scheides

iTrader: (10)

Another piece to the puzzle. I spent a few hours swapping in a MAP o2 elim downpipe last night while spaz was doing his brakes. We got sidetracked a few times due to stuck brake pad pins but we were mostly done by my anna-imposed 11pm curfew (gotta get up early for work and the pups go crazy every time I come in for keys, wash hands, etc etc), we had to go till about midnight to finish everything up but she was pretty understanding due to the fact that she was swooning over how beautiful this piece is:

(my little beagle jill in the background)










Tennis ball rolls all the way through this thing no prob (I was curious about the flex section):




Next to the stock 'o2' housing and downpipe:


This thing is big, getting it in place was not hard but unfortunately I did scratch the ceramic coating just a bit on some of the heat shields on the firewall Without the flash it's tough to see, but there it is, gah! When you look down at this thing from the top it is kinda impressive how BIG it is. Fitment was absolutely perfect.





Fired it up for a leak test and around the block quick before bed, the first real test drive was on the way into work this morning. I drove Anna (like most days) and kept it pretty mild until I dropped her off. Most noticable improvement is part throttle in the 2500-4500rpm range, the car feels fantastic! The BBX felt a teensy bit doggy on the stock o2/downpipe but I have done nearly zero tuning to really try and get it more responsive because I knew this downpipe was on the way sooner rather than later

I threw on the logger and did some more aggressive driving and 3rd gear WOT pulls after I dropped the lady off and WOW seat of the pants feels great! Butt dyno immediately said 15whp up top, so after playing around a bit I went to one of my usual straight, flat spots and did some dedicated VDR pulls.

Always remember to take these with a grain of salt, it's not a true dyno but as best of a back-to-back as I could do!


The low-end makes no sense to me, its obvious that some tuning is needed from my tweaked stock turbo tune so I'll be addressing that in the future, but holly *****! +25whp@7000rpm! I am extremely happy with this thing and would recommend it to anyone. The fit/finish/quality is just top notch.

Next week the car will be at DB

scheides

iTrader: (10)

August 2010:

Got the new setup tuned today! As usual, Shane couldn't push timing much as beaterX is kinda a ***** and/or we just don't have very awesome pump gas around here. Shane said that the car *loved* timing in that it would make decent gains for every degree added but it wasn't always liking it. We ended up running only about 13°*up top, really a lot less than I expected, but the car feels fantastic now.

It rolled in at 321whp @27psi tapering to 25-25.5 and left with 346 @ 28 tapering to 26 and a crap-load more midrange than it came in with. More on that in a sec.

Dyno Dynamics numbers, 1.0CF:


Shootout/Dynojet numbers:


28psi peak, tapering to 26. Here's where a BCS might help a bit up top, but my FMIC is overtaxed as it is, so meh. Both Bryan@GST Motorsports and Chad@CBRD said that every psi over 25 yields great great gains on this turbo and that 28 is a great target for pump gas.


Nice and rich to help prevent knock


Here's the best! When I first bolted this thing on, it was at or below the torque of my stock turbo. NOW with the tuning love from DB Performance, I went from 282wtq on the stock turbo to 311wtq with the BBX! Granted, I also have the MAP o2 elim downpipe on the car now as well but it really doesn't matter, the new setup lost some spool but I'm up torque and power bigtime!

+68whp/+29wtq


Lost about 800rpm of spool, but this turbo is rated at 58lbs/min. Seeing 25psi by 3900rpm is pretty damn good imho.


I'm extremely happy with the new setup! So smooth, decent power, and should be very reliable. Time to go to the track and see if I can get this bish into the 12's! I've got 2000 miles on the ACT 6-puck and 1000 miles on the BBX already; I'm ready to just keep driving this thing and keep having fun!

scheides

iTrader: (10)

September 2010:

Weekly update? Prototype manifold and drag racing!

Caveots: I don't work for MAP; this is an unbiased review by a car guy that wants nothing more than to make his car faster.

