For the turbo header heat...I did the wrap thing and it did work ok, but I still had some heat issues. I went to a .020 sheet metal heat shield and the issues are gone. It's not as flashy as header wrap but it works better, especially long term.
Thought I'd mention this for anyone with these common turbo issues.
Chay
Fierobsessed
SEP 27, 01:06 PM
quote
Originally posted by Slowbuild: I went to a .020 sheet metal heat shield and the issues are gone. Chay
I couldn't agree more... especially since that is exactly what I wound up doing anyway! I took the stock "Front" heat shield that I had mounted on the rear manifold (which is actually a flipped front manifold) and welded on some very thin, probably just that, .020" or so sheet metal to the heat shield. The stuff was so easy to bend using a piece of exhaust pipe as a guide, and tin snips for cutting. The welder had to be put on its lowest setting and it was still burning through easily. So it isn't by any means my prettiest weld, but It's fine enough.
I applied some heat reflective tape to the inside of the heat shield, and laid some header wrap over the top of that to keep the shield cool. It should be far cooler now.
So I went from this, which was going to cause serious issues:
To this, where I feel like there is nothing to worry about:
I also decided to build a little shield housing for my CTS. The wiring and the sensor were pretty close to the crossover, and that just didn't seem like a good thing. I'll wrap the wire with heat tape. I'll probably build another small heat shield for the crossover in this area too.
While I was at it, I added another section to the end of my water outlet pipe. It now drops off near the under car coolant line.
I had an idea. I decided to make a new oil drain fitting out of various pieces of steel gas pipe fittings. I wanted one 1/2" NPT inlet, and two 1/2" AN outlets, one vertical, one horizontal. This is a really novel idea I think. The vertical outlet will drain directly into the oil pan, and the horizontal is going to the bottom of my air oil separator. This way, any gases from the turbo aren't forced into the drain line, they can travel up to the bottom of the air oil separator, and any oil that accumulates in the separator can gravity drain down the same line into the oil drain that goes straight into the pan. This will alleviate any pressure that may build in the drain line to the separator, and allow just oil to run its way into the oil pan.
And finally, I plumbed in the oil feed for the turbo as well. So now all my oil issues are addressed. Done.
I'm going to work on the wiring a little more now. I decided to change the way I wired the fuel pump. I'm not particularly thrilled with the factory layout. Get this:The power goes from the fusable link near the battery through the body harness to the fuse panel in the front. Then back through the body harness to the C203, to the engine harness. Then to the relay and oil pressure sensor for control, then back through the engine harness to the C203 Then to the body harness for a third time, then back into the engine bay where it finally goes to the fuel pump connection. It's all a bit much.
This circuit will now be drawing around 11-13 amps now, so I think I'll cut it down to a fuse mounted near the relay running directly to power, then leave the last bit in so I don't have to have two connectors running to the fuel pump. It'll cut the wire length into a third of what it was. Then I could re-utilize the old fuel pump power wire for something else that needs full time power. Not sure what that might be yet. Probably nothing.
After I get the wiring harness touched up, I just have some 1/4" and 3/8" tubing to make up for a couple items, then I can mount the upper intake. It's all just some detail work and the intercooler plumbing left. Then it's install...
Fierobsessed
OCT 04, 11:25 AM
It's been a very busy past few days. I've made a ton of progress and the engine/cradle assembly is complete. I'm just cleaning the garage, which got way to messy during the final assembly phase, then I need to prep the car to receive the package, including installing the intercooler lines and pump as well as some other engine bay preparations.
Some recap on what I've done most recently, I...
Redid the little bit of fuel pump wiring I had mentioned in the previous post, and added a fuse to the circuit which will go by the relay. Tidied up the wiring, added some heat reflective fiberglass tape Finalized the wiring harness in general Removed the original 3/8" valve cover breather port stubs and installed 1/8" NPT plugs as they were no longer needed at all. Cleaned the belt covers and the top cover, painted the hardware and installed Installed the sway bar Tightened up all connections Modified my PCV pipe that also operates the blow off valve Installed the turbo blanket Installed the various water lines to the turbo and wastegate Added the connection hoses to the engine for the coolant and breathers.
I worked on some of the smaller lines, like the fuel pressure regulator reference line, since this is now a boosted engine, I felt it was appropriate to place some insurance on all the vacuum lines. I used aircraft style fastener wire and pliers to wrap and tighten most of the smaller lines. I could have used small zip ties instead, but I'm pretty good with the stainless wire and I don't trust cheap zip ties. The connections were very secure after this.
An decision had to be made. Which wastegate spring should I use?...
After much debate, since the spring will be nearly impossible to get to in order to change it, I settled on the spring on the far left, it's natural opening pressure is 7.25 PSI. I originally had installed the smaller spring above it, which was 4.35 PSI. It really bothered me how easy it was to open the wastegate with just my fingers, let alone the buildup of exhaust pressure. 15 PSI of exhaust pressure would likely have pushed the valve open against that spring. It just seemed too weak for me to be comfortable using it. I may not know what kind of pressure will be in the exhaust manifold, but I wasn't going to let that inhibit boost or spool.
