The Shart - Adventures in turbocharging with a 1964 Dodge Dart

In reply to Duke:

Thanks! It's been an interesting one to play with and learn about.

To those anxiously waiting some epic update where I take the thing off jackstands to try out my new transmission filter and suddenly it works perfectly and magically the car doesn't burn or leak any oil or do anything bad. Well, you're going to have to wait another day. I didn't do E36 M3 with the car last night. Took some time and rode the BMX bike for a while. I'm thinking tonight I'll go out and drop it down and test drive it; expect lackluster results tomorrow!

Here's a picture of it in my sweet little garage.

Oh and here's another little tidbit about the setup- I am running a Vibrant oil feed restrictor in the feed line to the turbo to band-aid the seals being sucked out by vacuum. It does actually seem to help, and right now I have it jetted at .045. A lot of the air cooled guys running draw through run restrictors like this and size them "down till it stops smoking then up a jet" so who knows. Mine still smokes, but it seems less so at WOT than without any restrictions.

http://www.burnsstainless.com/transitions-2.aspx

http://www.burnsstainless.com/straighttubing-5.aspx

This tubing might be way to expensive for this project, but might give you some ideas. If ground clearance is a problem in a small area, could maybe make something similar by cutting a pipe into two half rounds and adding some flat strip material.

In reply to TED_fiestaHP:

Yeah that's what I was going to do actually, just cut apart a small tube and weld some flat plate in there. I think it only has to traverse a foot or so under the K member so it doesn't need to be terribly long.

I would love to buy miles of that beautiful stainless oval tubing and make all kinds of cool exhaust out of it, but... that represents a lot of $$$$ I don't have to spend.

Gunchsta wrote: To those anxiously waiting some epic update where I take the thing off jackstands to try out my new transmission filter and suddenly it works perfectly and magically the car doesn't burn or leak any oil or do anything bad.

You guys!! I took it off jackstands and test drove it last night.

This still isn't 100% accurate but BOY does the transmission work better. New filter and fluid helped I'm certain, but I also took some time to adjust the kickdown a little more to where it actually pulls far enough. Now instead of being in 3rd before you cross the intersection, it rides first out to about 15 or 20 and shifts nice and firm, then catches 3rd around 30. It is so much better! I'm guessing the kickdown cable being out of adjustment was more the culprit of the poor shifting than the fluid & filter, but I'm glad to have done those as a little preventative maintenance. I am really happy because I think this is the first transmission I've ever had a positive impact on aside from just breaking then paying someone to rebuild.

I also got rid of the fender exit/bullhorn. I know some liked it, but as previously mentioned it was a little too obvious for my liking. Now if I park the car and don't open the hood nobody will think anything- unless they hear it because it's still open downpipe and it still whistles like a mack truck.

But I digress, here's some pictures of hand tools and a lack of bullhorn.

Hopefully now I can stop spraying black gunk all over my fender, door, garage, other cars, etc.

Nice work!

The bullhorn needs a shadow box.

I remember back in like 1997 Ford had to move their f150 exhaust tip from in front of a rear tire to behind it because of premature blowouts. That was non-turbo exhaust that had a full truck length to lose heat before dumping onto a tire. I doubt you'll be doing long pulls with this thing anytime soon but consider that temps coming out of that pipe at WOT may literally be one thousand degrees and it probably wont take long before that compromises the tire.

Aside from lincs thread on fordsix this is my favorite turbo car thread! Weird to see a draw thru build.

In reply to Vigo:

Hmm, interesting point. Like you said I'm not planning on going to the Ohio Mile anytime soon but I will definitely keep an eye on it.

In reply to dropstep:

Thanks so much! Do you have a link to the other thread you're talking about? I'd like to read what else you think is interesting if you think my half assed draw through setup is cool. -Edit- I hope that doesn't come off as insulting- I am very interested in other unique/weird/dumb builds, so I would love to see what other one you're talking about. Also if it has to do with the ford inline six I'm all about it.

Minimal update and long winded story time:

I took the car to our little weekly get together at the DQ (which is a bunch of old timers with vintage american iron, mostly poorly modified, but occasionally you'll get some cool stuff) and people were lookin under the hood and all that. No problem. Well I'm sitting on the fender BS'ing with a friend of mine and some old codger is poking around under the hood... touching E36 M3. Huge pet peeve of mine, like HUGE pet peeve, I don't know why people insist on touching things that aren't theirs. Anyways long story short he was grabbing the fan for whatever reason, and later I was making fun of him and grabbed the fan... well turns out it's a good thing he's a touchy old boy because there's probably 3/8" of play on the water pump bearing ha ha ha. So it needs a water pump.

Anyhow, after old boy expertly diagnosed my bad waterpump, I went to Brainerd International Raceway for the weekend to watch another friend take on some muscle car guys in his N/A Honda (and fare quite well... car runs consistent 11.70's. It's awesome) and ignored the Dart until last night.

I was pokin around in the garage with a beer looking at stuff, thinking about Vigo's comment about the exhaust melting the tire, and realized I didn't want that to happen. So I'm out there in good clothes and boat shoes just kinda thinkin and I spot a path for my downpipe to take that will route it back where the stock exhaust ran, past the bellhousing and under the car. Well out comes the tape measure, then comes the stash of junk pipe, the welder, and the cutoff wheel, and before you know it -BAM- I basically have the complicated part of the exhaust ran already. I need to buy some V-bands, and another 02 bung, but this should be awesome.

The plan is to run it back and either dump it at the axle with a turndown, or run it up and over the axle and out the back in the stock location. What will likely dictate this plan is how much tubing I have on hand in the scrap pile. Obviously I could go buy stuff, but what's the fun in that? I prefer to stick garbage together with a welder!

