NoRotors.com - RX7 Engine Swap Forum
Technical Information => Build Threads => Topic started by: smackhead999 on June 10, 2010, 11:57:29 PM
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Figured Id start a build thread. Ive decided to scrap my rotary setup about a month ago. This will be my first LSx car.
Picked up an engine and other stuff while in Florida last week. I bought a LQ4 6.0L truck engine still in truck trim.
FLorida
(http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/1195/img00115201006041811.jpg)
I had struggle for a while deciding what motor to use. I had figured I could get a LQ9 6.0L truck engine from a junk yard in running condition for about $900. Thats was what I intended to spend for an engine and no more. That motor would have produced about 335hp/385tq. Yeah I really want to see about 400hp and I would be happy, but because of my budget, the mods necessary to reach that would have to wait until next year.
Im selling my rotary turbo parts to fund this swap.
Fortunately I found this LQ4, with a mild street cam, and double valve springs. The asking price was way out of what I wanted to spend with my budget, but I traded some parts and paid some cash, and ended up with a motor that should produce good power. With this engine I also was able to pick up a LS1 intake manifold, F-body exhaust manifolds, LS1 waterpump, LS1 oil pan, LS1 injectors and fuel rail. Awesome. So I went out of my budget with the engine, but saved by scoring the extra swap stuff with it. Not to mention the cam and springs in the motor get me closer to my HP goals.
Here is the motor in the back of my Jeep. That was tough. Thanks to FortuneLSX7-TT for the hook-up, and the help getting this beast in my Jeep.
(http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/290/img00116201006051031.jpg)
So Im making progress now, I started to prep the car. I stripped the engine bay and started to go through the front harness and remove the crap. I am currently working on painting the engine bay.
(http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/4199/img00121201006101853.jpg)
So Im juggling between paint and wire harness right now. I am trying to get rid of the complexity to the harness and run my own main relay and starter relay. Kinda just simplify the overly complex harness Mazda decided was necessary.
Ordered some C6 pedistal mounts from Ebay last night too.
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Holy crap. I have to figure out how to downsize these pictures.
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i loaded my engine and trans in my 95 xj. Jeep power!
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wish I had a picture of the Jeep fully loaded. Had all of my stuff and my girls stuff for our florida trip in there plus my brothers stuff. I drove to florida to pick up my brother and move him home. Towed a trailer for his motorcycle too. It was crammed.
Not nearly as bad as my Indianapolis trip. That was BAD. 4 head, all of our stuff, including tent and camping stuff, in my other brothers 2000 cherokee, 4.0L. That poor jeep pulled a 15 foot land scaping trailer with our 3 bikes and beer cooler on top of all the other crap. She was pissing oil through the gaskets in the mountains of WV. We were a little over the capability of that inline 6.
But The Grand cherokee I took to florida was V8 power. She didnt even blink. I think I lost 1mpg on the trip back with the motor, parts and motorcycle, with an extra person and his stuff. The V8 WJ was the way to go! Plus no mountains. ;)
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i've been looking into the newer jeep v8s. I want something that can pull a trailer with my car but not be a monster truck that gets 10 mpg
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Well my Jeep gets about 20-22 average mpg at 60-65. 15-16 city. Its a 2000 Grand cherokee Limited, with 4.7L, AWD. Its nice. Its nice to take a trip in because it is extremely comfortable and fully loaded. Auto climate control, power everything, leather, etc... And it will pull a trailer too. I did notice a definite loss of mpg above 70mph with the trailer loaded. But below that it was about the same mpg. Its got like 270-280 hp I think, but the torque is like 305-310. So it will get up and roll, fully loaded.
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I've been waiting for this thread... Expect to have a permanent grin from ear to ear after its up and running.
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Word of advice on painting the bay.... might want to get the swap done and running after everything is cut and fitted, then yank it, paint and slap it back in. I'm sure some others will tell you that you'll be pulling the engine a few times for various reasons, ie. driveshaft fitment, header fitment, routing wiring (cutting holes), mounting random stuff, etc. Just a heads up.
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Thanks aaron. I am actually doing a cheap paint job. Flat finish, rattle can. If I scrape it up, or have to do anymore cutting I think it will take a touch up a little easier. I am really excited about the paintjob. I have a little idea I came up with, and am itching to get it done. Not so much the engine bay, but the rest of the car.
I know the 6.0 is what you wanted to see... Lucky it worked out that way ;)
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Make sure not to EVER get ANY fluids on your rattle can job or it will immediately be removed from your car.
This is obviously not possible, so take your time and do it right the first time. Or do what I had to do and remove your rattlecan job with a grinder, only to spray some epoxy, then base and clear like you should have the first time.
PPG clear isn't even PHASED by brake fluids or any other sort of solvent (acetone/brake cleaner) and it is fairly cheap at 32 bucks a quart.
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Make sure not to EVER get ANY fluids on your rattle can job or it will immediately be removed from your car.
This is obviously not possible, so take your time and do it right the first time. Or do what I had to do and remove your rattlecan job with a grinder, only to spray some epoxy, then base and clear like you should have the first time.
PPG clear isn't even PHASED by brake fluids or any other sort of solvent (acetone/brake cleaner) and it is fairly cheap at 32 bucks a quart.
You just sold me on getting my bay repainted before I toss an engine in. I feel like you are 100% right.
Good luck on the build Shane. Should be a beast.
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Yeah, definately glad to see you get something with some bore size. As a plus you can always get to a 408 really easy and make 500+ wheel without breaking a sweat.
The other's do have a point with the rattle can job. If you must, at least use some enamel paint that takes about a day to dry. All in all, you'll spend about the same or more as opposed to spraying out of a gun. 2K Urethane clear can hold up to intermittent brake fluid and gas spillage if you clean in right away, unlike the lacquer or acrylic lacquer out of a can that will lift (wrinkle) an area twice the size of the spillage.
Anyway... I can't wait to see the pics of progress from your thread. Hopefully I can get the time to go back and make a build thread... maybe it will have something usefull in it.
(if you watch family guy.... i just did the compliment sandwich)
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yes that was very tactful. thankyou. Man, Im not going rattle cuz its cheaper, cuz its really not. But my rebuild is taking place outdoors. I dont have a paint facility to use. And Im not a good painter. Oh and paint isnt in my budget. So, it is what it is. I dont want a show car. Just clean... and all one color for once. The tri-color was starting to bother me... no, no... actually quad color. Red, blue, black, and gold. And I dont know if I can even get an enamel, epoxy, or whatever in a satin, flat finish.
If I can spend the same amount of $$$ on paint, and put down a safe paint coat against fluids, and do it in my yard, Im all about it.
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Oh and yes I tried a couple times to find pictures and a build thread for you aaron. No such thing. Hook it up.
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Glad to see you starting a build thread for it. Definitely looking forward to seeing that motor get some use other than taking up space in my garage. Hopefully unloading it out of the Jeep wasn't too bad. The FD is about to go to the shop for the turbo fab, so I need to pull the motor and put the trans on it, so I'm probably going to do that this weekend. Just need you to shoot me a PM with your address so I can mail you that pan on Monday.
