84 mx62 SPAM WaGN (spare parts n misc+turbo buick hillrod)

stock junk
84 with 86k on it from Socal
5mge with bad #2 rod bearing, buick parts in garage....leads to this hunk of scrapmetal....parts from 23 cars are in it so far lol



just an idea of the new powerplant
and yes thats a subaru Tbelt idler pulley with a groove cut in it for the throttle cable, its tacked for now till permanent cable is figured out
all the primary's are within a 1/4in of each other, secondary's will be equal as well, shouldn't sound like a typical turbo buick for sure
gentlemen...i give you the 3800jz gte

those are crappy VC's for welding, waiting to install the nice ones... believe it or not the motor used to be in the rear of our twin drivetrain 94 olds cutlass
thats a volvo PS reservoir, camaro ps pump, manual belt tensioner is from a 66 Tbird, 1990 ln3 3800 wired to a 98 SII 3800 pcm with an 89 2.8l v6 Fbody 700r4....lol the whole car is like this

t70 turbo buick frame turbo. spearco IC from a vintage "hotair" buick conversion kit

as it sits now with the front hacked off so i can make a new front lower support for more radiator room and much better layout...sorta thinking about longer radius rods to make things easier and delete those brackets...
not alot of mod parts for these things around the midwest...i gotta make everything

been slowly moving forward with this
picked up tons of new parts and made changes to things...

new radiator (302 outlet 64-66 mustang 3" thick)
thanks to new radiator, scrapped steel rad support for aluminum now much lower
T3 tension rods and panhard
12x12x2 B&M supercooler and all -6 braided lines from trans case forward
buncha misc junk

hacked apart the bumper support to just the outer shell in the middle (ill reinforce it a lil)

due to the radiator i am sectioning off the whole front of the tension rod brackets now that the radiator core support is nearly 2.25" lower than OEM. the brackets also interfere with the radiator outlet that is inboard of the 89 mercury cougar xr7 radiator i had previously

figured out an oil cooler setup and routing for possible need in the future. found the perfect PS cooler just gotta find a good one next time im in the junkyard....

looks like i wil be going with a ford 8.8...i already have strange C clip elims and a 3.55 posi 4 lug rear...just need some nice alloy 4 lug axles and ill be set...and still be able to use my Weld draglites...though id probably just machine em for the larger 4x114.3 pattern so i can keep the OEM toyota 14" rims

dunno if id transfer the brackets or make new ones...im thinking my best bet may be to use conventional drag racing 4 link plates on the rearend and make my own arms instead of using oem toyota geometry and the Techno toy tuning arms...meh time will tell...

anyways onto the pics....   

new lower radiator support and the roughouts of the radiator fittings that i had to hack off the new radiator...

this radiator is over an inch taller than the cougar radiator which i already had hood clearance issues with...now i should have a 1/4 inch lol
you can see how the tension rod brackets are now above the support....i have to hack off the fronts and weld on a new lower leg to bolt to the radiator support cross-member....

the Techno Toy tuning tension rods (sans adapters so i can gain an extra inch of room lol) and the panhard aka lateral bar


thats all fer now! till next time   

regards, James

roughed out the rear of the new tension rod brackets from 2x2 1/8th tube...the way i designed it is simple, its meant to nestle into the inboard corner of the 75mm wide OEM channel and extend forward and down to mate to the new radiator core support...if i do it right i will be able to have a 14" straight down dump in front of my subframe...
after some more measuring i decided to cut down the small mammal guillotine....the dropoff and front leg of the lower support (which is now 5"x 1 5/8" x 1/4inch) will both get drilled and end up as a "clampable" air-dam that would let me use stiff nylon/etc of varying thickness' to make a sacrificial airdam as low as i wanna go...and replaceable easily.

i had to machine the stands for notches to clear the oem towhook weldnuts i still have to lay out where the T hook slots will be but thats soon enough


this will give you a better idea of the madness going on...

this bugger at the top is the problem. with the now much lower core support that thing is in my way not to mention it will be blocked off and no longer serviceable...

the new pieces will nestle in to the right side of that channel and will let me hack off the front of the OEM brackets and make a new front half to mate to the new core support.


here's a good view of the suspension. to make things simple im going to keep the upper back section of that oem tension rod bracket and splice in a new front section.
look at that shit though...2000lb car suspension on a 3000lb wagon


this gives you a better idea of how the front will work out.... the new core support nits near the bottom of that T hook slot and you can see how high the OEM core support to bracket joint was lol

the tube will likely get sectioned into a taper to keep ground clearance and give me craploads of engine bay room that i badly need :rofl:

once all this big pita core support fabrication work is done, the rest of the hot and cold side pipe fab work can begin...again

dont laugh too much

this is one of the ideas i have that would be the bigest increase to engine bay room...which i need lol

this is pretty much the final design just missing the gussets and final fitting at the core support end



you can see how far inboard the tension rods are relocated...from what ive found... many of the popular cars that use this similar suspension will get the tension rod boxes welded together with a crossbar to keep em from twisting from inwards forces of drifting/etc.
ill probably do the same with this bugger but ill up the ante and tie it into the K member so that the radiator core support will see virtually none of the tension rod loads.

im still thinking if i should swing the core support tie bars outboard at less of an angle than the stockers...it would mean more room in the middle at expense of room on the sides but i believe that more room in the middle would be more valuable than at the edges since i no longer have to route anything that way besides possibly the WG dump....

