87 TII, TECgt, T04-R....DGRR '09 build!
 

Well, I've changed alot around on the car, and am still progressing along with it. Next week, it'll be wired and fired! (no shit, otherwise it'll tough to drive across country! :) )

For the last couple years I've been running a Haltech E6X. Good box, but had *alot* of trouble with getting solid reliable crank signal. By alot of trouble I'm of course reffering to a pile of broken apex seals, several trash housings, chewed turbines and words that only a sailor would love.

I made the ECU switch mostly out of the need for extreme trigger accuracy. The TEC series of ECU's only use their own mag sensors and trigger wheels, no adapting into factory stuff. The system I'm running has a 60-2 tooth wheel mounted directly on the crank. No more CAS gear slop, VR conditioning, gains/filters or PROBLEMS (knocking on wood :lol: )

The other benefits of the new ECU were full sequential injection and ignition. The ECU comes with its own coils (similar or the same as IGN-1 coils) but obviously, I won't know how beefy they are until 18-20psi with 800cc of straight water.

This thread will just cover the changes I've made to the car, and getting it to deals gap (plus the keys! yeah!) and back.

Now some pik-tars.

My ECU mount. I didn't hack up the one I made for the haltech, so I can later on re-use the whole gammot (with a different crank trigger other then stock)
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238179499

Basically just put two flat bars across the stock ECU mount. Bolted EMS down, done. The pic shows the foam I installed under the ECU to minimize vibration....it just illustrates how much the foam is compressed.



http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238179499

Here's the wiring under the dash. Most of its not visible - that was the idea. Ran it all with the stock wiring. When I re-did the engien harness for the new ECU, I thought "what the hell" and decided it would be a good idea if I removed *EVERY SINGLE* piece of wiring added to the car in the past, and did once, and correctly. There was all kinds of shit in there from the previous owner (CP racing....) shit you'd never want your friends to find out about much like the fat chick you got a BJ from while hamemred.



http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238179499

Here's a nice shot of the a little harness. My glove box is littered with electronics, and in a stupor of some type, I thought it was a smashing idea to wire it all in straight up, no plugs. Well - when you decide to pull the glove box after doing something that stupid, you realize the error of your ways and make everything plug and play. The glove box houses: AI controller, Fuel pressure gauge, secret ninja switch..... and datalogging switch as well as the COM cable for the ECU.


http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238179499

Above is fuse panel #2. This one is fed of of ACC ignition, or key on only. Feeds a few devices (and one wire is missing in this pic) but its also got a few spare spots if I ever add anything. There's more fuse panels which I'll snap shots of later.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238179499

Here we see the mess that's left to wire. Not really much to do here other then wire in the last three realy plugs (two fans and AI) and tidy it up. I decide to stop the wiring progress here because I have everything I need to finish it up...............the engine however needs a bunch of things custom made, so thats where my attention is ATM.

EDIT: You can also see the neato relay mounts I made up out of some AL. Inspiration for those goes to TTT from his ECU mount. The realys had no tabs (GHEY) so I had to improvise something. This foam lined custom bit does the job very well!

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238180364

Main breaker. Used to be in the bin, now is more easily accessible. Also allows for interesting conversations with the passenger. "whats this doo-hickey?"


http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238180364

New prosport gauges. Added four more to the line up. Here are EGT's (apillar) and boost. The fuel press. as mentioned is in the glovebox.



http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238180364

Just another shot to show the added wiring along with the factory stuff. You can't see it too well here, but beside the large factory blue plugs there are two plugs I've added for the oil pressure and oil temp.


http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238180364

Onto greener pastures....


http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238180364

NOW. Here we go. Got the piece back from the machinist to adapt the FD front cover onto the FC oil pan. Anyone notice anything wrong with this picture???!??!

If you don't. Have a look at a front iron with an oil pump and chain installed.........yea. My fault for not mocking that up on the iron I gave him, although I'm sure I mentioned it.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238180920

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238180920

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238180920

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238180920

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238180920

More shots of the adaptor, and what happens after I attack it with the cut off wheel!

