I got them done at "A Supreme" in Windsor Locks, CT. Great guy and he really only does auto upholstery. Price is tough to beat too!

 

I've followed your build from page 1. You've done an outstanding job of documenting and showing pics..fantastic. I admire your work and dedication as this is not something everyone can do. You said you turned over the engine recently and I see your battery is relocated to the spare tire well. Are you using the same ground that was identified in one of your pics? I believe you mentioned it was a convenient spot with a facotry wing nut. I could not find a reliable ground and I had to eventually route the ground wire to the block. Curious if ended up moving your ground cable. I'd prefer to not to have another wire in the engine compartment and the extra weight of the 15' zero gauge cable. Very nice work. I'd love to see it in person some time. I'm probably 30 mins from you.

 

looking good, it's amazing how good the hot side looks all wrapped up, what exactly did you use to color the wrap black?

I know a while ago we were talking about the Turbonetics TC76 vs T76 turbos, I found a great thread comparing the two:

http://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-ind...6-vs-tc76.html

 

The ground cable I did not change. It is in the same spot that had the wing nut in my previous pics and it worked out great. It was a mounting spot for the spare tire/jack assembly if I remember correctly. I do have a thick braided engine ground cable as well though going from the block to the chassis but it is out of site. I would ditch that long heavy ground cable you have and ground the battery to the chassis by where your battery is. You don't need to go all the way to the block as any spot on the chassis should be a sufficient ground. Just be sure to ground the block to the frame with a seperate cable. And feel free to check it out! I never mind company, and as I said, I'd love to check yours out as well! Thanks for the compliment too.

I used all DEI exhaust wrap and they sell a spray paint made for it as well that will dye it black. Also puts a nice high heat coating on the bare piping as well so it's a good idea to do it! Thanks for the link too. I checked it out and it's very interesting. Seems like the T76 makes slightly more power while spooling a bit slower, but not enough to matter I'm sure....I def could have used a slightly more compact turbo though since my T76 is a TIGHT fit lol.

 

You have probably posted this else where on this thread but I couldn't find it, anyway what BOV and/or wastegate are you going to be running? I have been doin some research and found that a few issues that a few are having with timing between it and the turbo.

 

I'll be going with Tial for both. Tial makes excellent parts at the moment, and thier BOV is by far probably the best on the market. As for the wastegate, I'm not sure if I'll be getting a 38mm or 44mm, but either will control the boost just fine. If you're only running say 5-6 PSI, you def want a 44mm gate, especially if you have a decently sized turbo. Since I'm running 12-14 PSI theres no need for a gate that large though.

 

Awesome, I'm going to try that grounding configuration since I'm always looking to save weight and that will clean up the wiring going through the interior and firewall. I have a ground strap from the cylinder head to the firewall which is not going to cut it. I will go with your direction and get a hefty one and attach to the chassis.

 

do you have any new pictures? this thread is addictive!!!

 

It's not much but at least it's something I guess...

Decided to make my own wonder bar. Used 1/4" flat stock for the mounts and I will be using square stock for the main bar itself. The wonder bar will also act as the brace for the turbo, since I plan on "T-ing" a piece of square stock to the top of the wonder bar and then making a bracket setup so that the crossover pipe bolts to it. That way it is very strong, and I don't have to drill any new holes into the frame for a turbo brace. Already measured and the sway bar will fit perfectly. Heres a few quick pics of mockup.

Heres the wonder bar mounts after I drilled the holes and got them in place.


Heres how it will look. Just have to bolt up the mounts nice and tight and then cut the bar stock to length and weld her up. Then I'll make up the turbo mount section. All this for $26 in materials. Not too bad considering a new wonderbar is $70-$130.

 

hey man great looking car, here is some food for the mind. have you thought much about the heat that turbo is gonna generate, and what it will do to that plastic radiator? If it were me i would go all aluminum. I must say you got her lookin good man

 

Thanks for the compliments! And I did consider heat in every aspect of the build. Some things are closer than I would have liked, but the pics also make them look much worse. I'd say there is a good 3 inches from the turbo hotside to the radiator end tank. The exhaust side of the turbo will be wrapped in a heat blanket which dramatically reduces heat off the turbo, and all the piping will be wrapped. I don't really think heat is going to be an issue anywhere, but the only way to find out for sure is to fire it up and run it. If something melts, I'll change it haha.

 

I'm sure there's hundreds if not thousands of fwd cars running around with super hot turbos and plumbing much closer to other things and not at all heat shielded. As long as nothing is within an inch or so of the hot stuff it should be alright. Esp the turbo itself, those things can literally get hot enough to glow red, **** is scary...can you imagine popping the hood to check the oil in a car like that, lol....

 

looking great man.. you've done a lot since ive been away at basic.. i come home in 10 days.. but got stationed in korea so idk what im ganna do with my ta now

 

wow just found this thread! 2+ years and 18 pages, impressive!

