Derek's Project GFP

This brings back a lot of memories from my 93 SC converted to 347 turbo. You are starting to get to the part where you find that the devil is in the details.

David
 
Feels like I took a big step forward this weekend. I was able to get the v bands welded on the exhaust manifolds. Im new to welding (pretty much self taught by youtube and pestering folks who know how to weld with questions), so welding up to the cast iron was a little intimidating. I did a hefty pre-heat on my gas grill and wrapped the manifolds in a couple towels after welding and it seemed to do OK. It helped that I finally got a gas lens for the torch which made a world of difference for me on being able to see what I was doing. Im still waiting on a T4 to 3" vband adapter before I get too deep into the hotside,but finally feels like it is starting to come together.

exhaust v band.jpg

Hopefully there will be more fab photos in the next couple weeks. Maybe one of these days, I will even be able to start it... looks like it is going to be June now. I talked to my cousin... we are going to try and make the shootout this year if I can get this thing finished up in time.
 
I got some work done on the hotside the past couple weeks. I decided to support the turbo from the alternator bracket... hopefully the 1/4" rods will not transfer too much heat. The flange is a pretty nice ebay find, its a CNC piece transitioning from 3" tubing to T4 flange. The smaller tubes are 2.25" and they merge into 3".
I'm still waiting on some smaller tubing for the wastegate. The parts you see were mocked up in the engine bay and tacked together. Then I pulled the motor to finish connecting the dots. Still need to remove the pan and add the oil return bung for the turbo drain. While the motor is out, I need to finish up the harness work, secure the 95 mustang throttle cable to the firewall (yup had to swap that to match the TB... the connection was different), and cut some holes for the turbo cold side.

I scored a couple important things at the junk yard since my last post. They had a 95 mustang gt and I got the alternator bolts, the throttle cable and bracket, and the thermostat housing/water neck.

hot side pass 01.jpg

hot side driver 01.jpg
 
My cousin and I thrashed on this thing for the past week. Its been tough and fighting us most of the way. Trying to work through some wiring and electrical stuff that I dont quite understand yet. I tried to hook of the EEC and QH in a hurry late last night and I may have damaged stuff. Hope its not too bad. I forgot to repair the eec ground wire connector by the battery and tried to connect to the QH unknowingly. The USB cable got really hot and it may have damaged the connector on the board... the usb cable is definitely damaged some on the connector that plugs into the QH. I guess the EEC may have tried to pull a ground through the usb? Something else that is weird is that the 12v and ground (pins 4-5) on the BA5000 slot maf seem to have continuity... I did not expect that. So now I am checking out all the wiring changes, and making sure everything is correct. I dont understand why the ignition coil wire (the smaller red/green in the main fuse box) )that I used to trigger the EEC relay I added seems to have continuity to ground. If i pull the ignition fuse it opens (that means the big red/green wire side has the continuity that pass it through the fuse). I dont know if this is normal or not, but it seems odd to me.

I'll keep chipping away at it. Sucks, but GFP.

installed 01 no turbo.jpg

then intake tube is temporary. just want to get it fired first.
 
My cousin and I thrashed on this thing for the past week. Its been tough and fighting us most of the way. Trying to work through some wiring and electrical stuff that I dont quite understand yet. I tried to hook of the EEC and QH in a hurry late last night and I may have damaged stuff. Hope its not too bad. I forgot to repair the eec ground wire connector by the battery and tried to connect to the QH unknowingly. The USB cable got really hot and it may have damaged the connector on the board... the usb cable is definitely damaged some on the connector that plugs into the QH. I guess the EEC may have tried to pull a ground through the usb? Something else that is weird is that the 12v and ground (pins 4-5) on the BA5000 slot maf seem to have continuity... I did not expect that. So now I am checking out all the wiring changes, and making sure everything is correct. I dont understand why the ignition coil wire (the smaller red/green in the main fuse box) )that I used to trigger the EEC relay I added seems to have continuity to ground. If i pull the ignition fuse it opens (that means the big red/green wire side has the continuity that pass it through the fuse). I dont know if this is normal or not, but it seems odd to me.

I'll keep chipping away at it. Sucks, but GFP.


then intake tube is temporary. just want to get it fired first.

Looks awesome man. Good work. I'm sure you'll work through the wiring stuff.
 
