The Grey Ghost

[GHSTII]

Swapped the fuel pump only to realize that it wasn’t actually what failed. It was really its output at the PMU16 (the PDM I use). It was the first device I wired in, so it could have been bad wiring, but it is also possible that I over-amped it with the hellcat pump. Probably couldn’t hurt to add a standalone fuse like one would do for your typical fuel pump rewire, so I intend to do that soon. On the bright side, I feel like I did a better job installing the new fuel pump. At least I got a video out of it, and it’ll be easier to service in the future.

 

[GHSTII]

The focus of my build is the road course, but I was really bummed to not have been able to do a clean pass at the drag strip earlier this year. Not to mention, since the car wasn’t set up right when I went to the dyno, I never got an actual power number. Sure, it’s just a number, but it’s still fun.

That said, the dyno is expensive, and a Test & Tune is not. I thought if I could just do a solid trap speed, that could be another fun way to measure power. However, as anyone who does it knows, running a perfect quarter mile isn’t exactly that simple.

I didn’t intend to go back to the strip because of how hard it can be on the driveline and I haven’t come up with a permanent solution to reinforce mine yet, but when I got wind that this would be the last chance to get on track at all for the year, I decided to roll the dice this one last time.

The car ran great all the way to Beech Bend Raceway, then refused to start again after I bought my entry ticket. I literally pushed it a few feet so it would roll down the hill and prayed it would start again so I could drive it to tech, which actually worked

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the drama. While waiting in line to make my first pass, the readings started randomly looking goofy. I tried to power cycle it, but it didn’t want to turn back on, so I switched to my backup map that doesn’t look for a cam signal. It kept struggling to start, and I started to panic, but I got lucky.

Not lucky enough though. I didn’t exactly have a clean launch, but I was going to catch the guy. Unfortunately, I popped a coupler halfway down the track, and it ruined what may have been a salvageable pass.

I quickly fixed it, made some adjustments, and got back out there only for my car to randomly die and refuse to start at all. I would’ve been chasing my tail much longer, but I remembered @jdxnc giving me the heads up a few months back that sometimes the 12-1 trigger setup with the 2G cam sensor may suffer from voltage issues if the battery was too low. I had charged my battery to max at home in the garage right beforehand, but I do run a lot from it, and I’ve been having issues lately. It is something I intend to upgrade.

Anyway, as you can guess, it’s not fun to have your car completely die while waiting in line around a bunch of strangers and having to ask for help, but I found a few who were nice enough to help push the car out of the way. Then someone gave me a jump, and the car fired right back up. I didn’t expect to run it after that, but I was guided onto the track, so I decided to just absolutely send it.

I hit the 2 step and did my first real launch, which actually worked. I forgot I could use NLTS, so I didn’t carry as much boost as I could have through the run. Nonetheless, I was just happy to have made my first real pass.

13.087 at 113mph.

Not the fastest time ever, but a solid basis to improve upon. About to make some major changes to the setup. I’m just grateful I got to race as much as I did this year, and I intend to go even harder next year.

@biglady112 and I are cooking up
something spicy. The highs of this year wouldn’t have been possible without his help with tuning and fabrication despite the distance, so massive shoutout to him.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Not bad. How many lbs of boost was that pass at?

 

[GHSTII]

Not bad. How many lbs of boost was that pass at?

31psi

 

[We're on Boost]

Probably couldn’t hurt to add a standalone fuse like one would do for your typical fuel pump rewire, so I intend to do that soon.

Yes if you have a standalone relay, fuse, and large gauge wire to take the ~22 amps to the pump, that yellow connector should be a lot happier!
I've been enjoying watching your videos lately so hope to see you keep 'er going.

 

[GHSTII]

So we’re going compound turbo.

