Scott's TurboCoupe Homepage
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Updates 7/22/01 I just wanted to let everyone know that I won't be around for about a week. Family vacation time and I don't overly care about it. I'd rather stay here and work on my car. Oh well, there's no getting out of it. Trust me, I've tried. Catch everybody later 7/16/01 I just thought I'd let everyone know about my plans for this fall/winter. The motor will be receiving a T3/T04 turbo as soon as I can afford it. Hopefully that will be soon, but some other things are puting a draw on the bank account. It is come though. The oil pan will also be dropped down to replace a leaky oil pan gasket. Other than that the head will also be removed and freshened, possibly ported, port matched to the intake and exhaust manifold which will be ported, and reinstalled with a different cam. Ranger roller, A237, Automotorsport? That's up in the air. By the way, a Sneaky Pete nitrous system is damn tempting because it would cool the inlet temperture way down and I could simply increase fuel pressure for the little shot. Plus, you can hide them really well. Have to wait and see on that. The big changes will be to the suspension. I've decided that I will be switching wheels. I'm going to go to Weld ProStars which I've always been drawn too. The front suspension will consist of coilovers, caster/camber plates, 5-lug rotors and an aftermarket strut of some brand. The rear suspension is somewhat in the air because cutting the rear and manufacturing my own lower control arms is an idea I've been toying with. I'm not sure if that would mess the geometry up though. I do know that I will be running coilovers, 5-lug axles, and it depends if I make my own lower control arms or not. Wheel sizes will measure 15x5 in the front with either a 15x8 with a 4 1/2" backspacing with the stock width axle or 15x10 with a 3 1/2" backspace if I get the axle cut in the back. Big appearance difference, but also a big price difference as far as those wheel sizes go though. Tire size is undecided in the front with either a 275/60/15 or 325/50/15 in the back. I need to measurre though because the 325's are very questionable as to whether or not they would fit. Other things that I'd like to see done is the battery moved to the trunk to allow more room for the MSD Digital 6 that I'd like to get. I also want a line-lock. That's all that I can think of right now. I'm sure that there's more though. 7/7/01 Results are in. It was kind of an up and down night. On one hand, I'm in he 14's in a heavy TC with not that much done, but on the other hand I was hoping that it would run better. The last run should have been the best, but the car fell down on the top end from either too much fuel pressure or lack of a capable fuel pump. Traction was hard to get all night. The second pass I killed the tires in first, pedaled it and they were sill spinning, grabbed second and spun quite a bit then too. With traction it would do much better.
These are in order from first to last 7/6/01 Let's go racing. Sadly, I ran out of time and didn't get a chance to install the fuel pump. 7/5/01 Racing tomorrow. With any luck it won't rain. I'm still waiting on the FPR and the fuel pump. They should be here later today and I will for sure have the injectors and the FPR on for tomorrow. I really want to get the fuel pump in there too, I'm worried that I'm running out of time though. If I don't get it though, I don't think I'll be giving up too much. I ran a bes ever 14.66 @ 99.7mph on the G-Tech on Tuesday. Of course a $94 failure to obey the speed limit ticket followed which put a kink in my day. I've never seen a single cop on that road before either. Oh well, it was bound to happen. 6/30/01 Well, a fuel system upgrade is coming. I had bought a complete intake system up at Carlisle. I got a lower inake, upper intake, brown top injectors, fuel rail, fuel lines, and all the sensors. On Monday I sent the extra set of injectors out to Marren Motorsports Inc. to be cleaned and flowed. I got them back yesterday and now they flow every close to each other. I also ordered a 255lph fuel pump and Kirban adjustable fuel pressure regulator. Now the question is why am I doing this? Because it's started to fall down in 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear after I installed the Gillis valve. This problem has been a hot discussion topic lately and it has been narrowed down to fuel problems. My pump is the stock one from 1988 and I'm sure he injectors are probably a little dirty. I'm just waiting now for the FPR and the fuel pump to come to start tearing the car apart. I have to have the stuff on by the 7/6/01 because I'm going with Glenn Spangler down`to Cecil County Dragway in Maryland. I'm hoping to run what I've run on the street with the G-Tech at the track. Traction will be difficult though and I don't know how many runs I'll get. I'm excited about going though and I'm hoping to have fun. I'm really hoping that I don't break anything. Have to wait and see. 6/15/01 Yesterday I finally installed my Ric Gillis adjustable boost regulator. The install was very easy, especially with the extra set of instructions that Pete Dunham provided. I mounted it right below the elbow for the airbox so you can only barely see it if you're looking for it. It made adjusting it a pain, but I like the fact that it's out of sight. Speaking of