Road Race Build ESi + 4G63 + AWD + Evo 8 + HE351VE = Project Warface

[kmetiuk]

Pretty damn happy with it.....looks "stock" ish. Hahhaha.

To be honest I have no idea why I made the rail to AFPR line so damn long.....but tucking it down like I did really hides it. I'm thinking I am gonna change this to a braided line and shorten it in the future.

First big oops in the fuel system....bought a 60 psi gauge. Works to set the base pressure to 43 psi but if you boost over 7 psi your gonna over run it. Ops.

Wally 400 up next....pretty straight forward. It didn't quuuuuuite drop in...but pretty much did.

 

[kmetiuk]

When all bolted up the rubber isolator kind of pushed the bracket out at a bit of an angle, but nothing to worry about and has caused zero issues....so far.

Now that I can feed the system more fuel and set the pressure time for some injectors. I always planned on the holset so I knew I needed a lot of fuel....decided on the FIC Low Z Blue Max 1650cc. Reeeeeeeeally wish I would have researched this more....but I'll get to that.

 

[kmetiuk]

Aaaaaaaaaaaall installed.....and fcuuuuuuuuuuuuuk I now am at a stand still for almost 2 years. I tried many things but in the end the major issue was the infamous FIC 1650 unlinearity.

As you can see in this graph (provided by twdorris on ecmlink forums) the 1650's are fcuking terrible injectors. That little peak, then valley, and then the ramp up means that at a flow rate of 40 cc/min the pulse width could be 420ms OR 550ms. What this means is when you are crusing or a reasonable tap on the throttle from a low RPM the ECU is wanting a flow rate of 40 cc/min and the ECU could be pulsing at 420ms or 550ms. How this translates to the real world is that at 1000 RPM's to about 4000 RPM's the ECU is sending a pulse and getting the wrong fuel flow so its constantly trying to use short term fuel trims to fix it which mess up the long term fuel trims which just makes it undriveable. Horrible injector. Anyone wanna buy mine? There actually pretty sweet *sarcasm* hahaha.

I had not found this graph at this point but I just wanted to
show how shit they were and how big the problem was. I was really chasing my tail on this issue for a long time.

Soooo originally when testing and trouble shooting I read on a forum somewhere that fuel pumps can cause noise in the system and mess up the signal so doing the rewire mod on the pump seemed like the first easy step.

It did not fix the system so instead of getting bogged down I figured lets move forward.....dumb...should always fix issues before continuing on...live and learn. Decided to run the rest of my braided lines. Tank to high flow filter to rail to AFPR to tank. Quite a lotta work. It was a biiiitch fishing those braided lines through the cross member.

Bought a lil AN adapter and cut threads into the fuel rail. When installing the adapter I was worried about it loosening up when messing with the braided lines in the future. I JB welded the threads going into the rail (very lightly just want a good perma seal) and also JB welded around the adapter. While the epoxy was "wet" I reinstalled the two screws on either side of the adapter to ensure it will never ever loosen off.

 

[kmetiuk]

With the pump rewired and some braided lines I could not get my fuel pressure below 58 psi...now I have 2 problems....unlinear injectors (still unknown to me at this point) and fuel pressure I can't back down. Always solve one problem at a time before moving on. I quickly assumed I might have a block or something in the AFPR so I disassembled and check it out....

 

[kmetiuk]

Hmmmm....no clog so I ran the return braided line and pressure problem solved! Yay! Guess that return line was to restrictive. Still those injectors tho....

Now I had a new second problem tho....my fuel level would get to about a half tank and it would start dying a bit around corners like I was outta fuel. After much searching I found that the siphon from the DS side to PS side of the tank was not able to keep up with the flow of the new fuel system....so boring it out a big bigger and problem fixed....just in time for winter

The following summer I still have that unlinear injector problem....I noticed it was at 2000 and 4000 RPM mainly (due to that graph that I still had not found at this point) so I thought it was some kind of resonance problem. Consulting my car buddy whose an Elec Engineer figured it was still noise so I tried soldering in some capcaitors to filter the noise but they did nothing at all so out they came.

Did some researching and found that an injector driver can help issues at idle with bigger injectors so I found a few drivers but cheaped out and bought some random injector driver that was assemble your self....

