progress on the banshee...

[ericjon262]

I knocked out a bunch of the little stuff on the list, and some of the things that had me a bit frustrated as well.

one of the big (ish) items I was able to accomplish was getting a dipstick fitted to the engine, which actually worked out to be much easier than I expected.

the 3900 dipstick tube fits the earlier engines, but the tube is longer, thankfully, the 3900 dipstick is longer by the same amount, and the 3900 dipstick sticks out of the end of the tube by the same amount as the early dipstick sticks out of the early tube. Therefore, if you install the 3900 dipstick and tube in a earlier engine, it should fit and read exactly as the early dipstick and tube.

As an added bonus, the arrangement of the 3900 tube puts the tube further away from the head, so it will probably clear most header flanges. it touches my 1/2" flanges, but I suspect it would clear 3/8" it's also in a position that clears my coils! all around, epic win!



In other news, I marked TDC on the balancer and timing cover, once I have the engine back in the car, I'll turn it over and shoot it with a timing light to determine the 24x wheel sensor offset so that anyone else doing a similar swap with a MS3 based ecu can use the internal wheel easier.

I also got the plenum port matched to the lower, painted the alternator and tensioner brackets, and tightened the engine mount bolts up. hopefully tomorrow when I get off work my level sender and fuel pump will be here and I can install them, if that goes smoothly, I might start on the charge pipe and getting the engine back in the car.

[ericjon262]

Fuel system parts came in, so I got to work on it, the new sender was almost a perfect match compared to stock... except mirriored... DOH! I was hoping to just bolt it to the stock resistor housing, but it wouldn't be that easy. instead, I bent the travel stops on the stock sender 180 degrees, and tacked the new sender's travel stops to the old sender. then bent the new float to the proper position. A possible important not that I had never noticed about the stock fiero sending unit, is that the pressure line at the pump hookup is necked down to probably 5/16" or 1/4", way smaller than the rest of the fuel line. I cut this off, and attached the new PTFE discharge hose where the tube was a full 3/8".







All I'm waiting on now is a wire bulkhead fitting to pass the wires though, now there won't be any splices in the tank.

Other than that, I got a good start on the charge pipe, I have enough material to make another, and I'm not too happy with how the welds turned out, so I might just redo it (I have about 20 minutes in this one) to finish it, I'll have to add the maf sensor mount, and the BOV fitting.





I also went ahead and ordered a 3 PSI wastegate spring with the order for the wastegate pipes, I have an EBC that I'll use to turn the wick up once I get things a bit more dialed in.

[Shaun41178(2)]

That piping is short and sweet

[pmbrunelle]

Do you have a way to put a bead on the end of the pipe?

I work with a to-do list like you posted in Word format (the file is in constant evolution).

Each line often gets expanded, and multiple times, as the work becomes clearer.

For example, "Add turbo to engine" expands into:
Build Y-pipe
Purchase turbo
Purchase oil lines
Add BOV
Wiring harness
Engine computer

"Add BOV" breaks down into:
Research BOVs, contact tech support of XYZ
Buy, then receive tubing.
Cut and weld tubing.
Purchase vacuum line
Buy hose clamps

...and so on

I believe that your 20-item list expands into thousands of tasks!

[ericjon262]

That piping is short and sweet

That was actually one fo the goals for this round, reduce charge piping volume.

Do you have a way to put a bead on the end of the pipe?

I work with a to-do list like you posted in Word format (the file is in constant evolution).

Each line often gets expanded, and multiple times, as the work becomes clearer.

For example, "Add turbo to engine" expands into:
Build Y-pipe
Purchase turbo
Purchase oil lines
Add BOV
Wiring harness
Engine computer

"Add BOV" breaks down into:
Research BOVs, contact tech support of XYZ
Buy, then receive tubing.
Cut and weld tubing.
Purchase vacuum line
Buy hose clamps

...and so on

I believe that your 20-item list expands into thousands of tasks!

I have three methods available to add beads, add filler metal to the end of the pipe, crimp/roll a bead on the end, or use weld on beads.

https://monkeyfabgarage.com/collections ... mfg-custom

My list is less organized than that, it's a list on a piece of cardboard... lol! my list is a living list though, I'm constantly adding to and crossing stuff off from it. hopefully I can start crossing off more than I add to it though. I feel that many simple lists like mine could easily be expanded to thousands of items, but I personally, don't need my list to be quite as detailed as your example, but it also doesn't hurt to have too much detail either.

[Honest Don]

I made a beader out of some old bearing rollers and vise grips. Works pretty ok, but I wish I used a nice pair, instead of the cheapest knockoffs I could find.

[ericjon262]

I made a beader out of some old bearing rollers and vise grips. Works pretty ok, but I wish I used a nice pair, instead of the cheapest knockoffs I could find.

Yep, I made something similar a few years ago. I think if bead them by bending the metal, i might look into a roller of some kind. I'm pretty sure someone makes an inexpensive handheld version somewhere.

[ericjon262]

all that's left for the charge pipe is to put beads on the end. I really suck at welding aluminum, If I did more of it, I'd probably get better...



I also worked on the wastegate dump pipe, I need to make one more piece, then finish weld it.





here's a shot of the part of the fuel sender I cut off. you can see it's super tiny...