 

Glad to hear your almost done with basic! And don't give up on the TA just yet. It'll be waiting for you when you get back and you should have plenty of money saved up by then to start modding it. How long will you be in Korea for?

Thank you! And yes, 2+ years and I still havn't driven it. Hopefully soon though.

 

Got a ton of work done today.....but no pics unfortunately since I left my camera in a freinds car. But the wonderbar is done and it came out excellent. I also fabbed up a brace off the wonderbar to support the turbo, and got the drain line all buttoned up for the turbo as well. I'll be ordering my Tial wastegate tomorrow so I'll hopefully have it for the weekend and then the entire mid pipe will get wrapped, painted, and be installed permanantly. I can't wait to see what it's going to look like on there all black with the wrap! Anyways, pics coming in the next day or so.

 

No pics but he's telling the truth... honest.

 

Finally some pics!

Heres the home made wonderbar in place. Amazing how much better welds come out on clean metal haha.


Heres a closeup of how I made the brace for the turbo. There will be 2 bolts on the bracket there to secure the turbo mid pipe to the wonderbar.


Heres the -4 oil feed line for the turbo in place.


Here you can see how it's run. I just followed the throttle cable with it and it looks nice and neat and barely noticeable.

 

Heres the -10 oil drain line out of the bottom of the turbo. Tight fit but it worked out good!


And heres how the return line is routed back to the pan. Has a nice droop to it so there shouldn't be any oil drain issues.

 

Mail man came with gifts today!

 

Nice!!! Now fire this beast already!

 

Haha I'm working on it, trust me! Wastegate should be on today, then it's a wiring harness away. I want it just as bad as everybody else!

 

Aww...you needed a BMR black hammertone wonderbar to match everything else.

Are you going to attempt using the stock fuel rail for this thing?

 

Well, got the mid pipe all done and buttoned up today. Wastegate is on but not connected to the downpipe yet but thats really all thats left on the hotside. Just need a harness! I'm getting pretty excited and nervous at the same time. Just hope all the welds and heatwrap hold up and we'll be all set. Anyways, heres a few pics of today's progress...











The stock LS6 fuel rails have been known to support 1000 HP with a good fuel system and injectors so I'm giving them a shot. Pretty sure I'll be ok, but if for some reason I need better ones it's not too big of a deal.

 

This is great man. I may have missed this but where are your electric fans going to be mounted?

 

Fans will be mounted in front of the radiator as a pusher setut. I would have liked to use the stock fan since it works so well, but the added room without it is worth gold with a turbo up front. Hopefully the pusher fans will work just as good!

BTW, hows your project coming along?

 

wow man i just read all 18 pages and i must say that is gonna be one sick TA. I to am doing my own body work and im attempting to paint it as well. i dont have alot of money to have other peeps work on it and i like workin on my own stuff. gives you a sense of job well done when you get done with it and hey if it dosent come out right for me i can always do it again lol.

 

Painted the wonderbar and finished up the turbo bracket. Heres a few pics of it all installed.





Thanks man! And yea I have done 95% of the work on this car myself. When I look back at pics from the beggining, and then I see where I'm at now, it definately makes me feel a great sense of accomplishment!

 

im gonna be both happy and sad when this is done. im gonna be happy because i can see it finished and running and see what she does but im gonna be sad because this is something i look forward to reading and checking everyday

 

yeah what happens after the build is over and the dyno runs are over and all that?

 

Haha, I'm gonna be sad too honestly because as weird as it sounds, I've enjoyed working on it these few years and turning it into my dream car. I'm sure I'll be happy to drive it though, since thats the real end goal here! I really want to get the car out there and take it on hot rod power tours, and maybe even try to get it some magazine coverage, so hopefully if I'm lucky you'll be seeing more of it!

Then there will be the vids of me racing it and using it for what I built it for! I want to change the turbo set up to all stainless steel piping at some point down the road so maybe I'll have a "continuation" of the build.

 

dont worry you will never be done because now you have all the tools and knowledge I forsee a 6.0 built up in the future for you and your own custom setup

I thought I was done with my car with the 383 LT4 but I was wrong

 

Just spent the morning reading this thread. All is can say is wow! Well, that and thank you for your incredible generosity in putting so much time and effort into educating us all on what you are doing. After reading this, I really feel I know and understand these cars better.

Do they give out a member of the year award around here? You sure are deserving of it. Can't wait to see it all come together!

 

Sweet project and thanks for all the photos and details around your project!

Two observations on your latest post above:

- I would recommend capping the ends of the wonderbar you made just to keep water and stuff out of it.

- Will the turbo support bracket attached to the wonderbar work if the engine moves (twists) while driving as the bracket had no movement in it?


Keep up the good work!!!

 

Well that sure is a huge compliment! Part of the reason of putting so many pictures up is because I personally am a visual learner. I can read how to do something and manage, but if I see a few good pictures, I really learn it. I just wanted to show exactly how I was doing things and building the car, and I'm glad it helped you to get a better idea of these cars!

