Turbo'in ANOTHER N/A project..

[Una]

Converting the '88 Omni to turbo was too easy.. So I'm doing it again.. To my '83 SC. Really only doing it because I lost a ring land or 4.. haha.. 87 and hot spark curves on a swirl head with like 11:1 compression.. Not good.. Anyways, I'm off to the junkyard in the morning to score a turbo block. Probably going to get a 2.5 turbo block, but I'll get whatever they have that looks healthiest. I'll pop AT LEAST one rod cap and check how it was doing on oil, check the cylinder bores (only getting a shortblock), and call it good after that. I've gotta come up with a good turbo for it.. I have like 7 dead turbo's in my shed.. heh.. But I figure this upgrade will take 3 weeks just like last time.. The car already has a turbo fuel pump, turbo intake manifold, and turbo head.. Just needs the turbo exhaust manifold, which I have like 5 of, turbo bottom end, and turbo injectors. I won't be keeping the Megasquirt. Goin with cast pistons, I really want a knock sensor. So I'll swap in a SMEC harness and run a T2 cal.
I'll keep this thread updated on the progress.

[RPMurph]

again? you sick monkey@!

[Una]

hahaha, yeah.. Everyone trying to save gas, and I just keep taking econo cars and making sports cars.. hehehe.. Guess I make too much money.

[Una]

Welp, just got home from the junkyard. Scored a good lookin 2.5 turbo engine out of an '89 Caravan. I love that junkyard, picked up a SMEC to go with it, was $81 after tax for the computer and the shortblock.

[Timmay2]

Nice price. junkyards here still believe cars were made with fine crushed diamonds.

[RPMurph]

god danm thats cheap!!! here its $150 for an engine alone....no accessories

[Una]

Yeah, this junkyard is like junkyard nirvana.. Shortblock, $64, head (with cam) $27, ECM, $10, engine bay wire harness, $9.50, injectors, $1.50 each, ANY transmission, auto, manual, even Subaru AWD ones, $50, turbochargers, $15.. Only catch is it costs $1 to get into the yard, and you have to pull everything yourself, they don't even keep track of what they have so they can't even tell you if they'll have what you want. But they have a killer TD selection.. 4 turbo minivans today.. Oh, and the inventory rotates all the time, obviously, at those kinda prices..

[89turboshadow]

the jyard near my house has only two turbo dodge, 2 lebarons. 100 bvucks fo rmotor, 100 bucks for tranny, "header panels" are 35 and tail lights go by the inch ie: my buddys probe tailight cost 35 bucks. bumper COVER was 70 bucks.
costs a buck to get in and they charge you for even lug nuts. rip off!

[Timmay2]

The one i go to here is $1 to get in .. but i believe its like $37 for a computer, $27 or so for wiring, $80 for a turbo, etc.. a wheel hub they charged me $47 or so for (20 for the knuckle, 27 for the hub assembly..) double dippers big time.. they must expect people to have a bench press in their pocket to seperate the parts they want. they charge a core charge on just about everything except a taillight.

if you were to buy a cylinder head, youd probably get charged for the head, valves, studs, cam, lifters, sproket, and thermostat housing.

[Una]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timmay2 The one i go to here is $1 to get in .. but i believe its like $37 for a computer, $27 or so for wiring, $80 for a turbo, etc.. a wheel hub they charged me $47 or so for (20 for the knuckle, 27 for the hub assembly..) double dippers big time.. they must expect people to have a bench press in their pocket to seperate the parts they want. they charge a core charge on just about everything except a taillight. if you were to buy a cylinder head, youd probably get charged for the head, valves, studs, cam, lifters, sproket, and thermostat housing.

Yeah, this yard will do the same thing, just with lower prices. Double charged for the steering knuckle the exact same way. I've been dealing with this yard that I have their tricks down pat. I bring cores with me. Had an old TBI shortblock with me for the core charge. Have brought blown up axles for axle core charge. Cracked heads for cores.. etc etc.. And they do love to nickel and dime ya for all the little add-ons.. Oh.. That tranny has a dipstick! Oh, that stamped piece of sheetmetal on that head, that's a thermostat housing! haha.. I've learned.. This block was stripped to the gills when I brought it up front. I even pulled off the coolant feed hose barb off the back of the block, it's pocket sized anyways.. haha..
Oh, I came acrossed a very cool turbo distributor while I was there.. It didn't use the crappy melted plastic rivets to hold the shutter wheel, it had REALLY NICE metal rivets in there, not the kind some backyard mechanic woulda done either, actual factory metal rivets.. I almost grabbed it..

