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I had been driving my old F-150 50 miles a day for six months, and I was getting tired of paying so much in fuel. Unknown to me, the truck was getting pretty tired of the drive too. It decided to let me know with a rod knock, so i put the truck in storage mode. I began to search for a cheap 4 cylinder car. My price range was under $1000. In the mean time I borrowed a car from my family. I might add that my taste in cars is a little eccentric. My real project car is a 79 Cordoba 360 4bbl, but Its not a daily driver, not because its too nice but because its an old dog and also sucks fuel like crazy. I wanted to get something different, and something 80's. I found both for sure in the 1985 Chrysler Laser XT 2.2 Turbo manual. Listed at 146 Hp and 0-60 time of 8 seconds, its a fun little car.  (picture taken this morning, car already partially disassembled) 160k on the odo, the digital gauges still work for the most part besides what appears to be sending unit issues. I drove it 150 miles back from the purchase site, with no chase vehicle, and no emergency plan. It made it, and i figured it had a decent car for a while. I drove it to and from work a few days, enjoyed it quite a bit. The turbo seems to be working fine. Got home and smelled coolant on the third day of driving it. It was leaking from the firewall side of the engine, and looked like it was the head gasket. I work at an auto shop, but its far away from where i live. I dont have any real work space at my home in the trailer park, so this whole thing is going down in a gravel driveway.  Engine with some parts removed. The turbo is in the back. My manual gave a procedure for removing the turbo before removing the head, but turbododge forums (huge help in this so far) recommended removal of the head, intake, exhaust manifolds, and turbo as one assembly. Initially i was going to attempt this job in one day. I ordered the Mopar Performance gasket, highly recommended again by turbododge. I also ordered new bolts, but as i come to find out, there are two sizes and i guessed wrong. That made it impossible to do in one day, but that turned out to be for the best.  Getting the head off really wasnt that bad. There was only one exhaust bolt at the flange, the previous owner had shown me where he broke the other one off. Surprisingly the only thing that snapped was a valve cover stud. The head, manifolds and turbo assembly mustve weighed 100lbs. I crawled under the hood and stood on the alternator, yanked on the crank pully and throttle body, and rolled backwards. My rear end was sitting on the front clip and i swung around with this thing on my chest, and rolled down off the car. I stripped the manifolds and turbo off the head, and thats where im at for today. I can find no clear blown out section of the head gasket, leading me to wonder and second guess myself. Its possible the turbo coolant line was leaking, but either way im here now, and all the lines are getting replaced.  I discovered a plate on the turbo saying it was a rebuilt unit. I'll have to look closer to get the data off. I plan on bringing the turbo and intake to my work and using the solvent tank and shop air to clean them up right. The head is going to a machine shop to be hot tanked, decked, and have new studs installed and a few holes tapped. I'm now waiting for parts. New gaskets for the manifolds and new head bolts as well as exhaust bolts, and turbo lines. I'll take the head in for machine work tomorrow. Hopefully they can have it done quickly. The only other major repair needed besides the head work is a new steering rack. I found a rack and pump on clearance from rock auto for cheap, but theyre taking forever to arrive, so I'm not really concerned with them as part of this job. So of course the old common sense held true this time; buy a car thats cheap, end up paying hundreds more in parts before you have a car worth driving. Oh well, I knew that much when i bought it, and I'm still happy, its my first turbo ever!
