Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

[JSM]

Here is the last track video, slowly working on the tune and more important how to launch it. Boost is still set to minimum (6psi) but here is my question.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Twin-Turbo-GMC-Typhoon_161854.htm

Homecoming is 1 month away. My truck having been a 5+ yr project, although it now runs and drives isn't "DONE"

For example the paint on the hood is terrible, as is a few other panels. Sway bars are not installed, no cage yet, no inner fenders. Lots of loose ends basically.

Due to time and money, for me to make the truck perfect and what I want just won't happen in a months time.

So here is my question. What would you guys want to see more at homecoming.

Work on the

1. "look good stuff"
2. "Run as fast as possible stuff"
3. "Little bit of both?"

Might help to list what I need to finish also.

• Exterior paint, remove roof rack, hood, some cladding.
• Sway bars
• Get the tune dialed in perfect, still has some stumbles.
• Turn the boost up to 10psi
• Intercooler is not hooked up yet.
• Stereo amps need redone, rewired, remounted.
• Need a cage or risk making only 1 good run.
• Exhaust needs exits built, right now dumps underneath.
• A/C not hooked up yet

I guess I want to know what you guys are more interested in. I suspect it will be the power stuff. I wish I could do it all, just not realistic.

I will say that I do have 1 more trip to dragstrip planned for some tuning this time at 1/4 mile track. (May 31st Bowling Green)

 

[NecroWolf]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

form over function

 

[mattw]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

Spacers for front wheels
Tune
Swaybars
Cage - would you really have time to get this done??


Thanks again for the ride!!!! :tup:


-Matt

 

[bezerk]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

no IC....alky injection only $300..doesn't take that much time to install either.
i personnaly would go for the looks at this moment. since you already got it running without issues, and it's even faster than you think it would have been not dialled in 100%..
The AC...you really need that to be cool with a truck like that???

 

[JSM]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

Spacers for front wheels
Tune
Swaybars
Cage - would you really have time to get this done??


Thanks again for the ride!!!! :tup:


-Matt

Since you rode in it, your input is good. As you know first hand all the little things are not done yet, still a lot of things to finish up.

Cage would be pushing it, I could do it but other things would have to slide down the list.

Be curious what your general impression was also, dont' fear being honest. "Jeff your a total idiot for not having the front wheel tight!" is a perfectly good answer.

O and dobrick said he had spacers for me. Truck got a bath even sunday.

 

[dgoodhue]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

I am for function over form.

 

[dalwine250]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

i like seeing a work in progress
dave

 

[mattw]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

Be curious what your general impression was also, dont' fear being honest. "Jeff your a total idiot for not having the front wheel tight!" is a perfectly good answer.

My general impression.. I love the truck and they all should have come with a V8 and an 80e. That thing is gonna be so sick once you tighten up some loose ends (and/or nuts/bolts) and get the tune worked out.

If it were mine I would get it on a pit/lift and go through it with a fine tooth comb looking for anything that may have or be coming loose. I'd also take a shop light and closely inspect all of the welds making sure that no small cracks or anything have formed anywhere. Whenever I mod anything to an extent that it could affect safety I am always paranoid and I check things 1000x before I feel comfortable with them. I'm not in any way saying that I don't trust your work. Your welds looks sweet and my guess is everything will check out just fine.

Once I get my truck on the road I'll prolly be crawling under it every 10 miles to inspect every suspension mod that I made and make sure that everything is still all good. I'll do that for a month or so then I will trust it.

In case anyone is wondering this thing feels mean at 5psi and is gonna be down right scary when Jeff turns up the boost.



-Matt

 

[fivetodrive]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

My general impression.. I love the truck and they all should have come with a V8 and an 80e. That thing is gonna be so sick once you tighten up some loose ends (and/or nuts/bolts) and get the tune worked out.

If it were mine I would get it on a pit/lift and go through it with a fine tooth comb looking for anything that may have or be coming loose. I'd also take a shop light and closely inspect all of the welds making sure that no small cracks or anything have formed anywhere. Whenever I mod anything to an extent that it could affect safety I am always paranoid and I check things 1000x before I feel comfortable with them. I'm not in any way saying that I don't trust your work. Your welds looks sweet and my guess is everything will check out just fine.

Once I get my truck on the road I'll prolly be crawling under it every 10 miles to inspect every suspension mod that I made and make sure that everything is still all good. I'll do that for a month or so then I will trust it.

In case anyone is wondering this thing feels mean at 5psi and is gonna be down right scary when Jeff turns up the boost.



-Matt

I totally agree with checking every bolt... I will be anal about mine when it gets back together... I just wish I had a lift to do it...

 

[MICH TY]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

I am for function over form.

I agree.
I wanna see your truck run.
Don't worry about the cosmetics on your truck, we'll all be admireing the machanical / fab work you've done! :2cents:

 

[phoonTy]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

I am for function over form.

:stupid:

We all know what a nice Ty looks like. I can spend hours at Sportmachines looking through the gallery. You can make it look pretty later. Making sure it's roadworthy and driveable how you want it to be, and safe at the track... that's the important thing. :tup:

I'd rather have an ugly V8TT 80E driveable Typhoon than a pretty trailer queen.

