The Project Pad

Oh I forgot to mention, I started it yesterday and there were no leaks anywhere including from the exhaust manifold, but then again, it's really hard to hear something like that with open downpipe!

Ya mon

Dude... You're the top dog now man.


-iceman

Lol today I managed to get the wastegate hooked back up to vacuum reference, so I should be able to drive it to work (5.5 hours away) in the morning with no overboosting issues. Hope the stock ecu can compensate enough on wastegate pressure and below for the extra mass flow rate this turbo will deliver at any given pressure ratio.

I also hope the neighbors don't get too mad when I leave at 3 am!

The car made a 5.5hr drive this morning with no issues other than my ears bleeding.

BUT for some reason my vacuum is only reading 10 in Hg and I'm not sure why yet. Maybe becuase of how I have the n75 hooked up, I don't know.

Even though this is only on stock ecu, i can tell it's going to rip! I hit 10 or 12 psi once or twice this morning and it felt really nice. I kept it very brief though. It seems it's making as much torque at that boost as the sock turbo did at 20 psi.

Interesting finding... I teed the n75 into the same line I have the fpr, boost gauge, and map sensor on, and that appears to be why I'm not seeing proper vacuum. When I isolate the n75 line (remove it from the other components in the line and plug the area it was connected to before) I get normal vacuum readings. I thought maybe it was because the valve wasn't plugged in and activated, but that was not the case. I'm a little confused because I've never had this happen before. Maybe I just didn't have it hooked up this way before, I don't know. Now that I think about it more it doesn't make sebse to have it hooked up on that same line, but still...i didn't think it would do that under these conditions.

Ok I'm a big dummie for teeing that in there. Lol. I'll put it somewhere else asap.

VEMS is coming. Woo! Thanks Marc.

I was goan say... N75 should be it's own line. On the 4k I had individual lines for n75, fpr, and boost gauge. That car was so predictable and stable to tune.

Sounds like a hoot. On VEMS its going to be ridiculous. What injectors will you use?

Yeah, I do like having the map sensor, boost gauge, and fpr all on the same line though. That way all of those things agree.

I have some FID 1200s to go in, so if I decided to go flex fuel, they'd be up to the task.

Wouldn't 1000cc be more than up to the task on corn?

Just curious, as I picked 1000cc for mine on a 7163 @ 60#/min just in case e85 became available locally.

A 6758 should max out at, like, ~53#/min, so that would be about 550cc on pump to max it out, right? Say 600cc for some headroom? Adding 30% to 600cc would only net 800cc, no?

Or did you just have some kicking around?

Yeah, I just had them. But even if I didn't, I like those particular injectors so much that I'd use them anyway. Plus, if I ever wanted to go bigger...

Kidding!

But 7163 is clearly one of the most badass turbos for street 20vt with rods. Who wouldn't want that! I was fairly happy with my stock turbo though, so I think I can remain happy with the 6758 for a long time. Half the reason I went to the efr was becuase my stock turbo was sounding like it was on its way out. Marc agreed that when they start getting loud it's only a matter of time. That's how I justified it to Jessica (and myself)!

Drove it today with the vac line fixed. Now that boost is reading right I can see that the thing makes 5psi at around 2k rpms. That's crazy. Also, what I thought was 10 psi yesterday must have really been around 15. That's when this turbo really seems to wake up. No more of that until vems comes though! The car seemed a bit livelier with the improper vac reading, even while just free revving. I'm assuming that was due to being on the leaner side than stock for those transient events.

Marc is sending the VEMS out today. It will have an input set up for a flex fuel sensor just in case I want a taste of the corn...

For now, it's going to be on dizzy until Marc finishes the coil harness, so I imagine I'll stick to around 15psi for the time being.

Yay



Vac line is fixed too. Now the N75 is on the same line as bov. That could make operation of the bov interesting, I guess we'll see.

Why the heck does everything think my phone is taking pictures upside down lately? Time for a new phone I think.

I had problems running mine on the same line. I ended up using a vacuum manifold to run separate lines to everything.

DE80q wrote:I had problems running mine on the same line. I ended up using a vacuum manifold to run separate lines to everything.

Hmm, maybe if it doesn't work I will try the one that goes to the AC system.


So I installed VEMS the other day, but the injectors I have were not sent to me with the bottom caps on them. I'm having some overnighted to the post office near the rig so I can install them on Friday. I have the old injectors out already, so I'd like to avoid having to put them back in due to the new bottom caps not getting here soon enough. Coil harness is on the way as of today as well, so it'll be ready for a full 25 psi Friday night I think.