I wasn’t sure I could actually do this even after I committed to it, so I’ve been reluctant to broadcast that it’s what I’m working on, but now I’m in deep enough that I’m pretty sure I’m going to see it through

@biglady112 proposed the idea, and I decided I was down to give it a real shot. At first I was going to trade the FP Red UHF for a different combination of turbos, but @biglady112 actually proposed I keep the Red as the low pressure turbo, and he found a Volvo 13g in a Colorado junkyard for me to use as the high pressure turbo. I’m not actually seeking more horsepower, I just want it to hit sooner. I’m also aware that there are some more impressive turbos that would perform great, but frankly I just found this idea more entertaining

Anyway, he welded off the internal gate, and had me switch to a T3 manifold, which he welded a vband flange to for an external wastegate. He also welded vband flanges to the Red’s exhaust inlets and outlets to simplify things and give me a big head start.

To make room for all this stuff, the radiator had to move. We discussed rear mounting it, but since I’m not running an Intercooler, I thought it would be cool if the radiator could fit further forward instead. He’s modified an Intercooler to perform as a radiator before, which he was graciously willing to do for me. I just had to figure out how to mount it, so that’s what we did.

He sent all the stuff back, and I purchased a simple MIG welder. I had to learn to weld so I could build the piping, which felt super daunting at first, but it’s been a gamechanger for my mindset. I also had to weld a bracket for the FP Red to mount to, which I accomplished using a Maven mount. I think the spot I chose to mount it will make it easy to remove and service, easy for the 13g outlet to feed the Red inlet, and easy to build exhaust piping that utilizes the side exit cutout in my bumper.

I’ve still got a few more steps before it’s ready to fire up and test, but we’re getting close. I know I’m far from the first to do this, and chances are it’s going to have problems in its first iteration, but we’ll try and fix the weak points and get it dialed. Massive thanks to @biglady112 per usual for all his help. I wouldn’t be even attempting this without him.

Will hopefully have an update soon.

 

[1cleangsx]

Hot Dang! That’s awesome! Can’t wait to see her rip

 

[Pjj]

Alright… been nervous to share this one, as it may be a controversial modification, but it was a fun one.

I deleted the intercooler, and I had a couple injector holders welded to the intake pipe. The FuelTech Universal B harness comes with extra outputs for secondary injectors, allowing a sort of plug and play deal, in my case for ethanol injection.

I hadn’t heard of this before, and was very skeptical about it at first, but I honestly love experimenting, so I was down. Water/methanol injection would probably be a viable alternative, but I already had a couple spare injectors from having to replace them in the past, and water/meth would involve adding another separate system to the setup. Unfortunately I can’t weld (yet), and the welding job I paid for wasn’t that great. Luckily, a friend of mine had me ship the piece to him. He got it cleaned up, then shipped it back to me. I expanded the fuel system with a T-fitting going off the FPR and splitting off into a couple extra AN lines.

I got everything put together, and I rigged the secondary injectors to start spraying when the car hits boost. It was a little weird tweaking two fuel maps to complement one another, but pretty cool. Still experimenting a bit with it, but so far so good. Still much more to update on.



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VW fuel injector pig tails work on the DSM ?

 

[GHSTII]

VW fuel injector pig tails work on the DSM ?

Not sure! For that I just used FIC injectors I had that were meant for the DSM.

 

[GHSTII]

I've gotten pretty accommodated with my new MIG welder lately. Already wishing I just went for a TIG welder, but c’est la vie

I’ve had to go back over most of my welds, but I think I’m getting the hang of it all. I was able to weld my new exhaust utilizing the side exit hole in the bumper that I already cut last year. Also handling all the little details that need to come together for the car to run again.

This thing is going to be far from perfect, but I’m getting pretty stoked about the first running iteration of this project.

 

[GHSTII]

It's finally running! I seriously wasn't sure if I could actually get it to this point, so I'm stoked that we're here.

Plumbed the oil feed and return lines. Switched the oil feed from the head to the oil filter housing, where it should have been feeding from before anyway given that I was already running a journal bearing turbo, and now I’ll be running two.

I welded a dump tube for the second wastegate and a bung for the wideband’s O2 sensor.

It’s not ready to drive yet. Need to address a few leaks, rig up the boost controller, and make sure all the little things are in their rightful place before taking it to the streets. @biglady112 has been super responsive to all my questions about the quirky nuances of this setup. We’re very close to the really fun stuff, which seems to be right around the corner.

