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1989 245 turbo V8 aka V8BRICK (new owner's thread)

V8BRICK

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2002
Location
Blacksburg, VA
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Pictures are all located here. Is it possible to embed from google photos these days?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LCVEDL9numUmGXqs6

What's up turbobricks!? Long time no post. After rarely driving this car for YEARS, I'm putting it up for sale, it's a sad day, but time to let her go.

Stock roller 302 block 1991
Stock factory forged pistons (rehoned with new rings) roughly 9.3:1 if I remember right
Ebay ARP knockoff rod bolts
F303 cam
GT40 iron heads from a 1st gen Lightning ported and polished with 1.94 1.60 stainless valves dual valve springs
Harland Sharpe billet 1.6 roller rockers
Cast aluminum valve covers
GT40 style truck lower and upper intake
Larger throttle body, think it’s 70 or 75mm
Dual pass radiator
Remote oil filter relocated to driver side fender-well that could use a permanent mount of some sort

Crane HI6 ignition
Optical pickup on stock distributor
LX91 Crane coil

Ebay stainless headers flipped, v-band crossover connection
Master Power T70 (true 70mm) turbo .81 A/R exhaust housing
External stone mountain wastegate that is rerouted BACK into the 3” downpipe
12x24x4 intercooler core (Griffin brand if I remember right)
3” stainless downpipe v-band
3” full exhaust 3.5” stainless tip

Megasquirt’n’spark original old board with usb board added
Honda injector resistors
75lb/hr holley injectors low impedance
Aftermarket billet fuel rails
Walbro 255hp in tank pump
Massive external diesel fuel filter setup where old pump/filter basket is located
TechEdge wideband O2 sensor display
Greddy profec B boost controller
VDO gauges, boost, oil pressure, water temp
NO TACHOMETER - originall is there if you want to hack it - or swap in a cheapy in that hole
Vintage 140 series era shift knob
Battery relocated to the passenger rear butt cheek, no it is not bolted down

T5 transmission (world class?) a little whiney but shifts fine, leaks a little fluid out of the speedo hole/seal
B&M shifter
6 puck sprung clutch and new flywheel (unsure of clutch brand)
1 piece driveshaft (has a slight vibration above 65mph)

IPD 25mm sway bars front & rear V6 dip front bar
Solid adjustable swaybar endlinks
IPD wagon lowering springs
Bilstein HD shocks
Drag brand (cheap) wheels, 17x7 with some CHEAP tires but extremely low miles (less than 100)
Flat hood is off a gt 242, can’t remember the year
New windshield and trim, no chromies

If you check the build thread history on this and want to scroll through all the pages, cool: http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=100617&highlight=v8brick

If not, here’s the cliff’s notes. Old body was a hacked up ‘84 wagon, ghetto widebody fitment. Engine (same engine as above) had a different single plenum intake with Q45 throttle body, FULL 4” exhaust with hacked firewall to fit it.

What’s different about this setup? The body is MUCH nicer, unmolested, no butt cheek or ? panel rust. The only spot that has a hole is the passenger rear floor pan had rusted partially at some point, been painted/coated in something before I got it. The intention with this iteration was to keep power steering and make it a mild setup. The air conditioning lines are hooked up, condenser is there in front of the radiator with a little electric fan waiting to be wired up, compressor is a mustang-correct piece. I have NOT tested the compressor, vacuumed down the system, or charged it. I did replace the line seals on all the rubber lines when I installed them.

This car is running the same tune it had when it was in the OLD body which had a number of different intake/exhaust fuel line diameter differences. It runs good around town and ok on the highway but does need to be tweaked to get it in the sweet spot. Why didn’t I do it? The plan was to update to a newer megasquirt with low impedance injector drivers that could CONTROL the 75lb injectors better down low so it would cruise better while just barely having the throttle cracked.

The wiring under the passenger dash is ugly and a mess, but functional. No need to let me know that I should have made it cleaner. I know. At the time I was probably getting it ready for a local car show and just wanted it running again. The connection at the firewall is a Russian din connector of some sort that I soldered so it is easy to completely disconnect the harness in the engine bay. The boost controller wiring also goes through this one connection. The ignition and coil are also under the passenger dash, coil has a firewall pass through.

