Aston Martin V8 Vantage

[digitalsolo]

The old battery was 850 CCA/92AH, new one is 900 CCA/60AH.   It's a cell based, not pouch based which probably makes it heavier, but had good reviews and such overall and bolts in the stock spot.   I'm sure I could have gone lighter, but the weight I'm already saving was pretty awesome still.

As far as engines:

The old engine was a DOHC with a pretty big aluminum intake, but N/A.  Not quite Coyote sized, but not far off. 

[Exidous]

I think you'll be a wash at worst. The supercharger eats a lot of what you've gained on the scale but unsprung is huge.

[Cobranut]

Was the old engine supercharged? If the old motor was supercharged I'd expect to be 40-50lb lighter given all that you've replaced.

What AH was the old battery? 19lb for a lithium seems really big. Lithium has a much wider range range. You can run nearly half the AH and get the same result
The battery I'm using is about 7lb and cranks my LS7 like it's not even trying. Doesn't even drop below 11.5v cranking.

What battery are you using?
I've been thinking a small AGM and a capacitor bank for my race car, but a small lithium would be easier, as long as it works and the price isn't too bad.

[Exidous]

Was the old engine supercharged? If the old motor was supercharged I'd expect to be 40-50lb lighter given all that you've replaced.

What AH was the old battery? 19lb for a lithium seems really big. Lithium has a much wider range range. You can run nearly half the AH and get the same result
The battery I'm using is about 7lb and cranks my LS7 like it's not even trying. Doesn't even drop below 11.5v cranking.

What battery are you using?
I've been thinking a small AGM and a capacitor bank for my race car, but a small lithium would be easier, as long as it works and the price isn't too bad.

I'm using the Antigravity ATX-30-HD. For a race car you could get away with the 20 for sure. It's still 900amps. I just wanted the extra capacity.

[digitalsolo]

That ATX-30-HD looks impressive.   That may be the next battery for the Mustang if/when my Odyssey wears out.

[Venom13132]

I bought the JP3 Motorsports ATX-30-HD battery mount kit now I am second guessing that decision.  I am going to be running a Cammed LS3 with air conditioning and a regular stereo and standard electronics in the dash (speed hut and holley terminator).  It is going to be a street car that will see some track time.  Now I am concerned that I am going to kill a bunch of batteries with this setup.  I haven't purchased the battery yet at least, so there is time to change direction.

[Exidous]

I bought the JP3 Motorsports ATX-30-HD battery mount kit now I am second guessing that decision.  I am going to be running a Cammed LS3 with air conditioning and a regular stereo and standard electronics in the dash (speed hut and holley terminator).  It is going to be a street car that will see some track time.  Now I am concerned that I am going to kill a bunch of batteries with this setup.  I haven't purchased the battery yet at least, so there is time to change direction.

I'm using that mount. As long as you have a good alternator and aren't expecting to run your stereo with the engine off for long periods it'll be fine. The only caveat, they don't like being over 14.4-14.6v. I have mine externally regulated with the ECU to 14.2v. It also ramps in the current draw over 1 min so it doesn't want to kill anything. Using an JS Alternators 250A unit. 2 wire.
I've had my car sit for 3 weeks and the battery was still good. Granted it's all off the PDM so the only draw is the standby mode. Under 30mA or so.

[Venom13132]

I bought the JP3 Motorsports ATX-30-HD battery mount kit now I am second guessing that decision.  I am going to be running a Cammed LS3 with air conditioning and a regular stereo and standard electronics in the dash (speed hut and holley terminator).  It is going to be a street car that will see some track time.  Now I am concerned that I am going to kill a bunch of batteries with this setup.  I haven't purchased the battery yet at least, so there is time to change direction.

I'm using that mount. As long as you have a good alternator and aren't expecting to run your stereo with the engine off for long periods it'll be fine. The only caveat, they don't like being over 14.4-14.6v. I have mine externally regulated with the ECU to 14.2v. It also ramps in the current draw over 1 min so it doesn't want to kill anything. Using an JS Alternators 250A unit. 2 wire.
I've had my car sit for 3 weeks and the battery was still good. Granted it's all off the PDM so the only draw is the standby mode. Under 30mA or so.

