Turbodudey/quicksilvr MegaSquirt & Turbo Build

turbodudey · Post by **turbodudey** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:49 pm

This is quicksilvr. I have hacked Josh's account to add important info to this Project Log.

The "bumblebee" is residing in quicksilvr's garage. Dad purchased the car from my brother (turbodudey) in March of 2010. It will continue to be a project car for Dad and I for years to come.

Currently, the car is getting a few little tweaks before it's back on the road for tuning and then driving FUN. Maybe even a dyno run sometime this fall. It ran great all the way to Carlisle PA for the 2014 meet, and I'm looking forward to finishing some of the loose ends and then really tuning the car well and turning the boost up to see what it can really do. I'd be happy with 350whp, but I think more is possible.

PROGRESS LOG INDEX

Page 1-2: MS assembly, turbo installation on stock engine...promptly pop the stock bottom end
Page 3-5: Engine teardown and rebuild, suspension, wheels, etc
Page 6-7: Tuning, troubleshooting and exhaust install
Page 8: Exhaust continuted, and first DYNO
Page 9-10: Troubleshooting and rebuild to fix noisy piston
Page 11-13: Massive detonation = very melted pistons and another rebuild. Haul the car to Colorado
Page 14: Big injectors and tuning. Car goes back to Missouri. Clutch wears out
Page 15: Big FMIC ordered, and clutch discussion......
Page 16: 20g turbo test fit
Page 17: Clutch replacement, intake manifold modificiation
Page 18: Lots of updates, BACK ON THE ROAD!!, and a trip to Carlisle 2014

Pictures of the MS install process. New pictures at the bottom, I'll keep updating the thread as we go. Enjoy!

Battery GONE!

Main board

Hooked to the stim..

Completed...

Modded case w/ fan

MegaTune

And, all the big hardware. Oil and coolant lines are on their way, and all piping is going to be custom fabbed. NONE of this is installed...right now we're still just N/A.

October 25, 2006

Stock ecu relocation, and a bunch of wiring

Temporary bracket to hold TB while the car is still N/A.

Gauges

(Note ethernet cable sprouting through dash nook for MegaView)

MegaSquirt location

Nice clean way of connecting everything

Cleaned up a bit to be able to see the master plan better

Put this in that night...

Airbag delete is handy for holding things like shift knobs...

November 27th, 2006

Changing things up...

I didn't like the terminal strips, they were too hard to deal with in such a small space. So, hello eBay and (new) military surplus!

They are 19 pin quick connectors. I just made a bracket, switched the wiring, and hooked up spark control.

Video: Test driving for tuning (Dave sounds like a complete idiot on camera.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsJsoJij_MQ

December 4th, 2006

Spark is now hooked up and the car runs! Here are some pictures of the new connections, and some video's with MS controlling it all!

Video: Trying to run....and then running with full spark and fuel control.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmej7e9EKZU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpOXEk1uWeY[/url]

lethalp1mp · Post by **lethalp1mp** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:43 pm

Nice, another 2gn MS'd. w00t!

My MS buildup is here:
http://forum.2gn.org/viewtopic.php?t=9564

Looking good. I'm not going with the MegaView though.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 5:13 pm

Bump for update and new pics. All that's getting installed now is MegaSquirt. Once it's installed, running and tuned on the car N/A, the turbo install will begin.

Kevin_GP · Post by **Kevin_GP** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:13 pm

Sweet, your best idea was to skip right over the rrfpr and go stright to MS. Looks awesome man.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 8:45 pm

Kevin_GP wrote:Sweet, your best idea was to skip right over the rrfpr and go stright to MS. Looks awesome man.

Yep. Pretty soon we'll have a couple more MS unit's to build, because I'll be using one on my car, and my dad is going to use one on his "hybrid" 2.5 16V SOHC conversion engine. I love MS. It just makes me happy.

INVUJerry · Post by **INVUJerry** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:21 pm

quicksilvr wrote:
Kevin_GP wrote:Sweet, your best idea was to skip right over the rrfpr and go stright to MS. Looks awesome man.
Yep. Pretty soon we'll have a couple more MS unit's to build, because I'll be using one on my car, and my dad is going to use one on his "hybrid" 2.5 16V SOHC conversion engine. I love MS. It just makes me happy.

Looks sweet, after I do some basic bolt ons to my car, I'm gonna go with MS, because I haaate NGC.

Your dad going with a turbo dodge bottom end?

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 5:17 pm

invujerry wrote:Your dad going with a turbo dodge bottom end?

No, it's the the 2.5 common block. He's not going to boost it (well, that's not the initial plan...

) Just wants to bump up the HP to make it easier to tow a loaded trailer. But, since we'll use the 2.0 SOHC intake mani setup, the distributor has to get tossed....hence the need for MS.

INVUJerry · Post by **INVUJerry** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:35 pm

What is the motor in anyway?

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:15 am

'92 Dodge C/V Caravan.

It used to be a Subway "Party Sub" van.

