Griff turbo LFX NA-6 build
 

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0ef1271e9e.jpg
Got a box in the mail just before heading to the the east coast for a week for work.

Status so far:
1990 trashed donor car $500
2015 LFX (Stock internals)
E39 ECU (HPTuners)

Originally built the car for ripping through the canyons of Colorado and it was a blast. Relocated to TX where the straights are LONG and every other car is a vette so now it is time to add some boost.

The LFX is great down low and a brilliantly balanced match for the miata chassis. I have driven several v8 miatas before and I would do the LFX over a v8 every time. My only complaint is that the LFX slacks off a bit on the top end which left me wanting the top end to be just as much fun as pulling out of a turn. Enter the need for boost...

First step was to get it dialed in on e85 which was pretty straightforward. Since the LFX is a relatively high compression motor, in stock trim, I wanted to get the e85 going so that knock retard was not my limiting factor once I introduced boost. Plenty of threads on how to do that out there but if you need a part number just PM me.

I really wanted to go SC but there is just no freakin room up there unless I pull a Passey and tube frame everything in front of the towers. I'd be willing to bet he goes that way on HyperMiata at some point so I will let him tread those waters far better than I ever could. I decided on the Comp Turbo Oil-less CT3693S-6265 with a .96 A/R. I researched this a TON which normally means I researched it SOOO much that I probably screwed up in my selection....always seem to happen that way, but such is life. Hopefully this combo will not be too restrictive on the bottom and come on at full boost around 4k. I didn't want to mess with oil lines and such so I figured I would give the oil-less a go. Rumor seems to indicate that the older oil-less units were not all that reliable but the 3.0s have been pretty solid and even among those really beating on them. Only time will tell the tale...

More to come and I know how much you all fiend for pics so more of those to come as well once I get back home and get the project rolling.

Oh yea... Also moving to 245/40 r15s and adding a CCP Fab fastback because I enjoy embarrassing corvettes and confusing people. ;-)

When excess is barely adequate!

Freaking perfectly sums up almost every project I have ever had.. LOL. Drives my wife CRAZY.

Not ten minutes ago my Wife said; "What if it runs crummy when you put the turbo on it?" What, has that ever happened?

It does when someone runs the wrong turbo or bad management like bandaids.

I've been hoping to see someone to do this on a Miata. Looking forward to seeing the results!

Glad you said that sixshooter. I'm not much on documenting my projects because there are many folks that are much smarter than I am out there that are better suited to be followed, but I think this will be a possible desire from people that do the LFX swap. The bottom end is just sooooo damn good it leaves you wanting more of the same up top.

My goal is to find a turbo that spools later and gives me the best of both worlds. Who knows if I will achieve that goal but I plan to share what I learn along the way.

I should also add that this is the first time I have ever taken a NA motor to FI so this build will probably get sideways LONG before the car does under boost.

Where in Texas are you? What size turbo are you using?

Super stoked to see this happen!

subbed.

Like ... patching a bad Begi ecu reflash with a aem piggyback on my MSM
+
expecting it to make lots of power and having oem drivability

yea

I'm guilty of that loll :dunno: boii I was delusional

--------

Btw OP I subbed to your build , it's not a setup I'm looking forward to do , but I like looking at this kinds of build :winner:

Funny how crazy has a way of getting attention.... LOL. I'm not much for attention so I doubt I will do my level of crazy here any justice.

I got the fastback in over the weekend so I am currently trying to get it ready for paint. As you can see from the mess I have going on...most all of the turbo parts are in so I will get started very soon.

As far as the fastback goes, Paul at CCP Fab obviously does great work. I know the look is not for everyone, but if you like it you can not go wrong with CCPs craftsmanship. Looks like it will just require a bit of tweaking in the trunk lip, and a bit of sanding to even out the gap lines to make it a perfect fit.