I wired that POS in and it did nothing at all.....like nothing. Stopped the engine from working at all. Dammit....

so I ponied up the cash and through much searching found the FIC Easy Tune from a user here. Very simple install and bascially what it does is feeds a clean suppply of 17V power to the injectors. Pretty sweet unit actually as it feeds 17V at all RPM and bat/alternator voltages.

 

[kmetiuk]

THEN I found the graph....shiiiit. Its the injectors....so out they come for a set of FIC 2150's. Decided on these at they were on sale at the time and the graphs from twdorris looked pretty damn solid at low pulse width....pluse with the injector driver they should be solid all around.

This part is pretty cool....here is the data sheet for my 2150's....

At 17V supply (from my easy tune box) the deadtime should be 530ms....

Here is my voltage deadtime table in the DA....flat. When have you seen that? 17V all the time so I set them all to 530 ms.

In my fuel tab in config I have 0 ms in the deadtime and if I change it at all the motor dies and wont start. Soooooo perfectly tuned the deadtimes now you can't even adjust it. Its bang on.

Went for a rip and my fuel issues are 100% solved....only took 2 years. Hahahah.

I cannot say enough good things about the FIC 2150's and the easy tune combo. I'm very close to stoich at idle and when cruising my AFREst and AFR's are also very very close to stocih. Solid down low with lots and lots ot top end potential. I will very likely need more pump to max these injectors out but for now the wally 400 is plenty with room to grow.

 

[kmetiuk]

Now that it inhales good, it's to too address that exhale. The exhaust was a good break from the fuel. I did this mod somewhere in the middle of my fuel issue as I was suuuuper frustrated with being stuck on the fuel so I jumped on to this to work it out with some hammer smashes and metal melting. Fire is soothing.

I bought ALL my tubing from Columbia River Mandrel Bending as it is by far the cheapest vendor for exhaust out there....well in Canada or in the US when you take the exchange and shipping in to account. They are in BC so they are super close to me as well. They have soooooooooooo many awesome products for all kinds of applications. They are one of the only vendors that I have found that sell a 4" u-bend at all. Highly highly recommended.

The laws and cops in my city are ROUGH for loud exhaust. They can pull you over and test your exhaust with a meter to check the dB's and if too loud they ticket you or even impound the car. Laaaaame. So I decided to try out the Varex exhaust system. Pricey little muffler due to them being based in Aussie land. It works well tho...with the valve closed it becomes a triple pass muffler....open it's a reg straight through like usual. With it close it really drops the sound levels a lot.....as quiet as stock if not more so. However, with it closed even the T25 was flowing to much at high RPM and stock boost to cause excessive back pressure....it would actually cause knock if you were on the throttle hard enough for long enough to back up the exhaust real good. Open it sounds awesome but that's partially my resonator I put on.

So it works very well when your just cruising or idling so if I see the po-po lurking or pull up behind me I just flip the switch and she closes and is super quiet then.

Now this maybe a bit controversial, but I did put a resonator back on as I stated the laws and cops around my city bloooooow goats. Even without the law though I would have done this mod. I truly hate that fcuking ricey sound that full exhaust system makes. That higher pitched brap-ie sound does not sound good in my opinion. It sounds like 2 pieces of sheet metal slapping together to me and I did not want that so I looked into how resonators work.

Exhaust sound lesson: There are many things in the exhaust the change/create the sound and tone of your exhaust. One major player in this sound is the resonator. As the exhaust travels down your pipe it has a lot of frequencies in it....high ones, low ones and medium ones. A resonators job is comparable to a low pass filter in a stereo system. It filters out the higher end frequencies and lets the lower ones pass below a certain frequency. A sound wave has a physical length associated with it as does all waves such as light and microwaves. For example a red laser outputs red light at around 630 nm meaning that the wave is 630 nano meters long. Human's can hear sound from about 20 hz (675 inch wave) to 20,000 hz (0.68 inch wave). The goal of a resonator is to filter out some of these sounds to tune the final exhaust "note". In order to absorb these waves there is something in acoustics called the "quarter wavelength rule". Using a limp mass absorb (which a resonator is) you take the length of the wave you want to absorb/filter out and divide it by 4. For example say we want to absorb the 40 hz frequency (considered sub bass in music) out of the exhaust then we take its wavelength of 337 inches and divide by 4 to get 84 inches or 7 feet. That means if we have a resonator 7 feet long it will absorb all frequencies above 40 hz and let 39 hz and below pass by unaltered.