adjusting it, it took about 6 tries, but I finally go it set to 17 pounds where I wanted. It's obvious that the car is making more power with the little extra boost, but the big difference is in 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear. Since the car gets full boost as soon as possible, it pulls much harder. I tried to run the car on the G-tech and it resulted in a tire frying, throttle pedaling adventure, but still produced a 14.75 @ 99.4mph. With more traction a 14.50 will be cake. In an attempt to hopefully get a little extra traction, I had 275/50/15's mounted last night. I had gotten the tires up at the Ford Nationals, but I've been waiting to install them. They fit great and look good too. It's quite a wide tire. It was time for new tires anyway, for some reason my old ones were bald in the middle. I wonder how that happened? hehe 6/9/01 Wow, it has been a long time since the last update. I got yelled at Carlisle for my slack of keeping it updated(thanks Glenn:). I know I've said this before, but hopefully, I'll keep it updaed on a regular in the months to come. As far as the car goes, things have been moving along steadily. Not too much has been done. Right now I'm planning on rebuilding a motor for the car near the end of the summer. I'm not sure if I just want to throw in new rings, bearings, ARP rod bolts, and a windage tray or go wih Crower rods and Wiseco pistons to make it able to handle anything I throw at it. I guess it will depend on how much money I make this summer. One thing is for sure though, I will make 300rwhp at Carlisle next year. Speaking of the Ford Nationals a Carlisle, it was a blast. It was great getting to meet Dan Eaves, Jim Portteus and his father, Brian Bitter and a couple of others. Brian won the 35th Anniversary Super Coupe that they gave away and I don't think I've ever seen someone so happy. I'm sure he's still shocked about the whole thing. Saturday afternoon, Glenn Spangler put his TC on the dyno and was able to make 246rwhp. This was good considering that his right rear brake caliper was hanging up so back that they could barely turn the rollers wih their feet like they usually do. He'll be back next year though for another try and we're hoping to make a trip to Cecil County Raceway together. 4/11/01 I have finally bought and installed a 3" downpipe on the car. Since I'm not the brightest, I bought the ATR one that is specific to the IHI turbo. I realize that it won't work with a T3 or a T04/T3, but I will more than likely end up with a second TC as a daily driver so I will put it on there. You've got to have fun even with a driver, right? Well, anyway, I finally got the downpipe after Jeff at MD forgot to order it. Not a big deal I guess, no harm done. So, I get it and I didn't realize that it replaces the stock turn-down off the turbo. Everything looked good so I tore the car apart(or is that my hand, I'm not really sure) and put it on. It took about 4 hours which isn't too bad. First impression once I started it was that it now had a nice rumble. Sounds pretty throaty, not quite like a 5.0. Driving impression is good, the turbo whistle is cool and horsepower picked up. Everything seemed to be fine so I threw the G-tech on the windshield and gave it a try. First try I left from 3500rpm and it spun hard through first, grabbed second and it gave a loud howl and hooked up. It resulted in a 14.91@95mph. It felt like it had more though, so I tried it again, but I left at 4000rpm. Same deal, but the result was a 14.77@95.6mph. There was probably more in that run, but still, it beats my previous best by almost half a second. It's definitely time for drag radials and I'm ready for them. I bought a pair of Mustang GT turbine wheels at the spring swap meet at Maple Grove Raceway. For $35 I couldn't say no and plus they had tires on them with good tread left. I'm very excited to see what drag radials minus the passenger side seat, spare tire, and anything else I can pull out will give me. I think a 14.50 will be easy. Now that I've hit my goal it's time I install the Ric Gillis valve. More boost! 3/20/01 Sorry for being gone so long everyone. Between school, work, and my lovely g/f I haven't checked my email in quite awhile. I apologize to anyone who emailed me while I was gone, I'll be getting back to you very soon. Enough chit-chat on to the stuff that people actually care about. The car ran a 15.22 @ 94mph on Sunday. Feels good, but there's more in it. I ordered a 3" downpipe today which should help me break into the 14's. I still haven't gotten my Ric Gillis boost valve on yet. I'm going to put it on as soon as I test the downpipe. I'm trying to break into the 14's with the stock BCS and an exhaust upgrade. Then after I get my tax return back I'm going to get 4.10 gears. Then some more mild bolt-ons. I need to maximize my current combination before I start throwing parts at the car. With any luck, a 14 second time will come in a few days in a brown box in the way of a downpipe. I can't wait. 2/18/01 As most anyone knows by now, Nascar great Dale Earnhardt has left this world. While the accident didn't appear anywhere near as severe as the one earlier in the race that took out 18 cars, it was still plenty bad enough. I felt really shocked when I found out about it because I had watched the end of the race at work. Once it was over I was talking with a manager and didn't really take notice to what was going on. Three hours later, I found out. While I've never cared for his driving style, he was obviously a great race car driver. He won't be forgotten anytime soon and he will live on through his son. My most heart felt condolences go out to his family. May you rest in peace. 