Hey Sherman,

How are things in LA? I will passing through on Thursday morning towing to Gainesville. I will honk as I pass through Baton Rouge.

I just pulled my car off the scales. Oh so close to 1900.

I was too tired to start the corner balance process. I will post full numbers some time tomorrow.

This car is going to scoot as long as I can tame the trigger signals to the ECU.

Somebody more experienced than me can comment:

1. I normally use either adjustable perches, or different springs to adjust ride height.
2. Without having adjustable rears, how are you going to be able to corner balance?
3. Your rear height will limit how low you can adjust the front, as you can't adjust the rear to match.

As far as item 1. How much budget to you have left? You could find a use set of springs for little money. I have seen shock/spring sets as low as $50. but, I don't think you have time for this. Sounds like the top item is to get it running well, and reliably.

Best of luck.

-- brett

Brett, You are correct. However, there is some adjustability to help balance the car. Will it be perfect? No.

So...

1920#
50.1%/49.9% with me in the front seat. I don't think I will get closer than that.

Now, the right front is 1/2" higher than the LF since I can not adjust the rear to compensate ride height. At least I will have close to even front weights to help with braking.

I spent the afternoon trying to purge the cooling system. It was blowing lots of steam since there was an air bubble somewhere. Lots of cycles to let the engine run and then let it cool and suck water back in through the purge reservoir tank.

The ECU is still having issues. It cuts out right at 4K rpm just like hitting the rev limiter. It does, however. GO LIKE HELL. I can see why Britain needed more rubber. I can only imagine the car when it pulls to redline.

A friend of mine shot this video this afternoon. I can not get it to embed properly.

http://youtu.be/VkYU5aXgh5s

Damn! that ECU thing sux! When you get that sorted your going to have to watch the axles. Good luck man!

I think I have found the solution to the ECU problem.

I guess I forgot to mention this car runs on Megasquirt. the stock ECU was dead. I assume its flash had been erased after living un-powered for several years.

The solution should be just 4 resistors away. I will solder them in tomorrow and check again.

I also found out that my homemade tire conditioner seems to be working well.

ECU problems fixed for now. I came home at lunch for a quick test. revs freely to redline. I will wait and see what happens under load.

Tonight. I tune!

Uhm.. Feeling like sharing? Impendance mismatch? what fixed it. and what needed fixing.

(I have two more MS projects coming up, and one running now. Need all the info I can gather!)

-- brett

Just a word of caution, most groups will not allow the use of the harness with a seat like the high back Porsche seats. There was some situations where the shoulder straps separated over the shoulders during accidents, exacerbated by the shape of the seat (and nothing holding the two straps together).
I don't know about this particular challenge, but usually safety equipment is not within the budgetary rules, and I'd look for a cheap kirkey replacement seat for your own safety.
This is a great thread, make my mind reel with interesting possibilities!

Brett, the key is a 12K resistor in series with the + terminal of the VR sensor and a 2.2K resistor in parallel between the + and - terminals of the VR sensor. This is needed on the cam and crank sensors. Effectively, this creates a small voltage divider that removes the noise spikes from the trigger signals. I have a nice clean signal according to the TunerStudio tooth logger. Previously I was getting a noise spike every 50th tooth count or so. The noise spike would cause a tooth count to drop out and the system would not fire. It was like my own built in random rev-limiter.

Eric, I agree. I would not normally install the harness like this. The harness is free from cost. The seat is not. The autocross and drag race rules consider this arrangement legal. I have clarification from the Challenge organizers.

I would not run a DE car like this. Its really not comfortable. Future plans for the car call for new seats.

Now I just need to get the tach to work...

For (very) slightly more support, remove the lower seat cushion. Or, for a little more work and a little better appearance, remove the cover from the lower cushion and cut the foam down, then re-install the cover.

It doesn't do anything for your upper body, but it can help keep your hips from sliding around too much. Especially if you've got a big butt...

--DD

Great suggestion. I had already started to take the seat bottom apart so that I could shave the foam down. I tried to remove it but it was just not going to be comfortable enough.

I have alternative plans for seats that will be comfortable, supportive, use a 5 pt and not so bad to look at.

last night I was trying to get the car ready for the trip. It fought me all the way.

The car is running but needs to be tuned. At least it will take throttle now. And then it started... The outside nut fell off the transmission cable. I no longer had access to 1-2 shift plane. Of course, its a 12-24 nut that I did not have a spare. I was half way around the block with this happened. I limped home in third gear and put the car away.

