There goes an awesome looking Nova, damn thats fast! wait, that doesnt sound right... brap-brap-brap-brap... heeehaaa!!! Awesome car!

 

With the big ACT single plate clutch, you had to be the leg squat king to push in the clutch. So, I made a new master cylinder bracket to allow me to move the hole further up on the clutch pedal to give a better pedal ratio. While I was at it, I made a bracket for a clutch switch to activate the no-lift shift and anti-lag/aux rev limit for launching. I had a hydraulic switch before, but sometimes it would trigger the no-lift shift during non-power shifts due to the restrictor oriface in the clutch line I am using to ease the shock on the drivetrain. The new software with the PS1000 would have fixed the problem, but I like this switch setup better.

Now, onto the engine...........

 

Nice as always Nick. Now quit ******* with that little **** and get that motor out!!!

 

Working on it right now.........beotch!!!!!!

 

Details!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Everything is disconnected and the engine will be out by 10am tomorrow. I think I am going to send the engine somewhere for the rebuild. We've gotta get the solid axle conversion done on the vette, and I don't think I'm going to have time to do the engine myself. So, while the engine is being rebuilt, we'll do that project and be ready to reinstall the engine when it returns. After that, the only thing I need to do is a couple of wiring changes I want to do for the PS1000.

I'll call you tomorrow afternoon.....

 

Got the engine pulled. I also managed to get the front tow hooks welded in.

 

its the small details like that,,, that make the car stick out and look so much better...you got skills bro...

 

any updates?

 

^^ What he said

 

Pineapple Racing has the engine and Rob tore it apart yesterday. Rear rotor and housing are toast, but everything else looks great. He said there is no real indication of where the coolant leak or oil consumption was coming from so he's looking into it further. He also said that the apex seals craking didn't look like it was from detonation as the rear rotor isn't dented at all. He is leaning toward a flame front problem either from bad gas or possibly too retarded timing like Alan and others have eluded to. He should have things back together shortly. He was also pretty impressed with the oil pan. Everything else is ready to go once the engine arrives.

In my quest to have the lightest clutch pedal in the world on an ACT Extreme Pressure plate, I found a 7/8" slave cylinder instead of the stock 3/4" bore I had. I have plenty of pedal travel to accomodate, so I think it will work well. My brother machined it to fit on the TII transmission for me.

In the mean time, we are converting the old man's '69 vette to a 4-link and Ford 9" with a 598 cid Shafiroff engine. I still talk **** to him and tell him the nova is going to kick his vette's ***. Not true, but I have him convinced it will .

 

Oh yeah....my wife put together a video of the Nova too. You guys have seen all of the stuff before, but it's kind of cool to watch and not have to look through 22 pages of posts to see the build.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SBpIwKfjps

 

It was cool to see that oil pan,I watched rob take your engine apart,I didn't know it was yours until reading your last post.your engine is in the best of hands.he will be teaching me to tune on my turbo RX-3 soon.

 

Nice vid.

 

robs a good man, your in good hands

 

yes sir the motors is in good hands. Rob makes the trip over to hawaii to help with my race car. In the 3 years of his trips here, ive learned much. He has never steared me wrong in reaching my racing goals as we have meet all of them so far. Rob will do the motor right

 

any updates on motor?

 

The carnage...........how in the hell did the turbine wheel not get a scratch?

 

Same setup as before, but with 3mm Hurley's this time. Rob did a little cleanup on the portwork as well.

 

Awesome. Don't overboost this one!

 

I'd say I won't..........but I will. As long as it's intentional this time!!!!

 

The car and the motor are beautiful! I think this thing is screaming for a 20b. The torque numbers alone warrant the build. Maybe the next engine??? Again...your work is outstanding. Can't wait to see how this motor runs.

 

Looking good Nick! Now throw that bitch in and lets go!!!

 

She's back under her own power now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ftcUKaCdnc

Just have to do a little machining to get the crank trigger working in place of the CAS and then I'm ready for the Florida trip with Allen to get this thing tuned.

 

We never really came to a consensus as to why the first engine blew. Obviously it had to do with the boost spiking up to 27 psi due to denser air on a cool day, but the car was running Sonocco 116 and the afrs were right at 11.0. If everything else was correct, the engine should have been able to handle this. So, I tried to address everything that could have lead to the previous enigne's demise.

- 3 mm Hurley seals vs the previous 2mm Mazda seals. Hopefully they will be a little more detonation resistant

-MSD LS1 coils replace the stock LS1 coils on the leading plugs. The trailing coils are intentionally still the stock LS1's so they are a lower energy. (I'm pulling this out of my ***....so bare with me) Things could have possibly gone awry if the leading plug started to misfire at higher boost, causing the trailing plug to light the mixture later in the cycle. Then the extremely high exhaust temps caused by the late ignition of the mixture could have ignited the intake charge due to the overlap from the bridgeport.

-Plugs have been changed from BUR9EQ's all the way around to 10.5 race plugs on the leading and 11.5 race plugs on the trailing. There is a possibility that the BUR9EQ's were too hot of a plug (especially on the trailing) and lead to preignition.

-Haltech e8 has been replaced with the new PS1000. At the instant the engine blew, the data log dropped out for a second or two and then restarted. Haltech said that this was due to the large amount of electrical noise created by the massive misfiring when the engine blew. It still sits in the back of my mind that maybe the "glitch" that happened the instant the engine blew was the cause instead of the result. Anyway....the PS is supposed to be much more resistant to noise and has much better software that includes "engine protection".

-The overboost protection in the Haltech is now configured and active.....no explanation needed

-Allen thinks that the most likely reason the engine went "boom" was due to extremely conservative timing resulting in high EGTs and ignition of the intake charge. Hence the trip to let the pros tune this time.

-The previous gas I was using was Sonocco 116 supplied by a local performance shop. This is one of those deals where it is transferred from a drum to my container. I can't be a hundred percent sure that the guy pumping didn't get things mixed up and give me the wrong gas. So from now on...........C16 from sealed 5 gallon containers, direct from VP.

- The CAS is being replaced by a Full Function Trigger wheel with a Hall Effect sensor just in case the CAS signal got a little flakey causing the engine to pop. Anything that is more resistant to noise and gives a more stable timing signal is all good in my book. Should have the necessary parts machined to adapt their kit to my gilmer pulley this week.

- EGTs are now being logged in the Haltech. I didn't have this working during the previous dyno runs and might have been able to see that something wasn't quite right prior to the engine letting go. When the engine popped, it was the first run with the EGT's being logged, and by that time, it was too late.

-EGTs in the rear rotor were slightly higher than the front, so now I am running 2% more fuel on the rears vs the front to even them out a bit.

Let's hope the changes pay off. If they don't.....the new tow hooks will!