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Under pressure
10-26-2010, 04:08 PM
This is the beginning of my 1990 Dodge Daytona VNT project log.

the first steps have been all in the effort to restore this vehicle to running and driving condition. Most all of the quality parts were included with the vehicle along with factory service manuals

New fuel tank and sock and filter , re-using walbro 516 fuel pump that was in place. Replacing rusted section of fuel line.
replaced cap,rotor and wires(mopar) , replaced spark plugs (champions 9's)
resurfaced rear rotors and replaced pads, (fronts just done w/ calipers before I got the car).
Replacing tires with 205/55/R16 91H bridgestones
lube all hinges and latches

still to finish : accy belts,timing belt, water pump , and hoses and flush+fill
the muffler has a big hole in it , I got a great deal on a ss magnaflow 6"round 2.5 muff , waiting to see how the car runs with good fuel and tune up parts before any modifications from stock.

next post will have pics

JohnnyIroc
10-26-2010, 04:12 PM
glad to see a project log,
are you going to make it out to the next SDAC meeting?

Under pressure
10-26-2010, 04:47 PM
November 20th ? sure hoping to be around for it !

2.216VTurbo
10-26-2010, 04:54 PM
Woah, it's raining VNT Daytona's in IL:lol: Are they all blue ones;)?

Under pressure
10-26-2010, 04:57 PM
Funny , black with black interior

JohnnyIroc
10-26-2010, 05:02 PM
yep the meeting is on the 20th

there are a lot popping up right now,
IL is the only place there not getting parted out :p

these 2 actually where only 20 minutes away from eachother

Under pressure
11-04-2010, 11:35 AM
New fuel tank , 255 lph pump , new lines , timing belt , rad hoses have all been installed. Drained some race gas from my Lincoln and gave the Dodge a drink of the good stuff ! Dodge runs really good , the engine sounds quiet with clean oil and a new t belt. I took it out for a shakedown and the car is almost done , needs some alignment work and the new tires yet. It accelerates well with the turbo adding it's steam to about 10 on the guage. And NO codes ? 12 and 55 ? I need help though , How the heck are you supposed to see the timing marks ? Do I have to remove something ? I've been looking on the trans , I can't find the right spot ??

Juggy
11-04-2010, 12:08 PM
12 is start of code
55 is end..so yes your good


if the trans is a 5spd just keep turning the flywheel until you see the timing mark WITH the drilled hole. that will get you TDC in cylinder #1

the proper way is to remove the crank pulley and line it up with a straight edge and go from the center of the crank bolt to the center of the intermediate sprocket bolt. and put the little timing mark on the crank in line with the straight edge.

im sure a picture would help lol. sorry dont have one

try www.thedodgegarage.com maybe they will have one

Under pressure
11-05-2010, 01:23 AM
Yes , I used the dodge service manual for setting the timing belt timing. I just can't find the hole on the trans to shoot my timing light at. The vnt Discharge lower pipe and hoses and bypass must be in the way. Fortunately I got the mechanical timing right on with the belt so the actual ignition timing is not off by much , but I know I still gotta check it to be sure and to further tune it. Is that hole towards the top of the trans or more toward the front of the car ? If it had hair around it it would be easier to find.

Under pressure
11-05-2010, 01:27 AM
I messed with the exhaust today , car boosted 10 psi ,stock exhaust with a hole in the muffler. Cut it off right before the necked down pipe After the cat , 14 psi , no ob cut out and pulled better. Still unsure of timing and on 105 octane

2.216VTurbo
11-05-2010, 01:36 PM
Post a pic of your distrib viewed from the top down in the engine bay. I can tell you if you are in the ball park anyway. Assuming your I shaft is correctly timed... THe lower pipe on the VNT's is a metal section right there IIRC (it's been a few years since I worked on a VNT 'Tona) Can't you unbolt it and pull it away from the trans window a little bit?

Under pressure
11-08-2010, 12:14 PM
I got plates and insurance, all legal , on the maiden voyage on my test road out of town , nice concrete launch pad , wound er up , and smoked the clutch !!! LOL !!! Back to the shop ! I was looking at the hybrid T2/T3 Clutch as I am not really going to modify the car much.

after driving it more its getting better ? maybe sitting for years has helped it glaze over and i burnt it off ?

