This time on Roadkill, the Mazdarati is back!
We build the Mazdarati 2.0, add turbos to it,
and splatter fluids the full length
of Famosa drag strip.
Yeah, it went about that well right there.
[tires screeching]
[opening theme music playing]
[David] Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
[laughs]
This is episode of Roadkill 2.0
for the Mazdarati 2.0.
Finnegan, why don't you tell them why we're doing this?
Because some horrible human stole Mazdarati 1.0,
and we don't have it anymore.
So why not bang our heads against the wall
-and do it all over again? -I think we should.
Refresher course.
So the Mazdarati 1.0 was a mini truck
-that I bought for Finnegan as a surprise. -[Mike] Yeah.
[David] And you figured it out right away
when we walked up on the truck and it had a big tarp
over the Oldsmobile 455 and transaxle that was
powering the thing in the bed of the truck.
Yeah, and the guy that sold it to us gave us
a great and really tall tale about how he got thrown out
of a drag strip because it wheelied and ran tens,
-[David] Right. -without a roll bar.
Hey, it was motivational for us.
-It was. Yeah. -We wouldn't be doing this without that.
So in case you hadn't figured it out,
the Olds 455 never ran tens in that truck.
Uh, it was fun.
We did make it smoke out the valve covers
on nitrous quite a bit.
-It ran like a low 11 or something like that. -[Mike] It did.
[David] And then got stolen on the way home,
which is why when we were on a road trip just last year
in my '39 Ford two-door sedan,
we stopped at a guy's place in Texas
because he told us that he had another one
of these rare Mazda rotary engine pickup trucks.
But the rotary engine's long gone.
So this whole drive train
came out of the back of an old Hot Rod Garage
project car called the Twinpala
Now, this vehicle's actually kind of genius.
It's a 2006 Impala SS.
And those things are factory with a 5.3 liter V8
that is sort of based on an LS motor.
They've got some differences.
But what it means is that you can get another one
of those complete engine and transaxle packages.
And throw it in the trunk,
which is what Tony and Lucky did on a couple of episodes
of Hot Rod Garage.
And the whole goal was to make the thing run in the nines.
But like the Mazdarati not running in the 10s,
they never got it into the nines.
It went 10-16.
And it was so sketchy
that not even Tony Angelo
would drive it down the track again.
So on a prior episode of Roadkill,
we ended up making this thing run using the drive train
out of the Twinpala.
[Mike] Yes. We put it in the back of our pickup.
[David] Yes.
Yeah, now we can go down and then figure out
where we want to make the rear cross.
[engine revs]
-[David] We made it run. -[Mike] And it hooks.
It will not do a burnout unless you chain it to a Jeep,
I believe.
So we're planning on solving that in this episode
by adding more power with twin turbos.
[whispers] Yeah.
[David] Yeah.
Will it run 10s with twin turbos?
So first up, let's decide where we're going to put turbos
and what we're going to do and roll cage hoop.
And if nothing else happens, that will be good enough.
-[Mike] Okay. Let's see. -Yeah.
I think that goes straight off that pipe.
Oh, I see. You're, like, envisioning the mounting.
[Mike] You could go a single here.
[David] We could do twins.
How would you pick?
You want one center-mounted spinny muffler thing?
Or do you want two of them?
I think single turbo mounted up here,
although a little bit more decoratively.
Then all we have to do is take exhaust and put it in here.
90 degree discharge.
I'll flip this over.
90 degree into there.
No intercooler. Run it on the E85.
-Have a nice day, right? -Sure.
I should mention that we're in Lucky Costa's shop this time.
And so he'll be cleaning up our mess.
[Mike] Engage turbo.
I guess this on the backside or on the front side?
I don't know.
We've established a certain level of quality on this build
-that we need to maintain throughout. I mean... -This is it.
We can just cut it here and cut it here
and weld this section.
-Okay. Go for it. -Okay.
Modification needed.
Fixed.
This should place the turbo centered and level
and where the haters can see it.
[David] I feel good about it.
[Mike] You're good. I'm good.
Am I just installing it?
Sure.
You don't want to check it?
[Mike] Ah, it's a little late for that.
[laughs] Okay.
And if this appears at all unsafe, unsanitary,
or just not cool at all, he's the one welding it.
In case you're new to this,
here's how a turbocharger works.
First of all, through here comes the exhaust.
