'34 Chevy 5W - Turbo "Atlas" Inline Hot Rod

I might make multiple exhaust pipes. They clamp on to the turbo outlet with a v-band, so it would be easy to swap out, similar to a header dump.

Slowly solidifying the front end. After many aesthetic adjustments of the grill shell mockup, I welded in some mounting tabs for the grill shell so I can start mounting the radiator and turbo intercooler.







The $40 used intercooler from facebook marketplace maximizes the radiator grill opening. In fact, it's actually a little too big due to the inline inlet and outlet, so I started chopping. I need them to turn 90 degrees. Trying to keep all charge air plumbing nice and tidy, with a centered outlet flowing straight over the top of the engine and simple elbow into the throttle body. I was apprehensive to ruin the intercooler but the alternative is boring a hole through the top of the grill shell for an intake elbow and I think that would look too "Mad Max" for my taste. Or finding a smaller intercooler that doesn't fill the space as well. Balance of aesthetics vs performance.









I really should get some proper hot rod tires (taller diameter) because it's messing with the proportions. I do believe the grill shell in the right position, but the tiny front tires are making it look a little goofy. Plus it still needs to be lowered more.

 

Got the intercooler and radiator attached to each other, with about a 1/4" gap between them. You can make simple no-weld struts by crushing the ends of tube and drilling a hole through the end.





Then I attached some angle steel brackets to the stack and welded little fork brackets to the ends. These U-shaped forks sit on the same bolt that holds the radiator shell on. It makes installation pretty easy to, because both the shell and cooler stack will pivot independently about the same axis. I still need a vertical stabilizer of some kind, but this really settles the design of the front end so I can remove all the mock-up blocking and such.

I'm not really sure how to handle the intercooler/radiator ducting. I was thinking a square ring of 3/8"ish neoprene or silicone foam strip where the cores overlap, then just blocking the rest of the shell area with sheetmetal to prevent air byp***ing both of them. In theory some air will go high and low through the intercooler but around the radiator, and likewise it will go left/right around the intercooler but through the radiator. I think the foam seal at the core overlap will allow the puller fan to still move some air through the intercooler when stopped. But open to input here.





Some careful t******* of the lower area of the shell allowed the bottom end tank to clear. I still have to weld the inlet back on and patch the hole I made to cut it off, to convert the ends from inline to 90 degree. The charge piping will have to snake past the steering rack and radiator, but I think it will fit.



Up top, similar story with the 90 degree outlet conversion. I might have to cut the entire end tank off and weld a new one to center the outlet. It might be annoying to remove charge pipes just to add oil, plus it will look cool with the piping perfectly centered.





This shot shows the offset of the upper end tank outlet. On one hand, the current location allows a more gradual 90 degree bend into the throttle body, plus less fabrication. On the other hand, centered aesthetics and oil filler access.

 

@maschinenbau
Just asking
Have you thought of Meth injected
That's boost related to activate for cooling & raising the octane widow .
When I was trying to make a cooler and radiator all in one
For 32 shell , I change plains & thought
Simpler to just Meth inject boost & or air temp related

 

I had not considered it. It would certainly save me some fabrication and space. The charge piping would be more elegant too, with a single tube from compressor to throttle body. I think it's a good backup plan if I can't make this work. I would prefer not to have a methanol tank to keep full.
I have seen folks at the drag strip use an OEM windshield washer system for methanol - tank, pump, and sprayer lines - with the jet aimed at the turbo inlet. They said it worked really well for drag where you only need power for 10 seconds or so at a time.

 

I gallon goes long way
Bug juice ,
Top off @ every fuel stop or 2 .
I was going to plum in fail safe's

 

Since this *is* OT n all, I'd suggest a bit of time on theSamba to study :

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=801950&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=100

Best to read from pg1, but it gets interesting on pg6. Guy tests hard, & tells what's worked, what hasn't, & how n what to use/do for a really good H2O "injection". Same system will work gangbusters for meth-mix, btw. Starts out w/fogging the heads to cool them, but "degenerates" into spraying/fogging down the carb throats. Which is the answer, to more than one "problem". .

Hth.
Marcus...

 

An intercooler is about charge density rather than detonation control? though it might have a secondary effect on detonation? I don't think an intercooler and water/alcohol injection are alternatives to each other?

