Sunday, May 02, 2010
Forming a support group
Believe it or not, I've actually been getting more work done on the Dart recently than on this blog. Several of my co-workers also have unfinished project cars (it's practically a requirement to get hired in the technical department...) and so we've been setting aside a couple days each month where we stay after work and help each other out with our cars. I've finished a manual steering swap on the Dart, got the turbo support bracket 100% complete, and now I'm working on some final details of the radiator and intercooler setup. Having buddies help work on your car can provide a lot more than just extra pairs of hands. You also get new ideas, and just as importantly, a lot of encouragement whenever you start feeling in over your head.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Not much time to work on the Dart this week, but I did pick up a few items...
Picked up one of Summit's extra long battery relocation cable kits, a Moroso battery cutoff switch, and an Optima Red Top battery this week. I'll see if I can get these in soon.
My plan is to run the 2-gauge wire forward to a bulkhead fitting on the firewall, then connect that to the starter and the alternator. I'll run two more 10 or 8 gauge wires from the battery to the front of the car, one for the EFI and ignition, and one for everything else. There will (at some point) be a cut off switch in the EFI / ignition wire to meet NHRA requirements.
Speaking of NHRA requirements, I probably need to order their rule book - I've got a feeling that a weird homebrew setup like what's under the Dart's hood might get looked at a bit more closely than normal when going through tech inspection.
My plan is to run the 2-gauge wire forward to a bulkhead fitting on the firewall, then connect that to the starter and the alternator. I'll run two more 10 or 8 gauge wires from the battery to the front of the car, one for the EFI and ignition, and one for everything else. There will (at some point) be a cut off switch in the EFI / ignition wire to meet NHRA requirements.
Speaking of NHRA requirements, I probably need to order their rule book - I've got a feeling that a weird homebrew setup like what's under the Dart's hood might get looked at a bit more closely than normal when going through tech inspection.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Starting on a trunk mounted battery
I've been having trouble finding time to work on the turbocharged Dodge Dart - things have been very busy at work as we were getting ready for the PRI trade show. (Which reminds me - I have pictures of that I need to post.) Today after work I found I had some time to wrench on the car, but it didn't feel like I had enough time to pick up a socket for the steering box to get it back on. I'd unscrewed the nut with a giant set of Channel-Locks, but wanted to use a proper socket for putting it back in place. So finishing that wasn't the best choice.
When a task looks overwhelming, often it helps to go over the individual, non overwhelming steps, and pick one thing you can do with what you have available right now. I decided I could mount up the trunk mounted battery box. The Moroso box I have mounts with bolts through the bottom of the box, but oddly enough, it wasn't drilled at the bottom of the box. You have to drill it yourself. I picked a spot over the right rear wheel and drilled both the box and the floor for the mounting bolts. Next step will be to get a battery and wire it in, probably an Optima red top. While I do the wiring, I'll plan it so I will be able to install a kill switch, but initially I will probably leave that out so I can get this running. Now that I've found that RTE Engineering has an option of converting a factory ammeter to a volt meter, I'm planning on going that route. Ammeter bypasses are pretty popular in the Mopar world (sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for bad ones), but I really don't like leaving a gauge that is just dead and sitting there.
When a task looks overwhelming, often it helps to go over the individual, non overwhelming steps, and pick one thing you can do with what you have available right now. I decided I could mount up the trunk mounted battery box. The Moroso box I have mounts with bolts through the bottom of the box, but oddly enough, it wasn't drilled at the bottom of the box. You have to drill it yourself. I picked a spot over the right rear wheel and drilled both the box and the floor for the mounting bolts. Next step will be to get a battery and wire it in, probably an Optima red top. While I do the wiring, I'll plan it so I will be able to install a kill switch, but initially I will probably leave that out so I can get this running. Now that I've found that RTE Engineering has an option of converting a factory ammeter to a volt meter, I'm planning on going that route. Ammeter bypasses are pretty popular in the Mopar world (sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for bad ones), but I really don't like leaving a gauge that is just dead and sitting there.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Removed the Dart's power steering
I've been getting a bit more wrenching done on the Dart. Removing the power steering is definitely going to get me a lot more clearance for the turbo, but first I had to remove the up-pipe to get enough clearance to pull the box out. The biggest difficulty was probably that I didn't have a suitable socket wrench for the bolt on the steering arm. In the end, I managed to get the bolt off using a giant set of channel-lock pliers. I'll get a proper socket before reinstalling it, but I didn't feel like driving off to get a large socket in mid-pull. The old power steering box is out, and hopefully next week I'll have the manual one switched in. Got the box already mostly degreased and an adapter from Firm Feel, so it should just drop in.
