Turbo V6 Mustang

[Toph6888]

IT RUNS

 

Worked on gettting it all set to start tonight, becuase well the water is in the block and good ole ohio is deciding to hit the high 20's at night, so I was super worried about water freezing in my block and messing things up.

 

Filled up the trans fluid, filled up the PS fluid, filled the radiator (no leaks!) double checked all my connections and spark plugs, and made sure everything was good to go pretty much. Reprimed the oil to make sure the turbo would get oil, checked the oil level, and then I sat in my car for about 5-10 mins thinking about everything that I did while my GF, roommate and roommate's gf and my other friend stood by eagerly. Interesting thoughts go through ones heads at that moment.

 

So then I decided to man up (my legs and hands were shaking haha) and I turned the key, car started cranking, and after all of 4-5 cranks it fired right up.

 

Now, I will have to check on the tune, but I was holding right at around 10 AFR, so I was running really rich, and my vacuum was holding at -10inHg. So I have a leak somewhere. Oil pressure sat right at 75 psi during the cold running period. I had to hold the throttle to keep it at around 1500rpms.

 

Then we here a big pop and a lot of hiss sounds and a lot of smoke. Turned out that the AC lines that I "gently" bended out of the way for the exhaust didn't bend so gently, and it blew. So no AC, but at least I don't have to worry about that in the winter. I will have to get custom lines made up.

 

So we washed that all out, and started it back up again, same story.

 

We let it run for about 15-20 mins, holding it at 1500rpms with my throttle, and no visible leaks were seen (just some vapor coming off the freshly coated exhaust so no biggie). Afr held steady at 10 the whole time, and vacuum dropped to -2inHg. Water heated up to 195F, thermostat would open and drop to 180F and close again, so that was all good. Kept it at operating temp for 5-10 mins and then shut her down. Let her cool off to around 125F (based on teh water gauge) and drained the oil. It was black (im assuming from running rich and also from the ARP assembly lube). It sounded super thin, like water, and I pretty much freaked out, but I pulled a decent chunk from it into a glass container to see if it separated, and it looked fine, so I'm hoping its ok. It also did thicken up. Granted, the oil is 5W20 or 5W30, so its pretty thin to start with. I am gonna let it sit tonight to make sure.

 

I decided not to drain the radiator and put coolant in it because I didn't want to risk there being a water leak into the block and causing coolant to get on my bearings. I put my space heater in the garage to help keep the temp above freezing, and it should be ok since its just a couple of degrees. All in all everything went really well (except for the AC line blowing haha).

 

I'll try to get a video up tomorrow, I'm gonna try to get some sleep haha.

[zeitgeist57]

Congratulations on your efforts paying off! This has been a heck of a project to follow. Sucks about the A/C line. I'm sure you'll figure our the vacuum leak in short order.

[RC K9]

IT RUNS

I sat in my car for about 5-10 mins thinking about everything that I did...

 

So then I decided to man up (my legs and hands were shaking haha)

 

Yup...this pretty much sums up every initial startup I have done...

[Toph6888]

Congratulations on your efforts paying off! This has been a heck of a project to follow. Sucks about the A/C line. I'm sure you'll figure our the vacuum leak in short order.

 

 

Thanks! I'm not too worried about that AC line. I'll figure somehting out, I'm just happy it starts.

 

I'm thinking maybe its purely a fuel related issue for the vacuum. My thoughts being that bc its so rich, I'm having to put a lot of air into it, and like I said I have to stay on the throttle, so I'm not really sure how much vacuum I should be pulling with the throttle blade open. My understanding was that if I don't have the throttle open it should be like -15inHG, and if I am on the throttle just a couple inHg is correct. I know the cam is a lot bigger then stock too so that should lower the vacuum the car pulls at idle too. I'm not really sure overall though. I need to get the AFR figured out first.

 

Yup...this pretty much sums up every initial startup I have done...

 

Yah that start up was nerve racking. It felt good that it started right up after a couple of cranks that that I wasn't missing spark or fuel or anything. I always watch engine building shows where they are trying to figure out why it won't start, so it felt to have it light up right away.