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238181164

Mocking up the mazmart waterpump with Pineapple idler pulley. Nice piece, needed to trim the thermostat housing ever so slightly on the bottom because it was JUST touchign the belt. Just a note for anyone looking into one of these.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238181164

Note the date stamp in this picture. This was about 6pm yesterday. At the end of the night, the FD cover was installed, oil pan back on, ready for the final dressings of turbo mani, WP, *rebuilt* TII trans, and insertion into the hungry chassis :lol:

MORE UPDATES SOON> It'll be making noise next week fellas :)

Engine and trans together. Awaiting some gear oil to fill her up and I can drop the rotomoto back in place.

Finished coil brackets last night, also welded on new v-band to turbine housing (old one was some random piece that doesn't share dimensions with any other vband on the planet) Pics of those and the engine coming tomorrow...currently fabbing up new IC outlet pip off the turbo, and hoses for the rad--->FD water pump.

I'm waiting for a fitting for the FD front cover to -10AN...won't be able to fire it up until it gets here wednesday, but thursday as long as its not delayed, this thing should be singing.

wow man, talk about attention to detail!
I dig the body kit! FC2000?

Bah i'll post some pics now. Eating a sub.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238261630

New turbine flange. My TIG welding skills are rusty. Its like riding a bike I guess, but I've fallen over the handle bars of my bike before!@! :lol:

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238261630

Trigger wheel centered/welded. Just a few filler-less tacks around it. I gave it a quick coat of paint, don't want TOO much on, dunno if it'll effect the signal...

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238261630

Belt/pulley setup. NO MORE SLIPPING FOR ME! I don't know why but I'm a little horny for this setup. I guess after years of having to use a pry bar on the alternator to tension it, buying pounds and pounds of v belts to find two the same, having match pairs that one streches more then the other on, you get a little fed up with that shit.


http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238261630

Blingin' rebuilt tranny. Should I leave the tag on? Thoughts? LOL



Not FC2000. Classicauto2008. I do plan on redoing it and making it a little more "FC". But its a bomex cover with custom headlights (that started out as CP racing units) Its age and level of custom awesomeness is showing in the form of a couple small cracks though.....two of which happened while I had it off and bumped it with the engine hoist DOH.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238262145

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238262145

How it sits currently. My gear oil just got here, so I'm back out on the case.

Thanks for the comment Stylemon, I do try to adress the details!

Moar tomorrow of the powerplant in its home :cheers2:

Here's some more progress.

Coil brackets. Nice and sturdy.
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238422771

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238422771


Insertion.
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238422771


I debated turbo orientation for a little while.
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238422771
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238422771

I'll be going with the 2nd picture. Keeps it further from the exhaust and the piping is a tad shorter. The intake will run straight ahead, and under the IC piping. That's all for today, have all the drivetrain buttoned up, the engine harness is on now, plug wires ran.....won't be long now!

Nicely done Joe! Looking forward to DGRR.

Why the FD pump assembly? Are you still using the stock mounted Rad? I'm curious for the reasoning behind it.

Loving the coil mounts and the attention to detail.

Mostly because I went with the mazmart unit, and its only available for the FD and RX-8.....plus, the belt setup with an idler was much more advanced in my eyes then the twin v-belts. I plan on eventually doing a V or H mount IC, and as you know, the FD water pump outlets are more favourable for that type of rad mounting.

Gonna be sweet. Can't wait to see it in a few weeks!

Thanks, I can't wait to DRIVE it in a couple weeks! :) Actually I'll be driving it sooner then that though :lol:

ill race you to see who gets theirs started first! looking great man, cant wait to see it!

Good call on the outlets for the V or HMIC. I'll get pics of mine up tonight. I was looking at that ReMedy pump. Do want, but the pump I have is working and I have no cooling issues as of yet. We'll see what the summer brings when it's 99% humidity and 100*. That'll be interesting.

I want in on this race to see who get's thiers started first. Work is going to kick my ass for the next two days, I'm HOPING for a start on Wed or thursday. Than I need to break it in for a tentative dyno day on Monday the 6th.