I let MAP borrow my car for a few days for their lil-welder that could (Chris is amazing) to fab up a prototype for their tubular exhaust manifold for the Evo X. I'll be beating the **** out of the car and just generally making sure the thing works so that the product is as good as it can be. There may be some minor revisions but the manifold you see here will be available either cleaned up or ceramic coated.



The thing is really a work of art, I will get more pics of it. The flanges used are amazing CNC pieces and the welding is out of this world. There's not much to say about the product itself other than its built right here in the USA and the quality is nothing short of world-class.

We kept the testing *extremely* simple on this. My X was tuned only a few weeks ago and the tune was untouched throughout the entire process. The car put down 4-5 good baseline pulls before we yanked the stock manifold to get the prototype on. After it was locked and loaded, guess what? We made more dyno pulls! I made them do several to be sure but the results consistent and correct.



Holy crap that can't be right! We poured over the numbers and other dyno plots. The truth was right there in front of us. The car lost about 400rpm in spool. I was a bit disappointed by this to be honest but I feel like it could be helped with some tuning. This manifold utilizes 1.25" runners to avoid being too laggy.

Power. From 6500-8000 the car gained 35+whp. From 7000-8000rpm the car is up a solid 40whp! I was absolutely in shock, this couldn't be possible! But it was...it SO was!






[youtube]QK-vA7jSdVE[/youtube]


Now, the awesome part. Projects like this can take some time, but I told the guys at MAP that I was going to the drag strip this Saturday come hell or high water. Things ran late as they always do, but they made good on their promise. Friday night at 7pm the car was on the rollers for this test and then I went home to get ready for the trip to the track the next day.

Driveability. The car honestly doesn't feel any laggier, maybe a bit in 2nd gear but cruising around the car feels the same, until you are WOT and in the upper rpm. The car feels SO much better now, its still just as smooth and fun but damn it just rips up top! The car is starting to make enough power now that you start to get that floating feeling when staying in the powerband.

Reliability. I have honestly been the eternal skeptic on tubular manifolds. They all crack, it's easy to just say that. I'll update this thread down the road and let you know how it hangs in there. My hopes are *very* high that it will last for years to come!

*edit* current power mods:
aFe intake w/ perrin inlet
custom 2.5" UICP
custom 3" pte core fmic (not much bigger than stock)
MAP tubular header
CBRD BBX Turbo
MAP O2 Elim Downpipe
Megan Testpipe
Magnaflow Catback
hallman mbc
dw 800cc injectors (BP 93 oct)


So with that said, I packed up the car, woke up around 5am and hauled my **** out to wisconson (near Eau Claire). On the previous trip to BIR on stock turbo/pump gas was pretty consistent 13.3's@106mph and one 13.1@106.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/dr...ounds-bir.html


Added ACT HDG6 clutch, dw800's, CBRD BBX, MAP o2 elim downpipe, and MAP prototype tubular exhaust manifold. This is a full-weight X with a full tank of gas, street car, sumitomo tires, just out here to have FUN!

Headed out to Rock Falls Raceway (aka slippery falls) in WI saturday for a test & tune.
This was a little more expensive than a sport compact day but MAN you could freaking hotlap all day if you wanted to!


First run: 12.7@115mph (as I rolled off the street, rolling through water box)


Second run: 12.55@113 (slightly improved 60', rolling through water box)


Third run: 12.51@115.0 (dropped tire pressure to 24psi, still rolled through water)


At this point I knew if I could get my 60' down I could run a 12.4 or maybe 12.3? I made the mistake of saying that to a few friends and that then became my goal for the day.

I was trying to go around the water box from third run on but the track officials wouldn't not cover the entire area with water so it was tough...finally go that resolved and they made room to go around....fourth and fifth runs I dropped the tire pressure to 20psi, raised the 2-step to 6500rpm and finally got to go around the water....BOGGed the first run bad and ran a 12.9 then the fifth run I didn't bog quite as bad (slipped clutch more) but missed the shift to 2nd so ran a 13.1.

I was frustrated as all getout but then I decided to man up and raise the 2-step to 7000 to try and get the bogging issue behind me.

Sixth run I finally didn't bog, got a decent 60' (low 1.8x) and overall a pretty clean run. 12.403@115.9! I was ecstatic!



