Well I kind of did an about face on the turbo. I made a smokin' deal on a pair of Turbonetics TC76 ball bearing .81 A/R exhaust turbine ceramic coated turbos. I've always prefered twin turbos on a V engine for aesthetic reasons. But the biggest driver was needing a bigger turbo. The Borg/warner S400 5MM was going to fall short of the capabilitues of the engine their going to boost. I either needed to get a larger single and stay lopsided in the engine compartment and possibly invite turbo lag and spool up on lauch problems. Or get good twins. These came up and I traded the 75MM and some cash for the Turbonetics turbos.




So I'm now figuring out if I'm going to modify my previous single turbo headers into twin individual turbo headers or modify them to run both turbos off the common crossover, placing the turobs up in front of the motor??? Or I have a set of cast steel aftermarket reproduction Ram Air exhaust manifolds that flow really well for turbos. I can adapt them to use for the turbos and sell the custom headers to recoup some money, for other things.



The decision is where to mount the twins, seperately and on either side of the motor, possibly high enough to half stick up through the hood for that cool effect. Or mount them down in the front ahead of the motor. I'm asking around th turbo forums to see if thereare any advantages to seperating the turbo piping to feed them individually, or if there is any advatage in feeding them from a common/crossover pipe with a balanced equal exhaust feed??? So far no one seems to have any thoughts on it.

In post #40 I showed pics of the firewall mods and the mock up motor setting in the frame. It also shows the Moon front timing cover and the Hilborn pump. I originally figured it to be too much trouble to makethe pump operaional, deciding to make it a dummy pump and just run the bypass fuel after the regulator through it back to the tank, so it looked lik it was in the loop. But I've come up with a spud drive adapter to fit the Pontiac, got a spud and now I am planning to make the Hilborn pump an operational part actually supplying the fuel to the motor. I needed a pump and to find an electric one capable of supplying the amount of fuel I'm going to need would cost at least another $400 or more. This Hilborn supplied enough to satisfy over 3000 HP so it should be good for half that fo me. This is the spud drive adaptor and the spud drive.



The adaptor bolts to the from cam gear and the spud bolts to the adaptor. This is the new Moon front cover plate that is designed for the Hilborn 3 bolt mount.



So I'm rolling along with parts and dreaming up mounting mods. I'll add alittle more in the next post. Mark L

I wanted a better oil pan than a stock type to use for the gasser. Since it has no crossmembers I could use almost anything I found. I found a full length summed pan with a screen windage tray.




It also has dividing walls down in the sump with little trap doors to control the oil slosh and movement. So I'm set in the oil pan area. I've gone back to reinstalling the original dash in the car. But because my new sitting placement is so far back, I'm going to close up all the dash openings and not use any gauges etc in the original dash. In this pic you can see where I've cut up the dash to fit around the new steering support. I still have to massage it a little but you can see that the steering wheel will be well back from the original dash. This is the top dash brow or padded top extension piece, stripped of all its padding.



I'm going to use sheet metal to extend that top brow out to the same distance from the original dash that the seats ended up being, which is 10 inches, then build a dash face off of the steering wheel support. I'll build it to cover all of the steering support to you can't see it. I'll build it under the extended top dash extension, and incorporate all the gauges and the speedometer in that. I still have to figure out where I want to place the tach but it will be in a more traditional old school type mount. Possibly off the top of the steeriing column like the old days or up under the new extended top dash brow, kind of hanging in the air. This is the dash as it sets now.





All of the dash openings will get closed up with sheet metal.
I've been beating myself up over a transmission selection. I have a TH400 to build and use, I have a 4L80E to build and use, but I also would LOVE to use a manual trans. Now the dilema. The turbo works best with an automatic to stall up against to build boost for launch. But the fun of shifting a manual is a very strong incentive, although spooling up is very difficult for the strip.
In the mid to late '60'* GM was worried about the GM 3 speed transmissions failing because of the weight of their BOP cars and the torque that the engines made. So they worked with Dearborn transmissions and had them make a GM compatable top loader 3 speed trans. These things are very strong being a toploader trans, the same as the top loader 4 speeds that Ford used in all their hot cars. Now, if I were to forgoe the advantage of the auto trans for spool up and use a manual trans, I decided that I would hunt down one of these transmissions and maybe go that way. The wide gear spacing of the 3 speed would work the turbo between gears better than a narrower geared 4 speed. I contacted a cou[ple of people that may have these transmissions, but most of them said no one wants them so they usually get chucked out. Damn. I was contacted by a guy that had one out of '67 400 Firebird, but he wanted over $300 bucks. Which for a wanted trans is not bad. But no one but me wants one. It'* been setting on his shelf since '68, and he could not sell it, just forgot he had it. But he would not come down in price. I let it go for a while and sent him another message to see if he would reconsider. Still waiting. So I'm going ahead with building the TH400 for full manual, trans brake use. At least I know I can spool up at the strip but I really wanted to shift and bang some gears.
So that'* where I am at this point. Building the trans. Figuring out final trubo placement and which exhaust to use, the headers after modifications, or the Ram Air manifolds modified to run the pipes to the turbos. And building the new dash. Plus, I'm still saddled with a newly built Blow thru CSU 750 carburator. The carb will now become a restriction around 1100 HP, but I have the turbos and the engine built to go for more. I have a full Edlebrock Victor EFI intake and fuel rails to change over to EFI. If I could sell the 750 blow thru it would get me everything I need for the efi except a controller system. Plus I could build the system to run E85 since it has become much more available around here in the last year. And hopefully more as time moves on. You use about 30% more fuel but it is around 105 octane and would allow some really powerful tuning with the turbos. OK done for now. I hope I haven't put you to sleep. Mark L

