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My '78 242 L33 turbo build

Hmmm, that doesn't fit very well... :-P Trying to get a rough idea of where things end up with a 17x10" rim, so I borrowed a damaged wheel from a friends BMW race car, Hoosier 275/35-17. It is touching the studs of a 32mm spacer. Lowering the car down, it can go inboard about 1".
Also trying to determine how wide I want the rear to be, as well as the backspacing of the wheels I have to order so I can lose the spacers.

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Hmmm, that doesn't fit very well... :-P Trying to get a rough idea of where things end up with a 17x10" rim, so I borrowed a damaged wheel from a friends BMW race car, Hoosier 275/35-17. It is touching the studs of a 32mm spacer. Lowering the car down, it can go inboard about 1".
Also trying to determine how wide I want the rear to be, as well as the backspacing of the wheels I have to order so I can lose the spacers.

KpbaiZal.jpg


9vRVsgsl.jpg

for a 10" wheel to fit up front, you need a wheel with around a -5mm offset.
 
for a 10" wheel to fit up front, you need a wheel with around a -5mm offset.

Yep, thats correct. Also 10" wheel et0 in the back seems to be a good amount if you have a coilover conversion and skinnier trailing arms.

8.5 width is really the max you can do without committing to major body work. unless you really stretch a skinny tire on.

Driving a 240 with 10" wide wheels is an awesome experience but sometimes unless you are racing the car, i wonder if its worth it.
 
Yep, thats correct. Also 10" wheel et0 in the back seems to be a good amount if you have a coilover conversion and skinnier trailing arms.

8.5 width is really the max you can do without committing to major body work. unless you really stretch a skinny tire on.

Driving a 240 with 10" wide wheels is an awesome experience but sometimes unless you are racing the car, i wonder if its worth it.

yep, plus the added scrub radius on the street can make for some...interesting...handling characteristics
 
I will have your adjustable arms and JRZPro coilovers, ordered them and just waiting for them :cool:. I'm pretty sure it doesn't need 10" wide wheels on the front, was going to go 9". It just seems you need a 10" in the rear to have enough rubber on the road.
My current rear rims are about ET6 and are really really close on the inside of the wheelwell with 8" wide rims and a 245/40-17 tire...also if I remember correctly the 9" rear is going to have a wider track than the stock one by a few inches, I gotta look that up again.
I hope the handling doesn't get "interesting" in a bad way..
 
I will have your adjustable arms and JRZPro coilovers, ordered them and just waiting for them :cool:. I'm pretty sure it doesn't need 10" wide wheels on the front, was going to go 9". It just seems you need a 10" in the rear to have enough rubber on the road.
My current rear rims are about ET6 and are really really close on the inside of the wheelwell with 8" wide rims and a 245/40-17 tire...also if I remember correctly the 9" rear is going to have a wider track than the stock one by a few inches, I gotta look that up again.
I hope the handling doesn't get "interesting" in a bad way..

a 17x9 can run a 255 40 17. Those are a really nice size tire. Much less intrusive amount of work then a 17 x 10 and something like a 295.
 
Unless I start planning a cage I only have 1 shot at a good drag run haha, my local track is Maple Grove Raceway and will boot you in a second for running faster than your gear. I have to find out what they require, the NHRA rulebook is a little different than track rules, and I am not sure if I can just get away with a rollbar or not. That being said I have no real goals as far as et goes, I would love to hit the 10's though, I don't know if that's realistic with the mere 450 NA hp the car is starting off with.
I do know what a 1.6 60ft feels like, doing that on the track vs from a stoplight does require a bit more traction though.
 
Unless I start planning a cage I only have 1 shot at a good drag run haha, my local track is Maple Grove Raceway and will boot you in a second for running faster than your gear. I have to find out what they require, the NHRA rulebook is a little different than track rules, and I am not sure if I can just get away with a rollbar or not. That being said I have no real goals as far as et goes, I would love to hit the 10's though, I don't know if that's realistic with the mere 450 NA hp the car is starting off with.
I do know what a 1.6 60ft feels like, doing that on the track vs from a stoplight does require a bit more traction though.

Run half track passes and dial in 1/8th mile. Then give it the beans
 
New Mota Lita steering wheel installed...

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And failed at installing wagon springs, I read a ton of threads about this and decided 1.5 coils cut off was a good way to go, but didn't consider those guys were using a more stockish wheel/tire combo. I figured I gotta add my mistakes to my build thread...I ordered IPD lowering springs hoping they are tall enough. Oops, shoulda left them alone and had the rear jacked up a bit temporarily.
The reason I'm doing any of this at all is because the factory springs are so worn that my tires bang into my fenders over bigger bumps. I am waiting for my rear coilover/suspension parts to arrive but need to do something to have the car driveable. Its obviously not at the moment...

