Seemed like a good idea on paper....

Well, I guess its update time!

When we last left off, the car was in a mess of removed parts and mild fabrication work needed. So I did some mild changes.

Had both valve covers removed, inspected the heads, noticed the drivers side is much dirtier than the passenger side, came to the decision that the PVC valve may be clogged / not working effectively. What better time than to delete it? Plugged the hole on the upper plenum and routed some hosing over to the catch can instead. Downside now i need to modify the catch can to have a vent added to it. Should be easy enough, it was a cheap eBay purchase so I'm okay with a little modification.

Speaking of modification, I needed to make a bit more space for the air filter...

There, that should suffice I hope! Plan is to angle the air filter into this pocket of the bumper / battery box area to give space for the intercooler piping. Should still get ample air fed to it from the giant hole in the bumper from were the factory fog light was.

Also I plan to degrease and thoroughly clean the bottom tray area. This was from gravel roads and having a leaking oil dipstick tube.

But what of the removed valve covers?? Surely they were cleaned up before re-installation, right? Right??

But of course ;)

With a little help to make the rest of the bay look absolutely terrible!!

I think they look really really good! Very eye catching, but...

Pretty much hidden when the upper plenum is replaced... May need to do something about that in the future ;)

I do have a fair amount of wiring work to do this winter yet (extending some wires, removing a few other dead connections, relocating some sensors) and general cleaning to do as well to make the rest of the bay look respectable as a street car, while also being functional for some track days. I do hope to make it to Castrol raceway in Edmonton at least once this year and possibly looking to make it to the Carlisle Chrysler Nationals in July as well as attending some of the driver training more locally.

Thanks for tuning in!! Comments and ideas welcome as always!

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What is up everyone? Its been awhile, that's for sure. I got the car back into one piece and fought a few little issues. First my power steering pump suffered an internal failure, the shaft could actually be pulled completely out of the pump, so I replaced that, and now I can steer again.

Following that with what I thought was a major engine failure. She started burning an excessive amount of oil (more than she ever had, more than most turbo cars do) and the exhaust was really white as well so I first thought head gaskets, but oil was staying golden brown and coolant was remaining topped up. Our next idea was O.E.S (old engine syndrome) and possibly needing valve stem seals. So I was pricing out a few sets of those when I happened across the local to me yard had a Colorado like my winter beater and I needed a few parts from it so I made a road trip and met up with a few friends while I was in the area. Car was running great and buddy mentioned I was barely burning any oil so I had an 'Oh no' moment thinking maybe I had to oil to burn. Pop the hood to check oil and the catch can I had installed was actually catching oil but due to the proximity of the turbo it was boiling the oil / condensation mixture and forcing it out the breather... which was directly over the air filter... So I have since removed my catch can and routed breathers to the other side of the engine bay.

Other than that, I have put a few miles on the car, enjoying the drive. I need to focus on a few little things for the suspension like end links are starting to rattle and really need to think about replacing the brake pads soon.

I made an 'open' foglight which seems to be helping with, maybe a placebo effect

Directly behind the fog light assembly is the air filter, and the car seems to be a lot happier not fighting to get air.

I guess that is all for now really. I have been slacking at taking pictures while fixing things so I really hope / plan to start taking more pictures.

Thanks again for checking in!

Great fun reading through your thread this morning. Glad to see that the project is still going.

My mom has a loaded 2000 Intrepid R/T that she bought new. I learned to drive on that car and always thought it would be cool to hop it up.

She still has it. I should go bolt a turbo on it.

Good work. I wonder if a small z31 300ZX turbo scoop on the hood would fit on the left side of that crease.

Also your current hotpipe reminds me of the non-intercooled "hot air" turbo 3.8 Buicks pre 1986. They had very little room coming out of the compressor to the throttle bottle and can be a pain to intercool. If it were me, I'd ditch the idea of intercooling it and run a very small shot of methanol. That would work without reinventing what you've already done.

In reply to floatingdoc:

Thank you! Its been a bit of a process and I tend to attempt to over engineer things, get hung up on it for days on end to stumble into a much easier approach lol!

In reply to Sky_Render:

They are a lot of fun with a bit of boost, I'm still utilising the factory manifolds and with my wastegate closed this thing spools ridiculously quick! Which is a good sign this turbo maybe a bit small for this engine but it still hauls! Still no tune beyond the OEM electronics for a 3.2 right now so a few check valves before the MAP sensor and she runs alright.

In reply to crankwalk:

The other day I had closed my wastegate when it was hot outside and she pulls hard. Like really hard. See video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/iux4seQE4zc

(skip to about the 2 minute mark for exhaust noises)

Kept the wastegate closed, and the next day it was about 7*C outside and I couldn't go beyond 1/2 throttle max, car just didn't want to play nice. Air was too cold and too dense and the MAP sensor was going full freak out, so for the time being I am holding off on cooling the air until I can get the stand alone so I can keep her running 100%

The hole in the hood is mostly for the heat from the turbo to escape out of the engine bay. Its crude but this hood is rusting in the seam really really bad and its bubbling to the top side. I plan to get another hood to do some inward louvers to help extract heat and I need to make the center section taller so I can clear the engine better.

