3.0L Turbo Budget Build

[nmw2006]

Ok, its time to start my turbo build thread....I am going to be doing this on an extremely tight budget mostly because I am a full time student without much income to speak of.

First off....Car is a 1991 Dodge Spirit R/T.









I bought the car as a roller - body only. I found a low-mileage (around 45k miles) 3.0L that came out of a 1994 Acclaim and swapped it in with a A543 bought from Jason in MI. As of right now it is running on the stock 3.0L/A543 computer, but I have a MSII waiting to be swapped in as soon as it gets warm.



Upgrades so far include all the basic N/A updates:

1" plenum spacers (these may need to go for the turbo install due to fitment issues)
New oil pump
New water pump
New timing belt
52mm throttle body
K&N air filter (I know - shouldn't be on the TB..)
Underdrive pulley
Ported upper plenum
Crower regrind turbo cams
Full mandrel-bent 3" exhaust
Wiring harness from a 3.0L/A543 Daytona
Fidanza Aluminum Flywheel
New 205/65/R15 (i believe - have to check) Kumho ESCTA ASX on stock rims
New Stock TIII Clutch

Probably lots more I have forgotten...anyhow...this is what I am working with and I will post up more info and parts as I start to collect them. The car already hauls some serious butt and I am very excited to see what the results will be.

[nmw2006]

First part I found is a used Turbonetics Evolution external wastegate. It has a 5psi spring installed.

Got it off ebay for $125 shipped.





Since I am going to be using Ed Kelley's headers, this should be perfect for my application.

[nmw2006]

Intercooler and BOV adapter pipe are on order....pics soon

Plus Ed's header whenever he gets them done and shipped out.

[jamesmonty]

Can't wait for more updates! Are you going to make it to spring fling on April 4th? I would love to see the spirit go down the track for some pre turbo numbers.

[nmw2006]

Of course...wouldn't miss it. However I do plan on being the slowest car there lol...I'm gonna guess around 14.5-15.0 due to the driver mod.

I am probobly going to jinx myself and the car is going to explode, but i am predicting a 14.6 at 93 mph....Lets see how close I am.

[nmw2006]

It was nice out today (75 degrees WOOHOO!!) so I decided to get some work done on my car.

I fixed a few issues:

Finally got all my headlights and fog lights working (ground issues). Car looks nice in the dark now :P

Changed spark plugs from Bosch Platinum +4s (these things are absolutely crappy) to some cheap Champion RN11YC4s and AMAZINGLY my off-throttle stutter (missing) problem went away. WOW!!

Getting closer to my MSII install but trying to fix all the little bugs first.

Edit: Still don't have a horn..Looking into that now....

[Ondonti]

I am going to vote low 15's or slower
I don't know how well your car 60's etc.
Hard to tell about a setup that hasn't been to the track before.
The thing going for you is the low mileage motor. Ive only tracked a 90k blowbye motor and a 120+k motor with a leaky exhaust valve. The 120k mile motor was slightly faster at high altitude even without the aluminum flywheel.

14.8@92 with a 2.2 60' on the 90k blowbye motor at sea level. I couldnt run the 120+k mile leaky exhaust valve motor because I put a stock used clutch in the car and it slips at sea level.
What tires are you going to run and what clutch do you have installed?

14.6 would be an A body 3.0 bpu record. Is your R/T power everything?

[nmw2006]

MAN, way to shoot down a guys hopes and dreams....

Honestly though, the 14.6 was more of a joke and I expect it to go somewhere near 15...but hopefully quicker

Yes my R/T has power everything, tires, clutch, and aluminum flywheel added to first post.

[Bardo]

subscribed

[Ondonti]

MAN, way to shoot down a guys hopes and dreams....

Honestly though, the 14.6 was more of a joke and I expect it to go somewhere near 15...but hopefully quicker

Yes my R/T has power everything, tires, clutch, and aluminum flywheel added to first post.

Sorry, ive analyzed the 3.0 times too much :P

That said, I went back to back weeks racing.
14.8@92 with a 2.2 60' n/a BPU
then the next week
13.9@101.89 with a 2.3 60', 5psi boost, and 9:1 a/f cause I didn't tune the car and had the rising rate regulator cranked to the max until I got my hands on a laptop.

