m strip, but it's been closed down for 8 or so years..

8SECHQ, the kit I used was this one: http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/...le-efi-system-pcb30-unassembled-kit-p-46.html
There's tons of info online about them, they even have their own large forum. I'm using mine with a locked distributor (weights welded in place), and i'm running coolant and inlet air temp sensors from EA-EL falcons. The MS has an onboard MAP sensor which goes up to 21psi. Also ordered their electronic boost controller when i bought the MS kit

 

Old iron is the SHIT. Good job man,

 

Hi Luke , nice job there mate , cant wait to see it running. Im looking at doing a similar setup on my VN SS , its not old and stylish but its my current sunday car so it will still give me some fun. I was thinking of modding cast iron headers like you did , but everyone avoids welding to cast iron, how did your steam pipe to cast iron joints turn out ? Did you pre-heat the manifold ? Did you use cast rod too ?

Anyway good luck and please let us know how it goes.

Cheers.

 

Luke? i'm Phil
The welds came up ok, but they haven't been through heat cycles etc on a running engine so i'll have to wait and see. Yep I pre-heated the manifolds and steampipe, I used a large 3-phase MIG to weld them. I did plenty of research into it, and there were plenty of success stories with this method so I thought i'd give it a go.

Speaking of success stories, one of them wasn't one of them.. I'm having difficulties with the MS, and as i didn't build the kit (a third person did it for me) I'm having trouble sorting it I've got a friend interstate who i'm hoping can sort it, will chat to him over the next few days.
I'm still going ahead with starting the final install on monday, if i get everything sorted apart from the MS, I'll get it fired up using just the locked dizzy for now.

I hope.

Thanks 10secgoal, your early 'stang thread is one of the first i look for when i come on here.. that and freaks 318 dart thread.. yeah i'm an old school iron fan too

 

Sorry Phil, the first photo says Luke (maybe photographers name) .....

Nice job anyway mate, keep at it.

 

Cool build and even cooler car!! Im curious on how all the cast welding will hold up.

 

fired it up for for the first time tonight, only had it idling as it has a non-locked standard distributor in it, will swap that out tomorrow. Just spent a while going over it for laeks etc.
The phone cam doesnt pic up the sound too well unfortunately.. Will post more pics/details/vids over the next few days

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cool car can't wait to see how it goes should be good

 

thats a sweet ride!!!