The weather was beautiful and I had reached my goal in my mind and was ready to hang up my helmet for the day. After staring at empty lines for about 30 mins and watching some pretty fast cars I received a txt from my wife Anna (I had been updating her and a few others) 'keep going!!!!' ....how could I turn down a woman's request like that? So I manned up and hopped back in the car for run 7.

Run seven: 12.3@116.7 Probably about the cleanest run I could pull off and I had a smile on my face the whole way.


With the new manifold this car has really come into its own. Pump gas only, stock cams (fully stock longblock for that matter!), basic power mods and the BBX the car is a freaking blast on the street, and heated leather seats with cruise control to make the two-hour trip to the track and back

scheides

iTrader: (10)

So, apparently the stock ignition is teh ghey, it was not liking 29+psi on the 111 leaded, even with the stock plugs gapped down to .020. Boo. Still, looks like topping up before going to the track is an easy +30whp/+30wtq for me, so if I never get Aquamist or E85 I'll likely just do this.

Before: 414whp/~335wtq@27psi
http://www.scheides.com/gallery/evoX/IMG_1422

After: 443whp/~360wtq@30psi, ignition breakup, +3° self tune. Tach signal failed so no torque, sorry.


I added 3° of timing across the board and 4° from 6500 up. Not sure if the car actually *hit* an extra 3° of timing with the elevated boost/load levels, but it was close. After the dyno I turned down teh boost to 28.5 peak and it lost the misfire and honestly felt faster. Sigh, wish I would have just done that on the dyno. Oh well.

scheides

iTrader: (10)

Local friends and shops--its these things that make this community awesome! This thread is about Modern Automotive Performance (MAP), DB Performance, and other friends and members of the community are helping nurse BeaterX back to health!

First off, BeaterX background info (if you feel like some background reading):
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...ew-beater.html
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...-ton-pics.html

SECOND: reminder, I'm an average guy...a computer geek actually, I do network engineering. Cars always have and always will be a hobby for me! Everything you see is either in my garage or at shops near and dear to my heart.

So I have had a freaking blast with this car this summer, completely turned it around from a cobbled beaten down stock-ish X into a BBX-powered, autoX'ing, low 12-second, full-fledged shenanigans machine/daily driver. After our fall dyno day where it made 444whp @ MAP I decided to take it easy on the car for a while--just drive it. Summer was over, we had our fall cruise, work was absolutely bonkers and dedicated car funds were low/gone.

After I got back from the cruise, tragedy struck. I didn't know how bad it was, but I started taking some steps to try and figure out what was going on.

Compression test the other night: 70 135 140 145
booo!
I put a cap of oil into cyl #1 and it brought compression up to 140. Gah, sounds like bottom-end problems

I borrowed Ron @ RS Motors (with the 10-sec stock turbo IX RS) boroscope (thanks agian Ron!) and it confirmed, 4b11's are DSM's too! LOL. The pics are fuzzy but you get the idea.

Vertical scoring




Something ucky going on with part of the piston/ring land:


It sucks too, I just got my new ignition working (these are prius coils ):


Oh well, we'll have to test it out on another car.



Super hung over from MitsyStyle.com party at TKRPerformance's party friday before halloween, but Kody(GG_9_SE) came over for an afternoon/evening of 'do work son.' Had the head off after about two hours and the motor on the floor a few hours after that. On to the carnage pics.

Head off, piston#1 at TDC. Problem?


Head looks like it ate some ****. Just run it or should I get this cleaned up?



Good productive use of a saturday evening:



Piston out of cyl1, top ring missing about 1/3 and lower ring siezed in place:


Ouchie. Close-up of sides of piston:





Now close-ups of the cylinder walls. Just damage everywhere. Not sure what causes this but yea, not super pumped.

Cyl1(rear then front):



Cyl2(rear then front):



Cyl3(rear then front):



Cyl4(rear then front):




And finally, close-up of little damage on piston#4

scheides

iTrader: (10)

Here's some more pics of the head, exhaust ports (looking for particle damage) cyls 1-4:









And the CC's, cyl's 1-4:









Also examined the turbine wheel (CBRD's BBX) for damage, only thing I could find is a *slight* ding in the turbine wheel, but not sure if it is really anything (I've run worse turbos for years on DSMs).