You're on masin and brian! 3, 2......1 - GO! :lol:

I wish I could go to DGRR, so many awesome cars are going to be there. :(

Great job on the build so far. :icon_tup:

Small update:

Engine in and all assembled, need to get a couple hose clamps for the upper rad hose.
Its all ready to be filled with life fluids. This afternoon after I get this FD's engine bay back together, I'll be filling it up, hooking up the instrument cluster (tomake sure the tach works with the TEC) and trying to fire this monster up. :seeya:
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238851488


I'm very pleased with the new intake setup. Moved from the tiny K&N filter to this larger 6" baby. I liked the shorty, but it would get dirty FAST. I suppose thats mostly because I don't necessairly drive the car in "ideal" conditions all the time, but the small filter area would get caked in black crud after 3-4 weeks of hard driving. I got tired of cleaning it. Also, the old greddy manifold gave me a turbo placement that was difficult to manage anything ince on intake wise. I basically just had a 45* coupler, and filter. Only to get it barely out of the wash from the primary rad fan.
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238851488


I do have to make one plate to block off the EGR tube. I won't be able to run it anymore with this manifold/exhaust (yes, I ran it up until now) so I'll cut the flange off, weld the hole up and bolt it on.
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238851488


[soap opera voice]Oh my sweet, we shall make beautiful music together[/soap opera voice] :lol::lol::lol:
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1238851488

looking good joe. im not looking good for getting mine started this weekend. my fuel rail wont be back from CJ until next week. lol

Looks like I won the start up contest :cheers2: Got about 60 miles on her too. Nearly impossible to stay out of boost. Running non-sequential I was @ 0 psi by 2500 with light throttle. Although it's doubtful I'll attend DGRR @ this point. I'll give ya the full deatils with pics tomorrow. I can't take the greatest pic until tomorrow afternoon.

Looking good Joe. Happy fires!

You have to come!

Well I got her fired up sunday. Couldn't run it long though as there's a random fuel leak in the center of one of my braided AN lines>>>?!???

Wanted to make sure I'd have no problems connecting to the ECU (really easy, much faster then the E6X) loading my map (also super easy and fast) and that everything would be wired correctly (seems fine. Sensors all reading correctly etc.)

Obviously, I still need to put the dash back in, but other then that and the fuel leak, its ready to join the downpipe up to the exhaust and put some miles on it!!

trying to youtube the vid but the upload is kicking my ass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMsneShkdQ
Video is terrible :lol:

lol's

It can be leaking up by the fitting and coming down between the steel and rubber in the line and then leaking through the SS braid at the lowest point. Hard to explain...

As long as it isn't a long run of SS line it is cheap so just take it out and replace it...should be simple enough right? In my LS1 build that was the only issue I had at initial start up, one of my AN to hardline adapter fittings was leaking so I had to REALLY torque it down. I really don't like AN fittings. The ones for my oil cooler seap a little also and they are tight, it is frustrating.

Yeah, that's a wierd leak to have. I love AN fittings. So much nicer than rubber. Hell, I welded a -10 bung onto my waterpump housing for the return from the heater core and I also pulled both the nipples out of the rear iron and tapped them. The one on for the TB is now a 1/4" NPT plug, and the one for the feed to the heatercore I tapped to 1/2" NPT and used a 1/2" to -10 fitting with one of the puch to fit fittings. Makes taking the hoses off SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier. 1/4 turn with a wrench and back it off by hand. A lot better than trying to monkey with those hoses.

As for the hardline adapters, if you were using them with the stock lines, the stock lines are a little smaller than the hardlines that the adapters were intended for, so I'm not surprised that then needed to be cranked on

Just my opinion

That's looking real good Joe, hopefully I'll get to see it up close this summer. Keep up the good work!

Cozmo, I'm on the fence about the AN stuff. As said its nice and easy to R&I once its all made up, but I've got some seepage issues on the ones for my oil cooelr as well...just aggrivating. But i'll address them slowly.

The line thats leaking may be leaking as you say, and working its way up the SS sheath, but I ahve a feeling the line just has a hole in it. It literally sprays a stream across the TB, onto the top of the engine, and up a bit onto the hood :lol: I turned the pump on at first and could smell gas bad, I poked my head out of the cabin and went HOLY MOTHER!

Really no idea how that happened, they were all fine before. I have a piece of -6 that might be long enough to replace it, if not I'll use some regular old 3/8" fuel injector hose and nasty clamps to get me by for now.

I love the ease of AN, but its a bit of a pain in the rear to make. I'm already cringing at the number of pinholes im going to make in my hands fixing this one :lol: If I did it again I'd use the black nylon sheathed stuff....wouldn't abriad anything touching it as badly I'd think.

hey guys, I just wanted to ask something as far as oil cooler an fittings:

would it be a bad idea to use teflon "tape" on these? Like, the kind that people use with water pipes? (real thin and NOT sticky)

the -6 stands for 6/16ths which is 3/8ths. You can use standard 3/8ths fuel line with some -6 fittings (depends on the outer diameter of the hose)...

