KITT, engage turbo boost.

"Sure thing, Michael."

What a weird place. I came to the address and it was a self storage
facility. The guy has a unit full of quads (Banshees mostly), a three
wheeler, two sand rails, and tons of junk. His silent lacky met me at
the gate. When I arrived, the master was at work in his unit fiddling with a banshee engine on the ground. The turbo engine was on a hand cart resting
horizontally on the back of the sand rail for sale. He said that they
ride them up in Hazleton or some place where there had been (or are)
coal mines off 80 near the Pocono Raceway.

"I have a Lincoln. It welds well without gas."
"So you use flux core?"
"Yeah," he said as he sucked down some more cancer from his cigarette.
I looked at the lumpy welds holding what looks like exhaust tubing to
the T intake manifold connecting to stock dual port heads. With the
rubber hose that would connect the intake manifold to the turbo
hanging loose, it looked like the engine had a periscope.
"There must be a tiny German submariner in there," I thought.

His buddy, who works on Eclipses or some such car for a shop, welded
the turbo mounting plate onto a new $90 header. The turbo is a Saab
unit he got for $50. The doghouse heater outputs had been removed and
covered. It looks like it has new wires, coil, and distributor cap (Edit: Yeah, if you define new as being not older than me).
The turbo needs a gasket to fit the header and something to attach to
a muffler (muffler is free in LeMons). The turbo would interfere with
the rear lid and probably the apron too. He said that the pistons are
"new" and the cylinders were reconditioned. He thought that they were
bored and sleeved to a larger size, but I said that I did not think
that there was enough cylinder wall to do that from a stock barrel. He
said that the bore size is not the stock 85.5. He said that the clutch
WAS new; whatever that means, but, hey, it is a clutch that is not
thirty years old!

The bad parts:
There are no oil lines. The return line should be simple: install a
hose barb on the rocker cover (one side in particular he said.
probably the side opposite the windage). I forgot to ask about the
source for the input line.
No carburetor. I thought that it was a blow through system at first
and did not think about it or even ask. Later, I looked and decided it
is a pull through.
The turbo mating surface is rectangular with a circular bulge. The
header mating surface matches the rectangle, but not the bulge. I am
uncertain whether there is enough mating surface there to maintain a
seal.

I also picked up a bright green transaxle for $60. He wanted $100. His brother had removed the
bolts from the side covers to drain the oil; he lost the bolts.

Now, there is a sand rail up in Bristol, PA without an engine and I
have a hoopty turbo engine sitting in my front yard for my neighbors'
pleasure. I am definitely the cool kid on the block.

Ya gotta have the right tool for the job, Beavis.

The camera cable finally turned up, but, better yet, the SM card reader finally came! Pictures to follow... eventually.
I got the rotten beam further disassembled tonight. Every time a little bit more... The two ball joint tools I got are amazing. The one from Doghouse Repair is a relatively light duty number that removes the bolt end from the eye. It bent on its first use, but that joint must have been particularly tough because the others popped out after the slightest torquing. The ball joint press has been nothing short of magical, well, with the aid of the pneumatic impact wrench. The battery powered Dewalt impact wrench is nice, but the pneumatic Crapsman would make Tim Allen asphyxiate from grunting.
Got one stubborn "allen" bolt to remove from the trailing arm and the anti-sway bar. What the heck is the right tool for the anti-sway bar mounts?

The chassis parts are piling up. Brake bits, ball joints... I ought to order a cage this week. One company in particular looks good.

miscelaneous meaningless update

yodogg's lemons experience in a super beetle.

i did not have as much time as i had hoped this weekend. i plan to call broke dick and rlr about their cages and make a decision this week (hopefully that means ordering one).

the wheel bearings, seals, and some more tools came on friday.
this week, i plan to get the drums and rotors turned and start packing wheel bearings. i found some time to get that nasty front beam more disassembled. i looked like a real professional out there with hearing protectors and eye protectors as i whaled on the beam with various hammers. i managed to maintain my grip on the hammers on all but one swing!

looks like the bushings order will have to wait until tomorrow night.