Rogan's Alto Works Project
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Rogue_Works
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:16 pm
- Location: Kempsey, NSW
@ holk
The bodykit still hasn't gotten past the "moulds" stage to be honest
. The foam blocks are all on a shelf waiting to be made up, but since getting my P's and this being my only car...
hopefully i can get stuck back into the fun stuff in a few months when exams have finished.
The bodykit still hasn't gotten past the "moulds" stage to be honest
. The foam blocks are all on a shelf waiting to be made up, but since getting my P's and this being my only car...hopefully i can get stuck back into the fun stuff in a few months when exams have finished.
"c'mon guys, it's not that small"
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Rogue_Works
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:16 pm
- Location: Kempsey, NSW
again... months between updates, well, here goes.
HSC exams are almost over which, obviously, leaves a little more time for some bonding over the spanner with the little green wheeled turd
. The clutch had been gone in it since I re-did the head gasket and ran it up on the dyno (the motor loved the 20psi run, the clutch not so.), so I've spent months and months pussy footing about and backing off between flares etc. It was liveable, only slipping when you needed it most, but hopefully that problem has come to an end.
Rebuilt the standard clutch using parts from another clutch I had laying around for it and with a little tomfoolery the release pressure is now roughly double that of the original. only problem is it bends the cable bracket instead of releasing the clutch
(and yes, it is correctly adjusted etc.). I'll just have to fabricate a brace for the cable bracket.. minor details.
MAJOR details, however, are; the turbo swap I've been putting off for ages as well as an ECU upgrade (Because F*CK Microsquirt!! see at the end of this post for that little story...). Essentially either a Link G4 atom or storm (not entirely decided yet but leaning towards the storm), RB25DET cas with LS1 coilpacks, IHI VH4 turbo off a subaru liberty(?), water cooled external wastegate, R32 GTST oil cooler kit, HKS BOV (purely for performance! I personally love the sound of compressor surge but it does cause lag between gears.) as well as the usual replacement of old hoses, tidying wiring, etc.
photographs?
photographs.
The engine has already been in and out for the clutch swap. More pics as parts arrive and are bolted on.
*** Microsquirt: Alright. they're actually an ok ECU, pretty basic, but they do a job and cheaply. but leaving me stranded because the day was too hot... wow. Driving home from town, cruising happily, car had been running for all of 2 minutes when suddenly - no power. clutch in, revs drop, no engine noise, dead as a door nail. so I pulled over, what could be wrong? check all the gremlins I know exist in the wiring... no, they're still behaving, pop bonnet, no. everything is in order. ignition back on, can hear a fuel pump, plenty of fuel.. ok. ignition lead off, screwdriver up the end, yep, got spark.
Tried cranking it again after a few minutes of sitting there, bam, second piston up and away it went. this time we made it 600m down the road and again.. dead. Swearing casually I grabbed ahold of the ECU, bloody thing was red hot! so I disconnected it, walked across the road into the servo and popped it in a freezer for a couple of minutes while I bought a bag of bait and some tape. left the store, taped the bait (frozen) to the ECU and drove the rest of the way home without a drama and on to the workshop.
Moral to the story? Don't drive a Microsquirt powered vehicle you just painted flat black around in late spring without addressing an ECU cooling system!
HSC exams are almost over which, obviously, leaves a little more time for some bonding over the spanner with the little green wheeled turd
. The clutch had been gone in it since I re-did the head gasket and ran it up on the dyno (the motor loved the 20psi run, the clutch not so.), so I've spent months and months pussy footing about and backing off between flares etc. It was liveable, only slipping when you needed it most, but hopefully that problem has come to an end.Rebuilt the standard clutch using parts from another clutch I had laying around for it and with a little tomfoolery the release pressure is now roughly double that of the original. only problem is it bends the cable bracket instead of releasing the clutch
(and yes, it is correctly adjusted etc.). I'll just have to fabricate a brace for the cable bracket.. minor details.MAJOR details, however, are; the turbo swap I've been putting off for ages as well as an ECU upgrade (Because F*CK Microsquirt!! see at the end of this post for that little story...). Essentially either a Link G4 atom or storm (not entirely decided yet but leaning towards the storm), RB25DET cas with LS1 coilpacks, IHI VH4 turbo off a subaru liberty(?), water cooled external wastegate, R32 GTST oil cooler kit, HKS BOV (purely for performance! I personally love the sound of compressor surge but it does cause lag between gears.) as well as the usual replacement of old hoses, tidying wiring, etc.
photographs?
photographs.
- turbo manifold progress as of this afternoon (actually pretty well finished the collector this evening)
- manifold i built months ago but was advised against using, likewise with the turbo.
*** Microsquirt: Alright. they're actually an ok ECU, pretty basic, but they do a job and cheaply. but leaving me stranded because the day was too hot... wow. Driving home from town, cruising happily, car had been running for all of 2 minutes when suddenly - no power. clutch in, revs drop, no engine noise, dead as a door nail. so I pulled over, what could be wrong? check all the gremlins I know exist in the wiring... no, they're still behaving, pop bonnet, no. everything is in order. ignition back on, can hear a fuel pump, plenty of fuel.. ok. ignition lead off, screwdriver up the end, yep, got spark.
