Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

RangerJoe said:

So what will you build next? And what about the monster would make you want to sell it?

Joe

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I just get tired of it I guess. The opportunity to do what I want to do with it ( cruise-ins, car shows) is non existent now that I work on Saturday. That leaves nothing for the hobby.

This is what I wanted/expected when I changed the engine over:

I expected a slow, long wind to 6500 rpm, strongly pulling linearly throughout the band up to a shift point.

This is reality:

Off idle Grunt, with the pull progessively stunted as each gear is changed, eventually boring you to death while you wait to get up to 6000 rpm in 3rd gear.

In other words...it ain't making Jack for power.

It looks good. I really like the way it turned out. And it idles lower, and leaner than it did with the old intake. But it bores me to death.

And if a car is gonna stay in my garage,......god help it if I find it "boring to drive". ( may as well be a 5.0)

I look at pics of the old turbo setup, and find that pleasing to look at,....it was a blast to drive.
I look at pics of the new setup, and find that pleasing to look at.....it is not a blast to drive.

The obvious solution is to convert it back....but how much should I convert?

If I put the old intake back on, we'll be able to dump the old tune back in, and this thing is gonna honk. If I try and keep the ITBs,....ill have no SD tune to use.....( it'll have to be built from scratch)....I could potentially blow the glass top off the box, so I'll have to try and stop that with band clamps. Boost will potentially escape past the individual transition that funnels into each TB....I didn't gap the rings for boost, so I have a very small margin for error. If I remove the ITB setup, it's a throwaway. Where else is that system gonna ever work?

I have to rely on Steve....and I'm glad he's out there,.....but every time something changes?.....

The turbo will add the fun factor back in...and hopefully rekindle my love affair with the car...if it don't, it'll be the necessary ingredient to guarantee a decent asking price.....

It's ironic actually......I write about guys converting their high horsepower cars back to a more reliable lower power level to make the fun to drive regularly again......I need the high power ( relatively speaking) just to guarantee a space in the garage...it took converting it to this power level to know this for sure.

If the car goes,...it's the last...so it'll take some serious soul searching If I choose this path. my life situation has changed dramatically.
No time,...no surplus of money,...lack of physical capability....I refuse to have an eternal build that never rolls Under its own power.

I compared the old turbo to the new one,.......the new one is much bigger on the compressor side....(the old one was a 66mm unit,....this one looks to be 72mm)....it's too bad that I can't just turn up the boost and let this dog eat.

Idle rambling tonight....the stuff that goes through my head during the wee hours..

Noobz347 said:

https://www.fastreplacementglass.com/ceramic-glass.html

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I have a 1/4" piece of tempered glass in there now. Heat isn't a concen, after operating this thing for an hour with the engine water temp reading 215 that glass, the air box, even the throttle bodies themselves are cool to the touch. Heat soak isn't affecting this intake system.

I expect the gasket to fail. The glass is bedded in windshield ribbon, and while that stuff is perfect for sealing it in its present form, I figure once that stuff starts getting pushed, and pulled............

I think a strap system of some sort will fix this problem,...I just don't want to end up using giant hose clamps to do it with.

I guess we’ll see...

Well....minus the turbo itself, and a 60 mm BOV flange and v band clamp,....I have everything to convert the thing back over to forced induction. The water meth kit arrived ( thanks @hoopty5.0 ). It was just as complete as it was when I sent it to him. So a practical example of what comes around, goes around. The 7 pound waste gate is here with flanges, the t4 turbo flange came, but no turbo till next week. Hopefully Monday . It hobbles me, I really can't build either the hot or cold side with out the damn turbo.

I'll be able to plumb the water meth system back in again to a certain extent. The holes are there for everything I just need to put stuff back in place.

I'm thinking that this big assed turbo is gonna be a little lazy on the bottom end, and maybe that'll be a good thing..the engine has decent off idle grunt up to about 3k rpm, but runs right the hell out of steam at around 5k rpm,....now maybe it'll be a little different when it starts seeing 10 pounds of boost.

Cause boost can be so persuasive when it comes to making things go that don't wanna go.

Collin labeled my box " Six Gun Matkosky" when he shipped the water meth kit back ( probably retaliatory to me calling him Collin Clyde Crashcup) ...but despite him thinking he was returning the favor somehow, I've decided to go to the courthouse and have my first name officially changed to Six Gun.

Has a kinda Yosemite Sam kinda vibe I'm thinkin,.....after all, Sam had orange hair,...the monster is orange........sam was an ornery sidewinder from west of the pecos,....the monster was from west of the pecos....sam had a pair of six guns,......I only have one.

But I gotta a Chinee turbo....i liken that to taking a six gun,...and making it into something like this:

This has “ six” guns.............I'd shoot SAMs ass up.