Good lord my 1997 GSX's block looks like its in better condition that that and it has 147k miles lol. You need to take it easy.

 

4b11t != 4G63, mkay? I've put over 100k miles on dsms and older Evos with this much or more power and I'm a huge huge fan of keeping the block stock. Not sure what it is about these 4b11s but they don't seem to hold together as reliably as the old iron block 4g63s when pushed into the 400-500whp range.

Anyways, kinda $h!TTY thing to post so I thought I'd respond with a honest answer instead of a F U seeing as it is Xmas and all

Also, you might consider clicking the first link in the first post--I bought this thing used and there's a reason I call it my 'beater'.

 

1000 mile update! Well, 960 miles actually. Close enough, it'll roll over 1k tomorrow's commute. I changed the oil at ~530 miles, tish late b/c I had to give a buddy a ride home from work, and he lives in IGH, like 25 miles out of my way. It hadn't burned a drop of oil. I have continued to do vacuum pulls where I can and have done some light, 50% throttle pulls up to around 16psi and the car feels amazing.

MAP had the car for a week or so over xmas/new years (sidebar: best xmas ever? Got great gifts, a job offer, quit my current job, flew to vegas and then got stuck there for New Year's eve. Win!) for some prototyping their o2 dump downpipe but didn't manage to get the 4th bolt in holding the mani to the turbo. I am still a teensy bit peeved but meh, I will survive. Doesn't look like its leaking (yet). I'll find time to put it on sooner or later, but the last time I tried it was an impossible wh0re, even with two people wrenching with all their might.

Clutch is all broken in and the cams seem to idle almost perfect, they sometimes jerk ever-so-slightly when in traffic at 1500rpm but otherwise i can leave it in 1st or 2nd and no throttle input and the car does not buck what-so-ever! I love'em and can't wait to tune them for power.

MAP's recommendation is to leave dino oil in the motor until 1500 miles before switching to synthetic but others say that by 1000 miles the motor is where it's gonna be. I might as well wait a few more hundred miles before switching because with the ****ty roads and Shane's schedule, I won't be ready for WOT for at least a few more weeks.

Now, the interesting part! I took a wrench to the car for the first time in a month tonight. Still no leaks that I can find (although Kyle@MAP said he saw a drop of coolant on that one stupid pipe off of the water pump) but I decided to swap in a fresh set of spark plugs, do a compression test, and yank the valvecover quick. I had been using lomker's HKS plugs he had problems with (do you still want these back or should I just give you cash for them Mike?), but interestingly enough the new OEM plugs I got at the dealer were pre-gapped to .021, quite tight IMHO (that's what she said).

Also did compression test: 155 158 154 153. Holy hell! When I got the car I tested it at about 135 across the board. These are supposed to be stock compression pistons, and from what I had read before about 140 is normal. Not sure what it means but I'm kinda pumped that the numbers are strong. If for some reason its kinda high b/c the compression ratio is off...well, I was thinking of going E85 anyways

Next I yanked the valvecover. I wanted to double-check the valve-tappet clearances before deciding to go buck wild with this engine. Mixed feelings about what I found. When I was done putting the motor together one of the intake tappets was .001" out of spec at .010 (spec is .008 +/- .001). It was on the loose side, I had it up to here with the whole car and said *** it. Now it's at .012, and it probably explains why the valvetrain seems a tish noisy on a cold cold startup. Once warm it is not a problem, so I will consult a few people as to how bad this really is and likely just say *** IT!



So so so so excited to really rip on this thing I cannot tell you! But, I'm in Minnesota, its cold as **** here now, and we are having one of the snowiest winters on record. Having fun none-the-less!

 

Don't think you have anything worry about with a slight increase in clearance. Its when the clearance starts continuously decreasing that you should be worried.

 

i know i messaged you after receiving it but thanks again for the intercooler, its working very nicely and ill see how good in about a month on the dyno when i put my x turbo in. glad the car has worked out for you

 

Awesome, thank you! I will yank the valvecover in another 500 miles and double-check it, takes all of 15 minutes.

