mspiegle

dangit! I saw the thread was at #959 and i was the last to post, so I assumed mine was the 959th... but it isn't

Shane

Charles, can you get us some pics of your set up? It sounds like you might have your fuel lines miss routed. You should see fuel pressure in the rails without having to apply any vacuum or preessure to either the stock regulator or the BEGI.

Pizza

Update! I pinched off the return line with pliers (Thanks Mike!) and got no pressure increase on my fuel pressure gauge. I borrowed a 0-60 psi gauge from FeedNfrenzy (Thanks Brent) and my pressure is @ 36 psi. My 0-100 psi gauge was bad. It would only read from 45-100 psi. Thanks to everyone for all the help. Should be cranking it up tomorrow!!!!!!

mspiegle

sweet! get some videos of the test drive

FeedNfrenZ

Pizza, give me a call when you crank it. I'll bring my fire extinguisher!
You're gonna **** off allot of spiders and wasps!

Pizza

I finally got the car cranked up and running. I believe I have the fuel system (stock regulator & BEGI) set up right. The car runs great but I'm not getting much indication of boost on my boost gauge when I get on it. I'm running the middle sized (8 psi ?) pulley that came with the kit. The most boost I've seen on my boost gauge is 1 to 2 psi. I don't think my SC belt is slipping. I believe I have a leak in the system. After warming up the car I pulled off the 90 deg. elbow at the back of the blower and rigged up a way to put air pressure to the back of the blower and into the intake. I pressured up to 10 psi and closed the air valve. The pressure went to 0 psi instantly. Shouldn't it hold the 10 psi once the car is warmed up and the piston rings are sealed? Does anyone have another way I could test the intake for leaks? I used the hard asbestos (not cork) intake gaskets that came with the kit. Should I have put "The Right Stuff" gasket maker on both sides of the intake gaskets before installing?

Louie928

The engine won't idle smoothly if you have any intake leak at all, even a small one. The blower should make boost even at low rpms, like 2000. Do you hear any unusual sound like a lot of air escaping? Blow off valve problem? Boost gauge problem? 1 to 2 psi boost would mean that the car performs about like it did before the blower install. How does it go? Is it in the scalded cat, or cool turtle, category. The proof of boost is in the length of the elevens on the road. When you did your intake system leak a cylinder could have had both intake and exhaust valves both open and the air escaped out the exhaust valve. I think you do the intake leak test at 45 deg BTDC, but not sure. The WSM has a procedure.

Tony

The original kits were prone to leak. You have ot take your time to seal things up well. You shouldnt need to use the right stuff on the mating surface of the head to the bottom of the manifold as it will make it a royal PITA to remove later. I used some rubberized paper gasket material i got from pep boys. Cut it out my self and used some scotch tape to hold it all in place as i lowerd the manifold on. I did take the time to mask off and seal all the mating surface of the manifold parts though...upper half to lower half...rear inlet to SC....SC to manifold...etc etc I masked 1 /4' gap along the joints and applied the right stuff along it. I removed the tape leaving a nice neat 1/4' flat bead along the joint, sealing it.

Check for bolt holes in the manifold. I had several thread passage ways where there was no need for a bolt. If left open they would obviously leak.

The bypass valve should close when you stand over the engine and blip the throttle aggressively at the throttle linkage.
keep us updated

mspiegle

As louie said, a vac leak will be VERY evident..... bypass valve is my first thought, but the default position of the valve is closed I believe (atmospheric pressures == WOT == closed). Check and make sure the bypass valve is working properly. It'll open/close as you blip the throttle.

Can you snap a few pics of your setup?

Pizza

Thanks Louis, Tony and Mike for the replies. I found the leaks. Air is escaping from around a few of the bolts that hold the manifold down, from the gaskets underneath the manifold and around where the intercooler nipple comes out from the front of the manifold next to the snout. I bought the kit used and left it together assuming it was sealed up. I'm going to start tearing everything down and resealing. I'm very frustrated to say the least. I was so ready to drive this thing. Hopefully I can be ready for SITM. A few questions. How did you guys seal up around the top of the bolts that hold the manifold down? What did you torque those bolts to? Where do I put the 2 air temp sensors (86.5) now? I have them tie wrapped to asmosphere for now. I tried to attach a few pics Mike. Thanks for all the help Guys!

Shane

Damn Charles your making me jealous. I really miss my Garnet red twinscrew rocket!! Yours is looking sweet!!

Bill Ball

Andy initially said torque the bolts to 22 ft lbs. Later he said 30. I did not like the "feel" of the bolts after I got to 22 ft lbs and was taking them to 30. A few felt like they were not cinching any further and might have been stripping the block threads. These are steel bolts into aluminum. Maybe I was being overly cautious, but I left them at 22.

TWO air temp sensors? I have one in my 89 that used to reside in the top of the intake. Ideally this would be screwed into the manifold; I have it just fastened to the outside top of the manifold.

Like your throttle cable bracket. Nice job on the harness extension for the MAF.

Everybody finds air/vacuum leaks different ways. How did you find yours?

mspiegle

Wow, that's a really clean and well done setup. Good work

As far as manifold sealing, I generally put a nice bead around all of the sealing areas of the manifold. Depending on your design:

2-piece manifold (bottom piece and top piece) - you'll want to run a bead of "right stuff" sealant all the way around where the 2 pieces mate. I would then put on a glove and go over it with your finger just to make sure its sealed and in all the little cracks.

3-piece manifold (bottom, middle, and top pieces) - you'll want to run a bead of "right stuff" to seal the top to middle, and the middle to bottom pieces. Use a glove to go over it and seal in all the cracks.

As for the mounting bolts, I believe 25# is the magic number. I would make sure to torque it down to 25#, leave it for 15 mins, retorque, leave it for an hour, then final torque. The gasket takes a little bit of time to fully compress.

You *should* use a new gasket everytime you remove/reinstall the manifold. If you don't have extras, you can use the stuff that Tony mentioned earlier available at pepboys.

mspiegle

For the screw-in sensor, some kits had a nut welded to the bypass piping to screw it into. Some kits had a threading in the manifold. I think one of those sensors was less important than the other, but I can't remember which. On my 86.5, i just had both sitting near the air intake.

mspiegle

On a semi-related note... does anyone know where to get pullies these days? I was thinking of calling up kenne bell or DR, but thought i'd check here first.