It spins a turbine in there,
and the extra exhaust comes out here.
Fresh air goes in the front of this thing.
Boost comes out this part.
It has a turbine over here
and a compressor wheel over here.
It's going to blow air into there,
which will make boost,
and it'll be great and make power.
Our next job here is going to be figuring out
how to get the exhaust
from the cutoff pipe down there on the manifold
up here to the turbo.
[Mike] Whoa. Easy.
Fixed.
Okay.
So now we go like this, right?
We wrap this, we... Oh, a ratchet strap, right there.
Mike's working on feeding the exhaust to the turbo,
what's known as the hot side.
I'm working on the discharge into the engine,
what's known as the cold side.
I am like picking up stuff left over from the Twinpala.
I feel like we're going to be able to do all of this
with leftovers.
All I need is a straight pipe that we can weld
from there to there.
We're going to be running on E85,
which is why we think we don't need an intercooler.
E85 is 85% ethanol,
but ethanol has a much greater
what they call latent heat of vaporization.
It pulls more heat out of the fuel.
It's better with a carburetor, but even with EFI,
it'll run cool enough that at low boost,
you can get away with not having an intercooler.
I don't know what kind of boost
this is going to make, though.
So we're taking our chances.
You ever boosted something with a flexible exhaust pipe
feeding the turbo?
Haven't we?
[Mike] I don't know.
But if we haven't, I feel like for science, we need to.
[David] We probably could.
Because this would go a lot faster.
I'm sensing that.
I also need a ratchet strap
to hold that radiator hose out of the way.
[David] That's what that bracket's for.
Wait... It's like we share the same brain.
-You go from here to here? -[David] Yeah.
And then you do one of these deals.
Right.
Yeah, that won't melt.
-Nah. Not at all. -[laughs]
You want to preheat the coolant anyway.
But look at this.
Cold side's almost done.
-Go. -[Mike] Look at us.
We mounted and cold sided a turbo all in the same day.
If that isn't modern technology and a miracle,
I don't know what is.
-[David] I feel complete. -Dude.
-Yeah. -Hell of a first day.
-High five, bro. -[laughs]
-All right. -All right.
20 minutes worth of work. Let's break.
[Mike] I bet by tonight this thing makes noise again.
Ah, remember the off-road Challenger?
This is our ride to the parts store right now.
This is exactly what you want to drive during a rainstorm.
[David] Ah, this is fun.
Trying to go over it,
you know, to get under it.
[David] So here's the story on the off-road Challenger.
-You and I picked it up when it was a dirt track car. -Yeah.
[David] And then Dulcich and I ruined it and cut out
the quarter panels and everything
and made it the off-road Challenger.
It's been seen in a ton of episodes.
But subsequently, it was sold to our guy Mason on our crew.
And he's done an expert rewiring job on this thing.
Let me tell you. [laughs]
[Mike] Two pumps.
[engine starts]
Ah, fires right up.
Wow, this is going to be great.
[engine sputtering]
[David] Runs great.
I can no longer be held responsible
for the performance of this automobile.
That's all I have to say.
All right, hang a right.
What?
Half a mile to 162.
Mason's really good at tuning carburetors.
All right, now we're on the way
to the local Earl's plumbing store.
We need some AN stuff to tidy up
the oil return lines on the turbo.
And after that, we have to go to AutoZone,
where we have some brake calipers waiting for us.
Whoo!
We made it.
I was going to let you go in.
It's easier than getting out of the car.
[Mike] Okay.
I'd rather get wet than climb out of this thing.
Ah, it's all your fault.
[David] We have a lot left to do on the Mazdarati 2.0.
We're sort of considering,
do we move the radiator up front?
Where do we mount the battery?
We have to rebuild the front suspension.
We're dealing right now with
the oil return line for the turbo.
It needs a tune.
We need to figure out wheels and tires
that are cooler and more functional
and maybe even more drag-racy.
It's a lot.
[Mike] I can now connect our turbo oil drain back to our oil pan.
Somebody pay.
[laughs]
Got it.
[David] Yay.
[Mike] Oh, my seat is soaked.
Cool.
Wow, this is overkill.
That's all we needed.
All right, next stop, you're getting out.
-[David] No. -Yeah.
[engine starts]
[David] We're brave. We're getting on the highway.
[engine sputtering]
-[Mike] Oh, it died. -It did.
