I want to go bigger

[racemybuick]

Hi everyone. I am currently taking the motor out of my 84 T Type, after finding a bunch of metal shavings in the pan. I figure, since I gotta spend some money, might as well go for the gold! What I want is a very low 12 sec, or even a high 11 sec hot air. I dont want an intercooler. My motor is going to be standard bore and stroke, no overbore, however, I am having the heads and intake ported to match.

What I need help in, is, what is the biggest turbo I can get for my car, that will get me the 11 sec timeslip? I purchased a set of new 42.5 injectors, and the 340 hotwired pump, so fuel should not be a problem. I am planning on running a dump pipe soon, so open exhaust at the track will help me out also. My main concern is the turbo. I was ready to buy a ta49, however, I have seen that other people had larger turbo's in their cars, but I dont know if they had the intercooler set-up. Well, that is all for now, but any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!

John

 

[WH1]

My buddy runs a TA-60 on his 85 T with the V3 intake. Seems like someone off this board used to run a 54 as well. But, I've also got another buddy here in town that has run a 11.9 with the TA-33 plus Cam, ported heads and intake. It all depends on your combo, stock vs. built.

 

[cool 84]

A 49 will go deep into the 11s. However since you don't want an intercooler you might need a little extra help. A TA62 with the standard Garrett exhaust housing and a 3,000 stall convertor is very streetable. You won't notice much gain on pump gas between a 49 and a 62 but once you start cranking the boost there's a good difference.

To complement that size turbo you'll need to bore the TB to the size of the turbo inlet and run a 3" DP that eliminates the elbow. The big downpipe and lack of an elbow seems to really make a difference in spool and power on the bigger turbos.

As for the biggest you can run I have a TA64 in the stock 87 compressor housing and I saw in a magazine article that Red Armstrong has a TA66. My old 62 was in a stock hotair compressor housing.

 

[Chad Oliver]

Your setup is very close to mine. You'll want the 3" LTDP, the 009's(42.5) a red armstrong race chip, atleast a 60-1 stock body turbo, 3000 stall convertor and race gas. You need to have a good exhaust also, I use a 3" w/dual outlets (looks and sounds awesome) and slicks. I run the 340 walbro. I'm pretty sure Lee went 11's spraying alchy with this combo. I almost forgot, the heads have to be worked also.

 

[WFO]

everyone's pretty much on the money here...

you're gonna want as much flow as possible so put your $$ into fully ported heads/intake and a good cam.

i believe turbo6x2 is running a -63 in a stock hotair housing...it's the biggest that will go in the 84 housing.you will need some convertor for a turbo that size,prolly at least a 3200.

for engine management i'd go with a 16 position maxeffort.best bang for the buck chip on the planet .

 

[cool 84]

Originally posted by WFO


for engine management i'd go with a 16 position maxeffort.best bang for the buck chip on the planet .

Agreed. Flipping a thumbwheel inside the car beats the hell out of pulling over, popping the hood and adjusting fuel pressure or swapping chips when you run race fuel.

When I ran AV gas I already knew which position worked best and I had my boost controller marked for 22psi. Tuning for race gas was literally turning two knobs to their marked spot, and racing. The consistency was awesome, the car ran the same every time. I could take it back to pump gas tune during the fill up. Too bad I never made it to the track with the ME.

 

[racemybuick]

ecm

You guys running the thumbwheel, do you have the 87 ecm? My car still has original harness, ecm and all that. What do I need to change? Thanks a lot!

john

 

[cool 84]

All you have to change is the ECM and MAF. The IAT is optional with the thumbwheel. Though you can stick with the 84 MAF and have a chip burned for it, it doesn't have anywhere near the range of the already limited 87 meter. In other words I could peg it at 8lbs of boost in my car but it took 12psi to peg the 87 meter.