Cant really shake a stick at gaining 10mph and 1 second with 5 pounds of boost and no tune.

5psi would take an 18 second 4 cylinder 8 valve dodge into the low 17's lol.

Just 5 pounds of boost and you will have a really really fun car that actually has balls when you are out of boost. I actually got better gas mileage and the low rpms hp picked up because of the turbos exhaust restriction so it felt even more responsive at low rpms low throttle openings if you didn't know it had a turbo. Obvious lag cause I had a 3" cat and large chinese turbo on that car.

[Shadow24]

i'd think in N/A form, mid to low 15s are going to be a good starting place. with a bad tune and no driver mod i went from an initial 16.1ish to consistent 15.2s (189whp, 201wtq) I still have to work on the driver mod and im ripping 14.8s now with more power than the 12v (revving to 7000 to clear the 1/4 in 3rd). Im hoping to get way down in the 14s before i put my M90 on, but we will see. 60' needs a lot of work though (high 2.2s to 2.3s on street tires)

you have a nice thread going, its cool to see more people modding the 3.0 than the original hard-core guys

btw, if your ever around Lexington or Columbus, look me up, im out in Ohio for an internship and i have "Lucy" out here and I'll even offer to take you for a spin.

[WickedShelby88]

Now just for reference I thought the N/A 3.0 5 speed shadows were 16 sec. cars stock. Correct me it I'm wrong. I knew they would smoke a beretta Z26 which is a comparable car in its class. I've driven a 13 sec car and my dads 3.0 tona ES box stock with no muffler felt pretty quick too. 5 speed car as well with rear seats, spare, etc. removed. Is there a header out there you can buy right now to mount a turbo or do you need to fab one? No big deal, just wondering what options are there.

[Shadow24]

I have a 2001 24v SOHC motor, not the original 12v never ran mine at the track with the 12v so im not sure what it would have done.

Im also running a full interior with spare ATM (race weight with me in the car and junk in the trunk was 3084lbs)

Ed is making some turbo headers, other than fabbing your won, thats about the only option. Thats one reason im going with an M90 supercharger (and the fact i already have some SS headers)

[WickedShelby88]

Making headers isn't too bad on a 3.0, but if there are some that become available I may put together some parts and such. The wife's mini could use some more power.

[nmw2006]

More News...

Did my MS reinstall over this past weekend and am in the process of getting it tuned...may not be track-ready by next weekend , but we will see.

Stupid thing runs so pig-rich it falls flat on its face at throttle tip-in, but you take fuel out and it won't idle or take off without a 4k rev and huge clutch slippage....GRRRRRR

Anyhow I have bought a nice Innovate WBO2 system from DIYAutotune, and my IC (this thing is freaking HUGE - 12x24x3) and BOV adapter pipe came in..i will get pics up soon.

Slowly making progress on this thing but money is running out LOL.

Hopefully i can meet up with Shadow24 later this week and do some wideband tuning to get it on the track Saturday....but we shall see.

[Ondonti]

Lol well trying to tune without that wideband with no real base map does not sound too fun.

[Shadow24]

yeah, i suggested he get an LC-1 ASAP before he accidentally killed it. NB for tuning =

[nmw2006]

Fixed my MS issues...turns out the ports by the TB on this manifold are not good vacuum ports. Attached my hose at the other end near the stock MAP sensor and the thing just woke up...no wonder it was running so rich - it was dumping in fuel and thinking that I was at idle vaccuum (around 25 kPa) all the time.

Anyhow, it will be on the track in Cinci this weekend, weather pending...

[nmw2006]

Also got my LC-1 yesterday, got it all hooked up and it only lasted for about 5 minutes before completely giving up the ghost...

All i can figure out is that I got a dud controller.

It has power, its all wired right, but not getting any feedback from it, also can't connect to it via serial port.

Oh well, I will be sending it back I guess.

[nmw2006]

Woot!! time for more pictures...finally got my internet connected at my new place in Lancaster.

First off...some pics of my new FMIC...it's from CXRacing and measures 12x24x3...should be plenty big enough

It's a 3" in/out same side bar and plate piece - looks to be nice enough for what I need and the price was definitely right - $140







Also got a picture of my BOV adapter pipe for my Type H RFL.



Things are starting to come together - I'm liking it