300 hp slant w/turbo... suggestion
Iam Intrigued at the thought of a turbo six. When i first kicked around the idea of what to do with my valiant, i made a pro/con list of 225 cu.in. Or V-8 swap. Was originally thinking LS swap. Lots of LS motors powering all kinds of cool cars.
All the while when people ask about the car, invariably people will also ask; "does that have a slant six?" Every one remembers these motors as chugging on long after the bodies fell apart.
I realized then, that this time around i was going to power my car with a turbo. How wild it will be when you pop the hood with a turboed slant?
Collecting parts now, as cheaply as my patience will allow, and reading this forum to learn.
Having been down that same road (I'd had NO experience with either a turbocharger, OR a slant six, before, ) I had to start at "ground zero," as far as learning what was what, so, I've "been there."
There is lots of help available on this forum, and if you need more information, just send me an email at
[email protected] and I may be able to help.
Turbocharging a slant six is a too-well-kept secret, and is neither cheap nor easy, but, the rewards it pays make it well worth the difficulty.
There are several ways to go about this from a standpoit of what kind of performance will make you happy, in the end.
The first, most basic and cheapest method will be a punp gas motor that should give you about 275 horsepower and will run abouut like a stock 340 V8. This engine will use stock pistons and rods (cast pistons) and a stock cam and valvetrain, no intercooler and a 2bbl Holley 350cfm carb on a Super Six manifold. You might want to add a water/alky spray injector to it for insurance against detonation. This level of turbo should be limited to about 12 pounds of boost and should result in an A-Body that will run about 14-flat, or so, at about 98mph in the quarter.
The next level of performance will require forged pistons and rod (about $1,100.0) but, will make more like 325-350 horsepower on 15 pounds of boost. I have that motor in my car right now and have added a ported head with bigger valves, and an aftermarket cam, while making sure the car, itself, is as light as it can be (2,700 pounds without me in it) and am pretty happy with its performance. I use some 9" Hoosier slicks that are 9"-wide and a 2.76 final drive with a spool. It ran 12-seconds flat at 112mph the last time out, with the waste gate set on 15 pounds. The Wallace online calculator said it makes 357 horsepower (It has a Holley double-pumper 650cfm carb on an Aussiespeed Hurricane 4bbl manifold.)
From that level of peformance, the only "upgrades" that make sense are increases in the boost level, set by the waste gate.
For instance; the next time it goes to the strip, it will have the waste gate set on 20 pounds of boost, not 15. Hopefully, that should give me a low-11-second timeslip at about 118 mph.:prayer::prayer::prayer::prayer:
Ultimately, I will probably try 25 pounds of boost, if I haven't experienced some sort of engine failure before then at these increased boost levels. I am not anticipating problems, but this is uncharted waters for me, and you never know...
This turbocharged engine was NOT my idea; what I did was to "carbon copy" (clone?) the engines in two other FABO members' cars that are reliably-known to make a little over 500 horsepower. I am not smart enough to think up this stuff on my own... I am just not.:banghead:
One of those 500hp cars is a '66 Valiant that weighs 2,800 pounds and goes 10.74 at 127 mph. The other is a later model Dart and goes 11-seconds flat at 120+... heavier by about 4-500 pounds.
They were my inspiration. The owner of the Dart, Tom Wolfe (FABO member,) helped me out with tons of information about where to get parts and even spearheaded a "group-buy" of some stronger head studs rom ARP for my builld.
His valuable advice probably saved me $$$$$$$$$$$ and lots of time, searching the internet for parts I needed. He even built me a deep oil pan...
The FIRST thing you'll need to buy for this project is a wideband, data-logging Air/Fuel meter (O2 sensor.) They are not cheap, but you CANNOT do this turbo project without one. You just can't.... so, bite the bullet and research it for the best "buy." Mine came from F.A.S.T. in Memphis. I think it was about $330.00.
Here are a couple of pictures of my project. It's been an interesting activity and I would do it again in a minute! Please email me (
[email protected]) with any questions...