 

[turbo6x2]

Originally posted by WFO
everyone's pretty much on the money here...

you're gonna want as much flow as possible so put your $$ into fully ported heads/intake and a good cam.

i believe turbo6x2 is running a -63 in a stock hotair housing...it's the biggest that will go in the 84 housing.you will need some convertor for a turbo that size,prolly at least a 3200.

for engine management i'd go with a 16 position maxeffort.best bang for the buck chip on the planet .

That's about the size however I believe there was 2 upgrades for sure one that still can be done. John Craig Limited enineering can better tell you on this. I Know I had the second to last one that Lee had at the time. He figured we wanted to street drive it, he now runs a 87 he had modified to go even a bit bigger from my understanding. I know with the one I have it really doesn't wake up until about 23-25 #'s of boost so the rest better be able to hold up. Hoping for that 11 before it's over. John In Kentucky I believe runs the same type of set up from John Craig as mine, from our conversation at this year's nationals. We maintained the stock housing just a lot bigger turbine stuffed in there.... With our location space isn't an option, unless you like a scooped hood look?

 

[Lee Thompson]

upgrades

You/ll also need one of those BIG bumpsticks like Jamie (turbo 6X2) is running.
The biggest restriction on the 84-85 is the exhaust system.
Intake is not the best but can be made to work.
Get COOL air into the eng. then get it to flow with the least amount of restriction.
Once you are making gobs of power it must be put to the ground.

 

[racemybuick]

bumpsticks?

I truely sorry. I am not totally sure what you meant by "bumpsticks", that Jamie is running. Does anyone have a suggestion as to the DP? I have the stocker, with a dump before the cat, but I know tha little pipe isnt going to help when I hook up a ta49 or bigger. When you run a larger turbo, is there any boring required of the throttlebody? Where can I get the turbo adapter and throttlebody bored out so that I get that max air flow into the motor? Thank you for your help!

John

 

[Lee Thompson]

explain

Bumpstick is 60/s hotrod term for camshaft.
I have a 3 in. down pipe for sale.
Actually I have three.

 

[racemybuick]

prices and pics?

Hey Lee. I've heard nothing but great things about you! Do you have pictures and prices on your DP's? I also have been told that I need an external waste gate...got any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks a whole bunch!

John

 

[Lee Thompson]

3 in. dp

$375 shipped---do a search for three inch dp. There are some pics in some threads. Yes you will need an external gate. I like Turbonetics Racegate.

 

[racemybuick]

What about Boring throttlebody and stuff?

With a bigger compressor housing and all, do I need to bore out the exhaust housing and throttlebody?

john

 

[cool 84]

The TB has to be bored to match the inlet of the turbo. The exhaust housing is already bored to match the new bigger exhaust wheel.

One thing I always do now is with a new turbo I pull the exhaust housing off and remove the thin shards of metal that are produced from the boring. It kind of sucks they don't deburr these things in the process of boring but there's enough super thin metal in the exhaust housing around the wheel that could easily flake off and cause damage. I've seen it on every new turbo I've looked at.

 

[Bruce Davis]

What about the turbo adapter going to the intake manifold. Who or how do you make that bigger?

 

[racemybuick]

^^^same question^^^

Bruce Davis: "What about the turbo adapter going to the intake manifold. Who or how do you make that bigger?"

I was wondering the same thing. I have been told before that people have done this type of thing on lathes. I have two work bech lathes, but what bits are necessary, and how is this done...Or better yet, can anyone else whose done this before help us out?

john

 

[Lee Thompson]

adapter

I never did anything but polish that piece. Don/t know if the gain would offset the trouble. If you want to go with an 87 unit John Craig will weld the adapter to the neck of the 87 unit and you only use the larger O-ring.
As cool 84 stated, you definately want you throttle bored as big, if not a few thousands bigger, than the inlet of the turbo. This can be done on a mill or lathe. When you get up to around 58 mm you will go through the outter wall in one spot. This will need to be welded up. Actually better to weld first.

 

[turbo6x2]

the 3 inch downpipe is well worth the investment and you will really like the external waste gate can we say boost right now, yes yes we can.