Awesome, glad its working out for you!

 

Update time! I finally got some synthetic oil in the motor on Saturday, and found my way into Shane's schedule at DB Performance for some tuning. The goal really was for a nice mild street tune on pump gas; I have just started a new job and E85 is literally around the corner from my office now

I went in with expectations of running ~25-26psi, mild timing, and making power in the 365-370whp range. Tons of factors against me: snow tires (yes with snow on them, a LOT! I washed it off before getting on the rollers), when it's as cold as it has been, their dyno adds a teensy bit of downward weather correction, and I just generally have bad luck with making good numbers when I try and get a mid-winter dyno session in.

We got the car on the rollers and dried the tires off. I'm pumped b/c car actually is somewhat clean!


First pull, I had turned the boost way down on the new motor. Red is setup last summer w/ BBX but no tubular manifold and everything that followed and Blue is the new setup pretty much as it rolled on the dyno. Timing turned way down, mivec cranked down, fuel richened up a bit (or so I thought):


I said to shane, 'ok good! 21psi and the nearly the same power as kinda pushing the car last summer? *** yea! But no, we pressed on. 360whp@22psi. 375whp@23psi. 386whp@25psi. Wow! The car is making great power but wait, what's this? Sorry I don't have a pic, but the afr was creeping up from low 11's to nearly 12.0 starting at 7000rpm and ending at 8000. WAT!?!? After some playing, we come to the conclusion that I am pushing the limits of too many things:
-Stock MAF housing is at 4.9V as we turn the boost up, maxing around 7000. Gonna have to upgrade that.
-Stock Fuel pump may not be all it's cracked up to be on the interwebs (or mine isn't at least)
-DW800cc injectors (with my stock fuel pump) are hitting 100% IDC at 7000rpm and peaking at ~120% IDC.

Essentially, the injectors are likely going static and fuel pump is just giving up right around the same time and the MAF housing isn't helping things. Boo!

I'm watching sometimes in the dyno room and sometimes from the luxury of DB's new viewing facility on a comfy leather couch w/ a dew in hand:


We end up turning the boost down to 22psi (peak) and shane feels that is about the limit for the manifold testing we're about to do. So, we go to swap the manifold. Holy *** I hope everyone appreciates this test! It took probably 3x longer than it should have. One bolt got stuck in the turbine housing, had to coax that out and run a thread cutter/tap through all holes, and then right around midnight we got it buttoned up and I plugged the rear CAS back in. SNAP! I BROKE one of the ****ing PINS OFF! GAH!



Spaz sees Shane post a pic of me on facetube and runs up to help...he had shown up around 11 and listened to me b1tch as I was finishing up the manifold and dropping nuts and bolts into dyno never-never land. I had also been txt'ing Murlo...his car is put away for the winter....kazing! Spaz and I end up making the 18 mile trip from DB to Murlo's house at 12:15am and get there around 1am (roads were uber shyte most of the way), spend all of 3 minutes grabbing the sensor from him and then back to DB right around 1:45am. I spend 20 minutes swapping the PITA sensor and by 2:30am we are rolling and the car is ready to rock!


Everyone is now going to ask, what about the manifold test!?!??! PLEASE DON'T ASK! We're going to compile all of the data and post it very soon! I will say this: the two manifolds side-by-side are very similar and each have their strong points and in the real world they are damn close...still we DO have data to share! Please be patient (note the time schedule above and below).

Long story short? Shane and I stick around until 3:45amdoing this damn manifold test and in the end, I crank up the boost for ONE pull to see what this thing will do around 26psi.



MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA YEEEHAW! 400whp on pump gas ********as! *400!* That is like 460whp dynojet! And with snow tires (I've seen -10whp from them) and -3 or -4% weather correction. Boost hits 27psi and tapers to 24psi. Make it hold 27psi? Some day yes! But not now, fuel starts going lean at like 5800rpm and ends up at 12.5 or leaner at 8000! The car runs SO GOOD it just needs a bit more fuel system to really shine.

