my 92 spirit r/t

[92spiritrt]

i'll start off with a little background on the car. its a white 92 spirit r/t. its very clean and is close to being completely rust free. has 127,xxx miles on it. i ran a best of 13.80@107 on street tires on the original motor with a 50 trim and typical bolt ons(fmic, 3" exhaust etc.). it ate an ishaft but did no bearing damage luckily. but at that point i decided the motor should be freshened up so i pulled it out of the car and started to pull it apart. the #4 cylinder wall had a few gashes in it. i took the motor to brian slowe for a "stock" rebuild, but that idea didn't last too long. one thing led to another and things ended up at the point that you will see in the following pictures. the car is coming along fairly well now and will be making its debut at sdac this year. so here we go:

the turbo is a precision 6262 with an .82 housing
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0337.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0338.jpg

i decided to build a header. i tacked it together then had brian do the final welding
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0335.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0340.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0340.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0406.jpg

next was the downpipe. its 3" stainless with a 44mm tial gate and 1-3/4" dump to atmosphere for the gate.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0470.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0471.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0472.jpg

[92spiritrt]

while i was working on those parts brian was building the bottom end. its a .020" over r/t block, je pistons, oliver rods, r/t crank and pro-gram 4 bolt mains. the head has a 5 angle valve job done by wallace, ported by steve menegon, s1 cams, ti retainers and adjustable cam gears.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0415.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0545.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0546.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0547.jpg

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0592.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0593.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0594.jpg

also brian built an intake from scratch for it. first pic is a mock up to make sure it cleared the hood. the rest are latest pic i have of it but it now is all welded up. its a 5" plenum it will have a 70mm mustang tb on it. the injectors will be on the underside of the intake.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/escort/100_0480.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0550.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0549.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0548.jpg

[turbovanman²]

F*ck me, that's going to be an animal, :hail:

Did you port the oil pump hole? :eyebrows:

[92spiritrt]

the intercooler is the precision 750hp piece.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0425.jpg

boost controller is an innovative turbo unit.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0647.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0648.jpg

i started to clean the engine bay up. carroll is making me a simplified harness like what he did for his omni. i also removed the abs out of the car. that opened up a lot of space.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0654.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0653.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0652.jpg

i got a real nice gas tank from lengel and brian welded a sump on it. the fuel system will consist of a fuelab 1300hp pump, 75 micron filter and 10 micron filter with a -8 feed line. i haven't mounted it yet but that will happen soon.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0665.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0664.jpg

lengel came over this morning and we degreed the cams.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0667.jpg

brian is putting the trans together, which i might have back this coming friday. it is an a568 with an obx and 3.50 final drive. i will be running a 4 puck tu clutch with the purple plate. hopefully it all holds up.

that pretty much brings the build up to speed. i will be updating as i go now. a huge thanks goes to brian, lengel, carroll and my fiance megan(she glass beads most of my parts) for all of their help.

[2.216VTurbo]

Nice work Rob, if you fabbed the header, you've got serious skilz:hail: Nice tank and fuel system as well. I'd give you props for the intake Mani too but I think we know where that's from;) 600 HP in a Spirit eh?:eyebrows:Nice:clap:

[iTurbo]

:eek: Wow man talk about full tilt!

[92spiritrt]

Nice work Rob, if you fabbed the header, you've got serious skilz:hail: Nice tank and fuel system as well. I'd give you props for the intake Mani too but I think we know where that's from;) 600 HP in a Spirit eh?:eyebrows:Nice:clap:

thanks alan. yeah thats all brian right there. 600hp would be nice, buti'm not going to make any claims til the numbers are documented. i don't want to do any benchracing:D


:eek: Wow man talk about full tilt!

it wasn't going to be full tilt by any means, brian's a bad influence.

[iTurbo]

OK now that I have reattached my lower jaw I must say that looks awesome. Nice work on everything!

[135sohc]

You should have put some MP billet caps for #1 & #5 to match the rest of the bling party in that block :nod:

[bradp]

Looks awesome!!!

[Simsy]

wow a lot has changed :D

[raccoon]

living the dream. :)

[Directconnection]

Looks killer, man!

I have a suggestion to brighten up the paint in your engine bay to make it look almost new again: 3M Imperial Hand Glaze. Comes in a clear, tall, quart sized bottle with red writing on it. The stuff looks like a mocha shake.... but you rub it in good by hand, and buff it off by hand afterwards and all the oxidization and scratches come right out! Look at what it did to my 155,000 mile engine bay in my sig!

Oh... NAPAs usually carry it.

[92spiritrt]

OK now that I have reattached my lower jaw I must say that looks awesome. Nice work on everything!

thanks again for the kind words


You should have put some MP billet caps for #1 & #5 to match the rest of the bling party in that block :nod:

i'll keep that in mind for next time;)


Looks awesome!!!

thanks brad


wow a lot has changed :D

only in the engine bay, still looks completely stock on the outside:evil:. the intercooler is even hard to see through the grill.


living the dream. :)

almost, i can't wait til its done cause at this point all i want to do is drive it now.


Looks killer, man!

I have a suggestion to brighten up the paint in your engine bay to make it look almost new again: 3M Imperial Hand Glaze. Comes in a clear, tall, quart sized bottle with red writing on it. The stuff looks like a mocha shake.... but you rub it in good by hand, and buff it off by hand afterwards and all the oxidization and scratches come right out! Look at what it did to my 155,000 mile engine bay in my sig!

Oh... NAPAs usually carry it.

thanks i'll have to check that out. i'm definately happy with how the engine bay cleaned up so far, but if i can get more shine out of it i'm willing to try it. that last time i drove the car it pushed 4 quarts of oil out in five minutes of driving. so everything on the passenger half of the motor/engine bay was covered in oil and sludge. so it has come a long way already.

[rx2mazda]

thanks alan. yeah thats all brian right there. 600hp would be nice, buti'm not going to make any claims til the numbers are documented. i don't want to do any benchracing:D

:confused: We've been bench racing for months!:p



it wasn't going to be full tilt by any means, brian's a good influence.

^^^^^Fixed!

BTW, I though this was a top secret project that wasn't getting a PLOG until after SDAC? Everything looks great Rob. This is a shining example of how you do a good serious build from top to bottom......Oliver rod, JE's, Menegon TIII head, big plenum intake, Carroll wiring harness(:evil:)Precision IC & turbo, 70mm TB, Header, etc etc :hail:

[92spiritrt]

:confused: We've been bench racing for months!:p

shhh, i don't want to get into a bench racing war. noone is going to buy the idea that this car will go from a high 13 car to a possible 10 second car:D. but it will still be faster than your car:lol:


^^^^^Fixed!

BTW, I though this was a top secret project that wasn't getting a PLOG until after SDAC? Everything looks great Rob. This is a shining example of how you do a good serious build from top to bottom......Oliver rod, JE's, Menegon TIII head, big plenum intake, Carroll wiring harness(:evil:)Precision IC & turbo, 70mm TB, Header, etc etc :hail:

i gave up on the top secret plan. i have posted enough pics in other threads now that if you put them all together you would pretty much be able to figure out something was being built. you missed probably the most important thing on that list: a slowe tune, with any luck he'll have it running 11's on 87 octane:eyebrows: or something along those lines.

[rx2mazda]

shhh, i don't want to get into a bench racing war. Noone is going to buy the idea that this car will go from a high 13 car to a possible 10 second car:d. But it will still be faster than your car:lol:


Rob! Can you hear me?! Rob! Rob! Wake up man! Rob! Your dreaming again! Rob!......:D

[92spiritrt]

Rob! Can you hear me?! Rob! Rob! Wake up man! Rob! Your dreaming again! Rob!......:D

sorry i forgot about the weight difference again(which is the only thing making you fast:p).

[rx2mazda]

sorry i forgot about the weight difference again(which is the only thing making you fast:p).

:nod: and my minimal experience driving slow cars.:eyebrows:

[iTurbo]

Just curious, are the electronics going to be TIII based or aftermarket? And is that a yellow Shadow ES sedan I see in that garage? Maybe it's just the light.

[92spiritrt]

i have a megasquirt for it. waiting to start installing it til the motor is in. yes it is a yellow shadow es sedan in the background. it is a friend of mine's car. it will hopefully be together at some point this year, he works alot of long hours so the build is going slowly. its an auto car, we pulled out the 2.5 t1 motor out to make way for 2.2cb bottom end(its a fresh motor nothing too crazy). has a gasket matched head with +1mm valves, ported one piece, tu manifold with a 50 trim and so on. has a decently built a413 with a nan converter. should be a fun street car. here is the motor(sorry for the quality i took it with my cell phone):
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/SU1BRzAwMjMuanBn.jpg

[iTurbo]

Wow man rare car. I used to have a car exactly like that ('89 Shadow ES turbo sedan) but white and always wanted another. I have seen a yellow '89 Shadow ES sedan around locally here but it is totally beat and has major hail damage. I would probably be all over the yellow one in the F.S. forum here if it were only a sedan. Here's my old one BTW:

http://www.turbosedan.com/jerm/imcarpix/june/shadow1.jpg

[turbo2point2]

it wasn't going to be full tilt by any means, brian's a bad influence.

Who me?Nah..:evil: Very nice build:amen:

[lengel]

I have been seeing Rob's build first hand for the past few months, and can say that the pictures don't do it justice. Not only is it going to be one of the fastest spirit r/ts out there, its also going to be one of the nicest/cleanest. We want to see pics of the trans:eyebrows:

[Pat]

Looking good Rob. Nice work!

[turbokid]

Loving that car. Looks like a fantastic set up!

[fleckster]

Very nice work, Rob! Can hardly wait to see it at SDAC this year! (I'll get a very nice look at the tail lights as they get smaller and smaller in front of me. Hopefully I'll get a good look at it at the car show where I can see it better next to my Spirit R/T. If you make it too nice I will be able to see my car's flaws in your paint! lol

You'll love the OBX 568/523 set up. I love mine!

[turbovanman²]

Are you going to do the idler mod?

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0667.jpg

[Dave]

Sweet Jesus! You guys are nuts. :D Good to see more Turbo Mopars going full out. Keep us updated on this, I'm very excited to see more of this!

