Upgrading a Stock 85 Omni GLH

[zbtcapone]

I just bought a 85 glh and I wanted to give it some good upgrades. I am open to all suggestions and any help anyone can give me is greatly appreciated. I want to upgrade the turbo to probably a t3/t4, add an intercooler, upgrade the brakes, new shocks/struts, BOV and whatever else i may need. If anyone knows of any good places to get these parts or any other items you think i need to upgrade(which i do know there will be more needed), please let me know.
If anyone has any detailed help they can PM me or let me know the site it is located on, thanks

[Travis_k]

I had an 85 Shelby Charger, and if i was to build one (or an omni) and completly redo the whole car, here is what I would do:

First (most important) the suspension:
There arent any good struts made for the L-body anymore, so you have to make your own. I figured out that MK2 VW strut inserts should be able to be fit into the stock housings if you remove the internal parts from a stock one and cut and weld the top part of a VW strut with the nut on it. Use either stock springs, LRE lowering springs, or coilovers, whichever you prefer.

Minivan control arms are stiffer, but they are heavier as well, I would keep the stock ones. Replace the bushings in the control arms with rubber or poly, whichever you prefer, but do not use poly on the ones in the subframe, it causes the suspension to bind, which puts too much stress on the subframe, and actually makes the car handle worse ( i have tried both). Minivan front brakes fit and are bigger, but are also really heave, so again id keep the stock ones. Get stainless lines, new rotors and id recomend carbotech bobcat pads.

Also, a 1 1/8 front swaybar wouldnt be a bad idea.

If you are going to upgrade the wheels, get either 15 or 16'' by 7'' wide lightweight wheels. 17'' will fit, but they look kinda silly and there is no reason for them. 16'' seems to have a better tire selection. The bridgestone re01-r is about the best tire you could get.

Rear suspension, find some decent shocks that are the right length (Bilstien, Koni, QA1, etc) and either have spring perches machined to use the stock springs (not as hard as it sounds), or run adjustable coilover springs.

I havent actually tried it, but I dont think you really need a rear swaybar.
For rear brakes, I never had trouble with the drums, but if you really dislike them, the solid rear doscs from a daytona, lebaron or whatever else will fit. Unless you are driving it on the track, id just keep the drums and have the shoes relined to match whateer you buy for front pads. (shelby chargers and omnis used to be road raced with the stock brakes, so they cant be that bad). Also, replace the rear flex line with stainless.

If you are looking for alot more power, the stock tranny wont take it. Find an A555 from a TII daytona or lebaron, and swap that in, with a better clutch and buy a bracket to attach the rod shifter linkage to the new tranny, and replace the rubber ends wit heim joints. You can put a cable shifter in, but you have to hack the floor and it still doesnt fit right. The A555 shifter isnt that great anyway. If you can afford it, rebuild the tranny and put a quaife limited slip it in. You will have to replace the axles as well, and you can ditch the intermediate shaft or keep it as you prefer.

At least in my car, I had trouble with drivability problems which I think were caused by the wiring, so I would recomend converting the whole car to the 89+ wiring. I believe you need a dash harness from a TBI omni, and an underhood harness from a turbo van, and the computer from an 89 TII lebaron or daytona. To intercooll it easily, you will have to change the whole intake, exhaust manifold and turbo. What wi ould do is get a 2.5 common block bottom end, and the intake, exhaust, turbo, and all the intake piping (unless you are going to make your own) and the radiator and intercooler from a TII daytona or lebaron. I wouldnt use the TII bottom end, becasue for some reason almost every single one i have seen for sale has a rod knock, so finidng a junkyard one thats good might not be too easy. I would also replace the 2 fuel pumps with one in tank pump. Once you do that, it should be a pretty good car, and that would get rid of the problems that i had with mine. If you dont want to do that kind of work, honestly I think it would be better to restor it to stock rather then modifitng it half way, it would probably be more fun to live with.