Again, money is tight and getting home at 4:30am my wife Anna basically forbid me from doing car stuff 'for four months' LOL...The current plan is to fix the CAS and to get one of DW's 300 fuel pumps in the car for an extra margin of safety....then injectors...then a bigger MAF housing...then E85. All in good time! I turned the boost back down to 22psi peak (will verify on the street) and plan on just enjoying the car for the next few months. It runs freaking perfect, and I'm PUMPED about the power potential with just a bit more work.

[youtube]amlSB4gh0GQ[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amlSB4gh0GQ

THANK YOU SHANE for staying so late and the awesome tuning and advice (as always).
THANK YOU SPAZ for the moral support and the ride to Murlo's!
THANK YOU MURLO for the CAS in the middle of the night!
THANK YOU 3 hours of sleep, epic back pain (mani on dyno = bad idea), and cut-up hands!

 

Sweet!

I say Aeromotive 340 lph Fuel Pump, FIC 1680cc High-Z Injectors, and the MAF Housing.

Win!

-Jalal

 

Awesome build and awesome thread, man. I would never have the ***** to attempt something of this magnitude.

 

Or he could drive 10 miles up the road to Primo Performance and get a 3.5" intake

Surprised there aren't more nitpickers on the dyno number comparisons.

 

Don't fuel the fire

 

Sucks you gotta dump more money into it to, well, dump more fuel. Great job so far!

It's amazing how there's 3 pages of this thread on here and like 20+ on the other site. Wierd

 

At least I now know the limit of the stock pump and that I really do need to upgrade. I'm also super glad there are options available to me that make a lot of sense now. I'll do a DW300 (or similar) pump and adapter and be done with it. If I need a surgetank-style setup later, so be it; I can sell what I'm about to buy. I am also pumped that I should be able to do the fuel pump w/o affecting the tune too much (just need to tweak fuel I'm sure) so I can continue to enjoy the car. I'll do injectors and maf down the road and then get retuned on e85.

 

When I left the dyno, I turned down the MBC 1.5-2 turns. Prolly around 375-385whp/340-345wtq @ 22-23psi tapering to 21-ish@8000. Once it warmed up last week I logged the car on the street for some 2nd, 3rd, 4th gear pulls and even in only 3rd gear it was peaking 26psi and tapering to 24, too high! Also pegging 5v on the MAF. So I turned the MBC down another 1.5 turns and I'll log it more. Basically the tune is totally safe as long and the car won't see long/hard pulls over 7000. At least until I've logged and confirmed safety (i.e. boost is not through the roof).

This weekend I was finishing up some things and look what I found! The trans plug that I 'lost' during reassembly and ended up ordering a new one from Mitsu:


LOL damn that little thing! Oh well. Also I swapped my 'fixed' CAS back in (I straightened out the bent pin) and it works great! Thanks again to Murlo for letting me gank his in the middle of the night, freaking lifesaver! I'm just so pumped that mine works and I don't have to buy a new one. Got the heat shield back over it and double checked all of the nuts/bolts on the manifold.

Then I checked the oil (all good!) and yanked the valvecover one more time. Valve #3 on the intake side is still a bit wide, .012" gap (spec is .008+/-.001) but the good thing is that it has not changed in the 700 miles since I last checked it. There is a *little* bit of valvetrain noise when the car is cold but that is about it. Obviously this isn't affecting performance. It takes about 20 minutes to get everythign off, check it, and button it back up so I'll probably continue to check this. I had thought about swapping in some S2's and fixing this issue this summer but as of now I am *so* happy with the Kelford 214-B's that it may just stay this way indefinitely.

Last but not least, big day! I put the strut tower bar back on, as well as the engine cover. She's officially all buttoned up

 

Hope that CAS pin is perfectly straight and not dented or nicked on the edges. Its sort of a key piece for good operation.