Turbo 3.9 build
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The project is on pause right now. Like I said before, I pretty much have everything for the build except the oil/water feed lines, turbo back exhaust piping, and some other stuff. I need get some debt paid off first then I'm jumping in to finish her off! Probably mid-late summer. I jumped in the project prematurely and on top of that I overheated my poor motor and had to replace lots of gaskets and what not. Set me back a while...:waiting:
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Did this thing ever get completed. I've reread the entire thread. I know it is old, however I need to know what ever happened to this build. If you aren't going to finish it, are you willing to sell the Turbo Fold.
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It never got completed. I am actually in possession of the turbo header, i havent gotten to it ultimately because we are very limited in regards to tuning on the older dakotas and i had a general lack of knowledge at the time on both forced induction and tuning, but not any more. I have a forged internals 3.9L in my Dakota punched .030 over but alas I have a 91 dakota with the build magnum 3.9L, a 93 dakota with the 5.2L v8 and a blow 46RH i keep avoiding fixing, a 1992 thunderbird supercoupe with the blown 3.8L v6 and now a 1995 Mustang GTS road race car, got a few many projects to spread my limited funds between.
I'm not sure if i would let the manifold go, i would still like to use it but i also have a supercharger that works just hanging out next to the 4bbl Mopar M1 and my prototype v6 M1 intake and Mopar aluminum cylinder heads for the mythical v8 the truck someday will get haha.
I'm not sure if i would let the manifold go, i would still like to use it but i also have a supercharger that works just hanging out next to the 4bbl Mopar M1 and my prototype v6 M1 intake and Mopar aluminum cylinder heads for the mythical v8 the truck someday will get haha.
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Haha yeah me too it seems pretty devoid of real tech these days 
I was initially going to go with a nice FMU/BTM/255 setup but ultimately decided against it because its actually still kind of expensive and is just a hacked way of tuning for boost on EFI and I didn't want it. Standalones other than mega squirt are expensive as crap too and well even at the OBD2 level if i converted the support still isn't fully there since we are such a niche community.
I am thinking actually to switch over to a ford sequential mass air flow EFI system, completely tunable significantly more robust than what our trucks have more responsive to mods, because i and many friends have ford junk too i am familiar with tuning their ecus and for 250 bucks i can have a quarter horse and i can tune it to the degree you can a stand alone at a fraction of the cost, live engine running tuning full datalogging with map and wideband etc... all i need to do is mount the ford tone ring on the balancer make a bracket for the sensor and machine a new distributor body for the ford crank sensor, then its a bunch of wiring and tuning. The other parts are otherwise free to me since i have them already.
I know folks always say but speed density for boost, hogwash you're just using the map as a total crutch, it makes it easier, even boosted engines dont always need timing retard at light load conditions, you can do the same stuff with a maf, i just dont see how knowing the actual real time volume of air ingested into an engine is NOT better than merely knowing manifold pressure...
I was initially going to go with a nice FMU/BTM/255 setup but ultimately decided against it because its actually still kind of expensive and is just a hacked way of tuning for boost on EFI and I didn't want it. Standalones other than mega squirt are expensive as crap too and well even at the OBD2 level if i converted the support still isn't fully there since we are such a niche community.
I am thinking actually to switch over to a ford sequential mass air flow EFI system, completely tunable significantly more robust than what our trucks have more responsive to mods, because i and many friends have ford junk too i am familiar with tuning their ecus and for 250 bucks i can have a quarter horse and i can tune it to the degree you can a stand alone at a fraction of the cost, live engine running tuning full datalogging with map and wideband etc... all i need to do is mount the ford tone ring on the balancer make a bracket for the sensor and machine a new distributor body for the ford crank sensor, then its a bunch of wiring and tuning. The other parts are otherwise free to me since i have them already.
I know folks always say but speed density for boost, hogwash you're just using the map as a total crutch, it makes it easier, even boosted engines dont always need timing retard at light load conditions, you can do the same stuff with a maf, i just dont see how knowing the actual real time volume of air ingested into an engine is NOT better than merely knowing manifold pressure...