What all this mean is the longer the resonator the more high end ricey frequencies will be absorbed and the deeper sounding your exhaust will be. The longest one that I could find that had a 3" inlet and outlet was the Walker 24" body resonator.


With the 24" limp mass absorber body and using the quarter wavelength rule my resonator will absorb around 139 hz (has a ~24" quarter wave at sea level) and above. Bass in music is considered from 250 hz to 60 hz and sub-bass is from 60 hz to 20 hz (lower limit of human hearing).

In the end my resonator will let some bass notes through and all the sub bass through. No low midrange or midrange or any treble or anything at all above 139hz will make it through so it's a great unit to de-rice my exhaust sound. In the real world it sound so so low and bassy....no raspy anything...no brap....no lawnmower sound....just pure bass notes. It's got a great rumble at idle and in the high RPM and boost its a loud bass cannon! hahaha. Not really a bass cannon but it's a low low exhaust note and to me that is my favorite sound. A low bassie exhaust just sounds warm and strong to me.

Take this all with a grain of sale....it does not absorb 100% of the sound above 139hz.....but it does absorb a lot of it.

Now a muffler can work partially on the same principle. They can be baffled inside to filter out there frequencies and intensify others...but for your typical straight through muffler it's pretty much the same as a resonator.

My Varex is has a 15" limp mass absorber body, so doing the math again it will absorb 223 hz and above (not 100% absorbed). With the combo it knocks a low of the high end out for a nice lovely little rumble.

Resonator sits nice and tight to the car....close to the drive shaft but not to close.

Made a nice little template for cutting my angles precisely.

 

[kmetiuk]

Reused the old bracket to mark out a new bracket for the Varex....

Tucked the varex as deep up and inside as I could. Sat in there very very nicely and I find it has a nice understated look to it....no big 5" outlet tip, just a clean look to it in my opinion.

 

[kmetiuk]

Tucked the rest of the pipe and the resonator up and as tight as I could get it. Amazingly it all cleared without too much hassle. Reused all the old brackets to hang from the stock hangers. It is as tight to the rear cross member as you can be....I did not want to deal or hear any scrapping for my exhaust being too low....plus there is a clearance rule at the local road racing track so it is all tucked up and the pinch seam is still the lowest point of the car....well the resonator sticks out an extra 1/4" to 1/3" but the rule is 4" clearance and I'm at 5 1/4" on my current Koni/Eibach setup which I find too low to be honest. I need to go up about 1/2" as I am just starting to scrape the fender on the wheel on heavy cornering so this is tons of clearance for the exhaust.

Prolly gonna catch some flak here, but I only took my exhaust up to the flex joint on the stocker and rewelded on the stocker. I was still on the stock t25 and that little thing wouldn't benefit that much at all from a turbo back. Plus I planned on finishing the exhaust when the holset was on so why do the downpipe and flew joint twice right?

Every single joint used a bend at the correct angle so that there are ZERO miters. No compromise exhaust semi-complete.

All tucked in and ready to rock!

Baaaah! That stock stuff looks like shiiiit. It's all gone now but man looking back it looks like poop.

Lotta work pulling it in and out and in and out to fit tack and refit and tack again then weld out. Polly pulled it in and out 10-15 times for each joint to ensure smooth transitions and a nice tucked up and in fitment. SUPER happy with the sound. Nice and low rumbley.

 

[GST with PSI]

I like your work, but I'm not a fan of a lot of things you've done here with the fuel system. That fitting you made out of the FPR is super sketch. Also, if you're using JB weld or Teflon tape on anything fuel related, you're doing it wrong.

I'm all for coming up with working solutions, but if fuel components fail or leak, you get fires.

You can get an angled AN fitting that will clear the timing cover. The AN conversion fittings for the stock fuel rails use O-rings for a reason. Unless you're using an O-ring or flare joint to seal your fuel connections, you're putting your car at risk for what can be done correctly relatively cheap. Just food for thought...

 

[boostdawd]

I like the exhaust. Great work. Just need to paint it black and your golden. Also that downpipe needs some love. Have u thought about heat wrapping it?