 

[GHSTII]

Finally got around to that fuel pump rewire. I also got the controller for the Volvo EPS working. It was just grounded improperly -_- Basically not grounded at all.

Anyway, @biglady112 found me a pretty neat coolant overflow reservoir that he sent back with the other stuff for me to figure out how to mount to the car, and I finally got that taken care of as well.

I also touched up the exhaust pipes, and modified the wastegate dump tube so it’s pointing straight down. I had to pull the wastegate housings to install the fire rings since I’d missed that step. I wrapped the exhaust pipes with titanium heat wrap. When doing a boost leak test, I sprayed what I was pretty sure at the time was soapy water on the turbo manifold to check for leaks, but now it's rusting a bit, so I'm afraid it was something else -_- Got to figure out how to clean that, 'cause it's kind of an eye-sore now.

Did a ton of assembling, disassembling, and reassembling to address leaks and to troubleshoot other fickle little issues. Extremely tiring work. But then finally, I was able to take it for a spin, and WOW, was it all worth it.

The sound of the turbos alone is incredible. They’re whistling before it even gets into boost. When it hits positive manifold pressure, it sounds like a jet. The responsiveness of the throttle input is pretty much instantaneous. On just the 15psi of wastegate pressure, I’m beyond satisfied. We are going to push it a bit, but I’m genuinely considering leaving the boost pretty low because it’s already just so sufficient in its performance.

The boost creep from last year is gone. The car now reaches full boost by 4500 RPM’s, and starts building it by 3k RPM’s.

The heat wrap on the exhaust pipes is smoking a bit, presumably because it’s new, and probably also because of some residual grime on the pipes and my gloves. Hopefully it will stop after a little while. I really want a vented hood, but I don’t see that happening soon, so I’m actually considering cutting up my stock hood a bit.

Nonetheless, the water temp is very controlled by that intercooler repurposed as the radiator. The setup is extremely efficient. I think with a bit more testing and experimentation, we can minimize the risks and optimize the benefits. It’s truly incredible.

Unfortunately though, my alternator gave out on my last test drive. I really liked that unit, so I may see about having it rebuilt. However, having gotten to actually test everything and documenting all this so I can watch it back and see how it all culminated into what it’s become has revitalized my excitement to get it back up and running. I want to test it on the drag strip, but we’re not done with the big upgrades. Gonna be grinding the next couple weeks to knock out the rest of the big changes. Then, hopefully it’s off to the races.

 

[GHSTII]

Got lucky! Alternator wasn’t actually bad. The main bolt backed out somehow, and I was able to just go back in and properly adjust it, and we were back in business.

I got to installing the Baer BBK that @jdxnc used to run on his car, which was a great addition. Thanks again to him for selling me those.

I took the time to rewire my power windows to be switched from my PDM rather than the factory circuit since I kept having issues with them. It’s nice to be able to control those again.

I also put together a little turbo filter setup, with a pipe tapped to provide suction for my sealed catch-can setup. Needs to be refined a bit, but the pics capture the idea.

 

[GHSTII]

Installed a harness bar. Plugged the spoiler holes. Sorted out everything I could to get back to actually driving. Car feels incredible.

I initially had a lot of paranoia about driving it, and especially pushing it, but I think I’m getting over it. I love how responsive it is overall now, and I am excited to find out what it’s like when it’s dialed in and we’re able to make max power. Every test drive in which it holds together makes it more rewarding that I didn’t give up on the compound turbo project.

Big thanks again to @biglady112 for not just his help with tuning and the initial welding, but also his encouragement. There’s no way in hell this thing would be running if he didn't convince me to develop new skills and to not give up. It’s been a blast trying things I just never would have before, and learning so much along the way.

Soon, we’ll turn it all the way up and see what happens. Yeah, I’ll probably break some stuff, or find out things that don’t work very well, but it’s all just part of it now.

