infernosg's S5 N/A Build

[infernosg]

Several people already know about this but since I've starting making progress I guess it's time for a thread.

I have a '89 GXL that I've been using to get into road racing. I've owned it since June '09 and since then the only major modifications I've done have been to the suspension and drivetrain. Below are the two most recent pictures of the car I have (circa April '11):





This year was supposed to be my big HPDE year. Literally the weekend after those pictures were taken I overheated the car on the seventh session of the weekend. After that the car continuously pushed coolant into the overflow bottle so after 10 minutes of driving the low coolant buzzer would go off. It also got increasingly difficult to start over the next two weeks. The last few times it sounded like it was only firing up on one rotor although after applying some throttle it would sound normal. After that I decided to pull the engine:



The garage has been a mess from other projects around the house so I've only been able to expose the rear rotor as I don't have a large enough clean place to lay everything out. No obvious signs of a coolant seal failure yet:



Since I've pulled the engine I decided I might as well initiate all my long-term plans; no point in rebuilding the 6-port engine just to replace it in a few years. So since then I've removed A/C and P/S:



Gutted the emissions harness. That on the left is what remains and everything on the right has been removed:



I will be running a Haltech Sprint RE so I am removing everything from the car not needed to legally drive it on the street. In addition to the EM harness I've also gutted the rear harness as I no longer have a need for AAS, the rear wiper, window cleaner, etc. Ultimately I want to do the same with what remains of the front and engine harnesses but I'm hesitating on removing the dash. The last time I messed with it plastic was breaking left and right. Shown below are all the wires and controllers I've removed so far:



Last week I received a set of S4 TII housings:



I've been thoroughly documenting my work so I have MANY more pictures but no one cares to see pictures of step-by-step wiring removal...

If you haven't guessed by now I'm doing a 4-port N/A build. The block will be made of S4 TII intermediate housings, S5 N/A rotors, S5 N/A rotor housings with TII exhaust sleeves and RX-8 stationary gears, bearings and eccentric shaft. Intake will be a custom manifold with DCOE- or IDA-style individual throttle bodies. Fuel will be provided by two ID1000 injectors and four IGN-1A (Mecury Marine) coils will provide the spark. Exhaust will be comprised of a Defined Autoworks 4-port header and custom piping exiting at the rear driver's side. Everything will be controlled by a Haltech Sprint RE with a custom harness from LMS. Other items such as a rollbar and RT1000 racing seats will also be added along the way. I'd also love to replace the stock hood with a ligher fiberglass one and the rear hatch for a wiperless one.

Feel free to comment/question and if you think you having anything that might be useful to me, suggestions or parts, let me know!

[jerd_hambone]

Nice job on the wiring work. Most people don't take the time to do that. I give props to everyone who does!

I've been considering a 4 port N/A setup to stick in an FB. But I'd go with a carb setup.

Keep us updated man!

[WE3RX7]

Glad to see another FC being built for real racing! Looks good so far...

[vex]

Slow.



Real Slow.

[diabolical1]

cool! another NA 4-port setup. i'm very interested in seeing where this goes.

just curious, from where did you source your ignition coils?

[infernosg]

Originally Posted by WE3RX7

Glad to see another FC being built for real racing! Looks good so far...

Right now I'm building it to get me through HPDE and into Time Trials. Beyond that some serious work is required to be track ready (full cage, fire supression systems, battery cut-offs, HANS, etc.). I'm trying to keep most of the interior in place right now.

Originally Posted by vex

Slow.



Real Slow.

Yep.

Originally Posted by diabolical1

cool! another NA 4-port setup. i'm very interested in seeing where this goes.

just curious, from where did you source your ignition coils?

Haven't purchased them yet but they're available through a number of places (LMS being one of them). The IGN-1A's are the "smart coils" and they're typically around $72 each.

I just realized I never mentioned my power goals; I'd be happy with ~200 whp at 7500-8000 RPM.

