'76 Dart Lite -- Budget Boost Build

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Backtobasics

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I have had the Dart Lite for several years. Drove it daily for a few, it has been sitting for a while due to life situations.

It's time to bring it back. It sat because I couldn't get a decent 1 bbl carb for anything.

I bought a 2 bbl setup through FABO a while back. I got to the point of looking at setup, and exhaust manifold is cracked. It cracked at a convenient spot, that allowed me to cut if off for turbo manifold.

I picked up an RB25DET turbo off local Craigslist, for 40.00 bucks.

I started to make an adapter from manifold to turbo out of stainless at work, but it might be too thin, I haven't confirmed yet.

Turbo is probably a little on the smaller side, OE Nissan application is 2.5, but it will get into boost sooner, especially on the /6 with low RPM.

I cut the manifold at the right spot, ported a little bit, and surprisingly, the opening of the manifold and the opening of the turbo are just about spot on match to each other.

Basic plans are a blow through setup, no intercooler. Turbo will be directly under intake, and use a minimum of mandrel bent tubing to come right back up and blow through the carb. If temps are too high, I will look to alky/water injection, and keep it under the stock Dart Lite hood.

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I would love to see more pics of the car itself.
Sounds like you got some good plans!
 
For now, this is going to be a true budget setup. I am going to list costs along the way. I paid 150.00 for 2 bbl setup, with carb, exhaust and intake, plus air cleaner. Most people might alreay have this, so I am starting the budget with the cost of the turbo, at $40.00 off Craigslist.

It might not be absolutely ideal, but this car is not going to be raced, but driven, intown, to shows, etc. If it builds too much boost, I will dump pressure from the internal wastegate.

Budget:
$40.00
 
For now, this is going to be a true budget setup. I am going to list costs along the way. I paid 150.00 for 2 bbl setup, with carb, exhaust and intake, plus air cleaner. Most people might alreay have this, so I am starting the budget with the cost of the turbo, at $40.00 off Craigslist.

It might not be absolutely ideal, but this car is not going to be raced, but driven, intown, to shows, etc. If it builds too much boost, I will dump pressure from the internal wastegate.

Budget:
$40.00

Good luck, sticking with that concept!

We were going to do something similar; all junkyard parts, low boost, stock everything in the short block... $2,500.00 budget, tops!

Look what we ended up with...:wack:
 

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Bill,
I love your build, and I understand the blown budget situation, but that is monetarily not possible. I am father of 4, wife at home, etc.

I think I can do this for a few hundred bucks.

My projected budget:
40.00 turbo
25.00 for exhaust manifold to turbo adapter (metal, I will fabricate)
75.00 for oil feed and return lines, and water lines to and from turbo
50.00 for cold side piping, carb hat, hard line to pressure fuel pump, and down pipe to connect to existing exhaust system
25.00 for carb rebuild kit and modifications

175.00 projected budget. Obviously there will be more, but piping for cold side will be very minimal, a couple u bends from turbo to top of carb, no frills. Even the carb hat will be fabricated from 2.5 tubing that matches the neck of the carb inlet.
 
You might want to enclose the carburetor in a box to minimize pressurization modifications.
Will the stock float stand up to boost?
Is the Dart Lite distributor compatible with running boost, the advance curve is very different from a "normal" slant.
The BOV could be as simple as a low pressure radiator cap (6 PSI) plumbed into the tubing.
Just a few thoughts from someone else that has considered such a thing.
 
I did not see anywhere how much psi you plan on running, I assume since it is on a budget maybe 6 pounds? I think if your running around 6 pounds you can get away without a BOV.

Not sure what you could do about timing. maybe weld up the advance slots to limit the advance? I know they have things to retard timing when boost comes on but this is a budget build.:finga:


I can't wait to see how this turns out.
 
Bill,
I love your build, and I understand the blown budget situation, but that is monetarily not possible.



I think you misunderstood the thrust of my little post...

I would not recommend what WE did, to ANYBODY, unless they have sacks full of money to throw at it.

We never intended to end up in the poorhouse (and we just about HAVE) doing this build, but we allowed ourselves to be intrigued by the idea of a ten-second ride, and the smart thing to do, if that was our goal, was to follow the lead that Ryan and Tom laid out for us. I'm not blaming those two guys; they never coerced us into doing ANYTHING, but their cars just ran so danged GOOD, we couldn't see anything else but to copy-cat their successful combinations.

I am on a fixed income, and it's not "fixed" very well....:angry3:

My partner, Freddie, has had to come up with money when he shouldn't have, to take up the slack when my credit cards were maxed out, so if you have the idea that we built this project with spare change, well... we struggled MIGHTILY to get this thing together... and, it's taken us about 3 years to do it!

Turbocharging has one thing going for it; you can spend as much or as little as you want, and still have fun.

I really like the plan you have for your car, and I don't see any reason why it wouldnt be 100-% workable!

This board has a lot of people on it who can (and, will) help you.

All you have to do is ask... I'm way excited about your project!:blob:
 
Next installment.

I bought metal from local metal by the foot place, from their scrap bin. Metal for the manifold to turbo adapter, and metal for base of the down pipe, was 8 dollars and change, so for purposes of discussion, $10.00 bucks.

I cut it at work, and used a mill to open the inside. This is probably the one splurge area of the build, the shops tools. I am only here for another week, so I wanted to hustle on the adapter. I only have the one picture that came through, but will get some better ones.