My dad does a bunch of contracting work for the Subway's here, and the owner sold him the van for...well, gave him the van for free. He overhauled everything mechanical, cleaned it up, and drives it for a work vehicle cause it gets 10 mpg better than his 2002 V8 Dakota. He has to pull some pretty decent sized trailers sometimes...and has already done so with the stock 2.5. You just have to be veeeeery patient.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:32 pm

Bump for lots of new pictures and vids.

FTWNeon · Post by **FTWNeon** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:54 pm

Nice call on the new connectors. I actually use connectors like that and better at work all day. We make Military radios and such at work. We have connectors that range from 5 pins to 59+ pins. I've been wanting to use some on my car but never have enough wires to really need them.

I'm thinking about getting MS and a spare engine harness and just going to town. The just use it till I have all the parts and want to add boost.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 11:18 pm

Nice. They're much much better than terminal strips. Although, the strips weren't a bad idea.

BlackRoseRacing · Post by **BlackRoseRacing** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:53 am

Sounds GREAT!!!

turbodudey · Post by **turbodudey** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:28 pm

I painted the Mil-spec connectors flat black too. The olive drab didn't really go very well with my color scheme.

turbodudey · Post by **turbodudey** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:14 am

Well, I finished up rewiring my MS using the mil-spec connectors, despite the fact that it was 15 degrees in my garage this evening. (yeah... I still can't feel my fingers or toes

) The crazy thing is that it was 70 degrees yesterday, and today it's 15 and snowing. That's missouri weather for ya.

But anyway. While I had everything apart for rewiring, I went ahead and wired in the coilpack. So I'll be controlling spark timing now as well. And I added a high current TIP120 transistor to my MS hardware, so that I can control my stock IAC now too.

In the next few days I'll be doing a little more reading about ignition timing and tweaking my spark map. So that perhaps on a slightly warmer day I can get the car up and running.

Some of my recent discovery concerning ignition timing is that it's not quite as nebulous to tune it as I originally thought. There are actually equations that you can use to generate ignition advance tables that are quite meaningful. Obviously I'll still have to tune it while driving, but if the specific engine parameters are factored in properly, the generated "base map" can be very close to ideal.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:40 am

Bump for new pictures and updates. Spark control is now ours! Woot!

turbodudey · Post by **turbodudey** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 7:51 pm

As Dave said, I got spark hooked up and running. The initial spark map that I created seems to be running just fine. I think I was a bit conservative with my timing advance though (only 22 degrees at 3000rpm crusing). The engine doesn't seem quite as responsive as it did while on stock spark. I'll probably add some timing to the higher rpm bins, and perhaps ramp timing up a little faster from the 9 degrees it idles at. The overrun area of the map was definitly much better than stock though.

Tuning with my laptop in my car has also brought another issue to light. My laptop battery is only good for like 30-45 minutes, and I'd like to be able to datalog/tune for longer periods of time than that. So, my solution: a 100W 12VDC to 120VAC power inverter.

I picked one up on ebay for like $15, and I'm just gonna hardwire it into the dash and install a standard edison plug on the side of the center console. So, essentially I'll have a standard recepticle available for plugging in low wattage accessories (laptop, cell phone...), and not have a big ugly power inverter hanging out of my cig lighter all the time.

FTWNeon · Post by **FTWNeon** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 8:32 pm

I think I'm going to hardwire my inverter in the engine bay somewhere and run the 120 outlet somewhere in thecar. I know that with my inverter's fan is pretty noisy and that would drive me crazy if it was always running inside the car. Heh course I coudl always run a switch somewhere as well to turn the inverter on and off.

I think I might order my MS within the next few weeks, mabye order it and work on it while I'm off work for christmas...hmmm Once I do that I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you and Dave

turbodudey · Post by **turbodudey** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:49 am

Well boys... the car went up on jackstands this evening, and the next time it touches the ground it's gonna be turboed.

I have the front bumper cover off and have the intercooler positioned where I want it. I still need to get some IC piping, but I wanted to fit up the IC beforehand so I would know exactly what I need for how I want to route everything.

I'll try to get some pics up sometime....

FTWNeon · Post by **FTWNeon** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:58 am

Hooray Beer! er... Hooray Boost!

Very intrested to see how all goes as I will be doing this myself within the next year. Really intrested to see how you do your intercooler piping and such because I'm debating about using the SRT IC because of what a pain it is to run the piping for it. I'll be doing the piping myself so i'm intrest to see what all is needed.

Take good notes and many pictures!!!
I think I'm as excited to hear about it as your are to do it

turbodudey · Post by **turbodudey** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:53 am

December 19: Mounting IC

Couple new pics...

Started working on getting the IC mounted. Here's a shot of the front end before I started making holes in the front bulkhead:

Preliminary marks for where I started cutting:

After the first holes were made, I test fit the IC and still needed to cut out a bit more:

December 23: Finished Mounting IC

Had to move part of the wiring harness a little bit to make more room for the inlet side of the IC.

I also bent the A/C line that you can see in this picture, because it was in the way a little. (just pushed it back and up a little bit)

This is what the wiring looks like after I moved it. (view from under the car)

It was a little bit of a tight fit, but there should be room to get the hotside pipe on there now.