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| # ? Feb 1, 2013 00:39 |
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| # ? May 18, 2013 21:06 |
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Looks nice! Not a bad bag. And if it makes you feel better, I always take off my TDI's head with the turbo attached as well, just makes it so much easier, if not a good bit heavier.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2013 01:49 |
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Cool, I am glad you started a topic on this car after I saw you bought it. I'll bet it was the coolant pipe. These cars usually leak internally and not externally, but you are doing the right thing because I'm willing to bet the HG you pulled off was a piece of crap that was going to let go anyway. Turbo dodge is a fantastic resource, so you have a lot of what you need there. You do have most of it apart, have you thought about converting it to a newer intake and throttle body? It flows a bit better and you can intercool it super easily, or are you just making it a driver? Best part about these cars is there are so many cars you can get donor parts from. They are getting scarce out here in New England due to the rust monster, but the rest of the country is filled to the brim with Turbo Chryslers you can get upgrades from for $30. Most car guys get a catalog when they want to go perormance parts shopping. Turbo Dodge guys hit the junkyard. I would double, and triple check the starter and its cables while you have the head off, it's now SUPER Easy to fix it because its a motherfucking bitchcunt to get to when the turbo is installed. Don't forget the heat shield for the starter as well, hopefully it's still there. as a lot of morons toss it when they work on these cars, and since the turbo hangs out right near the starter, it will cook it in about 3-4 months, and as I said....bitchcunt. I have an '86 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z C/S I have been working on for about 3 years now. Life keeps getting in the way, but its about $100 of parts and a couple of weekends away from living again. Mighty Horse fucked around with this message at Feb 1, 2013 around 02:20 |
| # ? Feb 1, 2013 02:12 |
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Good purchase. It's making me nostalgic for the days when turbo Dodges were the hot commodity with local street/drag racers. I only see Daytonas nowadays though.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2013 03:16 |
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When i bought the car the starter wire was fried. We push started it to get me home. I managed to splice a new solenoid wire in there and route it away from the turbo with everything still in the car, but now that its out im going to wire it %100 right and insulate it properly. Unfortunately the heat shield is gone. I havent seen any proper donor cars on CL, but then again i havent been looking for lebarons and new yorkers yet. I've ordered a new turbo oil feed line from FWD performance, but i cant find a replacement coolant feed hose. I was trying to avoid having to buy the stainless steel kit which has both, since ive already got the mopar part coming. Oh i forgot to mention the car has no seatbelts. Some idiot previous owner cut them. Thats one thing im really trying to find asap.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2013 03:40 |
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I did not get the head to the machine shop today. I took it to work and pulled the cam and rockers out, but my borrowed volkswagen TDI golf decided to drop its passenger window, so i spent my lunch fixing that instead. On the progress side, I did get mad parts today. A bunch of misc things like rad hoses and a cap. A huge box with my power steering rack and another with the pump and lines also arrived. The rack i bought on close out for $50 from Rockauto, a gamble. There are two types of rack for my car, and I was unable to ID the one in mine or find out what the differences were. I ordered it anyway, and with the rack came an extra line and a note from the manufacturer saying both racks are interchangable with this line, so it will work for sure. No plans to do work on sunday, The Big Game day.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 02:23 |
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IIRC one of the racks had a slightly tighter ratio than the other. But it was like 12:1 versus 13:1, one was saginaw, and the other I can't recall.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 03:15 |
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Awesome project. One of these days I'm going to find an Omni GLH  My dad had a Turbo Daytona the first year they came out, and although it was fast it was a steaming pile of poo poo that was constantly at the dealer getting fixed. I imagine by now though that everyone has worked out most of the quirks 
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 03:19 |
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From what I know, the first year daytona/laser (84) is something of a bastard child. It not only suffered from first model year syndrome then, but they changed the entire wiring harness for MY 85 and up. That and the OEM factory head gasket was something like a 50k part, and the turbo can cook in its own heat if you arent careful, burning it up pretty fast. Mighty Horse guessed correct that my car does not have the original turbo at 160k, even though the pistons and valves look great. Turbos and head gaskets aside, the 2.2 Chrysler engine is a well designed simple motor. The fuel injection is the old Bosch setup, its a good design as well and easy to troubleshoot. Of course i havent put it back together yet... Raw_Beef fucked around with this message at Feb 2, 2013 around 03:27 |
| # ? Feb 2, 2013 03:23 |
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FWD Performance is less 5 minutes down the road from me, they usually have some stuff in the yard for sale as well. I'm not sure if they part any of it out though. They are the closest dyno to me so I will be seeing them soon.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 03:42 |
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Today was extremely slow at the shop, so I managed to find time to work on the head. An old timer i work with saw what i was up to, and decided to help. He took the valves out and inspected everything, then on lunch got his valve and seat grinding kit. He ground the valves and seats and cleaned and sanded the deck. We started working on extracting the snapped valve cover stud but closing time came around. Thats ok, i'll have to order valve seals before we reassemble. I' doing about one order per day from Rockauto for the last week. In retrospect i shouldve bought the head gasket kit, but at the time i didnt really think i was going to get this deep. Originally i was going to leave the head, intake, and turbo together. Since ive found so many small things id like to fix while its out, its become a bigger job than i expected.
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| # ? Feb 3, 2013 00:00 |
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Uh oh, looks like you've got the "while I'm in there" disease That's good though, might as well button everything up right so you don't have to go in there later.