 

 

I spoke with my tuner, and he said that it shouldn't be at 10 AFR for obvious reasons. He told me not to run it anymore unless we can get the AFR up to a better ratio, so hes gonna send me another map tonight and I'm gonna try to get a good log done so that he can figure out where the issue is. Probably only run it for 1-2 mins that way we can get the log. I'm hoping that if the AFR gets back to around 14, that I won't have to give it throttle to keep it running and it will pull the correct vacuum for the intake. All that fuel was getting into my oil, so I will have to look into that. I'm not sure if its washing out my walls or not and causing issues with the piston rings. He said I probably didn't destroy my rings, but definitly avoid doing that anymore.

[Toph6888]

Finally, what everyone has been asking for. Videos.

 

But first, got to talk to Dalke today about the tuning, he sent me another file with 20% less fuel, and I got all my datalogging stuff set up so that I can help him dial in the tune better. Uploaded the tune, brought it outiside, adn started her up. She did a lot better, vacuum was between 10-15inHg of vacuum, the afr at 1000rpms was around 13 or so, and at 1500-2000 rpms it would drop to between 11.5-12.5

 

And now videos!

 

First up, is the "second start" of the car with the new tune.

 

 

And then a walkaround so you can hear the exhaust:

 

 

I also found that I didn't tighten up one of my vbands on the dump tube so I need to tighten that up, and I also need to seal up the turbo/dump mating surface because they aren't quite the same size, so I need to get them aligned a bit better (got some soot coming out).

 

All in all a productive day, hoping to get the new tune from Dalke tomorrow, get that on the car, have it idle on its own (fingers crossed) and then get the water out and coolant in it so when I leave this weekend I don't freak out. Still looking like a couple days away from driving it, but we are getting closer.

[RC K9]

Finally, what everyone has been asking for. Videos.

 

But first, got to talk to Dalke today about the tuning, he sent me another file with 20% less fuel, and I got all my datalogging stuff set up so that I can help him dial in the tune better. Uploaded the tune, brought it outiside, adn started her up. She did a lot better, vacuum was between 10-15inHg of vacuum, the afr at 1000rpms was around 13 or so, and at 1500-2000 rpms it would drop to between 11.5-12.5

 

And now videos!

 

First up, is the "second start" of the car with the new tune.

 

 

And then a walkaround so you can hear the exhaust:

 

 

I also found that I didn't tighten up one of my vbands on the dump tube so I need to tighten that up, and I also need to seal up the turbo/dump mating surface because they aren't quite the same size, so I need to get them aligned a bit better (got some soot coming out).

 

All in all a productive day, hoping to get the new tune from Dalke tomorrow, get that on the car, have it idle on its own (fingers crossed) and then get the water out and coolant in it so when I leave this weekend I don't freak out. Still looking like a couple days away from driving it, but we are getting closer.

 

Congrats!

[Toph6888]

Well I spent yesterday and today tuning up the car and spending some time with the GF.

 

Took the exhaust dump off so that I could get to the spark plugs and clean them up since they were all fouled from running so rich. (Now bc I have to take them off it will probably take me about 3 hrs for a sparkplug change)

 

Took the 02 sensors off and cleaned them up to get the carbon off of them.

 

Sealed up my dump tube to turbine housing with some copper RTV sealant, hopefully that helps and can hold up to it.

 

I also refitted my intake cooler piping so that the maf should get a better reading now bc there should be less turbulent flow.

 

I got another tune from Dalke (my tuner) and ran that for a couple minutes, was able to keep it at about 1000-1500 rpms with the afr around 12, pulling 12-15inHG vacuum, and sent him the recent datalog. Working on trying to just get this thing to idle so I can get some better checks in on everything else. I'm hoping that Ill be able to borrow a truck from work this week/weekend so that I can just tow the car up to Dalke and he can tune the car as he sits in it, this back and forth is killing us and I feel putting excess wear on the engine right now. Other then that, when it is running and held steady it sounds pretty healthy, I'm not hearing any knocking and the valvetrain sounds pretty good I believe (i'm not expert, but nothing sounds strange).

