Basically i bought this car over the summer on a whim. Several of my friends are turbo dodge fanatics, so it rubbed off on me. Its one of about 1300 in blue (ooo...rare omni) running the "T1" induction system which roughly translates to crappy intake manifold, crappy exhaust manifold, crappy fuel control and no intercooler. Only nice thing is that it utilized one of the larger garrett turbos that were offered during the 80's, when Dodge put turbo motors into anything they could.
Anywho, we played with it, did some rolling burnouts, etc. Lopped the exhaust off. Spun a bearing first time down the track....
...so now im building the car for bigger, better things.
As the car sits right now....
Finished the flywheel....had to take 50 thousands off the cursed thing....
*NOTE* The 85 flywheel and 89 flywheel are NOT the
same. i tried using the 85 wheel on the 89
commonblock motor but the 85 uses 6bolt holes and
the 89 uses 8. Thankfully, my friend has the right
flywheel in his garage.
The clutch is a T2 / T3 hybrid clutch that we have used for drag racing applications and held high 11 second 1/4 miles. The nice part is the clutch and pressure plate are just factory parts. Although im not sure if the original stuff was Valeo or not...my only concerns are if it will overheat or not.
As you can, see below, i have a nice pile of parts ready to get the motor back into the car. the hangup was the flywheel so i can start getting the
bottom end in to reattach the front suspesion so i can push the car around again. But i still want to finish some seam welding before this can continue.
What your looking at is an 89 2.5L motor from the LeBaron. Its a T2 intercooled motor. Got it for 170 dollars from the junkyard including the
manifolds and turbo. Not a bad deal seeing the clutch cost me about 180....Also the 89 uses roller rockers (very nice) but the 85 head is a
better design so we are swapping the parts between them. Plus my 85 cam was completely swipped out...
the 89 longblock had a blown headgasket. Specifically on the #4 cyclinder which is the cyclinder of choice when these motors have problems. But
nothing bad occured the bottom end. So just some minor cleaning of the cyclinder and the motor is ready to get the head put back on. I just need to order the head gasket and head bolts from Moparpreformance. Seeing Dodge basically gives you parts (they're really cheap) i should be getting
them soon.
Well i ended up getting the bottom end and transmission mated together with the assitance of my friend. Mostly for just keeping everything together and test fitting. But i have to take it back apart since my retarded ass forget to put the torque plate / dirt keeper-outer inbetween. *doh*
Plus, im thinking about ditching the A525 transmission in favor of a A520. Mostly for two reasons. One, the A520 is a cable shifting transmission, the A525 is rod linkage and they like to pop off on occasion. Two, the A520 is extremely common.
Also started working on the chassis itself. My friend came out and lent a hand with it. Started grinding at the seams to remove some paint then we just kinda realized my welder did a far job of burning off paint. Finish some seam welding. TONS more needs to be done, but the spoll ran out so we started focusing on the interior removal.
Initiailly, while Pete was welding away and setting fires, i started to look into the rust on floorboards. Well i found this:
Then after the welding stopped we went to town and this is the end result. Hmm....so yea floorboards....
But ill be doing some good reinforcement welding now along it all too. Its nothing really structural. Just a pain in my ass. The rest of the car is actually very solid!
But thanks to the mound of interior we removed, the car has a nice high stature.
COSTS SO FAR
Omni GLH turbo (running at the time): 1300
T2/T3 clutch combo: 180 shipped
89 2.5L turbo longblock: 170
Rear main seal: 10
2lb spool of MIG wire: 10
Two of our PHA officials Matt Green and Matt Rowe are very well versed in little Dodges with turbos. Anything you find that is needed or you have no clue about they are the best guys to start with.
