Thanks for tuning in guys! I'm glad I can bring some form of entertainment to you with occasional updates on this turd. I made some major progress on the plenum this weekend. It would actually be done if I didn't run out of argon Saturday night! Oops. I'll get a refill after work today and get back at it... Not gunna lie...I completely winged this... Started with the top and bent it by hand to get the right contour and length. Then placed the bottom at the correct angle so I could have 4.5" and the correct slope between the top and bottom for the TB plate. From here, I didn't hate it, so I continued on... Welded and smoothed the inside... Mocking up side pieces... Sides on and I ran 3 beads around every outside seam Welded the inside of the sides and smoothed it out. Sides distorted a bit from the heat, but I'll spread that back out once I weld the throttle body plate on. aaaaaaaand I ran out of argon as I was welding the TB flange onto the front plate. Mocking up the TB and piping to the plenum though, everything looks pretty good. The piping sits just where I wanted it to in correlation to the radiator.
I think all the fab stuff is done now with an exception of adding a IAT bung to the charge pipe. It's coming together nicely. Nothing much about it is perfect, but I'm super happy with how it turned out especially considering how I jumped into it without really knowing what I was doing in regards to metal fab and welding. Learned a LOT! ...now if it will just hold up without blowing apart P.S. sorry for the lack of doggo pics
Oh so wrong... I opened this can of worms over the weekend thanks to my self-diagnosed case of OCD... Ran bead after bead to fill in the recessed areas of the manifold. I didn't like how "built up" the welds were around the edges and I didn't want to grind them smooth due to potentially weakening the weld and/or making it more susceptible to cracking. So I began building up material to grind it flush. Kind of regretting going this route, but I think it will look cleaner once it's been completed. It's just going to take some time. Ideally, I would have made the fitment of my pieces much tighter so I wouldn't have had to fill gaps and build up some welds a bit excessively - oh well. I still have the passenger side to build up and then grind/smooth out then also tidy up the welds around the throttle body plate. I welded my IAT sensor onto the charge pipe and got that powder coated, BOV installed There will also be other fab work with making a turbo inlet that I forgot about. Slowly, but surely...
That look when the motor is out of the RS yet again... But this time for a good cause. Competition Clutch twin disc installed The twin come with a pull-to-push conversion that includes a new TOB, fork, and slave. I was able to use my braided stainless steel clutch line instead of the provided hard line that comes with the kit. I found some damage on the TOB (presumably) from shipping. The packaging is not adequate considering it's a 50lb flywheel/clutch in a cardboard box with some foam around it and all of the other components are just loose in the box. Luckily this is the rearward facing part of the TOB and is stationary. The inside of it has no burrs or gouges, so it shouldn't be an issue. The vendor I bought it from is aware and is going to try to get me a spare just in case something comes up later down the road related to it, which I don't think is likely. Old flywheel, clutch disc, and pressure plate. This setup has about 6k miles on it and had definitely seen a bit of abuse.
Manifold is done...ish. Still have some small finishing touches and then powder coating to do, but I wanted to bolt it up and check for leaks/other issues before I do that. I got the motor back in, everything hooked up, fluids all topped off and ready to fire, only to find out I have no fuel pumps. No priming when turning the key. Spent some time troubleshooting that, looking at the pump relays, playing with the wiring...found that I don't have a switched signal triggering the relays for some reason. Then I notice I don't have any power to OBDII/Accessport. Lights still working, car cranks, no spark or injectors...now realize I've got something else going on. Checking fuses, I find this one blown... SBF No 5 30A "FMX" fuse, better known as a J case fuse. Never blown one of these before. They are $5 a piece... I bought 4 at AutoZone, came back to the garage to do some more trouble shooting and popped all of those. Went to Advanced Auto and they only had one left...tried something else and popped that one too. At this point I have it pinned down to something in the main engine harness. If I unplug that connector and switch the key on, I don't blow the fuse. The only thing I had done in the harness over this past winter was hardwire the injector connectors to get rid of the ID injector adapters (I think those were attributing to my intermittent cyl roughness issues). I had also reloomed the entire engine harness and rerouted the throttle body wiring to make it longer for the reverse manifold. As I pulled the intake manifold off to further investigate the harness I noticed that one of the wires had been pulled out of the injector plugs that I put on on cyl 3. Fixed that, went to Oreily and bought the last two 30A J case fuses in Austin (LOL), came back and viola...that was it. It must have been arcing off the cyl head or intake manifold or something...whew. It runs again! It runs good. No issues other than my turbo coolant feed line that I used the hard line to AN adapter on weeps a little coolant. I had issues installing that adapter and I think I buggered up the collet when I was crimping it down. It's just enough to hear it hissing a little after you shut the car down and everything is hot. Hardly any coolant actually coming out. Will have to probably redo that adapter. P.S. no power steering kinda sucks. Not so much just cruising around, but if the car gets a little out of line around a corner (theoretically speaking of course) it can make it difficult to correct it. I think because it still has fluid in the rack and the lines are just looped, it's kind of fighting itself/you as you turn. It really makes quick corrections difficult. I think I'll look into the MR2 pump option a little more seriously now.
