ENGINEERMAN

Hi everyone:

I am getting close to the end of my upgrade project to the 944 Turbo (12 months and lot's of hours). The results will be great I hope and I will send a list of upgrades and pictures when I am all done but in the mean time I am looking for a good procedure for bleeding the air out of the cooling system and also the power steering rack system since both were completely drained as part of the disassembly process. If any of you could give me a detailed procedure description or direct me to a good link that covers it I would appreciate it.

Thanks and Merry Christmas to all!

Tom

PS, the car has been sitting without running for about 12 months during which as part of the work I replaced the connecting rod bearings, would you recommend squirting a little oil down the spark plug holes in order to make sure that the cylinder walls get a nice coating of oil during start-up?

streckfu's

http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/cool-02.htm

Ski

If you want to get ahead of the game after a completely dry system, get a pressure tester and apply a little pressure to it after you get it full from the expansion tank. Then, IMHO, let the car sit overnight, start it up the next morning with the bleed plug open, turn the heat on full high. I just did some work on the track car and without a heater, I had a helluva air bubble and had to get the pressure tester to get it out.

I would also put 7 quarts of oil in the pan on a dry engine. good luck with the start up.

SeaCay

If you want to have the schnizzle of coolant systems why not make a self-venting swirl pot? With the Lindsey steam vent and a properly designed and installed swirl pot (along with properly located expansion tank) your coolant system would be bullet proof and self bleeding.

ENGINEERMAN

Thanks so far guys!

Ski, where is bleed screw exactly? Just to make sure I understand correctly, you are recommending applying a little pressure at the coolant tank with the bleed screw open to force all air bubbles out of the block?

I did not install the LR head vent fitting because I did not remove the engine and thus could not get at the back of the head to drill & tap the hole required for it. I am not familiar with what a "swirl pot" is. Can you explain?

I'm sure she will start up fine since the engine was running perfectly before I began. What started as an oil pan gasket replacement ended up being a pretty extensive upgrade (not to the engine, to the rest of the car)... baffling oil pan, welding and strengthening the oil pick-up tube, powder coating many parts, chrome plating many nuts bolts, suspension bits, headlight linkage, complete cleaning of transaxle and all rear suspension components and fresh paint, jet hotting headers and all hot side heat sheilds (others were chromed), complete new LR coil over, M030, 19mm geometry correction (for lowering), adjustable Wrightwood Racing camber plates, Brey Krause strut bar, all new suspension bolts & hardware, LR Dual Port Waste Gate, etc, etc, etc. Safe to say it is really clean now!

I can't wait to be done!

Best regards!

Tom

Tom M'Guinn

I just crack the vent screw, fill it up, then pinch the overflow tube and blow into the reservoir opening until coolant it forced out the vent screw. Then start and vent again with heater on high. Clean the reservoir area first -- I understand antifreeze can kill. Makes me wonder why I never used the pressure tester like Ski suggested. Doh!

Good luck on start up!

Ski

Tom, I won't ask you for pictures

shiners780

For reference, here's a pic of a coolant system pressure tester. It makes bleeding the system super easy, and is a great way to check for leaks and weak points. They sell for around $85 + new, I bought one on eBay for $40, and places like Auto Zone loan them out for free.

ENGINEERMAN

Ski:

I will/am taking pictures of everything (it will probably be the last time it is ever this clean again. It literally looks like a new car underneath (always looked great up top). I am one of those goofy guys that actually likes the red color even though there are a lot of the red models out there. I will post once I am done and can show a chronology of pictures but have included a couple of "before" pictures.

Thanks for the picture of the pressure tester. I will pick one up as it is a good thing to have around. Also, thanks for the "blow" technique tip!

Take care and thanks again. You guys are great, this is the best enthusiast website hands down, very nice and helpful people.

Tom

Ski

Looks like a nice clean install. Whose MAF?

The bleed plug, is on the water neck that comes out of the head, just under the spark plug wires there, right by the front of the fuel rail - 12mm.

ENGINEERMAN

Thanks Ski, that's where I thought the bleed was.

I have a Huntley Racing MAF and am using LR Chips with their Mafterburner piggyback and am monitoring A/F ratio with a wideband O2 sensor mounted in the exhaust pipe. It makes it VERY easy to tune using my laptop.

The car has a LR 3" exhaust from the Turbo outlet back to a Magnaflow muffler. It has a larger K28 Turbo but I think that since the outlet of the turbo hot housing is only just under 2" that I do get more back pressure than I would like in the cross over (it reads 32-35 psig at a boost of 18 psig in the intake manifold). Dave Lindsey says I need a Turbo with a larger hot housing outlet (his for example) in order to get the ratio closer to 1:1. Would you concur that that is the best way to cure that problem since with it being 2:1 I am probably getting back flow and less power than I could be? Naturally, I am not keen to replace a perfectly good K28 with low hours so if there is any other trick to reducing the back pressure I would like to hear it. Dave says that after about 15 psig of boost with that restrictive k28 that there really is not much to be gained. Do you agree?

Best regards

Tom M'Guinn

Engineerman -- is...that...um...red duct-tape...holding on intercooler pipe together?

I'm not familiar with the k28, but there is an easy way to find out if it'll make more power over 15psi.

ENGINEERMAN

It's a K27, not a K28.

Yes, it is red electrical tape and you should hear it when the pipe blows apart!... Just kidding! The purpose of the tape was to hold a piece of padding in place to prevent the HP from rubbing against the hood. The hard pipe would just touch the hood under boost and the rubbing was marring the hard pipe so I put a bumper on and held it in place with a piece of red tape. The LR hard pipes are a tight fit.

To remedy the problem I lowered the engine by about 15mm (I was able to do that with the Lindsey Racing Adjustable Motor Mounts). Then I took to the hard pipes with a buffing wheel to make the hard pipes perfect again and then sprayed them in clear coat to keep them nice looking. So the red electrical tape is gone!

Regarding the power, it is really quick right now and I estimate 325 RWHP based on the modifications, boost level and the fact that I can almost break the 285-18 Bridgestone S-02's loose in 3rd gear on dry pavement. From what Dave Lindsey told me with the K27 you get about 5 psig of back pressure for every additional 1 psig of boost so, e.g. if I am getting 35 psig of back pressure at 18 psig of boost that would indicate that I should get only about 20 -25 psig of back pressure at 15 psig of boost. I will measure this since I have a pressure fitting in the cross over pipe and based on the far better back pressure condition may not lose hardly any thing at 15 psig vs. 18. At least that's my hope and if it works should also result in far less stress on the rings, etc., i.e. better life.

If I am missing something let me know.

Thanks!

Ski

If the LR hard pipes are hitting the hood, you may need to cut off about an inch off on the turbo side - I had to.

I have not done a lot of back pressure measurements.

ENGINEERMAN

but yes I did consider that. I didn't want to cut off the rolled end because that helps hold the pipe snuggly to the Silicone hose. If lowering the engine works, great, if not I may have to resort to a trim job.

Regarding the back pressure in the cross over vs. boost level I will take measurements and see how it performs against a stop watch and pick a point that seems to give a good compromise (gives me something to do on the weekends!).

Cheers!

Tom