Latest Engine Pics

The first picture shows all of the aluminum panels that went into making the box portion of the new plenum section.  The front panel was cut from a piece of 5/16" aluminum plate and was designed to accept the throttle body, my air temperature sensor, and a #4 AN fitting for my wastegate signal.  The rest of the panels were cut from 1/8" aluminum.  The panel marked "center" was initially intended to be installed down the center of the box to help break up any turbulence caused by the rather abrupt directional change of the incoming air, while keeping airflow to either side of the engine as balanced as possible (as you can see, the throttle body sits at approximately a 37° angle and I felt that the airflow might have a tendency to prefer the more direct route to the right side of the engine).  The divider panel idea was eventually dropped based on recommendations by a few brainiacs I know.  The second picture shows the final product all welded together, including the 1.75" OD round aluminum tube that is welded to the bottom of the plenum box.  A mounting tab that bolts to one of the top case half studs is also visible, although it hadn't been welded to the tube at the time of this picture.  The three small holes on the left side of the plenum box are port fittings for my MAP sensor, fuel pressure regulator, and blow-off valve.  Can you feel the kewlness factor yet?

The next two pictures show my modified CB Performance EFI end castings.  These are really nothing more than OEM-style end castings with fuel injector bosses cast in.  These are somewhat popular items and I've seen them used on a number of turbocharged applications.  The close-to-stock design of these end castings means that they perform well under normal city driving, although they would be somewhat of a bottleneck if installed on a high performance normally aspirated engine.  Thankfully, that is not the case on a forced induction engine, where the boost can easily make up for any restrictiveness on the intake side.  Many turbo drag cars use almost the same set-up so they certainly aren't the bottleneck some people would like to think they are.  If you look closely at the first picture, you'll see the two end casting extension tubes that I made out of some spare 1.75" OD aluminum tubing.  The one on the left has a bevelled cut and is intended to face towards the center of the engine.  The one on the right has a stepped cut and was carefully machined to slip over the factory two-step inlet on the end casting.  These extension tubes were later welded in place, as you can see in the second picture.  Finally, the two mounting holes on each end casting were bushed to create a tighter fit to the mounting studs on each cylinder head (bushing is a process where carefully machined inserts are made that fit tightly into the existing holes of the end casting and have an ID just a tad bit larger than the OD of the stud itself).  Both the end castings and center plenum section were later chrome plated for even more kewlness.

I've talked enough about the Ford 5.0L Mustang throttle body I'm using, so I might as well show it to you.  The first picture shows all of the individual bits & pieces that make up the throttle body, including the IAC valve on the right and the TPS (throttle position sensor) directly below the throttle body housing.  The thingie on the left is the throttle plate shaft, which was cut down to eliminate the cruise control and automatic transmission kickdown cable attachment points.  The right picture shows the completed product.  The housing was chucked in a lathe and the OD of the top of the throttle body was reduced down to approximately 2.75" in diameter.  The bottom gasket surface of the throttle body was also machined flat to bring all eight casting webs into contact with the actual gasket itself (you have to flip over a stock throttle body to know what I'm talking about).  The steel J-pipe coming off of the right side of the throttle body was yoinked and replaced with a #6 AN fitting to plumb pressurized air to my water injection tank.  The entire throttle body was then glass beaded and sprayed with a clear lacquer to maintain that freshly blasted look.  As stated earlier, the throttle plate shaft was trimmed to eliminate the long arms where the cruise and kickdown cables attach, before being painted fire red and reassembled.

Hold on, we're not quite there yet. Many, many hours were spent on designing the center plenum section to make sure that everything fit together nicely and didn't interfere with the rest of the engine components surrounding it.  First I had to make sure that the plenum box didn't sit right up against the fan shroud, and then I had to make sure that the 1.75" tubing would fit underneath the alternator (you can see a small flatspot on the top of the tubing near the alternator location that I had to perform in order to provide the necessary clearance).  The plenum box had to be mounted as centrally as possible on the tubing while still leaving sufficient room around the throttle linkage.  The mounting tab that bolts to one of the top case half studs was ever-so-carefully positioned to make sure that the cross tube was positioned at the right height and exactly halfway between the two end castings.  Everything lined up almost perfectly after welding, except for an unaccounted for error that resulted in a slightly larger end gap between the center tube and the right end casting tube extension.  But once the silicone hose is slipped over the tube ends to connect the plenum section to the end castings, nobody will ever know (except you guys). If you really are interested in performing such a complex modification as this to your own ACVW, please note that there is no room for a stock distributor with the center plenum section in place. You will either have to utilize DIS as I did, or somehow build the center plenum box high enough to clear the distributor (while still allowing you to close your decklid!).

And now we get down to the good stuff — the latest engine pics from Sharkey.  You can see the Mazda RX-7 coil packs still installed in the upper left corner of the firewall.  The Eagle Talon blow-off valve is bolted on a flange on the side of the intake pipe connecting my turbo outlet to the inlet of the Mustang throttle body.  Custom silicone angled hoses from www.turbohoses.com connect the intake to the turbo and throttle body, while straight lengths of 1.75" hose connect the end castings to the center plenum section.  A 10' long Morse throttle cable arcs around the backside of my fan shroud to a custom made mounting bracket mounted to the center plenum section.  Extra throttle return springs were necessary due to the added friction imparted into the Morse cable by the tight radius of the arc (maybe someday I'll install a wireless throttle system!).  Magnecor spark plug wires, fuel pressure regulator, and stainless steel braided fuel return line are secured to the firewall instead of the backside of the fan shroud, in hopes of preventing a reoccurrence of the small engine fire I experienced last summer (Yikes!).  A freshly powder coated CB Performance breather box vents both cylinder heads via fittings installed into the actual heads, not the valve covers (seen in the trial fit pictures above).  The top of the breather box is then vented through a large bore hose down through a custom aluminum panel that replaces the factory large pulley tin, into a short custom intake tube on the inlet side of the turbocharger.  Bulkhead fittings provide firm connections for this hose, as well as the wastegate pressure signal line (left) and water injection delivery line (right).  Pressurized oil is fed to the turbocharger via a small stainless steel braided hose connected to the stock oil pressure switch location.  The fuel rails were reused from my original CB Performance turbo kit and stainless steel braided hose was used to plumb them together.

Finally, here are a couple of pics of the NACA duct I incorporated into my decklid. The duct itself came from Unlimited Products in California. They sell fibreglass hoods and scoops of excellent quality. The duct was bonded to the underside of my decklid using a special two-part urethane structural adhesive. I then did my best to blend the duct in with the surrounding sheet metal, paying particular attention to try and get the the factory center rib lines to flow into the edges of the duct. Flaws in my novice attempt at bodywork are visible now that the paint has been allowed to dry for a few weeks, but I'm still happy with the results.