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Had my local NM Nissan shop do a conversion to E85 on the car. In NM the last big dyno on 91 was 602/440.
That was with a 17.7 psi spike. On E85 with a 18 psi spike, the car did 674/598. So for the roughly same boost, gained about 70hp/160 tq. Gotta love that E85.
The actuators can't hold boost, so the 18psi tapering off is about it. It's too much of a hassle to drop the motor to convert to the external wastegate kit I have for it, so just going to look into Phunk's custom manifolds and bigger turbo's. Gotta move to a twin disc clutch as well.
The GTM stage 2 might be able to hit 700, but diminishing returns there with the effort to try, just easier to upgrade the turbo's and have a ton more airflow to work with. But alas, just going to enjoy getting used to E85 which is a big move for me as the closest station is about 25 miles away.
Does anybody store E85 in the garage? I'm thinking about going with a big 55 gal drum route to keep measured E85 (pump + E98 blend), but total newb to E85 so curious how anybody else that lives in the sticks does it.
You can keep it in your garage. Just be smart. Use the right container, and make sure you use it up before 3-4 weeks so that you don't start collecting water. It's less volatile than gasoline.
I probably wouldn't keep 55 gallons in my garage. Maybe 15-20 or something like that (a tank worth and change). But I'm not THAT far from a station.
Haven't got a chance to rip it around on the streets with the e85 tune, car is overheating easily. Can take it around the block off boost entirely and load for that matter, think like 5% throttle. Just need to rev it into the 3K+ rpm band and the temp guage will start to raise. Got it to 3/4 on gauge where the water was boiling in the overflow tank.
Shops going to try to burp the hell out of it as thinking it's just air in the system for now. Only question is how it got there, there's no white smoke (or any smoke for that matter, burns clean). No coolant in oil or oil in coolant. Thinking maybe these past dyno sessions and road tuning caused some latent air in the system to cause more steam spots and more air in the system. For the moment part of the overheating club, hopefully it's just a burping fix as I'm not too inclined to hope for it being a head gasket.
For science, I did let the car get back to operating temperature cruising around with the engine no higher than 2.5K rpm's and did a boost blip in 3rd and the temp gauge went from around the usual 3/10 to about 6.5/10 with 2 boost blips done letting the engine get back down to safe temps. I'm hoping it's jut a lot of air in the coolant at this point.
What's another good way to isolate a head gasket issue? Will it show up in a comp test? As otherwise the car seems to be running clean, albeit undriveable due to the heat spikes. Cruising it will cool back down so long as you stay below 3K rpm, once you go 3K+ rpm it starts to rise (the gauge). Although sitting at a light/stopped it won't cool down, just really not rise, or fluctuate a little slowly.
This was also all done with the heat outside about 100 deg., but to be fair the car previously has never given me issues in hot weather like this on 91/off actuator pressure. Only diff now is the car can push to about 18psi/tapering down with the e85 tune.
Fully bleed the cooling system. You can be almost positive you got it bled if the heat blows full hot at engine idle. If you blast water out of the overflow when you go into boost after this, that probably a headgasket issue. Went through this in 2004 before the better headstud solutions came out. A lot of guys did. What studs did you use and what are they torqued at? Which headgaskets?
My headgasket issue did not mix coolant and oil, did not burn any coolant... the only thing it did was push water out the overflow (And onto my windshield via the hood vents). This was with the original ARPs that had a low torque spec, 60-70lb or whatever it was. Then I went to 1/2" studs at around 100lb that engine has now been through 12 years and 2 owners after me still making big power.
Thanks for the experience note in your previous situation as definitely will have to keep that in mind troubleshooting this. The car has L19's and from what I vaguely recall during the build I believe they were tightened down to either 85 or 95 lb/ft, can't exactly remember which. Stock new HR head gasket was used at time of build. Only reason I went with stock head gasket was people saying they were generally pretty strong for boost in the HR. That being said, I'm kinda kicking myself to of not gone with a Cometic or something stronger at the time for $180 dollar gasket set.
Next thing is to keep an eye on the overflow tank like you say. When I first experienced it hot enough to boil the coolant the overflow was about 1/3rd full, but that was without boost.
When it's cooler outside about 80/70's I'm going to drive it around and get into boost to see if the overflow maxes out like you say.
Thnx eZg, yea going to try all the small cheap parts first before absolving to settling on it maybe being a HG issue unless if like Phunk mentions it's shooting coolant out in boost into the overflow. Only thing right now is both hoses out of the radiator get hot (so assuming that rule out thermostat) and you can feel the water flowing so don't think it's the pump, so that might just leave the cap, or HG...
I don't think additional timing would make that much of a difference heat wise would it?
I might swing it by the Nissan dealership to see if they can do a forced coolant change on it just to absolutely rule out the cooling system having some bubbles that don't want to get out thru normal means. The rear bleeder looks like it was part of the GTM kit and it's stripped so can't turn it to try seeing if any air is sitting there, didn't notice that till now ugh.
EDIT: Just took the car for a spin after the burping and it didn't overheat, although to be fair I babied it, but even when I was babying it before it was easy to overheat. Did 2 WOT boost (3-4th gear) runs before I got close to my house and temp gauge didn't move. Just checked the reservoir and it's about 3/4 full which was where it was when I left the shop. Checked the overflow hose and there was barely 2 drip's that evaporated about 2" past the end of it but thinking that was just condensation at this point. Still 100 degrees out ugh, going to wait till later to test it when it's getting dark and cooler and do some boost. Definitely felt the power and torque, here's to hoping it was just air before.
