Our car is a bald-faced copy (mechanically) of two other turbocharged slant sixes (A-bodies) that are, in my estimation, runaway successes; Tom Wolfe's '71 Dart and Ryan Peterson's '66 Valiant. Both have 225 motors with forged cranks, ported heads, one four-barrel intake manifolds and home-made headers.

Ryan's car weighs about 2,800 pounds; Tom's car is about 400-pounds heavier, at 3,200 pounds. Our '64 Valiant 4-door sedan is in at 2,680.

Both

All three cars have 8,75" rear ends with various gearing. Both Ryan and Tom (who obviously know what they are doing) run ratios in the high twos (2.73, for instance,) while our car has a 3.55, (because when we built it, we had NO IDEA what we were doing.) Ryan's car has a 727 T-flite, while
Tom's Dart and our Valiant have 904's.

We built our car in most ways, to, as closely as we could, copy the successful practices of these two guys... because nothing succeeds like success. And, they made it look easy...

We all 3 have single 4-bbl intake manifolds, but, they are all from different sources. Ours is an Australian, (AusssieSpeed) long runner model (BIG mistake,) while Ryan's is (I believe,) a Hyper-Pack model. Tom has, I THINK, a Clifford 4-bbl manifold, while all three mount Holley 4150 double pumpers. I am not aware of the cfm size of their carbs, but ours was built by Aaron Hurley for his engine, before he decided to switch to Alky, and is either 600cfm, or 650... I don't recall. It has a boost-referenced power-valve, and other Hangar-18 modifications.

These two guys (Ryan and Tom) have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, that they absolutely know what they are doing. On the other hand, We have yet to get our car to the drag strip. But, that day is coming, soon. We just finished O-Ringing (copper wire) the block and are otherwise, almost ready to make out first pass on clocks.

We bought a 750 Holley and tried to get it "tuned" using a F.A.S.T., Wide-Band, hand-held, data-logging, O-2 sensor, by changing jet sizes repeatedly, and sometimes, power-valves. We probably made 20 individual runs in an attempt to get the "right" air-fuel mixture.

Never happened.

Oh, we also have a "Snowperformance Boost Cooler," alky/water injector (running 100% methanol.)

Here's what we learned, for all our efforts: After run-after-run, changing jets (all at 10 pounds of boost) we had poisoned out O-2 sensor to the point that it no longer worked, accurately.

So, I ordered another one; they just screw in and are "only" $91.00 apiece. No problem, right?

The first subsequent road test (with a different carb... one that is probably jetted and modified correctly,) yielded mis-firing cylinders (something we had never encountered, before, and black smoke out the exhaust.

It was running WEIRD.

I decided that, since we had not O-Ringed it, it had probably blown a head-gasket.

It had always had 160-165 pounds compression (5 hits) on all cylinders.

This time, #1 and #2 had 50 pounds. I, stupidly, didn't bother to test any more cylinders since I mistakenly assumed the head gasket was blown between #1 and #2.

Subsequent examination and testing revealed NO blown gaskets of any kind. Anywhere!

Everything else checked out 100%.

This engine HAD no mechanical problems. None...

We checked the valves, guides, lifters, cam, push-rods, rocker arms, timing... NOTHING was wrong.

So, we decided to O-Ring it while it was apart. What a thrash THAT was, but it's done, now, and pretty-much back together.

After talking to a LOT of people, they almost, to-a-man, told us that the super-rich mixture we had been getting out of that last Holley carb we had on there, had successfully washed all the oil off the cylinder walls, making any kind of an effective ring-seal, impossible.

We are about to find out if that is true.

Within the next two or three weeks, we should know th truth on this.

I'll let you know.

One thing we HAVE learned: As much as we have talked to people, studied books, and read notes on here and FABO, apparently, we don't know a DAMNED thing 'cause we can't seem to put together ONE RUN that is representative of what this car SHOULD be capable of.

It's pretty disheartening. The worst part is, we have only ourselves to blame.

We have spent too much time and money to throw in the towel, now, though, quitting is not an option.

Maybe out luck will turn around, now.... we'll see.

Thanks for listening. This is supposed to be fun, right???

Bill, in Conway, Arkansas

The first subsequent road test (with a different carb... one that is probably jetted and modified correctly,) yielded mis-firing cylinders (something we had never encountered, before, and black smoke out the exhaust.

It was running WEIRD.

I decided that, since we had not O-Ringed it, it had probably blown a head-gasket.

It had always had 160-165 pounds compression (5 hits) on all cylinders.

This time, #1 and #2 had 50 pounds. I, stupidly, didn't bother to test any more cylinders since I mistakenly assumed the head gasket was blown between #1 and #2.

Subsequent examination and testing revealed NO blown gaskets of any kind. Anywhere!

Everything else checked out 100%.

This engine HAD no mechanical problems. None...

We checked the valves, guides, lifters, cam, push-rods, rocker arms, timing... NOTHING was wrong.

So, we decided to O-Ring it while it was apart. What a thrash THAT was, but it's done, now, and pretty-much back together.



Bill, in Conway, Arkansas

How reliable was it charlie? After you got the bugs worked out anyway.

Looks like you overlooked the one other thing that could have caused this.....lifted ring land. Have you re-checked your compression since you got it back together.....its still 50 lbs isn't it.

CNC-Dude,

The pistons in our engine are identical to the pistons in Tom's engine and Ryan's engine. I don't know if that means anything RE: this discussion, but they have not had problems similar to ours. Wiseco built their pistons and we later ordered a set of identical ones, and, since Tom was on the phone with Wiseco several times as his were being built; I can't imagine that they were built with no thought to their going into boosted engine. But, we'll see.

The one thing that will be different when we run this compression check will be that we will ensure that there is a layer of lubricating oil on the cylinder walls this time. That may or may not change things, depending on what's wrong.

I really appreciate your input on this. Thanks a lot for your time!

Bill

I am hoping for the best... the best being that the cylinder walls were so devoid of lubricating oil that there was no viable seal between the ring, ring lands, and cylinder walls when I tried testing compression and only got 50 pounds where 160 is the norm..

I have trouble accepting that possibility, but I am an ignoramus here, so I guess I'll just have to see for myself.

Thanks for yout help and interest.

Stay tuned... we'll see...



BILL