I agree with the others about the paint too. I've had to pull my motor several times for various reasons, and a few scratches have happened as a result. That and, sanding the engine bay is a royal pain, so go for the good stuff and do it once.
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Pulled my steering rack today. Needed to clean the subframe underneath it. SOOOOOOOOOO much build up under there.
I am also going to bring it back to a powered rack for the LSx. So I am going to take it apart and refresh it. I think some moisture got into the rack when I blocked off the hose fittings.
No pictures on that yet.
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Small update.
In the last week or so, I have acquired an aluminum Corvette driveshaft, C6 Engine mounts, an Fbody Crank pulley, and by tonight hopefully an LS2 Flywheel.
Im in negotiations for a tranny as well. Maybe I can have that in the first week of July.
Planning on ordering an LS7 clutch kit. Also I am trying to decide if I want to use a standard slave cylinder, or one of the hydraulic throwouts. I need more info on the hydraulics bearings.
I need to source out some bolts for the flywheel and clutch as well. I saw some ARP stuff on ebay, but dont know if it is completely necessary as I am only looking for 450hp max. But we will see.
Holding off on painting the engine bay until I get atleast the first test fit done. I ordered some PEZ mounts, but dont know when they will be built and shipped out. I will get the motor/tranny in the car as soon as possible so I can do my radiator fitment, and intake ducting. And with any luck, I can have my pinion adapter, and tranny mount so I can locate the tranny position and line up the driveshaft.
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Disassembled my steering rack today. It was necessary due to moisture contamination in the rack. I did a terrible, fast conversion to manual years ago and the fluid had for the most part pushed out past the seals at the inner tie rods. I didnt properly take care of the ps lines either. They leaked and took on moisture, making the inside of the rack very nasty. Sludge.
So I pulled out a snap-on, Bluepoint inner tie rod wrench. The hex on the inners is too small for a regular wrench, and apparently far too small for any of the tie rod wrenches in my bluepoint kit. So I used a pipe wrench.
(http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/4082/img00158201006261615.jpg)
(http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6360/img00159201006261620.jpg)
(http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/6561/img00161201006261805.jpg)
The build up
(http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/4853/img00162201006261806.jpg)
So I am trying to figure how Im going to clean out the rack. I was thinking brake cleaner, but I dont want to damage the seal and bearings that remain inside the rack housing. I doubt there is any rubber in the bearings, but there should be a remaining rubber fluid seal in the black part of the housing.
Any suggestions...?
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Here is speculation, but, it seems that the pinion gears should be greased as they dont see any ps fluid, I think. If someone could enlighten me as to what needs grease, that would be appreciated...
I think the pinion gear should be greased, the bearing below the gear, and the rack teeth.
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Are you converting back to ps?
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Yes I am. Should have made that clear
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(http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5672/img00164201006271421.jpg)
I started to do some paint stripping today. I got this stuff called Talstrip. It kicks ass. Brush it on, it takes the paint right off.
(http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/8945/img00163201006271420.jpg)
I have a cool video of the hood basically crumbling under this stripper. But I dont have Youtube account yet... so we will see if I put that up.
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So I am going to go ahead and update my thread.
In the last two days, I decided I was going about my chassis harness modifications all wrong. So I took a step back and thought about what Blake had told me before, how he did his. "Find everything you need to keep, isolate it, and remove the rest." Thats not exactly what he said, but essentially... The way I was doing before was really making me nervous and not trust myself.
So I am going to document what I have done in the last few days. Some people have shown interest in this through posts in electronics forum, so let me say this now...
(http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/1307/img00168201007161704.jpg)
What I am documenting is for completely removing everything I do not need or do not use. It it for a bare bones ride. I am going to be using alternator and powersteering from GM, and possibly in the future, cruise control from GM. So those Mazda systems need not be there anymore. With what I am doing, there is no going back... Be warned if you use this information.
What I figured was, it is a lot easier to start from the contollers and move on from there. The part of the front harness in the engine bay on the drivers side needs to be pulled back through the firewall. To do that, you will need to unbolt the fuse box in the drivers kick panel.
So I first went to was the dash controls. I isolated the lights controls on the dash. I isolated the cruise controls as well. I used ties to isolate wires in bundles that I could move along as I went down the harness, following wires. I removed the wires from cruise from the cruise control cpu. Bundled the wires up and tie wrapped them at the big blue connector that goes to the dash cruise switches.
(http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9900/img00175201007161725.jpg)
Saving them for later use if I do add GM cruise control. I bundles all of the wires from the light switches together so I didnt make a mistake by removing any of them. The lgihts, signals, etc.. are all controlled by a black box in the drivers kick panel. I also isolated all of those wires so none would be eliminated. If you follow them out, they all go to switches on the dash, or out to their loads in use(signals, headlight relays, etc...) Obviously you need all of that. Those were the most important things in my eyes, so thats what I did first.
I am also going to use aftermarket gauges rather than the stock instrument cluster. Mine doesnt work properly all the time. If you are going to keep the stock gauges, you need to read up on Danzan's wiring writeup. But if you are installing custom gauges, things that I did keep: turnsignal indicator, highbeam indicator, illumination, and what I think is dimmer wires. They all run to the instument cluster through the two round connectors on the back. I traced their pins on the connector by mapping the back of the cluster. It is spelled out for you. Marked the pins on the connector, saved those wires, and scrapped everything else. And by scrapped, I mean removed the pins from the connectors and pulled the wires back in the harness.
(http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/1342/img00174201007161724.jpg)
If you arent using mazda cruise or mazda powersteering you dont need the control boxes for these. Remove them and pull the wires out of the harness.
(http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/8044/img00171201007161721.jpg)
So now the harness portion that was in the engine bay is now hanging out the drivers door. I isolated thing I needed to keep and things I didnt. Quick list of what I didnt keep:
Brake master cylinder connectors, think there were two
Starter relay
A/C relays and connectors
oil pressure connector
Main relay
coil connectors
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pretty much everything other than, headlight circuits, horn, mainfuse block, washer fluid connections
Cut em off, depin them, but pull them back through the harness and remove them from where they come from.
On the passenger side interior, there is a lot of crap you dont need. If you had a stand alone ecu with the rotary, its possible some of this is already removed. If you had a factory setup, its all still there. If you removed the factory engine harness and ecu already, you will still have a big yellow connector in the passenger kick area.
(http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5481/img00172201007161722.jpg)
You dont need any of that, unless, you are going to save your A/C or want to wire MIL to exhaust over temp light in idiot cluster. One of those wires is a "request for A/C". I believe you need that for A/C. If you need to save some wire there, save it, and remove the rest. You have probably already freed up some of those wires from the other end of the harness.
There are also two other connectors there that are like a ugly, yellow, clear color. Those are the FEM-01&02 connectors I think. One of those has the wires for the wipers. Everything else can be removed from both sides of that connector.