 

The one thing I am getting though is a very slight metal sliding sound, which I believe is coming from the AC compressor because it doesn't have any oil/refrigerant in it (the way it was explained to me is that these fluids are pretty much one in the same) so I think I am going to just buy the bracket to delete the AC, and then I will worry about getting a new one in the summer if it is really that unbearable.

 

So all in all, things are going ok, pretty positive right now, just need to get it to Dalke.

[Toph6888]

Still working on figuring out the tuning issues. Got a couple nicer pics of the car though.

 

This is after running it that first night with the afr around 10. Its not shadowing, its soot haha. Go diesel.

 

Nicer pic of the engine bay:

 

Also went and got an AC delete pulley. Since all my refrigerant blew out, the compressor doesnt have any lubrication. So I will run this for now and then in the summer if it gets unbearable I will have a shop refab up some lines and reinstall it.

 

Lots of space now:

 

Hoping to get the car to a tuner this weekend, will keep you all posted.

[Toph6888]

FINALLY.

 

After a full year, almost to the day, it runs on its own.

 

So what was wrong. I spoke with a lot of people at work and another tuner, and we were all trying to figure out why the maf was giving such high numbers (it was around 300-350 counts, which for idle it should be around 120-180ish). When I talked with Brian at Dynotunemotorsports, we were talking about the piping and I said how everything was 3", and he knew that the sct BA2400 maf needed a 90mm (3.5") housing in order to read correctly. So essentially the air was flowing too fast, creating a false signal, making the engine dump a bunch of fuel into the car.

 

I realized thinking back that on the stock mustangs, the CAI's you buy have a 3.5" tube from the filter to the maf, then it steps down to 3". Eureka.

 

Luckily I still had my old CAI and didn't scrap it (Woo, remember not to throw parts away when you are building!) and went online and bought some couplers, tbolt clamps, reducers, another 3.5" pipe, and a lightning maf since I couldn't find any housings for under $120, and the lightning maf was $75.

 

Here is the difference between what I was trying to use and what I needed to use:

 

I mocked up the new bends with my old maf, but this shows that the two pieces before the maf are 3.5". I have about 7.5" of straight before the maf, and about 1.5-2ft of 3.5" before the maf total.

 

 

New housing and tubing in

 

Fender forced me into a couple 90's and a little extra tubing, but thats how it goes. Later on I think I am going to get a new intercooler where the inlet/outlet are on the same side so that I can get rid of A LOT of my piping. Having the turbo outlet go to the otherside of the car for the intercooler inlet is probably about 3-4ft worth of 3", thats a lot of air to fill haha.

 

Everything all set to go:

 

Before I started it up I reflashed the ecu wtih the original tune I got wtihout any fuel taken out of it because I wasn't sure if with the new maf the car woudl go super lean. Glad I went to it because initally it was jumping around 13-15.5 afr, and would go up to 16 or 17, drop to 12, and so on while it was trying to dial itself in. We just let it go and let it get warmed up and were rewarded with an idling car, I didn't have to give it any gas at all.

 

Once it got to temp the afr would be between 13.5-15, and idle would stay between 800-1000rpms. Vacuum was at 12-13inHg. Oil pressure held around 35-40psi, and then would go up to 75psi when you would give it gas. Water temp was between 180-195 as the thermostat would open/close. Only leaks I had was at my mid pipe letting some condenstation out so I will have to try to seal up those connections a bit.

 

All thats left for the car is to get the brakes bled completely, check the diff fluid/trans, change the oil, drain the water from the radiator and put coolant in it, adjust the front suspension a bit, and then take it out.

 

and finally, VIDEO!!! (Copyright for 3pointH8 goes to Slowsix)

 

Edited November 2, 2013 by Toph6888

[zeitgeist57]

LOVE IT! Don't take this the wrong way, but you should've done a single exhaust outlet to save a couple bucks and add to the "sleeper" look...

[Toph6888]

LOVE IT! Don't take this the wrong way, but you should've done a single exhaust outlet to save a couple bucks and add to the "sleeper" look...

 

No worries. I decided on going with the dual bc I got it for cheap ($100) and the IRS just looks better to me with the exhaust around it. Plus I still wanted some mufflers in there and I really like how it sounds, not too loud and a decent note.