-[laughs] -It's a good spot, though.
It probably does burnouts in here.
[engine revs]
[Mike] Kinda.
[David] That's great.
[laughs]
[David] Uh, please don't hydroplane.
This is sketchy. This is sketchy.
This will curve around, and you'll make a right.
And then it's immediately on our right.
It's right there.
-Ah. -You live.
[both laugh]
[Mike] Doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo.
I got stuff.
Oh, my seat's wet.
[engine starts]
-Ready? -Yeah.
-[engine revs] -[David laughs]
It wasn't impressive.
Did you get our dual S brake pads?
-I sure did. -All right.
And a back scratcher, and some paint we'll never use.
Paper towels, we got all kinds of things.
All right.
Okay. If you can make it to the back
of the parking lot, we lived.
Right after a nice shower,
here's why we went over to Earl's to get this dash-10 AN line,
because this is going to return oil from the turbocharger,
hopefully down to the pan.
And if that's not connected to the pan,
we're going to make a big mess.
The turbocharger gets its oil feed
from a pressure port on the engine,
so it's just shoving oil through the turbo all the time.
And you remember, perhaps,
on the Roadkill Rotsun project vehicle?
It smoked a lot.
It's because we didn't have a big enough return line,
and it was consuming oil
through the turbo as a result of that.
Will anything foolish like that happen to the Mazdarati 2.0?
Not on my watch, baby.
Not on my watch.
Next up, the disliker pipe.
All right, do you have it aimed aggressively?
-Oh, it's hateful. -[laughs]
Is it straight up and down?
Oh, yeah.
All that's missing is the tractor flapper.
Yep, we'll have to make that.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
[imitating tractor flapper]
This is going to be great.
This makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.
[David] Yeah. All right,
we're going to juice this thing up and fire it up.
Whoa.
All right, don't smoke.
It's pumping.
[engine starts]
[David] It made noise.
[engine revs]
[David] Throttle stuck open much. [laughs]
It's also in reverse.
Yeah, it was spinning backwards.
But also, didn't it rev to the moon?
We fired it the last time and had the monkey with the tune.
The moment we get E85 back in it,
put the old tune back in it.
It should run however it ran the last time they raced it.
-Good or bad. -Okay.
Yeah.
[groans] All right.
Let's try again.
[engine starts]
It's still in reverse.
-[Mike] That's weird, because it's in park up here. -Ah.
So remember, this thing has like
a mish mash of tune-ups in it.
Whatever they had in it when it was in the Twinpala,
plus whatever Mike messed with--
[engine starts and revs]
That's a scary contraption.
[engine sputtering]
All right, that's going to need an actual tune-up.
I think we're going to find a chassis dyno
and probably make that happen the right way.
What's smoking off right now is all the oil
that was inside this pipe.
That's not too big of a disaster.
Hey, it runs with a turbo on it.
-Ah. -It's not even Roadkill good enough, though.
It really isn't.
Oh, tomorrow will be better.
Don't focus on the sights and the sounds
and the smells of 30 seconds ago.
Stand back here now and look at it here with bald tires
and the biggest hater pipe I've ever seen.
And just go, "We made that."
This is a good replacement for the boat headers
on the 455.
-Yeah. More altitude. -More altitude, more attitude,
more boostitude.
You saw that Mike fired it up a moment ago.
And not only was it smoking rather impressively,
but it also spun the tires.
Well, that's because it was not going into park,
because this factory adjuster do hickey on the stock cable
came loose.
And it just did again.
I'm going to have to zip tie this together
and get the adjustment just right.
I'm going to have to zip tie it a few times
before I get it right.
Okay, I got it.
We're going to go into park now.
Okay, fixed.
[Mike] Wheel coming off.
Ow, did that hurt?
[Mike] No, we're good.
[David] We got a lot of work done early.
Turbo's mounted, exhaust's done, plumbing's done.
Yeah, shifter works.
It runs god-awful.
[laughs] So we can't do anything else
-until we dyno tune the thing. -Yeah.
Fortunately, there's a place right across the alley
who can tune it for us in the morning.
So we're calling it a night and tomorrow, horsepower.
And probably a lot of smoke.
Maybe fire out of the hater pipe.
Ooh, that'd be cool.
Good morning from Balto Performance
in Signal Hill, California.
Lucky connected us with tuner Tom here,
who's going to help us dial this thing in,
because it ran like doo-doo.