JohnnyIroc
11-08-2010, 05:17 PM
Im getting this thing should hold up to light mods much better then the stock clutch
http://turbosunleashed.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=350&osCsid=a6f8e0917a733b2206fd25478986a909

Under pressure
11-10-2010, 02:35 AM
That TU clutch looks great , pretty good value, I'm on a super tight budget , as of now I'm Waiting for A callback with info on parts from FWD .... Hopefully I'll have an answer on Wednesday on what I'm ordering and a price ? Looking into the stock t2/3 with better plate. Thinking about just going with the TU unit though. Funny thing about the car , I drove it all around today and the clutch didn't slip (normal driving) ? The other day I dropped it at like 4k and it just smoked and the car went nowhere , this is on concrete and crappy tires.

blk86trbo
11-10-2010, 10:35 AM
Hopefully you can nurse the clutch along until the upcoming meeting...it would be nice to meet up and see your VNT parked next to John's :nod:

Under pressure
11-10-2010, 02:58 PM
That would be fun , strange too since we were looking for the same car at the same time. I will probably not make it yet again , Ron White is doing his stand up in Indiana and my wife is buying tickets for his show. By the way all I've had here is this iPhone and haven't been able to post any pics of the stuff I'm doing. Between that and traveling back and forth to Louisville ( my wifes house) I'm not around here much. I'm up for a beer summit tonight or tomorrow night though ? Any takers ? I'm from the far south suburbs,I could meet halfway at the tilted kilt in Chicago ridge ? Or ?

Under pressure
11-13-2010, 07:47 PM
http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu119/Mark8denny/IMG_4027.jpg

JohnnyIroc
11-14-2010, 12:57 AM
man that thing looks so good,
definitely got a good deal there

Under pressure
11-14-2010, 11:34 AM
Thanks , it looks much better in pics than in person , and it runs alot better tuned up and on the edge of 15 psi.

Under pressure
11-15-2010, 10:24 PM
I'm back in the shop , been thinking about the car , been having trouble with codes , turns out the fpr is bad and leaking fuel into the vac harness causing all the problems. Go adj or stock ? Hopefully this will be it for a while ...

JohnnyIroc
11-15-2010, 11:51 PM
get an AFPR that mounts in the stock location i think TU or FWDP has one for around $100

Under pressure
11-16-2010, 12:53 AM
I can see it if I throw some larger injectors at it but 55 psi is pretty high already. What , like use some #42 lph and drop fuel psi to say 45-50 and then use a zeiner diode to block overboost ? That could solve that issue maybe ? As boost rises past 14 the Boost psi will add more fuel psi adding more fuel. I don't want to mess with the computer calibration or chips. If that will work , I'll go for it otherwise a 35$ reg is going on it.

Under pressure
01-24-2011, 12:16 PM
Well , I've been driving this car now as my highway commuter and am getting great mileage. All of the problems went away after replacing the bad FPR. I decided to replace the clutch assembly as preventative maintenance as to not get stranded. I got a t2/t3 setup from one of the vendors. The install went fine. Now the clutch won't release. Although I have a lift and transjack, I am pissed to have to pull it apart again. I shot an email to the vendor and am awaiting a reply. Anyone have any ideas ?

Under pressure
02-14-2011, 04:56 PM
http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu119/Mark8denny/clutch2.jpg

this is the original pressure plate above

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu119/Mark8denny/clutch1.jpg

this is the replacement , notice the studs that hold the whole unit together rigidly are missing in the replacement pressure plate, the only thing holding it together from rotating apart is the sheet metal straps ...
I decided to just re use the original pressure plate with the new clutch disc and release bearing and re assembled the car. the problem was the pressure plate itself. defective. I understand you get what you pay for but the quality of the parts did not meet oem quality. I am glad I have the car back on the road as a dependable driver, the original clutch did not have much left in it. This incident has been very frustrating and I would consider it as acceptable as long as the vendor sends UPS to come pick up the defective parts and refunds me the 90$ for the pressure plate. It's been a week and no UPS man ...

