'04 SRT-4 engine in an '88 Caravan build

[turboshelbys]

Hey Everyone, just wanted y'all to now A.J. had emergency surgery on his appendix today. Wishing him a full recovery and please keep him in your prayers.

[zin]

Damn! Hope he's recovering well.

Mike

[turboshelbys]

He is doing good, but going stir crazy. Hopefully will be out on Sunday

[fixit]

i've use this to replace with wireless garage door opener, think of it as a wireless remote relay...
for $10 works great, http://www.ebay.com/itm/400714167498...K%3AMEBIDX%3AI

315MHz RF Wireless 1 Channel Receiver Momentary Switch for Garage doors doorbell

They are hard to find but a greddy steering wheel switch would work great!Its wireless.

[wheming]

Get well soon A.J.!
Hope they caught it quick enough too.

[2.216VTurbo]

Gory incision pics or it didn't happen AJ! Get well soon

[turboshelbys]

I keep telling him chicks love scars

[A.J.]

I made it home yesterday. Still in some pain but nothing like when I went in. Working on the gory pics for Alan. On the bright side, yelled at my converter builder today about getting the run-around for the past month (they've had it since November) so I'm only being charged for shipping and its being shipped out today.

[tryingbe]

I'm only being charged for shipping and its being shipped out today.

Think you can make the March 11th race?

[A.J.]

Think you can make the March 11th race?

I hope so. I need to R&R the trans to swap converters (got it down to about 2 hours), need to dyno tune it because I haven't since I put on the plastic intake, and get the launch controller programmed.

[2.216VTurbo]

Just messing with you Bro, take some time to re-coop, youre not 30 anymore right? Heck, I'm do for a colonoscopy this year

[A.J.]

Just messing with you Bro, take some time to re-coop, youre not 30 anymore right? Heck, I'm do for a colonoscopy this year

Cool, because the picture I took is less than flattering.

[wheming]

Your van has been spotted and caught someone's attention!
http://www.generationhighoutput.com/...4-engine-swap/

Way to represent!

[A.J.]

Doing some upgrades to the van. After participating in Roadkill's $3K challenge (I can't talk about it until it airs) it inspired me to go back to work, not settle for 12.6, and now push for 11.5. I'm doing it in stages. Stage one, air to air intercooler and dyno. Stage two, new intake manifold and dyno. Going to ditch the plastic PT Cruiser intake, use the aluminum PT lower, and build a new plenum http://rossmachineracing.com/intakepartspage.html. Stage three, build a forged and strapped lower end with a better flowing head. Stage four, NITROUS!

I decided to go back to an air to air intercooler because the air to water just wasn't cutting it at the track. A/W is great for around town but at the track, on a 70* day, by the end of the 1/4 mile, my intake air temps are 180*-200*. Tryingbe with an A/A and Megasquirt data logging, his intake air temps are going the opposite way of mine. I'm not willing to invest in making the A/W work anymore so back to A/A. The main reason I went to A/W in the first place was the last A/A I had, I had 12' of intercooler plumbing. But since then I've ditched the factory 1/2 radiator and 1/2 condenser. Now I can use whatever radiator/condenser configuration I want. With A/W I used a 95 Grand Caravan radiator and condenser. In going to A/A I was able to reuse my condenser but the radiator was out of the question. The lower radiator outlet was going to hit the AC compressor moving it over to accommodate the A/A passing through the front. So now for a radiator I'm using a '99-'04 3.8L Ford Mustang. It's almost like it was designed for my van and this IC.

The front with the AWIC:


My front now with the air to air IC:








I had to build a new fan shroud for the Mustang radiator:


After boxing in the radiator fan to the radiator and foam sealing the radiator to the condenser, I wanted to check the sucking power of my two speed Volvo fan also pulling through 3.5" of intercooler.


I had to splice radiator hoses together. The upper is an upper Neon SRT4 hose cut up and the lower is a PT Cruiser upper hose and a lower '95 Caravan 3.8L lower hose cut up.


I did my best to cover the ugly:


Lower hose:


I also had to redesign my my crankcase ventilation. I was noticing some smoke out the back under long hard pulls. I took my valve cover apart and found the crankcase vent to the intake (before the turbo) was less than a 1/4". I could not get a 1/4" drill bit in the hole. So I drilled it out to 1/2", used a 3/8" NPT with a 5/8" barb, and put the 5/8" hose on it to the turbo inlet. But I didn't want to run a catch can so I stuffed the baffles with stainless steel steel wool and blocked off the ends with screen.




I also had to rework the PCV side. That side I didn't mind having a catch can but I wanted more than a 1/2" vent so I found a catch can with an extra port so I can have the PCV pull on it under vacuum and under boost the blow by goes to the turbo inlet but not before the oil mist getting filtered out into the catch can.

[Reaper1]

Were you running a "surge tank" in the A/W system? Or, I guess I should ask, what was the capacity of the system?

[A.J.]

Were you running a "surge tank" in the A/W system? Or, I guess I should ask, what was the capacity of the system?

Yes. I had a 2.5 gallon tank I built for where the charcoal canister goes. Total system capacity was between 4-5 gallons. You can see it in this pic of all my AWIC components removed:

[2.216VTurbo]

Can't talk about it eh?? Gonna be good then! Air date yer? I dont DVR every episode, my stupid Cox DVR is always 80-90% full. Bastids. For $200/mo you'd think a few more Gigs would be part of the package.

[A.J.]

Can't talk about it eh?? Gonna be good then! Air date yer? I dont DVR every episode, my stupid Cox DVR is always 80-90% full. Bastids. For $200/mo you'd think a few more Gigs would be part of the package.

Nope and yes it's going to be fantastic! No idea when it's going to air. I figured it would have by now, it was filmed in early March. When it does I think it's going to be on Facebook because it was a joint effort between the two. Usually you can add hard drives to DVRs to increase their storage.

[Force Fed Mopar]

Weird, I had no issues with my awic. Although, I will admit I didn't log any temps, nor did I run at the track much, or race during the day. Most of what I did was done riding around on Friday and Saturday nights

[csxtra]

I used to have the Frozenboost Type 3 (4.5"x4.5"x10 core) in my CSX, with the type 101 (7" high x 3.5" thick) heat exchanger and about 3-4 gallons of capacity. At around 30psi on a GT3040 I was getting 120-125degF temp drop but around 3psi of pressure drop, and 125degF intake temps (measured using type K thermocouples on a 50 degree day with 85degF water temps).

I replaced the Frozenboost I/C with a custom A/W IC with a Bell core (6" x 5.3" x 12"), and on a 90 degree day in Memphis with about 25psi of boost and saw over 200 degF temperature drops and 140degF intake temps even with 126degF water temps. Unfortunately my pressure sensors have not been working so I haven't been able to log pressure drops yet.

Just some data points, but the larger Bell core cools SIGNIFICANTLY better than the Frozenboost cooler did.