turbo task force

[akdg87]

change of plans! came across a 2wd 4l80, so thats going in and replacing the th350. Im going to throw a shift kit in the 80e and run it as is, just ordered a converter (wow they are spendy...). luckily the 80e comes with most parts i need (slip yoke, cooler lines) my buddy has a harness i can pilfer to make the trans harness so i have full electronic control.

[akdg87]

another change of plans! and a few pictures. So i should have the 4l80 back tomorrow and i got the new precision industries converter in, its really nice just a god awful purple color though.. Ill post pics once i pick it all up.

So i had the wheels listed on craigslist for the past month and they finally sold with a full price offer. While i did like the wheel i feel like they were the focal point of the truck and i wanted something more subtle and practical for my goals. So i ended up ordering a set of wheel vintiques series 37 ralleys (15" diameter) and some decent nitto NT555r 275/60r15 tires for the rear. they are in transit now but should be up here in about 10 days or so.

also i cut out the flex section in my turbo piping as it had "grown" over the past two years. Lesson learned for turbo systems is to use a interlocking flex section, if you look closely this one opened up like an accordion.

[lower50's]

Interesting about the flex expanding like that. That new rubber should give you some traction.

[akdg87]

I have been in and out of town for work; new wheels came in, had to grind the rear calipers ever so slightly. The front has too much wheel gap so i'm gonna throw some lowering springs i have laying around on. Transmissions in, i wired it up last night, need to plumb the coolers, attached linkage and have a drive line built. I wrapped the exhaust manifolds and new crossover pipe. Slowly chipping away at it. need some cool center-caps now!

[akdg87]

Cranking away at things, getting sick of being up until 2 am working on this but nearly done installing "hardware" and almost time to work on the 'software"

I mounted secondary trans cooler (with fan below front bumper). Also wrapped up most of the 4l80 harness conversion and methanol kit wiring. Upgraded the PCM OS to a 3 bar map so i can safely run more than 14.7 psi New turbo is hung, mounted exhaust back up; took some slight modification as the 4l80 is much larger. Also had the drive-line shortened and a new slip yoke put on.

Ordered this really cheap electronic speedo on ebay which almost matches my previous speedometer. Its actually a really nice piece and has some optional features like a high speed or rpm warning where the gauge will start flashing red. Only caveat is that the gauge back light is blue and there is no bulb to change...

Still trying to decide on centercaps, i like the police rallye caps but unsure if they will clear the dust cap on the front.

Couple Pics for inquiring minds:

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by akdg87

...Still trying to decide on centercaps, i like the police rallye caps but unsure if they will clear the dust cap on the front....

I like your old wheels but I understand why you changed them.

May I suggest '51-'52 Chevy car hubcaps? I had them on my old '46 truck and they looked good. Not sure if Wheel Vintiques makes their rim so it will accept them but not to hard to make it happen with the addition of clips if you need to. '55-'56 truck caps are also very nice on Rallys.

[akdg87]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

I like your old wheels but I understand why you changed them.

May I suggest '51-'52 Chevy car hubcaps? I had them on my old '46 truck and they looked good. Not sure if Wheel Vintiques makes their rim so it will accept them but not to hard to make it happen with the addition of clips if you need to. '55-'56 truck caps are also very nice on Rallys.

thanks Dan i will look into those, i found a oem derby style cap that fits but i just dont like how it protrudes out, i think a simple dish with a bowtie would be perfect. I like the somewhat "sleeper" look it has now, the 20" def looked sweet but it rode like a sherman tank.

Your truck is coming along nicely i must say!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by akdg87

...Your truck is coming along nicely i must say!

Thanks so much for the kind words. Your project has me thinking, "Hmmm, how long will it be before I want to turbocharge my 6.0?"

I can't wait to hear how happy you are with the performance and reliability long term. How much boost do you regularly run? Intercooler, water injection, any of that stuff?

I had a shot at Cameo bedsides right about the time I started the body work on my truck but none of the other Cameo pieces. I did a little research and decided I might be biting off more than I could chew so I didn't pursue itt further. Your truck ROCKS!

[akdg87]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Thanks so much for the kind words. Your project has me thinking, "Hmmm, how long will it be before I want to turbocharge my 6.0?"

I can't wait to hear how happy you are with the performance and reliability long term. How much boost do you regularly run? Intercooler, water injection, any of that stuff?

I had a shot at Cameo bedsides right about the time I started the body work on my truck but none of the other Cameo pieces. I did a little research and decided I might be biting off more than I could chew so I didn't pursue itt further. Your truck ROCKS!

I have been running around 15# for the past few years but i opted to go to around 20# (boost is a measurement of restriction). I do run a small 3" core intercooler and now have added a methanol/water injection kit that starts ramping the fluid in around 4 psi and has full flow by 15 psi.

My end goal is around 650 RWHP. last summer i think i was right around 525 but the th350 did not like that much power.

I think you would be best suited by a blower (magnuson or tvs), granted the cost seems higher up front, in the end you will be the same as a turbo kit. Also turbos require a bit more maintenance (cracking pipes, blown seals and a lot of engine bay heat).

The cameo bed was by sheer luck, it was a complete bed with 90% of the trim and had a few major holes plus a really crappy paint job. My dad fixed the holes and he wanted all the trim pieces so it worked out good.

[joedoh]

thewheelsmith.com has a bunch of caps that fit rallies, so does wheel vintiques. rallies take the same caps as smoothies so you could even run the 55-59 caps they make for smoothies if you wanted. they sell the car caps Dan mentioned too.

be aware, before taking my advice and ordering blindly, there are TWO types of caps that wheel vintiques makes, make sure you are ordering for the right type.

Dan, thats a great looking 46!