[infernosg]

A minor update:

The old engine is completely apart. Now time to clean everything, swap over the TII exhaust sleeves (how?!) and send everything out to be cleaned up and ported. ID1000's came in yesterday. They're oh so FABULOUS, LOL!

[infernosg]

Small update. Rotors and irons are out for cleaning. Housings are getting resurfaced. In the meantime I've been playing with more wiring. I've stripped out the remains of the stock ECU, cruise control and power steering in the cabin and started to move into the engine bay

Cabin:



Engine bay:



Also gutted A/C and heater core:









Now I need to find some plugs for the leftover holes in the firewall...

[infernosg]

Even smaller Update.

Nothing much done lately. 50+ hour work weeks leave me not wanting to do anything during the week and with the nice weather I've been spending too much time at the range on the weekends...

The S5 N/A rotor housings and the S4 TII intermediate plates have all be cleaned up and resurfaced. Many thanks to Jonathan at Goopy Performance and Chip at Chips Motorsports for the service. I don't have pictures of the rotor housings at this time but see the intermediate plates below (courtesy of Chips Motorsports):



You can see more photographs in his (To_Slow) thread. All sealing surfaces have been lapped and re-nitrided and all unneccesary cooling ports have been plugged. These look SO MUCH better than they did when I sent them out. If I can get them back in my hands before the weekend I may try to take a trip to Columbus to talk about some porting and fabrication work with Defined Autoworks.

[infernosg]

Still slowly working on this.

I had everything back for a while so I decided to take some pictures of the shiny stuff. Lapped/cleaned intermediate plates (thanks Chips Motorsports!):



Resurfaced/cleaned rotor housings (thanks Goopy Performance!):



Clean rotors:



For giggles I put the plates and housings together. I actually kind of like the grey/silver theme. It will definitely be easier to spot leaks versus those on black/silver or black/grey parts.



Then I went back to work on the wiring. Engine harness this time:



Engine bay as it sits now. Every stock engine control connection is gone. The only things that remain are the charging system, lights and transmission switches.



Basically done stripping the wiring harnesses so now I need to plan where all the new stuff is going. Ideally, all the new wiring for the new gauges and control system will be loomed with what remains of the stock harnesses but I don't think that will be completely possible.

The rotor housings and plates are off getting ported now as well with Defined Autoworks. Ilve also been talking with them about getting an intake manifold, header and throttle bodies fab'd up.

[infernosg]

A few quick updates. Been working slowly as "real" work has been kicking my ass.

Used old engine parts to make a dummy engine for figuring out where stuff needs to go:



I've been going through a lot of the stock connectors and replacing them with Weatherpack connectors too.

Test fit new radiator:



Going to need to make some kind of shroud around it to force air through it.

Stock mechanical fan is being replaced by a 16" puller. Supposedly pulls 3000 CFM at 10 amps continuous. Not sure if I'll shroud this or not as the car really won't see a lot of driving in traffic.



Note Weatherpack connector again.

Made ECU/relay mounting thing out of .025" aluminum. Everything fits in the stock location and there's a thicker aluminum kick plate that covers everything up. Mounted new fuse panel behind the passenger's kick panel as well:



Temporarily installed dual wideband gauge (displays info from two sensors at once) so I can run all the wires:



Other gauges:



Gauges are Marshall Instruments SCX Pro in black/black. Pretty good for the price (~$100): 270 degree stepper motor, warning output, peak recall. Super company to deal with too. Not sure where to mount the recall button just yet.

Irons/housings are still with Defined Autoworks. They ran into a problem with the front iron and it had to be replaced but it looks like everything will be taken care of.

Need to find someone with a TIG locally to weld shut the heater port on the radiator.

[djmtsu]

Good job repainting the DIN panel

[infernosg]

Originally Posted by djmtsu

Good job repainting the DIN panel

Painting that thing was such a PITA. I had to strip my first paint job because it was flaking off. I went back and scuffed the hell out of the metal and now it seems to be sticking. Now if only I can figure out how to mount the radio when I'm done...

