1. Home 11. April 25th
2. Motor Installation 12. May 2nd
3. Painting the Interior 13. June 2nd
4. Rewiring the Gauges 14. July 10th
5. Test Drive! 15. Aug 5th (almost done!)
6. Intercooler Fabrication 16. October 2nd
7. June 18th 17. November 4th
8. June 23rd 18. January 1st
9. January 26th 19. February 15th
10. February 6th 20. Junk Page

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Well, It's another month! Sorry I skipped out on updating my site for a month.

You'll be very supprised when you get to the bottom.... hehe
Here are the latest pictures of my junkyard FourBanger project. As you can see, I've finally put the new glass hood on! It fits great, but I'm a little worried about not having hood pins. I'm gona put some dzus fasteners on instead though. Should give it a nice flush look. What a great day to take some pics. By the way, the car is real dirty in these pics. South Florida has been on water restriction for a while now. And that means, if you wash your car, you can be fined! But I had to get some kind of image for this month's update.

 
 
 
 

In the picture below I tried to get a shot of my intercooler. You can really see how shiney the end tanks are. I do believe that I'm in need of new highbeam head lights. LOL They're half full of water.
Nice hood huh? It is the perfect size in my books.


 
 
 


 

Here's a decent shot of the rear and my new tires. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that I got a new steering wheel last month! It's a Grant GT. I love it!
You can also see my 2 1/2" exaust pipe in this shot. I've been thinking about getting a 3" down pipe (the exaust pipe that connects to the turbo). I've heard nothing but great things from everyone who has put one on their car. I know my exaust is restricting HP. When I first built this car, there was NO exaust on. When I put the exaust system on, I felt it slow down. :( But I needed exaust badly.
Right now, the car has a 2 1/2" down-pipe and a 3" Terminator muffler. I have plans to upgrade to the 3" down-pipe and right before the muffler, I'm going to add a dump tube that can be open or closed manualy.


 
 
 
 
 

The next pictures are of my lower intake manifold. I have done a process called "Knife Edging". This is what I started with, a stock '87 Merkur lower intake. Then I took a grinder with an aluminum bit and went to work. The object was to increase airflow and decrease turbulence at the transition.

This is how it looks now! If you remember, I gutted the upper intake. So instead of the air comming through the gutted upper and then slamming into a "wall with four holes in it", I knife edged the lower. It was very easy and I believe that it is definetly worth it. There was no loss of torque. In fact, I think the torque increased. There is still a little more I can do on it though, but I'll save that for a later date.


 
 
 
 
 

Well, get ready, cause if you thought I lost my mind with the tripple Volvo intercooler, Your gona think I'm very disturbed now. hehe In this pic, I was trying to hold the camera and take a picture while at full throttle in second gear! This is my boost gauge. It hates me now. That's right, It's bottomed out. I was playing with the wastegate reference line again. I used a simple brass T fitting with no restrictor. Bam! the engine gets full boost at 2800 rpm! I guess those little modifications I made to the inlet did some good.
The car pulls incredible! When the boost comes on, it's very violent. The nose comes up and the rear squats so hard! It has awesome acceleration. The timing had to be turned down to 15 degrees (which is still high for a turbo car). I love the new intercooler!

I am VERY impressed with this little motor. I still can't believe that this junkyard motor runs this good. I have been trying to get some action shots (burnouts ect..) of FourBanger. I will definetly post them next time. I'm waiting for that perfect shot. :)

Thanks to all who have written me! I have received some great letters. You'd be supprised at how much a turbo 2.3 means to some. I have received letters from fathers, sons and daughters who have been brought closer together just by sharing some time with each other while working on a project like this.
Here's a little tip for ya.
Don't EVER let someone tell you, "It can't be done" or "That won't work". As you can see from my junkyard science,

Anything is Possible!

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