Porsche-O-Phile

I posted yesterday about silicone vaccum lines (and others), it seems there are a few sources available for these. . . The question for tonight is in reference to stainless steel lines (in general). I know replacement fuel lines and brake lines can be had made of stainless steel, but I also need an oil supply line for my Callaway turbocharger (the existing line has an end that's failing - the braiding is all coming apart and obviously it would suck to lose oil supply to the turbo due to a line failure). Does anyone here know of a place that might be able to fabricate stainless hoses of a particular size / length and with whatever fittings I need on the ends (i.e. I just specify what I need and they can make it)? Thanks.

craig001

You could try a local tuner shop or race shop for the braided line. That's what I did on my old Harley. The fittings may be the issue for you.

grants_968

Try

Heritage Motorcar Research Inc.
2075 Lake Ave SE
Largo, FL 33771
(727) 584-0277 Office/Fax
www.heritagemotorcar.com

I am a customer of Heritage. Jason Lee at Heritage is fabricating a lot of parts specific to my 968 turbo conversion.

Good luck.

Porsche-O-Phile

Thanks guys - the fittings aren't all that weird but I'd probably have to send the existing line to them to get a proper match in terms of size & thread pitch. I'll try it.

Charlie944

I had bought a variety of SS lines/fittings (Earls and Areoquip) from Summit Racing, and HoseExpress for my Callaway. Did you purchase a turbo conversion kit for your NA? Is your turbo an IHI RHB6? Are your ends pipe thread or AN style (37deg flare)? Get yourself a thread gauge set (measures thread size and thread pitch). I got mine from Harbor Freight for a couple bucks. Comes in very handy! Are you having a custom exhaust manifold fabed?

Best to you on your project! Keep us all posted.

Porsche-O-Phile

Hi Charlie and all. . .

Yes to all of your questions - I did manage to score an original Callaway kit from a guy in Canada (got here Friday - yay!) although the original "fifth injector" controller has been replaced by an ERL MF2 mappable controller and actually has two injector lines feeding into the intake plenum. The turbo is the IHI-6 and has what appears to be the original oil supply line (this is the one that's dying and needs to be replaced). It has female threaded fittings at either end (the nipple on the oil pump and the turbo are male ends). I found this web site that has some pictures of a Callaway installation in MA so I'm basing a lot of my understanding of it on that and the little tidbits I can pick up here and there. . .

http://members.rennlist.com/tholyoak...ion_parts.html

The line in question is kind of small - maybe 1/2" O.D. but I haven't measured it. The braided lines for the injectors are in decent condition but I really don't like the fact that the ends aren't capped off - it looks like the P.O. just cut the braided lines, wrapped the ends really good with some sort of tape, and clamped over it. He said the kit worked fine, but I think I'm going to change those ends out to metal caps (I trust those a little more) as well as getting braided lines for the main fuel lines (to the rail) to avoid any untimely engine fires, since there's going to be a nice hot turbocharger right near them to ignite any leaking fuel (I don't want to take any chances with the lines).

I'm heading to a local hydraulic shop today that supposedly makes custom braided stainless steel fittings - maybe they can match it up by looking (I'll take the lines and the nipples they fit onto in to them). I'd be really interested in seeing how your kit is set up and to hear what kind of numbers you get - it's really exciting to hear from someone else that has the Callaway kit - there are only 32 of them in existence AFIK!

I also need to hit an exhaust shop to find a lead gasket to fit between the two "halves" of the exhaust header. Looking at the above web site, the pictures show a ring of some sort there that my kit does not have; I'm guessing it's a typical exhaust gasket / lead donut. I've cleaned up all the other fittings and parts really well; I have some of the POR-20 super-high temperature coating on its way that I'm going to use to freshen up the look of the turbocharger and the exhaust manifolds; I'll probably start hooking everything up in 2-3 weeks. I'm currently in the middle of a belt / seal job to strengthen up the engine in preparation for the turbo going on; 951 pistons and rods are on the way so I'll swap out those and install new main and rod bearings (and the Callaway oil pan & a new gasket) then as well.

I've been told that you can boost a stock n/a engine at its 9.5:1 c/r without too much trouble (Danno is doing it) but the original Callaways also dropped the c/r to 8.0:1 - exactly the same as the 951s - so I believe its prudent to do likewise. I can always up the boost if I lose too much "oomph" on the low end that way. If you're interested I'll send some pics. I'm hoping to get the intercooler in but I can't figure out for the life of me I'm supposed to connect it! I might have to fabricate a mounting bracket or something. . .

Anyway, sorry about the long rambling post, but as you can tell, I'm kind of excited about this project!

Porsche-O-Phile

You've got to love Long Beach!

So much industrial stuff in this town - took 10 minutes at a local shop; they matched the 3/16" teflon lined hose perfectly. $40.