Ok well this helps.  I think I can regulate it with the Holley Terminator.  I will not be running the stereo with the car off ever most likely because I am not putting a fancy stereo in the car.   I have the stock 1SS LS3 alternator.  Maybe I will upgrade that.  The car will be on a tender when sitting for more than a day.

[digitalsolo]

Made a little more progress on the car this weekend.  Right now it's the "100 small things that each take way too long" stage.

Built a bracket for the vacuum pump and mounted it up to the core support area.   I also found an adapter for it to let me tie it to the OEM booster.  I do need to find a check valve as I think I sent mine off with the engine when I sold it.  Whoops.

Finished the fuel feed, minus being short one "acorn" for the PTFE hoses.   I -swear- I bought a whole -6 kit for this car since I needed some for the tranny coolers out back as well, but I guess I didn't.  So fittings/hose coming for that.   It ended up much easier to mount the pressure sensor and adapt to AN lines up front vs. the rear, so I did that.   Saves me having to run wires 6' back to the tank area for the feed pressure sensor anyway.   So fuel lines done (mostly).

Next up was the tranny/diff coolers.   The car had one in the back already that won't work for my needs, so I deleted it and the bracket and started fitting a couple of small Mishimoto units.   Just before I started on brackets, it occurred to me that I might want to make sure the muffler cleared them.   I'd kinda been avoiding this as I wasn't 100% sure it would clear my rear subframe mods.   It did clear the subframe (with tons of space) but 100% would have hit my coolers if I put them side by side in the rear.

Glad I checked.  Instead I'm now going to put the transmission fluid cooler in the "stock" spot on a new bracket, and put the diff cooler behind the driver side rear wheel, with a vent added to the wheel liner to get it some air.  It won't get a ton, but honestly both of those coolers are probably overkill on my car anyway, so I expect it'll be just fine.

I'm intending to get a lot done on the long weekend.   I'll have the hoses I need this week (along with some nuts and bolts I was short on) to finish the trans/diff coolers.  The diff cooler bracket is already finished, and just needs the hoses, and the tranny cooler needs the muffler dropped back out and a simple bracket made.   All of that, plus putting the heat shields/brackets/etc. back in place should only take 2-3 hours total, and will finish the plumbing that needs done to start the car.

I am going to upgrade the fuel pump, but again, I don't need to do that to get the car going, so that will be addressed once I'm sure the main bits are good.  That leaves wiring work, which will be the main project next weekend.  It really doesn't look too bad, but we'll see how close my theory aligns with reality.    I do have a small side project putting a cam in an L99 for a friend's BRZ swap in progress, but that should only take a few hours to do (engine is on a pallet currently).

This thing might make (very loud) noise soon.   Once it runs, I still need to:

Build half-shafts (mock-up)
Have real half-shafts made
Poly bushings in front suspension
Reinstall front suspension
Bolt check rear suspension
Upgrade fuel pump
Finish engine breather system
Vacuum check/charge A/C
Bleed clutch
Bleed brakes
Fabricate exhaust mid-pipes
Clearance/tweak under floor brackets
Finish coding/install my CAN translator for the gauges
Take it for an alignment

I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but it's close.  I still have a few things to buy, but most of the damage is done.   Definitely the most expensive project I've worked on so far from a swap perspective.

[digitalsolo]

Running through the list of what's "must have" in order to start the car.   My plan is to get it to start/run and not make terrible noises, then follow up with putting the front suspension together, fill/bleed A/C, brakes, clutch, etc. once I don't have any obvious need to rip the drivetrain back out of it.