(http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/7007/img00169201007161705.jpg)
The other connector has nothing you NEED, but something I decided to do with mine, I kept it. The male connector of that one went into the engine harness, everything can be depin'd. What I decide to do with the female end, is to keep the wires colored black/white and black/yellow. The b/y wires are ignition on 12v, the b/w are grounds. I think these were sensor ground connections. Either way, when it is time to install the fbody harness, some things are going to need grounds and 12v constant, and ignition on 12v. This seemed like a good way to make these connections to supply what the engine harness needs, but use a harness connector on the factory chassis harness. So if I need to pull the engine harness, these connections arent solidered on and will come out easy with the connector. So I kept some of the wires removed so I can use the pins when I do this.
(http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/8959/img00170201007161707.jpg)
At various times, pulling wires, I encounter wires connected in splices. 3 or 4 wires coming together. Some times as you move along, at those splices, the other wires connected there will be removed as well. When they werent, I just cut the wire out of the splice and taped off the cut wire. Some of those were common grounds, common powers, etc.
I also saved some b/y wires on the portion that goes in the engine bay incase I need some 12 ignition on sources in the future. I just cap them off for now. All of the b/y wires should be common, so when I add MY main relay, supplying the voltage to one of these should supply all of the b/y wires.
I am not an expert, but this is what I have come up with so far. Maybe I will get some feedback.
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Looks good so far! I hate the electrical aspect of it. Major PITA. For cheap additional power don't forget a ported TB. 10rwhp approx. Also a straight intake path vs. one with a 90* bend in it is also free hp. Joel did a nice setup in his white ls1 fc to mimic his intake. I would also get out the grinder if you are using stock style exhaust manifolds and remove any casting flash in the portion meeting the exhaust ports. Supposedly 00 and newer fbody manifolds flow better than the older style as well.
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Looking at all that wiring is giving me a headache. I opted for the throw everything out and just start over from scratch approach just to avoid that nightmare.
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Looking at all that wiring is giving me a headache. I opted for the throw everything out and just start over from scratch approach just to avoid that nightmare.
man I was so close to doing that.... but, then I was like I will have to build flasher circuits and shit., etc... Ugh.
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That looks familiar. :)
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great detail ! I need this for dealing with my wiring issues .
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This helped me alot.
Thanks man.
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So I had things moving right along on my build again, put the tranny on the engine, bolted everything up, picked up the drivetrain, dropped the truck oil pan, picked up the new Fbody oil pan, and CLUNK!
Somehow, in my epic stupidity, I forgot to I needed a shorter oil pick up tube and windage tray.
Man I kicked the shit out of some grass for about 2 minutes.
I really wanted to get my motor in today....
In other news, I found the factory service manual and rebuilt my steering rack and put it in.
"Shit-bag stick-fucker!"
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You can modify the truck windage to work with the Camaro pan
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Yeah, I saw that. I will do that. But has anybody modified the pick up tube to be shorter?
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If do make the truck pick-up shorter, your also gonna have issues with the front side hitting the pan. Your probably better off just getting the Camaro pick-up.
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Well, I got my motor in friday. That was fun.
(http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8338/img00195201008131755.jpg)
The passenger side of the oil pan seems to be sitting right on the steering rack. The drivers side is clear by about a 1/4 inch. Need to see whats going on there.
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Are you using anything but the camaro oil pan? If so that is your problem.
Camaro oil pan or no go.
Err.... reread what you posted earlier....
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Are you using anything but the camaro oil pan? If so that is your problem.
Camaro oil pan or no go.
Err.... reread what you posted earlier....
It is supposed to be a camaro oil pan. So I believe that is what I have. I got it from a member here. He knows his stuff.
My passenger motor mount isnt sitting right, I believe because the tranny isnt lined up perfect down the tunnel. Its just propped up on a cement block and some 2x4's. This could be the issue.
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Do you not have a tranny mount? This could EASILY be the issue, especially if you are running granny's mount, which is usually twisted to begin with....
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No tranny mount yet. Probably next week I will have one. And Im using the PEZ mounts, not the grannys.
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I took another look at the tranny under the car for driveshaft fitment. First time I have actually been down there to see whats going on. I think I have the tranny too high by about an inch at the output shaft. I dont have a mount yet to really see where it nees to be, but lowering that inch fixed the twisted motor mount. It all sits good now, but I still dont like how one side of the oil pan seems to be lower than the other. After eyeballing the engine fitement in the engine bay, It actually looks more like the steering rack is whats cockeyed. Its in the proper location and fully torqued down, so Im still a little stumped.
Got my chassis harness run as well. I went through the side of the cabin like some others have, run inside the fender and through the frame rail to keep it all hidded, and then up behind the bumper in the front. Need to get more solider to extend my plugs for the fuse box, so I can get it up in the bumper area as well.
Need to source some lengths of battery cable too so I can bring that out the passenger side firewall to the starter->alternator->fuse box. Thinking I am going to daisy chain them at the connections for the starter and alternator.
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i went to a welding supply and got various gauge wire for a great price. That actually held me up for a bit. Now i'm all wired up. Go + to a 200amp breaker (ebay) then breaker to start using 2 or lower gauge, start to alt using 4 gauge and alt to fusebox using 8. There are a few ways to do this but thats the daisy chain. Works for me.
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Ive been doing little things here and there... waiting to order some parts. Today I made up some swaybar spacers. 1" aluminium square tube.
(http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/6827/img00219201009042011.jpg)
(http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/7691/img00217201009042010.jpg)
This one is the gap between the sway bar and the oil pan. It is minimal at best. Maybe 3/16"
(http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/9709/img00226201009042013.jpg)
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New stuff. I have a ton of stuff on order. Received my radiator today and started that install.
Made some lower brackets from aluminium.
(http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/4373/img00235201009091653.jpg)
Some mounting position shots...
(http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/2540/img00234201009091618.jpg)
(http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/4047/img00233201009091618.jpg)
(http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/9767/img00232201009091613.jpg)
Decided to paint some stuff because I got tired of looking at the engine looking like it was straight from the junk yard. So I cleaned her up and sprayed some paint.
(http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4213/img00236201009091927.jpg)
(http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/3103/img00239201009092003.jpg)
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looking good bro. What lower radiator hose are gonna run at that angle?
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looking good bro. What lower radiator hose are gonna run at that angle?
That is a good question. I dont know yet. When I had my rotary, I ran a Vmount cooling system. Hoses were a pain in the ass. I spent about an hour in my local Advance store, behind the counter, playing with hoses. I knew the approximate angles and lengths, and used one stock hose from who knows what, and then I linked 3 other universal hoses together. The universals have a kind of accordian thing going on with springs inside to keep them from colapsing when you bend then to shape.
Although, with my vmount setup, I had the hoses "above" the radiator in this position. With my LSx setup, I am running them "under" the radiator. The radiator angle is not near as extreme now as it was with my vmount. The vmount required more space between the hood and the top tank of the radiator.
But I went with this because I knew that the only way I would be happy with this, is with an "over-the-radiator" intake.
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When you laid the rad in place did you leave room for the fan behind it or are you going to use a pusher fan in front?
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When you laid the rad in place did you leave room for the fan behind it or are you going to use a pusher fan in front?
