BigPeBe

Yesterday I modified the wastegate dump pipe. It was a little too short and in a bit funny angle too. But it's fixed now.



There's the screamer peaking:


Also did the hosing for the electronic boost controller solenoid.

BigPeBe

Changed the injectors to BOSCH EV14 670cc.

Old ones out:




New ones in:


Assembled:



Also fabricated this rack for the ear protectors so they don't fly on the floor when cornering.



Spare tire hole now holds jack, hazard triangle, coolant and oil bottles and wheel nut wrench securely in place.

When changing the rear axle I noticed a nasty rust hole in the rocker panel so I also welded that.

BigPeBe

Yesterday was a time for the first startup of 2013. First we finalized the wiring job and installed the wastegate and it's hoses. I checked and adjusted all the settings and stuff in Megasquirt to make sure they were correct for the new injectos and 3 bar map and also for the boost control, altho didn't have a change to test it yet.
It fired up without problems. Well at least after we realized to attach the ground wire properly to the battery.
It took some fiddling with the Megasquirt to get the settings right for the new injectors to get a steady idle.

After the engine was warmed up I changed the oils.


Then it was time to disassemble some shit again.


The reason showed in the following pictures:



Manifold has cracked from the point where the wastegate pipe starts. I'm sending it to a professional welder next week to get it fixed.

BigPeBe

Car is MOT ready now. I already tried to MOT it today but it failed. The fast steering rack was too heavy to turn from the wheel when the front end was jacked up. We fitted a stock steering rack for now, after MOT the fast rack is going in again and if it doesn't start to loosen up after some driving then we have to see if it's possible to adjust the spring inside.

BTW today I got my first driving and parking experiences with the fast steering rack. On the road it's mint and yes it is heavy to park, but not bad at all. Not enough to be excuse to fit a power steering.

BigPeBe

MOT passed. Next step change the quick steering back and install the hose for the stethoscope and live mapping can begin.

BigPeBe

I've been having a bit problems with missfiring at upper rpms, so haven't been able to fully map this yet, but seems like I found the problem today.
Changed all plugs, plug wires, cleaned the distributor and it's connector, tidied up the wiring for the coil (removed the FMI rev limiter installation since it's obsolete now).
But the biggest cause was probably the fuel map, it was bloody rich on the top range so after tuning it a bit the missfire stopped also.

It's not yet fully tuned, but very drivable already.
I have been also testing my camera mounts, the current one seems to be a bit of a fail so maybe I have to fabricate something different.
Anyway here's a video:

BigPeBe

Car is now livemapped for 1.1 to 1.3 bar of boost depending on the conditions. It's very drivable now and works good, but I still have a bit of a problem.
It works and sounds nice during a normal pull, but if I put the stethoscope on my ears I can hear a bit of a "stutter" or "missfire" on upper range, but I can't tell if it's a real sound or maybe my stethoscope is picking up an interference of some kind and it's confusing me.

I think the next step is booking up a dyno session and see what a professional ear says. Hopefully we will find a solution and can then up the boost some and start trying if increasing the rpm limit is useful/possible.

BigPeBe

Haven't been actively updating this one, tho nothing major hasn't been done either.
Car has been already running with 1.0 bar of boost for quite awhile now(sissyboost), because bigger boost values seem to bring a problem with compressor surge.
I'm guessing it isn't possible to add more boost with the current turbo without investing for properly ported big valve head.
Tad of a disappointment, but good thing is that with all the little upgrades and after some livemapping the overall driveability has improved, rev limiter is now tad higher and I can use the full RPM range with any gear, there is no problems with boost creep and overboost protection stepping in because of that.

The last 6 weeks I actually haven't been driving at all since police took my license away (overtook a BMW and drove in to police radar while doing this).
Good thing the ban was only 6 weeks because I noticed the police car quite early and let go off the throttle so didn't clock more speed than about 120 km/h (80 km/h zone).

Yeah so I got my license back yesterday and I have been driving a bit since.
Also took some photos of the car and how it stands right now. You can notice that I have washed it and painted the front grille. The overall paint on the car still needs some kind of a restoration job(quite matte), but I don't think I can buff it out myself. Probably going to send it to some shop at some point. Also those mirrors need still to be painted matte black.