If anyone needs braided stainless line, let me know - there are a LOT of suppliers / fabricators around here. I might even get my own S.S. fuel lines and brake lines made since it would likely be cheaper than buying them as part of a kit.

Charlie944

Cool! I remember talking to the guy briefly (via Rennlist) you bought the kit from in New Brunswick IIRC when I first bought my car. I remember he said that 300hp is about tops at 1bar of boost. After that the turbo starts to run out of breath. But being the IHI is a low inertia turbo and it is so close to the exhaust valves (compared to the 951) you should be seeing boos starting to build at ~1500rpm. I would be happy to take some pics for you and let you know what numbers it puts down. I will not have access to a digital camera here till next week though. Also I would love to see some pics of yours! My car is more now a custom job than an original Callaway car, although it was one that was bought and changed to turbocharged configuration when it was a newborn by Reeves Callaway. The car has only 31k orig miles, but the original 83' engine spun the #2 rod bearing, hence the 86' 951 engine was put in. I still have the original connector the the Bosch Microfueler for the 5 injector, but is no longer needed with the Electromotive setup. The 951 engine was put in by Dougherty Auto in West Chester, PA....I actually spoke to Bill Dougherty out in Hershey this past year about it and he provided some insight. The car was first owned and raced by Ed Arnold (still have the log book in the glovebox). I believe Ed won SCCA a couple times in a BMW. I am reeeeally looking forward to driving it soon!! I still need to replace some brake lines, flush brake system, rewire the TEC a bit, and put gauges back in the cluster. Keep us posted and feel free to PM me anytime. Best of luck and I will keep in touch.

Porsche-O-Phile

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

I'm probably going to do mine up as a bit of a sleeper - I might eventually upgrade the turbo from the IHI to a Garrett or something that will be able to pull a lot more boost, but when all is said and done I'm fully expecting to turn 300 rwhp after tweaking and addition of a 3" high flow exhaust and MAF sensor setup. I might eventually consider H2O injection for track use, but the car is going to be a every-other-day driver sort of car, so it can't be strictly race use - I need it to be sort of reliable. I'm hoping to finish by belt & front seal job in the next week or so and by then have all the parts I need to pull the oil pan and install the new pistons, rings, bearings, etc. Once that's all done the turbo goes on and it's back on the road. A high-flow ported 951 head is waiting in the wings courtesy of MattH (I've got to send him some $$$) and then the exhaust & MAF sensor setup I mentioned a few months later. The goal is to have the car basically done drivetrain-wise for 944 fest next year along with new paint, seats (done, just need to pay for them and pick 'em up), wheels (probably 17" Kinesis), etc. After next year I might upgrade the suspension and brakes, but we'll see. . . my wife is bugging me about getting her a 968 Cabrio once mine is done

So what the heck did you attach your intercooler to?

Porsche-O-Phile

Oop, never mind, I see you're running a 951 intercooler. I'm guessing custom ducting then?

Charlie944

As far as the 951 intercooler attachment is concerned Doughertys welded in 90deg tabs and that is what the intercooler is mounted to. The front header panel is also removable so I am sure they had fun drilling the many many spot welds. The ducting I used for all the turbo stuff including air intake is Thermoid brand SCEET. It is very commonly used in aircraft. It is a silicone jacketed fiberglass helical wound ducting with a silicone liner for a smooth bore. Depending on size (ex2.5") is good for IIRC 46 working psi and over 60psi burst strength, and is good for over 550F. You can get in from numerous aircraft parts supply houses just do a web search for SCEET and/or Thermoid. It bends very nicely as well. Does you oil pan have extra capacity welded on the back? My oil pan has extra sump capacity welded on in the back where the stock oil pan would concave upward this one fills all that space and holds an extra quart. I have 7 quarts in just the pan. I do not think this is the original Callaway oil pan because it has the HUGE banjo bolt from that goes through the drivers side engine mount on the 951's. What do you want to do for your brake upgrade? With all that GO you will need some SLOW power. In regards to the turbo upgrade I have been in contact with Turbo Engineering Corp (TEC) and they stated that they could give me just about any power level wanted while still maintaining almost the same dimensional size (critical since there is not much room there). I know that company has been popular over on the 944 Turbo/S forum. I know I want a 951 LSD transaxle next year! Are you going to run the NA clutch? Mine still has the NA clutch so I hope it will last until next year. Although, I am pretty easy on clutches (84' has 185,000 and orig clutch) so it should. Hey what are you doing for a fuel pump? Can you get by with the NA pump? Not sure what pump I have but I know it is the size of a medium size Folgers coffee can. All the stock lines connect right up so I am thinking it might be a 928GTS pump. It has this plastic cover over it and I am not finding a seam anywhere. No luck on locating any numbers either. Best to you! And look forward to hearing from you again!