Patrick's Twin Turbo 350 Build Thread

Discussion in 'Small Block Tech' started by patwhac, Apr 8, 2019.

  1. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Yes that looks like a good intercooler. Have you considered only using the spray for cooling? Jay3000 had great luck with that for 8 psi. The advantage to kit using an intercooler is more direct routing and less piping. Although every Tom dick and Harry will tell you you need an intercooler when you go to a car show.

    if you have EFI, and a good tuner then you might as well set it up for the spray.
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2021
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  2. patwhac

    patwhac Well-Known Member

    I guess my main reason for wanting to run an intercooler is that:

    1. It's always there (won't run out of meth)
    2. There is a lot of space in the front of a Skylark (compared to say an import car)
    3. I feel I'll be on thin ice already running boost on a stock engine with stock ring gaps ect, basically want maximum piece of mind.
    4. If I ever get to build a proper forged piston 350, I can reuse it at higher boost levels.

    We'll see what actually happens haha. $500 ain't cheap, but it's also not horrendously expensive for a name brand piece like the Treadstone. A made in China intercooler is ~$200, about double that and you can get a nice USA made one.
     
  3. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Yup I agree with all of that. Plus if you don’t use an intercooler you know the know it all’s will trash talk all day lol.
     
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  4. patwhac

    patwhac Well-Known Member

    Small update!

    Not done with the break-in video yet, but because I had that small audible miss I got really paranoid that I had wiped a lobe. So I pulled the rockers and measured the lift of the cam through the pushrod holes using a long extension for my dial indicator. I think my numbers look pretty good! Seems like my cam is fine right? I read an article saying that if there is more than 0.01" variance to be worried, and my numbers are all well within that range.

    Cam card specifies 0.313 Intake lift and 0.308 Exhaust lift:

    [​IMG]
     
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  5. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Yup all good
     
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  6. patwhac

    patwhac Well-Known Member

    Whew good to hear! I can finally sleep at night now :D
     
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  7. patwhac

    patwhac Well-Known Member

    I'm sure this is one of many mistakes I'll be adding to the growing list:

    Last week while changing my stock valve springs (kept on to ease cam break-in) to TA Stage 1s . . . I stupidly dropped the #2 intake valve into the bore. Lesson learned: If it's late at night and you are using the rope method to hold the vales up because you don't want to wake up your neighbors with a screaming Harbor Freight air compressor, make DOUBLY sure that the piston is at TDC.

    Got super lucky, my girlfriend and I were able to fish the valve back into the head after pulling the intake manifold. She used a very small neodymium magnet heat shrunk onto an aluminum TIG welding rod to pull up through the guide, and I used a flexible claw tool through the intake port to wiggle the valve around at the same time. This was after a few nights of trying with just the magnet/claw through the spark plug hole.

    Won't make that mistake again! Now the valve springs, retainers, and keepers are all new at least. Waiting for new TA .032" composite gaskets to come in so I can reinstall the intake manifold. Also took the opportunity to upgrade to an AMP Buick oil splash shield to replace my hacked up valley pan (Thanks Mike!!).

    Yet another lesson learned . . . don't forget to drain the coolant when removing the intake and waste $70 of fresh break-in oil :mad:

    Next up, I'm going to pull the oil pan and clearance the windage tray, my fancy dipstick apparently needs more room. I know I'll never do it once the engine is in the car and the oil is already drained so might as well get it out of the way!
     
    Dano likes this.
  8. Fox's Den

    Fox's Den 355Xrs

    This trick will help everyone get the water out of their intake.
    I jacked the car up high in the back while everything was draining out and when I took that intake off no water leakage into the oil. no water up top at all.
     
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  9. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Good bonding time with the GF getting that valve out! Good job!
     
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  10. patwhac

    patwhac Well-Known Member

    Well I finally yanked out the old SP 350 and TH350! With my girlfriend and roommate helping, we got it done last weekend. I made some fairly stupid mistakes that I could have avoided if I wasn't rushing:

    -Forgot to drain trans fluid (murdered the garage floor)
    -Forgot to disconnect speedo cable (broke it)
    -Didn't take the hood off first. I'm sure there's a way to pull the engine without doing this but I don't have a leveling mechanism, just a chain. Ended up pulling it midway through.
    -Almost broke the kickdown cable because I forgot to pull that as well.

    Here are some aftermath pictures. I forgot to take any during the actual pulling!

    Empty bay, I can't believe I'm finally at this stage! Even though it was messy it feels great to get that engine out. Both engine mounts sheared right in half when lifting the engine (even though they were unbolted), so I'm not surprised I was having trouble getting the turbo manifolds to fit when I tried to mock them up years ago. Hopefully having new mounts will help this:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Old SP 350 (the one on the ground) and TH350, original to the car according to the build sheet:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    My garage floor is now all trans fluid and cat litter :rolleyes:
    [​IMG]

    Next up for me:
    [​IMG]

    -Fix the rust on the battery tray
    -R&R the inner fender. Already have a Parts Place replacement ready to go.
    -Clean up the wiring
    -Remove AC and install delete cover
    -Install new blower motor and heater core
    -Paint the engine bay and visible frame parts.

