After finishing Drag Week, I dug out and dusted off my '88 Shadow. Me and this car go way back...I bought it for $300 way back when with a knocking/leaking stock 2.2 T1/520. I converted it to T3/568, ran it as a street car, then as a street/racer, then in '08 converted it to run on the cheap and ran it in the $2008 GRM Challenge, where it placed 5th overall. I learned a ton in that event and decided to take it back in '09, where it placed 2nd overall after not running right in the drags. In April, 2010, the bone stock used motor finally let go after a drag strip mishap, blowing a head gasket and bending a rod. Since then, most of it's parts were used in the ScAries as that was built into the GRM project for '10, '11 and '12.
With some rule changes over the years, some budget money had been freed up since I ran the Shadow in '09. The roll bar no longer counted towards budget, nor did Kuhmo tires. Luckily, winning in '12 won me a set of Kuhmo V710 autox tires, which freed up even more budget. That being the case, my plan originally was to throw a stock 8v into the car and focus on the suspension and see what it would do in the $1k class, however, when I finally opened up the rules for '13, I realized that they dropped the $1k class. Without that budget limitation, I decided going fast was the only other option. :-)
The stock SMEC harness was thrown back in, as was all the stuff I stole from the car for the Aries....shifter, cables, control arms/bushings, etc. I then "borrowed" the drivetrain out of the ScAries. The reason I used that motor is that it was built as a GRM motor, meaning that it was done on the super cheap. It's a non common block, cast crank, T2 rods with stock cast T2 pistons. The top end is a cylinder head that I ported, a ported exhaust manifold, an intake plenum I built out of a GM truck driveshaft and a Thunderbird T3 60trim/.63 turbo and a used nitrous system. The Aries will get something else at some point. For an intercooler, I am running 2 stock cores, y piped in. To save budget money, I didn't buy any bends....all of the bends you see for the piping is pie cut and welded, including the Y's.
For the suspension, I used the double spring set up I came up with for the ScAries a couple years ago. I also fabricated both upper and lower mounts out of scrap metal and sections of pipe to run 2.5" coilover springs in the rear. This will give me a much more balanced suspension set up then I ever ran in the ScAries, which was very stiff up front and fairly soft in the rear. With the budget allowances given and where some of the parts were sourced (the ScAries is technically one of my parts cars on the budget...which I bought with a ton of parts), I have budget room to run a set of older, used Koni's I already owned.
It runs and drives (as of yesterday!) but has zero testing done on it. I have less than 2 weeks before I leave for Florida and have a ton of work to do still. I'll post updates as time permits but attached are some pics of the progress so far.
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Originally Posted by Ondonti
to his build pace, mine's like this
I agree the oil returns are not always effective on sustained high RPM runs.
