yellowoctupus Posted July 14, 2018 Author Share Posted July 14, 2018 Assembled uprights. I'm running Viking 175# coils, and UPR Products 206-01 79-04 Pro Series Front Coil Over Kit. I think the "Pro Series" may have been for a larger diameter strut body, oops. I just made spacers and they work fine. Parts in the 'paint booth'. Keeps my fender from rusting so much. And it's all in the car, good to go. I had to remove the calipers to bleed them, unfortunately, but that's really not the end of the world. If I tried to flip them side to side then the E-brake mount would have been in the way of the frame. Small price to pay for glory, I guess. The springs are much stiffer than the stock ones, but that's probably in part to the fact that the new 175s are stiffer than the stock 150# springs and that my stock springs were pretty whipped out which gave it a mushy rear end. It feels like it's on rails now, even with the rear sway bar out (the mounts ripped out of the body about 2 months ago on me...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowoctupus Posted August 7, 2018 Author Share Posted August 7, 2018 So, I had the car on the road for all of 1 day until I pulled it back in the garage and tore it apart again. Just can't drive it ever, right? Oh well. Gotta finish up that supercharger one of these days. It's coming along, but it's a serious case of 15# of crap into a 5# bag. Everything seems to interfere with everything else. BUT the hood closes, and I've got a solid 1/4" of clearance at all of the 'high points'. Modeling clay works wonders for checking hood clearance. Just like checking piston to valve or head clearances. Had to modify the dickens out of the throttle body which took a day or so of fiddling around, making new progressive links and brazing up all sorts of things. Otherwise it wouldn't fit with my fuel rail. Go figure. I'm using a returnless rail out of an '06 E150, but I'm still going to run it return style. That's an upcoming chapter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowoctupus Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 (edited) Finally came up with a way to plumb those pesky laminova intercooler tubes. The green is the intercooler tube itself (A much shorter CAD version just for easier visualization). Blue is the 'dummy' or 'return' end cap. Lots of the parts will be JB Welded together, hopefully it works well for this application. Their technical information is vague at best. I wish I knew what the optimum cylindrical gap fill was. I think I'll do it at like 0.010" to give it enough room so it doesn't get pushed out when I put the parts together, but not so much of a gap that it wants to run out either. More updates to follow as I take more pictures. The Ford coolant crossover tube assembly is on rev 3 or 4 now, I'm over it at this point. Starting to build parts from scratch. Fuel rail got flipped backwards, and I put a lot of heat to it to bend the two respective ends under the supercharger snout. Came out well though. The rail's stainless, and now the fuel inlet line is conveniently on the passenger's side where I ran the lines years ago. I also plumbed in the return regulator over by the fender mounted filter. Edited August 20, 2018 by yellowoctupus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowoctupus Posted September 6, 2018 Author Share Posted September 6, 2018 Progress.... Pic 1= Laminova cores JB Welded up, 90° fittings installed, special 'locking widget' installed (keeps intercooler cores from sliding in or out of the manifold. Not that they would with the orings on, but it's a peace of mind thing.). Oh, and Ford IAT sensor installed. Thankfully there was room there, cause that's the only place I could find to mount it. Stock 94 Mark VIII sensor. Pic 2= Modifying intake manifold gaskets. Yeah, so there's metal in the middle. Had to 'trim' them with a dremel cutting wheel. Took quite a while. Pic 3= Pressure/leak tested the individual cores. Black line is air at 40psi. No bubbles 😰 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1969honda Posted September 6, 2018 Share Posted September 6, 2018 Nice progress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowoctupus Posted September 29, 2018 Author Share Posted September 29, 2018 Quote Nice progress! Thanks! Glad to see somebody besides me is still reading this saga like adventure. So, I've been seriously jamming on getting this done now, as our 'move to Hawaii' date is coming up in almost exactly one month, and my 'sell the lathe/mill etc' date is at most a week away. Gotta get made whatever I gotta get made, and like NOW! I haven't been taking a ton of pictures, but here's a few for kicks. Pic1/2: 1st design of coolant crossover tubes. No way it would fit once it was in, well not under the stock hood anyways. Pic3/4: 2nd design put crossover under supercharger. Ok idea until you realize that it meant the supercharger, fuel rail, injectors (and injector plugs), and crossover cooling line had to be installed SIMULTANEOUSLY. REALLY hard to do. Oh, and it had a pinhole leak at one of the welds that I had to take it out to fix. Looked kinda kludgey too. Picture is hard to see crossover, but it's under everything where the green line goes from one side to the other. Pic5/6/7: 3rd design, decided to run the crossover in front of the supercharger again, but this time machining all of the parts instead of a mix/match of welded / brazed OEM and custom built pieces. Found out that I could install the aluminum/steel double oring adapter thing all at the same time, which meant I should eliminate one more leak point. Installed picture shows why it has to be necked down, otherwise neither side will fit. Things are REALLY tight in there. Pic8/9: final design. ID of steel tube was opened up a bit due to not needing the additional space for double o-rings like the last design. Am I done yet? Please????? Pic10: 3/4" splicers. Intercooler lines need 90° bends and long runs, these were actually quick to knock out, especially after I just made all the other steel parts ^ up there. Pic11: Starting to run intercooler lines to the pump. Pic12: This is the 'before' picture for wiring reference. (Spark plug wiring remains the same, but there's a big difference between the engine bay here, and what it actually looks like now. I basically got rid of all of the Ford harness that was stuffed in there. What a mess.) Pic 13/14: Megasquirt is in, wired up and works. One injector was switched with the IAT sensor (oops, I guess light blue and the grey I used looked similar under the dash.) and for some reason I'm not getting 5v to my TPS, but the regulator is working fine, so I'm guessing it's another wiring goofup on my part. I had this neat industrial terminal block laying around (sorry for the poor picture), which is really neat because it has these flip lever disconnect switch things on it. Makes it easy to 'turn off' a circuit or just probe the circuit with/without something there without having to jumper things in the engine bay, use piercing probes or any of that silliness. They're made by Phoenix Contact, and are not cheap if you buy them new, individually. Good to salvage and keep if some fall into your lap though. Oh, and yes, it all fits under the stock 280z plastic ECU cover, so you won't be able to see it at all when I'm done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1969honda Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 I like the look of your machined pieces much better, not to mention the reduced leak points from welds and joints. The Phoenix contact box looks interesting, I'll have to look that one up out of curiosity. Sounds like the swith to megasquirt is going well and wiring is fairly well sorted if you only have 2-3 wires crossed! Good luck with the short time frame and schedule! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bimmota Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 This is great stuff. Not to many more things left you can do to this car other then a velo rossa kit which I happen to have one I’m not using. hahaha. Is the hood going to close with the top mount with out modifications? What’s your hp hopes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowoctupus Posted October 4, 2018 Author Share Posted October 4, 2018 Yep, Megasquirt went way better on this install than it did on my Mustang. I think I had issues with the TFI on the Mustang or something weird with my crazy custom intake. Never really did get it all sorted out which is why my Mustang has a carb on it and this MS unit is in here. Turns out I had one other thing swapped, which was two wires for the TPS. Now all the sensors work, etc. Had one unplugged injector, and one totally dead spark plug wire. I don't think I've ever seen that happen before, but I swapped one of my 'nice' red Ford wires for the old grodey grey wires (almost getting stiff they're so old) and it ran way better. Found the injector by using a mechanics stethoscope on each injector, one wasn't loud enough, and the spark plug wire by putting my timing light on each wire to see if the timing gun would flash. Pretty straightforward. The Pheonix contact thing is great. Seems like you wouldn't want the additional potential corrosion points etc, but it's been really handy so far. Great for troubleshooting/isolating circuits already. Oh, and I had one weird issue with my fuel pump output from Megasquirt. It's supposed to create a ground path for a relay. Easy enough. The weird thing is that with the car turned off (no power to MS unit) it would make the 'injector' light flash on the MS unit. I can only guess it was getting some amount of current backfeeding through the relay coil or something weird like that. Don't have time to investigate further, so I just tied the fuel pump relay to the output of the main ignition relay. Keys on, fuel's on. Not ideal from a safety standpoint, but that's actually how I had the car wired up for the past...8yrs, so it'll work for now. The machined waternecks etc all are working great, no leaks, no worries. Glad I spent the time making them. Not glad there were so many revisions, but you gotta break a couple of eggs to make an omelette they say. Got tired of picking up the M122 from the middle of the car. And