Debugging the beast....1100 miles of seat time
Every project car with as extensive of rebuilding as "cheap thrills" will have bugs. One can NOT make that many modifications, replacements, and not have start-up issues. Well my project 940 is no exception to those hard rules. I will say, the issues have been minimal, but there certainly are a few which have reared their ugly heads. More analysis, more wrenching, better (or just plain more) parts are needed for this beast to meet my DD expectations.
HOWEVER, I will say proudly, the machine has started and delivered me to/from work, every day, since I took to the streets. Cold AC, working cruise control, damn comfortable (if not stupid heavy) 9 series seats, smooth braking, and a nice power level! The chassis is tight, she holds well in the twisties, and I'm still running the crap leftover rubber which came of this car & the donor wagon
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Now to the bugs:
AEM UEGO wideband
Purchased lightly used from a TBer who was exiting the Brick war; he even had a spare Bosch sensor for the unit, as his MS&S system was not tuned properly (and he guessed wrong). Well I followed the installation recs. to the letter from AEM. Here is a picture of the whole assembly looking from the driveshaft view:
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A nice clean install. AEM says the BOSCH sender must be 36" downstream of the turbo if possible. Well I went as far as I could get; just in front of the DP flange, and right in front of the CAT (you don't install post-CAT). Found a nice weld on bung for $10 to my door on eBay, located the bung to clear everything (CAT flange and crossmember), angled upwards at approx. 10* from horizontal, all by the book. Here it is installed in my stock 9 DP:
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As you can see, it just clears the crossmember, maybe 10mm of daylight between the cable and steel! Should be perfect, I thought
The AEM has a nice quick disconnect coupler, to join the sensor to the 6 wire input cable which feeds up to your dash & AFR gauge. Running this cable along the frame, and snaking it up to the rubber booties in the LH corner of the dash. Getting the 6 pin cable plug thru the itty-bitty opening which was NOT used, is tough....I used a pull wire taped to the plug, well lubricated with dishwashing liquid soap, and it barely pulls through. I think I've got a couple scars from fishing that cable in
You can see here how I fabbed the simple steel plate to mount the AEM cable connector, safely tucked up behind the AW71 crossmember so flying road debris would not kill it. You also will see I used a protective sleeve to run the cable within, for the same reasons. Here it is:
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I've already posted a picture of the AEM UEGO gauge mounted in my A pillar gauge pod.
WELL, it worked perfect for about 700 miles. Then one day, during a 16 PSI run at the local proving grounds, it stopped working
All it ever would display since, was a rock steady 14.8.....upon power up, the unit runs thru self check, all display characters, and then....nothing, no variation. From many an increased BOOST run at my test track
I know well the car is running rich at WOT, with AFR's down in the low 10's under boost. Then suddenly, she's not displaying a thing! Well last weekend I jacked the beast up, pulled out my spare BOSCH sensor which I had as backup, installed that one to see if the sensor was this issue. No joy, exactly the same 14.7~14.8 readings. Well when all else fails, call the manufacturer! Got the AEM tech guys on the phone, explained the situation, and they advised me to "wring out the 6 pin cable". You gotta be kidding me, as much of a bitch as it was to install, it can't possibly be bad, can it? Well that lay ahead, as I'll need to pull the AEM gauge out of the pod, then connect my ohmmeter to each wire one by one and continuity check. Not looking forward to this, especially with the PITA that a cable replacement would require! Further, the cable is well protected, so I'm at a loss right now to explain how a cable could have failed.....there is nothing in the area of the cable routing the would have pinched/melted a cable.... routed on the intake side of the car where everything is nice & cool, no moving parts, WTF could have happened to it? I sure hope the cable checks out AOK, but that will have to wait until I get back from a sorely needed vacation!