That manifold tho!! Yea, looping the lines makes for very heavy steering. I've heard that de-powering the rack helps, but I don't remember what exactly is involved (other than disassembling the rack....).
Welcome to the flipped manifold club! We could probably fit a spare tire in the back of the engine bay now! I also am looking to do an MR2 or Vauxhall Astra pump, but mine ambitions are for mounting my AC compressor. Great work as always Joe!!!
Are you going to run an air filter? Or just throwing a screen on the front? I remember you having one in the past.
Yeah, I believe you have to essentially gut the rack (mainly there is a flow regulating "orifice" inside that the fluid passes through), my understanding is that this is the main culprit. Not about to tear down a perfectly good $650 rack and stuff it with grease lol. I've been reading up on EHPS (electro/hydro power steering) conversions on and off all day today. The DIY electric car forums are quite full of useful info
Thanks man! Yeah, no kidding - tons of room for spare tire storage like my old Loyale HAHA! I'm actually leaning toward a Volvo S40/C70/C30/etc EHPS. I (believe model years 05-09). It is designed to be CAN controlled so that it runs in variable speed based upon vehicle speed, but the power input from the CAN harness can be jumped to power so it runs at a constant speed. From research, it would work just like running the MR2 pump without any VSS input. Both options only pull 2-5 amps at idle and max around 50 amps at full lock. I'm not too concerned with having it tied into vehicle speed (it's designed to lower amperage so that it's less sensitive the faster you're going) - I've read numerous posts of folks who just simply hook it up to switched power and ground and have no issues...so I'll probably give that a whirl. Just need to find a decent pump and go for it. Oh, an the Volvo pumps are about half the price of MR2 pumps...and they are brushless.
Yeah, I still need to make an inlet. Off the Line Performance is developing an inlet (specifically an offset coupler) to fit the FP 84mm compressor covers to 3" piping. I've been bugging Justin about updates off and on and hoping to snag a coupler from them as soon as they have them in stock - sounds like they are just waiting for delivery so it shouldn't be long. I believe there is also a company that makes an 84mm to 3" offset coupler on ebay (can't remember the name off hand) so that's an option too. I still have a few weeks before tuning so I've got some time. I'll likely build a normal inlet, but where it turns 90 and goes in front of the manifold, I thought about putting a vband clamp here so that I would be able to switch between a pipe with a filter on it and a pipe that plumbs into the passenger side headlight (make a blank so it would essentially be a velocity stack in the shape of a headlight) for track days. Might be a little ambitious - we'll see One of the main objectives behind welding the upper manifold to the TGVs was to get rid of the flanges that would normally be used to bolt the upper to the TGVs as that is what the coupler right off the turbo usually contacts. I was hoping I would be able to save enough room that maybe I'd be able to even get a straight coupler on it without having to use an offset coupler, but that's not gunna happen - the turbo is just offset to the passenger side too far unfortunately. I might also play around with stepping the piping up to 3.25" or 3.5" coming right out of the coupler too. I've got some room to play around with under the manifold.
Yep, the XT6 pump has a fancy controller to vary the power to it depending on what you're doing. But I've seen several people using them in other applications just hooked to switched power. Those are getting quite rare, but I'm sure a similar procedure would work on the others.
