TKat13's Mach1 Build Log

[TKat13]

As far as my first couple of week driving it...

Here is a couple of notable items.

1. The TH400 is awesome. Truly I feel like I am cheating every time I step on it. Solid shifts into second and third.

2. Tires - I need TIRES!!! My rears are completely useless. give it 1/3 throttle, boost kicks in and the tires just turn to dust piles. In a spirited drive, roll out from a light, quickly hit the throttle, 3k comes real fast and she instantly breaks loose. Pedal, shift to 2nd, again instantly breaks loose. She does it again in 3rd. Moral of the story, need tires.

3. My daughter loves it, Her quote 'Nitrous is slow'... I laughed. (Prior build had nitrous, had it engage at 3k so it literally feels the same but more)

4. Driving around, the car is nice and quiet, step on it and it turns into a hoard of monsters.

[TKat13]

Originally Posted by Vndcatr

what was your setup before? stock? with the fluidyne ?

I had the fluidyne before the build and everything was fine. Coolant routes were all stock. Car got into a wreck, bent the original radiator so I replaced it with the Champion, it leaked and then put the Fluidyne in there. Seemed to work just fine, but then again I never read the real temps, which was why I was curious what others ran. Water pump was the stocker as well, 100k miles on it which is why I put a new one in.

[TKat13]

Build Log Update 9/22/14 - All is not well in the Mach-T Realm.

As some may have seen, I had a problem with the TH400, good news is HPP fixed it and stood completely behind their product. Guys there deserves a .

All was going well, until the owner (that's me), screwed up big! I was working on fixing an exhaust leak a month or so ago which I was successful. I also added a support bracket for the turbo. In doing so, I removed some tie-backs that I used to route my oil feed line to the turbo. Re-installed everything but those stupid ties and well..... The oil feed line to the turbo found its way over a few weeks on top of the down pipe and literally melted a huge hole.

I was leaving oil bread crumbs all over the road and a plume of smoke behind me, got to a safe place very quickly but it was to late. Destroyed my cheap little On3 turbo. Installed a new oil feed line but it was to late for the turbo, may it rest in peace. Here is the damage:


I found all the missing chunks of the wheel in the intercooler, they were big enough not to pass through. Whew!

As this build has had cooling issues, I am taking the time to re-do my location of the Intercooler, A/C Condenser and Radiator to make more room for a different fan/shroud as well as more room for the turbo.

I had always planned on moving up to a Precision 76, just not this rapidly so back to HPP to order a new Turbo.

Here is the car now, 2 steps back to go forward... sheesh.


I am getting to good at this, all this work only took ~3 hours and I was taking my time, literally no rushing at all. Even watched some football.

[TKat13]

Here is some additional carnage of the turbo, I should point out here very clearly, this is NOT an On3 problem with the Turbo, this was all on me, user error with a simple mistake of not properly routing the oil feed line. Again, NOT an On3 issue, me making an install mistake.







This thing wobbles pretty badly.

[not a gt]

Wow, is your nickname "Larry" ?? Unreal what damage was done, was that because it was a "cheap" turbo?? At least you get to now have piece of mind in having the cooling issues resolved..the build continues and I keep watching!!

[TKat13]

Originally Posted by not a gt

Wow, is your nickname "Larry" ??

Funny you should mention this, I was literally at HPP and said, 'call me Larry'. Of course they looked at me strange but I laughed.

Originally Posted by not a gt

Unreal what damage was done, was that because it was a "cheap" turbo??

I do not think any turbo would survive a complete lack of lubrication. It could have actually been worse, good news is I destroyed a 'cheap' turbo and not an expensive one. I would have been really irritated if I destroyed a Precision. (I am working real hard to look for the positive side in all this)

Originally Posted by not a gt

At least you get to now have piece of mind in having the cooling issues resolved..the build continues and I keep watching!!

Yes, build continues and I hope to make a little more power as well. At least I will know the turbo will not be the limiting point. Throttle body and intake will be next but way down the road.

[Mach351]

crap. sorry to see this.

this is an awesome build. thanks for sharing.

[Mach828]

RIP oil starved on3 turbo

[01yellerCobra]

I have that same hammer. One of my favorite tools.

[TKat13]

Originally Posted by 01yellerCobra

I have that same hammer. One of my favorite tools.

Agreed, one of my favs as well; that has to be one of the most used tools I have, tight bolt, tap my wrench with that beast. Use it for everything, exhaust, wrenches, even fence work.

[TKat13]

Quick update.

I finally picked a new fan, this fan is from a Volvo, CFM is claimed to be around 3500-4000 but more importantly it has a very good shroud design. It also is thinner overall. The only drawback is that it only has a single speed but I will wire it into the high speed output. The fan shroud fits very well with minor trimming needed.


I need to make more room for the larger turbo that will be going in, to do this I needed to move the wiring harness that is normally between the radiator and the condenser, this wiring harness is now located in front of the condenser outside of the core support. In doing so I needed to make a new bracket for the condenser, to prevent it from moving side to side and pull it as close to possible to the core support. Here are some pictures of the bracket that I created.






Here it is installed:


Also notice I had to notch core support for the wires, also protected the wires in a high temp wrapping that has a velco backing.