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| # ? Feb 3, 2013 01:31 |
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Raw_Beef posted:
Yeah I've always felt the engine doesn't get the respect it deserves, the bottom end is freaking bulletproof, had an 1980s EFI system which wasn't super complicated and worked, and while a 4cyl still make really impressive torque. Yep head gaskets took a bit to figure out' classic Chrysler problem of designing something a little beyond the available materials and technologies. But a lot of issues people had with these motors where due to ignorant mechanics more suited to working on SBCs or Carbed 318s than a small high compression 4cyl. My Daytona is the classic example of the "upgrade cascade" you are in now raw beef... Got the car with a non running motor. Instead of just getting the motor running, I decide to upgrade to a common block from a 91. Oh, the engine is out? Perfect time to swap that 520 trans for a 568. Fuel tank a mess? Lets just put in a new one, oh, the rear axle needs to come out? Might as well swap in a rear disc setup from a 89 shelby........and so forth and so forth. I'm still deciding to go with an 86 Digi dash like you have raw, or the later 87-90 style VFD one. The later style looks cooler but there is some 80s cheeseball charm about the early one.
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| # ? Feb 3, 2013 15:31 |
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http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/cto/3591080828.html happened to stumble upon this over the weekend.  I love these cars, but if this guy thinks he will get $4900 for it, he is higher than Ray Lewis is this morning.
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| # ? Feb 4, 2013 14:51 |
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It might be listed in NADA at that price. I just dont think anyone who's interested in these cars is going to be the kind to buy one in good condition for thousands of dollars. Its a very nice laser, though not as "high optioned" as it could be, with the analog gauges and lower level center console readouts. I got my oil feed line from FWD performance. I was broke and ordered only the OEM feed line instead of the stainless kit for all the lines. In retrospect that was dumb because i still need the other lines. Also this mopar line may not even be right, it doesnt appear to come in to the top of the turbo like i recall. Mighty Horse, you know anything about "HKS edition" Lasers? Mine has these extra decals in front of the "Turbo" on the doors.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 02:01 |
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Sounds like somebody took the sticker from their HKS blow off valve.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 02:17 |
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Raw_Beef posted:
Yeah, no such thing. Sounds like someone found some extra stickers around. Only real special edition Laser was the "Marc Cross" which was just a interior upgrade package. The Daytona got all the random letter add-on packages. Was HKS even a company in 1986? 
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 14:04 |
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Mighty Horse posted:Was HKS even a company in 1986?
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 14:33 |
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Mine is a Marc Cross edition, the headrests still have the embossed leather.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:20 |
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Minor update: Today i noticed a broken exhaust stud in the head, i hadnt seen it before. Someone had already attempted to drill it out and had gotten a little off center, i dont know if it was the old guy at my shop or a previous attempt, possibly when the turbo was replaced. Either way there is now almost 1/2 in of e-z out broken off inside that stud.  On the upside, my CV axle came today, but my valve seals are still in transit.
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| # ? Feb 9, 2013 01:31 |
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GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! I just snapped a cam bearing cap. There was this hilarious moment of self delusion while i examined the head and started to think "maybe that loud metallic snap you heard was the ratchet's internals giving out?" Then i saw it. A quick re-read of the manual revealed my stupidly simple error (camshaft on wrong lobe). Oh well, this is good news because now i'll be getting a reman'ed head for $200. My original one was starting to pile up too many "good enough for now" issues anyway. I'm hoping the head company who claims to have this head for $200 is real. http://www.headsonly.com/ Seems legit, right? Raw_Beef fucked around with this message at Mar 1, 2013 around 03:35 |
| # ? Mar 1, 2013 03:05 |
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Raw_Beef posted:I'm hoping the head company who claims to have this head for $200 is real. Page Not Found Guess not
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| # ? Mar 1, 2013 03:19 |
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fixed that. I'm hoping they get back to me tomorrow. I need to get this car on the road before the kind people who own my loaner car start getting annoyed.
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| # ? Mar 1, 2013 03:36 |
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I've got the head coming from Cylinder Heads International. UPS says thursday. I emailed them all my info before using their online thing to order, but i had to call them today to give them the numbers again. I didnt have them since i was at work so i told the nice texas lady to check her e-mail and it was good to go. They're shipping me out a turbo head hopefully of the same casting as my current one. I'm excited, once this arrives i really should get the drat car moving again in a few days.
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| # ? Mar 2, 2013 03:22 |
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Welcome to the world of turbododges! http://www.thedodgegarage.com is also required reading. Enjoy!