[BrendanB]

Glad to see it's running! Vid won't work? lol

[Toph6888]

Glad to see it's running! Vid won't work? lol

 

hmm thats weird, here is the link to the video since the embed doesnt seem to be working

 

 

[BrendanB]

hmm thats weird, here is the link to the video since the embed doesnt seem to be working

 

 

[RC K9]

Nice! I think this car would be a good race for me...

[Toph6888]

Well we got her on the road today. I put her up on some stands to get the brakes bled, and also checked the diff fluid which was full, and also changed the engine oil. This time with the proper MAF and tune the oil came out nice and golden the way it went in a couple days ago, so I'm not dumping a bunch of fuel into the oil anymore which is good.

 

We still are having trouble getting all the air out of the brake lines, I'm going to have to have my buddy bring over his kit to pressureize the master cylinder instead of using the pedal in order to try to get all the air out. The pedal only grabs about the last inch or two of pedal travel.

 

We started her up and let her get to temp and were working on trying to get all the powersteering fluid in it. We kept filling it but every time I turned the wheel from lock to lock we would get what sounded like a bearing grinding noise. I know I hear from people that the new powersteering pumps are very loud to start, but I'm not sure if this counts. I know there are a lot of lines though since I have the hydroboost, so I'm going to try to keep going back and forth the next night or two to see if I can get the air out of the hydroboost system which may be causing the noise. I can always get another pump or put my old one back on, but I would rather avoid that since its such a pain in the ass.

 

Decided to say fuck it since the PS pump was loud (didn't have any leaks) and the brakes were good enough to stop it at slow speeds, so I put the clutch in, put it in reverse, made sure it would grab, then went to first and drove her around the lot. I was making a turn and my gauges cut out on me which was weird but it was only for a second or two and they came right back on. Didn't have any otehr issues with them which was wierd. Only took it around the cul-de-sac once or twice, then turned it off. Apparently its a 2stroke, because it does not like starting up warm. Once it cooled off for 30-45 mins it started right back up, so I think the tune just needs to be dialed in.

 

Putting on the front bumper, AINT NOBODY GOT TIME FO DAT

 

 

 

 

Quick video of it driving

 

Gonna give it a couple more goes tomorrow/tuesday, see if the ps pump gets better, if not I will go ahead and assume I destroyed it and get a new one. Till then.

[Toph6888]

It turned out that I was an idiot and didn't think of the master cylinder. With the hydroboost it is mounted at an upward angle, quite good at forming air pockets. the Cobra MC has two brake bleeders on either side. I bled those and wham, instant brake pedal feel, no going to the floor.

 

I drove it a bit more today, PS pump seems happier (no griding, just loud) so I am going to leave it for the time being, and like I said I got the brakes/master cylinder figured out. Let it get mostly warm (but not all the way) and got impatient and tried to drive it again. Well it didn't like that, didn't give it a chance to get to closed loop, so it was struggling and missing a little bit. And it was beyond dark, so I decided to call it quits for tonight instead of messing it up.

 

Tomorrow and wed I'll be out of town, but thursday night I will let it get to temp and let it get cozy and then try driving it again and make sure its in closed loop. It did just fine the other day in closed loop (besides the PS pump wailing) so I'm hoping things will be better then.

 

 

The transmission is noticeable louder, and I don't think I messed anything up during the install. It is a gforce trans, so the gears are going to be louder. I'm pretty sure I'm just not used to it haha. Would be better if everything would just work, I mean honestly, I only changed everything...

[Toph6888]

Got most of the way through moving my proportioning valve last night. I needed to move it, because well it was touching the exhaust directly and I don't want my brake fluid boiling. Also, with it moved out of the way its easier to get the exhaust in and out.

 

Got the old one off after lots of remaining fluid decided to pour out, glad I had lots of extra towels for it to drop onto (i covered everything up so as not to destroy the paint in the engine bay)

 

Ghetto bracket! I was originally planning on mounting it to the wall, but didn't have room for the lines. I spent maybe 5 minutes on this bracket, and honestly just needed something to work. it goes on/off very easily, so I will make a much nicer bracket during the winter, I just need to get it done for now.