When I bought my house about 5 years ago my dad made me the most epic workbench ever. Thanks dad, putting it to good use now



***END CARNAGE PICS!***

So, what to do next? I shopped around everywhere but was slapped with setback after setback. Buschur and AwdMotorsports had built 4b11's 'in stock' but the only blocks they had were $6000 sleeved setups that were way overkill for me. AMS had cores in stock but it was going to be 3+ weeks before they could ship out. I slowly find out that key parts that I'd put in my 'dream build' are on back-order: GSC S2's not available until end of november (and now even later), Manley I-beams weeks out, Kelford and GSC's valvesprings were weeks away, and if the block was toast ultimately there's a national backorder from Mitsubishi. FML.


I decided in the end to just keep the build local and keep it simple. I live in Minneapolis, MN and am truely blessed that there are several awesome shops around here to help me get things fixed.

SHORTBLOCK: Modern Automotive Performance
MAP has a set of their new X-beam rods ready to go in, JE pistons a blink away, and in-house machining ready to do work. We set a schedule and so far they have been very good about keeping me up-to-date and things are on track to be done THIS FRIDAY, the third business week (about 2.5 weeks) after dropping off the shortblock. Not a bad turnaround all things considered!

(also, enjoy this awesome pic of turbotalon1g)


More pics? I love pics. Only thing that keeps me going some days. torque plate is in, crank and everything else look happy as a clam.





I get all sorts of crazy ideas in my head when I go and visit MAP or DB or RS....I'm glad I just made simple decisions and am pushing forward with a nice basic 2.0 build. The block is decked, and boring comes next to fit in these puppies:





Boring as of last Thursday. Borrowed a used set of ARP headstuds from mlomker and HollywoodX's torqueplate on short, short notice:



As of today, block is half assembled, rods/pistons go in tomorrow and then I can pick it up!



HEAD: DB Performance!
So on the same day that I dropped the block off, I ran the head over to DB Peformance. Shane usually does tuning wizardry but they have been pumping out more and more high-power and SUCCESSFUL builds in the past few years and I am nothing short of impressed. This is a small, 2-3 man shop. Guys doing what they love! Today though they are going through the head of my 4b11t because guess what, that chunk of ring that we saw missing? Yea, it went through and bent at least 4 valves and ate some other isht along the way

Like I said above everything EVERYTHING is on backorder but this community is just filled with such great parts suppliers/manufacturers I don't feel bad about it! First, the head is getting welded up and fixed. Then a 5-angle valvejob with +1mm Supertech valves, a basic (but effective) port job, Supertech dual valvesprings, and a set of Kelford 214-b cams.

If all goes well the head could (I hope!) be 99% done this week. I say 99% because of the darn tappets--we will likely have to order in a few to bring things back into spec, and that will probably take a few days. This won't slow me down though--if the shortblock is done or the head mostly done, it'll all get bolted back together with the transmission, a fresh set of ARP headstuds, a fresh 6-puck disc for my ACT HDG6 and it will go back in the car this weekend. Little stuff will follow and it'll get fired up after Thanksgiving (family first!).


INJECTORS: Someone recently posted a thread swearing off a set of injectors as the fault of their engine failure before really knowing if they had infact caused it. Instead of being a dink, I sent my nearly maxed DW800's off to DeatschWerks to get checked out. The tests came back 100% perfect and they will be back in time for reassembly. I cannot say enough about how awesome of service DeatschWerks provides!


Extra stuff? Ok.

Saturday night I sold my stock-ish FMIC, gonna ship it out tomorrow. I was kinda freaking out about what to do but finally a deal came through for me:


Buschur Race FMIC. 4.5 x 18 x 12 Garret core, 972ci--this is one of the biggest and best flowing cores on the market. I will have to do a wee bit of grinding to get it in but I will have one less excuse for pump gas powa now. This is step 1 to a bigger/later project I had originally planned to do over the winter involving the LICP, TB, and IM that has now been put off for a long, long time. Stock stuff will have to suffice I guess This core is exactly 50% bigger than my old PTE/Garrett core FMIC but with the same surface area. Should do me good on pump gas!