---------- Post added at 04:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:49 PM ----------

http://<a href=http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu119/Mark8denny/daytona1.jpg

---------- Post added at 04:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:53 PM ----------

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu119/Mark8denny/IMG_4027.jpg

JohnnyIroc
02-15-2011, 12:20 PM
car looks great man,
gonna be able to make it to the meeting this weekend?

Under pressure
11-21-2011, 07:54 PM
Hey Guys , sorry never made any meetings and I havent been in here for a long while, I've been going to school in INDY , taking CNC machining classes. The car's been doing great , and despite having to back out of the throttle now and then to stop it from overboosting I am still happy I put a better catback on it. The car gave a Z4 BMW a highway run he won't forget. Well the last Chicago to Louisville blast took its toll. Its pushing out the headgasket. Once I get the car back in the shop I'll diagnose further but I'd bet my money on the gasket. It's ok , new gasket, bolts, turbo lines, some bolts and some head bowl work and port cleanup are all planned. hopefully It won't turn into too big or $$ a project.

Do these 2.2's eat up valveguides ? at 100k I don't know what to expect , maybe have Opel Engineering rebuild the head if It needs It , hope not though.

22shelby
11-21-2011, 08:57 PM
if your going to do head work, i recomend Bill over at Apex in bensinville along with any block work you need... my head will be going over there soon... btw is that robs old VNT??? from Elmhurst???

Under pressure
01-13-2012, 01:53 PM
Yes, I did buy the car from Rob in Elmhurst almost 2 years ago now. I've done quite a bit of work to it also. It's been a great driver , I'm in the process of swapping over to a modded turbo2 garrett and a bunch of parts $$$ from Chris at Turbos Unleashed. I wish I would have ordered the clutch from him !
---------- Post added at 01:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:48 PM ----------

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu119/Mark8denny/photo.jpg


This is from the overboost fuel cut out ! sort of like an acetylene torch , when you add oxygen to the flame it gets hot and melts stuff !!

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu119/Mark8denny/photo2.jpg

---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:50 PM ----------

I welded up that funky stupid 'notch' in the 782 head and the damage that happened from torching the headgasket. As you can see the 'notch' was right under the sealing ring of the gasket (hot spot) . I still have to mill the head flat next week, but one thing at a time.

Under pressure
04-17-2012, 11:55 AM
It has been a long time since any updates here.

I supported Chris at Turbos Unleashed , I got all my gaskets and bolts , a Turbo II turbo w/ quick spool , a boost controler , braided steel line kit , solid bobble strut, ARP head studs and incidentals.

I did finish milling the head and port work , cut a new valve job, back cut the valves and assembled with a set of Comp cams springs with the help from Joe Chrisman @ Tranzact of Indy. Assembly in the car was tough and a pain in my hands but everything went together with lots of attention to detail. I added an innovate wideband to my downpipe to measure the AFR and removed the Cat.
The car ran great and idled with that nice 2.2 gurgle/rumble but under boost/load it would start to get into the lean range of 12 and up under full throttle so I got a set of +20 injectors locally from Bill @ Chicago Connection. I used a chipped SBEC I got from from Simon (turbovanman) that (whorse) had in his VNT for the +20's. Those mods along with an Accufab FPR set to 50 lbs (no vaccum) has put my AFR under full boost steady in the 11's to 10.9 ( nice and safe) all the way to my max regulated 12-13 psi on the guage. No overboost and reliability again. I am running one step cooler plugs and stock base ignition timing. The car runs great and without issues , a true daily driver. Next on the list is engine and trans mounts to firm it up since the car definetly runs with more power.

I had considered keeping the car a VNT but I'm glad I took this route , all the air intake parts from the VNT fit onto the T2 and I just had to re route and simplify the vaccum lines. I left the VNT solenoids hooked up electrically to avid any Check engine lights. I even have a T2 intercooler I'm going to swap with the VNT intercooler. I did miss my 89 T2 but now not as much. :thumb: