Northstar rebuild: Will style (Page 105/119)
ericjon262 SEP 13, 10:58 PM

quote
Originally posted by fieroguru:


That reminds me of the time(s) I spent way too much time doing something very similar to fit an AN coolant 90 on a SBC so it cleared the frame rails. Thinned the bolt on plate, ran a die deeper onto the NPT side of the fitting, trimmed the excess that protruded on the backside, rinse/repeat...

Taking the time to fineness these types of fitment issues pays huge dividends with the overall finished product reliability and aesthetics and are part of what separates a well done swap from the herd.



it's something I found significantly lacking in the early days of my LX9 shenanigans, each phase of my build has worked closer and closer to making the car easier to work on. I really wish I had focused more on the little details from the start. I probably would have alot more miles on the car by now if I had.

------------------
"I am not what you so glibly call to be a civilized man. I have broken with society for reasons which I alone am able to appreciate. I am therefore not subject to it's stupid laws, and I ask you to never allude to them in my presence again."

cognita semper

Will SEP 14, 10:04 AM

quote
Originally posted by fieroguru:

That reminds me of the time(s) I spent way too much time doing something very similar to fit an AN coolant 90 on a SBC so it cleared the frame rails. Thinned the bolt on plate, ran a die deeper onto the NPT side of the fitting, trimmed the excess that protruded on the backside, rinse/repeat...

Taking the time to fineness these types of fitment issues pays huge dividends with the overall finished product reliability and aesthetics and are part of what separates a well done swap from the herd.



Thanks!

It's not fun, but a lot of times necessary.

Of course if I'd test fitted it to this level BEFORE I had it anodized, I could have milled down and re-tapped the oil pressure sender boss thereby making the fitting installation much easier.
It's all fun and games until I smash the fitting while installing the engine and have to make another one.



quote
Originally posted by ericjon262:

it's something I found significantly lacking in the early days of my LX9 shenanigans, each phase of my build has worked closer and closer to making the car easier to work on. I really wish I had focused more on the little details from the start. I probably would have alot more miles on the car by now if I had.




GM designs things to go together easily in one sequence and the maintenance aspect just ends up where it ends up. While we want to do a lot of things that "look like production", we have to design maintainability more like a race car that gets torn down after every race weekend... because we end up tearing things down a lot more than production cars are meant for.
copperhens SEP 14, 10:00 PM
Hey, Will!
I am curious what fuel pump you will run in your car?
ericjon262 SEP 14, 11:08 PM

quote
Originally posted by Will:
GM designs things to go together easily in one sequence and the maintenance aspect just ends up where it ends up. While we want to do a lot of things that "look like production", we have to design maintainability more like a race car that gets torn down after every race weekend... because we end up tearing things down a lot more than production cars are meant for.



it's a tough battle for sure. I thought I had done so many things "the right way" when I first started all of my shenanigans, boy was I wrong about alot of it. I won't complain though, my car is an exercise in engineering for me, I will continue to make improvements, and use it as a leaning tool.

------------------
"I am not what you so glibly call to be a civilized man. I have broken with society for reasons which I alone am able to appreciate. I am therefore not subject to it's stupid laws, and I ask you to never allude to them in my presence again."

cognita semper

Will SEP 15, 05:28 AM

quote
Originally posted by copperhens:

Hey, Will!
I am curious what fuel pump you will run in your car?



@$$uming it turns on the next time I apply juice, I have a '96 Corvette pump. It's nice and quiet, unlike the Walbro I tried in my Formula.
Will SEP 22, 06:32 PM
Getting started on wiring:

The valley harness, crank wire and starter cable have to be finalized in order to "flight install" the intake manifold. The valley harness connects the two knock sensors and crank sensor under the intake, as well as the cam sensor on the cylinder head, to a production break connector. The production break is at the back of the engine originally, but I re-loomed the harness in order to move it to the front for better packaging, shorter wire runs given my harness geometry and access.

I also wanted to start playing with workmanship items for harness build, including individual wire strain reliefs. 3/32" shrink tube is the right size to do that for 20-22AWG wire. This product is Raychem RNF-100, which has a max rated temp of 135C. 125C is required for engine bay use. The go-to product for engine bay use is Raychem DR-25, but that's only available in black--not good for this application.