Dyno hopefully this weekend, but I have Inventory at job 1 so I really hope I can make it and maybe put down 136hp at the wheels lol. Factory stock these engines (in 300M's) put 135hp to the wheels. So being 340,000kms and a turbo on it I just want to be more than 135hp lol

Thank you for the kind words, I hope to keep everyone posted better!!

I saw you were mentioning keeping your wastegate closed. If you are running the vacuum line right off the wastegate, consider adding just a cheap manual boost controller just to have boost build quicker even if you keep it at the same boost level. Relying just on the wastegate spring itself can make boost build very lazily.

crankwalk wrote: I saw you were mentioning keeping your wastegate closed. If you are running the vacuum line right off the wastegate, consider adding just a cheap manual boost controller just to have boost build quicker even if you keep it at the same boost level. Relying just on the wastegate spring itself can make boost build very lazily.

Initially, I had purchased a manual boost controller which was the stem of a lot of driveability issues as it's lowest setting was still well over 10psi (we think something internally just jams it it wont adjust any lower) which the MAP sensor would go full freak out mode and trying to drive the car was next to impossible.

Because of the size of the turbo (smaller side) and the size of the engine (larger side for this turbo), even with the wastegate partially open its still out of vacuum by 2000rpm (while driving and from a stop) and starts to build boost at a similar rate to a 'factory' setup in most stock turbo cars I have ridden in. With the wastegate closed its starts building faster in low rpm but my map sensor is not a fan of it unless the ambient air outside is very warm so it starts cutting the fuel and the car bogs and I cant drive beyond 1/4 throttle.

In other news I had it on the dyno yesterday and I am putting down 142.3hp at 4600rpm and 171.3ft-lbs @ 4200rpm which I am okay with. Its still running OEM electronics and no tune and the engine is 18 years old with 350,000kms (219,000 miles) on the internals, so there is a lot of room for improvement. But at least now when we do the switch over to the stand alone we at least have the baseline number for comparison purposes.

I plan to change my oil later and I am going to switch over to a different brand oil. I am having a slight oil issue with this current brand now so I am going to try changing it to see if I can rectify it or if I need to add an auxiliary oil pump from the turbo to a cooler and back to the engine maybe (which I am still considering regardless, just depends on the location on the list)

Other than that, I plan to wash and detail the car, will be displaying for the drag racing club I am apart of next weekend so I want to get it cleaned up inside and out in advance to have less cleaning later.

So, been awhile. Had it at the drags. I managed to bring it down to a 10.51 in the 1/8 by short shifting first gear.

Also recently had the oil feed line had been rubbing against the body of the car so I made a new line and I guess when I installed the new line I must have poked the existing (OEM oil cooler feed line) and it started seeping. So I had to replace that. So now the car is back to being in one piece and running and holding oil. I just need to wire in the rest of the oil pressure gauge now.

I will link the video of the line repair when its up!

Here is said video of the repair. Took a lot longer because I really goofed up.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/0gmtibhEhLQ

In other news, two of the expensive pieces for the Holley Dominator ECM arrived. The ECM itself and the Wideband sensor. Still need the Main harness, injector harness, ignition harness, boost controller (that works with the ECM), map sensor and IAT sensor and probably more things yet as well.

Also the other day my window regulator REALLY messed up on the drivers door so I replaced the door. I was at the yard and found a rust free door and the yard charges $50 for a whole door. The downside, the few days between my discovery of the door and my regulator goofing up some kids had been through the yard smashing mirrors off of dodges so while the door is rust free it has a dent under the glass and some damage by the mirror housing. I did find a key (thank you command starts) for the car so I grabbed the trunk and the passenger side door while I was there.

Thanks for tuning in!

So its been a few weeks. I have been mostly working on maintenance stuff. I had a coolant tee melt and split, so I replaced it with another plastic one until I had a chance to make a brass one up. I have the brass pieces assembled now, I just need to rip apart half my engine bay to reach them.

Other than that, I replaced the front sway bar links, passenger side CV shaft and dropped my trans pan for a fresh filter and fluid.

Budget wise, I'd think I am horribly over budget if I ever imposed one. Being a bit of an unconventional build and taking what worked for completely different vehicles to make this work has been fun and a huge learning experience, but it is not a budget friendly endeavour mostly because I have bought a bunch of stuff I haven't actually been able to use.

I guess I am trying to justify the reason why I spent more than challenge budget on a stand alone for this car, and I still need to purchase harnesses and such yet...