-We already found a dead O2 sensor, right? -Mmm-hmm.
It was actually set up with the O2 sensor
in front of the turbo, not in the tailpipe,
which according to Tom will work for a little while
before the heat and the pressure destroys the sensor.
It can't handle the pressure.
It's probably what happened to our sensors.
-So we've already fixed that, relocated it. -Yep.
Tom's going to put the original tune back in it.
I bet it runs great.
It's not possible to get worse unless rods fall out of it.
[laughs]
You said that out loud, though.
Let's not talk about that.
All right, I'm going to step back.
We're going to run it.
[Mike] That wide open, what are you aiming for?
[Tom] Depends what we actually make for boost.
I think this thing made under 14 pounds,
if I remember right.
So in boost, it's going to be like at 100 kPa, mid eights.
[Mike] Oh, it's go time.
And as it turns out, it wasn't running on E85
when he tuned it.
So we had to tweak that a bunch,
because we now have E85 fuel in our fuel cell,
and it's time to make our first dyno pole.
I predict it's going to make 408 to the tires.
I don't have an estimate. I have a hope.
[engine revving]
It reads like that was nine miles an hour.
Something's not right.
You want me to shut it off?
[Mike] All right, here's a little update for you guys.
We're making progress.
It runs. It sounds much better
now that we have an O2 sensor that's not dead
and in the right place of the exhaust system.
However, other problems have come up.
The transaxle no longer wants to shift,
and it just puked coolant everywhere.
We're pretty sure that's just because there's
an air pocket in the cooling system.
The guys are going to put a vacuum on it, refill it,
and that should go away.
But the more important thing is the fact
that we have a trans that does not want to shift.
So that's an issue.
We may end up having to trick it
with some toggle switches and things.
Tom's pretty confident that we'll make some power here
and then deal with the transmission later.
[engine revving]
-Didn't smoke too bad. -Yeah.
Ran clean.
That's all we need.
[Mike] I made like 450 foot-pounds of torque, it looks like.
Ah, I was really close. I said 408.
It made 415.
We got our first pull in.
We're just happy that the thing runs clean.
It made 415 horsepower of the tire.
I missed the torque number.
It's making 11 pounds of boost.
We are running E85.
It's eight to one air fuel ratio on the E85,
so it's a little bit rich, which means it's like
theoretically safe.
But transmission's not shifting properly,
and that's an electronics problem.
So we're going to mess around a bit with that.
[Mike] Ooh, that was better.
So it's the same power, it's just safer,
and he's able to actually tune it rather than having
to fake out the injector for the low fuel pressure
from the old pump.
We should put an intercooler in it.
With a water pump and ice box.
If only we had an intercooler.
Yeah.
This isn't bad.
That's probably more than the 455 volts made in the truck
we had stolen.
-[David] Yes. Yeah. -So we're already better.
Yeah, we're going to take a bunch of fuel out of it,
because it was rich on top now.
So I did raise my safety a little bit as well.
So if it makes more boost,
it'll let us go a little bit further.
The fuel system that Mike completely
buggered onto this thing worked.
We now have plenty of fuel up top.
He's able to tune the thing properly.
He's not having to trick the injector into dealing
with low fuel pressure.
It makes the same horsepower.
Everything's just safer.
We still have a little bit of a transmission issue.
He thinks it might be a sensor problem
for the speed sensor,
but he's got a work around on that also.
I think this is going to be our last pull.
[engine accelerating]
[David] Our speed sensor is all out of whack.
So basically Tom tricked the computer
-into shifting at the right point, you think. -Right. Right.
At the end of the pull, we know what our speed was.
So we know the three, four shift is going to be right.
That one will be right. Everything else is--
Is a maybe.
-Hopefully an accurate guess. -Yes.
-Plenty good enough for us. -So we'll see.
Yeah. So we're going to unload this thing.
And I think we've changed our plan.
Actually, what we've done is lowered our standards
on what we're going to do to finish the truck.
Yeah, we now have enough horsepower to kill ourselves.
So maybe we should make front brakes work. I don't know.
I no longer care about a bed or fender flares
or any of the stuff that would have
made it look like a truck.
-I don't. -Yep.
Run tens, do a wheelie, don't die.
We're trying to get to the drag strip.
-All right, let's pack it up. -You got it.
-Thanks for the help, man. -Absolutely.