Of course, "should just drop in" are pretty dangerous words.
Of course, "should just drop in" are pretty dangerous words.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, October 17, 2009
It was worth a try...
My manual steering box arrived this week, and I've been cleaning off the grease and grime before I put it in. When I took it out of the box, my co-workers first thought it was cast iron. I've been using various chemicals and a lot of elbow grease to clean it up. One tip, though - don't try degreasing parts with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. They're OK for use around the house, but serious caked-on grime erases the Magic Eraser faster than the Magic Eraser erases the grime.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, September 26, 2009
It's a Dart update!
I've had a lot going on and not been able to wrench on the Dart for a while. Recently, I've been thinking about what to do with the power steering lines, when finally it hit me: With a turbo that big, this is going to be a drag car more than anything else, and what's a drag car need power steering for? The A-body manual steering boxes are aluminum, too, and save a lot of weight. I've got a line on one from slantsix.org, and will be ordering an adapter from Firm Feel as the power steering column is shorter than the manual steering design. Friday, I made a start by taking the pump off. As a bonus, I see there's more room for beefing up my turbo support with not having to worry about power steering lines.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Latest Dart update
Yes, I was doing a bit of work last week, but it was fairly boring. At the end of this week, I have the bracket to hold up the turbo almost finished. It's all welded together and drilled to fit the water pump and power steering pump bolts. Just need to drill it for the turbo flange itself, and maybe a bit of trimming, and it's done. Well, and paint it with some high temperature grill paint. Pictures should be up next week when that's done.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Friday, July 03, 2009
Cardboard bracketry
So two weeks ago, I said I'd try to get a Dart update out weekly. Predictably, the week after, I didn't find time to work on it. This week, I started to do a bit of drilling to get my partially made bracket to fit, but realized it would set me back a lot if the holes were in the wrong spots. So I've created a cardboard mock up of the three pieces that currently make up the bracket, and I'll soon be adding a couple of additional sections. This way I can try out the bracket before I do any more welding or drilling to it.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Weekly Dart update
I'm going to see if I can get something done on the Dart every week. Maybe not spectacular, but I figure if I keep the momentum going I'll get through this project eventually.
I've been wondering about how the Spectre intake piping is going to hold up under boost. The tubing itself is pretty stout looking heavy gauge aluminum, but it's smooth with no beads to hold it together under boost. I had originally been thinking I might as well try it as an experiment, just to see what happened, but this week I decided I won't run the piping as is under boost. So I took it to Suwanee Welding and had them weld the sections together into one solid piece, with beads welded to each end so that the silicone coupler won't slip off them. It may not look as good anymore, but it's definitely worth the peace of mind. And I'll probably get the thing powdercoated at some point - probably the same red color they used on the stock engine.
I've been wondering about how the Spectre intake piping is going to hold up under boost. The tubing itself is pretty stout looking heavy gauge aluminum, but it's smooth with no beads to hold it together under boost. I had originally been thinking I might as well try it as an experiment, just to see what happened, but this week I decided I won't run the piping as is under boost. So I took it to Suwanee Welding and had them weld the sections together into one solid piece, with beads welded to each end so that the silicone coupler won't slip off them. It may not look as good anymore, but it's definitely worth the peace of mind. And I'll probably get the thing powdercoated at some point - probably the same red color they used on the stock engine.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Thursday, June 11, 2009
There's a first time for everything....
