TFB 11 sec Charger

["Top Fuel" Bender]

After 18ish years of owning this car on/off again , figured it's about time to do a build thread on it

Forever ago , I was looking for a new project car. Tired of the rusted cars around here and not being a body guy
I found this '86 Shelby Charger roller for sale with "fresh paint" . Hoagie and I drove out to Ohio to bring it home.
It had fresh paint GTS Viper Grey w/ GTS Viper Black (rainbow metallic) stripe. Paint looked decent but the prep work showed.
Nevertheless we drug it home and it sat for awhile. Hoagie bought it from me, re-bodied his rough Blue/Silver Shelby Charger.
We slapped left over parts from the Omni, a bunch of stuff he had laying around and started knocking out a bunch of 12.2-12.5 timeslips
around 125-150 passes later Hoagie had a stroke , the Omni was done for , so he let me bring it to SDAC 20 with a 30 shot on it.
a few low 12sec passes and a 11.99 pass in that heat and pushed some coolant . Hoagie hooked me up with the car.
Swapped headgaskets , drove it some and torched a piston on some bad gas. Car sat for years with random attempts to revive it.
Mouse chewed wires, busted fuel pump hanger, bad SMEC and a host of other issues the car is finally back together.

2023 still had ecu issues, gernaded the trans, busted axles and no real passes
2024 killed the clutch , smokey turbo , rod knock (2x) , engine swap , megasuirt install
got the Charger back into the 11s with NO nitrous this time !!

["Top Fuel" Bender]

1986 Shelby Charger
Viper Grey/metallic Black

1st combo : 12.2-12.5 1/4 mile
2.2 TII
G-head
'91 a523
Frozen Boost "Spearco" knockoff intake
46 trim t3/t4
3" swingvalve and dump pipe
SMEC


The 1st drivetrain started with a $200 Lancer I found in the local paper
had a "Broken trans" , tightened up the nut on the shifter linkage and away we went
motor seemed healthy so we pulled it , looked like it had a newer rebuild
lasted a good 14 years or so

2.2 Common Block , Forged Cranks , Sealed Power pistons , hd rods, SEND IT !!!!
Top End was from Mike Radowski (clickhere33) red omni
mildly ported G-head , Steve Menegon valvesprings, '88 TBI roller cam
heavily ported exhaust manifold, ported 1-piece intake , 46mm throttlebody
46trim t3/t4 turbo , Radowski custom 3" swingvalve, Turbonetics dual port wastegate w/ manual boost controller
Walbro 255lb/hr fuel pump , Super 60 Injectors
Custom SMEC harness , Relentless Performance Calibration
ARP Studs

Trans was another lucky find
rainy day $60 pick-n-pull from a '91 Dodge shadow
fluid flush and cleaned it up , swapped over the cable shifter
Spec stage III clutch , 4-puck , years of abuse side stepping the clutch at 5k
Drive Shaft Shop axles

24x8.5x15 M&H Slicks on 15x7 Fiero GT wheels

[cordes]

Very cool to finally see a build thread for the car. I'm looking forward to what you do with it. Seems like you've got things figured out. I'm sure the MS will be paying off soon if it hasn't already.

["Top Fuel" Bender]

Current setup 2024 11.89@116mph

Right before SDAC 33 while tuning the SMEC with an Ostrich ... the well used 2.2 finally gave up in the form of a rod knock on #4
ready to give up on bringing the Charger out, Ed Papp (onerippinturbo2) hooked me up with a good rod/bearings/gaskets
I had a spare piston and good low mileage crank. ordered up some rings tore it all apart 2 weeks before SDAC and overhauled it
200 miles driving it before SDAC and another 75miles or so out there, I developed another rod knock on cyl #2

On the way back from SDAC Nick Young (Dohcturbo) said he had Joe D'Ambrosio (firebaron90) old 2.5
built by Brian Slowe (turbo2point2) SloweSpeed

Sooooo in less then 10 days between SDAC and Carlisle , I took the Charger (with rod knock ) to a local car show
drove out to EFI Source and bought a Gold Box Lite Megasquirt standalone , thanks to the push from Jaren Niewinski (22shelby)
drove out to Nick's place for the engine
wired the GoldBox in at night under a canopy in the rain, fired up the car
swapped out the 2.2 bottom end for the 2.5
and made it to Chrysler's @ Carlisle !!!

After some road tuning to make sure all the bugs were worked out
I brought it out to Michael Yost (Yost) YostBuilt for a conservative 94 octane pump gas tune
250hp/260tq @ 17psi with 14deg timing and 11.5 a/f

wanted more boost but the pre-load on the wastegate can was too low to get more out of it at the time



Engine changes :
2.5 common block
JE Forged Pistons
2-piece intake
welded/ported lower

Transmission:
a523 Papp Built trans w/ OBX Diff
all the goodies , Lengel Bronze shift pads ect...
NOT JUST PAINT

Tried a generic 4 puck ceramic clutch
worked great on "as dyno'd" setup with 1.62' 60' but went away quickly as I turned it up

cranked the wastegate pre-load from 7psi to 12 psi
full 3" exhaust out the back with a Magnaflow Muffler



11.89@116mph pass was 24psi boost , 10psi slicks , added 1.5 deg timing
soft launch 4psi boost on leave cause the clutch wasn't having the 12psi launches 1.70 60' (was 1.62 60' when the clutch grabbed)

["Top Fuel" Bender]

Very cool to finally see a build thread for the car. I'm looking forward to what you do with it. Seems like you've got things figured out. I'm sure the MS will be paying off soon if it hasn't already.

oh I'm LOVING the MS
I'll never go back and will be selling off all my oem stuff

I preached the MS stuff for years after using it on the VW stuff but got worried on the crank trigger setup
Finally took the time to sit down and come up with a solution.

[BadAssPerformance]

Congrats on the great progress and getting it in the 11's!

[cordes]

oh I'm LOVING the MS
I'll never go back and will be selling off all my oem stuff

I preached the MS stuff for years after using it on the VW stuff but got worried on the crank trigger setup
Finally took the time to sit down and come up with a solution.

And I thank you greatly for the solution. They're super easy to put together and I've got about quite a few miles on them now with no problems from the brackets I made or the wheels which you provided. It's just a great way to do it.

["Top Fuel" Bender]

Congrats on the great progress and getting it in the 11's!

THANKS !! Really looking to get back out there again

And I thank you greatly for the solution. They're super easy to put together and I've got about quite a few miles on them now with no problems from the brackets I made or the wheels which you provided. It's just a great way to do it.

Glad they worked well for you and thanks for the vids you posted up
I'm getting ready to make another batch and will have to link those in too if ya don't mind

[cordes]

THANKS !! Really looking to get back out there again



Glad they worked well for you and thanks for the vids you posted up
I'm getting ready to make another batch and will have to link those in too if ya don't mind

Feel free. I make the videos to help guys keep these cars on the road. I think MS, especially the Microsquirt is so cheap at this point it's going to save a lot of the rest of these cars from the scrapper. If my video helps to save a few, then I'm achieving my goal.

[jpcturbo]

First time I really saw your car I was just so impressed with the performance given the straight forward build with no fancy parts or tricks. Since then you have persevered through some hard times and definitely have come out on top. I'm looking forward to you come up with next!

Jeff

["Top Fuel" Bender]

Thanks Jeff !
Yeah the car and home life have been kicking my butt but my passion for these cars keeps me going.
I'm sure the L-body weight savings helps some (this car is 2400lbs race weight) but it's our bonus for having a tight engine bay 😆