-Appreciate it. -[Tom] Good luck.
[David] All right we decided the first thing that we needed to do
now that we're back home with our newfound horsepower,
is fix the front suspension,
because, kind of everything stops
if we can't make the suspension work.
It's pretty sketch.
[machine whirring]
[David] The reason we're tearing this all apart
is as far as we can tell,
you can't buy any of the brake parts
for the Mazda REPU.
And Mike found a guy, what is it? Air Bagit?
Who will put a Toyota spindle on this thing
with an S-10 lower ball joint and a stock upper ball joint.
So, that's what we're trying to install here and...
we've got some pretty wasted tie rods we might have to deal with.
Or might just live with.
[Mike] There's brake fluid in this line.
Out with the old.
This is the key to this whole project, right?
Mazda stuff.
Chevy S-10 stuff.
Toyota Spindle.
The guys from airbagit.com machined that adapter
to put the S-10 ball joint into the Toyota Spindle.
This spindle should lower
-the truck two inches from the right pass. -[David] Oh.
Same spring, same shock.
-But the spud is two inches higher. -Right.
This does a couple of things for us.
It enables us to rebuild the brakes, yes.
But, also converts this thing from six lug Mazda pattern
to five lug Toyota pattern,
which is also the same as Ford Probe, Nissan 300ZX.
Most light utility trailers also have
five by four-and-a-half bolt pattern,
which means we have way more options
for putting wheels on the front of this thing.
And then, all we have to do is figure out
how to make our master cylinder function
and get brake lines connected to it.
And we'll have fresh brakes an fresh new wheels,
hopefully, if we can get them here in time.
And this should go right in.
Yes!
[machine whirring]
[David] All right, the new spindle is on here
and brakes and everything,
and we need to figure out how to put a wheel and tire on it.
We're gonna try and put the old Impala wheel and tire on there,
a which is very, very close to the right bolt pattern, but not right.
But I don't know if the center board's gonna clear.
-Yeah. -[David] Basically, we just need to swing one
up there to see what we need to get.
Yeah, so this is five on four-and-a-half bolt pattern.
-So, the center board of this is way too small. -Is too... Yeah.
We got a trailer tire and wheel.
Yeah, it has a big old center board,
so it's gonna go on there.
And we can at least use this to figure out back spacing and whatnot.
[David] Yep.
-So, uh, 205/75-15 is taller. -Too tall.
[Mike] Yeah, if we can match that--
[David] That's what we should do.
This tire is give or take, 25 inches tall.
This is give or take, 26.5 inches tall.
Yeah, so we basically want a 25 inch tall tire for the front, too.
That would be too long.
[rock music playing]
[David] Oh, what a day. Long day.
Seems like it was yesterday
that we were on the chassis dyno with this thing.
We made pretty good power, that was cool.
Once we got back here, I was able to order a bunch of parts we needed.
Mike got most of the disc brake thing installed here.
We still have to do a lot tomorrow.
After yesterday on the dyno,
we have new priorities
and we have a long way to go in a short time to get there.
And the getting there means the dragstrip.
-Okay, we were going to install the bed... -[laughs]
and have it look radical and all this other kind of stuff.
None of that's gonna happen.
Here's our list.
Uh, we need to fix the turbo oil leak,
secure the fuel system in a butch way,
rewire the fuel system.
We're gonna add the inner cooler,
because that's gonna make more power.
We want a roll bar because death, harnesses, same answer.
Uh, reinforce the coilovers
because these were flexing real bad on the dyno.
It needs brakes, alignment steering, wheels and tires.
-Is that all? -[David] That's all.
Oh dude, I was worried until you read the list.
I feel so much better now. [chuckles]
All right. That was in my way.
That was ugly.
Tighten up these hoses.
Big tab for this.
We're ready to race.
What we have here is a single 1/4 20 bolt,
holding the fuel pump to the frame.
A single self-tapping tek screw holding,
well, the fuel cell to the frame.
Miscellaneous hoses tying it all together.
It's not gonna fall off today, though.
Tomorrow at the racetrack, I have no idea. Not today.
Part of my plan for convincing Freiburger
that he should pilot the Mazdarati 2.0
down the racetrack on Saturday,
is giving him the illusion that he has safety.
He wanted a roll bar.
I found him a roll bar.
This belongs to Hot Rod Garage.