wow! this is insane! so unique
that turbo is

Thanks Sammy. Always wanted to build something like this, never had either time, or money, or the place to do it all at the same time. With the sale of my TransAm it gave me money, being retired it givese time, and I have just enough room in my garage for this behemoth to fit so I have the room. This will likely be the last car that I will build so I want it the way I want it. Some think I'm crazy, yup I am. That'* the fun of it all. Thanks again for the kind words and support guys. It means alot. Mark L

Hey guys have not been very active but I've got a seemingly small start on working on it again. Been redoing the yard, digging up all of the gravel yard that we built and preparing it for artificial grass. We graveled the yard first and then made the mistake of getting a dog. She knocks all the gravel into the pool so we are running artificial grass around it now. Anyway. I had four of the 3/4 inch heim joints for the rear of the bars and the steel tubing to build my ladder bars. I finally ordered and received the weld bungs for the ends. And I ordered spherical rod joints for the front of the bars. I'll take pics of them as soon as I have all the parts together. So I'm going to building the bars soon. I'm going to make a girder style but somewhere in the middle of the bar I'm going to add a flat steel plate support with a Pontiac V cut in it. Just for looks. They are going to be about 48 inch bars. Will know once I get started and do all the measuring.
Since I traded the single turbo for the twins, I've been building all kinds of induction systems in my head, and checking on prices, looking for deals etc. The engine will be capable of alot of HP, the twins will be capableof 2000 hp, but the single 750 will be the first restriction, followed by the intake and then the heads. So I've come up with possibly adding a Tunnel Ram with twin 750 blow thrus. I'v talked to the guys that built my 750 and they can duplicate it and also mod both carbs to work better as twins. Of course it just takes money. So I've been trying to sell a couple of things I've had sitting around to build money for that. With that system I will never be restricted before the heads. May never use the full potential of the intake system but it will never slow me down either. I also think the visual impact of the twin turbos, feeding twin intercoolers, feeding twin 750'*, on a Tunnel ram will be just amazing. Let'* just see if I can make it happen.
I also found a great deal on a 35 spline detroit locker and sent for it. I already have a 31 spline locker but I have always felt that the 31 might not be strong enough for the power and the heavy car. I just feel much more secure with 35 splined axles than the 31. If they never break I'll never know. If the 31 did then I would always kick myself.
So all that and when I find a good aftermarket speedometer I can start designing and building my final dash configuration. I did cut up and place my original dash in place but I'm still not sure I want that back in the car. It'* a lot of weight for nothing. It was not going to do anything other than sit there for looks. I still want to the use the upper padded dash extension and make it bigger to reach farther back than stock. Maybe I can design and build a complete dash off of that. l think it will be better in the long run. So that is where I am right now. We'll see how it progresses. Mark L

You do some very nice work!

Thanks for th ecompliment. I only wish I had better welding skills. Pretty sloppy in places, especially where I had to weld overhead. BUT, I did it myself and I love fabricating so it was fun. I've have planned and wanted to build this type of car since I was in my teens. I did a little to this car (fiberglass tilt to a '67 Nova) and a little to that car (raised and radious rear wheelwells to the Nova and my '64 Catalina) but never did a ground intentional build to incorporate it all in one vehicle. Now I'm doing it all with what I have and having fun doing it. My only designed in regret is using turbos instead of a big in your face blower. But turbos are just so darn user friendly and they are easier to make work (intercooling etc) and I love how controllable they are. Meaning. A simple twist of **** on the wastegates make it a 500 hp motor or 1500 hp motor. Anywho. Thanks for nice comment. I just hope I don't "change" things so often that I never get it done. It'* easy to do that if you 're not careful. Mark L

I bought a 35 spline locker from a member here and it came today.



I picked up a 31 spline locker a while ago but I do not feel safe with only a 31 spine sized axle. I'll feel safer now.

Plus I got all my rod ends and bungs together for a family photo. The 3/4 inch sphericals are from Spohn and the 3/4 inch ends are from "swap meet". Got the weld bungs from Speedway.



So now I can start building the ladders. Mark L

Did some fabricatin' today. I made a plywood template/pattern for building the 50 inch ladder bars. Just mapped out the bolt up points and located 1/2 bolts thru the points to located the rod ends.



Then put the rod ends/weld bungs on the template bolts to measure for the main rails. Cut the rails and mocked it all together. In this pic the top bar is not yet angle cut to fit the bottom rail at the front.



Now the top rail is sliced to fit to the front of the top rail. Still needs some grinding and fitting to get it right.



Next up after fine fitting the slice, I have to make the reinforcing tubes to tie the bottom and top rails together. Then tack it all together and finally decide if I want to try the final welding or take them to a good welder. We'll see.

Mark L

Looking good thanks for the updates