Tried cranking it again after a few minutes of sitting there, bam, second piston up and away it went. this time we made it 600m down the road and again.. dead. Swearing casually I grabbed ahold of the ECU, bloody thing was red hot! so I disconnected it, walked across the road into the servo and popped it in a freezer for a couple of minutes while I bought a bag of bait and some tape. left the store, taped the bait (frozen) to the ECU and drove the rest of the way home without a drama and on to the workshop.
Moral to the story? Don't drive a Microsquirt powered vehicle you just painted flat black around in late spring without addressing an ECU cooling system!
"c'mon guys, it's not that small"
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courierguy
- Posts: 132
- Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:13 am
- Location: melbourne vic
So you drove home with frozen bait taped to the ecu.so that makes it microsquid.-
Rogue_Works
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:16 pm
- Location: Kempsey, NSW
Haha i like it! Could probably use the microsquid as a sinker too!courierguy wrote:
Pretty pleased with the last couple of days progress, tacked together the new turbo manifold, made a flange and worked out how to set up the cas. Not a great deal to say but a photo can speak a thousand words (or in this case two photos).
- The standard turbo and manifold, for comparison purposes.
- New turbo and manifold... Slight difference in size (note: had to cut a section off the water pump housing to allow fitment).
"c'mon guys, it's not that small"
Will the bumper still fit with that turbo? I've wanted to upgrade the RHB31 on my F8B for a while, but there is simply no space!
F8B EFI turbo - Three pots and a snail.
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Rogue_Works
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:16 pm
- Location: Kempsey, NSW
Brayden:
the bumper will fit, but there is about -5mm clearance to the lower front rio that supports the bonnet catch etc., so i'll have to oxy and bend that around the wastegate pin casting on the exhaust housing or cut the rio with an air hacksaw / grind some of the rear housing away. similarly with the front there is about 2 mm clearance between the front housing and part of the water pump housing the bolts to the side of the block, may have to linish a bit off there too. yes there is absolutely no space, but determination can be one hell of a driving force. it was either this or the turbo mounted above the gearbag... either way this turbo was being used!
also, you can see where i cut away part of the water pump housing that appeared to be a bracket for nothing and stuck out where the new turbo inlet is, in the comparison photos above. i think this was just a bracket for an air con pump or something on a different model so it's no great loss
benny:
the CAS setup is still in the works but essentially, take the dizzycap off, rotor button off, machine the shaft that everything mounts to down so that it fits in / drives the rb CAS , making an alloy or steel ring that will bolt in place of the dizzy cap but open in the top, so that the rb CAS will then bolt to that ring (all the "guts" of the sensor are in the top of the rb25 CAS, very handy)
if that didnt make sense ill take some photos of all the bits on the bench as they are sitting. and do some clever whiz bang drawings
As for updates on the build; who would've thought it would be so f**king hard to get 3 banjo fittings! Tried one engineering shop in town, no help. They suggested the hydraulic shop in the industrial estate so I head over there... I "might" have some in on the 16th of this month... M12x1.25 banjo fittings.. not an incredibly difficult side really.. but that's alright because it just so happens that an old 1uz-fe fuel rail has the same sized fittings
. still need to find fittings for the oil and make a drain for the turbo.
another issue thats arisen with the turbo is the inability to clock the front housing. the core and front have to be clocked together because the bolts holding the front housing in place are too seized to undo (broke 2 torx bits already on them), this means the to have everything fitting properly the oil inlet and drain are not entirely vertical, closer to the angle of a forward slash / with the oil inlet at the top and furthur "forward" of the car than the drain. probably wont matter too much but i've always been finicky about turbo oiling
Hopefully i'll have the exhaust manifold welded up tomorrow (still only tacked) and within 5-10 days my waste gate should have arrived, then i'll be able to finish the turbo manifold completely! still need to fabricate a dump pipe and flanges, shouldn't be too hard. already have a flex joint under the engine so that's one less thing to worry about.
coil packs are on their way and found a standard r32 intercooler to use as an upgrade if I can stand having the car off the road that long.
EDIT: i decided to throw in a drawing of the CAS setup:
mainly because i dont like making a big post without a picture
also, it was pure luck that an RB CAS is almost identical in diameter to the standard dizzy cap. onother way i could do this is to have the end of an RB exhaust cam grafted into the dizzy base on the cam driven shaft, so then the CAS is driven by the same assembly as it used to be, eliminating some fiddly machining of the K6A dizzy shaft
the bumper will fit, but there is about -5mm clearance to the lower front rio that supports the bonnet catch etc., so i'll have to oxy and bend that around the wastegate pin casting on the exhaust housing or cut the rio with an air hacksaw / grind some of the rear housing away. similarly with the front there is about 2 mm clearance between the front housing and part of the water pump housing the bolts to the side of the block, may have to linish a bit off there too. yes there is absolutely no space, but determination can be one hell of a driving force. it was either this or the turbo mounted above the gearbag... either way this turbo was being used!