[440dart]

SOB i just shot it on the computer screen ive had enough car porn for a day

[Dave]

SOB i just shot it on the computer screen ive had enough car porn for a day

OMFG! Nasty!! :yuck:

[440dart]

OMFG! Nasty!! :yuck:



i wasnt kidding dave:yuck: hahah that is going to be one nasty car jesus

[rx2mazda]

i wasnt kidding dave:yuck: hahah that is going to be one nasty car jesus

:amen:

[92spiritrt]

Wow man rare car. I used to have a car exactly like that ('89 Shadow ES turbo sedan) but white and always wanted another. I have seen a yellow '89 Shadow ES sedan around locally here but it is totally beat and has major hail damage. I would probably be all over the yellow one in the F.S. forum here if it were only a sedan. Here's my old one BTW:

http://www.turbosedan.com/jerm/imcarpix/june/shadow1.jpg

your old car looks cleans. the yellow car has a pretty rough paint wise, but it is otherwise pretty decent.


Who me?Nah..:evil: Very nice build:amen:

thanks brian, it wouldn't be happening without your help.


I have been seeing Rob's build first hand for the past few months, and can say that the pictures don't do it justice. Not only is it going to be one of the fastest spirit r/ts out there, its also going to be one of the nicest/cleanest. We want to see pics of the trans:eyebrows:

thanks adam. tranny pics will be in the next post. now that your car is fixed you better start driving it:nod:.


Looking good Rob. Nice work!


Loving that car. Looks like a fantastic set up!


Very nice work, Rob! Can hardly wait to see it at SDAC this year! (I'll get a very nice look at the tail lights as they get smaller and smaller in front of me. Hopefully I'll get a good look at it at the car show where I can see it better next to my Spirit R/T. If you make it too nice I will be able to see my car's flaws in your paint! lol

You'll love the OBX 568/523 set up. I love mine!

thanks for the kind words guys. the way work is going right now i'll be happy just to have it at sdac. cruising on the highway with that trans should be nice with the 3.50 in it.


Are you going to do the idler mod?

not sure yet, i haven't decided.


Sweet Jesus! You guys are nuts. :D Good to see more Turbo Mopars going full out. Keep us updated on this, I'm very excited to see more of this!

thanks dave. updates are coming.


SOB i just shot it on the computer screen ive had enough car porn for a day

yeah, that was nasty. but i'll take the compliment:D

[zkeifer]

haha wow i remember checking this out with the exhaust not even in yet it looks amazing man cant wait to see it on the road it will be nasty

[92spiritrt]

i went back to work on monday so my progress has slowed down considerably. i'm out of state and gone from monday morning til friday evening. i ran to autozone last sunday and bought some meguiars glaze(they didn't have the 3m stuff directconnection reccomended). it polished up a little in the engine bay but nothing crazy. i think the paint has just seen better days. i also mounted the meth injection pump.

today brian brought up a few pieces for me to coat for him, but along with that he delivered my trans and intake manifold. i glass beaded and clear coated the trans case before i took it down to him. here it is:

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0673.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0672.jpg

i'm in a big debate with myself right now on the intake. i was planning on coating it the same color i used for the valve covers, but now that brian started to polish it i really like it, i just am not really looking for that kind of maintenence of keeping it polished. we were talking about it this morning that maybe i could polish it then try clear coating it so it doesn't haze up. either way here it is:

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0669.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0670.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0671.jpg

[turbo2point2]

I still like the polished look:nod:

[rx2mazda]

Can you finish polishing it, then powder coat it so we can see good side by side?:evil:

[rx2mazda]

I still like the polished look:nod:

Tell everyone how much fun you had putting together that tranny! :lol: I don't want a pickle!!!!!!!!

[92spiritrt]

I still like the polished look:nod:

me too, i'm just lazy, remember


Tell everyone how much fun you had putting together that tranny! :lol: I don't want a pickle!!!!!!!!

i already apologized for that, and i'll probably apologize again tomorrow morning when brian comes back up:o.

[ScottD]

Nice work! Your location is Whitehall, PA - do you live in Adams County near Gettysburg? I used to keep tabs on a white 92 Spirit R/T that was bought new by a woman at Colonial (now closed) in Gettysburg. I'm wondering if your car is that car.

[92spiritrt]

no, i live in the other whitehall(there are two of them in pa). i'm about 10 minutes north of allentown. its probably not the same car, but you never know.

[ScottD]

With only 68 white ones built, it could be the same car.

That's a bummer you live up in Allentown, I was hoping you were near G'burg as I have some pumpers I would like to get powdercoated.

Good work on the R/T so far.

[92spiritrt]

i got a decent amount accolmplished today on the car. the new rear suspension, new tank and pump assembly are all officially in the car. i wanted to get the front in too, but there is just no way that was going to happen also. i would really like to pull everything apart and clean it all up, but with less than 3 months til sdac i already have a lot to do so that isn't happening right now(winter project i guess).

i bought carrolls suspension from his spirit and had a set of air shocks laying around for the rear.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0677.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0678.jpg

also the new sumped tank went in along with the first fuel filter, pump and all the plumbing to go with it up to the front of the tank where the second filter will be going. the only thing that i'm not sure about is if the fuel will make that uphill run into the y-block without any problems. it was my only option so if it is a problem, i'm not quite sure how i'll fix it.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0682.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0679.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0681.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0683.jpg

and for those thinking ground clearance will be an issue, here is a pic of it on the ground(i was worried until the tires hit the floor). as it sits there is 26psi in the air shocks, so this is as low as it will sit.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0684.jpg

[turboshad]

Hellz ya, that's looking sick!! So many reasons to come to SDAC this year :amen:


i'm in a big debate with myself right now on the intake. i was planning on coating it the same color i used for the valve covers, but now that brian started to polish it i really like it, i just am not really looking for that kind of maintenence of keeping it polished. we were talking about it this morning that maybe i could polish it then try clear coating it so it doesn't haze up. either way here it is:


ZoopSeal FTW. Polish it up good and then apply the seal. It impregnates the aluminum and keeps the shine for about 3 years. Then just do it again. That is what I've used on all my Al parts in the engine bay and it's been working great. :thumb:

http://www.zoops.com/zoopseal.asp

[92spiritrt]

thanks dj, i'll have to try that stuff cause the more i look at it the more i want to polish it.

[turboshad]

thanks dj, i'll have to try that stuff cause the more i look at it the more i want to polish it.

I have the same sickness. I think it's worse than a drug addiction.:(

[92spiritrt]

today was the first time i touched anything on the car in a while. i spent around 5 and half hours polishing the intake. it came out pretty decent for it being the first thing i ever polished. just have to pick up some zoopseal yet. i'm also now debating on polishing the compressor housing as it is just about the last thing that hasn't been either polished or powder coated.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0698.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0699.jpg

i got the clutch last week and just have to get/do a few things then the drivetrain can be put in:evil:.

[glhs727]

wow... seriously nice build.
What do they put in the water up there? seems like anyone within 200 miles of Brian Slowe's place has gone crazy. I can't wait to see all these new builds at SDAC this year. It looks like the quick 8 will be a whole lot quicker!
later,
Cindy

[turboshad]

That looks excellent!! Great job. :clap:

I think my compressor housing was one of the hardest things I've polished. Getting casting off always sucks no matter what, but all the curves in the compressor made it absolute hell. That being said, I may have been missing that magic technique that would have made things all better. :o

[92spiritrt]

wow... seriously nice build.
What do they put in the water up there? seems like anyone within 200 miles of Brian Slowe's place has gone crazy. I can't wait to see all these new builds at SDAC this year. It looks like the quick 8 will be a whole lot quicker!
later,
Cindy

thanks cindy. as stated before he's a bad influence:D


That looks excellent!! Great job. :clap:

I think my compressor housing was one of the hardest things I've polished. Getting casting off always sucks no matter what, but all the curves in the compressor made it absolute hell. That being said, I may have been missing that magic technique that would have made things all better. :o

it looks better in the pics, theres alot of little imperfections in it. thats what i was thinking about the turbo, because of how much of a pain that i can only imagine it will be is why i am seriously thinking of powder coating it. but the polish will look better:confused:

[92spiritrt]

made a little bit of progress today. drilled and tapped the oil return hole for the -10 fitting and glued down the crank scrapers.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0729.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0730.jpg

over the weekend i put all the accessories on to make sure i still had all the bracketry and hardware and remembered how it all goes back together. i still have to coat the crank pulley and a/c bracket.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0731.jpg

my most recent order from summit came today and i was playing around with the inlet bell which will be going right behind the grill and running a 4" pipe to the turbo. some trimming is in order but you get the idea. its getting pc'ed in a satin black in order to hopefully hide it.:D

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0728.jpg

my plan was to put the motor in the car tomorrow, but i changed my mind about the final finish on the header. i bought the neccesary tools and materials to ceramic coat it today, so hopefully that stuff comes soon, then in goes the drivetrain.:evil:

[Dave]

Lookin good man! :thumb:

Let me know if you need anything from Summit. You can call me if you'd like. ;)

[92spiritrt]

i haven't had too much time lately to work on the car. i've been trying to finish up the new patio lately(have to take of advantage of the nice weather while i can). but i did try my hand at ceramic coating friday night and shot my header. it looks pretty decent, we'll see how it holds up though.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0732.jpg

i'm going to get everything in order tomorrow and am shooting to drop the motor in either tomorrow night or tuesday morning.

[rx2mazda]

Me likey!

[Pat]

Nice.

[Dave]

Very nice! Can't wait to see it in. More pics please.

[92spiritrt]

THE MOTOR HAS LANDED:D, finally. got the TU purple plate and large 4 puck clutch in with it. everything went very smoothly. i also put the non abs proportioning valve in and new master cylinder.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0733.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0734.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0735.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0736.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0737.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0738.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0739.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0740.jpg

i've got a long road ahead of me, but not too much time left to reach the end. sdac is coming up way too quickly.