 

Hey, Dawie;
True, although the properly-operating intercooler should lower the intake-air-temp(a function resulting in the density-increase), which should lower the detonation-tendency. One does affect the other, & in fact - an intercooler can easily function as an inter*heater* - sadly. Lots of variables here... In rather low-boost conditions(like, say, up to ~10psi-ish), (at up to ~ 6psi-ish, & good tune{boy, is this a "loaded" statement... }, neither may be needed), H2O injection can replace an intercooler - which doesn't really function well at low-boost levels anyways(in terms of the Delta-change). The H2O would function only as a temp-bandaid/fix/add-on for the as-needed/when-needed-only, instead of a constant usage. Depends on boost levels & also when boost starts, etc.
Btw; the above is my current level of understanding - if I'm wrong, would appreciate correction. . I didn't begin to address all the variables that affect each other. That's in books n forums others wrote, could n should, fill a good library. .

But that isn't why I put in the link. It was iffen he decides to *add* meth/H2O injection. Normally, it'd be best in the turbo inlet(talk about mechanical-vaporization + the heat-absorption factor), but w/an intercooler, it has to be introduced on the engine-side of the intercooler, or condensation will occur(same for added fuel or if carb'd), leading to unhappy results, from the viewpoints of both the pocketbook & the mill. Observing spectators, however, may get a momentary thrill, just prior to the "Opportunity to Upgrade"... .
Marcus...

 

If I get my 2jz 32 Ford gong
I will Meth or nitrous oxide just for cooling air temp .

the web page posted above for what I read , they look to be using 90-100%
all time & there static compression 14:1.

 

Hey, 19Eddy30;

W/o getting into the weeds too deep, or in trouble for cross-referencing info...

Which link??? Vizards'?
The one I posted, is acvw, was efi - went back to carbs, in a bus. Easy to overheat heads. He mentions a vid:
"What Vizard talks about in this video is running 40lbs of boost on engines or 14:1 static. Well for the past about 8 or 9 years have been running 25lbs of boost on my rotary rx7, which normally would be capped at 15lbs of boost on pump gas. But with h20 it's perfectly reliable. If you're not familiar with rotaries and apex seals, there's no room for error. One moment of detonation and you're rebuilding a motor. I know guys running 30lbs on pump gas. As Vizard says what power you lose with the h20 you quickly gain back with timing, compression, or boost. And since you don't need h20 at low throttle high compression motors, you can cruise around just fine but get the benefit of better fuel mileage with the gained efficiency.
"

Doesn't mean you have to run it at that level, or should.

The OP discusses various H2O systems, how, what, why, they work, & some experiments that are rather successful in quashing detonation, in addition to allowing lower-quality fuel to be used, resulting in his personal experience across various types of mill. What works for one, should be applicable to others - like our stuff.

Worth a look n study that thread - to me at least, for the info. & lots of pics... .
Vizard's worth the time to read his work & study it to, very sharp guy...
Marcus...

 

@nrgwizard , yes yr link
I did not realize it started on pg 6.
Those oil burner nozzles was good thinking outside the box.
Me , I am not a pro I was just reading
Seen boost , then seen Na , then Vw
Alot of Lengo did not know what the meaning, Its some thing I will go & read from Start pg 1 .
I know some what blown MFI with
16-24 Nos's
EFI trying to learn
I do not know what Op use of
As in Road corse or Like 1/8 or 1/4 blast .
Me my project a DD 32 with 2jz ,
640-700 hp no more then 7,500 r's
I was talking with a place in Tx that made Aviation / Aerospace items .
I was looking into a custom made
Rad & inter cooler in One
Challenge was to fit in a car 32 Ford rad shell trying to keep clean & simple .
Then just talking with fab , tech, engineer.
We kid of came to conclusion
Since a DD & 20- 25 ish psi & only
1/8 pull , looking for
5:80's on pump was to experiment try
Meth to cool charge & try to stay away
from detonation.
I have a mix of parts
Sno
&
AMG ,
I do not know enough , just would be experimenting with safety's
If Like hight charge temp , Lean , detonation detection
"" To """
kill timing
Or set to dump all boost
Ect ..

I would go with E85 but not commonly
Available where I am @ .
Then If E85 was available
I would need to add another 20-25 gal
tank in trunk plus the 14 gal . Would = 300 ish mile rang
Some time I do 1 K drives .
Race & plane Fuel not available like I have been use to .