[akdg87]

Originally Posted by joedoh

thewheelsmith.com has a bunch of caps that fit rallies, so does wheel vintiques. rallies take the same caps as smoothies so you could even run the 55-59 caps they make for smoothies if you wanted. they sell the car caps Dan mentioned too.

be aware, before taking my advice and ordering blindly, there are TWO types of caps that wheel vintiques makes, make sure you are ordering for the right type.

Dan, thats a great looking 46!

looks like WV makes the 51-53 caps (Dan posted above) that fit the rallye type wheels, i think those look awesome, i may just order them- of course summit wants $40 bucks to ship them to me.

[lower50's]

650 @ 20psi will be a wild ride !!

[akdg87]

Yup, Could get more with a better turbo and agressive cam, but i dont want to pull this shortblock apart. 650 will be plenty fine.

The new hubcaps should be in today, ordered the ones above like Dan had posted. Excited to see how they look on the truck. Almost time to start driving it....finally

[akdg87]

new hubcaps are in and they are sweet! maybe do some tuning this weekend since im pretty much wrapped up.




ext cab i saw a few weeks ago running around town.

[mongocanfly]

Yyaaawwwnnn....can you say turbo sleeper..haha

[MIKESAD50]

What are you running for rear tires to plant that powe?

[akdg87]

Originally Posted by MIKESAD50

What are you running for rear tires to plant that powe?

Nitto NT555r- 275/60r15

[mongocanfly]

Akdg...how are those nittos for traction with your power? Thats the same tire I'm planning on running on my rears behind my ls3 and the reg nt555s on the front.. I've seen where the 555rs only last around 15000 miles so I'm assuming they're a soft sticky tire

[akdg87]

Haven't ran them yet. Actually going out to datalog tonight. Probably
be a few days until I'm fully tuned up , fingers crossed. I'll report back then.
But for $150/EACH that's a pretty good deal, I only get 1500-2500 miles a year.

[akdg87]

Well everything's working really good, had some hiccups with tuning but otherwise its running pretty good.

The 4l80e is a vast improvement over the TH350, lockup converter and OD is super nice. With the revised trans cooler arrangement it runs about 165-170 consistently, even after beating on it.

The methanol injection is sure nice; get into boost and the IAT's start dropping as opposed to rising.

Finished up at about 16-18 PSI, will probably turn it up later, (tuner said no more until i after i run it like this for a while!) i am however going to be changing to a 3.73 rear gear ratio as the 3.07 is somewhat doggish and it really is apparent with the 4l80e gearing. Its no slouch by any means but to take full advantage of the turbo and converter i need to go lower gearing.

[Rods57]

Originally Posted by akdg87

Cranking away at things, getting sick of being up until 2 am working on this but nearly done installing "hardware" and almost time to work on the 'software"

I mounted secondary trans cooler (with fan below front bumper). Also wrapped up most of the 4l80 harness conversion and methanol kit wiring. Upgraded the PCM OS to a 3 bar map so i can safely run more than 14.7 psi New turbo is hung, mounted exhaust back up; took some slight modification as the 4l80 is much larger. Also had the drive-line shortened and a new slip yoke put on.

Ordered this really cheap electronic speedo on ebay which almost matches my previous speedometer. Its actually a really nice piece and has some optional features like a high speed or rpm warning where the gauge will start flashing red. Only caveat is that the gauge back light is blue and there is no bulb to change...

Still trying to decide on centercaps, i like the police rallye caps but unsure if they will clear the dust cap on the front.

Couple Pics for inquiring minds:

Looks really good, what is the size of gadges you are using? I like the two in there.

[akdg87]

wow thanks photobucket, but i guess you cant blame them as im sure it costs money to handle/store all this data.

anyhow, had a weird misfire at WOT in 3rd gear since we thought we were done with tuning- after tearing through the ignition system and scratching our heads for a while determined it was either too rich at WOT or the Park/Neutral Rev Limiter was kicking in. Re flashed with some changed parameters and wow considering it has 3.08 gears the truck really moves out. My new 3.73 just showed up today so hopefully get them installed at some point this week.

Also have been working on a customers car- 2001 transam- went from stock to a heads/cam/full exhaust and stall converter. Also replaced the valve-train and oil pump system. Should start tuning it this week. Got some good takeoff parts (241 heads, f body manifolds and a stock cam). expecting it to be around 450 RWHP all said and done. I dont think i could ever own one of those cars as its a complete nightmare to work on- everything so tight. my hands and arms look like i got in a fight with a pack of feral cats... ha

[akdg87]

3.73 gear swap was a success (back in july). my father in law came over and helped me knock it out.

Those gauges are a 3 and 3/8" i believe. I really want to switch to a dakota VHX cluster..

The nitto tires were okay, i lowered the PSI down to around 20 psi but they just never hooked up great (even with pre heating them). I raced a few imports, a modified 5th gen camaro SS (450 RWHP) and pulled on him but i had a lot of tire spin. We did a race a from a dead stop and he pulled away 5-6 car lengths and once i finally hooked up, shot past him like he was standing still. Im going to switch to a mickey thompson or hoosier tire for next year, this thing should be animal if i can get it to dead hook from a standstill.

[lower50's]

Still really good to give the Camero a run for it's money. Those tires should do the trick, power is nothing without traction.

[akdg87]

minor updates; I got the dakota digital VHX gauges with new bezel i will be installing this year (have the OBD interface to link with the gm PCM).

Also ordered a new hot-side for the turbo kit- passenger side log manifold with a crossover that goes under the engine. Ill post pics whenever it shows up. I was having poor boost control with my homemade kit so this should help as well as get rid of excess heat under the hood and be much more aesthetically pleasing...

I'm going to swap the rear axle shafts out with some Yukon or Moser replacements and try to get a set of adjustable drag shocks under the back.