65 Fastback Twin Turbo (mid mount) build.......

[Anonymous]

Started as a 65 "T" code. I bought it for the wife. She loved to drive it and jam the gears, but I hated to ride with her. She drives like a mad woman. It was funny when she had to stop and had trouble finding first gear. It was unsynchronized and you have to stop before shifting. The car was sold in Alexander Virginia where she was born. Her parents then lived only a few blocks away and passed by each day on their was to work. When I was talking about restoring the car, she and my daugther show me a photo of a 66 Shelby and ask if I could make it look like it. I said sure. She also said she wanted it to be different, that was music to my ears. I told her I would "make it just a little different (ha-ha)". So here we go.....

On the ROTO

Found some rot

Cleaned the belly

And the naked engine bay

Now for some custom side scoops, they are removable to service the air filters

Just a little larger than the fiberglass ones, hope they will draw a little more air

checking the radiator, fabbed the brackets

Planned to do a TKO so the tunnel had to be enlarged, some wacking and welding

Test fit for the future pilot, I think she likes it

Fabbing the air filter housings

Now where to put the turbos?

Using whats around to tuck the turbos, why not a propane tank? Nice radius, thick steel but had a little propane left in it. So after a well placed shot (7.62 at 100M), the gas is out. I was a little disappointed that there was no "boom".

A little slicing with the plasma, a little welding with the welder and "voila", turbo tucking housings

It worked, the turbos are just about even with the rail and pan

Now for the tubing

Connecting the dots

Loosing the rear seat and a custom stereo cabinet

Checking the speakers

Fitting the console and a custom double din type dash mount for the touch screen, the console is borrowed from a Neon (I think)

Heres the Mill, a 302 bored 30 with dished pistons, Roush heads, and Edelbrock Pro Flow 2

Fitting the intercoolers, flattened aluminum drive shafts found in the junk yard

Side exhaust fitment

The plumbing for the intakes, housings made from a tractor muffler, if it fits, wear it, works for cars too.

A little custom trunk work

Guiding the primer

Adding some color

My cheap sound deadener from Lowe's, $30 does a car

Installing the mill

Fabbing a tranny mount

Putting it all together

Remote mounting the shifter, a late mod

The almost finished product

To be continued

 

[68EFIvert]

Great job on the project. I can't wait to hear how it runs!

 

[hivewax]

this is one slick ride. what kind of horsepower and torque are you getting with the turbos? compression ratio? engine specs?

 

[lethal289]

I think i just found my new favorite thread! :ecit Great job, what color blue is that?

 

[RyanG85]

Awesome build, I followed a few post a while back on the other site, very interesting and cool! How much time do you have invested into this project? Have you been doing everything by yourself?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, its a 302 bored 30, dish pistons, I beam rods, WP Roush heads, Long tube headers, Lakewood scatter shield, Tremec TKO 600. The plan is to run 8 lbs of boost. I have done all the work except the TIG on the aluminum, which I don't have a TIG. The car is at a friends shop that did the TIG on the "Bonnet" and brought the tubes up from the inner fenders. The whole assembly is quickly removable. No big numbers are expected, somewhere in the 450ish range is more than enough. I am thinking that 8lbs should put it there. The turbos are small but between the two should be quick to get into boost. I have yet to start the car but its almost time. Hopefully in the next two weeks we will get it tuned and see what it does. I have kinda slowed down a little and have modded my son's 93 Fox with a 87 Turbo Coupe drive train. He is currently deployed and I am trying to have it done before he comes in on leave, so most of my attention has went to it. It will be a late Christmas present. Oh, its "Spectra" blue (Toyota/Lexus).

 

[daveSanborn]

Hey Mike, long time no see. It's nice to see things coming together!

Couple of questions:

How did you deal with oiling the turbo's/returning the oil?

What did you use for a brake master cylinder? It appears as if the driver side tube runs right through where the brake master would mount(?)

Rear tire/wheel size? I'm running 255/45/17 on 17x8 on mine and I know I have plenty of room to go larger..... I'm just curious how much larger I can go.....

Which model/PN driving/fog lights did you use in the front apron? They look to fit nicely.


Don't be such a stranger! Keep us up on any progress!

 

[Fast68back]

I have kinda slowed down a little and have modded my son's 93 Fox with a 87 Turbo Coupe drive train.

Cool, another build thread! Where are the pics?

 

[Anonymous]

They are a couple of scavenging pumps right at the turbos, one for eack turbo. They return the oil to the valve right valve cover.
The oil is restricted by a 1/32" orifice in the line. I plugged numbers and that was what I came up with. RIght now it has a 7/8" bore master. I have been looking at increasing to a 1 1/8" for more fluid volume but haven't settled on one. I'm going to give the 7/8" a try first. The left side inlet tube fits well under the master. It unhooks at the inner fender and everything is easy to get to. The lights are PIAA 004XT and they fit very well. In one of the photos you can see a couple of little brackets that I made to mount the lights to. They are rivited to the radiator support. Ther rear tires are 225 60 15's and they are tight with the lip. Dodgestang's tire chart is helpful. http://www.dodgestang.com/Tire%20Fitment%20Guide%2065-6.pdf
Heres a couple photos of the Fox build. Engine is in and running, looking for a driveshaft, adding a FMIC, plan to paint in a week or so, Black with a red pin stripe, Cobra R wheels and change in seats. Thats bout it on the Fox, its a quickie but I think its going to look pretty darn good and be a very fun car to drive.