And today was the first time I've ever welded together anything I was planning to put on my own car, namely, the start of the turbo support bracket for my slant six. I haven't welded anything since one time I tried to fill in a couple gaps on a machine cover at Amada, and before then the last time I'd tried welding anything was in shop class in college. Luckily, we've got a pretty good Miller MIG at the shop at work that we've mostly used for exhaust work on our in house project cars. It won't win any Riddler awards, but it looks like it ought to hold up. I'll have pictures once the bracket is complete.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, June 06, 2009
A Dart update
No, I haven't forgotten about the Dodge Dart with the turbocharged slant six. I've kind of had a hang up about figuring out how I'll support the turbo. Yesterday I decided I just had to do something to get around that, so I unbolted the turbo. And then I decided I could cut one bit of angle iron to extend from the turbo flange forward to the same plane as the water pump bolts. And another bit of angle iron going sideways. That kept up and I now have four bits of angle iron to weld together to make a bracket. It's a start.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Friday, December 26, 2008
The first rule of Mopar slant six turbo projects
There's a fair number of people on Mopar forums looking to build a turbo slant six who aren't quite sure where to start. I've seen a lot of posts where someone has a link to a random turbo for sale, asking, "Will this be a good turbo for my slant six?" Correctly sizing a turbo can take a bit of sifting through turbo maps and seeing which one you should start with. (If you're interested, the maps and calculator at Squirrel Performance are a big help.) But if you have no clue where to start, and somehow stumbled across this blog, here is my first rule for picking a turbo for a slant six project.
Don't go with a factory turbo off a small four cylinder and expect it to work well on a 225 cubic inch slant six.
Now, this is a rule of thumb, and like most of them, there are exceptions. If you've found a turbo map that shows that the turbo off some particularly high winding four is a great fit, then go for it Same goes if you have carefully thought through an application that needs the boost way down in the RPM range. But if you don't have such maps and just plain aren't sure, look elsewhere. What's wrong with a too small turbo? Well, having built my first incarnation of the Dart's turbo with the Mitsubishi TE04 off a Chrysler 2.5, here is a list of things I've learned from firsthand experience.
I'll start by showing an approximate turbo map of what you'd get if you were running this little turbo on a mildly built slant six that's running around six pounds of boost.
This is taken from the Squirrel Performance calculator mentioned earlier, and it shows the first problem. The goal with matching a turbo map can be approximately described as "keep that red line as close to that peak efficiency island in the middle as you can." And this one doesn't sail anywhere near the island. It's in the 60% and under efficiency range. At high RPM, it's off the chart entirely, quite possibly below 40% if you could actually hit 5,000 RPM under load. Which my engine wasn't able to do.
The reason my engine wasn't able to rev to 5,000 RPM is likely due to the next problem: The exhaust side isn't designed to cope with these flow numbers any more than the compressor wheel is. It becomes a major restriction at high RPM, resulting in an engine that can get a massive hit of torque at low RPM but runs out of breath way too soon.
That massive hit of torque may be what you're looking for - but probably not in the way it played out on my buildup. The turbine housing wasn't the only thing that didn't flow enough; the wastegate was so small it was barely able to control boost. With the wastegate plumbed straight to the compressor outlet, the boost could build up to 10 psi at 1,500 RPM. And that is below the torque converter's stall speed. That's what happens when you pick a turbo that's too small: The power comes on at an RPM too low to be useful, and it starts taking away power where you need it.
I wouldn't leave you with a bunch of don'ts, however. I'm going to wrap this up with where I would be looking if I wanted a secondhand turbo. Well, the first possibility is that I'll bet two of those little TE04H's would work nicely. But if you're going with a single turbo, you will want to either get one off a gaslone engine that's close to your own motor's size, or a larger diesel.
Unfortunately there aren't that many gasoline engines close to the slant six's size that used a single turbo. But there are a few - the Buick 3.8 V6, the third generation Supra Turbo, Nissan's 300ZX from the '80s come to mind. I haven't run the turbo maps on all of these to tell you which one would work best for you, but these are all ones I'd consider worthy of further research. And when it comes to diesels, there's a lot of large displacement diesels running Holset HX35s or HX40s you could get a turbo off.
I would mention the second rule of turbo slant sixes, but any long term readers of this blog could guess it. Namely, it's that you should plan to spend a lot of time on this project...
Don't go with a factory turbo off a small four cylinder and expect it to work well on a 225 cubic inch slant six.
Now, this is a rule of thumb, and like most of them, there are exceptions. If you've found a turbo map that shows that the turbo off some particularly high winding four is a great fit, then go for it Same goes if you have carefully thought through an application that needs the boost way down in the RPM range. But if you don't have such maps and just plain aren't sure, look elsewhere. What's wrong with a too small turbo? Well, having built my first incarnation of the Dart's turbo with the Mitsubishi TE04 off a Chrysler 2.5, here is a list of things I've learned from firsthand experience.
I'll start by showing an approximate turbo map of what you'd get if you were running this little turbo on a mildly built slant six that's running around six pounds of boost.
