Engine blueprinting is a process that involves putting parts together that will work well as a whole to net the maximum performance intended. The goal of this project is to make reasonable amounts of power, while remaining street-able and reliable. Alamo Motorsports has provided us with a strong foundation to build upon. Next we visit the external accessories and parts to seal this motor as we prep it for installation in the vehicle.
To flow enough air achieve our goals, we looked no further than Extreme Turbo System to provide us with a mean turbo kit. In stepped their Twin scroll HTA turbo kit. The tubular manifold is 100% built in house by the ETS team and a piece of art in design. This all new manifold utilizes a wastegate runner bracket which supports the Tial 38mm MV-S wastegate and wastegate dump tube. The kit includes the only true 3″ o2 housing on the market which makes a V-band connection to the 3″ downpipe. Joining the compressor outlet to the Greddy front mount intercooler is ETS’ two and a half inch (2.5″) Lower intercooler pipe. Feeding this beast is the Street Tuned Motorsports massive 4″ intake pipe.
The turbo of choice is the Forced Performance HTA™ 3586R with a Texas back housing, as Jeremy Clarkson would have put it. After we calmed down, the choice began to make perfect sense. The choice of housing still offered great spool-up without the Top end choke offered by some of the smaller housings. The FP HTA™ GT3586R turbocharger is based on the world renowned Garrett GT Ball Bearing structure.
After the head was placed on, the preliminary fitment of the turbo kit was done in the car to ensure we don’t have clearance problems. This kit was truly as advertised, we were able to maintain all factory comforts with little to no modifications. The intake pipe on the other hand, required the switch over to a slimline fan. Towards the other end of the engine, preparations for the Speed Density conversion was in play. The factory evo 5 manifold was replaced with an Evo 9 unit courtesy of TunersNation.com. This hidden blessing allowed us to utilize the OMNI power plug and play 4 Bar map sensor. Because this sensor replaces the MDP sensor found on the Evo 7-10, it reduced the amount of modifications and wiring necessary to get the car up and running.
Many options were explored for engine management, but with Autoclinic full acquaintance with the ECUFlash software, the Evolution 8 ECU swap was a no-brainer. They opted to use the JCBanks Speed Density patch and after a few phone calls with English Racing, the ECU was acquired. After a few pin swaps and wiring, English racing sent over the basemap to get the car started.
To help transfer the power to the ground, an ATS Triple carbon triple disk clutch was employed. In order to completely cope with the tough clutch operation during drag racing, the pressure plate and middle plates (floating plates) are converted to carbon material. The new carbon plates do not warp due to the heat generated by drag starts. Those changes eliminate the insufficient clutch disengagement problem caused by repeated 3 to 7 second half clutch operation at around 8,000 rpm to 10,000 rpm. The full assembly weighs in at 12.6kg, reducing the engine power transfer loss and increasing the top speed.
Stay tuned for the final installment of the project. We will cover the first startup and the basics of the tuning process.