I decided I'd cut off the old pins, install the shrink tube on the individual wires, install the blue seals for larger gauge wire, then crimp on a new pin. that way the strain relief would start way down inside the connector for best effect. Making sure I correctly provide for getting the resulting bundle through the right size of shrink tube was an exercise in activity sequence planning.

The selective gold pins I bought (left) vs. the ones GM used (right). Interdasting.


Wires stripped, with shrink tube strain reliefs, ready for new seals and pins


With seals and pins, ready for installation into the connector


With connector installed


Another In-process example of my gold pins vs. GM's


In process photo of some wires with shrink tube strain reliefs and one without


Photo of the same configuration from the back... blue and white seals visible


This was a nice surprise: the secondary TPA has a nice snug fit on the individual wire strain reliefs. This could mean that I don't have to run them all the way into the seals in order for them to do the job of strain relief.


Here's a connector with the bundle shrink tube installed on the bundle.
This one has 3/16 shrink on the bundle; the first bundle I did was the cam sensor. I completed all the pins and then found they wouldn't go through the 3/16 shrink so I had to upsize the shrink on that bundle to 1/4. I can feel the difference in stiffness of the same three wire bundles, one with snug 3/16 and one with loosish 1/4... The bundle with 1/4 is stiffer due to the larger diameter and thicker wall on the tube.


Here's the harness with the sub-bundle shrink installed... you can see the bundles are shiny where the shrink is installed.


Seals and terminals ready to rework the production break connector


Production break connector primary TPA


Mid-rework harness with the first piece of 3/8 shrink on the main bundle


Wider view of same


The whole thing done


Closeup of the production break and twisted pairs that GM used for the knock sensors.


Close up of a bunch of bundles


More closeups of bundles


Finished product in place


More finished product in place



Oil Filter Adapter
There's plenty of space between the end of the pipe bushing and the inside of the return passage; I could have milled the pressure sender boss down on the outside of the adapter and tapped it deeper and had everything come out fine. Oooops.



Straight through to the port in the side of the block. There's some slop around the bolts, so I wanted to make sure this was correctly centered before I tightened the bolts down. They have threadlocker applied from GM; I didn't want to mess that up on a trial fit.



Accessory Packaging
With the smaller CS130 alternator, I can move the top mount point in about an inch from where the stock one is, which makes 1/2" more clearance to the firewall. I don't need the extra clearance, so I probably won't do much/anything about it.
I could move it inboard even further if I clearanced the accessory bracket... that I already anodized.



The basics of the NorthStar accessory drive



Here's what I'm thinking this time around. That's the stock Cadillac tensioner, but rotated a bit over 90 degrees CCW from stock position. It pulls up. If I can mount an idler about where I'm holding this idler, then should be able to make this routing work.



Here's a fit check of my fancy compressor fitting



and another showing its relationship to the secondary compressor bracket. Don't mind the long bolt... that was just what I had on hand to locate the bracket.



As I was packing up to go from my dad's house back to my house, I got a text from the Cerakote guy saying my parts were ready... so I detoured to pick them up. Pics next time.
Will SEP 27, 03:30 PM
I did the "flight install" of water manifold, water pump & thermostat housing last weekend. I also figured out what to do with the dipstick. I left the oil pan at my house and didn't have the right size harness clamp for the valley harness, so I didn't get either the oil pan nor the intake manifold "installed for flight"... but will next weekend.

Weight of modified water manifold (7 lbs 5.8 oz). Will get weight of unmodified manifold next weekend.



Water pump volute with a little RTV to mitigate some damage to the o-ring groove.



Water pump installation:
Align the dots (it only fits one way)



Use the special weird socket for lefty-tighty



And installed:



Thermostat housing seal



Installed



I did not have the correct harness clamp for the valley harness. McMaster does not have harness clamps for 5/16" mounting fasteners... at all. The target of opportunity is a bolt hole in the web bracing in the valley. Fortunately, I found this in my parts stash and just had to shorten it a smidge. Now I can use harness clamps for 1/4" fasteners.



Glamour shot:



Valley harness with the miracle stud-headed bolt:



So here's a good laugh... if I'd gone to the extra trouble of milling off the weird lobe of coolant in the EGR passages on my modified water manifold, I'd be able to make a flat plate throttle adapter and roll.
Unfortunately, I didn't do that.



