Well, I'll give you a brief story. I had a 505bbc in my car and sold it to a friend of mine and knocked off some $ on the price if he assembled my longblock (file fit rings, blue print etc), and had the heads assembled.

He had some guy he knew assemble the heads. Well that guy put all used parts on my heads (valve springs, retainers, valves).. I broke 3 springs.

What caught my attention is that my engine smoked a little since day 1. Then it started smoking more but would go away.. #6 had oil crusted on the spark plug. So I pulled the head to get it checked and noticed #6 piston was VERY clean, yet I didnt have a coolant leak. I glanced at the other head and found a piece of a spring and upon closer examination saw 3 broken springs. Yanked the engine & checked the ring gap.. WAY too much.. found 2 rings MISSING on #6 which explained the oil on the plug. Almost disowned my friend. He bought another set of rings/bearings for me (didnt need bearings but made him buy it anyway).

So I'm paying for the heads to be redone w/new parts and Gene (TT fabricator) and myself are going to redo the engine next week. Nothing is damaged but could have been. I told my friend John (guy who screwed up on my motor) that I'm never going to make any deals with him again.


How is your car running btw?

-Alex

 

i have a ss auto chrome kit it wont fit a 3rd generation f - body you want my kit? all new in boxes including intercooler and turbos
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i have a ss auto chrome kit it wont fit a 3rd generation f - body you want my kit? all new in boxes including intercooler and turbos we should bann them!!!

 

So why wont the SS autochrome kit fit a 3rd gen? Is this definitive?

I was actually really starting to consider it, I know it will need some beefing up, and some mods to make it work right, but it seems like a reasonably decent base to get into the world of Forced Induction on a budget. (I know that those two things really don't go together, but you never know).

I'd really like some more details here.

George

 

Its not exactly that it wont fit, its just that its a pita to install with power steering and a/c. If you remove them, its pretty simple, I suggest getting an electric fan and electric water pump too as it clears out space, gives you some more horsepower, and helps keep the engine cooler.

The material for the ss kit is pretty cheap tho, it is welded weak. If you want to weld the headers a little bit and seal them up a little bit more that would help, id also suggest creating mounts for the headers and bolt them to the sides of the engine bay to the right and left respectively of the headers, this way they dont collapse. I wouldn't suggest twin turboing a stock or mildly stock car btw, i had mine set up for a few weeks and my engine basically almost melted and my trans kind of **** itself... oh well...

Hope this helps, and good luck

jim

 

Well, here is my take on this. Granted I haven't had the SS Autochrome kit in front of me, I have just read a bunch of mostly negative reviews of it, and seen images of the parts on the internet. Some close up or higher res pictures would be a great help here, especially of it installed.

First off I'm an electrical engineer, but I have a pretty decent knowledge of physics and mechanics.

As far as the headers, Just by looking at their image, it seems like they were not really designed to support the turbos properly. It seems that they took a regular header flange, welded 4 pipes, and instead of installing a collector flange, installed the flange for the turbo inlet. Add to that the fact that they it seems don't do the best job of welding them.

When you say so they don't collapse, do you mean so the pipes themselves don't bend, or kink, or so they don't come apart at the flange?

I bet most of the failures are where the flange meets the block. The header isn't designed to support the weight of a turbo on it, and to make matters worse, the exhaust system in these cars is never rigidly attached to the body, all the hangers etc are designed to allow movement (as well as expansion and contraction of the actual exhaust system due to the temp extremes it sees). The only rigid attachment point, is at the block, at that flange, all that stress of the exhaust moving, as well as expanding and contracting is essentially the equivalent of gently working the metal back and forth there. Add the weight of the turbo, without any additional bracing, and it is asking for it to fail. I definitely agree that you would have to compensate for the added load, and somehow brace the headers. Ideally you would create some sort of bracket that attaches to the turbo's inlet flange, so the load is supported there, rather than half way down the header.

Now as far as the clearance issues in the engine bay. Obviously the 3rd gen engine bay was never designed with the idea that some yahoo would come along 20 years later and install two turbos, an intercooler and all the associated plumbing.
I realize this kit will not be bolt on, plug and play. It's going to need some fab, some more parts etc.. I just want to know if the $700 bucks they charge for it are worth it for what you get.

Two questions for you specifically.

Looking on the ssautochrome page, they have two different designs for their manifolds. First the SBC one that mounts the turbos in front of the valve covers left and right, and a second set of top mount ones, which specifcally list our 3rd gens as the application these mount the turbos next to the middle of each valve cover. Which ones did you get with the kit?

Secondly, what did you do with your car as far as adding fuel, and controlling / monitoring boost. I think this kit or any kit will be safe as long as you keep it from leaning out, and keep the boost from spiking?

As far as the trans well... that's life.. It doesn't care where you get more power from, if it's gonna go, its gonna go.

Thanks in advance,

George

 

For you guys bashing the SS Auto chrome and all the other knock off china stuff.

I was in the same boat on WTF it cant be that good. Buz I can't even buy the SS material to make the same setup for what they charge.

Well I can fab stuff just find. Ive done a few turbo setups and decides WTF and bought some of the china headers to see the quality 1st hand and myself etc..

Well they just got here today and the WELDS look good. They have pleanty of penitration. They ahre nice heavy duty flanges. They are nice bends,etc..

for the price You can't go wrong. As with ANY TURBO HEADERS. I dont care if they are USA made China made or made by GOD himself. anything will need soe support for the turbos unless they are log style and the turbos are poped right on top like the banks manifolds.

As for fitment. Pic's have been posted of a few thrdgens running them. Im gonna fit em up in the next couple weeks on a junk motor in my chassis and picture it all etc....

Do I plan to use these..?? prob. not. because i already made a nice custom setup for myself. I just wanted to buy these and see the quality for myself and others who ask.