So that brings us to today! We're on the tail end of the build and I'm PUMPED to get this thing back on the road. Thank you to everyone that's helped me so far and I'm sure there will be plenty more people/shops to thank in the next few weeks. I'll report back as things progress

scheides

iTrader: (10)

NOvember 19, 2010:

Wooooot baby it's ***n black Friday for scheides!!

Picked up the head from DB Performance and it looks HOT, big valves, nice basic port job, the dings are all fixed and the dual valvespring setup looks pimp. Shane helped me check the clearance on the tappets and half of them were perfect! We went to roll the intake cam over and it would not budge. Seems like the cam was improperly machined from Kelford.

Attachment 337602

so, option one is to put *everything* back together with the stock cams and try fire it up this weekend, or wait on the cams and wait further on tappets (I suppose I should check clearances on these either way). Either way Shane is being awesome and has been an insane resourse through this process.

After that I made my way to MAP to pick up the shortblock and gaskets. All I can say is that I am seriously impressed. The everything was actually ready to go at 10:30am today but I wasn't able to make it there until after 5. Engine looks freaking hot, wait till you see the rods. This is a 'stage 1.5' shorty, stock sleeves with their big bad stage2 rods.

Attachment 337603

I have a *pile* of other parts but I just pulled the car into the garage and immediately bailed--night out with the wife to make up for the massive checks I had to write today. If anyone wants to help tomorrow, give me a call or just show up, I will be getting started around 10am (?) and working all day/night untill it's done or I give up. Beer and food provided to those who draw their own blood, bust a knuckle, or get oil in your hair

scheides

iTrader: (10)

Pulled the head off tonight, got the turbo sorted, manifold mounted to the head, stupid oil filter in the block, and the head back on the car, torqued to 92ft-lbs. Fiddled with a few other things and just called it good. Thanks for the hand tonight Rosey!







Now the bad news. *one* of the tappets I need is on backorder, but the warehouse waited until too late in the day to call brookdale back to inform them this, so I tried to order the other two that I need, but they cannot be here till monday. Once the new tappets come in I'm going to see what I can do rearranging stuff but Gosh, DB, and MAP no one has this size tappet. Boo.

Todo list is getting smaller than the list of stuff done finally, I'd love to fire it up this weekend but I might just have to do everything but the cams, sigh. Stupid tappets make me want to stabby stab! Fingers crossed for a miracle.

scheides

iTrader: (10)

RIP LOMKER! That's him in the pics below:

Oh boy what a weekend! Let me just get this out of the way, I was ultimately thwarted by spark plugs. More on that later. After everything else it is just laughable at this point, but *** it! I made so much progress this weekend, I'm just pumped. Had to work friday night so got up saturday, put the heater on in the garage and let it warm up. It was about 15° outside, and by the time I finished, later that night it would be a balmy 8°. Snowed a good 6" the night before so I shoveled for a solid hour too, good way to get the blood pumpin!

...and started unpacking all of the tappets, fully expecting to be fubar'd immediately. To my surprise, one of the ones that was not going to be in until monday was in the bag! I took a whack at putting all of them in, and to my surprise, every valve but two was in spec, and one was only out of spec by .001". I swapped a few tappets around and corrected it, and then voila! Happyness! I cheered with glee!

I decided to torque w/ torque wrench to be sure....soon thereafter I swore the 2nd loudest I ever have in my garage. 107 inch pounds is the spec, I need to get a torque wrench that actually reads that low:


Gezus ***. I then spent a few hours finding a thread repair kit.....only to break another bolt....Rosey and MattD helped me out and ran all over town finding 16 new unstretched bolts to put the cams in with. So yea, nervous time with a drill and carefully covered *everything* on the head, I got things back into happy time funland, and then got the timing chain on



Was a learning experience, but not too much different than doing a timing belt on a 4G63. Probably easier actually, no balance shafts to bother with! Finally after hours of dinking around, timing and valve cover securely in place! Thanks to spaz and lomker for the help!



