Turbo'n Grandpa's 88

Enemy · Apr 12, 2015

Thanks so much Splash!

alwaysFlOoReD · Apr 12, 2015

Beautiful!!

Turbroke · Apr 12, 2015

XLTsplash said:
Very nice work, looks great !

Like he said! :icon_thumby:

I had no idea you were going to take it to that level when you first mentioned doing it. Makes me want to tear mine down and start over. I might just do that when I get settled down somewhere. Where did you find that fan shroud? It's pretty awesome.

deathbypsi · Apr 15, 2015

Very nice build so far!

But, how the hell do you get to the first two spark plugs? I have always hated that Stinger style header for that reason.

Enemy · Apr 18, 2015

Thanks Death! Yea, those front two plugs SUCK. I was wondering the same thing when I was mocking it up on the bench. It is easiest to remove the oil return line, zip the 4 flange nuts off and lift the turbo aside. PITA, but hopefully not going to have to do it too often lol!

The fan is a Flexalite #188, Turbroke. Had to add an extension to the bottom of the dual pass to direct all the air through the radiator, it is a little overkill for this motor I think, but I picked it up cheap! It moves like 3300cfm of air... A power hog, but mighty lol! I don't foresee any cooling issues lol. It would have to all be rearranged to get a condenser sandwiched in between for AC, but I think it is doable down the road. And since I found the new location for the coil packs where the compressor would have went, I may be ditching AC altogether...! I extended the harness so I can relocate them if necessary.

Got the harness, relays and fuse block all done! Keyed up and the Pimp ECU is hearing all the sensors! Going to try and finish up my rats-nest I am creating for the dash and gauge wiring this weekend.

Angie · May 30, 2015

looks like its going to be a fun ride and nice job.

JoshT · May 30, 2015

Are you running aftermarket gauges? If so please post up how you mounted them and a pic of how they look mounted.

This thing is looking good so far. You may have inspired me to take a similar route with the 86 I'm building. I picked up a camper shell for my 99 a few weeks ago just to see if I wanted to try to use one for camping. It's one of the older squared off high roof style and it really doesn't fit with the lines of the newer truck. I think it might fit good on the square body, lowered slightly with the V8 under the hood.

Enemy · Jun 8, 2015

Angie said:
looks like its going to be a fun ride and nice job.

Thanks Angie! :beer:

Finished up all the turbo plumbing, and the downpipe and exhaust back to the muffler, finalized some wiring and brought it to life this weekend!!
Got the vroom-vroom noises in my skull now!! Everything went really well except for a slight leak from the rear main seal. It is rock solid smooth and sounds rowdy. My machine guy did very nice job on the balance work! Ran it through a few heat cycles and did some tuning in the idle and free rev areas and hot start fueling. REALLY impressed how far the Pimp/Microsquirt has come along the last 10 or so years. Tunerstudio is a wonderful program with excellent user base. :icon_thumby:

Now onto the rearend and driveshaft and then HOPEFULLY on the street by next weekend for some more break-in and tuning.

Turbo Plumbing

Greddy BOV going where the blue circle is next to rad cap. This will also help to cover up my "bad welding day" in that area lol

Downpipe and wastegate dump.. Downpipe section was one-piece at one time... Till I realized I welded the dump flange on upside down....! :annoyed:

3-piece now LOL! Wrapped it with DEI Thermal wrap and stuffed it back in. Bottom flange attaches to a 3" id flex coupler then 3"exhaust system out the back. All mounted in heavy dampers and balanced out so no exhaust weight on the header.. Lots of expansion forgiveness and hopefully NO header cracking.

7.5 coming out, 8.8 readying to go in..

Enemy · Jun 8, 2015

Dash, Gauges, Interior

JoshT said:
Are you running aftermarket gauges? If so please post up how you mounted them and a pic of how they look mounted.

This thing is looking good so far. You may have inspired me to take a similar route with the 86 I'm building. I picked up a camper shell for my 99 a few weeks ago just to see if I wanted to try to use one for camping. It's one of the older squared off high roof style and it really doesn't fit with the lines of the newer truck. I think it might fit good on the square body, lowered slightly with the V8 under the hood.

Hey thanks Josh! I was content with keeping the shell that came with the truck, but a buddy made me an offer I couldn't refuse... (fresh, small farm raised cow processed into yummy packages of steaks and hamburger with beer refreshments to wash it all down) so I parted with it

So now I will probably install a toneau cover now to keep the spare tire and meth/battery system covered up.

Onto the dash! I was only going to add the Innovate SBC gauge and the Aeroforce Analogic to monitor the vitals and have to admit I was not planning on taking the cluster as far as I did, but the sunshine destroyed the factory tach and speedo. The needles crumbled into powder just while I was disassembling them lol. For those, I am using Speedhut Gauges.They are 4 1/2" units and drop nicely into the factory trim mounts and rings with only slight trimming of the screw holes to shift them over to align with the bezels.

