Turdbo Neon

Got the hood pins on (not the prettiest job ever, and I need to add a couple spacers), and took the latch mechanism off the car. Also got the new turbo oil feed line installed. Now I need to wait for a dry day to test it out.

– Oil leak. Re-doing the oil lines in AN fittings should cure this problem

– Fuel / Ignition map. Now that we’re dealing with a proper vacuum source, this should be a lot better. I think most of the map is actually pretty good, but when it gets to higher RPMs it sort of chokes out.

– Secure under hood electrical components. A lot of the relays and whatnot have had their mounting brackets removed. Duct tape isn’t going to cut it on the RallyX course.

– Tires. Duh? The ARE rims are 14″, and a 15″ might be able to fit with some persuasion.

– Exhaust. The SuperTrapp muffler is on the CRX now. And the exhaust pipe is barely attached to the underside of the car. This needs to be secured with hangers.

– Intercooler piping. The PVC is going to get brittle with heat, and it also has no bead to hold the connectors on. It might not be a bad idea to wrap the piping in something if we use something a little thin-walled.

– Air Filter. While the stock airbox hanging all funny is cute, a regular cone filter with some sort of airflow directed towards it would be a better bet.

– Remove Dash. There’s no rule stating that we need the dash any more, and all it’s going to do is rattle around. It would be nice, however, to retain the stock dash cluster for the speedo, tach, and odo.

– Secure fascia. The front bumper cover is attached with, basically, a couple drywall screws. That also will not last long on the course.

– Grille for intercooler. It would be nice to not lose the intercooler to a chunk of rock, but this is pretty low priority since we won’t really be following anyone that close.

– Pin hood. Once the pins are installed, the hood latch mechanism and all the associated release cables and levers can be removed.

– Pin trunk. Once the pins are installed, the trunk latch mechanism and all the associated release cables and levers can be removed. The trunk lid’s inner bracings can also be removed to eliminate weight.

– Injector clips. The bailing wire isn’t going to last that long.

– Fill firewall holes. There are several holes in the firewall where the heater core and other things used to be. These should be sealed in some quasi-permanent way and made to look halfway decent.

– Magnetic numbers. On the theme of having a cheap RallyX car that goes like stink instead of looking like it, some good magnetic panels would be a good idea. Best would be getting magnetic squares, covering the parts to make up the number, then spraying the rest of the sheet black to give the impression of white numbers on the black car. Don’t forget the class letters, too.

– Camera mount. Not very important, but I’d like to be able to mount a camera in the car to get some video.

Longer range:

– Manual transmission. Because automatics are for drag racers other wimps.

– Cage. Add some stiffness.

– Seats. A couple racing seats would be awesome, as would the 5-point harnesses that should be installed with them.

– Steering wheel. The whole missing airbag look is cool and all, but a nice wheel would be a good touch.

– Suspension. Rebuild the Konis? Get something new? Something that adds stiffness to the ride without lowering it.

The project has been on semi-permanent hold for the last year or so due to a multitude of factors, not the least of which is a lack of time and garage space. I have, however, managed to tear down the paint booth for the Mazda while i wait for the temperature to come back up, so I have room to work on the Neon. I dug in to the AN plumbing that I have on hand was able to remove the oil pressure sender and its associated tee. With that thrown into the trash heap, I wrapped the NPT threads in teflon tape and torqued down the 3/8″ NPT to -6 AN adapter plug. I put the -6 AN female hose end on the -6 hose and attached it to the oil pressure port, and then ran the line up to the turbo’s oil input.

In a fit of pure stupidity, I managed to purchase a tube nut and sleeve for the oil input. As well as female hose ends (which, as best I can tell, are the only hose ends available). Since I lack a tubing bead roller, I went searching for the appropriate adaptater, which I found from Jegs. Once it arrives, I can put a male -6 on the 3/8 tube that goes to the oil input, push the -6 female hose end onto the hose, and then (hopefully) seal up the oil system. Once that’s done, we’ll back out of the driveway for another pressure test and see what happens.

If that doesn’t fix the oil leak, then we’ll go ahead and drop the oil pan and set up the oil return line with AN fittings as well, but it really looks like the oil is leaking on the input side.

Also en route from Jegs are 4 pair of hood pins. We’ll go ahead and remove the hinges on the hood and trunk, as well as all the associated catch and release mechanisms, and pin them down.

The parts are flying off the car already! Despite yet another wrenched back, I went out and started taking the oil input apart. I was able to remove the hard line to the turbo, the rubber hose, and the hose barb, but I don’t seem to be able to get to the oil pressure sender connector latch — it’s in a place that human hands attached to a wrenched back just can’t reach.

In other news, I’ve also started taking some of the wiring apart to try to clean up the engine bay a bit. I think I need to find a little bit of scrap steel to make a new bracket to hold the under-hood relay box off to the side so it doesn’t interfere with the shift linkage.

