ecotec swap (Page 25/98)
wftb MAY 14, 06:39 PM
i had a problem with the car today .i had mounted the methanol jug at about the same height as the spray nozzle was at .i couldnt find a spot to get it lower .i thought it was ok but i realized as the pump wore in a bit ,it had started to siphon in to the engine continuously whenever it was running .this did not affect anything till today when out of the blue it started running rough ,like it was short a cylinder .i cleaned the map sensor and the o2 sensor and made no diff. so a disconnected the sprayer and plugged the hole and after about 10 minutes of normal driving the problem disappeared .it looks like the continual water /meth feed was fouling a sensor some where and confusing the ecm .i have had a solinoid valve on order for a while now ,so until it comes in i wont be able to use much boost .on the plus side ,my idle is starting to smooth out .
wftb MAY 15, 06:46 PM
on the way home from work ,the rough running came back worse than ever .after changing plugs ,checking my injector connections and adjusting and checking everything i could think of , the problem was still there .but i noticed something about my aeromotive FPR that was strange: it would not hold pressure after the engine was turned off .so i put the stock FPR back on and the car runs smoothly again .it even idles smooth again .so that was a waste of 170 dollars.i dont have time to drive it tonight so i am not sure i am out of the woods yet ,but i idled it for ten minutes and it seems good.
Hudini MAY 15, 07:24 PM
When I was researching a stand alone adjustable FPR I ran across several websites saying the same thing as you. The aeromotive FPR gave up the ghost and caused all kinds of running issues.
wftb MAY 16, 05:24 PM
the worst of it was that the brand new part is always the last thing you check ,so i wasted a lot of time checking other things that had nothing to do with the problem .but now the car runs better than it ever has ,smooth idle and no detonation at all with the meth injection hooked back up .i can hardly believe that it works so well with the stock fpr .i have done the bare minimum of tuning and the car runs like it came from the factory .(except if it came from the factory , you wouldnt have to fill a water meth jug up every day !) tuning so far : bosche blow off valve
32 lb accell injectors (14.4 ohm ford style ) and homemade harness
snow stage 2 water meth injection system
all the electronics are stock 2004 cavalier .i have a 6:1 vortech fmu and holly 100 psi inline fuel pump on order but unless i increase the boost this year i wont put it on .
i relocated the meth system to the trunk



the other pics show the stock FPR and the feeds for the injection system and the boost guage and the blow off valve
wftb MAY 20, 06:53 AM
bumpin to the top
fieroturbo MAY 20, 08:15 PM
Hey wftb! I'm definitely going to consult this if I can't get ahold of any E85 and I need to go with alcohol injection.

I have another question regarding the heater core pipes (my last one, I promise).

Which pipe is in, and which is out? No one on the j-body or ecotec forums out there seem to know (very odd).



Also, I just want to double check on something, cause I'm an idiot. I know you said the coolant pipes were swapped when going to an Ecotec, but this pipe going over where the bellhousing is (see above) is the outlet, right?

Thanks bro!

------------------
Petty Officer Michael C Casaceli
Aircraft Electronics Technician Second Class
AIMD Brunswick (2007-present)
Patrol Squadron Ten (2003-2007)
United States Navy

ccfiero350 MAY 20, 09:10 PM
The outlet closest to fly wheel connects to the heater inlet, the one farthest connects to the heater outlet. The smaller one on top of the thermostate housing goes to pressuruzed overflow tank.

------------------
yellow 88 GT, not stock
white 88 notchie, 4 banger

Fosgatecavy98 MAY 20, 11:55 PM

quote
Originally posted by ccfiero350:

The outlet closest to fly wheel connects to the heater inlet, the one farthest connects to the heater outlet. The smaller one on top of the thermostate housing goes to pressuruzed overflow tank.




Does it matter which way the coolant flows? heater and regular?
wftb MAY 20, 11:59 PM
the outlet on the same side as the serpentine belt is the outlet (hot) side to the rad .i did not try to reuse the v6 crossover pipe so on my car the hot water is going up the passenger side and entering the radiator in the bottom instead of the top .i was concerned about this untill i realized that the ecotec cools so quick that hardly any fluid gets sent to the rad anyway .even on a warm day it takes 1/2 hour of driving till the rad return pipe even feels a little warm .the temp guage runs up to 91* c and goes up and down about 2* as the thermostat lets fluid out and in to the engine.i dont have thermostat control on my rad fan yet so i turn it on manualy with a switch in the trunk but it has not needed the fan yet .i dont know where the thermostat is on my engine to cycle the fan .as far as the heater core goes i just figured it didnt matter much either way because it is just a loop through and it will flow either way .i would take ccfiero's advice on that one .
its great to see all these ecotec swaps starting to take shape all at once .thanks for posting
fieroturbo MAY 23, 06:54 PM
Thanks for the info guys! The reason why I care about which is in and out is so if I put a heat exchanger in line with the turbo coolant lines, I don't accidentally end up cooling off the heater core instead, which would suck come autumn.

Also, being that I do have a turbo motor, I'd like to make the coolant system as capable as possible. My bottom end is built to take 500HP at 8500RPM before something starts to give out... 2 years down the road, I intend on pushing the motor to that level to see what the car can acheive with that kind of power.

On top of all of that, if I miraculously pull off getting into Sport Compact Car Magazine's USCC event, I don't want the engineers going "WTF were you thinking?".


quote
Originally posted by wftb:

i dont know where the thermostat is on my engine to cycle the fan .



A majority of engines these days have a computer controlled fan. 87-up 2.5L Fieros are like this BTW. The stock Ecotec ECM senses when the temp gets to about 180-185 degrees, and flicks a relay on to power the fan.

A simple solution could be getting a T-fitting for the coolant temp sensor, and getting a temperature sensitive fan switch on the other side of the T-fitting. A good example of this is on my friend's 4.3L Chevy V-6, which has provisions for two temp sensors. He has one sensor going to the temp gauge, and the other is a fan switch that cuts off the 12V to the fan when it goes below 180 degrees. Other temps are available. Jegs and Summit should have them.

I would normally be able to offer a solution to get the stock Ecotec ECM to run it, but my source for Ecotec documentations is having technical difficulties. Sorry bud.

Thanks for the help with the coolant line questions. I really appreciate it!

------------------
Petty Officer Michael C Casaceli
Aircraft Electronics Technician Second Class
AIMD Brunswick (2007-present)
Patrol Squadron Ten (2003-2007)
United States Navy