I thought about capping it, but the car will never be driven in the rain on-purpose, and I honestly just got lazy LOL. It was so cheap and easy to make though that if anything happens to it I'll make another down the road, but it's thick metal so I don't see it rusting out.

And as far as the engine flexing while the mid pipe is bolted to the wonderbar, if you look back through my pics, I put flex pipe sections off of each manifold so that the engine can twist while the merge pipe stays in one spot. I also have poly motor mounts so flexing shouldn't be bad anyways.

 

flex pipe = genius

good build dude..

 

Any more updates? I need my fix, man!

 

Worked on my downpipe and finished it up. Gotta wrap it and spray it black and I'll put up some pics. Soon!

 

If you don't put any pics up soon, I'm going to have to stop by your place and see the car for myself, ha! I'm still checking back for updates. I just got my t-top and door weatherstripping, and going to install it tonight. talk to you soon brutha.

 

just found this thread and man this thing is insane!!!! great work and detail in the car and you pics!!!! just plain awesome!!!

 

very cool project! here's my 2 cents: when your all done, get some black BBQ paint for the hot side of the turbo....much nicer than surface rust! gotta hear it run when your done! Pat

 

LOL, like I said, your welcome to swing by sometime if ya want! What brand weatherstripping did you go with? Def let me know how the fit is when you get it installed since I still need all my weatherstripping. Talk to ya soon!

Thanks for the kind words!

The turbo hotside is actually ceramic coated in a dark grey. It was done by the turbo's previous owner and it's held up really well. If you look there are only a few little spots where rust has just started to form, but the coating is 3 years old so thats understandable.


And on another note, it's not much but heres an update... Got the downpipe finished up but just have to wrap and spray it. Will be doing that in the morning, as well as picking up a T4 turbo gasket I ordered at a local grand national shop. Turbo will officially be bolted on tomorrow and downpipe will be done. Thats going to be it for the hotside!!

Heres a few pics...

Heres where the wastegate recirculates into the downpipe. That little section of pipe was a PITA to cut since it was so tiny haha.


And I was bored so I re-polished the turbo compressor since it was getting dull from all the handling lately. Also flipped my upper coolant hose around the other way and now it's not touching the turbo compressor! So funny that I never thought of that before and it just hit me tonight while in the garage.


Got a funny story for you guys too. A very good freind of mine that owns a 93 mustang LX 5.0 recently had the itch to build a motor for his car, since the stock 302 isn't cutting it. He's always over my house checking out my build and has owned 2 newer chevy trucks as his daily drivers. He recently sent me a random text that read "so what are your thoughts on a cammed 6.0 LSx in the mustang?" I told him that that would be AWESOME. So he went ahead and did a little research and ordered the conversion LSx tubular K-member, T56 crossmember, and motor mounts LOL. I can't wait to see an LSx powered fox body mustang in person! And he lives 2 minutes down the street from me. Once it starts coming together I'll throw a pic or 2 up. Always love seeing a mustang "built ford tough with chevy stuff!"

 

the 6.0 is finding its way into alot of vehicles because its very available and a badass motor


Welds are definatly looking better cant wait to get home and start into mine got the LQ4 and 4L80 sitting there just waiting

 

I dont know if you mentioned it or not but what heads and cam are you using?

 

IIRC its the 317 heads and Z06 cam.

 

awesome trying to figure out everything for my ls1 build up

 

I can't wait to see this one complete. Amazing job!!!!!!

 

Been a while since I've posted here, but I've been keeping up in the background. Awesome work once again. I did notice one thing though. In my case, I had to bolt the wonderbar (its a factory one) sandwiched between the sway brackets and the frame. You'll be unbolting that nice piece of work to put the sway bar on.

On my build up, I decided to abandon the bodywork for the time being. Just get the car running, driving and sorted before doing bodywork. Even though I might have to disassemble most of the car again to have it done. Rear end is reinstalled, rear LCAs and rear springs as well. Have a set of PBR rotors on the rear. Driveshaft is in, and the T56 is in. Now for the motor and to finish the chassis work. I know a guy who builds second gen TAs. He restores the chassis and driveline, but leaves the bodies unrestored (for the time being) I'll probably do the same thing. Til I get a welder at least.

 

I figured I would have to remove the wonder bar when the sway bars go on. Not too big of a deal since theres only 4 bolts though. And in your case, getting the car running sounds like a great idea. That should give you tons of motivation to keep up on it, and when you hear it run, you're going to want to dig right back into it and fix it up even more lol.

 

Actually, maybe I'll keep it with the flaking paint, rust and everything. People's reaction, "what a piece of #($*!!" Then either ride in it or see it run, and think "Ok I take that back" lol.

No, I'll finish it eventually. It needs floors and rocker panel repair pretty bad, my battery tray is rotting out to the point where I'll probably have to replace it before I drive it. Now, will you fire this beast already? LOL