 

Hey, 19Eddy30;
Lots to learn(boy, am I still learning...) over on that site, & yes, the lingo is abit different. I'm a learnin' fiend, now iffen I only had the memory/recall/usage of Mr. Spock... ;( . Sadly, there has been a lot of cool tech once used & dissed, now not avail anymore in that community. ;( . Yeah, I'm too late for a lot of it, but there's also new-ish tech applied that make stupid hp available now for rather cheap(even by my standards - which are fairly low...), that wasn't a decade or two ago. So there is a trade-off. I really like to see what can crossover from different genre. Quite often can mean giving new life to old really cool stuff - so be it, esp iffen it can be hidden. As it turns out, there're many such guys, doing in-depth-research & sharing the results - it's just finding them & having the time to peruse it(& no, I'm barely scratching the surface)... So sometimes I share info from different sites, that I think is relevant to thetopic being discussed, hoping I'm not committing some faux pas or another, to get me into trouble. I'm esp drawn to the techie & diy stuff/solutions. . & I'm also happy HAMB has the OT forum(s) now.

Marcus...

 

That was hugely interesting. Thanks Marcus.

I'm usually after something a bit different to absolute energy efficiency — call it "ins***utional efficency": though I won't go into it. Some work has been done on hydrous E90 as a fuel, which shows promise.

 

Kinda OT even for this, but I figured out yrs ago, that the freq required to vaporize gasoline(from someones' work w/that in the~70's & cool at that, since it *did* work), is the same freq to vaporize water, & afaik, alcohol too. Look at the vapor generators for cold humidifiers that use the little ceramic discs. Properly installed(insulated from the manifold) into the lower surfaces of an intake manifold(wet flow type only), they'll vaporize fuel to ~3k rpm or so. Original version put them under the carb. Known as "singing" manifolds. Btw, do *not* touch these discs under power... A constant problem is to *keep* the fuel in suspension.
Marcus...

 

Really good technical discussion here! I always like learning about this stuff.
For this build though, Plan A is still air-to-air intercooler. More complex packaging and fabrication, but fewer moving parts and simpler tuning. To make it all fit the 1930's body style, I decided to center the outlet with the middle of the grill shell, and turn the inlet 90 degrees, which means chopping up a perfectly good intercooler.












Still need to fully weld it all up, along with the exhaust manifold.

 

Turbo plumbing side quest has been fun but I'm back on the body. I think having a complete floor will make it start to feel like a real car.

More 1" square tubing behind the seats



I started building the driveshaft tunnel from what's left of that broken oil jug. Boy was that a mistake. This was extremely low-quality steel that bent and welded like ****.



I finished the job with fresh new 20ga steel. Much better.



Then continued filling in the blanks with more panels.



I made the panels behind the seats step down about 2" below the floor, to be even with the bottom of the rockers. Slightly more storage space, but should also keep stuff from sliding forward under the seat into the footwell when you slam on the brakes.





I meant to continue the bead-rolled inset pattern, but had already bent up the sides, so I just did the two straight bead roll lines from the front and back of the panels. It will all be under carpet anyway.



Now I just have to fill the corners near the main hoop base plates, and floor the trunk.

 

Ha, this was fun. I saved the truck bed floor from the Colorado donor. It is now my trunk floor! Debating on making it removable for access to the fuel tank and battery, or just weld it in. I may also cut out the stiffening beams for clearance to the frame below, although they may help with building the rear bodywork since the bottom edge of the trunk opening doesn't exist.

 

Forgot to show off my fully welded intercooler with the inlet and outlet moved. I traded some work with a pro at my job, so I can't claim credit for the welds. But it fits perfectly.









Done with the major floor patches in the interior. Still lots of little things underneath to clean up and grind down.







Had to cut openings in the trunk floor for the roll bar rear stabilizers.



Which got me thinking about how floppy this floor is. It is only attached to the rest of the body at the bulkhead. The rear fenders are just flapping in the breeze.

My goal is to prime the entire floor top and bottom before I move on to exterior bodywork. To finish the floor, I need to attach it to the rear fenders and and fascia. So I need to build the rear fascia panel to tie the fenders together. To do that, I need to set the trunk lid on to square it all up.



Of course, the trunk lid has no hinges or anywhere to attach it to. So I made some temporary brackets to set the panel gap.









Now I'm mocking up the rear panel with cardboard. My plan for the frame rails is a piece of large round tube between them as a bumper and paint it flat black to make it disappear. Keep in mind the rear will come down more.



Can you guess the tailights?



Wait, I thought I was just about to paint the floor? How did we get here??

 

Paper panel made into metal panel.







I wanted to continue the rounded corners along the edges of the body to my near rear fascia panel the same way I did the rockers. Here's a masochistic way to bend a tube into just the right shape.















Messing around with a bumper from a Willys pickup (I think) that I had in the shed. Might hide the leaf spring shackles well, but I'm not sure about the style of it.