I managed to get some work done when I wasn't doing housework for the wife.

Made a harness for gauges and spliced into existing wiring. Uses the same switched 12V, ground and illumination source as the stock gauges. I was a little off on some of my wire measurements but I suppose it's better to be long than short.



To access/set the peak recall and warning features of the gauges they each come with a button. I wasn't sure I'd use them at first or even where I'd put them if I did use them but I decided to mount them where the AAS switch used to be. Used the same .025" aluminum to make a blank cover where the foglight switch used to be as well. I moved the security light to the passenger's side in case I decide to use the blank for something in future. I'm in the process of painting them black (with more success than the gauge panel).



Wired the dual wideband gauge in the same manner as the other gauges The electrical tape covers the spade connectors (!) to prevent a short. I used spade connectors because the gauge itself didn't come with any terminals and I couldn't find any 5-pin connectors that were small enough to fit in the area around the steering column.



Decided to mount dual wideband controller in the glovebox. It needs this period "free air adjustment" so it needed to be located somewhere accessible and I'd rather not put it in the engine bay. I need to get a rubber grommet for that hole.



I got a lot of wiring in general done over the weekend. Currently stuck while I wait for more wire, terminals, etc. to be delivered. The cabin is about 80% wired at this point. It's currently messy as hell but it everything will be cleaned up before the dash goes back in and once I've confirmed all circuits are still working.



Ran wires out into the engine bay. These likely won't be terminated for some time as I need an intake manifold, throttle body and fuel rail before I can do anything with the TPS, IAT and injector sensors. I suppose I can wire the CAS though.





Last, but not least, the new coils. Currently have 3/4 needed. Now I need to figure out how to mount these things. They're a lot bigger than I thought!

[infernosg]

I think I've managed to get the interior wiring done. The only thing missing now is power. I want to make absolutely certain everything works before putting the interior back together. Onto the pictures...

Shot of the driver's side and gauges. Getting the fuse box (not pictured) and all the wires behind the driver's kick panel back together was a PITA!



And the passenger's side.



A closer shot of the ECU and relay mounting plate. The three female spade connectors are for the dual wideband controller, which I mounted in the glovebox so I can route those until the dash is back in.



Lastly, my finished "switch" panel.



Of course as I'm "done" running wires for the interior I'm now wondering if I should have deleted the stereo and speakers and all the associated wires. I haven't really figured out how to mount the radio and I'm thinking it's probably not going to get a lot of use. I'm really not wanting to go in there and remove everything again...

[infernosg]

Too long since updating this - some good progress.

Got the wiring for the battery relocation done. The 8 AWG wire goes along the passenger's door sill up into the kick panel to the fuse panel, which powers the ECU, injectors, ignitors, fuel pump and gauges. Ignore the ridiculously thick heat shrinkg; it's been replaced.



In the engine bay the 2 AWG wire runs to another breaker at the base of the strut tower. A new 4 AWG wire is used to power the fuse box. Ultimately there will be another red 4 AWG wire running to the starter from the breaker and a black 4 AWG wire running from the fuse box to the alternator. The relay next to the fuse box is for the electric fan.



A while back Logan finished up the porting for me so I made a drive up to Columbus and picked them up.

Intermediate iron:



Rear iron:



Exhaust port:



Exhaust port again:



Porting work on outside:



I got bored waiting for parts so I decided to do something about a mistake a made when taking the dash out. We all know this sight...



Since I have no reason for these defrost vents (and I don't want to spend $20/each on new ones) I decided to make some block-off plates with my ever-useful sheet of .025" aluminum. Trace vents and cut...



Test fit:



I've since painted and completed the deletes and I went ahead and did the same thing with the window defrost vents. Right now 90% of the interior is put back together but I'm still waiting for parts. Plugged in the battery and all systems check out (annoying buzzer is annoying), which was such a relief.

Engine-wise EFI Hardware TB has been ordered and Defined Autoworks is starting the intake manifold. Progress...