NG900 Stage HX35 - build thread

[comtrang]

More video footage, I don't like to waste time getting this kind of stuff. Especially since I'm without a datalogger which would otherwise do this job for me.


Second gear pull

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUb8d-c9vKY

[comtrang]

The tuning process has begun again with a BDM, CANUSB hopefully within a month. For now just taking care of little hiccups but I've also been looking at wastegate control with the help of my tuner. I've decided and moosepuck's videos have been trying to convince me that 18psi just isn't gonna cut it after all the hard work.

Results to follow!

[tucksayre]

Man thanks for sharing the videos, that acceleration looks addicting!

[comtrang]

Actually, if you're talking about the 2nd gear one I posted above it's pretty annoying. I've turned the boost down a hair because it's making second gear pointless if driving around on anything less than slicks. I'll probably turn it down some more to be just at the traction limit.

Not until I get a CANUSB, though. Too much of a hassle with the BDM at this point just for that.

[comtrang]

I am now seeing random white smoke out back. Also, coolant level going down much faster than I would like even with a tiny leak near the throttle body. Bad head gasket?

[John Z Williams]

Sound like it might be your head-gasket. You can do a compression test to see if one of the cylinders is down. Might be time for arp studs. I had my block o-ringed and its been working very well.

You may be able to retorque the head and drive it a little while longer. You probably need to get the live real time workin asap to see if it was caused by knock, as vigge always says, the head gasket is like a fuse and its designed to blow to save the pistons.

John

[comtrang]

Originally Posted by John Z Williams

Sound like it might be your head-gasket. You can do a compression test to see if one of the cylinders is down. Might be time for arp studs. I had my block o-ringed and its been working very well.

You may be able to retorque the head and drive it a little while longer. You probably need to get the live real time workin asap to see if it was caused by knock, as vigge always says, the head gasket is like a fuse and its designed to blow to save the pistons.

John

Haha that's a funny saying and probably sounds even funnier now that I'm under the influence. My dad and I checked the headbolts right before Drew arrived in KC but I may give that a try. I'm really limited on tools/resources when I'm over here in Utah so of course my head gasket would decide to die right when I get over here. I think JK's didn't last long after he got his Holset on, too, at like 250,000 miles with the original head gasket. It must be a Holset thing

If I have to pay to get this changed, I'm seriously ****ed. No way I'm doing the job out in my apartment's parking lot with a trunk-sized toolset. FML.

[John Z Williams]

Yea, would not matter if they were ok before you put the boost to it. If its starting to go, a retorque might just get you home. I have gone another 3 months after a retorque, just depends on how bad it is. I always knew I was in trouble when I could hear the expansion bottle hissing at me after a few hard pulls.

I did my head-gasket in the grass at the Montana race track on a Sunday :-)

It sucked, but it was nice to get it running and drive it home to Colorado. I think that one was because of the crappy gas they have there. I tuned it on 93 octane, raced it on 91 crap gas. I could see the knock counts were up a good bit when I got back home. After putting the good gas back in it, the knock went away again.

John

[comtrang]

Originally Posted by John Z Williams

Yea, would not matter if they were ok before you put the boost to it. If its starting to go, a retorque might just get you home. I have gone another 3 months after a retorque, just depends on how bad it is. I always knew I was in trouble when I could hear the expansion bottle hissing at me after a few hard pulls.

I did my head-gasket in the grass at the Montana race track on a Sunday :-)

It sucked, but it was nice to get it running and drive it home to Colorado. I think that one was because of the crappy gas they have there. I tuned it on 93 octane, raced it on 91 crap gas. I could see the knock counts were up a good bit when I got back home. After putting the good gas back in it, the knock went away again.

John

So it doesn't require pulling the motor for this job? I know what a head gasket is but some cars require pulling the whole damn motor to do the job. My car lives off of crappy gas so I know that wasn't the issue. Although I don't have the CANUSB to tell, like you said Believe me, John, I'll have one as soon as I possibly can.

Either way, at the moment I'm seriously in a bad position because I don't know if I'm capable to do this job and I'm running out of time before cold weather hits. My dad is gonna kick my ***

[saabkid37]

i would recommend some arp's when you do the gasket.

[comtrang]

Originally Posted by saabkid37

i would recommend some arp's when you do the gasket.

Yeah more than likely I'll go for those. Might as well while I'm in there.