also, you can see where i cut away part of the water pump housing that appeared to be a bracket for nothing and stuck out where the new turbo inlet is, in the comparison photos above. i think this was just a bracket for an air con pump or something on a different model so it's no great loss
benny:
the CAS setup is still in the works but essentially, take the dizzycap off, rotor button off, machine the shaft that everything mounts to down so that it fits in / drives the rb CAS , making an alloy or steel ring that will bolt in place of the dizzy cap but open in the top, so that the rb CAS will then bolt to that ring (all the "guts" of the sensor are in the top of the rb25 CAS, very handy)
if that didnt make sense ill take some photos of all the bits on the bench as they are sitting. and do some clever whiz bang drawings
As for updates on the build; who would've thought it would be so f**king hard to get 3 banjo fittings! Tried one engineering shop in town, no help. They suggested the hydraulic shop in the industrial estate so I head over there... I "might" have some in on the 16th of this month... M12x1.25 banjo fittings.. not an incredibly difficult side really.. but that's alright because it just so happens that an old 1uz-fe fuel rail has the same sized fittings
. still need to find fittings for the oil and make a drain for the turbo. another issue thats arisen with the turbo is the inability to clock the front housing. the core and front have to be clocked together because the bolts holding the front housing in place are too seized to undo (broke 2 torx bits already on them), this means the to have everything fitting properly the oil inlet and drain are not entirely vertical, closer to the angle of a forward slash / with the oil inlet at the top and furthur "forward" of the car than the drain. probably wont matter too much but i've always been finicky about turbo oiling
Hopefully i'll have the exhaust manifold welded up tomorrow (still only tacked) and within 5-10 days my waste gate should have arrived, then i'll be able to finish the turbo manifold completely! still need to fabricate a dump pipe and flanges, shouldn't be too hard. already have a flex joint under the engine so that's one less thing to worry about.
coil packs are on their way and found a standard r32 intercooler to use as an upgrade if I can stand having the car off the road that long.
EDIT: i decided to throw in a drawing of the CAS setup:
- the red parts are what i have to machine up, or rather get machined up..
mainly because i dont like making a big post without a picture
also, it was pure luck that an RB CAS is almost identical in diameter to the standard dizzy cap. onother way i could do this is to have the end of an RB exhaust cam grafted into the dizzy base on the cam driven shaft, so then the CAS is driven by the same assembly as it used to be, eliminating some fiddly machining of the K6A dizzy shaft
"c'mon guys, it's not that small"
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Rogue_Works
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:16 pm
- Location: Kempsey, NSW
i dont see why it wouldn't work on that engine, but you'll need a reasonably decent ecu (i.e. Link G4 - sorry for being a link fanboy ) the benefits are:
individual coil packs - finer tuning, easier upgrade-ability, better reliability, engine bay presentation
better control - finer tuning, anti lag, other motorsport features
better spark - i'm using ls1 coil packs which can jump almost a foot gap on the right day! (humidity affects arcing through air)
basically the main reason i am going to this setup is because i want anti lag, and want it to work at its best... pretty expensive way to go from some perspectives (coilpacks are $260 for a set of 8, RB CAS anywhere from $170 to $350 depending on condition, machine work could be anywhere, im hoping for it to be about $100 at mates rates to make the ring). the other reason for going with coilpacks is essentially modernisation. theres not a great deal wrong with a dizzy, but "twisting" the dizzy with a laptop just begins opening up to a new level
essentially it all comes down to the ecu you want to use and what your tuner is comfortable setting up. i'm lucky enough to be friends with a performance workshop which, surprisingly, specialises in Link ECU's
NOTE: just putting it out there that i DON'T want this thread to become a battle of the computers thread as i've seen on so many other sites!
) the benefits are:individual coil packs - finer tuning, easier upgrade-ability, better reliability, engine bay presentation
better control - finer tuning, anti lag, other motorsport features
better spark - i'm using ls1 coil packs which can jump almost a foot gap on the right day! (humidity affects arcing through air)
basically the main reason i am going to this setup is because i want anti lag, and want it to work at its best... pretty expensive way to go from some perspectives (coilpacks are $260 for a set of 8, RB CAS anywhere from $170 to $350 depending on condition, machine work could be anywhere, im hoping for it to be about $100 at mates rates to make the ring). the other reason for going with coilpacks is essentially modernisation. theres not a great deal wrong with a dizzy, but "twisting" the dizzy with a laptop just begins opening up to a new level
essentially it all comes down to the ecu you want to use and what your tuner is comfortable setting up. i'm lucky enough to be friends with a performance workshop which, surprisingly, specialises in Link ECU's
NOTE: just putting it out there that i DON'T want this thread to become a battle of the computers thread as i've seen on so many other sites!
"c'mon guys, it's not that small"
Thanks for the info, I'm open to all suggestions/opinions when it comes to ecu choice and tuning, that's the only thing I haven't decided yet, got pretty much everything else sorted, still got to find the right tuner when the time comes as well
Any ECU is only as good as the bloke who tunes it, so find out what your local tuner specialises in and go for that.
F8B EFI turbo - Three pots and a snail.
Newcastle, the home of Adaptronic. 
F8B EFI turbo - Three pots and a snail.