Hey Dartvader,
Nice job.

Hey, I need info about your air conditioning setup. What pump? Is is setup as cyclilng clutch or continous run? R-12 or R-134? How well does it work? What other parts were changed?
Factory under dash unit or aftermarket?

I need to fix the factory AC in my 1976 Valiant. Dang AC shops here in Minnesota don't know anything about these old systems and everyplace I ask has different ideas.

Maybe I won't need AC this summer anyway. With all this "Global Warming" stuff going on it's only been in the upper 60's and low 70's for daytime high temps, and 40's and 50's over night. Northern Minnesota has been having overnight low temps in the 20's and it's almost the 4th of July!!!!!!!!!

the guy at autozone(i know i know, but mothers gold wax is mothers gold wax, which my walmart doesnt carry and napa sells for way more)was admiring my dart and we talked about the factory(r 12) ac and he said they have conversion kits for about $35 he said it came with 3 cans of r 134 and a can of lubricant stuff and all the hoses, gauges, connectors, just drain the old and put in the new, i had heard of that kit but thought it was $100+, i have used the r134 kit for the newer systems and it was easy enough and worked, (although later found out walmart had the r 134 for about half what i paid at autozone) ,they didnt have any of the aforementioned kits out, said to check back later after they unloaded the crates of new stuff....with the side window turned in the weathers not to bad, we also left to ac compressor off when we did the engine swap, so im not sure whether ill get that or not, i would love to have working ac, but i need money for college and stuff going on this summer, so well see, if someone wants to buy me that kit ill volunteer my car as a guinea pig worth a try right?

I don;t know how fast it is, but it is way faster than I thought it would be. I also have a 360 Dart with about 300 to 325 HP, and the turbo slant feels cooler than that car. There is something about the way a turbo comes on that is quite a rush.

I will try to answer some of the questions.
1. I used the Buick waste gate control and made a custom mounting for it. You can see it off to side of the compressor in the photos.
2. I am currently running 6 lbs of boost, which makes way more power than I expected. The plan is to bring it up to 8-10 once the clutch is fixed.
3.The silicone connectors came from Turbohoses.com
4. The ac clutch cycles. The entire unit came from Classic Auto Air in Florida. They were good to work with. It uses 134, and cools well. I completely removed all of the factory stuff under the dash, and started over. The only difficulty is inability to get an air handler hose past the tight steering column area on the drivers side. I have the stock unit for anyone who wants to come and get it. It is missing assorted,small bits and pieces which could present a challenge.

Thanks again for all the kind words. I was inspired by the other slant wayshowers here on Slantsix.org

I hope you own stock in Goodyear!


Once you go boosted you never go back.


Tom Drake

oh yeah, congrats on the nice setup! met Lou a few weeks back for a parts swap, nice guy, im hoping to get a similar setup once i get finished up with school, not sure what route im going yet, but i want it to be really fast, have fun with it!

Just to give you an idea. The simca ran as fast as 6.50 in the 1/8 on 8# of boost. EFI and Alcohol help that. On 13# it ran 6.10.

Weighs 2315#.

Tom

Hi,

Just checking in to see where you are after a week+ on this car.. Any more tuning? Any luck on a final fuel map on your Megasquirt?

Thanks,

Greg

Thanks for the interest. I spent the week making a heat shield for the turbo. The fiber glass hood was getting very hot, even with the functional hood scoop. The heat shield seemed to do the trick. It gets hot still, but not as hot as it was without the shield. I hated to cover up the turbo, as it is jet coated, and nice looking. I will make a heat sheild for the air cleaner also. I will also wrap the header with heat insulation material. Not pretty, but it does make the turbo work better, and cools down the engine compartment further.

The clutch is getting so bad that I cannot really tune it any further. It breaks loose as soon as the engine sees boost. I spent an hour last Saturday driving around with my brother manning the lap top. The clutch was still holding up to 4000 RPM in 3rd, and 4th, and 3500 in 5th, so we could get the fuel map fattened up in the low vacuum, and boost cells of the VE tables. Now there is no pre-ignition up to 7 psi of boost at WOT with 93 octane fuel. I think the number in the upper left hand corner is around 35%, and the number in the bottom right hand corner is 130%. I will fire up the laptop this week end, and get some more representative figures for you.

I 'll tell you something else that is neat. I drove around last night with it, going easy on the clutch, and discovered I could climb a fairly steep hill on the highway in 4th gear at 1200 RPM and keep the vacuum at around 15" of mercury. I was pretty surprised. This leads me to suspect she will get pretty good gas mileage. It got a best ever of 29MPG on the highway with a 2 bbl carb. Maybe it can break into the 30's now. That would be a double treat.

I've been planning to do the same thing to my car and I'm glad it's worked out so well for you. I am curious to know how you fabricated the exhaust pipe from the manifolds to the turbocharger. Any chance you could take some more photos?

Frank

Hi Frank. I used Dutra's duals, as you know. The tight area is over the starter. I have a mini starter. I think it would be nearly impossible with a full sized starter. I still plan on wrapping the starter motor with heat sheild material. I built the rear leg first, and brought it up and over the starter, and then it swings gently down and back up so it sits with the opening sticking right straight up beside and below the intake opening. I have power steering, so that is tight there too. I bent pattern pipes from brake line, and a local muffler shop bent the full sized pipes for me. Then I fabricated the front leg to sweep up to meet the first just below the flange for the turbo. I tack welded them together, and had a professional welder do the finish welding. Then I ground out the opening where the 'Y' is from the inside with a die grinder. The last step was to send it off to Jet Coat for hot coating. This was not for looks, but for durability, as the turbo heat can eat up a steel pipe pretty quickly if it is left bare.
All of this was done after I had the turbo in hand, and hung it in it's approximate final space with wire and boards laying across the engine and fenders, so I would know how to bend the patterns.

I can take photos,but I am a computer moron. I would be happy to e-mail them to some one else and then they can post them somewhere.

If you don't answer anything else, just please answer this question for me...

How far back will it push you into the seat ?

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2