Build Thread 1978 Fairmont. I bet somebody back home’s thinkin’…I wonder why he don’t write..?

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Well..to say that I am happy in any context would require a bit of a stretch..I would have to adjust my thinking.

I would have to consider 440 fwhp adequate. The car would have to weigh 3400 lbs with me in it.

With the fully dressed 2j in the car, the added weight of the turbo, intercooler, water reservoir, a2w IC, the tork troll torque arm, the PH bar, the LJK, and the big pig 4l80 added to this car ..it might not be unrealistic to guess that the car “may weigh” that much with me in it...I don’t know

What I do know was that the car was ( for the lack of a better term) Slow as sht. 7.69@94 mph, 1.9 60’ times. The video looks slow, the car looked like i was going to grandmas house.
The burnouts made people turn and look, because it sounded like it was gonna be something to watch..However just as soon as i left the starting line, im sure everybody turned around and went back to what they were doing...Just another slow assed street car.

Inside it felt like it was haulin ass..( except the initial hit..it was always sloppy, and laggy) hence the 1.9 60’ times.
the car ran flawless, no sputter, no weirdness in any way...just mind numbingly slow..fully confirmed at the time shack on my way back down the return road where it just happily putted back down after the pass..
To say that i was disappointed....yeah,....that is putting it lightly. Clearly, my concept of “fast” needs........fine tuning.

Trying to foot brake it at the line ended up pushing it out of the beams...The 2 step left sluggish,..there was no quick way off the line.

it was a kobayashi maru.

The good?....The car runs great. It runs the 1/4 mile in 12 flat, and got 23mpg on the way to the track, where it was driven to, and back w/o incident a total of 80 miles RT. It’s quiet enough to talk to a caller through bluetooth, and when not on the phone, the LJK sings his ass off. The car looks good, sounds good, seems to now be dead reliable, and pleasant to drive.

Why am I disappointed?

Its probably the tiny turbo....No, it’s definitely the tiny turbo. This engine, notorious for making power through 7500 rpm is done at 5500 rpm on the datalog. The tiny turbo, a blast on street tires, isn’t up to the task of feeding this engine.
The previous 72/68 Chinee turbo that was on there showed me that if I kept my foot in it long enough for it to come into big boost ( 22 psi) things got real scary at highway speeds..it just took about 3 seconds to get there..4500-7500 was a whole different ball game.

It’s my fault that i have the tiny turbo on the car,...I told the guy that I wanted instant boost on the street..( I have that) I told him that “ Whatever it makes at 25psi, is whatever it makes, and that I wasn’t trying for street hero status with 800-900 hp” But,..I also told him the expected power goal was 550-600 rwhp.

At present, I’m nowhere near that.. like about 150-200 hp away from it at the bottom number, and that’s provided that my car weighs in at 3200 lbs w/o me in it. If it’s lighter than that, it’s even more miserable.

Im confident that Work turbo will work with me to get this sorted out, but before they do anything like swapping stuff out, I’m thinking they’re gonna expect me to try and watch a boost gauge while beating on the car, so that i could compare what I think I saw to the data log..unless there is a better way.

or...I could just be happy with what I have :thinking:


Fat chance.
 
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At least it looks really good, and its different. Not to mention you could be like me with 230 hp. And the best thing of all. You have the ability to say to your wife" I dont want it and Im gonna get a better one"
 
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11.9.


You better get a better turbo.


Fédération Against Ricers and Turbos

F.A.R.T


ford-falcon-xf-ute-drag-challenge-007.jpg


ford-falcon-xf-ute-drag-challenge-engine-2.jpg
 
Well..to say that I am happy in any context would require a bit of a stretch..I would have to adjust my thinking.

I would have to consider 440 fwhp adequate. The car would have to weigh 3400 lbs with me in it.

