my fourth FD (and hopefully my last)
.
01-17-15, 01:02 PM
#57
a little update:
got my ludwig harness in.
a little more info about that: i purchased this custom harness for ludwig with plans to upgrade to a haltech ELITE in a couple months when they officially have rotary support. so this is an ELITE harness (very similar to the platinum sport harness, just a few wires different) with breakout harnesses in both the cabin (the accelerator pedal) and the engine bay (for the DBW throttle body). i am also running the OMP, which when combined with the DBW stuff uses up a LOT of inputs and outputs, so the I/O 12 expander box was required.
ludwig is an expert. if you ever have ANY issues with one of his products (especially one of his custom EFI harnesses) he is very available and will help until any issues are resolved. my harness was one of his more complex (requiring it to be upgradable/usable from platinum to elite), utilizing the stock charge harness for the ignition, having breakout harnesses for DBW and future GM LS ignition coils, etc. and he worked with me to make sure everything was perfect. basically, you can't go wrong purchasing one of his custom harnesses.
i am running the GM 3 bar map, triumph IAT sensor, GM CTS, stock ignition coils (and utilizing the stock charge harness for ign power/signal, as stock), haltech oil temp sensor (installed at oil filter pedestal sandwich plate).
so the current status is that it's running well and i've driven it a couple times already today. i still have to hookup my wideband input and do a couple other small things, but i will hopefully be street tuning it this weekend.
(a little inside joke here)
nice heatshrink labels
got the haltech battery cables hooked up
more nice heatshrink labels
got my ludwig harness in.
a little more info about that: i purchased this custom harness for ludwig with plans to upgrade to a haltech ELITE in a couple months when they officially have rotary support. so this is an ELITE harness (very similar to the platinum sport harness, just a few wires different) with breakout harnesses in both the cabin (the accelerator pedal) and the engine bay (for the DBW throttle body). i am also running the OMP, which when combined with the DBW stuff uses up a LOT of inputs and outputs, so the I/O 12 expander box was required.
ludwig is an expert. if you ever have ANY issues with one of his products (especially one of his custom EFI harnesses) he is very available and will help until any issues are resolved. my harness was one of his more complex (requiring it to be upgradable/usable from platinum to elite), utilizing the stock charge harness for the ignition, having breakout harnesses for DBW and future GM LS ignition coils, etc. and he worked with me to make sure everything was perfect. basically, you can't go wrong purchasing one of his custom harnesses.
i am running the GM 3 bar map, triumph IAT sensor, GM CTS, stock ignition coils (and utilizing the stock charge harness for ign power/signal, as stock), haltech oil temp sensor (installed at oil filter pedestal sandwich plate).
so the current status is that it's running well and i've driven it a couple times already today. i still have to hookup my wideband input and do a couple other small things, but i will hopefully be street tuning it this weekend.
(a little inside joke here)
nice heatshrink labels
got the haltech battery cables hooked up
more nice heatshrink labels
02-02-15, 01:45 PM
#58
decent update:
i got the haltech install all tidy'd up.
i de-pinned the Haltech fuse box so i could pull the harness through the firewall and reinstall the correct way for the firewall grommet to go in and seal:
got it all installed and clean
currently troubleshooting some smoke with the engine hot and coming back to idle, also on hot starts. i'm hoping it's the front turbo, which appears to be in bad shape (in/out and top/bottom play), especially compared to the rear turbo, which appears to be perfect:
front turbo
rear turbo
i got the haltech install all tidy'd up.
i de-pinned the Haltech fuse box so i could pull the harness through the firewall and reinstall the correct way for the firewall grommet to go in and seal:
got it all installed and clean
currently troubleshooting some smoke with the engine hot and coming back to idle, also on hot starts. i'm hoping it's the front turbo, which appears to be in bad shape (in/out and top/bottom play), especially compared to the rear turbo, which appears to be perfect:
front turbo
rear turbo
02-08-15, 10:55 PM
#68
i made some more progress this weekend.
most importantly, i purchased a new turbo kit:
borg warner S360 .91 turbo
chinese ebay manifold (rx7store style)
chinese hks knockoff 50mm wastegate
cxracing 3" downpipe that i'll have to adapt to match my new turbo (borg warner uses marmon flanges on these turbos instead of vbands)
i assisted my friend in painting his 1jz sc300 track car (he sprayed it in his yard. haha):
made a new oil line for my turbo setup:
started working on installing my pillowballs, inner LCA bushings, and new cam bolts:
soda blasted the LCAs:
separated the stock turbo comp/CHRAs from the turbine housings. the front turbo was leaking pretty badly. i am now mostly sure this was the cause of my smoke.
most importantly, i purchased a new turbo kit:
borg warner S360 .91 turbo
chinese ebay manifold (rx7store style)
chinese hks knockoff 50mm wastegate
cxracing 3" downpipe that i'll have to adapt to match my new turbo (borg warner uses marmon flanges on these turbos instead of vbands)
i assisted my friend in painting his 1jz sc300 track car (he sprayed it in his yard. haha):
made a new oil line for my turbo setup:
started working on installing my pillowballs, inner LCA bushings, and new cam bolts:
soda blasted the LCAs:
separated the stock turbo comp/CHRAs from the turbine housings. the front turbo was leaking pretty badly. i am now mostly sure this was the cause of my smoke.