it was hard to do evenly with the coolant lines, injectors etc all going on at the same time. Also glad that's not an issue anymore. Temporarily buttoned up. Still have to plumb the PCV etc. Kinda weird, but not all Ford fuel feed lines are created equal apparently. The one on the left is from a 5.0 or 5.8, mid 90's. The one on the right is from an '06 E150 4.6. No idea why the one has so much smaller of a feed line. I may try to modify one to run some -6 AN line up there. Certainly have to try to open up that hole though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowoctupus Posted October 4, 2018 Author Share Posted October 4, 2018 (edited) Pre-tuning/test drive. Gotta rev it a few times No car driving videos yet. Gotta convince a co-pilot to come along first. (The wife.) Edited October 8, 2018 by yellowoctupus Troubleshooting Video issues.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMoore56 Posted October 5, 2018 Share Posted October 5, 2018 It looks sweet setting in there, you've done a great job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowoctupus Posted October 7, 2018 Author Share Posted October 7, 2018 Quote It looks sweet setting in there, you've done a great job. Thanks! Anyone else see the video I posted just as a sound clip? I don't see video on Firefox or Chrome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMoore56 Posted October 7, 2018 Share Posted October 7, 2018 No it's just a sound clip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowoctupus Posted October 7, 2018 Author Share Posted October 7, 2018 Hm. It WAS a video. Wonder why it didn't like my MP4... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1969honda Posted October 7, 2018 Share Posted October 7, 2018 I get a sound clip as well, keep The momentum up it's looking great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bimmota Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 I saw the video clip looks and sounds. But now the sound clip won’t won’t even play. On my phone at least so it could be on my end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowoctupus Posted October 8, 2018 Author Share Posted October 8, 2018 (edited) Ok, I think I got the video up there ^ straightened out. Direct FLV, MP4 didn't work great, VIMEO didn't want to embed properly, but YouTube seemed to work really well. Working on upgrading the fuel system. My megasquirt logs showed the car going lean a few times, which may be an artifact of the tune not being complete, but the stock pump/fuel lines are honestly probably not up to the task, so I'm going to run a Walbro GSL392 (255lph) external pump with an Arrow 10micron post filter and a full run of 6AN stainless braided PTFE hose up to the engine bay. I have a ton of hose, so I'm not worried about the expense. (I think I have 60ft of hose, or something crazy like that). Sorting out all the lines/fittings is taking longer than I'd like, but when a single fitting is $10-$15 I'm going to take my time. Oh, and the hood won't close with the intake ducting setup the way I have it. Oops. Shouldn't be a terribly difficult fix, but will take some time. Edited October 8, 2018 by yellowoctupus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMoore56 Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 Oh yes, that's sweet looking, and sounding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 On 9/28/2018 at 9:55 PM, yellowoctupus said: So, I've been seriously jamming on getting this done now, as our 'move to Hawaii' date is coming up in almost exactly one month, and my 'sell the lathe/mill etc' date is at most a week away. Gotta get made whatever I gotta get made, and like NOW! I got all excited and was about to PM you saying "Hey I can stop by to see what stuff you have lying around you don't want to move!" but then realized you're not even in CA anymore! Man, I'm out of touch these days. Great progress btw. Car is looking great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowoctupus Posted October 27, 2018 Author Share Posted October 27, 2018 Yeah man, time flies. Since Prunedale CA, we've lived in Port Hueneme CA, Groton CT, Silverdale WA and Bremerton WA. Less than a week we'll be in Oahu! The Navy keeps you coast hopping, that's for sure. I'll have to get a few pictures up here when I have time, I think I saved them on my 'porta-drive'. Movers just packed up the house, and the Z is down in Seattle waiting to go on a boat tomorrow for it's big trip. Hope it fires up ok for them, lol. I had literally 1hr to tune it before we drove the cars down to the Seattle Port. It's a pretty rough tune. Works ok, but lots of weird flat spots etc. The laptop battery died before I could really dial it in. The hood does close now wth some new intake routing, and I made a new pulley to drop that boost down from the (maybe?) 10psi I was seeing to hopefully 7ish, 8max. Starting with a 9.8CR isn't ideal for big boost. Picture isn't the clearest, but what do you expect from a 5yr old at least we've got our heads in this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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