The Shart - Adventures in turbocharging with a 1964 Dodge Dart

The cold side was relatively straight forward. Couple bends, a flange to mount to the original intake manifold, and a silicone coupler to link it all up. I got a piece of 1/4" plate from one of the local steel places and was intending on drilling it out and then using my little grinder to shape it. Well my drill bits suck and drilling through this thing would have taken aeons. Luckily I know cool people who also have cool tools, and a friend of mine randomly stopped over, saw what I was doing, and mentioned he had a plasma cutter in his garage. Twenty minutes later we had cut out the flange and were back at my place. Thanks again Aaron because I would have been out there forever melting drill bits on that 1/4" plate.

This plate acted as the base from which to build the piping to- and here's a couple pictures of the butchery I call the 'finished product'.

At this point photobucket is promising to give my computer herpes among a slew of other STI's so I'm logging off to watch Roadkill. More to come!

This is probably the simples hot and cold side I've ever seen on a turbo setup.

I believe the 405(street outlaws...chief, daddy dave, farm truck)will be quaking in their tenners when they take a gander at that front fendr dump.... love it!!!

I had a turbo 225 in a step side d150 that my dad and I put together in middle school. It was all junkyard parts and made fun sounds and would turn over the 11" mickeys I had on for looks. I replaced it with a 383 and then stepped back to a police car 318 but always wanted to do another turbo slant. I killed it by shifting from OD to 3 to pass a car at 75mph.

I'll be watching this!

Thanks for the kind words! Here's another small photo that represents something far more involved- Converting the car to cable throttle & trans linkage. I made this simple little bracket to stop the cables at the carb, and had to adapt a throttle pedal from an 86 f150 to work with my firewall. Adapt is a broad term- I basically cut and changed everything on it, but it gave me a starting point. I could have bought a cheap eBay pedal but I hate how they look; primarily because they're on every street rod around. So I cut some junk apart and made my own, which actually works with the stock Dart pedal. That much I'm happy about. Getting WOT was a bit of a challenge because everything was guess and check but I got there. I also built a cable stop to hold the throttle cable onto the carb, which was a whole bunch of ugly, but it works great.

And just for fun, here's an assembled and plumbed shot. Completed with battery ratchet strapped to the inner fender.

The funny thing about this picture is that shortly after it was taken the car ran for the first time with a turbo- somewhat accidentally. I had everything hooked up and 'ready' to run but I anticipated having to fiddle with the timing, or chase a leak, or something as usual. Well as I was cranking the car to build oil pressure and check for leaks... it popped right off. It ran for a second and I laughed hysterically. Like maniacally. I think I texted my fiance right away and said "holy berkeleying E36 M3 the Dart berkeleying runs" or something along those lines. There's no reason it shouldn't have, but the whole thing was so foreign to me, and the draw through deal was definitely odd, that it firing right up was awesome. I had invited a buddy over to come fiddle and help me, and it turns out I just brought him over to hear it run. Which was a good feeling. There was still plenty of work to do but it was excellent to hear it run.

Gunchsta....finally put my head around the exh to turbo python...well done. loud enough for 5.0's to want to runya' ? if nothing else make them come correct off the line(jump 'em) and then sit back and enjoy

I'm enjoying the weirdness and creativity of this build. Congrats on the first fire. Don't forget to add a dual throttle return spring when you're taking care of details.

In reply to 759NRNG:

Haha Thanks- it's actually unbelievably quiet. And -spoiler alert- on low boost this thing is still pretty slow.

In reply to APEowner:

Thanks- It's been fun to piece together, definitely fun to drag to car events, it's pretty wacky. I definitely didn't forget the dual throttle return springs, but thanks for the heads up. Part of the cable linkage from the F150 I got the pedal out of actually ended up making me a really nice throttle return spring bracket, which I attached two new springs to.

OMG, this thing is awesome.

Here's a little video I made of one of the first starts. What was a bummer (but I'm glad of it) was that at this time I didn't have much of anything hooked up so I couldn't just take it out for a rip. I'm glad because I didn't have any timing pulled yet and I didn't have my wideband hooked up, so I could have easily burnt it down if I just went out and blindly ripped on it.

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

What I was incredibly surprised by was the fact that despite all the wacky plumbing and enormous carb the thing seemed to run and idle and respond really nice. Throttle response was crisp and it would warm up and come down to idle real nice.

Next on the list before being able to drive it was to mount the battery in the trunk, install a bung in the downpipe & wire the wideband, and install the boost/afr gauges. I also needed to put my FBO limiting plate in the distributor to lock out the mechanical advance. The gas pedal/throttle cable as outlined earlier was also not done yet so I had to do that. I made a smart decision and took the drivers seat out to have better access to under the dash & the firewall. Again, this prevented me from REALLY cobbling something together (like a throttle cable that I just pulled... I would have done it) to take the thing for a drive. I wanted to have at least a few things set up before the first drive, even though the car technically ran at this point, and it drove before so it should have driven again just fine.