My cousin and I thrashed on this thing for the past week. Its been tough and fighting us most of the way. Trying to work through some wiring and electrical stuff that I dont quite understand yet. I tried to hook of the EEC and QH in a hurry late last night and I may have damaged stuff. Hope its not too bad. I forgot to repair the eec ground wire connector by the battery and tried to connect to the QH unknowingly. The USB cable got really hot and it may have damaged the connector on the board... the usb cable is definitely damaged some on the connector that plugs into the QH. I guess the EEC may have tried to pull a ground through the usb? Something else that is weird is that the 12v and ground (pins 4-5) on the BA5000 slot maf seem to have continuity... I did not expect that. So now I am checking out all the wiring changes, and making sure everything is correct. I dont understand why the ignition coil wire (the smaller red/green in the main fuse box) )that I used to trigger the EEC relay I added seems to have continuity to ground. If i pull the ignition fuse it opens (that means the big red/green wire side has the continuity that pass it through the fuse). I dont know if this is normal or not, but it seems odd to me.

I'll keep chipping away at it. Sucks, but GFP.

View attachment 68689

then intake tube is temporary. just want to get it fired first.

The downpipe is the one that goes thru the hood, not the charge pipe :p;)
 
Looking sweet, Derek. :cool:

The continuity surprises probably aren't issues....remember....a resistor has continuity between each end too. ;)
 
Looking sweet, Derek. :cool:

The continuity surprises probably aren't issues....remember....a resistor has continuity between each end too. ;)

Im a little gun shy after making a mistake. I cooked the connector on my QH. After digging out some melted plastic from the connector, i was able to get the QH to connect and download and upload a tune (just connected to my laptop, no EEC). But i had to keep pressure on the cable to keep it from dropping out. Ive got some buddies that can solder that type of stuff, so Im going to try and get them to replace the connector for me.
 
quick update... I was able to make my QH work after some finagling... but the usb connector needs to be replaced. Moates is a decent company for sure. I contacted them and told them what happened and they are gonna fix/replace it for me. So Im sending that off Monday. I figured out a couple problems with the wiring and corrected that. One of those problems was i used the wrong diagram to wire up the slot maf. Its really pretty crappy IMO that SCT doesnt send any information in the box with the BA5000. I mean its a $200 meter and doesn't include any sort of paperwork? Hopefully its not damaged, I tried to test it out, but I cant tell if its working or not. I guess its a waiting game to get the QH back and then go from there. While i was testing the QH, the fuel pump was working with the key on and I didnt find any leaks on the new braided PTFE fuel lines.
 
Lucky you on not having any leaks on that line.:D

MAF should be ok. Shouldn't be anymore than 5v going to any wire there, so just readings going to the wrong place. And yeah the slot maf is wired different from the older style mafs. Mainly the IAT legs are in line instead of on the outer ends.
 
Lucky you on not having any leaks on that line.:D

MAF should be ok. Shouldn't be anymore than 5v going to any wire there, so just readings going to the wrong place. And yeah the slot maf is wired different from the older style mafs. Mainly the IAT legs are in line instead of on the outer ends.

There is a 12v line going to maf. Following the mistake: I had 12v going to the ground pin on the sensor. Ground going to the maf return on the sensor. Maf return going to maf5.0 on the sensor. and maf 5.0 going to the iat return on the sensor.
 
I switched up my plans for the IC plumbing. I originally wanted to come out of the turbo and go down to the lower IC port. Then out of the IC through the core support, a straight shot past the right side of the turbo, and then 45 into the TB. But it was just too tight between the radiator and the turbo. So plan b is to feed the turbo outlet through the core support using two 90s for a really short run into the top of the IC. Out the lower IC port following the bumper, up through the fender area, then into the engine bay on the back side of the turbo, and then 45 into the TB. The IC is also a plan B as well. I had a bad experience with CXRacing this go round. The IC that I ordered from them was originally back ordered 6-8 weeks. After 8 weeks I called them and they said it was still back ordered 7-8 weeks. So I cancelled my order and got a similar one from treadstone (shout out to Binks for helping me find it). Its a same side in and out, vertical flow, 25"x9"x3.5". I swear its heavier than the previous IC I had that was 24"x12"x4" horizontal flow. I guess its the cast end tanks. Anyways, this picture is the mockup as I figured things out. I checked the bumper cover, and it fits no problem. The fender liner fits as well, so no problems there. The charcoal canister is ok too for now. However, I did have to move that vacuum dingle ball located behind the fender. Now that the holes are cut in the car and the IC is mounted(ish) I can cut and weld the final version of the tubing. I will admit, I had a little heartburn taking the hole saw to the fender area, but there is no turning back now! :D Because race... I mean streetcar :D

Its hard to see the air filter in the picture, but its a 6" diameter tapered to 4" and its 9" long with a 4" outlet. You should have seen the first one I bought by mistake... it was 8" diameter and 11" long...lol it probably fit a 7.3 diesel engine!

cold side mockup.jpg
 
Got the cold side welded up tonight. nice and short! I made a "bead roller" from a cheap set of crimping pliers.

cold side parts.jpg
 
It's looking Nice man!!!