If anyone is interested in some detail on fitting the fastback, let me know and I will do a bit more documentation on it than I had planned to do.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4851915110.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...49c3aa0b81.jpg
Well it is official.... I have created a MONSTER.

First test drive around the block taking it VERY easy since there is much tuning to be done still. I can already tell though that street tuning is NOT going to be an option!

We need many more pictures in this thread!

More to come for sure.... I just wanted to let the cat out of the bag that it is done and it is a remote mount so folks can start getting their hate comments prepared. LOL I had to get pretty creative on this phase but I just barely got into the boost and I can already tell it was worth it! Need to rent some dyno time but I have a competition this weekend so it may not be until next weekend before I can really see what we are looking at.

I have it on wastegate pressure alone for now (7psi spring) and the first log log shows it was already at 3psi @ 2997 and rising. I will for sure need to push that out with the boost controller to reach my original goal but I am learning as I go. The good part is that my AFRs were looking pretty good already with my SWAG values. I am thinking that I may run out of fuel but I already have a plan if that proves to be true.

The overkill supercharger setup that is good for about 450whp only needs an upgraded fuel pump and one stage colder plugs. Injectors are good to go since they are already set up for the higher flow rate of E85. If you go to a DW300 series pump that should be fine unless you are chasing crazy power numbers.

:: Overkill Motorsports ::

What are you doing for an intercooler?

I am currently running the DW 255 fuel pump so I will see how far it takes me. For now I am thinking I will end up close to 500 wheel. Depending on how this does at the track once I get it dialed in I may build another motor with LF4 internals and really see what I can break.

For the IC I used this one. I probably could have gone a bit bigger but so far my IATs have been WAY cooler than they ever were NA with my filter under the hood. The best thing I ever did for the LFX prior to this upgrade was to relocate the filter in front of the radiator.

I'll put some documentation together with photos this weekend to give you all a better idea of what was done so far. I have a TON to learn on how to safely tune a FI car so the progress from here may be a little slow.... I love the research and R&D as much as I love the going fast part so I'm not going to rush it.

Last thing to do is add a muffler and tailpipe and man does this thing need a muffler!!! Only problem is I have no room to wind it to the factory tailpipe cutout so I'm thinking about putting it out behind the rear tire. The empty cutout is going to drive me crazy though if I do that so I need to think about it a bit more...

Easy enough to fill that tailpipe cutout; especially after all the fab work you are doing. Than you can rout it where it makes most sense.

Huge props for going into uncharted territory with this, I've only seen shop installed turbo LFX setups. How much $$$ do you think you have into the turbo kit?

I hate you btw... you are gonna end up making me do this on my car. :fawk:

What 245's do you plan on getting? I ended up going to RC1's but haven't had a chance to test them yet.

OK....
Finally getting a chance to document a bit of the build phase. I only plan to stick to the hi-lights on the fab work because the goal of this thread was to really focus on the performance of the LFX and to see if I could achieve my original goal of improving the top end of the LFX.

I will walk my way though the fab process from the exhaust to the intake and please let me know if any of you would like any additional details, photos or part numbers.....

I used 2.25" tubing from the downpipes to a merge to a single 3" tube with a v band just after the diff. I put a single flex joint from Treadstone on one of the 2.25 lines to allow the exhaust to settle without making the v bands leak. I am just going to state once for the record that I really hate v bands...

I used this v band to T4 flange to mate the exhaust to the turbo.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e3e26057d2.jpg


I ended up going with the Comp Turbo Oil-less CT3693S-6265 with a .96 A/R. Not sure if the oil-less was the way to go but it made the install pretty "easy" since I didn't need to mess with oil lines, scavenger pump, etc...etc.. This turbo does require water lines though to prolong the life of the unicorn grease they use in the turbo. I just simply tied into my heater core lines and ran a supply and return line to the turbo. Couple of -10 fitting and I was done with the turbo and hot-side of things. I also used this wastegate.