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| # ? Mar 2, 2013 18:50 |
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Its taken a lot longer than I originally expected, but the laser moved today under its own power and things seem to be going well. The Head from C.H.I. arrived right on time, and seems to be a quality rebuild, only one helicoil on an exhaust stud that i could find. It is a MOPAR casting of the exact same model as the one i took off. I wouldnt think twice about recomending them to other Turbododge owners. Not much different from when I started, but much cleaner and no broken bolts, so thats good. I really should've taken better pictures or notes of the vaccum lines that control the Turbo. I think I got them right but heres a picture for anyone who knows about these cars, check my work.  I know i've got something wrong, because of this:  I cant find where it should go. The car is driving ok, the Turbo works, but if i go wide open throttle i start getting this surging and bucking like the turbo is cutting in and out. Its got to be something with my Vacuum lines, but for now as long as I go easy it spools up ok. Next task is replacing the steering rack, installing the new pump (i need to source a pulley first) and then setting up a Vacuum block. Its never over, but at least I feel like I've made progress instead of throwing time and money into a hole that wont go away. Raw_Beef fucked around with this message at Mar 21, 2013 around 20:40 |
| # ? Mar 21, 2013 20:19 |
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Raw_Beef posted:The car is driving ok, the Turbo works, but if i go wide open throttle i start getting this surging and bucking like the turbo is cutting in and out. Its got to be something with my Vacuum lines, but for now as long as I go easy it spools up ok. Weak/broken spring on bypass valve?
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| # ? Mar 21, 2013 22:09 |
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Ive been driving the car to and from work for a week now with no problems. I got the vacuum lines hooked up properly and replaced the steering rack, but i dont have the pump installed, so its manual for now. I had bad inner tie rods, so a closeout price rack ($35) and some new tie rods ($40 pair) helped tighten the steering up a lot. Unfortunately some previous genius broke one of the bolts that mounts the pump to the block off inside the block itself, and i destroyed the pulley attempting to remove it with the wrong kind of puller, so I've got to do something about that before i get power steering back online. The ironic thing is i can buy a manual rack from Rockauto, but the couplink with the U-joint in it on the column is specific to Manual columns, and that is a hard piece to come by. I've still got a few things to do. Install a new oil pump for good measure, seatbelts which just came in the mail. Non retractable belts, couldnt find any that would fit otherwise. Some previous owner cut the seatbelts out. My digital temp gauge bleeds into my fuel gage, as in i see the readings for both on both gauges. I took it out and found some melted together solder lines on the printed board, I put it back for now but It may be possible for me to clean that up and get them working correctly again. I found a little tag behind the gauge cluster from budget rent a car in Seatac from the 80s. Gives me a little info on the car's history. This car really hauls rear end when the turbo kicks in. I try not to push it too hard because i dont want to blow a rod or something nasty with a car i need to rely on, but I almost dont see the point in upgrading it, there is more than enough power to get me in trouble. When i buy tires im going to go with at least 120 rated. I'm debating if trying to fix it cosmetically is going to be worth it to me. I dont like to drive cars that look like poo poo, and despite the nice picture the paint is totally hosed and there are enough dents to make fender replacement more economical than fixing them. Also i assume prep will be more difficult due to the cracked old decals on the hood and rocker panels. At the least im going to install new carpet, and make a new headliner. The seats need some work but that is last place. I know pictures are worth 1000 words, ill get some soon when things worth taking pictures of happen. Raw_Beef fucked around with this message at Apr 5, 2013 around 04:03 |
| # ? Apr 5, 2013 03:52 |
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That 1st Gen digital dash was prone to the early ribbon cables melting from heat. You can pretty much replace anything you need with wire if you have too. Its '80s PCB so everything is huge and easy to work on. I'd leave everything stock if you are using it as a driver. Its super easy to dial up the boost, but you will start finding the weak spots pretty quickly. I wouldn't paint it unless you get a really really cheap price on it, because you aren't going to get ANY of your money back on it.
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| # ? Apr 5, 2013 14:10 |
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Is it wrong that everytime I see this thread I go 'boop boop - Your Headlights are On' or 'beep-beep-beep - Your Key is in the Ignition'? (I'm a big Chrysler EVA fan)
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| # ? Apr 7, 2013 23:18 |
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I actually just plugged that module in the other day to see what would happen. It was in the Dash but unplugged, and when powered up it didnt speak but the little readout on the box went through probably every possible alert message, even for doors i dont have. A neat little gadget but i have no idea how it gets its data, and I'll probably leave it out of the final plans. I am bummed my trip computer wont power on at all, i would like to keep that.