However, I went to another car meet today and met lots of cool people with cool cars. One guy who has a shop here and a 600whp Evo (more later) doesn't think at all that my head gasket is bad. He says it doesn't smell like it's burning coolant and also my oil is clean as can be. He noticed some white smoke also but he says I'm just running rich at tip in and lean when I let off. Regarding my coolant disappearing, I realized that the leak is a lot more pronounced once the car's heated a bit. I pulled off the cover by the intake and saw a small stream spraying out of one of the hoses going into the throttle body. I loosened it a bit and that took care of it but I'm going to replace it along with the upper radiator hose. I should have done that from the beginning to knock those possibilities out.

I'm just gonna make a thread about the two car meets I went to today and yesterday. Too much clutter to be put into this thread.

[John Z Williams]

Do a compression test and see if one of the cylinders is down. You can always retorque the head gasket and see if any of the bolts torque differently.

If your not running a catch can, it could just be a little blow bye coming back out the valve cover and into the turbo. Could be the turbo seals too, especially if its a used turbo.

Look in the cylinder holes and see if its wet on any of the cylinders. Another clues is when they smoke on first start up and run ruff, this happens as the coolant leaks into the cylinder overnight and then burns off as the motor warms up.

Another sign is a lot of pressure in the coolant system, hard upper radiator hose when you blip the throttle, etc.

There is a big difference between a blown head gasket and coolant in the oil and a seeping head gasket that slowly eats coolant and just occasionally lets out a little smoke. Maybe its just rich and a little bit of blow bye or turbo seal oil.

Compression test!

John

[Cm452]

You invested in a holset, the time and money to install it, and the time and money to tune it....yet you run low octane gas? Penny wise, pound foolish
-Cm

[comtrang]

I run what's available to me.

[comtrang]

Originally Posted by John Z Williams

Do a compression test and see if one of the cylinders is down. You can always retorque the head gasket and see if any of the bolts torque differently.

If your not running a catch can, it could just be a little blow bye coming back out the valve cover and into the turbo. Could be the turbo seals too, especially if its a used turbo.

Look in the cylinder holes and see if its wet on any of the cylinders. Another clues is when they smoke on first start up and run ruff, this happens as the coolant leaks into the cylinder overnight and then burns off as the motor warms up.

Another sign is a lot of pressure in the coolant system, hard upper radiator hose when you blip the throttle, etc.

There is a big difference between a blown head gasket and coolant in the oil and a seeping head gasket that slowly eats coolant and just occasionally lets out a little smoke. Maybe its just rich and a little bit of blow bye or turbo seal oil.

Compression test!

John

Yeah it reminded me of when I had the T25 on still and I knew it was dying. Every once in awhile I'd get random white puffs or continuous streams. On this cruise today under pretty high load, we seriously averaged over 100mph the whole way, the only thing coming out of my tailpipe were fuel vapor clouds when I took off.

No issues on startup, one of the guys stuck his face on the muffler even and told me to start it my dad had me run through all these things first anyway, but a little extra assurance is nice. The way my dad put it, if I do have any white **** in the oil then things have already gone too far.

No work tomorrow so I'll be sure to get my hoses changed. I checked compression before heading out here to Utah and it was clean across the board but I'll find somewhere to do it and see what it looks like now.

Thanks for the input, John!

[comtrang]

John, what effect would sucking something up into the intake have? Before I first saw the smoke, I noticed my turbo whine to be a ton louder. Just yesterday or so I noticed that the air filter had become unattached from the elbows. I know it doesn't take much to kill a compressor wheel, just wondering what effect something like that would have.

[grkguy89]

Originally Posted by comtrang

I run what's available to me.

+1 to this
keep the car guessing what kind of fuel it will get
dont let it get used to anything haha

[comtrang]

Well, I always use the same 91. Just saying that's the only thing I can get here. 91 was what it was tuned on, too, maybe with a hair of 92. Just simply can't get it.

[Cm452]

I thought you were running 87 mron, or 89 Sorry!
-Cm

[mike saunders]

Originally Posted by grkguy89

+1 to this
keep the car guessing what kind of fuel it will get
dont let it get used to anything haha

You, of all people, running your compression at your new levels of boost, should be the most worried about destructive knock...

Even though you've T5'd it, you shouldn't leave the octane compensation to chance...especially if your car has been tuned to ignore it.

Run 93. It's cheap insurance.