I used 2.5" alu tubing and various silicone bends to make the run back to the front of the car.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c7604c058a.jpg


I could not find a path I was happy with inside the frame rails so I decided to run the pipe on the outside of the frame rails on the passenger side. I was not excited about having soft alu hanging down below the frame rails so I decided to make that section out of 2.5" oval stainless tubing like this. They only sell it in 18" lengths so I just bought 3 and welded them together. Welded on a few mounting brackets and mounted it to the car.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0b76a01433.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d091dd8029.jpg



I was originally thinking the route through the front suspension was going to be a pain but it turned out to be a piece of cake.

Ended up using this inter cooler. I could have fit a larger unit but my intake temps have been amazing so far so I see no need to take up the room and add the weight at this point.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cafe3feebc.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...02cb853296.jpg


There is just barely enough room to route the line back up to the intake and I decided to put the BOV in that section. I am not happy with some of the clearances in that section of the tubing but I will work on those as time permits. For now everything is in a location that should not cause any issues.

Made a little panel to cover up the hole and keep air moving where it should.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...41a98a1518.jpg


I laid under the car for a long time and though long and hard about the tailpipe situation. After several pie cuts and what felt like miles of TIG beads I was able to get the tailpipe out the original spot in the bumper!


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ce414f43d8.jpg


I decided to control the wastegate with the Innovate SCG-1. The install of the gauge, solenoid and MAP sensor were all straight forward but happy to answer any questions if you would like to know more. MAP was mounted under the dash and solenoid was mounted in the trunk. Also added a few check valves to the catch can setup to keep from pressurizing the crankcase and hopefully provide it with plenty of vacuum in and out of boost.

I built a little cap and section of tubing to pressure test the entire charge side. I hit it with 25psi, more that I will ever throw at it, and found one leaking coupler and a pin hole leak in the oval tubing. Welded up the hole and tightened the clamp and buttoned it all back up.

Now it was time to do a bit of tuning.

The initial startup was pretty nerve racking for me. This is my first time to turbo a car and I am still learning how to tune. I have come a long way but tuning the LFX is a nightmare! It didn't want to idle at all but after tweaking the VVE tables a bit I was able to get it to idle pretty well in open loop mode.

Did a few laps around the block and stayed CLEAR of any boost to get some low end data from the mass airflow sensor to get started tuning the closed loop side of things. I got it pretty well dialed in and then added a fair amount of fuel across the board to keep it safe for adding a bit of boost. Pulled into the garage and put her up in the air to double check everything.

I disable the boost controller to keep it on wastegate spring pressure alone and made a short run in 4th gear allowing the car to just get into boost slowly. AFRs looked good but I was seeing a bit of knock retard in a few spots. I dialed the timing back a few degrees in a few spots and repeated the process a few more times until I was not seeing and KR spikes in the logs.

After feeling like I had things relatively safe to do a full boost test I scooted around the corner to my favorite long straight(ish) stretch of road. Reset my logs and checked everything one more time and set the SCG-1 to record peak boost....

I gently got the car up to 4th gear and took a quick glance over to make sure I was recording and rolled into the throttle...... HOOOOOO LEEEEEE SHIT!!!

I backed out of the throttle at 6,400 RPM just to give my brain a chance to catch up. Looked down and it showed 5.1 psi of boost was achieved before redline. I pulled over to have a look at the logs just to make sure my AFRs were not going lean anywhere and we didn't have any detonation being detected. All looked good. I made another run and let it hit redline this time. Same 5.1 so it looks like the WG is able to maintain steady boost.

I turned the SCG-1 controller back on and started to set up the desired duty cycle and safety values to prevent lean conditions and over boost. Made a few more passes and stopped at 6psi for now.

I can say..without a doubt... that I have already achieved my goal. The car pulls just as hard as it did before on the bottom end and gets downright scary on the top end!

After several hard runs back to back I headed home to closely look at the logs and get the car back up in the air again to verify nothing was rubbing or coming loose.

