Figured I try asking questions in the right section. I have a brand new engine with a brand new turbo system, portfueler, etc.

I'm in the process of breaking in the engine. My questions are these:

I have not ceramic coated the downpipe but I have the majority of it heat wrapped. I heats everything up extremely quick. I have the aluminum visteon radiator and that gets so hot I can't even touch it just after a couple minutes of driving. (I've only put a few miles on the car so far. Is this normal or cause for concern?

Also, my A/F ratio jumps up into the 20's under hard acceleration right before I hit boost. For the most part it has been keeping right around 15. The Fuel pressure is set at 50psi. Is the portfueler not doing its job? I'm not exactly sure where to start in tuning this thing. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Other than that everything seems to be going alright. I pulled the spark plugs and those look alright. It idles smoothly and doesn't stutter. Thanks in advance guys.

I found an exhaust leak right at the turbo. the shop didn't tighten one of the bolts for the v-band adapter. That was throwing out a lot of heat. I've test driven her a couple of times now and managed to get my a/f's manageable. Idling and cruising is around 14.7-15, hard acceleration though runs rich into the 9's on Hahn's PF base fuel map. I've dropped it almost 20% across the map to see if it will clean it up a bit. I guess everything is going better than I expected. I can't try the new map until the weather clears and I'll see what happens. I feel like i'm talking to myself anyway.




"And I say, 'Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.' And he says, 'Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

your not.

Thats interesting about the leak. So the high temps caused the rich condition? hot air in the intake?

are you on stock internals? how much are you boosting out of curiosity?

care to post some pics of your build, i am just about to start turning wrenches on my turbo build and always want to see what others are doing.

I assume you bought a hahn kit right?

Originally posted by navyguns
your not.

Thanks

Originally posted by navyguns
Thats interesting about the leak. So the high temps caused the rich condition?

No, it just caused it to be way hotter in there than it should have been. Running rich was caused by Hahn's extremely rich base map on the PF. I had to reduce the injector duty cycle by 45% from the base map in order to get the a/f's in the 11.1-12.1 range at WOT.

Originally posted by navyguns
are you on stock internals?

No, I have a completely rebuilt engine with JE pistons, Eagle rods, Crane cams, the works. Everything that can be upgraded Engine wise has been. (according to me at least)

Originally posted by navyguns
how much are you boosting out of curiosity?

I'm hoping to have the ability to boost in the high 20's after break-in. I have the Greddy Profec B boost controller but Hahn told me to unhook the MAP signals from it and not use it for the break in period. So now the boost is going strictly off the actuator which is set around 7-8psi.

Originally posted by navyguns
care to post some pics of your build, i am just about to start turning wrenches on my turbo build and always want to see what others are doing. I assume you bought a hahn kit right?

I will get some for you tomorrow. I'm going to try to get a video just to capture the sound of the 3" exhaust so stay posted. And yes, it is the Hahn kit.



"And I say, 'Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.' And he says, 'Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

Here are a few quick pics I snapped. Pretty standard stuff. I have some of the vacuum lines temporarily hooked up as you can probably see. I also just found an oil leak on the turbo return line I have to tighten up. Other than that everything seems to be going fine. No videos yet.














"And I say, 'Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.' And he says, 'Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

thats a nice looking engine bay.

I was thinking about moving my fuse box to the left just slightly and putting it on its side, and then relocating my battery to behind the headlight. i want to open up the space above my tranny, for ease of work, and just because :)

I am setting up for a build on stock internals for now :( My plan is to boost low on stock for a year or so, then try to get an engine built. I dont believe I will ever be at the level i need to be to build my own engine. the thought is nice, but I am about to get out of the navy, and life is calling.

How much do you have in your engine? I just want to hit safely/reliably 12-15 psi and i will be happy. I think that might get me 250, maybe go for 300whp. So hopefully if my budget turbo set up goes well, i can just engine swap into a built engine, and enjoy the car the way it deserves to be.

so no megasquirt? I dont know a damn thing about port fueler. I have a friend who is hooking me up with his already set up megasquirt kit he was going to put in his clipse til it threw a rod and he gave it up. I imagine i will learn the fundamentals of megasquirt when i get to it, but I am hoping it will be the tool that keeps my engine safe til i can get the scratch together for a decent engine.