With the fully dressed 2j in the car, the added weight of the turbo, intercooler, water reservoir, a2w IC, the tork troll torque arm, the PH bar, the LJK, and the big pig 4l80 added to this car ..it might not be unrealistic to guess that the car “may weigh” that much with me in it...I don’t know

What I do know was that the car was ( for the lack of a better term) Slow as sht. 7.69@94 mph, 1.9 60’ times. The video looks slow, the car looked like i was going to grandmas house.
The burnouts made people turn and look, because it sounded like it was gonna be something to watch..However just as soon as i left the starting line, im sure everybody turned around and went back to what they were doing...Just another slow assed street car.

Inside it felt like it was haulin ass..( except the initial hit..it was always sloppy, and laggy) hence the 1.9 60’ times.
the car ran flawless, no sputter, no weirdness in any way...just mind numbingly slow..fully confirmed at the time shack on my way back down the return road where it just happily putted back down after the pass..
To say that i was disappointed....yeah,....that is putting it lightly. Clearly, my concept of “fast” needs........fine tuning.

Trying to foot brake it at the line ended up pushing it out of the beams...The 2 step left sluggish,..there was no quick way off the line.

it was a kobayashi maru.

The good?....The car runs great. It runs the 1/4 mile in 12 flat, and got 23mpg on the way to the track, where it was driven to, and back w/o incident a total of 80 miles RT. It’s quiet enough to talk to a caller through bluetooth, and when not on the phone, the LJK sings his ass off. The car looks good, sounds good, seems to now be dead reliable, and pleasant to drive.

Why am I disappointed?

Its probably the tiny turbo....No, it’s definitely the tiny turbo. This engine, notorious for making power through 7500 rpm is done at 5500 rpm on the datalog. The tiny turbo, a blast on street tires, isn’t up to the task of feeding this engine.
The previous 72/68 Chinee turbo that was on there showed me that if I kept my foot in it long enough for it to come into big boost ( 22 psi) things got real scary at highway speeds..it just took about 3 seconds to get there..4500-7500 was a whole different ball game.

It’s my fault that i have the tiny turbo on the car,...I told the guy that I wanted instant boost on the street..( I have that) I told him that “ Whatever it makes at 25psi, is whatever it makes, and that I wasn’t trying for street hero status with 800-900 hp” But,..I also told him the expected power goal was 550-600 rwhp.

At present, I’m nowhere near that.. like about 150-200 hp away from it at the bottom number, and that’s provided that my car weighs in at 3200 lbs w/o me in it. If it’s lighter than that, it’s even more miserable.

Im confident that Work turbo will work with me to get this sorted out, but before they do anything like swapping stuff out, I’m thinking they’re gonna expect me to try and watch a boost gauge while beating on the car, so that i could compare what I think I saw to the data log..unless there is a better way.

or...I could just be happy with what I have :thinking:


Fat chance.
I would like to see the datalog assuming you have one.

at 23 psi I would think it would be faster than that, however 23psi from this turbo can have less mass than that from a larger turbo at lower boost.. that sounds like its not possible but we have to consider backpressure..

you could tap the exhaust manifold and add a 1/8npt fitting and hardline it 2' across the engine bay or up into viewing range in the cowl area and add a 15psi gauge to the end. this will keep the gauge from burning up from the heat and allow you to monitor the backpressure.... honestly thats what the turbo work guy should have you taking a reading of. I bet its in the 10+ psi range at full steam
now you could do the same deal with the tubing and place a 30psi transducer on the end and datalog the backpressure to get a real idea of what its doing under all circumstances.. yes an electronic boost gauge would do for a temporary installation if you have one lying around I use a cheap-o liquid filled gauge
 
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I remember my first time out at the drags with my three kids and the Mrs xecute in 2003.

The Nissan Skyline RB25's just hit town. Turbos, Link computer. At the Lawrence drags, all of them were eaten alive by a little Power Glide 327 Holden Torana with a tunnel ram tat did 11.7's. I was invited there by my boss. I was doing data acquisition work, and I had a change to take may family.

My friend asked me if I'd come this year.

11_327_torana_two_stage_002.png


Not a chance. Its only worth it if a really expensively modified car beats a 10 grand Holden Hack....
 