Just got back in from the garage. I’ve been just piddling around a little here and there on the car, and have done two things to try to abate the oil leaks. First, I shortened the turbo oil drain hose by about 4 inches to take the low spot out of the hose. Second, I replaced the spring-type clamps with screw-type to make sure I had a good seal on the drain hose. After taking the car for a quick spin, I found that neither of those have actually worked.

I’m thinking that the oil is coming from either the pressure sender tee assembly, or from the drain line flange off the turbo. To test the pressure sender tee assembly, I’ll remove the whole thing from the car, disconnecting only the electrical connection from the sender, the thread into the block and the thread into the turbo. I’ll get a cap for the thread into the block (3/8 NPT, for future reference), and then apply pressure on the turbo side. If I get leaks, then there’s my problem. If I get no leaks, I’ll see about building a new flange for the drain line, only this time I’ll weld on an AN -10 fitting, put an AN -10 fitting on the oil pan, and use some braided hose between the two.

Having a new baby around is a truly wonderful thing, but there’s been way too much happening on that front to be able to get out and fight the battle of the leak.

In an attempt to get the car street-able, I’ve bought some switches and started installing them. Of course, along the way, I started to wonder why I wasn’t just using the stock control. Deciding that was actually the smart way to go, I found it in a box in the basement and dragged it out. I’ve re-built the connector that I had hacked apart to connect up various switches, but stunningly, it doesn’t work at all. In fact, not only do the turn signals not work, now the brake lights are broken again, too. Bonus.

In other news, I’ve been giving the oil spray a little more thought. Basically, there’s one of three things going on:

• There is an actual hole or loose connection in the turbo oil plumbing
• There is too much crankcase pressure that isn’t getting vented
• The oil drain is getting backed up.

If the problem is a hole, then there should always be leakage, and it appears that we only get spray under boost. If there’s a loose connection, though, it could be “good enough” for regular pressure, but once the crankcase pressure builds, oil could leak past the seal. That leak, then, could be:

• Oil pressure sender nipple to block
• Oil pressure sender nipple to OPS
• Oil pressure sender nipple to turbo inlet
• Oil inlet connection
• Connection from oil inlet to turbo
• Connection from turbo to oil output
• Oil output metal-to-rubber connection
• Oil output rubber-to-pan-barb connection
• Oil pan barb
• Oil pan gasket

I’m doubting that it’s anything at the pan, since the oil-spray is hitting a bit higher and there’s a whole lot of steering parts in the way. I suspect that there’s a little too much car in the way for the oil pressure sender plumbing to be the cause, but it’s not impossible.

If the problem is that the oil drain is getting backed up, then there are two things that could solve the problem. Either a flow restrictor needs to be put in the oil inlet line to slow down the flow going in, or the oil drain hose needs to be replaced with something a little more direct.

I went out tonight for a little drive up the hill in the car. Boy does it pull hard! Bad news, though, is that the catch-can had zero oil in it, and the street now has lots of oil on it. So, still not fixed…

I stopped by the Courthouse today and chatted with the Sheriff. As it turns out, I would need to make the following modifications in order to get a rebuilt title for the car and get it tagged:

Tonight, I pulled out the intercooler piping made of PVC and sprayed it black. Looks much better now.

At the same time, I also built a catch can out of a bit of PVC, the cap from the black spray paint can, a paper towel, some left over vaccum line from the evap system, four zip ties, and (of course) some duct tape. I strongly suspect that the oil was spraying from the turbo return lines because blow-by was pressurizing the crankcase and the easiest way out for that pressure was the return hose and fittings.

The $2006 Challenge was a major disappointment for the Turbo Neon. It pretty much went like this:

– Blew exhaust off car before the autocross
– Wrenched my back
– Blew off an intercooler hose, prevent the car from hitting boost
– Lost an injector’s electrical connection, preventing the car from running on four cylinders.
– Blew a coolant line, fouling the drag strip.
– Fuel map too lean.
– Spark map too retarded.
– Blew an oil line, fouling the drag strip yet again.

When the dust cleared, we managed a mighty 15.8-something ET, being beat handily by a stock Neon that someone else brought down. After discussions on the way back from Gainesville, we decided that the primary cause of our miserable failure was that we brough an untested and unproven car. The reason for that was simply that we didn’t spend the time that needed to be spent on the car. Based on what other folks are seeing with a similar setup, we should have been in the top 15 at the autocross and running at least a 14 second quarter mile. Our goal is to return with the car in $2007 with all those problems sorted.

The car is a 1997 Dodge Neon Sport Coupe, which was purchased from a friend of a friend of my wife in mid 2005 for $100, plus $260 in transportation. Through the magic of sell-downs, the car is now worth $0 in the budget. I bought a used SRT-4 turbofold, injectors, intercooler, and plumbing, moved the battery to the rear, stripped out the power steering, A/C, interior, hood bracing, bumper supports, cruise control, and anything else that I could get my hands on. The car came with collision damage, so we bent the core support back out, replaced the radiator and the fender, and put window nets in to replace the busted glass. To meet the fuel demands of a turbocharged engine, a MegaSquirt v2,2 kit was bought, converted to MSnS-E, and installed. When it was all done, the total cost in the budget came to $843.98.