First thanks for inviting us to your forum it looks like an awesome place for the sloppy community. I wanted to document my experience attempting to copy a few of Matt's builds. My goal with this build was to go 9's for under 10k. I started on this car in Jan 2020 and have already gutted and sold the chassis. I had a great time with this car and when running it I made a ton of new friends and learned a lot. I'm gonna try to keep this short...
Started with an 87 hatch I bought for $3500. It had a complete tube suspension/k member, strange brakes, manual rack, manual brakes, a kirkey, fuel cell, Fuel lines, a braced 8.8 with a strange spool & axles with 5/8 studs, sn95 spindles in front, bump steer kit, anti roll bar, strange double adjustable shocks and struts all around, some type of soft touch relay/fuse panel and switch panel, torque box reinforcements, frame connectors, radiator with fan shrouds and some expensive looking wheels and tires... All of this stuff had never been used.
Here's what I added to the car:
Home built th400
modified factory tank with 2 TI 450's
Gen 3 junkyard 4.8 with rusty cylinder walls (No hone) gapped to .30, SS2, Pac 1218's
Reused every bolt and gasket and no I never checked compression... Copper spray & go.
Jegs XHD 60429 converter
HolleyTerm X
Cut out roll bar and installed an S&W chromoly 10pt kit
-8 monkey fab ptfe to nnbs intake w/ stock rails returned through the Schrader valve
pqy regulator
Holley short pan
VS cast 78/75 1.25 denmah kit w/50mm wastegate
Homemade mild hot side with cast manifolds
SEP 1000cc injectors
What did I learn from all this?
-Buy the car right. I made money on this car when I bought it. Now all that high dollar stuff is on a new car and I was able to sell the chassis for some cash.
-Engine honing is a waste of time. I'm not sure how many passes I have on this engine but it has survived 9 second passes all summer and a bunch of street miles.
-Gutted racecars are annoying on the street
-Holley terminator X is an amazing and powerful tool that can do almost everything you'll need to make an ls car work on the track and the street
-MAKE A BUDGET, prolly the best advice I've taken when it comes to building a car
-Roll cages are annoying and consume a lot of time. Took me 4 weekends.
-Don't be afraid to try new things, This was my first turbo car, first time doing a cage and my first th400 build. Aside from pulling the trans twice and some other growing pains it was a blast
-Cast turbos work
In summary the car went a best of 9.30 @146. I think it could have made it to the 8's with some changes. I was dropping fuel pressure around 7000 rpm at 20lbs of boost and it was pushing my duty cycle into the 120's to keep up. The other restriction was the converter. It held great up top but with this little engine it made it hard to 60'. I made a boost building table and got it to make around 10lbs but I just couldn't get enough rpm out of it on the brake and it took forever to build boost... Best 60' was 1.38. I may be missing something but whatever I had my fun with it. Anyways hope this helps someone feel free to ask questions or add any insights I'm always curious about what i could have done better.
Started with an 87 hatch I bought for $3500. It had a complete tube suspension/k member, strange brakes, manual rack, manual brakes, a kirkey, fuel cell, Fuel lines, a braced 8.8 with a strange spool & axles with 5/8 studs, sn95 spindles in front, bump steer kit, anti roll bar, strange double adjustable shocks and struts all around, some type of soft touch relay/fuse panel and switch panel, torque box reinforcements, frame connectors, radiator with fan shrouds and some expensive looking wheels and tires... All of this stuff had never been used.
Here's what I added to the car:
Home built th400
modified factory tank with 2 TI 450's
Gen 3 junkyard 4.8 with rusty cylinder walls (No hone) gapped to .30, SS2, Pac 1218's
Reused every bolt and gasket and no I never checked compression... Copper spray & go.
Jegs XHD 60429 converter
HolleyTerm X
Cut out roll bar and installed an S&W chromoly 10pt kit
-8 monkey fab ptfe to nnbs intake w/ stock rails returned through the Schrader valve
pqy regulator
Holley short pan
VS cast 78/75 1.25 denmah kit w/50mm wastegate
Homemade mild hot side with cast manifolds
SEP 1000cc injectors
What did I learn from all this?
-Buy the car right. I made money on this car when I bought it. Now all that high dollar stuff is on a new car and I was able to sell the chassis for some cash.
-Engine honing is a waste of time. I'm not sure how many passes I have on this engine but it has survived 9 second passes all summer and a bunch of street miles.
-Gutted racecars are annoying on the street
-Holley terminator X is an amazing and powerful tool that can do almost everything you'll need to make an ls car work on the track and the street
-MAKE A BUDGET, prolly the best advice I've taken when it comes to building a car
-Roll cages are annoying and consume a lot of time. Took me 4 weekends.
-Don't be afraid to try new things, This was my first turbo car, first time doing a cage and my first th400 build. Aside from pulling the trans twice and some other growing pains it was a blast
-Cast turbos work
In summary the car went a best of 9.30 @146. I think it could have made it to the 8's with some changes. I was dropping fuel pressure around 7000 rpm at 20lbs of boost and it was pushing my duty cycle into the 120's to keep up. The other restriction was the converter. It held great up top but with this little engine it made it hard to 60'. I made a boost building table and got it to make around 10lbs but I just couldn't get enough rpm out of it on the brake and it took forever to build boost... Best 60' was 1.38. I may be missing something but whatever I had my fun with it. Anyways hope this helps someone feel free to ask questions or add any insights I'm always curious about what i could have done better.
