I would like to welcome the ChEM group from Goeff Allen's MoparChem.com.
Click here for 2004 Journal
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April 23, 2006
I attended the 3rd Annual Mopar Speed Shop car show at Dallas Dodge hosted by Dallas Mopar Clup today and took First Place in 80's Car class. The car is not complete, but I heard about the show last night and already had plans on registering the Shelby in shows, so, I cleaned up the car and headed down. On the description page of the car, I did include Kevyn Cagel's name for selling me the car. Thanks Kevyn! Ofcoarse, Kevyn was bitchin' about not inviting him, LOL!!!!
I'm working on a picture page from the car show, so, come back to Turbofreak soon. There were some bad ass cars there!
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April 20, 2006
Got a shot of the cockpit with my buddy's wicked Cannon with his wide angle.
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March 19, 2006
It has been a while since some good updates, so I'll try to fit them in today.
There are 6 bolt MOMO pattern 320mm steering wheels selling on Ebay for $8 /$20 sipping. In August of 2005, I bought one for my CSX for the fact the stock Shelby steering wheel had been cooked by the sun for many years and the material was falling apart when I would even look at it wrong! So, I really wanted to remove the wheel and store it in a location to preserve it. As I sit here looking at it in the office floor, lying around on top of a Dremmel and disassembled electronic components, I really need to put it up like I meant to do in the first place!
The cheaply bought Ebay steering wheel was very flimsy and weak after mounting it onto the previously modified stock Shelby hub. All this time I have wanted to keep a stock theme with the car, and yet, achieve my goal in making this car feel like I've always anticipated a car to feel like. Much like the Daytona, this car always felt strange for a 6 foot tall person who likes the steering wheel to be closer to him for better control. To accomplish this, I would have to set the seat so far forward that my knees practically touched the gauge cluster. So, I proceeded to find a fix. Before I go on with this, I must fit in the following small story.
A couple weekends ago my buddy Kevyn Cagel asked if I would like to go with him to the Motorsports Ranch auto cross track, in Granbury, TX, to meet up with his good friends Ed Peters and Peter Outarsingh who races Dodge Neons. This was the first time to ever be at a race course such as this. After chatting with Ed and Pete about this sport and sharing with them the logging and tuning capabilities of my CSX, I found both of them to be really good guys to hang around.
Pete proceeded to give me a ride in one of Ed's 95 SOHC Student Rental Neon's which was sporting a set of Toyo Proxes RA-1 road course tires connected to a stock suspension, with exception of the ACR struts in the front, (so I was told). Wow! This car equiped with racing seats and 5 point cam lock restraints allowed you to stay in one solid place without even moving an inch. I found these to be very helpful in the event you should ever take an "almost" 90 degree corner in a Neon at 70+ MPH while looking up and noticing no full roll cage exists above you. I will raise my right hand and pledge to never talk bad about a Neon again, on the road course that is, LOL.
After Ed came in from taking Kevin for a ride, I watched him remove the deep dish steering wheel from the column as the light turns on in my head, which takes me back to the steering wheel subject.
I never knew how "deep dished" any steering wheel came, and since a nice quality steering wheel costs $180 - $250, I never really kept looking. Well, as I started a new search on deep dished steering wheels to gain the comfort and control I wanted, it lead me to availability problems. I had to stick with the smaller MOMO style 6 bolt pattern since I had modified the stock Shelby hub, use the stock horn button, wanted a leather grip and the deepest offset I could possibly get.
The only issue I ran into with the style of OMP wheel I wanted was getting the leather grip. With the knowledge of a minimal 8 to 10 week lead time to get the particular steering wheel from Italy I settled on the 350mm diameter 95mm offset Suede covered wheel. The people at Anglo American Racing were the most helpful when it came to the sale of these steering wheels by allowing me to purchase it with the intent to refund the credit if I still wanted to wait for the leather.
The yellow "center of steer" mark and yellow OMP branding was the only thing to throw me off on this wheel, but after the installation, the yellow mark seems to be fairly helpful with cornering degree (much like a gauge).
In conclusion, the Suede makes a very nice grip material enabling total control and no slippage for any reason. It seems to be quite difficult to stay with a stock theme and deliver a heavy performance feel when choosing parts available on the market today, especially with the gauges, B&M Megashifter, logging, and tuning set-up in the car, but I hope to think I'm not hacking the original looks too terribly bad! This wheel definitely did the trick!
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February 27, 2006
After a couple years I was finally able to get the the adjustable cam gear needed instead of having to pull the gear almost off and installing an offset cam key. Running the 89 turbo cam on the 88 square tooth gear caused me to previously use a 4 deg (advanced) offset key to (somewhat) get back to the centerline of the cam.
Ofcoarse, degreeing the cam on your engine would be the correct way to set the centerline of a cam, but this is going by feel and/or dyno testing.
I had always noticed a fair amount of slop in the key way of the OEM gear when changing the keys, so I was never quite sure exactly where the advance was set and made it hard to be consistent when swapping them. It also made it damn difficult to quickly change the cam timing on the dyno.
