my LeMons car

[JKav]

After four LeMons races, my previous LeMons car (a first-gen CRX) was beyond repair, so we sent it out to pasture (click this linky poo for more info):



The new whip is a 1st gen Miata that had a massive front end wreck and came with a bunch of clapped-out parts, none of which were bolted to it. It came with an autotragic transmission and a 1.6 with burned valves and trashed crank. But it all was free. And in LeMons, that makes all the difference.

Then I found a free motor on m.net with a spun bearing, another bad crank and no pistons or rods. But its valves were less bad than the ones in the other motor, so once we found a free 300,000-mile crank and bought a headgasket, we had enough parts to do a half-assed refresh of the motor.

I picked up a crashed blue car (for $200) to help make one car out of two, and for the odds and ends we needed (gearbox, a manual PPF, steering shaft, clutch hydraulics etc). We sold off enough other stuff to pay off its $200 purchase price, and then some.

We caged the white car and sawzalled the (crashed) front of it off. Next, we will cut the front off of the blue car and weld it onto the white car to give it some crush space and a place to mount the swaybar.

Safety items don't count towards the total, so all told we have spent less than $100 to do everything.

Now we have about $400 left to play with to stay under the $500 LeMons-imposed budget cap. I picked up a hideously rusted tiny Mitsu TD04 turbo (free!) and cleaned it up so it spins freely and am thinking we can turbocharge this bitch.

Think it's possible to do it with the budget we have left over? Give me your thoughts.

[Stealth97]

WTF happened to the crank?

GO for it man.

[Atlanta93LE]

Pic 3 looks nice. Wish she'd turn around though

[jsisco]

Cut the flange off the stock manifold. Buy two 90* elbows and two tees at Home Depot, full on pipe fittings instead of weld els. Like this:



Get 2 flanges for the turbo from Weirtech here on the forum. Or find the flanges at a junk yard and cut them off.

Weld a log manifold together, and you get bonus points for flux-core. Build a down pipe with the other flange.

Find a cheap afpr and msd timing box. I bet your can find a MSD cheap, because everyone wants a bipes.

Either junkyard intercooler or run 6 psi without intercooler.

I don't know on all the bends you would need. You would sacrifice a lot of performance, but if you were going super cheap you could get them crush bent at an exhaust shop. Or maybe pick up stray mandrel bends in different forum classifieds. Or for the downpipe go straight up out the hood like some dri fter did. I don't know if I would go that far though.

It would be pretty HMT but cheap. Ghetto doesn't seem to be an issue in the LeMons.

[samnavy]

$400... hmmm.... hmmm...

Well, since you're not gonna care how it looks and it only has to last the length of the race... hmmm...

To keep costs at a minimum, the only thing you'll be able to do for fuel is a Vortech FMU... anything adjustable will be too much. The stock fuel pump and injectors will be sufficient for 5psi.

You'll need to pull base timing back to about 8* depending the gas available. If you can run 93+, 8*... if you're limited to 92 or lower, then probably pull base timing back to 6*. Due to this being for track use, you'll definitely need an intercooler. I can't imagine the IAT's you'd eventually reach on the track non-intercooled. The good thing is that used OEM IC's in junkyards are almost free.

If the rules don't specify an exhaust, then you can fab a simple dump system for nothing but the cost of a flange and stock.

The real "expense" will be the manifold. You're probably not going to find a used manifold to fit that turbo. Fabbing up your own is probably the only option. If you can weld, it's just the cost of raw stock.

Conventional wisdom says 5psi doesn't require a BOV... but no idea here how that applies to track use. Several thousand full-power shifts even at 5psi will eventually take it's toll on the turbo's rotating assembly.

Is it do-able... I think it's gonna depend on how much the raw stock for your manifold and DP ends up being. The IC/piping/couplers/FMU can probably be done for about $100 depending on how robust your local junkyards are.

[bryantaylor]

is that an escort GT in the pic showing the roll cage?