Molded in the "Brake" warning lamp, and the "Water In Fuel" lamp next to the center gauges. (don't have a pic of them lit up yet..) Brake light functions as normal, and the Water in Fuel light will illuminate when the Meth is injecting :icon_idea:

Small volt gauge molded into the top left. Also mounted a Speedhut fuel gauge in half the air vent. Cut the vent down to allow some use of the duct.. Used Diamont SC804 for getting rid of the awesome wood-grain finish,and will probably black the column as well down the road maybe?

JoshT · Jun 8, 2015

I'd part with mine too for that. My original plan for the 86 was a tonneau, and I actually already have one for it. Just got to get the truck together and see what way I want to go with it.

Since those gauges are so thin you didn't have to cut into the gauge mount. Since the traces weren't damaged you were able to just wire the "idiot lights" and turn signals to function as normal?

It's been my goal since starting my project to have the dash look and function like a stock first gen Ranger dash. Wanted to get a good speedo (goes over 85) a tach and better gauges in the dash looking stock, but couldn't figure out a good way to do it. Also wanted to keep some of the "idiot" and "warning" lights functional, and use the stock turn signal and high beam indicators. Every option I was finding for aftermarket gauges would require cutting up the gauge mount and/or instrument bezel. Those Speedhut gauges look like an excellent solution. I'll probably go with the speedo/tach combo gauge and a quad gauge. Their GPS speedo will also take care of the speedo signal instead of having to get a signal from the transmission.

XLTsplash · Jun 8, 2015

Nice work, everything is looking great.

Enemy · Jun 9, 2015

JoshT said:
Since those gauges are so thin you didn't have to cut into the gauge mount. Since the traces weren't damaged you were able to just wire the "idiot lights" and turn signals to function as normal?

Yeah the Speedhuts were the only thing I could find to keep the stock gauge basket without butchering it all up for mounting as well. I can easily burn up an hour on their site lol! So much to customize! Since I put the two gauges in the idiot light area, I had to cut the traces to the turn signal bulbs for clearance and installed a plug to the original harness to power the bulbs. If you leave this area alone it all can remain untouched. The only cutting on the original basket was for the tach and speedo wiring to go through. Oh, also should add that I have a tach from Speedhut in a little off road buggy I have been beating the piss out of for 10 years with no issues. Quality stuff and worth the 2 weeks build time wait since they build to each order. :icon_thumby:

Found this, backside of cluster. The center gauge cables are massive and take up the bulk of the harness so you can see why I removed the printed wiring in that area. Small slits at the bottom was all that was needed for the Speedhut harnesses, they keep it nice and lightweight so you could easily keep the factory tracers.

1qaz · Jul 26, 2015

Looking really sweet! The engine work is off the scale. Gramps is now on the little blue pills for sure! Will be watching him come back to life.

Z3CHYD · Jul 26, 2015

This is an awesome build! I love how clean your work is and attention to detail, especially with the dash, it isn't just a bunch of gauges hose-clamped to the steering column like so many people do lol

Enemy · Jul 28, 2015

Hey thanks so much guys! I really appreciate that :beer:

Haha Qaz! Yea he is turning into a rowdy old fart when he is juiced up on 100 octane viagra lol! I have lots to update that I did since I have been driving it, but unfortunately haven't got to put a lot of miles on it cause I am still fighting the rear main seal leak and had to pull the T5 out when I had something "happen" to 5th-Rev gear cluster inside. The guy that built it may have had "one to many" and didn't rotate a lock ring correctly before installing the tail shaft housing. Nothing catastrophic thankfully, just a PITA So I put a different style Teflon rear main in at the time the old fashioned way (no special tool) Got it all back together and it leaks worse than the last? :annoyed:

So I pulled it again to check if maybe nicked the crank seal surface when I put it in but didn't see no damage.. So this time I borrowed the installer tool from a friend at a dealership and put it in "by the book"...

And it still has a little drip!
[SOLVED! Must use RTV sealant between the main cap and block.. See this->http://forum.turboford.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=059285#000000]

At least it isn't DUMPING like the last one. From here if I go back into it I will prob have to sleeve the crank to stop it altogether I suppose, had to do that on an old 390 FE moons ago lol. But very happy to report I have put enough miles on it to feel comfortable tuning it up to 20psi! This little shit lights and pulls hard! Its a giggle every shift LOL definitely turning into quite the little sleeper. Downfall is I have to turn it WAY down and pull a bunch of timing to run on this crap 91 octane watered down fuel around these parts. Cant find 93 without driving 100 miles to get it. That 100 octane price if effin ridiculous expensive playtime and not in my budget unfortunately. :bawling:

Hopefully the water/meth will do the trick or I just may have to convert a tune to Corn Fuel and bite the bullet on big injectors to run it.
Ok done crying lol, back to work I go!
Will get some more pictures up.

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