1970 Duster AlterKtion, 4 Link, LS/T56/Turbo and Minitub
Time for some updates....
Quick recap, I had the car dyno tuned and it just didnt make the power I felt it should be making for a turbo 5.3 running 21lbs of boost. And driving it on the street after it felt kind of sluggish compared to the 340 even and just didnt feel like a 584whp car. So after I got home I've been doing some digging and trouble shooting looking for an issue.
First I built a PVC cap to attach to the front of the turbo where the air cleaner would go to pressure check the system. I found the throttle shaft was leaking on the aftermarket TB so I took apart a factory TB and added the gasket. Then I found one of my intake manifold orings wasnt seated right so I had an intake leak and fixed that. Im sure that made it run a little shitty, BUT I still was weary that that would rob so much power.
Since this issue has been bothering me so much (quite disheartening honestly after all this work) and I had too many unknowns still I wanted to start at the top and do a compression test. So I pulled the plugs two nights ago to start and cylinder 1 plug looked awful shiny still. I was like "hmmm that's odd". So I continued and did the compression test and each cylinder was 190-200 except cylinder 1 was 180 (also thought that was weird). Then I was going to verify timing following the sloppy mechanics "how to" video with an LS using a piston stop, creating a pointer and marking your harmonic balancer to use a timing light. I get the light out and all hooked up andddddd my timing light wouldn't turn on.
so I try some different things and no luck. For the hell of it I grab a spare coil, plug wire and plug and plug it in to check spark. Spare has spark so the pigtail harness is good. Attach the same wire and open plug to the coil in the car. No spark >.< Dead coil out of the box!!! Or it died sometime after it was installed but with how clean the plug was I'd say DOA. Also makes me think the rings in that cylinder havent been "set" yet since theres been no load in that cylinder yielding the 180psi. But you couldnt really feel a skip!! Every once in a while I could barely feel something and was like man I almost feel a skip. But I'd think "naaah its all brand new". It was so hard to tell that myself and my buddy who I took on a test ride, which both of us have been around engines and HP shenanigans a long time didnt notice it AND the tuner on the dyno didnt notice it. I took 2 videos to simulate the difference. I will say open headers I could REALLY notice it. In the video with the turbo back on you can BARELY hear it when I first jab the throttle. With full exhaust you cant really tell. These LS motors just run so damn good. Soooo anyways, it made 584WHP on 7 cylinders lol IF the coil was indeed DOA.
This is the car firing on all 8
This is the car firing on 7 replicating the dead coil
I also started working on the 4" exhaust for the car with leftover diesel piping since the 3" was too restrictive.
Time for some updates....
Quick recap, I had the car dyno tuned and it just didnt make the power I felt it should be making for a turbo 5.3 running 21lbs of boost. And driving it on the street after it felt kind of sluggish compared to the 340 even and just didnt feel like a 584whp car. So after I got home I've been doing some digging and trouble shooting looking for an issue.
First I built a PVC cap to attach to the front of the turbo where the air cleaner would go to pressure check the system. I found the throttle shaft was leaking on the aftermarket TB so I took apart a factory TB and added the gasket. Then I found one of my intake manifold orings wasnt seated right so I had an intake leak and fixed that. Im sure that made it run a little shitty, BUT I still was weary that that would rob so much power.
Since this issue has been bothering me so much (quite disheartening honestly after all this work) and I had too many unknowns still I wanted to start at the top and do a compression test. So I pulled the plugs two nights ago to start and cylinder 1 plug looked awful shiny still. I was like "hmmm that's odd". So I continued and did the compression test and each cylinder was 190-200 except cylinder 1 was 180 (also thought that was weird). Then I was going to verify timing following the sloppy mechanics "how to" video with an LS using a piston stop, creating a pointer and marking your harmonic balancer to use a timing light. I get the light out and all hooked up andddddd my timing light wouldn't turn on.
This is the car firing on all 8
This is the car firing on 7 replicating the dead coil
I also started working on the 4" exhaust for the car with leftover diesel piping since the 3" was too restrictive.