[92spiritrt]

i bolted the turbo up this morning and started to mock up the intercooler plumbing. i modified the bell to fit and also had to "massage" the 4" bend to clear the master cylinder. so now at its smallest point it is 2.5"x4" roughly. i think i'm going to order a 45* coupler for the compressor outlet as i'm not a big fan of how it is sitting with the straight on it right now. brian will be welding all of the pipes together, i just have no way of tacking them at the moment so that is why its all held together with couplers.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0741.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0742.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0743.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0744.jpg

that's all i can do for today, hopefully more progress to come tomorrow.

[Pat]

Damn. Looking at some of the project logs on there makes me feel like a hack!

Awesome work.

[92spiritrt]

Damn. Looking at some of the project logs on there makes me feel like a hack!

Awesome work.

thanks pat. with the way your car runs and still is as clean as it is you are far from being a hack.

[Dave]

OMFG!!!!!

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6139/jizzed.jpg

[92spiritrt]

been picking away at a few things slowly. yesterday the new megasquirt harness showed up. today i went to the junkyard and got a few plugs and the edis stuff. started to run the wires and solder on the plugs. the wiring is obviously still in its primitive stages, but its getting there. i still have to make mounting brackets for the coil pack and the iac motor. i tried out the plug wires from an escort and they work out pretty well, so i now need to see if i can get a decent set for it or get some made.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0757.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0758.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0759.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0760.jpg

[turboshad]

Ms ftw :amen:

[rx2mazda]

Does the charcoal canister have sentimental value? :P

[92spiritrt]

Does the charcoal canister have sentimental value? :P

it does until i stop being lazy and pull it out. its in the way of my i/c piping.

[Dave]

What kind of party is going on next to the charcoal canister with the hose ends and wire leads coming from it?

[92spiritrt]

What kind of party is going on next to the charcoal canister with the hose ends and wire leads coming from it?

the purple blue and black are for the edis module. the box with the an fittings is the iac motor.

[92spiritrt]

Carroll came up yesterday to work on the wiring. he made a good amount of progress on it. while he worked on that i got some other stuff done. put the injectors in, made the fuel return line and started running the fuel feed line. also got all the edis stuff wired up(edis module, coil pack and crank sensor) and the last bit of progress made was i made a bracket to hook up the throttle cable, still needs some fine tuning(i want to adjust the angle a little bit), but it works very nicely. i still have to make a bracket to hold the coil pack then i'll coat both of them.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0763.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0762.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0761.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0764.jpg

[turbo2point2]

Looking good:thumb:

[turboshad]

Stealth injectors....I like it. :eyebrows:


Well at least one of you two guys will get their car to SDAC like they promised. ;)

[92spiritrt]

Looking good:thumb:

thanks brian


Stealth injectors....I like it. :eyebrows:


Well at least one of you two guys will get their car to SDAC like they promised. ;)

i'm not making any guarantees that it will be there, but i'm really trying.:thumb:

[rx2mazda]

Stealth injectors....I like it. :eyebrows:


Well at least one of you two guys will get their car to SDAC like they promised. ;)

:rolleyes:

[92spiritrt]

got all of the intercooler piping mocked in today. all marked, taped and ready to be welded. took a little longer than i would have like it to as i had initially planned on accomplishing more. i also redid the 4" pipe, got rid of the dented one and use a silicone 90*. it worked alot better.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0765.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0766.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0767.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0768.jpg

[Pat]

Purdy. Is it all 3" tubing? On the valve cover breather fittings...did you baffle them at all?

[92spiritrt]

no, it's 2.5" from the turbo to intercooler then 3" from the intercooler to tb. its way to close to the trans now, so there is no way i could have gotten 3" straight from the turbo. as for the breathers, they are not baffled.

[turbo2point2]

Let's go! 24 days left;)

[rx2mazda]

Let's go! 24 days left;)

+1

CRUNCH TIME! Or does the new wife have you on porch duty? :p

[92spiritrt]

No she doesn't but my boss called me back to work. So I no longer have all the free time I used to:(.

[92spiritrt]

i haven't updated this in a while, but i have been working on the car alot. at this point i have to finish up some wiring, once i get that done i can put the radiator in. then i just have to put the new gauges in and get the interior back together. the plan is to start it up on saturday for the first time. i know the pics do not look like i have accomplished very much since last time, but the old ones had alot of stuff just mocked up.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0962.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0963.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_0964.jpg

[Dave]

Soooo nice! Very impressed with your work.

[92spiritrt]

thanks. there are so many things now i wish i did differently. i have a lot of stuff to clean up and redo, but those will be winter projects. we just need to get it running first. brian came up and put a very long day in yesterday, but we couldn't get it to fire cause of issues with the ms communicating. it was frustrating to say the least. bringing the car to sdac is most likely a long shot at this point.

a huge thanks to brian, lengel and carroll for all their help so far. i owe you guys.

[Turbo3Iroc]

Sucks Rob, was really hoping to see that car run.

[92spiritrt]

there may be a little glimmer of hope just yet. we'll find out tomorrow.

[Turbo3Iroc]

Good luck :thumb:

[92spiritrt]

after hours spent on the phone getting tech help from dj and brian, it finally runs. it is definately not setup anywhere near perfect, but is in a driveable state which means i can get it to sdac and then be able to have them tune it in person.

last night after getting it running i broke in the motor and bled the brakes. just have to button up a bunch of stuff tonight and hopefully take it out for a drive.

thanks for the help guys. this has definately been a learning experience to say the least. a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. see you guys at sdac.

[turbo2point2]

:clap: I can see you smiling from here:D Good to hear you are on track!

[contraption22]

Awesome! Can't wait to see the car.

[Pat]

Nice!!!

[92spiritrt]

as most of you know, the car did get done and made it to sdac. but it was quite the journey. for those that don't know the story, here it goes.

the thursday night before sdac, i buttoned everything up or so i thought. i ended up finding a leak in a brake line and a slice in the one boot on the drivers side axle. so friday i fixed those problems and tried to drive it. that didn't work, the car would fall on its face everytime i tried move. the firmware on the megasquirt was having errors so we figured that was the problem.

saturday i tried to updated the firmware with no luck(i am computer illiterate). i ended up driving to sdac in the neon, its about a 170 mile drive each way. i got there around 7, met dj and we ended up leaving the hotel around 9:30pm to go back to my house. we arrived there at about 12:15, at which time dj began to work his magic with the laptop. he got it running after messing with it for a while. we ended up leaving my house around 3 am and arrived back at sdac at 6. the car didn't quite run right but it made it and at that point is all that mattered. it had a dead spot right when it hit 0 vacuum.

so when we arrived back at the hotel on sunday morning, dj and myself started to clean our cars up for the show. we went to the show, hung out there all day then back to the hotel. i ended up being awake for 41 hours, so i really wasn't feeling like working on the car at that point. monday we hooked brian's laptop to it on the way to the auto x event. everything seemed to look fine sensor wise, but the dead spot was still there. when we got back to the hotel that evening dj and brian started to bounce ideas back and forth. they had me try removing the signal wire for the fuel pump controller, which ended up fixing the problem. it was a dumb mistake on my part wiring it that way, but its a lesson learned and was an easy fix. unfortunately at that point i had to leave to go home, so we were unable to tune it.

the car drove perfectly the whole way home and the only thing that could have made me happier with it would have been to get into the boost, but i didn't want to chance it being that it wasn't tuned properly yet.

at this point the fuel pump seems to have gone bad, so i have to get a hold of fuelab on monday and see what they have to say. hopefully all goes well with them as i've heard their customer service is great.

so all in all i had a great time at my first sdac. it was great to meet everyone and put faces with the names. and i was also very happy with the car since it made it out, back and all the driving in between with pretty much no problems being that the trip to sdac was the first mileage put on the car.

i really want to thank everyone that lent a hand over the weekend. especially brian, lengel, carroll, pat, etc.. thanks guys.

most of all, thanks to dj for all of the help you have provided me with on the megasquirt. to be willing to sit in a car for a 6 hour round trip after driving 40 hours to sdac means alot. i definately would have never gotten the car up and running without his help.

i am greatly indebted to you guys and feel i could never repay you guys for all of your time and help.

thanks.

[2.216VTurbo]

Good story, the pics don't do your engine bay justice. That is one very sexy TIII motor:love: I slept about 3 hours the first night at SDAC, then I got a full 6 the next. Then another 4 hour night after that and 5 the last. I think that's the MOST I've slept at any SDAC:D To much fun happening to waste time in the rack:nod:

[Dave]

That's awesome to see it was up there. Huge congrats on finishing it at the 11'th hour!

[Pat]

It was absolutely one of the coolest T-III's I've ever seen! I'm glad that you figured out the issue and can't wait to see what it does once it's tuned and track ready.

[92spiritrt]

Good story, the pics don't do your engine bay justice. That is one very sexy TIII motor:love: I slept about 3 hours the first night at SDAC, then I got a full 6 the next. Then another 4 hour night after that and 5 the last. I think that's the MOST I've slept at any SDAC:D To much fun happening to waste time in the rack:nod:

thanks for the kind words alan. it was great to meet you. you are one crazy mf'er:D. not sure how you do it. it caught up with me around 11 sunday night. we were standing by brian's truck and i could feel myself starting to fall asleep, that was when i gave up and went to bed. i need my 8 hours:amen:.


That's awesome to see it was up there. Huge congrats on finishing it at the 11'th hour!

thanks dave. its been a long month to get this thing done. been working 40 hours a week, then putting in about 40-50 hours a week on the car. my wife has been nothing but patient with me being that she only sees me when i come to bed. i'm glad its done(for the most part). other than the fuel pump issue, which once its fixed i'm taking some time off and just enjoying the car for a while. hopefully i'll get some good drag times soon:evil:.

[92spiritrt]

It was absolutely one of the coolest T-III's I've ever seen! I'm glad that you figured out the issue and can't wait to see what it does once it's tuned and track ready.

thanks pat. and thanks for the motivation last weekend. i see the scaries is starting to outshine the shadow:lol:. in a way it doesn't surprise me that it went as fast as it did, but the fact that you threw it together in a short amount of time and weren't far off from 11's on a slick track is pretty amazing. congrats on the win:hail:.

[WOP'R]

has this car been to a 1/4 mile as of late?