2/14/01 As you probably read on the front page, I got a new best time on the G-Tech. The car ran a 15.38 @ 93mph. I actually think that the car is capable of better times because the way the car launched doesn't usually produce the best times. I'm starting to wonder way my car is quicker than most T-Birds. Stock, a '88 TC ran 16.40's. With just a K&N filter, mine ran a 15.51. Granted, the wheels are lighter, but that's the only other difference. I truely believe that I will hit a 14 sec time with a 3" downpipe and maybe an underdrive crank pulley. That's at stock boost levels and regular tires. Tire spin will be the hardest thing to overcome. It's going to be fun trying though. 2/6/01 I've been unable to get any new times with the G-Tech because of the weather. The car does run a lot stronger. Just ask the two V6 Mustang's that I whooped on Friday. Both came up beside me and started fucking around with me. I just dropped it down into 4th gear both times and said,"See ya." I can't wait to have the 3" downpipe. I'm going to get in on the group buy on T3/T04b turbos that's going on over at Turboford.org. Tom and Performance Techniques is offering this group purchase at a great price. I'm going with a T04b wheel with a T03 turbine with the stage 3 wheel. It's a little sooner than what I wanted to buy a new turbo, but I did say that I wanted one before spring and I'm going to keep that promise. Plus, I lied, I do want it, I want it RIGHT NOW! j/k 1/25/01 My dad and I went to work Saturday morning installing the exhaust system. We started at 9:30am. The y-pipe bolted right on to the stock downpipe and fit well. We installed the mufflers and the over the axle pipes next. The left side tailpipe went right on, but the right side(passenger side) didn't. The over the axle pipe wasn't bent just quite far enough to allow the tailpipe to go on without hitting the body. It proved to be a real treat to bend that pipe just a 1/4" to a 1/2". The SS pipe that they use must be thick as anything. Course, for the money, it should be. Other than that, there weren't any big snags. We had to manufacture muffler brackets because you can't just bolt the hanger onto the stock bracket like it's supposed to. We ended up taking the stock bracket off and drilling the rivets out of the rubber piece. Then we made L brackets and bolted them to the remaining, stock hanger. It's hard to understand, but if you've ever looked at the exhaust system on one of these, you'll probably have a pretty good idea. Install wise, the instructions could be better, it would be nice if you didn't have to manufacture parts to install(for the money, I feel it should), and the bend should be a little tighter. Maybe simple bitching, but that's how I feel. Sound: It's quiet at idle and while driving it doesn't seem hardly louder than stock. It's louder when you're on it, but it doesn't seem too bad. I know it's louder from behind, but everyone I've talked to that's listened to it, likes it. Power: Good improvement in power. Pulls quite a bit harder now. G-Tech times: So far the best has been a disappointing 15.80 at 92.5mph. Why the slow down? The times aren't as good because with the increased power came increased tire spin. The increased mph though shows that the car is faster. Never fear though, I'll be out at another time to try a couple more times. 1/19/01 1/7/01 1/6/01 I took the G-Tech back out Tuesday night. My first run was aborted because it bogged really bad. My second try was a winner though. Ran a 15.51 @ 91.2mph. This try felt so much better than the 15.89 that it wasn't funny. Now I can't wait to get the exhaust done and try again. 1/2/01 Happy New Year everyone. I hope everyone had a safe holiday season. Now that it's over it seemed like it went really fast. Anyway, I had the TC out earlier with my dad's G-Tech. I know that they're not perfectly accurate, but they're not bad and they're a great tuning tool. I only got to make one run because I was short on time and it was pretty crappy. I was out on the highway and I was having get a break in traffic to pull out, stop, line the G-Tech up and go. I finally got a break and pulled out and stop again, lined up the G-Tech so that it read 0.0 and when it said GO I let the clutch go from 4 grand. That was way too high and it just spun all through first. I kept in it though and hit 2,3, and 4 gear at 5200rpms. It resulted in a 15.89 at about 87mph. I think that I can shave at least 2 tenths off that time just by launching better. I'll try again at a later date in time and post the results. I'm thinking about a second car again. It's a 1985 Merkur XR4Ti. It's a project car, but it doesn't seem too bad. Needs a brake master cylinder, alternator, pilot bearing, grille, tires and some other things. The drivers seat has a tear in it(cloth) and the interior is kind of greasy, but I think I could get most of it out. The owner says he'd like to get $500 for it. I don't know. I like these cars quite a bit and would love to have one, but I can't afford a huge money pit(only a mild one.) It's very tempting. |
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