t8fanning
8v are still cool, right?
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2010
- Location
- Vancouver, WA
I've had this car long enough. I figure it's about time to make a build thread.
I got this 1982 242 turbo in May 2014 from Oregon. My family lives in Vancouver, WA, but I live in Utah so I had my brother pick it up for me sight unseen, and a few weeks later I flew out and drove it back to Utah without any problems at all.
I don't have many pictures from when I first got it, but it was a totally stock, well sorted B21FT.
I daily drove it stock for a while before putting some nicer seats in. I wish they were still as nice as they were in this picture, but the fabric is old and they were sitting in a warehouse for a long time. I need to get them recovered sometime soon.
I then put a T5 transmission in along with some RSI coilovers and other suspension upgrades. I drove it like this for quite a while until I started having some stall issues on deceleration with K jet. I always was planning on converting the car to EFI, so I installed microsquirt and some other engine upgrades.
I had found a cheap crappy tubular manifold for some redblock turbo project at an IPD garage sale, so I modified it a little to fit the 240 engine bay. I also picked up a GT2871r to go on this manifold. The fit was really tight because the turbo was placed with the CHRA pretty much in line with the spark plug of cylinder 1. I daily drove it like this for a while with no real issues until I had popped a few freeze plugs. I found my head gasket had failed and was letting cylinder pressure into the coolant jacket, popping the freeze plugs. I also experienced some compressor surge because I wasn't flowing enough air through the head. I fixed this with a ported compressor housing, with plans to do head work in the future.
The low quality exhaust manifold steel kept cracking at both the inlet and outlet flanges. I worked with this a while, and even replaced the bends after the inlet flange with some decent stainless tube. It didn't look great, but worked ok. Eventually, I picked up an RSI tubular manifold. It's worlds nicer and I shouldn't have to worry about fixing cracks again. It also puts the turbo a little further forward and allows for easier access. Along the way I also picked up one of Nathan's intake manifolds.
I had a few other issues with my B21FT, including low power and excessive blow by, so I began looking for a nicer engine to swap in. Gnomestur contacted me and told me he would sell the B230FT he had been building for a long time. He gave me a great deal, much cheaper than I could have built it for, so we met in Vegas and I picked up his engine.
The new engine is very well put together and came with tons of machine shop receipts. The engine specs are:
93 block with oil squirters
RSI stage 3 cam and adjustable cam gear
RSI h beam rods
Ported and polished head with custom 40 mm exhaust and 48 mm intake valves
RSI valve springs with chromoly retainers
Crank scraper
Wiseco wave guide pistons
Kevlar timing belt
I'm currently putting the finishing touches on the engine and getting it ready to swap in.
The B21FT is out and gone. I'm currently touching up the engine bay paint a little. Nothing fancy, I'm not removing everything and repainting, just some sanding and touch up paint to make the bay a little nicer for the new engine. I want to do a full respray eventually, but that's a long way down the line.
I thought I'd make this thread to document some of the changes I'm making while making it easier to ask questions in a single thread.
I got this 1982 242 turbo in May 2014 from Oregon. My family lives in Vancouver, WA, but I live in Utah so I had my brother pick it up for me sight unseen, and a few weeks later I flew out and drove it back to Utah without any problems at all.
I don't have many pictures from when I first got it, but it was a totally stock, well sorted B21FT.
I daily drove it stock for a while before putting some nicer seats in. I wish they were still as nice as they were in this picture, but the fabric is old and they were sitting in a warehouse for a long time. I need to get them recovered sometime soon.
I then put a T5 transmission in along with some RSI coilovers and other suspension upgrades. I drove it like this for quite a while until I started having some stall issues on deceleration with K jet. I always was planning on converting the car to EFI, so I installed microsquirt and some other engine upgrades.
I had found a cheap crappy tubular manifold for some redblock turbo project at an IPD garage sale, so I modified it a little to fit the 240 engine bay. I also picked up a GT2871r to go on this manifold. The fit was really tight because the turbo was placed with the CHRA pretty much in line with the spark plug of cylinder 1. I daily drove it like this for a while with no real issues until I had popped a few freeze plugs. I found my head gasket had failed and was letting cylinder pressure into the coolant jacket, popping the freeze plugs. I also experienced some compressor surge because I wasn't flowing enough air through the head. I fixed this with a ported compressor housing, with plans to do head work in the future.
The low quality exhaust manifold steel kept cracking at both the inlet and outlet flanges. I worked with this a while, and even replaced the bends after the inlet flange with some decent stainless tube. It didn't look great, but worked ok. Eventually, I picked up an RSI tubular manifold. It's worlds nicer and I shouldn't have to worry about fixing cracks again. It also puts the turbo a little further forward and allows for easier access. Along the way I also picked up one of Nathan's intake manifolds.
I had a few other issues with my B21FT, including low power and excessive blow by, so I began looking for a nicer engine to swap in. Gnomestur contacted me and told me he would sell the B230FT he had been building for a long time. He gave me a great deal, much cheaper than I could have built it for, so we met in Vegas and I picked up his engine.
The new engine is very well put together and came with tons of machine shop receipts. The engine specs are:
93 block with oil squirters
RSI stage 3 cam and adjustable cam gear
RSI h beam rods
Ported and polished head with custom 40 mm exhaust and 48 mm intake valves
RSI valve springs with chromoly retainers
Crank scraper
Wiseco wave guide pistons
Kevlar timing belt
I'm currently putting the finishing touches on the engine and getting it ready to swap in.
The B21FT is out and gone. I'm currently touching up the engine bay paint a little. Nothing fancy, I'm not removing everything and repainting, just some sanding and touch up paint to make the bay a little nicer for the new engine. I want to do a full respray eventually, but that's a long way down the line.
I thought I'd make this thread to document some of the changes I'm making while making it easier to ask questions in a single thread.
