Many things have happened in the past few months.
More tuning and some lovely time plots revealed that I have a pretty serious fuel pressure drop under boost. System is a 255lph, stock lines stock rail (now with 870cc injectors) Green giants have been replaced as they are too small for my goals. I later installed a 340lph and still the same results
With a 10-15psi drop in fuel pressure it was clear the stock wiring was overheating. I made my own bulk head and upgraded the wiring. While I was in there I installed a 400lph pump and converted the fuel lines to -6AN. Stock fuel filter went in the trash. Modified the factory hanger to mount a Porsche threaded filter with fittings. I hard wired in a relay to control the pump and pulled power directly from the battery.
Here are a few pictures. A simple OEM relay does the job perfectly.
With the pump and lines sorted I could now move on to other problems I ran into. Including dyno rolling we have about 1500 miles or so driven.
Exhaust leak the header developed on cylinder 1 and the engine sounded like a tractor.
To get to it is a major ordeal so yet again the car is back in the air with the exhaust and turbo completely torn down.
Here you can see where the gasket has failed.
So, While we are in there its time to do something Ive always wanted to do but had no idea how to do it other than what Id seen online. Bought a cheap spot welder off amazon and let it rip.
All previous attempts at wrapping exhaust with fiberglass based material has failed. Turbo blanket fell apart in my hands during removal and all the exhaust wrap is shot.
Here is the blanket completely destroyed from heat cycling.
Using 1/2 inch cilica based insulation and stainless embossed steel sheet to build a better quality heat barrier should hopefully last longer and work better.
Note: I still have heat problems in the engine bay. Dyno session 3 with new injectors melted more of my firewall insulation. Yay. Smells like burning crayons.
The new insulation on all exhaust system parts will handle a 2200 degree constant heat exposure. The manifold and main section of the exhaust still needs to be done. The process is very time consuming. I have probably done over 50,000 individual spot welds so far.
Here is the result. There are a few areas I am not happy with. This is my first time doing this.
Replacement manifold gaskets and T3 gasket will now be solid copper. My previous heat shielding made from embossed sheet will no longer cover the exhaust manifold. The block shielding will stay in place as extra insurance.
A while back I ordered a Radium fuel rail with plans to install it with new injectors. Removing the stock rails meant changing all fuel lines to AN 6. The stock radium rail designed for m50 does not fit. The mounting was incorrect and I could not get the rail to sit correctly without being cockeyed. I didnt want a fuel leak to burn my car to the ground so I returned it and found this no name ebay setup that worked exceptionally well. It was less expensive too.
Shots of Raduim rail fitment (overpriced junk)
Heres a couple of the new injectors in the new rail. The only downside with the new rail is the fitment of the fuel rail beauty cover. I will have to fabricate some custom brackets to mount it as I want to keep the stock fuel rail cover.
Ignore the copper DET can custom knock sensing hardware. (This works great BTW) Stick a tube on the end of it and pipe it into the cab with some cheap stethoscope ears. Best way to hear the ringy ding dinggiess of death.
Turbo Manifold and exhaust center section should be done soon. From there I will put the car back together and continue my journey toward a properly working high HP E34.
Some positives to note:
The engine is staying cool. (at least I think it is) I do want to add a rear coolant take off to the back of the cylinder head. Jury is still out on a final decision. I started a general discussion thread on the idea.
The engine runs well on the 800cc injectors, and it was fairly easy to remap the car as I have most of the important settings already correct in the LINK ECU. Current boost @ .8 bar shows about 56% duty on the new injectors. Sweet.
I found the source of my wideband issue dropping full rich. Turns out it was not the wideband unit or the gauge controller. I had a sliced vacuum signal line going to the ECUs map sensor. The leak was causing my injector PW to go nuts.
The CCV system with 3 AN 10 vents is working very well. The rear main seal is not leaking anymore (for now), and the oil scavenge system is working. There are no more small puffs of blue smoke out the exhaust under load. Adding additional venting to the crank case solved the problem.
Although I still have no updated HP numbers, I feel the next (and hopefully final round) of tuning will give good results. Due to the fuel pressure drop issue I couldn't safely run more than .8 bar of boost. Assuming the boost levels are the same as before the HP is still in the 330-wheel range. We made this during dyno session 2. I had a slew of problems including a big boost leak during that session. I feel with those issues sorted the engine would have made closer to 400 hp.
The hot summer months are here in southern Utah. With temps well over 110 into August and September It is likely I will not mess with boost levels until it starts to cool down. By October things are cooling off so for now I will enjoy low boost with proper fuel pressure until then.