There is room behind for a pull fan. The key was getting the radiator far enough forward to clear the crank pulley. But at the same time not have too extreme of an angle and still clear the waterpump pulley. The radiator is as far forward as possible without trimming the stock bumper. And I did remove the "crash bar"
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The key was getting the radiator far enough forward to clear the crank pulley. But at the same time not have too extreme of an angle and still clear the waterpump pulley. The radiator is as far forward as possible without trimming the stock bumper. And I did remove the "crash bar"
I know exactly what you mean, I'm going through the same process on the FD.
We also want an "over the radiator" intake and getting the radiator in a good attitude for the intake complicates the hoses and compromises airflow.
The optimum radiator placement is the worst arrangement for the intake.
Sigh.
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If you can duct the radiator, there really shouldnt be any loss of flow efficiency unless you have an extreme angle. Also, in my opinion, if you have the car low enough, with good splitting in the front, low pressure below the car should draw the flow of air through the radiator and out the bottom of the engine bay.
But the hose are still a bitch.
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The optimum radiator placement is the worst arrangement for the intake.
Sigh.
I know...it blows. I am gonna have to make a very very tightly sealed air box with ducting from my brake ducts on my front bumper to keep that intake fed fresh air.
I had a make shift duct made on my rotary set-up out of shop vac hoses and 2 rectangle duct attachments that I mounted in my brake duct on my S4 bumper that routed up to my intake fliter.... worked GREAT. My under hood temps were low but my intake temps where always below 100* F.
(http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww213/FC3SMurray/zzz.jpg)
(http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww213/FC3SMurray/zzzzz.jpg)
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Been working on some stuff lately.
I have a few parts left to purchase before I will have it all. Mostly my flywheel and clutch, and a few little things.
I received my wire harness that was from a automatic tranny camaro. I had to mod it to work with my manual tranny setup. It also wasnt in grade A condition as advertised by the junk yard. It was missing the connectors for the oil level sensor, and the crank sensor. On the same leg of the harness, it was chewed up about a foot up from the sensor connectors. If it was pinched from an accident, fed on by mice, or just carelessly removed from the junk car, I am gonna have to fix that.
I ordered new connectors for the oil level, crank, reverse lights, reverse lockout, and for the obd connector. Reverse lights were obviously necessary and not part of the engine harness. Oil level and crank were missing from the harness. Reverse lockout doesnt exist on the auto harness, so I have to add it. And obviously I want an obd plug for tuning.
I followed the instructions, for the most part, in the electronics section stickies for modding the harness. I also removed all of the stuff from the harness I didnt need like A/C, EGR, and rear o2 sensor systems.
Now there is an auto tranny specific plug that goes back to the tranny. It is oval/round, and it has like 14 or 15 pins in it.
(http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6674/img00292201010221656.jpg)
This controls the shift solenoids, temp and pressure things in the auto tranny. Fortunatly, you can use some of the wires that are already there, to use in the reverse lockout and skipshift delete.
Following the wire diagram that someone posted, I was able to piece the 4 part document together and make good sense of the harness. I pulled the wires that made sense from the auto harness plug to save for the skipshift, reverse lockout, and 12V ignition power.
(http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/9126/img00293201010221656.jpg)
I found it really easy to pull wires from the PCM connectors. GM was really think of us when they put this harness together. This has been the easiest harness to work on, and the easiest wire diagrams to follow, that I have ever encountered.
(http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/7601/img00294201010221656.jpg)
I also went ahead and finally painted my engine bay
(http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/9240/img00297201010231301.jpg)
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Great Job on the bay man!
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I am gonna dig this back up from page 5! I havent touched my car in... well since october. I ran out of money and good weather last year. Weather is good again, and I actually have a job now... so Im back at it.
Since my last update, I have installed a Spec aluminum flywheel and standard pp with a close to stock clutch.
I have fully modified the engine harness and installed it where it come through the firewall right behind the intake manifold.
Finalizing some wiring in the cabin, fuel pump, fuses, etc...
Also started putting things back together since my engine bay paint was done. I had planned on painting the whole car but gave up, even though now... I am considering it again... err.
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Fixing the firewall to accept the new Wilwood master. Used grease or something to mark the hole centers on the firewall.
(http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/6131/rx1l.jpg)
(http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/4379/rx7t.jpg)
Taking some measurements
(http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/3342/rx2q.jpg)
(http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/3336/rx5f.jpg)
Getting ready to weld the new pushrod
(http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/4943/rx72z.jpg)
(http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/5923/rx8dh.jpg)
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Clutch
(http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/3573/imag0027za.jpg)
Forgot to add that I also tapped the iron block for the extra hole that the F body alternator needs... was pretty straigh forward... fortunately the there is room for error, minimal, in the alignment of the holes.
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coming together buddy. Keep it up!
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Well I just ordered all of my exhaust stuff.. Decided to go 2.5" all the way through duals... I found it was cheaper to do this than it was to do the 2.25" headers to 2.25" cats and into a y pipe, then to my 3" Rotary exhaust. Crazy. Bought some cheap Summit mufflers that were on sale, steel cats, and an x pipe, as well as the remaining fuel fittings I needed.
My starter and PCM arrived the other day, and so did my ps pump.... That should be everything I need to finish up.
PCM goes out in the mail to PEZ tomorrow for adjustments. Time to get this bitch finished up. Hoping to be ready to crank in 2 weeks. :drive:
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Hell yeah man, getting close.
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Radiator frame I made.
(http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/6593/imag0135cl.jpg)
The front support tied in between the tow hooks, so it is removable, with the supports to hold the radiator frame.
(http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/3497/imag0134v.jpg)
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Now I need suggestions for my over the radiator intake design. I will post pics tomorrow of what i have.
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This is how the engine bay sat a few days ago.
(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/84/imag0142y.jpg)
Since, I have done the hoses and a few other things that I cant think of right now. One day at a time :)
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Looking good bro. I love the radiator set-up!
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Looking good bro. I love the radiator set-up!
Thanks man... Im getting there.
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Put fenders on. Fit bumper. Chased all of the exterior threads with a tap. They were kinda rusty from sitting the last year with no bolts in them. Swapped seats out with some nicer ones from another chassis I had. Misc other interior stuff. Made the high pressure power steering hose. Ran a cable from the starter to the alternator. Also cleaned up the passenger floor where all of the random bolts, screws, and nuts were sitting that I either wont be using or havent used yet.
Bled the clutch manually. Seems to be holding fine with no sticking to the floor, and it has good pressure. Although, I have some seeping from one of the fittings on the bleeder. I think I should have used teflon on that.
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I thought you were saving some of that work for me to help with :p looking good man, keep it up/.
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There is plenty more to do... just wanna get it running.
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There is plenty more to do... just wanna get it running.
Don't get impatient bro, it is still early in the summer. Trust me you are very close. :drive:
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car started today. YAY! Runs like shit though.
Dont know what fuel pressure I should be set at... I set it for 50psi with the engine not running. It sits at about 60psi with the engine running.
Also not sure if the IAC is working... Doesnt want to hold an idle
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ok. So the fuel pressure is set to 58psi while running now.
Still wont hold an idle. I unplugged the IAC and then started again, and then it would hold idle... but the idle was way the fuck up there. Plugged it back in while running and no change. Cut it off... and then back on, and the idle was shit again.
