Time to go Stage II!

[Squid4life]

July?
What about you, Dave? The headers should come around relatively quick.

July sounds good to me. Actually no later than June, hopefully much sooner. Sounds feasible in my situation; just have block prep, buy bearings, balance rotating assy, assemble. Need to disassemble/check/reassemble the turbos and dry sump pump. Have a lot of the other clean/paint/powdercoat type stuff too. Hmmm, need to get it in gear!

Those headers done yet Donnie?

 

[Alky V6]

July sounds good to me. Actually no later than June, hopefully much sooner. Sounds feasible in my situation; just have block prep, buy bearings, balance rotating assy, assemble. Need to disassemble/check/reassemble the turbos and dry sump pump. Have a lot of the other clean/paint/powdercoat type stuff too. Hmmm, need to get it in gear!

Those headers done yet Donnie?

Got the block back yesterday from the machine shop on Valentine's Day. Gave her a little hug. Made some minor mods to the block, got it all cleaned up and bagged. Still have to measure the bores to order the pistons.
The shop's been busy, so I'll most likely be putting the engine in the engine bay Wednesday to start finishing up the manifolding.

I made some really cool tooling to make pulling the main caps on the TA block effortless. I don't know about other TA blocks, but the main caps on my block fit very snug. It was time to come up with something to make pulling the caps easier and not such a chore. I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

 

[Alky V6]

The new bore size is 3.9495. That's .012" larger in diameter than before. Pretty close to the .010-.015" I figured it would take to clean up the one bore that had the broken ring.
The new displacement is 224.9 cid.
The few tiny epoxy patches that I have on the decks of the block are doing great.

 

[Alky V6]

The pistons will be ordered shortly. Meanwhile, the engine has been installed into the engine bay so that I can continue work on the intake and exhaust manifolding.
Believe it or not, the engine was dropped into place with the turbocharger mounted to the hanger, radiator and breather hose still in place. It was a tight fit with no room to spare.

 

[Alky V6]

The start of the intake plenum set into place.

 

[norbs]

Looking good, however I think that steering shaft is going to cause you problems with header design,,,,,all your adapters and flanges have moved you too close for comfort...

 

[Alky V6]

Looking good, however I think that steering shaft is going to cause you problems with header design,,,,,all your adapters and flanges have moved you too close for comfort...

That's why I left that one flange with only a small starter hole in it. I kinda figured that I might need to start the turn on that tube sooner. The turn will start at the point where the flange meets the adapter and will progress through the flange. Hopefully that will be enough to allow me to squeak past the steering shaft.

 

[Alky V6]

I decided to move to the intake for a little bit.

 

[Alky V6]

Norbs. Do you think I should clock the turbine back just a little to adjust the collector positions back, down and away from the hood?

 

[Alky V6]

I went ahead and clocked the turbine housing back a little, which dropped the collectors down a bit, and the wastegate up a bit. I like how the adjustment came out.
I also did a little more trimming on the lower plenum section.

 

[Alky V6]

Here are some pictures with the hood closed to show the clearance I have with the wastegate and the exhaust collectors.
The clearance between the collectors and the hood moved from about 1 inch to 2.5" with the clocking change of the turbine housing.

 

[Alky V6]

A series of pictures to show the clearance between the steering shaft and the number 5 exhaust port.

 

[Alky V6]

Some pictures showing the clearance between the hood and the intake, up to this point.

 

[TurboDave]

Looks like you wont be needing that big hole in the hood anylonger!

 

[DCVING 6]

Yeah should find a stock hood to swap on.

 

[TurboBuRick]

I think your going to need 2 torque straps.

 

[Alky V6]

Does the hole in the hood really bother you guys that much?

 

[Alky V6]

Let's take a poll. How many are bothered by the hole in the hood?
I have two options. Design the intake plenum so that the throttle body and up-pipe are positioned to fill the hole I already have in the hood,... or eliminate the hole in the hood and feel more freed up to design the plenum and throttle position the way I really want to.

A note about if I were to fill the hole in the hood with the throttle body and up-pipe. The up-pipe would not bulge out of the hood the way that it did before. The throttle body and the up-pipe would both be positioned to stick out by about a third of their diameters, and would ride the hole in a level attitude with the hole.

 

[John Wilde]

Don,

With all due respect, the hole in the hood really does bother me.
However the beauty of it is that it is your car, build it how you want to.

 

[Alky V6]

Don,

With all due respect, the hole in the hood really does bother me.
However the beauty of it is that it is your car, build it how you want to.

I think you'd all be surprised how much I do appreciate y'alls opinions. A lot of times they'll set off something in my head when I'm contemplating something. For instance, the comments that Norb's made lately made me look more closely at the exhaust header positions which made me change the clock position of the turbine housing. In the end, I think that change was a very good, and very important move.