95' Junker Drag Truck

Wow. Thanks for the update. I was one of the ones that thought a VG housing would pretty much eliminate turbo lag.
Kudos on staying up past midnight just for this report LOL
 
I'm looking into how I'm going to set up my vgt, this is just from all the forums I've read on the vgt conversion, and it almost sounds like when you closed the collar farther down and gained more smoke and lag (if I understood you right) makes me wonder if the spring tension was not enough to hold it closed longer to get that initial spool? Let me know what you think, or maybe you have already tried tighter/stiffer spring.
 
I'm still tuning it a little more each day but when I tightened my turnbuckle two turns tighter to give the spring a little more preload, it choked the mid-range even more. There is a ton of adjustabiliy in the setup so it will take time to perfect. I'd prefer to tune at the drag strip so I can use MPH as my HP gain/loss indicator.

To be honest, the truck is so traction limited right now, the slower spool would probably cut better 60' times. I'm thinking about installing the 5x18 injectors and really pour some fuel through this turbo. I'll bet it can produce 50+ psi boost with enough fuel.
 
Harbor Freight Welded Rear!

It wasn't till I was almost completely finished welding the rear that I discovered a loose connection causing the terrible spitter spatter rat's nest welding that you see in the pictures.

I think the only reason the rear has held up so far is the 3/8" bolts I put between the spider and side gears.

To make sure a huge chunk of weld didn't fly off and wedge between the ring gear and axle housing, I cut a 3/16" thick flat bar to fit inside the carrier and threaded two 3/16" rods with nylon insert nuts to hold the flat bar in place. I also laid a few "rats nest" beads between the 3/16" flat bar and side gears.

I know it looks terrible but it has held up great so far. Probably 250 street miles and (9) 1/4 mile passes.
 

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yeah, thats not too pretty. ive done 2 years so far but been lucky to have 220V welders to use.

Garrett
 
With that small of a welder and using flux core wire, try turning your wire speed way down. I like to use a 2 or 3 out of 10 for wire speed, and turn the amperage all the way up. Just move the puddle very slowly and you should get better results.
 
It seems to work a lot better now that I tightened the loose connection. BIG difference in the amount of penetration that the weld makes with a good ground and tight connections in the welder. It actually makes enough heat to keep a good puddle and constant arc instead of zip zap drip drip snap crackle rat-weld!
 
You've gotta have a buddy who has a 220V stick welder at their house... crank it up and burn that sucker in with some 6010!! If you weren't 600 miles away I'd burn it in for ya.
 
You should see the welds on my new downpipe. You wouldn't believe the same welding machine and same operator did the welds on that rear-end and the welds on the downpipe.



The rear is holding for now, if it breaks free, I'll pull it apart and either get a better welder or fill the whole thing with molten lead.
 
Well, I picked up a cheap used set of 215 injectors on ebay that still haven't arrived.

I plan to run those for a bit to keep with the "CHEAP" theme. I don't want to put the 5x18's in till I have my twins mostly fabricated. I've got a feeling the truck will be barely driveable with 5x18's and HE351ve. I guess I could install a fuel plate to act as a fueling stop with the 5x18's but I picked up the 215 injectors for less than $70 shipped.

I had planned to make this truck run 13's for less than $1000 in upgrades but I spent a little too much on my tranny buildup so I can't technically run my 5x18's and maintain the 1K price tag.

What does everyone think, will 215 injectors get me into the 13's?
 
This thread is cool, if i ever get around to an auto tranny, i will refer to this thread. Bigblue your fairly close to me, I head over the St.G every few weeks
 
Yesterday i spent a few hours trying to tune this VGT turbo and spool-up got worse and worse.

Finally I noticed that half of the engine compartment was sooted up along with the intake hose and inside the turbo... and came to the quick realization that it had a major exhaust leak on my home-build turbo adapter.

Today i finished mending the cracked welds and got it all bolted back up.


HOLY SPOOL-UP!!!!

Spools a touch faster than the stock HX35 and hits much, much, much harder.

The best explanation that I can come up with is it drives like a well tuned gasser V-8. TONS of throttle response! I pulled out of a gas station at idle and just as I was completing a right hand turn and almost straight I nailed it and whoosh instant spool and instantly sideways! Truck is a BLAST to drive right now. The only complaint is that it makes a pretty annoying whine/whistle because it's closed down so tight. I loosened up the housing and now there is no whine till about 1200 rpm. As soon as you get on it, the whine goes away because it only takes a little drive pressure to get the turbo into a higher flow less whistle flow.

This truck with an open 4.5" exhaust sounds like it has a supercharger mounted under the hood when I close down the housing pretty tight. When you nail it, the whoosh of air is unique to say the least.

For a daily driver, you could run the housing a little looser to get rid of the whistle at idle. I'm not running a filter or airbox and the passenger window is down full-time because it's hot here in the desert so it's as loud as can be on the Junker.

Tomorrow night is street legal midnight mayhem racing and I plan to make a few more passes in the Junker. My used 215 injectors came in the mail today but I won't have time to install them before the drags tomorrow night.

Truck feels like it picked up another 20-30 HP with this turbo even though the fueling is identical to my last time at the track. In fact, the weather is going to be about 20* warmer than last time so any improvement in MPH will reflect a significant increase in HP.
 
sorry for th off topic question but werent you the one that tried to run hobbie nitro with diesel?
 
jeff115 said:
sorry for th off topic question but werent you the one that tried to run hobbie nitro with diesel?
Click to expand...


Yeah, back when my truck was a dumb teenager, it tried a lot of funny things: ATF, Nitro Methane, Gear Lube, Used motor Oil, Fresh Motor Oil, Cinnamon Scented Lamp Oil, Acetone, 2 cycle oil, Power Service, Howe's Power Service Cleaner, Wesson Vegetable Oil, Vanilla Scented Oil.

All said and done, the only additive i put in with regularity is 2 cycle oil. Occasionally I'll dump an oil change from the wife's SUV into the tank but that's about it.
 
I made 9 passes at the track tonight, it was mid 90*F so not as good of air as last time out. The only change since last time out is the addition of the HE351ve turbo and some home made caltrac-type traction bars... they're not pretty but they work. I have not touched the fueling side of the motor.

Best pass:

14.23 @ 95 MPH

60' - 2.142
330' - 5.923
1/8 - 9.099 @ 77.10 MPH
1000' - 11.870
ET - 14.235 @ 95.03 MPH


My 60' times were pretty consistent all night, the traction bars really seemed to help. Several 2.3 60' times and a few 2.2's and 2.4's.

Best MPH of the night was 95.14 MPH. That calculates to 321 Rear Wheel Horse Power or a net gain over the stock turbo of 18 rear wheel horsepower. If you factor in the hot air from the 106*F hot day today, the HE351ve is good for a solid 20 rear wheel horsepower on my setup.
 
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