It's for their '69 or '70 Nova.
It's way too wide for the Mazdarati.
However, if I weld outriggers to the outside of our frame
and then gusset them downward.
I can take their roll bar, which is already bent,
install it on our truck,
add a couple of back braces to it.
Freiburger will take one look at this and go,
"You know what, Mike?
I do wanna drive this thing.
Whether it's aligned or not,
whether the brakes work or not,
whether that fuel pump's gonna fall off or not,
I do wanna drive this."
Yeah. So, this is happening.
This is gonna go right about here.
Ah, perfect.
Once we cut it at the right height, we'll weld it there,
and then we'll triangulate it down to the chassis here,
and then we'll put a harness bar here, take the back window out
and put racing harnesses right through there.
Yeah.
We're in the middle of trying to fit our roll bar main hoop.
We're just cutting an angle on the bottom of it
to match the angle of our frame.
This angle works, squeeze it together.
-Good to go good. -Yep.
We put a ratchet strap on here to squeeze the legs together
so that it lands on these pads where we want it to.
And we think we nailed it.
-[Mike] You ready? -[David] Yep.
[Mike] We have the main hoop in.
Now, we need a harness bar.
The harnesses, when you sit in here,
your shoulders are about this high.
So, the harness bar is gonna be above the back window.
Long term, We could replace this with LEXAN
and put a nice half-moon in it
for the harness to come through.
But uh, for now,
we're just gonna take the glass out, put the bar in,
run the harnesses through the window.
Freiburger is safe,
while he drives to glory.
[grunts] I got it. Bingo.
It lived, ah.
[David] Now, it'll get broken in storage.
But, it won't be our fault.
You could mark the tube there and give me that measurement,
and then I can try to copy it on my side,
so I know when I'm coping mine,
-it's in the same spot yours is at. -[David] Okay.
[Mike] Uh, we're getting close.
Do you want it even with your shoulder down from your shoulder?
[David] Slightly down.
[Mike] Okay.
[David] Finnegan's still working on the shoulder bar.
While he's doing that, I am working on supporting these coilover mounts.
They always seemed really flimsy
ever since we took them out of the Impala.
So, I'm gonna put a tube here
to at least do something to control that.
And there and then, burn her in.
[Mike] Looks cool.
Yeah, looks like it does something.
[Mike] Things are going so well,
and we're having such a good time installing things
that don't stop or steer this truck
that we thought, "What the heck,
let's put something on that we didn't have
when we dyno'd this thing."
An inner cooler, and not just one.
We have two plumbed together for our single turbo.
And again, this came from the Twinpala.
So, no guilt here.
We didn't spend a bunch of money.
So, all we're gonna do right now
is figure a way to somehow plumb both of these
from our turbo through here
to the intake manifold and throttle body.
It's gonna be stylish. It's gonna be functional.
We're gonna go faster.
We just don't know if we can stop or steer.
[David] The inner coolers are goofy.
But you know what, it's a tribute to the original Mazdarati.
-That's all that is. -Yeah.
[David] It's almost-- i t's Home Depot looking too.
I guess that's it for today.
Tomorrow, oh, inner cooler plumbing.
The big deal is trying to make the brakes work.
I need to mount a master cylinder,
plumb the whole thing, pads all that stuff.
I don't know, few more things.
Getting close.
All right. See you tomorrow.
Our Mazdarati is, I think, a 1974 Mazda pickup,
but we were able to convert the front end to disc brakes from Airbagit.
These apparently are like, an '84-ish Toyota truck
spindle and brake and caliper,
and we're gonna use our Duralast brake pads.
Ceramic, engineered for OE form, fit and function.
We needed to get custom brake hoses made
to couple up to the truck.
I realize now we could have gotten Duralast calipers as well.
Kind of look like it's firing missiles.
Or warming an apartment building.
I've been messing around with the brakes.
The brake hoses are too short, so I'm gonna have to execute some butchery
right there to make that fit.
All right, wheels and tires.
They're not gonna match.
We're so not proud of the original Impala wheels.
But, they look way better when you mismatch them
with a set of American Torq Thrusts, [chuckles]
which is what we've done.
All right, the front is gonna be at 215/45-17.
And the back is a Proxes R888R
and it's 245/40ZR18.
This is actually an Autocross tire.
It's 100 treadwear
and I really wanted a drag radial.