After work I stopped and picked up parts and made repairs. I think taped up the wiring harness and closed up the ECU. then the car would not start. It was not firing. I took off the ECU cover and connected the laptop. Everything was working fine from an electronics point of view. After trouble shooting for an hour or so I took a break and ate dinner. Came back out and found the car was out of gas. A trip to the store brought home 2 gallons and the car fired up. Now the car would not idle at all. I adjusted the idle and then all of a sudden the idle jumped to 2200 rpm. HMM Does not idle when cold. Idles high when hot. I think the Idle control valve is wired backwards. No time to fix let's put it on the trailer. Its after 10 and I have a loud car idling in the street.

Trailer was already hooked up and ready to go. I lined up the ramps and started up the trailer. halfway up the left ramp gives way and the car veers right. I ran over the right fender (yes the one that is very broken) and almost put the car off the trailer sideways. I manageed to stop it and drive it off backwards. What saved me was that the left rear dropped down and the right front was in the air. The car was crooked but still on the trailer. it was like one of those movie scenes where the car is teetering on the edge of a cliff. All I could think of was the car high-sided on the trailer with a big hole in the floor and me having no way to get it off.

Once the car was off I found the problem. A weld broke on the hing point of the ramp. The cross bar broke free on one side. I propped it up with a stack of 2x10s and easily drove the car up onto the trailer. At that point I hooked up a front and rear strap and backed the trailer into the driveway. It was parked and I was done for the moment.

I then spent an hour packing up tools and getting as many spares as I could think of.

Then I fired up the TIG and welded the ramp. The cross bar on the hinge had a cold weld. One side popped off completely and the other side was about 70% cracked. Let's just say I fixed it.

So... The car is sitting on the trailer, strapped down ready to go. the ramps slid easily between the wheelbase under the car. I just bought some more straps this morning to lash down the trailer ramps and have a spare set in case there is a problem on the road. These will just go into the tow bag.

All that is left is to load up the car and check the tire pressure on the trailer. We are planning to leave about 1pm this afternoon. I am hoping I can get through Houston by 3 in hopes that the traffic will be less. If we are late leaving I will leave about 330 from Austin.

And so... The trip begins.

May the force be with you.

Managed to get almost 8 hours on the road before it was time to stop for the night. My 5YO son was getting quite silly in the backseat. He is a great traveler but after a full day at school he reached the limit.

Tow is going very well. I am about 100 miles past where I had planned to be.

Made it Gainesville. Almost 1100 mile tow. A few highlights of the trip. There is really nothing to show or describe except interstate and monotony.

The Sun will rise
The Sun will set
Am I out of TX yet?

Thankfully, we cleared the state line right at Sunset. I kept driving and eventually needed gas. Gas stop somewhere late in Louisiana.



One of the interesting things about the Gulf Coast. There is a tunnel under the main channel of the Port of Mobile. Pretty cool to think that ships are probably going right overhead.



Mobile has a growing shipbuilding industry. Anchoring the effort is the near-shore Stealth Military boat built by Austel. Its cool and there was one parked at the dock the last time I was here.

Eventually I made it to Registration. I handed in my build packet and then started the process of setting up the car.




In the parking lot the car generated a lot of interest. There is a lot of creative builds here. I will put up more documentation of the cars tomorrow. I think I already found my favorite. Lots of great people as well.



The car is ready for its track debut. I was given #14 - Fitting for the car.

Tomorrow is tech inspection and the AX. Should be fun.

Do us proud man! Lots of photos! Is that your wife with you? Hand her the camera.

Disappointment. What can I say but... Disappointment.

The morning started off great. Car started right up. I was able to solve my idle problems by reversing two wires and generally the car was running well.

I went through the Concours section early and there was the rest of the day to put down a good AX time. However, before I took a run I had to plug the laptop into the car and actually drive it some. I had an unknown EFI map and the last thing I wanted to do was blow the motor by running lean on boost. Bad things happen when lean on boost..

So I plugged in the computer and went for a drive down the backroad that leads to the entrance to the raceway. I was just driving back and forth easily working my way up through the revs making sure everything was going well. Once I was satisfied that the AFRs were safe I turned on the camera and fillmed a few passes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o2Q7XKKoCg


The car was running great. Pulling hard and its definitely quick. I was starting to think of how fast an AX run I could get and then the shifter cable broke. I can fix that. However, upon rev down, the motor knocked right before It reached idle. It was not a good knocking sound but it was quick and then gone.