Damn seems like its ready to fire up? Gah still a ways away. I got back from dinner and headed back into the garage, maybe around 9:30pm? Anna called me to come pick her up from her sister's place, I was shocked to see it was 1am. But, I had the intake manifold and all associated sensors bolted and wired, injectors seated and fuel rail bolted down!

The next morning trevor came to give me a hand. We threw down and put on everything needed to turn the thing over w/ a key & starter and not a wrench and hand IC pipes, fuel lines, intake, ecu, passenger axel, filled all fluids, etc.


I hopped in and primed the motor with spark plugs out and injectors unhooked. She turned over smooth and easy, I was so proud! I hopped out and snapped this pic, the car ready to fire up. All it needed was spark plugs. Wait, spark plugs!??! OMFG! They were in the head when I gave it to DB and probably set aside during the rebuild. Last time I looked, plugs for the X weren't available anywhere but the dealer, boo. I ended up finding some, but won't be able to get them until tomorrow (monday).



Note the spark plug wrench I even got out in preparation to put them in. DOH!


To make matters worse, the coolant pipe that runs under the exhaust manifold that I had *specifically* left attached to the water pump assembly so as to not have to replace the gasket....**** was dripping coolant. Gah! Classic. So instead of losing sleep over all of the problems, I just drained the coolant and dried everything out (yippee had to pull the tstat housing back off too ), put some rtv on the gaskets and put it all back together.

I had been purposefully waiting to put some of the suspension and pass motor mount back on in case of other problems, but I figured what the heck, and basically got the car ready to go. Bumper cover on (no crash beam yet, more problems with my angle grinder), all suspension sorted pretty much everything else. All it needs is coolant, spark plugs, and snow tires

One last thing actually, I can't get the fourth bolt into the turbo from the manifold. It is a tight tight spot and I am just going to risk an exhaust leak for now to get the car running.

Ready to rock

scheides

iTrader: (10)

***ing plugs from napa or anywhere else are all listed incorrectly, what a waste of time! Lomker to the rescue again--he loaned me his HKS plugs, gapped nicely at .023.

Got home, put them in, car fires right up, idles for a few seconds, then dies. Every. Single. time. Someone else had this happen recently, I gotta figure out what it is. Someone *cough* Jim *cough* has my tactrix cable so I can't see what the CEL I'm getting is.

Sounds great while running.

scheides

iTrader: (10)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgiFLefQUlc&hd=1


Tonight I got the car back on the road. It sounded like a diesel for about the first four miles. I did some 2nd and 3rd gear vacuum pulls to seat the rings immediately. Parked it, troubleshooted the maf sensor some more, and murlo came over with his MAF. Swapped it in, and it did the *exact* same thing. So not sure what the deal is, BOO!

BUT, the car idles, revs, and drives about 90% fine with the maf unplugged! Its pretty amazing really, there is a slight hesitation around 2500rpm but nothing aweful, I'm sure the map scaling tables need some tweaking.

We drove all over, put another 11 miles on it. Drove to roseys, some freeway time, and side streets, plenty of vacuum pulls the whole way. When we got back to my place, I kept thinking, 'man, it SOUNDS so much better! I thought it was a big exhaust leak but it is breaking in I guess as the engine sounds perfect now.



After talking with Shawn (simulatedwood) I am convinced this is a grounding problem. The ecu is seeing voltage from the maf sensor, just not sure it is the correct voltage. I'm going to double-check more tomorrow, and possibly pull the exhaust manifold off the head to try and get the turbo properly bolted to it.

Did a boost leak test, holds 5psi like a champ! Good enough for now.



Wahoo! Figured it out!!! I had put one thick, main ground just above the starter, when in fact it went below the starter. It was on the block, but the spot I put it on above the starter also held a small bracket (to hold the harness off the starter), and I had put the grounding wire on the outside of that--it must not conduct very well. I moved the ground to the correct spot (the manual actually has diagrammed where each one is), fired it up w/o maf to confirm it was working, then shut it off, plugged in maf, fired it up, voila!

