Beretta.net

Biggest thing that I discovered on thin stuff is more wire speed. I had a tendency to burn and that helped.

...And watch the tip-angle too. I've had great luck controlling the puddle on thinner materials by increasing the angle away from perpendicular, so as to decrease the arc's penetration.

That J-Body axle looks so different. Pretty cool solution though, looking forward to seeing more on the turbo too. So, if you are boxing-in the rear beam, can you ditch the all-thread and just use bolts to hold the bushing brackets to the new plate? Maybe bolster the boxing-plate up at the bushing mount area? I've never liked the tensile-strength of all-thread, it is usually like Grade-3, but you do have some pretty thick hardware there, I'm sure it would more than hold if it didn't crack bending around the radius.

I haven't commented before on the wheels -but I can't believe you managed to stuff 245s under that car, that is really impressive. And those cross-laces really add such a subtle touch of class to that car, looks so different than it used to, I wouldn't even recognize it as the same Beretta. Nice work. (It looked great before too, BTW! )

That's a good idea - I'll look into reinforcing the beam in the area where the bushing mount goes - should be able to gusset it some and possibly reinforce it internally before boxing it in.

We were trying to mimic the original Addco mounting setup, but I'm not a fan of the all-thread personally. But it worked for mockup.

Thanks for the ideas (and the compliment!)

Lots to update.

Reinforced the area under where the rear sway bar mounts will be:



Then boxed both areas in completely:



Then boxed in the rest of the axle:



Got the coilovers installed finally, along with the Wilwood brake setup and the rest of the front suspension. Didn’t tighten down the sway bar endlinks yet as I may need to rotate them out of the way to get the brake lines routed how I want.



Got the turbo manifolds mounted:



And mock-up with the crossover to figure out how I’m going to handle the wastegate and downpipe:



These wheels have been off the car for 2.5 years, had to check them out again:



Also had to check caliper clearance; not much, enough to rotate, but I’ll probably add a 5mm spacer to be on the safe side:




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those wheels for sale?

heavywoody wrote:Lots to update...


Got the coilovers installed finally, along with the Wilwood brake setup and the rest of the front suspension. Didn’t tighten down the sway bar endlinks yet as I may need to rotate them out of the way to get the brake lines routed how I want.



Got the turbo manifolds mounted:



And mock-up with the crossover to figure out how I’m going to handle the wastegate and downpipe:

Geooooooooooooooff wayyyy too early for car porn
Please forgive me I have not read this thread in forever, are you going to larger wheels? or you wanted to run more spring rate? Turbo is looking like it belongs there for sure...

I think he should go for larger wheels and sell the current ones

I like that boxed axle, I bet it adds to the effective sway bar rate too.

How are you tuning for the woo wooer?

You should sell those wheels to Adam and get some Shoguns...haha

^^ ^^

Looking good! I like those turbo headers... Definitely a good, clean fit in there. What size are the primary tubes?

woody90gtz wrote:I like that boxed axle, I bet it adds to the effective sway bar rate too.

How are you tuning for the woo wooer?

You should sell those wheels to Adam and get some Shoguns...haha

Its that...

nocutt wrote:Geooooooooooooooff wayyyy too early for car porn
Please forgive me I have not read this thread in forever, are you going to larger wheels? or you wanted to run more spring rate? Turbo is looking like it belongs there for sure...

Nope, not going larger than what I have. I wanted complete adjustability in the suspension, and this seemed like the best option at the time.

That turbo has been an idea in process for over 10 years... glad I'm finally able to make it happen.

woody90gtz wrote:I like that boxed axle, I bet it adds to the effective sway bar rate too.

How are you tuning for the woo wooer?

You should sell those wheels to Adam and get some Shoguns...haha

It should - it was an idea I got from a former member who mentioned that the VW guys do it a lot. Main reason for boxing this was to beef up the axle, and add stiffness since they J-body axle doesn't have an internal bar like the Beretta's do.

Tuning will be done via my DHP. Danger to Manifold!

... and no, I'm not selling these wheels. At least not for now.

Rettax3 wrote:Looking good! I like those turbo headers... Definitely a good, clean fit in there. What size are the primary tubes?

I don't remember off the top of my head, I'll check tonight before I put the crossover back on for the last time (this season). Got it back from a local guy who modified it for me to add the wastegate port. It's not perfect but it will work - next winter I'll redo the crossover for a more proper setup.

Primaries are 1.5"

Got quite a bit done during this past weekend, but still have lots more to go.

Finished welding the plates for the rear sway bar to attach to the rear axle, painted it up, and got it installed. Installed the Neon rear disk setup but realized I didn’t have the lever the parking brake cable attaches to or the shoe adjustment screws so I still need to go back and deal with that.

Installed the gas tank with a 255lph Holley pump.

Installed the rear Koni’s, from a 93-02 F-body, P/N 8241-1140SPORT. Had to remove the bolt setup those used and pressed a sleeve into the bushing to use the setup the J-body axle does. The sleeve was trimmed down on the sides to clearance the mount on the axle.



Rear axle prepped:



Made some spring perches to weld to the body, and of course I forgot to get pictures of them.

Axle installed:



Wheels on the ground! Test fitting for height purposes... this was with the lowest adjustment. Later on with the car on all wheels, this proved too low as the inner fender lip was hitting the tires.


Lowest setting up front, back spring perch adjusted up enough to where the tires weren’t touching. First time in 2.5 years this car has sat on the ground with the wheels on.


Intercooler mounted, I’ll be taking it back out to paint it black. Used aluminum bar stock shaped to fit for brackets:



Put the AC Delco R42LTS spark plugs in gapped at .035”. Also put the 42.5 lb injectors in and modified the MAP sensor plug to accept the 2 bar MAP sensor that will go back in.



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Sort of a mental checklist of what's left:

Remove and paint intercooler
Install intercooler pipes
Reinstall headlights/headerpanel
Determine BOV location - install
Install turbo return drain fitting in oil pan
Install adapter fitting for turbo oil supply
Make both oil supply and return hoses, install
Determine filter setup for turbo, install
Clock turbo, ceramic paint exhaust housing, install turbo blanket
Fabricate studs for exhaust flange on turbo; install exhaust flange adapter (2.5" 4 bolt to 3" V-band)
Mount turbo
Fabricate bracket to support turbo weight
Mount wastegate
Install new radiator
Install cooling fan
Install brake master/ABS setup
Reflare rear brake lines to connect to master
Reinstall wiper motor and cowl plastics
Connect clutch master cylinder to clutch pedal
Put sealer on adapters on Wilwood calipers
Finalize brake line routing and tighten (all 4 corners)
Tighten endlinks
Install plastic shield by transmission on driver side.
Install rear swaybar
Grease rear poly bushings
Replace 1 shock mount
Install parking brake hardware on axle
Install new "front" parking brake cable (connect to interior)
Install wiring harness for rear ABS
Install filler neck for gas tank
Reinstall coil packs, alternator, EVAP setup
Determine proper PCV setup and install
Change oil
Bleed coolant
Bleed brakes
Bleed clutch
Redo headliner and install

THEN,
Deliver to fab guy while I'm in China (Jun 8th-18th) to fab up the downpipe, and connect the rest of the exhaust with the 3" stuff from TwinZ Performance.

THEN,
Remove DP and wrap with DEI titanium heat wrap, tuning, alignment, and shakedown before hitting the road for BFest.

I think that's it... I'm sure I forgot something though.

Your list just made me feel better... Haha