Hello Turbo-mopar, its been a while. I have been creeping on everybody else builds lately and its actually been the inspiration to get me off my butt and get back to work on my Lebaron. So keep up the good work guys!
A little history on my Lebaron Convertible. I bought this car from Jackson in March of 2011. Road upto Wisconsin with a fraternity brother from college and Jackson picked me up from outside Madison to his shop.
At the time (before I even thought about buying the car) Jackson had put a new top on it, 11'' brakes from an iroc, rt ic/rad set up, lowered an inch with rear shelby z springs and front eibachs, jackson custom short shifter, iroc rt speedometer, and 3 inch exhaust custom fit by jackson for perfect fitment. Needless to say I bought it from jackson in fantastic shape.
Brought the car back home and took it college for two months and came home in mid may. First thing I did was yank the original motor and drop in an 89 common block, .020 forged pistons, monster steve menegon head, t3/t4 hybrid 57 trim with a stage 2 wheel, picked up a 92 stage 5 fwd cal, +40's, 3 bar and a dual diaphram pressure plate with a 4 puck clutch. Car screamed all summer long and I put a hefty 15,000 miles on it. The car saw a couple track days, and lots of car shows all summer long.
2 days before it went into storage, The line to boost controller came off and boost spiked to 42psi and grenaded the motor. In that time I was in college and 2 hours away. I drove home and picked up another cb I had laying around with a t2 turbo and slapped it on the car with stock fuel and computer system and drove it home. Needless to say that motor was about smoked when I pulled it out and on the 2 hour drive home it started to smoke quite a bit.
Safe and sound in the garage, a couple months later I got a call one day from a buddy of mine who had a family friend in western Kansas with 2 Spirit r/t's, no titles and non running. I picked up both cars and yanked the motor out of one of the spirits and took it to St. Louis and had it built with Wiesco pistons, k1 rods and picked up a head off of turbo-mopar with a stage 3 lone wolf port job and stage 2 cams.
Needless to say this motor was destined for lots of boost. At this stage the lebaron was not ready for any kind of power like that.
In October I left college because of financial aid issues and worked fulltime at NTB as a salesman. Before that I worked parttime at NTB for the year before. As most of you know, the midwest had a mild winter and tire sales went down the toilet as the economy had tanked and people don't buy tires unless they blow them out or buy cheap chinease tires over your more expensive major brand tires these days. So after taking a major pay cut in commission and slow sales killing my commission I left NTB in May. So the extra funds for a t3 build kinda of leaned out (like the last couple motors LMAO).
I got tired of looking at the lebaron and not driving it. So I tore down the first motor and found I had melted #1 and #4 weisco pistons, burnt # 4 exhaust valve, Sent a piece of piston into the head so hard it cracked the center of #4 on the head and lodged the valve closed cracking the FWD cam in it. Also a piece of metal went through my 57 trim and destroyed the exhaust side wheel. Needless to say that built motor got trashed... SIGH!
So I pulled the motor and trans that was currently in the lebaron.. Out.
I currently Live with my Grandmother to help her out, so the garage was full of boxes and storage crap.... 10 hours of cleaning out and getting rid of a lot of stuff I made enough room to tear the car down
Eventual plans are to build a work bench across the backwall but I still have lots of furniture in the garage as we are cleaning out the whole house and the furniture that is supposed to be in the basement... is in the garage... Sigh. But you work with what you have. this set up will suffice for now LMAO!
Motor Ready to pull
Tada Drive train out the car =)
Well current plans are to get the car back going in a month or so. I have a spare short block that I am going to tear apart and make sure it looks good, I am going to power wash everything and clean it up a little. After 2 motors shooting oil out of the pcv area, its a little nasty. I am have taken all the applicable brackets off the motor and will sandblast and powdercoat them at a buddy's shop.
Parts that I need and don't have right now include,
-New fuel pump (Probably a good idea since I have seen lean issues in 2 motors now)
-New alternator (one of the old posts broke off and I used a small screw to keep it charging till I can fix it)
-New passenger side axle (the axle was screwed when I pulled it out LMAO)
Sorry for the long post. Longterm I am going to drive the car a little bit and start upgrading suspension, and gather other parts for the vehicle.
Eventually the lebaron will get paint and body, then the t3 swap with a holset and a show quality restoration. But for now I am going to clean it up and have it drivable before Kansas sees some salt on the roads then back in the garage the car will go.