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13 minute(s) of a 55 minute read
5-6-2009
Fuel System is in. It really changed the fuel curve alot. I didn't do any logging yet but I was watching the wideband. For the moment, I set the fuel pressure to 58psi and left the boost ref disconnected. Basically the same pressure as before. Car was issues starting and I had to give it a little throttle. Got it running and AFR was at 10.9. I started dropping the pressure and the car kept running better. Ended up dropping it to 30 psi to get idle to 14.7 and purring like a kitten. As soon as I started driving, AFR went up into the low 16's. I'll have to spend some more time tuning in the next couple of days. I have to get the pressure up to atleast 50 psi.
Only got a couple of pictures. Off the end of the black filter there is a 90* elbow and the line follows the frame to the front. I'll get some pictures of the front tomorrow.
The pump is mounted to the well. The bung in the bottom of the tank is obscured by the prefilter.
5/10/2009
Took the car back to the track Friday night to do some tuning after the new fuel system. Fuel curve pretty much wants to look flat as the additional pressure provided by the boost reference seems to handle the additional fuel demands at the higher KPA. It was hot and humid out and my converter was about to catch fire from hot lapping it. I ended up running a best of 10.15 @ 135 with a 1.51 60'. The car left good but the converter wass just too sloppy at 220*. It's way too loose anyways. I really need to ship it off to Greg @ FTI to get it restalled. The good news is that after spending most of the night leaning it out, I finally got it down into the 11.0-11.2:1 AFR range (still rich, I know) and the injector duty cycle is now down to 74% (from 130+%).
5/28/2009
Different angle after the support was welded on and painted.
There are 2 small brackets (one on each side) which I believe have those 2 studs sticking out of them. Those would bolt to the sides of the radiator supports normally and the bolts go all the way thru and out the other side. We ended up welding those brackets on and not dealing with the bolts. It's tight in there. The grinder will become your friend. A portable band saw is nice for much of this and a plasma cutter would come in handy sometimes also.
6/18/2009
Waiting on a friend to return the tranny jack so that I can ship off the converter. My work has slowed down alot so I haven't had the coin to finish up my to-do list. It's also looking like I will need to either sell/swap my rear end for a 9". Closest ratio I can go with the S60 appears to be a 3.54. I think that I will need something more like a 3.23. I've been told that I can have a custom gear cut but then what happens if the rear screams and howls like a banshee?
I'm currently running a 3.73 gear with the 325/50/15 tire (28" tall). Spending $500-550 to go down to a 3.54 gear and only drop my RPM by 200-300 just doesn't calculate for me. I've been 9.33 @ 146 on this gear but I was going thru the traps at 7300+ RPM. I intend to go 155MPH once I get my list all knocked out. I'd like to get there by 7K RPM. Don't think that will happen on the 3.54 with a stalled auto. Not to mention that the 3.23 would be so much nicer for cruising with the 3 speed.
To do list:
1) Restall the converter. Needs to be tightened up over 1K RPM.
2) AMS1000 boost controller with CO2
3) Gear/Rear swap
4) Forged pistons and rods/Cam/AFR225's
6/23/2009
Spoke to Greg @ FTI this afternoon about the converter. He asked me some questions and told me he knew what I needed. Cant wait to try it out. Seems like every mod that I been doing since building this turbo has made the car more and more streetable (except for removing the A/C). It was 100* here yesterday and 110* with the heat index. I'm regretting having removed my A/C.
6/27/2009
Got the converter back yesterday (from getting tightened up) and put it in. I also pulled out the radiator and epoxy'd the hole that the turbo shield rubbed in it. It worked to my surprise. Also removed that shitty shield that was giving me the clearance troubles.
While I had use of the lift, I decided that it would be the perfect time to change the oil. As stated in a previous post, I used 5-30 Mobil one on my last oil change and the turbo would smoke a little when I came to a stop. I switched it to the 15-40 Delvac 1300. Some nice diesel oil. Well, when I pulled the drain plug, the cam dowel was stuck to the magnetic tip of the plug. I remember seeing another thread here just recently that had the same thing happen to their high performance stock bottom end. Fortunately, right before I threw this bottom end in, I pulled the front cover and checked to see if the cam was stock (was supposedly a Z06 cam) but it was just the stock cam. I made sure to use red loctite on the cam sprocket when I put it back together. And since the cam sprocket wasn't of the adjustable nature (slotted holes), I think it should be OK for now. Worst case scenerio it will bend up the valves and beat up the pistons. I had no intentions of reusing either for the forged build.
Of greatest concern to me right now is that I am only seeing about 7-8 psi of boost whereas I was at about 15 psi before I took the transmission out. I may had accidentally bumped the manual (Home Depot) boost valve while I was under the car. If I have a leak, what's the trick to finding it?
And last but not least I need that stupid little tube for filling the trans with a Lokar dipstick. I'm about a quart low and I can't find mine.
7/25/2009
Getting a little frustrated. Still haven't figured out where my boost went.
About 2 weeks ago I finally got around to pressurizing the cold side and try to hunt down my boost leak. Everything seemd tight. The only air that I was able to find escaping was around the injector orings. I found that the bolts that hold down the fuel rails were a little loose. Tightened it all up, took it for a blast and same ****. down 2 lbs on the spring and about 4-5 lbs on the manual controller.
