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

It has rained somewhere in this city almost every afternoon through the early evening. It is forecasted to do that again today.

I was hoping to make the stupid car cruise in tonight after work, but that location is about 35 miles to the south of me. The weather in my part of the city is always different than it is in that area. That area is where I used to live...it's the corridor that Tornadoes take every single time they touch down, the sun can be shining here, and pouring there, or it can be pouring here and never a drop has fallen there....It's bizarro land.

I was planning on taking the thing out one more time in non-wheezer mode before I turn my running combination into a non-running version for the 3rd time since its been orange.
It's stuff like not being able to drive it when you want to because of weather/time/opportunity that sours my taste for this hobby.
I mean what's the point of having all that orange shininess just sitting down there doing nothing...

If It's not doing nothing....it costs money to sit down there...

Cause when that car sits down there I scheme. When I scheme, I change things. When I change things, I spend money...When I spend money, the car sits. (I call this the Tanner syndrome)

If it wasn't down there, there'd be no scheming.

The ONLY thing that saves it from the auction block is the interior...every time I sit in it I think "Damn this is a cool space".
The amount of man hours it took to build it is next....While I'm siting in that cabin, I also consider what is probably 1000 hours of my life ( and Daves, and Steves, ) sitting there. How can you sell 1000 hours? ....of your life?

I built this car, ( and every one before) as a means to enjoy the social aspect of the hobby..I like to show it off. I like to see other stuff where ingenuity weighed out over money. I like to talk. ( imagine that) With the work schedule standing in the way, and the constant foul afternoon weather adding to that though, the whole purpose of this obsession comes into question for me.....why would I spend all this time and money to have something sitting that I can't enjoy?

Some guys collect and amass a whole bunch of sht so they can show their collection off too, but I'm the polar opposite of those guys..I would never own something built to roll and be content to park it.

So,..again,.....another week goes by because of things I can't control. On Monday, I'll disable the car.

And it'll sit for a couple more weekends.....and when I get it done,.....it'll rain.

I hate freakin rain.

Can you tell?

I thought I was making a daily driveable car too....
Until I blocked off the fresh air plenum, and installed that Vintage air unit that just recirc’s the inside air........
Until I decided to hang a conical style K&N filter in the direct path of oncoming rain, and tire spray....
Until I decided to remove some of the factory weather stripping, and inner wheel tubs, and now water is free to contaminate open electrical connections....
Until I decided trying to showroom detail a car that has been driving in rain is just too much of a pain in my ass,....so I don’t drive it in the rain unless I have to.

Well see what you do as well Dave,.......
Mr. “I’m even detailing my bumper shock mounts”....After the whole booger is slicker than snot.

Sorry Dean, but this time I'm gonna have to question your advice.

Why on earth would I put two tb's front of 6 tb's, when the air box is fed by one common 2.5" outlet coming off of the turbo?

If this was still a naturally aspirated combination, I'd be apt to agree that I need to allow the ITBs unrestricted access to as much air as the engine can gulp down,...The obvious choke point at 5 k rpm is probably directly related to that.

But now things are different. ( or the same as before depending on when you wanna talk about)

The old combo breathed through a single 70mm hole, and revved past 6k rpm before I could stop it. All six cylinders showed similar color on the plugs ( excepting the cylinders that were leaking from ring seal) there were no obvious fuel distribution issues ( how could there be,...there was an injector in every port?) the engine made great power then....how come it wasn't choked then?

I have to admit,..I'm almost at the point of removing the ITBs and reinstalling the known working system just for the sake of eliminating the grey areas here.....almost.

The hot side of the new system is gonna be plumbed tomorrow. ( provided the turbo shows up) The plan for the cold side is a direct path off of the turbo with one 90 turning into the air box the water meth system is reinstalled again, only needing another 12v solenoid that will serve as my fail safe to stop water siphoning into the engine in N/A high vacuum situations.

It absolutely makes zero sense that I would put a throttle body in front of the ITBs,....it also makes no sense that I split the outlet coming from a single turbo in two so that I can move more air into the box....there is only one outlet.

xecute said:

You just need an equal flow area to all the ITB'S. An extra 3" hole, and an extra turbo oughta do it. Don't cheep out. Two 4.4 BMW turbos, maybee?

George Chaliks two holed approach gets my vote, 5 year old, stock 250 with a 291 degree cam, 530 thou lift, twin 80 mm throttle bodies, and 124 mph, 10.4 second 1/4 miles.



you don't even need a throttle body in them, but you sure as heck need some linear flow area to those ITB's if it felt restricted with one 3" elbow into it. When you slam the throttle on and off, the incomming air acts as a giant cupboard door if the intake runner doesn't have an equal flow area. ITB's are not the same as you old faired in single 90 mm throttle body. The area above the throttle bodies has to be faired in with equal volume upstream as below. One 76. 2 mm, 3" hole is way too small. Two open 3" holes would be better.

George copied the system the renown Aussie Cage Horsepower Fighter Eddy Tassone and Active Automotive's set up with Anthony Rodriguez doing the turbo tune.

In Australia, it hit 1238 and then 1376 hp in the early Noughties with a in a 6.3 liter 308 stroked to 383 twin turbo 1981 Holden Commodore.... a couple of big assed holes into an 8 trumpeted intake. That's the way to flow air, my friend.

View: https://youtu.be/j_4LyBB58VM


And even after a monumental IRS control arm failure induced roll over in 2013,

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_eo5kQoPKo


his twin turbo GTO still plants 8.61s at 165.7 mph as a street car

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHCsnbX3ecs














I'll let own own good concience be your guide.

Click to expand...

You're an "edit bandit" Dean. The stuff you write at first read, changes afterwards ( you add pictures)

Again your examples are skewed...you're showing me pics of apples and tangerines. You're showing me pictures of 5-7 plus liter race prepped engines with monster turbos, and heads capable of flowing 300+ Intake CFM making 1300 hp needing two tb's.
Look at my sign pic Dean.....that is 363 c.i.,.... one 95mm turbo feeding eight methanol swilling ports that needed two 100+ lbhr injectors per port, all breathing through one 100 mm tb. That made over a thousand hp at the tire...

I have an engine now that by all examples you've ever furnished, has never been capable of more than a 3rd of that in na trim.
The 10 second falcon that has the aftermarket head measures 273 c.i. and is breathing through one tiny little 450 CFM carb and is still making 423 WHP at 16p.s.i.

I guess I really need to keep the engine in its present form, and take it to that dyno today so I can see how bad the air box is choking the engine,...ill call the guy today.
.