Testaments 1981 mercury capri LS-Turbo drag car

[Testament]

Discussion thread---> //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/39431-tomstaments-ultimate-carpi/

There I said it.

 

 

 

 

Cat sans bag?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This has probably been the worst kept secret but no more! 

 

There is a bit of a long story to how this started - but basically, lent a mate some cash to go pick up a boat he had bought on an impluse bid and I ended up with an LS 6.0 truck motor - so armed with a motor I also on impulse decided to try to build a properly quick drag car after it came about I wasn't going to get to go on the overseas holiday I had been planning due to my project at work running late.

 

after watching ALOT of youtube videos of rolling burnouts and turbo LS things this plan came to be.

much motivational respectknuckles going to Denmah/Matt over at sloppymechanics.com

and many thanks to my mates Matt, Dan, and I guess Rookiedave (winkface.jpg)

 

the gist of it

2005??? General Motors LQ4 6.0L V8 (like an LS2 from a clubsport except iron block and lower compression)

ARP headbolts

Stock pistons with gapped rings (28thou) 9.4:1

BIG CAM (Love you longtime Robbie baby!)

borgwarner airwerks S475 Turbo 96mm/1.32 hotside

china brand hks copy 60mm wastegate

rather customised megasquirt 2 running fuel, spark, boost control and two step

95lb bosch injectors

twin bosch 044 pumps

600x300x100 air to air intercooler

late LS1 commodore intake manifold (same as LS6 corvette engine)

water/meth injection

rebuilt powerglide with transbrake and 3500+stall

running on 98ron pump gas

many other things mostly ~600rwhp@~16psish probably etc.

 

#paint lines

#fast times

#upinsmoke

 

six point oh

truck wiring loom is a total guts of thing

deloomed

 

1.76 gearset powerglide from a 66 malibu covered in muck

 

not sure which hat to wear?

the plan was originally to use this 1994 320e mercedes as it was cheap, only 190,000km and pretty much everything still works and it drives really nice. unassuming, has decent brakes, handles high speed well and had enough room in the engine bay and a decently strong diff (210mm ring gear)

plus 5 up rolling burnouts would have been epic for powercruise etc..

the germans obviously knew people would want to do LS engine swaps and designed the bonnet hinge such that you can flick some toggles to make it go vertical

but unfortunately on closer inspection the germans had assumed I would be using a dry sump as everything was going to foul the truck sump or a commodore sump. and because I wanted to go the speeds of fast and faster I came across this problem also.

They also thought I would use a T56 Tremec too I guess - I was gonig to have to cut the trans tunnel to hell to fit the really wide powerglide oil pan. This had become more bother than I had bargained for - It would be doable sure (anythings possible) but oh well. back to the drawing board/trademe/dreaming of thirdgens.

Merc makes a great daily though I must say.

So after a while longer this absolute total piece of shit 1981 Mercury Capri foxbody came up on trademe but for much much less than every other 3rd gen camaro, foxbody anything, or G body buick regal/olds cutlass or anything else deemed worthy. I did think ALOT about FC's but ultimately I didn't want to steal rot808's thunder, and every time I said XF falcon I got shouted down by everyone (everyone being my two mates from work and rookiedave who have helped massively with this project). I got a workmate who was travelling to stratford to check it out and he came back with some useless photos but wasn't too damning on its condition for my purposes so I made a stupid offer after much peer pressure and then suffered the most heinous buyers remorse when it turned up....

I mean who has even heard of a 1981 mercury capri before? really? if you do some research you will find it came with the worst most smog riddled boat anchor 4.2L debored 120hp windsor v8 ford ever made (although fortunately that thing was sacrificed the the ocean some time ago and some kind of 289 or 302 fitted). How does this thing even still exist I do not know. heck it's probably the only one in the country

so basically just decided to spend a bunch more money on a much worse car but maybe go a little faster. doing it right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

And it appears to have been just abhorrently wrong since the day it was registered too - the lady at nzpost got a really funny look on her face when I went to change the ownership

 

 

So yeah, just missing some of those celica supra badges really?

 

Anyway enough for now, I'll continue this brothers grim fairytale story tomorrow

[Testament]

Part Deux, 

 

So my mate had been told this motor was an LQ9 with something like 10,000km on it from a late model chevy/GMC sierra denali or somesuch big trucky type thing. now LQ9 is the high compression/higher output factory optiong with flat top pistons for 10:1 comp or so
 
anyway we knew from this experience of busting ring lands on his LS2 landcruiser (which the motor was a spare for before he forged the LS2 instead) plus a bunch of research that regardless of the compression these things seem to take a bunch of boost so long as you gap the rings a bunch more than factory spec and keep the timing relatively mild under boost. So motor had to come apart for that.
 
found a bit of a surprise on removal of the inlet manifold - a whole shit ton of oil in the manifold and ports???
 

 
which fortunately we worked out was just a combination of the motor being previously over filled for storage and then sitting on a lean in matts garage for a year or two.
 