[zbtcapone]

thanks, that is def some helpful information. let me know if you know any good sites to get some of these parts or should i just search some junkyards

[detobias]

I have an 86 omni , TII conversion and have owned many GLH's

travis has some good suggestions

I would start with a full tune up, fuel filter, check fuel P under boost, compression test ; make sure the base engine and supporting systems are 100%

IMO fresh stock GLH brakes are adequate for anything short of road racing; upgrades are cheap and easy ; search for 'SLH upgrade' (I have the rear solid discs on my omni)

an 87 logic module is a good spare to find and have "chipped" so you can run custom cals ; it will interface with yur 86 100%; I have done that

a "normal" upgrade path is 'log' TI -> TII -> custom T3/T4 ; you may wish to consider converting to "GLHS" status, adjusting to that level of power (and bring suspension, tires, etc up to 100%), before venturing into T3/T4 stuff ; you can get 250 Hp from stock "GLHS" style parts ; and that is a lot in a omni

some good links to start with ; bookmark em ; read every page

Donovan's Dodge Garage

DOWNTIME Links

gus's

MiniMopar Resources

FWD Mopar Performance

[Travis_k]

Almost everything I mentioned is junkyard stuff. Basicly if you are planning to upgrade the car to make alot of power, you would use everything but the bottom end of the engine from an 89 intercooled car, then the bottom end from a non intercooled 89+ 2.5 if you did what I was suggesting in my post above.

On the brakes, dont upgrade to the minivan stuff right away. Get the stock ones working right, then if you have trouble fading them, think about upgrading. If you dont need the extra heat capacity, the heavier brakes arent needed.

[91DodgeSpiritRT]

Everything you need for upgrades is written down in the Mopar 2.2/2.5 Shelby Secrets book P5007162 and Mopar 2.2/FWD Performance Book, P4452792. I have the Mopar 2.2/FWD book and it lists all parts (with the numbers) you need for every upgrade - engine, brakes, suspension, trans etc. Many of these parts are not available anymore but some are still out there.
Most of the ideas you're gonna get coem from these books. The Teamomni mailing list is an invaluable source of information. The guys on it are great. Check out collection of part #'s for Dodge.
By the way, the original Shelby/GLH struts can still be found. Someone is selling Monroe high performance struts on ebay right now for $75.
Mike

[Marcus86GLHS]

different spin: original GLH Turbos are getting so hard to find, have you considered a more or less stock restoration? if you are starting with a decent GLHT that's the way i'd go, you'd have a fantastic driver, plenty fast and well mannered plus very reliable, and it would holds its value a lot better than one w/ all the heavy mods listed above.

[zbtcapone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 91DodgeSpiritRT Everything you need for upgrades is written down in the Mopar 2.2/2.5 Shelby Secrets book P5007162 and Mopar 2.2/FWD Performance Book, P4452792. I have the Mopar 2.2/FWD book and it lists all parts (with the numbers) you need for every upgrade - engine, brakes, suspension, trans etc. Many of these parts are not available anymore but some are still out there. Most of the ideas you're gonna get coem from these books. The Teamomni mailing list is an invaluable source of information. The guys on it are great. Check out collection of part #'s for Dodge. By the way, the original Shelby/GLH struts can still be found. Someone is selling Monroe high performance struts on ebay right now for $75. Mike

Can you tell me where i can get these books, thanks

[Travis_k]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus86GLHS different spin: original GLH Turbos are getting so hard to find, have you considered a more or less stock restoration? if you are starting with a decent GLHT that's the way i'd go, you'd have a fantastic driver, plenty fast and well mannered plus very reliable, and it would holds its value a lot better than one w/ all the heavy mods listed above.

This is what I tried to do with mine, and In my case it was not successful. I put about $5k-5500 into the car, and it was still very unreliable and needed alot more work. AMong the stuff I replaced

Steering rack (twice)
Power steering pump
clutch
turbo oil line
tires
front brake pads/rotors/stainless lines
front subframe (it was cracked)
front suspension bushings
front strut mounts
starter solenoid twice (one autozone, one junkyard)
Power module, logic module
HEP
cap/rotor/plugs/wires (twice, the first set were NGK wires that are incorrectly designed)
headliner (not necessary to run, but I got tired of decomposing foam blowing in my eyes when i had the windows down)
Shifter rods (NLA)
all of the engine mounts
the shifter linkage/dogbone bracket twice
cv shafts at least once (they were used ones though, you can buy new ones anymore as far as I know)
carpet (got completely soaked with power steering fluid from the bad steering rack)
all the rubber fuel lines
radiator hoses
water pump
battery
the intermediate shaft for the pass side axle (stripped the splines inside)
drivers side front seatbelt

Im sure there was alot more I am forgetting

When I sold it, it still needed

Paint
new wiring harness
new fuel pump
tranny rebuild (at least new syncros)
windshield
new cv joints (at least one inner was bad, I didnt take the other one out to check)


Also, the whole time I had it I only got over 22 mpg for one tank, it was uusally more like 16 city 19 freeway.

