Betty White, the now not so neglected race car

[wayno]

That is too bad, there is a point when turbos don't like to move anymore, so if it will move then move it now, why fight it.

[HRH]

Yeah, the good news is it hasn't been fired yet, so it should move easily. I think I'm going to try to get all the bolts loosened on the car and swivel it. Wish me luck. I may just have to take it off, but really hoping not. I suppose worst case I could take off the intake manifold again, that would make it not too bad. As it is, maybe I'll make a few custom bent wrenches for the back side bolt.

Really wish I would have had the foresight to hook up the turbo drain when I installed the exhaust manifold. Wuda Cuda Shuda!

[wayno]

I bought a used Subaru XT turbocharger that had been on the shelf for years on ebay and it did not spin very well, I stuck it on my work truck exhaust and it would not turn, it took 2 days to get it apart enough to get to most the guts, when it spun freely I put it back together nothing had improved, so I took it apart again and got it completely apart as the first time I could not get the shaft out on one side, well it took time and I finally got it out and found the reason why, right where the shaft bottomed out was a build up of crap, and when it was put back together it got compressed right there and jammed everything up, well I put it back together and it spun freely, spun right up on the work truck exhaust.

Why go thru all that, the 1985/86 Subaru XT turbo is very rare, it was made to spin up at a lower RPM, it is the only turbocharger that has had the results I had in my Datsun kingcab diesel, none of the other turbochargers have had the same result in my 1980 720 diesel, they work but are not as driver friendly like my 521 kingcab diesel truck, it reminds me of my 2 stroke motorcycle I had when I first started driving, the power just comes on, my 720 diesel is not like that, it has power but in a different way, one is a sports car and the other a truck.

[HRH]

So I got my handy dandy angle finder out and the turbo drain is only 10° off. but since I'm now looking at it with fresh eyes in the morning I'm thinking it's actually not that big a deal to rotate the housing just a smidge. Could probably just reorient the drain and all that but I'll try and rotate first if that doesn't work then I'll adapt the drain tube.

and yes I realize it's not on the turbo drain there that's just for effect LOL.

[HRH]

Success! Not nearly as bad as I was thinking.

[HRH]

Got the intercooler mounted it's damn tight for space but I think it'll work I might have to cut a little more off the bottom of the frame rail again. now the only problem is I need short 45° sections of 2 in tubing and I don't have any because the cheap one size fits all kits I have assuming you have loads of space and you're going to put it out the front and there's a big plastic bumper that you can hide nice long 90° bends. Yeah not really.

I also need to go find a 3-in cone air filter to fit the turbo and probably a short section of pipe to space it out further away towards the front of the engine.

Time to hit up eBay and Amazon!

[HRH]

So I bought myself a birthday present. Got the Eastwood bead roller. I've wanted one for a while. This one appears to be a bit more heavy duty than the Jegs one. It'll do steel as well as aluminum. I made a hand beader with a pair of pliers and it works, but you have to squeeze 100 times around the tube. That gets old really quickly. Best news is I got it cheaper than listed off Eastwood through Amazon, woohoo!

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-metal ... gK9H_D_BwE

Whoops! Good thing I woke up last night and thought about it! That one works for straight sheets, but not for tubing. I cancelled it (I hope) and got a different one with a smaller roller on the bottom that is specifically for tubing. I bought the KAKA version, lol. Literally the name. It was 20 bucks cheaper than the Jegs one. We'll see if it works the same.

And the downside of Amazon is if you order it at 10:00 at night on a Sunday, even if you request a cancellation ten minutes later, they can't kill it since its been sent to the warehouse. So it's coming, then I can return it. Guess maybe I'm getting two birthday presents, lol.

[HRH]

Update, DO NOT ORDER THE KAKA BRAND TUBING BEAD ROLLER FROM AMAZON!! It's quite literally caca. I got it only because the Jegs one was going to take longer to get and I wanted to get it done this weekend. I thought, oh sure, it's only 20 bucks less, it'll be ok. Nope. Shaft moves in an out on the forming arbor by an 1/8". The arbor is also a cutting wheel, not a bead forming wheel. It scribes the holy shit out of aluminum tube when used. I did some closer looking as I'm sending it back at the Jegs unit. It has a proper angle to the bead forming anvil on the bottom. It also appears to have bushings, not just a metal plate that holds the bottom shaft in.

[Laecaon]

Your intercooler install reminds me of mine in the 510.

[HRH]

Exactly, zero space!! It's like they think everyone has a modern car with a gigantic plastic front bumper that can hide a myriad of tubes!

Got the Jegs bead roller today, tomorrow there will be intercooler pipe fabrication!!

[HRH]

And you know what I got done today? A radiator and 3 wheel studs on the Subaru, swapped the tires on the Mazdaspeed, got most all of the wood stacked and split from the tree I cut down. And exactly zero on the race car.

[HRH]

Well post images being a s*** bag right now but the jegs bead roller works f****** great!

[HRH]

One section figured out!

[HRH]

So this is k&n filter re0910. apparently it fits Grand Nationals and it just barely rides up against the pcv block hose. Tight is anything but looks to fit the bill! figured I better put this in for the routing of the other intercooler hose just to make sure I didn't get it in the way.

[HRH]

One other thing I didn't take into account is how all this generic cheap intercooler piping looks pretty good but I found some of that has leftover pieces of sintered aluminum in it. I haven't found them all to be like that some of the other pieces are just fine and clean but this one definitely isn't. Something to keep in mind when you order the cheap eBay intercooler kits. I didn't check any of the 910 RB pipes but then again they were quite a bit bigger so it was easier to see.

[HRH]

And intercooler piping is routed!!! myself to figure out what I'm doing for the PCV and catch can arrangement but at least for now I finally have pieces that work and the setup is mostly complete. After I get the PCV system figured out and probably have the radiator repaired cuz it had a slight leak I can put it back together and start it up. Then I'll need to get the exhaust done back up to match what's there. I also still have the 5-speed transmission to put in which is an old ka 240 unit with the machined bell housing. that'll be a much bigger improvement over the really crappy bent shift fork 4 speed that's in it now.

Of course to get all that done I'm going to do it at the shop which means I need to get my box van trailer hitch short up so it can actually pull the car trailer and not bend off. It has a really spectacular "looks strong but isn't" hitch right now for towing small utility trailers. Probably a Penske or Ryder truck left over from 1987.

Oh yeah, and I know I don't have clamps on the intercooler tubes. We'll see if I remember that before I crank it over, lol.

[Laecaon]

I definitely had some shavings in the ebay intercooler piping I bought.

Not sure if you are aware, but regular hose clamps run a risk of chewing up silicone couplers. And then Tbolt clamps are stupid expensive. The best actually is embossed worm clamps.

Also a link (warning PDF) showing why worm clamps are better than Tbolt clamps. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... uPvgkb7OUx

This is what I am running on my car:https://hpsperformanceproducts.com/page ... less-steel But I have also ordered some from McMaster before.

[HRH]

Yeah, the intercooler kit came with t bolt clamps. So far they've been working nicely on the wagon. Got a little locknut and they're about 14mm wide flat straps. I'll check out those links a bit later, got stuff to do at the moment!

[HRH]

Well I'm getting a lot of progress made on the car today. Can't figure out how to route the oil catch can satisfactorily. A million different diagrams, okay like 4, but no consensus on which is best. Bah! More internet digging and phoning a friend I've already phoned to explain yet one more time.

[HRH]

So it seems the best option for a turbo race car is to bypass the pcv and run the block breather to one outlet of the catch can, and the valve cover to the other, and have the catch can vented. We'll try that, should work well.