I chose to have Marc send me a bluetooth module for VEMS, and since I need a new phone, I'm going to use my Galaxy Note 4 as a display during normal operation. I'll also tune with the bluetooth. Sweet! Now I have to figure out how to power the phone without the battery (so that it can turn on and off when the car does) and have it always start up on the VEMS app. I have plans for how to achieve both. I'll also probably design an enclosure for it to go into. So far, it seems the best place might be to just cover the oil pressure, oil temp, and voltage gauges in the cluster. That way it is easy to reach and very visible. It also wouldn't stick out too badly if someone was looking inside.

Can't wait to go fast!

Can you tune with the VEMS app now? I thought it was just for displays?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Can't tune with the app, but you can through Bluetooth on a laptop.

Ah, gotcha now that I reread it.

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Welp...

Head gasket blew on cylinder 2. That cylinder had lots of oil around the spark plug boot when I was changing over to the COP setup. I figured it was just the VC gasket and that it'd be OK to run it that way. I'm not sure if it was partially to blame for this or not. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Basically, I was taking it easy on wastegate pressure, tuning the fuel map on the fly (not logging at all). Fuel started out very rich. I leaned it out to about 0.83 lambda which is very safe. This was all accomplished in about three moderate pulls. The day before, I took it out just to test it, but the tune was definitely off. I told Marc to set it up for 1200 cc injectors, not thinking that they are really 1100s. So the car would have been running lean (didn't have a way to view AFR yet either). Again, that was only for short periods of time running 15-18 psi. I don't think that would have been long enough to cause any damage.

So anyway, I went about as far down the road as I wanted and everything was still fine. Then, as we got on an on-ramp to go back to the rig in the middle of nowhere Ohio, I got on it to try to test some boost control. It didn't seem to work, but the car pulled healthily. When I let off the gas though, I could hear that it was down a cylinder. I didn't want to think the worst... maybe that oil-covered plug just wasn't sparking anymore. I noticed that the cylinder would light back u p when I gave it some gas, and it would even make some halfway decent power too the little that I pushed it, but when I let off the gas it would stop firing. That is not consistent with a spark issue.

As soon as I pulled over, the real issue was pretty much confirmed. The car became inundated with white steam. Stupidly, I decided to try to crank it (hey, it was going to have to come apart anyway right?) and the thing was locked solid. I figured it was hydrolocked of course. I was trying to figure out what to do with the car when a guy pulled up and asked if we needed help. Apparently he was a security guard on the small industrial complex where I just so happened to stop, and the manager/boss of the complex just so happens to have about 50-60 muscle cars stored in a building just a few hundred yards from where I broke down. I got the guys number and he said it would be OK for the car to stay there until we figure out what's happening with it. After that I took the plugs out and cranked it to get the water out of whatever cylinder it was. Number two sprayed out a ridiculous amount! ...and unfortunately it got all over the poor guy who helped me! I apologized profusely, but he just said, "Ah hell, I knew I shouldn't have been standing there!" While it was turning over, I could hear a tick or knock. So we have a confirmed head gasket failure on cylinder 2 and most likely a bent rod on 2 also.

So now I have to figure out a way to ship it up to Marc so he can get it back up and running again. Hopefully Hank's guy will be coming through the area relatively soon. He probably takes route 70 pretty often for cross-country trips, and that runs right through where the car is at the moment. Fingers crossed that we can work something out soon. In the meantime, I will have to drive the M5 out to the rigs

While Marc has it, I'll have him do a few "while you're in there" type things. Rods being on the short list of course since one is likely bent now, along with probably some new valves. Also the hard-to-get-to maintenance items which might be more convenient for them to do while the head is off, etc. I'll write up a full plan soon. Luckily, this is all stuff that can be written off!

Daaaaaaaang.

I hate reading stuff like that, but know that the RENNWGN is/will be in good hands and will pull through this episode in better shape than ever before.

Glad you got a bit of luck with the temp. storage... being stranded in the middle of nowhere is a brutal feeling.

Dude, serious bummer

Sorry to hear man

Sucks, but it sounds like you know just what to do!

Pics of the M5 at work please

Sorry to hear :(

Let me know if I can help in any way at all, Chris.

Man, what a bit of rotten luck! She'll be back better than ever in your care, though