I shut the car off since i had to manually put the car in gear. It fired right away and I started driving back into the paddock area. As I was coming through the last set of gates the car knocked again and then shut off. the starter would not turn the motor. I decided to let it cool down before doing anything else. Besides, I had to fix the shifter before making a run.

I located a team with a welder and a generator and quickly had the car shifting. the motor would still not turn over. Not good.

Once it was cool enough I pulled the plugs. No sign of water. This means its not a blown headgasket. The oil looks clean but I have not pulled the filter. The motor is still locked.

It is so locked that I broke a 22mm socket trying to free it.

Done.

Kaput.

Finsihed.

Not to DNF was the only goal I set for the event. I did not even meet that one. And so... tonight I will have a good time and tomorrow I will start the long drive home.

Many thanks to all the teams that offer help. many thanks to Brad(?) from DIY Autotune that lent me his sun canopy so I could lay under the car and try to revive her. Many thanks to the GRM staffers who put on a great event.

I will be back. And I have a full year to sort Penny. She will return and she will pissed next year. Watch out! I really learned how things work at the Challenge.

Fixed your link. Sorry

Sorry to hear that.

Wow this sucks... Sorry.

Wow That blows! Can you fix the engine and run it again next year? Will you have too much money in it then? How does that work? Maybe you can score a used engine cheap. Too bad, the video was nice. You were really gettting it dialed in.

Bummer.

You will show'em next year.

Wow. sorry to hear...

Did you pull the pan? Seems like you should be able to see something amiss. Did something go wrong with tranny?

Hope a miracle happens!

-- brett

Arrrgh, that sux!

I have an EJ20 shortblock that you can have for shipping from 95618. I paid $50 for the disassembled longblock so that I could grab the heads and various other stuff, so you can use that for your cost calcs if you need to. It turns over easily by hand, but I don't know the condition of the bottom end...

Thanks for the condolences. I had 1100 miles to reflect on the event. I will certainly be back next year. Right now I am looking to source a new crank and rods for a rebuild. Over the next week or so I will pull the oil pan and cut open the filter to see what the problem is. The long trip home has freed the engine enough to turn with the starter but there is a horrible clunking sound associated with it. Either way, its terminal but at least I will be able to split the case.

At least the rebuild parts are CHEAP!

You should call Strawman!

jamie,
just followed your link to this thread after our emails. dude i was so cheering for you then to find out of the motor issues. spun bearing and from cracked oil pump pickup? those stupid picks ups I've read are notorious. gonna swap mine for piece of mind before i button everything up. can't wait to see it after the rebuild!

ron

Update...

I started investigating the engine failure last night. Oil drained clean but the filter was full of copper shavings. Definitely a spun bearing.

I pulled the oil pan and it was mostly clean. A few shavings in the bottom but nothing excessive. It must have all pumped through the filter.

The oil pickup has a slight crack in the upper mounting flange. This is at the brazed intersection. it does not look large enough to have caused a complete oil pressure drop. The crack is certainly not as large as some of the other reported failures on the EJ25 series motors.

Either way, I will probably put an aftermarket pick-up tube in place for peace of mind.

I have several feelers out for replacement parts. I hope to have this motor built back up by the end of the year. Spring track season starts early in TX.

Make a list of the parts you will need and post it here. Maybe we can help.

Jamie, I finally got time to strip the Subaru EJ20 turbo shortblock and weigh it. I removed the oil pan & pick-up, oil pump, AC & alternator mounts, pulleys, sensors, tensioner & mount, and oil windage tray. As you can see, it weighs 95 pounds according to my old bathroom scale. If we add ~4 pounds for packing materials, it looks like it will cost ~$102 via Greyhound Sacramento to Austin. However, their maximum weight is 100 pounds, so there might be good reason for you to check other shipping methods.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

I have never run this engine, so I don't know if there are any problems in the bottom end. But I cannot feel any movement in the rod bearings. The oil pan is clean without any metals debris, too, so there are no obvious problems. The cylinder walls look good, with no gouges at all.

Like I said, it is yours for the cost of shipping. Let me know if you're still interested.

I am opening this thread up again.

I have a new motor ready to go. Just need to install. I am still targeting the $2012 challenge on Sept 27-29.

Woo hoo! Heartbreaking to read about what happened last year, but as the great philosopher Bullwinkle said, "This time for sure!"