Here's lots of photos, I just couldn't decide to remove any more of them:





















Got also a cool shot while airplane flew over:

tjRS500

Looking good

BigPeBe

TY

Next weekend there is a trackday coming up that I'm planning on attending. For that today I actually borrowed a proper dB meter to make sure I'm not gonna fail getting a permit to get to the track. 110 dB is the limit (4500 rpm steady, half meter away from the exhaust tip) and it measured just under 100 dB so no problem there.
Also went for a little drive to check the decibels inside just for the sake of it, when accelerating it hits +100 dB, when cruising at ~110 km/h the noise is about +85 dB. Good thing I have my ear protection for the long trips.

I also made a little breather "tank" from an old soda bottle, so I can check occasionally how much it gathers oil.

BigPeBe

Ok so I had my first proper track driving experience yesterday and I'm well happy with the day.

It did highlight some needed improvements for this car. The viscous LSD doesn't grip good enough and this makes accelerating out of corners quite hard.

4-point harness, even with the bucket seat I felt need for more support.

And last but not least (and I'm ashamed to admit this!) power steering. The quick rack ratio without power steering is good when doing short sprints of lively driving, but it's too heavy to keep driving on track long enough. After two or three proper track laps my hands felt like porridge.
I'm currently considering the different options on what kind of system I'm gonna install.
Or maybe it's time to join the gym?


Well anyway few random shots following.

We were quite well prepared, had enough stuff to even carry out a headgasket swap on the spot. Luckily any of this wasn't really needed since the car ran like a clock whole day. Only technical "problem" was that after the last session on track (did 3 sessions) we noticed that other one of the two alternator belts had gone! Luckily this one has two so it didn't create a problem to drive back home.


Hawing a cool down on the pits in between track sessions:




Whole pit area:


My favorite corner:


Then two shots of me on the track. I found these pictures on the net, they weren't taken by us:





Here's a quick video, it shows my best lap of the day. I'm probably gonna make a longer compilation video later also.
Still lots of room for improvement. It's actually quite interesting to watch yourself drive on track, makes it easier to judge what there is to improve on.

BigPeBe

Ok I finally got around and edited a compilation video from last weekends trackday. I tried to avoid putting the boring stuff in (like cooldown laps etc).


+ One bonus picture:

BigPeBe

Urbocearger



Making some room.



For this:



Trial fitting.



Installed. When I bought this IC, it came with some mounting rests (it had previously been in a Sierra). They required some modification for a nice fitment, but it was a fairly easy job.



T34 vs GT35:



Trial fitting turbo and boost pipes etc.



Fabricated a new boost pipe with a fitting for the IAT sensor.



Radiator and a new fan fitted. The new fan is much slimmer than the old.



Then installed this PAS rack:



I will be using this electric hydraulic pump (TRW1) from G Astra.



Had some hoses made at Parker. These go between the Opel (Vauxhall for you guys) pump and Ford rack.



Fabricated some mountings for the pump.

RalliArttu

Nice, looks like you gonna get yet another amount of extra bhp I also bought recently an Mk1 3-door Sierra 86´ (not iS, just that Laser), and yes it´s going to be turbo charged, allthoug right now I´m fixing/welding the body shell...

BTW have considered wasted spark instead of that original distributor?

BigPeBe

I'm probably going for a wasted spark at a later date. I have already bought a better intake plenum and throttle body and it doesn't fit with the distributor. I'm going to drive this summer with the current system, but at some point I'm going to upgrade the head and cam and that's when I'm probably also gonna fit the new plenum and wasted spark.

BigPeBe

Pics from weekends shenanigans.

PAS pump installed. Put the fluids in and bled the system and had a quick test hooking it up to a battery. Works nicely. Haven't owned a car with PAS before.



Removed the diff then.



Dirty.



Disassembled the diff.



Viscous unit open. No wonder it didn't lock properly, the old visco fluids were just bunch of mud and dirt. Going to clean it carefully and put 100.000 cps visco oil in, should be quite more aggressive locking than the original fluids.

