2G build for some1 (I build it, they own it)

[smbgsx]

smbgsx submitted a new DSM Profile :

2G build for a friend


Read more about this vehicle here...

 

[smbgsx]

Building this car for a customer at work during my spare time. I've probably got about 20 hours into it at this point between 3 different days. But it's all ready to go now except for installing the lines, rail, and injectors, installing the turbo, and installing the intercooler piping. I'll upload and lay most of this out in chronological order, but I didn't really want to type it all at once, so I'll do a little at a time everyday. Hopefully someone checks it out .
The customer purchased it as a roller with an alleged spun rod bearing. He purchased it without even turning the key to see if the electrical worked.
It was towed to my shop and the engine came- out for a short block swap out for a good running mildly built 1G unit.

80,000 mi or so on the chassis and it was running a 16G at the time. Had a roll cage installed already. Some decent bolt on stuff.

After Inspection it was determined that the cylinder head needed to be replaced. The cylinder head did not meet specifications for warp so it was sent out to be dissassmbled, inspected, and corrected

 

[smbgsx]

My DSM on the left next to his. Wish I'd get around to my 2Gb swap someday.

 

[smbgsx]

I've repeated some of what I said in the first post, but a bit more details and more pics.
Any feedback would be cool. I don't have a long history with DSM's. I'm am ASE certified tech at an independent shop and my own project car ended up being a 2g eventually. And like everyone else, I realized how ridiculously easy it was to make these cars fast. Then I built a few for some friends and word got around that I'd also do these builds in my spare time for a slight labor discount when compared to other shops or my normal business hours.
I work on them days that I'm done early, waiting for parts for other customers or projects or I don't have many cars to come in that day, if my daughter is at grandma's for the weekend, etc... And I've just noticed that when it comes to many other shops, unless it's their personal car, allot of shops that build the hondas, Subarus, Mitsus don't really do a great job at it. I saw one shop around here use wire taps and Quick disconnect terminals for a dsm full blow dual pump hanger setup. I couldn't believe my eyes. I had to laugh when I saw the relay rewire for it using large gauge wire too. Like c'mon, how much voltage drop you think you could read with your DMM right at that wire tap?? You would probably be better off with twisting the wires together and electrical tape.
So I basically lay it out like this, I'll build the car for a little less than other shops or my normal shop rate, by doing it without a hard set due date, but I always treat it like it's my car and have the time to be maticulous,. make sure it's done correctly and done well. Im a beast at anything electrical due to an early background in mobile audio, personal hobbies involving wiring, and the fact that I'm an ASE certified tech whose main job is diagnostics + engine performance & drivability. Couple that with a dream I had of being an engine calibrator and having my own dyno, completing courses at EFI university, and religiously studying every engine management and "tuning" book printed. The builds turn out decent I think.

So ok back to the car...
The car came in as a roller with an alleged spun rod bearing that hadnt completely destroyed itself and peppered particles all throught the engine.
Initially this project was just supposed to be a 6-bolt bottom end swap. The head was supposed to already have been "built" by the previous owner. The goal was 300whp on pump gas. I stayed late on a Friday and pulled the engine out. Once on the stand the head came off. Immediately you probably know how this story goes.
The head was warped, the valve stems looked trashed from lack of lubrication, the cam lobes were severely scored, cam followers were severely scored, and on top of that the only thing aftermarket in this "built head" was the FP2 cams. Which were useless. Tough call to make to my guy. He took the news really well tho and told me to keep it moving along.
I sourced a 6 bolt head for the customer to use as a core. I got it from Rix Racing who is a vender here on tuners. Awesome guy if you need something get in touch with him. I ordered a "healthy pull" 1G head and that's exactly what I got. When I got a call back after the machine shop dissassmbled the head I asked what they thought about it. They said slap a composite gasket on and it'd do daily duty for a long time, Great shape. So off to a good start. I spoke with the owner of this red car and threw some options out there. We settled on a pretty standard rebuild. I told him the stock large port 1g head has top end flow numbers like a decently ported out 2G head already.so not much work needs to be done to hit the 300 mark. He was in agreement.
At some point shorty after we spoke by phone and he said he wanted to go all out. He said he will likely want around 400whp to start and likely 500+ later. So we eventually settled on a blueprint for a head I provided him which should meet any reasonable goal one would have with a 4G63 and should have no problem supplying air and fuel and evacuation of the spent bi-products. So I ordered the parts and commissioned the rebuild of a pretty sweet Cylinder Head. The parts I chose were
Kelford 272 camshafts
Kelford Beehive springs shimmed for up to 35 psi and 8500rpm limit
New OEM cam followers (yikes, check Retail on those)
New GSC tick free HLAs
Ferrea competition swirl polished intake and exhaust valves. (I considered but didn't order +1mm exhaust valves, but I don't think mass flow is ever really much of an issue with the 1g head. Velocity could use help tho. But both sets remained stock sized.
multi angle valve job, milled, I port matched it, and smoothed/deburred the combustion chambers to get rid of sharp edges.