Logs show the Intake temps are only 3-5 deg over outside temp and the AFRs stay at a solid and safe .83 lambda in PE mode.

Next steps are to get some dyno time to see what we have done overall power wise but I will be surprised if it is not doing 450ish at the wheels with a very safe 6psi. If I stopped right now I would be happy but we ALL know I won't be doing any such thing. ;-)

More to come once I finally get her to the track in the coming weeks.....

oh yea... of course I have a small leak in a v band I need to resolve. Did I mention I hate v bands?

Baller and thanks for posting up all the info!

When you get ready to order yours, and we all know you will, let me know LukeG. I'll get you in touch with the right guy! ;-)

Very curious about your feedback on the oil-less turbo. I haven't really heard of them before your post and was looking into it. I've been debating a dual front mount setup with GT2560's. The exhaust flanges/mounts seems like they would be easy to machine and set it up like the LF4. I've got way more room than you since it is an exocet. What are your thoughts on that too?

If I had the room I would have 100% gone with a SC and a crank mount at that. A twin turbo setup would be fun as hell but I'm not sure I would go that route if I planned to track the thing. I've been in a few TT cars and the transition to boost is generally too much too soon which makes the car a hand full coming out of corners and on long sweepers. I'm sure you could make it manageable with a really good boost controller though. I though for sure the LFX was going to be a pain in the ass and fight me the whole way on the tuning side of things but the motor actually seems to love a little boost. Guessing that is why they decided to use it in the ATS V. I think if you decide to TT yours, I would for sure change out the rods and pistons to LF4 hardware because the prices are really pretty damn affordable from the dealer.

Left Pistons : 12641602 - Cost: $66.70 Trade: $90.78
Right Pistons: 12641603 - Cost: $66.70 Trade: $90.78
LF4 Ti Rods: 12652977 - Cost $370.24/e Trade: $504.03/e
LF3 Steel Rods:12641607 - Cost $27.38/e Trade $37.27
LF4 Crank: 12653000 - Cost $501.64 Trade: $682.73

FWIW, The LF4 & LF3 use the same pistons/crank, and the only differences between an LF3 is the titanium rods in the LF4,
and the LF4 turbos use a specific turbine wheel that is very light, but they are otherwise identical housings and compressors.
They use the same ECM, heads, cams, pump etc.

The LF4 is just 2 different PN's and a different tune to run higher boost.

Interesting, thanks for the info! Very curious to see what Ryan has up his sleeve, but from what I have seen the Overkill supercharger kit seems like a great piece of hardware, albeit expensive. I had plans to go E85, but there are only two gas stations in Austin that carry it and the closest is 30 minutes away from me. If you ever make it to Austin please hit me up. Would love to chat more.

How are the Vr1's holding up? I had traction issues at 250whp, so ended up going to RC1's in the hopes that I can put the power down. What rear gears are you running?

I am running a LSD 3:23. Damn thing was HARD to find too in Colorado.

So far I for sure get better traction over the NeoGens and they seem to be providing solid traction. They seem to "float" a bit more than I would like but I need to check my alignment again before I blame the tires.

I pulled the hell out of my flares before I painted the car and I just need a little bit more to clear these.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f94dfacb59.jpg

Will hit you up for sure if I am up towards Austin and do the same if you find yourself down here in Houston.

Car is looking great and I'll definitely hit you up next time I'm in Houston.

I was able to seal up the v band leak today with one of these. Worked great and I will be putting one in every v band I install going forward. I have tried several ways of welding them on but unless you are willing to spend the time to make a jig to keep them from warping you will never get them to seal properly. These gaskets should do the trick for 99% of the leaking v bands out there. I also have found that if you use some copper anti-seize in the band and on the threads of the t bolt they seem to seal up MUCH easier.

Now on to a front splitter and full flat bottom....