I intend to header wrap it for those of you concerned about the wiring it's passing by, and I also am thinking I might try and put a heat riser on it so that I can warm the underside of my intake sucky box. This may help slightly with my fuel pooling issue. I plan to use that dryer venting type stuff you find on OE applications from the 70's. Crinkle tube that diverts the heat from exhaust manifolds up to the intake.

More fun ahead!

Not much of an 'update' but I've driven the car the last couple days and it's been working pretty well. I got a chance to have another side by side rolling acceleration contest with the Civic that made me think I blew the car up, and with the kickdown working I was able to kick it down to 2nd around 30 and pretty much stay on his bumper. That felt good. Here's a picture of the gang at a stoplight last night. EF Civic with a B20, The Shart, Ratty BMW Z4, and a Dodge Colt with the twin stick. Unique grouping of cars.

Also water pump, upper & lower hoses, Thermostat & housing, and fuel sender are on order from Rock Auto. I'm excited to hopefully have a working gas gauge!

Assuming that black thing is the Z4 it's already the rattiest one i've ever seen, and i've only seen a fender worth of it!

Glad you got over the hump so quickly with the exhaust.. the hard part being done is a great thing!

This thread is contributing to my cache of ideas for my slant6-powered 9000lb Clark Cortez motorhome. You think your turbo slant is slow?

Gunchsta wrote: Obviously I could go buy stuff, but what's the fun in that? I prefer to stick garbage together with a welder!

Best quote of the month! Easy.

In reply to Vigo:

I think the dude bought it salvage and got the mechanicals sorted and just hasn't messed with the body. It's got a bunch of miles on it and he loves it, I think it's cool to see a car like that get well used- usually they're just driven to coffee with the gilmore girls on Sunday morning.

In reply to Crackers:

Thanks- When Imgur wakes up I'll have some pictures to further illustrate 'not buying things' point. I may have gone too far this time.

Stay tuned! !

You and I are very like minded in this respect I think. Just wait until I get rolling on Uncle Ben.

So,is it an issue(condition) if you've been known to 'save' used exhaust systems? Does one need professional help?

I keep watching this thread with fascination. The nearly constant evolution of the turbo/exhaust setup is cool. Keep doing what you're doing, you're doing a great job of it.

Thanks so much for the kind words! I've certainly been known to save/recycle/reuse old exhaust systems. I don't see a problem with it, but some may.

In that vain, lets look at some pictures of last nights massacre shall we!

So, while the car was cooling down from the drive home from work, I finished the welding on the downpipe and bolted it in place.

Sorry about the blurry pictures- I was trying to make some progress before watching my Fiance play kickball. Anyways, at this point some of you maybe are noticing that there is no more bung for the 02 sensor. Maybe you're thinking: "Hey this guy really knows his E36 M3 and he's so confident in his tune that he's just doing away with that pesky blinking gauge" well... you're wrong. I just had to harvest it from the old downpipe.

I was going to order a new 02 bung, but that takes time and money. Here's where laziness intersects my impatience - it legitimately seemed easier to me to harvest this bung than go online, order another, and wait 2-3 days before it showed up. Once I get rolling on something I don't tend to stop very well... A characteristic I share with the 9" drum brakes this fine automobile relies on.

So to the backyard the downpipe goes, armed with my fillet knife (4 1/2" grinder) and a face shield, to extract my used 02 bung from my old downpipe.

snip snip

Some time with a file and it was in my new downpipe shortly after this picture was taken. Now I need to go buy a shovel to trade for some heat wrap.

LOL I did the same thing when building my 2016 Challenge exhaust. Except one of my O2 sensors was completely stuck in the bung. So I cut out the whole bung and sensor and slowly, carefully welded it into the new pipe with the sensor still attached. Turns out these sensors are pretty sensitive to steel-melting temperatures. I welded in a new bung directly downstream of the old bung/sensor, and cut the pigtail off the old on and just left it in there to keep it plugged up.

maschinenbau wrote: LOL I did the same thing when building my 2016 Challenge exhaust. Except one of my O2 sensors was completely stuck in the bung. So I cut out the whole bung and sensor and slowly, carefully welded it into the new pipe with the sensor still attached. Turns out these sensors are pretty sensitive to steel-melting temperatures. I welded in a new bung directly downstream of the old bung/sensor, and cut the pigtail off the old on and just left it in there to keep it plugged up.

Hah! that's awesome. I was thankfully able to remove my sensor but I figured there was no reason not to harvest the bung. Plus, frankly I'll probably burn some exhaust on the thing and take it out this weekend. Wouldn't be able to do that if I was stuck waiting for the bung.

This is also the reason for making it out of scrap vs. buying new. Not only does it save me money; but it allows me to be impulsive and impatient. I would prefer this was all mandrel bent, but it's going to have a few ugly crinkle bends because it's what I have.

I just want to add that I love everything about this, especially the air/exhaust plumbing and the stance.

maschinenbau wrote: I just want to add that I love everything about this, especially the air/exhaust plumbing and the stance.

Thank you sir! I'm a big fan of the Rice Rod myself.

Here's some shameless self promotion for sloppy fabrication- this is the column mount I made for the wideband. If anyone has a good idea on how to attach the gauge to the mount without crushing it I'm all ears. I'm satisfied with the zip ties over a hose clamp but I'm sure there's a better way.

Lo and behold the Michelangelo of Minnesota !!!

In reply to Gunchsta:

Is that a 2" diameter gauge designed to go in dash hole?

Ovid_and_Flem wrote: In reply to Gunchsta: Is that a 2" diameter gauge designed to go in dash hole?

2 1/16" or something but yeah it would probably fit in one of those cheap chrome bezels that I have my oil pressure and boost gauge in. But I wanted the wideband front and center so I could watch it like a hawk.