 

Don't know iffen this'll help, but; instead of the rear shackles, you could go w/a rear-spring-roller-box like the circle trackers use. Just a thin box welded to the bottom of the frame, w/slots cut in the sides(for the roller-bearing/spring-eye bolt), & enough cut out of the bottom to allow the spring eye to travel back-n-forth on sealed roller bearings. All quite neat & fairly small. It adds abit of stability since the shackles are now out of the picture + lowering the rear the distance between the two shackle bolts. You might want to shorten the rear of the #1 leaf abit & have the eye re-rolled, since then you can also shorten the frame for the now-non-existing-shackles, about as much as you want/need.
FWIW.
Marcus...

 

Did you pie cut and weld the bar back up? Just making sure I understand. It came out great

 

That's right. About a dozen cuts into the tube, but not all the way through. Grab the free end with vise grips and bend it in and weld it up. It's a little tricky to bevel the cuts for welding with the edge of the cutoff wheel. Keep adding cuts or widening them until you have the right curvature. Those extra tight corners were done the same way but with bigger pie cuts to get a smaller radius.

 

Some more details on those corners with the tubing







Since I was on a roll with the sheetmetal welding, went ahead and burned in thar first patch I tacked in. Wow, was that almost a year ago? This is taking forever. And that's why you always buy the best body you can afford when it comes to project cars.



This 135 degree bent piece fills the gap from floor to rear fascia and makes the gutter for the trunk.





I got an idea for the rear bumper. Just a piece of leftover roll bar tubing. It doesn't negate adding a real bumper, but I like how it's looking.









Yeah that works. I could live with this even if I don't add a real bumper.

 

Now what goes behind it? This mystery junkyard tank I found laying on the ground, which I've deduced is from a early 90's F-150, I think. But it's too big in two dimensions.











It will take some work to close it up, but having it open is a good opportunity to play with the fuel pump. The junkyard tank came with this Ford plastic housing abomination, but I have a Walbruh 255 I'd like to use instead. Hmmm.



The tank has a nice little sump in it. Tried a few different mounting angles first. This one won out, but it reguires a slightly bend in the feed hose.



So I found a hanger inside this piece of stainless exhaust tubing










Also had to adjust the sender mounting but it all fits and I can actually install it through the flange.

And by coincidence, the Colorado and 90's Ford truck both use 3/8 feed and 5/16 return quick-disconnect fitting. So I might actually be able to reuse some fuel lines from the donor truck.



Tank mods are underway.





I MIG'ed the whole tank for speed and only had like 6 leaks. Down to 2 now. had to seal these last ones with some TIG puddles. Still way faster than TIGing the whole thing. Kinda hack but whatever it works.

 

Its amazing how rounding the rear of the frame made it look soooo much better

 

I hate to mention it after all that pie cutting, but is this something you might consider...?

 

That looks nice too! It's an easy spot to access later if I get the bug to change it

 

Finally decided to bead blast all that old spray paint off the compressor housing.





Nice! I like the natural aluminum finish a lot more. Now about that actuator. Better test it first before I add danger to manifold.



Wow okay it opens at 35 PSI. Definitely still set to diesel and not ideal for my lil gas motor. I looked up what I got here. It's a Turbosmart IWGHP, which seems to be basically their IWG75 but with a deeper housing for longer springs for diesel application. So unfortunately I can't just swap universal springs in to lower the pressure, I would have to do actual spring math and stuff or possibly just space them. But luckily it comes with a lower pressure spring inside!



According to Turbosmart, both of these springs together should set it to 35 PSI, which I confirmed. But if you use only the yellow/orange one, it should open at 10 PSI. So let's test it.



Closed:



It just barely started to open at 10 PSI. Here it is at 14 PSI:



16 PSI:



18 PSI its nearly fully extended



So maybe this will work for my goals of 350 to 400 hp. At the very least, it will look freakin sweet.

 

Tank mounting. I made these upper saddle brackets that fit into the original contours of the tank and weld into the frame.







This put the tank a little too lower, especially when you consider the rear end should come down at least 2 more inches. So I cut it all out.





At this height, the upper brackets touched the rear bumper bar. So might as well weld them to it for strength.





It's almost like a deuce tank setup, and probably safer than one since it is set further forward from the bumper. Just need straps and a filler now. I found this cheap generic remote filler and cap.



But the filler position will depend on where the tailights end up. So I should probably put those in first. CAD templates first of course.













I like the tailights a lot. '64s on a '34, and all-Chevy just like the rest of the build.