Turbo Vega Wagon

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Turbo Vega Wagon

Postby shaggnwagon » Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:03 pm

Hi all, this is both my introduction to the site, and an intro to my project.

My name is Joey and I'm from Minnesota. I've had my 76 Vega wagon for 4 or 5 years now, and it seems like things will really get going this year for my build. I will add more to this tread once things thaw out and the project really gets rolling.

Short history of the car: 1976 GT wagon was purchased from Oregon by my dad, so it is a clean, never-seen-salt starting point. A close friend bought the car from him with the intentions of making it into a drag car, but never got around to it and has since passed away. My dad got the car back, gave it to me for nothing, so I figured I'd continue the dream and make this little Vega into something.
Image

I wanted to break the trend of going the V8 route (no offense to the V8 guys) and do something a little different. I've always been obsessed with the late 86/87 turbo regals (and turbos in general), so I set forth to find the perfect donor car. And after a couple years of searching, I found it:
Image

I plan on using the motor and trans from this car, and selling off the 8.5 10-bolt in favor of a ford 8.8 so I can use a torque arm setup. I have the engine and heads fully disassembled, to be hot tanked and sent off for machining. That's where the project has been for about a year, just waiting on funds so I can get the ball rolling again. Yay tax season! :mrgreen:
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1976 Chevrolet Vega Kammback GT


Re: Turbo Vega Wagon

Postby RobR » Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:19 pm

Very nice. That should be sweet! Having both an 87 GN and 89 TTA, those are great engines. Easy to make fast and very reliable if you keep the tune right.
Rob
75 Cosworth Vega 576
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Re: Turbo Vega Wagon

Postby Smiley » Tue Feb 27, 2018 4:52 pm

What 8.8 rear end are you going to use with a torque arm ?
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Re: Turbo Vega Wagon

Postby waybad » Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:42 am

almost did the same thing to my vega,, then drove a 2000 corvette and it changed my mind,, the v6 would have been faster I think and easier to install.. :bang: :bang: :bang:
Tinker
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Re: Turbo Vega Wagon

Postby monzaaddict » Wed Feb 28, 2018 12:13 pm

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Re: Turbo Vega Wagon

Postby shaggnwagon » Sun Mar 04, 2018 5:40 pm

What he said!! ^^^ hopefully something like that holds up since I think they are designed to supplement a 4link setup
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1976 Chevrolet Vega Kammback GT

Re: Turbo Vega Wagon

Postby monzaaddict » Sun Mar 04, 2018 8:19 pm

shaggnwagon wrote:What he said!! ^^^ hopefully something like that holds up since I think they are designed to supplement a 4link setup

doesn't supplement 4 link - upper arms are removed torque arm and either a panhard bar or watts link must be installed.
torque arm controls rotational forces
lower control arms control forward forces
panhard/watts link control side to side forces
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Re: Turbo Vega Wagon

Postby shaggnwagon » Wed Mar 07, 2018 2:00 pm

monzaaddict wrote:doesn't supplement 4 link - upper arms are removed torque arm and either a panhard bar or watts link must be installed.
torque arm controls rotational forces
lower control arms control forward forces
panhard/watts link control side to side forces

Thanks for the info, I see now that they say to remove the upper arms on the mustangs
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1976 Chevrolet Vega Kammback GT

Re: Turbo Vega Wagon

Postby 70styleVega » Sat Apr 07, 2018 9:34 pm

FYI....
Granny's Speed Shop offers an aftermarket 8.8 bolt-arm torque for Mazda RX-7s that that appears to be adaptable to the H-body chassis. I came across this torque arm when looking at how to put a f-body torque arm on an 8.8 axle. It appears to be shorter than an f-body, and it's likely that you can purchase the arm with hardware separate from the RX-7 kit, and use your current lower control arms.
http://grannys.tripod.com/2ndgenrx7ls1.html
Links to installation instructions are on this site also.

I finally decided to just fabricate taller upper control arm mounts for my 8.8 for now, (to raise the upper control arm holes).
But as a h-body owner with a factory torque arm, you might this useful.

Tom
75 Vega hatchback, EFI 5.3L/t350 swap kit, street/strip, budget build in progress
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Re: Turbo Vega Wagon

Postby shaggnwagon » Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:23 pm

70styleVega wrote:FYI....
Granny's Speed Shop offers an aftermarket 8.8 bolt-arm torque for Mazda RX-7s that that appears to be adaptable to the H-body chassis. I came across this torque arm when looking at how to put a f-body torque arm on an 8.8 axle. It appears to be shorter than an f-body, and it's likely that you can purchase the arm with hardware separate from the RX-7 kit, and use your current lower control arms.
http://grannys.tripod.com/2ndgenrx7ls1.html
Links to installation instructions are on this site also.

I finally decided to just fabricate taller upper control arm mounts for my 8.8 for now, (to raise the upper control arm holes).
But as a h-body owner with a factory torque arm, you might this useful.

Tom

Sweet! I'll look into that! Thanks :th:
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