Plenty of room on the outlet side of the IC.

IC mounted up and ready to go. (just need to get the piping to plumb it up)

Some random pics of my exhaust I took while rolling around under the car...

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 12:40 pm

Bump for update and new pictures

turbodudey · Post by **turbodudey** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:54 am

Quick update: The turbo install has been going kinda slow, mostly due to the holidays and working alot. (I'm working full time at my chruch, so the holidays are a very busy time because of all the special services and events.)

I think I finally have all the parts I need. I'm still waiting for my IC piping to get here though. OH! And I got a new Miller TIG welder!. So I can actually make proper IC pipes now.

I'll probably drop the fuel tank and put in the Walbro fuel pump next. That's my goal for tomorrow anyway...

Here's one new pic of my CAI.

neonpla · Post by **neonpla** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:15 pm

wow, this is a great log keep it up.

03sxt · Post by **03sxt** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:36 pm

I am so envious. I wish I was smart enough and had enough time to do a project like this. Looks pretty awesome and, well... Manageable.

eVilcreations · Post by **eVilcreations** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:40 pm

Hey turbodudey!!!!

The project looks GREAT man, things are definately coming along nicely.

I would like to give you a friendly tip though since I work on military fighter jets....and deal with those connectors every day. Instead of using wire loom, see if you can find some black F4 tape....it's not sticky, it sticks only to itself, and you can seal those connectors on the entry side a lot better that way. Because it's not adhesive, it won't leave that nasty gooey residue on your wires either like electrical tape does after a while.

Just a friendly pointer you might want to check into.

Keep it up man, it's going quite nicely, and I am definately following your progress.

Josh

Kevin_GP · Post by **Kevin_GP** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:22 pm

eVilcreations wrote:Hey turbodudey!!!!

The project looks GREAT man, things are definately coming along nicely.

I would like to give you a friendly tip though since I work on military fighter jets....and deal with those connectors every day. Instead of using wire loom, see if you can find some black F4 tape....it's not sticky, it sticks only to itself, and you can seal those connectors on the entry side a lot better that way. Because it's not adhesive, it won't leave that nasty gooey residue on your wires either like electrical tape does after a while.

Just a friendly pointer you might want to check into.

Keep it up man, it's going quite nicely, and I am definately following your progress.

Josh

They sell something similar to that at this local parts store, an electrical tape that only sticks to itself. Let me tell you that stuff is amazing and is a great way to seal things up, its almost like cold shrink wrap.

EDIT: ohh yea, that bar that holds the wires on the passenger side where you cut your IC hole, did you move it down any? Just telling you because when I cut the hole to fit my IC up I didnt have any problems with it, but when I tried to get a coupler with a clamp on it I had to pull it down out of the way. Let me know when you do the piping and take a picture because I would like to see if you ran into the same problems.

turbodudey · Post by **turbodudey** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 2:06 am

Hey, thanks for the compliments guys!

I have used tape similar to what eVil was referring to. I've always called it "tommy tape". Great stuff. There is actually a rubber strain relief on both ends of those mil-spec connectors that seals it as well. The electrical tape I used is really just to keep the wires bundled together, and not just hanging everywhere.

About the IC piping clearing the harness on the passenger side, I did have to trim part of that plastic bar back. I just cut off about 4" from the end of it, so it's not even under where the hotside pipe will be. I'll definitly get lots of pics of the IC pipes when I get them fabbed up.

I did get the Walbro fuel pump put in today. I still need to swap out my stock injectors with the 55# srt injectors, but other than that my fuel system is done for now. (I'll probably run a 1:1 and return line when I convert to e85, but that won't be for a while)

My fuel tank was half full of 87 octane fuel before I started working on it today, so first thing to do was drain the tank. I just hooked up a 12V power supply the the pump connector and let the fuel pump empty the tank.

What the innards of the fuel canister look like:

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:55 pm

January 13, 2007

THis is what we did yesterday.

Peek a boo...I see you

The car is now actually in our church, in an extra room. Lots of room to work, it's 70 degrees, and the floor is nice clean tile.

Adapter plate and block heaters installed

Test fitting

My finger is touching both firewall and manifold in the picture. It's not bolted down tight yet though. Just kind of hanging there.

We removed this piece, and bent the brake lines back a bit, cause the turbo was actually touching them at first.

After doing that, we had this much room...

Had to modify an allen wrench to be able to tighten the manifold to the adapter plate. A regular length wrench wouldn't quite clear...

O2 bolted up...checking clearance's.

Bolted up, WG actuator on, heat sheilds on, and some oil/coolant lines attached...not quite done from the top, but close.

Dad and Josh just bought a $2000 Miller tig welder. As soon as we make a long enough power cord for the welder so it can sit in the room with the car, we'll be making the intercooler piping. The hotside piping is going to be fun...when it's done it should be very nice...

Hopefully Josh and I will be able to get working on that soon. Like today....? Josh?

FTWNeon · Post by **FTWNeon** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 4:05 pm

You guys wanna help do my turbo when I install mine. Looks like your gett things figured out

Did you rebuild the motor already? Or planning on that later?