So far I have everything capped off that looks like a vacuum port. The under the map, and all the ones near the tb. I dont know if this is right or not. If I hold the throttle open a bit it will more or less idle. But when I do that, it really starts to hunt for a steady idle.
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A question:
Is there anything special I need to consider for initial start-up tuning for an engine with a cam?
..... I have a cam and started my engine up today and it runs like shit. I have a PEZ tune, and throttle response/acceleration enrichment is shit, and it wont hold idle. It will idle with throttle open slightly, so I think injectors and ignition is operating correctly. Im not knocking the PEZ tune, just thinking there is something wrong with my setup.
Im used to my rotary where there was always somekind of constant tweaking, and I think with the PEZ tune and a more or less factory engine with a cam, should be running pretty good. Like good enough to drive. And its not.
I have the fuel pressure set to 58psi.
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I just ordered the OBD2 Bluetooth interface. This way I can run the Torque app and monitor whats going down with the PCM.
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Sounds like a good start.
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Im thinking there is probably unmetered air getting in through the intake. I will make up a pressure coupling when I get time... Maybe monday. That is the most likely culprit I think. Maybe injectors. Ill try intake leaks first... seems to be the easier route.
Man this think sounded badass. Open headers and the cam... I didnt think the cam was that aggressive... but she had a mean lope to her.
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Take the MAF out and disconnect it, it should run without it fairly well, at least mine does.
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Take the MAF out and disconnect it, it should run without it fairly well, at least mine does.
I did that... ran worse... I think... It def didnt get any better.
Its like a few issues Im having. Im almost certain intake leaks. I recall not liking the gaskets on the intakes mating surface. And I really dont know about the IAC either... need to pull it and take a look.
I have no Idea how long this engine was sitting. Atleast a year since Ive owned it... probably a few years. Who knows what all is dirty and seized.
I had to pull the steam vents and run wire through them because I couldnt get the coolant to fill in the heads... freaking hot ass heads and cool radiator was an indication.. haha.
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I just ordered the OBD2 Bluetooth interface. This way I can run the Torque app and monitor whats going down with the PCM.
I run the Torque app too, great little program and i am the one person responsible for the "amber white needle"theme, thank you very much lol....i harped on their forum for that theme forever. I actually like the carbon theme the best.
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hah... awesome man. At first I thought you were claiming the program.... I was like, shit....
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Today, I pulled the intake, the injectors, and the plugs. I did this after doing a pressure test on the intake. That resulted no substantial leaks. The only thing that told me anything today was the plugs. The plugs were indicating a rich condition by being all flat black. There were no indications of anything else. All plugs from all the cylinders read exactly the same... so that tells me that none of the injectors are acting significantly enough different from any other injector.
So. No leaks, infact... rich conditions. Poor, very low rpm, hunting idle. Or, no idle, more or less. Delayed, stumbling throttle response.
Brand new O2 sensors, all new plugs, new wires, fresh 93 octane fuel, no vacuum leaks. I need to test the IAC and see if that is operational.
Im open to suggestions for diagnosing potential issues. Trying to cover the big 3. Air, fuel, spark. I think Im there with the exception of the IAC... but that will just affect the idle... not the rev issues
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Can you get at something to log the sensors?
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Can you get at something to log the sensors?
Yeah. Thursday I should have the obd bluetooth adapter to run this torque app. I am really waiting on that to observe the o2 sensors, MAF, TPS, and IAC.
After doing a little more research, I am thinking I could have a faulty TPS. TPS could be fluttering and throwing off the enrichment.
But when I get this adapter, I can log all of that shit and see fault codes. Waiting, waiting, waiting... I hate waiting.
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Unplugged the TPS today and started the engine and it ran great. Guess I have a faulty TPS. Will double check that with the scanner when I get it.
On the bad side of things... blew apart my ps steering lines. Again. Need a solution for this. :'(
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If you have a decent junkyard close, here we have one that has a bunch of caddies, and some of them have the same tps and iac
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Unplugged the TPS today and started the engine and it ran great. Guess I have a faulty TPS. Will double check that with the scanner when I get it.
On the bad side of things... blew apart my ps steering lines. Again. Need a solution for this. :'(
Switch to a manual rack. :'( I haven't had power steering for 6 years. Don't miss it.
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I depowered my rack when I built my rotary setup... but I didnt do it right. There was a lot of resistance. I had since found the correct procedure on fc3s.org or something where you cut the quill out. I started to do that but changed my mind, and just rebuilt the rack and decided to run the ls ps pump.
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Scanner showed up today. Apparently, the autometer coolant gauge I bought is absolute junk. It was reading about 150* too hot compared to the obd unit.
with the engine idling, I got readings that were not right and i am trying to fix them now.
MAP 104kpa... very wrong. I think the map is shot, but I need to test the 5Vreference because I am getting a 1635 code.
TPS 20%... closed throttle. Not sure about this. I tried to reset the tps, but it didnt work.
MAF 10g/s... this appears to be working correctly.
o2's .3-.8V.... I cant remember how to decipher this. Need to look it up again... but it smells rich as hell. Probably a function of the MAP reading amoshpere.
The map could be a bad ground I guess, or a bad sensor.
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I think I have the 5v reference issues for the most part worked out. Map sensor replaced and functioning correctly.
Did a first gear and reverse ride down my driveway today. It was a rough drive. I think tomorrow I need to test the IAC.
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Damn bud you cant get a break. Did all these sensors come with your engine or did you source them out separately?
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the sensors all came with the engine.
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u need help bra?
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its all good... little things.
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the sensors all came with the engine.
Must have went bad being left in the elements that long huh?
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Lots of elements!
So today I got most of my problems resolved I think. Took the car down the half mile driveway through 3 gears and reverse. Runs half decent at speed. Low rpm, low throttle, engaging first gear is a little bit of a bumpy ride.
I was trying to do some passes down the driveway so the pcm could make some adjustments on its own before I go for my first road drive.
In theory, is the idea that the more you drive it, the more the pcm will actively adapt to where the fuel settings should be? So the more I drive it, the better it will get?
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It looks like I am still having some issues with fuel trims. Bank 1 is staying lean and the fuel trim keeps trying to adjust it with no results.. Its kinda weird. Bank 2 appears to be operating like it should. So I tried to swap the o2 sensors around to see if I could isolate the problem and it still shows bank 1 being problematic.
One of the other issues I am having is the bluetooth interface and the scan app "Torque". I bought the cheap $30 ELM327 interface from ebay. That was probably a mistake. That thing errors a lot and makes the app freeze up when there is no data. I should have spent more money and got a good interface.
So, I guess I can run some tests on the o2 wires and see if its grounding out or something on bank 1.
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Yeah I purchased the Kiwi bluetooth one....it was expensive but worth it. Never loose data or have errors. It does however take some time to link up every now and then.
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engine bugs worked out... still trying to get the idle right though. IAC isnt doing much for me.
Yesterday, I started prepping for paint. Body filling, sanding down, etc.... This poor car had a hard previous life of being molested in the rear. Lots of bondo and reshaping.