I would like to see the datalog assuming you have one.

at 23 psi I would think it would be faster than that, however 23psi from this turbo can have less mass than that from a larger turbo at lower boost.. that sounds like its not possible but we have to consider backpressure..

you could tap the exhaust manifold and add a 1/8npt fitting and hardline it 2' across the engine bay or up into viewing range in the cowl area and add a 15psi gauge to the end. this will keep the gauge from burning up from the heat and allow you to monitor the backpressure.... honestly thats what the turbo work guy should have you taking a reading of. I bet its in the 10+ psi range at full steam
now you could do the same deal with the tubing and place a 30psi transducer on the end and datalog the backpressure to get a real idea of what its doing under all circumstances.. yes an electronic boost gauge would do for a temporary installation if you have one lying around I use a cheap-o liquid filled gauge
Well of course I did...This was after I bumped the boost duty to 44, and nothing changed. MOF there was 23 psi on that DL I showed you before we tweaked the timing to 14 degrees.
 

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I would like to see the datalog assuming you have one.

at 23 psi I would think it would be faster than that, however 23psi from this turbo can have less mass than that from a larger turbo at lower boost.. that sounds like its not possible but we have to consider backpressure..

you could tap the exhaust manifold and add a 1/8npt fitting and hardline it 2' across the engine bay or up into viewing range in the cowl area and add a 15psi gauge to the end. this will keep the gauge from burning up from the heat and allow you to monitor the backpressure.... honestly thats what the turbo work guy should have you taking a reading of. I bet its in the 10+ psi range at full steam
now you could do the same deal with the tubing and place a 30psi transducer on the end and datalog the backpressure to get a real idea of what its doing under all circumstances.. yes an electronic boost gauge would do for a temporary installation if you have one lying around I use a cheap-o liquid filled gauge
I'll put an electronic cutout right after the down pipe and trigger it based on boost, and dump the exhaust straight out if that turns out to be the case.. They wanted me to check boost pressure drop on the cold side, and wanted to ck timing...AFR is still too fat in the high boost maps..looked like 10.8 iirc at one point.
 
I'll put an electronic cutout right after the down pipe and trigger it based on boost, and dump the exhaust straight out if that turns out to be the case.. They wanted me to check boost pressure drop on the cold side, and wanted to ck timing...AFR is still too fat in the high boost maps..looked like 10.8 iirc at one point.
backpressure will be highest before the turbo if the turbo is the restriction.. I bet it is.
 
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Now you need the right size turbo and have data to determine what you need. See and you thought you were done already :rlaugh:
 
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It doesnt matter. You know with more turbo this big Japanese Kid is gonna hurt some big fat egos. I can see where this is headed. .its all good. Nice work. 7.69 is less than 8 and it'll do less than 11 when the right AR ratio motivates that cast iron block. Well done.

From the Old F.A.R.T...
 
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So your next walk through the service area won’t be a fun one!!! I was rooting for you to beat the “bought” with your “built”!
........ so keep building!!
 
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Happy Belated Birthday Mike.

You've reached the Fork in the Road, so to speak.

1) Sell it and relax with Kate and never worry about the stress and aggravation of car building again.
2) Enjoy it as is, answer the repetitive questions of the who, what, how, and why every time you take it out, enjoy instant tire frying boost and a pretty damn fast street car.
3) Take out a 2nd mortgage and keep building the pss out of it. More huger turbo, more bigger injectors, more better tuning, transbrake, buttons for staging, bumping in, boost builder, add nitrous to spool the huge a$$ turbo you put on, swap to slicks at the track....oh and basically create an undriveable (enjoyably) street car.

Wait...that's the sermon you've given others...so you should know it. The trick is to balance on the razor's edge between fork 2 and 3. Fast as $hit car that you can drive TO and FROM the track and still enjoy that ride, not just the 1320 ride.
 
Happy belated birthday Mike! I'm just glad to see nothing gave up the ghost during your track time. I'm sure you'll get it to your liking - the journey to that destination is really what most project cars are about anyway. Besides, what would you do with your life if you didn't have something to tinker with?