Sorry for not getting dyno results in the thread sooner, but my relationship status with the miata went from "its complicated" to "married with dog and kids in the suburbs". It is currently getting a full cage, fire system and various other items.... As soon as those are done, I have an appointment with a professional tuner to get it 100% dialed in and actual HP number to see where we landed.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3f36217c6c.jpg
The caterpillar...... butterfly coming soon.....

Took her out for her first track day since the cage and turbo and this is a COMPLETELY different car now with the cage. I expected the chassis to be stiff but wasn't sure what that would really mean or feel like. Before the car would flex a bit and it was clear when you were on the verge of the tires cutting loose and you could play in a pretty wide safe zone of control. The car now has significantly more traction until it has ZERO! Caught me off guard the first lap I really started to push the car. By the end of the day I was starting to get used to it so it will just take me learning to feel new zone in the car. I also had a noticeable amount of understeer which the car never really had before. Going to play with the aero and alignment a bit to see if we can remedy that.

The turbo is adding a fair bit of heat into the cooling system. Pushing the car really hard in the heat of the afternoon pushed the temp gauge up to 260. I exited that session and skipped the next one to let the car cool off.

Overall the car did pretty well in her first real shakedown. After getting the car back home and up in the air I looked over EVERYTHHING. I found one bolt that was trying to come loose and one spot where the chassis was rubbing on an intercooler pipe. I fixed those up and set out to fab up a cooler for the turbo in the back of the car.

I ended up ordering one of these coolers. I knew I wanted it right after the turbo before the coolant started its journey back to the engine but wasn't sure if I wanted it in the trunk lid, like a Porche, or the license plate area.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d51bdbd562.jpg

The lid would have been pretty straight forward but would have required a support structure to be fabbed up in the trunk.

The license plate area looked like a near perfect fit and I could mount the cooler to the body. I wasn't sure how the aero would impact the cooler in the ducktail and someone guided me to Emilio's "Vegas" build here. In his buid he placed a trans and diff cooler in the plate area to take advantage of the low pressure behind the car but he is also feeding the fans from the rear wheel well. Made good enough sense to me so I decided to mount the cooler in the license plate area.

Here is the end result and I will post up the resulting temps after the next track session.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...644a0f5f85.jpg


Next up is the front aero and GT 250 wing. I found a cheap front bumper locally and had most of the other stuff needed to build an air dam and frame mount the GT 250 so both are already under way...

Nothing special and both are well documented elsewhere. I have most of the air dam done and just need to trim the splitter 3" out and I can get started on the rear wing.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fc3f1db28b.jpg

That license plate cooler is bad ass!!! Well done, looks very nice.

Needs more video :D Awesome build man, car sounds like a blast. It is crazy the difference a cage makes in a car, especially a floppy miata.

Also, fastback definitely confuses the hell out of people.

Just got caught up on this. Surprised by one detail: that the air sensor is just before the throttle body. My understanding was the sensor should be pre-compressor. Looking at your setup I see the obvious problem there though - your filter is on the turbo, so nowhere for the sensor to go pre-turbo. Any complications from this?

Then again, I believe that sensor is responsible for IAT and MAP, and for both of those you'd want the sensor where you have it...

This is my first adventure of FI a NA motor so I have ZERO idea if the way I have set my system up is the "right" way or not and as you know, there is little to nothing out there on it other than the LF4. All I know is what I have done seems to work and it works really well. The MAF picks up air volume and temp only. The MAP is separate and on top of the manifold. So far I have not seen the max frequency hit on the 2 bar map that comes in the LFX from the factory but I have a 3 bar one if you end up needing it or just want to try it out.

The one thing that really got me sideways was my catch can configuration. The maker of the can advised a configuration that would allow un-metered air into the engine. When I asked them if I understood their drawing correctly, they assured me that a tuner could adjust for the extra air and everything would be fine. Bottom line, I had to do away with the vacuum source to the can and I have a line that goes all the way to the intake of the turbo as the only source of vacuum for evacuating the crankcase gasses. Last track day I pushed the car HARD and I had no issues or signs of excessive crankcase pressure that would indicate I needed to get more air out of the engine.