So the usual parts of life have gotten in the way. It is hard to believe a year has gone by and Penny has been sitting in a field at my friends property outside town. I decided I had enough. Last night I hooked up the trailer and retrieved Penny. She is now comfortably back in the garage.

Since the new engine is still sitting on a dolly in the back of the garage I am starting the swap. Hopefully Penny will be back on the road in the next two weeks.

The good news is that the replacement engine was significantly cheaper than the previous one. I guess this means I have budget to actually do something with tires and suspension. Plus, I have all Spring to track the car and get her sorted.

Tonight I got the rear trunk lid off the car and found myself disconnecting all the wires and fuel lines. While I was at it, I disconnected the shift linkage, axles and pulled the muffler. All that is left to drop the motor are the two radiator hoses and the mounting bolts. Hopefully, this will go smoothly.

Once the dead engine is out of the car I will swap the engine wiring harness. Then its just a matter of bolting it back in and plugging it up. The battery is still at 12.9V after a year in storage. Love those Odyssey batteries.

Did you ever find what failed?

Good luck with the car!

Grassroots magazine really got me interested in car restoration.

I love their budget approach to motor sports.

John

Yeah, what ever happened to cause the engine failure?

The engine failure was two fold.

1. The oil pan had been pushed in just slightly in shipping. This closed the gap to the oil pickup. It was not until I started doing high rpm pulls that this became a problem.

2. The oil pickup tube had a slight crack at the braze line. Apparently, this is a common problem.

After lots of reading you find that the rod bearings are crappy from the factory and any slight changes in oil pressure (even the wrong oil, including Mobil 1 synthetic) can cause a rod bearing to spin. It appears I may have spun several but I have not torn down the engine to find out. I will, in time.

The old motor is now out of the car and sitting on the floor. I will swap the engine wiring harness over the weekend and then bolt the new one in place.

Once the engine is wired and running I will be installing one of these reinforced oil pickups. If the budget allows I will also mount a reinforced oil pan.

http://www.killerbmotorsport.com/index_fil...ateOiPickup.htm

I cut the rear trunk and mounted the engine higher than most for more ground clearance. This helps but the sump is still vulnerable. I want every bit of protection. I am considering to make a skid plate that connects the center tunnel/fire wall to the engine mount. It will help should I ever "need" it. It would only take one OTE or road debris to make me have another really bad day.

This weekend I made a bit of progress. Both intakes are off each engine. The new engine has been pressure washed and is clean enough to install. Next I identified the components from Intake #1 (Dead engine) that need to go on Engine #2 (good engine). There are quite a few differences that will make switching the entire system over.

1. the original ej20g is a single turbo with wasted spark coils.
2. the new engine (ej20tt) is a twin turbo with coil on plug (COP).

The intake manifold for the wasted spark system is very different than the COP. IT has coil mounting bosses. I am running a MS2 and do not have room for two additional ports to run a full sequential COP. Plus I did not want to have to rewire the car. That was a nightmare in its own way. So the easiest solution is to take the turbo feed pipe from engine #2 and mount it on the wasted spark intake from #1 and keep the existing wiring from engine #1. I will have more time later this week to get this system back into the car.

Lots of progress today.

intake is on and sealed.
turbos and air intake are connected.
Most of the cooling lines on top of the motor are connected.
Wiring is all set to plug back in.

Then I was able to move the flywheel, clutch and PP to the new motor.

Tomorrow I should be ready to attach the transmission and bolt it in the car. Then I am just a few water lines, fuel lines and vacuum lines away from starting it up again.

It will feel really good to get this car running again.

Well, the drivetrain is back in the car. clutch alignment sucks on this car. Oh well, a few sockets and a layer of tape and it finally slid together quite smoothly.

I must say, the stock flywheel and clutch package is amazingly heavy. Next time its out I will put something lighter in the car.

What else, I installed a reinforced oil pickup. Even the new engine's oil pan was pushed in a bit. I had to clearance it with a deadblow hammer and wood drift. Let's just hope my oiling issues are a thing of the past.

Next step is to plug in the wires and connect a few fuel lines to see if it will fire up. That will happen in the next few days as soon as I get a jug of oil and a new filter.

I am SO ready to have this car back on the road.

I can't imagine you'd could have the oil issues twice in a row

Let's hope not. My wife will probably want the car to go away if I have to go through this again.