When I initially swapped the gears, I turned the motor TDC, marked the timing belt at the gear's TDC with a pencil, then removed the 4 deg key and installed the stock key. Thanks to my buddy Tomas, I was able to slide the old gear off and slip on the new one while lining the 0 deg mark of the gear up to the pencil mark on the belt to ensure no teeth were skipped.
Due to the cam being previously around 4 deg advanced, I loosened the adjusting nuts of the gear for free movement having no problems while slipping the gear onto the cam. Guess what? The new gears key way had no slop and was showing 6 deg advance. Apparently, the key way of the old gear had a couple deg slop (if the new gears are accurate).
After dialing the gear back to 4 deg I felt a fair amount of difference in the upper end which was very satisfying, so I'm leaving it there until the new head is installed.
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February 12, 2006
I fixed the overheating problem with another thermostat. Appearently, the last 2 I had gave me problems! Now the car wants to always run 170-180 deg F driving down the highway when the outside air is 30-40 deg F. Another appearent fact is that running a coolant mixture of 30% Antifreeze and 70% water, it runs the car much cooler.
Cleaned up some of the hacked up wiring in the engine today making things look much cleaner than before. Just a note, the Type H BOV's are pretty loud, but sound very smooth. While waiting for the head I did what I normally never do, try and makes things look good.
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January 6, 2006
I will continue trying to get an ECU page up in the future, but for now, the mechanics of the motor will have all of my attention. Trevor, from Johnson Cylinder Heads in Rockwall, TX, called me this morning to discuss a little more about the work on a head I gave him recently. The custom valves are in, so the work is about to begin. This is just in time since the head is trying to overheat.
I do have some of the following items for sale:
3 Laser cut Brushed finish Stainless Steel gauge plates for 88-89 Dodge Daytona cluster.-- $25 each
(These will come ready to install.)
.63 Stage 2 Turbonetics Garrett exhaust housing with very tough and highly efficient Cobalt heat coating. Used for 5 months, replaced with .48 due to head flow. This cost $175 for the Housing and $100 for heat coating.-- Will sell for $200.
Daytona 3 piece rear hatch Spoiler (black). Not in perfect shape, but looks good. Email for details.-- $50 for set.
1984 - up Daytona pillar pod painted grey (paint it for your needs). Holds two 2 1/16" gauges. 3375 Autometer A/F gauge might be sold with it for extra.-- $15 without gauge-- $45 with gauge.
Stock T2 Intercooler. Might have two to sell.-- $50 each
More stuff to come. Please email for questions.
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December 2, 2005
Soon I will be adding a page on Chrysler ECU info including adding a MAX 233 serial converter into my LM in the 87 CSX. It can be hooked to a laptop's COM port and log information through Goeff Allen's ChEM software.
Onto the CSX! The motor is one year old now and some sounds are a' brewin' up. Sounds like piston noise and transmission noise. As far as the J.E. pistons, I wonder if after a year the Dry Film Lubricant coating on the skirts is finally wearing off and I'm hear average forged piston noise?? After the Turbo Action valve body was installed, I don't think the transmission is very happy with me since first to second feels like someone just rammed the ass end of the car when I shift. I bought a 3500 stall Hughes Performance torque converter to see if the noise goes away, but 50 work hours a week is screwing my car time and not helping my Family time much either.
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October 30, 2005
Turbofreak.com's 87 CSX #323 went to track tonight to pull 8 passes and resulting in an 8.982 1/8 mile run. New pics page on the CSX. Large pics! Dial up may take a while to load all of them.
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October 18, 2005
WHOOHOO! After a labor intensive weekend that ripped 46 hours of my life away in 2 1/2 days the CSX is finally done and the "fat pig" Daytuna (as Kevyn calls it) is going bye-bye.
If you haven't heard, I pulled the over 1 year old motor from the Daytona to transplant into the 87 CSX I bought from a friend of mine. Funny thing is that have never liked this style of car at all until I began to fix it up. Everything I've ever wanted to do with any car I did to this one and I love it! I've owned quite a few vehicles, but this one has been a little more difficult to get back on the road than most of my cars since it was pretty hacked up for racing purposes and no where close to being worthy of passing the ever so fearce Texas inspection laws.
Now, the parts that are well worth the swap.
#1 reason.... THE WEIGHT!!!!
Luckily, I always have a calibrated truck scale to go to when I need to weight the cars.
88 Daytona
2940 lbs
87 CSX
2680 lbs
The only thing that was changed was the new Super 70 turbo using the Stock wheel with thhe quick spool option in the .48 housing. It feels way different than the over-sized turbo I ran for a year on the heavy Daytona!
It definately doesn't feel like any loss deciding on the smaller turbo since it seems to be harder to keep it on the road. The other thing that REALLY makes this car more fun than any other is the Turbo Action manual valve body with the B&M Megashifter.
It's pretty wicked to hit second gear and have tires screaming at me at half throttle (haven't felt that in a while with the lag of the other turbo). Lots of start over tuning ahead since I went from SMEC to a LM. More pictures to come soon.