[92spiritrt]

No it hasn't. I've been ironing out the bugs one by one but it has developed an oil pressure issue. It's hard to explain what it is doing especially cause it doesn't do it all the time. Next step is to take it down to Brian and start tearing into things before it does any damage. That should be happening soon hopefully.

Other than that the car drives great. The butt dyno says that it feels faster on 14psi than it did on 25 on the old motor. Hopefully the numbers will say the same.

[92spiritrt]

Oops. Double post

[92spiritrt]

i took it down to cecil yesterday. no big numbers or anything, but we did make some progress.

all the passes were made on street tires and 14psi.

first two passes had the rev limiter at 6250. the tach isn't hooked up yet so i just ran it til it hit the rl.

the first pass was the slowest the car has ever gone as long as i've owned it. this one pretty much on the half tune that dj put in on the way to sdac. up until this point we really haven't touch anything on the ve table. first launch i didn't even bring the revs up, pretty much like pulling out from a stop sign.
rt-.551
60-no time, there timing system probably doesn't go that high:(
330-7.513
1/8-10.984
mph-70.8
1000-13.844
1/4-16.303
mph-92.04

i knew the car was really rich so we messed around on the return road and figured out where to start pulling fuel from on the ve table. i left a little harder and ended up cutting my best 60 of the day.
rt-.794
60-2.309
330-6.417
1/8-9.737
mph-73.88
1000-12.497
1/4-14.796
mph-95.48

the a/f ratio on the second pass was a rock solid 9.5 all the way down the track. we pulled some more fuel bumped the rev limiter up to 6600 and tried again. it bogged at the line real bad.
rt-.562
60-3.157
330-7.632
1/8-10.897
mph-74.22
1000-13.637
1/4-15.873
mph-101.25

still rich, more fuel was pulled. on the fourth pass i spun hard out of the hole but it still 60'ed half decently.
rt-.677
60-2.480
330-6.672
1/8-9.911
mph-73.98
1000-12.653
1/4-14.872
mph-102.32

a/f on the last pass was 10.4 up until the top of 3rd where it dropped to 9.5.

so all in all it was a good day. nothing broke, weather was great and we made some headway with the tune on the car. from start to finish we pulled 10mph out of the car. i didn't notice til i was typing this, but on the last pass it picked up almost 30mph on the back half.

a good amount of tuning is needed yet. the car has a huge lag to it when i shift, it takes literally about a second to respond when i hit the gas, so that needs to be ironed out along with some more fuel could probably be pulled out. i think i'm going to take it to island on wednesday night so i play with it more then.

next step is to replace the five lash adjusters that aren't pumping up and get this thing down to brian to work his tuning magic. my goal is to get the car trapping somewhere between 105-110 on 14psi. after that the boost controller will get hooked up and we'll see where that takes me.

it was definately a motivation booster to just adjust some numbers on a computer and get such gains. hopefully things will keep improving.

[Pat]

Excellent progress Rob. That 14 psi will take you a long way once you have the tuning sorted out. 110 mph shouldn't be a problem.

Then, the fun begins. :-)

[92spiritrt]

Excellent progress Rob. That 14 psi will take you a long way once you have the tuning sorted out. 110 mph shouldn't be a problem.

Then, the fun begins. :-)

thanks pat. problem is the parts start to break when the fun begins.

[Pat]

thanks pat. problem is the parts start to break when the fun begins.



True, true. Sometimes it's better to forget that problem for a while.

[92spiritrt]

i'll try to.:)

[rx2mazda]

Sorry I didn't make it! I went to Denver on Friday and got stuck there for hours in a thunderstorm! Didn't get back to Baltimore until really early in the morning :( By the time I woke up it was too late. Glad to see your making progress tuning! Do you have my catch can?

[Dave]

WTG man! Not bad trap for just 14psi and initial tune.

[92spiritrt]

Sorry I didn't make it! I went to Denver on Friday and got stuck there for hours in a thunderstorm! Didn't get back to Baltimore until really early in the morning :( By the time I woke up it was too late. Glad to see your making progress tuning! Do you have my catch can?

Thanks Carroll. I've got a long road of tuning ahead of me. Hopefully it'll be we worth it in the end. Brian has your can.


WTG man! Not bad trap for just 14psi and initial tune.

Thanks dave. At first I kind of expected more out of it but I'm definately happy with the progress made. Hopefully I'll get more out of it Wednesday as long as the weather cooperates.

[Reeves]

Wow....this is the first time I've seen this plog (I'm HORRIBLE at keeping up with stuff on here). Very nice work! I love this car!

Good luck with the tuning! I'm sure you and Slowe will get it sorted out soon and that thing will be screaming!


:thumb:

[92spiritrt]

Thanks reeves. Hopefully we get it sorted out sooner than later. I'm starting to get impatient about turning the boost up.;)

[turboshad]

this one pretty much on the half tune that dj put in on the way to sdac.

So you're telling me you let some punk kid from Canada who had driven 2300 miles with very little sleep touch and try to tune your, at the time, "phantom map sensor" car at 3 in the morning and then you actually drag raced that tune? And you say I've got balls ?!?!? :hail:


Glad you could get'er to the track Rob. Keep on that tune and I can guarantee you will see things really come around. I can't wait to see what the future holds for it. Oh, and the breaking, just be patient and play it smart and you should be able to get pretty dang fast without breaking a thing. :thumb:

[92spiritrt]

So you're telling me you let some punk kid from Canada who had driven 2300 miles with very little sleep touch and try to tune your, at the time, "phantom map sensor" car at 3 in the morning and then you actually drag raced that tune? And you say I've got balls ?!?!? :hail:


Glad you could get'er to the track Rob. Keep on that tune and I can guarantee you will see things really come around. I can't wait to see what the future holds for it. Oh, and the breaking, just be patient and play it smart and you should be able to get pretty dang fast without breaking a thing. :thumb:

it wasn't nearly as bad as you made it sound, you should have more faith in yourself. it was just really rich and there is nothing wrong with that.:thumb:

it was funny on saturday, the first pass i babied it like never before and by the fourth pass i was getting too comfortable and starting to beat on it alot harder(this was my first time down the track in a year and a half). i got a bit of the good old violent wheelhop at the top of first. that is what made me start worrying about breaking.

i haven't even looked into the rescaling of the ve table. i read through the stuff you sent me real quickly and it was almost looking like it really isn't too far off of the reference numbers that they gave. i'll have to look into it after wednesday as i'm semi comfortable playing around with the table as is and don't want to add too many variables for myself. i also have to pull some fuel during decel, it is currently deceling at about 12.5:1. i also have to start datalogging to make things easier on myself. tuning just by watching the wideband down the track is a bit of a pain, i think i was looking at the gauge more than the track. thanks again for all the help.

[92spiritrt]

i took it to island dragway on wednesday night. ran it on slicks this time with 14 lbs in them. boost was also at 14. there were no tuning changes made this time, i pulled a little bit of fuel out about a week ago and that is the only change since taking it to cecil last month. its still running a 6600 rpm rev limiter, i still haven't hooked up the tach or speedo so i'm running by the seat of the pants.

first pass (i'm almost embarrassed to post this, but it wasn't my fault). as soon as i launched the car it fell on its face. everytime i touched the throttle the car just about shut down, whether it was full throttle or 1% it wouldn't respond. i kept trying until i coasted to about the 330' mark, i then shut the car off, restarted it and the problem seemed to go away.

rt-.268
60'-4.601
330'-31.485
1/8-35.854
mph-68.64
1000'-38.925
1/4-41.318
mph-97.08

the second pass was better. 4600 rpm launch, i stepped out of the clutch a little too quick and the car fell on its face dipping to about 2200. i ended up hitting the rev limiter in third a little before the finish line.

rt-.300
60'-2.507
330'-6.562
1/8-9.681
mph-78.34
1000'-12.305
1/4-14.452
mph-106.56

the laptop was acting up so i couldn't datalog the third and fourth passes. third pass i stepped out of the clutch a little slower, and cut a better 60'. the car felt strong. i shifted to fourth in this pass and shouldn't have cause it ended up killing the pass on the top end.

rt-.743
60'-1.981
330'-5.572
1/8-8.623
mph-81.10
1000'-11.194
1/4-13.362
mph-102.95

last pass of the night. the launch felt really good but wasn't as good as i thought once i was handed the slip. it started to bog down at the launch, so i gave it a little more clutch and it came back up quickly. i kept it in third at the top end and that brought the mph back.

rt-.230
60'-2.198
330'-5.889
1/8-8.997
mph-77.85
1000'-11.649
1/4-13.801
mph-106.03

so far i'm happy with the progress made in just two trips to the track. i definately need to improve my driving abilities. the plan is to go to cecil on the 11th and let slowe work his magic on the tune.

i need to fix a few things and either get my tach working or just grab the autometer tach out of my gremlin for right now so i at least have an idea of where i'm at in the rev's. the other thing that i plan to do is get the two step working, although i can only do fuel cut on it being that i'm running an edis ignition. it will at least keep the launches consistent even though it won't build boost on the line. we'll see what happens next time out.

[turbo2point2]

Baby steps into the 11's;) Looking forward to helping with getting this car dialed in. It sure is making some power at that boost level, picking up 28 mph on the big end:thumb:

[dds78910]

The engine is looking lood. I'm glad to see you got it running.:thumb:

[Pat]

Rob, she's starting to really move for you! Great work.

[92spiritrt]

thanks guys. its getting there, i can't wait to see what happens in 3 weeks. i really need to fix a bunch of things on it, but i've been having so much fun driving that i haven't wanted any downtime. its supposed to rain for the next three days, so i'll probably start tearing it apart either today or tomorrow night.