So just dropped her off to swap motors to a RJM block, and we're going to re-use the VHR crank, and go with tougher rods than Eagle (open to suggestions, thinking Carillo or Manley turbo tough), with 11:1 CP/Manley/Arias pistons for E85 build.
Going to look to keep running the GTM 272 turbo cam, but if that doesn't pan out for whatever reason will probably roll with an aggessive JWT one. Need to get some misc stuff as well like a harmonic balancer, twin disc clutch, and the last cherry on the **** sundae (CJM goodies with his new tuner lower end manifolds/piping kit!):
Gonna roll with GTX3076R Gen II turbo's with .82 AR Tial Housing. Will be a while before all this is working together, but will keep updates periodically. This will be a chance to see if the HG was shot as the car still pushed coolant up even till now so we never did get that one figured with dealing the usual ways except for looking at the head gasket due to the pulling the heads complexity.
EDIT: Going to keep the top portion of my GTM TT kit, and use this to address the limited bottom portion, love this option out there for us folks to Frankenstein as we want with big turbo options.
So just dropped her off to swap motors to a RJM block, and we're going to re-use the VHR crank, and go with tougher rods than Eagle (open to suggestions, thinking Carillo or Manley turbo tough), with 11:1 CP/Manley/Arias pistons for E85 build.
Going to look to keep running the GTM 272 turbo cam, but if that doesn't pan out for whatever reason will probably roll with an aggessive JWT one. Need to get some misc stuff as well like a harmonic balancer, twin disc clutch, and the last cherry on the **** sundae (CJM goodies with his new tuner lower end manifolds/piping kit!):
Gonna roll with GTX3076R Gen II turbo's with .82 AR Tial Housing. Will be a while before all this is working together, but will keep updates periodically. This will be a chance to see if the HG was shot as the car still pushed coolant up even till now so we never did get that one figured with dealing the usual ways except for looking at the head gasket due to the pulling the heads complexity.
EDIT: Going to keep the top portion of my GTM TT kit, and use this to address the limited bottom portion, love this option out there for us folks to Frankenstein as we want with big turbo options.
Car is still sitting in the shop lot as backlog work, so no idea just yet. Just was ordering all the big ticket parts like turbo's, clutch and what not this week. Gonna be 'fun' to see how long the GTX3076R G2 is on back order -_-. The manley pistons already shipped, so that part was quick at least
To me it feels like it spools decently, basically about the same as the GT2860RS turbo's the GTM kit previously had (w/ .82ar).
I took it out just for a short drive today, but wasn't able to really get on it due to traffic on the highways. But 2nd and 3rd are worthless with my current tires lol.
Slight update - 1/12/17. We got the ID 1700x's in it and got it to eek out ~1,000/~780 @ ~25psi with E90 reading on the flex gauge. At this point the dual pumps definitely look to be starting to be a bottle neck but damn they came far! 4th gear pull and SAE CF, probably left some on the dyno graph.
What was the diagnosis of the previously failed engine?
Man I can't wait to convert my car to E85! I have the CJM twin pumps as well, do you have the walbro 255's or special pump that can handle E85.
I currently have CJM twin pumps, CJM fuel system, and HKS 1000cc injectors. Think I just need to switch the pumps and Injectors to some Injector Dynamics then I should be ok.
What was the diagnosis of the previously failed engine?
Man I can't wait to convert my car to E85! I have the CJM twin pumps as well, do you have the walbro 255's or special pump that can handle E85.
I currently have CJM twin pumps, CJM fuel system, and HKS 1000cc injectors. Think I just need to switch the pumps and Injectors to some Injector Dynamics then I should be ok.
-George
Thanks!
The old engine on both cylinder banks had blow by on the head gaskets so they totally took a crap. I just have the off the shelf 255/450 combo that CJM offers with their twin pump setup. I also have the same setup more less fueling wise.
I'll go ahead and wait for CJM to put out the twin 450 fuel setup for the HR and upgrade at that time. Gotta save up some cash slowly to buy a Greddy GTR intake manifold so I can run a 3rd fuel rail w/ 6 additional injectors.
In the process now of getting a custom breather setup for the motor as it definitely needs it due to smoking off a hard pull. But so far the cars been solid, wish we could push it more to see what she'd do, but fuel volume limited and I don't trust the OEM plenum very much further either. The GTR intake manifold is probably going to be a pain in the A, so I'm inclined to put it off as long as possible lol.
I'll be keeping an eye on SOHO to see if their Stage 2 VHR metal plenum comes out to be. Talking to them the other day, they said after they get their Stg1 done (metal VHR plenum similar to GTR with larger end tanks) they'd be likely doing a Stg2 w/ additional injector bosses for the hardcore folks. I can always swap out to the VHR intake so at least 2 options would be better than 1.
E85 is literally about the best thing you can do after going FI lol. It was insane the gains I had going E85 compared to 91, and now with this high compression build, it is like the same effect all over again. If you can run E85 practically, it is hands down the best thing you can do. I have to drive 35 miles one way to fuel up, but IMO it's WELL worth it haha. I'll probably start getting 2x 55 gal drums of it at a time here pretty soon to avoid some of that fuel up drive
07-12-2016, 04:06 AM