 

[kmetiuk]

I like your work, but I'm not a fan of a lot of things you've done here with the fuel system. That fitting you made out of the FPR is super sketch. Also, if you're using JB weld or Teflon tape on anything fuel related, you're doing it wrong.

I'm all for coming up with working solutions, but if fuel components fail or leak, you get fires.

You can get an angled AN fitting that will clear the timing cover. The AN conversion fittings for the stock fuel rails use O-rings for a reason. Unless you're using an O-ring or flare joint to seal your fuel connections, you're putting your car at risk for what can be done correctly relatively cheap. Just food for thought...

You are 100% right. Teflon on flanged fittings is a no no....could have accidentally introduced a small piece of teflon into the system and got it plugged up. That's why the flange is there.

I removed the teflon from that one fitting on the fuel sender unit when I was messing with the siphon. I also used a ton of adapters and fittings with teflon tape (which just looks dumb and like you said likely to leak eventually) on the bottom of the AFPR that were all either NPT or just regular threads in order to "bolt up" to the stock return....that was all taken out almost immediately as I ran a braided line for the return trying to chase down why I couldn't get the pressure below 58psi.

Looking back at those pics made me cringe and I thought about not posting them but then figured fcuk it. Hahaha. I'm not gonna hide my mistakes, I'm gonna lay em out there as I am always learning.

It was a lotta late nights and a lot of frustration with the pressure and the injectors mos def made me to hurried and I made several mistakes that have since been un done. I did not notice when I installed that fitting it was a flared fitting. It's the only place I put teflon tape as I originally thought it was NPT for some dumb reason.....even had the wrong adapter on there and had to get the proper flared one. Lesson learned was get more sleep and slow down a bit.


The JB weld is purely to "glue" that fitting in not to seal the rail....it has an oring you can't see that seals it in the fuel rail. Re-reading They are reg threads but the oring seals it in there good. I put a very very small amount and wiped most of it off to just get the smallest amount I cou;d on the threads on the fuel rail said to glue it in there...hindsight I should have used loctite. The JB weld that is around the "nut" is just built up as a kind of "wall" to stop the adapter from ever turning so that I don't need double wrench it everytime I take out the fuel rail. I also reinstalled the two bolts on either side of the adapter and Jb welded between the bolts and the adapter.

The JB weld is only to stop movement and not to seal it. The oring on the adapter does the sealing.


The angled adapter has an oring on it from the factory that I installed as well. So it is all orings, flanged fittings, and AN fittings in the end. Zero teflon on the fuel system. Well that's a lie....I have teflon tape on the adjuster screw on top the AFPR in order to seal it up during a boost leak test but the tape is on the "air" side of the AFPR so its not unsafe. I'm amazed how loose those threads are cut in it.

I also have the angled AN fitting you are talking about now that I switched out when I put the 2150's on. I still had to "notch" the timing cover in the end but I'd rather do that then have that sketchy adapter I made in there.

Again, I could hide my mistakes but I am not going to. I'm still learning every day and I'm not gonna hide that or pretend I know everything.

All the fuel mistakes have been fixed with the exception of that really long black push lock line from the rail to the AFPR....but that's an aesthetic issue than a safety issue.

 

[kmetiuk]

I like the exhaust. Great work. Just need to paint it black and your golden. Also that downpipe needs some love. Have u thought about heat wrapping it?

The down pipe was tempprary until I installed the holset. I didn't want to do it twice and planned to swap in the Holset as soon as fuel, exhaust, intake, data, and brakes were done. Looking back now I do cringe at it. It looks like pure dog shiiiit with half a rust pipe and all new stuff after it.

I plan on wrap it and have the wrap material already....I also am gonna get a header blanket and I am gonna get a custom turbo blanket for my holset made. I have waaaay to many radiative heat sources.

I'd like to do is get a down pipe blanket as well but I haven't really found a source to get one yet. I dunno where they get the material from to make them either as I have toyed with making a down pipe blanket myself. Either way it will be insulated heavily.

I never thought about painting it TBH.....but that is a good idea and it would look slick. That aluminized piping is holding up very well but the welds have rust on them now and I hate looking at them. Hahaha.

 

[GST with PSI]

FWIW, I wasn't trying to shit on your parade. Just don't wanna see your hard work go up in flames. There's always a live and learn aspect to building, but that's a damn hard lesson if you're working back from a pile of ashes.

