Project: TurboBrougham!!

[bs009]

So I knew the front brakes weren't great so I figured I'd replace them while it's in the garage.
I was able to find a 2wd blazer in the junkyard with dual piston calipers so I went and grabbed everything from it.


(The steering rack is for the Regal)

The S10/blazer knuckles are basically exactly the same as what came on the g-body's as far as geometry goes. These knuckles though use a sealed bearing instead of the packed bearings that came on the GP so those will be fairly easy to replace if I ever have to do that again. These also have a more modern caliper bracket mount design so it will be easier to install big brakes in the future.
The blazer brakes also have larger diameter brake rotors and of course the dual piston calipers with more pad surface area.

I've heard a lot about how bad the brakes are on these cars from the factory so I'm sure this will be a very nice upgrade.

stock front brakes:


comparison of rotors:


These may have been the pads that came on the car from the factory:


Stock knuckles removed


At this point I'm waiting on a package to arrive with the new ball joints and tie rod ends before I can install the new parts. Pretty much everything I can do at this point I'm waiting on parts for.

I did start to reinstall all of the exterior trim pieces and paint and seal up everywhere that I had to cut out rust. I also started to finish up the interior. Biggest issue there will be figuring out whether I will modify my passenger seat to remove the middle seat where the shifter is at or if I should just get different front seats. Still not entirely sure what I'll do there yet.

[bs009]

Front suspension is finally finished. New front brakes installed as well; just need to bleed everything.

original ball joints removed:



Finally was able to press in the lower ball joint:



New front brakes and spindles installed:



painted rear drums for fun too!



Was able to connect the parking brake properly as well. The handbrake is no longer just a prop

bracket where the cables connect:



mounted in the tunnel:



all of the exhaust re-assembled and I've added a knockoff tial blow off valve for now. Was going to run without one originally but decided to go with this.

[bs009]

New FPR and all of its ridiculously priced fittings:


Gutted stock FPR. Going to have Matt tig weld the vacuum port on it shut so it doesn't leak.


Installed new regulator and braced:


Twin catch cans! lol


How it sits right now.



I sorted out a lot of issues I was having with the exterior lights. The turn signals weren't working, and some of the lights weren't turning on. Turns out these things are really picky with how you put in the rear taillights, and I found a ground I forgot to connect. I also found a few broken wires in the factory wiring harness that was affecting the way it runs.

This thing is pretty much ready for the road. I'm getting plates and new rear tires on Wednesday and am hoping to take it for a roadtrip next week!

[luke_dubs]

It's very interesting to see a build like this!!! I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's all finished. So far, so good!!

[bs009]

stock FPR blocked off:


the outlet that came with my turbo stuck out too much being at a ~75* angle.
I replaced it with one I found one on ebay so I could close my hood:



Hood installed again for the first time in almost 3 years!


New rear tires!



Using BFG G-force Comp2 all seasons in 245/50-16's for now. Will be running the same on the front soon too! The front has a set of 205/60-16 Michelin symmetry's right now.


So the car has plates on it now and I took it down the street a couple of times. The alignment is way out of wack and the brakes still feel mushy. It developed a coolant leak since I had a loose radiator hose clamp. I also found an oil leak at the dipstick; looks like when it went into boost it started blowing out oil there. I shoved it in properly again and it should be good now.
One of the other issues was that it was misfiring under boost. I'm running a set of autolite 104's gapped at .050". I lowered the gap to .045" after that drive so hopefully that solves the issue. I won't know until tomorrow though because now my junkyard starter decided it would have none of this and stopped working.

So now, I should just have to replace that starter, pump the clutch a lot, replace a parking brake cable that I broke, and keep an eye on fluid leaks and it should be in good shape. I'll also try to get an alignment in this weekend if I can.
I'm going to try to take a roadtrip with it on sunday. I'll bet it'll do great as long as I solve those issues. it's sort of a roadkill inspired idea so I'll see how this plays out here.

[MattStrike]

Roadtrip to cruise and photos? We could make it a convoy.

[bs009]

I'd be down as long as I can be sure I've sorted out any little issues it has. I should be able to fix everything I ran into yesterday sometime tonight and take it in for an alignment tomorrow.