Mk4 Rick

hi mate nice build.Is that turbo you have a copy or an original

BigPeBe

Both of them are China shit.

Mk4 Rick

What sort of power are you hoping for and do you think the turbo will hold.

BigPeBe

Well the turbo was bought with +400bhp spec in mind, but I don't yet have the head or cam for that so +300 only for this summer. Mainly the reason why I'm going to fit it already is because the T34 had some bad surge problems (compressor is most probably a T04B H3) and I want to get rid of this problem so I can actually add some proper boost.

Even tho there seems to be a lot of distrust going towards the China turbos, most of them seem to hold fine. That old T34.48 is also a Chinese turbo but it has been holding great even with all the abuse (occasional WOT surge).
Only time will tell, but I see no reason to think otherwise.

Mk4 Rick

Can I ask what you paid for the Chinese turbo

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

That turbo is massive.

BigPeBe

IIRC 180 EUR turbo + 40 EUR postage + import duties which for me in Finland were ~50 EUR.

Mk4 Rick

I carnt get over how cheap they are yet they work lol.I wonder why the brand name turbos are so expensive then lol

BigPeBe

During the weekend I stripped and cleaned the Visco LSD unit and put it back together with new fluids.

Empty visco unit.



Visco plates.



Put it back together carefully applying fluids seen in the picture. Hopefully avoided getting much air in there.



LSD back together.



Then we went on and assembled the rest of the diff together and installed it back in the car.

Next up was the gearbox. The old trusty type9 had started to show some major wear last fall so decided to change it. I've had for almost ten years now another (IIRC fully serviced) type9 unit waiting on the garage, so swapping for that.
We removed the old gearbox out of the car, but didn't yet get to installing the new one in.

Dem boxes.

BigPeBe

Busy weekend again.

Installed the "new" gearbox in the car.
Installed the header and turbo and modified the downpipe to fit with the new turbo.

Chinese turbo + chinese copper gasket + chinese 5-bolt to 3" vband adapter...



Modified DP. Removed the 2.5" vband and welded a 3" one in. Looks a lot cleaner now.


Installed rest of the exhaust.
Friend of mine did the wiring for the PAS while I was tinkering with wastegate / solenoid and their hoses and with other little stuff I can't remember.

Sunday was time to start the engine again. Starter didn't turn at all first, but that was due to me failing to remember to tighten the wires to the starter motor properly.
After that was sorted out it fired up. It wasn't all given because the Megasquirt had seen yet another little modification to it's board. Friend had modified the ECU a little, we decided to solder in a bigger resistor to the board where it gets it's RPM signal to see if it could steady the ignition advance a little. It had a little bit of oscillation before, maybe it's sorted now, didn't check it yet with the timing light tho. But at least the car now runs and goes forward and backwards on it's own. All the gears seem to go in and the PAS works nicely too.

After the engine was all warmed up I changed the oils.
Tinkered a little with the front alignment, there was quite a lot of toe out and steering wheel didn't point straight, that's now sorted good enough before I get the toe properly aligned.
Installed the bumper and grille back on too.

Not too much work ahead anymore before it's ready for MOT.

Some random pictures. Notice the beautiful panel that separates the intake air from the hotter parts of engine bay and guides the air from front to the filter.

tjRS500

Great work

BigPeBe

TY

Intercooler peaking from it's hideout:



Today I checked the transmission oil level. I had filled it up already, but the car wasn't level then so today checked it again and added some more in.
Changed the rear muffler to a MOT appropriate one.
Updated the MS tuning & logging software and then checked that everything was set up correctly and burned an MOTable tune in to the board.
Also tuned little bit of the cranking settings. I used to have a problem with the car not wanting to start when warmed up, so added a little more injector opening time for warm engine and now it seems to work nicely.

Tomorrow MOT.

Mk4 Rick

Nice work mate.

BigPeBe

TY

Car is on the road again. I actually had to change the right side front control arm for MOT, ball joint was loose.

