Patrick's Twin Turbo 350 Build Thread

Well we made it halfway to LA tonight, staying at a car/motorcycle themed hotel and will do the second leg tomorrow!

So far, the engine runs like a champ! It cools super well. I'm still not getting lockup in 4th though, and in the heat the trans got up to 210, but usually hovers around 180-190. I called Bowler and got some instructions on trouble shooting the lockup module, will do that after the trip.

The only other issue is the rear tires rubbing on bumps. I'm going to buy and angle grinder in the morning and further "massage" the rear arches

Wish us luck tomorrow!

 

Good luck!
Sounds like things are working well!

 

Car made it to LA no problem!



I decided instead of trimming my rear fenders more, to go down a tire size. Things are rubbing pretty bad to the point where I was worried about a tire popping. I'm moving from a 295/50/15 to a 275/60/15. I'm hoping the extra 10mm of clearance will be enough.

Luckily a local tire shop in LA had Radial T/As in stock and I'm getting them mounted tomorrow morning.

The fronts rub a little on hard turns, so I'll have to deal with that but it's nowhere near as bad as the rears.

I think the tire swap will make the drive back up much less stressful!

 

Good to hear all went well

 

Bigger squirter and/or a more aggressive pump cam like the brown one.

 

Been busy and haven’t had time to update the thread!

As you guys know I finally got the car running and took it about 1500 miles to LA/San Diego and back. It was a blast! We got to see family and friends, and catch a Formula Drift race at Irwindale on the way back!

I was reading back into this thread and it seems that the last real thing I posted was fabricating the radiator mounts, but the truth is that there were SO many last minute things I did to make the car road worthy.

These include:

Install all of the Spohn tubular rear suspension. This includes adjustable upper and lower control arms with Del-Sphere joints (Johnny Joints), and rear end housing bushings of the same type. You may remember that these housing bushings ended up being the source of a MAJOR PITA when they cracked my housing. Suffice it to say that I had to change to a different rear end entirely, and pay to get it set up properly, something I was planning on doing much farther into the future. As far as the suspension pieces go however, they seem of great quality and went in easily. I will say that if I was going to do it over again, I would have gone UMI all the way as Spohn’s customer service was terrible! Lesson learned.

Fabcraft was amazing to work with on the other hand, and made extra sure to sell me the correct parts for the ’66 Pontiac 8.2” rear I ended up using, including a difficult to find solid pinion spacer! I took the junkyard fresh 8.2”, a spare set off 3.08 gears (that came with it), and the Fabcraft install kit to a local rebuilder and they got me all set up.

Now the carrier in the 8.2” I installed was a posi type, and I had hoped that it was an aftermarket unit and would magically work, but alas I was still getting the one tire fire. After talking to Jim (Monzaz) I come to find that it’s and OEM cone type posi. Jim offered to rebuild it for a very reasonable price (considering many call these “unrebuildable”), so I sent it off and have it back in the car. I haven’t had a chance to test it yet but will soon!

While I was installing the rear suspension I also took the time to install UMI control arm mounting braces, as people on the forum swear they are essential and I trust them! These were more of a pain to put in, and also rub my rear brake line just a touch, I tried bending the line out of the way by hand but I’m hoping I mounted the line rigidly enough that they aren’t vibrating against each other.

Speaking of sketchy brake things, turns out the axles I ordered from Rockauto (yes now I know that was a big mistake) were wrong. Not only were the axles too long and had to be trimmed down to fit the carrier, they don’t stick far enough out from the axle flange. This means my disc brake kit does not fit and the rotor and caliper alignment it all messed up. Since I didn’t have time to get new axles with bearing pressed on ect (I think I only had about a week and a half left until the road trip at this point) I ended up buying new drum brake hardware, and running a 1/4” wheel spacer under the drum to space it out correctly. Sketchy but it works. I didn’t even have time to buy or install new parking brake assemblies as I had thrown all my OEM drum brake stuff in the trash long ago. So if I decide to keep using this 8.2” then I’ll get proper axels some day. If not then it’s a custom 9” next time.

