I did it again!

[6speed]

Just took it out for another drive on the basemap. Fired right up, faster than on the prior map. Had to adjust several things with idle control and fans etc..., nothing abnormal.

I went out and I got boost for about a mile, though only 5psi, wastegate should be 6psi, so probably a leak somewhere. Then I lost boost completely, and the car started driving like complete crap, even out of boost. Surging on power, as if a 14 year old was trying to learn how to work a clutch.

This is what I found:

The retainer was on earlier:

Waiting for a call back from FM and letting everything cool down, hopefully have a solution.

 

[6speed]

I got some clips from the hardware store, mostly spares. 3/8" external clips. I added some thin safety wire to the clip up to the strut bar (with slack), so if it pops off, the clip doesn't get lost as well.

I also rerouted several of the vacuum lines, and took it for a drive. Boost gauge still reads 5psi, though i may need to re-clock the gauge face again.

Boost sure comes up fast, really responsive. Though i'm getting more lift-off high pitched flutter from the left side, the intake, rather than the right side where the BOV is, so I'm wondering if I'm getting compressor surge on lift off. Also, on off throttle coast down in gear, from around 2,500 to 1,500rpm. I get a high frequency low pitch vibration noise, like an unloaded bearing is off balance a bit. Might be more related to the timing belt replacement though.

I think I'm going to take it to work tomorrow. Forcast is 66F and sunny. Crossing my fingers that nothing goes wrong

 

[bazooka joe]

good luck on the drive mike

 

[Reitrof]

Yikes Mike, hope it works out.

 

[THE Phen]

Wow! Would never have expected that clip to pop off. I've not had that issue, knock on wood. Hope FM does what's right.

 

[6speed]

They offered to send me a clip for free, but since they are like $0.40, I didn't think it was worth waiting for one to arrive in the mail. Just grabbed some from the hardware store..

The drive into work was successful. The rubber shield around the SS oil feed line is too close to the wastegate, and it is starting to melt, and I forgot to re-install the soft top latches, so I'm crossing my fingers that no one messes with it in the parking garage today. My factory ignition coils are dying noticeably, break up in high RPM is a clear problem. Hopefully getting that replacement coil driver in the mail shortly. At 9psi, torque is clearly lower than the factory turbo at 12psi, but i think that's to be expected. Boost doesn't drop off the way the factory turbo did though, and I think I'm at a similar peak power. Once i get that ignition upgrade working, I'll be headed for tuning.

That off-throttle rattling has been located, the cat is rattling against one of the underbody braces. Going to have to get it pulled up a bit higher.

The turbo noises are way different. Low vacuum and low boost have a huge intake in-rush vacuum cleaner sound that is rather loud. It gets drowned out by a rapidly increasing volume of turbine spool as the boost comes up. Lower pitched than the factory turbo, but much louder. Sounds somewhat like the flame jets of an oil furnace burner at full burn.

 

[THE Phen]

Yup. I'm at 10psi right now, and even then the whoosh of the air going in, and the sound of the wastegate is louder than the BOV.

 

[6speed]

Getting a bit frustrated at the moment.

I got the replacement ignition module that is claimed to work with the Hydra, but no dice. I got it to idle this morning before heading to work, but as soon as vacuum/boost gauge hit 0 for each, it fell on it's face completely. If I got to that pressure with the car stopped, it would just stall out the engine immediately. Losing a lot of faith in the FAB9 kit when paired with the Hydra.

I re-installed stock ignition for the drive to work, bumped my MBC back up to 12psi, and noticed that i still am only getting 9psi, and by ~5,500rpm, boost starts dropping while the car isn't picking up any speed worth noticing. Throttle response is also feeling fairly dead when in boost. I pulled over, swapped back to firmware r68 and the map for the stock turbo (tuned), added 5% fuel to all positive boost cells to be safe (since the FM2 flows more air). I got a lot more low end torque and far better throttle response in vacuum and low boost, however i still can't make more than 9psi. So pretty sure something is loose enough to flex open under boost. I just have to find it (bleh). Not really sure the best way to find a leak that only manifests >9psi.

 

[6speed]

Boost leak fixed, ignition solution is pretty much dead in the water due to not playing nice with the Hydra and it looks like I need to move to a custom ignition solution.

On the other hand, I sat down last night to directly compare the dyno tune I had for the factory turbo to FM's base tune for the FM2, and what do you know, the dyno tune I had for the factory turbo is richer with more timing advance across the board. So even if I am leaner on the FM2 (which I should be), I'm going to be leaner on FM's base map than on my previous dyno tune. So transfered all of the improvement to starting and idling from FM's base map to my tuned map, loaded it up, and drove it in today. Compared to FM's base map, it's more responsive to the throttle, more torque, more power, and definitely more enjoyable. Not much of a power pickup on the top end from the turbo yet, but still attributing that to my ignition. Transition into boost and high RPM boost has a lot of ignition breakup.