Northstar manifold opening:



Sometimes when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back.



A/C pressure transducer fitting is going to be just fine:



Getting closer!





And weighing the hot rod parking brake components



The backing plate is a developmental piece that is WAY above "flight weight" and comprises the majority of the weight shown. With a lightweighted backing plate, these should come in under 2 lbs.
Will OCT 03, 07:41 PM
I splurged a little... as if this entire build weren't already a splurge. Stainless 3/4 NPT to 5/8 hose nipple 90 degree adapter with a swivel.



Earl's is a pretty good name in automotive stuff, but still not wonderful in some ways. This is at least better than some oil fittings I've seen. It'll be fine for the heater circuit.



The McMaster order with the right cable clamps didn't arrive in time, so I snagged a temp clamp from CarQuest. Also dropped the intake gaskets on. I looked at the starter cable and think I know what I want to do with it now... I should use the now unused power steering pump mount location for a platform that mounts a junction block. That way the entire positive battery cable does have to stick out the front of the engine.



With the water manifold in place, I can no longer swing the engine 360 degrees. D-oh



Getting rid of the temporary oil pan:



I guess this is how Fel-Pro does things:



And the "flight qualified" oil pan in place. Bling



I tried the prior steet el that mounted the Aurora oil pressure sender/switch to see if the new filter adapter did any differently. Unfortunately, I over did it on the die and it threaded in until the shoulder at the end of the threads hit the threads on the adapter. D-oh. That combo is a 3/8 street el with a 3/8-1/4" reducer bushing. They're kind of rare, but I found a 3/8 to 1/4" reducer street el and have it on the way... may be a little lower profile than the 3/8 street el. Also, I can add a 1/4" pipe m-f adapter to extend the sender/switch a little bit to clear the bracket.



Since I'm making a new bracket to mount the idler I need on the front of the engine, I clearanced the production bracket to allow the alternator to swing in a bit more, since can put the upper bolt hole for it wherever I want...











Aaaaaaand spent some more time with the unsexy side of hot rodding
Will OCT 12, 08:19 PM
Doing anything at all with the Fiero fuel tank connections at the back of the tank is one of the most miserable automotive jobs I know about.
I took the fill hose out and decided I didn't have time for that S@#$.
I dug up a 5" hole saw and made it not a problem anymore.







I was immediately rewarded





I finally got the last cable clamp and the clear shrink tube + nylon split convoluted tubing on the crank wire and starter cable in the valley. I'll run the new manifold through the dishwasher, then "install for flight"



This is the power steering pump mount location. The PS pump mount bracket is a weird thing that slips under the slot on the right and installs with just one bolt into the bolt hole on the left.





I'm not going to install power steering, but I'm thinking I can drill & tap the flat spot on the bracket for a conventional terminal block. I'll probably mill away the then-unused ears and flanges for pump mounting. I currently have the original Caddy battery/alternator/starter cable, as well as the Fiero alternator to body junction block cable. This results in two cables at the battery and two cables at the alternator. With a junction block here, I can have one cable going to each location, as well as use a generic positive battery cable... so overall it should be both weight reduction and simplification of the car's starting/charging system.



The initial pathfinder part for the new accessory bracket came out. This bracket will pick up the four bolt holes shown, as well as the alternator upper mount bolt, a new A/C comp-alternator idler location and ultimately a new idler location over the front cover.
I impressed myself with the bolt pattern. I measured all the hole-to-hole distances manually with calipers and plugged the numbers into OnShape. I spec'd 0.406 holes for 10mm bolts. The resulting part, when installed with all four bolts, still had about 10 thou of movement... so I measured and laid out the bolt pattern DEAD NUTS on the first try. I was quite pleased.





I put the heater & A/C pipes in the car, marked them for the locations of the steel hold-down pieces, then pulled them back out. The post above reflects that the heater tubes fit a little weird. The return goes inboard and above the supply line. The return line hits the seatbelt anchor, but is straight in that area. The supply line has a kink in that area that looks like its intended to clear the seatbelt anchor... but when I swapped them, it was very obvious that the swapped config is wrong, as neither of them fit or lined up with the hoses at the front end.

