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Is that a misfire or the dyno having a heart attack?
Love the build pat, a very fulfilling read over that last day or so, gotta be the largest I've read front to back.
A few pages back discussing your intake couplers and such, have you ever considered TriClamp sanitary type couplers, I find them rather attractive and useful for the intake side of things. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-TRI-Cl...sAAOSwkttZYNiQ
Is that a misfire or the dyno having a heart attack?
Love the build pat, a very fulfilling read over that last day or so, gotta be the largest I've read front to back.
A few pages back discussing your intake couplers and such, have you ever considered TriClamp sanitary type couplers, I find them rather attractive and useful for the intake side of things. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-TRI-Cl...sAAOSwkttZYNiQ
I'm glad you found it enjoyable to read! We're up to 1,500 post now, sot that is getting pretty big to read front to back. I have not seen those connectors before, that is pretty interesting. I will look more into those, thanks for the links!
I haven't done much to the car, just been driving and enjoying it. Took a friend of mine for a ride at 35 PSI on a cold day, that was hilarious. Actually thinking about doing some bodywork/painting next instead of more power. The car is a 99 and has original paint, and that original paint is tired. Front bumper has a million rock chips, pretty much every panel has a scratch and a dent somewhere. Next time I have a day off I'm going to do some research and put together an estimate for time and materials it would take to do a very thorough DIY body restoration/repair and paint job. I want it to look better than new when finished, and I dunno if I can DIY that.
The car is a 99 and has original paint, and that original paint is tired. Front bumper has a million rock chips, pretty much every panel has a scratch and a dent somewhere. Next time I have a day off I'm going to do some research and put together an estimate for time and materials it would take to do a very thorough DIY body restoration/repair and paint job. I want it to look better than new when finished, and I dunno if I can DIY that.
It is possible, but realistically, time will be the killer rather than cost, even including a decent high quality paint gun (Devilbiss GTK or similar), $1k should be sufficient, depending on paint choice/color/brand.
If you want to go with a custom/non-OEM color, I enjoy https://www.paintwithpearl.com/ added to standard 2k paints.
My favorite clearcoat is from SpiesHecker Spies Hecker Clear Coats
If your going with an OE color, or not color changing at all, it maybe worth hitting up some local paint/panel shops, depending on the owner they may be happy to sell you a 1lt/qt pot of paint, mixed to your/OE specs, if you take the car with you they may even color match it
For the best finish at home, or outside a panelshop and paint booth, prep is key, not just prepping the car, which should take about 30-40 manhours, but prep of wherever you're going to paint, ceiling to floor plastic, non-directional heater of some kind.
Outside all that just prime - guide coat - prime - guidecoat until you have it perfectly flat, sadly these days given how time consuming this process is, most modern panel shops simply remove and replace, rather than fix anything at all, something to consider IE. your bumper.
I've been busy with other things, haven't done much with the car. I want to make some changes to it in the future though. Just been stupid busy. I don't think I've even logged in for months. I need to check in more often!
I've gotten some new tools I can use to fabricate some fancy parts. So I'm tempted to do a V2.0 of the whipple setup. Redo the whole thing with much higher quality, and better designs that would be more reliable, easier to service, and make more power. Basically I think the car running 30 or so PSI with a blower, with the auto and strong rear end/axles, would be awesome on a drag strip. The turbo setup makes the power, but staging in sucks compared to a blower car by a lot. The blower was also a lot easier to pedal if it spun, backing out of it with a turbo kills your time from the loss of spool. Blower wouldn't make the power of the turbo setup though, but I may be ok with that for a while.
Hopefully I'll have an awesome update for you guys one day!
I just read through this thread in it's entirety (took a few days lol) and holy ****!
Pat, many more respeKs for you. Amazing work, design, and inspirational progress. When you started getting the new tranny parts I could feel the excitement. I love this build.
Vlad nailed it though... After going through all that and no Dyno? It's like reading a book and the last chapter is missing. It's like watching a good show that planned for four seasons bit got cancelled after two. It's like James Bond completing his mission saying his line to the girl, she smiles and just... Walks away leaving him standing there.
Go do a dyno run, renew your inspiration and start this crazy roller coaster back up!