I made this not-so-fancy boost leak tester and found a few pinhole leaks in the manifold. I have a turbo inlet coupler coming and I'll be testing the rest of the charge piping/intercooler once it arrives. After marking the leaks, I pulled the manifold to fix it. I had the idea to make plates to bolt the manifold to instead of having to bolt it back up to the engine to keep testing/fixing it...yeah, it didn't work. I couldn't keep it sealed. I tried OEM gaskets, a DIY gasket sheet, and also some tape, but to no avail. I think the main issue is that 1/8" aluminum just isn't rigid enough and tightening the bolts down distorts is just enough to let air piss out at the base (no leaks from that area when bolted to the motor). A couple of very amateur-esk iPhone photos from when I had the car running for a few days before pulling it apart again lol Plugging leaks and fabbing a turbo inlet are next on the docket. Tuning will now have to wait until sometime in July as Jr skipped scheduling at Off the Line in June too
Intake manifold is finally done and powder coated! Soooo many hours into this thing with cutting, shaving, grinding welding, blasting and coating...it's a bit depressing to think about honestly. I was able to plug several pin holes last week, then I blasted it and got it coated this weekend. I decided to go with wrinkle red....I'm not really in love with it (it's a lot of red), but it's done and it's functional so it'll stay that way for a while I started on the turbo inlet, welding a small straight section of 3" to the 3" to 3.5" transition piece. The 3" would clamp into the silicon coupler to the turbo and the rest of the intake would be 3.5" Well, that was the plan anyway until I talked with someone much smarter than I am on Facebook (it's good for some things) about how the transition could actually hinder performance. My scenario would be similar to #4 in the example below Imagine this wall being the wall of the transition...the air would naturally follow the angle of the transition and once it gets to the end of the transition, it would essentially choke down the flow even smaller than 3". So, I'm just going to stick with a standard 3" which will take out some complexity in making the piping fit and will be much easier to fab. I'm waiting on a 45 degree bend before I can finish the intake/inlet and then it will be done.
Turbo inlet/intake is done. Took the easy road and just made the 3" and without the vband provision that would have allowed for switching between the normal filter pipe and a headlight ram air/velocity stack. If I get ambitious enough, perhaps I can work on another inlet at some point in the future. So because this manifold was highly modified, welded on a bunch, and built by an amateur at best (me) the TGV's are not quite perfectly on the same "plane", causing the drivers side to slightly leak around the #4 intake port no matter how hard I'd crank it down. @Aluminati got me hooked up with some custom milled TGV spacers to remedy the issue. He keeps 19mm spacers in stock, but he offered to mill down a set to 10mm for me. These replaced the leaking 8mm phenolic spacers/oem tgv gaskets and they seal perfectly thanks to the o-ring design! Thanks again Matt! Lastly, a little update - the car has been progressively idling and cruising rougher and rougher even since last year. Warm starts are extremely hard to start. This weekend while out cruising it threw a code for a front o2 sensor...which was kind of a relief because I'm almost certain this is what has been attributing to the closed loop fuel issues and it just finally threw the CEL. New sensor will be here Wednesday so we will see. Been seeing idle/cruising AFRs in the 11-13 range. Thought maybe my wideband was on the fritz, but checking fuel trims confirmed there was some type of issue going on. Open loop fueling seems spot on, which makes sense because it doesn't use the front 02 for that, so I'm encouraged the new o2 sensor will fix it. To be continued!
It's because they are 05-07 STi coilovers used in the GC chassis. The "bolt pattern" for the top hat is the same between both GC and GD chassis (on the front struts), but the holes are clocked differently. No matter how you rotate the camber plate, it won't be straight left to right. So in my case adjusting camber with the camber plates also adjusts caster at the same time. Whether or not that is really desirable, I am not certain. It works though.
adding caster is generally a good thing for handling (encourages the wheels to track back to straight). I imagine caster angle has its place in drag racing as well. I've always angled my adjustable top hats in that way for the caster gain since the camber loss is usually made up by the lowering.