 

[Tony R]

nice to see another familiar face over here. You have made nice progress since I last saw pics of your car.

 

[joesgt281]

wow.
that's all, just wow.

 

[fordrule]

awesome build.

 

[Anonymous]

Here's a couple updates. I have finished the 93 and it turned out great. My son came in on leave (but was cut short) and could not beleive it was the same car. It runs great and is an absolute blast to drive. Here are some photos........

 

[Anonymous]

Now for the Blue car. About 9 months ago (July or August 09) I took the car to a shop in Kingsport (actually its called "The Shop") for some aluminum welding, make a set of plug wires (crimp the ends), install two straight pieces of exhaust pipe (which I took) and "dyno tune" the car. I was guessing two or three days or at most a week. So after many months and many calls and several visits and the run around, I drive down to see what the problem is and if there's anything I could do to help, after all it was May 2010. He stated there were some issues with the ECM talking to the laptop and he had contacted the manufacture several times to see what was wrong. He also said that he had sent the ecm back for testing which came back OK. Again he could not get the ECM to communicate with the laptop (later I found out he had the port settings wrong, it took about 5 seconds to fix). Also he said he needed a base MAP before he could tune the car. I thought no problem. So I call to see about a base map for a 2 BAR and ask them to resend it, they said it was on the way. Also when I talked with them they said the correct base MAP had already installed and the car should start. I passed the info on. I let a few more days go by and decided to call and see if things were moving forward. He said the engine would turn over, but he could not get it to fire. Sooooo after some thought, I figured the first place to look would be the wiring harness. I looked at the schematic (which he had a copy of) and noticed there could be a possibility that two of the connectors may be reversed. I called back and ask him to check the "color codes" of the wires going to the connectors and sure enough, they were reversed (who supposed to be working on the car?). So after switching them to the correct location he made another attempt and the car fired (guess the right MAP was in there all along). I was excited. The following day I drove down again to see if things were still going the right way and if he was if he ready to tune (or maybe finished), course nothing else had been done. Heres where the story gets intersting. After another week or so had passed (which I was working 7 days a week and could not get away) a friend called one day and told me I needed to get down there and get my car away from that place. I ask why, and what he told me was shocking. He said that he and some friends had stopped by and ask the owner some questions. He said the owner stated that he had built the car there and even went as far as to tell them the paint was done there. The owner had no idea these people were friends of mind and I was about to learn about what he was doing. Talking about a "poser". I quickly decided "enough was enough" and made the decision (with orders from the "wifie") to get the car outta there. I called my friend and ask him to drive me by there so I could tell the owner I needed the car for a show (to keep the peace), finished or not. He told me the car still was not running and could not be started because the fuel gauge was leaking and had been removed (yeah right). I ask where the old one was (since it was new) and that I could send it back and get a replacement, it wasn't to be found. Funny thing also is I done a pressure check BEFORE taking the car down to this place and found no leaks. I then went and picked up my box trailer (which I parked nearby) and with the help of my friend, wenched the car up and pulled it back home (I figured that wench would come in handy!!!). Again, it gets even better. After unloading the car which had a tonn of dust because it was never covered, I started finding problems. The first obvious one I noticed was the distributor seemed to be wired backwards (clockwise not CCW and was a firing order for a HO 302 or something), isn't this one of the first things you would check if the car missed or would not rev? The second obvious was the right front tire was rubbing the air tube when making a hard right turn. My thoughts were an easy fix and if I removed the tube and shortened it an inch or so, it would clear. So off the tube came and another surprise awaited.......notice the nice little aluminum shavings in the tube, (and he started the car!!!!!!!) there is no air filter between here and the intake. I then decided to tear all that he had done apart and see if there were any other surprises awaiting (not to mention a scratch in one of the cylinder walls, metal in the oil pan, and a nice scratch in one of the main bearings). Here are some of my findings. A picture is worth a thousand words...............or maybe a couple thousand dollars.

Some damage to the paint, about 5 chips in all, not to mention the nice coat of 2K (or whatever) overspray which took me a couple hours to buff off.

Heres a picture of the exhaust collector, which the other side was stuck in well beyond the ball connector, can you say major restriction.

The starter would hit and miss, so I replaced it with another new one, another surprise.......check out the flywheel.......

I wish the guy all the luck in the world, but if he continues like this, I don't think he will stay in business too long........At least not with my business......

It would have been so simple to have said, I've reached my limit and can do no more rather than keep the car for 9 months and causing some major damage in the mean time.