If i had known i was going to boost, i would have not wasted 2500 at advance auto on one of thier reman'd engines.

so did you get your issue resolved by the way?

Originally posted by navyguns
thats a nice looking engine bay. I was thinking about moving my fuse box to the left just slightly and putting it on its side, and then relocating my battery to behind the headlight. i want to open up the space above my tranny, for ease of work, and just because :)

Good luck with that one. If you notice in my pics I moved the ECU about 2 inches toward the front of the vehicle and slid my MSD Dis-2 in there. In one of the side shots you can see the little white dials and I haven't fabricated a bracket for the upper mounting bolt yet. I'm sure I'll catch hell from people on this site for that one but I found that to be the best place for it. I guess those units don't like heat very well. I'm considering an EVO style hood to help dissipate it. Oh BTW, that fuse box has a pretty good amount of wires directly under it and it doesn't like to move.

Originally posted by navyguns
I am setting up for a build on stock internals for now :( My plan is to boost low on stock for a year or so, then try to get an engine built. I dont believe I will ever be at the level i need to be to build my own engine. the thought is nice, but I am about to get out of the navy, and life is calling.

This is just my opinion (you'll hear different I'm sure) but I like to err on the side of safety. Anyway I wouldn't boost on stock internals if your car is a daily driver. Yes it can be done but why set yourself up? You will find a ton of threads with people arguing back and forth on this issue. Some of them get pretty heated but it all comes down to what "worst case" scenario can you afford. My project start to finish took close to two years and luckily I had another set of wheels.

Originally posted by navygunsHow much do you have in your engine? I just want to hit safely/reliably 12-15 psi and i will be happy. I think that might get me 250, maybe go for 300whp. So hopefully if my budget turbo set up goes well, i can just engine swap into a built engine, and enjoy the car the way it deserves to be.

I can't remember an exact number if you're looking for a price. I didn't build the engine myself, I had pro's build and race-balance it. Cost $1600 in labor. I supplied all the parts. Here's a link to my original thread with a part list and more details.

http://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=89197&mode=full

And once again, I don't think 12-15psi is safe on stock internals. From what I've heard 8psi is pushing it. The Mahle pistons are great but won't survive detonation if your other components or tuning fail on you. I can't really speak for HP levels in relation to boost pressures. I haven't had a chance to personally test them yet.

Originally posted by navyguns
so no megasquirt? I dont know a damn thing about port fueler. I have a friend who is hooking me up with his already set up megasquirt kit he was going to put in his clipse til it threw a rod and he gave it up. I imagine i will learn the fundamentals of megasquirt when i get to it, but I am hoping it will be the tool that keeps my engine safe til i can get the scratch together for a decent engine. If i had known i was going to boost, i would have not wasted 2500 at advance auto on one of thier reman'd engines.

I know MS is great but I was already going with Hahn and it just made it easier to go that route. I didn't have to remove any material from the valve cover as many people have and it was easy to install with the engine out in the open. Tuning was a piece of cake. All you need is a laptop to run the split second software and an A/F gauge. It only took three runs to get fully tuned. I learned to software in ten minutes. There are a lot of MS geniuses on this site so I'm sure you're in the right place. Good luck on that front.

Originally posted by navyguns
so did you get your issue resolved by the way?

Which one? Its a DSM so I'm sure there are issues I don't even know about yet. I found a small oil leak on the turbo oil return line that I've been searching around for. I could smell it burning off. Not a good smell on a brand new engine. Like I mentioned above, its all tuned up at the moment and everything is looking good.



"And I say, 'Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.' And he says, 'Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

Oh, I guess i misworded. I only want to see 12-15 psi on the eventual built engine. While I am running stock internals, I will be at probably 6-7 at the throttle body. if it is lower than that, then i am all for it. I just want to get the turbo system in, tested, and running well so when i do the engine swap, i can just drop it in, and its all done.

I am going to have to look up some info on the port fueler, that sounds really good for simplicity. I wont be tuning my megasquirt, a friend will be, i will just be learning it as we go along.