Sorry I'm late with this, but I just saw this thead. Nice work, by the way. You mentioned the KillerBee pan and a reinforced pickup, did you get their windage tray? My son lost two engines in an autocross bug, N/A EJ22 with a shortened pan, and that was the solution. You should be able to make one pretty cheaply, it's mostly flat sheet stock and really only limits how much oil can leave the sump area in hard cornering. I can take photos and dimensions if that would help.

If you wife gets any more annoyed sign her up here and we'll tell her what great work you're doing and what a cool guy you are, get her to cut you some slack. SURE we would! Really!

.

I only used the oil pickup. I did not buy the pan nor the windage tray.

In my opinion the early ej20 has a much better oil pan setup in comparison to the later ones.

For example, the newer oil pans have no baffles. Only the STi has a triangulated corner and top baffle to prevent starvation. IN contrast, the early oil pan (circa mid-90s_ has a two layer baffle system. Let's just say, the new oil pickup tube would not clear. The lower rectangular pickup (very well built) was too large to fit inside the circular opening in the lower baffle. I spent 2 hours modifying the oil pan to make it clear. I had to cut the baffles and bend them out of the way to clear. Looks ugly inside but it does clear. Then I had to thoroughly clean the whole thing before putting it all back in. This also gave me a chance to clean out the bottom sludge. Not too bad but noticeable.

I am glad to hear that this solved the problem on the EJ22. I am not planning to shorten the oil pan.

I will just not run super low suspension setup to increase clearance. I will also be building a skid plate that connects the tunnel/firewall to the engine cradle. I would rather skip across an obsticle than rip out the bottom of the motor. I guess some shear bolts would also be an option on the oil pan.

the motor currently hangs down about even with the coolant lines under the car. At least those are flexible with 1/4" wall thickness. They can survive quite a bit of abrasion before having any leaks.

The new stiffer suspension setup will also help ward off compression based contact with the oil pan.

I admit my wife is very supportive of my car habit. I have been looking for an other 911 project and she said. go for it. It will either be an SC/Carrera based rally/rallyX car or a longhood with a small bore turbo flat six. Only the available market will make that decision.

Ready, Steady, GO!

So, Last night I discovered a dead fuel pump. I picked up a new one this morning on the way to work. My Local CarQuest will usually have what I want on the shelf. In this case, it was a nice, large replacement fuel pump. Worth the money.

Tonight I went out to troubleshoot. I connected the laptop and spun the motor. I thought this was a good time to verify signals since there was no fuel in the system. All sensors seem to be working just fine. HMM no tach signal. Bummer. I get out the O-scope and start testing. (see John, these are so useful) Crank position sensor is sending a nice strong signal. Cool. Cam sensor. Not so good. No signal at all. I check continuity between the plug and the ECU. Yep, All good. Must be a bad sensor. So, I swap the cam sensor between the old motor and the new one. Now I have a good clean signal.

Next, I swapped in the new fuel pump. Nothing like the smell of rancid gas. I drained about a half gallon into a container and it is indeed filled with a watery mess. Ethanol in fuel does cause problems and is probably the reason my fuel pump was dead. At least I replaced all the fuel lines when I cleaned the tank a few years ago. Now the pump Whirrs away and is relatively quiet compared to the previous one. While I was testing the pumps I also looked for fuel leaks. Aside from a few bubbles working their way through the fuel rail mounted regulator all was good.

I went back and turned the key. Tach signal was good and then the engine started to sputter. It was too late to fire it up but I know I will be able to start it easily once everything is connected.

Tomorrow I will start to connect up the vacuum hoses that run between the manifold, ECU, turbos, wastegates and BOVs. Its a mess on the top of the motor right now. There are also some breather tubes to connect and some water lines to plug. None of this is difficult, just time consuming.

I am hoping to take Penny around the block this weekend.

WooHoo!

Can't wait to see Penny's 2012 version of buzz around the block!

Penny is alive. Started her up this morning after a few tanks of fresh gas. A little smoke, EFI is rich but nothing unexpected (MAP sensor disconnected).

I have 2 vacuum lines to finalize and then the cooling loop to connect. Maybe this afternoon I will get her out of the garage on her own power.

YES, a big milestone acheived.

Congrats Jamie!!! Your projects are always interesting...

Well, She is not driving around the block yet but she does run.

Next step would be to fix the broken shift cable so that I can actually drive her.

I also found a reasonable deal on an early 911 suspension setup. Looks like a 5 bolt conversion might happen such that I can install some vented brakes up front to stand up to some repeated track laps.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2CpG1z3X9o...89KPnz2BIRICGig


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2CpG1z3X9o...89KPnz2BIRICGig