ecotec swap (Page 77/98)
wftb FEB 10, 03:06 PM
Got my console back together:

While I was in there I cleaned up some old connections I was not happy with and got rid of more unneeded wires .Got my air to water intercooler installed and working again:

and the last big job I am doing before spring is hooking the water meth injection back up .

When I took the system apart , it was not working .I found a hole in the line that goes from the pump to the throttle body .This was caused by the pump being above the exhaust manifold .I have a vent there , but there was still too much heat .So I am relocating the pump to the front trunk .Most of the wiring is done ,I just need to plumb the pump and mount the controller on the bottom of the trunk lid near the throttle body (low heat area).And install my air filter , and bleed the front brakes .

[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 02-10-2016).]

wftb FEB 15, 05:52 PM
Got the water meth system up and running .Took a couple of tries because I had a bad ground at the pump .The controller is mounted on the underside of the deck lid .Should be easy to get at and not get too hot:

The front trunk is a busy place , need to do a little clean up in there :
wftb FEB 21, 04:06 PM
It has been nice out the last couple of days .

I have the car ready to bounce it around the backyard tomorrow to see if anything bad happens ....

It is going back below freezing tomorrow but not supposed to snow .First time with the trunk and front hood closed in over a year .

I was going to put it in the shed till spring after the test drive but I still need to weld some mounts for the rear vents so it has to go back in the garage again. I do not have a 220 volt outlet for the welder in the shed .I cant take it on the road as I have no insurance or up to date plates on it yet .
wftb FEB 22, 10:00 AM
Short test drive around the back yard was a success .Car felt completely normal , no strange noises and nothing let go as far as I could tell .The brakes feel like they need more bleeding , bit of a spongy pedal .That is fine , kind of expected that .I made sure I hit some good bumps , the car had no problems with them .When I bleed the brakes I will have a good look and see if any thing has gone wonky back there . For a car with out a muffler , it is really quiet .

[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 02-22-2016).]

wftb FEB 22, 06:18 PM
Put the car in the garage and bled the rear brakes again and now the pedal feels normal again and the brakes are working much better .I did quite a few laps of the backyard over the bumpiest parts I could find and it feels really solid .We have 1.2 acres so there is room to build up a bit of boost and I even did a power slide to see how controllable it would be .It is hard to tell on grass because the wheels dont bite in the best , but I did not notice any rear squat or front dive . I have the mounts set up for the placement of shims to add anti squat geometry but I have not done that yet .I have never had problems with squat or dive on this car ever since I did the ecotec swap .The car is low and fairly light so a minimum of anti dive and anti squat is all that is needed .I expect to do a bit of tuning once I get it on to pavement but that wont happen till spring .Some random picks of the work I did over the last year:

[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 02-23-2016).]

wftb FEB 22, 06:28 PM
hit the wrong button there , here are the pics:




This next shot shows that the camber needs more adjusting , the wheels are not angled the same at full droop:

And back on all 4s again:

Next job is to weld up the mounts for the decklid vents .
wftb FEB 23, 02:13 PM
While waiting for some drywall to be delivered , I made up and welded the brackets for the rear vents .I also got them painted .I had to hang out in the garage waiting for the truck to show to make sure he didnt just dump it in the driveway .So I had time to kill .
wftb FEB 26, 12:08 AM
I found out recently that Grand Bend Motorplex added a road course last year .They have open lapping days every week .It is about an hour and a half to Grand Bend from here so I hope to get in about 4 days this year .It will be the perfect place to test and tune the new suspension .85.00 a session , sounds pretty reasonable to me .
wftb MAR 13, 02:54 PM
As you can see in the last photo , my trunk area needed some sprucing up . Yesterday I removed all the screws and replaced them with pop rivets ,put in some more patches and did some caulking and then covered most of the trunk with Hushmat . I put a double layer over the turbo area .

I am going to try hacking up my OEM carpet to fit .Pretty sure I still have it here somewhere .
wftb MAR 16, 01:01 PM
I got renewal stickers for my plates yesterday and put insurance back on. So I have been driving it a bit and everything seems really good .Very stable and nice and neutral .Drove it in the rain today and it stays really planted when I give it stink going around a left hand turn .Doing that before would result in a controllable fishtail as soon as the boost built up .I was a bit disappointed with my brakes when I first drove it around the block , but now that I have got some miles on it the pads are bedding in and it is starting to feel similar to my old setup .After a week or so driving like it is , I am going to set the ride height and the rear camber and then get an alignment .I need new rear tires but I am going to wait till I have everything right before I spend the money on them .