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She's back on the road. Idles well with the Siemens injectors despite their ridiculously high dead times. It revs like a motorcycle with the new clutch/flywheel, but it is a PITA to start from a dead stop. Takes quite a bit of finesse. Already have it tuned in pretty well and have run WOT at 17psi. Hauls ***. Tried the no-lift-shift with the Gforce transmission. I had the spark dropout set to 250ms and it was still a bit to long. It's bad *** not having to worry about missing the shift with the v-gate. No cooling problems with the Evans...granted it's cool outside. Comes up to temp quick and holds steady at the thermostat temp of about 160 degrees.
How is the car?? Your build has motivated me to join forces with my bro.
Were going to throw my 2 rotor into his 76'trans am as his v8 needs a full strip down and rebuild which he hasn't got the $$$$ at the moment but I have everything needed to throw the 2 rotor in there. It won't be as meticulous as your build but it's going to haul ***!!
Been a long time since I have posted...............here goes.
A little recap....engine 1 blew due to a freak cold day in Houston. I had BUR9EQ plugs in all for holes, no boost cut set in the ECU, and was using a single wastegate solenoid to control dual wastegates, so an incredibly small change in the duty cycle resulted in a huge difference in boost. The cold day caused the boost to spike to 27 psi, which was too much for the hot plugs. Engine 1....bye, bye. Engine 2 got an internal coolant leak when a "factory repair" in one of the housings let go when the TII transmission lost third gear during a run and the rpms spiked to the 9000 rpm rev limiter. We took it to the dyno to get the tune dialed in before we pulled the engine. During the session, the springs in the rear rotor flattened out. Third engine....took the Nova to the dyno and power pulls were looking good at 17 psi, but then the power started to drop off a bit and the car got a little hard to start. So, we aborted for the day and when I got home, I did a compression check. Every face of both rotors showed a drop in compression. Damn springs started to flatten out and the 3mm Hurley seals had begun to warp. This was the third engine, and by this time, I was getting pretty tired of this ****. All three engines used the same aggressive half-bridge, and I was constantly fighting high EGTs.
This time, I decided to start again from a blank piece of paper. I ditched the half-bridge and had REC build me a large streetport RE motor that uses; oversized studs, 2mm seals, and lightened rotors. At first, this combo showed slightly lower EGTs, but still suffered from inconsistent boost control over 7000 rpm that I had been seeing on the third engine. Boost would be rock solid below 7k, but above would start to oscillate +/- 3 psi, and the boost would start to drop off a bit even when to closed loop PID would increase the duty cycle significantly in an attempt to compensate. It almost seemed like the turbo was surging. So....I ditched the GT4294R and bought a new GTX4294R. Boom!!! Boost is now rock solid and the EGTs dropped considerably. Exactly what the issue was with my older GT42...no clue. Whatever the issue was with this turbo that was leading to higher EGTs could have helped lead to the early demise of at least the third engine. Really wish I had been trending eMAP the whole time. Probably would have had an interesting tale to tell.
On to the next issue. I noticed that I was having to add a considerable amount of fuel at 7500 rpm and above. So, I added a fuel pressure transducer and confirmed the suspicion that the Aeromotive A1000 wasn't able to keep up. So, I added an MSD Fuel Pump Voltage Booster, and also threw in a JMS Spark Max to give the AEM coils a little more kick. Data trends show the injector differential pressure holding steady now, and I was able to cut some fuel at 7500 rpm and above. Fuel tables look like they should now.
Next issue....the injectors were maxed out at about 22psi. So, I replaced the secondaries with Moran 325 lb/hrs. Gotta tell you, these things are fantastic! Had to do a little filing on the FFE fuel rail to clear the connectors and replace the post fuel pump filter to a 10 micron SS filter. Now I have enough injector and pump to max out the 3 bar MAP sensor.
Next issue....I've always had an issue just "blipping" the clutch pedal during a power shift, so I figured I would take away the temptation and move the no-lift shift switch from the clutch pedal to the shifter handle.... So, I do this and take the car out for a spin to try it out. I figure it'll be better to try this by disabling the rpm and tps limits on the ECU input and try this under exceptionally light throttle and medium rpm on the 2-3 shift....nope. The car slams back and forth violently and then the transmission starts whining like a banshee in third gear. Out comes the transmission and it goes off to G-Force. Turns out I screwed third gear and the shaft it rides on. Talked to Paul and he said when you do a no-lift that you have to commit and that it's actually harder on the transmission under low throttle because the gears will slap back and forth during the ensuing "bucking." Who knew? While the transmission was out, I threw in a clutchmasters 8.5" dual disk with a 28 lb. flywheel. Got everything back together and the car is driving great.
After all of this...you'd think I'd be depressed about the trouble and all of the money going into this thing. No way. Loving every minute of it!
As it sits now, the car is on the road and it's faster than it has ever been. Scares the ever loving **** out of me every time. All the data logs finally look exactly like they should. Time to go pick on some Hellcats.
Some recent pics to follow.
Last edited by 13brenova; Aug 23, 2015 at 09:15 PM.
soo clean...glad you didnt give up on her. awesome story. i personally think the RE with large street ports is more than plenty. I was able to squeeze out some good numbers on my old FD with that set up. Glad you are enjoying her and that she scares you everytime you take her out. ahahahahh
Been a long time since I have posted...............here goes.
A little recap....engine 1 blew due to a freak cold day in Houston. I had BUR9EQ plugs in all for holes, no boost cut set in the ECU, and was using a single wastegate solenoid to control dual wastegates, so an incredibly small change in the duty cycle resulted in a huge difference in boost. The cold day caused the boost to spike to 27 psi, which was too much for the hot plugs. Engine 1....bye, bye.
Always, always, always set the boost cut as the first setting when beginning to tune in boost. I've sadly seen so many people lose engines due to a freak boost spike, which would have been a non-issue of boost cut was set. Cut all fuel and spark to the engine above your desired max boost and don't return it until the engine is below atmospheric.
Couple of pictures of the 325lb/hr Moran Injectors, (old but forgot to post) dual boost control solenoids...one for each wastegate, USB ports for connecting to the Haltech PS1000 and MSD Fuel Pump Controller, JMS SparkMax and MSD Fuel Pump Controller, and fuel pressure transducer.
Took the car to Steve's to put the polish on the tune. Was a little nervous due to the bad luck we had the last two times, but things went very well. Ended up with 576 rwhp and 449 ft/lbs @ 26 psi. Little less peak power than with the half-bridge, but more torque and better overall curves. Post compression check shows that everything is healthy and good to go. Track is next.
Been following this thread for a long time, very good for inspiration.