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i don't know if i would call it hogwash lol but you do know the actual volume of air going off manifold pressure. its all just a calculation away. and i think your actually over thinking it because there is a reason promods and such don't run maf. not saying it doesn't work or you cant get it to run great but some times the simpler way is a better way. this is coming from a guy that runs a blowthru lol but the promod i pit for is speed density.Haha yeah me too it seems pretty devoid of real tech these days
I was initially going to go with a nice FMU/BTM/255 setup but ultimately decided against it because its actually still kind of expensive and is just a hacked way of tuning for boost on EFI and I didn't want it. Standalones other than mega squirt are expensive as crap too and well even at the OBD2 level if i converted the support still isn't fully there since we are such a niche community.
I am thinking actually to switch over to a ford sequential mass air flow EFI system, completely tunable significantly more robust than what our trucks have more responsive to mods, because i and many friends have ford junk too i am familiar with tuning their ecus and for 250 bucks i can have a quarter horse and i can tune it to the degree you can a stand alone at a fraction of the cost, live engine running tuning full datalogging with map and wideband etc... all i need to do is mount the ford tone ring on the balancer make a bracket for the sensor and machine a new distributor body for the ford crank sensor, then its a bunch of wiring and tuning. The other parts are otherwise free to me since i have them already.
I know folks always say but speed density for boost, hogwash you're just using the map as a total crutch, it makes it easier, even boosted engines dont always need timing retard at light load conditions, you can do the same stuff with a maf, i just dont see how knowing the actual real time volume of air ingested into an engine is NOT better than merely knowing manifold pressure...
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I just mean its hogwash when people say oh you cant run boost on a MAF car or its too hard to tune boost on a MAF car, etc... And don't get me wrong im not saying a speed density setup cant make power that's just bs of course it can, i guarantee an SD setup and a MAF setup on the same mechanical engine would make the same power with the same tuning, there isn't any reason it shouldn't.
But I would say speed density is probably pretty great for a built and professionally maintained and tuned race car where the variables are relatively controlled. But IMO I think MAF is just better for a street car and all the things a car will go through on the day to day, you know like maybe rings wearing out over the tens of thousands of miles it will go through. And the fact that a maf car can tune it self for minor things vs SD needing a reflash for every change.
But I don't really think i am over thinking it (maybe a little), but it does make sense to use a tuning system that's cheap and I'm competent and confident with. Plus a good FMU/Pump/BTU is about $600 not really that cheap and i think everyone can agree that yes while it works its not as good as an actual efi tune. I just cant justify that cost for a system that is well kinda ghetto and going to be annoying to tune.
But I would say speed density is probably pretty great for a built and professionally maintained and tuned race car where the variables are relatively controlled. But IMO I think MAF is just better for a street car and all the things a car will go through on the day to day, you know like maybe rings wearing out over the tens of thousands of miles it will go through. And the fact that a maf car can tune it self for minor things vs SD needing a reflash for every change.
But I don't really think i am over thinking it (maybe a little), but it does make sense to use a tuning system that's cheap and I'm competent and confident with. Plus a good FMU/Pump/BTU is about $600 not really that cheap and i think everyone can agree that yes while it works its not as good as an actual efi tune. I just cant justify that cost for a system that is well kinda ghetto and going to be annoying to tune.
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501 Posts
If you are thinking about running the Ford tone ring on the balancer, than you are better off running a MS3 system. This way you won't have to machine the dissy, and you can have far more tunability than with the stock Ford system. This is the way I'm planning on going once I convince you to sell me the Turbo Fold......If you don't then I'll build one as well, but I want the one you have so lets talk business, you've got a Super Charger and a bunch of projects (I know how that goes too, Got 3 myself).
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Are you still unwilling to sell the Turbo Fold? It's been a while since you last posted. I have to check in.
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I don't really think its worth enough money for me to bother selling it to be honest, so I'd rather keep it. I thought you said nearly a year and a half ago now that you were going to build your own? lol Do you have everything ready to go but the manifold or something at this point?
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It's been a while, and you know how life gets in the way. I still haven't built a turbo fold for my 3.9. That said, I'm just going to throw my Powerdyne on it until I do the 5.7 Hemi Swap I have planned. At that point I'll most likely do a turbo setup for the hemi. Thanks for the response.
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