02-13-15, 12:50 PM
#71
ah, it was only a matter of time before i got this question.
and arca, i am with you; the metals are cheap and the tolerances are high, but the bottom line is that my allegedly blown front stock turbo threw a wrench into my project. i was planning on using the stock twins for as long as possible, and even doing a few track events with them.
so what happens when the turbos go out?
option 1 is i purchase another set of used/unknown stock twins that are in "good condition," which will require replacing a few gaskets, undoubtedly replacing at least 1/2 of the manifold bolts and studs, replacing crush washers, and several other little nickel and dime things, all to use unknown turbos
option 2 is i piece together another high quality turbo kit like i did with my red FD, maybe with a cheaper turbo this time, to the tune of about $3000, or have most of the work done for me and purchase a nice kit from IR or Turblown, to the tune of ~$2500-3000.
option 3 is to buy a complete chinese POS "turbo kit" and slap it on and cruise around in the car, maybe even tune it for full throttle to see how long the chinese turbo will last. this would cost about 1200$ plus some nickel and dime stuff.
option 4 is an in between; i get a borg warner high quality turbo (S360 .91 divided marman) and a chinese manifold and knockoff wastegate. the turbo is $650 shipped, and the manifold and wastegate were $190 combined. i also got a cxracing chinese "single turbo" downpipe for $170 that i can easily alter to work with the marman flange on the S360.
option 5 is to purchase rebuilt stock twins via BNR and reinstall with several new gaskets/studs/nuts/etc. as mentioned above. this option costs about $1100-1200 if you include the gaskets and nickel/dime stuff.
i already have parts for an oil feed and drain, so those can be deducted from options 2 and 4.
i went with option 4, of which the total cost is about $1200 shipped, which includes the cost of having the downpipe altered to fit the borg warner marman flange.
what i'm trying NOT to do is throw an endless amount of money into this turbo setup. the EFR8374 IWG setup on my red FD (with me piecing it all together and getting a big hookup from my fabrication friend on all the fab work for the downpipe) was $3750. this setup costs $1200. i'll take the risk on the manifold cracking and the wastegate sticking, and maybe replace the parts once, and be out $190. this setup will cost the same as known-good rebuilt stock twins from BNR.
i may have completely false/high expectations of the chinese manifold/wastegate/downpipe, but i am pretty sure they're going to do a pretty damn good job for the money (again, $350 total for those 3 units).
i hate to be "that guy" talking about doing things super cheaply, but when i went the other route it felt like a gross over-spend of money. it was a very responsive and reliable setup, but was it worth triple the cost? that's what i am going to find out.
and arca, i am with you; the metals are cheap and the tolerances are high, but the bottom line is that my allegedly blown front stock turbo threw a wrench into my project. i was planning on using the stock twins for as long as possible, and even doing a few track events with them.
so what happens when the turbos go out?
option 1 is i purchase another set of used/unknown stock twins that are in "good condition," which will require replacing a few gaskets, undoubtedly replacing at least 1/2 of the manifold bolts and studs, replacing crush washers, and several other little nickel and dime things, all to use unknown turbos
option 2 is i piece together another high quality turbo kit like i did with my red FD, maybe with a cheaper turbo this time, to the tune of about $3000, or have most of the work done for me and purchase a nice kit from IR or Turblown, to the tune of ~$2500-3000.
option 3 is to buy a complete chinese POS "turbo kit" and slap it on and cruise around in the car, maybe even tune it for full throttle to see how long the chinese turbo will last. this would cost about 1200$ plus some nickel and dime stuff.
option 4 is an in between; i get a borg warner high quality turbo (S360 .91 divided marman) and a chinese manifold and knockoff wastegate. the turbo is $650 shipped, and the manifold and wastegate were $190 combined. i also got a cxracing chinese "single turbo" downpipe for $170 that i can easily alter to work with the marman flange on the S360.
option 5 is to purchase rebuilt stock twins via BNR and reinstall with several new gaskets/studs/nuts/etc. as mentioned above. this option costs about $1100-1200 if you include the gaskets and nickel/dime stuff.
i already have parts for an oil feed and drain, so those can be deducted from options 2 and 4.
i went with option 4, of which the total cost is about $1200 shipped, which includes the cost of having the downpipe altered to fit the borg warner marman flange.
what i'm trying NOT to do is throw an endless amount of money into this turbo setup. the EFR8374 IWG setup on my red FD (with me piecing it all together and getting a big hookup from my fabrication friend on all the fab work for the downpipe) was $3750. this setup costs $1200. i'll take the risk on the manifold cracking and the wastegate sticking, and maybe replace the parts once, and be out $190. this setup will cost the same as known-good rebuilt stock twins from BNR.
i may have completely false/high expectations of the chinese manifold/wastegate/downpipe, but i am pretty sure they're going to do a pretty damn good job for the money (again, $350 total for those 3 units).
i hate to be "that guy" talking about doing things super cheaply, but when i went the other route it felt like a gross over-spend of money. it was a very responsive and reliable setup, but was it worth triple the cost? that's what i am going to find out.
02-13-15, 09:12 PM
#73
valid point, but i have engine protection on the haltech, so at least i'll know there's an issue when the overboost cut is activated.
of course i would still have to deal with replacing a wastegate and such, but it won't cause the engine to blow, at least.
02-15-15, 01:20 AM
#75
bcrotary.
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Abbotsford, British Columbia
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I know a lot of people that have gone this route. Some successful, others not. The big thing is to dremel the runners in the manifold as there are often very loose chunks of metal waiting to get sucked in. This goes especially for the wastegate runners. If you have a welder and don't mind the DIY aspect this is a good idea, if not then it could be a headache.