 

 

Got the lines hooked up except for one of my master cylinder lines that was too short and the shops were closed. I'll get another line after work, make it fit, then I will get the exhaust back on and hopefully get it warmed up and out on the road. We will see, its getting pretty cold in ohio haha.

 

[Toph6888]

Got my last brake line in, got the exhaust back on, drained the water from the radiator and refilled with coolant, and got all the little things buttoned up, warmed it up for 15 minutes or so till it cycled the thermostat a couple times. Idle was pretty good, just kinda jumping between 800-1000rpms and afr bumping between 13 and 15 with it. So it just needs the tune dialed in. Once it got to temp it settled down to 900 pretty even, and sat between a 13.5 and 15 afr with 12in vacuum.

 

I figured why the hell not, lets take it out. Got it out of the driveway, and I have some wobbling from the back, so I'm thinking its from the rotors because its very consistent with wheel speed and coming from the sides of the car. I put on the old rotors that came with the IRS, and they were pretty worn, so I imagine they are warped. I have some new ones I just got today, I'll put those one tomorrow.

 

Over all the driving went well. Gears are a little louder then stock, and I'm also super paranoid while driving it right now so everything sounds like its going to explode to me right now haha. 1 and 2 sound about the same, 3 is pretty noticeable louder although I didn't get it up past 1500rpms in third bc of speed. So I think I just need to get it up to speed a little higher. I have read that the gforce trans is louder in 3 and 5 so I'm hoping thats just the case and nothing is wrong. The clutch is also brand new too and needs to be broken in as well.

 

Overall it went well, sorry for now videos, its pitch black anyways. I will take it out tomorrow when I get home from work and get a video or two and see how it does. I might take it a bit further out of the development where I can maybe get up to 35-40mph, about the fastest I can go in my development is 20 with all the other cars on the road and the turns it has. Tomorrow is another day.

[Toph6888]

Well after a year and some change, its finally ready. I got all the little wobbles and random noises out (changed the rear rotors today and rear sounds a lot better, and except for the whine from the PS pump which is always loud there aren't any weird noises.) and took it for a drive today and had pretty much zero issues driving it. Car would go into each gear well, accelerate well with just a 1/4 throttle, and idled well. Engine sounds healthy, and rear axle doesn't have any weird noises. Got it up to about 35mph in the development (which I can't leave bc I don't have the bumper on yet) and rode well. Gonna drive it this weekend a bit more around town, and then hopefully next week take it to the tuner.

[Toph6888]

Well, I took my car out on some roads today, felt good to finally get it out. 3rd is still a little loud, but whatever, it runs and doesn't feel like its slipping at all, and I've heard that gforce gears are loud in 3rd and 5th. 1st and 2nd have a very slight hum, 4th is silent. But it works so we will see what happens. Clutch is still getting broken in, and the rings are still working on seating, but I was able to do a couple 1/4 throttle pulls to about 40-45mph and then let the car idle back down on the engine and that helped quiet the engine a lot to help settle the rings.

 

Only thing I need to do is try to reroute my oil feed line for my turbo, the line is pretty close to my exhaust picking up a little bit of heat from it, so I want to shield it and rearrage it so the oil can stay colder for it.

 

Finally some videos, first another idle video and then a quick driving video, I need to find someway to set up my phone in the car so I can drive and record, not one or the other.

 

 

 

BTW My dyno date is set up for next friday 11/22. Taking all bets on rwhp/tq numbers.

Edited November 16, 2013 by Toph6888

[Toph6888]

First off a big shout out to Brian at Dynotunemotorsports for all his help with getting this car running and for doing the dyno tuning. Things went really well today and I will be going back for any other tuning needs.

 

Got it on the dyno today, went very smoothly. Only had one run where a coupler blew off, and other then that nothing went really wrong.

 

Put a tune on the car, ran to 3.5k, was really good, ran to 5800, was doing great. Only made a couple adjustments over the entire day.