At one point in time I had sucked a turn signal partially into the turbo which nicked a few impeller blades. I sanded/contoured these with a dremel, yes a dremel. Never had any other issues and on that setup with the 4” exhaust and single plenum intake it dynoed 508whp.

Interior and seats on this car really are in great shape. The best shape 240 interior I have ever owned. Car is smooth and not squeaky or clunky. Upper strut mounts on the front look fugly but are holding on. I painted the front ⅓ of this car in my driveway, outside, on a nice sunny day. It’s not perfect, has some imperfections and the roof has a rough overspray line that could easily be wet-sanded/buffed out. From about 4 feet away, you wouldn’t notice any of these issues.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Couple questions unanswered in the original ad.

Still has stock rear end with open diff (speedo in diff)
Yes it can make a road trip (just has a little driveshaft vibration above mph)
Yes it has a 3" "high flow" catalytic converter
 
Cold start video. Getting more stuff together to put it on BAT if they'll take her!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t733rgpYSCA" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0_PZw05V5Gs" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Will also throw in a Precision 76mm turbo with 2 different turbine housings and newer-board MS2 assembled and tested. Also have a new DIY harness somewhere for the new owner to make a super-pretty-wiring install on the footwell side if they wish. Engine-side of the harness is pretty nicely done.
 
Yup it sold...this is the new owner :)

It’s a mostly solid car (little bit of rocker and floor pan rust on the passenger side, must have been damaged through the undercoating because everything is solid). Interior is a solid 8+, paint needs wet sanding and polishing at least.

It’s very much a running driving project car and I have been sorting through some of the issues. Coolant consumption was a head gasket failure (they have been off, checked and decked and back on w/ Cometic MLS gasket) rear suspension is now adjustable, battery is in an actual box in the passenger but cheek. Bought a new eBay turbo, smaller for quick spoiling and no need to go for 500++ wheel numbers and watch a block split in half. Replaced wiper motor, re-bleed brakes, put a speedo plug in transmission. Just bought a fire extinguisher for the car that will be installed this afternoon (all my project cars get one)

The tune needs some serious attention: goes lean under boost depending on throttle position (wot=rich, roll in=lean) rich at cruise, and trailer hitching a cruise. I haven’t been able to connect the mega squirt (tried both usb and serial, usb makes the connecting noise in windows when you hold the connector one direction but still no com. Might swap in a microsquirt I have or bigger with ms3 or the like.

Also has a driveline rumble at WOT, couple oil leaks, and pulls to the right.

Nothing terminal but does need some attention.

In full disclosure I bought this kinda on a whim and have numerous other projects that need/ deserve attention (see the Bertone in my sig? It’s in pieces again) so if people are still interested feel free to PM me with offers (note I’ve got a local guy shaking money at me if I can find the time to make it sorta DD-able).
 
Yup it sold...this is the new owner :)

Awesome! Keep us posted on your progress. Maybe a build log in the Projects forum.

I'm glad it went to a good home and that you are sorting it out!
 
Awesome! Keep us posted on your progress. Maybe a build log in the Projects forum.

Reaching out to the mods now!

Last weekend it got some hi-res 60# Siemens deka injectors (even with the old ms and tune it seemed to help the idle, although it ran for less than a min).

Coil and ignition box properly mounted, fused relay power distribution installed. Started the wiring to move over to microsquirt, hopefully I'll be able to get the finished this weekend as work has me running my ass off so far this week and next week may be worse.
 
well not much going on around here today so might as well update the thread....

Got the microsquirt installed and all the wiring tidied up, was looking really good. Had a buddy remote into my laptop and get a base line tune so that it would start and run sort of. Then I got super busy with my first real estate project so I decided to have the car towed up to my buddies shop for tuning. He found a few more things that it needed (swappped in a MSD dizzy, fresh battery and few more little things) He got a decent tune on it, was driving, idling, and spooling like a champ.

He was digging the car all around (he has had a few Volvo's so a boosted 8 wag was right up his alley) and had it out for a final day of shake down driving. About 60 miles into that day there was a pop and some smoke from under the hood, by the time he got it stopped flames were coming out from under the hood. In panic he forgot where the fire extinguisher was mounted (it was on the floor between drivers door and drivers seat, but I've never been in a car fire before but can assume the panic is immense) and the car burnt to the ground. Nothing salvageable.

At least Hagerty insurance are rock stars
 
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