Up next, tuner want to be #2

 

[Johnny M]

There's no crime greater than messing with someones car...

Have you ever used this shop before? Did you give them any money?

 

[Anonymous]

I had never used "The Shop" before but I did try to check around a little and made a couple trips down there. He talks a great talk but in my situation that was about it. Money wise, I paid him for his efforts and simply wanted to get the car away from him. I can always dispute the charges later. I have consulted with a Lawyer but I haven't yet made a decision if its worth my time to go after this dude. When I took the car to him, I plainly told him up front I didn't want the car sitting for a prolonged period of time (more exposure to scratches and dents). I did find out that day after day the car was displayed in front of his shop maybe an attempt to lure in some of the older crowd (mostly ricers in there). Also, another thing that upset me was that I had pulled the fuses to the sound system and told him under no circumstances were they to be put in or the sound system played. The first thing to start up when I turned the key was the sound system. Why did he replace the fuses after I told him not to mess with it? Every time I would call to check on the car it was literally was one excuse after another and it would have been so simple for him to say "I can do no more", but that seems to be the "cardinal sin" in the tuning world. Its my opinion now that he was just simply lost on the ecm tuning and would even question his basic computer skills or if he even had a clue. Most of the problems I have fixed and had the car running within a couple of days of having it back (why couldn't he do that?). As far as engine damage, I'm hoping for the best, it looks like the filings didn't chew things up too much and it may be OK (even though it was stupid for him not to clean out the tubes before installing them). As of today the car is still not tuned, and since I don't have a wideband (once tuned its not needed) or dyno, I'm still in search for someone to tune the car. This leads to the next part of the story........

 

[daveSanborn]

Crap.... there's more?

Sorry to hear of your troubles Mike and thanks for the update. I was begining to wonder what happened to you. I'm looking forward to the next update.

BTW, the Fox turned out real purty.

 

[RyanG85]

What a sickening story! uke This car has been one of my favorite builds to follow. You've done some outstanding work and built a beautiful car. I was wondering where things left off with this build. I think I would be in jail right now if someone pull that kinda sh!t with my car...

Good luck getting everything straightened out. Make sure you let it known locally what kind of businessman the owner of "The Shop" is. Someone like that does not deserve to be in business!

 

[Anonymous]

So after the big let down by "The Shop" I went searching for another person to tune the car. I had heard about a place called Noe's Performance Tuning in Morristown Tn which is about a hundred miles from my house. So I called and ask if he was able to tune the system that I had installed and if he had any experience with laptop tuning. He stated that he had tuned a FAST system and said if it was anything like that, it should be no problem. I told him about my experience with the last "so called" tuner and I didn't want a repeat. He assured me it would not be so. The following week I received a call to bring the car down. After unloading the car and hooking it up to the laptop, I knew right off I was in trouble. As usual the ecm and laptop would not talk (the port settings needed to synced). So insted of me getting in the way I stood back let him give it a go. He could not establish the link between the laptop and ecm and at this point I knew "his" basic computer skills were lacking. Fortunately, the system also comes with a "handheld" that is capable of tuning but to me is better suited for the simple NA engines. The tables are very limited and its no where as accurate as the laptop software. So he said he would just tune it with the handheld. After half a day had passed and several calls to the tech support (from him) we were still at the same place where we started. Fortunately at lunch another guy popped in and seemed to be a wiz on the computer. He was able to sync the two in a minute or so and get the laptop talking. Again I was excited and thought the rest of the tuning would be easy. He was able to locate the fuel map and started fiddling with it but didn't understand how to set the values and they could not have a great differ with the adjoining blocks. At this point I knew I was really in trouble as I knew that too much a change would cause the pulse to vary too much and the car would not run right. So after several attempts of changing the fuel map he gave up and went back to the handheld. as it was getting late in the afternoon and getting frustrated I again ask if he "thought" he could do anything with it, and if not, I would go ahead and load the car. He reply ed he had another job to go and maybe he could do better in the morning if I left the car, so I did hoping for some good results. The following day I had a doctor's appointment and was later that evening before getting back to his place. I was hoping for good news but again was let down. He said he couldn't do anything with it and the car was still not tuned and suggested buying another engine management system. I replied there are hundreds of people that have this system in use on boosted engines and they are running them without any issues. I will have to give him credit though for being honest enough to "kinda" say this was over his head and not keep stringing me along. So I ask how much I owed. He said he would go easy on the labor and I owed $324 for his time (which was listed as trouble shooting). So I bit my lip and paid and once again pulled the car back home untuned. On the flip I hear he is great with the Handheld units like SCT an so forth. As far as the laptop tuning, he has a long way to go and a lot to learn. Hopefully not at the owners expense.

 

[abrahamfh]

I am really sorry to hear about all the issues and headache. Wow, I give you much credit for staying so calm and positive about it all. I hope you find someone soon with the experience and ability to take care of the car properly for you.

I would make my way down to "The Shop" and :dh take care of business Godfather style.