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August 12, 2005
The B&M shifter is installed and mounted 3" higher off the floor for comfortable everyday use with the manual valve body. Luckily this thing turned out to be really solid considering this is one of the few times I have welded (and forget to turn the gas on).
Called Turbos Unleashed to find out a price on a new turbo that would reduce my ever so rediculous lag and decided on the S70 stage1 .63 housing. I have to say that anytime I've talked to Chris, it's like talking to one of my dads contacts (which always ends up being a great conversation). It will be very hard to come up with the money I need within a months time before swapping the motor from the Daytona. A 2.5 guy needs to buy the existing large turbo thats on it.
Since trying to contact any steering wheel maker offering dollars to redo the cracking and crumbling exterior on the Shelby steering wheel in the 87 CSX has granted me no return emails, I decided to buy one from Ebay causing me to re-drill and nutsert the factory hub to install the new one. I can't believe this steering wheel was $33 dollars!!! It looks GREAT for the money and feels like it will be very comfortable.
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July 24, 2005
Shifter, Turbo Action Manual valve body, seats re-worked, carpet comming, shift light comming,...getting so close I can taste it. I'm trying to finish in time to make the 21st Annual Southwest MOPAR Mini Nats Mopar Show & Swap Meet on September 3 & 4, 2005 at the Audubon Park in Garland, TX. Created Page 2 of the restoration pics to show the long hours I put in adding foam and re-shaping the cushion to fix the worn out seat and get rid of the wrinkles in the material. Turned out really decent for being the first time I ever played with reshaping cushion foam. Here is Page 2 of the restoration pics.Page 2
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July 11, 2005
Much closer to getting the CSX on the road. All I can do is work on the interior until the rest of my parts are shipped home. Updated the restoration pics with some trim work that was quite time consuming due to a couple pieces of squre stock welded to the shock towers in the rear for stiffening the rear of the car. I wonder how much oversteer this car will have?
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June 20, 2005
Bought some parts for the CSX this weekend and worked more on the car today.
Here are a few
restoration pics
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June 14, 2005
New vids on the Video Page.
Kevyn's GLHS Omni getting bully'd by:
Chris's wicked SRT-4 and his buddy's Turboed Gasoline fed VW Golf pushing 19 psi. These guy's are sloooow!..... NOT! :).
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June 6, 2005
The CSX is Finally home!
Updated pics here.
Started work on the CSX restoration all day, it felt like +100 degrees! Cleaned it to find a half decent looking car under the dirt and sap. Bought new plastic headlight adjusters to make it road ready, put the dash back together, put my extra Crab wheels on, cleaned the grease off the interior, and changed the hatch shocks to be able to work in the back without getting my head chopped off by a 100 lbs falling hatch. If you know a good place to buy moulded capet, please let me know. Need to also get a different front bumper and front ground effect cover, the front of this thing looks terrible. Pictures comming soon.
I also have some racing video from last night I need to upload and get onto the website. I will try to have that up by a couple days.
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May 22, 2005
Purchased an 87 CSX #323 this weekend.
Click here for some pics.
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May 3, 2005
Went on a little cruise in the Viper Saturday for a little race fun with the camera. Met up with man in a 93 turboed up Supra pushing 24 psi that does a pretty damn good job of walking away from the Viper. Then we ran a GTI VW Golf running 19 psi that pulled pretty good, but wasn't quite enough. Finally, we met up with a SRT-4 Neon with fairly minor modifications that at only 19 psi would flat out stay side-by-side with the Viper! I guess I always had the thought that most street driven 4 cylinders would start running out of steam around 120-130 MPH much like mine, but this was not the case by far 
. When I looked away from the camera and saw the Speedometer pointed near 150 MPH then looked up at the SRT-4 still at the front end of the Viper pulling at the same pace it was pretty wild. On the trek home we met up with a Firebird that seemed to want a race, so I grabbed the camera as fast as I could to start filming and taped minutes worth of a useless stock Firebird race.
It pretty much ended up like this:
Price of fuel racing a Supra w/24 psi boost...............$4.00
Price of fuel racing a SRT-4 w/19 psi boost 3 times.......$8.00
Recording over the SRT-4 races for a stupid stock Firebird
that was only screwing off........
PRICELESS!
I do have some vids I will put on the video page this week. To all the guys involed in the races that I invited to the website for video, I developed a sickness called "Dumb-ass-insit-us", sorry guys. Hope to see you guys at the Motorplex again sometime soon. Until then, enjoy the website!
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February 6, 2005
Due to my new job and tuning on the car it's been a few months since I've updated the website. Racing season starts February 25 at Texas Motorplex and I'm trying to get the car ready and drive it everyday at the same time. Went through the engine last night and decided to do another leakdown test since I've been running the new motor real hard all the time.
The results were real good:
Leakdown Percentage
Cyl 1 = 3%
Cyl 2 = 2%
Cyl 3 = 1%
Cyl 4 = 2%
All this week I was working on a cool little project that makes a light come on for a second when knock is present which helps alot when you can see the knock from the corner of your eye. Now to work on a project which involves cooler intake air temperatures.