The other reason the spring selection was touchy is because I chose to use an ECM controlled boost solenoid, so the ECM can regulate boost at whatever PSI I want. So I wanted a weaker spring, as the computer's ability is only to increase boost past the spring setting by delaying the application of control pressure to the wastegate. So if I put in a bigger spring, I lose some flexibility in how much range the ECM can control boost. So I figured I wouldn't want to have anything less then 7 PSI as a setting.
However, one more thing I will do is apply a strong vacuum to the other port on the wastegate to pull the diaphragm open so it will not boost during initial tuning. 7 PSI might be a bit much for rough tuning. A vacuum line with a check valve should do the trick.
Another thing I had to do was add some Fiero style exhaust hangers to the front of the exhaust.
I also made and added some cradle intercooler lines.
Once all this was done, I can say the engine is ready for the car. But the car isn't ready just yet.
One last walk around.
I also drained the gas tank. I used the fuel pump to empty it most of the way. Once the fuel pump chugged its very first bit of air I immediately cut it off and drained the tank by manual methods. I learned that the Fiero's fuel tank actually has about a gallon and a half, or so of fuel when the pump finally quits on flat ground This is what I got out of it after the pump was finished.
I'm going to finish organizing and cleaning the garage, then I will get the tank ready, and load it in, do the new intercooler lines to the front, find the intercooler pump a home and wire it in. Then its just some cleaning and painting in the engine bay and the engine will go in. Hopefully within the next day or two.
It's getting so close...
Fierobsessed
OCT 10, 05:06 PM
I had a really busy week. I've been working on the car as much as I can stand to. I didn't take a heck of a lot of pictures, but heres the jist of it.
The engines in. It runs. It boosts. It drives.
Without tuning it much it's not really drivable. It idles ok but I'm having serious issues with data logging. so I'm having trouble with diagnostics right now.
After getting it up to temperature it sprung a water leak that required me to drain the coolant and remove the turbo. Which I might add, is a huge pain in the butt
I found later on that the leak was actually not my welded pipes, but rather the banjo bolt itself which was damaged in manufacture
Nothing a few seconds on the lathe couldn't fix
I got it all back together now. And am struggling to maintain a connection from the ECM to my computer.
I did have an issue where somehow, inexplicably 12V was making it to the map sensor wire, causing the car to fry a computer and make the car not run. If the MAP readings weren't pegged, it might have been a bit more difficult to find. But the real question is, how does 12V get into a direct wire from the map sensor to the ECM?!? Either way, I will have to fix that!
In the meantime I've bypassed that wire externally for the time being, and am having quite a time trying to get the ECM to communicate. There is something weird going on that I will get to the bottom of.
Dr.CGT
OCT 11, 11:37 AM
Grounds? you did some painting
Fierobsessed
OCT 11, 02:02 PM
That's the same thought I was having. But there is only a 30mv difference between the chassis and the ECM when the engine is running, that is well within acceptable. If it were a volt or more I could see some serious issues. If anything, that tells me that my engine is well grounded.
I figured out what was the issue with the MAP sensor wire and had a good laugh at myself. I intend to put in the electronic boost gage/tach, I knew I had to commandeer a wire to the dash board, and I decided to use the no longer needed "Temp warning" lamp circuit to feed the signal to the gage pod. My stupid face forgot that I wired that! The bulb was still in the socket in the instrument cluster, and it was back feeding its 12V feed into the map sensor wire. I popped the bulb out, and all is good now. I've always been a good harness builder, I even put in features I forget about.
Troubleshooting is continuing on the logging... I can't even begin tuning without data logging.
Fierobsessed
OCT 11, 02:54 PM
Yay! I fixed the data logging! Again, my fault, I wired in a feature I forgot about. I wanted a calibration wire to the wideband controller, I put it on the ALDL, but I put it in slot E which happen to be one of the serial data ports that IS wired to my logger. So the wideband controller was interfering with the serial communication. I moved it to an empty port and it now logs perfectly. So I took a lap around the block and logged it, now I can start dialing in! I needed to hear some spoooooling followed by some Spwishing to keep me motivated.
Will
OCT 11, 04:58 PM
quote
Originally posted by Fierobsessed: I figured out what was the issue with the MAP sensor wire and had a good laugh at myself. I intend to put in the electronic boost gage/tach, I knew I had to commandeer a wire to the dash board, and I decided to use the no longer needed "Temp warning" lamp circuit to feed the signal to the gage pod. My stupid face forgot that I wired that! The bulb was still in the socket in the instrument cluster, and it was back feeding its 12V feed into the map sensor wire. I popped the bulb out, and all is good now.
How's your MAP wired that this could happen?
Fierobsessed
OCT 11, 06:59 PM
It's wired normally, 5V, GND, and Signal. But, the signal wire splits, one going to the ECM, the other runs into the C500 (D3) which was the temperature light. From there it makes it to the cluster, where it will be locally wired to the sunbird boost/tach. The key is to not have the temp indicator bulb in place. Or move the wire to a different conductor on the cluster. I forgot to do that. so the bulb was back feeding the map sensor and the ECM. Oops.