Installed the hoon rear "silencer" back in.
I quickly got annoyed by the steering wheel which turned more to the right side than to the left side. To center the wheel when going straight I had adjusted the track rod ends to different lengths on each side and this meant that I had more lock turning right than turning left. I hated the thought of that so I ended up fixing it today. This required some modifications to the lengthening piece that sits between the hub and steering wheel so I can install the steering wheel in a little bit different position. After I had centered the steering wheel I adjusted the track rod ends back to similar lengths. Much better now.

Car runs only 0.5 bar of boost now (feels surprisingly perky tho) since I haven't yet mapped it for the new turbo, but I already did some mapping today. I actually ended up redoing the whole ignition map, it was looking a little messy after several different mapping sessions after little updates here and there, but it's sorted now and the car feels a little more drivable now.

I still have to reposition the exhaust a bit, downpipe occasionally rubs against the transmission tunnel and makes a nasty noise.

Feels like the serviced the LSD is locking up now actually, I've already done few little donuts and tight u-turns today to test the lock.

robrs2

Turbo will need to be balanced for it to last longer. The cheap turbos are just small plan bearing turbo cores with big compressor and exhaust wheels. Very poorly balanced. They work but don't last.
But you get what you pay for. I got a GTX3582R but they are 10 times the price.

BigPeBe

This is balanced.

BigPeBe

Went to a nightly livemapping session yesterday. Car now runs 1.6 bar boost and pulls stronger than last summer. Also no WOT surge anymore.
AFR is now 11.5-12 during pull. Ignition maps are based on earlier experiences from the dyno tuning (24 degrees @ 1.2 bar) and then adjusted for 1.6 bar with the help of arse dyno and stethoscope listening.
Ignition map might be tad bit conservative still, but I'm going to book a dyno session where we're going to see how much the engine wants advance to produce the best power.
I'm going to be quite surprised if we don't go over the 300 bhp mark now.

Also I need to raise the rev limit, engine now pulls strong to the 6300 rpm limit, but I didn't yet get to adjusting that because laptop battery died. I had inverter with me but forgot to take the laptop charger.

Mark V8

iTrader: (2)

Looks a bit lively in the wet

Is that the standard anti roll bar ?



My 2WD Cosworth one has the bend the other way and hits the bellhousing.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Looking good matey. I do like my sierras.

BigPeBe

Thanks guys. IIRC I believe this was the XR4i antiroll bar.

Mark V8

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the help

I'll keep a look out for one on Ebay.

BigPeBe

Modified the center exhaust mount, it's more rigid now and the exhaust doesn't move too much, so it doesn't constantly rub against the transmission tunnel.
Bought a full version of Tunerstudio, it was on sale for 45 euros. I really like the VE Analyzer Live that is built in to it. It actually automatically tunes the fuel maps while you drive. Makes even a DIY Megasquirt install feel like high tech. It smoothed out some lean-spots on the low rpm, low load areas of the VE map. Car is now much more enjoyable to cruise in the city

BigPeBe

Funny thing happened last week. I was driving to a local car parts shop when I actually FORGOT that the boost pipe that had popped off previously, wasn't yet attached properly. So during a quick acceleration it popped off again. No biggie I thought, I'll just drive to the shop in N/A form and install the pipe back together. Then when I was almost there, car started to run on maybe 2 or 3 cylinders and I heard this horrible knocking sound. Surely I had suffered a major engine failure otherwise it would not sound so nasty.
Coasted to a nearby petrol station and checked under the hood and was greeted with this sight:





Immediately started laughing when I realized this was no biggie at all, the distributor cap just had split in half. The knocking sound was the rotor arm hitting against the insides of the broken dizzy cap, made a surprisingly nasty sound and amazing the engine still managed to run with the cap split in half and sitting in a weird position!

What would cause such a thing? The boost pipe is the answer, when it popped of it hit the dizzy cap and broke it. Some might think this was bad luck, but no, I find this a very lucky incident actually. When it broke I was within a walking distance of a parts shop that had a Motorcraft dizzy cap on shelf. So just walked there, bought one and then replaced it with the tools that my pocket knife had and drove back home.
I also ordered a new rotor arm "just in case".

christer_martinsen

Nice job mate. What clutch are you running?