Sump off and heads off REAL EASY. these things are just a dream to work on, most of the gaskets are reuseable MLS or steel with integral rubber/viton? seal rings so no gaskets to scrape, nothing suck together and not wanting to come apart etc. just bliss really.
nothing to really note, a little carbon build up but really nothing to worry about anywhere.
Heads are a #317 casting which is pretty much the same cathedral ports as the #243 corvette/HSV?/late LS1/LS2 head which flows pretty well, but with a larger combustion chamber for the lower compression truck engine. 
 

 

 
Surprise when the heads came off though - whats this a dished piston? with fully floating wrist pin and factory teflon skirt coatings and beefy looking cracked cap rods?
 

 

 
So really the stars aligned - although the guy had bullshitted my mate that this was the "HO" version its actually ideal for this application, lower compression ~9.4:1 and its a late model or Gen IV style motor with the better rods which we had not bargained on.
 
The motor came with a factory ECU and loom, and while the ECU is tuneable with HPtuners software the license for that is something like $700 or more
 
and well look at this mess
 

 
So I had a megasquirt lying about for the 131R, which seemed alot easier. plus there are some reasonbly well documented MS2 tunes floating around the net for these (ergo largely thanks to denmah at sloppymechanics.com) so I bought the upgrade board and a few other bits and bobs for it to allow be to run 8cyl distributorless wasted spark, a two step and boost control from it.
 
mostly thanks to my freind matt and my keeping a fridge full of beers he soldered up the board, unknitted the loom and we got it mostly tested
 

 

 

 
also while I was watching and supplying beers I found this on trademe and had to have it
 


MS2 testing

purdy.

 

 

 

[Testament]

Part Deux, continued
 
So now in possession of this abomination I had to make things as betterer as I could/get some slast out of it. so first thing - strip out and throw away as much of it as possible!  the previous owner had been kind enough to have more or less wrecked everything inside it anyway
 
pretty much got straight into it
 

 

 
This was a superior seat to what was there.
 

 
and just look at this Cyclops of a steering wheel. or actually I should probably say avert your eyes!
 

 
also here is a true sign of a class vehicle with quality owners who care for it
 

 
This thing had clearly been a #1 title contender in the taranaki paddock races judging by the broken seats,  
 
this broken steering colum (one of my ongoing conundrums)
 

 
And the fact the chassis has a couple of nice cracks through the middle where the seat mounts go. somewhat common on foxbodys as ford decided in their infinite wisdom that you didn't need any kind of frame rails in the middle of the car AT ALL
 

 

 
But while it looks kinda bad its not tooooo big of a deal as there will be a bunch of box section reinforcement and full 8.50 e.t spec cage going in.

 

All that was so so horrible I had to go buy more stuff to forget and wash my eyes out

 

 
And so it was time for the ford motors last rites to be read/pretty sure this will provide many laughs

 

And that, was the end of that

 

 

 

Like he said. FREEDOM

 

 

 

End Part Deux.

[Testament]

Part 3 - Ferris Bueller's Day Off

 

So after doing a heap of work in the first 2-3 weeks after getting the carpi, motivation started to taper off a bit and I was going for a weekend in auckland of bikes, bbq's and roaring in the dark

 

dropped rookiedaves motorbike off for cert at sentradaves work

 

 

BBQ's

 

 

Roaring in the dark

 

 

ringed some dings

 

 

to the hot rod show

 

 

 

A pretty good easter weekend by all accounts

until I got back home to taupo and  found  what had happened while I was gone?!?!?!

 

 

 

Matt. Dan and Rookiedave had spent all weekend drinking beers and mounted the engine and gearbox and done a real good job of it I must say. I was so surprised I was almost angry I wasn't part of it but really wow thanks guys great job you deserve another beer! or 2 or 3!

 

Things were a little slow for a couple of weeks following this as well with a trip to welly and then nats of course - but I got stuck in with post nats motivation with doing all the exhaust/turbokit stuff

 

You know it's a big turbo when you need an engine crane to position it

 

 

 

the LS exhaust manifolds are brilliant in that they have a symmettrical bolt pattern (because the left and right heads are identical castings etc.) so you can swap flip the manifolds front to back or upside down to suit your setup - and they are made from cast steel, so you can just weld vbands straight to them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also thanks to markku for doing a deal on a makita dropsaw too - made this waaaaaay easier!