As long as it all goes alright it will be in for a long roadtrip this weekend.

[bs009]

Fixed pretty much everything that went wrong the other day. Had to go through a few different starter motor/solenoid combinations to find a working one.

Looks like I'll need to rebleed all of the brakes yet again and now the car has started to do a weird backfire thing when it's idling. Wideband shows me that it's running really lean too.

Basically I'm chasing my tail right now and fixing the same issues over and over again. I am so tired and just want this thing to *fook* work.

[bs009]

Looks like what it was going through last night was a misfire in the cylinder and probably detonation in the manifold.
I did have to adjust the tune since I lowered the fuel pressure at 1 atm. to 44 psi to see if that would help the idle quality of the 80# injectors.

I switched out the plugs I had in the cylinders with a set of autolite 103's I had lying around and gapped those to .045 as well and that seems to have solved the misfire it was having at idle.

It is still misfiring under boost though in 1st and 2nd. If I stay in it lightly in 3rd I can get it up ~10 psi before it starts to break up. This thing is pretty quick!

I won't be taking it on a roadtrip this weekend though because it looks like it still has an oil leak. I can see oil dripping down by the transmission so it looks like I'll have to replace the rear main seal before I can take it on any long trips. For now though it'll be good for around town!

Here it is washed for the first time in almost 3 years!


At some park:


Look at them meats

[bs009]

I fixed the oil leak. I dropped the trans and took out the clutch to find that the oil leak was coming from the dipstick. The flywheel was completely dry so I didn't bother to pull that out.
I did replace the clutch slave cylinder though while I had the trans out. I've been having a hard time getting the clutch hydraulic line out and it seemed like the original cylinder did not want to bleed properly.
After installing the new one I gravity bled it and within 10 seconds it was flowing out plenty of fluid. Clutch pedal is now nice and hard.

I also found the issue that I was having with bleeding the brakes was due to a button that needs to be pushed in on the proportioning valve. Brakes feel perfect now!

It is still misfiring under boost right now though. I gapped the plugs down to 0.035" and that might have helped, but it's still missing. I'm thinking it has a lot to do with the tune; I know the fuel trims are way out right now so I have a lot of work cut out for me there.

The latest issue now is that it looks like I blew the oil seals in the turbo. The car is now blowing a LOT of smoke out the exhaust. It's not noticeable while moving, but it's a lot of smoke when moving from a standstill. Not sure that I could have blown it from too much pressure or not though. I'm using a -4an line with a restrictor to feed oil to the turbo, and a -10an line as a return to the oil pan. At idle it would have ~40 psi cold, and ~25 - 30 psi hot. I do have the higher pressure spring too so it will see somewhere around 75 psi at higher rpms.
It wasn't blowing much of any smoke before so it looks like that turbo will have to come out.

Here's a video of the misfiring under boost though from before it started blowing all of the smoke:
https://youtu.be/60mEWnaWW_8

[bs009]

So the turbo is coming out this week so I can rebuild it. I ordered the kit to rebuild it so hopefully that's all it will need. It is definitely leaking from the turbo since I can see some oil being let out by the blow off valve:



I think I've also determined that what I thought were misfires was actually some sort of part throttle turbo surge. I've been too afraid to get into the throttle on it and the blow off valve has not been opening properly so that would make sense. I'm going to cut a few coils off of the spring on my cheap chinese tial knockoff BOV to see if I can get that dialed in. That should take care off the surge if that is what's going on.

I also took some time to clay bar and throw some wax on the car.

Half of the roof clayed:


trunk clayed:


This was white when I started:



First section of the trunk hit with HD Speed on a white pad:


Entire trunk done:


left and bottom portion relative to the camera done on hood:


finished shots:






I didn't do any of the lower color just because I was short on time. The paint needs a lot more work though before I'll be happy with it. I'm planning on finishing up by claying the bottom color too, polishing everything, and then going over it with as many layers of Megiuar's #7 as the paint will absorb. That should help bring some life back into the oxidized and dried up portions of the paint. After that I'm planning on following it up with a coat of P21S!

Before I can get into all of that fun stuff though I'll need to make sure I fix the turbo and the blow off valve and make it more road-worthy.

