2013 STI Rotated Turbo Project

LOL! That's awesome.

 

haha, when installing the aeromotive fuel system i forgot to put my fuel tank vent back on the evap nipple.
Garage smelled real good this morning lol.

I think that's also contributing to occasional CEL w/cruise / ABS flashing, but no DTC's. Hard to figure out what triggered the CEL without a DTC, and in my research everyone that has had that happen either forgot to put their gas cap on or had a disconnected fuel tank vent / evap.

adapter to fix exhaust leak at the cat back should be here wednesday, that has been driving me nuts.

I really need an AOS, but i've cut myself off on spending any more money on the car right now beyond the cost of the final tune.

Baby coming soon, car is running and the 1/2 mile is around the corner. Since I have my daily driver I see no need to rush.

 

Now i'll provide some feedback on the car since I know that there are several dozen of you reading the thread that aren't members of the site and have asked me offline for my opinion on the car versus stage 2.


The final tune isn't done yet, but that doesn't really matter when it comes to boost threshold, lag, noise, etc which is what I will discuss.

Stage2 with the VF48 the car would spool up just from feathering the throttle to engage the clutch and pull off from a light. With the cobb intake I had this was evident from the sound and confirmed with the boost gauge. The turbo was so small it just wanted to spin at the slightest touch. Some people find this to be exactly what they want, and as a result they love the car's at stage2. However for me this was actually really annoying, and not what I liken a "proper turbo car" to be.

Now many will argue that a proper turbo car is one that has near instant boost response and a wide power band. I would agree with you, however my goal with this car (19yrs in the making) was to create a childhood dream of a large turbo import 4dr w/fmic that drew back to the 90's in the era of the R33/R34, MK4 supra, RX7 & 300zx in regards to sound looks and performance.

In those days when my dream was initially born, the sound of a supra with a massive 70mm turbo made me giggle like a schoolgirl. The way that the car was docile, docile, docile, then BOOM when the boost hit, and the car became something entirely different.

I felt with the stock turbo, and turbo's similar in size that the car was just a "fast car" not a "turbo car" in that it behaved more like a supercharged car then a "big turbo" car. Again, this is all subjective and personal preference, but I wanted something that when you were out of boost, it was one thing, and when you were in boost, it was something entirely different. I have achieved that goal with this setup.

I can drive around light to light and never even hear the turbo if I want to. I can feather the gas, and with doug's AVCS work the car has tremendous off-boost torque and drive-ability. However once you spool and the wastegate opens, obviously the sound changes dramatically but the car becomes totally different. This perfectly aligns with my goal and brings a huge grin to my face everytime so far.

I felt like a teenager rolling around with the cobb intake and just trying to drive normal and shift normal I had the bypass valve opening all the time, sounding like i'm trying to "pipe" everyone around me instigating races, it was all very annoying honestly when I was just trying to drive normally.

Now the car sounds like a well built import when being politely driven, and when you spool it up the entire roadway takes notice.

I have also found that with proper throttle modulation you can build 5-8psi of useable boost for semi-rapid acceleration, but without opening the wastegate and attracting attention. I have to say that all the sounds, noises, effects, etc from the car now are just intoxicating. Even my wife likes the car more now because with the ELH and keeping my SPT exhaust, it's actually quieter then it was (at cruise / idle) with the invidia downpipe and stock UEL header.

I'll provide a complete analysis of pro's and con's when it's finally done and I have some time to assemble my thoughts. The reason I want to do that, and share these opinions (since that's all they are) is because when I was researching my build I found a lot of technical data across multiple resources that was invaluable sure, but opinions about things like sound, smell, heat, road behavior and other more subjective matters was significantly absent. As a result I would like to contribute in that area so that others coming along after me will at least have one opinion to draw from.

 

You're registered for the 1/2 mile? I'm on the back up list, but a friend has offered me his slot. My goal is to be ready for that.

If I can't race, I'll still come to watch and enjoy the mountain roads.

 

Yep i'll be there. As long as the nitrous breathing CTS-V's with long gears stay home I might stand a chance at fastest 4dr on saturday. At least based on the results from last year.

 

Count on a couple of faster ones being there this year...at least that is what I am hearing. Chicago should be a good look at what GA is going to be like this year.

 

Meh it's my first event so winning is optional, it will be a fun experience either way.

My #1 goal is to not break anything.

 

Winning any event is optional unless you are in a paid seat. It's just fun to get out there. There will be some SERIOUSLY fast V's in attendance this year in GA and Chicago. A buddy of mine is heading up to Chicago with over 150 more whp than he had last year. (937whp on tap now)

 

Maybe they will all hold out for sunday lol

 

Switched to bradd penn 10w40 today at 870miles to get rid of the break in non synthetic oil and change filters as well.
Got the grimmspeed exhaust donut adapter and put that on as well, it fixed that exhaust leak but there is another bad one at the v-band just upstream.
It's not a precision vband, it's one of these rolled lip type ones that doesn't seal for shit anyway and I don't think it's perfectly aligned either.