More tuning and some lovely time plots revealed that I have a pretty serious fuel pressure drop under boost. System is a 255lph, stock lines stock rail (now with 870cc injectors) Green giants have been replaced as they are too small for my goals. I later installed a 340lph and still the same results
With a 10-15psi drop in fuel pressure it was clear the stock wiring was overheating. I made my own bulk head and upgraded the wiring. While I was in there I installed a 400lph pump and converted the fuel lines to -6AN. Stock fuel filter went in the trash. Modified the factory hanger to mount a Porsche threaded filter with fittings. I hard wired in a relay to control the pump and pulled power directly from the battery.
Here are a few pictures. A simple OEM relay does the job perfectly.
With the pump and lines sorted I could now move on to other problems I ran into. Including dyno rolling we have about 1500 miles or so driven.
Exhaust leak the header developed on cylinder 1 and the engine sounded like a tractor.
To get to it is a major ordeal so yet again the car is back in the air with the exhaust and turbo completely torn down.
Here you can see where the gasket has failed.
So, While we are in there its time to do something Ive always wanted to do but had no idea how to do it other than what Id seen online. Bought a cheap spot welder off amazon and let it rip.
All previous attempts at wrapping exhaust with fiberglass based material has failed. Turbo blanket fell apart in my hands during removal and all the exhaust wrap is shot.
Here is the blanket completely destroyed from heat cycling.
Using 1/2 inch cilica based insulation and stainless embossed steel sheet to build a better quality heat barrier should hopefully last longer and work better.
Note: I still have heat problems in the engine bay. Dyno session 3 with new injectors melted more of my firewall insulation. Yay. Smells like burning crayons.
The new insulation on all exhaust system parts will handle a 2200 degree constant heat exposure. The manifold and main section of the exhaust still needs to be done. The process is very time consuming. I have probably done over 50,000 individual spot welds so far.
Here is the result. There are a few areas I am not happy with. This is my first time doing this.
Replacement manifold gaskets and T3 gasket will now be solid copper. My previous heat shielding made from embossed sheet will no longer cover the exhaust manifold. The block shielding will stay in place as extra insurance.
A while back I ordered a Radium fuel rail with plans to install it with new injectors. Removing the stock rails meant changing all fuel lines to AN 6. The stock radium rail designed for m50 does not fit. The mounting was incorrect and I could not get the rail to sit correctly without being cockeyed. I didnt want a fuel leak to burn my car to the ground so I returned it and found this no name ebay setup that worked exceptionally well. It was less expensive too.
Shots of Raduim rail fitment (overpriced junk)
Heres a couple of the new injectors in the new rail. The only downside with the new rail is the fitment of the fuel rail beauty cover. I will have to fabricate some custom brackets to mount it as I want to keep the stock fuel rail cover.
Ignore the copper DET can custom knock sensing hardware. (This works great BTW) Stick a tube on the end of it and pipe it into the cab with some cheap stethoscope ears. Best way to hear the ringy ding dinggiess of death.Turbo Manifold and exhaust center section should be done soon. From there I will put the car back together and continue my journey toward a properly working high HP E34.
Some positives to note:
The engine is staying cool. (at least I think it is) I do want to add a rear coolant take off to the back of the cylinder head. Jury is still out on a final decision. I started a general discussion thread on the idea.
The engine runs well on the 800cc injectors, and it was fairly easy to remap the car as I have most of the important settings already correct in the LINK ECU. Current boost @ .8 bar shows about 56% duty on the new injectors. Sweet.
I found the source of my wideband issue dropping full rich. Turns out it was not the wideband unit or the gauge controller. I had a sliced vacuum signal line going to the ECUs map sensor. The leak was causing my injector PW to go nuts.
The CCV system with 3 AN 10 vents is working very well. The rear main seal is not leaking anymore (for now), and the oil scavenge system is working. There are no more small puffs of blue smoke out the exhaust under load. Adding additional venting to the crank case solved the problem.
Although I still have no updated HP numbers, I feel the next (and hopefully final round) of tuning will give good results. Due to the fuel pressure drop issue I couldn't safely run more than .8 bar of boost. Assuming the boost levels are the same as before the HP is still in the 330-wheel range. We made this during dyno session 2. I had a slew of problems including a big boost leak during that session. I feel with those issues sorted the engine would have made closer to 400 hp.
The hot summer months are here in southern Utah. With temps well over 110 into August and September It is likely I will not mess with boost levels until it starts to cool down. By October things are cooling off so for now I will enjoy low boost with proper fuel pressure until then.
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