86 505 Turbo Track Build

[Jayden M]

Yep, I bought one of those 505 Turbos with a blown head gasket/cracked head for 360$.

I can't seem to stop collecting these. Its a 1986 505 gas Turbo - 5 speed. Weird that it has manual winding windows and non turbo cloth seats. I actually prefer cloth, and these seats are so squishy!

The car paperwork says 250,000 miles while the odometer displays 50,000 miles... hard to say which one it really is. Interior is dirty but fair condition.

I cannot decide where I want to go with this car.... I could restore it and replace the head gasket or I could swap the danielson head onto it or I could use its manual transmission on another 505 turbo I plan to get soon. What do you guys think?

[Bean]

Sweet!  It looks like it has an aftermarket sunroof which means it’s likely a 505 GL-Turbo - It was the stripped model for the folks that wanted to do SCCA SSB racing series.

Base model GL spec with the Turbo suspension, brakes and power train - one of my favorite models they did.

 

[Jayden M]

Huh, why does an aftermarket sunroof hint at a GL turbo? (Yes it is aftermarket sunroof)

Also this car's weight comes in at 2930 lbs which kind of surprised me as its around 200 lbs heavier than the 89 turbo

Neat though i'v never heard of a GL turbo

[Bean]

The GL-Turbo didn’t come with a sunroof so dealers or customers would often install aftermarket ones…

It should be quite a bit lighter than the ‘89 Turbo…

 

[Jayden M]

Ah ok. Did not know that. Weird model mixing high end and low end, but I like it.

[Mike T]

15 hours ago, Jayden M said:

Also this car's weight comes in at 2930 lbs which kind of surprised me as its around 200 lbs heavier than the 89 turbo

I seriously doubt that the 1989 505T weighs only 2730 lbs. It's more likely over 3000.

[Jayden M]

8 hours ago, Mike T said:

seriously doubt that the 1989 505T weighs only 2730 lbs. It's more likely over 3000.

Ooops I phrased that wrong. Good catch. I meant to say the GL Turbo is 200 pounds lighter than the 89.

all of my other 505T are over 3000 even the manual ones.

[Bean]

That’s why it was the hot ticket for SCCA racing - basically the lightweight race special…. Interiors got gutted anyway so no need for anything fancy.

My favorite model next too the ‘89 505 Turbo…

 

[Jayden M]

Maybe I will turn this into a track car like it was meant to be! Gut the interior, install the danielson head (I would assume danielson is great for the track).

From what I'v heard 505 brakes fade easily, im not sure if its just ABS brakes or if non-ABS brakes fade also, so I may have to do race brakes.

Also suspension at the track is very important, and im sure after 35 years it could use a refresh... I know the ABS struts are non-rebuildable but what about the non ABS struts on my turbo?

[Bean]

ABS struts use the same kits as the regular struts iirc - so easy to use a good race shock oil and a new seal.

Dani head and cam would be great, but sorting out a good standalone would be the ticket for power and reliability.

As for brakes - I had 505 turbo brakes on my 504 when I did a 3 day race school and I could track it all day long and not fade the brakes.  Other newer cars could only get 3-4 laps before brake fade had them pulling in.  Good pads and a good pad would be key, but the brakes are decently stout out of the box for some track fun.

If you got more serious about track time / racing is when you’d need to start looking at upgrades.

 

 

[SouvenirCup]

Is that one of the cars from eastern VA? I was just looking at those the other day.

I would be sorely tempted to fix whatever is wrong with that one and restore it to a road car, since it appears to be a decent survivor. Especially if you have parts.

[Jayden M]

11 hours ago, SouvenirCup said:

Is that one of the cars from eastern VA?

It sure was! The seller had 4 or 5 other peugeots as well, but this one looked the best. I do have 2.5 parts cars, and know the car decently well, however the engine was half taken apart by the seller. Was parked due to coolant mixing with the oil from the 'common' issue of head gasket or cracked head. I have many spare engines but have little knowledge of rebuilding or working on engine internals in general.

[SouvenirCup]

That’s too bad. I know the guy didn’t know/wasn’t really sure what was wrong with the cars. I just as well assumed that the engines and transmissions were likely toast.

Still, you did get the best looking one of the bunch. If I wanted to deal with the turbo hassle I would have been all over that one. 

