So it's been about 6 months since I finished my NA turbo install. I seem to be getting many PMs asking me how things are, and whether I've blown my engine yet. So I figured I would make a general status post to inform the curious.

No, I have not blown my engine. But there have been a few problems.

First and foremost, my cat became clogged due to the fact that I was lazy and did not tune the fuel for about a week. This time of running rich (enough to make the exhaust glow red) clogged my cat. Because of this, I saw a gradual decrease of boost, from 10 PSI to about 3.5 PSI. It's a little annoying, but not too big of a deal. I plan to move to a 3" exhaust this spring. At 3.5 PSI is of course a lot less fun than 10.

The second problem area seems to be the oil return hose. The rubber hose vibrates in such a way that it stresses the connection points, and has sprung a leak on two separate occasions. Remaking the hose with less slack and more rigid support seems to have cured this problem, but I will be replacing the rubber hose with more solid copper this winter.

About a month after I got the car on the road, I blew the transmission. Snapped the input shaft. Now, the reason for this was very simple: no oil. It appears that the rear transmission seal let go as I got onto the highway, thus emptying 2.5 quarts of transmission oil onto the 401. About half an hour of cruising at 100 MPH, and I heard a horrid whine, then a clunk, then the car started slowing down. Had it towed home and swapped in the tranny from my parts car. Unfortunately, it suffers from noisy bearings, so I will have it rebuilt during the winter.

The last problem is something that I expected: the NA clutch cannot handle the power levels. After 4K in any gear but first (under about 4 PSI of boost) is just slips like crazy. An ACT clutch will be installed this winter.

As far as this winter, my plans are basically set. The engine will get pulled and I will rebuild it. During which, it will be ported all to hell. I'll also take the opportunity to install the oil thermo pellet mod, and a few other this. Probably clean and paint the housings as well. Since the engine will be out, it's a good time to paint the engine bay. And as mentioned, the transmission will go for a rebuild.

 

sounds good man

you are certainly a brave pioneer...I hope to follow in your footsteps. Hopefully you can teach me a thing or two in your experiences.

Good Luck
-Chris

 

tizight! good stuff aaron! good luck man, mad props!

 

Aaron, I appreciate you keeping us all up to date. I like the fact that you give us actual information not just "dude my car blew up its over man" hehe Good job

 

Glad to hear its still alive and well, man. You put too much into that car for it to break on you! Good luck with the rebuild.

 

Damn man sounds like you problems are minut compared to what they could be..........good luck for the up coming months, I wanna what it will do in the quater compared to a TII

 

i dont know why people would think you have blown your engine. Have you thought about putting in a TII tranny? Do you think the NA tranny is ok with this power? From what i hear, the NA tranny has really low limits. Do you know why the rear seal on the trans broke?

 

About your whining bearings... I thought I would just runt his by you. I thought I had bad bearings in my tranny, but it turned out that my middle mount was sagging. When you get in your car, put it in neutral and let out the clutch. Carefully pull up and push down on the stick, and see if the noises get quieter. If they do, it will take some tinkering to get the height right again, but the noises should all but dissappear. Unless, of course, your bearings are bad.

PJ

 

I agree, about the t2 trany, I am sure you know what a you need and how to swap it, I think it would be kind of dumb to buy a high dollar clutch, and have a NA tranny rebuilt when you could spend a little more money and get some stuff that you know will hold up.

 

I agree, about the t2 trany, I am sure you know what a you need and how to swap it, I think it would be kind of dumb to buy a high dollar clutch, and have a NA tranny rebuilt when you could spend a little more money and get some stuff that you know will hold up.

when you do the motor, what rotors are you using? I see 12psi comming in your sig and didn't think you could run that high on the NA ones.

 

Clogged cats are very hard on the engine. Have you "relieved" the problem yet- hey its free...

 

Aaron is becoming a legend on this forum. One might even call him a pioneer! But one lingering question remains.... 1/4.... the quarter mile! We want time slips!

 

Nice Job man, very clean. I love the install and im glad to see you are doing well. How is the compression on that thing looking? and another thing, how did you finally tune it? still with the same autometer guage or what? Again, Very nice man!

 

I Know He has probably mentioned this but..... all in all how much $$$ was it do convert... NA.. To.. Turbo..

 

LOL...TII....At 10 PSI the car could walk FDs...


As I recall, the TII trannies and the NA trannies have the same internals. The difference is the ribbing and strengthening in the case. It would be a major hassle to go to a TII tranny, and it would need to be rebuilt anyway, so I will stick with the NA unit. It will handle the power just fine as long as I don't abuse the snot out of it.

It's the bearings, trust me.

Using '86 NA high compression rotors. I don't plan on changing them either. 12 PSI will be fine...hell, I may just bump it to 14...but we're starting to stress the stock turbo at that point...

The only timeslips I have are those with the clogged exhaust and slipping clutch....not very impressive at all.

Have not done a compression test, but the engine still pulls 18" of vacuum. I "rough" tuned it by the Autometer A/F guage...Not the best approach, but I don't want to pay for dyno time until I have the boost at what I want it to be.

$4500 Canadian.

 

sweet.... the low end must be aweseme with those high compression rotors. I'm assuming your lag in virtually non-existing.

 

With an open exhaust, I would expect very little lag. Low end is great.