For wiring, I ended up basically ripping my whole engine wiring harness apart and after much confusion, isolated the two primary power wires and replaced them with new crimps and wire, completely cutting out the OEM external voltage regulator. I went from the bulkhead connector to a lug on a 200amp circuit breaker that I’m treating as my new “splice”, and from that to the battery. Alternator runs to the battery as does the starter, and I’m using an internally regulated 130amp CS130. Voltage sensing wire is connected to an engine bay fuse box which lets me wire in additional circuits when needed.

Once I got back from LA I installed one more Spohn piece that I hadn’t had time for previously, their adjustable “pro-touring” sway bar. Of course the mounting brackets didn’t fit, so I had to hack them apart and weld them on. Access with the TIG welder wasn’t pretty and I wasn’t able to brake out the MIG next to me leaky gas tank, so I did the best I could. I noticed that I had to install the end links in a staggered position and I finally figured out a few days ago that the driver’s side of the rear is sitting 1-2” higher than the passage side, so I think something odd is going on with the ride height.

I ended up taking the Skylark to a drift event, though I was mostly going to support my friends I couldn’t help it and took the car out on a track a few times:

Here’s proof of the one tire fire:



And here’s a couple runs around the track and random pictures from the event:













This was my first time trying to drift anything other than my light, nimble, and low powered AE86 (Toyota Corolla). The Skylark is different in almost every way, it's big, heavy, more powerful, and automatic. Also the diff not locking made it especially tough! It's going to take a while to get used to it but I'm excited for the challenge.

 

FANTASTIC!
Glad to see your having fun with it and wearing stuff ( the tire/s) out
That’s what it’s all about

 

So, even after getting the diff rebuilt it is still a 1-wheel wonder?

 

So all of the above videos are from before the diff rebuild, I’m going to find out how the rebuilt carrier works this Monday during my next drift event!

 

Just watched the vids, thats cool!
Theres very very little body lean I see.
What oil pan you running?

 

Thanks! I’m running a custom SRE aluminum pan with trapdoors, with 7 qts of oil per Steve’s instructions. It was pricey, but I was worried about oil starvation in high G corners. So far this pan performs excellently and looks amazing to boot. Only thing is I can’t pull the engine and trans together anymore, but the feeling of security about the oil is well worth it!

The lack of body roll is probably due mostly to the suspension setup and the boxed frame:

-BMR 2” Lowering Springs all around (had to run spacers to raise the front back up because I was scraping the trans pan on everything)

-Front 1.25” stock style sway bar (from a Chevelle)

-Rear Spohn adjustable “Pro-Touring” sway bar on the medium setting

-New crappy AC Delco shocks (will hopefully replace with adjustables soon)

-Summit tubular front upper and lower A-Arms with Delrin bushings

-0.9” upper and 0.5” lower front ball joints

-Spohn adjustable upper and lower control arms out back

More videos to come soon (with hopefully less spinning out )

 

Dude, this is so dope! Awesome videos.

 

Nice!
I have one of Steve’s pans also, minus the trap doors, didn’t really need them for my application, I just drive straight
I was hoping you were running something other than the stock pan, which is more like a dish, LOL.

 

Yeah I wasn’t about to take any chances with a stock pan. The policy I’ve been trying to adhere to is that it’s ok to buy expensive parts if I can reuse them on a properly built 350 in the future!

 

The pan was pricey but worth it, top quality for sure

 

I also have one of Steve’s pans. Worth every penny and Steve is a stand up guy.

 

The twin turbo build up will be sweet. I’ve been pondering doing a single turbo on my 350-
Does Mark Burton sell a single turbo kit?

 

Single turbo is the way to go!

 

…my reasoning is that I want to maintain keep the a/c thus put the turbo on the other side….. anyone currently running a turbo (s)? Anyone selling a kit?

 

I don't think Mark is selling kits anymore, so you'll likely have to fabricate manifolds etc!