[92spiritrt]

we did a test and tune at cecil yesterday and nothing good came out of it. the first pass the car went 13.4@103 with a 1.92 60'. that was also the last pass of the day since it destroyed the #1 and #4 rod bearings. we drained the oil at the track and there was a large amount of pieces of bearing in the oil. luckily i trailered it and even more luckily the said trailer had a winch on it. i pulled the motor when i got home. i didn't even pull the oil pan off of it and since brian was up to help with lengel's car today, he took the bottom end back to philly with him. so probably i'll get the full damage report either tomorrow or sometime this week pending on how busy brian is this week. i'm definately glad we caught it in the pits before i went up for pass #2, which would have been nothing but bad. there was a lot of fuel in the oil which was the cause of the failure. the wideband reads around 12.5 during decel, so the tune is the problem. i need to rescale the ve table at this point and see if more can be pulled during decel. in a way this happened for the good since there was a little bit of oil on the #1 and #2 pistons and in the combustion chambers, so the rings seemingly didn't seed right. hopefully it will go back together soon, my goal is to have it at the cecil invasion in november.

[Pat]

Damn...I'm sorry to hear that Rob. Let us know what you figure out.

[turboshad]

Crappy deal Rob. Hopefully it's nothing too major. Time to get that knock sensor on and do some street tuning. I haven't used it yet but suposedly the autotune in Tuner Studio is the cat's @ss. I thought the megatune version did a decent job and the TS one is suposed to be much better. :nod:

[Dave]

Damn. :( That sucks. Let us know the full extent of what happened.

[turbovanman²]

Nice runs, wonder what happened? :(

[92spiritrt]

Crappy deal Rob. Hopefully it's nothing too major. Time to get that knock sensor on and do some street tuning. I haven't used it yet but suposedly the autotune in Tuner Studio is the cat's @ss. I thought the megatune version did a decent job and the TS one is suposed to be much better. :nod:

i started looking into the ve analyze live. i'm going to stop being a cheap @$$ and buy the full version so i can take advantage of all of the extra features. hopefully that will help cure my problems.


i got some info from brian on tuesday and got some more info today. it wiped out two rods, which brian picked up the replacements today and will be dropping them off at the machine shop monday. the #4 rod bearing had one half under the other. the crank has to go 10/10. he also found that the oil rings on all 4 pistons never seated(probably from all of the issues we had getting the car to start initially), so in a way it is good this happened to seal everything up properly this time. it also explains why it smoked randomly. there is probably more stuff that i'm missing, brian feel free to chime in and add anything i missed or correct anything that i said wrong. at this point i'm just happy the block, crank and pistons didn't get damaged.

[Dave]

Any idea why or how the rings did not seat properly? Just because of the rich conditions on inital break in? Or was there any other reasoning? Curious as well, how do you look at the rings and determine they did not seat??

[turbovanman²]

i got some info from brian on tuesday and got some more info today. it wiped out two rods, which brian picked up the replacements today and will be dropping them off at the machine shop monday. the #4 rod bearing had one half under the other. the crank has to go 10/10. he also found that the oil rings on all 4 pistons never seated(probably from all of the issues we had getting the car to start initially), so in a way it is good this happened to seal everything up properly this time. it also explains why it smoked randomly. there is probably more stuff that i'm missing, brian feel free to chime in and add anything i missed or correct anything that i said wrong. at this point i'm just happy the block, crank and pistons didn't get damaged.

That happened to me, rerung it and it wouldn't start due to machine shop errors, must have cranked it 100 times, rings never seated, filled my crankcase with fuel due to the poor ring seal and wiped out my bottom end, :(

[92spiritrt]

Any idea why or how the rings did not seat properly? Just because of the rich conditions on inital break in? Or was there any other reasoning? Curious as well, how do you look at the rings and determine they did not seat??

it was due to the rich conditions. we fought for 5 days til the car was able to fire and idle to break it in. there were alot of issues with the megasquirt at first, til dj figured out that the firmware was the issue(my computer illiteracy didn't help in the matter either). it ended up flooding the motor probably 3 times before it ever actually fired. we kept our fingers crossed that it would have no adverse effects, but obviously it did. i could tell there was plenty of fuel in the oil at that point so as soon as we got the motor to fire, i shut it down and changed the oil and proceeded to break it in.

i put somewhere around 1500-1700 miles on the car since sdac. i had to add oil every once in a while partly due to a combonation of the leaky oil pan gasket plus the oil that got burned off. adding the fresh oil all the time most likely just prolonged the problem. but all that extra fuel mostly during decel had to go somewhere. so yes, to answer your question it was due to the overly rich conditions. as for determining that the rings didn't seat correctly, you'll have to ask brian that question. i pulled the motor and had the shortblock ready for him to pick up. i didn't even pull the oil pan off. i know that his eyes would have seen a 1000 times more than mine would, so i left it completely intact to allow him to do a proper diagnosis.


That happened to me, rerung it and it wouldn't start due to machine shop errors, must have cranked it 100 times, rings never seated, filled my crankcase with fuel due to the poor ring seal and wiped out my bottom end, :(

mine is basically the same situation minus the machine shop errors, just took a bit longer to happen.

[Dave]

When will it be back together?

[92spiritrt]

should be within the next month. brian picked up some parts and has all of the other parts ordered. it mostly depends on the machine shop, then depending on how fast i get it back together. i plan on disassembling the head and flushing it out this weekend. there are a bunch of things that i wish i would have done in the first place, so i have a decent amount of work ahead of me. namely i would like to spray the engine compartment. as long as i get to run it at the tm cecil invasion day, i'll be happy.

[turbo2point2]

Any idea why or how the rings did not seat properly? Just because of the rich conditions on inital break in? Or was there any other reasoning? Curious as well, how do you look at the rings and determine they did not seat??

As said, the overly rich mixture washed the cylinder walls and killed the hone. The early rich condition is a huge factor in ring seal, along with the rich decel. The tune was also very fat in boost. Rob had been pulling fuel out of the fuel map up until she let go(still needed to go leaner).

Poor ring seal can be seen a number of ways. In this case oil/carbon in the ring lands. Also the oil caked on the tops of the pistons is a sure sign of poor ring seal.

[Dave]

As said, the overly rich mixture washed the cylinder walls and killed the hone. The early rich condition is a huge factor in ring seal, along with the rich decel. The tune was also very fat in boost. Rob had been pulling fuel out of the fuel map up until she let go(still needed to go leaner).

Poor ring seal can be seen a number of ways. In this case oil/carbon in the ring lands. Also the oil caked on the tops of the pistons is a sure sign of poor ring seal.

Good stuff to know. Thanks. :thumb:

[92spiritrt]

i fired it up tonight. broke the motor in and then took it out for a bit. i started using the autotune feature on tunerstudio and it made a huge difference. dj, it is worth getting. the a/f during decel is now corrected and there is no more overfueling occuring. it feels like a totally different car now, it drives alot smoother and is definately making more power. i can't wait to get this thing back to the track. i'll post up some carnage pics of the rods and whats left of some of the bearings when i get a chance.

[Dave]

I can't wait! Your car makes me so giddy! :D

Will you be taking it to the track once more this year?

[turboshad]

i fired it up tonight. broke the motor in and then took it out for a bit. i started using the autotune feature on tunerstudio and it made a huge difference. dj, it is worth getting. the a/f during decel is now corrected and there is no more overfueling occuring. it feels like a totally different car now, it drives alot smoother and is definately making more power. i can't wait to get this thing back to the track. i'll post up some carnage pics of the rods and whats left of some of the bearings when i get a chance.

That's awsome Rob!! I told you that autotune was the cat's a$$ :nod: I will hopefully be over there mid November some time so you will have to take me for a rip. :D

[92spiritrt]

I can't wait! Your car makes me so giddy! :D

Will you be taking it to the track once more this year?

Yes i will. I purchased a spot at Cecil for the invasion day last night since all went well. The plan is to see what it does on 13psi again then make my way up to 20 by the end of the day.


That's awsome Rob!! I told you that autotune was the cat's a$$ :nod: I will hopefully be over there mid November some time so you will have to take me for a rip. :D

I definately will. Let me know, Cecil is mid November so hopefully that's when you'll be down:eyebrows:.

[karlak]

What mega squirt version are you running?
What does the tunerstudio cost?

[92spiritrt]

I am running ms2 v3.0. The full version of ts was $40.

[rx2mazda]

Glad to hear its back together. Let's race! :eyebrows:

[92spiritrt]

we just might have to line up at cecil:nod:

[92spiritrt]

cecil was a good time yesterday. i ended up shooting myself in the foot by putting 5 gallons of c12 in the tank. the tune was for pump gas so the timing was much too tame and there was too much fuel going in. had i stayed with just 93 in the tank the car would have been running alot faster since the tune for that was spot on. i was also trying out the 2 step, which since i'm running edis for ignition i can only do fuel cut, so it won't really build boost at the line and was bogging down. i doubt i'll make it to the track again this year, so i have all winter to work out these bugs.

first pass was a 4500rpm launch, boost was 14psi.

rt-.334
60-2.350
330-6.325
1/8-9.377
mph-80.16
1000-11.958
1/4-14.076
mph-107.56

boost was now turned up to 25 and this is where the problems started. afr was 9.5. bumped the launch up to 5000.

rt-.170
60-2.092
330-5.901
1/8-8.974
mph-79.76
1000-11.530
1/4-13.702
mph-101.16

pulled some fuel and tried again. afr stayed the same.

rt-.085
60-2.158
330-6.114
1/8-9.165
mph-79.78
1000-11.724
1/4-13.863
mph-101.84

pulled more fuel. this time afr was about 9.9.

rt-.642
60-2.209
330-6.528
1/8-9.748
mph-75.02
1000-12.432
1/4-14.561
mph-106.95(31.93 mph gain in the back half)

last pass a little more fuel was pulled and 2 degrees of timing were added. still resulted in a 10.0 afr.

rt-.204
60-2.233
330-6.132
1/8-9.148
mph-77.48
1000-11.750
1/4-13.859
mph-105.99

unfortunately i would lose connection when datalogging halfway through first gear during every pass. that definately wasn't helping with tuning it. i think i cured that problem on the laptop this morning.

thanks everyone that helped out yesterday and thanks again for all the tuning help dj.

[rx2mazda]

:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:o

[Dave]

Yikes. Some real bouncy numbers there. Great trap speed though! 107 is bookin'! What size and brand slicks were you using? Looks like the first pass you spun pretty hard...