Been planning to make some changes to improve the car in some way. Had plenty of time to think about it, so I made some decisions, I will explain...
The compound turbo setup worked pretty well as originally designed. It had a small front turbo (2860 i think, 47 or 49mm inducer) and it light off quick, giving the car a lot of midrange torque and response. Then the big turbo hit around 5-6k and it pulled like hell to 9K where it would eat main bearings. I killed the 2860 from overspinning it (trying to get more midrange) so I went to a 3076, did the same thing, killed it cause I wanted more midrange. Then killed another. Finally after nuking 3 front turbos all for the same reason (pushing them harder to improve midrange) I put the EFR 7670 up front. No surprise that turbo has lived and is a lot more appropriate. However the EFR 7670 is twice the turbo of the original 2860, so there's really no point in having a big rear turbo if I'm running the EFR. I tried different settings with the EFR and GT45, but it seemed the rear turbo is just a restriction now that I have the EFR up front. So off it comes!
Also in hindsight, the original front turbo sizing was about right, but the rear turbo sizing was too big. And electric oil pumps are a giant hassle, and I never was happy with any of them. Was my first compound turbo setup, so there were mistakes made.
Today I pulled the rear turbo and associated pipes/exhaust/WG/oil feeed/pump/oil return/air filter/etc. It's all off the car.
I figure the EFR should be enough turbo anyway. Gonna buy the RPM sensor for it and datalog it, and turn up the boost till I hit 110k, then 120k, and see how that feels. 110-120k is the max RPM that full race recommends for reliablity, even though the chart goes to 140k. So if it's not fast enough at 120k, either push it a bit more, or some nitrous to pad the top end. I already got a bottle from a friend. May put that on anyway just for extra fun.
Another note, my A/C compressor has a slow leak. This spring, my A/C was not working! I knew the comp had a tiny leak, well after a few years it's out of freon. The rear mounted condenser had mixed results. In weather from 90°F and below, it was excellent, I could get 40-45°F vent temps at full fan speed. However in Houston summers where it goes to 100°F and higher, it didn't get enough cool air to condense all the freon. The main reason this was a problem was because the air going to the back of the car is hotter from the intercooler/trans cooler/radiator dumping heat under the car.
So I'm putting a condenser in the front again, buying a new compressor, and see how things go. I think for now just going to stick one up there and run it.
There are two plans. First is delete rear turbo, make a few repairs and upgrades, and then finish the season out with that. Then the winter plan will include some more upgrades.
Immediate repairs/upgrades
Delete rear turbo
Surface header flange flat, both flanges.
Install front ac condenser
Replace a/c compressor
vac and charge
Fab new exhaust system*
remove and clean charge pipes/intercooler, reinstall
Design/fab/install new fan controller (or buy one)
Replace bad fuel pump with new one (friend bought it for me, it's nice having good friends)
Buy/install RPM sensor for turbo.
Build/fab a circuit to monitor turbo RPM sensor.
Reseal trans oil pan, install new filter and fluid
Install new trans dip stick.
Winter upgrades/repairs
Figure out how to fit 1 stock fuel pump, and two 450's into tank, stage in the $$$ pumps, drive around with a stock pump.
Compressed air spool setup.
Upgrade oil cooler lines to larger/new hoses.
Engine rebuild (current motor test at 144 to 150 PSI, so pretty tired
Get car painted.
Also I should note, I now have a CNC mill so I can fab some pretty cool parts! I have 22" x 6" x 12" of travel, so I can do a good amount of things with that. It can cut steel, aluminum, etc and hit around 0.001" to 0.002" tolerance on a 4" OD.
I'm also considering buying an alpha TIG 201XD, and then building my new exhaust out of stainless. Oh yeah, forgot about the * earlier.
* New exhaust will probably be stainless if I buy a TIG, not sure if I can fit anything bigger than 3", will have to look. Need to google aluminum exhaust, I remember reading a few people doing that for the back half sometimes, not sure if that's a good idea. Also new exhaust will have some new muffler, the one on the car now is heavy and LOL quite. My friends joke all the time cause it's quieter than stock. New exhaust will have the WG dump to atmosphere.
01-04-2018, 10:52 PM
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