Author Topic: "palomino", the turbo swap in progress (Read 17060 times)

dholvrsn · « **on:** September 13, 2007, 10:24:56 PM »

The engine swap started yesterday, sort of. Mainly removed the old manifolds and mocked up everything with the turbo manifolds on the old engine, trying to see how everything fits. The passenger side fender-well took a goodly sledge hammering. Here's a before picture. two pictures of the mocking up, and one of a pile of parts removed that aren't going back on the car.

I told a coworker about this. He said "If you improve it too much, then it won't be a Pinto no more. It'll be a Palomino!"

turbowagonman · « **Reply #1 on:** September 13, 2007, 11:12:18 PM »

Let the FUN begin!!! :lol:

turbowagonman

dholvrsn · « **Reply #2 on:** November 01, 2007, 11:27:35 AM »

Got the Saab front intercooler mounted on Wee Beastie, plus the turbo EFI wiring and some of the intercooler plumbing mocked in.

woodie · « **Reply #3 on:** November 19, 2007, 09:15:27 PM »

I,m doimg a turbo swap too how much banging did you do was thinking about makeing my own exaust header to move the turbo forward and up would like to keep it under the hood also the blower motor is on the firewall may have toput it off till spring did get an 8.8 rear froma msutang under it 3.55 posi nice

dholvrsn · « **Reply #4 on:** April 24, 2008, 09:41:31 PM »

Update 4/22-23/2008. Getting back to this project.

Almost final VAM and mock-up of intercooler plumbing.

An under fender view of the mock up plumbing. Rear mount is not near final.

"Rubber baby buggy bumpers" used to mount the FMIC as close to the radiator as possible without rubbing.

Computer bracket with a couple of relays under the dash.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #5 on:** April 24, 2008, 09:45:43 PM »

Auxiliary fuse box mounted.

Inertia switch mounted.

Battery holder for under driver's front fender started.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #6 on:** May 15, 2008, 09:49:32 PM »

While I had everything apart, I replaced the worn-out disks and painted them up like a Riceboy.

Then I finally removed the engine.

Tried to be careful with the transmission. It still managed to leak out a couple of gallons of Type F. Almost the automotive equivalent of the puke gag from Team America. Took a lot of floor dry to sop that up.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #7 on:** May 15, 2008, 09:56:01 PM »

The empty engine bay with two gallons of floor dry underneath sucking up two gallons of Type F.

Found some nasty rust on the front support and did a patch.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #8 on:** May 27, 2008, 02:28:45 PM »

Took a week of anual leave to try to finish up the turbo engine swap by Graffiti Night in Onawa, Iowa. Doesn't look like I'm going to make it. One of those so close and yet so far deals. The guy helping me with the engine couldn't make it out, so I'm trying to button up around that. I'm having serious doubts on whether this is worth the effort.

The engine and underside of hood is all ready to paint.

Detail of heating and modifying the center hood bracket to clear the throttle body bell-crank. Had a chunk of thick sheet metal shielding between the brace and the top of the hood, but it was still nervous going.

The engine compartment all cleaned and masked up and ready to paint. This is sort of a restro from the inside out.

Here's the old Sharpe 775 gun that I inherited. Sort of feel like that novice Chinese carpenter with the expensive wood plane.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #9 on:** May 27, 2008, 02:32:39 PM »

The engine compartment all painted and unmasked, before all that stuff gets reinstalled.

Stopped to smell the roses. Or at least check out the Memorial Day poker run and dance in Soldier, Iowa. Nice sunset to the west. Thunderclouds to the east.

Hope to post more pictures in the next couple of days.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #10 on:** May 29, 2008, 09:29:01 PM »

The engine compartment with the stuff back in it. Also showing what a little chimera Wee Beastie is getting to be.

Passenger's fender well, left to right: VAM with breather (still needing spiffing up, from Merkur), BCS (Merkur), AC relay (Merkur) and BAP (Merkur).

Firewall, L to R: Starter solenoid and mystery device (both original Pinto). Note two wiring harnesses, the original Pinto and the transplanted Merkur. Note hoe the Merkur harness enters the firewall and tees about in the middle. Also a heat shield on the AC manifold and an upgrade to factory power brakes.