Any videos of this? I'd love to see a big nasty AA body just ripping through the gears! :)

[92spiritrt]

Yikes. Some real bouncy numbers there. Great trap speed though! 107 is bookin'! What size and brand slicks were you using? Looks like the first pass you spun pretty hard...

Any videos of this? I'd love to see a big nasty AA body just ripping through the gears! :)

here are the vids from cecil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71pzmIDyPXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78x3WbcErrI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-q97ooRRHU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxjVzp2vPqg

the slicks are 24.5x8.5-15 m&h's. they actually didn't spin at all. i was testing out the two step and it was bogging down on the launch.


sunday i tried getting a few passes in to redeem the cecil performance at atco. i got the two step working much better, at 6000 it makes 9psi(not bad for being on fuel cut). with the help of brian we made some big changes to the tune then took the car up for the first round of qualifying. launched the car and all felt good to around the 60' mark where the car made a hard pull to the center line. at first i thought i just was way out of the groove, so i brought it back to the middle of the track and got on it in second and that netted the same result. it broke the driver side axle. i brought it back to the pits and we changed the axle out in about 15 minutes. went up for the second qualifying round and noticed that something didn't quite feel right up front right when i was pulling up to the burnout box. i went for it and spun first, second and third. the only reason i spun the tires so much was because the passenger axle broke. we tried to change that axle out, but it is stuck in the trans. the obx was always tight, at this point i'm just hoping that no damage was done to it. i'll probably pull the trans early next week or possibly this weekend to check the damage.

i'm getting pretty frustrated with the car at this point and am not completely sure what i'm going to do with it. i absolutely refuse to spend the money for dss axles, i'm not sure where this is going to put me. i don't want to have to change axles every other pass. i've had a rwd project in the works in which this motor will find a new home into and i am currently debating on putting this car back to stock and proceeding with the new project. a lot of people are trying to talk me out of doing that just yet and waiting to pull the car apart until i at least run a good number with it. we'll see what happens. the mock up of the new project will be coming up soon and a new plog will be started. it won't be nearly as fast paced of a build as this one, but i want it to be alot cleaner looking than the spirit. stay tuned.

[forcedfedmopar]

dont give up yet. It would be assame to do all this work then never run a better number than a standard bolt on spirit.;)

Get the trans figured out. Im running stock replacement axles from the parts store and have only broken 1 in 3 years of racing. you just need to work on your launch technique.

GOOD LUCK!!!

[rx2mazda]

i'm getting pretty frustrated with the car at this point and am not completely sure what i'm going to do with it. i absolutely refuse to spend the money for dss axles, i'm not sure where this is going to put me. i don't want to have to change axles every other pass. i've had a rwd project in the works in which this motor will find a new home into and i am currently debating on putting this car back to stock and proceeding with the new project. a lot of people are trying to talk me out of doing that just yet and waiting to pull the car apart until i at least run a good number with it. we'll see what happens. the mock up of the new project will be coming up soon and a new plog will be started. it won't be nearly as fast paced of a build as this one, but i want it to be alot cleaner looking than the spirit. stay tuned.


:confused:

Full weight sedan(3400lbs), FWD, big power and drag racing.........Didn't you know that the axles were gonna be a weak point going into this build?! Don't let one weekend of broken axles change your whole project. It would be cheaper and faster to just get some good axles. Those weren't even new axles, how many miles did they have on them????!!!I'm pretty sure the reason JT spent the coin for heavy duty axles is because he knew it would be a good investment/necessity/insurance when going for 10's in a heavy car.

We(You, me, Lengel, Brian, DJ, etc) all put a lot of time and energy in that Spirit, none more than you, and when you get it running the times you want we all will be happy for you. FIX YOUR CAR ROB!!!!!

BTW, No reason you should have to bang an axle in with a sledge hammer....Take the tranny to Brian and let him hone out the OBX so the axles slide in/out like they're suppose to. :amen:

[Pat]

:confused:

Full weight sedan(3400lbs), FWD, big power and drag racing.........Didn't you know that the axles were gonna be a weak point going into this build?! Don't let one weekend of broken axles change your whole project. It would be cheaper and faster to just get some good axles. Those weren't even new axles, how many miles did they have on them????!!!I'm pretty sure the reason JT spent the coin for heavy duty axles is because he knew it would be a good investment/necessity/insurance when going for 10's in a heavy car.

We(You, me, Lengel, Brian, DJ, etc) all put a lot of time and energy in that Spirit, none more than you, and when you get it running the times you want we all will be happy for you. FIX YOUR CAR ROB!!!!!

BTW, No reason you should have to bang an axle in with a sledge hammer....Take the tranny to Brian and let him hone out the OBX so the axles slide in/out like they're suppose to. :amen:

Or, you could go with Carroll's plan and just never race it. :p

Kidding aside, I agree with everything Carroll just said. Get the OBX sorted, invest in some quality axles and you should be good to go. The tuning issues you've had will be an issue with any body you put that set up in. Might as well get it sorted in the car you wanted to build in the first place.

For reference, I started breaking driveline parts in my old R/T as it got towards the low 12's. This was a full weight R/T also on 23" M&H's. 12.5's and it was fine. Faster than that, I was popping axles and jackshafts (I was foolishly equal length in that car) regularly.

[92spiritrt]

:confused:

Full weight sedan(3400lbs), FWD, big power and drag racing.........Didn't you know that the axles were gonna be a weak point going into this build?! Don't let one weekend of broken axles change your whole project. It would be cheaper and faster to just get some good axles. Those weren't even new axles, how many miles did they have on them????!!!I'm pretty sure the reason JT spent the coin for heavy duty axles is because he knew it would be a good investment/necessity/insurance when going for 10's in a heavy car.

We(You, me, Lengel, Brian, DJ, etc) all put a lot of time and energy in that Spirit, none more than you, and when you get it running the times you want we all will be happy for you. FIX YOUR CAR ROB!!!!!

BTW, No reason you should have to bang an axle in with a sledge hammer....Take the tranny to Brian and let him hone out the OBX so the axles slide in/out like they're suppose to. :amen:

i knew from the start that axles were going to be the weak point. but like i said, i won't put out the money for dss axles. i won't turn them down if you buy them for me though:p. it really isn't much cheaper for me at this point to start the new project as there won't be any money coming out of my account for it. as long as there is no damage to the trans i will most likely keep the car together for 2011. only problem is i need the turbo and intake for the mock up process. i'm trying to think this through before i make any decisions. but either way the new project will be happening.

[92spiritrt]

Or, you could go with Carroll's plan and just never race it. :p

Kidding aside, I agree with everything Carroll just said. Get the OBX sorted, invest in some quality axles and you should be good to go. The tuning issues you've had will be an issue with any body you put that set up in. Might as well get it sorted in the car you wanted to build in the first place.

For reference, I started breaking driveline parts in my old R/T as it got towards the low 12's. This was a full weight R/T also on 23" M&H's. 12.5's and it was fine. Faster than that, I was popping axles and jackshafts (I was foolishly equal length in that car) regularly.

i talked with brian about the tuning yesterday. that was part of his argument to keep the spirit together so we could work on the tune while the other car is being built. my combo unfortunately puts even more stress on parts than yours did since i have bigger tires and the 3.50fd. are there any decent alternatives to dss axles? even if they are better stock replacements than autozone axles.

[Pat]

i talked with brian about the tuning yesterday. that was part of his argument to keep the spirit together so we could work on the tune while the other car is being built. my combo unfortunately puts even more stress on parts than yours did since i have bigger tires and the 3.50fd. are there any decent alternatives to dss axles? even if they are better stock replacements than autozone axles.

Have you considered trying a smaller tire? The rpms probably will help you quite a bit, particiarly with the 3.50 fd. A little bit of spin may help you in a number of ways...less strain on axles and more rpms to get that sucker spooled. You might even want to consider going back to a 3.85 fd. More gear would help get you off the line without having to drop the hammer so hard to get it moving. 3.85 gear and 24.5 tires can get you to 140 mph in 4th gear at only 7k rpm, which your motor is certainly good for.

Not sure on other axles. I picked up DSS axles years ago used that I"ve run on and off over the years. For the GRM efforts, I've used factory stockers (not cheapo remans) with no trouble, but my GRM cars have been much, much lighter.

[turbo2point2]

:confused:

Full weight sedan(3400lbs), FWD, big power and drag racing.........Didn't you know that the axles were gonna be a weak point going into this build?! Don't let one weekend of broken axles change your whole project. It would be cheaper and faster to just get some good axles. Those weren't even new axles, how many miles did they have on them????!!!I'm pretty sure the reason JT spent the coin for heavy duty axles is because he knew it would be a good investment/necessity/insurance when going for 10's in a heavy car.

We(You, me, Lengel, Brian, DJ, etc) all put a lot of time and energy in that Spirit, none more than you, and when you get it running the times you want we all will be happy for you. FIX YOUR CAR ROB!!!!!

BTW, No reason you should have to bang an axle in with a sledge hammer....Take the tranny to Brian and let him hone out the OBX so the axles slide in/out like they're suppose to. :amen:

Well said Carroll. Keep the spirit going Rob:clap:

[turboshad]

Or, you could go with Carroll's plan and just never race it. :p


ROTMFFLOL!! - ZING!!........I mean, that was kinda funny. :shifty eyes:

Do what you want Rob, I've been in the position of carry forward or start the inevitable project and I chose to start the project. But my opinion on the spirit is it has huge potential.

At Cecil your launches hooked leaving you at 2000RPM just after the line and you weren't able to log the whole pass leaving the tune to an educated guess. Those two things alone give huge improvement room. You pulled 107mph passes with 20psi, AFRs in the 9s and you thumb on the LC button for the first 1/8th. Like Pat said, aim for a bit of spin to keep you in spooling range and your 60 will start to go down. With a full log you will have much more of an idea on the tune. Run the LC through a clutch switch and you won't accidentally trip it anymore.

Please don't compare the time it is taking you to tune things to myself. I have the advantage of long empty roads where I can do 120mph 3rd gear pulls without the fear of getting tickets or hitting someone. The iteration steps I've taken with my own are similar to what I was applying to yours at the track, I've just been able to do countless pulls in a row and have done this multiple times which also gets me familiar with my setup. Trying to tune with 1/4 mile runs will just take more time. Starting from scratch on a standalone will take time but in the end I think you will be happy.