BUT, I do enjoy driving the car and with what I have learnt I do plan to apply to future projects, and I am fairly certain my F body will be much more budget friendly as I mostly want to get it running / rolling safely then do a few tweaks to the low mileage 305 in it

Thanks for stopping in guys!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/bINqppjDrT0

Some track day footage of the car in action!

I've always kinda liked the way these cars looked, especially when they first came out during my childhood. Interesting to see you actually doing something cool with it. It takes a special kind of crazy to look at a malaise-era Chrysler product and think "yeah, I'm gonna race that." And I mean that in the best way possible, because we're all crazy here ;)

It really is one of those cars that on paper it seemed like a good idea at the time. It's most obvious flaw is mostly that there is zero support for doing what I am doing (except here, this community is awesome) LH's are 95% of the time 'built' to be parked at the car show, the remaining 5% see some track use, usually in the form of enduro / last man standing type racing.

I've hit a cross roads with the car. I either keep it a street driven daily that I take racing

OR

crank it to 11 and become a race car I could drive to work during the week. I know of a few locals who do course racing so I could start with running with them when they go. Need a trailer first, and to fix my truck...

I think I know what way I want to go.

I made a mistake.

I drove out to watch some racing at Gimli. It was a lot of fun watching and talking with the racers. I have decided I want to put my Intrepid into Time Attack. It looks like a lot of fun just watching. I can't wait.

This just means this winter will have a lot of spare time spent in the garage getting things 'ready' as I can being a complete novice to actual competitive racing. I know I need to do brake pads, possibly new rotors, new brake fluid for sure, also sourcing new wheels for track use as well as tires for track use. And I am still needing to wire in the stand alone and I wanted to paint my car this winter as well.

I will put track purpose stuff at a forefront of importance, right behind the stand alone since I have been stockpiling those parts already.  

So, I need to spend hours uploading to flickr very very soon, lots of things to update.

Stand alone is 'slowly' coming together, down to a few sensors to get and a bunch of harnesses. I have been pulling the car apart to prepare it for paint and body work, I still need to pull more of the interior pieces out and have been needing to remove gopro mounts as well from the body. Hopefully shed a pound or 2 off with the removal of the antennae and cable from the car, still dreaming of bringing the overall weight down somehow,  magically.

Boss wants to have my car painted before Christmas, so I really need to get my rear in gear here soon and arrange for a trailer to get it to the shop. Paint has been strongly researched and it will be motor-sports color and I spent a lot of time tracking down the right paint code.

As for actual track time, I was strongly wanting to get heavily into time attack racing BUT the idea of going back to school is starting to creep into my head. I really want to do something 'more' than working for someone else so I have been debating taking the Drafting course to lead into a Mechanical Engineering, so the racing may drop back to open track days when I can make it. 

Soon I should have an update with pictures of a torn apart car!

Photo Dump

Glad for the continued updates. A comment on going back to school: never miss a chance to get an education.  

I did a career change at age 31, spent the next ten years in school, so I know what that means. 

Thank you. The decision is mostly stemming from a few reasons, mostly having just turned 33 and a desire for more from my life.

I love cars and racing, and want to do more with both, and aerodynamic design has fascinated me although I know very little right now. So maybe combining what I am passionate about and what intrigues me it wont be so difficult? 

Funds were organized and I went on an ordering spree of parts.

Purchased all of the paint related stuff, Paint, primer, clearcoat, reducer and activator. Also put a bunch of standalone pieces on order as well, harnesses, MAP, Boost controller, and injectors .

BUT injectors didn't show up, instead a 'Turbo Back, 4 inch single exhaust with 5 inch tip' exhaust arrived. It fits an 01 - 07 Duramax. The injector set part number sticker some how ended up on the end of the box and whoever picked it didn't seem to notice that something wasn't right.

Not entirely certain how those 2 items got mixed up...

Waiting to hear back from the company IF they still have my injectors in stock, now its a waiting game.

Car is at the shop, I have begun the sanding process. Tonight I will be removing more of the weather stripping. Its actually going to be all one colour! (mostly) I am excited. After this car I want to have simpler automotive projects... but I don't think those happen really.

Photo dump
 

The air filter will be changing. This is just what I had been using. Factory SRT4 filter

Holley stuff

And that's mostly up to date.  Started cleaning the driver side door jams as well. Still a lot to do.

New air filter!!

Also been doing a lot of sanding getting ready for paint. And I think the vents will make the car

Still need to properly mount and finish the intercooler. And this thing called paint has to happen yet. Hopefully be done ahead of the late winter rush for spring. 

Don't know if I missed it, but how are you dealing with timing changes? You will probably want to retard timing compared to the stock N/A tune, especially without an intercooler.

Full and complete stand alone. I *finally* have everything I need for the Holley Dominator set up and it will allow me to adjust everything to get the best potential out of this engine. Boost control, timing, injectors, everything will be controlled by the Dominator. 

Puts the car outside of challenge budget for... well, I don't think it would ever be eligible to race at the challenge outside of exhibition now!!