Another small block turbo early valiant

WOW that got serious real quick. Here are the things i have learned along the way. Single turbo cars still need TWO waste gates. Think about it. Each bank gets a wastegate on a twin setup. Since you put a single turbo on it there are still two banks of exhaust moving air. You need to add another waste gate for the drivers side header. The closer to the collector the better because the exhaust is at its hottest and its more compact and a given hole with flow more air with more temp. Secondly, without knowing what boost and where you AFRs are you should never do a full pull. The burned up pistons are from prolonged full throttle under boost. This was an expensive lesson in comparison to a dyno session where you can control what goes on and for how long.


Agreed it was definitely an expensive learning lesson, there was many things working against me and my inexperience didn’t help. It did escalate quickly on the build lol. Well I realized the crank I was running was turned and 20 under and I didn’t want to run it, so with no luck finding a standard used crank I started looking at a new crank. It started with a scat 4” cast crank it was cheaper than the stock stroke! Only by like $10 lol. I was able to catch Racetec before they started making the pistons and was able to change the stroke. Then I got to thinking and decided to pull the trigger on a forged crank. I’m going to look into a second wastegate and placement. I’m also going to put a 3lbs spring in and just drive it a while before I make much boost so I can get the tune dialed and such. Also got a meth kit to put on and help with temps till I can find a place for an intercooler.