There's a lot going on in there but it's tidy and I'm really digging the coloring scheme. Pretty modest without too much nonsense
New o2 sensor did not resolve the rich closed loop fueling. It cured the CEL obviously, but still 11-13afr in closed loop fueling situations. Tuner confirmed the VE is all out of wack due to the intake/piping changes. He's going to send me a revised base map, but dyno tuning will not happen until Aug 7-8. Kinda bummed to miss out on Subifest Midwest (end of July) and Powercruise at BIR again this year (first weekend in August), but at least it will be good to go for LaX Cruise as long as it stays in one piece on this dyno this time. I also installed a new AEM wideband to confirm my Zeitronix sensor wasn't on the fritz (confirmed it reads basically the same). Upon installing the new sensor, I wired the 0-5V output from my new wideband to the rear o2 sensor signal wire (rear 02 is deleted) so that I can utilize the custom sensor monitoring feature built into Cobb's software. Pretty cool that I can read and log AFR on the Accessport now. Wiring in the signal wire was much easier than I had anticipated. I had an old rear o2 sensor laying around that I clipped the connector off of, repinned it, and now it's a plug and play harness to connect the rear o2 connector to the wideband signal wire. Neat-o
I found a nice cozy home for my electric/hydro power steering pump. I got my high pressure fitting 16mm x1.5 to 6AN installed and I used a barb to 6AN for the return. I'm waiting on fluid as well as lines to plumb it, but they should be here this week. Wiring will be as simple as power, ground, and trigger wire, on a relay. Really looking forward to seeing how this works out. I also decided, since I'm still waiting on the a base map anyway and tuning is still a few weeks away, to ditch the IAG AOS and switch over to a dual catch can setup. The main reason for this is because the "Y" pipe that comes out of the main crankcase vent that is used for the IAG AOS is quite restrictive due to the fitting that is inside the 3/4" hose. (this is an old photo) I didn't install the 12AN fitting into the block when I had the motor out last because there was just no way to run the drainback from the AOS while using a stock location turbo...just not enough room for all the AN fittings/T fittings, etc. But now that I don't have to worry about the drain back, I can just run the main crank vent with a 12AN line straight to it's own catch can, then both valve covers to their own catch can. I think it will let the motor breathe a little more freely. My only concern is can capacity, but won't know if it will be an issue until later. The stock 3/4" barb fitting that is pressed into the block took "a little convincing" to come out. I used my trusty home made slide hammer, but I just couldn't get a good enough grip on the fitting and it kept slipping off. Ultimately, I had to use a flat head and a hammer to chisel a chunk of the fitting and fold it over for something for the vise grip on the slide hammer to grab onto. Finally it let free and I was then able to replace it with the 12AN press in fitting. Also, finally tried on my new shoes. Should be no issue in the front, but in the rear I will likely need to raise the ride height a bit.
Excited to hear how the power steering works out for you. Can you remind me again the source of this electric pump? Love the new wheels also.
It's from a 00-05 Toyota MR2 (MR-S). I found a guy selling one out of Australia and got it considerably cheaper than what they typically sell for in the US. Although it took about 3 weeks to finally deliver.
This past week I was able to get the power steering pump plumbed and wired. It works! It's not as loud as I was expecting either. I haven't driven the car yet, but I can definitely tell it's working when running. The wiring wasn't as simple as power and ground as I may have alluded to earlier... I ran a 10 gauge fused power wire to a 40A relay that's mounted near the pump in the fender well. The 12v trigger wire comes from the 12v side of my fuel pump relay so that when the fuel pump relay is energized the power steering pump relay is also energized - Pin C1 on the MR2 pump also T's into this trigger wire. Instead of grounding the remaining wire on the relay like you normally would, this wire gets run to pin B5 on the MR2 pump. My understanding is this is how the pump regulates voltage as it senses load. As it senses load when you turn the wheel the pump speeds up and under no load, it winds down. Looking forward to seeing how it does on the road. Here is a quick and dirty diagram for anyone interested: As I mentioned earlier, I got rid of the IAG AOS and opted to go with a catch can setup. The cans are from Mighty Mouse Solutions. They are pretty popular in the LS world from what I've read and seem to be of very high quality. I'm now running a 12AN press in fitting on the main crank vent on the block to a 12AN 60 degree push lock fitting. The 60 degree fitting fits perfectly between the outlet of the turbo and the bellhousing. This then goes into a 3/4" hose to one dedicated catch can. The other can will have inlets for both valve covers, 8AN fittings and hose. I'm waiting on the fittings and hoses, but I began mounting them. I made a bracket for one out of some 1/8" aluminum that I have left over and I still need to figure out how I'm going to mount the 2nd one. Also looking forward to see how these do. The engine should be breathing more freely with this setup for sure.
It's been a while since an update. Been SUPER busy these past few weeks getting the car buttoned up, tuned as well as building a campground cruiser and prepping for a trip to BIR for NHRA Nationals. Pre-tune final engine bay pics Got the car tuned once again at Off The Line Performance in Des Moines, IA by JrTuned Gainz... Pump gas 91 with no timing in it and ~20psi 491/433 - Dynojet e70 at ~34psi 658/617 - Dynojet Two videos of the same 658/617 tug, but from different angles...RIP headphone users. It exceeded my expectations. I thought 650 would be a reach, but it seemed to get there with ease and the torque followed along. Last time the car was tuned it made 590/480 on ethanol and the same boost. The new setup seems to be very efficient! IAT's topped at about 110 F on a full pull on a hot muggy day and they drop back to ambient temp very quickly. Very happy with where the car is at right now and cannot wait to get it to the strip. The car is a whole new beast!