To be clear, boost isn't falling off. Everything seems fine and behaving exactly the same as before. I am just not getting to the same boost levels with the same setup.
I decided to pop off the wastegate and inspect it. I found that the diaphragm had a small tear in it. The diaphragm that these cheap X02 Wastegates use is cheap garbage. I found out that you can use the much better diaphragm from a TiAL instead so I ordered one and put it in. Same ****. And now I think I have a vacuum leak because the car is idling about 100-150 rpm higher. I'm getting frustrated.
I was JUST pegging the 2 bar MAP at 210 KPA before and now only seeing 170's if I remember correctly from my last scan. I only scanned it to verify that the mechanical gage was correct. Temps have been within 10 degrees of each other (85*-95*).
My biggest frustration is that I dont have enough experience with turbos in order to know the symptoms of a cold side leak/problem vs a hot side leak/problem. How can you tell if the BOV is maintaining a lower boost level vs the wastegate?
Here's the entire story leading up to this problem. I took the car to the track. I made a 10.teen pass at almost 135 MPH which was good considering the weather being really hot. 2nd pass sometime just before the 1/8 mile I felt the boost drop off about 3-4 lbs and continued the pass with a 10.5x. Then the rain came. I took out the torque converter and sent it out to get tightened up 1K RPM (it was loose still from my previous setup). I put the car back together and I have been missing the boost since.
I pressurized the cold side and found that I was leaking around the injector orings. Tightened the fuel rails down and fixed that but apparently that wasn't the problem. Took out the wastegate and found a pinhole in the diaphragm. Replaced it and same problem. I'm pretty sure that NOW I have a vacum leak since it's idling a little higher than normal. Haven't felt like looking at it in a couple days.
8/1/2009
Finally got a chance to work on the car last night. In the past, when chasing gremlins, I would always have tunnel vision trying to associate the problem directly to the power adder or the new parts that I had most recently installed. 9 out of 10 times the problem has been something basic. This time around I decided to tackle it as if I am doing an overall inspection.
Symptoms:
Reduced max boost level - I have been down 2-4 lbs of boost for a while.
High idle/vacuum leak - Just recently, the car has started to idle about 200 rpm higher.
Hard start - When I go to start the car, sometimes it starts right up and other times it will take a few trys and backfire thru the exhaust. Very much like a cam position sensor problem.
Low Oil Light On - Low oil light on intermitantly but there is plenty of oil in it.
I know that reading the symptoms it would appear that the low boost and high idle problems are related as a vacuum/boost leak inside the throttle body would cause both of these problems. The thing is that the low boost problem happened weeks before the high idle.
I went ahead and pulled the plugs as I haven't even looked at them since I regapped them shortly after putting the new turbo setup together. They all looked good. Upon inspection of the plug wires I found my first problem. 4 out of the 8 plug boots were a little brittle and 3 were split all the way thru at the bend. There is no question that 3 of them were arcing. I guess this is why they put those heat shields on the wires. I'll get a new set today with something to shield the heat.
Next I checked all the hot side bolts. I found one very small leak around the exhaust manifold. Several bolts took a 1/2 turn to tighten up. Now it's all tight.
While it was up in the air and I was looking around I discovered that my poly motor mounts have turned to goop. It doesn't seem like they are all that close to the exhaust manifold. I have wires and loom that run closer without any damage. I am wondering if perhaps the wires were arcing to the motor mounts and melting the poly. They must be replaced.
I also found that one of the 2 wires that goes to the oil level sensor had broken off the pigtail. LS2Formula pulled the pin out of the pigtail and soldered the wire on for me.
At this point, the only problem that had been resolved for sure was the Low Oil Light. Time to tackle to the vacuum leak. Last time that I tried chasing down this problem, I pressurized the cold side and found that air was getting around my fuel injector orings in the intake bungs. At that time, we found that the bolts that hold down the fuel rails had backed out alittle and the rails were loose. I tightend the rails down and the idle seemd to be lower and I took it for a ride. My boost was still down so when I got home I pulled the wastegate and found the hole in the diaphram. I thought that would fix it but I never repressurized the system to check it again. This time around, we didn't pressurize the system since now I am hunting a vacuum leak. We found some decent old wires that Steve had laying around just to be able to start the car. Got her fired up and started spraying break cleaner all around the intake. It was sucking air around every injector. I got pissed and started cursing the FiberTuned intake. Fortunately, Steve runs one of these same rare intakes on his car. We fired his up and sprayed it and his wasn't doing it. We pulled one of the fuel rails off to see how the injectors fit in the bungs. The went in and out fairly easily. Fortunately (again) Steve had a couple extra (brand new) injector orings laying around. We popped the oring off the injector and held it side by side with the new one. It was immediately obvious that the old oring had a larger inside diameter and was thinner than the new one. We popped a new oring on and pushed it into the bung. Now that's a snug fit. I'm going to pick up a set of the same orings today and replace them all. That should fix that.
As far as the hard start is concerned, Steve checked the wiring on the cam sensor and it was good. I am going to resolve everything above and see if that improves the startup. If not, my next thing to do will be to replace the cam sensor.