jorj7

As Bill said, it wasn't the engine, or the oil leaks. We pulled the oil filter, and the oil looked good:



We then pulled some plugs, they looked good, next we turned the engine by hand, checked the
compression on a couple of cylinders. That was fine, so we tried to start the car. The engine
cranked, fuel pressure built up, turned over twice then died. Tried a couple times and no go.

Bill suggested it's the LH, so we swapped in my spare 87 LH. Engine started, but ran real rough,
so we figured that's the problem. Opened up the 87 LH, installed the latest Sharktuned chip from
Tim and tried again. Crank, but no start again. Ah, it's the EEPROM Tom burned... Try an earlier
EPROM chip, again no go. Talk to Dave A and Brian who suggests to check the electrical wiring around the
engine. While I was removing the intercooler, Bill noticed the MAF moved too easily. Sure enough
the MAF was loose. After a closer inspection, we found this:





So it was the MAF boot again... https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/438726-2008-bonneville-100-a.html

I pull out my spare MAF boot and go to install it, but I found another problem:



The Y that goes into the boot had melted. I know I've got a spare of that also, but after
an hour of searching the garage, Bill and I gave up. I guess I'll have to order one of those
now.

So one more parting photo:

Ketchmi

I was looking into a way to correct the elbow problem and have a potential fix in the works but it does require some machining on the maf...

I would be tempted to say that the high intake temps from the intercooler boiling dry softened the elbow and melted the "Y".

Any idea where the oil came from? REALLY glad to hear the engine is allright!

Bill Ball

We were mislead when the engine ran on the first LH swap WITH A STOCK LH CHIP. Note the caps. Then with the Sharktuned burned chip installed - no go. Back to stock, it ran. I thought, OK the burned Sharktuned chip is corrupt, although I haven't encountered that with an EEPROM before. No go with another burned EPROM chip. So much for that theory. Then it ran again on stock LH. After seeing the MAF, it appears the stock chips, which would idle real rich with George's 42 lb injectors, were able to provide enough fuel to overcome the extra unmetered air. Head scratching over.

Bill Ball

We do have some concerns about the intercooler. It does not appear to be leaking, but it didn't have much fluid in it either despite having just been run. George reported that he's having to refill the washer bottle a lot. The fluid he's using is purplish and I saw no evidence of it leaking out. I have a new theory (for me) about intercoolers. People using the 3 gallon washer fluid bottle as a reservoir may end up with a hotter system. This is because with a huge reservoir, the water just sits there not doing anything but holding heat. With a small/no reservoir, the water sees the heat exchanger (radiator) more often. If the radiator is efficient, this provides better cooling. I recognize the water also sees the IC more often, but I think the thermodynamics could be calculated for both ways to see if my theory is right/wrong/indifferent.

The oil leaks situation is puzzling too. The front face of the motor is oil soaked, covering most of the cam belt covers. The dipstick may have been the source, but the oil is all over both sides equally. The belts other than the AC belt (under the dipstick) are clean as was the oil cooler area. There is oil on and around the connectors for the oil cooler lines to the block. We noticed this soon after the rebuild and tried to tighten the fittings. They were tight already. The leak appears to be the block fitting, not the hose fitting. We considered it a small cosmetic leak originally.

The real puzzler is the dramatic amount of oil in the driver side wheel well. The entire suspension is oil soaked. The front dam on the lower A-arm is soaked. The oil is far forward of the oil cooler line leak source. It may be getting thrown around by the wheel. How it is getting all the way out to the wheel is a mystery, but there is oil on the inside of the wheel. The wheel well is pretty well isolated from the engine compartment by the more or less solid inner fender. Normally oil coming off the side of the block is blown back and coats the underside of the car. I've not seen oil go out sideways this far. If the front oil cooler were the source, I could buy it, but it is dry. So some source must be spraying oil, and maybe it's that block fitting, but we didn't see it spraying actively. The line from the oil filter sandwich source for lubricating the Vortex unit is dry.

We'll have to spend more time under the running motor once we get it running.

Bill Ball

The damage to the MAF boot surprised me. The other time the boot split, the damage was a single 2-3" split. I looked at the old boot today, and the edges of the split closed together and probably sealed relatively well under vacuum, but opened up under boost. So, the car ran or at least idled. Look at that thing in George's photo. The car didn't have a chance of running.

jorj7

Dave,

There was still some fluid in the intercooler system, but it was way down.
I'll have to get a better intercooler radiator for sure. I know I talked to Garity
after the last elbow blew about making a custom part, but he thought it'd be
too expensive to fabricate. Tim was going to check with Todd tonight to see
what he could come up with. It's definitely an area that needs to be address...

jorj7

I finished the video of the last part of the race. I didn't have the LM-1 logging after the
speed runs. I also haven't unloaded the logs from the GPS, so no speed info on the video
yet.

http://928.jorj7.com/2008-pony/103/2...ny-The-Gap.wmv

sharknoob

very cool video thanks for sharing it

Tony

George...sign me up for a video DVD/CD if you make one again!

Richard S

George, that's great news!!!!! I was worried that the engine was ruined again....but this is perhaps the best that you could hope for. Now you know the weak link, hopefully a fix can be figured out before next summer.

Just checked the radar and speed trap results....we were the fastest car through the first trap

Rich

Bill Ball

stuartph

George

If you make a custom intake elbow any chance you could make a few, i'd be in for one.

AO

I wonder if you could "wrap" the stock boot to re-inforce it. I have a could of elbows on my setup that are for a turbo application that appear to be wrapped with some sort of tape. Just a thought...

AO

Found it... 700psi tensile strength, tear resistance 85psi!

http://www.cshyde.com/Tapes/Data/SilSelfFusinfo.htm

jorj7

Andrew,

That looks interesting, but I think you'd have to be an expert in wrapping to make it
work with this part. So many ridges plus the two fittings.