I also clocked the cold side of the turbo, to give me clearance under the intake manifold, loosened 6 -13mm bolts, and rotated the housing.

slantturbo.jpg
 
Next installment.

I bought metal from local metal by the foot place, from their scrap bin. Metal for the manifold to turbo adapter, and metal for base of the down pipe, was 8 dollars and change, so for purposes of discussion, $10.00 bucks.

I cut it at work, and used a mill to open the inside. This is probably the one splurge area of the build, the shops tools. I am only here for another week, so I wanted to hustle on the adapter. I only have the one picture that came through, but will get some better ones.

I also clocked the cold side of the turbo, to give me clearance under the intake manifold, loosened 6 -13mm bolts, and rotated the housing.

slantturbo.jpg


Looks good from here!!!

Keep on keepin' on; that sort of thing is true hot rodding, to me!!!:cheers:
 
Here are some shots of the side of the adapter that holds the turbo to the adapter.

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I am using recessed stainless allen bolts, with split lock washer, and grade 8 nuts, to hold the turbo to the adapter.
 
The side that connects the adapter to the manifold is harder, as there is not a ton of meat in the manifold, and the overall size of the adapter is a bit small. I wanted to give the outlet of the manifold as much volume as possible, but the top and bottom bolts look like I may have to get a little creative, as there isn't quite enough room for the 8 - 32mm allen bolts I hoped. Due to the thickness of the adapter, I may tap it on the horizontal plane, top and bottom, and fashion some type of strap that goes around the back of the exhaust manifold to tug the adapter to the exhaust manifold. Since the holes are symetrical like the turbo flange, I used some clear plexiglass scrap to mock up, and the holes still aren't perfect.

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Here is adapter lightly bolted to the exhaust manifold:
stuff269.jpg
 
Here are some shots of the side of the adapter that holds the turbo to the adapter.I am using recessed stainless allen bolts, with split lock washer, and grade 8 nuts, to hold the turbo to the adapter.


Nice work! Keep us updated, please, and the pictures are great!:happy1:
 
Here we are at the end of my patience for the night:

Two side small 8 -32 allen bolts are holding the adapter to the exhaust manifold. Tomorrow I will build a strap setup that goes around the back of the exhaust manifold to tug the top and bottom against the exhaust manifold. I will also track down some sheet copper or high temp exhaust gasket material, to make the gaskets. Once the adapter is bolted back onto the exhaust manifold, it is staying put, as the holes are small, tapped directly into the cast iron, and they even protrude into the exhaust ports. I am only going to bolt the adapter on one more time, to try and save the threads.

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The side that connects the adapter to the manifold is harder, as there is not a ton of meat in the manifold, and the overall size of the adapter is a bit small. I wanted to give the outlet of the manifold as much volume as possible, but the top and bottom bolts look like I may have to get a little creative, as there isn't quite enough room for the 8 - 32mm allen bolts I hoped. Due to the thickness of the adapter, I may tap it on the horizontal plane, top and bottom, and fashion some type of strap that goes around the back of the exhaust manifold to tug the adapter to the exhaust manifold. Since the holes are symetrical like the turbo flange, I used some clear plexiglass scrap to mock up, and the holes still aren't perfect.

That all sounds good to me! I especially like "fashion some type of strap that goes around the back of the exhaust manifold to tug the adapter to the exhaust manifold." I think that ought to work well. :hello1:
 
I also need to track down a stub of 5" tubing, to make the down pipe snout. The turbo is internally wastegated, but it didn't come with a down pipe. I have no idea what the stock down pipe looked like, but there is a nice flange surface. I am going to take some cardboard, make a gasket, transfer it over to flange material (mild steel, bought with other metal), and take a scrap piece of 5" stainless (I work in food industry for next week), and pie cut it to taper it down to 2.5, so it can handle the wastegate feature, and have 2.5 snout for exhaust to connect to down the road.
 
Sorry for the abundance of pictures, but the reason is two fold: It keeps me motivated, and I have always enjoyed threads of a DIY nature that included progress pictures, and not the final product only. I will admit it takes a certain mindset to stop for pictures, instead of hammering through the process.
 
Budget:

In theory, same as before, but I will tweak for accuracy sake:

I might have spent $15.00 for the fasteners, had I not worked in an industry where we have abundance of fasteners. I found all these in the company scrap bins, so they cost me nothing, but I will count them in for accuracy sake.

The adapter would have some cost to it for the machining. I would guess someone could build it at home, with some hand tools and time. I used the mill here at work, and it still was a fair amount of work. If I was going to do it again, I would have the adapter water or laser cut locally, and then do my own drilling from there. For the time it took me, I would probably be ahead of the game, but I used what I have.

I am not counting anything into the budget for the adapter, other then base material cost. You make your own guess for budget purposes.
 
Hey Backtobasics, awesome thread. All of a sudden /6's don't sound so bad after all. Just my 2 cents on the downpipe-2.5 inches may be a little too small, especially if you're gonna have a crush-bend exhaust made for the car. In my experience with imports, turbo engines don't like back pressure and the bigger/shorter exhausts work best. Just to give you an idea, I run a 2.5 inch exhaust on my all motor civic and my buddy has an rb20det in his 240sx with a 3 inch downpipe, 3 inch mandrel bent pipe going into a dynomax bullet and dumping right before the rear axle. Just my 2 cents. Keep up the great work!!!
 
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