Put my original rom back on there and she idles pretty nice right around 900rpm. I was super excited! Didn't spend the time to futz with it any more tonight, I'll play with it this week after the snow goes away.

scheides

iTrader: (10)

320 miles on the odometer and I am grinning from ear to ear! No leaks so far, but my fingers are still crossed. The car has jumped right back into DD duty which has served well for doing vacuum pulls, some traffic w/ plenty of stopping/starting to break-in the clutch, and getting miles on the thing.

Off-boost the car feels SO much better than it ever did before, even on the stock turbo. When I first started driving it, anything over about 5psi under 3000rpm would cause the car to buck and backfire; I ended up pulling out some mivec on the intake cam and that seems to be all but gone. These Kelford 214-b's are some of the bigger cams you can get for the X but man they sure idle nice! I can leave the car in 1st gear and idle down my alley w/o any jerking and only sometimes will the car get into a small dance around 900rpm and lop lop lop.

I have boosted to a peak of around 16psi so far and then peddled the throttle to keep it from going higher. The car feels like an animal and just wants to rev rev rev! Even at part throttle 6500rpm comes up in no time in 2nd and 3rd gear.

These miles have been my first experience with this car in the snow. We got like 17" last weekend and another 5" last night and I have to say I am *insanely* impressed with how stable this thing is. The combination of the S-AYC and a little more weight is just seriously impressive when driving at the limit. Any heartbeat/instant that I got that deep 'oh ***' feeling that I got as I careened towards that ditch in my evo8 last spring is immediately followed by pure confidence as the car doesn't want to over-rotate or understeer at all--it seems to know whats right and stay on the trajectory I will it to be on--even if its sliding sideways at 30mph and facing a curb!

I'll put a few more miles on it this week, then the car will be at MAP for a few days while I'm out of town next week--they want to build a heat shield for the rear CAS (to go with their tubular manifold) and maybe try out a few other things.

When I get back I'll do an oil change, compression test, and I'm thinking about pulling the valvecover to double-check the clearances on the valve tappets. There is a slight tick when the car is cold and I want to make sure everything is perfect--then a few more miles and it'll be time for some boost!

Having my car back and being able to drive it is the best xmas present ever.

Attachment 337601

scheides

iTrader: (10)

Jan 2011:

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!

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iTrader: (10)

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amlSB4gh0GQ&hd=1

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!

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iTrader: (10)

April 2011:

2 months later and I finally got a fuel pump for this thing. I'm glad I found the limit of the stock pump on my setup, but only driving this car around at 22psi is just silly. I went with the Deatschwerks DW300 and MAP's evoX fuel pump adapter kit. Install was a minor PITA but an extra set of hands made it pretty easy.

Stock assembly, partially taken apart:


MAP assembly w/ DW300 pump. I ended up rotating it slightly to fit the filter in the hanger better. The MAP kit is nice b/c it locks the pump in place:


Coiled up, no kinks!


Then a few other things to get ready for spring. Bled the brakes with fresh ATE blue, checked pads (plenty of meat left on DS2500s), swapped on the rotas/sumis, cheese fries and cherry coke at checker w/ spaz, swapped gear oil in the rear diff....ATF fluid drain for the AYC was stuck (bent my cheap 10mm allen), topped up xfer case, and just generally checked things over from the bottom of the engine bay--no leaks yet!

Went for a quick test. Car runs just as before driving gently. DW300 pump is *silent*. Under WOT, AFRs are consistently half a point richer across the board and a full point above 7000rpm. Step one, check! Step two: moar boost! I cranked up the MBC 2 full cranks. This results in peak boost right around 25.5psi. Third and 4th gear the car holds about 24psi. It feels like a new monster has awoken from within!

On the dyno, with an extra crank and some on the mbc the car would do 27psi peak and taper to 22-23 IIRC. I'm going to lean out the afr a little and leave the boost right where it is for the cruise in two weeks. More to come after that, gotta do something about this pesky maxed-out maf sensor before dyno day

Thanks again for the help spazzy!