I wired up a BA5000 wrong also and burned it up, can't wait to see new videos when you first start it up and drive it :D
 
Well i got the tractor to crank tonight... lol. MAF seems to be working too, which is a relief. ive got some work to do to get it running right, but at least it fired!

 
After cutting grass for 3 hours tonight, i was able to mess around with the car a little tonight. I adjusted the base timing (it was too far retarded) and it started better and ran better, but around 500rpms instead of 728 (nubase) . I plugged the spout connector back in and it ran like it should and sounded pretty good. It has about 60psi of oil pressure at idle (coldish ~80-120F). More video to come, but Im sending the raw video to my cousin, as he is way better at that stuff than me.

I have noticed a few things so far that need attention:
The biggest issue that Im concerned about is that the alternator seems to be getting hot. I placed my hand on it at one point and noticed that it felt way hotter than it should. So far I have only gotten the car up to 130 degrees. The longest that it has run at any one time is about 50 seconds. Its too hot to touch for more than a second. Im not sure what would cause that? I double checked continuity at the battery terminals and it says open... so I dont think there is a short. at idle speed (728), the vbat parameter is ~13.8v... so it appears to be charging. Its a brand new bosch alternator for a 95 mustang gt (which is were the accessory brackets came from). Its a 130amp alternator instead of the 95 amp alternator that came on the 92 5.0 bird (where the harness came from). It physically plugged in with the same connectors, so I assumed it was compatible. I've never felt an alternator get hot before, but I never had reason to... so maybe its just the charging load causing it to be so hot? The battery was fully charged the other day, but its had a lot of cranking cycles and running the starter the last two days.

I first thought the O2's were not working, but they go rich right as it starts, and then bottom out lean and stay there. the injector pulse width is not changing much from the start up and the lambse is not changing. I know you cant really tell much about fueling until the engine is warm, so ill wait and see how that works it way out. But I really need to build the downpipe so i can get a wideband in there and tell what is really going on.

I was going to add some fuel in to see if it would change anything in the above situation, but the car wouldnt crank after that. I decided to call it a night, feeling accomplished that it sounded like a car and not a tractor today.

I think i feel pretty good about all my wiring, so I will start buttoning that stuff back up. I'm going to reroute my fuel lines a little based off of David Neibert's suggestion on facebook. Probably go pull a late model gas tank out of the local yard. that may have to wait until next weekend. Ive bought a bunch of 3.5" exhaust crap to start working on that. Hopefully bink's recommendation on mufflers is tolerable :) I think the late model tank will help with routing that 3.5" tubing compared the one i have now. I also have to wire up my fan controller and fans. I havent even thought about the hood yet, but it has to be modified to fit the intake. I think the hood support structure needs to be notched by the back of intake... but i havent looked at it close. Now that I heard it run, it will help keep me motivated to finishing this thing out.

All in all im pretty happy that it started up so well. This is the first motor that I tore down and rebuilt. Its pretty satisfying to hear it fire up and run a little bit.
 
After cutting grass for 3 hours tonight, i was able to mess around with the car a little tonight. I adjusted the base timing (it was too far retarded) and it started better and ran better, but around 500rpms instead of 728 (nubase) . I plugged the spout connector back in and it ran like it should and sounded pretty good. It has about 60psi of oil pressure at idle (coldish ~80-120F). More video to come, but Im sending the raw video to my cousin, as he is way better at that stuff than me.

I have noticed a few things so far that need attention:
The biggest issue that Im concerned about is that the alternator seems to be getting hot. I placed my hand on it at one point and noticed that it felt way hotter than it should. So far I have only gotten the car up to 130 degrees. The longest that it has run at any one time is about 50 seconds. Its too hot to touch for more than a second. Im not sure what would cause that? I double checked continuity at the battery terminals and it says open... so I dont think there is a short. at idle speed (728), the vbat parameter is ~13.8v... so it appears to be charging. Its a brand new bosch alternator for a 95 mustang gt (which is were the accessory brackets came from). Its a 130amp alternator instead of the 95 amp alternator that came on the 92 5.0 bird (where the harness came from). It physically plugged in with the same connectors, so I assumed it was compatible. I've never felt an alternator get hot before, but I never had reason to... so maybe its just the charging load causing it to be so hot? The battery was fully charged the other day, but its had a lot of cranking cycles and running the starter the last two days..

The alternator heating issue could be the wiring. When I upgraded the alternator I put in a 4 gauge power cable with a large fuse before it connects to the starter relay. If you haven't upgraded that wire then it could be that.
 
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