My Turn @ Pulling the Trigger on a Twin Turbo

Am disappointed to say that I have not taken the car to the track as yet. There is an 8th mile track within 25 miles of me called Redline. But, it has been closed down for the last 2-3 years. So, that left me with the Texas Motorplex in Ennis. It is greater than 50 miles from me. And as you continue reading, the car experienced numerous mechanical and quirky issues that taught me to not trust the car driving any kind of distance for several years. Will say now those issues have been fixed and in the past, thank goodness. Also of late, twice I was about to go to to Ennis with some friends, but the 40 mph crosswinds those days caused me to opt out. Did not want to go 130 mph with 90 degree crosswinds. Recently, another 1/8 mile track has opened up that is not too far of a drive. Xtreme Raceway is about 35 miles away which will be my next choice near the end of October. As for the dyno, the car has been on the dyno more that 20 times over the years due to steadily increasing performance mods and fuel injectors. Years ago with a ProCharger, trailered the car to Alabama for a V-6 Mustang shootout. Came in 2nd due to breaking out under 12.0 in the bracket race finals. A lot of mods subsequently. Finally realized that the ProCharger D-1 sucks up almost 100 hp due to the belt driven blower. Thus, the reason for switching to turbos. Knew a guy in NY that blazed the twin turbo trail, and contacted the guy he used who built that kit. In the end, used 10 gauge stainless steel tubes and elbows because there was NO room to build support brackets for the turbos.

Used a bunch of experts in certain areas for advise along the way. As a side note, the car was built mostly in my garage with occasional trips to muffler shops, the dyno, and I also used a number of welding guys and a professional engine builder. The end product is 400 whp for the street tune using 10 psi of boost. The eboost controller has multiple settings and with the click of a button, the next step up is 500 whp with 15 psi of boost. The highest step up is 620 whp on 21 psi of boost. All three steps use the same tune using 93 octane and 18 degrees max of timing. Will say that there is NO turbo lag with this setup. Just hit the gas and hold on and head in a straight line. One of the last mods was going to 10 1/2 inch rear wheels for more rubber on the ground. Am using the Nitto drag radials which are pretty good on the street, but still loose traction on the street tune. The two steps above that will only work out safely on a preped track.

There are a number of photos showing up along the way. But, Photobucket is now coming back and I have signed up. However still too many missing photos which I have emailed them about, but no fix as yet. Towards the end of the thread, the number of photos increases with regularity.

 

Will say that you will hit the wall (so to speak) in a number of areas as the Ford engineers did not design that car for 600 whp. The returnless fuel system with twin supercar pumps is good for up to 500 whp. The motor will have to be built up with forged internals. I cracked a shot-peened crank from Super 6 Motorsports, and ultimately had to go with a Crower billet crankshaft and rods. The stock rear end will blow up easily before 300 whp and only a built 8.8 will hold up under higher HP numbers. The stock upper intake is a poor design for a blown motor. The 45 degree air entry has a tendency to force air to the outside of the curve and makes the driver's side cylinders more lean then the passenger side. The suspension needs serious stiffening and the automatic transmission needs strengthening as well. I am using 98lb injectors and 3 in-fuel-tank return style fuel pumps. Thus, the need for 1/2" fuel line and 1/2" custom fuel rails. Also went with Cobra front brakes and tubular K-member in front. The rear has a Tri-link suspension. Tuning will be critical and I learned to do that for the bottom 85% of the throttle range. Bottom line, not simple, and not cheap. Plus, will take a number of years and lots of tuning, testing, and data logging. The end result is an OMG fun car to drive ans show off.

I do have lots of photos stored in my computer and can share them if you will send a private message with your email address. IMHO, you will have to choose a section of the car at a time to work on, get it done, test it out, then proceed to the next section.

 

OMG! Fuel line failure! The weather in Dallas has been rainy a lot in August, Sept, and in Oct, 27 inches of rain. But, I did get one nice day and pulled the car out for a drive, maybe 5-10 miles. Heading home, after a stoplight and a little heavier gas pedal, noticed that the fuel pressure began to drop from 40, to 35, to 30, then 20, then the motor died. With a dead motor, pulled into a corner strip mall. Gas fumes were extensive, and I had lost 1/2 fuel tank of gas in about 100 yards. Turned the key off and saw a 4 foot diameter puddle of gas on the ground under the firewall. With everything shut off, now including the fuel pump bypass switch in the glove box, stepped away from the car in case of explosion. Took about 10+ minutes for the fuel vapors and puddle under the car to evaporate. Slid under the passenger side of the car to see if any leaking fuel line was visible. No. Called my neighbor and had him help toe the car home and push into the garage were the car sat for about a month. Finally last week, had 3 days in a row to look for the root cause. Began to realize that the most likely place to start looking was under the hood, with no results. Next up was pulling the passenger front wheel and then the plastic wheel well liner. Nothing visible until turning the key for about 3-4 seconds till fuel pressure began to show on the interior fuel pressure gauge. Turned off the key and took a look in the wheel well. Yep, fuel was leaking from at least 1 location, the splice section on the return hose which was a rubber hose with hand pressed on fittings with clamps. Supposedly, this hose was rated for 300 psi. Also looked like some of my steel braided hose was maybe leaking or dripping from the rubber supply hose. So, the photo shows the original setup. Well, it shows up on editing changes, but not after saving.


Made the decision to redo both the supply fuel line plus the return line. Also decided on steel braided lines for both the supply and return, not wanting a repeat of the poring out of fuel on the ground. So, got some 1/2 inch steel braided fuel line locally along with the necessary connectors, jacked up the car, and pulled the return line from the regulator all the way to the fuel tank. Also decided that a hose connection was a bad idea, particularly so close to the firewall and the hot headers. So, first rerouted the fuel return line, and then cut the supply line under the passenger seat which was beyond where the dripping was visible. After the return line was routed and semi in place, then ran the new supply line from the fuel rail down to the splice location under the passenger seat.

Liked the tidy corner to place the fuel lines so the fender well liner would fit back in with out having to hack it up due to bulges. Small red line is the meth/water injection supply line.

Note the fuel regulator in black and the space away from the header and wastegate, both of which get pretty hot.

Spliced connection under the passenger seat on the supply fuel line.

Test run went fine without any drips or leaks. Some how or another, the cap on the PS oil pump came loose and some small amount of oil oozed out and dripped on the driver's side header, but quickly burned off. This is my first post with photos after Photobucket quasi came back on line.