You can drill out and tap the passenger side valve cover outlet at the back where the stock outlet valve is pretty easily. I went with a npt to 3/8 barb on mine, but you could go bigger.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9e57ca718.jpeg

I'm also running the Tracy Lewis clean side air/oil separator and a catch can. The TL clean side separator only allows metered air when you cap the driver backside vent tube.

https://rxcatchcans.com/shop?olsPage...parator&page=4

You can see it pulling air after the MAF in this pic and it plugs into the oil fill cap hole on the driver side.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...12f2965a5.jpeg

Griff, do you have the PN for the 3 bar map sensor? I'd prefer to have as many options on hand as possible when we get to dyno tuning.

Crankcase ventilation when you add boost to the mix seems to be a popular subject for confusion and misinformation over on the Camaro forums. I have 2012 plastic valve covers (for weight) which makes adapting fittings a little trickier but I've drilled out the stock PCV to match the later 2013+ hole size. Current plan is to keep the routing of the ventilation system similar to stock, with two air/oil separators, one in-line with the dirty side PCV to IM line and the second in-line with the clean side VC to intake tube pre-supercharger. Typically the clean side line needs to go post-MAF sensor, so if the MAF gets moved from pre-compressor to post-compressor then that clean side ventilation line similarly needs to move, which it looks like you did griff. I'll have to marinate on where I want to put the MAF... I might just put a MAF port and AN bung in the intake tube as well as the charge pipe by the throttle body so I can try both.

LukeG - there's one thing I don't like about the TL oil cap adapter: The standard vent port has a baffle under it inside the valve cover. The oil fill cap hole doesn't have this sort of baffle (there's a splash baffle there but it's not quite the same). I would expect more oil down that line when using the cap adapter rather than the standard port.

I had a similar setup before the turbo was added, but when you run boost you will put a check valve in that line, and the brake booster, so that you don't pressurize your crankcase. Once that is done, the block is essentially capped off so any blow-by is trapped until you get out of boost and provide vacuum again. The vendor provided me this:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...07c8395e62.jpg

So the idea is that when the check valve is closed the line from in front of the turbo will provide the vacuum but when vacuum is reapplied this will allow un-metered air into the system. I think in the LS system this is not a big deal thanks to the VE tables but in the E39 ECU there are no VE tables. EVERYTHING is calculated based on variables. HPTuners created a "Virtual VE" table but apparently I am not smart enough to operate that table with un-metered air in the system. I fought my hot/cold idle FOREVER until I welded up a new MAF tube that didn't have the post MAF port for vacuum and ran the breather lines through the catch can back to the front of the turbo. Now ALL air is metered by the MAF and it runs like a top.

So at this point I am only really just pulling a small amount of fresh air through the crankcase at idle and "more" under boost thanks to the line that goes from the valve cover back to the turbo inlet.....although I'm not sure how much yet. On the last track outing, I set up an oil trap on the rear driver side port (normally my clean air source) to see if anything was blown out as a result of the system not pulling enough case pressure from the turbo and there were no signs of blow-by pressurizing the case with 3/8 lines. On the other hand, I could easily get a cup out of the catch can after a hard day of driving and now it is pretty dry so I'm not 100% sure I have the winning setup. I guess I'm going to run with what I have until someone smarter, like you or Ryan, figure out a better way to do it. ;-)


DAMN!!!! I just realized I have created, YET ANOTHER, thread on how to NOT properly ventilate your LFX crankcase under boost.....

GM 12592525 for the 4 bar MAP bud.

Thanks, 3 bar MAP ordered.