 

[colbyc]

Been following your journey on YouTube. Nice job for thinking out of the box, willingness to try new things, and not giving up. Cool to see it all coming together for you.

 

[GHSTII]

I was a little back and forth about whether or not to go, but ultimately decided to take the car out for its first Test & Tune event.

My plan for towing it there fell through, but I still went anyway. Drove the car up to the drag strip, paranoid that it would just overheat, but it actually did extremely well. That is, despite popping an intake coupler… Then leaking oil onto said coupler, making it impossible to work on, much less seal properly. All my fault and 100% preventable, but a ton of changes have been made to the car since the last time I took it out to an event, so all things considered it could have been much worse.

Prior to this event I was very reluctant to drive the car much at all, so this was more about actually getting out there and getting an idea of what to prioritize. I didn’t get any good runs in since I kept blowing intake piping, and we only got up to 20 lbs of boost, but it’s still a great feeling being in that environment with a bunch of other people out testing their own projects.

Now that I can generate power much more quickly, I do find it more difficult than before to hold down the pedal all the way. I’m not crazy about the idea of breaking something big like the trans, or even something like the driveshaft before really getting to enjoy the fact that it actually runs even just for a little while. I do keep forgetting that my 2 step doesn’t start pulling timing until upwards of 75% throttle, so I’ve gotta just get everything dialed better and go for it.

Anyway, all that being said, I’ve already been addressing the primary hurdles we faced at this event. One of my fans wasn’t kicking on, the other is no longer operable. Silicone bends aren’t ideal for intake piping, so I’m changing that. I should’ve aired down the tires like last time—that second run I did could have done some damage with how rough the launch was.

I’ve got the tune’s fueling pretty spot on already, and I’m utilizing Boost by Gear. I’m not flat-shifting, since I haven’t had a run yet in which it would be worth the risk. Once everything’s a little more buttoned up, we’ll put more duty cycle in the higher gears and see what it can do. I’m thinking of running a really thick oil in the trans since that’s probably about all I can do for it at the moment.

I’m hopeful that we’ll go back sooner than later and set a new PB.

 

[GHSTII]

Been following your journey on YouTube. Nice job for thinking out of the box, willingness to try new things, and not giving up. Cool to see it all coming together for you.

Thank you!

 

[jdxnc]

You've made some drastic mods and to expect it to be perfect out of the gate is not realistic. You'll push through the bugs and get it for sure.

Glad the brakes are doing well for you!

 

[Boost Era]

Been enjoying your videos and following your content for a little while. I too am wanting to put in Braum seats and harnesses. I have a quick question which could save me sending a part back, what kind of harness bar did you go with, I've seen 49" universal harness bars on amazon for $71 verses ones from Braum for $230

 

[GHSTII]

Been enjoying your videos and following your content for a little while. I too am wanting to put in Braum seats and harnesses. I have a quick question which could save me sending a part back, what kind of harness bar did you go with, I've seen 49" universal harness bars on amazon for $71 verses ones from Braum for $230

Thank you!
This is a link to the exact one I got. I chose red, but you can get it in other colors as well.

BRAUM Harness Bar Mitsubishi Eclipse / Eagle Talon 2G (95-99) Black / Red / White / Space Gray / Bronze

Fitment Information Universal Bar Has been tested on this application to fit Requires reversing both ends on the harness bar to sit properly/flush Requires cutting into the pillar covers Adjustable width from 48" to 51" Specs & Features Includes hardware Can be used to mount a GoPro or other...

shop.redline360.com

 

[Boost Era]

Thank you!
This is a link to the exact one I got. I chose red, but you can get it in other colors as well.

BRAUM Harness Bar Mitsubishi Eclipse / Eagle Talon 2G (95-99) Black / Red / White / Space Gray / Bronze

Fitment Information Universal Bar Has been tested on this application to fit Requires reversing both ends on the harness bar to sit properly/flush Requires cutting into the pillar covers Adjustable width from 48" to 51" Specs & Features Includes hardware Can be used to mount a GoPro or other...

shop.redline360.com

Perfect, thanks for the information!