I'll wait till it's on a lift again to fix that because it's 94f and i'm sick of working on my back lol.

 

Damn exhaust leaks! My crappy up pipe took a crap so I had a nice stainless one made. But I haven't had my car in over 3 weeks now. Suppose to pick it up Tuesday. You should look in to Joe Gibbs oil it's better than bradd penn, it has a lot more zinc. That's all I ran in my 04.

 

Where has yours been?
These exhaust leaks are killing me lol.

final tune this saturday. Expecting some big numbers.

 

not sure if this will work, and it came out crappy anyway with my cell phone mic

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152489270798194

silly precision turbo blows coal like it's no ones business. Oh well, pitty the fool(s) behind me.

 

Link not working.

 

521 on pump gas or e85

 

Friend me on facebook, www.facebook.com/digitizedsoul

93oct!

 

Wow very nice! It will be a blast! Sent the friends request

 

Nice numbers James!!

 

cool, hows the cams?

You seen the cray cray ness with GSC's

Anything special to break them in, aside from the 20 min idle at 2000rpms?


Nice numbers. Are they final, did anything hold you back from more? or is that a safe but maxed tune on 93?

 

Haha, the GSC S2's have to be the best cam's for this car on the street honestly, they are so amazing with doug's AVCS work. Off-boost the car is literally "fun" to drive, like an N/A high torque 4cyl.

They did all the break in for me up there on the dyno since it was there already and he setup the base map. I rode around on that for 1300miles until this saturday when we cranked it up.

At this point i'd say that with 521whp on only 23psi that sure there is a lot more to be had, how much on pump gas? probably not much. Also remember my deck is open, no pins or bracing. The rest is apparently very solid though.

I need to setup my flat foot shifting next, it's absolutely required with this setup on the highway.

 

lol so I got shown some mercy today I guess, on the way in to the office did a quick pull and it felt like my plugs were dirty or something so I instantly shut down.
Eyed my gauges and slowly built boost and noticed AFR's going the WRONG WAY lol.

sure enough, vac line for FPR had come off the intake mani nipple, you know, the one that doesn't have a friggin lip on the end? I need to crazy glue that guy on.

Fortunately everything seems fine, but that could have been ugly. Pretty sure I saw a 15.0afr when I first noticed the problem hnoes::eek3:

 

15 is rich? and nearly stoick... 10's are where you should be concerned.

I've been fuel pump shopping and I guess I don't quite understand that relationship. Pump ratings are at 43 psi but as the regulator increases pressure with boost the flow rating drops??? Go figure.

How many miles on it now? My concern with the cams were if they were wiping a lobe or damaging the valvetrain. I guess most aftermarket cams are having a 10% failure rate... which is high. But if you make 1000mi on them you're in the clear.

 

Yeah i've read about the cam failures, not sure what to think about all that those threads got out of hand FAST, so many solid facts so many reputable sources yet no clear conclusion.

I have about 1500 on the motor now, 300ish @ full power.

Yeah with fuel pumps as you increase the pressure, you decrease the flow rate. No way around that really, I went with stock 43.5psi base pressure on mine.
Just don't get a huge pump, do the 12v mod so it's running 100% all the time, and idle around town all day with 1/4th tank of gas. Pump will heat that fuel up quick just moving it through the rails and back to the tank under all that pressure.

I thought lower # was richer and higher # was leaner? If i've been wrong about that this entire time, it might be time for an agonizing re-appraisal of the whole scene.

 

Yeah, I had to superglue that bitch on.

 

It's backwards. 15 is lean whereas 10 is rich. Stoic is 14.8 on 93 octane only.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TvSKddzfmk&feature=youtu.be

no clue why that didn't embed right

 

SICK! That thing is beast

 

Woops: its been a while since reading one but I always noticed when you let off the throttle and close the butterfly valve (stopping air flow) it jumps to 22 (rich conditions or so I thought)

 

Yeah but at that point it really doesn't matter.....there is no load on the engine.

 

It does do that you are right! When you let off, watch your IDC's go to 0 as well.
When you are engine braking or the car is returning to it's idle speed after you let off, it completely kills the injectors until it's back to idle RPM. And yeah, during that time as a result of no fuel you will see your AFR go to it's max reading of lean (22 on most) since there is literally no fuel during that time.

 

This version of vbulletin is really hating me with embedding youtubes :|

 

the coding embed a video is(youtube)the actual video id(/youtube)

Replace ( )with [ ]

 

What a pain....

