I noticed that the machine shop put one of the cam journal caps on backwards, so I pulled it off. They did a good thorough job cleaning up the scoring on cam and cap.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...53fb6f5b77.jpg

Accordingly, when I checked the cam/lifter clearances, they were all above the specified ranges. I think the cams are sitting a few thousands higher from the head due to the loss of a few thousandths of material from the polishing.

I got my valve compressor and lapping stuff. Going to start pulling and cleaning up valves, and lapping the seats. Afterwards the lifters should sit a few thousandths higher to the cams, and hopefully my clearances won't be as far off. I still foresee needing to order quite a few new shims to bring it back into spec.

Been busy, but working at this head in my spare time. Got a valve spring compressor and lapping tool, took the cams back off and started lapping valves.

The valves are cleaning up great and measuring in spec. The seats look really clean, and it only takes a small amount of lapping to get everything looking great. After lapping, the valve height is still right within factory spec.

My springs are a little short (62.1mm vs. 62.5mm spec). After much reading here, I've decided to go with the Summit VS-855 Volvo springs. The Supertech doubles were in the discussion, but I haven't read anything bad about the Volvo springs yet. I've decided to put the money into a BE oil pump and some forged rods. My plan is to stick with the stock BP05 pistons unless there's a good reason not to.

I'm still thinking that 220-230hp and 7500 rpm will be plenty. However, I've got the motor out now and it will be good to have the extra safety factor. I might as well just deal with it all now.

So this happened...



Maiden voyage on the track for Rocinante, and my first time on the track in 15 years. Did the SCCA Track Night in America, and had an absolute blast. The car ran like a champ. At this point I'm re-thinking my needs... maybe keep the stock 1.6L and do a low-boost turbo setup for reliability while I work on my driving skills. I can work on the 1.8L over time, and when I'm ready I'll do the swap.

I would just toss the 1.8L in without turbo to work on your skills if that's truly the intent. That will also save a huge amount of time and money that you can use for track time, consumables or things that you might find you would like to upgrade.

Getting a turbo kit in, running and without mechanical effort can sometimes be frustrating.

^ that is good advice. Unfortunately I probably won't follow it. I'm currently 100% set up to turbo the 1.6L from my previous SC build... Megasquirt, injectors, differential, clutch... it's a drop-in at this point. I've got 90% of an MKTurbo setup sitting in my garage, just waiting for a manifold from Lars. Will probably take me 4 hours to install, 3 of which will consist of mounting the intercooler. I can run wastegate pressure, probably have 180ish at the wheels, and figure it out as I go.

The 1.8 is currently in pieces all over my house. At this point I still have weeks/months of work ahead to get the motor ready to drop in. I'm halfway through the head work, and have to install the new stiffer Volvo springs and re-shim the lifters. I haven't taken the bottom end apart yet, but I have a set of Eagle rods and I'm trying to decide whether forged oil pump gears and upgraded harmonic balancer are worth it. I have two directions I can go with this build: either a burly turbo build, or a high-revving, higher compression NA build. I wasn't even considering NA before, but I'd like a few months on the track to be certain that I don't want to go that direction. If the "turbo junior" 1.6L turns out to be too much of a PITA, I still have the option of NA.

fwiw, the stuff you already have all works on a 1.8. just need the 1.8 together to put it in.

Shit's getting real y'all.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c8ff009f94.jpg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f5da75ac18.jpg

Fabbing up the mount for my Vibrant 12800 intercooler. I'm going to mount it to the two sturdy tabs in front of the radiator with the M6 nuts already welded in. Sure looks like those were put there specifically for mounting intercoolers.

I'm going to mount the intercooler using only the top two bolt holes, which should be plenty if I do it right. But M6 is a pretty small bolt, and the intercooler is not light. It will see quite a bit of eccentric cyclical loading, but fortunately it should be a short moment arm. I ordered Grade 9 M6 flange bolts from McMaster-Carr. Which is awesome, because their distribution center is here in Atlanta and parts usually arrive the day after I order them. I can even pick them up onsite if I feel motivated.

Picked up this piece of angle aluminum from Home Depot. It's light, but it's 1/8 thick and pretty sturdy.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8f61fc0aa9.jpg

If I use it as-is, it blocks the top two rows of the intercooler. Figured I'd cut it down but leave a 1/4 rib on the top to stiffen it. Arts and crafts time... angle grinders are fun.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2abf63da76.jpg

How does the saying go, measure once and cut twice? Sonofabitch. So stupid. Planned for the mounting holes on the car, didn't plan for the mounting holes on the intercooler.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2537186d77.jpg

Back to Home Depot for another piece of aluminum. I'm actually glad I botched this one, I realized there's things I should do differently. I'd like it to be a little stiffer, so I'm going to leave the rib longer and probably cover one row of intercooler with it. I'm also going to drill holes at the apexes of the cuts so I don't get those ugly slots/stress risers.

:bowrofl:

​​​​​

After getting another piece of angle aluminum from Home Depot and doing slightly less crack than I must have done before my last attempt, I gave it another whirl. Buy twice, measure six times, sleep on it overnight, then cut.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1ce978233c.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f647957690.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a702f256ad.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c083b32c54.jpg

I'm liking this a whole lot better, it's more rigid than my member after checking out the hot chicks thread.