In the spirit of cheapness/sticking with the "challenge theme" I chose to go to a junkyard to try and find a battery cable to mount the battery in the trunk. What I came home with was virtually perfect and came from a 2002 or so Buick Park Ave or some other such big GM front wheel drive sedan. I think the cable ended up being 15' or so and had nice ends crimped onto it as well as a couple grommets I was able to re use. The best part is that I bought some other stuff at the yard that day and they just threw the cable into the deal. $0 versus like $60 if bought from summit. Score!

Here's what I came up with for a rear battery mount. It is really secure, but unfortunately leaves me no room to add a sealed battery box. Which means I'll have to rig up a firewall at some point behind the rear seat, and put some kind of kill switch on the bumper or elsewhere if I ever want to take this thing to the track. Not a huge deal but this is a place I could have tolerated spending a little extra money for track legality.

With the battery mounted securely I could wire gauges since I had a dedicated power source back in the car (previously it was ratchet strapped to the inner fender, and I always removed it when I left the garage). I chose to mount the boost gauge down next to the oil pressure gauge, and made myself a little pod/standoff for the wideband to sit front and center on the steering column. Here's an overall shot of that orientation from the first drive... where we went through the Taco Bell drive through, providing plenty of fuel for the car's nickname.

This is the 'finished product for now' shot with the polished factory air cleaner installed.

Stay tuned- in future installations I race a civic, possibly blow the thing up, and lose!

Its kinda got an angry badger bark.......don't ask me how I know , just the first thing that came to mind when I heard it.

Here's a couple other detail pictures I grabbed last night when I was playing with the car.

Overbuilt throttle return spring bracket courtesy of the 1986 F150 I got my gas pedal from- complete with dual springs for APEowner

And this ugly contraption made from some bicycle parts, some nuts and bolts, some washers, some rubber hose.. I'm sure Jegs sells a piece for $5 that does what this does, but I stuck this together with junk in the garage and it works (so far) so I'm fine with it.

Getting the throttle linkage set up was the last real major thing after I installed my gauges, so at this point we're pretty caught up with the project. For posterity here is the basic "tune" of the car as it stands.

Fuel is simple- all stock save for the Holley 770 street avenger (too big) jetted to 66 front/68 rear or there abouts. 25 shooter for the accelerator pump and the pink pump cam. Idle and cruise are about 12.5-13.0, WOT is somewhere around 11.2 to 11.8 according to the AEM Uego wideband I have hooked up. 55 or so mph there is still a lean spot that feels like the accelerator pump needle & seat may be a bit sticky- it just hesitates at a certain throttle position but if you give it a tiny bit more it clears right up. I haven't worried about getting that dialed in yet.

Ignition is also simple- Stock points distributor with a Pertronix Ignitor 1 conversion, an MSD Blaster II coil, and FBO timing limiter plate. It allows varying degrees of limiting on the mechanical advance in the distributor. I'm running it fully locked out at 18 degrees currently, but they have 10,12, and 14 degree increments to limit the mechanical advance. I still have the vacuum advance hooked up for cruising. I'm running Champion RN12YC plugs- which are one heat range colder than the stock RN14YC's. This is probably unnecessary at my boost level (8psi) but I'm trying to be overly safe because I don't know what I'm doing.

Other than that nothing special going on. I run 10w40 Shell Rotella oil (or whatever 10w40 diesel oil is on sale), whatever filter, and I put on a magnetic drain plug to hopefully catch whatever shards didn't get flushed out of the pan. I run premium gas again mostly as a safety precaution.

Great write up! Love the car, and I read your complete GMC truck build last night. Thanks for posting

Any plans to go with EFI or an intercooled setup?

In reply to Billy_Bottle_Caps:

Gee thanks! I tend to ramble...

Which reminds me, I should ramble some more. So, earlier I hinted at racing and losing to a Civic, as well as thinking the thing was blown up. Well here's that story.

At this point I've had the car together all of a week, done a bunch of jet changes and gotten the thing running what I think is pretty strong and safe. Haven't stayed in it very long because, well there's no need to just be unnecessarily flogging 53 year old junk. BUT, should my friend in a B20 swapped EF Civic hatch come up next to me on the highway and want to have a friendly acceleration comparison, well sign me up. Fifty three year old stuff with an eBay turbo hung on it be damned, I want to see what this old girl will do! Well, I lost. We went from probably a 50 roll and I hung it in 3rd (drive- 3 speed auto...), he pulled down to 4th. This gave him a quick 2 car jump while I was waiting for turbo magic to happen (No I didn't brake boost, what do you think this is an official well sorted turbo car? hah!). So he's out 2 cars on me and finally ol' whistly McGee decides to light up. We carry on for some time, with me 2 cars behind but not losing any ground. Eventually we're going fast enough that I figure the old crappy brakes and tires are about at their wits end so I let out. I also realize that there's no way I'm coming around him even if I had the Ohio Mile at my disposal. -Smoke- plenty of smoke. Just kind of emanating from the bottom of the car. Still runs fine, still has oil pressure so I don't worry about it too much. Finish driving home, defeated, and get off the highway. Well now the car runs like E36 M3. Doesn't want to idle. So, being as untrusting as I am I'm sure it's blown up. Done. I make it home, pull in the garage, and pop the hood. Oil Everywhere. The dipstick popped out and it was hosing itself down with a nice oil bath from the dipstick tube. I go inside and lie in bed with the computer googling "turbo car pops dipstick up" which actually ends up being relatively common, especially in the DSM crowd. Some of them just put a throttle return spring on it to keep it in place. I also learn that having a PCV not plumbed to the intake is basically worthless, and can also cause some excessive pressure. I go outside, remove the PCV, put a better breather on the other vent, and call it good. Drive it to work the next day, get into boost a couple times, and it smokes considerably less, and will idle just fine. Fixed!