It's a vicious cycle :rofl:

Bashed on the car pretty hard again over the weekend and I now have some pretty serious slop in either the transmission or the rear diff. Time to put it up in the air and see where it is coming from. The MV5 I put in it was a high mileage unit, but it was the ONLY one I could find in CO so I went with what I could get my hands on. Now that I'm in TX I'm hoping they will be easier to come by and I will get on car-part.com once I know for sure it is not the diff..which was impossible to find in CO.

Pretty sure there is one in Austin right now and quite a few in texas.

Search Results

Front and rear aero is finally done and full flat bottom 1/2 way complete. Just trying to figure out the best way to attach the barge boards....
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a84f077ccf.jpg

Looking downright evil as always!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c987a27c25.jpg

Well... I needed to do a bit of body work and rather than repainting the car I decided to try my hands at vinyl.

Not 100% in love but it is pretty damn easy to reverse.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3cea537e2f.jpg

I love it! Do the forward facing part of the splitter and I think it will make it look a lot cleaner.

Just wanted to post up a quick update on the status of the car. Wifey got me a GP8 for my birthday so I am finally able to get a bit of footage on the track. I am still playing with the DL features of the Solo2 DL but it is a great tool for learning and I wish I had bought one a long time ago. Getting the video and data merged in RaceRender was pretty easy too so no need to by that crazy overpriced SmartyCam if you don't want to. Sorry there is no audio. Still trying to figure out how to blend the audio into RaceRender...

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...801b08a955.jpg


I was finally able to get the car to MSR Houston for the first time which has a decent back straight to test the top end power I was shooting for with the turbo. Here is a short clip of the 1st qual session for the time trials event. The day started off with tons of rain and the circuit was CRAZY SLICK! It didn't help at all that I had never been on the track before either. I could not get a single clean lap due to all the slipping and sliding but I did manage to keep the car on the pavement which is more than could be said for many of the others that morning. The rain finally quit and the track had dried up just enough to get some heat and grip in the tires but it still felt "greasy" so I was only pushing it about 75-80% in the corners in the video. If you look close you can still see some of the standing water I was trying to avoid in the video. Car felt a little unsteady around 120ish so I was breaking WAY early before the slower right sweeper before the tight right turn after the straight. If I can get the rear aero sorted out I can carry a TON more speed at the end of the straight. Good news is that even at 120 the turbo was in full HELL YEA mode and still pulling hard by the time I needed to get out of the gas and on the brakes. Although I was taking it easier and short shifting I had absolutely ZERO cooling issues now that the rear exchanger is installed so that makes me and the car very happy. I did almost run her out of gas tough and got a power blip in a corner which forced me to end the qual one lap early and head to the trailer for fuel.


After reviewing the footage and the laps I was able to get in while it was drier I think I can get a 1:45 out of the car pretty easily. Bottom line... I am super happy with the car and the turbo I picked just so happened to be a perfect fit for what I wanted to achieve. It is not crazy overpowered on the bottom end running 245 100TW tires and JUST...KEEPS....GOING on the top.

**EDIT**
Had the boost dialed back to 5psi max and redline set to 6500 for this event.

Video is private

Sorry... Hopefully that works now. I don't post much on YouTube. Hell, I think this is the ONLY place I post anything.. LOL

Does the vid have audio?

Not sure what happened. Audio in the GP footage but when I ran it through RaceRender it got stripped out. Takes a bit of time to generate the video with the overlay so I just said screw it. When I have some time I will try to generate another video that will have the audio.

You get your new exhaust yet? Can't wait to see how it sounds!

That thing should not be unstable at 120. Definitely something going on. All I have is the front dam and I was stable to 135 (gear limited) but fast completely glued at 120.

Muffler is being built now, should have it next week.

Agree and it was not really "unstable" at speed but just felt a bit too light at twitchy for me to push it on a slightly wet track. It was not uncontrollable at all and I just need to find a place where I can do some back-to-back testing with the rear wing. I had the AoA dialed way down to see how she did in a straight line and I just need to dial in more angle in the GT 250. Only testing will tell the tale. I also have a bit of toe-out in the front and toe-in dialed into the back which make the turn-in amazing but is probably contributing to the current "twitchy" high-speed habbits.