I've seen some pretty bad stuff happen from fuel leaks, so I suppose I'm extra cautious in that department. Like I said, for the cost, it's a no-brainer to use the right stuff and eliminate most of the risk, IMO.

 

[kmetiuk]

FWIW, I wasn't trying to sh** on your parade. Just don't wanna see your hard work go up in flames. There's always a live and learn aspect to building, but that's a damn hard lesson if you're working back from a pile of ashes.

I've seen some pretty bad stuff happen from fuel leaks, so I suppose I'm extra cautious in that department. Like I said, for the cost, it's a no-brainer to use the right stuff and eliminate most of the risk, IMO.

No worries man. I didn't take it as you shiiting on my parade. I expect to be challenged on a things I have done.

I hear you on the fuel leaks....had a major issue in the past.

Before I had started my build I had a tenant living with me that had a MK3 supra that he was swapping a 1JZ into. I helped him out one week after classes had ended and we had installed that motor in 5 days. For the fuel we ran some braided lines and we were not paying enough attention to where we ran them. They were to close to the engine fuse box which was missing the plastic cover on the bottom. On the very first start (which it did actually start on the first try) the braided lines contacted the wires in the fuse box and arc'd. The braided lines melted and burned a hole in the rubber underneath and pressurized fuel shot out....but b/c the braids were still arcing it instantly lit and shot a stream of flaming fuel all over the engine bay and the garage floor. Luckily we were in my garage and I had washed the floor 5 days earlier before we pulled his car in to do the swap so my garden hose with the spray gun was right there. I yelled at him to kill the motor, which killed the fuel and the flaming gas stream, I grabbed the hose and doused all the flames out. Srsly about 15 seconds flat from start up to flaming fuel spraying everywhere to a water soaked engine bay and no fire. We were so so close to losing that car and my garage so I mos def hear what your saying and appreciate the criticism.

That's why I cringe looking back b/c I can see the danger now, but at the time I was so sleep deprived and frustrated from the issues I was having I was getting rammy and making poor choices.

 

[kmetiuk]

Did the common clutch upgrade a ACT 2600 w/street disc. Also threw in a braided clutch line and removed that weird little inline dampening canister. I skipped resurfacing (or even measuring) the flywheel surface. Coulda woulda shoulda. Burn through this street disc in less than 20,000 km's which seemed to short to me and also when pulling the disc left weird wear patterns. Started a separate thread on the wear patterns and the consensus seemed to be I should have resurfaced the flywheel.

 

[kmetiuk]

Out with the AC and in with a Saturn alternator and a Jay's relocate kit. This is a purpose built car and no need for heavy AC in Canada hahaha. Truthfully its been 30*C here for a few days and I wish I had AC now hahahah.

The relocate kit was like a "90% there" kit for me. The bracket for the PS pump was misaligned and I needed to fill the holes in the bracket and re-drill and modify a bit. In the end I was/am suuuuuuper happy with this swap. I have a large stereo that used to dim the head lights when turnt up and after the swap all my lights are solid and actually seem even brigher. I have yet to do the F wire to the headlight terminal....but I've read the voltage even more solid.

I get a rock solid 14,2-14.4 at idle as measure from the capacitor for the stereo system and the hole/space where the alternator left in the front is HUGE....lottsa space for the Holset and 3" DP.

 

[kmetiuk]

Here is the bracket that needed the mod. I didn't have a cleaned up pic soooo here is a few mid ones hahaha.

I have since re-loomed all the loose wires as well and attached them all very firmly. I had a belt blow off the PS Pump while racing and it shreded a bunch of shiiit so I made all the wiring as tough as could.

 

[kmetiuk]

Phase...Super Cool!


TOO MUCH HEAT....with the holset/MK4 VW rad combo. The old setup kept the temps at around 95-100 (*C) at startup/warmup, but crusing around I was about 108 almost immediately, and any rootin' on it would skyrocket temps to 112-115. At that point it would struggle to get the temps back down below 106. Just way to fcukin hot man. So I parked it and did a toooooon of research and came up with the following:

NEW Parts: New heat blankets for the mani and HE351VE. Sent in some pics and measurements too https://turbo-performance-products.myshopify.com/ and Levi sent a PERFECT sized blanket. Fits soooo good and the temps are obvs way down. Yes, you can put your hand on the blanket for a few seconds but its gets a little warm.....but way cooler than the exposed turbine housing clearly.