But to be honest, I ordered the wrong size tires.
And these are what we could get locally.
These things are freaky to me,
because they look directional,
and you'll see on the other side,
it's pointed the wrong way.
But trust me, it's legit. We looked it up.
The sidewall says "Outside" on it, on both sides.
We've got it right. It just looks wrong.
You wanna steer and just see where we're at right now?
-It's gonna be plenty fine. -[Mike] Cool.
Behold the nearly completed turbo kit.
Compressed air should flow through this without leaking.
You know, until it blows one of these 12 joints apart.
Wow, I actually like these belts.
[Mike] Inner cooler, done.
Uh, harnesses, done.
And I'm just a couple minutes away
from having a master cylinder mounted
and connected to the brake pedal.
So, progress.
David, I got it. It's tight.
-[David] Okay. -We're good.
We have a master, we have a pedal.
Yo!
[David] Hey, Finn, do you mind turning the wheel all the way right and left
-so I can judge this brake hose? -[Mike] Sure.
Here we go.
[David] All right. That's super happy. Thank you.
Ah! Wrong tool for the job.
It worked out.
Done. Not only did I fix the front toe,
but the back was completely wall-eyed.
All right, so Finnegan's gonna meet me at the track.
Let's do this. We're on the hunt for 10s.
[engine revving]
[David] Finally, we made it to the track.
Had to fiddle around with a couple of things here.
Mike had to tune it up.
[Mike] It was just a little lean at part throttle.
If you whacked the throttle, it didn't wanna go.
-So, we just-- -Yeah, boom!
Threw some fuel at it, she's much better.
And it's probably gonna help that we took the filter off the turbo, too.
Now, remember, we never put an alternator on this thing,
which is why we've got our producer's car here
with jumper cables on our battery.
We're actually on a regular test and tune day here at Famoso.
Normally, we rent the track.
This time we've got a big line.
So, we should probably go get in it.
As usual, I feel like we're under prepared for this.
-But... -Duh.
At the same time, I feel like this is our best chance ever
in the history of the show
to have a Mazda REPU truck run 10s.
-[David] These are facts. -[Mike] Yes.
[David] Well, we'll take advantage of the cool weather, the inner coolers,
the '85, the Finnegan tune up,
the Tuner Tom tune up.
-Yes, yes we will. Yes, we will. -Follow me.
Because I'm gonna drive.
Reverse, neutral, drive.
[Mike] Good luck, Mr. Freiburger.
I hope everything works and nothing falls off.
Let me just remind you what we've got going on here.
This is the Mazdarati 2.0.
It's a 5.3-liter LS style V-8.
Front wheel drive transaxle by Gearstar.
It's a 4T65E.
A little STS turbo that honestly,
we don't know anything about.
And it made 430 horsepower
to the tires on the dyno,
until we added the inner coolers.
-[Mike] Ready? Go for it. -[David] Yep.
I have so many questions right now.
It's 430 at the tire, enough to go 10s.
Will it hook? Will it bog?
Will parts fall off?
God, I hope this works.
[David] All right, you magnificent piece of garbage.
Your time is now.
[Mike] God, I hope this works.
Come on, truck!
Oh, a tire spin. Come on! Go, go, go!
[David] It won't run.
Limp mode.
I got no throttle.
[Mike] The tires spun, and then he's out cruising, I guess.
Did we just get road killed?
Do you mean to tell me that we did all this work,
showed up to a dragstrip completely unprepared
and it doesn't run?
I can't believe that.
Let's go see what David has to say about this.
He's gonna kill me.
[David] All right, what happened there
is I mashed it, and I had no throttle.
I got nothing. I'm like, hitting the gas right now,
nothing's happening.
That's not what I expected,
to have fail today.
Okay, that's something we're gonna have to fix.
We went for our first pass,
and I matted it out of the hole
and it actually spun the tire a little bit, like, that far.
And then, fell on its face and I had no throttle.
Just gave up.
So Mike's gonna look through the computer
and see if we can figure out what's up.
[engine revving]
[Mike] This thing wants to run.
I think I know what happened.
-[David] Ah. -[Mike] There's a spot right here,
when you start stalling it,
where it bogs.
If you just hit it, it doesn't do it.
But, if you try to stall it a little bit,
it-- there's a part in the map that is not tuned.
Why was the pedal not working all the way down the track?