[pmbrunelle]

Hey that's exactly the same BOV as I have on my Fiero! It uses a vacuum fitting for unobtainium 6 mm vacuum line.

If your MAF isn't in the same type of pipe as the original application, I guess you have to scale its calibration according to the ratio of cross-section areas? Or recalibrate by other means?

As for exhausts, I think I like turndown tips. I used to have a Fiero GT exhaust on my old Fiero ( NA 2.8 ), and I seem to remember soot slowly accumulating on the rear fascia. My current Fiero with a turndown seems to collect less soot on its fascia, and I'm running richer mixtures at WOT.

[ericjon262]

Hey that's exactly the same BOV as I have on my Fiero! It uses a vacuum fitting for unobtainium 6 mm vacuum line.

If your MAF isn't in the same type of pipe as the original application, I guess you have to scale its calibration according to the ratio of cross-section areas? Or recalibrate by other means?

As for exhausts, I think I like turndown tips. I used to have a Fiero GT exhaust on my old Fiero ( NA 2.8 ), and I seem to remember soot slowly accumulating on the rear fascia. My current Fiero with a turndown seems to collect less soot on its fascia, and I'm running richer mixtures at WOT.

The BOV line will be adapted to a more common hose, probably via AN hose ends, and you're correct about the MAF, I'll need to adjust the calibration, I'll probably start by scaling it down by % change in cross section, and then refine from there.

I'm not sure how I'm going to terminate the exhaust yet, I used a turn down on the first setup, and a straight exit on the second. I liked the aesthetic of the turndown tucked up under the body, but I liked the sound of the straight exit better.

[ericjon262]

I recieved the wire passthrough, and the new electrical connectors for the fuel tank/pump today, unfortunately, I've been forking 13-14 hour days and don't really have time to install them. hopefully the tank is reinstalled by the weekend and I can get the engine back in.

BTW, Metripack 630 connectors are HUGE, the one I got for the fuel pump connector is about half the size of a credit card, and about 1" thick at it's thickest point! the majority is about 1/2" thick.

[pmbrunelle]

Regarding oxygen sensor position, on a highway cruise with my car, the first 10" or so after the turbine outlet was glowing dark red.

It's probably not too good for the oxygen sensor to be in a section of pipe that glows!

[Shaun41178(2)]

Hmmm. Highway cruising isnt a huge load. I can't remember my exact egt but I think I was around 1300f highway cruising around 75mph.

Egt was right after the turbo.

I was still on stock computer with a chip for boost and 30 lb injectors. See if advancing your timing in your MS changes your egt. You might not have enough timing.

[pmbrunelle]

It wasn't a bright glow; it was a faint glow only visible at night after about an hour or two. Some of it may be due to my 4-speed transmission spinning the engine at 3250 RPM to cruise at 110 km/h (that's 68 mph). Timing in that condition is about 40° BTDC.

Going by this color chart:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Blacksmith/com ... ing_steel/
I'd say that the glow I saw after the turbo was close to 1300 °F.

The local tuning shop has a Dynapack dyno; it can maintain a constant RPM. Besides WOT, I'll probably want to fine-tune the cruise timing. It's probably gonna be a full-day session ($$$, but it's going to cost less if I can operate the dyno myself and don't need full-time assistance from one of their employees).

My wideband oxygen sensor is about 19" from the turbo; I think it's a good distance. It has a blinky LED to say if it's too hot, too cold, or just right. The LED shows that it hits the correct temperature quickly, without overheating.

[Honest Don]

How lean were you running it?

[pmbrunelle]

I'm cruising (lets say 30-70 kPa) at stoich.

There might be fuel economy improvements possible by leaning the mixture, but right now I'm focusing on getting the car driving smoothly in all conditions.

I find that commanding a lean cruise AFR (in certain cells of the AFR table) makes warmup tricky. It's hard to make the lean cruise cells rich enough in warmup without drowning the other cells with fuel in warmup.

[ericjon262]

well, I'm already past that, so the sensor is where it is... lol! If the LED indicates I need to move it, I will, but I think I will be ok.

I did a bunch of work today, The fuel sending unit and the tank are back in, the downpipe and wastegate dump are fully welded and the engine is back in the car! I was super happy to find that mu charge pipe fits, I was worried it would hit the firewall.

I decided against a "screamer pipe" and integrated the wastegate dump into the downpipe, the length of pipe will allow for expansion in an arc, instead of linearly, which should reduce strain on the welds. I haven't decided whether or not I'll split the downpipe to both sides of the car, or just run it to one side with a single tailpipe.



The downpipe and wastegate dump clears everything just fine!



as does the charge pipe!



Here's how I left the car, I have a ton of work to do still, but I might just crank it before the end of the month!

[Honest Don]

It’ll be plenty loud even without the screamer. And having it dump back to the pipe makes for a cleaner/more-thought-out look. That’s just me though.

[Shaun41178(2)]

Wideband will be fine there. Mine was closer to turbo and held up

[ericjon262]

wideband is about the same place as it was in the old downpipe, that being said, I didn't use it much either... I'm not too worried about the placement, if I run into problems, I'll fix it.