We have a couple of Chicagoland members... Glad you found us here

yeah i wish we had more cressida's around here...then id at least have a chance at seeing one in the junkyard lol

as far as local car forums go im on one of the biggest in chicagoland...lots of us gearheads there but aside from a few nice supra's (all mk3+ haha damnit) not much in the way of this platform....i peruse the ae86 sites and such but mainly hang at thechicagogarage.com

lots of us turbo buick 3800 V6 guys there... sc'd 3800's galore...

i just cant believe how much stuff ive had to modify on this thing lol

I finalized the lower core support angle and dropoff with a pattern that will let me use a 1 or two piece removable sacrificial airdamn below the core support. this to make sure that air is forced through the IC and radiator and none can bypass around anything...i cant afford to let it....to the point the passenger side will get a removable front plate with just the filter poking through


here you can see end on the two side stands for the core support. i spaced it down and made it thicker. those holes on the ends of the inside are for the worlds greatest invention....zipties! i plan on using them to route my lines forward for the trans and PS coolers...then shove a block of foam in em to seal em

the 3 middle divots are for plug welds during final assembly


here you can see the whole thing...the thin aluminum strip is where the edge of the lower angle will sit one im ready for final fitment before taking it off for welding

i have decided to brace the lower rear part of the new tension/radius rod brackets to each other and also back to the modified and braced OEM K member
that way the core support will see minimal load from cornering/braking.
im sooo happy to be gaining the additional room in the engine bay as a result of all this fab work just to fit the taller radiator.

i managed to do some more for the cressida

i finished cutting and grinding the radius on the airdam "clamp" i tossed two bolts on there for now as finishing that project isnt anywhere near the top of the list...i just know ill need it

i also roughed out the Z bend gussets. gotta trim em to a 10* angle to fit snug.
i also bent the 2x3/16ths steel bar to 45* at both ends for the front of the 1x2 leg of the Z that will bolt to the core support.

the way its sitting there is upside down from the final position to the bottom of the core support.

it will get trimmed at an angle and drilled/tapped. the core support will get drilled and countersunk for some flush stainless bolts that wont be in the way of anything.

ive decided to weld a 1" x 1/16th wall tube between the two Z bend gussets once the brackets are done.
i havent decided yet on what i want to do to tie it to the K member
at this point due to the possibility of needing to shift the K member for alignment purposes (it may have shifted during my alterations) i may go ahead and weld up tabs for two simple heim joint or a one ended heim juuuust in case. but at least i can weld up the mounts for em now even though i dont really need em yet (im sure the new rad support is plenty strong...i just like overkill)

while i was at it i bought some seals for the tension rods i just gotta trim the T3 spacers a little for em to fit. i do wanna keep em protected and i cant seem to find the large balloons that i used to see guys fit around em.
im still looking...

so far things are falling into line pretty good on the bottom. ill start on the drivers side probably monday so i can move towards final fitment and welding.



with the radiator tossed into the mix you can see that im now very happy with the clearance....you cant see the right side of the aluminum bar touching the drivers side of the upper core support because the bar is resting on the radiator overflow nipple...but suffice it to say it'll clear with the planned 1/8th inch thick rubber pad mounts.

i still cant move the upper part of the radiator forward but i can move the bottom forward up to an inch or so...

i started making the lower IC mounting brackets that will get welded to the lower core support. remember the IC is a structural part of my hood latch   

getting a lot closer to final welding of the tension rod brackets. gussets are done, lower 1x2 legs are done and the front 3/16ths flatstock is about halfway...its formed and fitted to the 1x2 just need final length and hole locations for threading it to attach to the aluminum lower core support.
both aluminum side brackets are done and so is the lower plate/airdam clamp... the future will bring the new IC mounts but for now i can at least continue fabbin the hotside and final mount the new radiator
so i should be able to final fit it and take it to work and weld it.
i finished the spacers and aluminum "nut" that bolt the side brackets to the OEM toyota bumper attachment hole...the spacers should keep me from crushing the oem framerail.
the upside is that the bumper is actually secured to the top, front and bottom of the rail as opposed to just the top rail and front.
so even though i hacked the shit outta it its still sorta structural lol.

well that's all for this installment of "what the fuck did schlim dun did" soooo enjoy the pic of the crap that made me walk away from it a while back lol
meh its for the better

This reminds me of what hot rod builders do! I love it! Very creative

haha yeah this car has gone overboard quite a bit.
i blame working at a cnc shop and the waterjet for the insanity.

im redoing the hotside secondary's with 2.25" and i made my own oil manifold to use a remote filter and remove all obstacles around the turbine.

some new pics fer ya.
made a fan shroud/mount for the 16" flexalite slim fan

here you can see some lulz and why i decided to fix the oil filter issue

the power steering and trans coolers and mounting bracket /air plate mounting -to block off all non cooling airpaths into engine bay-hole for turbo filter, and PS cooler to reservoir line, as well as the two cold side pipes.
you can also see where i plan for the filter to mount.

the oil manifold

and as she sits now lol