 

Initial 5psi video (wastegate referenced off of the charge piping)

 

243rwhp 253rwtq

 

Best 5psi video (wastegate reference off of the intake manifold)

 

267rwhp 270rwtq. Made quite the difference

 

Made a couple other adjustments, and ended up with this as the biggest pull of the day at 12psi. (about 15-16degrees of timing)

 

353rwtq 370rwhp

 

Dyno graph

 

Max power was 353rwhp, 370rwtq, and this is with a "12psi" run (The tuner suggested I get a bigger spring for the wastegate because as you can see peak pressure is 12psi, but after 4.5k rpms it drops to around 8. So the boost controller isn't keeping it at peak boost).

 

One issue we ran into was with the fuel pump which is an aviator 310lph fuel pump. We were maxing out its duty cycle, which shouldn't have been a problem. The tuner noticed that the duty cycle of the pump just at idle was around 30-40%, which it should be below 10, so his thoughts are that in the tank I have a leak in one of my hoses. So I will have to drop the tank to put a new line in it, no big deal.

 

The other issue we were having was with holding boost through the whole rpm range. I would hit peak, but then after 4500rpms it would drop a couple psi, and the tuner suggested that I should put a bigger spring in the wastegate so that I have a higher starting point, and the boost controller should do better from there.

 

All in all I am pumped about how smoothly everything went and no real issues. Idle is still slightly rough just because of the maf and having the piping the way it is. Brian (the tuner) suggested an Abacope mass air meter since it has 4 sensors and averages them to give a much clearer signal.

 

Over the winter the plans are to get the fuel pump figured out, potentially get a different maf, and if money still allows step up to the 60lb injectors. That should put me pretty much where I want to be. I didn't quite hit my 400rwtq target, but nothing came apart and im only 30ftlbs away, which once I get the other stuff squared away I should be able to hit that pretty easily.

[Toph6888]

First off a big shout out to Brian at Dynotunemotorsports for all his help with getting this car running and for doing the dyno tuning. Things went really well today and I will be going back for any other tuning needs.

 

Got it on the dyno today, went very smoothly. Only had one run where a coupler blew off, and other then that nothing went really wrong.

 

Put a tune on the car, ran to 3.5k, was really good, ran to 5800, was doing great. Only made a couple adjustments over the entire day.

 

Initial 5psi video (wastegate referenced off of the charge piping)

 

243rwhp 253rwtq

 

Best 5psi video (wastegate reference off of the intake manifold)

 

267rwhp 270rwtq. Made quite the difference

 

Made a couple other adjustments, and ended up with this as the biggest pull of the day at 12psi. (about 15-16degrees of timing)

 

353rwhp 370rwtq

 

Dyno graph

 

Max power was 353rwhp, 370rwtq, and this is with a "12psi" run (The tuner suggested I get a bigger spring for the wastegate because as you can see peak pressure is 12psi, but after 4.5k rpms it drops to around 8. So the boost controller isn't keeping it at peak boost).

 

One issue we ran into was with the fuel pump which is an aviator 310lph fuel pump. We were maxing out its duty cycle, which shouldn't have been a problem. The tuner noticed that the duty cycle of the pump just at idle was around 30-40%, which it should be below 10, so his thoughts are that in the tank I have a leak in one of my hoses. So I will have to drop the tank to put a new line in it, no big deal.

 

The other issue we were having was with holding boost through the whole rpm range. I would hit peak, but then after 4500rpms it would drop a couple psi, and the tuner suggested that I should put a bigger spring in the wastegate so that I have a higher starting point, and the boost controller should do better from there.

 

All in all I am pumped about how smoothly everything went and no real issues. Idle is still slightly rough just because of the maf and having the piping the way it is. Brian (the tuner) suggested an Abacope mass air meter since it has 4 sensors and averages them to give a much clearer signal.

 

Over the winter the plans are to get the fuel pump figured out, potentially get a different maf, and if money still allows step up to the 60lb injectors. That should put me pretty much where I want to be. I didn't quite hit my 400rwtq target, but nothing came apart and im only 30ftlbs away, which once I get the other stuff squared away I should be able to hit that pretty easily.

Edited November 23, 2013 by Toph6888

[Cordell]

Nice.

[Mr. Jones]

Well done.