Driver's fender well: L to R: EGO solenoid (Merkur), HEI coil (Merkur), voltage regulator (original Pinto), fan relays (Escort, I think), and washer tank (original Pinto and moved back and out slightly to clear the bolt heads of the under fender battery bracket). Removed was original electronic ignition module.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #11 on:** May 29, 2008, 09:34:40 PM »

Fun with aluminum: close up of the aluminum heat shield for the AC manifold.

Also the folded aluminum snorkel that I made for the VAM breather. It come through the front support, right behind the turn signal.

The computer and relays mounted under the dash, waiting for a wiring tidy up.

75bobcatv6 · « **Reply #12 on:** May 29, 2008, 09:35:19 PM »

looks good man, id love to do a turbo setup on my 2.8 =D but i dont think it would fit unless i did an after cat turbo kit

dholvrsn · « **Reply #13 on:** May 29, 2008, 09:47:57 PM »

Fun with torch mechanicing and boat anchor. (It's funny how the two often go together!) The modified transmission mount to go from slushy old C3 to World Class T-5.

The bottom side. 1/8x3/4 strap was used as webbing and filler.

A Taurus fuel filter and a Walbro pump in a Merkur mount, plus Merkur duck bill plumbing (which isn't what it's quacked up to be!) all under the floor boards under the rear driver's side seat, just inboard of the forward spring shackle.

Last minute hassles with the wrong auxiliary shaft bearings and the wrong pan gaskets is going to cause Wee Beastie to miss Graffiti Night. It would have been sooooo nice! At least I have the world's most beautiful Buick to cruise in. Well, there's next year. Hopefully Wee Beastie will be all painted and some of the grubbier stuff in these photos will get spiffed up.

CHEAPRACER · « **Reply #14 on:** May 29, 2008, 11:34:07 PM »

Pay special attention to mounting that old pan to the later block, if you don't glue the end pieces real good, they'll push out from lack of clearance. After that happened to me, I just used the rail gaskets and used black RTV silicone for the ends around the seals.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #15 on:** June 08, 2008, 10:09:00 PM »

This project had hit a lull and sort of a strategic retreat as some internal engine parts didn't fit. I recross referenced numbers to find that the engine is from a '85 Merkur XR4Ti and not an '87 like I thought that it was.

Wee Beastie is also in the awkward stage where I'm really tired of it sucking up too much of my spare time and money and intruding on Summer and I'm just forcing the engine swap part to get done just to get it out of my hair. Please, turbo Pinto project, please run and be worth all the effort when I get you together.

A couple of pictures that I forgot to take and post last time and a couple of new ones.

The finished and painted battery tray mounted under the fender.

The underside of the hood repainted.

Three in a long parade of parts that get spray painted in my garage.

The rear louver set that I got for $50.00 when many are going for $300-400 on eBay. I'm using T-nuts and countersunk screws to patch on new hinges.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #16 on:** June 12, 2008, 09:48:40 PM »

Another two days off and another two days of too much quality time with the attempted turbo-Pinto. Got bit by a couple more off-spec auxiliary shaft bearings. Did bolt the windage tray down and sat the pan on top as a place holder.

Had a rainbow after a thunder-boomer to lighten up the mood.

Did mount the electric fan on the radiator and did a lot of not-so-photogenic stuff like tidy up the under dash wiring and the fuel plumbing.

Here's the fan and radiator with a desk full of stuff waiting for that motor to get put together and dropped in.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #17 on:** June 12, 2008, 09:58:37 PM »

Here are more parts waiting for the stupid silly bearing problems to end. Ended up running to a machinist to confirm the opinion that the problem was the bearings and not the engine and shaft.

Here are the rear louvers temporarily mounted.

Plus, I caught the Moore Brothers (they rent the family farm) running their Hotsie on a combine and got them to clean off the junk Detroit blower ("it don't go roundy round no more") that I'm going to make into a Hot Rod foot stool.

The Pinto project sort of sagged Wednesday afternoon because I caught a virus and the weather was going bonkers just south of the farm with a lot of gully washers, plus tornados in Moorhead, Little Sioux, and Omaha.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #18 on:** June 22, 2008, 10:49:52 PM »

Finally got the engine mostly together for Wee beastie. Ended up really honing those pesky bearings down to get the auxiliary shaft to fit right. I'm wondering if that block had the holes for those machined just a little bit too small. I'm going to start dropping the engine in the porthole Pinto on my next day off.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #19 on:** July 14, 2008, 06:28:41 PM »

Kind of had a lull in this project.