Two days after that, we joined the club for the 2019 MNSubaru LaX Cruise and had a blast despite a few showers on the way down. Shoutout to @MilkyDaddy for the killer pics and double shoutout for him taking home the best in show award! Thank you and congrats!! And thanks to all who make it a great event each year! On another note, I noticed a pretty severe voltage issue while on the cruise that was causing all of my lights to go bright then dim, and repeat constantly. I had to get a jump in the Walmart parking lot before we began. Junior mentioned something about some voltage fluctuation while tuning, but it wasn't nearly as bad then as it was on the cruise. I think my 3 year old Odyssey battery is on its last leg. I'm planning on switching back to a full size battery simply because it's really not that much weight savings and now with the additional draw of the electric power steering pump, a bit more capacity wouldn't hurt - I'm sure my alternator will thank me. I will need to figure out a decent full size battery mount. Preferably something that will mount to the driver's side fender somehow, similar to how I have the current battery mounted. Might have to #bushfab something together.
It's looking like Sept 7th down at Cedar Falls right now. There is a test and tune tomorrow night, but I don't think I'll make it. So a couple of weeks!
We made a last minute decision to head down to Cedar Falls last Friday as they had open test and tune until 9:30PM...I didn't run anything spectacular, but made one halfway decent pass out of 3... The car wheel hopped badly, I short shifted to 2nd and then missed 3rd...got back in it and still managed a 10.97@135mph. This was still on street tires as well (hence the still terrible 60'). I think it's safe to say the car still has a couple more mph in it on a clean pass and certainly a low 10 in it if I can learn to drive I raised the ride height about 1/2" all around the car and the drag radials are now on for the 7th. I also finally replaced the driver front axle (leaking/torn boot for a while) - I wanted to do that before putting the new wheels on so they don't get full of grease immediately. I've also taken all of the negative caster out of the car, at least as much as I can via the camber plate adjustment. The new meats were a smidge too close to the rear of the front wheel well. Also having more positive caster helps in keeping the car straight (adversely, it causes a bit heavier steering feel). In making the caster adjustment, I'm going to have to adjust the toe and camber as well. The camber will be easy as there is enough "slop" in the lower coilover mount that will allow for a couple degrees of camber in either direction. The toe I will probably just get it as close as I can and then ultimately take it somewhere and have them put it on the alignment rack and dial it in. I don't want to wear these tires out too quickly due to the toe being all out of wack. ****ty iPhone video of the ****ty 10.97 pass: NEW RIMZZZZ Doggo approves of new wheel/tire setup
I was able to make it down to Cedar Falls this past weekend for test and tune Saturday afternoon. It was gloomy all day, but the rain held out long enough to get a few passes in. I drove the car down there again (knowing I'm really pushing my luck getting away with that), this time with the drag radials on. I managed a new PB on the first hit despite missing 3rd gear (yet again)... That 60' tho! I made another mediocre pass, again missing 3rd...then another pass...again, missing 3rd (video below). This time, 3rd gear turned into neutral. I think I broke the 3/4 shift fork, but not certain. 1st and 2nd work fine. I can go 2-5-6 no problem, but nothing there in 3rd. It will shift into 4th normal, but then doesn’t come out of 4th once it’s in. I have to come to a complete stop and shut the car off to get it out and back into 1st. As you might know following the build, the 3rd gear miss/lockout has been an ongoing issue since day one...well since drag racing day one. The only way I had a prayer of getting it to go in was if I slammed it home. I wonder if the synchro has been hurt all this time and finally took a **** and ended up breaking the fork or something? The odd thing is, on the pass that broke it, I didn’t even get it into 3rd. Slammed it, missed as usual and let out...then realized she gone. Luckily I was able to get the car home without any issue shifting from 2nd to 5th as needed. It wasn't as bad as one might imagine actually lol. I haven't had a chance to even get under the car to see if it might be something stupid, but I think it will be a more involved and expensive endeavor as opposed to a simple fix. Plan for now is to let the car sit and hopefully get the trans rebuilt over this winter. Unfortunately it was an early end to the season for the car, but at least she went out on a good note with a new PB! Back to her home on jackstands lol...To be continued...
Glad to see she's running quick in the 60! Unfortunate to hear she'll be done for the season with the tranny issues, but I guess it will provide for more interesting content for us to follow along to...
