Lebowski's Absolutely Kosher Turbo Project

[Lebowski]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet, and reintroduce where this project is headed... 

I guess it has been about 4 years since updating, and during that time the car has been parked at 02GarageWerks in California under the care of Le.  When I contacted him several years ago, I wanted to rebuild my turbo motor from the bottom up and reengineer the whole package to achieve a reliable weekend car that I could also drive to Brisbane, MidAm02 Fest, or the Vintage without breaking down.  Le was totally on board with the vision I had for the car, and the visionary for the engine work was Paul Burke of Imagineering.  Unfortunately, my luck (bad luck) persisted, as shortly after contracting for a new soup to nuts motor with Paul, he suffered a heart attack and was forced to close his shop.  Still intending to finish the project, Paul was plagued by health problems and with many personal challenges in my own life like moving twice in 3 years, things kept getting pushed to the back burner.  I attended MidAmerica02fest in 2017 with the idea that Paul would deliver the motor to the event... well, no show and no motor.  I was at a point where I was ready to just be done with the project, let Le scrap the car or sell it off for parts and walk away... 

While this was all happening, I was distracted by a move to Des Moines, and a move back to Wichita to take care of my ill father and grandmother.  Unfortunately we lost my dad last August and my Grandmother (the rock of the family) just last month.  Also adding insult to injury, we found out that our office manager of 30+ years has been embezzling from us for probably the whole time... lots of reasons why we should have caught on but she was GOOD at it... and luckily a marriage that somehow keeps surviving (15 years as of May 25th!)

 

Fed up, tired, frustrated I got in touch with Mr. Burke ready to just pick up any and all parts complete or not and see if there was anything salvageable... Turns out Paul had been working hard to get as much accomplished as his health would allow.

Today I drove from Wichita to KC and picked up a probably 80% complete motor!  All the internals are finished: M10 block, S14 EVO crank, 90mm bore giving something like 2314cc.  Compression at something like 9.0 to 1 with Paul's pistons, Carillo rods, Paul's camshaft, IE rockers.  The motor also has some serious headwork by Mr. Burke... He told me today it flows better than an S14 head!

The front of the engine uses an elephant ear type mounting plate, and you can see a photo of how the press fit bushings will sit right down over the frame rails on both sides, allowing us to push the motor back as far as desired.  It's designed so that tabs can be welded directly to the frame rail and a bolt used to mount through the bushing.  The motor plate also houses a cut out for the oil filter boss, and the turbocharger.  This fixes one of the biggest problems I had with my prior motor eating turbo manifolds due to stress/vibration/thermal expansion and who knows what other bits of bad luck... The turbo will mount at the front horizontally.  The exhaust can hopefully dump straight down and out the back under the custom header that will mount from the exhaust flange to the back of the mounting plate.  It's a cool setup that will either work like a dream or become a pita... who knows?  Still waiting on Paul to finish the head; there's a pic of it before it gets those hand cut "windows" into the aluminum like on the front cover.  We will still have to figure out what to do for an intake manifold (open to suggestions) and find a spot to mount an electric driven remote water pump... one port is on the driver side by where the starter will sit and the other will go in the front cover.  I want to tuck and hide as much wiring and vacuum lines as possible so that the motor looks like some crazy modular F1 motor stuck in a little old 2002... 

For the first time in literally years, I have a renewed sense of excitement about actually seeing a project through to completion the way I imagine it in my mind.  Good thing I have Le on board as the main Mad Scientist in Charge!

I'll keep things updated as they progress, I have lots of small details I want to incorporate to achieve the overall look of the car I see in my head... stay tuned!

 

...It was a long day, and I'm tired and ready to crash so I'm sure there is still a ton to talk about.  Let me know if you have questions and I'll ask the guys who really know!  

...and to the 2002 with the VIN 2374222: thanks for the transplant... per Mr. Burke this setup should rev to 7,500 rpm and make over 350 hp on 1 bar of boost!

 

 

Edited May 31, 2018 by Lebowski

[jgerock]

Amazing comeback! Glad it is finally progressing.  

 

Jim

[Martijn 647]

Insane! I love it.

[irdave]

Wow.

 

Good job still being married.  The engine looks awesome.

 

Just wow.

[beammmer]

Can't wait to see it the last week of April 2019. Or the Mustang.

 

Don