RICH AFR's during full boost:
I've documented this earlier in this build thread. I have Mike's Chips (TLAO) in my fuel and spark LH2.4 boxes. Using my previously discussed AEM wideband, I can see that fueling looks to be too heavy during WOT and full boost excursions (low 10's). I have discussed this with Mike, and also drilled a good bit of the feedback thread for his chips.....seems there is a mixed bag there of folks who have their setups dialed in and are happy with full boost AFR's and others who can't stop them from being too rich at full throttle/boost. Mike suggested that I try other AMM's (have not done yet), inspect my system for boost & vacuum leaks (I have built a pair of hose plugs, then pressurized my system to around 14 PSI from compressor exit to the redblock; only minor leaks thus far have been discovered). I have promised to do the "soapy water" testing around all connections to find all the miniscule leaks which legend says will cause the system to run rich. In the mean time, I replaced the 3 pressure hoses with URO replacements (factory Volvo parts were almost $200, and the URO hoses were $30). They were installed last weekend, and have been torqued and are leak free. Since my wideband is currently offline, I don't know what I've got now, so I'm staying OFF the boost and have dropped my Hallman MBC back to 12 PSI, only using boost minimally.
T3 Compressor stall/surge at 16PSI:
I've posted this separately in the Performance section, and the details are here:
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=263667
In short, the T3 is making the dreaded "turkey gobble" which is well known to indicate stall or surge. All of my intake tract piping is bone stock 9 Series parts, so there is neither a CBV nor any BOV. Perhaps my stock Mitsu turbo had the internal CBV, but that is moot as the Garrett T3 is my weapon of choice. Again, due diligence investigation points towards using the CBV to recirculate boost back into the compressor inlet, so I am pursuing a FORGE bypass valve, the 007P type which are typically used on VW's, Audi's, etc. etc. I am currently piecing together the parts and will retrofit a bypass system, so I can return to running the 16PSI.......which is quite addictive. I have yet to decide if I will go ahead and fit the 012 AMM (3 inch 960 version) at the same time, but I might if integration to the stock Volvo airbox lid piping is possible.
LEANING 7/9 series chassis, after upgrade with IPD components:
I've posted this one in the Maint. section, and you can read the details here:
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=259875
In retrospect, it probably should have been in the Performance section; asked the Mods. to move it and they have thus far declined.
In summary, the car is sitting 11/16 inch (17.5mm) higher on the passenger side, than the drivers side. Apparently this issue is endemic for the 7/9 cars; the factory claims that 10mm is acceptable given the weight distribution on the 7/9 cars, what with battery, ABS, and fuel tank on the drivers (LH) side. Even after 1100 miles on the car, this height difference has not moved a bit. I'm at the point where I have no choice but (1) live with it, or (2) tear the front end back apart, root cause/FIX it, or at minimum make some suspension adjustments to get the car back within the 10mm limit from side to side. I won't rehash all the details which are in the referenced thread, but I am suspicious now that perhaps some needed parts were missing from my car courtesy of the previous 18 years of ownership, or else one of my IPD sport springs is defective (wrong spring rate), or possibly one of the Bils HD has an issue and did not install completely into the strut tube......I don't believe the latter, as they both screwed down with the same amount of threads engagement, but I did not check them for extension amount. That will be investigated, very soon.
T3 Oil drain line - oil leak:
I purchased a drain line kit for the T3, nothing fancy, just an aluminum plate and threaded boss. When I assembled the NPT connections prior to the hose, I slathered them up in Permatex #2 I think, expecting it would handle the temps of the turbo oil without leakage. WRONG! Don't know if one of my threaded parts was bad and I did not get complete engagement, but end result is a slight oil leak from this drain line....running out of the fittings under the turbo and then down the hose and onto my redblock, then suspenion. Leaks will not be tolerated!!! I might be removing the drain plate and going directly to a JIC (30 degree) style fitting to get rid of this nuisance leak. In another 1K miles, I plan to drain out the DELO 15W40 oil and convert to Mobil 1 synthetic. Legend has it, this leak will be much larger when the super slick synthetic oil is introduced. Add another task to the punch list....rebuild the oil drain line system to ensure it is leak proof, prior to conversion to Mobil 1.
Those are the biggies that have been identified....again, not too bad considering the scope of this "restification" of Project Cheap Thrills.