Well, it could still be junk, but later I did a compression test and everything is close to normal and it still runs strong, so I'm calling it good for the time being. If the rings are junk I'm not going to do anything about it right now anyway.

Thanks for reading! here's a picture for those uninterested in my barely coherent ramblings.

Gunchsta wrote: Here's a couple other detail pictures I grabbed last night when I was playing with the car. Overbuilt throttle return spring bracket courtesy of the 1986 F150 I got my gas pedal from- complete with dual springs for APEowner

Thanks. I feel better now.

Gunchsta wrote: Some of them just put a throttle return spring on it to keep it in place.

Triple throttle return springs! Even better!

Seriously, you're probably going to need a good sized vent line to a catch can. It's challenging to keep crankcase pressure under control on a boosted car even with new, modern rings.

You should be able to find a catch tank, with a filter vent on top. Use that instead of any OEM crankcase vent system. There could be a little more blow-by under boost. I found some on E-bay cheap.

This is a great project, great to see what can be done with a little creativity and little money or fancy equipment.

In reply to APEowner:

All the throttle return springs!!

And yes, I'm finding that out- Right now I have 2 pretty big breathers on the valve cover with like 3/4" rubber hose into a catch can, and a little bit of small rubber hose helping keep the dipstick in. It has been working pretty well. I want to take the valve cover off and put some -10 or maybe -12 bungs in the valve cover to a proper catch can.

I also think that I may be getting extra crankcase pressure due to the whole draw through turbo-sans-carbon seals situation I got going on.

Also to Sky_Render's question earlier about EFI/Intercooler... Yes and No. I really want to play with EFI as I know very little about it. An intercooler wtih a draw through setup is both unnecessary and dangerous- I already have some issues with fuel puddling and intake charges being cool at idle with the wacky draw through, the intercooler would basically just hold all the puddled fuel as a giant bomb. So as long as it's draw through it'll stay non-intercooled. What I need to do is run some kind of a small box under the intake and plumb coolant through it to keep the bottom of the intake warm. Right now it's a big open space under the carb and the atomization of the fuel cools that quite a bit and makes it load up if it idles too long.

And this is exactly where I'm having a dilemma- I have a quote for a nice, new custom built turbo with carbon seals and all the right stuff, but it's not cheap. However, the alternative is buying another $140 eBay turbo (or rebuilding mine) and going blow-through. This would necessitate buying a new intake manifold, making my own blow through carb, and boost referencing my fuel pump OR running a sump on the tank and an electric pump.

I happen to really fancy the simplicity of the draw through, and I like that it's a little oddball. I'm also fairly proud of how much of it I fabricated. Blow through would be a purchased intake manifold, purchased carb hat, etc. The problem I have with buying a nice turbo for it is that I don't trust the setup (common theme... Shart, you know?) or really anything so the price of the new turbo is a big investment in a unknown. I also can't exactly prove that the current non-draw through turbo is actually failing, although it does use a lot of oil. It leaks plenty too.

In keeping with tradition here's a crappy picture of my Dad's 40' Ford from the drivers seat of the Shart.

For blow thru, check on what lotus did for the Esprit, the early ones before fuel injection. Also the Maserati bi-turbo. The Lotus vented the float bowls to manifold pressure, the Maserati put the entire carb in a box. Either set-up of course requires a rising rate fuel pressure regulator. I have a extra pressure regulator, I bet it still works fine. If anyone wants the old one from my Maserati, its free... Would require a return line to work. Also need a pump that can deliver pressure a little higher than the expected turbo pressure.

So, photobucket is being crap again and 90% of your pictures are broken

There's a ton of information out there for blow through, and it is definitely far better supported than draw through. I guess I just like to be weird. I also like that aside from the turbo everything I'm using is off the shelf un modified stuff. I like simplicity. I'm sure it's been mentioned before but if it hasn't, a lot of people have had success with the Hangar18 write up on making a blow through carb.

I think overall buying the new turbo at $750 +/- is more cost effective than going blow through, but offers less support and less potential for more power. Although this project is not about going fast, so maybe that doesn't matter.

In reply to Gaunt596:

Son of a bitch.

Anybody else having this problem?

I'm seeing the photos. I think Imgur is the preferred hosting site these days. Flickr probably a little less so. And it's usually a photobucket picture that doesn't show up.

And I love the project and your writing style! I'm contemplating my own ill-advised turbocharging project.