Shop manager B had to add a bloop to this
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The IPD lowering springs helped a bit, stiffer, but it is only about 1/4" higher. They sell 1/2" spacers to raise it up a but, but don't give a p/n, so I sent an email. They replied to me several times trying to diagnose why my cars wheels are so far back in the wells, and why I am scraping, I appreciate they are so helpful but I already know the answers to all that (which I explained fully), I just want the dam spacers so I don't ram my tires into the arches for the next couple months till I get my rear coilover parts. I still have not got a part number or invoice for the parts I want.

On my test drive today, for some reason the car decided it need to shimmy hard under braking, it sat for 2 months, and was fine before that. I did nothing to the front suspension or brakes in that time. So gotta dig into that :roll: wtf

How it sits now:
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Some small progress updates, brake shimmy fixed itself after a bunch of miles, my engine is now at the shop and I will be swapping out the bolt on stuff (oil pan, headers, etc.) this week as I am currently in between jobs. Amazing how much you can get done if you don't go to work...
Since I'm sure no one remembers (this project is taking forever...) I bought a use factory gas tank to replace mine because the tabs that hold the sending unit in place are too beat up to keep the sending unit in place. I stripped the undercoating off using a heat gun, an expired Subway gift card, and acetone for the little bit of residue left. If anyone else does this I would suggest MEK instead of acetone, it doesn't evaporate immediately leaving smears all over.
I then took it to my local radiator repair shop because they have those big ass dip tanks to clean stuff in. They cleaned and coated the inside, and I picked it up this afternoon.

During the undercoat removal. Ya I know there is weird stuff in the background, previous homeowners did some hippy paintings on my garage door.
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An entire spraycan of Krylon Automotive self etching primer applied
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An entire can of Rustoleum satin black enamel applied to the top, will repeat that tomorrow on the bottom half
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Coated tank guts. I forget what it is exactly, but it is reparable if something happens to it.
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I have them, but they aren't installed yet. I have every adjustable suspension part available that I could find, the only ones not in my hands yet are Bens adjustable rear trailing arms and rear JRZ Pro coilovers. I have everything else that I could find. None of it is installed yet tho. Waiting to get it on my buddies lift, my garage floor is ancient asphalt with pot holes.
 
The rear axle swings through an arc. At stock ride height, the wheels sit more or less in the middle of the wheel well. As you swing through the arc to full compression, the axle moves towards the back of the car. That's why when you lower one, it offsets the wheels towards the rear -- which just happens to move them closer to the part of the wheel well that is most likely to interfere with the bigger wheels and tires. I trimmed that part of the wheel well lip for more clearance on mine. Some folks shorten the lower rear control arm a bit to move the wheel center back towards the front of the car at a lower ride height. Others drill out the spot welds between the inner and outer fender and jack the lower/rear of the outer fender further away from the body/butt-cheek - then weld in a "filler" strip to close up the gap to gain a lot more clearance. Adjustable (or adjusting) the upper control arms changes the pinion angle, but won't do much of anything to center the wheel in the opening. Of course, adjusting the Panhard can help center the axle from side to side if you find you're closer on one side than the other.
 
Thanks for the great explanation! There's nothing left to trim, I already did that. I'm holding off on doing anything further until I have all the parts in place, nothing will be the same so I don't really know how far to take things. I did order 1/2" spacers that fit on top of the rear spring, so that will get me around for now.

In other news, I contacted the engine builder for a few reasons, mostly what the trucks VIN was so I can order parts easier. My original contact there was fired, one of the reasons was he didn't document things very well. I asked what was done to build my engine to take boost reliably and he (the original guy) said Texas Speed custom VCM cam, tune, 42lb injectors (need replaced for boost), ARP hardware, dished pistons, and here is the important bit H BEAM RODS! It doesn't have those, I looked today.

My new contact told me they always use the newer style heavy duty I beam rods, good for over 1000 hp, and sure enough that's what's in there. Now I have to check that it has the dished pistons...the inspection camera wasn't working so I have to get a new one. Another annoying thing is that the engine was painted, who paints an aluminum engine?

My new contact told me that the cam upgrade includes 0.660 lift LS6 valve springs and hardened push rods, so that's good.
 
I'm going to be a little careful with my wording on this update, I'm not very happy at the moment...Because of the above post I felt I needed to look at stuff a bit closer. I got my bore scope and took some pics. I was repeatedly told I had dished pistons. Obviously I do not. I question if the pistons are even new, if they are they have an appalling level of quality control, tons of little imperfections.

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I was able to read the part numbers on top of the piston but cannot find them through Googling:
12090
350 16
305 A8

I am hoping they will attempt to make this right, I know they can only do so much, but I should at least get some money back. Installing the pistons I want is going to involve disassembling the motor, machine shop measuring since no one knows how much the bore was increased, basically rebuilding my freshly rebuilt motor because their guy lied to me and made me pay for parts that I obviously did not get.
 
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