Currently eyeballing ignition coils from a 2007 range Silverado (and related models), since they seem to be what I need, though everyone sells them in sets of 8, so probably need to find someone to split them with.

 

[bazooka joe]

where was the leak mike?

 

[6speed]

At the BOV coupler to the intake. The clamp wasn't sitting 100% behind the bead on the BOV, so it didn't have even pressure. No change at idle or in vacuum, but as I fed pressurized air into the intake from my air compressor, i could hear it hissing out there. Removed and re-secured it and the problem is gone.

 

[bazooka joe]

Nice mike! What boost you running right now?

 

[6speed]

~10psi, spikes to 11ish briefly.

 

[6speed]

I discovered this morning that my MSM is actually faster at ~75% throttle at the moment than 100%. No, it hasn't always been like this, it's just that it seems that my ignition doesn't break up nearly as much. Pulled up a 2.5 mile hill at part throttle @ ~10psi this morning, and was easily picking off the 10mph marks on the speedometer ... quite a few of them.

 

[6speed]

Just ordered all the DIY stuff needed for an LS coil conversion. Not the coils themselves yet, going to check the local junkyard tomorrow morning first.

This Fab9 COP issue is really irritating me, and I'm basically done with being the guinea pig at the expense of having a car that doesn't run right for months on end that desperately needs a tune, and I've already missed 2 planned track events because of it.

 

[bazooka joe]

sorry to hear mike...it's a hydra issue correct? will the coils work on a msm ecu?

 

[6speed]

Yes, the Fab9 coils are 100% flawless on the factory ECU and the Megasquirt. They currently do not work on the Hydra and at least 2 other ECUs (Fab9 didn't tell me which ones, but I'm not the only one dealing with it, and not the only one of those on a Hydra). The problem is just that the Hydra doesn't have an internal coil driver, where the Megasquirt and factory ECU do. The Fab9 standard ignition module is expecting that extra voltage from the internal driver in the ECU, so without it the voltage is several order of magnitudes lower than it needs to be to punch through positive boost in the cylinders, even wired sequentially. Wired in waste spark (which splits the voltage between the cylinders), it doesn't even have enough voltage to keep the car running at idle.

I've been his guinea pig so far, because of his customers with other ECUs with issues, I'm the fastest responding and the fastest to test. It's just been 5 months since I purchased the kit and first had an issue, but then ignored it for 2 months because of the hard winter, then another month because the car was on jacks for all my other work. Now it's been 2 months since I completed that work and it's been another attempt with another module every few weeks, all failures.

He has 1 more try lined up with information from Hydra directly, and he said that on his test bench he was able to get the lastest module to fire the coils at the right voltage without any extra drivers in line (raw 12v and trigger signal only), however he fried 2 of the 3 before getting that result, so he has to re-order replacements before he can get another set of hardware to me to test. So that is ~2 weeks away at best.

He has been good to work with from a customer service point of view, but I can't keep driving untuned and on failing ignition while I wait... At some point I just need a solution.

 

[bazooka joe]

i hear you mike! you think you'll still be driving her up to lrp?

 

[6speed]

Yes, I will be at LRP with my MSM On one ignition setup or another!

A 3min video of my suspension in action, looking for a clunk I've been hearing, but may be of interest to people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu2ZNm4J_a4

 

[6speed]

LS2 coil harness connectors with pigtails as well as everything needed to make the spark plug wires showed up today. Coils get here tomorrow. I should have ordered 2 spools of the plug wire though, since 1 only gets me enough length for 3 of the 4 needed for my planned mounting point on the side of the FM2 airbox. So I'm pondering alternate spots rather than waiting for another spool to be delivered. Currently the 3 possibilities that I'm contemplating are:

- Mounted to the firewall on the cowl side, with the wires running through the hood gap to the engine. This spot has the advantage being out of the hot engine bay and in significantly cooler air. Might cause problems with wires rubbing though.
- Mounted to the bottom of the tower strut bar. This spot would mean that any time I move the strut bar, I have to disconnect the plug wires, but has really short wires which is always a benefit.
- Mounted to a simple custom bracket on the back of the fan pack. Has the longest run of the wires that I would be able to support with what I have, but has the coils in constant airflow of roughly stable temperature.

The only custom bracket that I've seen that I could duplicate is one hanging off the exhaust side of the engine, but I'm not comfortable with them sitting right above the manifold. Lots of heat soak there.

I'm also not really willing to figure out how to mount them to the engine block, as I'd prefer to have them isolated from that vibration and direct heat transfer.

I'm leaning toward the strut bar option at the moment. Perhaps mount them to a place perpendicular to the bar, bolted to the bar, down the center of the engine. REALLY short plug wires at that point. Perhaps as short as a few inches, though long enough to have tolerance from engine shaking of course.