cruizin01 Posted April 16, 2020 Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 looks good. might was reduce your picture sizes a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeitgeist57 Posted April 17, 2020 Report Share Posted April 17, 2020 http://www.columbusracing.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=840&pictureid=9532 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2020 Worked my ass off the last few days, been uploading pics on facebook but haven't had the time to write these short writeups before posting on CR! I decided I was going to take a go at tapping the existing engine harness to body harness plug to get the power sources I need. I peeled back the plastic covering near the plug as much as a could before it reached a part that was gross and sticky. Cut that off, and was left with a short harness that I could tap in to if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2020 The documentation on the 944v8 wiki is kind of outdated, and to be honest I haven't found much use in trying to do anything outlined in their instructions yet. The manual that came with my chinese standalone harness has been way more usefull in getting everything connected. With that said, I have done basically everything on the body side by probing things with my multimeter. Either checking resistance or hooking up the battery and probing for voltage. I found what I believed to be the starter trigger wire and confirmed that with the multimeter, and it was time to put the starter in and hook it up. Only one problem: Somehow in the move from my old apartment to my new house, the starter was lost. Luckily Scott Cordell, continuing to be the absolutely legend that he has been this whole project, had one available and let me have it. I cannot emphasize enough how much Scott has helped on this project, and this is just another step that saved days of waiting for FedEx. This two pin plug houses the wires for both the starter and the alternator excitor which isn't necessary in this application as my harness has provisions for the alternator. Still, I'll probably let it hang around until im sure I don't need it. It also ties in to the car's alarm box which is currently removed. I fed the stock starter Battery+ and the trigger wire down the passenger side and let them hang there. Fun fact: If you are trying to find the correct combination of starter bolts at your local AutoZone for a C5 starter, you need to buy two different part numbers worth of Dorman bolts. One is 45633 and the other actually had the number missing when I bought it. Luckily, this means I have basically every combination of metric starter bolt should I need to replace the starter (FORESHADOWING). Anyway, I got the starter in and wired it up how Prosche wired the stock one which is Battery+ to Starter, and then Starter to Alternator+. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2020 Since I was at AutoZone anyway, I picked up a new battery ($180 wtf) and the cheapest 5W-30 they had, which just so happened to be Castrol GTX High Mileage. Appropriate! The video shows my first test of the starter wiring and the first time this car has had power applied in I don't know how many years. This is also the moment I discovered the starter has a sticky solenoid. I will replace it, but for the moment its fine for testing and the sticking has been intermittent. Just been giving it a big wack to stop it between sessions lol. But hey, she turns over and the wiring is working correctly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2020 I had been wanting to remove more of the console so that I could run wires and tap in to things, and in order to do that you have to remove screws that are located under the little storage flap thing under the arm rest. I had not been able to open this since buying the car. I figured it had a stuck latch or something, but ultimately I discovered that a previous owner had glued said door shut. Da fuq. After fighting with that bullshit, I worked on getting the guage cluster out so I could access stuff behind the dash easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2020 Picked up some goodies from Harbor Freight: a rack that has several types of wire on it, a ratcheting crimp tool, and an easy wire stripper. I wasted a little time here because the manual said that I needed to run the purple wire to the +12v feeding the brake light switch. I didn't even look deeper in to that. I made this ground extension and +12v Y adapter to tap in to the switch. Turns out, this was for a torque coverter lockup which my manual/T56 harness doesn't even have provisions for an Auto. *facepalm* Did the work, so I left it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2020 Time to install some fire. My buddy Mike gave me some 80k mile spark plug wires and plugs from his Corvette and I took them just in case I needed them, but decided last second to buy a full set of new plugs. Whatever was cheapest at AutoZone for a 2001 Silverado. Always keep a magnet around for when you drop sockets. Its a lot easier than just getting pissed off about it. With most of the harness plugged in, I wanted to get a basic test fire done that day. I pushed the harness out of the way, and turned my attention to the LS1 Intake Manifold I got from Scott. A truck MAP sensor has two sets of ears on either side of the sensor to plug it in to the truck intake manifold. Cut one set of them off, and boom: Corvette MAP sensor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2020 Another thing that I picked up that has prevented day ending work stoppage is this metric nut and bolt set. I have already had to use it several times. I had two of the bolts needed to hold the fuel rail and injectors down, but needed two more. Pushed the injectors in their respective ports, and cinched the rail down. I laid the intake manifold on top of the engine, ran the bolts down quickly, and plugged everything in. Before adding the oil, I put my ebay dipstick in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2020 I'm going to have to do something about the driver side coils. They hit the Hydroboost unit and the old alternator mount bracket. Will solve this later. In the meantime, I just plugged everything in and laid the coil bracket there. Passenger side seems fine for the moment. Time for lube! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2020 Presented without comment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cstmg8 Posted April 21, 2020 Report Share Posted April 21, 2020 Exciting step. Great work, looking forward to seeing how it runs/handles. Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeitgeist57 Posted April 22, 2020 Report Share Posted April 22, 2020 I've got the old-school jars/dishes of old bolts and nuts, as if I love digging into them to try and find matching nut/bolt pairs. Been thinking about getting a tray of new nuts/bolts like you have. I'm sure for the smaller stuff it's paid for itself in time savings. Great progress. Keep it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuckeyeROC Posted April 22, 2020 Report Share Posted April 22, 2020 Woot!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 Sorry for the break in updates! Just been bustin more ass trying to get this thing going! I knew as soon as the car wouldn't properly start without starting fluid that I had something going on with the fuel pump. I checked voltage at the connector to the fuel pump, and nothing. I googled online how to jump the fuel pump, and sure enough, no noise coming from the tank. Porsche has this crazy relay that controls the fuel pump and the ecu together, making it a little weird to track things down, but I found what I needed online. I made a little jumper, and tested to make sure I had power at the fuel pump. Fired up my old pal the $5 Harbor Freight Multimeter, and found I had power. This gave me where I needed to have the GM PCM control the fuel pump and told me that the fuel pump that was in there was dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 My ex-roommate had a pile of 91 944 Turbo Parts laying around that another friend of his left behind at his house for years, and gifted them to me for my car. Among those parts, just so happened to be basically a complete fuel pump assembly! A quick jump test and sure enough it whirred indicating that it was working! Should I have replaced it with a new one? Yeah probably, but this is supposed to be a relatively (for a 944 anyway) budget build. I found a wire in the original engine harness plug that appeared to be switch power, so I have it temporarily wired up just to check function with the stock ecu. When I turned the key over, all the relays in the PCM clicked to life, so that seems to be a good connection. I will clean it up after we get it running properly and verify plumbing/wiring is correct. Next is a job that I hate doing on practically any vehicle, but at least its external here: the broke fuel pumped needed to come off and be replaced. Time for that fuel shower. My hose clamping seeming to not stop enough of it, I still smelled like fuel for a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 Meanwhile, the fuel pump on the 944 Turbo fuel pump cover had a rusty clamp that wouldn't let go. A touch with the death wheel (far away from gasoline, obviously) got it off. Replaced it with a fresh Harbor Freight clamp! Temporarily, I just let it hang there so I could verify that it still worked and the car wasn't going to burn down. Immediately, anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 (edited) The next day started with a very important stop. In my neighborhood for the warmer months, there are food trucks that stop by several days a week, and wouldn't you know it: Derek's food truck stopped by! I don't think he remebered who I was, but everything was delicious. Highly recommend! Moving on. I have no idea how long this car sat before I got it, but I decided to flush the fuel lines out to clear any debris that may be in there. Simple enough, stick an empty water bottle on the feed and run the pump. I did this twice. First time there was a bunch of garbage, second time it was pretty clear. I apparently cut my hard fuel lines a little too short, because the corvette regulator to fuel rail line didn't quite reach. Unfortunately, during this whole lockdown all the parts starts near me are closing early and I wasn't able to buy longer rubber line to fix it. Luckily, basically everything on an LS is reversable so I just temporarily flipped the fuel line around so I could do more testing. Like the wiring, I will clean this up after we verify everything is working. Edited April 28, 2020 by Rally Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 A quick test fire to check the fuel pump and the plumbing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 Battery was dead as hell from all the testing I had been doing, so on the charger it went overnight. I turned my attention to wiring up the fuel pump relay on the Chinese harness. All you need to do is put the power and the load on it, everything else is done. At least temporarily, I ran these to the two relay pins I had been jumping directly in the relay box. Maybe I will clean this up, maybe I'll leave it, I don't know yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 Another test fire, this time reaching the conclusion that the VATS probably isn't disabled like I was told. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted April 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 I texted Scott asking him to confirm if the issue I was having seemed consistent with VATS being enabled, and he seemed to think so. He volunteered to come over and check the PCM out with HP Tuners the next day. In preparation, I buttoned up stuff here and there, like putting the wheel back on and letting the car back down where the fuel pump was changed. Not pictured, but I also used the newer 944 Turbo fuel pump cover because it was in better shape than mine. Scott arrived, and fired up his laptop and verified that I had a basically stock Silverado 4WD ECU. Welp. Anyway, he turned that off, and made several parameter changes that would at least let the engine to start and idle and let me check and test things. I am missing an IAT sensor to have proper speed-density and its on the way, as well as probably having vacuum leaks I haven't figured out how to plumb yet, but stuff happens now! Thanks Scott, you're the man! Listen to that cam! Hard to believe its the exact same cam that came out of this engine, reworked to different specs! Awesome! Not a bad value for $140. Spent the next couple days recharging my husband score with my wife, I'll resume work this week. I think I am going to try and button up the dash, then try to figure out the power steering pump/hydroboost situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Nice Posted April 28, 2020 Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 You've been busy. Nice work. @ "Chea!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuckeyeROC Posted April 28, 2020 Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 Great sounding Porsche! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10phone2 Posted April 28, 2020 Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 sounds filthy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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