Double wrapped the DSM to Holset adapter flange and wastegate pipe.

Also double wrapped the downpipe and wastegate pipe.

 

[kmetiuk]

To fit the Holset HE351VE's huge actuator I had to move the rad forward and into the frame a bit. To do that I decided to try the MK4 VW rad that several peeps on here use. For me it did not work even with the heat blankets in there.


The results were the same: "temps at around 95-100 (*C) at startup/warmup, but crusing around I was about 108 almost immediately, and any rootin' on it would skyrocket temps to 112-115. At that point it would struggle to get the temps back down below 106. Just way to fcukin hot man.”


The fans are 10" Maradynes and put out ~800 cfm each....so 1600 total. I believe the stock system is ~1300 cfm so I figured the fans are more than enough and it was the rad size that was the issue.

B/c the system was able to keep temps at a "reasonable" level but got overheated with any driving and especially when baggin it I decided I had 2 problems; Not enough heat capacity in the small rad ( more volume gives more heat "battery") and not enough area/airflow for heat transfer (since the fans had lots of CFM).

Solution was bigger rad (decided to use the stocker so I could go with an aftermarket rad later with little to no mods) and some creative ducting. Since I was in there and doing heavy mods I figured I would upgrade to a Eclipse front bumper since the main opening is a lot larger and sized better for ducting/cooling. I also decided the new setup needed to be a puller fan system instead of a pusher. With the pushers it didn't matter how well I sealed the fans they always blew out kind of sideways. "Hand" testing the airflow through the front of the old bumper and you could just feel it moving the air. Too me a puller fan is just a better style.

 

[kmetiuk]

To fit the stock rad back in with puller fans I had to move it significantly forward. I didn't want to hack out the whole rail b/c I woulda had to move the cross member and all the wire bracket hole thingies...so I just kinda "coped" out where the rad inlet/outlet (still not sure/can't remember which way it flows hahaha) and the drain is. Reinforced it with some heavy plate so its most def not going anywhere.

BIG difference in size. The stocker is several inches bigger in both directions. This gives me back the heat transfer area I need as well as more volume for a higher heat capcity.

Old system was sooo small.

 

[kmetiuk]

To fit the fan back under the hood I had to angle it back several degrees. To do that I had to cut out the old rad bracket which wasn't doing much now since I went to the hood pin setup....so out it came.

Welded a small piece back in the headlight area to reinforce it back up. Very very stiff in the end.

Built a little bracket out of 5/16" rod to hold the top of the rad in place and also to mount the top bumper bracket as well.

 

[kmetiuk]

Had to resecure the bottom of the top bumper bracket with some more rod and a spare frame mount hole. Again very very stiff/strong.

With the intercooler mounted as well there is a huge space now for air to flow up and over the intercooler and into the rad. Such wow.

Both the rad and intercooler are angled quite far back. The rad is angled to fit in front of the frame rail and under the hood (which I had to mod a bit witha grinder and a hammer anyways) and the intercooler is angled back to allow air flow up and over it. From what I have read the opening that is in front of the top of the intercooler flows a fair bit of air into the rad. I figured with that as big as I could get and ducting would net some good flow.

Baaaaah fitment issues. I started another thread on this. This is a close as I could get this bumper without stressing it and causing weird warping. Oh well...not that bad.

 

[kmetiuk]

Cutting out the bumper to fit perfectly around the intercooler.

Lots and lots of room now!

Soooooooooo with the new bumper my old piping was interfering...I wanted to keep cutting the bumper to a min and needed to cut and reroute all the piping but wanted to drop all the couplers I could....so i bought a TIG.

My welds are BRUTAL! These are literally my first aluminum welds and the metal was super contaminated from engine oil, coolant, brake cleaner, acetone, varsol, and other solvents and shiit that have been on these pipes over the years. I did my best to clean it up but there were these pockets of super contaminated areas and it would just fcuk my shiiit right up. Did what I could for a noob TIG welder and TBH I am happy enough with how they cleaned up in the end.

 

[kmetiuk]

Waaaaaaaaaaay less couplers now...and welds cleaned up not too too bad. I polished each coupler end to ensure quick and perfect sealing.