Alright.. figured out the audio issue. The rx7 in front of me was LukeG Exocet loud! He had to freaking borrow some earplugs to run that day.

haha, side pipe life.

So at the end of the last track day I was hearing/seeing some odd detonation and I could feel the car trying to pull a ton of timing coming out of the corners. The WB O2 was all over the place so I logged a few runs and noticed that just the driver side bank was really lean.

I started my investigation with the plugs. Pulled the passenger bank and the looked like they were running rich. Started pulling the driver side plugs and #2 did not want to come out. Worked the plug out slowly and once it finally came out it was clear it was running lean. #4 would not budge so I skipped it. #6 finally came out but took some time and had what looked like alu melted around the insulator. Tried #4 again and SNAP....the worst case scenario....plug snapped off in the head. These were all brand new one step colder Brisk plugs.

I found a cheap low milage Camaro LFX locally so ran and grabbed it because a whole engine is not much more than just a head. This is one of the best thing about the LFX over a V8!! Cheap and everywhere.

Rather than swap just a head I decided to pull it and swap motors because I needed to upgrade my slipping clutch anyway. Curiosity was killing me so I started to pull the head off the old motor while I wait on my new clutch and flywheel. I pulled the timing cover off and there was no need to go any further. It was the left bank timing chain that caused the issue and it all made sense now...

The additional power and torque stretched the OEM chains and the driver side bank was able to hop one tooth(verified by chain/cam indexes). The ECU was trying desperately to use the phasers the keep the timing correct but it couldn't. Driver bank went lean so it was dumping fuel to try and keep things in check. Only odd thing was that it never threw a cam code so I'm guessing it was stretching just enough that the cam sensor was being fooled.

I'll post more pics once I have a chance to dig deeper but do yourself a favor and install a good aftermarket timing set in your LFX the first chance you get. They are a known weak point even when you are not running boost.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...03a5f55dba.jpg

Any recommendation for an aftermarket LFX timing chain? I didn't even know they existed.

Oh, and would love to see some carnage pics of the internals.

You going with the monster clutch?

I originally decided to replace my MV7 with an MV5 and was going to go with a monster clutch. Spoke with SPEC to get a total cost comparison since Ryan is having good luck with his after moving to an MV5. Turns out that SPEC now has a specific part number for a 2009 CTS 3.6 which is the spec I used to find an OEM dual mass that worked fine other than not enough clamping force for my build. Had a long chat with SPEC and he indicated that they incorrectly assumed the flywheels were the same.

Since the frame rails are different and I have a floor drop, a swap will be a pain. Add in the cost for all the other stuff needed and it just made sense to stick with the MV7 if there is an aftermarket clutch option that will actually work. Not really much to go wrong in a manual gear box so one spare should be sufficient. The only reason to get away from the MV7 was the oem dual-mode clutch was a 100lb turd and good aftermarket clutches wouldn't disengage when paired with the MV7. I will provide part numbers and results once i have it in and properly track tested under boost.

Still researching the "best" timing chain based on failures after replacing them. I'll post up the one I go with when I post the parts I use in the rebuild.

That brings me to future plans. I am going to rebuild my old motor with better guts/springs/cams and I have found a company that makes a HPFP that states that it provides 60% more fuel that the Hitachi one found on the ATS-V. That should give me a chance to play with more boost if I want to and way more reliability while running lower boost.

Much more to come.....

I'd be very wary of giving SPEC any money. It's kind of hard to determine with our order of events (bad dual mass, spec flyweel + sprung center clutch, springs evacuated, replaced clutch, didn't shift as nicely as when the dual mass wasn't totally trashed, went back to dual mass - still not easy shifting but way better than spec). I think there might be some input shaft damage on our MV7 from the spec adventure, and I'd like to see if the MV5 holds up or starts to go south with spec setup.