 

[Black Knight]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

I'd rather have an ugly V8TT 80E driveable Typhoon than a pretty trailer queen.

x2 :tup:

 

[JSM]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

Sounds like most want to see it run/drive. I will at least try to get the carpet vacuumed though, and the ecm that is laying on the floor put up.

Honestly the truck is running rather well. Tune still has some things that need work and I plan to work on them before homecoming. Best part is I drove the truck to the track last friday, ran 3 passes only opening the hood as Dobrick thought he saw something, never had a laptop on it. Then sat/sun drove it another 50 miles or so. parked it in the garage ready to go again. Well I do have an exhaust leak to fix, but I knew that might happen soon.

I don't know if I will be upping boost anymore before homecoming.

As far as bolts go, everytime I climb under the truck, around it, etc I check things I see that I worry about. It could use more though for sure and if I can get on jeremy's lift someday that will help.

Really debating about pulling headliner down and redoing amps, and welding up roof rack holes before. The amps and how they are mounted right now really bug me.

 

[2kwik4u]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

My personal hit list for that truck.

1. Put the interior back together. Seriously. Nobody likes stepping on your ECM, or looking at the inside of your console, or tripping over your amp/WBO2/ECM wires. You keep talking about factory prototype this and that, well step up and clean up some of these loose ends in the interior. It takes all of an hour, and makes a astounding difference. When was the last time you saw a GM prototype running around with the ECM in the floorboard?

2. Tune, Tune, Tune, and more Tune. You'll impress a lot more people if you can hop in, and not have to drive with two feet,or not have to be concerned with it stalling after a hot start. This is time intensive, however if you log your runs into work, and home from work every day, you'll hit a good number of cells, and get enough data to peruse to make some good knowledgeable changes. Look at the progress you've made in 250mi, imagine another 250mi what could get done!!!

3. Wheel spacers are a must. That washer setup problem you have now, has me just slightly less scared than the caliper/wheel interference problem you are solving. I found the spacers last night, and will bring them over one night this week.

4. The amps don't bother me all that much, but a temp fix is to JB Weld a little support in there. You don't really want to try and attempt to weld the roof up a month before a show do you? Think of both the amount of work, and the primer spots you'll have to deal with between now and then. Make that a project for next winter. Same goes for the cage. Until you run a certain time you're not booted from the track. Once you're booted you're told to fix it, and don't come back until you do. You aren't fined, you aren't jailed, and assuming you don't wreck the truck, you certainly aren't hurt any deeper than your pride. I'd leave that until you are good and damm ready. No since in rushing either of those two time consuming and critical jobs just to make a show.

5. Sway bars. If you're driving a top heavy SUV at 100mph+, do you really want it leaning back and forth and swaying around? It will ride, launch, and generally perform better over all.

I think those 5 things are easily accomplished without costing much money, and with time you already have allotted to the truck. As well as not costing a lot of time, they aren't going to create any NEW problems from solving an existing problem. Just my thoughts, you have a tendency of not listening to my advice anyway, so I fully expect you to only hit one or two of these, and have primer spots on your roof, a half finished cage, and the ECM still in the floorboard at Homecoming

 

[mattw]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

I agree with what Dobrick said. As far as the amps go you could just take them out for now if they bother you that much. When people look at this truck they aren't going to be looking at the stereo.


-Matt

 

[JSM]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

OK, Dobrick you have set the list I will go by. Can I add fixing exhaust leak to the list?

 

[MikeRenz]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

i agree w/ dobrick. Also...who care what others think/want to see. Make the thing as driveable as possible then worry about how it looks on the outside. I think part of the beauty of the truck as is, is its rat rod approach. I love a truck that looks like poo and runs like hell...and nestled under the hood is a pristine engine that obviously a ton of thought/work has been put into.

 

[2kwik4u]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

OK, Dobrick you have set the list I will go by. Can I add fixing exhaust leak to the list?

Yea, that would be a fairly simple one to take care of. I think your turbo support brace you have made, and a re-torque on the header bolts will probably cure most of that leak.

I thought all afternoon if I was being to harsh on you, or if I had missed anything. I can't think of any other items that would advance the truck any further than those five without costing some cash, or creating more problems than they are solving. Considering your new little one, and your now limited budget in regards to both time and money, I think that is a really good list to hit, and you'll have a good solid base to enjoy the rest of the season with. If you find a random Saturday or Sunday afternoon with a few hours to spare, you can start addressing small things here and there. I promise you'll run out of summertime before you run out of loose ends to tie up. Once wintertime gets here, you'll find you have the time to get some of the large (week+) projects done.

I know if I had the amount of time, energy, and cash wrapped up into my truck that you do, I'd much rather be driving and enjoying it this summer than trying to get a cage in it.

 

[George Blake]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

Yeah. Just tighten the bolts. That's what would've fixed the leak on my downpipe......:rotf:

Get it running right. Don't worry about the cosmetics.

 

[It's just a six]

Re: Need help, suggestions for homecoming and my ty.

Just get the safety things done first,then tune for as fast as possible.
15 PSI should be exciting!