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Spent the day finishing my exhaust... but i didnt finish. Doing this shit on your back is a pain in the ass. It didnt help that I ran out of gas for the welder, so I had to go get more... Finally got a big section tacked together and pull it out to finish up the welds, and OH SHIT... no gas! WTF! So apparently I have a leak. Now I gotta fix that shit before I can finish welding. At $47 a bottle, I cant go wasting this shit.
As I was working my way back on the exhaust, I noticed a fuel leak. It seems that my factory fuel lines are falling apart. I guess I gotta go get a long length of hose and get THAT replaced.
Also looks like I am going to cut the radiator support beam so I can make this intake work. Gonna have to order some aerocatch pins. Right now, I just have a piece of cloth over the MAF with a clamp.
So much for being on the road THIS week.
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So I am gonna just forget about covering the ehaust anymore.
Made moves on reworking my cooling system today. Made a fan shroud, which I forgot to take pics of, from coil stock on the break. Modified the frame I built previously to hold the radiator to be at a better angle and accept the shroud. I got all of that installed and then removed the factory radiator support along with the hood latch. This was in an effort to design the best intake I could. This will also allow me to have the best cooling system ducting that I can.
Newest rendition of the radiator and intake... minus the radiator support
(http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/5628/img20110804200648.jpg)
From the side... the intake needs to be trimmed a bit to bring the angle in closer to the radiator. Right now its up too high and hits the hood when closed
(http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/459/img20110804200707.jpg)
And the new glock 19 that I cant stop playing with...
(http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/9240/img20110804200818.jpg)
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So I got the cooling system all finished up today let it sit and idle for a half hour or so just to be sure it would handle the load. It did... unfortunately, lots of smoke and heat creeping in the car through the shifter hole. After examination, I have at least one pinhole leak in my exhaust that blows right up through the shifter hole and makes the tunnel VERY hot. Looks like I am pulling the exhaust off again to go over the whole thing now that it has been heat cycled. Im hoping any welds that were not penetrated well will have popped off by now. I know that sounds like I did a really crummy job at welding, but if you could have seen what I had to go through to get it done...
Also experimented today with my intake. It actually idled very well without the MAF connected but was completely undriveable. Reconnected it and I was able to drive it around again. I am supposed to get this all finished up and meet up with "HorsePowerAddicts" so he can tune me up. Car runs very poor on the stock tune and this big cam.
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hood pins
(http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/7851/img20110817183918.jpg)
engine bay as of now
(http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2305/img20110817213716.jpg)
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looking good! did the pins go in right off the holes for the hood bumpers? did it require modification besides cutting the hood?
I'm doing my exhaust thing right now, and it's a pain in the ass even with the car 2ft off the ground.
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uhm, there were 3 tornadoes down your way today Shane. I hope the car is ok, oh, and you too ;)
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I removed the bumpers and used the holes that the bumpers fit into. Installed the pins upside down, and put blue painters tape on the underside of the hood where the bumpers would rest. Closed the hood and pressed down on it to imprint the position of the pins. Drilled a hole through the hood from the underside, up. Flipped the pins right side up and closed the hood. Used the position of the pins coming through the top skin of the hood as a datum to draw the cross hairs. Placed the template on and traced out. Cut it out with a combination of hole saws and cut-off wheel/grinder.
The problem with this method was that the location that I used was not only sloped from front to back but also side to side. The hood pin is virtually plumb, so the hood slopes several degrees on more than one axis. Because of this, with the latches installed, the pin did not come through the latch perfectly centered. The result was that after installing the latches, I had to modify the hole that the pin is mounted through so I could properly align the pin to the latch. Basically just drilled an oversized hole for the pin.
If I had used the front bumpers, more near the actual bumper, and not the bumpers behind the headlight, there would have only been one axis of slope to deal with. It would not have required modifying the pin hole as much, if at all.
I did cut some of the frame for the hood in order to get the latch to sit deep enough. The work itself was not too bad... the worst part is trying to get the pin perfectly aligned once the latch is completely installed.
Shawn... yeah.. tornadoes, hurricane, rain... its all good. The worst is yet to come. So far, so good.
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Got the car tuned last week, got through inspection today and passed. Got a tag on my car now and am legal and can now drive this whenever I want! YAY :yay:
And then my upper coolant hose started blowing off. Left me stranded on the interstate. An hour from home. In a fucking thunderstorm. Ran down the road 5 times and back with garbage from inside my car to collect water from a nearby building to refill my coolant after reattaching the hose. Got it filled up and started her up. Put it in gear and the fucking hose blew off again. Had to call a tow. $250 later, I am home. What a day.
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That sucks, but how does it run otherwise?
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That sucks, but how does it run otherwise?
Otherwise, it runs great. I had been previously just venting valve covers to atmosphere, but my tuner told me that I should bet the ports plumbed into the intake correctly and that would help some stuff. So, he got it tuned... and a couple days later, I got around to it. Plumbed the passenger side port to the engine side of the throttle body, to be the source for air when the engine draws air in, and the drivers side got a PCV in the cover, and is hosed to the air filter side of the throttle body, for the air that the engine pushes out of the crank case. I am pretty sure this is how he told me to run it, but since I did that, the idle hangs around 2k for a few seconds after coming out of gear, and when in gear, with no throttle, the revs will hang and keep me moving like a cruise control. This is not good. This tells me that crank ventilation is sending out positive pressure to the backside of my throttle and not letting vacuum slow the engine. Because Im an idiot, and didnt realize this when I did it.
Suggestions for rerouting? Is there another good place to get fresh air to go into the crank case for my passenger side valve cover?
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That's pretty much how I have mine setup, I also get the 2krpm hanging while I'm moving, but it drops to idle when I stop, I'm not really sure if it's normal or not.
Also, I want a g19.
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That's pretty much how I have mine setup, I also get the 2krpm hanging while I'm moving, but it drops to idle when I stop, I'm not really sure if it's normal or not.
Also, I want a g19.
The problem is that if you have the passenger side valve cover plumbed to the TB, it could be after the throttle blade, sending in un-metered air to the manifold. If it is plumbed to the air filter side of the TB, it will then be a path of least resistance, effective making the PCV valve pointless. This is what I am trying to figure out. I am starting to think, in order for it work effectively, that the passenger side cover needs a check valve, so that it is an air-into-crankcase only route. That way, the PCV valve will be an air-out of-crankcase only route. Either way, neither of the routes can be after the throttle blade. Without the check valve, having the PCV valve is also pointless, and you are using both sides as vents. One side needs to be an IN, and one side needs to be an OUT.
The 2k hang is from PCV being sent into the manifold after the TB and is un-metered air. It will also cause poor start-up idling.
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I've always plumbed them so there is an airflow path through the engine, filtered air->engine->vacuum. My car always starts and idles great, it's pretty predictable dropping back to idle and it doesn't always hang out of gear which is why I wonder if it's some sort of 'feature'.
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how do you pick up the filtered air to pass through the crank case?
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Top port on my f body TB, it goes to the filter side of the throttle plate. Both connections are after the MAF, so no unmetered air.
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Thats where I have my PCV side going... where does your PCV hose go?
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The vacuum port on the drivers side of the intake behind the TB.