[Una]

Well damn.. The engine blew up this evening. A little info on this car, it's on long term loan to a friend of mine. He's been driving the thing daily for over a year now. So anyways, he was heading down the road this evening when something went pop and suddenly he was billowing clouds of oil smoke. So the schedule got shifted up quite a bit. Unfortunately the budget didn't. So we haven't got a turbo for it yet, no money to get one. So I rolled a couple ideas around. Both involve just yanking out the dead block and swapping in the new 2.5 turbo block. First idea I had was to just leave the Megasquirt goin, re-tune it for the 2.5 bottom end. Problem with that idea is right now the stock '83 2.2 HO spark control computer is running the game. That's what cracked the rings, way too much spark advance for a high compression engine with a swirl head. So while the compression will be really low now, it'll still be a swirl head, and it'll be a pretty sensitive 2.5L engine. I don't want to go through the hassle of completely re-designing my megasquirt setup on there to run ignition, this car needs to be a daily driver again ASAP. So I'm going with my second idea.. Go ahead and make the car a complete 2.5L turbo car, minus the turbo. So I'll get the minivan wiring harness installed in there, swap in some 33lb injectors, and put it all back together like it's actually a turbo car. I'll play with the cal some to see if I can optimize performance. Should run like a champ. And when my friend comes up with the money for a turbo, we can pop the head off toss it on, and have him flying within 3 hours..

[Una]

Got the new engine in, bought a turbo off a guy here on TD.com for the homey hookup price of $20+shipping. Bolted the nice intercooled turbo 2.5L with a Garrett turbo to the dreadful A525 transmission that was in the car. WooHoo! Anyone up for a 3rd gear pull at 14psi? hehehe Gunna keep the boost as low as I can get it, 6-7psi hopefully. Hopefully it makes less power than a GLHS at that level, so I don't blow the turbo.
Sorting out the new '89 minivan harness right now, might have it started this evening. Won't be able to work on it tomorrow, as I'll be out of the state for the local PNW end of summer BBQ event. So I'll wrap it up and have it on the road Monday/Tuesday after work.
I'll have to list all the cheap tightwad shortcuts I took on this engine build sometime, preferably AFTER I verify that it's going to run properly. hehehe..

[Una]

Ok.. Fired it up this evening. Unfortunately, I could only run it for about 10 seconds. It ran good during that 10 seconds, but didn't want to risk running it any longer than that because there wasn't a drop of water in the engine. I have a GLHS rad/intercooler in the car, and go figure, there's no good way to hook a common block water pump to a GLHS radiator.. I'll be making a custom lower radiator hose on Monday.. hehe.. but it fired right up on my custom cal, and ran good, rev'd it a bit, sounded great with an open swingvalve, not even a downpipe on it yet. hehehe. Guess my minivan harness swap was a success.. hehe..
So, I mentioned I took some cheap tightwad type shortcuts on this swap.. Let me list them, and scare you a bit..
First and worst, 2.5L turbo engine hooked to the existing A525 transmission!
Next worst, Garrett turbo that I ran without oil for 7 miles in the last car it was in. After getting my $20 turbo from a fellow TD member and seeing how much shaft play it had, I felt this was a better option. It's got NO shaft play, we'll see if it survives.
I didn't have the head surfaced. I used a felpro headgasket (given to me for free awhile back) and I reused headbolts from my spare headbolts bucket (mix and match of the ones with cleanest threads).
I removed the TBI exhaust manifold and swapped on the turbo one without changing the gasket on the head.
I used an old oil feed line I had laying around, blew compressed air threw it and called it good.
I used a 2.5L shortblock of unknown pedigree straight out of the Pull-a-part junkyard without any maintenance to it.
Should be interesting to see how the whole combo holds up.. I have less than $250 into this swap, even counting the new shifter/shift cable conversion I'm doing to finally get rid of the shift rods for good.

[chrisn]

sounds like fun.

your my hero.

[Juggy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Una So, I mentioned I took some cheap tightwad type shortcuts on this swap.. Let me list them, and scare you a bit.. First and worst, 2.5L turbo engine hooked to the existing A525 transmission! Next worst, Garrett turbo that I ran without oil for 7 miles in the last car it was in. After getting my $20 turbo from a fellow TD member and seeing how much shaft play it had, I felt this was a better option. It's got NO shaft play, we'll see if it survives. I didn't have the head surfaced. I used a felpro headgasket (given to me for free awhile back) and I reused headbolts from my spare headbolts bucket (mix and match of the ones with cleanest threads). I removed the TBI exhaust manifold and swapped on the turbo one without changing the gasket on the head. I used an old oil feed line I had laying around, blew compressed air threw it and called it good. I used a 2.5L shortblock of unknown pedigree straight out of the Pull-a-part junkyard without any maintenance to it. Should be interesting to see how the whole combo holds up.. I have less than $250 into this swap, even counting the new shifter/shift cable conversion I'm doing to finally get rid of the shift rods for good.

hahaha a fellow TD'er on the list in my city, does the same stuff...uses all old used parts..hes a cheap ass....no need to mention names, lets see if he notices this post no wonder why he had his motor torn apart 3 times last week ALONE.