-[Mike] Oh, that-that part I don't know, right now-- -Going like this, nothing.
-[engine revs] -[Mike] Everything-- everything works now.
Yeah, everything's working now.
[David] I guess you'll have to drive.
-[Mike] I think it's ready. -[David chuckles] I guess.
[Mike] You know it's gonna spin,
-so don't even stall it and just roll into it. -[David] Right.
-Yeah. -'Cause if you mat it, it's gonna bog a little bit.
So, I just roll into it.
-Once you feel like it's grabbing, just go. -[David] Yeah.
[Mike] I don't have an explanation for what just happened.
We've topped off the fuel. He's going up again.
I think this time, he'll just roll
onto the throttle out of the hole,
and maybe it'll go better.
If it hooks, it's gonna run a 10.
And if it doesn't hook It'll spin its way to an 11.
Either way, if it just goes down the track at this point,
that's a victory for us.
[David] All right, this might be my last shot.
First time, the throttle pedal fell off.
Second time is gonna be all victory.
[Mike] Okay, here we go.
Test run number two.
This needs to work.
We've worked really hard.
And by work, I mean just get down the dragstrip under full power.
That would be awesome.
[David] All right, you glorious piece of junk.
Let's do this the right way.
Re-stage, re-stage.
All right, here we go.
-Go, David. -[engine revving]
Yes, yes, yes, yes!
[David] No, come on!
For like, two seconds, I was like, "Oh, this is working!"
So, for some reason, this works for Mike in the pits,
and doesn't work for me on the dragstrip.
Let's see.
No throttle, shut it off.
[engine starts]
[David] Now, I have throttle.
[engine revving]
[David] What a stupid problem.
[Tom over phone] I've had some issues before,
and generally, there's a couple of things you wanna double down on.
Make sure that your power wire goes directly to the battery.
[Mike] It does.
At wide open, he says,
the throttle is closing and then you have no control
and it just sits at a fast idle all the way down the track.
[David] We have fixed nothing.
We have talked to Tuner Tom again.
We've talked to Robin Lawrence,
who knows everything about these deals.
And they said either it's the pedal or the throttle body
or a wiring problem.
So, that's kind of where we're at.
I have another last chance.
Hopefully, it work this time.
We have no clue.
We were the last car, weren't we?
-[man speaking] -[David] Okay.
All right, this is my last shot.
We have a fresh battery and no alternator.
Come on!
[engine revs and sputters]
[David] It sounds horrible.
It sounds awful.
Oh, let out-- Oh God, oh, smoke everywhere. Oh!
Oh.
Oh!
[Mike] He should have lifted.
He just Tony Angelo'd the dragstrip.
[David] Well, last pass of the night and I oiled the track.
Perfect. Oil everywhere.
I'm so sorry, you guys.
[Mike] So, you left the line.
Fell on its face.
You got back in it, and it sounded awful.
- You were not lifting. -[David] Yeah.
[Mike] And then it let all the smoke out,
- and I went, "Oh God, the rods are gone." -[David] Yeah.
-[David] No. -[Mike] But, you just drove here.
And all I can think of now is there's no puke tank on it.
-Is that the problem? -No idea.
[Mike] There's oil all over that racetrack.
Oh, it's not oil.
It's water. Somebody put antifreeze in this.
That's the problem.
-[Mike] What? -[David] The radiator hose being in two pieces.
[Mike] Well, the rods are still in.
-You know? -[David chuckles]
Uh, yeah.
Never done that to a dragstrip before.
It, uh-- it wasn't boring.
-Yeah. I think one thing is clear. -[laughing]
I think we can agree Mike's driving next time.
The end.
What just happened?
It turns out the radiator hose blew apart
and splattered water on half the dragstrip.
Maybe it ruptured because the head gasket blew out
and pressurized the cooling system.
We don't really know yet.
But if you think about it,
fogging out, the track is right on Brand for a Roadkill Mazdarati,
as our old one did something similar on its last pass.
Now, if I could only arrange for Mazdarati 2.0
to get stolen, I'd be happy.
But, I don't think that's gonna happen.
Instead, Finnegan and I would really like to get a bed on to the truck
and just make it look a whole lot cooler.
And, of course, it's gotta do wheelies.
And it's got to run 10s in the quarter mile.
Will it ever happen?
No promises at this point.
But if it does, you can bet that you will see it
in an upcoming episode of Roadkill.