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Ill try that and see what happens.
Went and got some 1 1/4" x 2" steel pipe nipples and I am going to weld a bead on the ends. This will be my new coolant hose coupler. The grey plastic ones I have been using have become deformed from the heat. I think this is why it has been blowing off. Also, I have been using two 15psi radiator caps. One on the radiator with the bleed fitting blocked off, and the second cap on the AST, with the bleed fitting going to the overflow tank. I picked up a 13 psi cap today and will put this on the AST, as I believe that since I have been driving this swap, I dont think any coolant has ever gone into the overflow tank. This could be the excessive build in pressure that is blowing the hose off... or the combination of the coupler and the 15psi cap.
Time to get welding. I hate welding galvanized steel. Its gross.
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Grind the galvanized coating off, get it down to bare steel, then weld.
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I just reread what you said. Any port behind the TB is going to cause an RPM hang. Its air bypassing the TB and the IAC. Plus, I tried the same port on my F body TB, and its a dud. Its not an open port. I couldnt blow through it. I am running my PCV valve back to the original passenger side upper port, and am still trying to find some fresh air source for the passenger side valve cover.
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http://www.conceptualpolymer.com/PCV%20Line%20Oil%20Removal%20102.pdf (http://www.conceptualpolymer.com/PCV%20Line%20Oil%20Removal%20102.pdf)
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Coolant problem fixed. PCV problem fixed. Car is back to good working order. I am gonna focus on putting down some LOCAL miles for a while and make sure that she will hold up. Took her out for a few hours last night and ran some errands around town. Romped on her a few times just to make sure.
I love the look on peoples faces when this thing drives through. Stock wheels, 7 different colors of paint, rust, primer, medium cam, and no mufflers.
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Did you get the new top yet?
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New top?
Maybe you are referring to the sunroof I was looking for a while back? I have one that I stole off of the base model I have. So, technically, I still need one. The issue with that was that my gxl, which I have swapped, was the glass sunroof, and is an all together different mounting system from the metal sunroof. I had to swap the whole sunroof system out for it to work. So, the system that I removed from my gxl which is sitting in the seat of the base model, is the system for a glass roof. I havent taken the time to see if I can retrofit it to metal.
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I had a bad 2K RPM hanging in my original buildup. Just needs a better tune and/or the size of the hole in the TB butterfly may need to be addressed.
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Coolant problem fixed. PCV problem fixed. Car is back to good working order. I am gonna focus on putting down some LOCAL miles for a while and make sure that she will hold up. Took her out for a few hours last night and ran some errands around town. Romped on her a few times just to make sure.
I love the look on peoples faces when this thing drives through. Stock wheels, 7 different colors of paint, rust, primer, medium cam, and no mufflers.
What did you do with the PCV?
I took a friend of a friend for a ride last night, he has a low 13 sec mazaspeed3. I nailed it in 2nd from a 30 roll and took it to the top of 3rd. When we got back he went on for at least 20 minutes how nuts it is. I love the reaction I get from everyone that see's it or gets a ride.
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(http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/2460/30872320137930602751107.jpg)
(http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/3107/29787120137932602801107.jpg)
(http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/3889/30465820137935802881107.jpg)
In those pics, it was just that side with the wheels.. I hadnt done the drivers side yet. Did the drivers today. I need to go back and double check my front height, because the drivers front is riding about a half inch higher than the passengers front. Ill pull the wheels off and count the threads against each side.
I cant go any lower in the front, because I only have about 3/16" clearance from the tire to the lower perch. Seeing as there are two different brand tires in the front, its possible the actual tire size is different between the two. This could be why I have the same perch clearance, but different ride heights... Thats a pickle.
Tried driving around with about 34psi in the tires and that was WAY to solid... I dropped it down to 30psi front and back. Its better now, but it doesnt help I have track springs... like 12/9kg. Its a reallly bumpy ride.
Also, these tires suck... I expected better traction than the kumho 215's I have on the stock wheels, but these Marshal MATRAC tires suck... They are 255's in the rear, and I had better traction with the 215's. The 255's are a summer high performance... so maybe they need to be warmed up or something. They are a little old, and harder than the kumho's... so maybe they are expired. But it will have to do for now.
Other observations:
Road noise is retarded loud. The T56 is a noisy beast. The factory Mazda sound deadener sucks ass when you have a V8.
May have a vacuum leak in brake booster... need to check.
This cam may be more RACE designed than street designed. Its origin and specs are unknown, but I know, that it pulls hard as hell up to and beyond 6.6k rpms, torque doesnt really get big until 3k rpms, and driveability below 1.8k rpms is really hard to master.
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I like the fitment of the wheels, looks good.
FWIW, I added some Fat Mat in my car. Day and night difference in cabin noise, even with the loud ass turbo.
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I like the fitment of the wheels, looks good.
FWIW, I added some Fat Mat in my car. Day and night difference in cabin noise, even with the loud ass turbo.
Thanks Blake.
Did you order one of the 100 sq ft bulk packs for the Fat Mat?
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I stole it from BeasTT, so I have no clue what it cost, or how much was there, haha. It was pretty much 1 of their big rolls.
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I put together some ducting today. Hoping it helps. With the radiator on a 45* angle, I needed to shield the radiators induction from pulling heat from the engine bay. My design was supposed to allow only air from the bumper grill to be drawn through the radiator as it should. I need to get some time to let it sit and idle and see how it does.
(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8655/airduct.jpg)
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Also thinking I need to get a earlier opening thermostat. The one I have opens at 186*, and it was suggested to me to get one that opens at 170ish and that should help to stabilize my temps a little better.
I also received my new Hyperco springs in 8/6kg and they are much better. Gonna be ordering some replacement tires for the front soon too so that my rear tires will be taller than the fronts, and then get the rear sway bar removed. I am making moves to getting this car to handle better in corners as it seems a bit unsettled in the corners now.
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I decided yesterday that I will be swapping everything over to a new chassis over the cold months. In a month or so, it will be too cold to drive the 7 around safely. I have an 88 base chassis that is almost in perfect condition, that I will drag into the barn and begin modifying for the spring.
The new chassis will hopefully end up with a nice shaved engine bay, plenty of heat protection on the underside (firewall, trans tunnel, etc.), nice paint (inside and out), all straight undented body panels. And the drivetrain from my current chassis after an engine rebuild, higher compression heads, long tube headers, improved exhaust design either with a modified grannys trans brace or maybe the Ronin piece. Considering also, a custom ground cam for the mods. I will swap over the subframes front and rear from my GXL, with the 5 lug hubs and turbo brakes, along with new suspension bushings that are long overdue.
I will probably end up with the poorboy long tubes one way or another. There seems to have been good stuff with the 94-95 5.0L Mustang headers, so maybe the pacesetters as they are cheap. Unfortunately it looks like they only come in 1 5/8" and not 1 3/4". We will see what happens.
All of this will give me a chance to improve on my "secondary subframe" that I built to support the radiator and the undertray that I havent made yet. I hadnt gone this far yet because I dont have the front bumper I want yet, and that the front end of the chassis currently with the swap is not straight from front end collisions.
