Worked all night on the car... got the brakes fixed, installed everything (but the hood), still no exhaust... took it for a test drive.

The good:
------------
It starts on the first try and idles at 1000. I never took it over 3000 rpms, but the sound is AMAZING. I have no doubt that I will have at least 10 psi at 3000 rpm, i didn't build any boost, but I could hear the turbos screaming... I instantly fell in love. We cruised around for about 30 minutes or so, got up to operating temp and the water temps stayed steady at 190-195 ,even when stopped at a light.

The Bad:
-----------
Something happened and the fan torqued towards the radiator and put a nice hole in my brand new custom aluminum radiator. I think it was when I was at a stop light and it almost died, the car jumped a bit... that had to be it. The little plastic feet on the Spal fan should have been super glued in, but I didn't even think of that... the slid about an inch and then made contact with the radiator.. horse ****.

The Ugly:
------------
Don't think it's repairable, but I'm not a radiator guy. I'm taking it into the radiator shop tomorrow (instead of the exhaust shop ). We'll see.

I'm not too disappointed. May need to get the radiator recored, but oh well, **** happens. Live and learn. The car ran a LOT smoother after putting a few miles on it... got to put about 25 miles on her tonight... it felt SO good to actually drive the thing we;ve been slaving over all summer.

 

At least its running good. Time to break her in

 

I think that's advice we could all use.

 

Ok, another thing you guys may find of use... when you design your radiator and water pump setup, make sure that you have a water filler that is ABOVE the water pump... otherwise, its nearly impossible to get all of the air out of the system.

 

Ok, I just went home and pulled the radiator off and dropped it off at Maas radiator here in Bloomington. They said it didn't look bad. They quoted me around $100 to fix it... not bad at all. They said it'll get done today, so, assumming it is salvagable, I'll have a radiator tonight.

I also have an arc welder and all of the exhaust pieces to make an exhaust... my original exhaust was suppose to go like this:

turbos -> 3" downpipe -> 3" to 3.5" converter pipe -> 3.5" exhaust cutout -> 3.5" straight through hooker muffler -> 3.5" pipe to the rear of the car -> 3.5" straight through stainless steel magnaflow muffler. All of the exhaust that I have is just mild steel except for the last muffler I plan on getting the correct stainless bends this winter and having it all put together in stainless steel.

But, since I can't weld fer ****, I found a friend at work that has a MIG welder. I have that wire feed arc welder with flux core (SUCKS!!). So, after work, Zach and I are going to rush like madmen to cut the mandrel bends that I have to make the 3" downpipe and tack it together. Then, we'll put the exhaust cutout on and tack it on... then a flange, and another flange on the hooker muffler, then a 3.5" bend out the side of the car... just for now... then, we'll take that over to my buddy's house and he is going to MIG weld it all up for us. So, with any luck, my car WILL be road worthy this weekend!!!!

Pray for me guys, even if you don't believe in God I don't, and I'm praying

 

good luck, dude

mike

 

That water filler info is good advice too. Good luck!

 

yes it is. if you keep the tbody coolant, thats the highest point.

mike

 

Just got word from the radiator shop, its repaired... grand total.... $75. I was about ready to throwup last night when it happened... now I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

Just picked it up. Flows just as good as before... might be a bit uglier, but you don't see that side of the radiator anyhow I'm just glad this wasn't a "season ending injury"

Now, to get to that exhaust fabrication....

 

mmmmmnn... nice... I can't wait til I get to rip apart my car...

Lately I don't know what I like better, working on cars (okay, stripping cars and then reassembling them piece by piece... I know, I'm crazy) or driving them...

Good luck with the exhaust!

 

God with no exhaust the turbos must spool hyper fast!

 

I'm not running any boost during the first 500 miles of engine break in... so I wouldnt know... however, i accidentally hit 2 psi at one point around 1800 rpms and it pulled like crazy... this thing is gonna scream. We think my car will see 13-15 psi by 2800 rpms... not bad. But they will die out about 6500 Just speculation though.

 

mine will hit full boost (10psi) at about 2500rpms, and the power falls off at about 6500

mike

 

Hey, I was pretty close on my guestimate... since I have a ported motor, I think I'll be able to hit 13-15 a bit sooner... maybe the same time you hit 10, but possibly quicker... too bad they die at 6500.... as soon as I get this thing broken in, its time for a big turbo, or a pair of medium sized turbos

 

well wait, they die because of the sleeves, you changed those right? you should be able to get an extra 1000-1500rpms from that

mike

 

Yeah, i changed the sleeves (well, not me) to 13b-rew sleeves. But my motor is ported and will be pushing a lot more air out there... we'll see when I actually get it broken in

 

Well, it will still die off i bet.. just because the exhaust is ported so much.. probably die off ~6-6.5K


Guess we will see but that is my bet.

 

BTW when i say die off i mean the powerband.

-Zach

 

mine is like falling off a cliff at 6500rpms, so is georges (look at his dyno sheet), maybe yours will just peak at 6500 and gradually drop? well hurry up and break it in so we can see

mike

 

I think you need to readjust your perspective.

You have displacement now. You don't NEED to wind the **** out of the engine.

 

yeah, pj your are exactly right, i have the revlimiter set at 7k and i think i've hit it twice, once on the dyno and once at 140mph.
i havent missed the extra revs one bit.

mike

 

Nick, I'm still unclear about your final plans for your 7 but if you're conserned about how high its goin to rev, just put some taller gears in there man. You're car will have TORQUE, this is good. It should be able to toast the tires at will, so just pull some gear if you want more mph.

 

Um, geeze people.. the reason he wants to rev it higher is because it is ported fairly large.. and that is where his power band will be.. assuming the turbos don't choke it down.. And his plan is a large single.


-Zach