I hope that helps encourage as I believe in your skills and your car. :clap:

[turbovanman²]

here are the vids from cecil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71pzmIDyPXI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78x3WbcErrI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-q97ooRRHU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxjVzp2vPqg

the slicks are 24.5x8.5-15 m&h's. they actually didn't spin at all. i was testing out the two step and it was bogging down on the launch.


sunday i tried getting a few passes in to redeem the cecil performance at atco. i got the two step working much better, at 6000 it makes 9psi(not bad for being on fuel cut). with the help of brian we made some big changes to the tune then took the car up for the first round of qualifying. launched the car and all felt good to around the 60' mark where the car made a hard pull to the center line. at first i thought i just was way out of the groove, so i brought it back to the middle of the track and got on it in second and that netted the same result. it broke the driver side axle. i brought it back to the pits and we changed the axle out in about 15 minutes. went up for the second qualifying round and noticed that something didn't quite feel right up front right when i was pulling up to the burnout box. i went for it and spun first, second and third. the only reason i spun the tires so much was because the passenger axle broke. we tried to change that axle out, but it is stuck in the trans. the obx was always tight, at this point i'm just hoping that no damage was done to it. i'll probably pull the trans early next week or possibly this weekend to check the damage.

i'm getting pretty frustrated with the car at this point and am not completely sure what i'm going to do with it. i absolutely refuse to spend the money for dss axles, i'm not sure where this is going to put me. i don't want to have to change axles every other pass. i've had a rwd project in the works in which this motor will find a new home into and i am currently debating on putting this car back to stock and proceeding with the new project. a lot of people are trying to talk me out of doing that just yet and waiting to pull the car apart until i at least run a good number with it. we'll see what happens. the mock up of the new project will be coming up soon and a new plog will be started. it won't be nearly as fast paced of a build as this one, but i want it to be alot cleaner looking than the spirit. stay tuned.

What exhaust, sounds like a Honda, sorry, :eyebrows:

Don't give up, I've probably broken more shitt then you know what to do with, but I refuse to give up, lol, even with my detonation issues I still keep plugging away, its simply WAY TOO MUCH FUN!!!!! :nod:

Axles, I am using stockers, I know its an auto so that helps a bit, I've been using these for 7 years. I guess find a good used set or go DSS. Where are you breaking them?

[92spiritrt]

Have you considered trying a smaller tire? The rpms probably will help you quite a bit, particiarly with the 3.50 fd. A little bit of spin may help you in a number of ways...less strain on axles and more rpms to get that sucker spooled. You might even want to consider going back to a 3.85 fd. More gear would help get you off the line without having to drop the hammer so hard to get it moving. 3.85 gear and 24.5 tires can get you to 140 mph in 4th gear at only 7k rpm, which your motor is certainly good for.

Not sure on other axles. I picked up DSS axles years ago used that I"ve run on and off over the years. For the GRM efforts, I've used factory stockers (not cheapo remans) with no trouble, but my GRM cars have been much, much lighter.

there was 14.5psi in the slicks on sunday. but i never got a chance to see if i could get them to spin. 16psi was an idea sunday but with no data of 14.5psi we couldn't try it. so there is still room to try things with these tires. as for the final drive, to go back to a 3.85 i'd have to find a 523 with that ratio in it since the obx won't bolt up to the 568 ring gear. i really like the 3.50 for the highway(90mph@3000rpm), so i'm not really looking to get rid of it.


Well said Carroll. Keep the spirit going Rob:clap:

i'm trying to convince myself to.


ROTMFFLOL!! - ZING!!........I mean, that was kinda funny. :shifty eyes:

Do what you want Rob, I've been in the position of carry forward or start the inevitable project and I chose to start the project. But my opinion on the spirit is it has huge potential.

At Cecil your launches hooked leaving you at 2000RPM just after the line and you weren't able to log the whole pass leaving the tune to an educated guess. Those two things alone give huge improvement room. You pulled 107mph passes with 20psi, AFRs in the 9s and you thumb on the LC button for the first 1/8th. Like Pat said, aim for a bit of spin to keep you in spooling range and your 60 will start to go down. With a full log you will have much more of an idea on the tune. Run the LC through a clutch switch and you won't accidentally trip it anymore.

Please don't compare the time it is taking you to tune things to myself. I have the advantage of long empty roads where I can do 120mph 3rd gear pulls without the fear of getting tickets or hitting someone. The iteration steps I've taken with my own are similar to what I was applying to yours at the track, I've just been able to do countless pulls in a row and have done this multiple times which also gets me familiar with my setup. Trying to tune with 1/4 mile runs will just take more time. Starting from scratch on a standalone will take time but in the end I think you will be happy.

I hope that helps encourage as I believe in your skills and your car. :clap:

that was damn funny.

i did step out of the clutch a lot slower at atco. it seemed to help. i cut a 1.998 60' on the first pass when it broke the driver axle at the top of 1st gear. so things were going in the right direction. carroll is correct in not knowing anything about the condition of axles that i had in there. maybe i'm jumping the gun, i know its mainly cause this was not how i wanted to end the year. i still haven't figured out the connection issue. it works fine all the time except when i roll onto the track. i just don't get it. i wish i could just log with the ms and then pull the data after the pass.


What exhaust, sounds like a Honda, sorry, :eyebrows:

Don't give up, I've probably broken more shitt then you know what to do with, but I refuse to give up, lol, even with my detonation issues I still keep plugging away, its simply WAY TOO MUCH FUN!!!!! :nod:

Axles, I am using stockers, I know its an auto so that helps a bit, I've been using these for 7 years. I guess find a good used set or go DSS. Where are you breaking them?

don't ever say my car sounds like a honda again:ban:;). that is with the dump open on the downpipe, so it only sounds that way at the track.

i don't doubt one bit that you broke more parts than i have. i just really lack the motivation to constantly fix stuff sometimes as i am a very lazy person.

the driver side broke on the outer cv. the passenger had a cracked tripod on the inner cv and it sheared off at the outer.

[Pat]

there was 14.5psi in the slicks on sunday. but i never got a chance to see if i could get them to spin. 16psi was an idea sunday but with no data of 14.5psi we couldn't try it. so there is still room to try things with these tires. as for the final drive, to go back to a 3.85 i'd have to find a 523 with that ratio in it since the obx won't bolt up to the 568 ring gear. i really like the 3.50 for the highway(90mph@3000rpm), so i'm not really looking to get rid of it.
.


I think the gearing is a problem (or will be) for you though. In such a heavy car, you need as much mechanical advantage as you can get, particularly with a motor that is bound to make it's power up high. If you're motor was one that had a torque peak at 2800 rpm, the 3.50/24.5 combo would have some benefit. I'm betting your motor, even once the tune is sorted out, will have a torque peak in the 4500-5000 range....possibly higher if measured in 1st gear (to factor in spool time). The faster you can get the car in that 5000+rpm range, the more responsive it will be at the track.

I'd consider throwing a stock 3.85 open diff tranny in there just to try it. Worry about swapping the obx after you decide if you can live with the gearing.

I'm sure the 3.50 gear is nice on the highway, but everything is a trade off. Is picking up a bunch of ET worth a few hundred rpm on the highway?

[Reeves]

For better axles, give Stan Cannon a call 1-256-650-0150.
Ask him for a set of Hybrid axles for your car.
Tell him Reeves with the OMNI sent you.

Now, these ain't the best axles out there, but they are good strong stockers from another application.

I've broken 3 I think in the past 8 years or so?

2 of them he made good on.

WAY cheaper than DSS if you don't want those right now.


For your logging issue......I'm just throwing this out there....
Are you using your ciggarette lighter to power your laptop?
I get a ground loop problems that causes issues logging whenever I use my cig lighter to power the laptop. I have to run on laptop battery only when trying to log.

[rx2mazda]

Or, you could go with Carroll's plan and just never race it. :p


:lol: That was a good one Pat!

Brian and I are talking about heading to Cecil on Saturday if the weather is good(and I don't have to work). :p


I think the gearing is a problem (or will be) for you though. In such a heavy car, y
ou need as much mechanical advantage as you can get, particularly with a motor that is bound to make it's power up high. If you're motor was one that had a torque peak at 2800 rpm, the 3.50/24.5 combo would have some benefit. I'm betting your motor, even once the tune is sorted out, will have a torque peak in the 4500-5000 range....possibly higher if measured in 1st gear (to factor in spool time). The faster you can get the car in that 5000+rpm range, the more responsive it will be at the track.

I'd consider throwing a stock 3.85 open diff tranny in there just to try it. Worry about swapping the obx after you decide if you can live with the gearing.

I'm sure the 3.50 gear is nice on the highway, but everything is a trade off. Is picking up a bunch of ET worth a few hundred rpm on the highway?

As much as I hate to say it...I agree with Pat.:evil:

When comes to 5-speed racing a heavy car, I think few in our community have more experience. I've never seen anyone make more passes at our Cecil events than Pat, lol. He ran 10's with an open diff. For reference, I cut 1.7 60' times in my Spirit and 3.77 gears and 23" slicks. I'm sure I was putting down more power off the line than you are currently. I launched hard around 5-5500rpms and had auto zone axles. I didn't want the 3.50 FD for this exact reason. Maybe you can switch to 3.77, the trans has to come out anyway for you to get the axle out and fix it. I'm sure the 3.50 is nice for cruise and gas mileage but were building race cars, not Benzes. lol

[92spiritrt]

I think the gearing is a problem (or will be) for you though. In such a heavy car, you need as much mechanical advantage as you can get, particularly with a motor that is bound to make it's power up high. If you're motor was one that had a torque peak at 2800 rpm, the 3.50/24.5 combo would have some benefit. I'm betting your motor, even once the tune is sorted out, will have a torque peak in the 4500-5000 range....possibly higher if measured in 1st gear (to factor in spool time). The faster you can get the car in that 5000+rpm range, the more responsive it will be at the track.

I'd consider throwing a stock 3.85 open diff tranny in there just to try it. Worry about swapping the obx after you decide if you can live with the gearing.