[youtube]cUDldWbU9-I[/youtube]

 

LOL eddie failing as well.
Nice double white squares though!


k I see what's up now, I thought part of the video identifier was part of the query string in the URL, I was mistaken.
Oh google and your truly random ID's

 

[youtube]cUDldWbU9-I[/youtube]


[youtube]_TvSKddzfmk[/youtube]

 

Did you successfully get the hybrid boost control working? Pics of the plumbing?

 

I have one but I'm probably gonna take it off I can take pics of the plumbing for ya.

 

Why you pulling yours off?

I am just wondering where the back pressure goes when the ebcs is diverting air to the MBC and the bleed hole is blocked and the ball seated again. Does it remain in the lines until the ebcs starts pulsing again and it can equalize through there.

That seems like a problem that could blow of lines or degrade them from expanding so much. Otherwise it would cause lags in boost because it'd keep the wastegate opened/ slightly cracked until that pressure can bleed off.

 

It all depends on how the ebcs tables are setup and where / when / how much it's opening or playing a part in the overall bleed process.

I went pure 3-port ebcs because I wanted to retain my SI-Drive as a glorified boost controller. After all, it's a pretty integral part of the car what with the huge knob on the console and the dash indicators for I/S/S# I didn't want to make all that non functional.

In fact, I have a never used hallman pro rx (ceramic ball) for sale to whoever wants it, I need to make a thread.

One big downside is that the ebcs does exactly what you stated, and that's "pulse". You hear this in the dump tube sound, and it's kinda cheap sounding compared to the just flat out sound from the wastegate springs or an MBC.
It's difficult to even explain this to anyone without hearing it, but I already know that you understand what i'm talking about.

 

Honestly Same reason for me. Id rather have the SI drive "boost control".

 

So I had cam/ bucket failure at 200 miles. If you are noticing any noise in the heads, I'd pull a valve cover.

The parkerizing on my cam shows uneven wear and the bucket looks like a pool of water after a rock has been thrown in. Feeler gauge showed clearance at .014" from the .009 it was set at.

Since I caught it early enough nothing had worn through and I sent all the buckets and cams to GSC to be analyzed.

Did you do anything special for assembly and break in?

I primed the whole engine by turning the crank with the oil pump installed until oil cam out of the heads, then installed the buckets and cams with assembly grease and then set the timing.

Did the 20+ min idle for the first start between 1700-2300 rpm. Everything else checks out so it is still a mystery as to why it happened. I think GSC is being so helpful because any time I had something in question I sent him a picture and asked a question. He OK'd everything I ran past him and it still happened.

Needless to say I won't be making the GA 1/2 mi unless I take the wife's 140 hp TDI.

 

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Damnit boy! you have the rottenest luck. My heart sank when I read this.

To my knowledge, I don't have any failure going on and I have about 3000 miles on mine so far, HARD miles too.
There is an interesting sound, but I think it's an exhaust leak from the ETS 2 piece downpipe at the middle v-band which i'll be looking at on monday when it's on the lift getting the oil changed and tires rotated.

Also how did you tell that there was a failure other then the noise? Did performance drop or the car run terribly without the proper valve lift?
Just wondering if my exhaust leak theory DID end up being false, if there is still a possibility of this being true because the car runs fantastic at this point.

Man this really sucks.

Also I didn't do the break in, doug did the break in for me on the dyno at top speed since the car was up there for a break in map anyway. I wasn't around for the majority of that session (showed up at the end) so i'm not sure exactly what procedure was used but I know it's the same one they always use.

Did one of the springs bind? Creating uneven load on that cam? I don't even know how this could happen. Makes you feel like you need to fully examine the metallurgy of each individual component before you install it.... not a good mental place to be.

Man i'm depressed now

 

And another failure to the list for gsc! Did you post this on the nasioc "stop buying gsc and kelford cam" thread?

 

Link for reference

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2642831

 

I think pg 10 on from the 50 post/ pg view is a bunch of my pics and what not.

I got a base map from Dom at TiC and had knock feedback on partial throttle pulls from 3000prm.

I babied it around there, but otherwise a WOT pull from 2500-5000 was fine. I was only running wastegate boost of 7psi... so not much performance to see a noticeable drop.

I was paranoid and did notice more noise out of that head than the other.

At 200miles I just decided to pull the covers, change the plugs check for boost leaks (found some on the injector orings). I did all that to see about the knock and just check it over after some miles.

 

Justin, whenever you feel like making your way north, you are welcome to drive the absolute piss out of my car lol.
You deserve it bro.

For what it's worth, Andrew Ball and I did not use any assembly lube on my GSC S2's either, and I re-used the OEM buckets from the stock cams in their same bores. He set all the clearances.

I just lightly oiled the lobes / buckets with non synthetic oil (same oil I ran for the break in period)

 

http://www.builtej.com/product.php?productid=17523764&cat=1984&page=1

interesting new product?

 

There is a company similar to that in the LS world that tried to claim gains that ended up being a bust and less reliable than stock. Sounds like selling swamp land in FL to me.