Got a bunch of more stuff bolted to the engine and the Pinto up on stands ready to take the motor. I even got new clean cardboard to lay down on.

DGH

77CrzgWgn · « **Reply #20 on:** July 23, 2008, 12:13:45 PM »

Wow, making me think really hard about my possible TC swap. Very helpful info. Hope you haven't given up yet. Keep posting stuff.

Thanks!

dholvrsn · « **Reply #21 on:** July 23, 2008, 08:54:06 PM »

I haven't given up (yet). I just got a little burned out and needed to give it a rest to recuperate.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #22 on:** August 14, 2008, 07:18:18 PM »

Made an attempt to drop the engine into Wee Beastie, but business got into the way of my pleasure so I just ended up bolting more stuff on the motor. Me thinks my little 2.3 went from looking cool to looking cluttered. Will try to drop it in on my next two days off.

Ironman · « **Reply #23 on:** August 14, 2008, 10:38:16 PM »

Lookin good!

She'll be going anyday from the looks of it.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #24 on:** August 19, 2008, 04:05:36 PM »

Well, I got the engine in and sitting on its mounts and the flywheel and bell housing bolted on. Will try to wrestle the transmission in before supper.

Photos later.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #25 on:** August 20, 2008, 07:20:03 PM »

Got really back into the black comedy of making a white "Pinto SVO".

I started with bolting even more stuff to the engine.

I bent a special tube to reroute the turbo to the block water line. The nipple on the turbo is turned 180° upward from the factory. Also note that the oxygen sensor hole had been plugged and a new hole was drilled and tapped into the side. I'm doing this to get it out of the way of the air conditioning manifold and possibly be the first person to do a turbo Pinto with factory style AC.

Finally, got the engine on the hoist and installed the flywheel.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #26 on:** August 20, 2008, 07:28:49 PM »

Then the clutch pack gets torqued on.

The engine gets lowered halfway in. Progress halts while the serpentine power steering pump and bracket gets removed because it looks like it isn't going to fit. The engine is then lowered all the way in down to the mounts. Then lifted out because I forgot to put in that plate that goes between the block and the bell-housing. The engine is lowered back into the mounts.

The power-steering items turned out to fit after everything was lined up.

Then a whole lot of buttoning up started. If I had to do this again. I'd drop the engine in without the manifolds to make it easier to get to the stuff underneath.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #27 on:** August 20, 2008, 07:36:05 PM »

This is where the progress stopped today with the engine half way buttoned in. It seems as this goes along my poor engine looks less awesome and more cluttered. Despite having the spiffed up valve cover screwed down. Maybe things will improve when I get far enough along to start cleaning up the wiring harnesses.

BTW, the accordion hose between the VAM and the turbo was shortened about 3/4 of an inch on both ends.

Next time, I hope to borrow the transmission jack from a guy that use to work for my Grandpa's Allis Chalmers dealership back when Grandpa and Allis Chalmers were still around and get that World Class T5 bolted up there.

dholvrsn · « **Reply #28 on:** August 20, 2008, 07:49:12 PM »

PS: Well Pinto blocks are blue. Violets are too. At least by cheating poets. I think that turbo 2.3 blocks are supposed to be black, but I painted mine blue to go in the Pinto. :afro:

dholvrsn · « **Reply #29 on:** August 26, 2008, 08:09:02 PM »

I could about choke my Pinto tonight! I borrow a transmission jack, spend a hour getting the T-5 transmission shimmied in, and get a bolt or two snugged up. Then I start buttoning up the clutch and find out that there's no way to adjust it to disengage. The lever hits the front of the opening before that happens. So I drop everything back out to look at it. I'm scratching my head over this. My two best guesses are either I have the wrong throw-out bearing or the throw-out lever is bent. Any advice from the "Pinto Pros"?

News:

Current Classifieds

Author Topic: "palomino", the turbo swap in progress (Read 17060 times)

75bobcatv6