The Daily Driver
Vital Statistics:
1987 Dodge Daytona Pacifica
Original 2.2 Turbo I and A-520 5-speed replaced with 1989 2.2 Turbo II, intercooler, and A-555 5-speed
All electronics upgraded to 1989 specs
Original 15x6" wheels and 205/60HR-15 tires upgraded to C/S 15x6.5" wheels and 225/50HR-15 tires
Observed top speed: 124 mph, still pulling, but ran out of straight road...
Observed quarter mile: N/A (yet)
Observed lateral accerleation: N/A (yet)
SOON: K&N air filter. There are also a couple of the C/S Daytonas sitting in local boneyards, and I'm going to check the differences in sway bars, etc. to see how much farther I can tweak the suspension with factory parts. Also, rear axle replacement for suspension / brake upgrades to '89 Shelby specs...
See some more photos of my Daytona Pacifica...
Progress Report
10-something-99: Finally, some real wheels and tires: 15x6.5 "crab?" wheels from the C/S Daytonas and 225/50VR-15 tires, the widest wheel & tire combo available from the factory. I originally wanted the 16" pumper wheels from the real Shelby cars, but they are only 6" wide. I'd rather have more rubber on the ground... These made a HUGE difference in how the car handles. According to my G-Tech Pro, I picked up 15 HP because the tires aren't spinning on the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts any more. Cool! Total HP at the front wheels = 147. I still have to do a little fine tuning, and I'm pretty sure a high flow converter will do wonders.
03-20-00: Talked via email to Gus, concerning the recurring problem I have with the fuel being cut off at around 4300-5000 RPM. Annoying to say the least, and it is impossible to tune the car any further until I sort this out. Gus told me to check spark plug gap and cam timing initially. Contrary to what I know from NA / big motor hot rodding, these little turbo engines like a relatively narrow plug gap. I had mine set at 0.040" initially, and over the last year or so, they have opened up to a very loose 0.040". Gus recommended 0.030" as a start, and that's what I did. Immediately, the car pulled harder to 5000 RPM than it did previously, but it still cut off at 5000. Grrrrr.....
April marks the month that she's been on the road legally for a full year with NO SERIOUS PROBLEMS! Woo Hoo!!!
04-03-00: Finally got around to having the high-flow converter and Walker cat-back system installed. The exhaust shop "did me a favor" and installed 2.5" pipe all the way back. All for only $202.20, $140 of which was the converter and installation. If I had known it would've been so cheap, I would've passed on the Walker system and had the shop do it all. Anyway, it runs again, and is only a little more noisy. It is a deeper tone than stock, and never gets obnoxious. Super Turbo mufflers are the best!
04-11-00: Next on the ignition list is a new cap, rotor, and wire set. I installed these tonite, and they're all just the Auto Zone specials. The cap and rotor are IDENTICAL to the Mopar parts that came off of the car. The wires have a resistance of around 3000 ohms per foot, less than half the 7000 ohms per foot of the old originals. At least now with the Bosch platinum plugs, I know I'm getting all the spark to the cylinders. If I still have a problem with the engine quitting at 4500-5000 RPM, at least I know that it isn't in the ignition. I'll change the Hall Effect sensor as a last resort, and if I STILL have no change, it's probably time to check the cam timing after all. Hopefully I'll have some new numbers to post on the HP / quarter mile times if I can get my G-Tech Pro to work in the Daytona again...
07-13-00: So what else has happened... Axles are the topic du jour. I'm about to put ANOTHER freaking axle in the car. This time it will be rebuilt by Axles Northwest, in Spokane, WA. Heard several good things about them on the G-body list, and the price is good, so hopefully I'll get at least what I pay for. Which leads me to what brought all this on: CRAPPY ENGINE MOUNTS. I had a new Anchor brand engine mount fail after only about 4 months on the car. That failure cost me the passenger side axle, a BRAND NEW heavy duty axle from GKN DriveTech. That was a $170 axle, but leave it to the $8.00 part to fail, taking the axle with it. I'm beyond pissed, but I think all I can do is get my money back on the mounts. I have the MP high-durometer front and PS mounts coming from Chicago Connection, and I'll use a reinforced OEM DS mount. Hopefully, this will fix the axle problem for at least 50,000 miles... NO MORE CRAPPY AFTERMARKET ENGINE MOUNTS!!!