 

 

 

 

Give youse an idea of the size of this thing - its actually only really considered a "medium" size turbo for this kind of setup with the compressor wheel inlet being 75mm and rated to flow enough air for up to 1050hp

 

Ideally I should have got the 80mm/S480 version but there was a significant price difference ~50% more expensive and I figured 1000hp would probably be enough if I really have to push it all the way. I think I can probably swap the wheel and compressor cover later if it's really neccesary though

 

 

 

Now the americans usually seem to get away with doing what they call a "leaf blower" exhaust on these big turbo v8 setups  - i.e. they just put a pipe out under the front guard and the turbo is a bit of a muffler its sofa king boss to roll the streets like that etc. of course this wasn't going to cut it here as I want to keep the car street registered so I can run it at nightspeed drag wars in the pro street/king of the street class. but I was so torn with loving this idea of two step flames shooting out the side of the guard I decided on a compromise - a race exhaust with a blanking flange going STRAIGHT out the guard so you should be able to see the turbine wheel if you aren't so close you face is burnt off, plus a smaller muffled "street" exhaust

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is a 5" exhaust pipe if you were wondering.......

 

the street exhaust is 3.5"

 

 

This was by far the trickyist/most Run DMC part of the exahust going down past the firewall/chassis rail/starter motor - but I was super happy with myself to have got it done in one go without having to cut and retack 101 times like I usually do with these things.

 

 

 

will need to run one custom plug lead and spin the last coil pack around but thats hardly an issue in the scheme of things

 

 

and side exit/mild boso

 

 

And now it's time to wind the odometer back on chapter three

 

see you tomorrow for installment 4 - The Dream Master..........

[Testament]

Clearly things are getting completely out of hand now, and rather serious
 
and well if you are getting serious about motors you've got to get a big cam - just like Randy here

 
So I got in touch with robbie/volodkovichy and his colleages at kelford, sent them the details of what I had/was planning and got him to custom grind up something pretty big and send some meke valvesprings (the main thing that holds back OE spec LS engines, soft valvesprings desinged for factory cams/redlines)
 
 
Anyway, not just your regular 3/4 Race cam.....

 

Luv U 2 Rawb
 
 
In my travels around youtube and LS forums I found this video which is of a pretty similar cam/similar setup

 
I imagine tthat should be enough to make sheepers quite ill
 
 
anyway back to work
 
Matt mounted the megasquirt on some alloy sheet plus some relays and fuses and junk
 

 
I got to sorting out the cold side piping
 

 

 

 
made up a beading tool from a pair of the worlds worst vicegrips and some bits of steam pipe
 

 

 

 

 
Worked a treat!
 

 
coldside all beaded and done
 

 
removed the hotside stuff and fully welded it
 

 

 
And took the motor and gearbox out to build them up properly and get the chassis work done
 

 

 
And stripped almost everything else off the car, all the lgihts, every wire, pedal box, brake booster, hatch, guards, fuel tank etc. etc.
 

 
even gave it a little wash down to get the worst of the oil and gunk off
 

 
Now I have to sort out a trailer and get it to the sand blasters, I'm going to get them to blast the floor inside the car and underneath (the underseal is flaking and there is surface rust under there) plus there are a few rusted out bits of the floor that will need replacing. this will make it much nicer for doing the weld in subframe connectors/chassis reinforcement and the rollcage.
 ....

[Testament]

so with not much to do on the body until thats done I got stuck into the one of my powerglides. I bought a couple for $100-$200  one with the "v8" 1.76:! gearset but a slightly cracked case and another which turned out to be the weaker 1.82:1 gearset but with a good case. so plan is to rob the good planetary from the v8 one, empty the case of the 1.82 and put the 1.76 planetary in there plus all new cltuch packs, bands, and other shiny bits plus a new transbrake valve body and the new manualised governor shaft that goes with the 1/4 stick hurst shifter
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

also today I've been doing alot of swearing under my breath at customs as they have my very shiny and not cheap custom billet 3500rpm stall torque converter and have not told me how much tax I owe them so the shipping company wont send it to me even though its been in the country for a week. which is doubly annoying as apart from that it arrived in record time/ 3 days from houston TX !
 
 
Thats pretty much up to the minute now without missing out too many secrets, and bike summit is this weekend so pretty unlikely you will get an update tomorrow. so next week probably/must keep up momentum of progress.....

