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Worked on the car a bit to make it more reliable at the track and hopefully help with the tiny intercooler. Got some DEI gold reflective tape and plastered it on the bottom of the intercooler heat shield.
I also got a 2.5 gallon water injection tank, but I forgot to grab a pic of that.
Made some progress this week. Ordered up the main components for my water injection set up, only missing an engagement switch, and will be controlled by the ECU.
Got this 2.5 gallon tank from US Plastics, strapped it down with some rope. This way it's easy to remove if I have to and should be secure enough. I chose this tank because I wanted a tank with more than 1 gallon capacity but that would also fit in the rear bin.
This is basically the same thing you get from Snow Performance if you but their 2.5 gallon kit. Only bad thing about getting it straight from the mfg is having to drill and tap holes and finding the correct fittings.
Also got this Shurflo pump, P/N: 8009-541-236. I should've gone with the internally by-passed unit as apposed to the pressure switched one I got but meh. It was only $10, just didn't know it existed.
Here I have the 5gph injection nozzle installed on the intercooler. All I did was cut the little pipe off and drill and tap for the 1/8 NPT threads.
Haven't updated le thread in a while but here are some updates.
Ended up installing the factory heat shields for the down pipe area since it can get ridiculously hot there, and I covered one of the shields with DEI Reflect A Gold. Also wrapped the wiring by the ECU which lays right on the transmission tunnel.
Also got a nice Black Passenger seat, got rid of the crappy S4 blue seat I had.
And lastly, I did up a quick alignment before hitting the track.
And here are some Data Logs showing my AIT's. My current injection settings have the water injection system kick on when it's above 5lbs of boost and 84* AIT.
Overall, intake air temps were good. While idling or sitting, temps were 135-145* Fahrenheit, which seems normal considering it was 105* out. What does worry me though is that the air temp would stay way low even after the water shuts off...
Running down the straight before water injection kicked in:
Air temps while in drift [clutch kicking, WOT to Decel, crazy s**t]:
Air temps while cruising after the drift run. These are the temps that concern me the most, especially considering I have the nozzle post intercooler, so it's not like the tube and fins from the core were necessarily cooled down.
My guess would be the air simply isn't as hot because it's not compressed. Cruising temp should be lower, because of the lack of boost. Boost is hot for two reasons, one being the engine, and turbo itself generating heat, 2 being that the air is being compressed crammed through the tmic.
Since you were just cruising, there's really no reason for it to be hot?
My guess would be the air simply isn't as hot because it's not compressed. Cruising temp should be lower, because of the lack of boost. Boost is hot for two reasons, one being the engine, and turbo itself generating heat, 2 being that the air is being compressed crammed through the tmic.
Since you were just cruising, there's really no reason for it to be hot?
True, but it just trips me out because when idling or when it's coming up on boost before water injection, temps are around 115-140. Ehhhh, w/e, it works and it performed flawlessly at the track so I can't complain.
Got more parts, but still lacking track time... FML.
But who needs track time when you're making progress on the "Do-Work" Front?! So lets get to them updates!
I decided on implementing a logged Dual EGT set up so I can make sure both rotors are running well and one isn't leaner than the other. It's overkill for the 260rwhp I'm making but I plan on gathering this data in order to get my self more familiar with tuning. I went with a Dual EGT Thermocouple Amplifier with dual 0-5v Analog Outputs from Simple Circuit Boards, and will be using my current K-Type EGT probe and a second one I had ordered by mistake over a year ago.
I also ended up purchasing some parts for a future V-Mount set up and also a JDM-tyte APEXi Active Tail Silencer for my APEXi GT-Spec exhaust. The fanboy inside of my wasn't going to let this sweet *** deal pass me by, it was pricey but it quited down the idel a whole METRIC TON.
And finally I was able to finalize the design on this bolt on bash bar. I didn't skimp out on materials as I wanted it to be strong but minimize the weight gains. Would've loved to make it out of aluminum, shoot maybe one day I will, but for now the steel we used should be good to go.
Have some good updates coming up along with some bad news. For about 2 weeks, I had prepared my car for a drift event being hosted by 805lide at Willow Spring on Sunday, May 24th. This was going to be at the oval and was on the same weekend as Just Drift Top Drift Round 2 [word up to Mannykiller, hopefully he was killing it up and over the hill on HTM]. It was going to be my first time drifting at a track other than Balcony.
I ordered up some Dunlop SP Sport FM901 tires [200 Treadwear] for the front end, old school [2004] and probably expired if you are a "real racer" but they turned out to be exactly what I needed to get some front grip on my Southern Ways. Tires measured in at 205/55/15, which stand a bit shorter than my 60 profiles I had before. The height difference was something I needed though, as it would allow me to align the car for better steering response/geometry and still provide me with good clearance.