This is taken from the Squirrel Performance calculator mentioned earlier, and it shows the first problem. The goal with matching a turbo map can be approximately described as "keep that red line as close to that peak efficiency island in the middle as you can." And this one doesn't sail anywhere near the island. It's in the 60% and under efficiency range. At high RPM, it's off the chart entirely, quite possibly below 40% if you could actually hit 5,000 RPM under load. Which my engine wasn't able to do.
The reason my engine wasn't able to rev to 5,000 RPM is likely due to the next problem: The exhaust side isn't designed to cope with these flow numbers any more than the compressor wheel is. It becomes a major restriction at high RPM, resulting in an engine that can get a massive hit of torque at low RPM but runs out of breath way too soon.
That massive hit of torque may be what you're looking for - but probably not in the way it played out on my buildup. The turbine housing wasn't the only thing that didn't flow enough; the wastegate was so small it was barely able to control boost. With the wastegate plumbed straight to the compressor outlet, the boost could build up to 10 psi at 1,500 RPM. And that is below the torque converter's stall speed. That's what happens when you pick a turbo that's too small: The power comes on at an RPM too low to be useful, and it starts taking away power where you need it.
I wouldn't leave you with a bunch of don'ts, however. I'm going to wrap this up with where I would be looking if I wanted a secondhand turbo. Well, the first possibility is that I'll bet two of those little TE04H's would work nicely. But if you're going with a single turbo, you will want to either get one off a gaslone engine that's close to your own motor's size, or a larger diesel.
Unfortunately there aren't that many gasoline engines close to the slant six's size that used a single turbo. But there are a few - the Buick 3.8 V6, the third generation Supra Turbo, Nissan's 300ZX from the '80s come to mind. I haven't run the turbo maps on all of these to tell you which one would work best for you, but these are all ones I'd consider worthy of further research. And when it comes to diesels, there's a lot of large displacement diesels running Holset HX35s or HX40s you could get a turbo off.
I would mention the second rule of turbo slant sixes, but any long term readers of this blog could guess it. Namely, it's that you should plan to spend a lot of time on this project...
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Still no Dart updates, but you may find this interesting...
Laysons has been known in the Mopar community for hard to find parts at hard to swallow prices. Well, it seems the police busted them at Chryslers at Carlisle for as of yet unknown charges. I doubt many Mopar fans will cry over having been denied the chance to buy overpriced weatherstripping.
Speaking of weatherstripping, the driver's side window seal on the Civic came apart today, binding up the window. I've cut part of the offending seal away and will try to get a new one from the Honda dealer next week. I'm not aware of any Honda restoration shops out there just yet.
Speaking of weatherstripping, the driver's side window seal on the Civic came apart today, binding up the window. I've cut part of the offending seal away and will try to get a new one from the Honda dealer next week. I'm not aware of any Honda restoration shops out there just yet.
Labels: Civic, Dodge Dart, The Automotive Industry
Friday, April 25, 2008
New Dart progress pictures: Cold side intercooler plumbing
More progress with the turbo EFI slant six. I've been making a little bit of progress in bits and pieces. Last week Jerry gave me a bit of a hand filling in some of the holes I'd drilled for the older intercooler brackets as we're rethinking the intercooler location a bit. I'll need to grind down the filler metal, but I probably would have done a lot worse. I definitely don't like leaving excess holes in the bodywork.This week I routed and mocked up the cold side of the intercooler piping. You can see the welded elbow I mentioned earlier atop the intake manifold. The pipes and couplings are a weird mix of Spectre, CX Racing, and RacePartsSolutions plumbing components. I'd originally thought about routing the pipe under the alternator, but this route has a lot fewer twists and turns. There's a total of four 90 degree bends in this one, including the bend welded to the intercooler exit itself. Not ideal, but in most engine compartments you really have to work to get fewer bends than this. And I'd have needed two extra bends - either 45 or 90 degrees - to make the pipe go under the alternator and come out in a good spot for mounting the intercooler.
I may need to trim the alternator bracket to keep it from spearing my charge pipe. This may take an extra-short length of belt to make this work but it looks like I've got a decent amount of room to bring the alternator close to the engine while having enough room to pull the alternator back to tighten the belt. Maybe I'll secure the pipe that runs past the engine to the fenderwell too, although I'll need to see the engine running to make the final decision.It'll be interesting to see how this charge pipe holds up under serious boost. It'll do better than what I had in there before - anything has to be better than my temporarily rigged piping made of pool hose - but the Spectre bits have completely smooth ends, and I had to cut the rolled lip off the CX Racing elbow on one end using a chop saw to get it to the right length. And the Spectre couplers are rubber while the RacePartsSolutions hump coupler and the CX racing couplers (blue) are silicone. So I may need to have the Spectre sections welded together and maybe put some tie bars into the plumbing or use some other tricks to make it hold together.