Well I was feeling pretty good about bracket #2 until I mounted it. So far so good:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5c414c25de.jpg

Unfortunately, it was too low and interfered with the undertray. Not to be outdone, I flipped it around:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...93967f1b45.jpg

Too high, inlet and outlet interfered with frame rails. Looks like we're moving on to bracket design #3.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b726d02831.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a11b836542.jpg

11 gauge sheet steel. With my rudimentary caveman tools, these took me several hours to make. Worth it. Fit perfectly with the undertray.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...62cac9643c.jpg

... and the air guide, and the bumper, and the radiator.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3fdf8f8c9c.jpg

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...071d28a247.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5c923c4d64.jpg

Put the IAT and wastegate reference into the coldside end tank.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...71dc835100.jpg

I'm really glad I took the time to do this right. I've been dicking with it for better part of a week, but I'm still waiting for turbo parts anyway so I had nothing better to do.

Now on to piping...

I haz trubo. Doesn't work, but I haz it.

Been a shitty month since my last update. Work is kicking my ass, I've been traveling non-stop with little time to work on the car, which has been on jack stands for almost two months now. I finally, finally, finished installing all the turbo stuff. I really underestimated the time this would take, it's the little stuff like intercooler piping, oil lines, cutting air guides and undertrays, etc. I'm a diligent worker, but I'm very thorough and I'm not all that fast. I'm guessing this install took me 30+ hours total, with at least 50% of it being fabrication of intercooler mounts and piping.

Anyway, I had about an hour to finish up before leaving for a hockey game last night, and I thought it looked pretty good.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9ede588a40.jpg

Filled the fluids and started it up. Wouldn't turn over at first, but after cracking the throttle it started up. It runs, making good oil pressure, but I've got three issues that are stumping me.

- dripping coolant from behind the motor. This wasn't happening when I parked the car. I'm assuming this is something I did when I was monkeying with the reroute hose to redirect it around the intercooler piping. I hate working behind the head with these giant meat fists, but hopefully I'll be able to find it and it will be an easy fix.

- quite a bit of white smoke coming from the tailpipe at idle. I can't tell by odor if it's oil, coolant, gas, etc. Again, when I parked the car the motor was running amazingly well with no smoke. I check compression about 3 months ago, it was 180 in all cylinders. WTF??? Could it be that this is actually normal, but I'm used to seeing less smoke because I was running a catalytic converter before?

- most importantly, NO BOOST. When I rev, the manifold pressure gets up to atmospheric (zero) and no higher. I'm completely stumped here. Initially my wastegate actuator rod was pretty loose, I tightened it three full turns from neutral and I'm still getting no boost.

I've had no time to troubleshoot this stuff since starting the car last night. I started it again this morning and tuned idle at around AFR 14, still making the smoke. I'm sick and tired of this fukking project, I just want my car to run. Putting together a game plan, advice would be appreciated. Right now I'm thinking:

- check coolant for oil and oil for coolant, just to rule out a head gasket issue
- check all intercooler pipes to see if I popped a coupler or something. Wire wastegate shut.
- start data log, start car and let it run to warm up. Look behind head and try to find coolant leak. Rev car to get a good log.
- do compression test and inspect spark plugs. Leakdown if something looks fishy.

Smoke is smoke. Steam is coolant. It's an important distinction. Steam dissipates into the air and disappears but smoke lingers.

Why in the world would you expect the car to make boost while free-revving it?

Lol.

Maybe superchargers do? IDK.

Ha! Well that was a stupid question I suppose. I don't know dick about turbos, and it's not for lack of trying. SC's actually do make boost when revving, don't know why I thought it would be the same.
I need to get this POS off the jack stands and go for a drive.

OK, I think I’m done freaking out about my car for now. Finally put all the parts back on, got it off the jack stands, and got shit figured out.

The leaking coolant was because the remote thermostat housing from the M Tuned reroute kit had loosened a bit; easy fix. The smoke (it was definitely smoke) I’m still not sure about, but it’s much less after an hour of driving. I wonder if the Magnaflow muffler had some glass media or something inside that needed to burn off a bit.

The car makes boost. As expected, it’s coming on pretty well by around 3200rpm and seems to be full on by 4000. It’s a 1.6L after all. Now I need to fiddle with the wastegate actuator and BOV to get them set correctly, and do some tuning. I autotuned for a while tonight, and the car was running pretty great. Only issue is that if I go WOT, the motor stumbles badly. It feels like I’m hitting against the rev limiter. I need to look at the log and see if I can figure out what’s going on.

Damned overboost protection, set to 7psi fuel cut. Explains why it felt like it was slamming into the rev limiter. A year ago I must have been worried that my fire-breathing M45 would bend my rods.
The car is fine, the turbo is fine, and I'm a dumbass.

Have a pretty good tune going, and the car is so much fun. It's making great boost above 3500rpm, the spool is actually better than I expected after hearing all the naysaying about the 1.6L motor. The exhaust with the Big Maggie sounds fantastic, great tone and subtle noises until you get on the throttle.

I think I've also got some boost creep, as I set the overboost protection at 12psi and can still hit the limiter at WOT and high RPM. This weekend I'll wire the wastegate open to see, and probably do some more porting. The wastegate is plenty noisy when it starts to open up, hopefully some more porting will quiet it down some.

You excited to get back on the track with some trubro bewst?!?