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I vaguely recall this started as a head gasket replacement... At this point you're just shaming anyone else that wants to do a head gasket without redoing the entire engine compartment.
I vaguely recall this started as a head gasket replacement... At this point you're just shaming anyone else that wants to do a head gasket without redoing the entire engine compartment.
Yeah, sorry about that. We could rename it the WYAIT thread.
Use the Airlift to vacuum fill the cooling system, which went great. Pulled vacuum to 25 on the gauge and had 5 gallons of Dexcool and Distilled water in a 5 gallon bucket with the feed line and it took about 4.5 gallons. I'll top that up after the first drive.
The bigger news is that the Spider intake is installed with the custom silicone couplers marrying the larger diameter Euro legs to the standard intake manifold.
Took me about 6 hours to get to this point. When I test fit the legs to the body, because I had raised the body to clear the knock sensor, I was about 12mm off on the leg ends meeting up to the body ports
I took most of the fueling loose again, changed the way the knock sensor was installed, which let me lower the fueling setup by about 8mm using some shorter vibration dampening mounts that arrived today.
Next I measured the large coupler that joins the spider body to the throttle body and realized there was some space to be gained in that coupler leaving only about 1mm of clearance between the 2 metal flanges that meet in the coupler vs the 4mm or so designed into the OEM one. So, out came the Redback Cutter again and a scrap of 3" silicone hose from my intake projects and I cut a perfectly straight shorter coupler which got me to 11mm of the 12mm I needed. Figured that was close enough but forgot to factor in the about 1mm for the gaskets - perfect.
Here's a shot of the old coupler and from the oil ring inside, you can see the gap that existed between the two flanges. Then a picture of the new silicone coupler installed.
Of course putting it back in I pinched the hard line for the boost gauge so had to loosen the mounting bolts a bit to free and reroute that, but I got it worked out.
Tomorrow (today actually), I'll connect fuel lines, plug wires, the intercooler hoses, the battery, and maybe turn the key to see what happens.
Thanks Dave. No need to be jealous. You could do it in a couple months too - just have to decide your new bedtime is somewhere between 2-3 AM
You're right, Pete.
It's amazing how well we work, when a project grabs us. I've been there too. My wife thinks I'm crazy during those periods.
Thanks,
Dave
.... except for the hood and cowl cover as I need to wash the underside of the hood from the coolant steam that is all over it from the overheating event.
I reconnected the battery and nothing went pop LOL so that's good news. Cycling the key to the accessory position also turned on the heat exchanger fan and pump, as it should. That also ran the fuel pump and showed me 1 fuel fitting that I forgot to tighten - it was the old line I used from the fuel distributor to the cold start valve at the FD side. Tightened it up, cycled the key again and all dry.
Tomorrow, I'll fire it up and see what works, what doesn't, what leaks, what doesn't, set the timing and if all goes well put a few miles on it so I can top up the fluids, do an oil change to swap the BR40 oil for DT50 and install new spark plugs.
Very nice, Pete. I also put vacuum caps on my silicone hose clamps to save my skin. Your car looks fantastic.
Thanks,
Dave
It may look fantastic, but I can't get it running right. AFRs are jumping all over the place. Sometimes it goes totally lean and just dies. Other times it goes totally rich and then dies. Other times it seems like it's running out of fuel. I've tried timing numbers from 20-30 DBTDC. I rebaselined the mixture screw at 9.5 turns from fully CCW. I put the Harmonic Dampener at TDC and popped the distributor cap and it's pointing directly at #1, I and put in new spark plugs. I tried a fuel pump jumper and a different FPR and no joy, and this is all without ever leaving the garage, so don't even know what issues will show up under load and boost.
I didn't do any disassembly of the k-jet system - just moved it over from one car to the other, and realize this motor may have different fueling requirements, but I should have been in the ballpark.
It turns over much longer than the other engine used to before firing up and it doesn't run very smoothly once it does, then it fixes itself and the AFR becomes 12-13 and stays there a bit, then starts walking in one direction or the other until it dies.
So, we'll be taking the 911 to SITM in the morning but I'm also not really sure how I'm going to resolve this prior to the Rendezvous. Thinking about trying to sweet talk Carl into heading for Atlanta a couple days early to swing by and work his magic as the other motor he set up was superb - fast start, rock stead idle, good AFR numbers, etc.
To simplify, I would disconnect the intercooler feed to the engine intake in order to work-on and get the engine to run correctly NA first.
Once that's accomplished, hook-up the supercharger feed to the engine intake.
This is good advice. Disconnect the supercharger (you can leave it mounted, just remove the belt) Start with it being naturally aspirated and get it running right before boosting it. The supercharger masks tuning problems and can make troubleshooting difficult. When running right, hook it back up.
It may look fantastic, but I can't get it running right. AFRs are jumping all over the place. Sometimes it goes totally lean and just dies. Other times it goes totally rich and then dies. Other times it seems like it's running out of fuel. I've tried timing numbers from 20-30 DBTDC. I rebaselined the mixture screw at 9.5 turns from fully CCW. I put the Harmonic Dampener at TDC and popped the distributor cap and it's pointing directly at #1, I and put in new spark plugs. I tried a fuel pump jumper and a different FPR and no joy, and this is all without ever leaving the garage, so don't even know what issues will show up under load and boost.
I didn't do any disassembly of the k-jet system - just moved it over from one car to the other, and realize this motor may have different fueling requirements, but I should have been in the ballpark.
Sounds like you transferred the fuel distributor from the 4.7 to your motor. Chances are good it has varnish in it from the old gas and being stagnent. Injectors and injector lines are suspect too. Diagnose by swapping in your known-good 4.5L fuel distributor and injectors.
Also: check the WUR if you are using the one from the 4.7 They are mis-named, they are THE control regulator on a K-Jet and critical that it be working right. Again, swap in your known-good one from the 4.5L to see if it reacts better to that.
Thanks for the responses. I didn't use any fueling from the 4.7L motor (didn't buy that with it) - it was all the stuff that ran perfectly from my 4.5 so no varnish issues
Fuel injectors and lines are brand new. WUR is the one from my 4.5 and that seems to work, as when the car is cold it fires up and runs the best, then I think the WUR shuts down and the engine starts relying on the other settings which is when it starts misbehaving.
The intercooler does complicate the issue as it makes the mixture screw impossible to reach. If I pull off the intercooler then the supercharger wouldn't be doing anything even with the belt attached. Could it not be tuned this way with the metering assembly just open to atmosphere?
05-28-2019, 08:49 AM