As far as the engine goes, my main concern is to get the compression up to make better use of the midrange. With the 6.0 block and the 317 heads, especially with the cam I have, good power isnt really mad until about 4k rpm. There is also quite a bit of cam surge below 1800 rpm. I really dont wanna spend big bucks on new custom heads, so will probably just get 799 or 243 heads and I hear that is a better option than getting my current 317 heads milled for higher compression.
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Eek... Considering switching over to paddle shifted auto tranny. Took my brother for a ride the other day and he commented on how cool it would be to have paddle shifting. Now I think I wanna give that a shot. Put a thread up trying to get more intel on it.
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paddle shifting is gay. Other then that I like the build so far.
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paddle shifting is gay. Other then that I like the build so far.
Thanks.
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Looking good. Glad you got the springs swapped out too. I was wondering what you were doing about your radiator setup based on your questions in my thread. Are you going ot run a vent in the hood over your radiator?
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Looking good. Glad you got the springs swapped out too. I was wondering what you were doing about your radiator setup based on your questions in my thread. Are you going ot run a vent in the hood over your radiator?
wasnt planning on it. Just wanna get a radiator short enough to mount it straight up and down, with a fan/shroud combo on the back, and full, 4 sided ducting all the way to the bumper inlet. Thinking that will be more efficient, even with the smaller surface area radiator, than running the bigger one at a 45* angle and ducting.
Considering auto tranny now, so I will also need to consider a cooler for that into my new design..
Was just thinking, because of the large height of the radiator I have now, the top is almost on the waterpump pulley, and the bottom is touching the very bottom edge of the bumper inlet. With this arrangement, there isnt much room between the surface of the radiator and the structures behind the bumper. Effectively, there is no room for the high pressure air coming in to expand to low pressure before flowing through the radiator. The space that the air moves to once inside the bumper doesnt increase with volume, which I think not helping to promote movement from high pressure to low pressure.
So, in the new design, the ducting will go from the bumper inlet size and move smoothly to the entire surface area of the radiator with no bends for the air to travel. That should help flow of high pressure bumper inlet to low pressure radiator surface.
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Yea you should just copy my setup when you go to a new chassis. Right now you don't have anywhere for the air to go after it passes through the radiator, especially with the ducting for the intake. It may overheat when you start driving it hard.
Plus the intake is picking up the hot air wash off the radiator.
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Well the idea was that it would travel through the radiator and with the 45* angle, that the air would travel out the bottom of the engine bay in front of the engine. Not sure how thats working out, but I think my main problem right now is the lack of volume expansion (low pressure) to draw the air to the radiator.
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I got mine the opposite direction. My radiator tilts forward into the hood mount brace. The bottom comes close to the balancer. I still cant get my Taurus fan in there without rubbing on the WP pulley though.
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yeah... its a bitch... i thinks you got less space than me under that hood.
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I do actually but my radiator is only 13" tall. I fit it in there as to be right in front following the SA body lines.
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New stuff
I began on a fresh body, stripping and all that shit. Got a solid 8.8 to go in her.
(http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5593/img20120612141708.jpg)
Biggest issue with this so far, is that from where I have it blocked up at, it needs to go up another 4 inches to get to my desired ride height. There isnt that much room above the differential case.
(http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2069/img20120612141716.jpg)
The goal is a triangulate 4-link rear. Going to do the floor frame rails in something bigger and stronger, plate them in front and back. The rear of the frame rails should be around the right level for lower link mounts. The uppers, I am not so sure about yet. Really wanted to avoid cutting out the storage bins and part of the rear storage area to make this fit. But, it looks like that is whats going to happen. Mainly the stamped crossmember above the diff case that the factory diff mounted to, is in the way and limiting my ride height.
Other goals for this chassis are a removable front support frame to carry cooling apparatus' and undertray/splitter thing, turbo, nicer body panels than the ugly one I have now.
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Looks good so far. I'll be starting a very similar project very soon.
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I think I will revive my build thread from the back of the bus and start doing updates again. I kind of lost track of each step along the way and trying to document each part as I am a little scatterbrained and tend to jump around between interests.
A lot has happened since this build thread began. A lot. I think I might do a current status, and then try to back fill some of the gaps when I have time.
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The last update indicates that I was preparing to swap my drive train from the "the old bitch," as we sometimes refer to her as, to another body that was in much better condition. I really wish that I had chosen to begin this swap and build on a body that was in better condition to begin with. I also wish that I hadn't stripped the old bitch down to nothing, thinking I would appreciate a miserable ride for the sake of a lightweight street monster. There is something to be said for ride comfort. And the old bitch has none. I won't make that mistake again, I assure you.
Currently sitting as she does, the old bitch has more recently been referred to as "the death trap.". I'll get to that soon enough. She wears dark gray primer on all but the bumpers, sits on brand new 235/45/17 & 275/40/17 Nitto 555 extremes, on 17x9 mustang wheels, and she has never ridden so well. Although its still not perfect by any means, its pretty good for the death trap.
Just got some Powered by Max/GT Factory camber adjusters. Gonna install them and get this rear camber acceptable. As in more positive than the front wheels.
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(http://www.norotors.com/MGalleryItem.php?id=6527)
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[smg id=6528 type=preview align=center caption="IMG 20131113 155224"]
Here are the camber links for comparison.
Haven't measured actual new camber yet. The links I believe we're supposed to correct +1.5* of camber. For a 25.5" wheel that means the shoulder of the tire would move outward by 3/8", assuming the camber axis bisects the hub level like. Use the law of cosine for solving the sweep in degrees with the known Radius of the wheel and tie and the change in degrees.
I'm not sure if the fender roll I did last night to fit the 275's will be enough given the 3/8" more tire I just gained.
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[smg id=6553 type=preview align=center caption="voltagedrop"]
I have dealing with this stumble when my engine tries to switch over to idle. It doesnt always happen. It has been happening more since cold weather started.
Someone suggested voltage drop. I logged a screenshot of the situation.
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So I went to the tuner that initially tuned my car for some free tweaking. The idle needed work. I mentioned above, the annoying behavior. So I spent about 2 hours with the tuner where he got ride of some codes and worked solely on the idle behavior. Unfortunately, it isn't fixed, just different behavior that still stumbles and falls and dies.
He thought he had it, and it all seemed pretty good revving it up while parked and seemed to be decent on the test drive. However, just about every waking moment after that is shitty unless driving. The relatively consistent idle is now hunting a range of about 300 rpm, and drops low enough to allow the lights to dim.
I did some reading on tuning this engine family to learn more about it. I'm not sure what all the tuner did. He is not very interactive. Don't get me wrong, everything else about the tune seems spot on. He has a local reputation and has tuned about 100 cars supposedly. But I think something has him stumped about my idle.
He did ask what cam I had, I told him I didn't know but that it was supposed to be mild, and he responded with... Its bigger than you think it is. I don't know if that is an excuse or an admission that it is tough to tune a big cam.
Not sure what to do at this point. I have unlimited tweak sessions included, but I would think he should have gotten it right by now.
There seems to be a relationship with the idle and voltage. I cleaned up my battery terminals and will be checking my other grounds when I can get an hour without precipitation.