Both the CX Racing and the Spectre piping are polished aluminum, but as you can see in this picture, not all polished aluminum is created equal. The camera flash makes the difference even more glaring, if you'll pardon the pun. However, I've been thinking that once I get around to rebuilding the engine, I may have all the charge pipe powdercoated red and paint or powdercoat the engine to match. The couplers would be all black that time around. Kind of a rebellion against the excessive use of chrome on show cars.
Next step will be to make the brackets for the intercooler. Again.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Monday, April 14, 2008
Another minor Dart update
I'm trying to keep momentum going with a little progress on the Dart each week or each day. Today I removed the headlights and front turn signals. This may seem like a strange thing to do with an intercooler and turbo installation. But this lets me move the wiring harness out of the way to clear the room for welding on the radiator core support. I also ordered some new bits of silicone hose for the charge pipe.
I also found that the turn signal bulbs (1) didn't match their colors and (2) were rusted to their sockets. Definitely time for new bulbs. Once I got them out, I found out that I didn't have to do this to remove the harness - there's a connector behind the front bumper that lets you pull back the main harness. But it was, like I said, time for new bulbs.
I also found that the turn signal bulbs (1) didn't match their colors and (2) were rusted to their sockets. Definitely time for new bulbs. Once I got them out, I found out that I didn't have to do this to remove the harness - there's a connector behind the front bumper that lets you pull back the main harness. But it was, like I said, time for new bulbs.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Dart progress update
Been working on getting the intercooler mounted. I've rough-cut new holes for putting the intercooler with the hoses on the top instead of the bottom. The cold side charge pipe will come under the alternator. Sorry, no pictures yet, but I will have pictures when it's together.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Dart progress: New intake elbow
So I went to Suwanee Welding today and picked up the intake elbow. They charged $50 for an hour's worth of work, and the quality of work was pretty good. So the end result came to pretty much what you'd pay for an Edelbrock cast intake elbow, but it's just right for my engine even if I didn't save money. The cast elbow I had the flanges welded to cost nearly $50 itself.
After work, I went and started mocking up the intercooler piping. I think I now have a pretty good idea how I'll route it. Things were easier when I removed the horns. I'll put them back in, though - I like having the original horns on my Dart and they still sound great. Just have to find a new location for them.
Pictures will be up soon.
After work, I went and started mocking up the intercooler piping. I think I now have a pretty good idea how I'll route it. Things were easier when I removed the horns. I'll put them back in, though - I like having the original horns on my Dart and they still sound great. Just have to find a new location for them.
Pictures will be up soon.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
A little bit of progress on the Dart...
I dropped the intake elbow off at Suwanee Welding to be welded together for the new charge pipe routing. I'll have pictures when I pick it up.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Got the Dart back, and I'm making a to-do list
AutoFab had built a downpipe and an up-pipe for the turbo, and welded an elbow to the intercooler. But there's a lot more work to be done, so I'll make a list.
- New throttle body elbow for over-the-valve-cover charge pipe routing.
- Make the charge pipes.
- Make the turbo support bracket.
- Connect the downpipe to existing exhaust.
- Finish mounting the battery in the trunk.
- Finish the alternator installation.
- Oil lines for the turbo.
- Put the resistor pack back in. (Or switch to a newer Megasquirt and eliminate the resistors.)
- Install electric cooling fans.
- Plumb up the radiator.
- Install a new coolant temperature sensor.
So there's a fair amount of work to do, but it can be broken down into smaller steps. I'm starting on the flipped throttle body mount right now. It's like the old joke about how to eat an elephant. I'll be posting each bite here.
Labels: Dodge Dart
Saturday, March 15, 2008
I'll be getting the Dart back next week.
Unfortunately, it won't be running. AutoFab has been kind of swamped with a couple other projects - some of which Jerry and I also had a hand in - and hasn't had time to work on it. So I talked with Thomas at AutoFab, and I'll be paying them for the work they have done so far. Then we'll push it over to DIYAutoTune.com were I can complete the rest of the work after hours.
Labels: Dodge Dart