[TKat13]

Another picture of the wiring location and brackets, I also had to make new brackets for the radiator to allow the radiator to suck into the core support.

[not a gt]

Nice work as always..great find on the fan, will have to put that somewhere in the back of the brain, can't wait to see it installed!!

[TKat13]

Finally returned from Spain and my new turbo was waiting for me in my garage, buddy picked it up from HPP when I was out, this was a great surprise!

Finished installing the Volvo radiator fan, minor trimming was needed to clear the larger turbo, but the stock fan had no chance of fitting in there.


Tight fit, had to move the ABS module about 1/2" to the frame rail, glad that was all that was needed.


Wrapped the piping to the turbo, had to remove the old oil soaked wrap.


Close up of the new CEA wheel design.


Downpipe is back on as well as a new turbo blanket from ThermalZero.com. It is a removable type, seems like really nice quality.

[TKat13]

Finally another shot of how the radiator fan fits in there, in this picture I also connected the intercooler piping. This turbo has a 3" out vs the 2.5" of the On3 turbo.


Now for the final button up of oil feed lines and radiator hoses/fluids, etc.

Getting close to driving it again!

[TKat13]

Made a bracket for the Turbo.


Another view:


Have most everything button up, just need to put the bumper and headlights on.

Turbo does not hide as easily as the smaller 70mm did.


Full View

[not a gt]

Very nice Darell, that turbo bracket is trick..what size is this one (turbo)?? More power? Retune?? Man it looks tight in there,surprised you were able to run stock coolant can. You have come so far and has been great following along thru the thread, can't wait for a youtube ride along

[TKat13]

Originally Posted by not a gt

Very nice Darell, that turbo bracket is trick..what size is this one (turbo)?? More power? Retune?? Man it looks tight in there,surprised you were able to run stock coolant can. You have come so far and has been great following along thru the thread, can't wait for a youtube ride along

Thanks,
I really do like the turbo blanket as well, it fit perfectly. It is from Thermal Zero. The turbo is a Precision PT7675 CEA, claims 1200HP potential but obviously I will not push it that far. Not really sure how they get those numbers.

Yes, it will make more power; I had always planned on upgrading to this turbo, just happened sooner than I wanted (financially speaking). It will need a new tune as well but I plan on putting a very conservative tune on it. Goal is to turn the boost up to a point where it makes 700HP and then stop. After I get a new intake or have this one modified plus add a larger throttle body then I will crank it up. This will be next year some time.

I am happy I was able to keep the stock coolant tank, I like the engine bay to look as stock as possible.

Once I get some drag radials I will do a video at the strip, right now the street tires make all this horse power completely useless. Even with the On3 turbo at the lowest setting ~500hp, the tires just went up in smoke no matter when I hit it. Unfortunately, the money for the drag radials / wheels went to the new turbo.

[TKat13]

Today's update is a sad one, took me a few days to get over the anger but I post it here so others know that making this much power is not always an easy road. I have learned that patience is required.

After getting everything together I drove it to work last Friday, it drove really nice, less lag than the smaller On3 turbo but I stayed out of the throttle for the most part. Fast forward to Saturday...

I spent Saturday cleaning up the garage, needed it badly because of the build. I drove to a friends house to return a tool and on the way back 0-40mph and all when to hell, about a block from my house. Sounded like I threw a rod, this was about 4PM. After a couple of hours to calm down, at around 6PM I started to pull the motor. Sunday I got back on it and about 3 hours later the motor was pulled and loaded in the truck for delivery to the shop.


So, I am back to square one but wow I am getting fast at removing and building this car.

Upon opening up the motor we found that the valve seats were dropping out from multiple cylinders. Not exactly sure how this happened but it is getting resolved. The one that made all the noise, destroyed my piston and the head area, hoping the head can be repaired, we do not know yet.

No bashing my builder here, they are taking good care of me, just thought I would share.

You see, I clearly found Larry's missing bad luck; Larry, you can have it back anytime!

There is a silver lining, my cooling issue was resolved with the Volvo radiator fan, temps never went above 180, T-Stat is a 170.

[not a gt]

This REALLY sucks Darell, **** what a b***h this build has been , seems like it is finding any weakness it can, I feels bad and it isn't my car !!! This goes beyond my bad luck, I will gladly take it back for this build to be done and for you to enjoy the car, you have earned that. Good luck and will keep following the build.

[01yellerCobra]

A motor going is bad enough. I think it's trying to insult you when it goes under normal driving.

[SuperMach1]

D@mn that sucks. How many miles did you put on it?

[TKat13]

Thanks guys,

I chalk all this up to the Universe is messing with me.

Insulting? Yes! I didn't even get a cool story out of it blowing up. Feel ripped off. At least my neighbor came jogging out of his house when he heard me coming home.

I had about 1200-1500 miles on it. I am just super happy my crank and rods are fine, those were not cheap and the crank is almost impossible to get these days. It is a Kellogg Stroker crank with Oliver billet rods, that would have broken my spirt for sure.

[Mach828]

That is terrible. Can't believe it let go under normal driving.

[TKat13]

Originally Posted by Mach828

That is terrible. Can't believe it let go under normal driving.

The passenger side is what let go, but based on the driver's side they have been working loose for a while as three other chambers had the seats working loose as well. I suppose it is better it let go at normal speed than at the track or on the dyno.