I'm sure the 3.50 gear is nice on the highway, but everything is a trade off. Is picking up a bunch of ET worth a few hundred rpm on the highway?

i'll have to see if anyone has a 3.85 ring and pinion for a 523. is the 3.85 pinion gear the same in the 568 as the 523? i don't want to swap in the stock gearing and the 523 ring gear not line up. i agree with what you are saying and looking at the gearing calculator it shouldn't be a huge difference for highway cruising, but pretty big up top.

3.50 fd with a 25" tire(threw that number in for the 24.5" ballooning a little bit) 7500rpm limiter
5000 32 56 83 113 150
5200 33 58 86 118 156
5500 35 62 91 124 165
5700 37 64 95 129 171
6000 39 67 100 136 180
6200 40 70 103 140 186
6500 42 73 108 147 195
6700 43 75 111 151 201
7000 45 79 116 158 210
7200 46 81 120 163 215
7500 48 84 125 170 224

3.77 fd with same tire value
5000 30 52 77 105 139
5200 31 54 80 109 144
5500 33 57 85 115 153
5700 34 59 88 120 158
6000 36 63 92 126 167
6200 37 65 96 130 172
6500 39 68 100 136 181
6700 40 70 103 141 186
7000 42 73 108 147 195
7200 43 75 111 151 200
7500 45 78 116 157 208


3.85 fd with same tire value
5000 29 51 75 103 136
5200 30 53 78 107 141
5500 32 56 83 113 150
5700 33 58 86 117 155
6000 35 61 91 123 163
6200 36 63 94 127 169
6500 38 66 98 134 177
6700 39 68 101 138 182
7000 41 72 106 144 190
7200 42 74 109 148 196
7500 44 77 113 154 204

this was using the gearing calculator on www.f-body.org/gears/


For better axles, give Stan Cannon a call 1-256-650-0150.
Ask him for a set of Hybrid axles for your car.
Tell him Reeves with the OMNI sent you.

Now, these ain't the best axles out there, but they are good strong stockers from another application.

I've broken 3 I think in the past 8 years or so?

2 of them he made good on.

WAY cheaper than DSS if you don't want those right now.


For your logging issue......I'm just throwing this out there....
Are you using your ciggarette lighter to power your laptop?
I get a ground loop problems that causes issues logging whenever I use my cig lighter to power the laptop. I have to run on laptop battery only when trying to log.

thanks for that info james. i'll give him a call early next week once the holiday weekend is over. as for the laptop issue, i run it on the laptop battery. its a weird issue, i can drive it to work(15-20min drive) with no issues, but as soon as i am on the track it seems to lose connection. the first pass on sunday it lost connection literally 2 seconds after i hit the start logging button right before i staged. the second pass i logged up to the 3rd gear shift. its hit or miss. i tried updating the usb drivers, did an update on windows(which solved this same issue i had with my camera), but none of these things are fixing the ms connection. i did notice that a few people were having this same sort of problem on the msextra board.


:lol: That was a good one Pat!

Brian and I are talking about heading to Cecil on Saturday if the weather is good(and I don't have to work). :p



As much as I hate to say it...I agree with Pat.:evil:

When comes to 5-speed racing a heavy car, I think few in our community have more experience. I've never seen anyone make more passes at our Cecil events than Pat, lol. He ran 10's with an open diff. For reference, I cut 1.7 60' times in my Spirit and 3.77 gears and 23" slicks. I'm sure I was putting down more power off the line than you are currently. I launched hard around 5-5500rpms and had auto zone axles. I didn't want the 3.50 FD for this exact reason. Maybe you can switch to 3.77, the trans has to come out anyway for you to get the axle out and fix it. I'm sure the 3.50 is nice for cruise and gas mileage but were building race cars, not Benzes. lol

i definately agree with what pat is saying. i have the utmost respect for him and his accomplishments, so any input he has i am all ears. looking at the difference in gearing numbers, the 3.77 could be a nice compromise since it is the easiest to obtain. through 1st and 2nd it is only a 1mph difference. i'll see what turns up since i don't currently have the time to go to a junkyard to get one.

just remember this isn't a race car, its more like the benz of tm's:nod:. although i do race it alot more than you race your car:p, i drive this thing alot. that was why i went with this gearing. i wanted the best of both worlds(who doesn't) a very street/highway friendly car that is still fast. even with the car being down for over a month when the bearings went, i still managed to put over 2000 miles on it since sdac. alot of which was highway miles. but this decision is seemingly coming back and biting me in the a$$ now. but this is the only way you learn i guess.

[turbovanman²]

don't ever say my car sounds like a honda again:ban:;). that is with the dump open on the downpipe, so it only sounds that way at the track.

i don't doubt one bit that you broke more parts than i have. i just really lack the motivation to constantly fix stuff sometimes as i am a very lazy person.

the driver side broke on the outer cv. the passenger had a cracked tripod on the inner cv and it sheared off at the outer.

Sorry, lol.

Do you have pics of the axles?

There are cheap outers with can easily break? Maybe try good ones, I can't get those no problem. As for the inners, Dodge used alot and maybe someeone put the smaller, weaker one's in.

[rx2mazda]

and is a solid tube.

oxymoron!!!!

[92spiritrt]

no i dont have any pics of them. i kept the outer from the passenger side but threw the rest away. the axles were the stockers from my friends 88 t1 shadow. i still have my original driver axle, it just has a torn boot, so i can replace it and run that one. i used what was in the garage since the budget was starting to get tight towards the end of the build. lengel let me borrow a passenger axle for sunday, it has the better shaped in cv housing and is a solid tube. if that one is good to use maybe i'll see if i can buy it from him.

[turboshad]

oxymoron!!!!

You're freeking me out here Carroll. Quoting people before they even say it. :confused:

[92spiritrt]

Yeah I was wondering how that happened too.

[rx2mazda]

You're freeking me out here Carroll. Quoting people before they even say it. :confused:


Yeah I was wondering how that happened too.

I know the future......I will run 10's this year. :nod:


AXLE AND OBX DESTRUCTION!! Note the Sledge Hammer.
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l71/rx2mazda/DSC01994.jpg

[92spiritrt]

thanks buddy for posting my @$$ crack on the internet.

[Pat]

thanks buddy for posting my @$$ crack on the internet.

Aaahhhh!!!! My eyes!!!!!!

[rx2mazda]

LMAO!!! I didn't even notice!

[92spiritrt]

bringing this one back from hibernation.

over the winter i bought a full race a413 and converter off of steve stracener for the car. i finished up the install over memorial day weekend and got it all up and running. at this point i'm just getting it all back together for carlisle. the only other change made right now was installed 4 bar map(now 44psi capable:evil:). i still have to button up the interior. i have to make a cover for the new shifter and finish up the new gauge cluster.

the trans isn't fully setup yet, but it is enough to take it out around the block to see that all works well.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_1293.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_1292.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/92spiritrt/spirit/100_1295.jpg

[contraption22]

Cheater!!!!!!! :)

[rx2mazda]

Cheater!!!!!!! :)

+1!!!!!!!!! :lol:

EDIT: wait wait wait......your dash looks awesome but 120mph, really?! You'll go faster than that in the 1/4.

[turboshad]

+1!!!!!!!!! :lol:

EDIT: wait wait wait......your dash looks awesome but 120mph, really?! You'll go faster than that in the 1/4.

I was going faster than that in 3rd gear last year. :D


Looking good Rob. Too bad you're not making SDAC but I'm sure will catch up some other time.

[92spiritrt]

Cheater!!!!!!! :)

ha, look at the pot calling the kettle black.


+1!!!!!!!!! :lol:

EDIT: wait wait wait......your dash looks awesome but 120mph, really?! You'll go faster than that in the 1/4.

thanks. they don't make a 200mph one so i just went with the 120.

but seriously they came out of my gremlin. i've had those in there for about 9 years unused, so i figured i might as well put them to use. at this point i'm just glad to have a tach that reads higher than my redline cause the factory one wasn't enough last year already and things can probably go a bit higher this year.


I was going faster than that in 3rd gear last year. :D


Looking good Rob. Too bad you're not making SDAC but I'm sure will catch up some other time.

thanks dj, hopefully i'll make sdac next year. you should convince your boss to fly you down for the cecil invasion. you have five months to persuade him, so get on that:nod:.

[contraption22]

ha, look at the pot calling the kettle black.


Oh I know... that's what makes me hilarious.

[Pat]

Looks great, Rob. I like the dash.

How loose of a converter did you go with?

[92spiritrt]

thanks pat. it is a ptc converter that steve had made for the setup he was going to run. it is about a 4500 stall. it actually works out better than i expected it to. it grabs at around 2700-2800 rpm when driving it around, but stalls 4500 when on the brake pedal. it starts pulling through the brakes at about 4300rpm making 10psi. so i set the two step to 4100 at which point it makes 9psi which seems to be working very well.

[contraption22]

Sounds like a nice combo. Does that converter take the bigger input shaft?

[92spiritrt]

Yes it does.

[Pat]

thanks pat. it is a ptc converter that steve had made for the setup he was going to run. it is about a 4500 stall. it actually works out better than i expected it to. it grabs at around 2700-2800 rpm when driving it around, but stalls 4500 when on the brake pedal. it starts pulling through the brakes at about 4300rpm making 10psi. so i set the two step to 4100 at which point it makes 9psi which seems to be working very well.

That sounds perfect and should really work well with the turbo you're running. Well, at least as perfect as something that doesn't have a clutch could be. :)

[92spiritrt]

it does work well with the turbo, it seems to be coming in a lot faster than with the 568. i suck at driving anything with a clutch anyway, so this is for the better.

[turboshad]

it does work well with the turbo, it seems to be coming in a lot faster than with the 568. i suck at driving anything with a clutch anyway, so this is for the better.

lol, brings back memories at trying to drive up a hill at 4 in the morning while your fuel pump turns off as soon as you hit 0psi. I know, not really related to your manual driving skills but if you had your eyes closed it sure felt like it. :D

[92spiritrt]

i'll never forget that trip it was quite and experience. i didn't know you got to close your eyes since i was falling asleep too.