[jsisco]

Something along these lines for the manifold...



Here is a thread over at HMT where I found it...
http://www.homemadeturbo.com/forum/i...?topic=87104.0

[Joe Perez]

Needs more pictures of the person to the left of the engine hoist. (or ban.)

[Savington]

Originally Posted by jsisco

Something along these lines for the manifold...



Here is a thread over at HMT where I found it...
http://www.homemadeturbo.com/forum/i...?topic=87104.0

That is an entirely new level of ghetto. I love it.

[bryantaylor]

homemadeturbo.com is awesome! ghettocharged FTW!

[JKav]

That Home Depot manifold freakin rocks. I might look into that, though schedule 40 weld els are dirt cheap and we have some welding skills. Overall, the manifold is not a big obstacle, cost-wise. It will consume a lot of time and effort though so I've been keeping an eye out for a used ebay 1.6 cast turbo log manifold.

Our turbo has a built-in BOV. It's from a Mexican Dodge Stratus and has a T3 turbine inlet flange with a T25 port in it. It's bizarre.

I've also been keeping an eye out for used universal piggybacks on the cheap (big injectors are a couple bucks each at a pickapart). I figure that will be cheaper than FMU + MSD, but we'll see. I'm hesitant to go too crazy with the global spark retard approach since that will hurt fuel efficiency (and raise EGT). Fuel stops FTL in an endurance race.

If you guys spot deals that look promising, please let me know.

[eyesoreracing]

Originally Posted by Joe Perez

Needs more pictures of the person to the left of the engine hoist. (or ban.)

Ok, here are some pics of her from the front:





-Dave

[Savington]

LOL, more photos of the flipped car please

[curly]

your sacasim and humor are not appreciated. you knew we meant naked front pics. don't think that this is the end of our begging. because its not.

[patsmx5]

IIRC, Lazzer on this forum tried to see how cheap he could turbo a miata. I think it came in around $250 dollars. Look up some of his old threads for inspiration on how to turbo a car for nothing. He's the king of cheap.

[Arkmage]

I think ms1 2.2 can be had for like $135 now if you can assemble it yourself. that's far cheaper than the band aids...

http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/m...6fbd3545ec7aa2

DIY might be able to discount you a bit for putting a sticker on the car? If the rules allow that.

[KPLAFIN]

Originally Posted by Arkmage

I think ms1 2.2 can be had for like $135 now if you can assemble it yourself. that's far cheaper than the band aids...

http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/m...6fbd3545ec7aa2

DIY might be able to discount you a bit for putting a sticker on the car? If the rules allow that.

I don't know anything about the rules, but if he goes that route he MAY have to budget in things like a laptop into his price..may be wrong though.

[y8s]

Originally Posted by KPLAFIN

I don't know anything about the rules, but if he goes that route he MAY have to budget in things like a laptop into his price..may be wrong though.

i doubt that or everyone would be responsible for ANY tool used to build the car. right?

[samnavy]

I hadn't even thought about MS... in parallel to keep the mod cost down... don't even need the MAF delete or EBC which will help with those last few dollars. Since you're looking at low'ish boost, some junkyard Toyota 305's would be sufficient. A wideband would probably be out of the budget... don't know what some of the DIY widebands go for... but you could probably borrow one for tuning, then remove it and run narrowband during the race.

I'm still debating on whether an intercooler is necessary... any idea how much boost you want to run? To make things simple, I'd keep it down in the 5-6psi range. If you go with MS, and have full control over spark and can run 93+octane, you shouldn't need it. If you want to run more than that... say 8psi+, you'll need an intercooler... then mileage starts to become a factor, and cost, and...

You can always find some junk PVC piping nad ghetto-fab an intercooler like that dork on the SRT4 forums.

What kind of fuel can you run?

[Atlanta93LE]

LeMons is close enough to racing that I'd try my darndest to run an intercooler, even just a small one. It'd be real cheap to snatch some small junkyard IC and use junkyard truck rad hoses for piping.