[bs009]

I rebuilt the turbo yesterday. This thing was drenched in oil on both the exhaust and intake sides.

Cheapo Turbo rebuild kit



oil in the charge pipe where the BOV connects:



compressor housing:



turbo out:



compressor housing removed:



exhaust housing removed so there's only the cartridge here. Vice is not clamping down on the blade in case you're worried:



some parts removed. apparently this is all I have of it being disassembled:


Here you can see the original journal bearings:


re-assembled:


compressor housing cleaned:


The turbo is bolted back into the car at this point. It seems like it spins more freely now so hopefully I didn't make things worse than what it was. Hopefully this solves its ridiculous oil leak.

[bs009]

Bolted back into the car:



re-assembled:


and some random photos of it after it was running again:






Same motors, one turbo RWD manual, and one supercharged FWD auto:

[bs009]

Still working on a few of the gremlins on this car.

- turbo is much better, but still leaking some oil
- still misfiring at high rpms. Doesn't really seem to be associated with boost really.
- blow off valve is garbage so I'll have to replace that altogether
- still need to get it aligned
- needs a passenger seat!

I'm thinking that at this point it's leaking oil in the turbo because my oil drain line is too small. I'm using a -10AN line for the drain right now and it looks like I'll need to make that at least a -12 or a -14.
I ordered the factory oil drain adapter for this turbo so I'll see how big that is and then drop the oil pan to drill a hole and weld a bung in the pan for a bigger fitting closer to the turbo. Then I'll be able to re-install the oil level sensor too.

For the misfire I'm going to pull the plugs again and gap those down to 0.025 or 0.030 and also replace the plug wires. I'm betting there's an issue with the plug wires and that's what's causing the misfire right now.
I'm also going to try and get my aeroforce working in there and see if I can get a case learn done in case that's contributing to the misfire.

I'm so close to having this car working properly for summer and I really need to make it happen. Right now the Regal is definitely faster and this thing needs to be blowing the doors off of it.

[bs009]

Finally got around to working on this again.

I switched out my expensive -10AN fitting for the oil drain in favor of an OEM oil drain for these turbos off of ebay. I have yet to test out to see if this solves the issue, but the difference between the two in size is insane. I'm really hoping this takes care of the oil burning issue.



Oil pan off and new drain bung installed:



This will be an improvement in size and location since it will be above the oil level. If this doesn't fix the issue then I suppose a replacement turbo will be in the works.



Also replaced all of the 35 year old tie rods as well as the idler arm. Alignment to come soon.



Next thing to sort out is the misfire it's having. it looks like it's not boost dependent; it seems like it's more related to RPM so now I'm thinking it could be an issue with the wiring or the tune. I gapped the plugs down pretty far, it's been a while but I think it was 0.025". I also switched out the ICM, the coils, and the plug wires.
I'm planning on going through all of the wiring now again to hunt down this gremlin.

[BonnieBoy08]

Will be great to see it in person in a few weeks! Better get that passenger seat in haha

[bs009]

Yeah I can't wait to show it off!

Only problem with putting the seat back in is that the passenger seat also has the middle seat as a part of it, which is where the gear shifter is now.


So my options for the seat are to either cut up this one, or look for new seats for it somewhere else so I'm not modifying a seat that could be worth a bit of change.
It still has the back seats for now lol.

Before I do anything with the seats though I'll need to sort out its drive-ability issues so it's actually worth riding in!

[tcolvinOH]

What year Blazer did you pull those front calipers out of? The stopping power of the factory brakes is definitely lackluster, at best.

[gweg_b]

I look forward to seeing this in a couple of weeks.

Tim also needs some ideas for his Cutlass, and this should provide them.

[bs009]

So I did an entire knuckle/spindle swap on my car because I didn't ever want to deal with packing bearings.

IIRC, the spindles/knuckles from any 2wd S10/Sonoma/blazer/jimmy will bolt up to the G-body and still retain the factory front geometry. The 98+ years should be the one's that have sealed unit bearings like what I put on my car. I think pretty much any blazer from 98 should have had the 11" dual piston calipers in the front as well.
I'll see if I can find a thread about that somewhere.