Not that I dislike turbo dodges, id love to have an 86 glhs, but I dont think a stock 85 turbo L-body is going to be a reliable daily driver, for the simple fact that there are too many parts that are important to being able to drive it that you cant get anymore. If I had kept my charger, I would have swapped in a newer tranny (probably A555) and a 2.5 with 89 TII wiring. I had fixed pretty much all the rest of the annoying problems, but the wiring was beyond what I really wanted to do. I drive an 87 Alfa Romeo Milano now, and it has actually turned out to be alot more reliable, and easier to get parts for (both pick and pull and new) than the charger was.

[ol"blue]

Travis_k : everything you replaced/put on that car are pretty much normal wear parts for a +20 yr old TD. I've never seen an Alfa on the road in 10 yrs., much less in the JY in the Mich. or Tenn areas. I'd be more than happy to put any of my GLHT'S(even the beast! you take your pick) up against your Alfa Romeo Milano on these Tenn. switchback's when ever you come around!
E-Mail- 1.glhtdandridge@comcast.net

The only and obvious drawback to the Omni is that they were a low end car.

[Travis_k]

Since I bought my alfa I have seen 3 other running ones, and 3 in the junkyard. In the time I had my shelby charger I saw 2 running ones, one dead one in someones driveway, and one wrecked one that was being parted out. I also have bought 2 sets of konis for my alfa for $30 each from the junkyard. Not that a Shelby charger or a GLH is a bad car, but the Alfa is faster than a T1 L-body, and handles quite a bit better.

A L-body with decent shocks/struts and tires and swapped to the 89 TII spec engine would be a fun car, and probably faster than mine, but stock I seriously doubt it.

I dont mean to say L-bodys are junk, I like them, all that I meant was that a stock 85 isnt going to make a very good daily driver. Stiff like the shifter rods, inner cv joints, starter solenoids, etc are NLA from dodge, and the rebuilt stuff is junk. If someone can keep one running and drive it everyday, thats great, but I wasnt able to.

If rather than trying to drive the car and fix it up at the same time you started over and replaced all of the stuff that was changed in later years becasue the first incarnation didnt work out real well (wiring, computer, P/S pump. tranny, fuel pump, distributor, log intake, etc) you would be getting rid of most of the problems, and end up with a good car.

[detobias]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus86GLHS different spin: original GLH Turbos are getting so hard to find, have you considered a more or less stock restoration? if you are starting with a decent GLHT that's the way i'd go, you'd have a fantastic driver, plenty fast and well mannered plus very reliable, and it would holds its value a lot better than one w/ all the heavy mods listed above.

v good point

you could "restore" it AND make unseen mods which will improve power, reliability, fuel economy, etc

travis, it sounds like you had a tough time with yur GLH, but still, they arent ALL unreliable gas guzzlers

[Travis_k]

Yea, I know they arent all as bad as my car was. lol After having mine for 2 years and putting 30k miles on it, I decided that the only way to make it reliable enough would be to completly start over and use all of the best parts that came stock on the various cars. I think if you did that it would be fine. But, at the time it was my only car, and I dont have room to have more than one car at a time, so thats why i had to sell it. Maybe not restore it to stock, but build it like if in 92 they had used all of the best parts from the whole production run, rather than making them the second year the engine was sold. lol It would still be all stock, just not stock for an 85 L-body.

[Marcus86GLHS]

i drove my 85 glht as a daily driver from 1988 to 1998 racking up almost 300,000 trouble free miles car was absolutely bone stock all that time. Even took it to Temple/Academy dragway in Temple, TX a couple times cracking off low 15's. I routinely could achieve 30-32 mpg on the highway w/ that car.

No, i disagree that a stock glht is unreliable.

Guess i am too sentimental, i'd like to see more of these glht cars put back to original rather than hacked and cut and ruined forever, thats why i was suggesting a stock resto. Just add a good 2.5" exhaust and a $20 grainger valve and theres a reliable 14 second glht that can get 30 mpg.

[shelbymonster]

i have a 86 charger , with 89 omni efi dash harness and 89 caravan turbo harness , be carrefull with one wire of the alternator , i broke 2 alternator ... check your pin out correctly , now i run t2 daily drive and on the strip i swap the fuel rail with the +40% instaled on it , swap the map , and swap my t2 smec to my s-60 smec and 100 octane fuel , and it goes like hell !!!!