I played with some adhesive Viton plus silicone self-amalgamating tape on the Heater tubes and A/C tubes. The Viton was stiff enough that it might not have been a good idea on the smaller tubes. I used it on both the large tubes, which are both 3/4".
Silicone self-amalgamating tape is funky stuff. It feel just like a soft grippy rubber to the touch. There is no adhesive, but it is stretchy. You just wrap it snugly and it sticks to itself well enough that it just stays wrapped... then over a period of a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the specific product, it "self-welds"; the joints seal completely and become one piece of material. I really like it, actually. It's very easy to use, leaves no residue, is flexible enough to conform to any surface, but becomes fully sealed jacketing following application. If you need to do maintenance, just cut the tape like shrink tube, then re-wrap, which is not conveniently possible with shrink tube. There's not adhesive residue like there is with conventional tape (or with split shrink tube). It's a great use case, but it's kind of like The Thing of tape (John Carpenter's The Thing, not the Fantastic Four's Thing)



I tried double-wrapping the Viton, but that was too bulky





It took me a few tries to get the dimensions for the single-wrap cuts just right.









Heater & A/C Tubes installed:



Should be able to get the brake booster and heater engine compartment pluming set up next weekend, which is the last thing the engine compartment needs before the engine goes in.
Will OCT 18, 10:52 AM
Had kind of a downer/frustrating weekend and didn't take many pics.

My dad's back yard is full of junk cars. A couple are mine, including two Fieros. Most are his, including three old (not feasibly or economically salvageable) '70's XJ-6 Jaguars. We were able to get rid of one to a guy working on a Chevy V8 swap on his XJS (I think the XJS is the swap car... he has a few '80's Jags). The buyer wanted the John's Cars (aka JCI) Chevy V8 swap kit parts, as well as the rebuildable 350 block that's in that chassis. We spent time Saturday pulling it out and helping him load it. The Jeep did great as a tractor pulling cars around his gentley sloped grass yard.

While it is great to get rid of old junk cars, that took up a large fraction of Saturday.

Having everything under the intake done well enough to "flight install" the intake, I started with the injectors. The injectors I picked are from the STS-V & XLR-V LC3 supercharged Northstar. I think they're 42# or so, which is way more than I need for my power levels. They are EV6 injectors, while the '95-'99 top end I'm using is set up for EV1 injectors. The EV6s are close enough to the same length as EV1s that they typically drop in mechanically and only require adapters on the electrical connections. They are slightly shorter than the EV1s. When installed in my intake with my fuel rail, rail pressure would push them all the way down in the manifold sockets, at which point the upper o-rings would be peeking out of the fuel rail sockets. Hmm...

I bought the injectors new, and they came with fuel rail retaining clips. These clips do not fit the '90's fuel rail, but do still fit the EV1 injectors. That means I should be able to snag a replacement set of Caddy injector clips to retain the injectors in the fuel rail. If I ultimately need to obtain spacers to drop into the manifold sockets, that won't be difficult.

Per Sinister, the injectors are rated at 55-60 psi. The Cadillac OS in the 58x computer I'll be using is designed for constant fuel pressure, rather than manifold-referenced fuel pressure. The fuel rail I have has a manifold-referenced regulator. It's adjustable from the factory, which is pretty cool. I can leave it unreferenced and may be able to turn it up to 55-60 PSI. I'm hopeful it will be that simple. I'm expecting to use an AC Delco GF831 fuel filter from SSR & other LS2 applications. The big if is whether the stock adjustable regulator can go high enough (or still works...)

Plan B is to adapt the later style returnless fuel rail. I'll have to figure out how to mount it, but that shouldn't be difficult. There's one on eBay right now. Since it's returnless and I need constant fuel pressure, I'd have to use the AC Delco GF822 for 1999-2004 Corvette, which includes the unreferenced regulator and fuel return connection... for $70... for a fuel filter.

I also had the wrong size pipe plug for the Northstar oil gallery under the waterpump drive pulley at the back of the left cylinder head, so I couldn't finish assembling the waterpump drive. I think that's the last thing I want to get done before I'm ready to weigh the engine and drag it over to the car to assemble the powertrain and drop it on the cradle.

On the car all I did was take some measurements and install AeroQuip fittings in place of the straight and 90 degree swivel 3/4 NPT to -12 AN adapters on the oil cooler.

My former cubemate from the 2018/early 2019 timeframe passed away from complications related to COVID last week, so I went to his Celebration of Life on Sunday afternoon.