[Jayden M]

Uh oh

Well I finally cleared out my garage and got rid of the ant infestation of the car... I pulled the car into the garage and got it on jack stands to look around for rust. What a shame, one of the rear trailing arms has rust holes in it, the driver side frame rail has pretty big holes in it as well. The rear foot well is completely rusted through, its just carpet left. Such a shame to have to use it as a parts car... I suppose that was my original intention for this car though.

[Bean]

Damn - That’s too bad!  The plus side is that it should be an excellent parts car, and it’s parts will help other cars stay road worthy.

[Jayden M]

Well I have not touched this car until today. A friend of mine wanted a project car so I decided together for us to fix this car. He has a welder so we can weld up the rusty spots on the underside.

The bad news is the inside of the engine, we took the cracked head off and yeah the pictures speak for themselves. Im pretty sure its going to need a new block....

 

[Bean]

Definitely looks toast, but make sure to check and save things like the water pump, timing chain and sliders as well if in good condition.

I pretty much hoard anything that could be reused or rebuilt.  

Rabin

 

[SRDT]

As long as the bock isn't cracked you could bore it for bigger pistons or use dry sleeves. The cracked head can also be welded.

[Jayden M]

I just wanted to show how bad it was inside, I have a spare block that was rebuilt by the french revolution long ago (I think) - and a danielson head I will be installing shortly. Though it could be a while as I now have 4 cars to work on simultaneously.

[Jayden M]

Its been a while since any progress was made as I do have 4 other Peugeots to keep me occupied, but with a friend of mine I have continued with this project. We Started by removing the Danielson Head setup off of the block and beginning to prepare it to put it onto a good block. Hopefully this weekend I will mash together the Danielson head onto the block built by the french revolution. Has anyone had experience with the N9TEA engine but had the smaller turbo from 86-87 swapped onto it? I am considering using the smaller turbo to reduce turbo lag. The head itself looks to be in great condition as it did only have <1,000 miles on it.

 

[Jayden M]

I have put a bit more time into this car and realized rather than welding a car with a bent body (yes the rust is so bad it has warped the body overtime), I will use my old XN6 powered 505 STi and drop the N9TEA setup into it. It is a great candidate for this because it is largely rust free and most of the engine bay bits have burned away from the car fire. A couple of concerns I have are - Does the N9TE/A engine mounts bolt onto a car that had an XN6? What are the rear end ratios of 505 manual turbos vs manual STi XN6s? Are there N9TE/A specific components that arent bolt up ready to go on an XN6 car? Would it be to far out of the question to convert the car to use ABS brakes? Is the Torque Tube on the XN6 the same as the Turbo cars? Hopefully someone here with knowledge can answer some of these questions.

 - Jayden.

[Bean]

You should swap the whole front crossmember with struts and suspension arms attached - super easy that way.

Easiest way to know if the torque tube will work is to measure the length of each.

Fuel system will be different, but if you strip the chassis down you should be able to bolt everything up.  I personally would swap the rear subframe/suspension over as well, and the diff of the xn6 should be 4.11 which makes for faster acceleration, but speedo might be off.  The 89 has diff at 3.45 ratio I believe.

Rabin

[SouvenirCup]

How is the swap coming? If you end up scrapping the shell I might be in some of the parts and body panels.

[Jayden M]

Progress is good actually, I was just about to post an update on it.

I have completely finished stripping down the inside of the STI as well as the engine bay. The engine bay paint is still stained dark from the fire but thats ok with me. The Danielson engine is finally assembled to the point I am ready to Install it in the car. I have swapped the cross member from a ABS 505 Turbo as well as the ABS master assembly. Also I pulled the ABS + Injection + Ignition harness from the old 88 505 turbo and installed it into the STI.

I plan to put the Danielson engine into the STI very soon as I want to know the bottom of the engine is healthy before I spend anymore time or money on this project. After all its been 20 years since the engine was ran.

I installed a pilot bearing into the end of the crank as well as the flywheel, but the clutch is not installed as of yet since I dont have an alignment tool.

 

[SouvenirCup]

Good progress so far. If you can't locate a clutch alignment tool, I understand that you can use a dowel the right size to align it. I have a lathe, so when I do my car, I'm going to cut some plastic rod to the right size to locate it.