Some major changes were being made and everything was piling up as small details and issues were becoming giant harry problems. Being that it was the oval I knew I had to get power steering on the car, a first for me in this particular FC. Ran into some issues but managed to swap in a spare rack from an older chassis of mine, since the seals on the rack the car had held no pressure and provided 0 assist.
I also went through and installed a Teals Suspension front bash bar with the prototype flat tow tabs, which worked out great once we worked some kinks out of the design.
Once those two items were handled I started on the custom lower ball joints, which were a pain but managed to get them on and all dialed in. At the same time I started on the MSD box instal for the leading coils, which brought on a ton of issues, RFI was straight f*$&ing with my EMS and it's CAS signal. I originally tested the MSD box with the stock NGK wires which was just ridiculous, I would get maaaad ignition cut. I then tested my car with some Accel wires that my friend had and it worked well. So I went out and purchased some Accel wires at Oreillys and it worked great on the street.
Any who, car was running well, flat tow was sorted, and ball joints were installed with optimal Scrub Radius, KIP and SAI adjusted. Just needed to align it and we'd be all set.
I'll post more updates in regards to the event and how the Formula D spec front wheel offset worked out once I have the quick vid put together of my and my buddy, trying to slay tires on the oval. In the mean time, here's some meme-age for yaz:
Well, bow can I put this. The engine had blown at the last track event. With the loss of crank signal and all the RFI, the engine finally said enough is enough after detonating so many times.
It was during the run in my posted video where the engine have out. Reason I know this is that once I pulled into the pits I noticed that it had a slight misfire and vacuum was reading a tad lower at about 16-17" as apposed to 18-19" like it used to.
I assumed that an apex seal may have slightly cracked and decided that it was still good enough to run for another heat. I went out and found that under boost it still ran great, but my fun came to an end when I would end up coming to a half spin and had the car die on me.
I got towed off track since it wouldn't start up, buy shortly after I have it another go and started it up in the pits. Went back on track to make sure I got my money's worth. But again, I down out part ways through my run and the engine once again died. I realized that what killed it was when I would be coming to a spin I would be holding the wheel at full lock, putting additional stress on the engine that had obviously list some efficiency.
At that point I called it quits and towed the car home. A few weeks later I finally decided to tear the engine apart. Come to find out though, it was slightly worse than I expected. Before tearing the engine out, I actually turned it on and ran it to get it to where I would be working on it. Me and my buddy then took it apart and found that one of the rear rotor actually had two cracked apex seals, on of which actually spat itself out and gouged up the rotor housing.
After finding that, I started gathering up parts and ended up getting replacement for both the rear rotor and housing. I went with Atkins rotary asked seals, and I kept the same corner seals and side seals that were already on there. I wanted to do a street port but honestly I need to really get more seat time and I would like to max out the power potential of a stock S4 TII keg.
For the seals I went ahead and purchased some Viton coolant o rings from RX7 Etc I believe. Installing the inner ring was a no brainer, but the outer ring was just cord stock. It will be my first time using this type of o ring, but I'm hoping to have good results. It just feels a bit sketchy to know that you used super glue to join the two ends of the outer o ring.
Beyond that, the only other thing I changed or did different compared to my previous build is using Permatex Aviation Gasket as apposed to Hylomar to dress the gaskets and cost the housing mating surfaces. Last time I used Hylomar it cost me about $30+ for a little tube that was only enough for one rebuild. The Permatex stuff goes for about $10 and should last me for over a dozen build. Also, the RX8 front cover gasket will be going in again, so we'll see how it holds up this second time around.
It was then that I also talked the turbo. Cracked it open and after removing the turbine housing I was faced with a busted turbine wheel. So off to eBay I went and donated another $140 to China in exchange for a TA34 turbine wheel. I could have used a stock turbine since I have like 3 at my disposal, but that might have meant tweaking my tune which would mean I would have to dyno it.
Got it balanced over again at Apex turbo in Oxnard and came through with legit turn around time.
Got that all buttoned up but I decided to go ahead with an idea I've been toiling with and drilled 3 more pipe threads into my turbo manifold. 1 for the second thermocouple as I had previously hooked towards, and 2 for manifold pressure sensor. The idea is to see just how efficient the hybrid turbos are, and also collect more data in regards to how turbos run.
We managed to drop in the engine this last weekend, now I just need to get a timing light (since my SnapOn one took a crap) and check timing to make sure it won't blow on me during cranking :]
Out in Texas now, and finishing up the latest iteration of my RX-7. Currently buttoning up a few things on the engine, such as new manifold gaskets. Here's a project from a few days ago:
Trying to get this car done within the next 2 months and was able to make progress with the exhaust manifold install. Turns out, using the stone to clean up the mating surfaces worked out great!!!
Watching the video during editing, I realized I could have done a slightly better job. But honestly, it should be good enough for years to come (I hope!).
05-17-14, 10:37 AM