Here's what I'm thinking:

Finish trans and diff cooler mounts/hoses.
Finish fuel hose (1x fitting needs installed).
Change oil filter/fill oil
Fill transmission
Fill diff
Chassis Wiring -> I have about 30 wires total on the chassis side that need addressed to start the car.  I'm planning to drop a connector onto the CAN side to allow me to hook up my gauge controller, wideband gauge and CAN data controller.  I also need to run wires back to the transmission for reverse lock out and VSS, make a sub-harness to power up the intercooler pump, vacuum pump and A/C pressure sensor, and a small harness to run to the fuel pressure sensor.
Fuel system control -> This is a slightly more involved thing as I need to wire up the new fuel pump controller (including finding a path for CAN data wires), and hook up the MSD fuel pump voltage booster.
Power wiring -> The Aston has a stud under the wheel well for power distribution (how handy) that I will connect a link to the starter, fuse box and alternator to.   I also need to ground the engine and transmission.  I'm going to type that again so I remember.  GROUND THE DRIVETRAIN. 

There is a slim chance I could finish that out this weekend and be able to put a start-up tune on the car and fire it off.   That'd be pretty sweet.

I bought a 14point7 "Spartan 3" kit for wideband, BTW.

[Exidous]

Any reason to not run a small piggyback ecu for all the ancillaries like the fuel pump and wide band?

[digitalsolo]

Why though?  Honest question.

The GM Fuel Pump Driver Module (FPDM) talks to the ECU and is configurable via HP Tuners, and the wideband runs back on the engine CAN bus and I'll be able to read that with HP Tuners as well.   I don't know that a piggyback gets me anything I don't have already with the OEM setup.

To be clear, I'd rather run a Haltech standalone or something, but the Holley was "meh" for the costs, and no one else seems to have anything under 7-8K plus lots of tuning effort.

[Exidous]

It seemed like you had more that you had to figure out for control and a piggyback could act as a CAN message gateway between the GM and Aston stuff. I was thinking much smaller that a V8 ECU. More like a MaxxECU Sport or Mini. It could also act as the data logger.

[digitalsolo]

It seemed like you had more that you had to figure out for control and a piggyback could act as a CAN message gateway between the GM and Aston stuff. I was thinking much smaller that a V8 ECU. More like a MaxxECU Sport or Mini. It could also act as the data logger.

Fair.   With a Holley I'd still have to do the CAN gateway, the Maxx -might- let me output enough custom CAN to run my gauges/stock stuff, but I think I'd still have to put in the gateway with that, too, and then I'd need to tie into a bunch of OEM sensors (or add additional ones).

I'd still have to control the fuel pump with the GM ECU as well, since it needs to PWM it to maintain fuel pressure.   I guess I could build a custom PWM setup via the Maxx, etc. but I don't think that's less work than running the GM bits.

If Maxx could easily do standalone of direct injection, I'd totally have done that, though.

[digitalsolo]

Made a bit more progress this weekend.   Less than I hoped due to competing commitments, but it is what it is.

Fuel lines are done.
Trans and diff coolers are mounted, lines are run.
Integration of the wiring is mostly finished.

I put the lithium battery in the car and lightly mounted it, then turned power back on in the chassis and tested that my security system bypasses seem to work (they do), and that my start button lights up the right color (it does).   I think I might be lighting my "start button" red whenever I press the clutch down, but I'll look at adding a control for that in the CAN gateway at a future date as that's pretty easy to do.

Next:
Add fuel line pressure sensor (need a connector)
Finish integration between the front harnesses (need a connector and a little soldering/crimping/glue shrink)
Run the wiring for the wideband through the firewall grommet.
Run the wiring for the fuel pump module through the firewall grommet.
Mount/wire the fuel pump module and MSD voltage booster.
Ground block to chassis
Ground trans to chassis
Wire starter solenoid (extend Aston starter relay wiring to GM starter)
Wire starter/alternator power (build a couple of main power leads)

That should, in theory, be enough to let me wake up the ECU and talk to it via HP Tuners, and disable VATS, etc.   I'll do a voltage check on the ECU to make sure I'm not going to fry it first. 

Then...
Engine oil
Transmission oil
Diff oil
Pressure test fuel system
Vacuum/pressure test cooling system
Vacuum/pressure test supercharger cooling system
Bleed brakes/clutch

Test fire!

Oh, and I really need to get those half-shafts done.  Once it's running I'll put suspension back together and start sorting out A/C CAN control wiring, CAN gateway, cooling fans/vacuum pump/intercooler pump/A/C sensors/etc.