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| # ? Apr 8, 2013 00:45 |
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There should be a switch in the glovebox that turns 'George' on. I think '84 was the first year he had a silencer -- pre '84 you had to disconnect the voice box (which I believe is a separate module from the display - should be mounted on top of or right behind the glovebox).
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| # ? Apr 8, 2013 02:16 |
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Raw_Beef posted:I actually just plugged that module in the other day to see what would happen. It was in the Dash but unplugged, and when powered up it didnt speak but the little readout on the box went through probably every possible alert message, even for doors i dont have. A neat little gadget but i have no idea how it gets its data, and I'll probably leave it out of the final plans. It's literally wire X = left door pin switch, wire y = washer fluid sensor input. No Canbus or OBD here, baby. Nothing lighting up on the trip computer at all? I would check power to it, thats odd for that to happen, usually the buttons all just crap out. If I can remember when I am home again I'll dig up the service manual and see what wire feeds the power to it. Otherwise, the basic model is common as all heck and cheap. You likely have the 10 button model, which is harder to find but not impossible.
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| # ? Apr 9, 2013 20:54 |
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Mighty Horse posted:It's literally wire X = left door pin switch, wire y = washer fluid sensor input. So it would be possible to put the talker box into another vehicle? hmm.. gotta find me one.
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| # ? Apr 11, 2013 22:05 |
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I bought new tires so i finally felt safe enough to do 100mph today. While it was cool to see the 3rd digit light up on the gauge, it wasnt quite as bright as the others for some reason. I'm really loving this car. Total i might be in to it something like $1400 before tires. It seems to be reliable enough for now, so my mission of sporty 80's economy car is somewhat accomplished. Now its time for some sick Modz. No not really, just a few gauges in place of the old body alert module or whatever it was called. If i can I'll be keeping the trip computer, if not, more digital gauges probably. I'd like to find some flat square read outs like the ones in Back To the Future, and i totally thought i bookmarked an awesome source, but i guess i didnt  and now i cant find it. drat.
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| # ? Apr 18, 2013 02:57 |
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Flat square readouts like back to the future? http://www.bgmicro.com/LED1110.aspx 61 cents each, red. Same company probably makes green ones too, but bgmicro doesn't seem to stock them. bgmicro is awesome when you can give and take a bit on exact component specs because they get big lots of closeouts/discontinued parts/leftovers from production runs and then sell them dirt cheap. Driving those is pretty easy, depending on how you want to do it, I'd use a 74LS47 7-segment display driver to control the a-g segment drives and then multiplex all the display cathodes together. Then hook up a positive side switch for each display anode so you can cycle rapidly from one display to the next and let persistence of vision make the whole display appear constant. Unless you just mean large prebuilt displays, that is. If that's what you mean I can check around and see if I can find any for a reasonable price.
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| # ? Apr 18, 2013 03:17 |
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While i probably could scratch build some gauges eventually, I'd have to study a lot before i gave it a try and it would probably not be very pretty. I couldve sworn i found a company that sold pre made LED readouts that could be programmed to act as boost, temp, oil, all kinds of stuff if you had the sensor input. Whats crazy is i found this website twice before but now?  They were like $50 each and 4 or so digits per unit. Given their size i was hoping to run 4 gauges: Boost, Oil, ECT, EGT.
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| # ? Apr 18, 2013 03:30 |
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Raw_Beef posted:While i probably could scratch build some gauges eventually, I'd have to study a lot before i gave it a try and it would probably not be very pretty. Cyberdyne gauges perhaps? Summit (and others) stock them.
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| # ? Apr 18, 2013 04:09 |
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Was it Auber Instruments? http://www.auberins.com/index.php?m...&products_id=19
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| # ? Apr 18, 2013 16:52 |
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| # ? May 18, 2013 21:06 |
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Alphius posted:Was it Auber Instruments? It totally was these guys! Thank you so much! Something bothers me about round digital gauges. Gauges were round because of the centered dial and its range of motion being a curve. Keeping them round is a design legacy that i think looks really tacky most of the time. Thats just like my opinion, man, but i love my retro-future flat digi dash. Raw_Beef fucked around with this message at Apr 18, 2013 around 17:13 |
| # ? Apr 18, 2013 16:59 |
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