I threw some flicks of my new toolbox in here too. It's pretty sick. And the pile of tools from my other two boxes on the floor all fit in there. I couldn't believe it. the box is 84"x 36x 48 I should be able to drive this thing around.

This is all from a while ago, at this point the car is about to be dyno tuned at DB Performance, the same shop that tuned Brent Rau's 6 second pro outlaw DSM in the mid 2000's. I'll be curious to see what it makes, I'll post more pics of the car and more parts. It gets pretty straight forward from this point on.
I forgot to mention that as a funny cliff notes, the owner of the vehicle wanted to help with the engine removal and he went to remove one of those large bolts for the crossmember. (The one going longitudinal that has the front rollstop on it and bolts to the bottom of core support) yes he snapped that thing off. So that was a blast to drill out and repair .
I also posted a pic of a vibrant performance vacuum block. It's an awesome little piece and I highly recommend it if you want to clean up the vacuum line routing. It looks really good on the firewall. I used rivet nuts/nutserts to install a permanent metal "threaded hole" for M6 bolts. So it can't be removed and reinstalled many times and it won't fatigue the sheet metal.

 

[smbgsx]

Some pics of some parts.
JMF o2 housing and atmospheric dump
AEM adjustmenable cam sprockets
TAiAL waste gate
Smoked 7-bolt on the pallet, 6 bolt on the stand made 450whp in another car. Only a few miles and dyno time on it.
Wiseco HD
Eagle rods

 

[smbgsx]

Mating the head and shortblock, new ARP fasteners, Adjustable Cam gears, new Kelford cams, new OEM Timing Covers front and rear, all new OE timing components, Gates Kevlar timing belt. It was around this time that the customer decided they want to go as far as the weakest link will allow. The weak link in my mind is the eagle rods. Im pretty sure they're rated for about 500hp. We have some pretty good engine calibrators out here in MN. The tuner that tuned Brent Rau's 6 second pro outlaw DSM is still out here. We also have Ronnie from RS Motors who set stock block, stock turbo Evo records a few times I believe. So after speaking with some tuners, my target recommendation would be 520 to 600whp but not adjust timing advance for mean best torque. Torque is what's going to bend those eagle rods. I'm going that by sacrificing some torque and revving out a bit higher there peak power numbers he wants will be there and the engine will hold together. If he wants the torque the block is going to have to come apart and either Pauter X-beam, Manley Turbo-Tuff, etc.. will have to be installed. Luckily I talked him into a shortblock with Wiseco HD2 Pistons so no issues should present themselves there.

ABOVE: air cooled OFH installed to mate cleanly to an external oil cooler with AN fittings.

BELOW: I've installed 2 of these clear covers. Both of them fit terribly. The cam gear mounting bolts make contact with the cover. The small ARP adjustment bolts that come with the gears contact the clear cover and the OE lower timing cover (if the clear cover is installed)

BELOW: My solution was to use a hole saw for the mounting bolts and swap out the adjustment bolts with a low profile fastener. It worked perfectly. Although this cover presents a problem again later when installing the fuel system. But we will get to that.

BELOW: transmission was built by a very well known DSM driveline specialist with Evo 3 input shaft/1st gear and 3rd gear. They were brand new in box. The trans was also double synchroed on selected gears, shot peened, all new OE parts, and was rated by the builder to handle 500 torque semi-reliably for a while. The center diff is welded.
I installed an ACT streetlight flywheel and south bend Kevlar clutch rated for 525tq. I know about the step height. Everything was prepped as needed. No shimmed ball here.

I install the engine and trans back into the vehicle and start to clean up some wiring, I eventually put together a full blown dual pump hanger with Ti Automotive 535lph (yes 535) fuel pump, braided lines with -AN fittings, Magnus fuel rail, ID1700's, etc... I'll post pics soon. Hope somebody finds a fraction of this interesting
Any questions, comments message me or post them. I've only been into DSMs and this car thing for about 3 years. I decided on it as a profession 3 years ago, got a two year Degree in auto Technology and repair, then got ASE Certified before I graduated. Before that I'd never touched a wrench and everything I know about DSMs I was self taught.