I HATE with a capital HATE, SS braided. I always use the Nomex or Nylon braided for my projects (depending on application). Much easier on the hands :) ... If I need something for extremely high pressure I use the TFE hose that is SS, but that is usually only for power steering lines and stuff over 1500psi (which is only really PS).

FWIW I think Nylon braided is NHRA legal now too. So it passes tech. I know that was an issue before.


The plummer's tape on the oil cooler lines is a good idea. Too bad I would probably have to pull my engine to get to them. I would use the oil/gas resistant plummer's tape though, it is usually pink instead of white. It would work better in the oil cooler application. AN fittings are supposed to seal though, I mean they cost enough...they should seal. It is only after everything is installed that you find the leaks and then it takes exponentially more time to fix/tighten.

I use the liquid teflon tape.

That way an errant piece of the tape can't accidentally get into the lines. I have had that happen before.

The fittings at the cooler, and at the engine, sure. Don't use them on any of the 37* flares though......unless the flare is damaged and leaking, the threads at those fittings are only there to provided positive pressure to the flares to make the seal, so teflon tape or pipe dope there won't do anything but bung them up.

Well, she's JUST about road worthy. Going to drive it over to the shop tomorrow, throw it on the hoist and mate the downpipe, waste gate dump, and exisiting exhaust.

I've been fighting a couple issues though this week.

1) My heater fan began crapping out intermittently last year. When I pulled the dash off I found a lovely gift from CP racing, the previous owner. The logicon harness haad been molested to no end. Wires just cut with fuses placed in them, wires cut and looped back to other wires, teeing into wires that lead nowhere.......I cleaned it up and put it "back to stock" but when I put the dash in and tried the fan, no go. Grabbed my known good S5 logicon - still no go.

Somewhere, I have no idea where, there's a massive short. I have continuity to ground through both wires on the heater fan. If you try to jumper power to the + side of the fan (without disconnecting the stock harness) you just blow the fuse on the jumper wire. For now so I can defrost if I need to, I'm just jumpering power to the fan with the stock wire cut off......I'll ahve to tug the dash again down the line and really comb this bitch over......I hate finite little issues like this, I garuntee when I find I'll go "no shit that was easy" after 3 days of work :lol:

2) My laptop. Brand new acer asipre One. I bought it for the SOLE PURPOSE of tuning my car. It works absolutely flawlessly, until you're online with the ECU. Then randomly it'll go to a blue screen for 2 seconds with a bunch of stuff about terminal error, dumping physical memory - then it shuts off and restarts.......absolute BS and PITA. I'm going to resurrect the old trusty rusty unit and load the software and see what it does.

I've spoke to electromotive and they told me its a laptop issue, not specific to the WINTEC software :(

My luck continues!!! :):)

No, plumbers tape or plumbers spooge (as I call it) is a BAD idea on an fittings. The 37* flare seals the line, not the threads like NPT. Thread or spooge can only muck things up.

:icon_tup:

Nice, let the finger pointing begin. Gaurunteed if you called the laptop co they say it's a software problem :icon_tup: Either way its better than my laptop. POS takes literally 7 minutes to load the Motec software. I can't justify a new laptop though. I usually just leave the thing booted up too. I hate that thing

Good luck Joe, let us know how everything turns out

lol spooge...

Well I've got a few miles on her.

Wish I could tell you how many, but it appears I haven't clipped my speedo cable into the cluster all the way :lol:

Fixing that right now. The laptop *seems* (knock on wood) to be working ok, and the tune is actually going well. Had only gone about 20kms by the time I got most of the vaccum stuff dialed in. Now I just need to burn off the rest of this old fuel, toss in some Ontario High-test and start lighting the wick :)

PS: The TEC drives the tach slightly more accurately then Mazda did! :lol:

Alrighty!!

I got back from the road trip and from DGRR, AMAZING event that everyone should attend always! DJ, I'd have come out saturday night but kevin had me all pumped up for a sunrise run (4:15am EEEEK!) then left us hangin' so we went alone :lol: I was all set to drink loads american beer too.....:lol:......next year!

