Jump to content
HybridZ

Operation: Camo Zzzap!


veritech-z

Recommended Posts

Just made a THRILLING discovery: my right rear strut mount broke. the strut tore the bottom of the mount right out of the part that bolts to the car...At least it will only require a new mount to fix, guess I should start looking for one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 214
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • 1 month later...

Hey spyder, sorry about the stupid long wait for this reply. I saw that and got sidetracked, and just noticed it when I came here to add some new pics. That's actually a thin layer of the same flat black used on the rest of the car. It's a very advanced bodywork technique known in the industry as "overspray." I think a purpose-designed product like VHT would probably work better than dupli-color satin finish black, and I'm actually contemplating wet sanding them back to red, but that's too much like work.

 

 

Speaking of work, I know I've been dropping hints all over the place about my turbo installation, and I suppose the time has come to finally pull the big reveal, the prestige to this magic trick, if you will. My turbo parts sourcing has been a long time coming, I started way back in like '03 or so when I bought a Garrett T04 for $295. It sat in a drawer for so long that I finally sold it to some guy with an Integra for $300. Shortly after that, I picked up a Nissan Sunny Pulsar GTi-R top mount intercooler off a buddy's swap for $40. He was going front mount at the time, though somebody broke into his car and stole the whole setup before he got it going. I'm not sure what ever happened to that car, we kind of fell out of touch (but it was running 12.98s in the 1/4 at the time). That same guy's brother bought a used Garrett T04 (no letter designations evident on it, otherwise I'd be more specific) off some dude, and quickly lost interest in it. I picked that up for $50. then I bought an SSAutoChrome Tial-look 35mm wastegate off Ebay for $100. I was fooling around with trying to make my own turbo manifold out of an old header flange, but I gave up because I'm just not good enough at welding to get it right without warping it. So my birthday rolls around this year, and everybody donated money to the "We know your car needs help, but we don't know what you need" fund. This got me some new Falkens for the Impuls with enough left over for a factory L28et turbo manifold and the miscelanious fittings and hoses left over. I had a friend that's been talking about doing a blow-thru 4-barrell on his 76 2+2 since I met him 4 or 5 years ago, and in that space of time I bought a non-running Z, got it running, and was in the planning stages of turbocharging it before his really even got out of the garage. Anyway, I asked him if he'd sell me his manifold, and he said to let him sleep on it and page him (that's right, I said "page") in a day or two. I blew his pager up all day, and finally got tired of waiting. I drove over to Z-docs (the local z parts/service place) and spent $100 on one. I called him at work the next day and he said he'd sell me his for $25...I was like I think I'll buy it just to hit you over the head with it! Argh! I went back to my buddies at SSAutojunk and got a t3-to-t4 flange adapter, and had to get a 1.5" hole saw to cut a path for my wastegate. Luckily, my wastegate came with two extra weldable flanges and a dump tube. all my IC pipe and my downpipe are courtesy of a take-off Saturn Sky NA exhaust that came off of a car that I managed to convince my General Manager needed a GMperformance Parts Cat Back setup...Anyway, I spent all weekend putting this stuff on a week or two ago, and spent all day today pretty much re-doing my drain hose to the oil pan and fabricating a downpipe. If anybody is planning on using a -10 nipple fitting with a bulkhead nut to drain your oil back into your non-turbo oil pan, be sure you use a 7/8" hole, and not a 1" hole. That's too big. It's going to leak. That's why I spent all day working on it today. I welded a thick steel washer over the mega hole, and went through two unibits (other people's unibits I might add) and a carbide cutter to hog it out to just big enough to thread the fitting in. Anyway, if you've read this far, you deserve some pictures. here you go:

intercoolerphotoshoot5.jpg

intercoolerphotoshoot6.jpg

intercoolerphotoshoot7.jpg

intercoolerphotoshoot3.jpg

intercoolerphotoshoot2.jpg

And this is the view from the driver's seat, just to show how not intrusive the intercooler is to my view (and how poor your visibility really is from my fender mirrors)

intercoolerphotoshoot4.jpg

Also, this is what happens when you use right angle snips and a sawzall to cut out your hood:

intercoolerphotoshoot8.jpg

 

Driving impressions: I think my R200 is shot...anybody want to trade an R180 or a broken-ish R200 for a not broken R200? Also, I've not connected the boost reference line to my wastegate. 25psi boost spikes according to my Datalogviewer...that can't be good, but damn it feels fast! Also, no BOV yet, so when you let off the throttle you get that CHCH-Ch-ch-ch noise. I should probably get one of those so that sound will turn into PSHHHHHH!!! instead. By the way, it sounds SO much quiter with the exhaust on it, and it actually feels faster too (contrary to what I'd always heard, that being that the best turbo exhaust is no exhaust at all).

Stuff that still isn't done: I need to finish fabricating my underscoop that's going to be ducted to the front air dam to pull fresh air up the bottom, and out the hood. Not sure if the one I'm making is going to fit, though...Also I need to come up with some kind of modified cowl dealy that covers the edges of my hole, and comes up to the top of the intercooler without covering it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, not really, I knew how it was going to look in my head, though there was a bit more IC piping showing in the final version than I thought there would be...

 

 

So I was wondering why I was able to get an NA engine up to 25psi with all NA fuel stuff and not end up pushing the car home when Big-Phil blew his turbo engine up at 20psi, and I decided to have another look at my datalog. Keep in mind the only gauges in my car are Speedo, Tach, and Coolant Temp, so I was relying on the datalog to record anything else of interest. Well, when I chose "boost" in the other calculated fields section to display, a new readout that read in PW came up. Like a total No0b, I assumed this was my boost value, and that PW was some novel way to display it. I went back into it again, and realized that this was in fact most likely my injector Pulse Width in milliseconds, and I chose "boost psi" again from the list. NOW I've got a boost line running across my graphs, and the maximum turned out to be 12.769psi. So those of you that read "25psi" and said WTF?! SNE*bullcrap*EZE!!!, well, you'd have been right but it wasn't from any maliciousness on my part...anyway, I got some vacuum line today and I'm about to go give my wastegate a boost reference signal so I can get down to the business of making it not so scary to drive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Thanks Trumpet, but it was on purpose. I went back to get my Master's Degree in Digital Media so i can change careers. I just finished my first semester, and it's really been going well. I've got another thread going about that in the non-tech section

( http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=117386 )

if you're interested in following it.

 

Phil, that's a really nice offer! I don't think i'll be able to take you up on it any time soon unfortunately, unless i get a secret influx of spending money my wife doesn't find out about...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
  • 8 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...