 

[smbgsx]

Some bolt on stuff. The JMF o2 housing and dump pipe are very nice pieces. I've been really happy with all of JM Fab's products.
The TiAL MVR waste gate is beautiful also.

 

[smbgsx]

There was a used JM fab coil plate in the cargo area of the car when it came. Unfortunately whoever messed with it had it wired incorrectly and had lock washers jammed in it. Apparently they don't know how to use washers and don't know that common practice would be to use them on the side with the nut. So I knocked those out from the back side to avoid more scratches on the plate and picked up a buffing kit for my dremel. I removed the coils and wiring did a pass with brown rouge.
I took some of my work home with me that night as you can probably tell.
If you're ever looking for wire go to delcity.net They have amazing prices and the quality is what you want. This is cross-link automotive grade wire rated for 257-degrees F and it's like $9.00 for a 100 foot spool of 16 AWG. I went nuts and bought like 8 spools of 18awg, 8 spools of 16awg in all different colors. Honestly it was pretty cheap and shipping is free over $99 I'm pretty sure. Best deals and best quality wire I've seen anywhere.

 

[smbgsx]

Redid the fuel system with a full blown dual pump hanger. -8 feed and -6 return braided fuel lines with PTFE/teflon so e85 won't be an issue. Magnus billet fuel rail, fuel lab regulator I installed just a single Hellcat 535LPH (not 525LPH) pump. The 535LPH pump keeps flow up much better than the 525LPH pump when under boost. The 525 falls to basically the same flow as a 450LPH HP unit almost immediately when body is thrown at it.
I used weather pack connectors for all connections between the vehicle harness and pump assembly. I rewired the pump with large gauge wire direct from the battery that is connected by Ignition switched power using a relay.
These new in tank pumps have pretty high amp draw and I'm a little concerned about it when demand is high. As mechanical resistance increases current draw increases. Pushing against 35 psig boost on top of the 43.5 base rail pressure is a decent amount of mechanical resistance. The charging system of this car isn't impressive in stock form. I don't know exactly numbers but I'd bet about 90amps output from the alternator. The fuel pump alone probably draws 15-25 under load.now add powered gauges, aftermarket boost controller, after market lights the customer wants and capacity is running thin quickly. The customer had the alternator rebuilt and I think output is up somewhat, but a bigger alternator from say, mechman wouldn't hurt. I also plan to run a large 10 farad storage capacitor for mobile audio in series with the fuel pump.
My reasoning is that there will be a little headroom for transient high demand situations and also clean, ripple free DC voltage supplied to the fuel pump.
Alternators produce ac voltage that is rectified by diodes. Even though the battery acts as a buffer I've seen remnants of the AC ripple on my oscilloscope before in vehicle electrical systems. This is not good for electronics relying on dc power supply.

I wrapped the fuel lines in split loom underneath the vehicle. Good or bad? I'm not sure. Keeps moisture in, but can help with abrasion resistance. Give and take I suppose

I have to clean up the pump harness and the sheet metal before putting

The pump say perfectly in the tank sump and the locking went on super easy. I sprayed it with a little penetrating oil before trying to torque it down. I believe the service info called for soapy water. but I was feeling lazy.

I had to clearance that Zaklee cover again for the AN fitting to fit. Injector Dynamics 1700x injectors and Magnus rail went in. I had to make a bracket for the fuel filter. Turned out ok for a 5 minute hand made bracket I suppose.
I like the idea of having the filter right there because I plan on making an injector cleaner that can tap in right before the fuel rail inlet. I'd cap off the outlet of the rail, use shop air to pressurize an external tank full of injector cleaner from BG Automotive. The engine will actually run on the cleaner. I'll mix a little Techron by Chevron in there as well.
This will remove and deposits from the injectors after extended use of strictly e85. There are non ethonal soluables that are left as a gross black goo when only burning e85. This isn't typically an issue for "flex fuel" cars because gasoline and the detergents in good brands like Top Tier melt the goo quickly. But all this vehicle will run is e85 and it will be stored winters. So periodic cleaning will be necessary to keep things in good order. Also evacuation and pickling on gas prior to storage will be much easier.

 

[smbgsx]

Made a genuine carbon panel for boost gauge and a switch for the fuel pump relay. Left some room so more switches or a guage can be added later if needed.