Some interesting data I found while on the road trip (OH BTW didn't blow any engines this year -yet- so please please hold the applause! :) ) for starters, gas mileage.

50 Liter fill up, all highway driving, 525km's. In otherwords roughly 9.75-10L/100kms. For my 'merican friends - approximately 23MPG.

I was freakin' blown away.

Now obviously, this is an extreme highway test. we would litearlly fill up the car, get on the highway, lock in cruise at about 75mph and run until the tank was empty. If I boost the car......well, lets just say that I get viper fuel mileage! soudns faster! :)

That was running above 16:1 ratios as well. Its kind of wierd, but my wideband only reads to 16.00:1....so tuning those areas was "fun". I had to bascially do it blind and just run by what the car was telling me/how it feels, but I was surprised when it was still driving well that light loads/cruise areas were pegging the wideband full lean. The actual ratio couldn't be much more then 16.25 though, I just can't see that getting close to 17's would be enough fuel for it to run.

After usingthis ECU for a while though I have to say I really really like this software/way of control. Save for the stupid go$*D0vsaj mother%*$*$&ing laptop crashing on me its very nice.

In other news I've gotten my AFR's up top cleaned up all the way to redline at spring pressure - about 210KPA ABSOLUTE, or 16ish psi. The spring is supposed to be 0.9bar, but I just goes to 15 and gets real happy? I don't know. I can't wait to try frigging around the gain control though - this thing seems to come online pretty good with no help at all, that should really wake it up.

Any profecB experts out there have any advice for a guy wanting better RESPONSE, without much higher peak pressure? I do intend to have a *kill setting* though but I'll figure that one out myself :lol:

does the Profec have a "GAIN" setting? My Blitz SBC i-d has this setting which increases reponse OR spool time. A little goes a long way BUT too much and you spike.

Yes its got a gain setting, I'm just curious as to how much that will help if I have the actual solenoid duty cycle really low. Wanting to boost at or near spring pressure but increase response. raising boost AND response should be pretty easy.

I'll just start fiddling around I guess :) thanks

I love R&I of an engine
 

Its so much fun. Apparently my car thinks so too!!!!!!!!

I popped a seal. Again! w00t

Call me a sadist, but I'm actually a little excited about this one. I'll get into that in a sec, but first off let me list for you guys what the "classicauto solo" rebuild has stood up to so far:

1) Installed with the E6(HEX!)X when it was still having trigger issues.
2) The first 10 mintues/10 kms the engine had on it were (after a short idle) done at 15psi :lol:
3) Over 45 dyno runs
4) Somewhere around the 40th dyno run - the fuel pump fuse blew (clogged filter) and STONE COLD SHUT HER DOWN at about 18psi/5500RPM
5) New EMS, larger turbo....
6) "tuned" by me
7) Driven to the gap, "tuned up some more" by me with Masin behidn the wheel
8) Ran the shit out of it on the gap.....
9) Drove to the keys and back home......(over 7000kms)
10) Ran the shit out of it around here "tuning it some more" :lol:
11) Had the water injection off for the last tuning session, and forgot to turn it back on after :(
12) Blew to bits at 20psi (yes 20, from the T04-R) at around 7,000RPM

All in all, about 17,000kms of shitty tuning and hard driving. Its a hell of an improvment over my previous history of popping them in vaccum, or at 2psi while passing a truck.......on freshly rebuilt engines.

I'm excited about this for the following:

1) I get to inspect my first entirely solo rebuild
2) Inspect the coolant jacket mods I did
3) Inspect the EGR elimination to the sleeves I did
4) I get to install my NRS ceramics!!!! w00T!
5) I get to give up trying to be a tuner, I'm a body man for fuck sakes!! :lol:

I'll post pics of the carnage when I get it apart, but let me just say it blow'd up real good. Much better then before, there was only about 300C of EGT on the rear rotor....

I'll never use anything else but a rotary..........in my rotary car :) The skyline GTR that I don't own yet but will one day can stay inline 6 though ;)

EDIT: I'm in touch with Logan from Defined autoworks, waiting to hear back a few things but I'm planning to use his mountains of skill (and dyno) to do the tuning on the new keg. I may be hard headed on getting and keeping this bitch running on both rotors, but damn these new seals are pricey. I'll let a real master do his thing.....