    My sister is still editing the footage I took of the engine break in, but here's a teaser of the engine running after. I added a 2nd set of mufflers so my neighbors didn't hate me any more than they already do :D

     
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  11. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Sounds awesome! Just imagine once the turbos are spinning!
     
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  12. Mart

    Mart Gold level member

    Did you take measurements on the edge of lifter, as flat tappet cam lobes are tapered.
     
  13. patwhac

    patwhac Well-Known Member

    As far as I know, there wasn't a super repeatable way to determine exactly where I was placing the dial indicator, though I did verify that it wasn't on the plunger by moving the indicator stem with my finger to make sure I was on a solid part, which must have been the edge. Does that make sense? I couldn't see down the pushrod holes with the dial indicator in the way while measuring.

    I'm a little confused what you mean about the lobe taper affecting my readings . . . wouldn't the overall lift of a single valve be the same regardless of lobe taper when measuring on the lifter?
     
  14. Mart

    Mart Gold level member

    Yup. I see now you didn't have intake off....thought you may have been measuring off the lobe itself.
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2021
  15. patwhac

    patwhac Well-Known Member

    Ah gotcha, yup intake stayed on!
     
  16. patwhac

    patwhac Well-Known Member

    Some updates. Finally tackling the battery tray rust issue. Already have a new inner fender from TPP since my existing was was pretty rusty at the front (see above pictures).

    Here you can see I've already made a long horizontal cut with a pneumatic body saw:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Got the patch panels here. Bought them like 4 years ago and now there is surface rust on them :( Should have done this way sooner but having the engine out does make it easier:

    [​IMG]

    It's out! It was tough to cut through the part that's welded to to core support, I used a combination of the body saw and a grinder w/cutoff wheel. That body bushing was doing nothing! Before I started cutting I could put a little weight on the fender and see it moving all over the place. Now I see why:

    [​IMG]

    Glad to get this giant piece of rust out of the car:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Anyone know any tricks to remove what's left of the body bushing bracket? You can see it marked in red in this picture, I'm assuming there are some spot welds holding it to the core support? Just bought a cheap spot weld cutting bit on Amazon so hopefully that does the trick:

    [​IMG]

    I'm going to strip and paint the visible parts of the frame, then paint the engine bay, do AC delete, heater core, then new quick ratio steering box I have on the shelf. I'm trying not to fall down the "while I'm in here" hole but I am also thinking I should do the steering joints and maybe at least throw on the spare set of (newish) stock control arms I got for free. I plan to get something tubular/tall spindles/big brakes eventually but just want to drive the damn thing!
     
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  17. Reidk

    Reidk Well-Known Member

    Just watched the video that you posted. Looking good. The engine stand is sweet.
     
  18. patwhac

    patwhac Well-Known Member

    Thanks!! It took me a while to finally finish the stand, but I have to say it works pretty well. Wonder if a 455 will fit on it . . . Not that I want to do anything besides 350 right now but I would love to own a 71 or 72 Riv someday and I'd keep the BBB in it or add one! Would make a badass street bruiser.

    One can dream!
     
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  19. Sebambam

    Sebambam Well-Known Member

    You better swap the front drum brakes to discs.... you will need it..
    since you have everything out consider to rebuild the suspension and steering parts as well.... its easy and cheap if you get the parts on Rockauto.

    I got rid of my fender welds since i wanted easier access to the turbos anyways + the manifolds/turbos hit.....well its a hotrod in the end.

    Get the engine bay nice. POR15 is your best friend---- Paint it black - take it to the track.

    good job
     
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  20. patwhac

    patwhac Well-Known Member

    It's like you're reading my mind haha! The last few days I've been flip flopping on how many things I want to touch while I'm in here. My current plan is:

    -SSBC front disc brake kit I scored off the forum (single piston calipers, stock spindles)
    -Quick ratio steering box I have on the shelf (from Carhex)
    -All new steering linkage components
    -New rag joint
    -Either SPC adjustable upper arms with tall ball joints ($700), or painted (i.e. not covered in 50 year old crud) Chevelle control arms I have lying around. They'd need fresh rubber bushings and ball joints (maybe tall uppers?).
    -Use the Chevelle lowers (also needs bushings/ball joints).
    -Reuse springs, add cheap parts store shocks

    This is all until I can afford to go with the SPC uppers, better spindles (AFX ATS?), coilover ready LCAs, and good coilovers. Not even thinking of any rear suspension yet . . . I'm really leaning towards putting as little money in the front end as possible now so I can drive it sooner. I can always add expensive suspension down the road.

    Also, I feel like the inner fenders are somewhat structural no? My fender seems awfully floppy without it!
     
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