[Testament]

got some big meats now thanks to some big meats/joe/hayhole//manu etc. for freight train services

 

255/60/15 Micky T Drag radials

 

[Testament]

Bling'n Billet torque convertor finally turned up from the states, best packed thing I've ever seen foam all cut to shape and not a giant box full of USA air like summit racing, plus a beautiful little envelope with intructions and some more stickers for the shopping list

 

 

[Testament]

pulled the 1.76 planetary glide to bits

 

 

 

see how much beefier the 1.76 gearset is - cast steel vs pressed carrier for the planetary gears. even then I'm probably pushing it a little they get on borrowed time with transbrake launches somewhere around 700hp at the crank alledgedly - but I'm hoping I can get a bit of time out of it as the next step up adds $1000-$2000 for a straight cut 1.80 gearset and tailshaft made from better materials.

 

 

So I'll take pretty much all of the internals of the 1.76 glide plus and bunch of new parts, do a few race mods to various parts and then assemble it into the uncracked1.82 housing

 

 

also got the engine just about ready to swap the new cam into so hopefully that will be mostly bolted back together on tuesday night.

 

[Testament]

Well got a bit busy with a few other things but started on the glide building - just measured up the high clutch pack and reverse clutch pack clearances. 1st auto build/gearbox build I've done so I'm just going by the carl munore powerglide transmission handbook, some google divination and what makes sense to my experience with mechanical contraptions so hopefully it doesn't fly to pieces on startup.

I've got 7 frictions/8 steels in the high cltuch drum, 0.067" clearance - book says .060" to .100" is legit but I have also read 10 thou per friction. either way seems ok.

Reverse 5 frictions 6 steels i have 0.110" clearance book says .090"-.120" for transbrake applications so on the high side but ok? it was just over ~0.125-0.130" but i mixed and matched the steels from the ati kit im using and the ones from the old clutch pack to get the thickest ones to tighten it up.

mostly pleasantly surprised that somehow i don't seem to need to machine either piston like I had expected

[Testament]

out with old and busted (well actually pretty much brand new)

and in with new hotness

[Testament]

continuing on getting the engine zipped up,  
 
cleaned up one face,
 
dirty
 

 
clean
 

 
 
 put the timing chain on after checking with robbie that I didnt need an adjustable one to get the timing as per cam card, and dave came round and we torqued up the rod bolts then proceeded to swap the valvesprings
 
kvs/pac1518s  

 
turns out as always valvesprings are conniving little devils - I had planned to make a little tool to use my drillpress as a press to do the job but dave insisted that was a silly idea and rushed off back to his place to get his valvespring compressors 
 
which were ones like the pic below and a bespoke piece of engineering he had created for doing vw golf valvesprings 
 

 
anyway that worked ok-ish for a couple of springs, but of course the new kvs/pac 1518's are 50% gruntier than the stock ones or something and a bunch taller so on the third one it when PPJIAAAAAOOW  and made a big spark and shot the retainer through the building paper in the roof of the garage (luckily it trapped it so wasnt to hard to retreive). stuffed with those a little more bending jaws in the vice but after trying one more we reconsidered things over a cup of tea.
 

 
went back to the shed, and used part of his home made vw golf spring compressor in combination with a coach bolt to achieve my original drill press idea which I stole somewhere off the internet I can't remember. this worked alot better although still a shitty job but wasn't too bad with two people at least - and dave made a minor blood sacrifice for a change.
 
so now
 
more old and busted
 

 
 
and new hotness
 

[Testament]

Checked cam timing with degree wheel and a dti, matched up to the cam card within a degree or two and a few thou which considering the quality of the degree wheel and dti I borrowed from rookiedave and the accuracy of my setting up is probably within the margin of error.

 

Then to be sure I checked the valve to piston clearance pretty roughly with some plastiscene. being aware my pushrods are likely a bit short and I only chucked in a couple of old headbolts not fully torqued up with an old gasket I reckon i'm still ok as I got marks on both and there is well over 5mm clearance there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO PROBLEMS

[Testament]

Put the heads back on this weekend been and checked the lifter preload and stuff so motor 98% back together now. need to get a -10 bulkhead fitting or something to jam into the front cover for the turbo oil drain before I can do up the sump and get some bolts for the inlet manifold as they are different/longer than the truck manifold ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Testament]

Shell is now at the sandblasters, hopefully get it back friday or saturday

also been spending money like a puerto rican drug lord

stuff
 

[Testament]

things

 

 

[Testament]

And back from the sandblasters, he threw some acid etch something or other on there too for the meantimes. have  a bunch of phone calls to make next week to tech inspectors and certifiers and people to make sure my plans are all legit before I get too carried away. Need to get this glide and the fiat motor together before filling the garage with grinding dust again though, and a few rust repairs to do before the cage and stuff can go in.

 

 

 

 

[Testament]

And xmas arrived again

 

 

 

 

 

Last of the parts for the powerglide, so once I finish getting the fiat motor together I'll crack into getting that done.

[Testament]

next please

[Testament]

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