07-20-00: Got the new Mopar Performance high durometer mounts installed on the PS and front, the only two available. The DS mount appeared to be fine, so I simply reinforced it. I didn't have the digital camera with me when I did the job, so I'll describe it briefly. Since the DS mount is the one that allows left-right adjustment of the engine/trans assembly, it is a fairly sophisticated mount, at least compared to the PS and front. It has the typical X-type arrangement to it, so to reinforce the mount, I had the option of adding material to the voids by injecting silicone rubber, or by adding hard material, such as metal, plastic, wood, etc. I chose the latter. For the main triangular hole, I used 1/2" metal electrical conduit, since that's what I had sitting around. It is a thinwall tube, galvanized, and I hammered it in to shape using the lower part of the engine mount bracket as a mandrel. It took a little shaping, but I got it very close to the contour of the mount and slipped it in with a little silicone adhesive sealant to keep it in place. There are two other holes in the mount, both of which are essentially trapezoidal in shape. I filled those with pieces of a wide V-belt that came close to the desired dimension. I figured that since the belt was fairly hard material, it would work fine. I also secured these pieces with the same adhesive. After letting it sit for an hour or so, I installed the mount, along with the MP mounts.
I was contacted by Axles NW concerning the axle I had sent to them for repair. Seems that it was in nearly perfect shape from what they could tell. I guess the vibration and clunking I had heard was a function of the engine mount, not the axle. They also said that the slight amount of play in the axle was normal. Hmmm... They were prepared to ship it back to me as it was, but I had them take the inside boot off and inspect it anyway. Total bill for their service, including shipping the axle back to me, was just over $29! You just can't find that kind of service out there any more. If you need drive axle service, I recommend them completely. So, that means that I probably have a good axle on the car right now... no point in swapping the axle out if it ain't bad, so I left it in place. If it starts to make noise, I'll ship it off, too. In the mean time, I have a good spare in the garage.
08-05-00: Since nothing I have done so far made any difference in the way the car runs at WOT (it still croaks at 4800 rpm), this leaves me little alternative but to check the cam timing and verify that I had either done it right or screwed it up when I installed the belt. I took everything apart, and lo and behold, it was advanced by a tooth. I sure don't know why having the cam advanced a tooth would make the engine shut down like overboost, but it does. I suspect that under boost conditions, cylinder pressure gets high enough to knock, causing the knock sensor to kick in, but that's just my best guess. Regardless, the trick worked. This car flat hauls ass from the moment you take your foot off the clutch right up to 6000+, and pulls hard all the way. Time to start tweaking! Gotta get those baseline numbers with the G-TechPro, first. I bet I picked up 25 HP just from the cam fix.... we'll see... Stay tuned!
09-26-00: Finally got around to hard-wiring another 12V power supply in. The cigarette lighter doesn't work at all, and I haven't had the patience to track it down, so I just wired up another. Since this was all being done to make the G-TechPro work, I did it a little differently, anyway. For those of you that don't have one, they are neat little toys, but they have some major (easily-fixable) problems. These are 1) a heavy coil cord instead of a light straight cord, and 2) a piece of shit mount that holds the meter to the windshield. No meter is going to be accurate if it doesn't have consistent operating conditions, and these two items basically ruin a really slick accelerometer. My fix? Bitch to the company (they actually responded to my email, but have not yet offered me the keys to the place), and buy my own mount. I bought a universal radar detector mount at Auto Zone. It is made by Metra RoadWorks, PN AW-PL00. It is simplicity itself, and is MUCH more stable than the previous mount. Armed with the new mount, and with great weather (60*F, 40% RH, dark out...) I blasted off on a HP run to see what kind of damage I could do. The results? 234 HP AT THE FRONT WHEELS!!! OK, now that it's worn off a little bit, I think I need to do some more testing to make sure this is reality. I expected a gain, but not 87 HP. Time to get an A/F meter and make sure I'm not about to melt something. Just so the record is straight, let me clarify some differences between this test and the last test. First, the cam is retimed. Second, all of the mods above are now in place. Third, I have weighed the car on accurate scales, and I have increased the weight that the engine is pulling by 160 pounds. That is significant, around 5%. Previously, I had assumed that the race weight of the car was right at 3000#, but the scales say that with 1/4 tank of gas, the car is 2960#. Add my heavy ass at 200+, and you get the 3160# I used on this and all following runs. So there you have it. When I get a chance to test again, I'll post the results here. If I really do have 234 HP, this little car should be solidly in the 14's in the quarter mile... we'll see...
Below is a link to the Daytona group I'm listening in on. Seems like there are some smart folks on there... Check them out if you like!
Last Updated 09-28-00